Category: Australian News

There has been an 11% increase in the number of Aussies being forced to sell their homes since Labor took office (Courier-Mail 04/04/2023). While the Australian treasurer Jim Chalmers spent yesterday begging for pats on the back over the announcement from the RBA that interest rates didn’t jump again, the forced sale statistic should have been his focus.

Jim Chalmers was called a ‘factional hack’, ‘backstabber’ and described as a weak crybaby by former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in his book ‘The PM Years’. In that same book, Rudd reports Chalmers admitted to him that the now former PM wouldn’t have wanted him in parliament (pages 586,587).

Families are crying right now as their homes are being stripped from underneath them by a callous and mean-spirited Labor government. Children are being thrown out on the street into a market that has no rental availability by a grossly incompetent Labor government and Treasurer.

Labor has splashed cash since taking office on vanity projects like a referendum, and this spending has contributed to the Reserve Bank’s decision to increase interest rates.

People feel stabbed in the back by Treasurer Jim Chalmers when he gloats about opening the floodgates to hundreds of thousands of immigrants, which the ABC has admitted is the primary cause for the rental crisis and will be for some time (ABC News 03/04/2023).

Rudd’s treasurer Wayne Swan was widely accepted as the most incompetent Treasurer next to the disgraced Jim Cairns of the Whitlam era. Swan employed Jim Chalmers as his chief of staff. Chalmers’ training ground, as documented by Kevin Rudd, was the factional backrooms of the Canberra bubble. It’s no wonder Labor hasn’t got a single policy to help Aussies in financial strife.

One Nation proposes reducing government spending to balance the budget and reduce immigration significantly.

The ABC has published a story (03/042023 ABC news – Why can’t you find a cheap rental anymore?) about the real cause of the rental crisis. It seems that event societies elites are coming around to the reality that the exact reason for the rental crisis is immigration.

Finally, the ABC takes One Nation’s core policy points and delivers the hard cold facts about immigration that must send a shiver down the spines of those elitists in the inner city who just don’t want to hear it.

There are several statistics related to the rental crisis in Australia. The number of long-term rentals available is low, while the number of short-term holiday rentals, mostly on Airbnb, is six times higher.

The median Capital City increase in rent over the past year is triple the high inflation rate, at 20%. The real cause of the rental crisis is immigration, which is running at unprecedented levels, with potentially 400,000 net migrants this year. Most of these migrants are students or people who initially said they were coming for a holiday but then changed their visa status. They mostly arrive in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane and will take up available accommodation in those cities within one month.

Migrants are arriving at the rate of 1000 per day. Increasing the supply of housing is being discussed, but it will take years to result in actual buildings.

Meanwhile, the demand for housing from immigration is immediate due to staff shortages, and the rental crisis is unlikely to end soon because it’s easier and quicker to get people than to build houses.

The Albanese Labor Government will secure the future of Australia’s most cherished cultural and historical institutions in this year’s Federal Budget – restoring them as a source of national pride and reversing a decade of decline under the Liberals and Nationals.

The Government will invest $535.3 million towards the nine National Collecting Institutions over four years – addressing the decade of chronic underfunding inflicted by the former Coalition Government.

This is yet another example of the former Government’s underhanded approach to budgeting that Labor has been left to fix. The Albanese Labor Government is cleaning up the mess left behind by the previous Government and providing the necessary funding for the services that Australians rely on and cherish.

This investment will guarantee ongoing, indexed funding into the future and ensure that vital repairs and urgent safety improvements can finally be made.

It means staff will finally have ongoing certainty about their jobs.

It means our institutions will be able to meet their financial obligations and invest for the future knowing they finally have a Government that values them just as the Australian people do.

The Government will also establish clear line of sight over future capital works and improvements to ensure the institutions never again fall into the state of disrepair they did over the last decade.

This funding will ensure Australia has a strong cultural infrastructure – which is a key pillar of Revive, the Government’s new National Cultural Policy.

The funding will be provided to the Australian National Maritime Museum, Bundanon Trust, Museum of Australian Democracy (Old Parliament House), National Archives of Australia, National Film and Sound Archive, National Gallery of Australia, National Library of Australia, National Museum of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery of Australia.

The Government is also acting to secure the future of the National Library’s digital archive Trove.

These institutions house a majority of Australia’s most valuable collections. They also play an important role in truth-telling for First Nations people and in fostering international cultural exchange.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said:

“I want all Australians to be able to visit, appreciate and learn from these institutions for generations to come.

“These are special places and we should be proud of them. They preserve, protect and celebrate Australia’s stories and history. My Government is committed to preserving, protecting and celebrating them.

“This is yet another example of my Government having to clean up the mess left behind by the former Coalition Government.”

Arts Minister Tony Burke said:

“This gets our institutions back to where they should be – where the Government delivers strong core funding and philanthropists take them to the next level.

“This funding means people will be able to go to places like the National Gallery of Australia and enjoy the exhibits without worrying about the physical integrity of the building that’s housing them.

“It is a disgrace that the former Coalition Government allowed these institutions to fall into such a shocking state of disrepair.”

Minister for Finance and Senator for ACT Katy Gallagher, said:

“Canberra is the proud custodian of some of the most treasured pieces of art, literature and culture from Australia’s national story,” Senator Gallagher said.

“The Albanese Labor Government is committed to maintaining and protecting the invaluable institutions that house them, and reversing the damage and decay that occurred under the previous Government.”

“The Institutions are often the gateway to attracting visitors to the Canberra region and are a key driver of the ACT economy, so this funding will ensure local jobs and the tourism sector are supported into the future.”

This week Labor’s central climate policy, ‘Safeguard Mechanism’, dropped, and what a disaster it is. The system is a marriage of the worst part of Labor and the Greens policy. The new bromance between Labor and Greens is hurtling Australian towards economic ruin, but doing nothing for what they claim are climate concerns.

The best deconstruction of the ‘safeguard mechanism’ came from Senator Malcolm Roberts who outlined why the bill is a fraud. He argued that the Labor government is putting a Liberal National Climate Policy on steroids to destroy Australia to appease their globalist masters.

The bill establishes a new form of carbon credits, or Safeguard Mechanism Credit Units (SMCs), which is essentially a carbon dioxide tax that will affect companies that produce goods in the country. However, the lack of detail in the bill is concerning as the amount of carbon dioxide that companies will have to reduce is undefined, and they will be forced to buy undefined carbon dioxide credits and pay an undefined carbon dioxide tax.

This Green/Labor bill will affect the country’s production and make things more expensive, resulting in fewer goods being produced. This, in turn, will lead to unnecessary scarcity, which will only benefit the rich who can afford it. The government should focus on what’s in the national interest and not force scarcity to appease foreign organisations.

The carbon dioxide credit industry is a scam. The government-appointed panel, which claimed to be independent, was not truly independent, and the Chubb review was a complete sham designed to pave the way for this bill. Australia is already at Net Zero, sequestering or sinking three times more carbon dioxide than it produces. Therefore, the author sees no reason why a carbon dioxide credit scheme is needed in the country.

The Safeguard Mechanism Crediting Amendment Bill 2022 is a fraud that will only benefit foreign organisations, predatory billionaires, and the rich, while hurting Australia’s production and making things more expensive for everyone. Australia is already at Net Zero, and therefore, there is no need for a carbon dioxide credit scheme in the country.

Yunupingu walked in two worlds with authority, power and grace, and he worked to make them whole — together.

What he could see was not the reinvention of Australia, but the realisation of a greater one.

With his passing, consider what we have lost.

A leader. A statesman.

A painter. A dancer. A singer and musician who always carried his father’s clapsticks and felt the power they carried within them.

Australian of the Year in 1978. Member of the Order of Australia. National treasure.

A remarkable member of a remarkable family.

A great Yolngu man. A great Australian.

A man who stood tall in his beloved country, and worked to lift our entire continent in the process. 

Yunupingu understood a fundamental truth: if you want to make your voice count, you have to make sure that it’s heard.

He made sure with the sheer power of his advocacy for land rights.

He made sure when he helped draft the Yirrkala Bark Petitions, which delivered such a powerful message that resounded within the walls of the nation’s Parliament. 

And he made sure when he took part in that masterclass of concise and — he hoped — unifying eloquence, the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

As he put it: 

“At Uluru we started a fire, a fire we hope burns bright for Australia.”

At Garma last year, after I announced the details of the referendum, he asked me, “Are you serious this time?” I replied: “Yes, we’re going to go for it.” 

When I spoke with him just over a week ago, I told him I was confident we would get there. This brought him some comfort, as did his totems of fire and baru, the saltwater crocodile, which watched over him in his final days.

Now Yunupingu is gone, but the gurtha — the great tongue of flame and truth with which spoke to us — is still with us. As it burns away all that is superfluous and false, it lights the path ahead for us.

Just as he saw what was going on around him with great clarity, he was crystalline when he turned his gaze within.

In his own words:

“My inner life is that of the Yolngu song cycles, the ceremonies, the knowledge, the law and the land. This is yothu yindi. Balance. Wholeness. Completeness. 

A world designed in perfection, founded on the beautiful simplicity of a mother and her newborn child; as vibrant and as dynamic as the estuary where the saltwaters meet the freshwaters, able to give you everything you need.”

He belongs to all of that now.

Our hearts go out especially to the Yolngu, the Gumatj clan, and the great Yunupingu family.

To all who loved him, to all who were moved by him, to all there who have gazed out to where the Gulf of Carpentaria meets the sky.

We will never again hear his voice anew, but his words – and his legacy – will keep speaking to us.

Yunupingu now walks in another place, but he has left such great footsteps for us to follow here in this one.

THE AUSTRALIAN GREENS DISSENT TO A REPORT RELEASED BY THE MAJOR PARTIES THAT COULD SEE PETER DUTTON UNILATERALLY SEND AUSTRALIANS TO WAR

Today the parliamentary inquiry into international armed conflict decision-making has released its report into the way Australia decides to go to an overseas war. 

This report fails to recommend any meaningful reforms and will continue to see the Prime Minister able to act unilaterally in sending Australians to war. 

Senator Jordon Steele-John, Greens spokesperson for Peace and Foreign Affairs said: 

“The inquiry report does nothing to stop the abuse of power that saw John Howard able to send Australians to an illegal war in Iraq in 2003 and it does nothing to add accountability to one of the most grave decisions a nation can make.

“The Greens strongly believe that the decision to send Australians to war should be with the parliament and not made in cabinet backrooms shielded from transparency or accountability to the Australian community. This position was supported by 94 of the 111 submissions to the inquiry. 

“In the last 25 years, we have seen governments led by both major parties unilaterally wage war across the Middle East in Australia’s name without the consultation of the parliament or the consent of the Australian people.

“There is deep irony in the fact that the instigating factor as to whether and where Australians have been deployed since 2001 has been a vote of elected American representatives, not our own.

“The Albanese government has broken its promise to the Australian community for a meaningful review of this process by having senior Ministers like Richard Marles and Penny Wong publicly undermine the committee’s work and investigation.

“This Labor government seems intent on reliving the mistakes of the past that have caused such human suffering by relying on an unfounded legal interpretation that lets the Prime Minister unilaterally send Australians to war without even approval from the Governor-General.

“History will remember this moment Labor’s missed opportunity to create meaningful change. Instead, they chose to maintain a status quo that could one day see Peter Dutton with an unchecked ability to wage war.”

More Information

• Senator Steele-John is a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.
• The committee conducted an inquiry into international armed conflict decision-making between September 2022 and March 2023. 
• The final report is available, here. 
• The Australian Greens dissenting report is available, here. 

Today marks one year since Australian citizen, Ms Cheng Lei, faced a closed trial in Beijing on national security charges.

12 months on, she is still waiting to learn the outcome of the trial.

We share the deep concerns of Ms Cheng’s family and friends about the ongoing delays in her case.

Our thoughts today are with Ms Cheng and her loved ones, particularly her two children.

The Australian Government has advocated at every opportunity for Ms Cheng to be reunited with her family.

Australia has consistently called for Ms Cheng to be afforded basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment in accordance with international norms.

We will continue to provide consular support to Ms Cheng and her family, and to advocate for her interests and wellbeing.

We are pleased to announce that the Governor-General, His Excellency the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), has accepted the advice of the Government to appoint the Honourable Justice Debra Mortimer as Australia’s new Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia (Federal Court).

Justice Mortimer is only the fifth Chief Justice of the Federal Court and the first female Chief Justice appointed since the Court was established in 1976.

Justice Mortimer has served on the Federal Court since 2013. Her Honour’s appointment as Chief Justice will commence on 7 April 2023 upon the retirement of the Honourable Chief Justice James Allsop AC.

The Government congratulates Justice Mortimer on her appointment and looks forward to her distinguished contribution to the justice system as she leads the Federal Court.
The Attorney-General consulted extensively on the appointment, including all state and territory Attorneys-General, the heads of the Federal Courts and state and territory Supreme Courts, the Law Council of Australia, and the Australian Bar Association.

Justice Mortimer is widely recognised for her legal acumen, intellectual capacity and judicial leadership.

The Government is grateful to all members of the legal profession who provided nominations and assisted with its consideration of candidates for this very important role.

We also take this opportunity to thank Chief Justice Allsop for his outstanding judicial service. Chief Justice Allsop’s affiliation with the Federal Court first began in 1980 when he commenced his distinguished legal career as an associate to the inaugural Chief Justice, Sir Nigel Bowen. In 2001, Chief Justice Allsop was appointed as a judge of the Court, and spent several years on the Bench, before moving from the federal courts in 2008 to take up an appointment as President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal. In 2013, Chief Justice Allsop returned to the Federal Court, this time as Chief Justice, where he has since served with great distinction.

On behalf of the Australian Government we thank Chief Justice Allsop for his dedicated service to the Federal Court and broader contribution to the Australian legal system, and wish him all the very best for the future.

The Greens have today introduced the Ending Poverty in Australia (Antipoverty Commission) Bill 2023 to the Senate. The bill lays out a legislative framework for the interim Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, but without the glaring problems of the current model. 

If passed, the Anti-Poverty Commission would provide Parliament with independent and transparent advice on the causes of poverty in Australia, how to reduce it, and advice on the minimum levels for social security payments, including JobSeeker, the Parenting Parent, Youth Allowance, the Age Pension, and the Disability Support Pension. 

This advice would be given by independent Commissioners, appointed in consultation with state and territory ministers, and under scrutiny of a Joint Parliamentary Committee, as is done with the ANAO and the NACC. 

The bill also includes a legislated requirement to establish a National Poverty Line, which will enable the Commission to refer to a benchmark when measuring poverty and reviewing social security payments.

If passed, this would be an historic and important step towards ending poverty, marking the first time an Australian government has adopted an official poverty line.

Senator Janet Rice, Greens social services spokesperson said:

“Right now, woefully inadequate government payments are leaving millions of women, children, uni students, jobseekers and renters in poverty.

“Australia needs a fully independent, transparent and representative commission to advise the Parliament on our social security system and what needs to be done to fix it.

“While the Greens support the concept of the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, Labor’s current model is led by a former minister with members appointed entirely at the Government’s discretion, and is constrained by needing to take into account  the government’s current  policies. 

“It’s unclear if anyone on the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has any lived experience of poverty or surviving on social security payments. It does currently include the Chair of the Business Council of Australia.

“In contrast  the Commissioners of the Anti-Poverty Commission would be free to give advice based on the evidence, and not be caged-in by the Government’s fiscal strategy and existing policies.

“Australia needs a national definition of poverty, one that takes into account different needs and contexts, and one that the government can be held accountable to.

“For far too long, governments have used the lack of an accepted measure of poverty as an excuse to keep people living on inadequate payments.”

Judith Sloan, economist and regular contributor for the Australian recently wrote an excellent expose on the Federal Government’s flawed housing plan. We have looked at Ms Sloan’s concerns, and agree that she has summarised One Nation’s position well.

The rental housing market in Australia has been facing tremendous pressure due to long waiting times for social housing and rising rents. Given this situation, it is not surprising that the federal government is seeking to throw money at the problem, the Greens are barking at their heels on the left and soaking a lot of votes over rental prices. Australians are hurting in an environment entirely of Labor’s making – high inflation (including in the housing sector) because of excessive government spending and exploding immigration.

However, one of Labor’s proposed solutions – the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) – has been criticised as one of the most imprudent government policies ever suggested.

The plan is for the government to raise $10bn in debt and get the Future Fund to invest the funds. The net returns will then be invested in social and affordable housing each year. From the expected average annual return of $500m, the plan is to invest in a total of 6000 social and affordable dwellings each year. However, these numbers are extremely modest considering that at the current rate of population growth, we need at least around a quarter of a million new homes just to accommodate the extra people. It is also estimated that there are at least a half-million people on the current waiting lists for social housing.

Furthermore, at $500m each year, it works out as just more than $83,000 a dwelling funded by HAFF each year. This sum is not enough to cover the full costs of construction and land. Will this sum be used to subsidise other financiers by, for example, subsidising the gap between the market and actual rents paid by low-income tenants? It is unclear what the government thinks it can achieve by allocating just more than $83,000 a dwelling.

The HAFF is essentially a bet on the equity risk premium that generates higher returns than the cost of the debt. If this were really a good idea, it should be extended to all forms of government spending, which, of course, no one thinks is a good idea. The only explanation seems to be the political value of cashing in on the Future Fund brand and having a perpetual entity.

In the meantime, the rental crisis is becoming grimmer as each month passes. The vacancy rates in many parts of the country are at historic lows, and the annual rate of increase in rents ranges from 10 to 30 per cent. Rents are gobbling up higher proportions of tenants’ incomes, for those who can find suitable accommodation in the first place.

Just when it’s clear that the rental situation is dire and becoming worse, the federal government has facilitated a substantial surge in the number of migrants entering the country, particularly international students but other temporary entrants as well. Before the pandemic, the annual net overseas migration (long-term arrivals minus long-term departures) was 240,000 in 2019. On current trends, NOM will end up between 350,000 and 400,000 this calendar year. Combined with natural population growth, that’s more than the entire population of Canberra – although the migrants don’t live in Canberra but largely in Queensland (also Melbourne and Sydney).

The Treasurer has tried to justify this surging migration by making the point that there was a substantial hiatus during Covid, and we are only making up for the “lost” arrivals. What he fails to mention is that the pandemic was also associated with a substantial stalling in the building of new accommodation that is needed to accompany strong population growth. In other words, the last thing we should do is try to make up for these “lost” arrivals. It’s a clear case of the government implementing inconsistent policies.

The HAFF is ill-conceived and won’t do anything to alleviate the rental crisis any time soon. It’s also too small to have any real impact. On the other hand, egged on by pro-immigration Treasury officials and other vested interests, the government has decided to open the floodgates for even more migrants to come here and take homes away from Aussies desperate for accommodation.