Category: Australian News

I am pleased to announce appointments to the boards of the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations and the Australia-Japan Foundation board.

The Honourable Mark McGowan AC has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations.

Mr McGowan brings a wealth of relevant experience having served as Premier of Western Australia. Prior to his election to the Parliament of Western Australia, Mr McGowan served as a legal officer in the Royal Australian Navy.

The Advisory Board guides the Foundation in its efforts to promote and coordinate enhanced cooperation between Australia and China, in support of Australia’s national interests.

The Foundation is focused on strengthening risk-informed engagement with China and reinforcing social cohesion by partnering with Chinese-Australian communities and showcasing their contributions.

I am also pleased to announce a new appointment and two reappointments to the Australian-Japan Foundation board.

Professor Shiro Armstrong, Director of the Australia-Japan Research Centre and Professor of the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, will join the Australia-Japan Foundation Board in February 2025.

Professor Caroline McMillen AO FAHMS and Ms Yuki Nakamura have been reappointed for a second three-year term from October 2024. Professor McMillen is the former Chief Scientist for South Australia and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Newcastle, with an extensive academic and scientific background. Ms Nakamura is the Executive Director of Nakamura Chocolates. She focuses on business in Japan and female entrepreneurship.

I would like to thank Mr Adam Liaw, for his exceptional contribution to the Australia-Japan Foundation over the past six years, including as acting Chair in 2024. Mr Liaw will finish his second term on 1 February 2025.

The Australian-Japan Foundation is Australia’s oldest cultural council and underpins our Special Strategic Partnership with Japan. It advances Australia’s foreign and trade policy interests with Japan by supporting partnerships in economic security, the arts, education, science, technology and sport.

To find out more, see Australia-Japan Foundation and National Foundation for Australia-China Relations.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Deputy Greens Leader and spokesperson for Higher Education, has responded to Labor’s latest student debt measure and calls on the Government to go further and act faster.

Senator Faruqi:

“The Greens welcome the Government’s decision to raise the repayment threshold, but it’s still nowhere near enough relief in a cost-of-living crisis.

“The Greens have had legislation sitting in Parliament for two years to scrap indexation and raise the repayment threshold, but Labor has been blocking it.  

“If Labor had backed our bill, reforms like this could already be in law. People would have smaller student debts, and would be keeping more of their paychecks.

“But instead, Labor wants people to wait till July next year when people need help now. We’re calling on the Prime Minister to bring this legislation to Parliament next week so we can pass it this year.

 “After years of blocking us, Labor is finally starting to listen to the Greens about the need to address soaring student debt, but it’s a small step well below what is needed.

“This proposal won’t shave a cent off your student debt or make university more affordable.

“Under Labor, student debts have risen by 16% and arts degrees now cost more than $50,000.

“Student debt can’t be fixed because student debt shouldn’t exist. Labor should wipe all student debt. If Anthony Albanese can go to uni for free, so should everyone else.”

The Albanese Labor Government will raise the minimum repayment threshold for student loans and cut repayment rates to make the repayment system fairer for all Australians with a student debt – around 3 million people.

From 1 July next year, the Government will reduce the amount Australians with a student debt have to repay per year and raise the threshold when people need to start repaying.

The reforms will apply to everyone who has a student debt, including all HELP, VET Student Loan, Australian Apprenticeship Support Loan and other student support loans.

The Government will lift the minimum repayment threshold from around $54,000 in 2024-25 to $67,000 in 2025-26 and introduce a system where repayments are based on the portion of a person’s income above the new $67,000 threshold.

For someone on an income of $70,000 this will mean they will pay around $1,300 less per year in repayments.

This will deliver significant and immediate cost of living relief to Australians with student debt, allowing them to keep more of their hard-earned money at a time when many are looking to save for a house deposit or start a family.

The move to a marginal repayment system is a recommendation of the Australian Universities Accord, and has been informed by the architect of the HELP system, Emeritus Professor Bruce Chapman.

This reform addresses one of the many unfair changes the Liberal Party made when they were in government to lower repayment thresholds.

Income threshold	Compulsory repayment amount under proposed change per year	Reduction in compulsory repayment amount per year
$60,000	$0	$600
$70,000	$450	$1,300
$80,000	$1,950	$850
$90,000	$3,450	$600
$100,000	$4,950	$550
$110,000	$6,450	$700
$120,000	$7,950	$450
$130,000	$9,550	$200
$140,000	$11,250	$650
$150,000	$12,950	$550
$160,000	$14,650	$550
$170,000	$16,350	$650
Above $180,000	No change	No change

The Government is reforming the student loan system to make it fairer for young Australians.

We have already announced reforms to indexation that will make sure student debts don’t grow faster than average wages.

This reform also builds on the Government’s substantial tertiary education reforms, including:

• Delivering 500,000 Fee-Free TAFE places;
• Doubling the number of University Study Hubs;
• Introducing legislation to establish the Commonwealth Prac Payment, expand Fee-Free Uni Ready Courses; and
• A commitment to introduce a new managed growth and needs-based funding model for universities, and establish an Australian Tertiary Education Commission.

This change will be subject to the passage of legislation.

“This is a good day for people of colour, Muslims and all of us working to build an anti-racist society. 

“Today’s judgement is a win for every person who has been told to go back to where they came from. And believe me, far too many of us have been subjected to this ultimate racist slur far too many times in this country.  Today the court found that to be a strong form of racism. 

“Migrants and people of colour should know that they don’t have to be grateful and keep quiet. I will be louder and more defiant than ever. 

“This ruling draws a line in the sand that hate speech is not free speech, and that people who racially target marginalised communities cannot get away with it scot free.

“Today’s landmark judgement is historic and groundbreaking and sets a new precedent for how racism will be viewed in this country from now on. It’s a warning for those like Pauline Hanson and I hope it emboldens individuals and communities to assert their rights to live free from racism.  

“The court has made clear that there is no place for the relentless and vile racism so many of us have been copping throughout our lives here. It sends a strong message to racists that they will be held to account.  I hope this helps us build an anti-racist Australia.

“The decision to take Pauline Hanson to court was not taken lightly, and it has taken a very personal toll on me and my family, but I did it for so many people who bear the brunt of racism and who are impacted by destructive racist language every single day. I have been vindicated today, and so have they.

“It is about time Senator Pauline Hanson faced consequences for the racism she’s been piling on Muslims, people of colour and First Nations people for more than 30 years. She has been found to have engaged in racist behaviour and I hope she reflects on that.

“Racism is rife in this country and Muslims are being marginalised, silenced, smeared and vilified more than ever for taking a stand against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. This decision becomes even more important in the context of rising Islamophobia.

“I want to thank, from the bottom of my heart, my legal team, my family, my staff and those who have supported and encouraged me to take on racism. I will continue to do so.  We are on the right side of history. Justice has prevailed.” 

The latest ATO figures on tax show that one in three large companies is paying no tax during a cost of living crisis that they are helping to drive, the Greens say.

The latest figures show 1253 large companies out of the 3985 with a turnover of more than $100 million did not pay a single dollar in tax.

“Not only have corporations grossly profited from the cost of living crisis, they are not paying their fair share of tax,” Greens Senator Nick McKim said.

“A system where nurses, teachers and cleaners are paying more tax than some of the country’s biggest corporations is totally cooked.”

“This is totally unacceptable while we have Australians who are struggling to pay their rent and put food on the table.”

“We need corporate super profits taxes now, and we need much harsher laws to stop corporate tax avoidance.”

“Money raised could directly fund cost of living relief like making GP visits free, putting mental and dental health into Medicare and wiping student debt.”

The current Minister for Local Government was not informed of an additional $19.5 million in grants awarded by the Berejiklian Government to Hornsby Shire Council (HSC) for a range of projects and some of which have not commenced 4 years after the money was provided to the Council. In answers to questions asked by Greens MP Sue Higginson in budget estimates, Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig was advised that OLG was not responsible for the administration of any grants paid to HSC other than the Stronger Communities Fund grants, that information was inaccurate.

The Government has launched a review into how this incorrect information was produced in response to Ms Higginson’s questions, and whether more recovery attempts would need to be made by the NSW Government, along with the $36 million of unspent grants to HSC as part of the discredited Stronger Communities Fund.

Greens MP and spokesperson for Planning and Environment Sue Higginson said “It is deeply concerning that the Minister for Local Government was given inaccurate information by the Office of Local Government in response to very specific questions. This one group of grants is worth $19.5 million, how many other secret pork barrel grants of the former Liberal National Coalition are still out there?”

“The grants identified in these documents seem to be a pre-election gift to Hornsby Shire Council from then treasurer and Member for Hornsby, Matt Kean. The payment of monies to the Council were being made while a Parliamentary inquiry, chaired by the Greens, was looking into the Stronger Communities Fund where documents were shredded by the Premier’s office. This takes brazen pork barrelling to a new level,”

“While understandably the Government is taking this revelation seriously, I am concerned that there is a possible conflict of interest in the review that has been started. The Planning Secretary responsible for this review, was also Coordinator General for Planning and Local Government in Office of Local Government (OLG), in 2021 – when OLG was administering these grants. In fact, one of the letters obtained under freedom of information is signed off on by the Coordinator General at the time,”

“These grants were required to be spent within two years of the money being received and we know that at least one of the projects that was supposed to receive money has not commenced – Westleigh Park, which controversially would see the development through the rarest critically endangered woodlands communities of the Sydney Basin. Other pork barrel funds for Westleigh Park are already the subject of recovery action by the NSW Government, to get back the unspent $36 million that was handed to Hornsby Shire Council. These other funds should be included in that recovery before the Council rushes ahead to spend this money that they shouldn’t have,”

“The Minister for Local Government should take this opportunity to look closely at what other State Government monies have been thrown to Liberal controlled councils as part of this so far unknown grant stream. The Greens want local communities to receive funding for important projects, but the awarding of these grants occurred in the shadow of corruption and pork barrelling. Where conditions of grants have not been met, those monies should be returned to the Government and redistributed in an open and transparent way,” Ms Higginson said.

At a time when the cost of living crisis is both making mental health worse and causing an increasing number of people across Australia to delay or miss out on essential mental health care, the Greens have announced a fully costed plan to provide unlimited mental health in Medicare as part of a plan for free mental healthcare.

The plan, one of the party’s ‘Robin Hood’ reforms, will be paid for by taxing big corporations that are profiting off price gouging during a cost of living crisis. It will provide significant cost of living relief and enable all Australians to get the mental healthcare they need, with recent ABS data showing that 43% of people will experience mental health issues in their life and 24% of people who needed to see a psychologist delayed or didn’t do so because of the cost.  

The Greens’ plan to get mental health into Medicare follows the Greens’ commitment to build 6 Free Local Healthcare Clinics in each electorate, where publicly-employed psychologists, GPs and nurses would be available to provide healthcare for free, as well as a costed plan to get dental into Medicare. 

This next step in the Greens’ plan for “Free and Unlimited Mental Healthcare” will be announced by Greens Leader Adam Bandt, health spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John and Greens candidate Sonya Semmens in the key Greens target seat of Macnamara on Thursday. Macnamara is one of the closest electoral contests in the country. If 298 voters had changed their vote in the last election, the Greens would have won this seat. In 2022 the Greens received a 5.5% positive swing in Macnamara, while Labor’s vote was almost stagnant with a swing of 0.9%.

With a minority Parliament looming, the Greens say that free healthcare will be a key policy for the Party this election and will be on the table and pushed in any minority Parliament negotiations after the next election.

THE GREENS’ PLAN FOR FREE AND UNLIMITED MENTAL HEALTHCARE INCLUDES:  

• UNLIMITED MENTAL HEALTH SESSIONS ON MEDICARE: Currently, Australians can access a maximum of just 10 subsidised mental health sessions through the Better Access Scheme (this number was halved from 20 by the Albanese Government in late 2022, resulting in the number of subsidised psychologist visits plummeting, by almost a quarter of a million sessions). The Greens will remove the cap, so you can access unlimited clinically relevant appointments.
• FREE PSYCHOLOGIST SESSIONS at 1000 free Local Healthcare Clinics across Australia
• INCREASED MEDICARE REBATE: The Greens will ensure you get a Medicare rebate of at least $150 for each session with a clinical or registered psychologist.
• SUPPORT THE WORKFORCE: The Greens will enable Provisional Psychologists to access Medicare subsidised sessions, and are committed to investing in lived experience by increasing the number of peer workers by 1000 workers, including First Nations peer workers. This will give people who need mental health care but don’t need to see a psychologist more options.

The previously announced Greens plan to establish 1000 Free Local Healthcare Clinics across Australia, involves government-employed psychologists and nurses providing free services alongside GPs and dentists. There will be at least 6 Free Local Healthcare Clinics per electorate. These Free Local Healthcare Clinics will save the average psychology client up to $430 a year, though more frequent users will save up to $1720.

Each of these policies has been independently costed by the PBO. Based on this analysis, our plan would be expected to cost approximately $5.9b over the coming decade, as well as $31.7b already announced for Free Local Healthcare Clinics.

This election, the Greens are campaigning to hold their existing Senate seats and grow in the House of Representatives, in seats including Macnamara, Wills, Richmond, Sturt and Perth. In addition to stopping new coal and gas mines and ending native forest logging, the Greens will have a strong economic offering, centred around a series of ‘Robin Hood Reforms’ to tackle the housing and cost of living crises: a Big Corporations Tax on large companies’ excessive profits, which will raise $514b over the decade, and fund ‘Free and Unlimited Mental Healthcare’, ‘GP for Free’, as well as other measures to come.

Mr Adam Bandt, Leader of the Australian Greens: 

“If you’re putting off mental healthcare because you can’t afford it, you’re not alone.

“Under Labor and Liberal, big corporations are price gouging and making massive profits during a cost-of-living crisis. Meanwhile, everyday people are forced to choose between getting mental healthcare and keeping a roof over their heads.

“1 in 3 big corporations pay no tax. The Greens will make big corporations pay their fair share of tax so you can see a psychologist for free and get unlimited mental health appointments through Medicare.

“Labor halved mental healthcare in Medicare, but the Greens’ plan will make mental healthcare free and unlimited by expanding Medicare. 

“This election, voters in Macnamara will have a choice between a Labor MP who’s cut their access to mental healthcare and a Greens candidate who will fight to get mental health fully into Medicare and make it free.”

Senator Jordon Steele-John, Greens Health spokesperson and Senator for WA:

“The Greens have a bold plan that will improve the health of our community, and bring down the cost of living. 

“Too many people in our community are not able to access mental healthcare simply because it’s too expensive. The Greens plan, which I am proud to announce today, will see people being able to get mental healthcare when they need it. 

“Under Labor, the number of Better Access Scheme sessions has been cut from 20, to 10. This is leaving too many people unable to get Medicare-subsided Mental Healthcare. The Greens want to ensure that if you need more sessions with your psychologist, you’ll be able to get them. 

“We’ll also increase the rebate and expand the range of providers able to offer Medicare sessions to include provisional psychologists. 

“This plan to expand the Better Access Scheme sits alongside our plan to open 1000 local healthcare centres across the country where people will be able to see a psychologist for free. 

“Today’s announcement is the latest commitment from the Greens that will save the community thousands of dollars a year in healthcare costs. Our plan to get Mental Healthcare into Medicare sits alongside our plan to get Dental into Medicare and to get back to the GP for Free; these will bring us closer to a universal healthcare system.”  

Greens candidate for Macnamara Sonya Semmens:

“Everyone who lives in Macnamara should be able to access mental healthcare when they need it, but so many in our community are going without.

“Like 1 in 4 Australians I’ve experienced anxiety.
Like 1 in 5 Australians, I’ve had periods of depression.
Like 1 in 10 Australians, I’ve survived an eating disorder, the deadliest of all mental illnesses.

“As a parent I worry about how I’d afford to give my kids the mental health care that my parents could access for me when I was young – and which may have saved my life. It’s an awful thing to do the maths on how much help you can afford to give your kids. We know early intervention is critical as a preventative for lifelong or severe mental illness, I’m absolutely determined that no person should put off getting the care they need.

“Every day people tell me the cost-of-living crisis is taking a massive toll on their mental health, while at the same time making it harder to get the mental healthcare they need. This is absolutely heartbreaking, and not the way it should be in our wealthy country.

“I’m so proud of our life-changing plan to deliver unlimited mental health on Medicare and enable people in Macnamara to see a psychologist with no out-of-pocket costs at a Free Local Healthcare Clinic.

“We can’t keep voting for the same two parties and expecting a different result. If you want free and unlimited mental healthcare, the first step is to vote for someone who’ll fight for you.”

The Greens have called on Peter Dutton and the Labor Party to unequivocally rule out storing high and intermediate level nuclear waste at Osborne near Port Adelaide after SA Defence Minister Stephen Mullighan refused to do so on ABC Adelaide radio this morning.

Peter Dutton and Labor combined to pass the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Bill which designates Osborne in SA as a nuclear dump zone, allowing for the dumping of US and UK intermediate-level waste and other high-level nuclear waste. Adelaide residents will tonight attend a community forum in the marginal seat of Sturt to discuss Peter Dutton’s nuclear agenda, 6:30pm at Burnside Town hall.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is Greens Spokesperson for the Environment & Senator for South Australia:

“Adelaide residents have a right to know if our suburbs will become a dumping ground for high and intermediate level nuclear waste from the US and UK. 

“There should be no room for secrecy or tricky answers here: Peter Dutton and Labor must come clean now and unequivocally rule out storing high and intermediate level waste in Adelaide suburbs. Adelaide residents deserve an answer: yes or no. 

“The law Peter Dutton and Labor voted for clearly makes Osborne, a mere stones throw from suburban Port Adelaide, a nuclear dump ‘zone’, with both major parties voting against the Greens amendment to stop high level waste being dumped there. 

“Peter Dutton not only wants nuclear reactors across Australia – he wants Adelaide to be an international dumping ground for nuclear waste. 

“Exposure to even intermediate-level waste is lethal to humans and the risk lasts for hundreds of years.

“Peter Dutton doesn’t care about Adelaide and this law is a dangerous disaster for our State. This time, SA voters have the chance to send a message by voting Green: don’t turn Adelaide’s suburbs into Peter Duttons nuclear waste dump.”

At a time when the cost of living crisis is both making mental health worse and causing an increasing number of people across Australia to delay or miss out on essential mental health care, the Greens have announced a fully costed plan to provide unlimited mental health in Medicare as part of a plan for free mental healthcare.

The plan, one of the party’s ‘Robin Hood’ reforms, will be paid for by taxing big corporations that are profiting off price gouging during a cost of living crisis. It will provide significant cost of living relief and enable all Australians to get the mental healthcare they need, with recent ABS data showing that 43% of people will experience mental health issues in their life and 24% of people who needed to see a psychologist delayed or didn’t do so because of the cost.  

The Greens’ plan to get mental health into Medicare follows the Greens’ commitment to build 6 Free Local Healthcare Clinics in each electorate, where publicly-employed psychologists, GPs and nurses would be available to provide healthcare for free, as well as a costed plan to get dental into Medicare. 

With a minority Parliament looming, the Greens say that free healthcare will be a key policy for the Party this election and will be on the table and pushed in any minority Parliament negotiations after the next election.

THE GREENS’ PLAN FOR FREE AND UNLIMITED MENTAL HEALTHCARE INCLUDES:  

• UNLIMITED MENTAL HEALTH SESSIONS ON MEDICARE: Currently, Australians can access a maximum of just 10 subsidised mental health sessions through the Better Access Scheme (this number was halved from 20 by the Albanese Government in late 2022, resulting in the number of subsidised psychologist visits plummeting, by almost a quarter of a million sessions). The Greens will remove the cap, so you can access unlimited clinically relevant appointments.
• FREE PSYCHOLOGIST SESSIONS at 1000 free Local Healthcare Clinics across Australia.
• INCREASED MEDICARE REBATE: The Greens will ensure you get a Medicare rebate of at least $150 for each session with a clinical or registered psychologist.
• SUPPORT THE WORKFORCE: The Greens will enable Provisional Psychologists to access Medicare subsidised sessions, and are committed to investing in lived experience by increasing the number of peer workers by 1000 workers, including First Nations peer workers. This will give people who need mental health care but don’t need to see a psychologist more options.

Sarah Hanson-Young is Greens Senator for South Australia:

“Too many people in South Australia are not able to access mental healthcare simply because it’s too expensive. Mental health should be part of Medicare and the Greens have a plan to fix it.

“The Greens plan will see people being able to get mental healthcare when they need it. 

“Under Labor, the number of Better Access Scheme sessions has been cut from 20, to 10. This is leaving too many people unable to get Medicare-subsided Mental Healthcare. The Greens want to ensure that if you need more sessions with your psychologist, you’ll be able to get them. 

“Our plan to get Mental Healthcare into Medicare sits alongside our plan to get Dental into Medicare and to get back to the GP for Free; these will bring us closer to a universal healthcare system.

“We’ll also increase the rebate and expand the range of providers able to offer Medicare sessions to include provisional psychologists. 

“Under Labor, the number of Better Access Scheme sessions has been cut from 20, to 10. This is leaving too many people unable to get Medicare-subsided Mental Healthcare. The Greens want to ensure that if you need more sessions with your psychologist, you’ll be able to get them. 

“This plan to expand the Better Access Scheme sits alongside our plan to open 1000 local healthcare centres across the country where people will be able to see a psychologist for free.

“We can’t keep voting for the same two parties and expecting a different result. If you want free and unlimited mental healthcare, the first step is to vote for someone who’ll fight for you.”