The CEOs of Coles and Woolworths will next week face the Greens-led Senate inquiry into supermarket pricing.

“They’ll have to answer for price gouging shoppers and putting the squeeze on farmers,” Greens Economic Justice spokesperson and Committee chair Senator Nick McKim said.

“They’ll have to explain how they are raking in billions in profits while millions of Australians are struggling to put food on the table.”

“People have spoken about skipping meals, being forced to dumpster dive and missing out on other essentials.”

“We’ve heard from farmers and suppliers who have been sent to the wall because of Coles’ and Woolworths’ abuse of market power.”

“It’s time for the CEOs to front the Senate and face the music.”

“They will need to explain why they are in denial of their market dominance and have fought any regulation that threatens their power over shoppers and farmers.”

The programs for next week’s hearings can be found here.

The Australian Government is pleased to recommend to His Excellency, the Governor-General, a number of senior command changes within the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Subject to the Governor-General’s consideration and approval, the changes will take effect in July 2024.

The Vice Chief of the Defence Force, Vice Admiral David Johnston, AC, RAN will be appointed as the new Chief of the Defence Force. Vice Admiral Johnston joined the ADF in 1978 and has demonstrated outstanding leadership as the Vice Chief of the Defence Force since 2018. His experience in command and the strategic design of the integrated force will be critical to embedding the outcomes of the Defence Strategic Review.

The Government extends its deepest gratitude and thanks to retiring Chief of the Defence Force, General Angus Campbell AO, DSC. General Campbell joined the ADF in January 1981 and has had a distinguished career, leading the nation through regional and global security challenges. He has been at the forefront of driving organisational and cultural change to enhance the ADF as a modern, highly capable, integrated force centred on its people and Defence values.

Air Marshal Robert Chipman, AO, CSC, will be appointed as the new Vice Chief of the Defence Force. Appointed as the Chief of Air Force in July 2022, Air Marshal Chipman has provided excellent and considered leadership of the Royal Australian Air Force over the past two years.

Air Vice‑Marshal Stephen Chappell, DSC, CSC, OAM, will be appointed on promotion as the Chief of Air Force. Air Vice‑Marshal Chappell is currently the Head of Military Strategic Commitments and is well placed to lead Air Force and its people at this critical time.

Following confirmation of the Federal Executive Council of the preceding statutory appointments by the Governor General, other senior ADF appointments will also change in early July 2024. The Chief of the Defence Force, in consultation with the Secretary of Defence, Mr Greg Moriarty, AO, and ADF chiefs has recommended to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, the following senior appointments:

Rear Admiral Justin Jones, CSC, will replace Lieutenant General Greg Bilton, AO, CSC, as the Chief of Joint Operations. Rear Admiral Jones is currently the Deputy Chief of Joint Operations.

Major General Susan Coyle, AM, CSC, DSM, will replace Lieutenant General John Frewen, AO, DSC, as the Chief of Joint Capabilities. Major General Coyle is currently the Commander of Army’s Forces Command.

Lieutenant General Gavan Reynolds, AO will complete his term as the inaugural Chief of Defence Intelligence. The Chief of Defence Intelligence position will rotate to a civilian appointment with the replacement to be identified in due course.

The Government extends its sincerest gratitude to General Campbell and Lieutenant Generals Bilton, Frewen and Reynolds, and to their families, for their longstanding commitment to defending the nation, their service to country and their lasting contribution to the ADF.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

“I’d like to congratulate all personnel for accepting these appointments, and leading the Australian Defence Force with the values and tenets the Australian public expect of our military leaders.

“I look forward to working with you to plan and deliver a more integrated and focused Defence Force.

“’I’d personally like to thank General Campbell for his service over many years.

“General Campbell has served our nation with great distinction, during a period of significant strategic change and cultural reform.”

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles

“It is an honour to announce these senior appointments who will lead the Australian Defence Force during a period of increasing strategic competition and remain focused on delivering on key defence priorities and outcomes.

“I’d like to thank General Campbell who has been a pivotal Defence leader through thoughtful, necessary and difficult change. He oversaw the drawdown of Australian troops in the Middle East region and reorientation of our military focus to the Indo-Pacific. He has been a strong advocate for operational accountability, strengthening our alliance and regional relationships, supporting the wellbeing of ADF personnel and maximising the power and effectiveness of an integrated force.

“I thank General Campbell, and all outgoing senior ADF leaders, for their service to our nation. I also want to acknowledge their families, and thank them for their commitment and their sacrifice.”

Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin (Rtd) will serve as Special Adviser to the Australian Government on Israel’s response to the Israel Defense Forces strikes which killed Zomi Frankcom, and six of her World Central Kitchen colleagues.

Air Chief Marshal Binskin served as Chief of the Australian Defence Force from 2014 to 2018, and prior to that, as Vice Chief of the Defence Force, and Chief of Air Force. In 2020, he Chaired the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements and he is currently Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority and the Pacific Security College.

His experience and expertise mean ACM Binskin is eminently qualified to provide the Australian Government advice on the sufficiency and appropriateness of steps taken by the Israeli Government.

ACM Binskin will engage with Israel and the Israel Defense Forces on the response to the attack which killed Zomi and her colleagues. Australia has made clear to the Israeli Government our expectation and trust that this engagement will be facilitated.

This work will include examination of:

• Arrangements for the investigation of this incident.
• IDF policies and procedures for operational incidents.
• Measures taken to hold those responsible to account.
• If further investigation is warranted.
• Measures adopted to prevent such incidents happening again.

The Special Adviser will provide advice to the Australian Government regarding any further representations or actions that could be taken to ensure a full and transparent investigation and to hold those responsible to account.

The Australian Government has been clear that we expect full accountability for these deaths. The appointment of ACM Binskin will ensure the family of Zomi Frankcom, and the Australian people can have confidence in this process.

On World Health Day, Australia is investing up to $45.5 million in six new initiatives to strengthen health systems across the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Our support recognises that improving health systems is vital to ensuring our region is resilient against current and future health challenges, including those posed by climate change.

Among the new initiatives are training for essential health workforce skills, including critical care, nursing and midwifery, and support to improve disease surveillance and response, including tackling the increasing challenge of antimicrobial resistance.

The package also includes funding to strengthen health information systems, so that health workers have the data they need to manage health services, including having the right medicines in stock.

In addition, we are supporting greater inclusion of people with psychosocial disabilities, working with their representative organisations to increase access to quality, rights-based mental health services.

The activities will draw on Australian and international expertise, including from Alfred Health, Australian National University, Beyond Essential Systems and mSupply Foundation, CBM Australia, University of Technology Sydney, and University of Sydney.

Today’s announcement is part of Australia’s Partnerships for a Healthy Region initiative, which works with governments and civil society organisations in the Pacific and Southeast Asia to build resilient, equitable and inclusive health systems.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong:

“Australia is working with governments and civil society organisations in the Pacific and Southeast Asia to build more resilient health systems, better equipped to handle current and future health challenges, including those posed by climate change.”

“Access to quality, effective and inclusive health services is everyone’s right. A healthier region benefits all of us and underpins our shared success, prosperity and stability.”

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

“Australia is a longstanding and committed partner for our region’s health. This World Health Day, we are reaffirming that commitment with a substantial package of support.

“Working with partners with deep local connections and long-term relationships in health is a critical way to deliver sustainable results.”

The Greens have today raised concerns about NOPSEMA’s regulation of the offshore fossil fuel industry following a pipeline rupture at an ageing gas rig off the Victorian coast, causing pollution visible on the ocean’s surface.

The pipeline linking two Esso/ExxonMobil platforms is being investigated by NOPSEMA as the source of a suspected hydrocarbon spill.

Esso is currently applying to use the Gippsland Basin for sea dumping carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans, Peter Whish-Wilson: 

“Australia desperately needs stronger laws and regulations to govern the offshore fossil fuel industry. The current regulatory framework doesn’t provide sufficient environmental or economic protection from impacts of the offshore oil and gas sector – including impacts relating to the decommissioning of ageing and toxic offshore oil and gas rigs.

“NOPSEMA is supposed to have oversight and regulate the environmental management of the offshore fossil fuel industry, but coastal communities are fast losing confidence in the ‘independent’ regulator, which has become more of an enabler than an investigator of offshore oil and gas projects. 

“Big fossil fuel corporations make millions from Australia’s offshore oil and gas fields and repeatedly get away with failing to clean up after themselves. 

“If Esso cannot manage to decommission rig infrastructure safely I highly doubt it’s capable of carrying out risky carbon capture and storage it has planned for the region.

“These corporations simply cannot be trusted and are only concerned with their bottom line – they will always try to cut costs at the expense of the environment and the taxpayer who is left to clean up their mess, so it’s critical that NOPSEMA’s investigation into the Esso/ExxonMobil pipeline rupture is carried out with the utmost transparency.”

Australia welcomes the United Nations Secretary-General’s appointment of former foreign minister the Hon Julie Bishop as the United Nations Special Envoy on Myanmar.

Ms Bishop brings a wealth of experience to the role, and her appointment comes at a critical time as the political, humanitarian and security situation in Myanmar continues to worsen.

The people of Myanmar continue to demonstrate great resolve in the face of unspeakable violence and human rights abuses, and Australia remains resolute in our support for them.

The Special Envoy plays a vital role in sustaining international attention and supporting coordinated efforts towards a peaceful resolution in the interests of the people of Myanmar.

Australia will work closely with Ms Bishop as United Nations Special Envoy, ASEAN and the international community to deploy our collective efforts to build conditions for sustainable peace in the country.

We reiterate our call on the Myanmar regime to cease violence against civilians, release those unjustly detained, allow safe and unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance, and return Myanmar to the path of inclusive democracy.

The Greens call for full transparency from Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef Senator Nita Green and GBRMPA CEO Josh Thomas on their recent covert visit to UNESCO in Paris. 

It comes as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority quietly released data late yesterday showing a shocking 75% of the Great Barrier Reef has again bleached – the fifth mass coral bleaching now recorded in the past eight years. 

Transparency from the government about its mission to Paris is particularly important given the World Heritage Committee will meet in India from 21-31 July 2024 and decide whether the Great Barrier Reef meets the criteria for inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger. 

Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson:

“New data revealing three-quarters of the Great Barrier Reef has been bleached is shocking, and I have no doubt many Australians will feel a deep sense of despair hearing this news. 

“It’s beyond any doubt the ‘outstanding universal values’ that saw the Great Barrier Reef inscribed as one of the greatest UNESCO World Heritage treasurers are in danger from warming oceans and consistent marine heatwaves, primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

“Successive governments have gone to extraordinary lengths to stop an ‘in danger’ listing of the Great Barrier Reef by deliberately deceiving the world of the severity of climate change impacts on the reef, while at the same time approving massive new fossil fuel projects. 

“It’s time for no more spin, deceit and distractions. The Greens are calling for full transparency of any recent lobbying of UNESCO by the Albanese government in relation to the Great Barrier Reef. We need trust in the Albanese government’s motivations and actions to save this greatest of natural icons.

“If the Great Barrier Reef’s key management body, GBRMPA, and its parliamentary envoy can’t truly advocate for securing the reef’s future, then who can?

“In 2023 the World Heritage Centre and IUCN declared the Great Barrier Reef ‘remains under serious threat’ and identified priority recommendations — many of which including mitigating the impacts of climate change — to avoid the natural icon being inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger. 

“Mitigating the impacts of climate change is one thing, but the Great Barrier Reef can’t be protected from the political stupidity of prioritising new coal and gas over coral.

“Until the Albanese government stops opening new coal and gas, any claims we are on track to protect the Great Barrier Reef from an ‘in danger’ listing are duplicitous and need to be called out. 

“If the Albanese government is serious about protecting the Great Barrier Reef it must treat the root cause of the reef’s decline, which is rising emissions from burning fossil fuels.”

Today’s monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) data is a reminder of the extraordinary financial pain that hardworking Australian families are experiencing because of the Albanese Labor Government’s bad policies.

Core inflation – the RBA’s preferred measure, the trimmed mean – rose to 3.9%, which is still well above the RBA’s target band.

Since Labor came to power the price of everyday essentials for Australian families have all gone up:

• Bread by 16.4%
• Dairy (milk) by 17.6%
• Rent by 12.1%
• Electricity by 16.5%
• Gas by 26.4%
• Education by 10.9%
• Insurance and financial services by 14.1%

These numbers are stark but they won’t come as a surprise for hardworking Australians who are at the coal face of Labor’s cost of living crisis.

Over the last two years of the Albanese Labor Government, Australians’ living standards have collapsed, and this government has no plan to restore it.

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said Australians face highly uncertain economic times and the future looks grim under Labor.

“The Albanese Labor Government is patting themselves on the back, pointing to the headline figure of 3.4%. But core inflation has risen to 3.9%.

“This government keeps telling Australians they’ve never had it better. Well that just shows how out of touch Labor is.

“Speak to any ordinary Australian on the street and they will tell you that cost of living pressures have gotten worse since the 2022 election.

“The damage has been done to household budgets. Under this government, we’ve seen prices for the basic necessities like food, insurance and power, soar.

“The economy has shuddered to a halt. And instead of the government getting its priorities right, hardworking Australians have been left to do the heavy lifting.

“People are being stretched to the absolute limit because Labor keeps taking from family budgets to bolster its own.”

The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee is holding a hearing in Rockingham to discuss the Government’s proposed legislation for the Australian Nuclear Power Safety Bill on Thursday 4th of April 2024. 

Senator Jordon Steele-John, the Australian Greens portfolio holder for Nuclear Disarmament, Peace and Foreign Affairs will be in attendance at the hearing alongside his colleagues Senator David Shoebridge and Senator Dorinda Cox. The hearing will receive evidence from WA local anti-AUKUS groups, the WA Government and those seeking to benefit from the AUKUS deal. 

Steele-John and his Greens colleagues have long criticised AUKUS, calling for the Government to rethink the deal, which sees a rotational force of nuclear-powered submarines entering Australian waters as soon as 2027. 

In 2022, Senator Steele-John tabled a petition in the Senate from the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network on behalf of 26,000 people who support Australia’s withdrawal from the AUKUS agreement and to scale back the United States’ involvement in Australian defence. 

“I hope that this hearing will show that the AUKUS deal does not exist to benefit our WA community, instead, it benefits large weapons manufacturers and consultants at a time when profits are at an all-time high. As a Rockingham local, I’m concerned about how AUKUS will affect our biodiversity hotspots like Cockburn Sound, especially in the event of a nuclear accident” said Jordon Steele-John. 

David Shoebridge, Greens Spokesperson for Defence said: “This Bill creates a regulator with an inherent conflict of interest, overrides First Nations and community rights, all to allow the dumping of US and UK nuclear submarine waste in Australia.

“It is a desperately undemocratic, cynical and dangerous bit of legislation.”

“The Albanese Government is flailing around on this issue, contradicting their own Department, stumbling through negotiations, not explaining their legislation and hiding from the public.

“You cannot get more high stakes than nuclear power and high level nuclear waste, one wrong move can have devastating consequences and so far it has all been wrong moves.

“The Government has designed this law to ride roughshod over First Nations people who have successfully defended their land from previous attempts to dump nuclear waste.” Senator Shoebridge said.

“Nuclear waste disposal on First Nations land without consent continues to threaten our sovereignty and ability to self-determine. We have been the land, air and water custodians for more than 65000 years. We understand and care for communities, people and the environment. AUKUS is the byproduct of continued oppression and erosion of the human rights of First Nations people” said Senator Cox. 

In addition to the public hearing, Senator Jordon Steele-John is hosting a panel discussion including Senator David Shoebridge, Senator Dorinda Cox,  and Greens Candidate for the Legislative Council Sophie McNeill, at the Coogee Community Centre on the 4th of April at 6:30 pm to talk about how the community can get organised to stop the AUKUS deal and keep WA nuclear free. 

His Majesty King Charles III, on my recommendation, has approved the appointment of Ms Samantha Mostyn AO as Australia’s next Governor-General.

Ms Mostyn will succeed His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Ret’d) and will be Australia’s 28th Governor-General when she is sworn in on 1 July 2024.

Ms Mostyn is known for her exceptional service to the Australian community. She is a businesswoman and community leader with a long history in executive and governance roles across diverse sectors.

In 2021, Ms Mostyn was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to business, the community and women. She has been a member of the Australian Faculty of The Prince of Wales’s Business & Sustainability Programme for 12 years, and a senior associate in the International Programme.

Ms Mostyn, a daughter of an army officer, is a lawyer by training, who started her career as an associate in the Court of Appeal of the NSW Supreme Court, and has worked at law firms Freehills and Gilbert and Tobin. She has more recently been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the Australian National University.

Ms Mostyn has had an extensive career in the Australian business community, including working at senior levels in telecommunications and insurance companies in Australia and globally. She has also held senior non-executive roles on boards including Transurban, Virgin Australia, and has been chair of Citibank Australia. She currently chairs AWARE Super and Alberts Music Group and is on the board of Mirvac.

Ms Mostyn has been a Commissioner with the Australian Football League (AFL) and a driving force behind the AFL Women’s (AFLW).

Ms Mostyn has chaired multiple not-for-profit boards, including Beyond Blue, the Foundation of Young Australians, Australians Investing in Women, Ausfilm and the Australian National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety and Australian Volunteers International. She has been President of the Australian Council for International Development and President of Chief Executive Women as well as a National Mental Health Commissioner.

The Governor-General holds office at the pleasure of The King, however the term is usually understood to be five years.

His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley will conclude his appointment on 1 July 2024.

On behalf of the Government and the people of Australia I thank General Hurley for his service to our country and convey our deep respect for the outstanding way he discharged his duties as Governor-General.

I extend sincere congratulations and best wishes to Ms Mostyn on her appointment.