Category: Australian News

Former Cabinet Minister Matt Kean knew that contaminated recycled waste products were being distributed across the environment and communities, but did not act to stop the practice. A Ministerial Briefing note, obtained under freedom of information laws, has revealed that in December 2021 the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) told the Government that recovered waste products, known as recovered fines, were “not fit for purpose” and “should not be reused broadly in the community”.

Between December 2021 and May 2022, the EPA halted planned changes to the recovered waste industry after pressure from commercial interests. No further regulatory action was taken by the EPA or Government to prevent asbestos, glass, plastics and heavy metals from being sold and distributed in consumer products across NSW.

Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment Sue Higginson said “Something happened between the end of 2021 and mid 2022 that allowed hazardous materials to continue to be sold and distributed by producers of recovered fines from waste,”

“This briefing note, signed by the then Environment Minister, recommended changes to the regulatory system for these products, recognised the harm that the materials could cause, and pushed back on the financial consequences for commercial interests. The EPA specifically recognised the potential financial impacts, but asserted that it’s primary function is protection of the environment and communities,”

“It is baffling, that by May 2022, the EPA cancelled any changes to the industry, and the Coalition Government did not act to make changes to protect the environment or communities from contaminated recovered fines,”

“The current Leader of the Opposition, Mark Speakman, made representations in 2021 on behalf of one of the companies that produced recovered fines that indicated the EPA’s evidence was flawed and out of date. But 3 years later there is still asbestos and other contaminants being sold at garden supply stores and being spread over playgrounds,”

“There is a case to be answered here, whether there has been undue political interference or plain incompetence, why was this industry not fixed at any of the times it was highlighted as a risk. The reviews in 2013, 2019 and 2020 all proved that the product was dangerous – but no one acted to stop it. This is a toxic legacy that needs to be explained and fixed. ” Ms Higginson said.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has blocked approval for a $1 billion mining project at Regis McPhillamy’s goldmine near Blayney NSW by making a declaration under section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 (Cth). It has been reported that the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council responsible for the area in question did not oppose the project and believed any possible impacts on heritage items would have been manageable.

Despite Minister Plibersek’s claim that the declaration would not stop the project, according to a statement released by Regis Resources today, the project is now unviable due to the declaration. The statement further claims that Minister Plibersek was well aware that this would be the outcome of any section 10 declaration she might make.

Shadow Environment Minister and Tasmanian Senator Jono Duniam said “the Albanese Government is the most anti-jobs, anti-development government Australia has ever had.”

“In a cost of living crisis, the last thing we need is for a government to ignore clear advice and unilaterally scrap a project like this, sabotaging hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue for the State Government.”

“In making this decision, Ms Plibersek is continuing her outrageous approach of stalling and rejecting multiple projects that have already passed stringent state laws. What’s the use in state laws when a Federal Government Minister can continually override them on a whim?”

“People wonder why you can’t get anything approved in Australia. Well, this is the exact reason. It’s green tape gone mad because of the Labor Government.”

Shadow Minister for Resources, Senator Susan McDonald said Labor’s decision encouraged anti-mining activists to use cultural considerations for their own purposes.

“Genuine cultural concerns are being weaponised to further anti-mining interests which does nothing to help Aboriginal people, depriving them of royalties and involvement in the decision-making process,” she said.

“We’ve seen this with Santos’s Barossa gas pipeline and the Jabiluka uranium lease in the Northern Territory.”

“Activists are doing Labor’s dirty work of stopping mining and this is being noticed around the world as mining companies look to invest in other countries. The current approvals process is broken and has been hijacked by interests seeking to secure inner-city Greens preferences.”

“A Coalition Government will halve approval times for new projects and defund the Environmental Defenders Office.”

“This is a ‘death by stealth’ approach, where the Government can claim they aren’t targeting mining directly.”

Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians Senator Nampijinpa Price believed the decision was ironic in light of Anthony Albanese’s push for Indigenous economic development at the recent Garma festival.

“This is a perfect example of Indigenous Australians wanting to develop their land and utilise all that it has to offer, but the Albanese government explicitly stopping them from doing so. Far too regularly we are seeing the desire of traditional owners to become economically independent on their land being stymied in the name of activist ideology.”

Senator Nampijinpa Price also said the decision also illustrates the long-standing issue of the unreliable nature of the scheme governing Indigenous land in Australia which hinders local and international investment in projects that could bring significant employment and economic benefits to Indigenous people.

“We cannot hope to encourage Indigenous economic independence while at the same time allowing a Minister to block projects at the eleventh hour which have otherwise been through due process on the basis of a small number of objections. To do so poses a serious threat to economic development for Indigenous Australians,” said Senator Nampijinpa Price.

The Albanese Labor Government continues to duck accountability for keeping Australians safe.

Why can’t the Prime Minister, or his ministers, give a straight answer about the security checks that were conducted, or are being conducted, on the 1300 people from the Gaza war zone who were issued a tourist visa to come to Australia?

The Australian people deserve an answer to each of these questions:

• Was security advice sought from ASIO before the government made the unprecedented decision to grant tourist visas to people from the Gaza war zone?
• Is the Minister for Immigration aware of any concerns from security or intelligence agencies about any of the 1300 people who have arrived in Australia from the Gaza war zone?
• Has any visa, of any of the 1300 people who are in Australia from the Gaza war zone on tourist visas, been cancelled?
• Is it true no other government in Australia’s history issued people from a war zone, led by a terrorist organisation, a tourist visa without the checks that would normally be conducted for a refugee / humanitarian visa?

It is disingenuous for the new Immigration Minister to refuse to answer questions by claiming a national security interest when information about visa cancellations is regularly published by the Department of Home Affairs.

Labor’s failed Immigration Minister Andrew Giles granted tourist visas to 3000 Gazans. That is an entirely inappropriate visa for people coming to Australia from a war zone and territory controlled by a terrorist organisation.

Any government that was serious about protecting the safety of its people would conduct a rigorous vetting process on all people coming to Australia from a war zone controlled by a terrorist organisation. The Albanese Labor Government is doing no such thing.

The Albanese Labor Government has a terrible record on immigration and national security:

• Labor botched the release of 178 detainees, including seven murderers, 37 sex offenders, and 72 violent offenders, following the NZYQ High Court decision.
• Labor told the Parliament, and the public, those detainees were released on visas with strict conditions but FOI documents have proven that claim was false.
• Labor issued a Ministerial Direction that allowed violent criminals and sex offenders to remain in Australia when they should have been deported.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles, will welcome Indonesian Defence Minister and President-elect Prabowo Subianto to Australia from 19 to 20 August 2024.

This is President-elect Prabowo’s first visit to Australia since Indonesia’s general election in February 2024.

Prime Minister Albanese and Deputy Prime Minister Marles will host President-elect Prabowo in Canberra. They will discuss Australia’s continued commitment to working in partnership with Indonesia on shared economic, security and net zero transition priorities.

Indonesia is one of Australia’s closest partners and this year our countries celebrate 75 years of bilateral diplomatic relations.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

“Indonesia and Australia are the closest of partners and I welcome the opportunity to meet with President-elect Prabowo ahead of his inauguration in October.

“My Government is committed to working with Indonesia to shape the type of region we both seek – one that is peaceful, stable and prosperous, and respectful of sovereignty.”

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles

“I have had the pleasure of working with and getting to know President-elect Prabowo during his time as Defence Minister, in which we have been making great strides in our two countries defence cooperation.

“Australia and Indonesia are working closer together than we have before and are expanding the scope and complexity of our exercises together as we address shared regional challenges.”

The Greens say Labor is keeping older Australians in the dark on its new Aged Care Act, with the community growing increasingly anxious about secrecy and delays.

Greens Older People spokesperson, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:

“Labor have shut out the disability community on NDIS reforms, they’re ignoring teachers on public school funding, and now they’re leaving older people out of the loop when it comes to aged care.

“With a federal election looming and time running out, those who voted for Labor in 2022 because of their commitment to delivering on the Royal Commission’s recommendations must be wondering if they’ve been duped.

“Action is urgently needed, but the community must be given enough time to properly consider and respond to this legislation. 

“We need to radically shift the way we approach aged care in Australia. We need to move away from the complex web of private providers, governments and consumers, where thousands of people fall through the cracks.

“The Greens took a policy to the last election of guaranteeing a human rights based approach to aged care, and stand more than willing to deliver one with Labor.”

On Equal Pay Day this year, women will have worked an extra 50 days, on average, to earn the same as men. 

The current national gender pay gap is 12 per cent, meaning women are paid an average of 12 cents less for every $1 a man makes. 

While this is a small improvement from last year, it will come of little comfort to working women seeing more of their salaries eaten up by the spiralling costs of housing, groceries and other essentials. 

Senator Larissa Waters, Greens Leader in the Senate and spokesperson on Women

“Today marks the 50 extra days women need to work, on average, to earn the equivalent salary to men.

“Women’s work is still undervalued, whether it’s paid or unpaid. Professions that are female dominated are on average paid less than male-dominated professions – despite being crucial to the functioning of society.

“The easiest way to close the gender pay gap is to pay women more. 

“The Greens repeat our calls for the government to legislate for above-average wage increases over 10 years in women-dominated industries. That would see women paid fairly, boost women’s economic security, and importantly ensure we can attract and retain staff in these critical sectors.

“The Government has recently announced it would increase early childhood workers’ pay, but not by the amount they asked for, despite these workers being chronically underpaid and starting to leave the sector as a result.

“Teachers, nurses, cleaners – all are female-dominated industries that are critical to society functioning but workers are leaving those industries because they are not being paid enough.

“The national gender pay gap is now at 12 per cent, and while this is a small improvement on last year, that will be small comfort for women working 50 days for free and wondering why there is any gender pay gap in 2024.

“The gender pay gap leads to a gap in retirement income, with women retiring into poverty after a lifetime of care and underpaid work. We know the fastest growing cohort of homelessness is women over 55.

“This year we saw WGEA provide employer-level data on the gender pay gap for the first time, a win for the Greens and advocates who have long-called for this to be made public. 

“Waiting 50 more years for pay equity is not a fair deal for women – we need the government to prioritise paying women fairly in what is already a cost of living crisis.” 

This week, we mark the return of the final Australian members deployed under the Solomons International Assistance Force (SIAF), after supporting the successful delivery of the 2023 Pacific Games and 2024 Joint Elections.

The SIAF was established after the Australian Federal Police and Australian Defence Force responded within 24 hours to Solomon Islands’ call for support in 2021.

Over the last three years, more than 1,600 Australian personnel have deployed to Solomon Islands, to work alongside military and police from Fiji, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand in support of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF).

This is part of a tradition of Pacific forces working together to maintain peace and security, and respond to crises in our region.

AFP personnel will continue working in Solomon Islands with RSIPF counterparts providing mentorship, delivering assistance for major operations, and boosting capabilities through targeted training and exchange programs.

Our Defence Cooperation Program will continue partnering with the RSIPF to boost its maritime security, explosive ordnance disposal, infrastructure and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities.

As Solomon Islands’ number one security partner, Australia is honoured to have served alongside our Pacific partners as part of SIAF and we will continue to support Solomon Islands’ priorities.

Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon Richard Marles MP:

“Australia has been proud to work with Solomon Islands as its security partner of choice, including by responding quickly to Solomon Islands’ needs through our Bilateral Security Treaty.

“Australia will continue working with the RSIPF to boost its maritime security, explosive ordnance disposal, border security, band, infrastructure, education and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities”.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong:

“As Pacific family, we will always step in to help each other, and Australia is honoured to have served alongside our Pacific partners as part of the Solomons International Assistance Force.

“We share a vision for a peaceful, stable, prosperous and unified region, where security is the shared responsibility of Pacific Islands Forum members.”

Attorney-General the Hon Mark Dreyfus KC MP:

“The Solomons International Assistance Force has worked side by side with the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force to strengthen law and order, support major events and build Pacific policing capacity.

“Off the back of the successful Pacific Games in 2023 and safe and secure Joint Elections in 2024 the Australian Federal Police will continue to build on its strong partnership with the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force through our Policing Partnership Program.”

Minister for International Development and the Pacific, the Hon Pat Conroy MP:

“The Solomons International Assistance Force has again proved the Pacific Islands Forum family is best placed to meet the security challenges facing the region, with Pacific police and defence forces working side by side to build capability together.

“This was also a practical example of what Prime Minister Manele has set out in his three-tier approach to Solomon Islands’ security.”

The disastrous 2024 NAPLAN results show there is a national crisis in Australian schools, compounded by Labor’s failed school reform agenda.

This academic scorecard reflects the dire state of school education across the nation.

With one third of students continuing to fail NAPLAN, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority’s claim these “stable” results are “an important achievement” is an embarrassment.

Across the four NAPLAN test areas of reading, writing, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy, Year 9 students fared the worst, with 35.3 per cent failing to reach minimum standards of proficiency, falling into either the ‘developing’ or ‘needs additional support’ categories.

The Albanese government has failed to deliver the national school reforms it promised and Australian children and their families are paying the price. Rather than put students first, Education Minister Jason Clare has become embroiled in a school funding war with the states which is a mess of Labor’s own making.

Delivering a back to basics education sharply focused on literacy and numeracy, underpinned by explicit teaching and a knowledge-rich, common sense curriculum, is critical to raising school standards.

It is shocking so many young Australians do not reach minimum standards of literacy and numeracy. Getting back to basics also means ridding the classroom of indoctrination and other activist causes.

Every child deserves to reach his or her best potential. That is why it is vital to support our nation’s hard working educators with evidence-based teaching resources so they can excel in the classroom.

Health Minister Mark Butler has been caught lying to Australians as the Government quietly released new data, which proves bulk billing is collapsing under Labor’s watch.

Published by the Health Department on 12 August 2024, this data shows the GP bulk billing rate decreased over the 2023-24 financial year by a further 3% to 77.3%. When the Coalition left government, the bulk billing rate was 88.5%.

The number of bulk billed GP services provided to Australians also decreased by 2.4 million in comparison to the previous year.

At the same time, the out-of-pocket costs incurred by non-bulk billed patients rose by 5.5%. This backs up research from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, which shows Australians are paying the largest percentage of GP fees on record.

This concerning new data was published on the same day that the Health Minister falsely reassured South Australians listening to 5AA radio that “bulk billing is turning around.”

Shadow Minister for Health, Senator Anne Ruston said that despite the Minister’s misleading rhetoric, the data clearly shows that it has only become harder and more expensive to see a doctor.

“If the Minister seriously thinks his government has made it easier to see a doctor, he is completely out of touch with reality.

“This past financial year, Australians’ access to bulk billed GP services has been severely reduced. At the same time, it has literally never been more expensive to pay for a non-bulk billed appointment.

“In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, Australian families are feeling the pain of increased out of pocket costs and we know many have been forced to choose between seeing their doctor or paying the bills,” Shadow Minister Ruston said.

Labor’s primary care crisis is having serious flow-on consequences for our entire health system, as further demand is being pushed down the line to overrun hospitals across the country.

The Albanese Labor Government is plainly failing to ensure Australians have affordable and ready access to essential healthcare.

Today’s delay of the 3G shutdown is a direct consequence of the mishandling of the issue by the Albanese Government.

As we have been highlighting for months, the Government was too slow to act on the warning signs, and significant responsibility for the delay sits clearly at the doorstop of the Communications Minister.

In July, we said that due to the Albanese Government’s gross incompetence it now appears highly likely that the 3G shutdown will have to be delayed. That decision has been confirmed today.

The Government was clearly disinterested in the issue and were seen to be washing their hands of the issue until what has been an untidy, last-minute scramble as the shutdown deadline loomed.

It took too long to respond to the warnings that started coming in over a year ago.

An IT expert told the recent Senate inquiry into the 3G shutdown that he wrote to the Communications Minister in June last year to warn her about risks of 4G phones being unable to call triple zero. Optus was also highlighting problems to the Government, back in July.

The Senate inquiry also heard powerful evidence about the risks of the shutdown to people with various devices, including medical and fire alarms.

Telstra and Optus have today confirmed they will delay the shutdown of their 3G networks until 28 October. Telstra had been due to shut down its 3G network in about two weeks, while Optus was due to follow in September.

We welcome the plans which Telstra and Optus have announced, including a public safety campaign for those still relying on the 3G network.

The freeing up of 3G spectrum for use in other productive telecommunications uses is an important reform, which was first announced five years ago.

The Communications Minister must ensure that the Albanese Government works hand-in-glove with the telecommunications sector and public to ensure the 3G transition is smooth and successful.