Category: Australian News

The Greens are calling on the Morrison Government to implement stronger environment laws before we lose our precious nature and wildlife for good, after the release today of a scathing major review.
Responding to the release of the final report from the once-in-ten-year review of Australia’s environment laws led by Professor Graeme Samuel, Greens Spokesperson for the Environment Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:
“The Samuel Report sounds the alarm that Australia’s environment is under unprecedented stress. Without urgent action and a full reform package we risk losing our native wildlife and iconic natural places for good.
“After sitting on the report for 90 days, the Morrison Government needs to respond with a genuine commitment to a full reform package that makes our environmental laws stronger, with an independent watchdog to hold corporations and governments to account.
“We need environment laws that are fit for protecting nature in the face of climate change.
“There is one path forward for the Morrison Government and that is to accept the warnings in the Samuel Report of the dire straights our environment is in and commit to action.
“Our environment laws are too weak and are failing to do the job of protecting our environment.
“Professor Samuel says at the outset of his report that ‘The EPBC Act is out dated and requires fundamental reform’. He warns that ‘Governments should avoid the temptation to cherry pick from a highly interconnected suite of recommendations’.
“What is needed is stronger laws and an independent cop on the beat to enforce them. Anything less and there will be more dead koalas, our forests and bushland will be destroyed and our oceans polluted.
“The Government must scrap its Tony Abbott reforms of 2014 and implement a full reform agenda informed by the advice of their own expert.
“The rest of the world is working out how to save the planet – Australia needs to join them with urgent action.
“As Professor Samuel said ‘To shy away from the fundamental reforms recommended by this Review is to accept the continued decline of our iconic places and the extinction of our most threatened plants, animals and ecosystems’.”

The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) discussed the COIVD-19 situation in New Zealand and the current 72 hour travel pause on green safe travel zone flights from New Zealand to Australia at its meeting on 28 January 2021. The AHPPC was joined by representatives from the New Zealand Government including the New Zealand Chief Medical Officer.
The AHPPC has been advised that all three confirmed COVID-19 cases in the community in New Zealand have been genomically linked to an international traveller in hotel quarantine in Auckland.
The AHPPC was also advised that all close contacts of the first New Zealand case have returned negative test results, and that five of the 11 close contacts of the subsequent two cases have also returned negative results, with the remainder awaiting their results.
Based on updated information from New Zealand, including that there have been two additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the community in New Zealand since the initial case, and involving the variant of concern B.1.351, the AHPPC has recommended to the Australian Government Chief Medical Officer (CMO) that the Commonwealth extend the pause in safe travel zone flights from New Zealand to Australia.
The AHPPC recommendation is to extend for a further three days, to 2pm on Sunday January 31.
The Federal Government has accepted the recommendation of the AHPPC and Acting CMO to extend the pause for a further three days.
The B.1.351 variant of concern has been shown to have higher transmissibility and so presents a heightened level of risk.  It has spread to 26 countries, including in people who have arrived in Australia who are in mandatory hotel quarantine.
It is estimated to be 50% more transmissible based on the available evidence. This extension of the pause for a further 72 hours affords continued protection of Australians while the extent of the situation in New Zealand is clarified.
Quarantine arrangements are a matter for each state and territory government. As a result, any recent arrivals from New Zealand during paused green safe travel zone flights from New Zealand to Australia will be advised on any changes to their quarantine arrangements by the relevant jurisdiction.

Australian Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that the December quarter Consumer Price Index data released today by the ABS has revealed “out-of-pocket [childcare] expenses have now returned to pre-COVID levels in all capital cities.”
Senator Faruqi said:
“These latest numbers put us back to where we were before Covid-19 – with one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world.
“The new Minister, Alan Tudge, has an opportunity here to set a different course when it comes to early learning. We urgently need new investment to fully subsidise childcare and make it truly universal.
“Early learning costs in Australia are out of control. High fees make our society less equal, and limit choices for women, who have to give up study, career and work opportunities.
“Last year, the government briefly flirted with providing fee-free childcare for all. There is no reason we can’t have this again. This is a choice the government has to make: will it allow business-as-usual when we know free childcare is possible?”

The Australian Government’s $23.9 million public information campaign to encourage Australians to get a COVID-19 vaccine begins today.
The campaign will keep Australians fully informed and up to date about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines as they become available, including when, how and where to get the jab.
This follows Australia’s first COVID-19 vaccine approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration – for the Pfizer vaccine.
From the start of the pandemic, the COVID-19 campaign has been a trusted source of information for the community. The new vaccine campaign will build on this, providing timely, transparent and credible information to all Australians.
The new campaign will be in three phases:

• Reaffirm that COVID-19 vaccines have been put through our world-leading independent approvals process, ensuring both the safety and efficacy of our vaccine candidates
• Provide information on how the vaccine will be rolled out, particularly to priority groups, and dosage requirements.
• Inform people about how and where to get vaccinated, dosage requirements, and support vaccine uptake.

The roll-out will begin by providing protection to those who need it most – the elderly and disabled, and frontline workers who are tirelessly working to save lives and protect lives.
The information in this campaign, based on expert, and independent, medical advice, will help answer the questions people may have.
The campaign will run across a variety of mediums, including television, radio, press, digital, social, mobile, search and out of home.
To ensure the campaign reaches all Australians, special committees representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people with a disability and the multicultural community are informing the communication approach, ensuring communications are appropriate and disseminated through the best communication channels to these communities.
Australia is a vaccination nation – we have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. Australians understand that vaccines work. They save lives. They improve lives. They protect lives.
I am confident, given Australia’s high vaccination coverage rates that Australians will take up a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine in equally high numbers.
This campaign will help every Australian to understand how the vaccine works and how it will keep them and their family safe.

A major upgrade to the Reinhold Batschi Men’s National Training Centre (RBMNTC) for men’s rowing was today officially opened by the Australian Minister for Sport Richard Colbeck on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra.
The $1.7 million development, funded by the Australian Government, through Sport Australia and the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), provides the elite rowing facility with improved changing rooms, new laundry, consultation rooms and enhanced disabled access.
“The long-awaited facility upgrade is an enormous boost for Australia’s rowers who are an integral part of our nation’s high- performance sports environment,” Minister Colbeck said.
“The rowing centre was originally built in the early 1980s as part of the AIS Rowing Facility and this significant investment represents the biggest upgrade to the elite training facility in 35 years.
“Importantly, the redevelopment now allows the centre to host not only the full-time male athletes when they are on site, but also visiting athletes from the Hancock Prospecting Women’s National Training Centre (based in Penrith), Australia’s elite Para-rowing Program and the Pathway Training Camp groups.”
Rowing Australia CEO, Ian Robson extended his thanks to the Australian Government, through Sport Australia and the Australian Institute of Sport, for the ongoing support of rowing and its athletes.
“The upgrades to the Reinhold Batschi Men’s National Training Centre brings the facility to the same standard as our dedicated female rowing centre, the Hancock Prospecting Women’s National Training Centre, which was opened in Penrith in 2017,” Mr Robson said.
“The athletes have had a disrupted year, with the postponement of the Olympic Games, but have continued to train diligently, even when their facility was in the midst of renovation. I would specifically like to thank Canberra Grammar School, who generously allowed our Men’s National Training Centre athletes to train out of their sheds, for part of 2020, while the building works were underway.
“I know our athletes are all extremely grateful and excited to be utilising the new spaces and continuing their pursuit of Olympic glory for Australia while based at the centre. We delighted to now have a facility that is fit-for-purpose for all our elite athletes to use when required and that would not have been possible without the funding and support of the Australian Government and Sport Australia.”
Snapshot of upgrades:

• Sport Australia and the AIS granted Rowing Australia $1.7 million to upgrade the changing rooms and consultation rooms at the centre.
• The facility was established in 1986, with expansions including the gym, ergometer room, treatment areas and changing rooms.
• This is the first upgrade to the changing rooms since they were added in the late 1980s.

The new upgraded facilities include:

The workers we rely on to plan, run and secure our Australia Day celebrations could lose hundreds of dollars form their pay packets under Scott Morrison’s nasty industrial relations changes.
Mr Morrison wants this Australia Day to be the last that workers are guaranteed public holiday penalty rates.
If Mr Morrison successfully scraps the Better Off Overall Test a typical employee on the Local Government Industry Award could be hit with a $273 Australia Day pay cut, according to the government’s own fair pay calculator. Instead of earning $455 over an 8-hour day they would earn just $182.
A level 4 club employee could earn $272 less next Australia Day than they do this Australia Day. A more senior level 9 club employee could lose $321. And a level 3 security officer could lose $280 over a standard 8-hour shift.
Australia Day is also a huge day for many hospitality workers, particularly in bars and pubs. They could also lose hundreds of dollars under Mr Morrison’s scheme.
These workers, like all workers, deserve extra compensation for working on a public holiday.
This pay cut is Scott Morrison’s thanks to the people who got us through the pandemic – the frontline and essential workers who put themselves at risk by showing up to work and steering Australia through the crisis.
If you abolish something called the Better Off Overall Test, guess what will happen:  workers will be worse off.
Scott Morrison’s earlier penalty rate cuts for retail, fast food, pharmacy and hospitality workers failed to deliver a single extra job. But now they want us to believe that cutting more penalty rates, cutting overtime, cutting shift loading, cutting allowances will create jobs?
Pay cuts are bad for workers and bad for the economy. For Australia to recover from the recession we need people with the money and confidence to spend.
The Government says the economy is doing well enough that businesses no longer need JobKeeper. But then they say the economy is doing so badly they need to cut the pay of workers. They can’t have it both ways.
 

Australian families have clearly demonstrated that we are a vaccination nation, with childhood immunisation rates reaching record levels in December 2020.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, parents followed expert health advice and continued to take their children to receive their shots, pushing five-year old vaccination rates beyond the aspirational target of 95 per cent coverage.
Australia’s immunisation rates are world leading. In fact the December Quarter of 2020 took Australia’s coverage rate for five year old children to 95.09 per cent which exceeds the estimated World Health Organisation international average immunisation coverage rate of 86 per cent.
Reaching our target of 95% supports herd immunity to stop the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases.
These figures show Australians have both the capacity and the will to lead the world in taking up COVID-19 vaccines, as they recognise how important vaccination is, and how it protects and saves lives.
It also shows the faith that Australians have in our independent medical regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, to provide expert advice and ensure the safety and efficacy of all vaccines provided to the community.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children at five-years old have the highest rates of immunisation in the country at 97.25 per cent. This is an incredible result and shows that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are taking their children to have their shots on time and keeping up to date with the recommended vaccination schedule.
The Australian Government invests more than $400 million each year in the National Immunisation Program.
The national immunisation coverage rate for all one-year olds has grown to 94.85 per cent and among two-year olds is 92.55 per cent.
While not as high as the five-year old rate, the results for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander two-year olds and one-year olds continue to climb, reaching 91.43 per cent and 93.79 per cent respectively.
The importance of vaccination is not lost on Australians, the vast majority of families ensure their children are fully immunised against a range of dangerous, but preventable diseases.
Immunisation providers have maintained their routine immunisation services throughout the pandemic and are ensuring on-time vaccination according to the recommended schedules.
Australia’s seasonal influenza vaccination program continues to provide increasing numbers of vaccines to Australians of all ages, in 2020 the Therapeutic Goods Administration released more than 17.6 million doses of seasonal influenza vaccines for the Australian market – this includes those for the National Immunisation Program and the private market.

General practices will play a key role in the Australian Government’s rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, in what will be one of the greatest logistical exercises, public health or otherwise, in Australian history.
Providing access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for everyone in Australia is a key priority for our Government.
General practices will help deliver the vaccine initially to priority groups, starting with people over 70, adults with underlying medical conditions and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in phase 1b. Three more phases will follow until the whole country has been offered the vaccine.
The Government will also work closely with Primary Health Networks to determine general practice distribution points for the vaccine. Over time, there will be more than 1,000 distribution points across Australia.
Applications open 9am tomorrow, at www.health.gov.au.
Australian GPs have considerable experience administering vaccines, with the Australian Government’s highly successful childhood immunisation program and the influenza vaccines both exceeding expectations with record engagement. General practices are key players in Australia having one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.
General practices are the core of our health system and those involved in supporting the vaccine rollout will include GPs and primary health care nurses, as well as their support staff, including practice managers, receptionists, cleaners, and IT support.
The vaccine rollout in Commonwealth-funded GP-led Respiratory Clinics and Aboriginal and Community Controlled Health Services will be administered through separate processes. They are not required to complete an expression of interest to take part in the rollout.
The COVID-19 vaccine rollout is a new frontier. It will bring new challenges, and I am very confident that our health care workforce is well placed for this immense task.
An expression of interest for pharmacies will be released next week.

The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) has marked a key milestone, celebrating its 40^th anniversary this week.
Minister for Sport, Richard Colbeck said the AIS remains a lynchpin in Australia’s sporting success and its enhanced focus on athlete wellbeing, athlete pathways, coach development, innovation and collaboration all remain legacies of the AIS today.
“The AIS revolutionised Australian sport 40 years ago and today it remains an important and iconic symbol of Australia’s commitment to sport and the power of sport to inspire and unite our communities,” Minister Colbeck said.
“We celebrate this milestone with the AIS and pay tribute to those who have positively contributed to building Australian sport capability over many years.”
Some of the biggest names in Australian sport are among the 8,858 athletes who have been AIS scholarship holders over its successful history.
“In an Olympic and Paralympic year, we also acknowledge the integral role the AIS is playing to support our athletes in their preparation for the Tokyo Olympics,” Minister Colbeck said.
The AIS was launched by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser in Canberra on 26 January 1981, comprising approximately 150 scholarship athletes across eight different sports to become Australia’s first and only official sporting institute.
AIS CEO Peter Conde said it has evolved to help lead the National Institute Network to positively influence more Australian athletes than ever before.
“As we should expect, the AIS does things differently now. Races aren’t won by standing still. But the intent of the AIS remains the same – to help Australian athletes realise their full potential in both sport and life.
“The AIS directly invests more than $145 million a year into 38 high performance sporting organisations and their athletes, including $14 million a year in athlete grants across Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games sports.
We have progressed the support for Paralympics athletes, with funding up 40 per cent in the past eight years,” he said.
“We are partnering with sports to develop emerging athletes and coaching pathways. We are at the forefront of innovation, including research into athlete health and performance. We are exploring new frontiers like artificial intelligence and data analysis.
“We naturally strive to win and we care about athletes. Our approach to athlete mental health, wellbeing and community engagement has been crucial, especially in terms of supporting athletes through the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Minister Colbeck said the next decade is exciting for Australian sport.
“There is a lot to look forward to. Australia will host the women’s world cup of basketball and football, we’ve invested in a bid for the 2027 Rugby World Cup and, in the next two years, we are considering a bid for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The leadership of the AIS will continue to be pivotal.”

On 24 January 2021, the New Zealand Government announced a case of COVID-19 detected in the community. This morning, New Zealand authorities advised that the case detected is a variant of concern. The case and subsequent exposure to the community are still under investigation.
As a result, the Australian Government, based on advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), has suspended green zone travel arrangements with New Zealand for a minimum of 72 hours whilst more is learnt about the transmission. This change comes into effect immediately (as of 1400 AEDT, 25 January 2021).
The decision has been taken out of an abundance of caution to reduce the risk of this variant, which has been shown to spread more readily between individuals, entering the Australian community.
All green safe travel zone passengers from New Zealand currently en route to Australia, or with planned travel to Australia in the next 72 hours will be required to enter mandatory hotel quarantine for up to 14 days on arrival or take other action based on the requirements of the relevant State and Territory Governments.
It is recommended all passengers from New Zealand with a green safe travel zone flight scheduled in the next 72 hours, reconsider their need to travel.
The Federal Government has advised all State and Territory governments and the New Zealand Government of these changes.
Anyone who has arrived into Australia on a flight from New Zealand on or since January 14 is asked to isolate and arrange to get tested, and to remain in isolation until you have received a negative test.