Category: Australian News

Following Standard & Poor’s (S&P) reaffirming its AAA credit rating today, Australia remains one of only nine countries around the world to hold a AAA credit rating from all three major credit rating agencies.
Despite a once in a century pandemic, which “wreaked havoc on the global economy and government balance sheets around the world”, S&P has reaffirmed Australia’s AAA credit rating following the release of the Morrison Government’s Economic Recovery Plan to create jobs and secure Australia’s future.
In its report, S&P notes that the Morrison Government’s “balance sheet was strong before the pandemic” and that “Australia’s budget improved in recent years on the back of tight fiscal discipline, strong labour market conditions, and high commodity prices.”
S&P further states that “Australia’s typically strong fiscal performance remains a credit strength for the rating” and that “Australia’s economy is beginning to recover from its first recession in almost 30 years” and will “rebound strongly once borders open”.
Today’s decision by S&P is a further vote of confidence in the Morrison Government’s response to the health and economic crisis caused by COVID-19. The record levels of economic support we have provided has helped save 700,000 jobs.
The Government has been able to do this because we entered this crisis from a position of economic strength and had brought the Budget back to balance for the first time in 11 years. This gave us the fiscal firepower when we needed it most.
Our economic support has been provided in a temporary, targeted and proportionate manner. By doing so we have protected the structural integrity of the Budget, with over 90 per cent of the spending committed in response to the crisis occurring over the next two years.
There is still a long way to go in recovering from this health and economic crisis but the Australian economy is fighting back with around 60 per cent of the 1.3 million people who lost their job or were stood down on zero hours in April now back at work.
Next calendar year, the economy is forecast to grow by 4.25 per cent, and unemployment to fall to 6.5 per cent by the June Quarter 2022. Our economic and fiscal strategy sets out the path to grow the economy, stabilise debt, and then reduce it over time.
Consumer confidence increased 11.9 per cent in October, the largest increase in a Budget month on record since the series began in 1974 with Westpac Chief Economist, Bill Evans, commenting that it was “an extraordinary result” and that “such a development must be attributable to the response to the October Federal Budget.”
The Morrison Government’s Economic Recovery Plan is focused on job creation, rebuilding our economy and securing Australia’s future.

The Greens condemn the Morrison Government for failing to include a gender lens in the Budget, instead leaving it to a non-profit women’s organisation to do their homework for them.
“Women are once again mopping up after the Morrison Government by applying a gender lens to the Budget, something which should have been done by government itself,” said Greens Leader in the Senate and spokesperson on Women, Senator Larissa Waters.
“The National Foundation of Australian Women’s analysis released today unsurprisingly finds that when you don’t apply a gender lens to budgeting, women miss out.
“NFAW found that by investing in the care economy – increasing employment and wages in the childcare, aged care and disability sector – GDP would increase by 1.64% by 2030 and women’s workforce participation would be turbo-charged.
“This follows earlier analysis by the Australia Institute showing that more jobs would be created for both men and women if the government invested in health and education rather than championing male-dominated fields with the blokey recovery we have seen proposed to date.
“The 2020 Budget is bad for women. It has no new money for childcare, housing or frontline domestic violence services, the tax cuts are worth twice as much for men as women, and the women’s economic security statement is a mere 0.04% of the Budget.
“The embarrassing government talking points trying to claim roads as a win for women is reminiscent of Tony Abbott citing his top achievement as Minister for Women being repealing the carbon price so women would pay less when ironing.
“The Budget disproportionately helps men in a year that has disproportionately disadvantaged women, perhaps because only one woman sits on the Expenditure Review Committee.
“There has been no Women’s Budget Impact Statement since Abbott axed it in 2014, and this year a hastily patched-together Women’s Economic Security statement was released three hours after the Budget. Women are an afterthought to this government and it shows,” concluded Senator Waters.

The Greens have condemned the Government’s reintroduction of the discriminatory remote work-for-the-dole scheme Community Development Program (CDP) that disproportionately impacts First Nations peoples.
“It’s very disturbing to hear anecdotal claims from employment providers saying that the increase to income support is leading to more drinking and anti-social behaviours”, Greens spokesperson on Family and Community Services Senator Rachel Siewert said.
The increase in income support has lead to people being able to feed their families, buy essential items and pay bills.
Government should be investing in addressing the barriers people face to employment such as poverty, housing and ill health, particularly for young people who have a higher probability of being penalised.
There clearly need to be more in jobs creation in remote communities, particularly in the care economy.
The CDP program is a top down punitive approach that is not even close to being in line with closing the gap objectives of self-determination and community control.
CDP cannot continue to keep running as it was before its suspension as part of the response to COVID19.
It is a punitive and discriminatory program that sees work-for-the-dole participants, who are largely First Nations peoples having to do work hours and have participation requirements that are far higher than those in the Jobactive program.
Why should people in remote regions, the vast majority of whom are First Nations peoples have to be subjected to a work-for-the-dole scheme that is far harsher and more punitive than their city counterparts.
We need employment and support programs designed and led by First Nations peoples and they have to be funded for the long term. CDEP should never have been dropped in the first place.
APONT has put forward an employment model that has been ignored by the Government.
The Government’s own 2019 evaluation of the program articulates what is well known, that First Nations peoples are more likely to be penalised and are penalised more often than their city counterparts.
CDP has to go.

The Morrison Government is funding the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH), the nation’s largest health survey, for another three years.
Partners in the ALSWH, the University of Queensland and the University of Newcastle, will receive more than $8.58 million over the next three years. This funding boost complements the Australian Government’s commitment to provide ongoing funding for this important project.
Since 1996, the Government has funded the ALSWH to enable it to continuously collect important data on women’s health status and trends from across the nation.
The Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, said, “For a quarter of a century, the ALSWH has played a leading role in nurturing our understanding of how health issues impact on the everyday lives of women, how women negotiate these issues, and the ways in which women engage with the health system.
“The study has been integral in guiding national approaches to developing services and supports that are tailored to women’s needs, and provide the best means of realising improved health outcomes for women, at all stages of their life.
“The new funding will allow the study to continue to fulfil this important function at a time where improvements in the women’s health space are being prioritised in response to the National Women’s Health Strategy 2020-2030.”
The Minister for Women, Marise Payne, said, “The views of everyday women have never been more valuable. Having such a robust and internationally renowned mechanism for informing national policy on women’s health is incredibly important.
“The study follows more than 57,000 women who are broadly representative of the entire Australian population, spanning four generations.
“The three original cohorts were women born in the years 1921-26, 1945-51 and 1973-78. A new cohort of more than 17,000 women born in the years 1989-95—who were then aged 18 to 23 years old — was added in 2013.
“As well as continuing the study, the additional funding will finance a project to improve the representation of women from South East Asia, North East Asia, and Southern Asia. This will focus on women in the two younger cohorts, who are currently aged 25 to 31 years old and 42 to 47 years old.”
ALSWH’s methodology is internationally renowned and assesses:

• Physical and emotional health—including wellbeing, major diagnoses, symptoms.
• Use of health services—GP, specialist and other visits, access, satisfaction.
• Health behaviours and risk factors—diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol, other drugs.
• Time use—including paid and unpaid work, family roles and leisure.
• Socio-demographic factors—location, education, employment, family composition.
• Life stages and key events—such as childbirth, divorce, widowhood.

Data from the study is also made available for national and international research use. Since the study began, it has been used in more than 800 scientific publications.
During 2020, the ALSWH has conducted a series of surveys and reports on women’s experiences of COVID-19. They include information on living arrangements during the pandemic, involvement in paid work and home-schooling, and general health and wellbeing.
This information will be beneficial in assessing the impacts of COVID-19 on Australian women.

The Commonwealth DPP’s decision to rule out charges against ABC journalist Dan Oakes is welcome but the lengthy ordeal should never have arisen in the first place, the Greens say.
Greens spokesperson for Media and Chair of the Senate Inquiry into Press Freedoms, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:
“This case was designed to have a chilling effect on the media by a secretive government.
“Mr Oakes’ reporting was always in the public interest and the fact it’s taken so long for the AFP and CDPP to reach this conclusion highlights our laws are broken and need fixing.
“Journalism is not a crime. We need a Media Freedom Act to ensure no journalist is treated like this ever again.”
Senator Hanson-Young said she is pushing ahead with introducing a Media Freedom Act to the Parliament.
The Media Freedom Act that Senator Hanson-Young will introduce will:
• Ensure a contested warrants process, where law enforcement would need to apply to a judge to search a media outlet or access a journalist’s metadata;
• Protect whistleblowers by introducing a public interest defence;
• Put the onus on prosecutors to disprove public interest rather than journalists to prove it;
• Overall, enacts shield laws to protect journalists from being forced to reveal their sources.
“A contested warrants process would mean police can’t just raid a news outlet’s premises or the home of a journalist like we saw in the Smethurst and ABC raids. There would be checks and balance and consideration of what is in the public interest,” Senator Hanson-Young said.
“Journalists should not be charged for doing their jobs full stop. They should not have their homes raided. They should not be intimidated or threatened. They should not be attacked by the government for reporting what is in the public interest.
“Whistleblowers who speak truth to power must be better protected, it is essential for an accountable and transparent democracy, and to protect the public’s right to know.”

Greens Foreign Affairs spokesperson Senator Janet Rice said Morrison’s delay in getting stranded Australians home is unacceptable and has called on the government to urgently increase federal resources to boost quarantining capacity across the country.
Senator Rice said:
“Morrison has finally acted in announcing an expansion to quarantine facilities at Howard Springs, but it has taken him too long, and the solution is nowhere near good enough.
“While the Prime Minister has been gallivanting around Queensland on the campaign trail, almost 30,000 Australians have been waiting anxiously to find out when they’ll be able to see their families again.
“The Government’s delay has been devastating for Australians and their families stuck overseas. Over and over again we have heard heartbreaking stories of Australians who are separated from their children, from the medical care they need and from their jobs.
“The fact that tens of thousands are still waiting to get home is an indictment on Morrison’s inaction.
“The Greens have repeatedly said that most Australians wanting to come home can’t wait until the end of the year – they are desperate and fearful of yet again having flights cancelled. Not only that, as the virus continues to impact travel in other countries, getting home could become even harder for many.
“The Morrison Government urgently needs to increase federal resources to boost quarantining capacity across the country. Only then will Australians be able to get home when they need to and at reasonable cost.
“With transport networks all across the world in disarray, the government must also provide assistance for Australians to reach the point of departure. Otherwise, many would-be travellers could be watching a crucial lifeline leave without them.”

Cheap energy is critical to reviving the Australian economy and creating new jobs.
But there’s a roadblock to reducing power prices – the inefficiency of our electricity transmission system.
Running from Tasmania to Far North Queensland, Australia’s National Energy Market grid is one of the longest in the world. But it’s not fit for purpose.
We have already seen catastrophic failures. Tasmania’s Basslink was cut off from the mainland grid for six months and wholesale electricity prices there rocketed.
Our transmission system was built for a time when solar panels ran pocket calculators, not the one in four households which have rooftop solar. The current network takes no account of the rise of renewables as the cheapest new energy source and doesn’t help link these new sources up to the national grid.
A Labor government will tackle this head-on. We would invest in the Rewiring the Nation project, an overhaul of the grid that will create jobs, reduce power prices and facilitate Australia’s potential as a renewable energy superpower.
We need a more efficient grid that can move energy in multiple directions and from far more locations.
Upgrading the grid is technology-neutral. Because renewable energy is the cheapest method of new production it will benefit most and allow the distribution of the cheapest source more efficiently.
If there’s more wind blowing in South Australia than they can use, the right transmission infrastructure will mean they can sell the excess to Victoria and NSW, lowering energy bills in the process.
It will facilitate the export of hydropower from Tasmania to the mainland. This is common sense.
Rewiring the Nation will reduce power prices. Transmission systems are operated in each state by a monopoly provider, some foreign-owned. Those companies charge ordinary Australians not only the cost of building and operating the grid, but have in the past inflated costs in a process known as “gold plating”.
Labor wants to swap gold plating for a gold standard. Renewing the grid will be delivered by a public non-financial corporation to be called Rewiring the Nation.
It will partner with transmission companies and the Australian Energy Market Operator to build, manage, maintain and operate a planned rollout of energy transmission assets.
AEMO has already produced a detailed blueprint for the work. It’s a plan that has been signed off by all governments, stacks up regardless of the energy mix, and will create up to $40 billion of economic benefits, including in lower prices for consumers.
Rewiring the Nation will create thousands of construction jobs for Australians in the regions. In addition, we’ll require projects to use Australian workers using Australian supplies.
These projects will set the foundations for revitalising traditional industries like steel and aluminium and allow new growth in emerging clean energy sectors like battery production and hydrogen energy.
Rewiring the Nation will further drive down power bills by using the Commonwealth’s ability to borrow at substantially lower interest rates, and making sure benefits are passed on to energy users here as lower prices.
The coming years will demand a sophisticated energy grid to power Australian jobs.
Providing a clear strategic plan while lowering the cost of projects ensures consumers will pay less and Australian industry has the certainty it needs to supply into these nation-building projects and deliver more jobs.
Labor is looking to the future. We understand that the rise of renewable energy is real. We seek to exploit the shift to find new opportunities for job creation.
By contrast, the Morrison government is frozen in the past as the world warms around it.
After 22 attempts over eight years, this government has no energy policy. All it has produced are higher electricity prices. Labor has vision, just as we had when last in government when we proposed the construction of a fibre-to-the-premises National Broadband Network.
The incoming Liberal government downgraded the project with a new model using 19th-century copper wire technology. Indeed, it bought 50,000 km of copper – enough to wrap around the earth.
Then, seven years later, it declared Labor was right in the first place and opted for the fibre-to-the-premises model. Fixing its mistake will cost Australians $4.5 billion – the price we all pay for this government of haste and waste.
Let’s not repeat this mistake. Let’s get our modern energy system right the first time.
Let’s seize this chance to shape a future for our nation as big as our potential.

The Australian Government is facilitating additional commercial flights from the United Kingdom, India and South Africa to help more Australians return amid the unprecedented travel disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Government has finalised an initial programme with Qantas of eight flights over coming weeks from London, New Delhi and Johannesburg.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) officials will work with Qantas to ensure the most vulnerable Australians registered are given priority access to these flights.
We are doing everything we can to help Australians who have faced difficulty returning because of the pandemic.
The first two flights will depart London on 22 October and New Delhi on 26 October. Each flight will carry 175 passengers. As more quarantine facility space has become available with fewer domestic travellers needing to quarantine, we have been working with the Northern Territory Government so Australian passengers from overseas can undertake their 14 days’ quarantine on return at the Howard Springs facility.
This arrangement will create the capacity for more than 5,000 Australians to return over the next six months.
We thank the Northern Territory Government for its assistance in this effort.
In parallel, we are continuing to work with state and territory authorities to increase quarantine capacity through major airports, as well as for further facilitated flights. We are also continuing discussions to increase the number of airports receiving Australians from overseas.
The Government continues to assist vulnerable Australians overseas through consular assistance and through the Hardship Program. Financial assistance is available to help cover the costs of flights where other sources of finance have been exhausted.
There are more than 29,000 Australians currently registered with DFAT wishing to return to Australia.
Around 398,000 Australians have returned since 13 March. The Australian Government has helped over 29,100 Australians return, including on 64 directly facilitated flights.
More than 4,100 Australians registered with DFAT have returned since 18 September, including over a quarter who were considered vulnerable.
We continue to encourage Australians trying to return to Australia from overseas to register with DFAT through the nearest embassy or high commission or via Smartraveller.
The Government is underwriting the cost of the flights, and airfares will be available at commercial rates to passengers, with loans through DFAT available to those who need assistance.
More details on the flights are available on smartraveller.gov.au and www.qantas.com

The Australian Business Growth Fund (BGF) has been formally established, with the Shareholders Agreement now signed by all seven shareholders.
The Government also welcomes the appointment of Mr Anthony Healy as the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the BGF. Mr Healy has had a senior commercial banking career with a focus on assisting SME customers to grow and succeed. This follows the appointment of the Chairman of the BGF, Will Hodgman, former Premier of Tasmania, earlier this year.
The Morrison Government will work alongside participating banks to ensure that small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) have access to the equity finance they need as we move into the recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Government is making an investment of $100 million and partnering with other financial institutions to provide equity funding to SMEs through the BGF. The major banks including ANZ, CBA, NAB, and Westpac have also each committed $100 million to the BGF. HSBC and Macquarie have also committed $20 million each in support of the BGF.
This will give the BGF an initial investment capacity of $540 million, with the ambition to grow the fund to $1 billion as it matures. The BGF will operate commercially and make investment decisions independently of Government.
Established Australian businesses will be eligible to apply for long-term equity capital investments between $5 million and $15 million, where they have generated annual revenue between $2 million and $100 million and can demonstrate three years of revenue growth and profitability, allowing for the impact of COVID-19 on recent business performance.
Following the appointment of the CEO, it is anticipated that the BGF will shortly begin engaging with SMEs that are seeking patient equity investment in their business to enable them to grow and expand.
The Government’s investment in the BGF is part of its ongoing commitment to support SMEs as they seek to innovate, expand and create new jobs on the other side of the coronavirus crisis.
More information on the BGF’s investment guidelines can be found in Attachment A.
Attachment A
Australian Business Growth Fund – Investment Guidelines
The BGF will invest consistent with its objectives, which are to:

• Increase the availability of patient equity capital to Australian SMEs;
• Increase the level of investment in SMEs across Australia;
• Facilitate interstate and overseas trade and commerce; and
• Support job creation and economic growth in response to the current COVID downturn.

The BGF will invest in established SMEs with annual revenue between $2 million and $100 million, and a track record of three consecutive years of revenue growth and profitability. The BGF’s assessment of an SMEs track record will take into account uncharacteristic trends resulting from the COVID downturn.
The BGF’s investment will constitute a minority economic interest of typically between 10-40% of total, fully-diluted, share capital (on an ‘as-converted’ basis).
Each investment must be commercially viable and make a return appropriate to the underlying risk of the investment.
Over time, there must be an industry and regional spread of investments.

Australian Greens Housing spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that AHURI’s Renting in the time of COVID-19: understanding the impacts report, released today, has shone a light on the struggles of renters during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Renters are doing it very tough. The findings of this report confirm many of the fears we’ve had for renters throughout this crisis. Many are earning less, living precariously, and being refused rent reductions.
“The government needs a plan to manage the immense rental stress people are experiencing, and which will worsen as the government continues to withdraw income support.
“There were no measures in last week’s budget to address housing affordability or ensure that people will not have to go hungry to keep a roof over their heads.
“The government must reverse their cruel cuts to income support and invest in social housing to ensure accessible, affordable and sustainable homes for everyone who needs one.
“I call on the National Cabinet to ensure eviction bans are in place so this public health and economic crisis doesn’t leave more and more people in a homelessness crisis,” she said.