Category: Australian News

The Greens have responded to sickening reports of a violent assault by a man with a swastika on a First Nations woman and her daughter in Western Australia.
Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens Anti-racism spokesperson, said:
“This is a horrendous act of racist violence and I hope the perpetrator is identified and prosecuted without delay.
“Far-right extremists and neo-Nazis are feeling emboldened. This is the crisis the government refuses to take seriously.
“The Liberals do not acknowledge racism and far-right extremism as existential threats to the community.
“The government has refused to commit any funding to anti-racism initiatives, or dedicated programs to tackle the far-right. The Liberals even go out of their way to re-write motions in parliament to remove references to far-right extremism.
“This horrific flamethrower attack is yet another wake-up call for the government. They must act now, or it’s only going to get worse.
“My thoughts are with the targets of this vicious attack, who I hope are getting the support that they need,” she said.
Senator Lidia Thorpe, Greens First Nations spokesperson, said:
“Right wing extremism is real, and the threat is growing.
“Racism kills. It harms people. I am appalled at this terrible act of violence – this shocking hate crime.
“But it doesn’t come from nowhere. There is a clear link between the politics of hate, and acts of hate. When politicians and prominent public figures spend years encouraging and amplifying the politics of hate, the inevitable outcome is violence.
“I’m ashamed that racial hatred and division is a standard being set out of Parliament.
“Right now, there is a moment of reckoning around the culture at Parliament House. This place should be setting the standard – but right now, it’s rife with discrimination of all kinds, including racism, sexism and misogyny.
“It’s absolutely necessary for politicians of all stripes not only to stop the racism in this place, but to send a clear message that it’s not in any way acceptable. We are meant to be uniting this country, not dividing it.”

“The men of this government are still following the rules of the ‘boys club’, covering for each other instead of speaking out about what they knew about an alleged rape in parliament house and allegations of serial sexual harassment by a government staffer in Craig Kelly’s office.” said Senator Larissa Waters, Greens Leader in the Senate and Spokesperson on Women.
“The PM has admitted he knew for some time about staff issues in Kelly’s office. Did the Prime Minister know about Mr Kelly’s alleged serial sexual harasser office manager and the failure to deal with him when he saved Kelly’s preselection in 2019?
“The PM has form in either ignoring sexual abuse or having a ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ approach – either of which make him complicit in leading a party and a culture which is toxic and unsafe for women.
“The news today that yet another senior government minister may have been informed by the AFP about an alleged rape metres from the PM’s office will do nothing to quell the brewing anger of women in Parliament House and across the country.
“Peter Dutton must fess up – what did you know about Brittany Higgins’ case, when did you find out and did you inform the PM?
“Mr Dutton should take his own advice, if you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear.”

The Greens say that the Government’s reporting line dubbed the ‘DobSeeker’ is an abuse of power that will hurt the most vulnerable in our community.
“This is all part of the sick obsession this Government has with blaming and demonising people for not having a job in the midst of a recession and a pandemic.
“The Job Provider system (Jobactive) is already rife with bullying, harassment, of people being ignored or treated very poorly by their job providers and now the Government is empowering employers with the means to intimidate and bully Jobseekers.
“The Government is doing next to nothing about this but blame people who can’t find work that doesn’t exist.
“Jobactive Providers are being paid billions to help find jobs when we have 1.5 million people on JobSeeker and Youth Allowance and 175,000 jobs available.
“In April there will be 1.5 million people on JobSeeker and Youth Allowance having to search for 15 jobs per month.
“That’s 22,500,00 job applications per month in a job market with 175,000 jobs available. This will go up to 30,000,000 once people have to apply for 20.
“Has the Government consulted with businesses and employers on how they are going to manage that?”

The Greens say that the Government will miss out on opportunities to expand and diversify Australia’s vaccine portfolio if they don’t invest in public capacity to produce mRNA vaccines
“We cannot only rely on the AstraZeneca vaccine, we need to have a diverse portfolio to rapidly pivot to deal with new strains, including public facilities to produce supplies in Australia”, Greens spokesperson on Health Senator Rachel Siewert said.
“The Government should immediately invest in developing Australia’s capacity to locally manufacture vaccines and medicines that use mRNA technology. mRNA technology is likely to revolutionise vaccine and drug development and Australia could be at the forefront of this.
“We need a public health response that is publicly funded.
“In addition we need to ramp up CSL’s capacity to start locally producing Novavax at the same time as AstraZeneca given the promising Phase 3 Trial data, this will increase our vaccine diversity and ensure that we can vaccinate people in Australia and those in the regions.”

Today is an extremely distressing day for the 1.5 million people on the JobSeeker and Youth Allowance payments who have now had confirmation that the Morrison Government has made the cruel decision to condemn them to poverty.
$44 a day is not enough to live on. This will mean people going without meals, without medication, without the funds to pay for heating or cooling.
This should not be happening in a country as wealthy as Australia.
This is an appalling slap in the face for all those people trying to survive on Jobseeker.
The Government chose to lift people out of poverty when the pandemic hit and now they are choosing to condemn people in our community to live on just $44 a day in the midst of a recession and a pandemic.
This is a cruel decision, not based on evidence about what is best to support people to find work nor what is best for the economy.
We will not stop campaigning until we have an increase that is over the poverty line.

Aged care providers are being reminded applications for a share of funding in the Australian Government’s largest ever investment in residential aged care infrastructure will soon close.
Funding totalling $150 million is available to providers for capital grants and additional beds as the Morrison Government continues to strengthen the sector and ensure the wellbeing of older Australians.
Two thousand residential care places and 1028 short-term restorative care (STRC) places will be made available as part of the 2020 Aged Care Approvals Round.
Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Richard Colbeck, said it was another step forward to help providers deliver quality residential services where it’s needed most.
“The Australian Government is absolutely committed to ensuring our senior Australians are provided with the best quality residential aged care possible,” Minister Colbeck said.
“That’s why we’re making the biggest investment in residential aged care infrastructure in Australia’s history.
“This investment will not only improve the quality of residential care services in areas across the country, it will also offer a boost to local economies through job creation in the aged care and construction sectors.”
The residential care places in this ACAR are targeted to providers that can commence delivering care within 18 months, Minister Colbeck said.
Priorities for the $150 million in grant funding include:

• Upgrades to create more spacious rooms, increase privacy and decrease the need for shared living quarters;
• A focus on dementia-friendly services aimed at allowing those diagnosed with dementia living in the bush to remain in their communities;
• Improved infection prevention and control measures, and
• Help for providers in financial stress to bring their allocations of residential care places online, including those impacted by bushfires and COVID-19.

Application forms, guidance materials and other resources can be found online.
All applications for the 2020 ACAR must be received electronically on or before 11:59pm (AEST) 18 March 2021.

The Morrison Government will today introduce further amendments to the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code.
These amendments will provide further clarity to digital platforms and news media businesses about the way the Code is intended to operate and strengthen the framework for ensuring news media businesses are fairly remunerated. These amendments will make it clear that:

• a decision to designate a platform under the Code must take into account whether a digital platform has made a significant contribution to the sustainability of the Australian news industry through reaching commercial agreements with news media businesses;
• a digital platform will be notified of the Government’s intention to designate prior to any final decision – noting that a final decision on whether or not to designate a digital platform would be made no sooner than one month from the date of notification;
• non-differentiation provisions will not be triggered because commercial agreements resulted in different remuneration amounts or commercial outcomes that arose in the course of usual business practices; and
• final offer arbitration is a last resort where commercial deals cannot be reached by requiring mediation, in good faith, to occur prior to arbitration for no longer than two months.

Importantly, the amendments will strengthen the hand of regional and small publishers in obtaining appropriate remuneration for the use of their content by the digital platforms.
The Explanatory Memorandum will confirm that the Code only applies to the extent a digital platform is making covered news content available through those services.
These amendments also add further impetus for parties to engage in commercial negotiations outside the Code – a central feature of the framework that the Government is putting in place to foster more sustainable public interest journalism in Australia.
The Government has been advised by Facebook that it intends to restore Australian news pages in the coming days.

The Morrison Government is enhancing our social security safety net by increasing support for unemployed Australians while strengthening their obligations to search for work.
From March the Coalition Government will progressively introduce a series of permanent measures to ensure that job seekers have the best opportunity to secure employment as our nation continues to recover from the economic challenges of COVID-19.
These include:

• permanently increasing the rate of working-age payments by $50 a fortnight from 1 April 2021, benefiting 1.95 million Australians;
• permanently increasing the income-free earnings to $150 per fortnight for JobSeeker Payment and Youth Allowance (other) from 1 April 2021;
• temporarily extending the waiver of the Ordinary Waiting Period for certain payments for a further three months to 30 June 2021;
• temporarily extending the expanded eligibility criteria for JobSeeker Payment and Youth Allowance (other) for those required to self-isolate or care for others as a result of COVID-19 to 30 June 2021.

There will also be changes to the Mutual Obligation Scheme:

• job seekers will be required to search for a minimum of 15 jobs a month from early April, increasing to 20 jobs per month from 1 July;
• an employer reporting line will be established to refer Jobseekers who are not genuine about their job search or decline the offer of a job;
• some job seekers will be required to participate in work for the dole after six months;
• job seekers can choose to participate in an approved intensive short course instead of participating in work for the dole;
• job seekers return to compulsory face-to-face services with Jobactive providers;
• increased auditing of job applications to ensure job seekers are making genuine applications.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the plan for working age payments is fair and sustainable – for both unemployed people and taxpayers who fund the support.
“Welfare is a safety net, not a wage supplement. We want to get the balance right between providing support for people and incentives to work,” the Prime Minister said.
“The actions we have taken this year successfully cushioned us against the impact of the pandemic and mean that we no longer need to rely on the emergency supports which have sustained us over the past 12 months.”
“Now is the time to set our nation up for the future and build on our successes which will see Australians once again emerge stronger, safer and together.”.
The $9 billion commitment is the largest ever Budget measure for working age payments and is the single biggest year on year increase to the rate of unemployment benefits since 1986.
Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business Michaelia Cash said the changes to mutual obligations would provide better support for job seekers in their search for work.
“We know that most job seekers are doing the right thing and trying to find employment, however, a small minority are actively trying to game the system The new employer reporting line will be set up from April to help ensure those doing the wrong thing are identified,” Minister Cash said.
“Job seekers who have been unemployed for at least six months will also be required to participate in an activity, such as a short training course or Work for the Dole, in addition to their job search activities.
Minister for Families and Social Services Anne Ruston said the Government has stood side-by-side all Australians during the pandemic and would continue to do so through permanent changes to strengthen our income support system.
“Since April 2020 our comprehensive payment system will help to deliver more than $33 billion in emergency income support payments including the Coronavirus Supplement and four economic support payments, the last of which will start flowing to our pensioners from next week,” Minister Ruston said.
“Our Government has always made sure that the rate of income support payments has kept pace with the cost living through twice yearly indexation but this announcement marks the first real increase in the rate of unemployment benefits in more than 25 years.
“What we’re announcing is significant but also sustainable because we must make sure our social security safety net is available into the future should our children fall in tough times”
For more information about the changes, visit https://www.dese.gov.au/covid-19/job-seekers