Category: Australian News

Everyone is assuming 2021 will be an election year and the Greens are no different. Working closely with the party, our team is raring and ready to go. Your work on policy in previous conferences and again this weekend is making a great contribution to getting the party fit for a campaign.
The next election will be incredibly close. After the redistributions in Western Australia and Victoria, which are predicted to disadvantage the Coalition, the election campaign will begin with – effectively – a minority Parliament. With the prospect of increasing our Senate seats to become the biggest third party in the Senate ever, a very likely outcome is that the Greens will end up in shared balance of power in both houses of Parliament, like we were in 2010.
So I want to start sharing our strategy with you. Later in the year we’ll be sharing our target seats and our electoral plan to fulfil the goals I set out when I became Leader, namely to turf the government out, put the Greens in balance of power and implement a Green New Deal.
Today, I want to talk about the issues we’ll be fighting on, the issues that will grow our representation in Parliament and the kind of issues that we’ll be putting on the table in what will almost certainly be a power-sharing parliament.
We won’t be a small target this election.
We will fight to get the Morrison government out, but with a plan that tackles the long-term issues facing us.
People don’t just want someone who’s on their side, they want someone who will fight for their future.
As they snap back to trickle-down economics and boast about their fiscal conservatism, Liberal and Labor have both decided not to offer big, detailed visions for Australia’s future. We will happily step into the space they have vacated.
We are in a climate emergency and we want to make the next election a referendum on climate change. Because this election is critical to the future of Australia and the world. And because time is running out. We will go to this election as the only party with a plan to phase out coal and gas in the time the science requires. In any shared power parliament, this will be on the table, as you would expect.
But we also want to make the next election a referendum on inequality by taking on the billionaires and big corporations.
Just before the pandemic, Liberal and Labor passed the horrendous ‘tax cuts for millionaires’ package that will cost the budget $325bn over the next decade, delivering $189 billion into the pockets of the wealthiest 20% and just 0.1% for the poorest 20%.
Before the pandemic, workers’ share of income in Australia had sunk to the lowest level in history, while corporate profits reached record highs.
Since then, the pandemic hasn’t just hit our health and our freedom of movement. The pandemic has made inequality worse.
Now, two million people either have no job or not enough work, and it will get worse when JobKeeper is cut in March. Workers who do have a job aren’t expecting a pay rise for years.
But while everyone else suffers, the billionaires and big corporations are making out like bandits.
 

The billionaires and the big corporations

The AFR’s rich list, an annual celebration of Australia’s wealthiest 200 people and families, shows the wealth of billionaires grew an eye-watering 25% during the pandemic to a record high $357 billion. The poor things only had $267 billion of wealth between them before the pandemic.
According to our analysis of the Australian Financial Review list, there were 48 more billionaires in 2020 than there were just three years earlier – just shy of a doubling of billionaires in the last three years. Not only is their wealth growing rapidly, but like cane toads they are multiplying out of control too.
This is not just a problem in Australia. Worldwide, the wealth of billionaires increased by US$3.9 trillion during the pandemic. Relatively speaking, according to Bloomberg, Australia’s own billionaires Gina Reinhart and Twiggy Forrest grew their wealth by even more than the richest of the rich – Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. A depressing achievement for Australia.
Many of these billionaires are also the same people profiting off the destruction of our planet from coal. Gina Reinhart, Clive Palmer and Ivan Glasenberg. Then there’s billionaires from overseas, Czech billionaire like Pavel Tykac who owns two of Queensland’s coal stations, Hong Kong Billionaire Michael Kadoorie who owns Australia’s dirtiest power station Yallourn and another in NSW and another Hong Kong Billionaire Henry Cheng who owns Loy Yang B and Alinta, another company that doesn’t pay any tax.
While we were locked down, the billionaires got rich off us. While we try to stop the climate crisis, the billionaires make it worse. While we pay tax, the billionaires get handouts.
Meanwhile, 1 in 3 big corporations pay no tax, including many in the fossil fuel industry with the Australian Tax Office singling out the oil and gas industry as – and I quote the ATO here –  “systemic non-payers of tax”.
While everyone else deals with rising public school fees and the high costs of going to the dentist, big corporations pay no tax and send their profits offshore.
But not only are they tax dodgers, the government is now giving them extra public funds!
We moved amendments in Parliament to stop the JobMaker hiring credits going to profitable big corporations that were paying dividends, but Labor – for all their bluster on this issue – joined with the Liberals to vote it down, keeping the money flowing to the big corporations.
Scott Morrison has outsourced the recovery and the last Budget contained $99b a year in subsidies to big corporations and the very wealthy, public money which Labor waved through.
And just this week, the government is seeking to give Energy Minister Angus Taylor the power to raid the funds of the Clean Energy Finance and divert billions of dollars – billions – to big gas corporations.
There are big corporations making super-profits and it’s time they gave something back.
 

State-sanctioned corruption

Politics is working for billionaires and big corporations. It isn’t working for everyday people.
The government should recover from the pandemic by tackling the long-term problems our country faces and investing in nation-building, planet-saving projects.
But it’s not happening, because Labor and Liberal take money from the billionaires and big corporations that are causing the very same problems.
These companies make super profits amplifying the climate crisis, ship the bulk of their profits offshore tax-free and keep the major parties on a drip feed of donations
The formula is the same for the companies that have benefited from Labor and Liberals’ privatisation program. These companies like Transurban, Sydney Airport Ltd and Energy Australia have been giving more in donations to bribe political parties than they pay in tax.
It is state-sanctioned corruption.
We want to make the next election a referendum on climate change and inequality, but also on the fact that Liberal and Labor won’t act on the big issues because they take money from the billionaires and the big corporations.
We will seek to highlight at every opportunity that the establishment parties take political donations from the big corporations and the billionaires and that is why they are unwilling to end the corporate handouts, tackle the climate crisis, and invest in public services.
This week we called on the Liberal and Labor parties to reject future donations from Crown Casinos and instead to provide the almost $2 million in donations they have received from Crown to a gambling charity. They said no, they’d rather keep the money.
This will be our template for action between now and the election. Any time a scandal erupts regarding a billionaire or big corporation we will put their donations to the establishment parties up in lights. And any time Liberal and Labor say they have to be ‘financially conservative’ and can’t get dental into Medicare, lift Jobseeker or guarantee everyone a job, we’ll demand the billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share of tax.
Voters aren’t stupid.
They can connect the dots between donations and the political benefits that follow.
So our election proposition for people is simple.
It is time for the billionaires and big corporations to pay their fair share. 
Put the Greens into balance of power, and we’ll make the billionaires and big corporations pay a bit more so that you pay a lot less.
And the Greens are the only ones who can fix the problem, because we’re the only ones who don’t take money from the big corporations and billionaires causing the problem. 
In the coming months we will outline a range of policies that will look to transfer some of billionaires and big corporations’ wealth to everyday Australians with investments in genuinely free education, our public health system and action to protect the environment, creating jobs along the way.
Our goal will be full employment, and by making the billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share, we can get there.
By making big corporations and billionaires pay a bit more, everyone else can pay a bit less for the essential services they rely on.
 

A pathway forward

We are confident that if we can get a debate going on the extreme wealth of the billionaires and the super-profits of the big corporations, voters will respond and mobilise and vote for action.
Recent polling commissioned by the Australian Greens shows how strong the support is for action on billionaires and the big corporations. A variety of questions were asked and there was majority support in most cases for closing the tax loopholes and increasing taxes on the super wealthy and big corporations.
I don’t have time to outline it all here but I will give you one example.
When asked:
“Are you more or less likely to vote for a party campaigning to increase taxes on big corporations and billionaires in order to fully fund health, education and other services?” 
61% of voters said they were more likely and only 8% said they were less likely.
 
These policies are not just the right thing to do, they are also extremely popular amongst all Australians, and especially young people considering voting Green.
This is the direction we will head this year as we fight for a future for all of us.
 

Australian Greens Disability Rights spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John has called for an urgent intervention to lift young, disabled people out of poverty after new data, obtained by Children and Young People with Disability, was published today.
Senator Steele-john said the data, which showed job seekers aged 20 to 25 with a partial capacity to work, had almost quadrupled in the last decade meanwhile the number of students aged 20 to 25 with a disability on youth allowance has skyrocketed almost 1000 per cent.
“These statistics are absolutely shocking, but not at all surprising,” Senator Steele-John said.
“Back in 2012 we warned the Gillard government that their proposed changes to the Disability Support Pension would have the net result of kicking thousands of disabled Australians into poverty, and entrench poverty for a generation of young people transitioning into adulthood.
“Young Australians already face significant barriers to gaining meaningful employment. If you also have a disability and have been assessed as having a partial capacity to work – recognition that you need extra support to participate in the workforce – then your options are incredibly slim.
“Youth Allowance is not enough money for any young person to live on while they are studying full time. For young and disabled Australians it is a poverty sentence.”

The Senate has today debated new laws introduced by the Australian Greens to save our koalas.
Greens Environment Spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she will now move for a Senate Inquiry into the bill.
“The laws debated in the Senate today would stop land clearing of critical habitat and help save our koalas,” Senator Hanson-Young said.
“This legislative move is absolutely vital to protecting our national treasure from extinction.
“If passed, these laws would prevent the Federal Environment Minister from approving new mines or developments in koala habitat.
“The Environment Minister is not just failing to save koalas, but she continuously signs their death warrant.
“Unless habitat clearing is stopped, koalas will soon be extinct.
“It’s clear our existing environmental laws will not save the koala.
“Our wildlife has suffered enough. Off the back of the worst bushfires in history no approvals for developments or logging on koala land should be given.
“I will be moving for a senate inquiry into this bill, to fully examine the urgency of action to save our koala and all of our precious wildlife.
The Morrison Government cannot be trusted to protect koalas and our environment so the Parliament must.”

Australia’s AAA credit rating has today been reaffirmed by Fitch, with Australia one of only nine countries to hold a AAA credit rating from all three major credit rating agencies.
In its report, Fitch notes that our economy “has weathered the pandemic well compared with peers”, pointing to Australia’s “successful virus containment” and an “effective fiscal and monetary response consistent with a policy framework that has underpinned the economy’s resilience to shocks over the medium term”.
The report also reaffirms that our economic recovery is well underway, noting that “Australia’s labour market appears to be on a stable path to recovery” and forecast “the positive momentum to persist, with unemployment averaging 6.2 per cent in 2021 and 5.6 per cent in 2022” while acknowledging that temporary government support continues to taper off.
This is underpinned by the creation of around 350,000 jobs in the last four months, the unemployment rate falling to 6.4 percent in January, and 94 per cent of the 1.3 million people who lost their job or were stood down on zero hours at the start of the crisis now back at work.
Fitch forecasts the Australian economy to expand by 3.8 per cent in 2021 and 2.7 per cent in 2022, “driven by robust consumption as households draw down high accumulated savings from government relief measures”.
With the help of the Government’s unprecedented economic support, Australian households and businesses have amassed an additional $240 billion on their balance sheets over the last year. More than $7 billion in tax cuts have also flowed through to around 11.5 million hard-working Australians.
Fitch’s outlook is complemented by the start of Australia’s vaccine rollout, which “should gradually ease these risks over the year and support domestic sentiment”.
With payroll jobs, business and consumer confidence also at pre-pandemic levels, Australia has performed better on the health and economic front than almost any other nation.
Our Economic Recovery Plan continues to support a private sector-led recovery by creating jobs, rebuilding our economy and securing Australia’s future.

The Prime Minister has asked his former chief of staff, now head of his own department, to investigate what Prime Minister’s office knew about an alleged rape of a government staffer, which The Greens say is just perpetuating the cover up.
“Every day, more damning information comes out about the involvement of the Prime Minister’s Office.  We need to get to the bottom of it.” said Senator Larissa Waters, Greens Leader in the Senate and spokesperson for women.
“Announcing yet another internal review is delaying tactic by a Prime Minister more interested in protecting himself and his office than telling the truth and ensuring that all women who work in politics are safe.
“The last time Mr Gaetjens reviewed conduct in the PMO, his findings were kept secret by dubious cabinet-in-confidence claims. The PM has given no assurance that this review will be any different.
“We need a comprehensive, independent review with public findings and recommendations that all side of politics and the public can have trust in.
“On Monday I’ll move a motion to establish an independent inquiry to find out who knew what, when, and what they did about it.  We owe it to survivors to make sure no one has to go through Brittany Higgins’ experience again.”

The Morrison Government is providing $9.7 million in additional funding to Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) as it continues to protect beachgoers and improve volunteer lifesaving skills.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the additional funding would help save lives and builds on a further $21 million over the next three years for the Water and Snow Safety Program.
“Our surf lifesavers play such a vital role at our beaches saving lives and dealing with emergencies in the water and on the beach day in, day out,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
“This additional funding will ensure our local clubs will have the ability to purchase vital equipment and medical supplies that they need to keep Australians safe on our beaches.”
From July 2019 to the end of June 2020, there were 248 drownings in Australia with more than half of the fatalities occurring in coastal areas.
The Morrison Government will invest $3.1 million through the Water and Snow Safety Program, to support SLSA’s Beach Safety Equipment Fund aimed at preventing fatal and non-fatal drownings.
It means surf lifesaving clubs will now be able to access up to $10,000 per annum over the next two years to purchase new or replacement patrol equipment such as rescue boards, life jackets, rescue manikins, inflatable rescue boats, all-terrain vehicles, defibrillators, and first aid and medical supplies.
The new funding also includes $6.6 million over two years to continue providing vocational education and training (VET) to volunteers and build on SLSA’s capability.
SLSA is the largest volunteer movement in Australia with more than 173,000 members and 314 affiliated surf clubs across the length and breadth of the nation.
Minister for Sport, Senator the Hon. Richard Colbeck said the training offered by Surf Life Saving to club volunteers and members provided them with transferrable skills beyond lifesaving.
“As well as being able to use new skills learnt during VET training for the purpose of life-saving, around 25 per cent of SLS members believe these new skills helped them gain employment,” he said.
“This funding will also help upgrade SLSA’s technology to enhance the training it offers, cut red tape and expand its recruitment and recognition of supervisors, trainers and assessors at clubs.”
Member for Mackellar, Jason Falinski, said the funding would be vital for Surf Life Saving clubs like Collaroy where volunteers, who have already performed 5000 patrol hours this season, rely on the best skills and equipment to keep beachgoers safe.
“The efforts of our Surf Life Savers should not be underestimated,” Mr Falinski said. “Every day during the summer season, thousands of dedicated volunteers are keeping swimmers safe.
“With this significant support, the Morrison Government is ensuring clubs and their members across the country can continue to do what they do best – saving lives.”
The additional funding for SLSA’s Beach Safety Equipment Fund brings the Government’s investment for this initiative to $9.1 million from 2018–19 to 2021–22.
The Morrison Government’s additional investment in VET training for SLSA brings its total commitment to this program to $16.6 million between 2016–17 and 2021–22.

Today the House echoed the Senate to call on the government to take action on coercive control, supporting a cross-party motion coordinated by the co-Chairs of Parliamentarians for Action to Reduce Violence Against Women and Children.
“Tomorrow, Friday 19 February marks 1 year since Hannah Clarke’s murder. Her ex-husband had never laid a hand on her until he killed her and her three children, but for years had been abusing her with coercive control,” said Senator Larissa Waters, Greens Leader in the Senate and spokesperson for women.
“We need a national approach to understanding and criminalising coercive control, so that Australian women can receive the same level of protection under the law no matter what state they live in.  The community needs to recognise the serious risks of conduct like Hannah Clarke and her children were subjected to before their murder a year ago, and police need additional tools to be able to act to prevent more women being killed.
“The best way to commemorate Hannah Clarke’s life and those of her three children, and the 52 women who have been killed since then, is working together to end violence against women.
“We need all parliamentarians to contribute to the cultural change that will eliminate violence against women, stand up to violent behaviour, and act to address the gender inequality which drives gendered violence.
“Today’s successful vote in the House, and yesterday’s vote in the Senate is an important show of agreement from all sides of politics that we need to act to prevent more women like Hannah Clarke dying at the hands of a current or former partner.  I look forward to the government now heeding this call from both houses of parliament and coordinating a national discussion on criminalising coercive control.
“The evidence shows that coercive control is the biggest indicator of future homicide. Governments rightly took action decades ago to criminalise physical abuse by a domestic partner, and the federal government must now listen to the evidence and encourage states to harmonise their approach to criminalise coercive control to protect women and end the on average woman a week being murdered.
“Criminalisation is not a complete response, and cannot happen without wide consultation with experts, victim-survivors, frontline services, police, courts, and families. Any change must be accompanied by system reforms, guidelines for police, prosecutors and judicial officers, and resources to help people to understand coercive control – how to identify the signs and what to do.
Taking a national approach to education and awareness, funding support services, and harmonising the legal response will keep more women and children safe,” concluded Senator Waters.
Motion moved by Senators Larissa Waters, Mehreen Faruqi, Andrew Bragg (Liberal), Jenny McAlister (Labor) in the Senate on Wednesday 17/02/2021, passed by consensus.  Sent to the House of Representatives on Thursday 18/02/2021 for concurrence, passed by consensus:

1. That the Senate—
   1. notes that:
      1. 19 February 2021 marks one year since the murder of Hannah Clarke and her three children,
      2. since that date a further 52 women have been killed by violence in Australia, and
      3. coercive control and persistent emotional or psychological abuse is abuse in its own right, and a strong indicator of future physical violence;
   2. further notes that:
      1. Tasmania has had laws criminalising emotional and financial abuse and coercive control since 2004,
      2. Western Australia recently introduced a new offence of persistent family violence, recognising patterns of emotional and psychological abuse,
      3. New South Wales is currently consulting on draft laws to criminalise coercive control, and
      4. Queensland and the Northern Territory have announced plans to criminalise coercive control; and
   3. calls on the Government to
      1. recognise the harm caused by persistent controlling behaviour, and
      2. coordinate a national discussion regarding criminalising coercive control and related implementation support.
2. That this resolution be transmitted to the House of Representatives for concurrence.

 

The Prime Minister has asked his former chief of staff, now head of his own department, to investigate what Prime Minister’s office knew about an alleged rape of a government staffer, which The Greens say is just perpetuating the cover up.
“Every day, more damning information comes out about the involvement of the Prime Minister’s Office.  We need to get to the bottom of it.” said Senator Larissa Waters, Greens Leader in the Senate and spokesperson for women.
“Announcing yet another internal review is delaying tactic by a Prime Minister more interested in protecting himself and his office than telling the truth and ensuring that all women who work in politics are safe.
“The last time Mr Gaetjens reviewed conduct in the PMO, his findings were kept secret by dubious cabinet-in-confidence claims. The PM has given no assurance that this review will be any different.
“We need a comprehensive, independent review with public findings and recommendations that all side of politics and the public can have trust in.
“On Monday I’ll move a motion to establish an independent inquiry to find out who knew what, when, and what they did about it.  We owe it to survivors to make sure no one has to go through Brittany Higgins’ experience again.”

Federal Regional Health Minister, Mark Coulton said the Australian Government is committed to providing safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines free to everyone in Australia – no matter where they live.
“We are ready to roll out COVID-19 vaccines with hundreds of distribution points nationwide,” Minister Coulton said.
“Further sites will be finalised in the coming weeks and will include rural, regional and remote based GP-led Respiratory Clinics, GPs, community pharmacies, state and territory vaccination clinics and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community-Controlled Health Organisation clinics.
“The Government’s call out to GPs and community pharmacies will strengthen the rollout and will allow people living in regional, rural and remote communities to access COVID-19 vaccinations side by side with the rest of the nation.”
Minister Coulton said thousands of aged care residents, including many in regional Australia, will receive their first COVID-19 vaccine dose next week.
Residents and staff in 134 regional and rural aged care facilities – almost 44 per cent of the initial vaccination locations – will be among those who get their first COVID-19 vaccine next week.
“Protecting the most vulnerable citizens in our regions is an absolute priority.
“We are fortunate to have in AstraZeneca a vaccine that is well suited to be deployed right across the vast expanses of the country.
“We have also been working hard to ensure the unique storage requirements of the Pfizer vaccine are not a barrier for our regional areas.”
Both vaccines demonstrate they will stop people becoming very sick – keeping them off ventilators and out of hospital.
“Surge workforce announced last week will partner with peak organisations and other providers to assist in administering the vaccine for harder-to-reach populations, such as rural and remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
“The Federal Government will continue to work closely with state and territory governments and key stakeholders to ensure communities in regional, rural and remote Australia are informed about the rollout.”
These stakeholders will be particularly important as the Commonwealth, together with the States and Territories, establish the Remote Vaccine Working Group to support the newly established Vaccine Program Principal Committee.
Find out more about the rollout and priority groups at: aus.gov.au.

Labour force figures released today by the ABS show that the Australian labour market continued to recover in January 2021, with employment increasing by 29,100 over the month. The unemployment rate also decreased in January, by 0.2 percentage points, to 6.4 per cent.
The increase in employment over the month was due, entirely, to a rise in full-time jobs, which surged by 59,000 in January. Full-time employment has now risen for four consecutive months to stand at 8,820,400 in January 2021.
While aggregate hours worked fell by 86.0 million hours (or 4.9 per cent) in January, the ABS has advised that this reflects more Australians than usual taking leave in the first two weeks of January. The fall in hours worked also reflects some of the ongoing effects of the recent lockdown in the Northern Beaches of Sydney.
Importantly, while employment fell by 872,100 between March and May (the trough in the labour market) it has since increased by 813,600 over the last eight months, recovering more than 93 per cent of the jobs lost so far during the pandemic.
The participation rate fell marginally, by 0.1 percentage points over the month, to 66.1 per cent in January 2021, although it remains above the 65.9 per cent recorded in March 2020.
Significantly, the underemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage points over the month, to 8.1 per cent in January 2021, and is below its pre-COVID rate, of 8.8 per cent in March 2020. There are now 81,400 (or 6.7 per cent) fewer underemployed people than there were in March 2020.
Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash, said the Government remains acutely aware that the economic and labour market fallout from COVID-19 will continue for some time to come.
“That is why the Morrison Government has committed an unprecedented economic support, to help rebuild the economy and put Australia back on the road to recovery,” Minister Cash said.
“This includes $251 billion in direct economic support including more than $101 billion in JobKeeper payments to help cushion the impact of COVID-19 which has led to the most severe global economic crisis since the Great Depression.
“This is the single largest economic support measure that any Australian Government has introduced, which will help mitigate the difficulties that businesses and employees are encountering as a result of COVID-19.”