Category: Australian News

Today in the House of Representatives the Morrison Government stood by its regulations which slash Australia Post services and threaten jobs and wages.
Labor Leader Anthony Albanese moved to disallow the regulations which cut the frequency of postie delivery rounds, extend mail delivery times for millions of Australians and put the jobs of up to one in four posties and many others at risk.
The Prime Minister was so desperate to stop debate he used his majority to silence Labor on his Australia Post service and job cuts.
Many Australians, including isolated, vulnerable and older Australians and those living in regional areas, rely on regular postal services.
These regulations rip away services from Australians who need them most.
Labor considers the parcels boom an opportunity to preserve and create jobs — not cut them.
The Morrison Government has used the coronavirus pandemic as cover for an attack on essential services and frontline workers.

Labor welcomes the community call for an anti-racism strategy.
Today, 30 major community organisations have called on the Prime Minister and the Labor Leader to establish a bipartisan National Anti-Racism Strategy.
This call must be heeded as there is no place for racism in Australia.
Regrettably, there has been a rise in racism as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Human Rights Commission says close to a quarter of people who have lodged complaints about racial discrimination in the past two months have been targeted because of COVID-19.
Just as we are responding to COVID-19, we need a bipartisan approach to tackling racism in Australia through a national anti-racism strategy.
Labor has, and will continue to, raise this issue in Parliament and will keep working with, and listening, to culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
While the vast majority of Australians abhor racism, we need to stand against the actions of an unrepresentative minority so that we can all get through this together.
Labor supports a national anti-racism strategy and is ready to work with the Government to see this progressed as a bipartisan, unifying initiative.
We would welcome the Morrison Government adopting a bipartisan approach to combating racism in Australia through a national anti-racism strategy and any other appropriate measures.

Australians will have better access to subsidised medicines and medication management services through community pharmacy with the Morrison Government finalising a Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA).
Under this landmark agreement, our Government will continue to partner with community pharmacy to ensure Australians have access to more than 200 million subsidised Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) prescriptions each year through their community pharmacy of choice.
Medicine safety will be a key focus of the 7CPA with our Government increasing its investment in medication management services and programs to $1.2 billion over five years, which is an additional $100 million investment compared to actual expenditure in the Sixth Community Pharmacy Agreement.
Elderly Australians, people with chronic conditions and Australians on concession cards will benefit from this increased investment through simplified and improved Community Pharmacy medication management and adherence programs, such as dose administration aids and medicine checks.
There will also be greater support for regional, rural and remote pharmacies to deliver community pharmacy services with reforms to the Rural Pharmacy Maintenance Allowance to adopt the Modified Monash Model for rural classification.
Our Government will also implement reforms to improve access to medicines for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by expanding the number of people eligible for the Closing the Gap PBS Co-payment measure.
This program provides free or lower cost medicines to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who have, or at risk of, chronic disease.
There will be greater transparency for consumers on the cost of their medicines and the Government will reduce the level of discretionary fees that can to be charged on medicines priced below the general patient co-payment.
Consumers will continue to have access to cheaper medicines through the continuation of the optional $1 discount on PBS co-payments.
Our Government will also work to support the adoption of a nationally consistent approach to vaccinations available through community pharmacies.
The 7CPA signed by the Commonwealth, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and for the first time the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, will commence on 1 July 2020, and be in place until 30 June 2025.
The 7CPA demonstrates the Morrison Government’s ongoing support for patients and community pharmacy, and acknowledges that Australia’s community pharmacies have played, and will continue to play a crucial role in our Government’s efforts to improve the health of all Australians.
Community pharmacies have played a central role in supporting their community during the recent bushfires and have kept their doors open to support patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Remuneration for the dispensing of subsidised PBS medicines, community pharmacy medication management programs and services, is expected to be $18.3 billion over the five years of the agreement.
Our Government will provide greater funding predictability for the dispensing of PBS medicines by community pharmacies through structural reforms to dispensing remuneration, and risk sharing arrangements to ensure Australians continue to have timely access to safe and affordable medicines for the next five years.
Reforms to pharmaceutical wholesaling and the Community Service Obligation Funding Pool arrangements will ensure pharmaceutical wholesalers can continue to support community pharmacies in providing equitable and timely access to medicines for all Australians, particularly those living outside our major cities.
The Morrison Government continues to make more medicines available for patients through the PBS. Since 2013, our Government has approved more than 2,400 new or amended medicine listings on the PBS.
This represents an average of around 30 medicine listings or amendments per month – or one each day – at an overall investment by the Government of $11.6 billion.
Taken together, the measures agreed as part of the 7CPA underscore the Morrison Government’s rock solid commitment to ensuring that Australians can access essential, affordable medicines and community pharmacy services, when and where they need them.

The Australian Senate has narrowly voted down a Greens motion to disallow parts of the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Amendment Rules (No. 2) 2020 that have the effect of excluding universities from accessing the JobKeeper wage subsidy.
The vote was defeated 30 votes to 31.
The Greens, Labor and Centre Alliance voted for the motion; the government, One Nation and Senator Lambie opposed it.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Universities are being smashed during this pandemic and the government has refused to throw them a lifeline.
“The government is fully aware that 30,000 jobs are on the line, but they just don’t care, because this is an opportunity to destabilise and weaken the university sector and lay the groundwork for further marketisation.
“Scott Morrison and his minister’s mistreatment of universities in this crisis is nothing but their ideology writ large. With a $60 billion underspend they don’t even have a financial justification to hide behind for excluding universities — or migrants and casuals — from JobKeeper.
“Shame on the Senators who claim to represent regional areas, but just voted to skewer any chance regional university workers in their states had of getting JobKeeper.
“The Greens will continue to fight the myopic, neoliberal corporatism that the Liberals use time and again to weaken public institutions and the communities which they are a part of,” she said.

The Australian Greens have called on the chief executive of Rio Tinto Iron Ore, Chris Salisbury, to resign or be sacked over the growing scandal regarding his company’s destruction of the sacred Pilbara site.
The Greens will also move for Rio Tinto and the Federal Environment Minister to be called before the Senate Environment References Committee.
“The mining industry in WA have a long history of disregard of First Nations peoples connection to their sacred sites and land. The Aboriginal Heritage Act in WA is so weak because of the mining industry influence and their agenda of prioritising profit and access to land over all else,” Greens spokesperson on First Nations issues Rachel Siewert said.
“This site was knowingly destroyed and someone must be held accountable. Rio Tinto knew this site was of deep cultural significance and should have been protected, not blown up.
“This time Rio Tinto have been caught out and they will be held accountable.
“This must be the last time this wanton destruction occurs. All laws must be strengthened to ensure this never happens again.
“I am deeply upset for the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people.”
“After this morning’s train wreck of an interview it is clear that Chris Salisbury needs to resign or be sacked,” Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP said.
“Rio can not just wash its hands and move on. They can’t walk away from this. Responsibility rests at the top and they need to be held accountable.
“Continuing to obfuscate and pretend they didn’t know what they were doing is just further injury.”
Chair of the Senate Environment References Committee Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the Greens will move for Rio Tinto and the Federal Environment Minister to be called before the committee.
“Rio Tinto needs to be held to account for what they have done and the Environment Minister has serious questions to answer about her involvement or lack thereof,” Senator Hanson-Young said.
“It seems lots of people knew about this and nobody did anything to stop it.
“More than 40000 years of heritage and history has been destroyed. If it was Stonehenge or the Pyramids there would be global outrage.
“Every Australian should be angry that our nation’s history has been trashed in the name of corporate profit.
“This has happened on Sussan Ley’s watch and if we are going to stop such wanton destruction from happening again we need to know what went so wrong and what changes are needed to the law to make this type of destruction illegal.”

South Australian Labor members have dumped on their home state today, backing the legislation to build a nuclear waste dump at Kimba on SA’s Eyre Peninsula, the Greens say.
SA Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:
“Labor has today dumped on South Australia and backed a site selection process for a nuclear waste dump that has been dodgy from the start.
“South Australians have already said no to nuclear. Today, every South Aussie should be asking why their elected representatives from the major parties have refused to listen to them.
“There is not broad community support. Traditional Owners have rejected the proposal but their views have been dismissed. Communities living along potential transportation routes have not been consulted.
“The Greens referred the legislation to a Senate Inquiry for scrutiny of the laws and the process that led to this point. That Inquiry has not yet reported, nor has it held hearings in affected communities.
“I urge Labor to reconsider their support for this bill before it gets to the Senate. SA won’t forgive them for dumping radioactive waste in our foodbowl and putting our clean, green reputation and our state’s key grain export industry at risk.”

Queanbeyan is among the areas set to be hardest hit by new Morrison Government regulations that will let Australia Post scale back services, slash jobs and cut wages.
People in regional areas already wait longer than those in cities for their mail, and changes recently announced by the Government will push those wait times out even further.
In Queanbeyan:

• The regulations will slash the frequency of postie delivery rounds by half; and
• Mail delivery timeframes will blow out from 3 business days to 7 full days.

Nationally, these changes will leave the jobs of up to one in four posties in limbo and put many other indirect jobs at risk.
There was no consultation on these regulations before they were announced, and there was no opportunity to examine their merits. Further, the Government has given no guarantees that the changes won’t be made permanent following the coronavirus crisis.
This is a cheap shot on the workers of Australia Post and people in regional communities.
At a time of economic uncertainty across Eden-Monaro and regional Australia, now is not the time to be slashing jobs or services in regional areas.
The boom in parcel delivery is an opportunity to preserve and create jobs — not to cut them.
 

The Morrison Government is investing $24.2 million to reduce wait times – fast tracking access to mental health services for young people aged 12–25 seeking headspace appointments.
Mental health and suicide prevention remains one of our Government’s highest priorities.
One in four young Australians are affected by a mental health illness every year, and as we battle COVID-19 it’s more important than ever that we prioritise mental health.
The disruption to normal life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the required restrictions has had profound impacts on young Australians.
Funding will go to Primary Health Networks (PHNs) in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and headspace National.
Services provided through headspace centres are a safe place to turn to, somewhere young people can get professional help, peer support and feel comfortable enough to tackle their challenges in a way that is right for them.
headspace provides access to free or low cost youth-friendly, primary mental health services with a single entry point to holistic care in four key areas—mental health, related physical health, substance misuse, and social and vocational support.
Prior to the pandemic, headspace service centres were experiencing high demand across the country.
Our Government’s investment will ensure young Australians can get information, advice, understanding, counselling and treatment, when and where they need it.
Individual grants of up to $2 million will improve facilities, access and reduce waiting times at headspace services commissioned by PHNs.
The headspace Demand Management and Enhancement Program is an investment of $152 million over seven years from 2018-19 by the Morrison Government to reduce wait times at headspace services.
The headspace services which will receive funding through this grant opportunity are:

State/Territory	headspace Service
New South Wales	Bankstown, Bondi Junction, Camperdown, Dubbo, Griffith, Hurstville, Lismore, Lithgow, Liverpool, Maitland, Miranda, Nowra, Orange, Penrith, Port Macquarie, Queanbeyan, Tamworth, Tweed Heads, Wagga Wagga and Wollongong
Victoria	Albury-Wodonga, Bairnsdale, Bendigo, Geelong, Greensborough, Shepparton, Werribee and Wonthaggi
Queensland	Bundaberg, Capalaba, Hervey Bay, Inala, Maroochydore, Nundah, Rockhampton, Southport, Townsville and Warwick
South Australia	Berri, Mount Gambier, Murray Bridge and Port Augusta
Tasmania	Hobart and Launceston
ACT	Canberra

Our Government continues to demonstrate its firm commitment to the mental health and wellbeing of all Australians.
Children, young people and their families have been identified as a vulnerable population in the National Mental Health and Wellbeing Pandemic Response Plan.
We know this group will experience the impact of the social and economic outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic the most.
Through record investments in mental health services and support, the Morrison Government will invest an estimated $5.2 billion this year alone.
Since the beginning of the year, our Government has provided $8 billion as part of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) National Health Plan, which is supporting primary care, aged care, hospitals, research and the national medical stockpile.
This includes an additional $500 million for mental health services and support, including $64 million for suicide prevention, $74 million for preventative mental health services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and $48 million to support the pandemic response plan.

The Morrison Government continues to back small business with the announcement that it will extend the $150,000 instant asset write-off for six months to 31 December 2020.
Australian businesses with annual turnover of less than $500 million will be able to take advantage of this extended timeframe to invest in assets to support their business as the economy reopens and Coronavirus health restrictions continue to be eased.
These measures will support over 3.5 million businesses. They are designed to support business sticking with investment they had planned, and encouraging them to bring investment forward to support economic growth over the near term.
The instant asset write-off also helps to improve cash flow for businesses by bringing forward tax deductions for eligible expenditure. The threshold applies on a per asset basis, so eligible businesses can immediately write-off multiple assets provided each costs less than $150,000.
The extension will also give businesses additional time to acquire and install assets, as they will now have until the end of the year. Assets can be new or second hand and could include for example a truck for a delivery business or a tractor for a farming business.
Legislative changes will be made to give effect to this measure, which is estimated to have a cost to revenue of $300 million over the forward estimates period.
Hardworking Australian businesses can rest assured that the Morrison Government will do all that is necessary to support them to bounce back stronger and get to the other side of this crisis.

The Morrison Government is today announcing the most significant reforms to the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 since its introduction.
These reforms will ensure that our foreign investment framework keeps pace with emerging risks and global developments, including similar changes to foreign investment regimes in comparable countries.
Foreign investment drives economic growth, creates skilled jobs, improves access to overseas markets and enhances productivity. Without foreign investment, production, employment and income would all be lower. Australian firms with foreign direct investment support 1 in 10 jobs in Australia. They also make a significant contribution to the one in five jobs that are trade-related.
The comprehensive changes being announced today deal with national security risks, strengthening compliance measures, streamlining approval processes and administrative enhancements.
Importantly, these reforms preserve the underlying principles of our system: that Australia welcomes foreign investment for the significant benefits it provides but also ensures that investments are not contrary to the national interest. Australia’s foreign investment framework will remain non-discriminatory and applications will continue to be assessed on a case by case basis.
Key elements of the reform package include:

• A new national security test for foreign investors who will be required to seek approval to start or acquire a direct interest in a ‘sensitive national security business’ – regardless of the value of the investment.
• A time-bound ‘call in’ power enabling the Treasurer to review acquisitions that raise national security risks outside of proposed acquisitions relating to a ‘sensitive national security business’.
• A national security last resort power that provides the ability to impose or vary conditions and in extraordinary circumstances order disposal on national security grounds.
• Stronger and more flexible enforcement options including the expansion of infringement notices and higher civil and criminal penalties.
• Measures to streamline approval for passive investors and investments into non-sensitive businesses.

The Government will release exposure draft legislation for consultation in July, with the reforms scheduled to commence on 1 January 2021.
Additional details about the reforms will be available on the Treasury website.