Category: Australian News

Labor’s second budget lacks humanity and compassion for migrants and abjectly fails to respond to the urgent challenges in Australia’s immigration system, the Greens say.

“This budget locks into place many of the Coalition’s policies and fails to deliver Labor’s election promises to migrant communities,” Greens Immigration spokesperson Senator Nick McKim said.

“It locks in billions of dollars for offshore detention, does not raise the humanitarian intake and does not acknowledge the dire humanitarian crisis Australia helped to create in Afghanistan.”

“The budget doesn’t even mention Australia’s utterly broken family reunion visa system which keeps people apart from their partners, young children and elderly parents for years on end, and in many cases with no end in sight.”

“It fails to deliver Labor’s commitments to restore migrant settlement services that were slashed, it does not raise the community sponsored refugee program and it does not create the Independent Refugee Tribunal.”

“And after years of backlogs and closed borders, jacking up visa fees is a kick in the teeth for people who have chosen to live, work and study in Australia.”

“Many of the immigration policies in Labor’s budget may as well have been handed down by Peter Dutton.”

With every budget the government ignores the women’s safety sector’s sustained calls for $1 billion in funding, leaving frontline family and domestic violence services with no choice but to turn away victim-survivors.

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

“In a cost-of-living crisis women needed bold action from Labor, instead we get more of the same half-measures and spin we saw in the October budget.

“The government continues to ignore frontline domestic violence services, who have repeatedly called for a $1B per year to ensure they can help everyone who needs it.

“The funding shortfall will see one in three women unable to get the help they need to escape violence. 

“While the Labor Government continues to underfund support services, victim-survivors are turned away from crisis accommodation and one woman is murdered every 10 days in this country.

“The government has spoken often about difficult choices in the lead up to the budget, but many women now face an impossible choice: stay in an unsafe home, or leave and put themselves and their kids at risk of homelessness.

“As usual, Albanese is singing from Morrison’s playbook by choosing to put the tax cuts for our highest income earners above women’s safety.”
 

The Albanese Government is delivering a transformational package of support to the Pacific to respond to Pacific priorities and ensure our shared interests in a peaceful, prosperous and resilient region.

Building on our longstanding contributions to regional stability, we are deepening connections between our people and enhancing cooperation across labour mobility, maritime security, policing, responding to and preparing for humanitarian disasters, media and sport.

In our first 12 months, Albanese Government Ministers have visited every Pacific Islands Forum member to renew our Pacific partnerships, listen to Pacific priorities and deliver for our collective interests. This Budget will enhance our capacity to respond by funding additional diplomatic staff across the Pacific, further demonstrating our commitment to the region as a whole.

We will further expand and improve the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme to maximise its economic contributions to Pacific economies and to workforce shortages in Australia. Our new investments will deliver more skills development and community liaison officers for Pacific workers and strengthened worker protections and compliance operations in Australia.

We are supporting the key regional body, the Pacific Islands Forum, to ensure it is equipped to respond collectively to shared challenges and opportunities for our region and deliver the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.

We are boosting our contribution to Pacific security priorities with $1.4 billion over four years to support the Pacific family first approach agreed by Pacific Islands Forum Leaders, and the peace and security commitments under the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.

This includes:

• Supporting delivery of infrastructure, maritime security capability and sustainment, including under the Pacific Maritime Security Program.
• One of the most significant increases to the AFP’s partnership with the Pacific family, to support Pacific law enforcement efforts and criminal justice initiatives.
• Additional support for cyber resilience and other Pacific security priorities.

As climate change continues to threaten Pacific communities, Australia will take a regional approach to humanitarian relief and strengthen support for disaster preparedness, working closely with the Pacific family to support their responses to crises.

We will leverage Australia’s strengths, including through media and sport. We will expand the Indo-Pacific Broadcasting Strategy, boosting media connections and enabling more Pacific Islands Forum members to access Australian content. We will continue to expand our Pacific sports diplomacy, bringing people closer together through our shared love of sport.

The Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific continues to deliver critical infrastructure for the Pacific and Timor-Leste. The Australian Government has now agreed to a total of $1.25 billion in financing for 14 projects in nine countries.

The Albanese Government’s approach in the Budget will make Australia more influential in the world, by investing in all elements of our statecraft including diplomatic power, trade and development.

At a time when we face the most confronting circumstances in decades, the 2023-24 Budget will better enable Australia’s global network to shape the region and advance our interests, including by lifting the capability of our foreign service, and by countering disinformation.

Since coming into office, the Albanese Government has made a significant investment in our key relationships and our diplomacy, bolstering DFAT’s capability by funding more than 350 staff across our diplomatic network, raising the Department’s workforce to its highest levels in over a decade.

The 2023-24 Budget includes more than $55.7 million over the forward estimates to deepen our engagement in Southeast Asia. This will be achieved through innovative programs to support more people-to-people links, including specialised scholarships.

The Albanese Government will also support the National Centre for Asia Capability (Asialink Business). These represent critical initial investments that will complement the implementation of the Government’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040, to be released later this year.

The Government is delivering on its commitment to advance Australia’s trade and investment diversification agenda by investing $31.9 million to progress the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. This regional framework will expand Australia’s trade and economic interests including in digital and green trade and strengthen regional supply chains.

Investment in the Simplified Trade System and the Trade Information Service is key to helping Australian producers and exporters navigate regulatory requirements and access information on emerging markets.

The 2023-24 Budget continues the Albanese Government’s long-term rebuild of Australia’s international development program, after almost a decade of Coalition cuts and neglect, including funding for DFAT to grow its team of development professionals to deliver an effective program with impact.

These measures will underpin the Government’s forthcoming new international development policy and provide the framework for working with partners across the region to meet our most pressing challenges, including climate change.

The Albanese Government is determined to clean up the fiscal messes left by the former Government, including a series of band-aid fixes through terminating budget measures.

There will be ongoing funding for the Interim Mission on Afghanistan, reflecting Australia’s commitment to the people of Afghanistan, and our enduring security and consular interests.

The Foreign Arrangements Scheme was introduced to ensure agreements with foreign countries are consistent with Australia’s national interests. Despite its clear benefits, terminating funding was provided by the former Government in successive budgets from the scheme’s 2020 introduction.

The Albanese Government will support the ongoing administration of the scheme, as well as funding the required legislative review of the scheme to ensure it is working efficiently.

A temporary measure put in place by the former Government to cover historical underfunding of the Department’s overseas lease costs was due to expire. The Albanese Government will fix this structural shortfall with ongoing funding.

The Government will upgrade Australia’s ageing International Communication Network infrastructure, which supports global secure communications across government, building resilience against cyber threats.

The Albanese Government continues to support the recovery of our vibrant visitor economy and fourth largest export earner, through the $48 million tourism and travel package.

This funding is helping tourism businesses attract and upskill workers to address current workforce shortages and improve the quality of Australia’s tourism offerings.

Tonight’s Budget is a typical big-spending, big-taxing Labor Budget.

After less than a year of Labor in office, government spending will increase by $185 billion.

Labor cannot spend its way out of its cost of living crisis.

Its Budget does nothing to help you or your family get ahead.

Tonight, we needed a Budget that reduces inflation and reins in spending to combat the cost of living crisis facing all Australians.

Instead, this Budget makes life harder for Australians.

Under this Albanese Labor Government, a typical Australian family with kids will be around $25,000 worse off under Labor.

This Budget will not build a stronger economy, and it is not a budget that is fair for all Australians.

This Budget confirms:

• Your cost of living continues to go up;
• Your gas and electricity bills continue to skyrocket;
• Real wages have not grown;
• Inflation remains stubbornly high;
• Unemployment will rise; and
• Higher taxes for Australians.

Before the election, the Prime Minister promised to lower the cost of living, he promised “cheaper electricity” and he promised “cheaper mortgages.” This Budget confirms these are broken promises.

Your electricity bills continue to rise. Despite the Prime Minister promising Australians that he would reduce your power bill by $275, even after Labor’s energy relief plan, your electricity bill will still go up by almost $500.

Despite recalling Parliament last December to legislate “emergency relief,” this relief will not flow until July at the earliest – seven months after it was promised – is only temporary, and only flows to some Australians.

This Budget fails hard-working Australians right at a time when they needed a plan to address inflation and the cost of living crisis. In fact, the Government’s Economic and Fiscal Strategy removes addressing inflation as a priority.

There is no plan to address the unprecedented increase in net overseas migration that will see, under Labor, 1.5 million new migrants coming to Australia over five years. At the same time, this Budget cuts infrastructure spending, and fails to address congestion, the housing and rental crisis, and the liveability and amenity of our towns and suburbs.

Before the election, the Prime Minister promised that no one would be left behind, yet this Budget leaves the majority of Australians behind.

For every dollar of new taxes it has imposed in this budget, the Government has decided to spend two. In this Budget, it is spending twice as fast as it is taxing Australians.

The Coalition wants Australians to do well, but at the moment we are being held back by a government with no economic plan for the future.

Australians deserve better.

More than five million households and one million small businesses will be eligible for Energy Price Relief Rebates from July 1, as part of the Albanese Labor Government’s responsible and targeted plan to reduce cost-of-living pressures.

The Energy Price Relief Rebates will provide responsible and meaningful energy bill relief and help ease the pressure on families and small businesses.

These rebates, led by the Albanese Government and co-funded by the states and territories, will directly reduce electricity bills for eligible households and businesses and are expected to reduce inflation by one quarter of a percentage point in 2023-24.

When combined with the Government’s earlier market interventions to limit coal and gas price increases, they are expected to reduce inflation by three quarters of a percentage point in 2023-24.

Rising power prices are among the biggest burden on Australian families and Australian businesses.

The Energy Price Relief Rebates will take the sting out of power price rises in late 2023 and early 2024 when these increases are expected to be most acute.

As agreed by states and territories, jurisdictions facing the highest power price rises will contribute more funding to deliver slightly more generous relief to households.

Pensioners, veterans, seniors and other concession card holders, as well as recipients of the Carer Allowance, Family Tax Benefit, and anyone eligible for existing state and territory electricity concession schemes will be eligible for the rebate.

A $250 Commonwealth rebate will be available to eligible households in the following jurisdictions, delivering $500 in power bill relief in total (including state contributions):

• NSW
• Victoria
• Queensland
• South Australia
• And Tasmania

A $175 Commonwealth rebate (generally $350 in total bill relief) will be available to eligible households in:

• Western Australia
• Northern Territory
• The Australian Capital Territory

A $325 Commonwealth rebate will be available to eligible small businesses in each state, which will translate to a $650 benefit for small businesses in states that have matched the relief.

Eligible households that receive existing state and territory rebates will have this new rebate applied to their bill automatically from 1 July 2023.

Energy Price Relief Rebates will be administered by state and territory governments.

Faced with skyrocketing power prices as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine along with a decade of energy policy chaos under our predecessors, we made a decision that we weren’t going to do nothing while hardworking Australians suffered.

That’s why we recalled the Parliament in December to legislate $1.5 billion worth of power price relief – relief the Liberals and Nationals voted against.

We also acted to cap coal and gas prices, which has seen wholesale electricity prices fall by around 50 per cent since October.

We recognise that Australians are doing it tough right now.

We thank the Premiers, Chief Ministers, Treasurers and Ministers from across the nation for working collaboratively with us in the best interests of all Australians.

This goes to show what we can achieve when both levels of government – regardless of politics – working together in good faith.

The Energy Price Relief Rebates are part of the Albanese Government’s plan to provide responsible and targeted cost-of-living relief to Australians.

For more information, visit Energy Bill Relief Fund.

Labor’s second Budget is a betrayal of people who were promised that no one would be left behind.

This Budget was an opportunity to lift people out of poverty and Labor didn’t take it. 

Budgets are about choices. During a worsening cost of living crisis, the government is choosing to continue with Stage 3 Tax Cuts, nuclear submarines, and handouts for wealthy property investors and fossil fuel corporations while leaving people below the poverty line, cutting the NDIS and increasing student debt by $6 billion dollars over the next two years. 

A fundamental job of government is to make sure people have the basics they need to live life with dignity. 

With rents soaring and everyday costs rising, tonight Labor’s Budget has just a $1.12 a day increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance and $2.85 a day extra for income support recipients. Labor is leaving people in poverty. 

We need a freeze on rent increases now, we need to wipe student debt and to lift income support above the poverty line. Watch our full take on tonight’s Budget here. 

Labor has the power to lift people out of poverty, they’ve just chosen not to use it. 

Labor told us tonight they had to make ‘hard choices’ to balance the budget. But they’re just pushing the hard choices onto people doing it tough. Forcing millions of people to choose between paying the rent, having food in the fridge or accessing medical treatment. 

At the last election, voters wanted a government that would tackle the inequality crisis. They’re still waiting.

Labor’s surplus of $4.2 billion dollars will be no comfort for those who are trying to keep their head above water. You can’t pay rent with a surplus. Every dollar of surplus is a dollar not spent lifting people out of poverty.

Meanwhile, gas corporations making obscene profits while cooking the planet pay next to nothing. Labor is raising more from lifting student debt than they are from their changes to the gas tax.

There’s simply no excuse not to deliver the housing, health and income support people are crying out for – especially when they’re spending four times more on stage 3 tax cuts for the wealthy than they are on cost of living relief. 

This parliament was elected to take action on climate and the cost of living. If Labor worked together with the Greens we could immediately lift people out of poverty, freeze rent increases and wipe student debt.

Labor may have given up on ‘no one left behind’, but we haven’t. 

We will fight to make sure this budget does what every government should: give people what they need to live with dignity.

Greens Spokesperson for Environment Senator Sarah Hanson-Young responds to reports the Coalition is backing Labor’s Nature Repair Market Bill:

“Australia’s environment needs protection, not a ‘Green Wall Street’ propped up by bogus offsets.

“Peter Dutton and Barnaby Joyce are backing this policy, that says everything about how bad it is. It won’t save the koalas and it won’t protect our native forests.

“It is unsurprising the Coalition is supporting the Nature Repair Market Bill because it is former Agriculture Minister David Littleproud’s bill 2.0.

“It is incredible the Albanese Government couldn’t come up with a plan better than that of the environment-wrecking Coalition who allowed the plunder and destruction of nature for a decade.

“Minister Plibersek has put forward this bill before establishing an Environment Protection Agency, legislating environmental standards and fixing our broken environmental laws.

“The inclusion of offsets as part of a market intended to repair nature was a red flag. There is nothing to stop this market from becoming a free pass for industry to continue destroying the environment.

“The Albanese Government has well and truly put the cart before the horse and the environment will suffer as a result.

“The Greens will be opposing this bill when it comes before the House on Thursday.”

The Greens are calling on the Albanese Government to reiterate their commitment to legislating local content quotas for video streaming services.

Responding to the television networks’ opposition to local content quotas, Greens Spokesperson for Media and Communications Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“In response to pressure from the broadcast TV networks to scrap the proposal to introduce local content quotas for online streaming services, the Albanese Government must reiterate their commitment to finally introduce this long overdue legislation.

“I understand that there is another round of consultations underway but I urge the government to provide some certainty to the screen production industry and confirm that legislation is on its way for these quotas.

“Over the past few years, there has been huge growth in the online streaming sector, both in services available and the number of people subscribing to them but regulation is lagging behind.

“Today we have seen the TV networks oppose this important reform. While the networks may oppose the introduction of quotas, ultimately this is a matter for the Parliament to decide.

“With the Coalition opposing strong local content quotas while in government, it is likely the Greens will be in balance of power and crucial to passing this reform in the Senate.

“We are calling for streaming giants like Netflix, Disney, Amazon and Stan to reinvest 20 per cent of their Australian earnings in local content, with a sub-quota of 20 per cent for children’s television. It is vital that all Australians see themselves and their communities reflected on their screens, but it is especially so for children.

“We will not support carve-outs for streamers associated with free-to-air TV, like Stan or Paramount and we will be pushing for the inclusion of measures that allow local Australian businesses to retain significant intellectual property rights and licensing arrangements.  

“While the threat of regulation may have prompted streaming services to commission local content in the short-term, quotas are needed to ensure the long-term certainty of the local screen industry. 

“I attended the Screen Forever conference last week and the message I heard firsthand from screen producers was just how important these protections will be to future-proof the Australian screen industry and ensure we continue to have rich Australian stories told on our screens.

Greens Treasury spokesperson, Senator Nick McKim, has responded to Labor’s proposed changes to the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT).

“Labor’s changes to the PRRT have been designed by the gas industry.”

“The government considered two models that would likely have brought in more revenue and discouraged more gas development.”

“But the gas industry didn’t like these models so the government came up with a third model which the gas cabal loves.”

“Under Labor’s proposed changes the more profits gas corporations make, the less extra tax they pay.”

“And Labor’s proposed changes are also designed to encourage more investment in gas.”

“These changes are less than the bare minimum and will continue to fuel the breakdown of the planet’s climate.”

“This is a rerun of Wayne Swan’s Mining Tax.”

“Labor has again designed tax changes in consultation with the resources sector so that the extra tax goes down if profits go up.”