Category: Australian News

The Greens say the Federal Government’s plan to fast-track interns into classrooms would further entrench education inequality while doing very little to solve the teacher shortage crisis in our public schools.

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

“A decades-long bipartisan commitment to the privatisation of education has driven thousands of passionate, experienced teachers out of the public school system.

“Instead of trying to encourage these skilled educators back into the classroom the government is proposing to fast-track non-teachers into schools.

“Not only will this place additional burden on current teachers to support these unprepared trainees, it will lower the overall quality of education in the public system, further entrenching the already-yawning gap between the richest and poorest students.

“There are no shortcuts to saving public education in Australia. The government should be encouraging good teachers back into the classroom by properly funding public education. That means better salaries, lower student-teacher ratios and world-class equipment and infrastructure.

“In a speech today, Education Minister Jason Clare said, ‘I don’t want us to be a country where your chances in life depend on who your parents are.’

“I couldn’t agree more. But if Minister Clare’s solution to the crisis in public education is filling classrooms with unprepared teachers and increasing workloads then he’s doing nothing to change that.”

A Greens-initiated Senate Inquiry into the fisheries quota system has recommended an ACCC inquiry into market concentration and potential abuses of market power in the Australian fisheries and the seafood sector.

Australia’s fisheries management system is set out under the Fisheries Management Act 1991 and the Fisheries Administration Act 1991 and promotes the use of Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQ) which assign access rights and ownership over fishery stocks. 

The inquiry held hearings over nearly 18 months and collected information on whether ITQs result in good fishing practices. Of particular focus was how the decades-old ITQ system affects community fishers, whether it disempowers small fishers and benefits large interest groups, and whether the system is ecologically sustainable.

Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said: 

“The Greens welcome the release of this important report. This has been one of only two parliamentary inquiries in the last 40 years to scrutinise who actually owns our fishery resources, and if the system is working fairly for the Australian public and fishing communities. 

“The evidence clearly shows that many in the fishing industry don’t feel the current system is working for them, and the Greens believe this report demonstrates a significant opportunity for reform. 

“One of the most damning revelations from this inquiry is that in Australia we do not know who ultimately owns the right to our fishery resources across multiple fisheries – and frankly this is simply not good enough. 

“The committee heard evidence that the fisheries management system is stacked in favour of big quota owners and foreign investors who don’t even fish, while hundreds of smaller fishers are struggling to make a living, or even access fishing rights. 

“I find it disturbing that there is no real transparency on who these big quota owners are, how much profit they are making from buying and trading our fish stocks, or what economic benefits the Australian public is receiving from the commercial owners of their fish stocks.

“The Senate committee received confidential submissions alleging market power abuses, and has recommended the ACCC conduct a broad inquiry into market concentration and potential abuses of market power across the sector, and I implore the Government to respond to this recommendation with urgency. 

“While fisheries quotas were in-part brought in to control overfishing, over half the fishers who made submissions to the inquiry believe the system has had a negative impact on sustainability. Similarly, expert evidence to the Committee revealed more focus was needed on the environmental impacts of fishing and climate change. 

“These are all important findings, and the Greens will be working in both federal and state parliaments to see this inquiry’s recommendations implemented.

The Greens have made additional comments to the Senate Inquiry report. Our key recommendations include: 

• Full transparency on the ultimate beneficial ownership of Commonwealth fisheries quota, so bans or restrictions can be placed on foreign investment in Australian ITQs, as has occurred in New Zealand and other countries. The Greens would also like to see similar restrictions put in place to ban or limit ‘non-fisher’ investment in ITQs (e.g.: by professional investors), such as has happened in countries like Iceland and Canada.
• Make more fishing quota available for smaller and lease fishers, by for example by Governments buying back quota from foreign and other investors, pooling then leasing to local communities at competitive rates, helping maximise economic returns to those communities.
• The Fisheries Managements acts should be amended to give equal weighting to environmental objectives, and safeguarded by having AFMA’s processes properly accredited and subjected to performance review by both the fisheries and environment ministers, as recommended by the 2012 Borthwick Review.
• New public reporting requirements for standardised profitability metrics in ITQ fisheries, including effective subsidies or any royalty payments (rents) paid in Commonwealth ITQ fisheries. This would help guide government policy making to achieve maximum economic returns for the Australian people.

Responding to the Albanese Government’s response to the ‘Samuel Review’ released today, Australian Greens Spokesperson for the Environment Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“We need immediate action, action must include climate action and stopping the destruction of native forests and habitat. Sadly, this package does not deliver on these points, but the Greens are willing to work with the government to fix it.

“The Greens welcome this long-awaited response to the biggest review of Australia’s environment laws in a decade. The Albanese Government is moving in the right direction. However, the government lacks any sense of urgency to halt and reverse the unsustainable environmental trajectory Professor Samuel described in his report.

“The Greens will not be rubber stamping this legislative reform and will be pushing the Albanese Government to go harder and faster to protect our environment.

“There is nothing in this package to save our iconic koala. There is nothing in this package to protect our native forests. There is no climate trigger, indeed there is very little to address the impact of the climate crisis on the environment at all. The Minister also retains far too much power to influence environmental approvals with no truly independent cop-on-the-beat.

“The timeframe for reform is far too long, and does not future-proof our environment laws. The Regional Planning trials will run until 2028, leaving Australia’s most high-value environmental areas and the wildlife that call them home without protection for years, and well into future election cycles.

“The Albanese Government has missed an opportunity to protect critical habitat right now with a moratorium on land clearing. It remains unclear how the Government will deliver on its zero new extinctions pledge while land clearing is allowed to continue.

“The Albanese Government has missed an opportunity to announce it will establish a ‘Climate Trigger’ to guarantee the emissions from a polluting project are considered in environmental assessments. Without a climate trigger, Australia’s environment laws will remain unfit for the crisis we are in. 

“The Greens consider the package of reforms announced by the Environment Minister to be a floor when it comes to strengthening environment laws, not a ceiling. We will continue to push for an urgent moratorium on clearing of critical habitat, an end to native forest logging and a climate trigger. We will also work to improve the proposed EPA so that it is a true cop-on-the-beat, not just an excuse for the government when it makes unpopular decisions.”

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Kerri Hartland as the new Director-General of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.

Ms Hartland served as Deputy Director-General of ASIO from 2011 to 2017 and has continued to work with the national intelligence community as a consultant, as Chair of the AFP and the Office of the Special Investigator Audit and Risk Committees, Special Advisor to Fintel Alliance, and as a member of the National Security College Futures Council.

At a time when Australia’s external environment is being reshaped, the work of ASIS is critical to defending our interests and keeping Australians safe.

Ms Hartland will bring excellent strategic, operational and people leadership to her new role, having served as the Secretary of the Department of Employment, Small and Family Business from 2017 to 2020, and as Deputy Secretary of Human Services from 2006 to 2011.

We sincerely thank outgoing Director-General, Mr Paul Symon AO, for his leadership of ASIS over five years.

Mr Symon’s career has been one of service to Australia. He has contributed with distinction in senior Defence and intelligence roles both domestically and internationally

We have greatly valued his experience, integrity and counsel and wish him and his family well.

Ms Hartland will commence her new appointment on 20 February 2023.

Kerri Hartland said:

“I am incredibly honoured to be appointed as the 13th Director-General of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.

“With an increasingly complex geostrategic landscape, intelligence will continue to be critical to securing Australia’s safety, prosperity and sovereignty.

“To lead an organisation that so significantly contributes to Australia’s national security is a true privilege.”

Greens Treasury spokesperson, Senator Nick McKim, has responded to the release today by the ABS of the September National Accounts.

“2022 has been a great year for the robber barons.

“The top 3 quarters on record for profits’ share of national income have all been in 2022.

“The June quarter was the highest on record, September the second, and March the third (seasonally adjusted).

“In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, corporate Australia has made off like bandits.

“Corporate profiteering has been a domestic driver of inflation, not the imaginary wage pressures that the RBA speaks of.

“In fact, 2022 may well end up being the worst year on record for workers.

“Wages share of national income was the 5th lowest on record in March, the lowest on record in June, and the 8th lowest in September.

“If Jim Chalmers thinks today’s national accounts are a solid performance then he needs a wake up call.

“Our economic system is broken.

“The government needs to acknowledge this and start taking some serious steps to address spiralling inequality.

“We need tax reform that hits speculators and the wealthy.

“We need to tax corporate super profits to rein in profiteering and help slow inflation.

“We need to abandon the Stage 3 tax cuts for the ultra wealthy.

“We need to get rid of negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount to stop housing costs yo-yoing up and down in response to interest rates.

“Then we can fund genuine cost-of-living relief for those who need it.”

The Greens say the Federal Government’s plan to fast-track interns into classrooms would further entrench education inequality while doing very little to solve the teacher shortage crisis in our public schools.

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

“A decades-long bipartisan commitment to the privatisation of education has driven thousands of passionate, experienced teachers out of the public school system.

“Instead of trying to encourage these skilled educators back into the classroom the government is proposing to fast-track non-teachers into schools.

“Not only will this place additional burden on current teachers to support these unprepared trainees, it will lower the overall quality of education in the public system, further entrenching the already-yawning gap between the richest and poorest students.

“There are no shortcuts to saving public education in Australia. The government should be encouraging good teachers back into the classroom by properly funding public education. That means better salaries, lower student-teacher ratios and world-class equipment and infrastructure.

“In a speech today, Education Minister Jason Clare said, ‘I don’t want us to be a country where your chances in life depend on who your parents are.’

“I couldn’t agree more. But if Minister Clare’s solution to the crisis in public education is filling classrooms with unprepared teachers and increasing workloads then he’s doing nothing to change that.”

Contrary to what fossil fuel companies and lobby groups would have you believe, the landmark ruling against Santos in favour of the Munupi people isn’t connected to domestic gas supply. 

Greens spokesperson for resources and Yamatji-Noongar Woman Senator Dorinda Cox said:
 

“The Labor Albanese Government must respect and uphold the Federal court’s decision, by changing legislation and regulations to ensure First Nations people are appropriately consulted about resources projects on their Land and Sea Country.

“Santos has publicly stated that Barossa gas is for export markets such as Japan and Korea distributed via the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct in Darwin Harbour. 

“I back Rod Sims’ call for Labor to cut high energy prices through the existing export trigger. Labor needs to stand up to their big donors and put the interests of Australians first. 

“A recent poll found 71% of Australians support limiting gas exports. Santos and Woodside are fear mongering, putting their windfall profits ahead of protecting First Nations cultural heritage.  

“80% of our gas is contracted to foreign entities and sold on the spot market. We have enough gas reserves in Australia to meet our domestic needs. We don’t need to be opening new gas fields, we need to invest in clean, green renewable energy infrastructure and storage solutions. 

“If Australia wants to see itself as a global clean energy powerhouse, we must end our reliance on fossil fuels and invest in renewable projects with First Nations people as equal partners.

Greens Treasury spokesperson, Senator Nick McKim, has responded to today’s decision by the RBA to raise rates again by highlighting the need for macroeconomic reform to deal with the housing market and declining real wages.

“The RBA has seriously undermined its credibility this year.

“They should not have raised rates as fast as they have, and should not have gone again today.

“Today’s decision is the RBA thumbing its nose at people who are hurting the most. 

“High inflation was sparked by supply-side shocks and has been fuelled by corporate profiteering.

“It has not been driven by wage claims.

“Yet the RBA has consistently invoked wage pressures to justify eight consecutive interest rate increases.

“By jawboning down wages and openly aiming to increase unemployment the RBA has been running cover for corporate Australia.

“The RBA’s interest increases have also significantly increased housing costs for renters and mortgage holders.

“This comes after the RBA’s forward guidance during the pandemic sent house prices to record highs by inducing people to borrow record amounts.

“The last three years have demonstrated that Australia’s economic institutions and policy settings are not fit for purpose.

“House prices should not be a primary tool for economic recovery. Doing so only increases volatility and decreases affordability.

“And wage suppression should not be the only tool to reduce demand. Doing so worsens inequality and hurts those who are most vulnerable.

“The RBA review must call for monetary and prudential policy to be brought under the one roof to curb the flow of credit to housing.

“And the government needs to pull its finger out and implement tax reform that hits speculators and the wealthy.

“Getting rid of negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount would stop housing costs yo-yoing up and down in response to shifts in interest rates.

“And taxes on super profits and the super wealthy could help slow inflation and fund cost of living relief for those who need it.”

Updated analysis by the Parliamentary Library estimates that renters across Australia would be $10.7 billion better off if rents had been frozen nationwide for the past 12 months. With rents having increased by 21.5% nationwide, the average renter in Australia is paying $4,896 more for their home than last year. 

The impact of a rent freeze varies by state. Sydney renters, who’ve seen their rents increase 28.6% in the last 12 months, would’ve been $7,450 better off on average had a rent freeze been in place. Melbourne renters, who’ve faced a 23.9% increase in the last 12 months, would’ve been $5,219 better off, and Brisbane renters, who’ve seen a 24% rent increase, would’ve been $5,104 better off had rents been frozen.

The Greens are calling on the Federal Government to put a nationwide two-year rent freeze  on the agenda for this week’s National Cabinet meeting, as part of national tenancy standards including an end to no grounds evictions and minimum standards for rental properties.

Max Chandler-Mather MP, Greens spokesperson for Housing and Homelessness said:

The average renter would have nearly $5,000 more in their pockets this Christmas if the government had frozen rent increases over the last 12 months. 

$5,000 could be a holiday and some great Christmas presents for the kids, or it could pay those outstanding bills, and instead it has been eaten up by unfair rent increases.

Over the last 12 months, renters paid an extra $10 billion in rent, while property investors pocketed $8.5 billion in federal tax concessions, which is desperately unfair and a reminder that right now politics really only works for the rich. 

The Prime Minister needs to put a nationwide rent freeze and end to no grounds evictions on the agenda at this week’s National Cabinet meeting, and give the millions of people struggling with outrageous rent increases much needed certainty and relief.

If the Prime Minister doesn’t put a national rent freeze and an end to no-grounds evictions on the table at the National Cabinet meeting this week, then this will be a spectacular failure of leadership in the middle of the worst rental crisis in our recent history.

The Federal Budget has projected that over the next two years real wages will continue to decline while rents skyrocket and let’s be real, that will see Australia lurch into a major social crisis, unless Labor finally shows some leadership and freezes rents. 

An emergency rent freeze worked in Victoria during the pandemic and it can work now across Australia to protect families from unfair rent increases that will either push them into devastating financial stress or even homelessness. 

Background

 Estimated impacts of 12 month rent freeze, by state

A statement from Australia’s acting Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael Kidd AM, on COVID-19 antiviral treatments.

Australia’s real-world experience is that the two COVID-19 oral antiviral treatments approved for local use are both highly effective at protecting older Australians – a key at-risk population group – from hospitalisation and death.

Although vaccination remains the best form of protection against COVID-19, the two treatments – Lagevrio® (molnupiravir) and Paxlovid® (nirmatrelvir and ritonavir) – have been an additional gamechanger in preventing severe illness and death among those most at risk.

The real-world findings are based on an analysis of Victorian data involving more than 27,000 people aged 70 years and over. This analysis found that the use of COVID-19 oral antivirals led to clear reductions in the risks of hospitalisation and death, compared to instances where treatments were not used.

Given people aged 70 and over are eligible for the treatments in every state and territory, the conclusions are applicable nationwide.

The experience in Australia is more positive than the findings contained in PANORAMIC – a UK trial of molnupiravir.

It needs to be stressed the participants in the UK study were generally younger than those eligible for the treatments in Australia – and many had no risk factors that would make them more likely to become seriously unwell.

A large proportion of the people enrolled in the UK study would not be eligible for the treatments in Australia and these research findings cannot be directly applied to most people receiving treatments in Australia.  

Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) recently noted that in two-thirds of the instances in which molnupiravir had been used through its listing on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, patients were aged 70 years or over. In the PANORAMIC study, only 6 per cent of participants were aged 75 years or older.

PBAC also noted patients at highest risk of progression to severe disease in the UK were not the target population for enrolment in the PANORAMIC trial. In Australia, these are the people who have specifically been made eligible for these treatments.

It further noted the Victorian data, combined with the results of observational studies in Israel and Hong Kong, demonstrated a benefit of molnupiravir over no treatment in patients at high risk of progression to severe disease.

PBAC concluded that while nirmatrelvir and ritonavir may be preferred for many patients at high risk of becoming severely unwell, in many common clinical circumstances, this treatment is contraindicated or unsuitable for use, especially in people with some underlying conditions, such as severe kidney or liver disease. It also has a number of drug interactions with commonly used medicines. 

In such circumstances, molnupiravir remains a suitable option.

It is very important Australians, particularly older Australians and those who are immunocompromised, talk to their doctors about their eligibility for COVID-19 antiviral treatments – and if eligible, make sure they can access and start their treatments as quickly as possible after a positive COVID-19 test result.