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The Greens have reiterated their calls for Australia to support a global vaccine patent waiver, supported by more than 100 countries, ahead of a critical World Trade Organization council meeting on Friday.
Senator Mehreen Faruqi, International Aid and Development spokesperson, said:
“This is a matter of global justice and responsibility. It is morally bankrupt for Australia to give anything other than full-throated support for the patent waiver.
“Rich, western countries banding together to hoard vaccines and deny them to poorer countries where thousands are dying daily is white supremacy, plain and simple.”
“It’s well overdue for the government to come out with a clear position in support of the waiver.
“The lives and health of billions of people matter far more than the profits of big pharmaceutical companies.
“The Greens stand with the hundreds of Australian health professionals who have this week come out in support of the patent waiver.”
Senator Rachel Siewert, Health spokesperson, said:
“The Australian Government is enabling vaccine apartheid in not supporting a proposal to the World Trade Organisation to waive intellectual property rights to allow Covid-19 vaccine production to be rolled out and made accessible and affordable to everyone in the global community.
“The Australian Government has to act immediately on this issue, they have been dragging their feet far too long on it.
“The Government needs to play a role in ensuring big pharma moves to temporarily waive intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines to facilitate universal access.
“Covid-19 vaccines should be seen as a public good, not a commodity.
“Australia has a global responsibility to ensure lower GDP nations get adequate and timely access to vaccines.
“It’s very clear that none of us are safe, until we are all safe.”

The Morrison Government will invest $747 million to upgrade four key training areas and ranges in the Northern Territory to enable the Australian Defence Force to conduct simulated training exercises and remain battle ready.
Essential upgrades will be made to four key military training areas and weapon ranges in the Northern Territory, including: Robertson Barracks, Kangaroo Flats, Mount Bundey and Bradshaw.
These Defence training areas and facilities will support greater engagement with our Indo-Pacific neighbours and our allies, and to conduct small and large scale military exercises across a number of different scenarios.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the investment was part of almost $8 billion in defence capital infrastructure works over the next decade in the Northern Territory.
“This investment will deliver a jobs boom for the Northern Territory,” the Prime Minister said.
“We continue to invest more than $270 billion in defence capability across Australia over the next decade, ensuring we have a capable defence force to meet a changing global environment, while backing thousands of ADF men and women with the newest technology and training,” the Prime Minister said.
“Working with the United States and Indo-Pacific neighbours, we will continue to advance Australia’s interests by investing in the Australian Defence Force, particularly across Northern Australia.”
“Our focus is on pursuing peace, stability and a free and open Indo-Pacific, with a world order that favours freedom.
“This investment will also maximise local jobs through a targeted industry plan to contract local businesses throughout the entire supply chain. My commitment is keeping Australians safe and keeping Australians in jobs.”
Minister for Defence Peter Dutton said this significant investment would ensure the Australian Defence Force continues to deliver world class training and our engagement with allies and other nations through the conduct of joint training exercises, including with the US Marine Rotational Force – Darwin.
“This investment is critical to ensuring that our ADF land combat capability is equipped with the cutting edge technology it will require to maintain our competitive advantage,” Minister Dutton said.
“These works will provide a strong economic benefit to the region, with significant opportunities for the local construction industry and local tradies over a five-year delivery phase program.
“Significant opportunities will exist for local Australian industry to bid for almost all of the construction works, planned to be delivered through numerous local sub-contractor packages by Defence’s local Darwin-based Managing Contractor, Sitzler.”
Subject to Parliamentary approvals, construction is expected to commence in the second half of 2021, with completion expected by mid-2026.

The Greens are calling on the Federal Government to make telehealth a permanent feature of our Medicare system.
“Telehealth has been lifesaving for Australians, especially for people living in regional and remote areas and for disabled people, people with kids and older Australians.
“We know that people living in regional and remote areas suffer worse health outcomes. Telehealth helps to bridge that gap.
“Patients and health practitioners need certainty about the future of telehealth in Australia.
“Peak bodies have been working with the government for months now on making telehealth permanent. We don’t need more ad-hoc 3 month extensions. We need certainty.
“We are in a global health pandemic and we need innovation and forward planning, not adhoc decision making that leaves people in limbo.
“It’s 2021 and it well past time we had telehealth embedded into our Medicare system.”

The Greens say Employment Minister Mr Robert’s cruel comments on the ‘lifestyle’ of people on JobSeeker are not based in any realm of reality in which Australians are living.
“It’s just nonsensical to tell people to get a job when in March there were 238, 700 jobs available and there are 1.5 million people on JobSeeker and Youth Allowance payments”, Senator Rachel Siewert said.
“This Government is more than happy to fund the “lifestyles” of corporations with access to the JobKeeper payment to companies like Harvey Norman who have managed to make record profits in the midst of a recession and just today there are reports that the exclusive men’s club, the Australia Club has pocketed $2m of government money – and managed to more than double its annual surplus – by keeping JobKeeper payments.
“While we remain in a pandemic and a recession and jobs are not there the Government should be supporting people, not blaming them for being in circumstances outside of their control.
“Not only did the Government abandon 1.5 million people to live on $44 a day, research from ACOSS shows that  the community sector is now under extreme stress and unable to support the influx of people seeking assistance.
“But instead of investing in people the Government is putting resources into punishing people looking for work, and which is set up to be open for abuses of power.
“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.
“I’m extremely worried about the potential for young people to be coerced into situations where they may be harassed or taken advantage of with little recourse because their employer will “dob” them in.
“The Government should stop blaming people who can’t find work that doesn’t exist and provide meaningful training and support to help people find real work opportunities.”

The Greens say an investigation is needed into the offsets for the Western Sydney Airport, after revelations that consortiums including advisors to the NSW government made millions from the development.
An investigation by Lisa Cox at The Guardian revealed that over a quarter of all offsets sold in the NSW scheme were collected by the consortiums.
Greens Leader, Adam Bandt said:
“Public trust is paramount for major projects and the revelations published in the Guardian this morning puts a massive question mark over the environmental value of offsets for the Western Sydney Airport.
“There needs to be an investigation into any conflicts of interests and possible insider trading.
“This is happening on the Morrison government’s watch. Our national environment laws are too weak.
Greens Environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young said:
“The offsets system is an utter rort. Just another scam for the Morrison Government to give their big developer and mining mates a green light for the environment wrecking projects.
“This is just more proof the Morrison Government and their state counterparts can’t be trusted to protect the environment and our wildlife. We need stronger laws, not weaker ones.
“Next week the Senate will be reviewing the Morrison’s Government’s moves to scrap environment laws. I will pursue this scandal with the Government officials. The Government must be held to account.
Greens Co-Deputy Leader, Larissa Waters said:
“Even the rorts are stuffed with rorts! This isn’t the first time serious questions have been raised about who’s profiting from the Western Sydney airport project.
“Last year we discovered that the federal government had paid a Liberal Party donor 10 times the fair value of a parcel of land earmarked for a second runway, handing over $29.8 million of taxpayer money for property valued at $3.1 million.
“And now we learn that a consultant has made a motza by advising governments to purchase environmental offset properties he had a financial stake in.
“Clearly there are problems with the governance of this project and both the NSW and federal governments have a lot of questions to answer. It’s yet another reminder why the Greens continue to call for a strong and independent national corruption watchdog.”

Latest power price reports, showing again how renewables are driving down wholesale prices across the National Electricity Market after wholesale prices doubled following the Liberals’ repeal of the carbon price, should encourage the government to drive the transition faster and not prop up coal and gas, Greens Leader Adam Bandt said today.
The Greens fears that the Morrison government – which brags about lower wholesale prices despite driving them up after the carbon price repeal and opposing renewables at every step – is now getting ready to increase prices and pollution by propping up coal and gas generation.
Labor, who has already propped up Australia’s dirtiest power station by handing over undisclosed amounts to Energy Australia, owned by Hong Kong billionaire Michael Kadoorie, must now join the Greens in fighting the latest coal push from the Morrison government.
“Instead of bragging about power prices coming down because of renewable energy, Angus Taylor should be red-faced after doubling wholesale power prices by repealing the carbon price and then opposing renewables every step of the way,” Mr Bandt said.
“After doubling power prices and doing everything they could to block renewables, the Liberals now expect a pat on the back when solar and wind start driving prices down again.
“Even worse, the government talks up lower prices from renewables while simultaneously getting ready to prop up dirty coal generation by handing public money to the billionaire coal and gas corporations.”
“We don’t need payments to coal generators, we need the government to lead more investment in renewables and storage. As today’s prices have shown, renewables are cheaper, cleaner and the future for Australia. More renewables means lower prices.”
“We should be driving the transition further and faster, not trying to block it. We are in a climate emergency.”
“Labor must oppose the latest coal push. Labor already has form propping up Australia’s dirtiest power station in Victoria and they must stop supporting Scott Morrison on coal and gas.”
The Government – with Labor’s support – is passing legislation to allow public money to go to fossil fuel projects. The Energy Security Board is also due to release its report on post-2025 market design for the National Electricity Market in the coming days, with reports today  suggesting the government may be concerned about so-called ‘early’ closure of coal-fired power stations.
Wholesale power prices doubled after the Liberals repealed the carbon price.

The Australian Government is opening a new round to invest more than $23 million to support our nation’s peak health groups and advisory bodies.
These groups play a major role in improving the health and wellbeing of all Australians and as we continue navigating the COVID-19 environment, the advice of Australia’s peak health groups and advisory bodies remains critical.
Their impartial advice, expertise and experience means the Government can implement reforms that boost the health and wellbeing of all Australians now and into the future.
Since 2016, the Health Peak and Advisory Bodies program has contributed to building a better health care system for the nation.
This new grant opportunity supports a wide range of health organisations consult and share information with their members, the wider health sector, the community and the Government. It also helps them to provide sector knowledge, expertise and education and training to health practitioners, improving the quality of health services.
The Government will look favourably at health peak and advisory bodies that have a national presence, and nation-wide membership. In particular, we are looking for applications with demonstrated expertise, and who are able to contribute to the national health agenda and priorities set out in Australia’s National Preventive Health Strategy.
Applications opened on 27 April 2021, with funding available to eligible national peak bodies over three years from July 2022.
For more information on the grants and to apply, visit www.grants.gov.au

25 years today. Yet it still seems like only yesterday our hearts were shattered on that terrible Sunday.
28 April 1996. Port Arthur.
35 innocent people taken from us. 23 more wounded in that heinous and cowardly act.
To call to mind the names of those who died is heart-breaking.
Victims as young as 3 and as old as 72.
Among them “a lovely, devoted couple”.
“The happiest girls in the world”.
An “adored Nanna”.
A “humble man” who “simply wanted to serve.”
And a woman who “brought joy and warmth to all who knew her.”
Today we remember and send our love to all those who still bear the scars of that terrible day. The families and friends of those who died; the injured, the survivors, the first responders and all those who witnessed and were impacted by the unspeakable horror of that day.
We remember the incredible bravery and selflessness as well – the family members who sought to shield and protect others.
We pay tribute to the strength, resilience and courage of the local Tasmanian community and to all those who could never forget but still found a way to heal.
We look to the light that was found from the darkness of that day. Light like the Alannah & Madeline Foundation, which Walter Mikac named for his two daughters he lost that day, and which is dedicated to keeping children safe from violence and bullying.
We also give thanks for the courageous response to this terrible event by former Prime Minister John Howard and former Deputy Prime Minister, the late Tim Fischer, supported by then Leader of the Opposition Kim Beazley, who put in place some of the strongest gun laws in the world today, that have served to keep Australians safe.
May Walter, and all the families of the victims taken from us that day, be comforted and renewed on this day.