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The Greens say today’s NAPLAN results are evidence that Australia’s two-tiered school system is supercharging disadvantage, and have called for a complete overhaul of the nation’s approach to school funding. 

Greens spokesperson on schools, Senator Penny Allman-Payne said:

“Today’s NAPLAN results are clear evidence that Australia needs to entirely rethink its approach to school funding.

“As a share of total education expenditure Australia spends more on private schooling than almost any other OECD country – and it’s growing. Private school coffers are overflowing while public schools, 98% of which are underfunded, are asked to do more and more with less and less.

“The fall in student performance maps directly with the growing resource gap between the private and public systems. School should help kids on a path out of disadvantage, but Australia’s two-tiered system is baking in disadvantage and supercharging inequality.

“Our neoliberal obsession with providing ‘choice’ at the expense of universality is widening the gap between the richest and poorest and worsening outcomes for all. 

“Predictably these results have generated the usual calls for changes to teaching methodologies and training. That’s all well and good, but how about we make sure there are enough teachers, support staff and resources in the classroom in the first place before we start telling teachers how to do their job.

“I hear the federal education minister talk about delivering support to the kids most in need, and that’s great. But he’s suspiciously mealy-mouthed when he’s asked if he’ll guarantee full funding to all public school students.

“We need to stop giving money hand over fist to private schools which, a decade since Gonski, are still overfunded, and deliver full funding to public schools at the start of the next National School Reform Agreement in January 2025.”

The government would have nearly another trillion dollars to tackle intergenerational inequality if Labor implemented popular and progressive tax reforms, the Greens say, urging Anthony Albanese to abandon his status quo centre-right agenda.

The release of the Intergenerational Report showcases the degree to which future generations are getting handed an increasingly fraught future – with a worsening outlook on inequality and climate.

With a significantly worsening outlook for future generations, the ABC has reported that government sources have ruled out any significant changes to tax in this term. Meanwhile, Labor continues to back more coal and gas. The Greens say this represents an abandonment of future generations.

The government would have hundreds of billions of dollars to repair generational equality if the government was to enact the following reforms:

• Tycoon Tax (corporate super profits): $286.7b from 2022-23 to 2032-33¹
• Mining Super-Profits Tax:  $109.9b from 2022-23 to 2032-33¹
• Ending fossil fuel subsidies: $117.1b from 2022-23 to 2032-33¹
• PRRT Changes: $94.5b from 2022-23 to 2032-33²
• Stopping Stage 3 Tax Cuts: $313.1b from 2023-24 to 2033-34³
• Winding back CGT/NG Discounts: $74.1b from 2022-23 to 2032-33⁴ 
  • Total: $995bn, over a decade⁵

Adam Bandt MP, Leader of the Australian Greens said:

“Stopping new coal and gas mines and taxing the billionaires and big corporations is the key to fighting intergenerational inequality,” Mr Bandt said.

“By giving tax cuts to billionaires and opening new coal and gas mines, Labor is handing people a future where the rich get richer and everyone else struggles with a broken housing system and collapsing social safety net, all set on a planet dying from climate collapse.

“Labor can’t complain about future ‘pressures on the budget’ while giving tax cuts to politicians and billionaires. 

“Labor can’t pretend to care about the climate crisis while approving new coal and gas projects. 

“By trying to walk both sides of the fence on climate and inequality, Labor is setting up future generations for disaster.

“Instead of refusing to fund services, Labor should axe the Stage 3 tax cuts for politicians and billionaires and make the big corporations pay their fair share of tax. 

“If Labor had the courage to enact these sensible reforms, the government would have almost a trillion dollars over the next decade to put dental and mental health into Medicare, build public homes, and rapidly accelerate the transition out of coal and gas into clean energy.”

Senator Nick McKim, Australian Greens Economic Justice Spokesperson said:

“Anthony Albanese’s legacy shouldn’t be leaving young people with a housing market that’s completely cooked, a planet on fire, and skyrocketing wealth inequality,” Senator McKim said.

“If Labor was serious about improving the lives of future generations they’ve got almost a trillion dollars to make it happen. Labor just needs to find the courage to take on rich people and big corporations.

“Young people know that the Labor party isn’t representing them – and are seeing their future prospects sold off to curry favour with billionaires and coal and gas donors. They deserve better than that.

“A tax and spend regime has been a critical part of progressive reforms across the world. By turning down this opportunity, Labor is abandoning future generations in hopes of becoming the default centre-right party.”

¹Source: PBO, Australian Greens 2022 Election Platform

² Source: PBO, April 2023 Costing

³ Source: PBO, May 2023 Costing:  

⁴ Source: PBO, as delivered in Adam Bandt’s NPC Address

⁵ Note: These all represent a decade’s worth of revenue measures. As the Stage 3 Tax Cuts come into effect in the 23/24 financial year, this component has a different start date to the other measures.

The Human Rights Commissioner has today become the latest critic of Labor’s deeply flawed Misinformation plan.

Commissioner Lorraine Finlay has published her submission ahead of the Government, and has also written a powerful opinion piece in The Australian setting out her concerns with the Labor’s proposed Bill.

Public submissions on the draft Bill closed on Sunday but the Government has delayed publishing them until September, raising serious transparency questions around Labor’s plan.

The HRC Commissioner has taken the draft Bill apart, setting out four major criticisms of the Bill.

Ms Finlay highlights that authorised government content is excluded from being deemed as misinformation. She says “this fails to acknowledge the reality that misinformation and disinformation can come from government” and the result would be that:

“…government content can never be misinformation but content critical of the government produced by political opponents might be.”

The Commissioner says the “overly broad and vague” definitions of terms such as “misinformation” and “harm”:

“…risk enabling unpopular or controversial opinions or beliefs to be subjectively labelled as misinformation or disinformation, and censored as a result.”

Ms Finlay says the low threshold on what constitutes “harm” is also a concern, noting the Bill requires content to not actually cause harm, but to only be “reasonably likely to cause or contribute to serious harm.”

She says that “Reasonable people may have very different views about what constitutes harm” and that the harm threshold under the Bill is so low, it “risks allowing an extremely broad range of content potentially to be restricted.”

The Human Rights Commissioner also warns there are “inherent dangers” in giving the power to decide what is misinformation to one body. The risk here, she says, is that:

“… efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation could be used to legitimise attempts to restrict public debate and censor unpopular opinions.”

Mr Coleman said the Human Rights Commission is absolutely right to identify that this Bill would restrict freedom of expression in Australia.

‘Australians are entitled to have different views, and the last thing we want is for the Government to decide what is and is not an acceptable opinion,” Mr Coleman said.

“As the Human Rights Commission submission has highlighted, the Bill would allow people to be targeted based on their opinions. This is completely unacceptable in a democratic nation.

“Today’s intervention follows similar criticism of the Government Bill by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, and so we are now seeing both union and human rights leaders criticising the Government’s plan.”

A $60 billion black hole has torn through the Albanese Government’s 2030 renewable energy plan exposing a Labor lie and leaving everyday Australians to pay the bill.

A leading energy economist has revealed that more than $60 billion of mega energy projects, which Labor is seeking to build by 2030, are unaccounted for in Labor’s logic despite its significant impact on the energy prices paid by households.

The concerns arise through the GenCost study which evaluates the levelised cost of electricity for different energy generating technologies and provides the central justification for Labor’s radical energy experiment.

Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy Ted O’Brien said Labor’s Climate Change and Energy Minister had deliberately misrepresented the study to blind Australians of the true cost of Labor’s plan.

“Chris Bowen has buried a $60 billion black hole in Labor’s radical energy experiment, and it will be everyday Australian households and businesses that pay the price,” Mr O’Brien said.

“It’s high time that Labor came clean with the Australian people and explained the true cost of its radical energy experiment.”

“Australians are paying some of the highest energy bills in the world despite false promises from Labor that it would cut household power bills by $275.”

The whopping $60 billion price tag was calculated by experienced economist, David Carland in a formal submission to the CSIRO and includes projects such as Snowy 2.0, Marinus Link, VNI West and the Battery of the Nation.

The total figure is likely to be far larger with many more costs associated with household energy storage and distribution costs unknown.

“How deep does this black hole go?” Mr O’Brien asks Labor’s Climate Change and Energy Minister.

“Labor’s energy pathway does not account for one cent of the enormous network integration costs and there are billions more to be uncovered.”

“The enormous network cost of connecting Australian homes with solar, wind or gas generators do not simply vanish because Labor wants it too. These costs are paid for by every single business and household in Australia through higher energy bills.”

In the open letter to the editor published in the Australian on 28 July, CSIROs Chief Economist Paul Graham stated the GenCost “report does not provide the cumulative cost of all investments up to 2030” and that “all existing generation, storage and transmission capacity up to 2030 is treated as sunk costs.”

The Coalition’s energy spokesperson thanked CSIRO’s Chief Economist for clarifying the details of the GenCost report and blasted Chris Bowen for lying to Australians about the true cost of its transition.

“Labor continues to tell Australians that a balance of technologies isn’t needed, claiming renewables alone will deliver the cheapest form of energy but, it has not accounted for at least $60 billion of energy infrastructure to be built out through to 2030.”

“We need to replace Labor’s dangerous ideology with a balanced ‘All-of the Above’ approach that allows for a mix of different technologies, including renewables.”

“What really matters, and what Labor deliberately ignores, is the total system costs of energy because that’s what hits people’s power bills.”

As Ukraine today marks its Independence Day, we reinforce our commitment to Ukraine and its people.

This 32^nd Independence Day comes 18 months after Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion.

Despite the struggles Ukraine has faced in these past 18 months, its people continue to demonstrate enormous courage and resilience.

Today, we reaffirm our support for the people of Ukraine, its sovereignty, its territorial integrity and the stand it is taking for all democracies.

The toll of Russia’s aggression on Ukraine and its people has been enormous with thousands of Ukraine troops and civilians losing their lives and many more injured, including women and children. A grim reality is that the number of deaths and wounded is likely to escalate before this conflict ends.

Just this week a six-year-old girl was one of seven killed and 15 children were among more than 100 injured in a Russian missile attack in the northern city of Chernihiv, adding to the growing toll.

The Coalition continues to provide bipartisan support for the Australian Government to support Ukraine’s defence with as much support as possible, as quickly as possible.

The Coalition applauds the recent announcement by the Australian Government of 30 additional Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicles for Ukraine. We urge the Government to ensure their timely delivery to help save lives on the frontline.

Australia’s comprehensive contribution to Ukraine, established under the Coalition Government, has, under the Albanese Labor Government, declined compared to that of other non-NATO nations. A considerable show of support for Ukraine would be the re-opening of the Australian Embassy in Kyiv. Many other nations have re-opened but so far, the Albanese Government has given no indication of when it will re-open Australia’s Embassy.

We urge the Government to step up to match Australians’ overwhelming support for Ukraine. Australians have opened their hearts to Ukranian nationals, with the special humanitarian visa, created by the Coalition Government, granted to more than 10,000 people, with more than 5,000 already arrived in Australia to re-settle in peace and safety.

On Ukraine Independence Day, we stand with the people of Ukraine and all those who support its struggle against Russia.

We particularly hold in our thoughts and prayers those in Australia from Ukraine and those with family and friends in Ukraine. Today is another difficult day for them as they endure the constant uncertainty facing their loved ones and homeland.

The Coalition reaffirms its unwavering commitment to Ukraine and its people through both these darkest days and the rebuilding that will come in what we can all only hope, is the not-too-distant future.

Australians are sleeping in cars, businesses are struggling, and crime is tearing through regional and remote communities, the Cost of Living Committee has heard.

At the hearing in Alice Springs, Senator Jane Hume and Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price heard harrowing stories about the impact the cost of living crisis is having on locals.

High inflation, freight and transport costs has pushed up the prices of goods in regional and remote Australia, meaning that the $50 food voucher the Salvation Army used to provide to feed a whole family is no longer enough.

Mayor of Alice Springs, Mr Matt Paterson, said that the cost of freight to regional areas like Alice Springs increased the costs of goods across the board, noting that “a dollar doesn’t go as far in regional Australia as it does everywhere else”.

Witnesses from the Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce told the Committee there was less tourism flowing into Alice Springs and similar communities as Australians reprioritise their spending to cope with the cost of living.

While a representative from a local women’s support organisation said if they could ask for one thing from the Government, it would be for more jobs, not welfare.

Mr Gavin Morris, Principal of the Yipirinya School, said it was harder to attract and retain teachers at the school due to high accommodation costs, with the staff turnover causing more anti-social behaviour with students and in the community.

Locals who appeared at the Community Forum reported that the deteriorating law and order situation in Alice Springs was yet another pressure for businesses who are already doing it tough.

One witness said the increase in crime and damage to property was costing small businesses, which could barely afford to pay for the repairs.

Senator Hume said the cost of living crisis goes beyond those primary issues like struggling to pay a bill, with secondary effects having a serious impact on Australians too.

“Cost of living pressures are contributing to family and relationship breakdowns, negatively impacting education outcomes, and creating anti-social behaviour.

“The cost of living crisis can’t be looked at through a single lens but the Albanese Government isn’t even willing to acknowledge there is a problem.

“With no plan to get inflation under control, Labor has waved the white flag on the cost of living. Those in regional and remote Australia are bearing the brunt of this crisis,” Senator Hume said.

Senator Nampijinpa Price said the Labor Government had shown it is not interested in listening to communities like Alice Springs.

“We have heard today about the impact crime is having on driving up business costs, and that there are community members who are desperate because their children’s basic needs are not able to be met.”

“This is best summarised by the fact the Prime Minister was forced into Alice Springs for a few hours earlier this year.

“He announced $250 million for a package to provide relief to residents yet this money has not been allocated and local initiatives such as the Yipirinya Boarding School still can not get a look in,” Senator Nampijinpa Price concluded.

Senator Hume and Senator Nampijinpa Price called on all Australians to share their stories of how the cost of living is impacting them by providing submissions to yourcostofliving.au.

The Albanese Government must take urgent action to address Australia’s declining school standards which have become a national embarrassment.

In shocking NAPLAN results released today, one in three students is failing numeracy and literacy tests, with only 15 percent of students achieving above the expected standard.

“On almost every score, Australian students are going backwards. That one in three students is not meeting expected standards in literacy and numeracy is just shocking”, Senator Henderson said.

“The NAPLAN results released today mean students are twice as likely to fail than to excel in the classroom,” Senator Henderson said.

“Fixing this is not about funding. The Albanese Government needs to focus on the foundations of a good education – reading, writing and mathematics – by mandating evidence-based teaching methods in every Australian classroom,” said Senator Henderson.

“The refusal by Labor governments – state and federal – to mandate best-practice teaching and learning methods in every Australian classroom is not only failing students but grossly negligent”, Senator Henderson said.

“The Albanese Government and the states and territories must take urgent action to reverse these results,” said Senator Henderson.

“This is not about the quality of Australian teachers who are hard-working and dedicated. Many universities are offering deficient teacher training courses which are not adequately preparing teachers for the classroom, and our tertiary education system must wear some of the blame for this shambles. Teachers can only excel if they are supported by the best evidence-based teaching and learning methods,” said Senator Henderson.

“In proposing catch up tutorials, Education Minister Jason Clare is just tinkering at the edges. Why is he not addressing the fundamental cause of this appalling decline in Australian school standards?” said Senator Henderson.

“The Australian Education Research Organisation has confirmed what it will take to reverse declining standards, but that means we need tough action and not more talk from Jason Clare,” said Senator Henderson.Young Australians and their families deserve better than this, and so does our country.