Category: Australian News

Greens Senator Steph Hodgins-May will visit South Gippsland on Saturday to hear from communities concerned about the lack of early childhood education and care in their region.

New research published this week by Victoria University Mitchell Institute found 700,000 Australians live in childcare deserts.

“It’s shocking that in a wealthy country like Australia, one in four people have no access to early childhood education and care because of their postcode.”

“In South Gippsland, like in so many communities across Victoria, children are slipping through the cracks.”

With the exception of a few regional hubs, much of South Gippsland consists of childcare deserts, where there are more than three children per childcare place, according to the report. 

In South Gippsland’s Stony Creek, 8.3 children compete for each childcare place and in Fish Creek up to 50 children compete for each childcare place. 

“I’m hearing from parents whose kids are on multiple waiting lists, who are missing out on an early education because they can’t secure childcare. As a result, parents are missing out on critical paid work in the middle of a cost of living crisis.”

“Access to childcare shouldn’t be subject to a postcode lottery.”

“As long as the Labor Government continues to rely on profit-driven providers to fill childcare demand, childcare deserts like those that exist in South Gippsland will remain a shameful reality and families will continue to be left behind.”

Senator Hodgins-May says childcare shortages are being compounded by a workforce leaving in droves.

“This is a workforce that is overwhelmingly comprised of women, who continue to take home less than two-thirds of the average weekly adult wage.”

“Even with the Government’s announced pay rise, early childhood educators are underpaid and simply can’t afford to stay.”

“Our early childhood educators perform the critical role of educating and caring for our kids in those crucial early years and they deserve the 25 percent pay rise that they have consistently called for.”

Senator Hodgins-May says Australia’s broken childcare system is in urgent need of repair.  

“The Greens have consistently said that early learning is a fundamental right. Childcare should be treated like primary and secondary school – free, universal and high quality.”

“We will continue to support families across Victoria who are urging the Government to properly fund and regulate the childcare sector, to make childcare free and universal, and to pay our educators what they deserve.”

The Albanese Labor Government is continuing to deliver on its commitment to provide greater support to Australian families by introducing legislation today which will pay superannuation on Government-funded Paid Parental Leave.

The introduction of the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Adding Superannuation for a More Secure Retirement) Bill 2024 in the House of Representatives builds upon recent reforms which have made Paid Parental Leave more flexible, accessible, gender equitable, and which increase the length of the scheme.

Subject to the passage of legislation, eligible parents with babies born or adopted on or after 1 July 2025 will receive an additional payment, based on the Superannuation Guarantee (12 per cent of their Paid Parental Leave payment), as a contribution to their nominated superannuation fund.

Paying superannuation on Paid Parental Leave will improve the economic security in retirement of around 180,000 Australian families each year.

The Paid Parental Leave scheme provides financial support to eligible working parents to take time off work after a birth or adoption.

This legislation builds on recent reforms, including the expansion of the Paid Parental Leave scheme to 26 weeks by 2026. Since 1 July 2024, parents can receive 22 weeks of Paid Parental Leave, up from 20 weeks, resulting in more support as parents take time out of work to care for their newborn.

Pending the passage of legislation, a lump sum superannuation payment would be paid following the end of each financial year, including an interest component, where a recipient received Paid Parental Leave. The contribution will be automatically deposited into the superannuation accounts of eligible parents.

More information on the Paid Parental Leave scheme can be found on the Department of Social Services website.

Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese

“This is a modern policy for modern families which delivers choice, offers security and rewards aspiration.

“My Government is boosting Paid Parental Leave by extending it to a full six months. This strengthens that further, by adding superannuation on it as well.

“It’s another important step towards gender equality – which is good for families, good for business and good for our economy.”

Treasurer, Jim Chalmers

“Paying super on Paid Parental Leave is part of our efforts to ensure women earn more, keep more of what they earn, and retire with more.

“This reform is good for families and for the economy, and we are really proud to be legislating it.”

Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher

“We know that women continue to face difficult decisions and financial penalties when choosing to raise a family. These long-overdue changes will help ease those penalties and lessen the impact on women’s retirement savings.

“Paying super on Paid Parental Leave will complement the other work our Government is doing, including expanding the Paid Parental Leave scheme to six months and making childcare cheaper and more accessible.”

Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth

“The introduction of superannuation with Paid Parental Leave signals that caring for babies is valued and helps to normalise parental leave as a workplace entitlement.

“Investing $1.1 billion over the forward estimates to pay superannuation on Paid Parental Leave is a key step in prioritising gender equality as most recipients are women who will have lower superannuation balances. The measure will directly reduce the impact of parental leave on retirement incomes.

“By investing in these reforms, we are ensuring families can get the most of Paid Parental Leave and exercise more choice and flexibility, especially now that we are adding superannuation for a more secure retirement.”

The CanTEST Health and Drug Checking Service, which provides chemical analysis of drugs and pills, has now been running for two years in the ACT.

Minister for Population Health Emma Davidson said CanTEST, which was Australia’s first fixed-site health and drug checking service, was providing the community with important information about drugs to inform their choices and helps to reduce drug-related harm.

“Drug testing saves lives. Over its two years of operation, CanTEST has tested over 2,900 samples and provided over 4,000 health and alcohol and other drug interventions,” Minister Davidson said.

“The ACT Government is committed to treating substance use as a health issue, not a criminal issue. People take drugs. Removing the stigma to have honest conversations about your health can save your life.

“CanTEST is helping to reduce drug-related harm in the ACT. We have seen over 300 substances discarded because of the testing provided by this service, which is one in ten of the samples presented for testing.

“Programs like this lead drug harm reduction and support our community to make healthier choices. Half of the drugs tested were found to contain a substance that the person didn’t expect to see, and they were less likely to take the drug.”

MDMA, ketamine and cocaine are most commonly tested at CanTEST, followed by methamphetamine and heroin. There has also been a range of other substances presented for testing across this period, including:

• psychedelic drugs
• counterfeit and falsified medications sold on the black market
• substances mimicking other drugs.

“The testing allows CanTEST to alert the community about substances that have appeared at the service, including some that were particularly high risk,” Minister Davidson said.

“The evaluation of the first six months of this service by the Australian National University found that many people changed their behaviour, either through discarding or not using a substance or changing their behaviours to further reduce potential harm.

“It also showed that for over two-thirds of clients, this service was their first interaction with a health professional to discuss their drug use.”

The CanTEST Health and Drug Checking Service is run by Directions Health Services in partnership with Pill Testing Australia and the Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation and Advocacy.

In June this year, the ACT Government committed to funding the service until June 2027.

CanTEST’s two year report can be found on their website.

You can find more information about the service on the ACT Government’s drug checking web page.

The findings from the Inquiry into the death of First Nations man Ricky “Dougie” Hampson Junior were released this week. Hampson died in 2021 after presenting to Dubbo Base Hospital with “10 out of 10” pain. The Inquiry heard that after spending 19 hours at the hospital he was misdiagnosed before being sent home without any further investigation, where he shortly passed.

The findings, delivered by Deputy State Coroner Erin Kennedy now show that Dougie’s death was entirely “preventable” and the inquest made several recommendations, including that the doctor who treated Hampson should be referred to the NSW Healthcare Watchdog.

Greens MP and spokesperson for First Nations Justice Sue Higginson said, “A small but significant piece of justice has finally been won for Dougie and his family this week. These findings can never bring Dougie back, but they can drive reform to rid the racism within the health care system, which underscored his death, save the lives of other First Nations people and give peace of mind to his family.”

“Dougie went to hospital in agony and instead of being treated as he presented, he was treated with the cognitive bias, racism and negligence that First Nations people so often face in the state’s systems,”

“The brutal cruelty of the state’s systems continued when Dougie’s family had to engage in tireless advocacy, over 3 years, including visits to Parliament, pleas through the media, legal representation and a 13 and a half thousand signature petition calling for the inquest that has now made these findings. They should never have had to fight so hard, or so long for this justice, but they did and we must all thank them for doing so,”

“The state’s systems continue to fail First Nations people. We wonder why the gap is not closing. Urgent reforms must be introduced and not just at Dubbo Hospital or the Western NSW LHD. Culturally appropriate care must be front and centre going forward. A colour blind approach is one that fails First Nations people just as it failed Dougie,” Ms Higginson said.

The Greens welcome the belated introduction today of legislation to establish an Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission was introduced.
 
Recommendation 22 of the 2021 Set the Standards report was that the Houses of Parliament should establish, within 12 months, an Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission (IPSC) to enforce codes of conduct. The IPSC was initially expected in October 2023, but that timeframe has since been updated to October 2024.

Senator Larissa Waters, Greens Leader in the Senate and spokesperson on Women

“It’s two years late, but the Greens welcome the legislation to establish of an Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission. 

“Now the bill has been introduced, the Greens want to see this commission be established quickly, without further delay.

“Women and staff have been unsafe in parliament for far too long. Parliamentarians have been getting away with blue murder, as there has been no way of holding them to account for bad behaviour.

“Finally with this new body, parliamentarians will face consequences for bad behaviour.

“The Greens pushed for stronger sanctions, including higher fines for MPs and more consequences for Ministers when there is an adverse finding. It shouldn’t be up to the Prime Minister to determine what happens to Ministers who misbehave.

“Parliament should be setting the standard for other workplaces around the country, but instead it’s been a national shame. 
 
“This progress would not have happened without all the brave staff who have spoken out including Brittany Higgins, Dhanya Mani, Chelsey Potter, Rachelle Miller, Tessa Sullivan and Josie Coles.
 
“Both houses of parliament have endorsed Codes of Conduct for behaviour, but without an independent body to investigate breaches, those Codes have been unenforceable to date. 
 
“We hope that having the Codes of conduct enforceable through the IPSC will discourage misconduct, and keep staff and everyone in parliamentary workplaces safe.”

The Albanese Government’s International Development Policy is paying dividends, better addressing poverty, economic growth, healthcare, infrastructure investment, climate change and gender equality. All of this is critical to supporting a peaceful, stable, and prosperous future for Australia and our region.

August marks 12 months since Australia launched the landmark Policy, which aims to make our development program more effective, responsive, transparent and accountable. Since the Policy was launched, there have been substantial improvements in the outcomes of Australia’s work, including:

• 23.8 million vulnerable people accessed emergency assistance.
• 31.5 million new therapeutics, vaccines and medical equipment delivered.
• Over 10 million people immunized.
• Nearly 250,000 more children enrolled in school.

One of the key commitments of the Policy was to design a new Civil Society Partnerships Fund, that will support civil society organisations and address the challenges of shrinking civic space in many parts of the world.

Today we are pleased to announce Australia will invest $35 million over four years in projects which will improve access to civic space, to allow people to meet, express themselves, share information and contribute to decisions that affect their lives.

Supporting local leadership, listening to partners about what their priorities are, and working together to address these issues, is central to the Policy. Australia is crafting Development Partnership Plans, which have been published for Papua New Guinea and Indonesia and we will release more soon.

As part of enhanced accountability measures, we have strengthened performance and evaluation systems, published the inaugural Performance of Australian Development Cooperation report, and will launch a new transparency portal by the end of 2024.

The rebuild of Australia’s international development program is helping to strengthen our long-term relationships and deliver in the interests of Australians and the region around us.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong:

“The Albanese Labor Government’s International Development Policy has sharpened our focus, and increased accountability to ensure our investments are delivering maximum benefit.

“As we mark 12 months since the policy roll out, I am pleased to see that it is making such a positive difference, particularly to women and girls, and in terms of building climate resilience.

“We are working hard to restore Australia’s place as a partner of choice.”

Minister for International Development and the Pacific, the Hon Pat Conroy MP:

“The Australian Government has worked tirelessly to rebuild Australia’s development program since coming to office – our ‘whole-of-nation’ effort involves working with partners across government, industry, academia and civil society to deliver our shared goals.

“It’s been one year since we released our International Development Policy and we’ve made strong progress against its key commitments.

“We have revitalised how we do development, backed by sustainable increases to the ODA budget – investing in our capability and expertise while refocusing the way we work to align with the needs and interests of our regional and global partners.”

The Australian Greens have said Labor and the Liberals have teamed up to ram through rushed CFMEU legislation in an unprecedented attack on the rule of law.

The Greens say that by doing a rushed deal to pass the flawed legislation, Labor and Liberal have ensured Michaelia Cash will be able to appoint a new administrator of the CFMEU if there is a change of government. 

Over the weekend the NSW Council for Civil Liberties said the powers set out in Labor’s bill were “far-reaching” and established a dangerous precedent for the trade union movement and the rights of individuals to “natural justice and procedural fairness”.

Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt MP:

“The Greens will always oppose sexism, corruption, thuggery and bullying, but Labor and the Liberals have just cut a deal to ram through flawed and draconian laws that threaten fundamental rights. 

“Civil liberties groups have rightly said this bill is a threat to freedom of association and the rights of all unions and membership based organisations.

“This bill means that if there is a change of government, Michaelia Cash could appoint Tony Abbott to be administrator of one of Australia’s most significant unions.

“The Greens told the government we were prepared to negotiate on the legislation and seek to address some of the serious concerns in the bill, but instead Labor has worked with the anti-union, anti-worker Liberals.”

The announcement today that the Australian Conservation Foundation will drop its legal action against Woodside’s mammoth gas project at Scarborough is evidence Australia’s environment laws are “too weak” say the Greens, who are pushing for a climate trigger as part of Labor’s Nature Positive legislation.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is Greens spokesperson for Environment, Manager of Business in the Senate:

“ACF dropping this legal action is proof positive that our environment laws are weak and broken because they fail to tackle climate change.

“The fact that there is no obligation for the Environment Minister to consider climate damage when approving another massive gas field for Woodside shows just how broken our environment laws are.

“We could fix the climate holes in the laws with a Climate Trigger that would stop new coal and gas, but the Albanese Government is talking out both sides of their mouth on the environment. 

“The Government will have to decide: do a dirty deal with Peter Dutton to further weaken our environment laws, or work with the Greens to actually protect nature.

“The Greens won’t rubber stamp laws that fast-track destruction & pollution. We need to end native forest logging and to stop new fossil fuels.

“I urge the Labor Government to do right by our kids and by threatened species, instead of pandering to vested interests in the logging and fossil fuel lobby.”

Former Cabinet Minister Matt Kean knew that contaminated recycled waste products were being distributed across the environment and communities, but did not act to stop the practice. A Ministerial Briefing note, obtained under freedom of information laws, has revealed that in December 2021 the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) told the Government that recovered waste products, known as recovered fines, were “not fit for purpose” and “should not be reused broadly in the community”.

Between December 2021 and May 2022, the EPA halted planned changes to the recovered waste industry after pressure from commercial interests. No further regulatory action was taken by the EPA or Government to prevent asbestos, glass, plastics and heavy metals from being sold and distributed in consumer products across NSW.

Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment Sue Higginson said “Something happened between the end of 2021 and mid 2022 that allowed hazardous materials to continue to be sold and distributed by producers of recovered fines from waste,”

“This briefing note, signed by the then Environment Minister, recommended changes to the regulatory system for these products, recognised the harm that the materials could cause, and pushed back on the financial consequences for commercial interests. The EPA specifically recognised the potential financial impacts, but asserted that it’s primary function is protection of the environment and communities,”

“It is baffling, that by May 2022, the EPA cancelled any changes to the industry, and the Coalition Government did not act to make changes to protect the environment or communities from contaminated recovered fines,”

“The current Leader of the Opposition, Mark Speakman, made representations in 2021 on behalf of one of the companies that produced recovered fines that indicated the EPA’s evidence was flawed and out of date. But 3 years later there is still asbestos and other contaminants being sold at garden supply stores and being spread over playgrounds,”

“There is a case to be answered here, whether there has been undue political interference or plain incompetence, why was this industry not fixed at any of the times it was highlighted as a risk. The reviews in 2013, 2019 and 2020 all proved that the product was dangerous – but no one acted to stop it. This is a toxic legacy that needs to be explained and fixed. ” Ms Higginson said.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has blocked approval for a $1 billion mining project at Regis McPhillamy’s goldmine near Blayney NSW by making a declaration under section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 (Cth). It has been reported that the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council responsible for the area in question did not oppose the project and believed any possible impacts on heritage items would have been manageable.

Despite Minister Plibersek’s claim that the declaration would not stop the project, according to a statement released by Regis Resources today, the project is now unviable due to the declaration. The statement further claims that Minister Plibersek was well aware that this would be the outcome of any section 10 declaration she might make.

Shadow Environment Minister and Tasmanian Senator Jono Duniam said “the Albanese Government is the most anti-jobs, anti-development government Australia has ever had.”

“In a cost of living crisis, the last thing we need is for a government to ignore clear advice and unilaterally scrap a project like this, sabotaging hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue for the State Government.”

“In making this decision, Ms Plibersek is continuing her outrageous approach of stalling and rejecting multiple projects that have already passed stringent state laws. What’s the use in state laws when a Federal Government Minister can continually override them on a whim?”

“People wonder why you can’t get anything approved in Australia. Well, this is the exact reason. It’s green tape gone mad because of the Labor Government.”

Shadow Minister for Resources, Senator Susan McDonald said Labor’s decision encouraged anti-mining activists to use cultural considerations for their own purposes.

“Genuine cultural concerns are being weaponised to further anti-mining interests which does nothing to help Aboriginal people, depriving them of royalties and involvement in the decision-making process,” she said.

“We’ve seen this with Santos’s Barossa gas pipeline and the Jabiluka uranium lease in the Northern Territory.”

“Activists are doing Labor’s dirty work of stopping mining and this is being noticed around the world as mining companies look to invest in other countries. The current approvals process is broken and has been hijacked by interests seeking to secure inner-city Greens preferences.”

“A Coalition Government will halve approval times for new projects and defund the Environmental Defenders Office.”

“This is a ‘death by stealth’ approach, where the Government can claim they aren’t targeting mining directly.”

Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians Senator Nampijinpa Price believed the decision was ironic in light of Anthony Albanese’s push for Indigenous economic development at the recent Garma festival.

“This is a perfect example of Indigenous Australians wanting to develop their land and utilise all that it has to offer, but the Albanese government explicitly stopping them from doing so. Far too regularly we are seeing the desire of traditional owners to become economically independent on their land being stymied in the name of activist ideology.”

Senator Nampijinpa Price also said the decision also illustrates the long-standing issue of the unreliable nature of the scheme governing Indigenous land in Australia which hinders local and international investment in projects that could bring significant employment and economic benefits to Indigenous people.

“We cannot hope to encourage Indigenous economic independence while at the same time allowing a Minister to block projects at the eleventh hour which have otherwise been through due process on the basis of a small number of objections. To do so poses a serious threat to economic development for Indigenous Australians,” said Senator Nampijinpa Price.