Category: Australian News

The Greens say that the funding shortfall to public schools could be met by reducing government spending on the overfunded private system by only a third.

A new report by the Centre for Future Work found that it would cost an additional $6.6 billion a year to ensure that all public schools receive 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard, the funding level schools require to provide the bare minimum level of staffing and resources. 98% of Australian public schools are currently underfunded.

In 2021, private schools received $18.6 billion in combined funding from the Commonwealth and state and territory governments.

CGreens spokesperson on Schools, Senator Penny Allman-Payne said:

“Everyone’s looking for reasons why student performance continues to fall and more and more kids are disengaging with their education – but the answer is staring us right in the face.

“Before we start tinkering with teacher training and methodologies, let’s make sure that there are enough teachers in schools, and enough resources and support for them to deliver a good education for our kids.

“There’s only one thing that will fix that: money. Right now, public schools don’t have enough, while private schools have too much. It’s as simple as that.

“$6.6 billion is only a third of what our governments spend on fee-charging private schools every year. And it’s not like that’s doing anything to keep those fees down; fees in some private schools have risen 80% in the past decade.

“$6.6 billion is also less than a third of the $20 billion surplus Labor found behind the back of the couch last month, and it’s one-sixth of a nuclear submarine we don’t need and absolutely no one asked for.

“Labor’s refusal to fund public schools to the minimum level calculated by Gonski – which they could do immediately – looks like pure bastardry at this point. Our kids are crying out for a chance and all they’re getting are pointless reviews and platitudes.

“The Greens are calling on Commonwealth and state and territory governments to deliver 100% of the SRS to every public school at the start of the next National School Reform Agreement, in January 2025.”

The Albanese Government’s plan to train, retrain or upskill Australians and tackle skills shortages is a raging success with all 180,000 Fee-Free places filled within six months.

New figures show Fee-Free TAFE enrolments have hit more than 214,300 in the first six months – six months earlier than anticipated and nearly 35,000 places more than expected.

The biggest winner is set to be the care sector, with courses across health care, aged care and disability care attracting more than 51,000 students or 23.8 per cent of total enrolments.

These urgently needed care sector places will help address Australia’s shortfall of care workers, which has been estimated to grow to a gap of 100,000 care workers nationwide by 2027-28.

Enrolments are also strong across other priority sectors, with:

• Construction attracting 20,987 enrolments (9.8 per cent)
• Technology and digital attracting 16,768 enrolments (7.8 per cent)
• Early childhood education and care attracting 11,868 enrolments (5.5 per cent)

Demographic data also shows Fee-Free TAFE is making inroads supporting disadvantaged and in-need Australians, with enrolments including 50,849 job seekers (23.7 per cent), 15,269 people with disability (7.1 per cent) and 6,845 First Nations Australians (3.2 per cent).

Women make up the majority (60.2 per cent) of enrolments, with nearly 130,000 women taking on a qualification under the program.

More than a third of enrolments (34.1 per cent) are located in inner and outer regional locations.

The Fee-Free TAFE and VET agreement was only possible because of genuine partnership on skills and training with State and Territory Government’s established at the Jobs and Skills Summit.

We will continue to work together to ensure excellence and quality in the vocational education and training sector.

The Albanese Government expects to announce the next tranche of Fee-Free training places for 2024 in coming weeks. 

Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese said:

“One of our major commitments from the Jobs and Skills Summit was delivering free TAFE places to train, retrain and upskill Australian workers.

“Working with states and territories, in six months we have smashed our target of 180,000 Fee-Free enrolments by almost 35,000 places – this is a terrific achievement.

“Fee-Free training offers a huge cost of living relief for students, grows the recruitment pool for businesses and eases the skills shortages that hold our economy back.”

Minister for Skills and Training, Brendan O’Connor said:

“This is an encouraging sign that Australia is making progress on easing skills shortages still affecting many areas of the economy post-pandemic. These shortages affect up to 31 per cent of occupations according to the 2022 Skills Priority List.

“The Australian Government is committed to working with the States and Territories, who have been great partners and advocates during the delivery of this program.

“Fee-Free TAFE is the spark that is igniting a renewed sense of optimism and potential in our vocational education and training sector and I’m looking forward to building on our success.”

On Equal Pay Day this year, women will have worked an extra 56 days, on average, to earn the same as men. The current national gender pay gap is 13 per cent. While this is a significant drop in the national gender pay gap, representing the lowest it has ever been, it will come of little comfort to working women seeing more of their salaries eaten up by everyday essentials. 

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

“Today marks the 56 extra days women need to work, on average, to earn the equivalent salary to men.

“There is now a national gender pay gap of 13 per cent. Queensland is above the average at 14.8 per cent; the second largest gender pay gap in the country.

“For those who are working part-time or casual roles, the gap is even higher at 22 per cent nationally.

“We have seen some moves to improve the Fair Work Act, including a new remuneration principle to help the Commission issue pay increases to workers in low-paid, female dominated industries, but a minimum wage increase below inflation put a dent in hopes for real improvements.

“The easiest way to close the gender pay gap is to pay women more. The government could legislate for above average wage increases over 10 years in women-dominated industries, which would provide a much-needed boost to women’s economic security and ensure we can attract and retain staff in these critical sectors. 

“The government’s Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill was also passed last year, with new rules to end pay secrecy clauses that stop employees from discussing how much they get paid, something my 2015 Fair Work Amendment (Gender Pay Gap) Bill had previously sought to legislate for. 

“The Workplace Gender Equality Agency should also be given more powers to tackle gender inequality in the workplace, including preventing companies who are not working to reduce their pay gap from getting government contracts, and requiring organisations to report on the volume of sexual harassment complaints (including actions taken) and use non-disclosure agreements.

“We need gender pay gap reporting obligations to apply to more employers, a ban on ‘pay gag clauses’ in the private sector, and stronger sanctions against companies who fail to close their pay gap.

“We welcome the minor improvement in the gender pay gap, but women still have to work an extra 56 days to earn the same average salary as men, and the government is still charging ahead with Stage 3 tax cuts that will overwhelmingly benefit already wealthy men.”

The Greens are calling on Qantas to pay back the $2.7 billion in public money it received during the Covid pandemic, and requesting that the federal government consider taking Qantas back into public ownership to protect consumers and workers.

On ABC Radio this morning Jim Chalmers has ruled out asking Qantas to pay back their Covid subsidies worth $2.7 billion.

Qantas has just posted a record profit of $2.47 billion. The Federal government also recently denied an application from Qatar Airways to add 21 weekly flights, after opposition to the proposal from Qantas. This decision comes after revelations that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s son was granted free membership to the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.

The Federal Court also found in 2021 that Qantas illegally sacked 1,700 ground staff during the pandemic. Qantas is now challenging this ruling in the High Court.

Elizabeth Watson-Brown MP, Greens spokesperson for Transport, Infrastructure and Sustainable Cities said:

“During the pandemic, Qantas was given billions in government handouts and it turned around and sacked thousands of workers and outsourced to labour hire firms.

“Now that Qantas is posting record profits, it’s only right that they should pay back the $2.7 billion in public money. If they refuse, the Labor government should consider taking Qantas back into public ownership to keep prices down and protect workers.

“Qantas’s record profits are off the back of ballooning prices for flights during a cost of living crisis. Instead of that money going to CEO bonuses and share buybacks, it should be going to paying workers, improving their conditions, and making flights cheaper for everyday people.

“It’s galling to hear the Treasurer on radio this morning running defence for Qantas’s profits instead of holding them to account.

“People are right to be suspicious of Labor’s dealings with Qantas after revelations that the Prime Minister’s son has been granted free membership to the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge, while the recent decision to block Qatar Airways and secure further monopoly status for Qantas has been made with no scrutiny or clear justification.”

After an absurd five-day drip feed strategy, the Treasurer’s Intergenerational Report shows Labor’s true plan for a big Australia with higher taxes, higher spending and deficits for the next 40 years.

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said Jim Chalmers is more interested in forecasts and commentary than delivering solutions for the problems Australians are facing today.

“This report paints a picture of Labor’s bleak future. Deficits as far as the eye can see but not a solution in sight,” Mr Taylor said.

“40 years couldn’t be further from the minds of Australians suffering under Labor’s cost of living crisis.

“Australians are worried about what their lives are going to be like in 40 days not in 40 years.

“Community support groups are seeing unprecedented numbers of Australians in jobs with mortgages who simply cannot afford to live.

“This needs to be the government’s first, second and third priority but unfortunately that’s not what we’re seeing.

“Today’s report highlights the need for a responsible government that spends taxpayers’ money wisely, incentivises investment and commits to deregulation to drive down the cost of living. Instead, Labor is promising more spending, more tax and more migration that will only make cost of living pressures worse.”

Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume said the Treasurer has decided to release an Intergenerational Report three years early to tell him something he already knows.

“Like a frog in slowly boiling water, the Albanese Labor Government has spent the last 12 months getting us ready for more and higher taxes. The IGR is just the latest in a series of government announcements that lament higher government expenditure without ever offering a solution other than higher taxes.

“This is yet another example of a government that likes to review, rather than do.

“The Coalition is committed to productivity reforms that will grow the economy, driving more effective government and supporting lower taxes so the next generation experiences a better quality of life.

“But more government, more taxes, more red tape will only make the challenges in this report worse.”

The Greens say today’s NAPLAN results are evidence that Australia’s two-tiered school system is supercharging disadvantage, and have called for a complete overhaul of the nation’s approach to school funding. 

Greens spokesperson on schools, Senator Penny Allman-Payne said:

“Today’s NAPLAN results are clear evidence that Australia needs to entirely rethink its approach to school funding.

“As a share of total education expenditure Australia spends more on private schooling than almost any other OECD country – and it’s growing. Private school coffers are overflowing while public schools, 98% of which are underfunded, are asked to do more and more with less and less.

“The fall in student performance maps directly with the growing resource gap between the private and public systems. School should help kids on a path out of disadvantage, but Australia’s two-tiered system is baking in disadvantage and supercharging inequality.

“Our neoliberal obsession with providing ‘choice’ at the expense of universality is widening the gap between the richest and poorest and worsening outcomes for all. 

“Predictably these results have generated the usual calls for changes to teaching methodologies and training. That’s all well and good, but how about we make sure there are enough teachers, support staff and resources in the classroom in the first place before we start telling teachers how to do their job.

“I hear the federal education minister talk about delivering support to the kids most in need, and that’s great. But he’s suspiciously mealy-mouthed when he’s asked if he’ll guarantee full funding to all public school students.

“We need to stop giving money hand over fist to private schools which, a decade since Gonski, are still overfunded, and deliver full funding to public schools at the start of the next National School Reform Agreement in January 2025.”

The government would have nearly another trillion dollars to tackle intergenerational inequality if Labor implemented popular and progressive tax reforms, the Greens say, urging Anthony Albanese to abandon his status quo centre-right agenda.

The release of the Intergenerational Report showcases the degree to which future generations are getting handed an increasingly fraught future – with a worsening outlook on inequality and climate.

With a significantly worsening outlook for future generations, the ABC has reported that government sources have ruled out any significant changes to tax in this term. Meanwhile, Labor continues to back more coal and gas. The Greens say this represents an abandonment of future generations.

The government would have hundreds of billions of dollars to repair generational equality if the government was to enact the following reforms:

• Tycoon Tax (corporate super profits): $286.7b from 2022-23 to 2032-33¹
• Mining Super-Profits Tax:  $109.9b from 2022-23 to 2032-33¹
• Ending fossil fuel subsidies: $117.1b from 2022-23 to 2032-33¹
• PRRT Changes: $94.5b from 2022-23 to 2032-33²
• Stopping Stage 3 Tax Cuts: $313.1b from 2023-24 to 2033-34³
• Winding back CGT/NG Discounts: $74.1b from 2022-23 to 2032-33⁴ 
  • Total: $995bn, over a decade⁵

Adam Bandt MP, Leader of the Australian Greens said:

“Stopping new coal and gas mines and taxing the billionaires and big corporations is the key to fighting intergenerational inequality,” Mr Bandt said.

“By giving tax cuts to billionaires and opening new coal and gas mines, Labor is handing people a future where the rich get richer and everyone else struggles with a broken housing system and collapsing social safety net, all set on a planet dying from climate collapse.

“Labor can’t complain about future ‘pressures on the budget’ while giving tax cuts to politicians and billionaires. 

“Labor can’t pretend to care about the climate crisis while approving new coal and gas projects. 

“By trying to walk both sides of the fence on climate and inequality, Labor is setting up future generations for disaster.

“Instead of refusing to fund services, Labor should axe the Stage 3 tax cuts for politicians and billionaires and make the big corporations pay their fair share of tax. 

“If Labor had the courage to enact these sensible reforms, the government would have almost a trillion dollars over the next decade to put dental and mental health into Medicare, build public homes, and rapidly accelerate the transition out of coal and gas into clean energy.”

Senator Nick McKim, Australian Greens Economic Justice Spokesperson said:

“Anthony Albanese’s legacy shouldn’t be leaving young people with a housing market that’s completely cooked, a planet on fire, and skyrocketing wealth inequality,” Senator McKim said.

“If Labor was serious about improving the lives of future generations they’ve got almost a trillion dollars to make it happen. Labor just needs to find the courage to take on rich people and big corporations.

“Young people know that the Labor party isn’t representing them – and are seeing their future prospects sold off to curry favour with billionaires and coal and gas donors. They deserve better than that.

“A tax and spend regime has been a critical part of progressive reforms across the world. By turning down this opportunity, Labor is abandoning future generations in hopes of becoming the default centre-right party.”

¹Source: PBO, Australian Greens 2022 Election Platform

² Source: PBO, April 2023 Costing

³ Source: PBO, May 2023 Costing:  

⁴ Source: PBO, as delivered in Adam Bandt’s NPC Address

⁵ Note: These all represent a decade’s worth of revenue measures. As the Stage 3 Tax Cuts come into effect in the 23/24 financial year, this component has a different start date to the other measures.

The Human Rights Commissioner has today become the latest critic of Labor’s deeply flawed Misinformation plan.

Commissioner Lorraine Finlay has published her submission ahead of the Government, and has also written a powerful opinion piece in The Australian setting out her concerns with the Labor’s proposed Bill.

Public submissions on the draft Bill closed on Sunday but the Government has delayed publishing them until September, raising serious transparency questions around Labor’s plan.

The HRC Commissioner has taken the draft Bill apart, setting out four major criticisms of the Bill.

Ms Finlay highlights that authorised government content is excluded from being deemed as misinformation. She says “this fails to acknowledge the reality that misinformation and disinformation can come from government” and the result would be that:

“…government content can never be misinformation but content critical of the government produced by political opponents might be.”

The Commissioner says the “overly broad and vague” definitions of terms such as “misinformation” and “harm”:

“…risk enabling unpopular or controversial opinions or beliefs to be subjectively labelled as misinformation or disinformation, and censored as a result.”

Ms Finlay says the low threshold on what constitutes “harm” is also a concern, noting the Bill requires content to not actually cause harm, but to only be “reasonably likely to cause or contribute to serious harm.”

She says that “Reasonable people may have very different views about what constitutes harm” and that the harm threshold under the Bill is so low, it “risks allowing an extremely broad range of content potentially to be restricted.”

The Human Rights Commissioner also warns there are “inherent dangers” in giving the power to decide what is misinformation to one body. The risk here, she says, is that:

“… efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation could be used to legitimise attempts to restrict public debate and censor unpopular opinions.”

Mr Coleman said the Human Rights Commission is absolutely right to identify that this Bill would restrict freedom of expression in Australia.

‘Australians are entitled to have different views, and the last thing we want is for the Government to decide what is and is not an acceptable opinion,” Mr Coleman said.

“As the Human Rights Commission submission has highlighted, the Bill would allow people to be targeted based on their opinions. This is completely unacceptable in a democratic nation.

“Today’s intervention follows similar criticism of the Government Bill by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, and so we are now seeing both union and human rights leaders criticising the Government’s plan.”

A $60 billion black hole has torn through the Albanese Government’s 2030 renewable energy plan exposing a Labor lie and leaving everyday Australians to pay the bill.

A leading energy economist has revealed that more than $60 billion of mega energy projects, which Labor is seeking to build by 2030, are unaccounted for in Labor’s logic despite its significant impact on the energy prices paid by households.

The concerns arise through the GenCost study which evaluates the levelised cost of electricity for different energy generating technologies and provides the central justification for Labor’s radical energy experiment.

Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy Ted O’Brien said Labor’s Climate Change and Energy Minister had deliberately misrepresented the study to blind Australians of the true cost of Labor’s plan.

“Chris Bowen has buried a $60 billion black hole in Labor’s radical energy experiment, and it will be everyday Australian households and businesses that pay the price,” Mr O’Brien said.

“It’s high time that Labor came clean with the Australian people and explained the true cost of its radical energy experiment.”

“Australians are paying some of the highest energy bills in the world despite false promises from Labor that it would cut household power bills by $275.”

The whopping $60 billion price tag was calculated by experienced economist, David Carland in a formal submission to the CSIRO and includes projects such as Snowy 2.0, Marinus Link, VNI West and the Battery of the Nation.

The total figure is likely to be far larger with many more costs associated with household energy storage and distribution costs unknown.

“How deep does this black hole go?” Mr O’Brien asks Labor’s Climate Change and Energy Minister.

“Labor’s energy pathway does not account for one cent of the enormous network integration costs and there are billions more to be uncovered.”

“The enormous network cost of connecting Australian homes with solar, wind or gas generators do not simply vanish because Labor wants it too. These costs are paid for by every single business and household in Australia through higher energy bills.”

In the open letter to the editor published in the Australian on 28 July, CSIROs Chief Economist Paul Graham stated the GenCost “report does not provide the cumulative cost of all investments up to 2030” and that “all existing generation, storage and transmission capacity up to 2030 is treated as sunk costs.”

The Coalition’s energy spokesperson thanked CSIRO’s Chief Economist for clarifying the details of the GenCost report and blasted Chris Bowen for lying to Australians about the true cost of its transition.

“Labor continues to tell Australians that a balance of technologies isn’t needed, claiming renewables alone will deliver the cheapest form of energy but, it has not accounted for at least $60 billion of energy infrastructure to be built out through to 2030.”

“We need to replace Labor’s dangerous ideology with a balanced ‘All-of the Above’ approach that allows for a mix of different technologies, including renewables.”

“What really matters, and what Labor deliberately ignores, is the total system costs of energy because that’s what hits people’s power bills.”

As Ukraine today marks its Independence Day, we reinforce our commitment to Ukraine and its people.

This 32^nd Independence Day comes 18 months after Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion.

Despite the struggles Ukraine has faced in these past 18 months, its people continue to demonstrate enormous courage and resilience.

Today, we reaffirm our support for the people of Ukraine, its sovereignty, its territorial integrity and the stand it is taking for all democracies.

The toll of Russia’s aggression on Ukraine and its people has been enormous with thousands of Ukraine troops and civilians losing their lives and many more injured, including women and children. A grim reality is that the number of deaths and wounded is likely to escalate before this conflict ends.

Just this week a six-year-old girl was one of seven killed and 15 children were among more than 100 injured in a Russian missile attack in the northern city of Chernihiv, adding to the growing toll.

The Coalition continues to provide bipartisan support for the Australian Government to support Ukraine’s defence with as much support as possible, as quickly as possible.

The Coalition applauds the recent announcement by the Australian Government of 30 additional Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicles for Ukraine. We urge the Government to ensure their timely delivery to help save lives on the frontline.

Australia’s comprehensive contribution to Ukraine, established under the Coalition Government, has, under the Albanese Labor Government, declined compared to that of other non-NATO nations. A considerable show of support for Ukraine would be the re-opening of the Australian Embassy in Kyiv. Many other nations have re-opened but so far, the Albanese Government has given no indication of when it will re-open Australia’s Embassy.

We urge the Government to step up to match Australians’ overwhelming support for Ukraine. Australians have opened their hearts to Ukranian nationals, with the special humanitarian visa, created by the Coalition Government, granted to more than 10,000 people, with more than 5,000 already arrived in Australia to re-settle in peace and safety.

On Ukraine Independence Day, we stand with the people of Ukraine and all those who support its struggle against Russia.

We particularly hold in our thoughts and prayers those in Australia from Ukraine and those with family and friends in Ukraine. Today is another difficult day for them as they endure the constant uncertainty facing their loved ones and homeland.

The Coalition reaffirms its unwavering commitment to Ukraine and its people through both these darkest days and the rebuilding that will come in what we can all only hope, is the not-too-distant future.