Author: admin

Today I announce the appointment of Ms Lydia Santoso as Chair of the Australia-Indonesia Institute.

The Australia-Indonesia Institute has long championed initiatives that strengthen personal, institutional and cultural ties between Australia and Indonesia. Our relationship with Indonesia is grounded in a history of friendship and cooperation between our people and governments.

The Board sets the strategic direction for the Institute’s programs and activities, which support partnerships in business, the arts, education, health, science, technology and sport.

Ms Santoso has been a Board Member since 2015 and long been an advocate for forging cultural connections and deepening Australia’s economic engagement with Indonesia. She is currently Chair of the Australia Indonesia Business Council (NSW) and serves on the board of the Australian Consortium for ‘In-Country’ Indonesian Studies.

I am also pleased to announce the appointment of three new board members, who each bring a wealth of experience to support the goals of the Institute, including the broadening and deepening of Australian-Indonesian relations:

• Dr Jemma Purdey is an Adjunct Fellow at the Australia Indonesia Centre, Monash University, the editor of Inside Indonesia magazine and a founding Director of the ReelOzInd! Australia Indonesia Short Film Festival.
• Mr Robert Law is a Director at Asialink Business, advising businesses on engagement with Asia.
• Mr Robbie Gaspar was the first Australian to play professional soccer in Indonesia and is President of the Indonesia Institute.

Ms Amanda Hodge, Southeast Asia correspondent for The Australian newspaper, and Ms Armina Rosenberg, portfolio manager at Minotour, an AI-powered hedge fund, have also been reappointed for a second three-year term.

I would like to thank outgoing Chair, Emeritus Professor Greg Fealy AM, and fellow Board Member, Franchesca Cubillo, for their contributions to the work of the Institute.

To find out more, see Australia-Indonesia Institute.

Dutton clueless on APS cuts

Peter Dutton’s determination to undo efforts to rebuild the Australian Public Service (APS) by slashing jobs will end up costing the nation more according to the Greens spokesperson on Finance and the Public Service, Senator Barbara Pocock.

New analysis commissioned by the Greens suggests that money spent on outsourcing work to the private sector costs more than three times as much as having the work done in-house.

Senator Barbara Pocock:

“Our analysis shows the government could have hired 179,832 public servants with the $20.8 billion that was spent on external labour in the last year of the Morrison Government. That massive spend only created 54,000 jobs in the private sector. You don’t need an economics degree to work out where to get the best value for money. It’s clearly in the public sector.

“These figures demonstrate that outsourcing public sector work has cost Australian taxpayers more than three times as much doing that work in-house. If Dutton is on an efficiency drive, he should be hiring more public servants.

“Peter Dutton is peddling a myth about a bloated public service. If you look at the APS headcount as a percentage of the labour force it has actually gone down over the past decade from 1.53% in 2012 to 1.36% in June last year.

“The public service has been hollowed out over the Coalition years. What we need now is not further denigration of the APS by a Musk-like razor gang, but to rebuild capacity to allow all of that core work, outsourced at great expense under Morrison, to be done more cheaply, more reliably and with more accountability by a well-resourced public service.

“Dutton has gone out of his way to characterise commonwealth public servants as Canberra-based and also claimed all of the positions added in the past 3 years have been in Canberra. This defies reality as only a third of the current headcount are in the ACT. There are over 60,000 federal public servants in NSW and Victoria alone; 24,000 in Queensland; nearly 13,000 in South Australia and more than 22,000 in regional Australia.

“The APS is far from Canberra centric. However, the Coalition strategy hinges on casting a well-staffed Canberra based bureaucracy as somehow being bad for the business of government. The opposite is actually true. All those dedicated APS workers in the state and territory capitals and out in the regions, rely on a strong and responsive back-of-house workforce in Canberra.

“This demonisation of the Canberra bureaucrats by Dutton, shows a failure to understand how the public service actually works. This is dangerous stuff coming from an alternative Prime Minister. What’s at stake is the quality of service that all Australians rely on in their dealings with government.

“If the leader of the opposition is not willing to name which jobs will go under a Coalition government, which state capitals will lose their workforce, which regional centres will lose more staff, perhaps it’s because he hasn’t got a clue.”

The Victorian Greens will first read a new Bill that would introduce a 0.05% levy on the big banks to generate $16.5 billion in revenue over the next decade which the Greens say could be invested into direct cost of living measures for Victorians. 

It comes as households anxiously await today’s RBA announcement on interest rates, just days after Commonwealth Bank recorded a mammoth $5.1 billion profit in just six months. 

The policy has been fully costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office to raise $16.5 billion over the next decade, and approximately $4.8 billion over forward estimates, or around $1.5 billion annually. 

The Victorian Greens say the Bill is aimed at putting pressure on the Victorian Labor Government ahead of the fast approaching 2025 Budget, and that this is an opportunity for the new Treasurer to rein in the big banks while generating billions in revenue that could be invested into real cost of living relief for Victorians.  

the Victorian Greens Economic Justice Spokesperson, Aiv Puglielli: 

“Do you think it’s reasonable that the big banks can rake in over $5 billion in profits in just six months while we can’t even properly fund our public schools and hospitals?

“We’re told that Victoria is broke, that we can’t afford to upgrade our schools or build more public housing, or fix our health system, but the big banks are getting away scott free with cashing in on everyday Victorians. 

“Banking lobbyists will come out swinging but the reality is that the banks can afford this when they’re recording multi billion dollar record profits, paying their CEOs millions and we can’t even properly fund our public services. 

“With a budget around the corner, this levy is just one thing that we can do right now at the state level to hand a small amount of the big banks’ super profits back to Victorians.”

A disgusting pollution event at Verona Sands shows how unaccountable Tasmania’s salmon farming corporations have become, the Greens say.

“This is a gross and disgusting mess on a beautiful and much-loved beach,” Greens Senator for Tasmania Nick McKim said.

“This is what happens when salmon farming corporations think they are above the law.”

“The industry should have got on the front foot and been up front with Tasmanians about this event, but instead they’ve ducked for cover. This is appalling corporate behaviour.”

“The Labor and Liberal parties bend over backwards for salmon farms, which leads to complacency from the big multinational corporations who only care about profit.”

“We have a complicit Liberal state government in bed with salmon farming corporations, and a Federal Labor government promising to undermine Australia’s weak environment laws to benefit corporate profits.”

“The environment regulator needs to come down on the responsible company like a tonne of bricks, but more importantly the Labor and Liberal parties need to get out of the pockets of big salmon, and start acting to protect the environment.”

The Victorian Greens are calling on Premier Allan and Housing Minister Harriet Shing to own up to Daniel Andrews’ reckless mistake and stop the demolition of all 44 public housing towers, as reports reveal that many within Labor’s own ranks are ‘livid’ about the plan they say has ‘absolutely no justification’. 

The Age have revealed the deepening internal fractures within Labor over the disastrous plan which threatens to displace over ten thousand public housing residents, with Labor figures labelling it nothing more than a ‘thought bubble’ from Andrews, ‘a very bad decision’ and a ‘sloppy bit of politics’. 

The Victorian Greens have consistently said that this plan never stacked up, and now that even those within Labor’s own ranks are speaking out, it’s time for the Premier and the Housing Minister to admit that and pull the plug. 

the Victorian Greens Public and Affordable Housing spokesperson, Gabrielle de Vietri: 

“This plan that threatens to displace ten thousand people and rip communities apart never made any sense – it’s based on no evidence, no facts, just the arrogant musings of a tired former Premier on the way out and even people within Labor’s own ranks know it.” 

“The retreat from public housing in Victoria is so profound that even within Labor, people can’t stay quiet any longer. Not only do we already have the least amount of public housing, we also have a Housing Minister who maintains she wants to demolish our existing public housing while outright refusing to commit to building more.” 

“The wheels are falling off this disastrous plan. It’s time for the Premier and the Housing Minister to own up to Andrew’s reckless mistake. It’s not too late for them to finally listen to the facts, the residents, the countless experts and stop the demolition.”

Today the NACC has announced it will finally investigate the 6 referrals it received from the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme.

The change in position comes following the independent reconsideration by Mr Geoffrey Nettle AC. 

Greens Senator for NSW and Justice Spokesperson said: 

“We welcome the rapid fair and unbiased decision by Geoffrey Nettle KC to instigate a corruption investigation of the Robodebt scandal. 

“This is a chance for justice for the thousands of people across the country whose lives and families were shattered by Robodebt. 

“Today’s announcement is a clear rejection of NACC’s previous decision, in which Commissioner Brereton was deeply involved, to ignore this scandal. 

“There have now been two senior independent reviews that amount to public repudiations of the direction of the NACC under Commissioner Brereton’s leadership. 

“The Greens join with millions across the country who demand a National Anti Corruption Commission that they can trust. 

“This trust is undermined by the continued presence of Commissioner Brereton.