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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met Pacific Leaders at the 52nd Pacific Islands Forum from 7–9 November in Cook Islands.

The Prime Minister’s attendance at the Leaders’ Meeting demonstrates Australia’s commitment to deepening its engagement in the Pacific and addressing the shared challenges facing us all, including shaping a peaceful, stable and prosperous Pacific, and the impacts of climate change.

The Prime Minister briefed Leaders on the Government’s action to reduce Australia’s emissions and build our clean energy industries.

Pacific leaders were unified in emphasising the need for Pacific-led and Pacific-focussed solutions to their particular vulnerabilities in relation to climate change.

Recognising that climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific, the Prime Minister announced that Australia will make further investments to build the resilience of our Pacific partners.

Australia will contribute at least $350 million in climate infrastructure for the region, including $75 million for a program for off-grid and community scale renewable energy in remote and rural parts of the Pacific.

Prime Minister Albanese also announced that Australia will contribute to the new Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF), a Pacific-built trust fund that will be established to invest in small-scale climate and disaster resilient projects.

Australia will also make a contribution to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the most prominent global climate finance fund, and will be active in advocating to prioritise GCF financing for the Pacific.

While attending the PIF Leaders Meeting, Prime Minister Albanese and the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, The Hon. Kausea Natano, announced a major new bilateral agreement in response to a request from Tuvalu, the Australia –Tuvalu Falepili Union.

The Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union comprises a bilateral treaty between Tuvalu and Australia, as well as a commitment articulated in a joint leaders’ statement to uplift our broader bilateral partnership.

“Falepili” is a Tuvaluan word for the traditional values of good neighbourliness, care and mutual respect.

The Treaty covers three main areas of cooperation: climate change, human mobility and security.

Under the new Treaty:

• Australia commits to provide assistance to Tuvalu in response to a major natural disaster, health pandemics and military aggression.
• To allow for effective operation of Australia’s security guarantee, both countries commit to mutually agree any partnership, arrangement or engagement with any other State or entity on security and defence-related matters in Tuvalu.
• And Australia will establish a dedicated intake – known as a special mobility pathway – to allow Tuvaluans to come to Australia to live, work and study. There will be an initial cap of 280 Tuvaluans eligible per year. With a population of just over 11,000 people, Tuvalu is extremely vulnerable to the impact of climate change, especially rising sea levels, and is trying to preserve its culture, traditions and land.

As part of the uplift in our broader bilateral relationship, Australia will support Tuvalu’s climate adaptation interests, including additional funding for the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project which will expand Funafuti’s land by around 6 per cent, to help Tuvaluans live and thrive at home and preserve their culture.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said:

“I am honoured to have attended the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting.

“Australia deeply values our membership of the Pacific Islands Forum, and I thank Cook Islands and Prime Minister the Hon. Mark Brown for being such generous and welcoming hosts.

“We recognise the climate crisis is the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of people in the Pacific.

“Australia is committed to enduring partnerships in the region.

“We have listened to the needs of our Pacific neighbours and are committed to addressing shared challenges in partnership with Forum members.

“I was honoured to sign the Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union with Prime Minister Natano, in response to Tuvalu’s request for a closer relationship between our countries.”

The Greens condemn Labor for abandoning its environmental agenda and prioritising the Sea Dumping Amendment Bill – legislation specifically designed to facilitate dirty fossil fuel projects by falsely legitimising carbon capture and storage (CSS) as a commercially viable and effective climate solution. 

It comes as the Climate Council today releases its first oceans report, urging the Government to show commitment to protecting our precious ocean, starting with the urgent phase out of coal, oil and gas.

Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said:

“Burying carbon emissions in geological formations beneath the seabed hasn’t worked at scale anywhere in the world – it is a fallacy. 

“CCS is a unicorn technology that the Sea Dumping Bill attempts to legitimise while giving political cover to rip open new fossil fuel projects. 

“By passing this sham of a Bill, Labor will prove it is no different to the Coalition when it comes to the despicable steps it is willing to take to satisfy the fossil fuel industry. 

“The Climate Council today released its first oceans report, which urges the Government to show commitment to protecting our precious ocean starting with the urgent phase out of coal, oil and gas.

“Humans have largely been protected from the worst of climate change because more than 90 percent of the heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed by the ocean – but this sacrifice is not without cost. 

“Our oceans are at breaking point yet Labor is content with letting urgent reforms to the EPBC Act lay dormant while the needs of the fossil fuel industry leap to the front of the government’s legislative queue. 

“The Sea Dumping Bill is the strongest indication yet from the Albanese Government that it is content with abandoning its environmental agenda, and is shamelessly and indefensibly captured by the fossil fuel industry.” 

The Greens say new polling showing that two in five families are experiencing school refusal/school can’t reinforces the need for urgent action on the recent Senate inquiry’s recommendations, and adds pressure on Labor to deliver 100% minimum funding to all public schools at the start of the next National School Reform Agreement.

A Greens-commissioned Lonergan poll of 1003 Australian parents of public and private school children found that 39% of all parents of school-age students said their child had been unable to attend school in the past year because of anxiety or stress. The breakdown for public and private schools was 41% and 35% respectively.

Greens spokesperson on Education (Primary and Secondary), Senator Penny Allman-Payne said:

“This polling shows that school can’t is not simply a niche phenomenon experienced by a small minority of school students – it’s a major problem impacting hundreds of thousands of families across the country.

“It should be a wake-up call for governments and education departments that the school system is not capable of responding and adapting to the complex needs of our kids, and that it is increasingly not fit-for-purpose. 

“As the Senate inquiry heard, school can’t is an often misunderstood issue that is too readily blamed on disability or mental health challenges, or passed off as misbehaviour.

“But in reality it is the product of an extreme stress response which leaves a child simply incapable of attending school, even though they want to.

“This is a crisis of exclusion. Students are being forced to adjust to the needs of rigid, commodified educational systems and institutions, rather than the other way around – and massive school refusal rates are the result.

“The Greens call upon education ministers to act on the 14 recommendations of the Senate inquiry into school refusal, including establishing a funded peer support organisation for parents and developing a national action plan.

“And we must ensure all public schools are resourced to at least 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard, so that teachers and support staff are able to give every student the attention they need.”

The Greens celebrate the High Court’s landmark ruling against indefinite immigration detention, dismantling a two-decade-long bipartisan regime of cruelty.

“The High Court has struck a blow for liberty and decency,” Greens Immigration and Citizenship Spokesperson Senator Nick McKim said.

“This is a long-overdue rejection of a Labor/Liberal policy which has seen vulnerable people warehoused in detention with no end in sight.”

“For too long, Peter Dutton and his Labor replicas have acted unlawfully and contrary to the Constitution and foundational principles of a liberal democracy.”

“Courts should decide prison sentences. Politicians must not.”

“People who have been living in a state of perpetual uncertainty can now look forward to freedom and a life beyond the cruelty of indefinite immigration detention.”

“The cruelty of indefinite detention has always been a design feature of the immigration system. It is grossly inhumane and belongs in the dustbin of history.”

“Labor has consistently denied reality by arguing that no-one is being detained indefinitely in immigration detention.”

“This decision puts the lie to that claim and will force the ALP to overcome its political cowardice and finally act.”

“The Greens call on Labor to immediately release people affected by this ruling and to ensure they are supported as they transition into the community.”

“We also demand a commitment from Labor that the government will not attempt to legislate its way around this ruling.”

“Congratulations to everyone involved in the decades-long campaign against indefinite immigration detention and the recent high court challenge.”

After the Greens pushed the Labor government in estimates – revealing dismal Centrelink call wait times, congestion messages and claims processing – Centrelink will now gain 3000 new staff and a $228 million funding boost.

Senator Janet Rice will continue questioning Services Australia on Tuesday 7th November to investigate their appalling performance and advocate for a stronger, well-funded Centrelink.

Senator Janet Rice, Greens spokesperson for social services, said: 

“The state of Services Australia’s Centrelink is a disaster. The Greens called out the severe lack of staffing resources being allocated by the Labor government, and now they’ve been forced to address the issue.”

“These failures revealed in estimates aren’t a mere inconvenience for people on Centrelink; they are causing great suffering. When people can’t get help on the phone and aren’t having their claims processed on time, it means they can’t pay their bills or rent or afford to eat.”

“People on Centrelink are barely scraping by as it is, on payments below the poverty line. They don’t have savings to deal with not receiving their income on time.”

“Centrelink’s performance has worsened under Labor – it needed more funding and more staff, and that’s exactly what Greens pressure has achieved. This is a win for vulnerable Australians looking for support.”

“It’s a welcome announcement but it’s a drop in the ocean compared to the investment that is actually required to fix our broken, punitive social safety net.”

“We still need to raise the rate of income support to at least $88 a day, abolish punitive and counterproductive mutual obligations, remove unfair restrictions on who can access payments and put an end to debt recovery.”

“This funding announcement highlights that poverty is a political choice, one that Labor makes time and time again unless pushed to do differently.”

Applications are open for the inaugural Maitri Scholars Program, to support India’s best and brightest students to complete post-graduate STEM degrees at Australian universities.

The program will deepen scientific and research collaboration between Australia and India, in emerging sectors of advanced manufacturing, critical technology, critical minerals, and clean energy solutions.

The Maitri Scholars Program will provide scholarships to around 45 students over the next four years in these fields, with an Australian Government investment of $11.2 million to support the program.

Scholarships will be administered by the Centre for Australia-India Relations, and be open to all Australian universities, who can nominate PhD and masters’ students.

The Maitri Scholars Program is a recommendation of an update to the India Economic Strategy to 2035, aimed at creating life-long connections and goodwill between our countries. Australia’s education ties with India are one of the bedrocks of our bilateral relationship.

Further details on the Maitri Scholars Program can be found at australiaindiacentre.org.au. Australian universities can submit grant applications until 1 January 2024.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Senator Penny Wong said:

“The Maitri program will deepen scientific and research collaboration between Australia and India.

“In supporting India’s brightest minds in STEM research, the Maitri Scholarships set the foundations for life-long connections for Australian and Indian leaders in new and emerging technology.”

QMinister for Education Jason Clare said:

“The launch of the Maitri scholarships is a key outcome of today’s meeting of the Australia India Education and Skills Council which was hosted by my Indian counterpart the Hon Dharmendra Pradhan in Gandhinagar.

“The program will strengthen our education partnership with India by giving some of its brightest young researchers the opportunity to study at our world class universities.”

Centre for Australia-India Relations CEO, Tim Thomas said:

“The Maitri Scholars program reinforces Australia’s credentials as a provider of quality education and will help to catalyse professional development, links with industry and research commercialisation.”

The Albanese Government is making it easier to see a bulk billing doctor for more than 11 million Australians, with the largest investment in bulk billing in the 40-year history of Medicare.

From today, the incentive that general practitioners receive to bulk bill children under 16, pensioners and other Commonwealth concession cardholders will be tripled for most common GP consults.

It will be easier to find a bulk billing doctor for around 5 million children and their families and 7 million pensioners and other concession cardholders.

Together, these patients account for around 3 out of 5 visits to the GP.

At the 2023-24 Budget, the Albanese Government also announced a $1.5 billion indexation boost to Medicare payments, with the increase also taking effect today.

Together, the indexation boosts in July and November have delivered the largest increase to Medicare payments since Paul Keating was Prime Minister, delivering a larger increase in one year than the former government delivered over seven years.

The indexation boost and tripling of the bulk billing incentive provides a significant increase to the Medicare payments that GPs get to bulk bill eligible patients.

In our major cities, a doctor will get 34% more for a standard bulk billed consultation of under 20 minutes (a Level B consultation), taking the Medicare payment for eligible patients to $62.05.

In regional and rural Australia, a doctor will get around 50% more for the same visit, taking the Medicare payment to between $72.80 and $81.10, depending on location.

A new Medicare rebate for GP consultations of 60 minutes or longer will also commence today, giving patients a rebate of $191.20 and doctors the time to provide better care for people with complex physical and mental conditions.

Patients registered with MyMedicare will now be able to access Medicare rebates for longer telephone consultations from their registered practice.

MyMedicare is the foundation upon which a stronger, more personalised Medicare will be built, with patients to get more tailored quality care from their regular general practice, doctor and primary care team.

Since voluntary registration for MyMedicare opened to patients on 1 October, more than 150,000 people have registered with their preferred general practice and will now get access to longer telehealth consults.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said:

“We’re delivering the biggest investment in Medicare in over 40 years, with more incentives for bulk billing and 58 new Urgent Care clinics across Australia.

“These changes to the Medicare bulk billing incentive will make it easier, and cheaper for more than 11 million Australians to visit a doctor.

“Combined with our cheaper medicines policy, electricity bill relief, cheaper child care and increased rent assistance, we’re continuing to deliver targeted cost of living relief without adding to inflation.”

Health Minister Mark Butler said:

“The tripling of the bulk billing incentive will help over 5 million children and their families, and more than 7 million pensioners and concession card holders to see a bulk billed GP.

“Doctors’ groups have called this a ‘game-changer’ and GPs right around the country have said this will help them maintain and even shift back to bulk billing.

“Peter Dutton froze the Medicare rebate when he was Health Minister 10 years ago – a freeze that remained in place for six long years and led to a very substantial decline in bulk billing in general practice.

“Bulk billing is the beating heart of Medicare and Labor will always strengthen it.”