Category: Australian News

In response to the latest ABC job cuts, Greens Spokesperson for Media and Communications Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“I am devastated to hear that more than 100 jobs will go from the ABC. 

“This is shocking for public interest journalism and for the hardworking, talented staff of the ABC.

“At a time when trust in news is at its lowest, it is essential that we have a strong national broadcaster delivering quality local and national news. 

“Under the Coalition Government we saw $783 million cut from the ABC’s budget. That funding has never been fully restored.

“Tony Abbott broke his promise of no cuts to the ABC, but Labor never promised to fully restore ABC funding.

“It’s now time for Labor to fully reinstate ABC funding to fix more than a decade of Coalition cuts.

“I will be writing to Communications Minister Michelle Rowland and calling on her to intervene and save jobs and journalism at the ABC.

“We cannot wait another 5 years for the funding to be reviewed. The Albanese Government must urgently intervene to ensure that our public broadcaster is properly funded.”

Introduction

Given the negligible net overseas migration (NOM) in the year leading up to March 2021, the conventional question of whether voters wanted more or less immigration became less relevant. However, this unique period provided an opportunity to gauge the Australian voting public’s opinions on the level of immigration post-pandemic. Let’s summarise the fourth TAPRI national survey conducted in late July 2021, focusing on voters’ attitudes towards population growth and immigration.

A July 2021 summary of voting opinions is as relevant today as it was a few years ago.

The Context and Natural Experiment

Between March 2020 and July 2021, Australia experienced minimal net migration due to the pandemic. During this period, interest groups advocating for a return to pre-pandemic levels of immigration, approximately 240,000 per year, had ample opportunity to present their case. These groups, including influential business organisations, the property industry, and the overseas student sector, received strong support from the Coalition Government, which expressed its intention to restore NOM levels once the pandemic was under control. This situation set the stage for a natural experiment: would voters support a “Big Australia” policy after experiencing over a year without it? Have advocates successfully persuaded them that high rates of population growth are desirable?

Survey Results and Shifting Attitudes

The survey results revealed that advocates of a “Big Australia” policy did not convince most voters. Only 19% of respondents supported a return to NOM levels of around 240,000 per year, while the rest preferred significantly lower levels of immigration, including 28% who favoured nil net migration.

Notably, there has been a noticeable hardening of attitudes towards immigration. Before the pandemic, there was a relatively even split between voters wanting to maintain or increase current immigration levels and those favouring a decrease. However, as of July 2021, only a small minority wished to restore “Big Australia” levels, with the majority opposing it.

Reasons for Opposition and Alternative Solutions

Advocates of substantial immigration often argue that addressing labour shortages and stimulating economic growth is necessary. However, when respondents were presented with this proposition, only 26% supported it. Instead, a majority (61%) chose an alternative proposition: “We should deal with worker shortages by raising wages and improving skills training for locals.” This shift in sentiment indicates that voters are not convinced that increased immigration is the sole solution to labour market challenges.

Furthermore, most voters do not support a return to previous levels of overseas student recruitment, suggesting a more comprehensive scepticism towards population growth.

Drivers of Opposition and the Impact of the Pandemic

The survey findings indicate that most voters do not believe Australia needs more people. Approximately 69% of respondents held this view, citing concerns such as congestion, overcrowding of hospitals and schools, environmental deterioration, and the high cost of housing as reasons for their stance.

It is worth noting that the hardening of voters’ views may have been influenced by their fears surrounding the virus. Strong support was observed for keeping international borders closed to foreign travellers and for state governments’ restrictions on interstate movement. These factors suggest that apprehension about further infections and disruptions to everyday life significantly shapes public opinion.

Conclusion

The TAPRI national survey conducted in July 2021 provides valuable insights into the changing attitudes of Australian voters towards immigration and population growth. The results demonstrate a notable shift from supporting a “Big Australia” policy, with a majority favouring lower immigration levels or nil net migration. Voters expressed concerns about the negative consequences of population growth and highlighted alternative strategies for addressing labour shortages. The pandemic has played a crucial role.

A bill to establish a Royal Commission into the Murdoch media empire was introduced into the parliament today by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. 

The bill establishes a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry and has the full powers of a Royal Commission, including resources and ability to compel witnesses. It would report to the Parliament, rather than the Government.

The Greens will move to refer the bill to a senate inquiry following its introduction.

Greens Spokesperson for Media and Communications Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“Today I introduced a Greens bill to establish a Royal Commission into the Murdoch media empire and the state of media diversity in Australia. 

“The influence of the Murdoch media on Australian democracy is unaccountable and dangerous. It is time politicians stop being afraid to question the Murdoch press.

“Only an inquiry with the powers of a Royal Commission can uncover the extent of the Murdoch media’s influence and control over our democracy and fully examine media concentration in Australia.

“Even today we’ve seen the Murdoch press use leaked text messages from an alleged rape victim to prosecute an attempted political attack with little regard to the welfare of Brittany Higgins or for the public interest.

“The revelations in the Dominion case against Fox News was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the influence of the Murdoch media.

“Rupert Murdoch seemed to do everything he could to get out of giving evidence, leaving us wondering what might have been uncovered. It’s now even more imperative that Rupert Murdoch is called to give evidence before a Royal Commission in Australia.

“Pressure is continuing to build to hold the Murdoch media mafia to account for the role they have played in the polarisation of politics and their rampant spreading of misinformation.

“Australia’s media regulatory framework is not fit for purpose and needs an overhaul. Media regulators in this country are toothless and powerless to act in the public interest under the huge political and market influence of the Murdoch machine.

“The first recommendation of the Senate Inquiry into Media Diversity in Australia was to conduct a judicial inquiry with the powers of a royal commission to investigate media regulation in Australia.

“I invite all members of parliament to support the bill and stand up for public interest journalism and truth in our democracy.”

Today, the Parliamentary Friends of ME/CFS, co-chaired by Senator Jordon Steele-John and Maria Vamvakinou, will be launched today at an event in Parliament House 11 am – 12 noon AEST. 

The friendship group aims to connect Members of Parliament with patient advocates and stakeholders from across the country, to improve outcomes for the community and ensure that people with Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) are not left behind by the federal government during the 47th Parliament. 

At the launch event, people will hear from the Co-Chairs, Penelope McMillan from ME/CFS Australia, Anne Wilson from Emerge and a community advocate, Andrew Bretherton, to speak about their lived experience.

Members of the community from across the country will attend the event online.

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

“It’s an honour to co-chair the Parliamentary Friends of ME/CFS. I hope this friends group will help bridge the gap between us all: people with ME/CFS, healthcare providers, and policy makers. 

“ME/CFS affects a huge number of people in this country and for decades has failed to receive the recognition and understanding within the healthcare system that it needs. Too many people have been misdiagnosed, not received access to specialised clinics and in some cases – treatment that has actively caused harm to the people it was supposed to support. 

“We know there are many actions the Federal Government could take to improve the lives of people with ME/CFS, including investing in research, better resourcing advocacy groups, and supporting healthcare providers to have a better understanding of the condition, its severity, and its impact. 

“The government must urgently ensure that current disability support systems, including getting access to the Disability Support Pension (DSP) and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) are available to people with ME/CFS. It can be extremely challenging for people with ME/CFS to navigate processes due to the fluctuating nature of their symptoms and the lack of consistent diagnostic criteria.” 

The Albanese Government has today announced the Chair and Advisory Board of the Net Zero Economy Agency.

The Hon Greg Combet AM has been appointed as Chair of the Net Zero Economy Agency. As Chair, Mr Combet will guide the Agency to ensure that the workers, industries and communities that have powered Australia for generations, can seize the opportunities of the net zero transformation. The Chair will be supported by an Advisory Board to design and establish the legislated Net Zero Authority.

Members appointed to the Advisory Board:

• Professor Ross Garnaut AC – Professor Emeritus in Economics at the University of Melbourne and Professor Emeritus, College of Asia & the Pacific at ANU;
• Professor Paul Simshauser AM – CEO of Powerlink Queensland and Professor of Economics at Griffith University;
• Anthea Harris – CEO of the Australian Energy Regulator;
• Nicole Lockwood – Chair of Infrastructure WA, board member of NBN and former Shire President of Roebourne;
• Kellie Parker – CEO of Rio Tinto Australia;
• Michele O’Neil – President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions;
• Professor Robynne Quiggin – Pro-Vice Chancellor of UTS and part of Steering committee for the First Nations Clean Energy Network;
• Anna Skarbek – CEO of ClimateWorks, Director of the Green Building Council of Australia, the Centre for New Energy Technologies, the Sustainable Australia Fund, Impact Investment Group, and Sentient Impact Group;
• Tony Maher – General President of the Mining and Energy Union;  
• Laura Tyler – Chief Technical Officer, BHP.

Mr Combet is uniquely qualified to lead the Agency, with expertise in government, investment, climate policy and industrial relations, as well as holding qualifications in coal mining engineering. He will begin the role on 10 July 2023.

Mr Combet is currently the Chair of IFM Investors and Industry Super Australia and formerly served as Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Minister for Industry and Innovation, Minister for Defence Personnel, Science and Materiel, and was a leader of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

Advisory Board members were appointed for their significant expertise across a range of areas including workplace relations, energy markets, regional development, First Nations engagement and economic development.

In addition to the Chair and Advisory Board, stakeholder reference groups will be established to guide the Agency’s work with representatives to include regional experts, to engage with workers, industry and communities about the transition to net zero.

Last month the Government committed to legislate a national Net Zero Authority, which will work with state, territory and local governments, existing regional bodies, unions, industry, investors and First Nations groups to help key regions, industries, employers and others proactively manage the transformation to a clean energy economy.

To kickstart the Authority’s responsibilities immediately, the Net Zero Economy Agency will start work from July this year. 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will tomorrow meet Mr Henry Puna, the Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum, in Canberra.

As the pre-eminent institution of the Pacific family, the Forum plays a critical role in bringing Pacific nations together to address shared challenges and opportunities.

The Prime Minister and Secretary General will discuss Pacific regionalism and Pacific Leaders’ priorities as set out in the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, including climate change.

This meeting follows the Prime Minister’s warm and productive discussions with Forum Chair, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, last month at the G7 in Hiroshima.

Secretary General Puna will also meet with Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy.

Prime Minister Albanese said:

“Australia deeply values our membership of the Pacific Islands Forum. We are proud to be a founding member of the Forum and contribute to practical outcomes to support the Pacific’s priorities.

“I look forward to meeting with Secretary General Puna and discussing our shared approach to regional peace, prosperity and resilience.”

I am pleased to announce that I will be recommending the Governor-General appoint Mr Blair Comley PSM as Secretary of the Department of Health and Aged Care.

Mr Comley has had a distinguished career across the Commonwealth and NSW public sector.

Between 2011 and 2013, Mr Comley was Secretary of the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism and the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. He then led the New South Wales Department of Premier and Cabinet as Secretary between 2014 and 2017.

Mr Comley is currently a director and partner at EY Port Jackson Partners.

With his strong economic qualifications and proven leadership navigating complex issues, Mr Comley will bring innovation and policy rigour to addressing the challenges and opportunities within our health system. 

The five year appointment begins on 17 July 2023.

On behalf of my government, I thank Professor Brendan Murphy AC for his service to Australia’s health sector, as Chief Medical Officer since 2016 and as Secretary of the Department of Health since 2020.

Professor Murphy’s service during the COVID-19 global pandemic kept Australians safe. I wish him well as he embarks on his well-deserved retirement.

The Governments of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America endorsed a Joint Declaration Against Trade-Related Economic Coercion and Non-Market Policies and Practices at a Ministerial meeting in Paris on 8 June 2023.

The Joint Declaration builds on the momentum of the G7 Leaders’ Statement on Economic Resilience and Economic Security on 20 May 2023.

The Governments of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America released the following Joint Declaration on 9 June 2023.

Joint Declaration Against Trade-Related Economic Coercion and Non-Market Policies and Practices

The use of trade-related economic coercion and non-market-oriented policies and practices (“non-market policies and practices”) threatens and undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system and harms relations between countries. The purpose of this Declaration is to express our shared concern and affirm our commitment to enhance international cooperation in order to effectively deter and address trade-related economic coercion and non-market policies and practices.

1. We express serious concern over trade-related economic coercion and non-market policies and practices that undermine the functioning of and confidence in the rules-based multilateral trading system by distorting trade, investment, and competition and harming relations between countries. Trade-related economic coercion and non-market policies and practices threaten the livelihoods of our citizens, harm our workers and businesses, and could undermine global security and stability.

2. Non-market policies and practices of concern include: industrial policies and practices that promote excess capacity; pervasive subsidization; discriminatory and anti-competitive activities of state owned or controlled enterprises; the arbitrary or unjustifiable application of regulations; forced technology transfer; state-sponsored theft of trade secrets; government interference with or direction of commercial decision-making; and insufficient regulatory and market transparency. Non-market policies and practices have also been used as tools for economic coercion.

3. We are particularly concerned with, and oppose, trade-related economic coercion that uses, or uses the threat of, measures affecting trade and investment in an abusive, arbitrary, or pretextual manner to pressure, induce or influence a foreign government into taking, or not taking, a decision or action in order to achieve a strategic political or policy objective, or prevent or interfere with the foreign government’s exercise of its legitimate sovereign rights or choices. This trade-related economic coercion is frequently disguised as a legitimate government regulatory or public policy measure unrelated to the strategic objective that it is intended to advance. It may also occur indirectly through government entrustment or direction given to state-owned, state-controlled, or private enterprises.

4. We are also seriously concerned about the use of forced labour, including state-sponsored forced labour, in global supply chains. All forms of forced labour are gross abuses of human rights, as well as economic issues, and it is a moral imperative to end these practices. We are aware of countries using these practices to confer an unfair competitive advantage, and affirm that there must be no place for such practices in the global trading system.

5. We affirm, in light of relevant international rules and norms, that this declaration does not apply to measures that are adopted and maintained in a transparent manner, in good faith, and for the purpose of a legitimate public policy objective. These legitimate public policy measures include: health and safety regulations, environmental regulations, trade remedies, national security measures and sanctions, and measures to protect the integrity and stability of financial systems and financial institutions from abuse. 

6. We urge all governments to refrain from the use of trade-related economic coercion and non-market policies and practices and to support free and fair trade based on open, market-oriented policies and principles that promote a level playing field and non-discriminatory treatment in international trade relations, benefit all economies, and help secure shared prosperity for all.

7. We commit to work together, with all interested partners, to identify, prevent, deter, and address trade-related economic coercion and non-market policies and practices, including through multilateral institutions, such as the WTO. These efforts will include, where appropriate, cooperation in WTO committees and in disputes to challenge these practices. We also commit to the sharing of information, data and analysis concerning these policies and practices as well as exploring the development of new diplomatic and economic tools that support and reinforce the rules-based multilateral trading system in responding to these challenges.

Recently Pauline Hanson has penned her thoughts on a Greens Senator’s article in Gladstone Today (7/6/2023). Senator Hanson’s article comes off the back of that same Green Senator claiming, via Twitter, that Queensland’s crime problem was a ‘right-wing fantasy’.

The escalation of brazen youth crime in regional Queensland is a complex problem that requires complex solutions, but any solution must put community safety and security first.

The safety and security of its citizens is the primary responsibility of any government.

Parliaments must develop laws with penalties that effectively deter or punish crime.

Police must have the personnel and resources needed to enforce the law effectively.

Courts must impose penalties that ensure justice for victims and consequences for perpetrators and which meet community expectations.

However, in many regional Queensland communities, people are living in fear. 

It’s not panic whipped up by political activism. 

It’s genuine and justified fear for the safety of families, children and property caused by the ever-present threat of escalating crime and the seeming powerlessness of the government and police to stop it. 

Little wonder people in impacted communities like Rockhampton are rallying for a stricter approach that puts the congregation before the criminals terrorising them. 

They’ve had enough of seeing brazen and violent crimes committed by out-of-control youths who, after being caught, are back on the streets the next night. 

They’ve had enough victims dying in home invasions or accidents caused by reckless hoons. 

Far-left Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne claims the ‘far right’ is stoking fear about marginalised communities in this debate. 

Ironically, the soft-and-cuddly approach to youth recidivism marginalises Rockhampton and other communities in regional Queensland she advocates. 

These kids indeed have many problems, but this approach has been tried to death and hasn’t worked. 

They need some stricter love. Greens whipping up panic by conflating a desperate community living in fear with extremists will solve nothing – this isn’t the place for cheap political point-scoring. 

There are some excellent programs for young people at risk of falling into the cycle of crime. 

People have developed them from similar backgrounds: community-led solutions by formerly troubled youths who turned things around for themselves. 

These programs teach responsibility and self-worth based on genuine achievement.

I am a strong supporter of these sorts of programs because they make a difference, and I’d rather see troubled kids put in these programs than in a youth detention centre – provided, of course, there is no risk to community safety.

Community safety must always come first. No amount of condescending lecturing by far left about poverty and homelessness will make the community safer, mainly when it’s Labor-Greens climate change and immigration policies causing increased poverty and homelessness in Australia. 

One Nation doesn’t lecture and doesn’t condescend: we listen. 

That’s why we hosted an open community forum in Rockhampton to discuss escalating youth crime in regional Queensland and hear from the community – including Indigenous members who attended – about their experiences, ideas and concerns for their families. 

The community must be engaged in the fight against escalating youth crime because, ultimately, it is the community to which government and law enforcement are accountable.

The RBA’s string of 12 interest rate rises in 13 months will mean an additional $11 billion lost revenue for the Commonwealth budget, PBO figures show.

Max Chandler-Mather, Greens spokesperson for housing and homelessness said:

“This week’s interest rate rise is set to cost the government an extra $550 million in tax handouts for property investors next year alone – on top of the $12.4 billion that negative gearing and capital gains will  cost the budget next year.” 

“This is another half a billion dollars the government should be spending on building public and genuinely affordable housing, not handing out massive concessions to property moguls.”

“Rather than spending tens of billions every year on hand outs for property investors that turbocharge house prices and go overwhelmingly to the top 10%, the government should be spending billions every year on building public and affordable housing and incentivising states to freeze rent increases.”

“When 1% of taxpayers own a quarter of all investment properties, it’s clear that our broken housing system only works for the wealthy. The government needs to explain how they can justify spending an extra half a billion a year on tax breaks for investors when they can’t find a single dollar of guaranteed funding for public housing or to freeze rents.” 

Nick McKim, Greens spokesperson for Treasury and Economic Justice said:

“These figures show that renters just can’t win.”

“In addition to getting smashed by massive rent rises, their taxes are being used to subsidise their landlords’ profits.”

“Current policy settings are ripping apart our country’s social fabric. It’s time we reformed the tax system to transform housing from an investment class into a human right.”

The PBO costings are available here.