Category: Australian News

Australian kids struggling with hearing loss will have greater access to expert care under a Labor plan to extend a key support service across the nation.

An Albanese Labor Government will provide $1.5 million to fund the development of the digital HearHub platform, run by Shepherd Centres.

Shepherd Centres provide support services including development of speech and communication skills, life skills and emotional resilience – areas where hearing impaired children and teens need intensive clinical support.

HearHub is a national digital service that will deliver hearing tests, educational resources and practical support for families online. This will benefit children with hearing loss and related communication difficulties such as autism spectrum disorder.

HearHub will extend the reach of on-the-ground Shepherd Centres, and will be of particular benefit to children and families in rural and regional areas.

In addition, an Albanese Labor Government will provide funding to establish new on-the-ground Shepherd Centre facilities in areas that have previously gone without. 

Two new Shepherd Centres will be established in Launceston and Hobart, the first in the state, with $2.5 million in funding. $2.5 million in funding will also go to a new Shepherd Centre in Oran Park in Sydney’s south west, to provide services for hearing impaired children and their families in the fast-growing Macarthur region.

Anthony Albanese, Leader of the Australian Labor Party said: 

“Kids with hearing loss deserve the best possible start in life and the best possible care and support – no matter where they live.

“A Labor Government will ensure our kids are looked after, whether through digital or on-the-ground support services. No child will be left behind.”

Mark Butler, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing said:

“Shepherd Centres provide a vital service to kids and their families. For too long, some kids have missed out just because they live in the wrong area. 

“The Morrison Government has ignored these gaps for too long. Labor will listen to families, and we will make sure support is received where it is needed the most.”

Today Anthony Albanese was unable to name either the Reserve Bank of Australia’s official cash rate, nor what the unemployment rate is.

The interest rate matters.

Keeping interest rates as low as possible matters.

It affects how much mortgages cost. It affects family budgets.

The unemployment rate matters.

Keeping it as low as possible matters.

It’s about how many Australians are in a job. It’s about how many Australians are earning a wage to support themselves and their family.

If you don’t know what the interest rate is, you can’t be trusted to put the right policies in place to keep them low.

If you don’t know what the unemployment rate is, you can’t be trusted to keep Australians in jobs.

More than 2.8 million households have a mortgage on their family home. That’s 2.8 million households who would suffer higher repayments under a Labor Government.

Labor has no economic plan.

Labor is addicted to spending, which means taxes will always be higher.

Under Labor, interest rates will always be higher than they need to be, because they can’t manage money.

Anthony Albanese’s weak leadership would weaken our country’s future.

The official cash rate is 0.1% and has been since November 2020.

The national unemployment rate is 4.0%.

A $40 million commitment by the Morrison Government will deliver local road upgrades across the Shoalhaven.

The package will prioritise road upgrades that improve safety and address the maintenance backlog created by recent weather events and the increased traffic movements of a growing region.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said residents and visitors to the Shoalhaven would benefit from these upgrades.

“Backing the Shoalhaven has always been a key priority for my government and with Andrew Constance on my team, we can keep getting things done for this important region,” the Prime Minister said.

“Andrew’s work as Transport Minister ensured the South Coast got the local upgrades they needed at a state level, and his advocacy has ensured this $40 million investment will be delivered if our government is re-elected.

“Investments like this help build a strong economy which means a stronger future.

“Australia’s economic recovery is leading the world, and investments like this, right here in the Shoalhaven, will keep creating local jobs and keep driving our record low unemployment rate down.”

Liberal candidate for Gilmore Andrew Constance said he had worked with local residents and the Shoalhaven City Council to identify priority upgrades that will improve safety and address maintenance challenges.

“Local communities across our region know that I’ll always go into bat for them – that’s my track record as a State Member and what I want to keep delivering for Gilmore,” Mr Constance said.

“We are a growing region and that means we need growing investment.

“That’s why I am seeking election as the Federal Member for Gilmore, because I want to keep working tirelessly to secure the investment our region needs.”

Local roads to be upgraded include:

• Forest Road, east from the Princes Highway
• Callala Bay Road, Callala Bay
• Culburra Road between Wollumboola and Culburra Beach
• Coonamia Road / Currarong Road / Forest Road / Callala Bay Road intersection
• Greenwell Pt Road, including Worrigee Road intersection
• The Wool Road at Basin View and St Georges Basin

Funding will be provided to Shoalhaven City Council to support their works program, including road rehabilitation, re-surfacing, widening and intersection upgrades to improve safety for locals and visitors to the region.

This commitment builds on the Coalition’s record investment to support local road improvements, including more than $23 million committed to the Shoalhaven City Council under the Roads to Recovery program and the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program.

The Coalition has also committed more than $1 billion as part of our record $120 billion ten-year infrastructure investment program to support major projects along the Princes Highway in Nowra and across the region, including $155 million for the Nowra bridge; $752 million for the Milton-Ulladulla Bypass; $400 million for upgrades to the Princes Highway between Jervis Bay Road and Sussex Inlet Road; and $100 million for the Jervis Bay Road and Princes Highway intersection.

It is undeniable that quality teaching is the biggest in-school factor for influencing student outcomes. For students to have the opportunity to thrive in their education, we know our teachers must have the right education, knowledge and experience to unlock student potential. But, what happens when there are not enough teachers to support our more than 4 million students to succeed?

At a time when research is showing that teachers are feeling two years of COVID-related stress, the demands of remote teaching and more recently, teacher shortages due to COVID, combined with the obvious strain put on the profession by reported teacher shortages, we are at a tipping point that will likely impact this generation of learners.

As data is still being collected and analysed for 2022, whatever teacher shortages we might have are compounded by reports of shortages in leadership roles too: a significant number of middle leadership roles and principal roles are going unfilled.

Perhaps the recent survey of educators across Australia shows us something about why, with 80% feeling their work-life-balance was either ‘less or non-existent’ and job satisfaction had dropped from 91% in 2017, to 63% in 2021.

As AITSL CEO, Mark Grant states, “This data shows that the wellbeing of our educators and leaders is just as important as it is for children and young people, and is vital to a well-functioning education system, especially so in a period of workforce pressures.”

Through the work of the Australian Teacher Workforce Data initiative (ATWD) we know that the 2018 data shows that 1 in 4 members of the teacher workforce indicated they were likely to leave the profession before they retire (25%); however, around 1 in 10 intended to leave (13%) in under ten years. This was the same for classroom teachers as for those in leadership roles. We also know that around 16% of teachers were approaching retirement age. All this at a time when the Australian Bureau of Statistics has flagged a 21% increase in the number of students starting school in 2030 when compared with 2021.

“Nationally, schools are suffering from teacher shortages, due not just to COVID, but a longer term issue with the pipeline of teachers entering the profession, exacerbated by the numbers leaving.

“Realistically, the solution to teacher-demand is not a quick fix. Increasing the pipeline of participants in initial teacher education, will help ease the burden of demand in the future but takes about 4 years, with some of the newer alternate pathways to teaching having more concentrated timeframes than tradition avenues. Some jurisdictions have begun to actively recruit teachers from overseas to ease their demand issues,” Mr Grant said.

“However, the issue of teacher shortages is not unique to Australia, and although we will have some success in recruiting teachers from outside Australia, the countries they’re coming from are dealing with their own shortages.”

A report released by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics in October 2016 estimated that 69 million teachers would be needed worldwide in the following 14 years in order to provide every child with a primary and secondary education. And this was before the impacts of COVID hit our global community. UNESCO reiterated their report in 2020: nothing had changed – still 69 million teachers needed.

“The recently released ATWD Report has given states and territories much needed data about the shape and nature of the teaching workforce, especially on the supply side. The next data release in mid-2022 and then again later in the year, will go even further to provide up to date information about teachers’ intentions. This is especially so as state and territory education employers get more precise in providing their future demand data.

“The examination of the data provided by the ATWD, coupled with state and territory demand data, is critical for developing solutions to ensure we have enough teachers with the right qualifications, helping students thrive and succeed in their learning journey, wherever they are in Australia,” Mr Grant said.

As the Secretariat to the ATWD initiative, AITSL would be well placed with its work with states and territories to drive the needed labour market modelling suggested in the recent Quality Initial Teacher Education Review to help get high quality teachers into all classrooms across Australia

Australia has faced a series of defining challenges over the past three years.

Fires, floods, a pandemic, a global recession, a mouse plague, a war in Europe, economic coercion from China.

They’ve all been hard on our families, on our businesses, on our jobs, on our farmers, on our children.

But set against those difficulties Australia, and Australians, have shown what we can overcome together.

Unemployment was predicted to reach 15 per cent, but it is now just four per cent – the equal lowest level in 48 years.

Our economic recovery measures saved around 700,000 jobs.

Australia is one of a small number of countries to maintain a AAA credit rating – a global standard for economic management.

We have achieved the biggest Budget turnaround in 70 years with our plan delivering an extra $100 billion to the country’s bottom line.

Our economic growth is one of the best in the developed world – faster and stronger than the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

On almost any measure – fatality rates, vaccine rates, economic growth, jobs growth, or debt levels – Australia’s recovery is leading the world.

But I know our country continues to face very real challenges and many families are doing it tough.

There is still a lot of uncertainty ahead.

To build a stronger future our Government has laid out a clear plan.

Delivering more jobs and working towards unemployment below four per cent. Our plan will deliver more jobs and the lowest unemployment in nearly 50 years.

Delivering tax relief for workers and small businesses. We’re halving the tax you pay at the petrol pump for six months. And our tax plan will put more money in the pockets of 10 million Australians in the coming weeks and months, on top of our longer-term tax relief for everyone earning up to $200,000 a year.

Investing in roads, rail, water infrastructure and renewable energy technology. We have a more than $120 billion pipeline of infrastructure we’re building like Western Sydney Airport, to the Melbourne Airport Rail Link, the Inland Rail, upgrading the Bruce Highway and building Hells Gates Dam in Queensland, METRONET in Perth, the North-South Corridor in SA, the Bridgewater Bridge in Tasmania and the Middle Arm marine infrastructure in the NT.

Making record investments in health and other essential services. Our plan means we have record bulk billing rates, made Telehealth permanent, and includes listing more than 2,800 drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to make medicines more affordable for more Australians.

Investing in stronger defence, security and borders. Locking in to new partnerships like AUKUS to build the best submarines in world, develop long range hypersonic missiles and triple the size of our cyber offensive and defensive forces. Restarting the QUAD with the US, India and Japan to bring more security, stability and peace to our region.

This election provides a clear choice, with real consequences for Australia.

Our Government is not perfect. But we have been upfront. You know what we stand for, you can see our record of delivery, and you can see our plan for the future.

Our economy has a lot of moving parts and a lot of risks. But also, many opportunities.

Anthony Albanese and Labor have no economic plan. They would weaken our economy and put our recovery at risk.

Mr Albanese has never held a financial portfolio. He’s never held a national security portfolio. He’s never delivered a Budget.

Labor has a record of higher taxes. Albanese has argued for higher taxes on retirees, housing and families and inheritances.

Labor makes promises, but they can’t say how they’ll pay for them. This means two things – higher deficits and higher taxes.

Labor cannot manage money, that’s why they come after yours.

Now is not the time to risk it.

Only the Liberal and Nationals have a plan for a strong economy and a stronger future.

Finally, the election has been called.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt has said it’s a relief to finally have a date when people can vote to kick the Liberals out and put the Greens in the balance of power. 

Mr Bandt said that after kicking the Liberals out, the Greens would push to: 

• take climate action by stopping new coal and gas mines 
• get dental and mental health into Medicare
• fix the housing affordability crisis

The Greens will tackle the rising cost of living by getting dental and mental health into Medicare, fixing the housing affordability crisis and wiping student debt. 

The Greens’ plans would be funded by a tax on billionaires and big corporations making super-profits. 

The election will be very close and the Greens are likely to be in balance of power in both houses.

Leader of the Greens Adam Bandt MP said:

“People are fed up with the Morrison government fuelling the climate crisis, making housing more expensive and driving incomes down. 

“By voting Greens on May 21, voters can kick the Liberals out and put the Greens in the balance of power.

“In balance of power, the Greens will take climate action by stopping new coal and gas mines, getting dental and mental health into Medicare and fixing the housing affordability crisis. 

“The Greens will tackle the rising cost of living by getting dental and mental health into Medicare, fixing the housing affordability crisis and wiping student debt.

“The Greens will fund our plans by making billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share of tax.

“The rising cost of living is making the inequality crisis worse. 

“With both Liberal and Labor backing more coal and gas, the only way we’ll get climate action is kicking the Liberals out and putting the Greens in balance of power to push the next government to freeze new coal and gas projects. 

“Coal and gas are the main cause of the climate crisis, but Liberal and Labor both back 114 new coal and gas projects. They both take huge donations from coal and gas corporations. 

“We are on track to increase our numbers in the Senate and the House and hold the balance of power. 

“Last time we were in balance of power, we got dental into Medicare for kids and now it’s time to get it for adults too.

“The heat is on the major parties in Macnamara, Kooyong, Higgins, Cooper and Wills in Victoria, as well as Senate and lower house seats like Griffith, Ryan and Richmond around the country.

“We plan to return Senators Dorinda Cox, Lidia Thorpe and Peter Whish-Wilson, and kick out Pauline Hanson for Penny Allman-Payne in Queensland, and welcome David Shoebridge in NSW and Barbara Pocock in SA.”

Australia will provide a $16 million package to support Tonga’s long-term reconstruction and recovery from January’s volcanic eruption and tsunami, alongside a delivery of 54,990 Pfizer vaccines to be provided in partnership with Tongan health authorities to support their COVID-19 response.

The $16 million package builds on the initial $3 million of humanitarian support and the Australian Defence Force’s clean-up efforts and delivery of 370 tonnes of equipment and disaster relief supplies under Operation Tonga Assist 2022.

The new package targets areas of ongoing need in Tonga and is aligned with our Tongan Government partners’ Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai Volcanic Eruption and Tsunami Disaster Recovery and Resilience Building Plan 2022-25.

Australia’s further commitment will support Tonga’s sustainable economic recovery by supporting the rebuilding of critical infrastructure including telecommunications, livelihoods, and key government services. The package will also support Tonga’s health system to respond to the challenges of COVID-19.

We continue to coordinate our assistance closely with New Zealand, Japan, United Kingdom, the United States, India, France and Fiji. Our collective approach has strengthened cooperation on humanitarian and disaster response in the region.

The Government of Tonga has demonstrated strong leadership following this natural disaster and COVID-19 outbreak. Through our partnership with UNICEF, Australia also delivered 54,990 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses to Tonga on 22 March.

This continues our ongoing efforts with our Pacific Family under the Pacific Step-up.

We are coordinating our efforts with Tonga’s reconstruction priorities and their work managing the recent COVID-19 outbreak.

Greens Welfare spokesperson Senator Janet Rice and Queensland Lead Senate candidate Penny Allman-Payne will today in Brisbane announce the Greens’ fully-costed plan to return the retirement age back down from 67 to 65 and grant every Australian Earlier Access to the Age Pension.

This comes in addition to the Greens’ recently announced commitment to raise the rate of the pension to $88 a day.

Senator Rice will join Penny Allman-Payne, who is on track to win Pauline Hanson’s seat in the Senate for the Greens, to campaign on issues that matter to Queenslanders, including the party’s plan to support older Australians.

Lowering the eligibility age will expand access to the pension for hundreds of thousands of older Australians currently living in poverty, and provide a well-deserved earlier retirement with guaranteed income support for people who have worked their entire lives on low wages in order to take care of their families.

Since the Rudd Government’s 2009 increase to the pension age from 65 to 67, Liberal and Labor have been failing low-income older Australians. 

Across the country, thousands of older Australians approaching retirement age have limited capacity to continue working or have been excluded from the labour market entirely. Thousands more are in physically demanding, minimum wage jobs, forced to keep working an additional two years because of successive Labor and Liberal governments failing to give them the support they need.

Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt MP says that if the Greens are successful in their campaign to kick the Liberals out and secure balance of power, they will use their leverage to push to ensure older voters and the working class aren’t left in the dust again by a future Labor government. 

This is the first time the Greens have taken early-access to the Age Pension to an election, a call heard from older Australians who say they’ve been abandoned by Labor. The Greens announcement today in Queensland reflects the party’s optimism for winning Hanson’s Senate seat, the swing lower house seats of Griffith, Brisbane and Ryan, and belief that older voters especially in Queensland no longer feel represented by Labor or Liberal.

Adam Bandt MP, Leader of the Australian Greens said:

“Nobody should be forced to work forever in this country, and nobody should retire into poverty. The Greens are proud to fight for the right to retire at 65 with an income that will actually pay the bills.

“There is a poverty crisis amongst older Australians, and it’s worse for older women, who are the fastest growing group facing homelessness.

“Older people who have worked in minimum wage jobs and in manual labour are being forced to look for work instead of enjoying the retirement they deserve.

“In balance of power, the Greens will fight to restore respect and dignity in ageing, and ensure that it’s rest and revitalisation, not poverty, awaiting people at the end of their working years. By making billionaires pay their fair share of tax, older Australians can retire earlier with dignity.”

Senator Janet Rice, Australian Greens spokesperson for family, ageing and community services said:

“The Liberals and Labor have abandoned older voters and working families across the country. There are hundreds of thousands of older Australians living in poverty, counting the days until their next birthday so they can finally reach pension age. 

“Enabling earlier access to the Age Pension will reduce poverty in Australia, and support thousands of older Australians who deserve better from our government. 

“Thousands of older working people are living paycheque to paycheque and can’t afford to retire. Many are working for starvation wages, in back-breaking jobs – in manufacturing, in hospitality, in supermarkets, as labourers and salespeople – people who have worked hard all their lives and are being forced to wait an extra two years to retire. The Greens won’t make them wait any longer.

“Anyone who has ever struggled to put food on their table, or had to make a choice between paying the rent on time or getting the medication they need, knows how long an extra two-year wait really is.

“For too long, both Labor and the Liberals have pushed through policies that make the rich richer and have left everyone else behind. It’s time the government takes care of low income workers and older Australians.”

Queensland lead Senate Candidate Penny Allman-Payne said:

“Here in Queensland we only need a 1.5% swing to win another senator, and if we win I’ll fight to make billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share to lower the pension age and raise the rate. 

“I’m fighting to take Pauline Hanson’s spot in the senate because Queenslanders deserve someone who’ll fight for them, not a wealthy career politician who talks a big game then votes with the Liberals to screw ordinary people over.”

PAYING FOR OUR PLAN

By making billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share of tax and winding back handouts to big polluters, we can build a better life for all of us.

1 in 3 big corporations pays no tax and many big corporations and billionaires send their profits offshore tax free.

The Greens will tax billionaires with a new ‘billionaires tax’, require big corporations making excessive profits to pay a ‘corporate super-profits tax’ and axe billions of dollars in handouts to the coal, oil and gas giants that are driving the climate crisis.

These measures have all been costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office.

When big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share, everyone can have the services they need for a better life. 

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese’s promise to deliver South Australia’s fair share of water under the Murray Darling Basin Plan is welcomed, however will only be delivered if buybacks are restored, the Greens have said today.

This scheme is critical to restoring water flows to the river and delivering 450GL to South Australia, and the Greens will be needed in the Senate to secure it.

“Mr Albanese’s promise to deliver South Australia’s fair share of water is welcome, but will only happen if we can secure buybacks, and that will require a Green vote in the Senate,” Greens spokesperson for environment and water, Sarah Hanson-Young said today.

“The 450GL promised to SA cannot be delivered without restoring voluntary water buybacks. This is critical to ensuring the longevity of the Murray and those who rely on it. In Senate balance of power, the Greens will push to ensure this is included in Labor’s plan. 

“As we head into an election, we must think about who we want in control of our Murray. South Australians have been left behind by the Morrison-Joyce Government. We need representatives who will put the people and environment of South Australia first.

“It is clear the Nationals cannot be trusted with water governance – we have seen our rivers suffer and corporate interests get rich at the expense of everyone else. The recent appointments of their Nationals mates and fossil fuel lobbyists onto Murray-Darling Basin review panels show that this is not going to change anytime soon.

“If we are to ensure the survival of one of South Australia’s most important rivers, and delivery of fresh water to South Australians, we need proper, independent governance without the Nationals interference.

South Australian Greens Senate candidate Barbara Pocock said “This is why the South Australian Senate race is so important. We need two strong voices for the Murray to stand up to the greedy Nationals upstream to restore the health of the river.”

The Australian Human Rights Commission’s status as a National Human Rights Institution is under threat because of the Morrison Government’s meddling with how it appoints Commissioners.

Senator Lidia Thorpe, The Greens spokesperson for Justice said:

“Human rights are the tools we use to fight for our basic dignities and freedoms. These tools belong to all of us, but Scott Morrison and Attorney-General Michaelia Cash are deliberately blocking us from asserting our rights and dignities by deliberately meddling with the Australian Human Rights Commission.”

“Scott Morrison and his Attorney-General Michaelia Cash have put our Human Rights Commission in danger of being downgraded to a B level institution. They need to go.”

“Scott Morrison and Michaelia Cash have starved our Commission of funding, appointed their mates to plum jobs and they have utterly and completely failed at ensuring the Commission can lead the full implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. They don’t care about us.”

“The Australian Human Rights Commission ensures that we are treated as equals in our society regardless of who we are or where we come from. That’s why Scott Morrison and Michaelia Cash are so keen to destroy it.”

“The Greens will enact a human rights charter, which also includes environmental rights, to ensure no one is stopped from asserting their rights and dignities. We will also work to ensure that there is a fair, transparent, and accountable process for the appointment of Commissioners, judicial officers and members of tribunals.”

For information about our plan for justice for all, visit: https://greens.org.au/platform/equality