issue 62 22 february to 12 april, 2014 canberra …5 22 february to 12 april, 2014 letter from...
TRANSCRIPT
The Asian Edition
Letter from
Canberra
InsideBudget Blues ♦ Manus Island riots ♦ QF challenges ♦ Sinodinos on hold
Pink Batts ♦ Sir Peter Cosgrove ♦ Refining defining civil rightsHealth and Education targets ♦ Lots of union investigations
Assistant health minister staffer out ♦ Paul Howes leaves his unionHuge Red Tape reductions ♦ Charity Regulator YES/NO ♦ Whales up for air
Issue 62 22 February to 12 April, 2014
Saving you time for six years. A two coffee issue.
澳大利亚 商业开放
オーストラリア
営業を開始する
호주 비즈니스를위한 오픈
Australia Open For Business
Contents
Contact us
Affairs of State14 Collins Street
Melbourne, 3000Victoria, AustraliaP 03 9654 1300F 03 9654 1165
Letter From Canberra is a monthly public affairs bulletin, a simple précis, distilling and interpreting public policy and government decisions, which affect business opportunities in Victoria and
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The only communication tool of its type, Letter from Canberra keeps subscribers abreast of recent developments in the policy arena on a local, state
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Edited words in this edition: 18,975
StaffEditor
Alistair Urquhart [email protected]
Sub EditorMorgan Squires
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Alistair Urquhart, BA LLBAlistair Urquhart graduated from the Australian National University in Canberra, in Law, History and Politics. He may even hold the record for miles rowed on Lake Burley Griffin.
He was admitted as a barrister and solicitor to the Supreme Court of Victoria, and remains a (non-practicing) member of the Law Institute of Victoria. Previously, he graduated from high school in Bethesda, Maryland, and had many opportunities to become aware of the workings of Washington D.C.
For 30 years, he listened every Sunday evening to the late Alistair Cooke and his Letter from America. Alistair’s early career was mostly in the coal industry, where he became involved with energy, environmental and water issues, and later in the SME finance sector.
He found time to be involved in a range of community activities where he came to understand some of the practical aspects of dealing with government and meeting people across the political spectrum. He now chairs a large disability employment service, including its British operations.
About the editor
Affairs of State Established in 1993, is an independent Australian public affairs firm with contemporary international connections. Affairs of State provides a matrix of professional tools to multinational businesses, professional and industry associations, government agencies, pressure groups, NGOs and community causes in Australia and abroad.The firm works with many engineering and information technology firms and other professional association and industry groups on a wide range of issues in Victoria, Canberra and overseas.
The firm provides the following to clients:
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About the publisher
Letter from Canberra
5 Governance
7 Labor doings
10 Budget
10 Industrial relations & employment
11 Business, economy,
manufacturing & finance
12 Mining
12 Trade
12 Refugees & immigration
14 Tax
14 Climate change, environment & energy
15 Agriculture, cattle & water
15 Media
16 Justice
16 Broadband & IT
16 Transport & infrastructure
16 Health
17 Education
17 Foreign affairs
18 Defence
18 Sports & arts
18 Society
A monthly digest of news from around Australia.Saving you time; now in its sixth year.
editorial
Above all, the media have not filled our every day with political tiffs and much worse. Even a little refreshment!
I have to admit that personal distractions in Tasmania and the Epworth have stretched this edition out a bit but when I came to, after Tassie (what a great place) and the other place, there really is a lot of very practical things that are going through the lens of national government here in Australia. Hence the length of this edition.
Some really cleverly planned out matters like International Trade and the prime minister’s visit with his large entourage, decisiveness on Australian manufacturing, cuts in federal civil servants, and probably a very different industrial relations future.
Some big distractions like Sinodinos, inquiries into some union activities, NBN developments Ping Ping, and pink batts.
Some challenges like the Brandis’s Clause 18 C regarding human rights, the disbandonnement of the Charities Commission and the tight approach to Stop The Boats,
Above all, the media have not filled our every day with political tiffs and much worse. Even a little refreshment! Bob Carr’s new book has several wonderful attributes. He was a journalist after all. Before he became a Premier. He has been so quoted that there might be no longer any need to buy it!
Happy Reading. Get that coffee out.– Alistair Urquhart
Productive Canberra
The Australian and Japanese flags in Tokyo. Photo taken on Monday 7 April, when Tony Abbott was in town.
Thanks to Patrick Maher, the President of Workability International, and also Chief Operating Officer of National Disability Services (Australia’s peak body for non-government disability services), who was there at the time.
5
Letter from Canberra22 February to 12 April, 2014
GovernanceSinodinosAccording to The Age, Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos recently fell on his sword, becoming the first victim of a widening cor-ruption investigation by the New South Wales Independent Commission against Corruption. The mini-crisis comes as the government pre-pares its first budget and just weeks before a difficult Senate-only bi-election in Western Australia. The Liberal senator with an impec-cable political pedigree met with the Prime Minister, and departed his parliamentary suite 20 minutes later destined for the backbench, he having agreed to step aside for the duration of the ICAC inquiries. ‘’I do not want this side-show to be an unnecessary distraction to impor-tant work of the government which I am proud to serve. Whilst this process is under way, I will therefore be standing aside as Assistant Treas-urer.’’ The move relieved the pressure on gov-ernment, which had weathered a media storm and a parliamentary attack that overshadowed other government activities. It gives a bit more work to his immediate ministerial colleagues as the 13 May Budget is finalised.
WarnedSinodinos was warned that the cashflow and costs of Australian Water Holdings were out of control months before he took the chairmanship at the privately owned firm.
According to The Age, Liberal Party heavy-weight Sinodinos was warned by top public servants to be careful of the company he was keeping as chairman of Obeid-linked company Australian Water Holdings because ‘’they may be dishonest’’, a corruption inquiry has heard. In a devastating day of testimony for Senator Sinodinos, former Sydney Water chief execu-tive Kerry Schott told the Independent Com-mission Against Corruption on Monday that she told him AWH was charging expenses to the utility that were ‘’not appropriate’’. Sena-tor Sinodinos remained as chairman for another year.
Aust Water HoldingsThe Rouse Hill Infrastructure Consortium, as it was then known, was established as a non-profit-making entity in 1992 with a far more humble aim: to provide water pipes and sewer-age to the 15,000 undeveloped acres that would become Sydney’s north-west suburbs. As AWH continued to lay pipes and water treatment fa-cilities, Nick Di Girolamo’s main aim became convincing the state government to transform AWH’s contract with Sydney Water into a pub-lic-private partnership potentially worth bil-lions of dollars.
Sinodinos and the ICACThe Independent Commission Against Cor-ruption heard that Senator Arthur Sinodinos, while treasurer of the NSW Liberal Party, was installed on the board of the Obeid-linked Australian Water Holdings (AWH) in 2008 ‘to open lines of communication with the Liberal Party’. The Commission heard he was earning $200,000 a year for ‘a couple of week’s work’ and would have ‘enjoyed a $10 or $20 million payday’ if AWH had won a lucrative govern-ment contract. He has since abandoned his rights to shares in the company and denies any wrongdoing and claims he was unaware of any Obeid family investment in the company. The ICAC is examining allegations that the Obeids were ‘secret stake holders’ in AWH. After heightened political pressure from Labor, Mr Sinodinos decided to stand aside from his posi-tion as assistant treasurer in the Coalition gov-
ernment. Denying any wrongdoing, he said he would co-operate with ICAC. In the meantime, he will forgo ministerial pay and entitlements until the commission finishes its investigations. The prime minister declared that Mr Sinodinos will return to the ministry in due course. The Financial Review’s columnist Jennifer Hewett noted that ‘claims of ignorance, especially by a seasoned operator, do not equate to confirma-tion of innocence’. The same paper also reports that Mr Sinodinos’s lawyer has told ICAC to stop investigating possible breaches of direc-tors’ duties or commercial contracts involving his client because they have nothing to do with corruption. Mr Sinodinos has denied his judge-ment was blurred by the prospect of a very large ‘success fee.’
Big cutAccording to the Financial Review, at the height of a campaign to lobby NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell’s government for a $1.2 bil-lion contract, Australian Water Holdings chief executive Nick Di Girolamo gave instructions to grant in full what had been a conditional suc-cess option to chairman Arthur Sinodinos worth up to $20 million.
Sir PeterAccording to Troy Bramston in The Austral-ian: ‘General Peter Cosgrove will be sworn in as Australia’s 26th governor-general by Chief Justice Robert French in the Senate chamber. It could prove to be one of Tony Abbott’s most significant appointments. If a prime minister can look beyond the governor-general’s tradi-tional realm of ceremonial duties and also view him or her as a trusted counsellor and confidant, then the relationship can be one of the most im-portant in government.’
Knights and Dames returnThe Financial Review’s Chief political cor-respondent reports that former Liberal prime minister John Howard, a convinced monar-chist, told the correspondent that he stands by his long-held view on honours and that he disa-greed with Tony Abbott’s decision to reinstitute knights and dames (four a year he promises) into the Australian honours system. He also said that given his views it was unlikely that he would accept a knighthood should one ever be offered. The Age reported that the Austral-ian Republican Movement welcomed the PM’s reintroduction of knighthoods and damehoods saying it had reinvigorated the republican cause and prompted a membership spike. A February poll of more than 2000 Australians for Fairfax Media found only 39.4 % of the population supports a republic – the lowest level in 20 years with only 35.6 % of 18 to 35-year-olds supporting a republic. The Herald Sun’s James Campbell asks, quite enthusiastically, ‘The na-tion is rejoicing but the big question for the PM is, why stop at four?’
Arise Sir Peter, the new GGThe new Governor-General of Australia, Gen-eral Sir Peter Cosgrove, was sworn in on March 28. He succeeds Quentin Bryce, now Dame Quentin Bryce, Australia’s 26th GG and the first woman to hold the position. Sir Peter is the eighth former soldier to be GG and is a former Australian of the year; he declared that Austral-ia remains an ‘imperfect…work in progress’ as he flagged his intention to speak out judiciously on social issues, while remaining bipartisan.
Slower spendingHealth and education are being targeted for reform as Tony Abbott vows to slow the rate of growth in both spending areas to meet his
promise to put the budget back on track for a surplus. According to a report in The Austral-ian, stepping up the government’s warnings on budget repair and economic reform, the Prime Minister said that spending growth would have to be slowed as part of an overhaul from May. He also pledged to “lead by example” on the G20 commitment to wider economic reform as part of a contentious goal to add two per cent to world economic growth over five years. Labor welcomed the G20 outcome, but challenged the Coalition to explain how it would deliver on its rhetoric amid fears of new fees on medical ser-vices, cuts to welfare payments and an increase in the retirement age.
Hello. Hello.The True Issues analysis by JWS Research, which paints a snapshot of the government’s performance six months into its tenure, finds the initial burst of confidence and optimism that followed last year’s federal election has largely receded. Concerns over the cost of living, the strength of the national economy, wages and employment have slumped to the pre-election levels when Labor was in power. According to the Financial Review, voters do not feel the government is focusing on the areas they consider to be most important – health, the economy and education – according to a com-prehensive new analysis that is a wake-up call for the Coalition.
Hosting musings According to Ross Gittins in The Age, ‘It’s easy to be cynical about the G20. Will the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in Sydney this weekend in April, and the lead-ers’ summit in Brisbane in November, amount to anything more than talkfests. People say the Brisbane summit will be the largest and most important economic meeting ever held in Aus-tralia. That’s true, but it just means it will be bigger than the Sydney APEC leaders’ summit in 2007 - which is remembered mainly for The Chaser boys’ Bin Laden stunt. The G20 began in 1999 as a group for finance ministers and central bankers, in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, which revealed the need for greater co-operation and co-ordination between governments in responding to crises in the global financial system.’
Senate not waitingThe Coalition could begin passing its carbon and mining tax repeal bills through the Senate from July 1, even if the outcome of the West Australian rerun is still unknown. The Clerk of the Senate, Rosemary Laing, confirmed the Senate would continue business as usual with half of Western Australia’s 12 Senate seats va-cant.
UPDATE!!
The sixth and last seat appears to be a close contest between third Liberal candidate Linda Reynolds and second Labor candidate Louise Pratt, with the final result to be unknown for weeks.[6] Reynolds is ahead in the ABC’s de-tailed count projection,[5] with Antony Green predicting on 10 April “It is clear the Liberals will win the last seat”( Wikipedia).
Voter backlashTony Abbott has warned his colleagues to pre-pare for a voter backlash from tough spending cuts in the May budget amid a clear warning yesterday that The Age pension is a priority tar-get for change. The government singled out the rapid rise in pension costs as a cause for alarm hours after the Prime Minister admitted to Coa-lition MPs that voters were anxious about the
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Letter from Canberra
looming cuts.
Pink battsPrime Minister Tony Abbott personally ap-proved a decision to make cabinet documents available to the royal commission into the Rudd government’s botched home insulation scheme. According to The Age, former prime ministers Bob Hawke and Malcolm Fraser expressed alarm at the decision to hand over cabinet doc-uments, because they fear it will endanger the convention of cabinet confidentiality. Deputy secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Elizabeth Kelly, told Senate esti-mates hearings on Monday that 4500 govern-ment documents, including cabinet documents, have been handed to the royal commission since January.
Cabinet papersAccording to The Age, the federal government will make cabinet documents from the former government available to the royal commission into the abandoned home insulation scheme in an unprecedented move that could provoke a legal challenge. Attorney-General George Brandis outlined the plan to make cabinet docu-ments available in a letter to his predecessor, Mark Dreyfus, who says it turns 113 years of established practice on its head. Former prime ministers from both sides of politics, Bob Hawke and Malcolm Fraser, have expressed alarm at the move, saying it will invite payback from future governments and threaten cabinet confidentiality.
Deadly battsThe Royal Commission into the previous gov-ernment’s ‘pink batts’ insulation scandal, be-fore Ian Hanger QC, heard that two public serv-ants were given just two days to assess and cost a two-year home insulation program for more than two million households.
Funding the battsThe Financial Review reports that Mary Wiley-Smith, formerly an assistant secretary at the Commonwealth Dept of environment, water and heritage and the arts, told the royal com-mission into the Rudd Labor government’s botched home insulation program that she was asked by the PM’s office to assess the cost of the scheme over a weekend without any contact with industry. She states that ‘It was significant. There was just two of us. We were working very long hours into the night and we were told not to contact industry’.
Customs workersFinance Minister Mathias Cormann has told Customs and Border Protection chief Mike Pezzullo to save the money from his staffing budget rather than allow his agency to slip into the red. The decision could cost the jobs of more than 350 mid-ranking officers around the nation or more than 450 junior customs work-ers. According to The Age, Mr Pezzullo wrote to the minister in January, in accordance with protocols for public service bosses, asking for consent to run the budget deficit this financial year.
Parental leaveThe Commission of Audit has criticised the government’s proposed paid parental leave scheme as excessive at a time when fiscal re-straint is needed, according to the Financial Review.
Hockey pays backTwenty-two thousand dollars worth of funds paid to a Liberal Party fundraising group for
Treasurer Joe Hockey’s electorate, from the Obeid-linked Australian Water Holdings com-pany since 2009, have been repaid. According to a report in The Age, the group already paid back $11,000 more than a year ago to the com-pany after it attracted the attention of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.
PM firm on Nash callTony Abbott has rejected calls to sack Assis-tant Health Minister Fiona Nash over conflict of interest concerns. The opposition honed in on the minister in question time with Labor frontbencher Catherine King demanding to know why Senator Nash should be allowed to stay in her role after an apparent breach of the ministerial code of conduct. The attack came after it was revealed Senator Nash knowingly hired as her chief of staff a man known to have strong links to the junk food industry and who remained as part-owner of a consultancy that had represented confectionery, soft drink and alcohol industry interests.
Fully ownedThe chief of staff of Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash who resigned yesterday following revelations he had ties to a junk-food lobby-ing company fully owns the company with his wife. Company records show Australian Public Affairs is fully owned by Strategic Issues Man-agement, which is half-owned by Alastair Fur-nival and half owned by his wife, Tracey Cain.
Axed manSenator Nash’s chief of staff, Alastair Furnival, resigned in February when it was revealed by The Age, that he had retained ownership of a lobbying company in breach of the ministerial staff code of conduct. This followed a decision by the minister’s office to take down a healthy food website seen as hostile to the snackfood industry.
Alcohol lobby linkAssistant Health Minister Fiona Nash’s former chief of staff had links to the alcohol industry - and played a key role in stripping Australia’s peak drug and alcohol body of its funding. Alastair Furnival told staff at the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia in a meeting in December that their organisation, established 46 years ago, would no longer be funded. The Public Health Association of Australia and Aus-tralian Medical Association say the de-funding is not in the public’s best interests and must be reversed.
ProbeThe senior businessman appointed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott to review Australia’s re-newable energy target has been the subject of a secret internal investigation into his role as a former director of a firm involved in Australia’s worst foreign bribery scandal. According to a report in The Age, the investigation findings were sent earlier this month to the Reserve Bank board and deal with Dick Warburton and his fellow former Note Printing Australia direc-tors’ knowledge and handling of Note Printing Australia’s sanctions-busting trip to Iraq in 1998. Mr Abbott personally approved the ap-pointment of Mr Warburton to review the na-tion’s renewable energy target, despite serious questions about the role of Mr Warburton and his fellow former NPA directors in overseeing a company that police allege engaged in repeated foreign bribery.
QantasAccording to the Herald Sun, the federal gov-ernment has refused to offer a taxpayer lifeline
for struggling airline Qantas and will instead push ahead with new laws that could see Aus-tralian jobs go offshore.
According to the Financial Review, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has placed the future of Qantas at the mercy of a divided Parliament by refusing to offer the embattled airline a debt guarantee.
Qantas (2)Qantas is to be opened up to foreign investment after the federal government rejected a debt guarantee expressly requested by management and instead resolved to repeal key sections of the Qantas Sale Act. According to The Age, the ALP signalled it would oppose changes to the act, plunging the national carrier into more un-certainty. The change in ownership is premised upon a Qantas restructure into international and domestic divisions - which the company had been planning for the past two years, but which it put on hold last Friday. The changes would mean foreign investors - including other gov-ernment-owned airlines - would be able to take a majority stake in the domestic arm, but for-eign ownership of the international arm would remain capped at 49 per cent for the airline to remain an Australian carrier, which it needs to maintain landing rights. Qantas would still be subject to the national interest tests applied by the Foreign Investment Review Board.
Qantas (3)Federal cabinet has agreed to remove the ¬for-eign-ownership restrictions on ¬Qantas Air-ways, opening the way for a split of the airline’s domestic and international arms, as well as a protracted political fight.
Qantas debt dealThe federal government is leaning towards a debt guarantee for Qantas Airways and pushing Parliament to repeal the Qantas Sale Act that
keeps the company Australian controlled.
The numbers5000 jobs cut from the 32,000 strong work force; 1000 jobs from the Avalon heavy mainte-nance facility and Adelaide catering facility; an estimated 500 engineers, manufacturing work-ers, baggage handlers and check-in assistants to go; 1500 management and non-operational po-sitions in Mascot and Melbourne; $252m half year loss; 50 aircraft to be sold.
MusingsAccording to Judith Sloan in The Australian, ‘When Rod Eddington was the chief executive
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7
Letter from Canberra22 February to 12 April, 2014
of British Airways, he expressed the view that “you can’t run an airline by declaring war on your own workforce”. He did, however, man-age to reduce the size of BA’s workforce by a quarter while he was in charge of the company. An equally legitimate view is that you can’t run an airline by wrapping the workforce in cotton wool.’
Blue mapAustralia is headed for coast-to-coast Liberal governments, with expected Labor defeats in South Australia and Tasmania and Tony Abbott welcoming the prospect of working with “like-minded” leaders to “reshape our country to provide more jobs and prosperity”. According to surveys in The Australian point to a Labor-Greens rout in Tasmania, with the likelihood of the Liberals governing in their own right, and a Liberal victory in a much tighter contest in South Australia - the biggest spread of Coalition governments since John Howard’s win in 1996.
Electoral chiefAccording to The Australian, Electoral Com-missioner Ed Killesteyn has resigned from his $445,000-a-year post a day after the High Court sent voters in Western Australia back to the polls. The senior public servant had come under intense pressure over the loss of 1370 ballot pa-pers which threw into doubt the outcome of the state’s Senate race.
Send a messageAccording to Miranda Devine in the Herald Sun, ‘a new poll is a chance to deliver some home truths to colourful Palmer”.
Poised for office According to The Australian Australian voters are on the verge of electing rookie MP Steven Marshall as the state’s first Liberal premier in more than a decade. Just two weeks shy of the March 15 state election, a series of polls show Mr Marshall, a first-term MP, as preferred pre-mier and the Liberals leading the Labor govern-ment 55 to 45 per cent.
Katter and his own partyQueensland MP Bob Katter has moved to sack his party’s Victorian branch executive over its merger with the Country Alliance. According to The Weekly Times, the federal member for Kennedy sent an email, pleading with his Vic-torian Katter’s Australia Party members to “stay true” to the cause and not join the new entity — partly because it won’t use his name. Mr Katter told his members he was concerned the party’s name would “vanish completely” and a “con-cession” for the amalgamated party’s to become the Australian Country Alliance was “asinine”.
Gender reportThe federal governmental is worried about a $9 million impost on businesses stemming from new gender reporting standards, Liberal Senator for Victoria Mitch Fifield has told parliament.
South AustraliaRecriminations for the Liberal Party’s shock election loss have begun, with senior party fig-ures questioning the party’s failure to win the critical marginal seats needed to form govern-ment. Federal Labor took heart from the elec-tion outcome with Bill Shorten accusing the Liberals of being premature to claim a “blue map” of coast-to-coast Liberal governments.
All change at TreasuryVerona Burgess, the ‘Canberra Insider’ col-umnist of the Financial Review, notes that ‘the government could find itself with new heads
of Treasury and finance to bed down a budget whose forward estimates might prove shaky’. Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson is due to leave, probably in July, and Finance secretary David Tune’s term finishes in August and, Bur-gess notes, ‘he may retire despite doing an ex-cellent job’. She adds, ‘Environment secretary Gordon de Brouwer is the inside pick to replace Parkinson’.
Free Speech issuesAttorney-General George Brandis has released an ‘exposure draft’ for his proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act making it more consistent with ‘community standards’. The government has pledged to repeal 18C ‘in its current form’ after it was used against Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt in 2011. Brandis described the package of proposals as ‘a key part of the government’s freedom agenda’ and said they would strengthen safeguards against racial vilification, not weaken them.
According to a Jewish community spokesman, Dr Colin Rubenstein, who heads the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, the proposed changes of the Racial Discrimination Act would tilt the balance too far in favour of free speech at the cost of other values.
Free speech (2)The Australian reports that Tony Abbott was put on the defensive over proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act that have sparked claims the government is giving bigotry and racism its blessing. But the PM retorted that he was maintaining ‘the red light on inciting racial hatred but removing the amber light on free speech’. The Age carried an ‘exclusive’ front page story claiming that Attorney-General Brandis had been forced to water down his orig-inal proposals by his colleagues. It claims ‘the senator took to cabinet a proposed change to the law, but instead was obliged to settle for only a draft exposure bill…The outcome represented what one minister called a compromise between the conservative and moderate factions of the government’.
Free speech (3)The Australian led with a story about indigenous leader Sue Gordon, a retired magistrate who led the Northern Territory intervention, who is backing the Abbott government’s changes to racial discrimination laws, arguing the suppres-sion of racism only makes it worse, driving it underground. Further, Queensland University professor of law, James Allan, observes that the section of Australia’s racial discrimination laws
at the centre of the current debate over bigotry and freedom of speech has done nothing to curb racism.
Free speech (4)The Sunday Age led with a story quoted the new Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson saying it was ‘bizarre’ that members of a com-munity can use racially loaded language against each other while outsiders can’t. He told Fair-fax Media that repealing the so-called ‘Andrew Bolt provision’ of the act, which makes it un-lawful to insult or offend people based on their race or ethnicity, would restore ‘equality’ to dis-crimination law.
The ‘speech commission’When a journalist called the Human Rights Commission to explain why the commission had spent $60,000on a cocktail party at a har-bourside venue in Sydney, the head of the Com-mission, professor Gillian Triggs, responded that she ‘really took umbrage at the idea that somehow because you’re a human rights body you’ve got to do things in some sort of shabby way…We don’t want to be in a village hall in Koo Wee Rup just because we haven’t got a lot of money’. The story is relayed by Nick Cater in The Australian and he comments: ‘Triggs’s comments have done nothing to dispel the im-pression that the Human Rights Commission is living in a world of its own, removed and out of touch with community standards. The Austral-ian thing to do after a gaffe like that would be to turn up at the front bar of the Royal Hotel and shout Koo Wee Rup’s local a beer, preferably from one’s own pocket’.
Labor doingsPollsAfter several weeks in which the federal govern-ment has successfully linked industrial-relations reform, union power and corruption allegations in the building industry in national debate, Bill Shorten’s personal approval has slumped by an unusually decisive 11 points. His deterioration comes after a week in which Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the terms of reference for a wide-ranging and potentially open-ended royal commission into union corruption, nam-ing five unions specifically — one of which was the AWU, the union giant formerly run by the Labor leader.
The union reckoning?The Financial Review reports that former prime minister Julia Gillard ‘will be forced to appear before the royal commission on unions but cor-porate Australia will likely be confronted with
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Letter from Canberra
The latest Asian Free Trade Agreements and the future
Letter from Canberra carries an exclusive interview with Alan Oxley, one of Australia’s leading trade authorities, former trade ambassador, chair of RMIT University’s APEC Studies Centre and respected con-tributor to the nation’s public policy debate.
In the light of the Prime Minister’s success in securing major break throughs in securing land-mark trade agreements with Japan and South Korea, and making significant progress on a simi-lar agreement with China, we asked Alan Oxley to provide a sense of the bigger picture of what these achievements portend for Australia and why many of our local critics of such bilateral agreements so often miss the point.
‘If nothing else,’ he believes, ‘these free-trade agreements with Japan and South Korea will greatly enhance access by Australian farmers to these traditional markets’. He also maintains that the key to understanding the scope of such agreements is not to focus on their limitations, but rather to appreciate the significance of having the gates opened, admittedly limited at present but essentially unlimited over time.
He also believes too many of the naysayers lack imagination. ‘After all, the energy to be un-leased turns on the demographic trends in these target markets. We are on the verge of a remark-able confluence of fundamental shifts in East Asia. One of those grounds for optimism is the widespread acceptance among the political elites in East Asia’s largest economies of the neces-sity for economic reform pointing towards relaxation of tariffs to allow cheaper food imports and a disposition in favour of further trade liberalisation.
‘The other key development’, he argues, ‘is the exponential growth of Asia’s middle class’. On this point he refers to the work of the distinguished Singaporean thinker Kishore Mahbubani, au-thor of The Great Convergence, who predicts a jump in Asia’s middle class from approximately half a billion today to almost 2 billion by 2020.
He believes our near total preoccupation with mining and mineral exports over recent years has limited our imaginative grasp when it comes to comprehending the explosive demand in Asia for high quality food products, and he contrasts this with Europe’s shrinking demand, protectionist policies and diminishing population base.
Oxley foresees the emergence of ‘a massive free trade area embracing East Asia’s largest mar-kets and the Americas. It is a logical evolution and it will be realised through the Trans Pacific Partnership that is now being negotiated. While China is not yet part of the negotiations, I be-lieve it will be in time; after all, the logic of joining such a partnership that covers so many of the world’s key trading nations is irrefutable’.
In short, Alan Oxley, an Australian with a unique vantage point on the subject and a wealth of experience, is decidedly bullish on Australia’s regional economic prospects, an optimism predi-cated of course on the assumption that Australians are up to the challenge.
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Letter from Canberra22 February to 12 April, 2014
tough question too’’, according to experienced lawyers.
Howes calls it quitsAccording to the Financial Review, the national secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, Paul Howes, is expected to quit the union move-ment, robbing Labor of one its ¬rising stars and the union movement of a strong advocate for reform. It is not known what Mr Howes will do next, although he is marrying ¬Qantas execu-tive Olivia Wirth in April. Only 32 years old, Mr Howes has plenty of time before he needs to enter federal Parliament, should he so wish. After an aborted tilt at the Senate last year, he had fixed his sights over the longer term on a lower house seat. The AWU’s assistant national secretary, Scott McDine, is expected to suc-ceed Mr Howes as national secretary of the 135,000-member union.
MembersOpposition frontbencher Anthony Albanese has stirred fresh internal debate by suggesting all Labor Senators and state upper house members be chosen by the grass roots members, not un-ion- appointed delegates to state conferences.
MusingsAccording to Andrew Bolt in the Herald Sun; ‘Abbott deliberately remade himself and over-came his doubt of his worth. He found his causes too. It’s now Shorten’s turn for deep introspection. What do you want Bill, beyond power? What conviction can you find yourself that you can fight for with passion and courage? With sincerity? Don’t consult the numbers but your heart. Write your own brief.’
Race weighs in In The Age, former federal MP and Victorian Minister Race Matthews wrote: ‘It’s happening again: factional heavies are locking out ordinary members and supporters. Exercise of power for sectional advantage results from a wider sub-verting of the ALP’s democratic norms and pro-cedures.’
Tax dollarAccording to the Herald Sun, has emerged around Labor’s position on the mining tax, after Opposition Leader Bill Shorten declined several times to declare his outright support for it. Cam-paigning in resource-rich Western Australia ahead of the Senate election, Mr Shorten ap-peared to change his language around whether Labor would continue to support the tax.
Thomson not in yet
Former federal MP Craig Thomson has been sentenced to 12 months’ jail, with nine months suspended, but walked free from court on bail after lodging an appeal. Thomson, 49, was con-victed and jailed on 65 charges of fraud and theft for using Health Services Union funds for personal benefit, including paying for sex. Less than an hour after he was led into custody, Thomson returned to the dock - without his tie and jacket - and was granted bail. Thomson was found guilty last month of 65 charges of theft and obtaining financial advance by deception in that he misappropriated $24,538.42 of Health Services Union funds while he was the union’s national secretary between 2002 and 2007.
He was also found guilty of using the union funds after he left the HSU and was working as the Labor member for the NSW federal seat of Dobell. Magistrate Charlie Rozencwajg de-scribed Thomson’s offending as brazen, arro-gant and displaying a “sense of entitlement”. He said the offending displayed a high level of selfishness that showed Thomson was motivat-ed only by greed.
Thomson (2)Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has turned on disgraced former Labor Party MP Craig Thom-son, describing his fraud on the Health Services Union as a “deep and unforgivable betrayal’’. He said that said the former member for Dobell had behaved in a way that was “contrary to the fundamental principles of Australia’s trade un-ion movement’’.
Shorten and WeatherillAccording to a report in The Australian, Bill Shorten has joined South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill in warning voters not to be tempted by a Liberal government in the March state election. Speaking at the ALP’s campaign launch in Adelaide, the Opposition Leader said ending South Australian Labor’s 12-year term in office to elect the Liberals under Steven Mar-shall would further threaten the state’s troubled economy. “If the South Australian Liberals win office, nothing is guaranteed, nothing is off the table, everything is up for grabs,” Mr Shorten warned.
Rudd’s new jobKevin Rudd has been appointed as a senior fel-low at the prestigious Harvard University and will lead a major research study into US-China relations. The high-level appointment will see the former prime minister spend most of his time overseas, anchored in Boston and travel-ling regularly to China and Australia, enabling
him to spend time with his wife, and their fam-ily.
Seat lossKevin Rudd’s growing fears of losing his seat at last year’s federal election led to a fundraising drive among his supporters to pay for targeted polling and a secret $200,000 overseas donation that the party believes may have breached state electoral laws.
DonationThe Labor Party is taking urgent action to un-wind a secret $200,000 donation from a Tai-wanese businessman it believes was arranged in breach of electoral laws for Kevin Rudd to conduct campaign polling on the eve of the election.
Macklin to chronicle reformsAccording to The Australian, Labor’s most experienced frontbencher, Jenny Macklin, has signed a deal with Melbourne University Pub-lishing to write the inside story on the social policy achievements of the Rudd/Gillard gov-ernments.
Reece’s musingsIn The Age, former Labor adviser Nicholas Reece wrote regarding asylum policies: ‘The present system isn’t sustainable, so why not try other ideas that are cheaper and more humane. Even the most hard nosed Coalition MPs know Australia’s international reputation is being hammered by current policies.’
Lifting membershipBill Shorten has outlined an ambitious goal of super-charging Labor’s membership through easier entry rules, a stronger pitch to small busi-ness and loosened control of the ALP by the par-liamentary party. The plan is to double Labor’s 44,000-strong membership to about 100,000 by giving people who make even small internet do-nations the ability to click on a box and gain internal voting rights.
Greens lose outHerald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt notes that in the recent Tasmanian election, ‘the Greens’ birthplace’, the Greens vote ‘crashed from 21 to 13 per cent’ and observes that ‘last year’s federal election was little better. The party lost 500,000 voters – more than a quarter of their support – in the Senate poll.’
Red tape cut (1)Josh Frydenberg, parliamentary Secretary to the
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Prime Minister with responsibility for deregula-tion, contributed an op-ed piece to The Austral-ian in which he announced the introduction by the Abbott government of legislation to repeal more than 10,000 acts and regulations, ‘the larg-est single bulk repeal in the commonwealth’s history’. He wrote: ‘Red and green tape is be-ing cut across nearly every portfolio, slashing the compliance bill for business and the not-for-profit sectors by more than $700m. The broader economic impact will be exponentially larger than this’.
Red tape cut (2)The Australian reports that a regulation ‘that is costing equipment-hire firms millions of dollars a year in compliance is at the top of Tony Ab-bott’s $1 billion red-tape hit list…The regula-tion under the Personal and Securities Act had been designed to protect hire firms. But in real-ity it effectively meant that hire firms that failed to register some hire agreements on a national register run by the federal government ran the risk of losing the equipment if their client en-tered into liquidation’.
Simpler compoThe Australian reports that the federal govern-ment will allow companies operating across state borders to leave state worker’s compen-sation schemes and join the federal regime, in a dramatic move that will save business more than $30m.
SA’s ‘unfair’ pollAlexander Downer, the Howard government foreign minister and president of the South Australian Liberal Party, has blasted the state’s electoral boundary rules following the March state election which saw the Labor government returned, a repeat of previous election results in which Labor significantly trailed the Liberal party. As the Australian reported: ‘With about 70 per cent of the balance counted, the Liberal Party…in on track to win close to 53% of the statewide two-party preferred vote but insuffi-cient seats to form government in its own right’.
BudgetMusingsDennis Shanahan in The Australian: ‘Bill Shorten doesn’t want to hear because the plan is a combination of basic economics and a dual political strategy aimed at trying to ameliorate the Abbott government’s harsh image on indus-try assistance while putting pressure on Labor over its obstruction in the Senate. Clear signs emerged that while Joe Hockey and Tony Ab-bott are pursuing the economic and political aims of getting Labor to agree to repeal the car-bon tax and the mining tax, as well as the $20 billion in savings being held up in the Senate, the issue of whether to supply a debt guaran-tee, changes to foreign ownership rules or any help at all, based on Qantas’s latest earnings and determination to “get its own house in order”, there is a preparedness to build an argument for moving to help Qantas.
Budget blues to comeThe Financial Review’s Economics correspond-ent, Jacob Greber, writes that ‘the Abbott gov-ernment is battling to contain an explosion in long-delayed welfare, education, aid and de-fence spending that will hit the official budget bottom line for the first time in May. The Audit Commission report is understood to include dire warnings that the pace of spending will acceler-ate late this decade…A senior Coalition source told [the Review]… spending would balloon in 2018-19 because of all the “back-ending” of ex-penses by the former Labor government’.
Hockey not happyThe Financial Review reports that the ‘The Ab-bott government says it has inherited a spend-ing blow-out of up to $27b in the last year of its four-year budget, including about $18b in key policy areas of health, education, defence, foreign aid and disabilities’. The government clearly sees this as Labor’s legacy.
Hockey’s warningThe Australian led on its front page the headline ‘Hockey warns of budget pain’ and then item-ised the many reasons for pain ahead: ‘Labor’s failure to provide for big-spending commit-ments beyond the budget horizon will blow the nation’s finances, Joe Hockey warned yesterday as he released figures suggesting the bottom line could be $17b worse in 2017-18’. The news gets worse as the budget date gets closer. The Aus-tralian’s David Uren carried an ‘exclusive’ on the front page which read ‘Savings in excess of $60b a year will have to be found by 2023-24 for the Abbott government to reach its surplus target, with the Commission of Audit present-ing a bleaker outlook for tax revenue than was contained in the midyear budget update’.
Tough love in demand?The Australian reports that Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey are convinced they will be pun-ished electorally if they do not produce a tough budget and they believe there is a ‘public ap-petite’ for decisive action to get the economy back on track. In an editorial, The Australian re-minded readers that Tony Abbott had promised voters that his government would firmly place its stamp on the economic policy of the gov-ernment, and voters should be in no doubt that the nation’s official direction has changed from having a high-tax, high regulating government to a low-tax, deregulated government
Tough decisions on age pensionsThe Financial Review reports that the Treasurer, Joe Hockey, is prepared to address the difficult area of age pensions and super concessions as part of his mantra that ‘The Age of entitlement is over’. Of particular significance is the position of the Financial Services Council which states that ‘Government finances would be improved by an increase in the preservation age, as fewer future retirees would be eligible for The Age pension as they would have higher savings and spend less time in retirement’.
Sell off and reinvestThe Financial Review reports on a meeting of federal and state treasurers at the end of March that got down to discussing the nitty gritty of selling off those parts of ‘the farm’ that are surplus to need, more specifically to agree in principle to privatise billions of dollars of as-sets in return for extra federal funding for infra-structure. Officials pushing the deal believe it will act as an incentive for the states, especially NSW and Queensland, to start selling off assets like ports, roads and electricity companies. The incentive comes down to a return to the states that invest the sale proceeds in productivity-boosting infrastructure with a larger than usual federal contribution to the cost of the projects.
Industrial relations & employment
Ferguson backs PMFormer Labor frontbencher and union leader Martin Ferguson will back changes to industrial relations laws, including allowing the use of contractors and restoring the building watchdog, warning that productivity must improve or un-employment will rise and living standards will fall. Mr Ferguson, a former ACTU president
and leader of the factional Left, will support elements of Tony Abbott’s industrial relations and deregulation agenda and reject government subsidies for “unsustainable industries”.
Nothing is safeThe federal government’s sweeping review of Australia’s workplace laws will put penalty rates, pay and conditions, union militancy and flexibility under the microscope. According to The Age, a leaked draft of the terms of refer-ence for the Productivity Commission inquiry into the Fair Work Act, reveals the inquiry will examine the act’s impact on unemployment and under-employment, productivity, business in-vestment and the ability of the labour market to respond to changing economic conditions.
Slush fundSenior labour movement insiders have broken ranks to offer unprecedented co-operation to the federal government ahead of its royal com-mission on union slush funds and corruption. According to The Age, union and Labor figures either alarmed by questionable practices within their movement, or seeking to divert attention from their own activities, have begun providing information, including to the office of Employ-ment Minister Eric Abetz.
Crean vetos the CFMEUFormer Labor leader Simon Crean, according to the Financial Review, wants the leadership of the wider labour movement to take swift ac-tion against the militant construction union after a record court fine and unprecedented criminal sanctions. He said the ACTU leadership had a responsibility to act after the Victorian Supreme Court issued a $1.25m fine and criminal convic-tions against the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union for contempt of court.
ChangesThe federal government is finalising plans for a sweeping review of the nation’s workplace laws, and could hand-pick an industrial relations ex-pert from outside the Productivity Commission to help lead it. According to The Age, before the election, the government promised a ‘’genuine and independent review’’ of the Fair Work laws by the economically dry commission, to con-sider their impact on productivity, the economy and jobs, with a view to raising flexibility in the workplace. The review comes as Employment Minister Eric Abetz revealed plans to introduce new laws next week that would allow workers to trade off conditions such as penalty rates in return for more flexible hours.
More flexibleAccording to The Australian, the Productivity Commission will be given wide-ranging powers to recommend sweeping workplace changes, in-cluding giving employers greater rights to try to remove conditions from enterprise agreements, under the terms of reference that cabinet is final-ising for its inquiry. Employment Minister Eric Abetz will announce the terms of reference next week when he introduces a bill into parliament to allow workers to trade off more easily key entitlements, including penalty rates, for more flexible working hours.
Reform or risk jobsTight workplace laws are being blamed for pushing up unemployment and keeping young people out of work as Joe Hockey signals gov-ernment plans for drastic reforms that extend from industrial relations to healthcare and the retirement age.
Cold casesThe national building watchdog has established
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Letter from Canberra22 February to 12 April, 2014
a “cold-case” unit to re-examine past investi-gations, including the unlawful strike at Vic-toria’s desalination project. According to The Australian, in an extraordinary move that will inflame tensions between the Coalition and un-ions, the Fair Work and Building Construction director Nigel Hadgkiss has decided to set up the cold-case unit to re-examine the activities of the regulator under the previous Labor gov-ernment.
New code neededThe nation’s builders have urged the Coalition to fast-track controversial changes to the con-struction industry code, warning that they need the intervention to withstand union pressure to cave in to new enterprise agreements contain-ing restrictive work practices. But Labor and the Greens signalled that they would not sup-port the passage of the code through the Senate, prompting employers to accuse the opposition parties of condoning union coercion and in-timidation.
Kennett queries paymentsJeff Kennett wants building giant Thiess to ex-plain publicly why it paid more than $110,000 into a slush fund run by allegedly corrupt un-ion boss Bruce Wilson, after Thiess had won a lucrative contract from a public utility, Mel-bourne Water.
WilliamsonFormer Labor Party president and head of the Health Services Union Michael William-son will remain in protective custody until he is sentenced on March 28. The former Labor Party President pleaded guilty to four charges of defrauding the union of $1 million.
Equal payThe federal government has moved to limit pay rises being sought by childcare workers, warning the granting of their unions’ equal pay claim could flow to industries unable to afford wage increases significantly above the award rate.
BackburnerThe federal government will miss its March 7 deadline for producing the details of its Pro-ductivity Commission review into IR laws in what senior Coalition insiders say is a tactic to avoid debate before state elections.
Workplace trade-offs The government’s next wave of workplace changes will be delayed by months after the Labor Party and the Greens declared they were highly unlikely to support passage of the changes through the Senate.
Trade offs (2)Workers will be able to trade their penalty rates in return for more flexible hours under a raft of changes to industrial laws to be introduced when federal Parliament returns.
Scientists cutHundreds more federal government scientists are threatened with the sack after Geoscience Australia conceded it has a $40 million hole in its budget and will be forced to cull its staff.
QantasAccording to a report in The Australian, Qan-tas has told workers it wants them to surren-der two previously agreed and legally binding wage increases as part of its strategy to impose a pay freeze across the workforce.
SPC pushed
The federal government pressed SPC Ardmona to slash pay for workers by as much as 40 per cent under a radical bailout plan for the food processor. Moving workers on to the award would have dramatically cut living standards for hundreds of people at the Shepparton plant, with pay cuts of $20,000 to $30,000 a year for many. According to The Age, other sources involved in the restructure have separately confirmed the federal government’s pay push at SPC Ardmona. Industry Minister Ian Mac-farlane refused to directly answer questions on the issue.
Best conditionsAccording to the Financial Review, Australia’s construction workers receive more days off, shorter standard working weeks and more gen-erous overtime than other similar economies.
Red tape warA Labor initiative to maximise the use of Aus-tralian goods and services in major construc-tion projects faces the axe as part of the fed-eral government’s $1 billion war against red tape. The federal Department of Industry has e-mailed key representatives of the mining, en-ergy and construction industries seeking their feedback on the regulatory and compliance burden imposed by the Australian Jobs Act.
NDIS hamperedChanges to industrial relations laws are re-quired to ensure the National Disability Insur-ance Scheme operates as designed, says the man developing the workforce strategy for the scheme. National Disability Services chief ex-ecutive Ken Baker said his group would make a submission to the Fair Work Commission’s review of modern awards in the hope it would iron out “clunky” clauses, but he suspected changes would need to be made to the Fair Work Act itself.
Police inactionPolice have been rebuked by a senior federal government minister who has accused them of failing to enforce the law in industrial disputes or to investigate corruption, while also attack-ing the Victorian Supreme Court for delays in penalising the CFMEU for its 2012 blockade of Grocon.
Building criminalityMore than 20 years after his royal commission into the NSW construction industry, Roger Gyles says he is dismayed the practices he doc-umented are not only recurring but appear to be worse. “The problem is there seems to have been no effective action by anybody in relation to it,” Gyles said.
Low wagesAccording to The Age, some changes are among 9500 regulations to go under Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s red tape “repeal day”. Buried in more than 50,000 pages of regula-tions and acts of Parliament to be scrapped is the revelation the government will abolish guidelines for cleaners employed on govern-ment contracts, starting on July 1. The regula-tions are a form of collective bargaining intro-duced by Labor that lift the wages of workers hired by businesses that win government clean-ing contracts by $4.53 to $5.93 an hour above the minimum wage.
As an exampleRail operator Aurizon will meet with represent-atives of striking Hunter Valley coal train driv-ers at the Fair Work Commission in Newcastle in a bid to resolve a simmering pay dispute.
According to the Financial Review, the train drivers struck for twelve hours in their tit-for-tat battle against the freight company, which locked them out for 48 hours last week in re-taliation for an earlier three-day drivers’ strike.
Business, economy, manufacturing & finance
OECD warningAccording to The Age, global slowdown in productivity and the risk of higher structural unemployment threaten to usher in a new era of low economic growth, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has warned. And a marked decline in potential pro-duction growth since the global financial crisis could make it harder to reduce public debt-to-GDP ratios to ‘’prudent’’ levels in some G20 countries. The OECD’s interim Going for Growth report was published recently, on the eve of the G20 finance ministers meeting in Sydney.
IMF backs HockeyInternational Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde has backed Treasurer Joe Hockey’s plan for specific targets for global growth, a big victory for Mr Hockey on the eve of the G20 finance ministers’ meeting.
Go for growthThe head of one of the nation’s largest em-ployers has declared Australia needs to go for growth to spur “real job creation”, instead of lifting taxes or creating big government. Back-ing Joe Hockey’s call for the world’s 20 big-gest economies to set a global growth target, Wesfarmers chief executive and B20 Australia chairman Richard Goyder said Australia need-ed growth above 2.5 per cent.
Merger dealsAccording to The Australian, as the govern-ment kicks off its deregulation agenda, an inaugural report on merger and acquisitions in the Asia-Pacific by law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, predicts that to accommodate the changing landscape there may be a shake-up of Australia’s foreign investment regime in place since the 1970s.
Joyce irresponsibleAccording to a report in the Financial Review, David Epstein, a former chief of staff to Kevin Rudd and head of corporate affairs at Qantas said that guaranteeing the airline’s debt would be economically irresponsible and “lead down the Argentine road” of failed state intervention.
Petrol fightWoolworths and Coles will challenge the com-petition regulator in the ¬Federal Court to de-fend their right to offer petrol discounts above 4¢ a litre, marking a fresh battle in the long-running war over the supermarkets petrol shop-per docket schemes.
Coles breadThe Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is suing the supermarket giant for selling its in-house bread under the labels “baked today, sold today”, “freshly baked in-store”, “freshly baked”, and “baked fresh”. Of-ten, this bread was par-baked (partially baked then rapidly frozen for storage), Colin Golvan, SC, for the ACCC, told the court.
ACCC crackdownThe Council of Small Business of Australia (COSBOA) recently congratulated the Austral-ian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on its action against supermarket gi-
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ants Coles and Woolworths, having instituted proceedings in the Federal Court for allegedly unfair use of fuel discount vouchers. Peter Strong, Executive Director of COSBOA ex-plains despite reaching an agreement with the ACCC late last year to participate in a manner which is competitive for both customers and other businesses, Coles and Woolworths have continued to operate unfairly with the potential to force competitors from the market.
Car yardsCar yard owners expect the money that Ford, Holden and Toyota spent propping up assem-bly plants will be redirected to marketing and bringing some cherished marques to the coun-try.
QantasQantas Airways is considering legal action against Virgin Australia ¬Holdings, claiming the smaller airline’s ¬foreign ownership levels breach rules for Australian-based international carriers. According to the Financial Review, the legal action Qantas is considering against Virgin could result in the smaller airline being forced to lower its foreign ownership to 49 per cent from more than 77 per cent at present.
Qantas (2)Qantas is tipped to accelerate the retirement of its older planes as part of $2 billion in cost cuts expected to touch every area of the company, according to the Financial Review.
SoundBHP Billiton CEO Andrew Mackenzie says he is optimistic about Australia’s economic pros-pects, despite the departure of the car makers and the recent closure of the Alcoa smelter at Point Henry.
Shell buyAccording to The Age, Swiss-based energy group Vitol says its purchase of Shell’s Aus-tralian petrol stations and refineries is just the first step in a plan to get a much bigger piece of the local fuel market. Speaking after signing the $2.9 billion deal, Vitol chief executive Ian Taylor said Australia was an attractive destina-tion and he wanted to expand the Shell down-stream business beyond its current footprint. In a counter-cyclical punt, Mr Taylor said Vitol also believed that refining in Australia could be a profitable business, defying a trend that has seen numerous local refineries turned into fuel import terminals in recent years.
Speeding up the economyAccording to The Age, Treasurer Joe Hock-ey has committed Australia to an economic growth rate of 3 per cent, well above the offi-cial forecast of 2.5 per cent, and foreshadowed sweeping reforms in the May budget aimed at cutting the unemployment rate. The commit-ment comes at the end of a two-day summit in Sydney of the world’s most important treasur-ers and central banking officials, including US Federal Reserve boss Janet Yellen, Interna-tional Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde and leaders from China, Japan and India. The G20 communique commits the leaders to de-velop policies that aim to lift their nations’ combined GDP by more than 2 per cent over five years. The boost would add more than $2 trillion to the world economy. But the language of the communique is weaker than expected, and India’s Finance Minister Palaniappan Chi-dambaram said he did not consider the growth aim binding.
Bankers lobbyThe Australian Bankers Association is seeking
to reposition itself as a more effective lobbyist by replacing three staff who were largely fo-cused on reacting to the government’s agenda with three new employees who will influence government policy through economic analysis.
MusingsAccording to Arthur Sinodinos in the Financial Review, ‘the former government’s Future of Fi-nancial Advice changes bring to mind the ad-age about a camel being a horse designed by a committee. These changes were a hodgepodge of new laws and regulations on top of existing rules in the hope of bullet-proofing consumers against any financial risk. Inevitably, it was a set of compromises to appease various groups keen to protect or advance their financial in-terests.’
Advice changes haltedFinance Minister Mathias Cormann has called a halt to the controversial watering-down of Labor’s financial advice laws The move means the federal government’s amended legislation will not be introduced to Parliament this week. ‘’I have decided to pause the process on the Fu-ture of Financial Advice regulation for the time being to enable me to consult in good faith with all relevant stakeholders before pressing the go button on our changes,’’ Senator Cormann told The Age.
FoFAThe federal government is gearing up to ag-gressively defend its ambitious unwinding of Labor’s future of ¬financial advice (FoFA) laws, with the ¬architect of the policy, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, back in the driv-er’s seat after Arthur Sinodinos’s sudden res-ignation. The policy battle will reshape finan-cial services business models, just as FoFA’s initial implementation did, and now hinges on whether companies should be free to motivate employees offering consumers general product information with commissions and bonuses to maximise sales.
New bossDavid Jones has appointed Gordon Cairns as its new chairman, taking a big step towards stabilising its embattled board. The department store chain late yesterday revealed Mr Cairns, now Origin Energy chairman and a former Westpac director, had taken the post with im-mediate effect. STOP PRESS Woolworths of South Africa will probably win a bid to buy DJ’s.
Advice reform on holdAccording to The Australian, the federal gov-ernment has backed down on a key element of its controversial reforms to financial advice in a bid to head off a backlash from seniors, consumers and parts of the $1.5 trillion super-annuation industry. Freezing rules that were to be imposed within days, the government said it would launch new consultations on changes to the way consumers were charged for finan-cial advice on retirement savings and personal investments.
Employee pushA group of government backbenchers is cam-paigning for the federal government to intro-duce a new employee share scheme to encour-age start-up companies and potentially reduce workplace tensions.
MiningStill coalBHP Billiton chief Andrew Mackenzie has de-clared that the US shale gas boom is unlikely to spread internationally quickly and predicted
coal will remain the world’s central energy source.
Boost efficiencyAccording to The Australian, Australia should use the G20 to propose a global program to make coal-fired plants more efficient to help tackle climate change, while also making a contribution to the eradication of poverty, ac-cording to the world’s leading coal producers. Milton Catelin, chief executive of the World Coal Association, which represents major in-ternational coal producers and stakeholders, said coal was vital to emerging economies be-cause it was fuelling economic development.
Rio vexedAccording to The Australian, vexatious legal challenges to mines, rail and ports infrastruc-ture projects are a “growing concern”, min-ing giant Rio Tinto has declared as it pushes Australia’s governments to do more to slash green tape. And in a stinging critique the com-pany has warned federal and state greenhouse and energy policies and laws are excessive and damaging Australia’s international competi-tiveness.
TradeChina free trade pactPremier Li Keqiang has vowed to accelerate a free-trade deal with Australia, significantly raising the prospects of an agreement by the end of the year that could provide a $20 billion boost to the economy.
Growth missionAustralia is negotiating a landmark commit-ment from the worlds biggest economies to set a hard target for global growth as it sets out reforms to labour markets, tax rules and infra-structure spending at an international summit this weekend. Joe Hockey revealed the plan after talks with his global counterparts as he warned that all major nations had to “rev up the reform engine” to lift growth above the 3.7 per cent forecast for this year.
Trade rulesAustralia is set to create a two-tier investment regime for foreign purchases of farm land and agribusinesses with the US and New Zealand not subject to the planned lower review thresh-olds included in the new free trade agreement with Korea.
Refugees & immigrationManus riotsImmigration Minister Scott Morrison has hit back at calls for his resignation over his han-dling of the Manus Island detention centre death, turning the attack back on Labor over the time it took while in government to respond to a fire that severely damaged the Nauru de-tention centre. Mr Morrison, facing calls to re-sign from two Labor senators and the Greens after revealing the death occurred inside the detention facility, defended his comments at his original press conference that it happened outside.
Manus riots (2)Asylum seekers will be invited to give their witness accounts of the recent deadly violence on Manus Island to a parliamentary committee that will free public servants and contractors from confidentiality clauses in their employ-ment contracts. Having persuaded the Labor Party to back the inquiry, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young will push for it to conduct hear-ings inside the Australian-run detention centre where more than 60 asylum seekers were in-jured and one died last month.
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AvoidableManus Island MP Ron Knight said the violence could have been avoided if detention centre managers had not refused entry to Mr Knight’s staff a few hours before the tinderbox ignited. If his staff had been able to see the centre for themselves, Mr Knight says, he could have ar-ranged extra police squads as a deterrent to the melee that erupted.
Australia blamedManus Island’s police chief has blasted the fed-eral government’s running of the immigration detention camp on the island, suggesting the recent fatal violence could have been avoided. According to The Age, police commander Alex N’Drasal said the protests were sparked by the failure to act on grievances raised by the asy-lum seekers. He said the Australian government should improve the way the detention centre is run. His remarks came as Manus Island MP Ron Knight said he believed that gun butts and batons had been used against asylum seekers by the “mobile squad”, a paramilitary branch of the police who are the main law enforcers outside the camp.
China’s viewsThe federal government has suffered the igno-miny of having its asylum seeker policy pub-licly criticised by another foreign government - this time China, a country with its own cheq-uered human rights record. According to The Age, in a sign of lingering bilateral tension be-tween Australia and its largest trading partner, China’s vice-minister of foreign affairs, Li Bao-dong, said he was concerned about the ‘’very important issue’’ of the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, especially children, who arrive in Australia by boat.
PNG recommitsAccording to the Financial Review, senior Aus-tralian and Papua New Guinean ministers will meet monthly to expedite the resettlement deal between the two countries – in which asylum seekers are to be processed and resettled in PNG – after months of delay sparked recent un-rest at the Manus Island detention centre.
MusingsIn The Age, President of the Human Rights Commission Jillian Trigg wrote: ‘We can’t out-source our moral obligations to these people.’
Inquiry cruelledThe federal government was consulted and strongly backed the decision of the Papua New Guinea government to shut down a human rights inquiry into the Manus Island detention centre, according to The Age. PNG’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration, Rimbink Pato, has also confirmed the two governments
will move to deny a human rights lawyer’s ac-cess to the centre.
Keeping their jobsThe new operator of Manus Island detention centre will continue to use local security staff even though they are implicated in last week’s deadly clashes with asylum seekers. Transfield Services, which has been awarded a $1.2 billion contract to run the Manus Island and Nauru im-migration centres, confirmed it would hire local security staff, as required by the deal between Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Bid for freedomAsylum seekers facing indefinite detention on Manus Island have launched a new legal bid for freedom. It comes as the PNG government moves to shut down a second human rights in-vestigation at the centre and the future of where asylum seekers will be resettled remains uncer-tain.
PMs holdingAsylum-seekers injured in the deadly melee were being flown off Manus Island as conflict-ing claims of who was to blame for the violence drew defensive responses from both the Aus-tralian and PNG prime ministers. Tony Abbott declared his government would not be intimi-dated into backing away from its strong border protection stance as more conflicting claims emerged over how the detention centre violence started.
Back to MalaysiaAccording to a report in The Australian, boat-loads of asylum-seekers who have failed to make it to Australia are being intercepted try-ing to return to Malaysia from Indonesia, says the head of Malaysia’s border command. Mohd Amdan Kurish, director-general of the Malay-sian Maritime Enforcement Agency, said Aus-tralia’s crackdown on boatpeople was having a dramatic impact further up the people-smug-gling chain, in Malaysia.
TurnbacksAccording to The Australian, Navy and Cus-toms patrol vessels have turned or towed at least three asylum-seeker vessels back towards Indonesia during the first two weeks of Febru-ary.
Mothers, babiesAsylum-seekers were returned to detention on Christmas Island in mid-February with their newborn babies after short stays in a maternity hospital on the Australian mainland. According to The Australian, after the new mothers were ushered off a plane with their babies, a small group of boys arrived at Christmas Island air-port under guard and were put on a jet bound
for Nauru.
457sEmployers will gain a new chance to scale back Labor’s controversial limits on skilled worker visas when the federal government moves to reignite a political row over the 457 visa pro-gram. The government will name an expert panel to investigate competing claims that the visa program is beset by rorts that punish work-ers and rules that hobble employers.
Visa freezeAccording to The Age, the federal government has re-introduced a controversial freeze on granting protection visas to refugees who arrive by boat on the eve of a High Court challenge on behalf of a 15-year-old Ethiopian boy who is being denied a visa. The freeze was introduced, but quickly revoked, late last year under threat of legal challenge, but re-introduced without explanation, prompting outrage from refugee advocates.
Incursion a mistakeThe Navy and Customs crews who crossed into Indonesian territory did so because most of the ocean within the 1700-island archipelago is considered by Jakarta to be “Indonesian wa-ters” even though it is much more than 12 nau-tical miles from the nearest land. That further complicates navigation through a massive area, which is already made difficult by intersecting and overlapping maritime boundaries around individual islands.
UnbelievableAccording to a report in The Age, the “inad-vertent” and repeated entry of Australian ves-sels into Indonesian territory defied compre-hension, with the precise co-ordinates of the island nation’s maritime boundary typically programmed into the navy’s electronic naviga-tion systems, a former border protection com-mander has said. The comments from Barry Learoyd, recently retired after a 43-year navy career that included commanding vessels that interdicted asylum seeker boats, comes after a review of the incidents made the extraordinary revelation that the vessels had not been given information about where Indonesia’s sea border was situated.
Navy frustratedNavy Vice-Admiral Ray Griggs has revealed that he is frustrated by his faulty fleet of patrol boats and admitted he cannot provide as many ships as he would like to Operation Sovereign Borders.
Numbers downAustralia’s crackdown on boatpeople has slashed the number of asylum-seekers arriv-
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ing in Indonesia, new UN refugee agency data shows. Monthly applications for asylum-seeker registration handled by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office in Jakarta — overwhelmingly the busiest in Indonesia — dropped 71 per cent between February 2013 and last month.
Investigate pleaseAccording to The Age, two-thirds of Australian voters, including more than half of all Coalition supporters, believe claims that asylum seekers’ hands were deliberately burnt by Australian border protection authorities should be inves-tigated.
Standing by his manTony Abbott has defended his Immigration Minister Scott Morrison against calls for the minister to be sacked, saying the Australian people would not want a ‘’wimp’’ defending their borders.
Asylum fleetThe navy has lost patience with its faulty $3.5 billion patrol boat fleet and wants to fast-track a new generation of patrol boats with stronger hulls that will not crack up under the strain of border protection duties. According to The Australian, the navy’s 14 Armidale-class patrol boats are riddled with defects after being forced to intercept about 50,000 asylum-seekers dur-ing the Rudd/Gillard era, a task they were not designed to do.
TaxTax testAccording to The Australian, foreign investors face a new hurdle as Joe Hockey declares he will take their tax affairs into account when considering their Australian deals amid a global crackdown on corporate tax avoidance. Alarmed at the potential loss of federal rev-enue, the Treasurer warned that tax arrange-ments would become a major factor in foreign investment approvals, given their growing im-pact on the national interest.
ReformThe former Treasury secretary and head of the last major review of the taxation system, Ken Henry, has warned the federal government ur-gently needs a tax and welfare package to head off an imminent budget crisis. According to a report in the Financial Review, he said the changes would have to encompass all welfare payments, which includes disability support pensions, family tax payments, and employ-ment benefits, because the entire system needed to be fixed.
New bodyAccording to the Financial Review, the federal government has formed a new group of federal Treasury, Tax Office and private sector experts to provide advice of possible tax changes.
MergerAccording to a report in the Financial Review, management of the NSW State Super assets will be combined with the NSW Treasury Cor-poration and one other state body to create a $65 billion funds powerhouse.
Climate change, environment & energy
Climate reportAustralia’s multibillion-dollar mining, farming and tourism industries face significant threats as worsening global warming causes more dan-gerous and extreme weather, the world’s lead-ing climate science body will warn. According
to The Age, a final draft of a five-year assess-ment by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) details a litany of glob-al impacts from intensifying climate change including the displacement of hundreds of mil-lions of people, reduced crop yields and the loss of trillions of dollars from the global economy. The report is the second part of the IPCC’s fifth major assessment and focuses on climate change’s impacts and how the world might adapt. It will be finalised at a meeting in Japan next weekend before its release on March 31.
State of the climateAccording to a news release from CSIRO, A definitive report on observed changes in long term trends in Australia’s climate has been re-leased by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorol-ogy. Bureau Chief Executive Dr Rob Vertessy said temperatures across Australia were, on average, almost 1°C warmer than they were a century ago, with most of the warming having occurred since 1950. Extreme fire weather risk has increased, and the fire season has length-ened across large parts of Australia since the 1970s.
Wind farmsThere is no reliable or consistent evidence wind farms directly cause human health problems, a major draft review by Australia’s leading medi-cal research body has found. According to The Age, the National Health and Medical Research Council review calls for further research into the issue after it identified only a handful of studies into the issue it deemed credible enough to be considered. Anti-wind-farm campaigners claim turbines can cause a range of ailments, including headaches, insomnia and dizziness, sometimes dubbing the symptoms as ‘’wind-farm syndrome’’. This has been disputed by the industry and many public health researchers.
Solar tariffsOne million households with rooftop solar pan-els nationwide may receive lower payments for the electricity they generate if the carbon tax is removed, according to a report in The Austral-ian. The claims, made in written submissions by energy companies to the NSW Independ-ent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, follow a warning by the South Australian Essential Ser-vices Commission that the amount household-ers receive will fall by more than 20 per cent if the tax is cut. Regulators in South Australia and Victoria currently set minimum levels for the amount electricity retailers pay households, known as the feed-in tariff.
Yorke PeninsulaThe South Australian government has given the go-ahead for a $1.5 billion wind farm to be built on the Yorke Peninsula. The 197-turbine Ceres Project will be located between Ardrossan and Minlaton, Planning Minister John Rau said. The development will connect to the Adelaide elec-tricity grid via an under-sea transmission cable from Port Julia to St Kilda. “It is estimated that the Ceres wind farm would be able to power the equivalent of 225,000 South Australian homes a year,” Mr Rau said.
Don’t stop debateChristine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, has urged the federal govern-ment not to abandon Australia’s role as what she calls “a pioneer” in the debate on climate change. The former finance minister of France said it would be a mistake to assign climate issues to “the backburner” because action to reduce carbon emissions could strengthen eco-nomic growth as well as protecting the environ-
ment.
NSW saleThe NSW government’s power privatisation process is in tatters after the national compe-tition regulator blocked AGL Energy’s $1.5 billion takeover of Macquarie Generation, the biggest electricity producer.
Emissions cutThe Climate Change Authority recently recom-mended that the nation increase its target for cuts to carbon emissions from 5 per cent be-low 2000 levels to 19 per cent below, a move that will spark a political storm over how much the nation should do to combat climate change, according to The Australian. The recommenda-tion from the body that sets Australia’s emis-sions benchmarks, in a report to be released, signals that the 5 per cent unconditional emis-sions reduction target, which has been em-braced by both parties, may already be within reach.
RETAccording to The Australian, the closure of the Point Henry aluminium smelter has increased the chances the government will wind back growth in the Renewable Energy Target to prevent further generation capacity being fun-nelled into southern markets awash with excess power. The federal government has also told electricity generators it will not provide them with taxpayer assistance to exit as they battle an oversupplied market.
Ferguson and RETFormer energy minister Martin Ferguson has called for the scaling back of the renewable en-ergy target, arguing that the scheme is distort-ing proper price signals and undermining the resilience of the national electricity market. Ac-cording to The Australian, he has called for the scheme, which is being reviewed by the federal government, to be scaled back to a “true” 20 per cent by 2020, instead of its current 41,000 gigawatt hours fixed benchmark.
Gas costs and food sectorFood and grocery manufacturers are increasing pressure on NSW and Victoria over restrictions on coal-seam gas developments, warning a gas price spike in the next two years will send jobs offshore and undermine Tony Abbott’s emis-sions reduction fund.
Carbon tax repealAccording to The Australian, Labor and the Greens have blocked the first of Tony Abbott’s carbon tax repeal bills in the Senate, sparking a furious reaction from the government. The opposition and the Greens combined to defeat a bill to abolish the Climate Change Authority, which last week recommended that Australia deepen its emissions reduction target to 19 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020.
Fraser weighs in Change Authority Authority chairman Bernie Fraser has accused the federal government of standing up for business interests and not com-munity interests in a parting shot ahead of the CCA’s abolition. Mr Fraser, a former Reserve Bank governor, called for a more mature and informed debate on climate change.
Green ArmyAccording to The Age, Tony Abbott’s feder-ally funded ‘’green army’’ will enlist 15,000 young people in environmental work, striking young workers from official dole queue figures as youth unemployment soared in the year to
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January to 12.4 per cent. But young people who fill the green army’s ranks will be paid as lit-tle as half the minimum wage, earning between $608.40 and $987.40 a fortnight. The scheme - the cornerstone of the government’s environ-mental policies - is modelled on John How-ard’s Green Corps, and will be an alternative to work-for-the-dole programs. Under the legisla-tion introduced by Environment Minister Greg Hunt, green army participants - who will be aged 17-24 - will work up to 30 hours a week. They will be given the chance to undergo for-mal training as part of their duties, but will lose their Centrelink benefits for taking part in the scheme and fall off official joblessness figures.
Cargill calls for actionOne of the nation’s most powerful agricultural industry executives wants urgent action to ad-dress soaring energy prices, fearing they will “continue to go up dramatically” and threaten Australia’s international competitiveness as a supplier of raw commodities and food products.
Big fishThe world’s first continent-wide survey of reef sea life has found big fish have vanished from much of the Australian coastline. According to The Age, a year-long circumnavigation of Australia ended in Hobart recently, with data from 700 coral and rock reef sites surveyed by volunteer divers for the Reef Life Survey Foundation. Program co-founder Graham Ed-gar, of the University of Tasmania, said it was the first comprehensive study of any continent’s reef systems, and had found biodiversity losses. “Virtually all of our coastline has had all the larger predatory organisms reduced - from the big fishes to the lobsters,” he said.
Insulation inquiryThe royal commission into the Rudd govern-ment’s home insulation program is scheduled to begin taking evidence. According to The Aus-tralian, many have suggested it is unnecessary because the program has already been the sub-ject of various inquires. These include a Senate committee inquiry, the Hawke report and the National Audit Office report. All found some failures in the administration of the program. The deaths of four workers associated with the program have also been investigated by both the Queensland and NSW coroners. However, none of the previous inquiries has focused on the fact that industry was actively encouraged, if not urged, to participate in this program. The previous government, through industry bodies such as the Housing Industry Association and Master Builders, through the Insulation Coun-cil of Australia and New Zealand, the Austral-ian Cellulose Industry Manufacturers Associa-tion, the Aluminium Foil Industry Association and the Polyester Insulation Manufacturers As-sociation Australia - requested that we increase our manufacturing and installation capacity from 70,000 homes a year to 90,000 homes a month.
Agriculture, cattle & waterAlpine grazingMountain cattlemen expect cows will return to Victoria’s Alpine National Park this month after federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt approved a controversial grazing trial - despite the Australian Academy of Science damning it as scientifically flawed. Sixty cattle can be re-leased into a 262-hectare site in the Wonnangat-ta Valley in the first year of the program, which the Victorian government says is necessary to test whether grazing reduces the risk of bush-fires by removing fuel loads.
Moral industry
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce will try to win support among his cabinet colleagues for his massive farm drought assistance package by portraying farmers as undertaking a noble calling. Addressing wool growers and meat producers on the dusty saltbush plains north of Broken Hill yesterday while accompany-ing Tony Abbott on a two-day drought tour of Queensland and NSW, Mr Joyce praised farm-ers engaged in a “moral industry”.
More info neededInvestment in the agricultural sector must be made more transparent if Australia is to real-ise goals of becoming the food bowl of Asia, and the $100 billion Future Fund could have a role in stimulating the flow new money into the sector, according to Winemakers Federation chairman Tony D’Aloisio. The agricultural sec-tor is largely ignored by the institutional inves-tors who have $1.6 trillion under management in Australia, because there is a lack of reliable data on which to make investment decisions, Mr D’Aloisio and economic analyst Alex Er-skine argue in an editorial for The Australian.
Trade surplusA resumption of live cattle exports and stellar wheat prices helped push farm shipments to a record in January, delivering the nation’s big-gest trade surplus in two and a half years. Ag-riculture Minister Barnaby Joyce seized on the surge as a stark reminder that economic pros-perity is “indelibly tied” to agriculture.
HandoutsAccording to the Financial Review, small business owners in communities affected by droughts don’t expect government handouts, but have said they hope the promised federal government assistance to farmers will flow on and boost business.
Drought loansTony Abbott will put a drought package to cab-inet next week with extra money in low rate, government-backed loans as its central plank, on top of the $420 million Farm Finance pack-age approved last year. According to the Herald Sun, Federal Agriculture Minister and Nation-als deputy leader Barnaby Joyce is pushing for an additional $280 million of loans to be made available, taking the Farm Finance package to $700 million.
Chinese milkAccording to The Australian, several Chinese state-owned enterprises and private companies are in negotiations to bankroll construction of several new milk powder plants in NSW as the state’s dairy industry looks at ways to supple-ment its supply contracts with the big super-market chains.
Good jobMeat and Livestock Australia is looking for a new Managing Director. E-mail [email protected] quoting MLA.
MediaThe dynastyRupert Murdoch as indicated his succession strategy at News Corporation with the appoint-ment of his son Lachlan to become non-exec-utive co-chairman of the group’s newspaper publishing and film and entertainment arms. Lachlan’s brother James will take over as co-chief operating officer at 21st Century Fox.
Don’t lift controlsHarold Mitchell, Chairman of Free TV, has warned the Abbott government ‘not to rush’
any loosening of cross-media ownerships rules.
ACMA load lightenedThe Australian Communications and Media Authority will have the power to ignore con-sumer complaints it decides are not worthy of its time, under legislative changes that will be made as part of the government’s repeal day. Malcolm Turnbull, the Communications min-ister, estimates media and telecommunications companies will save up to $35m per year be-cause of the changes.
ABC apologisesThe ABC has apologised to Herald Sun col-umnist Andrew Bolt after a Q&A panellist ac-cused him of racial abuse during a recent pro-gram. Aboriginal academic Marcia Langton claimed Bolt had racially abused a fair-skinned indigenous woman and said he was a ‘fool’ who believed in ‘race theories’.
Corrections policyABC managing director Mark Scott has sig-nalled a dramatic shift in the way the national broadcaster publishes corrections and apolo-gies after becoming embroiled in a series of controversies over the standard of its reporting and its refusal to admit mistakes.
MusingsIn The Australian, Dennis Shanahan wrote: ‘the ABC is currently in a war with the Abbott Coalition government that goes beyond the tra-ditional antipathy towards the national broad-caster from a Liberal government. The politics of the current furore are undoubtedly fuelled by the Coalition, particularly Liberal MPs and ministers, wanting to embark on cultural retri-bution against the ABC; but also by the govern-ment’s intent to lay the groundwork for justify-ing cuts to the ABC through either an efficiency drive or dividend, or by permanently axing the ABC’s $223 million Australia Network broad-casting service into Asia.’
Asking for helpAccording to The Australian, the main com-mercial TV broadcasters have joined the ranks of Australian companies appealing for govern-ment help, claiming they hold a “special” place in the community. The networks have warned Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull they are experiencing a “profound economic squeeze” and want licence fee payments axed among other regulatory changes.
Media reformsThe federal government risks a regional back-lash over media reform as Malcolm Turnbull backs controversial changes that would clear the way for a sweeping consolidation between city and country television networks. Accord-ing to The Australian, putting media ownership back on the political agenda, the Communica-tions Minister said he was “very sympathetic” to removing the barriers to a new wave of mergers as the internet stepped up diversity and competition.
Reforms (2)According to a report in The Age, some of the country’s most powerful media executives have argued for the repeal of key regulation in a two-hour conclave at the Sydney office of Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull. It is believed that Ten Network chief executive Hamish McLennan and Nine Entertainment boss David Gyngell argued for the repeal of the reach rules - which prevent metropolitan free-to-air television networks from merging with their regional affiliates - and the two-out-of-
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three rule, which prevents a single entity own-ing more than two of a newspaper, TV-station and radio licence in the same market.
JusticeRacial hatredIn The Age, Race Discrimination Commis-sioner Tim Southphomasane wrote: ‘There has been much public debate about the Racial Dis-crimination Act’s provisions concerning racial hatred - but too much heat and not enough light. Unfortunately, there is considerable misunder-standing of how federal racial vilification laws operate. And there is alarming confusion about the concept of freedom, a concept at risk of be-ing debased by ideological polemic and unin-formed sloganeering.’
BacklashPrime Minister Tony Abbott is facing a storm of protest from religious and ethnic groups, human rights organisations and sections of his own backbench over sweeping changes to race hate laws that have pleased right-wing commenta-tor Andrew Bolt. According to The Age, under changes proposed by Attorney-General George Brandis, Section 18C of the Racial Discrimina-tion Act, which makes it unlawful for someone to act in a manner likely to ‘’offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate’’ someone because of their race or ethnicity, will be repealed. Section 18D, which provides protections for freedom of speech, will also be removed and replaced by a new section in the act that removes the words ‘’offend, insult and humiliate’’, leaves ‘’intimi-date’’ and adds the word ‘’vilify’’ for the first time. Two further sections of the law would also be repealed, which include provisions that can make employers liable for race hate speech.
Andrew BoltIn the Herald Sun: ‘And when Attorney-Gener-al George Brandis hotly insisted I was not rac-ist, the ABC audience laughed in derision. Not one other panellist protested against this lynch-ing. In fact, host Tony Jones asked Brandis to defend “those sort of facts” and Channel 9 host Lisa Wilkinson accused me of “bullying”. And all panellists agreed Brandis should drop the government’s plan to loosen the Racial Dis-crimination Act’s restrictions on free speech, which the RDA used to ban two of my articles. Can the Abbott Government resist the pressure from ethnic and religious groups to back off?’
CutsAccording to The Australian, Chief Justice of the High Court, Robert French, has taken the extraordinary step of writing to the federal gov-ernment to reiterate the court’s constitutional independence after being advised the Coali-tion’s cost-cutting drive will extend to the na-tion’s highest legal forum. In a letter to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and copied to Attorney-General George Brandis, Justice French has raised concerns over the court’s ability to keep servicing the nation if the government pushes ahead with plans to apply higher efficiency dividends to the High Court.
QC or not QCAttorney General George Brandis has joined the growing move to restore the title of Queen’s Counsel for top barristers by announcing all fu-ture silks appointed by the federal government will be given that title. This reverses a decision of the Rudd government, which abandoned the QC post nominal and decided that new federal silks would be known by the non-royalist title Senior Counsel. While the federal government rarely appoints silks, the Attorney-General’s move will add to the pressure on barristers in
NSW. They dumped the Queen 22 years ago and have so far held out against the growing sentiment in favour of bringing her back. Sena-tor Brandis said that the commonwealth intend-ed to follow the lead of Queensland and Victo-ria and give all existing commonwealth SCs the option of rebranding themselves as QCs.
Broadband & IT$7bn for…..?Almost $7 billion of government funds have been ploughed into the National Broadband Network to complete just 3 per cent of the roll-out and NBN Co’s much-vaunted “Gigabit Na-tion” service does not have a single end-user customer. According to The Australian, NBN Co made the revelation about the turbocharged one-gigabit service during Senate estimates hearings yesterday, which Labor’s former communications minister Stephen Conroy had boasted would help drive productivity growth and create the jobs of the future.
SpruikingAccording to The Australian, Bill Morrow sees his task as NBN Co chief as promoting the ben-efits of better broadband services in closing the digital divide and opening the benefits of a digi-tal economy. It’s the same role Stephen Conroy wanted his predecessor Mike Quigley to play but both minister and appointee were eventual-ly drowned in the sea of mistakes, which meant politics took over The Agenda.
Copper networkNBN Co executive chairman Ziggy Switkows-ki has labelled as too ambitious plans to discon-nect copper services to up to 100,000 homes per month as part of the national broadband network rollout. According to The Age, NBN Co is due to disconnect the first of the copper connections - involving about 19,000 homes - on May 23. The first disconnections, which Mr Switkowski said were being “very care-fully micro-managed”, could potentially affect nearly 4000 homes that do not currently have an NBN service. The proposal was important to the $11 billion deal with Telstra, as it gave a time frame in which the incumbent telco would be paid disconnection fees by NBN Co as users moved to the fibre network. But Mr Switkowski said 100,000 disconnections a month had only ever been achieved during the height of the Tel-stra-Optus cable wars, and only for a short time.
Illegal downloadingThe federal government is considering a crack-down on online piracy, including forcing in-ternet service providers to block websites that allow users to illegally stream or download movies, music and TV shows.
NDIS strugglingAccording to The Australian, The Agency in charge of the national disability insurance scheme has been likened to “a plane that took off before it had been fully built and is being completed while it is in the air”, in an independ-ent report that questions its ability to roll out the flagship project. The report concludes that The Agency has been desperately trying to take control under difficult circumstances, including implementing a public-service hiring freeze. The report’s authors, led by former public ser-vice executive Jeff Whalan, point to woefully inadequate IT systems, staff confusion, lack of direction and vague terminology in the crucial assessments, such as the key “reasonable and necessary” supports. It highlights conflict be-tween whether staff planners are on the side of the bureaucracy or the people with disabilities they are assessing for support.
Push back roleNBN Co’s role in connecting new homes to super-fast fibre could be scaled back and more such premises handed to private operators, un-der proposals Treasury is pushing for the na-tion’s biggest infrastructure project. Accord-ing to The Australian, in rare commentary on the NBN that questions pillars of the previous Labor government’s policy on the broadband project, Treasury has said that having NBN Co connecting premises in large new housing es-tates and other “greenfields” developments at no cost to developers had led to it becoming a “provider of first resort”.
Red tapeAccording to The Australian, the nation’s tel-ecommunications companies including Telstra, Optus and iiNet could soon be saving millions of dollars in annual costs after the government unveiled the first tranche of red tape it plans to cut as part of its regulatory repeal day. Some $35 million in savings are expected to be hand-ed out to the telecoms and media companies that fall within the oversight of the Department of Communications as a result of the proposed cuts.
Transport & infrastructureMedibank to fund roadsThe Australian reports that ‘Billions of dollars from the sale of Medibank Private will be spent on roads and other infrastructure as the Coali-tion fires the starting gun on a public share of-fer within months’. The same paper also reports that ‘the appetite for shares in a $4b Medibank Private float is expected to be strong…’
Expensive congestionThe Financial Review reports that chief execu-tives from the transport, tourism and infrastruc-ture industries have urged the Abbott govern-ment to invest in urban public transport as an official estimate puts the cost of road conges-tion at $15 billion a year by 2030.
Take to the skiesTrucking entrepreneur Lindsay Fox has urged Australian food producers to embrace airfreight and capitalise on the advantages of our time-zone to reach Asian markets. According to The Australian, speaking at a Tourism and Trans-port Forum conference in Canberra, the LinFox Group founder said Australia had to harness its three-hour time advantage to get fresh Austral-ian produce on shelves in Asia at the same time fruit and vegetables are hitting supermarket shelves in Australia.
Fleet outCootes Transport - the Victorian trucking com-pany whose vehicles have been repeatedly hauled off the road because of major safety de-fects - continues to be allowed to roster drivers on to longer shifts and load trucks with more weight than others in the industry. According to The Age, Cootes, whose tanker ran out of con-trol in Sydney’s Mona Vale in October killing two people, retains a number of the advantages of signing up to a national safety accreditation scheme. Since the October crash, Cootes, the largest fuel distributor in the country, has been pilloried by state authorities for its lax mainte-nance regime.
HealthMercy for the charity regulatorThe leaders of a range of major charities have written to the Prime Minister pleading with him not to shut down the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC). In an open letter to the Prime Minister – to which 40
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organisations have signed up – the leaders say charities will have to deal with more red tape if the commission is shut down, contrary to the government’s intentions. The ACNC was estab-lished in 2012 following a Productivity Com-mission review of the not-for-profit sector. The Agency is Australia’s first national charities reg-ulator, with responsibility for deciding which organisations are considered charities.
PR push impactThe growth in the number of people with mental illnesses on the disability support pension can be attributed to awareness campaigns leading to proper reporting, according to the Human Rights Commission’s disability discrimination commissioner. According to The Australian, Graeme Innes said that in the past people with mental illnesses would not have been aware or honest about their problem and more likely ap-plied for the dole payment.
Booze adsCurrent rules on alcohol advertising are failing to protect children and must be tightened, ac-cording to the government agency charged with preventing disease. In a draft report released recently, the Australian National Preventive Health Agency recommended the removal of an exemption that allows alcohol to be advertised on free-to-air TV during children’s viewing hours on weekends and public holidays as part of live sporting broadcasts.
Activity fundingAccording to The Australian, Australian public hospitals do more than 200 hip replacements a year. In one, the cost of a hip replacement is $9700 a patient. In another it is $23,400, nearly 2 1/2 times higher. Similarly, the cost of a com-mon treatment for gallstones - laparoscopic cholecystectomy - ranges from $4100 to $7900 a patient, depending on the hospital. The Grat-tan Institute’s new report, Controlling Costly Care: A Billion-Dollar Hospital Opportunity, reveals substantial differences in costs among Australia’s public hospitals. Much of this cost can be avoided. If it is, nearly $1 billion will be freed up to address other needs every year.
GP FeeThe peak group representing older Australians — National Seniors Australia — has backed the introduction of a $6 gap fee for general practitioner visits and called for the deferral of the federal government’s paid parental leave scheme until the budget is back in surplus, in a controversial submission to the Treasury’s budget process.
GP fee (2)A proposed GP co-payment could add an ex-traordinary $2 billion to state and federal gov-ernment health bills. According to a report in The Age, the South Australian Health Depart-ment has estimated that a proposal to force pa-tients to pay a $6 ‘’co-payment’’ for a GP visit would lead to about 4 per cent of people by-passing their GP and instead attending hospital emergency departments to seek help for minor health complaints.
Bulk billingAccording to the Financial Review, a plan to means test bulk-billed GP visits and charge an extra $5 for medicine was estimated to save the government nearly $2 billion but would upset doctors, who have threatened a mass walk-out if it is implemented. The proposal from the De-partment of Health to reduce medical subsidies was rejected by the Labor government before last year’s budget. But it is likely to be recon-
sidered by Health Minister Peter Dutton, who believes Australians who can afford to, should pay more for their healthcare.
Co-paymentsThe federal government should abandon any discussion of means-tested access to GP servic-es and medical tests and look at more promising policies that will save money and improve peo-ple’s health, the Australian Medical Association says.
Quad bike safety People under The Age of 16 should be banned from riding quad bikes and helmets should be compulsory for all riders, according to a re-port funded by WorkCover and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Since 2000, some 140 Australians have died in quad bike incidents. Most deaths are a result of head injuries, asphyxia or serious chest injuries from being trapped by overturned vehicles.
Last drinksAn organisation that has been advising Austral-ian governments on alcohol and drug policy for almost half a century shut its doors forever. The Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia, which has operated since 1966, was placed in voluntary administration in November after As-sistant Health Minister Fiona Nash decided it would receive no further funding.
DSP surgeA new surge in the number of disability pen-sioners to record levels will spark an federal government push for a radical welfare restruc-ture that diverts people with mental illnesses from becoming permanent DSP recipients.
EducationLaggingStudents in 156 high schools - about 6 per cent of the nation’s total - are lagging at least two years behind their peers in literacy and nu-meracy skills, and have been for more than five years, according to a report in The Australian.
Suits us fineNSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli says he has clear evidence of the benefits of a cen-tralised school system, in a direct rebuttal of federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne’s push for independent public schools. After a trip to a World Education Forum in England and to Finland, one of the world’s highest performing school systems, he says overseas school min-isters were envious of NSW’s ability to tackle problems through a centralised bureaucracy.
ChildcareThe federal Government has warned of a loom-ing blow-out in the cost of child care subsidies but will spare the rebate from the budget axe at least until the next federal election.
Trade trainingThe federal government will urge more students to undertake school-based apprenticeships and move away from encouraging all high school students to aim for university, in a dramatic change in approach from Labor. Assistant Edu-cation Minister Sussan Ley said the number of people achieving formal trade qualifications was far too low and there was an overwhelming belief across schools, industry, trainers and gov-ernments that the national framework for voca-tional education and training in schools should be modernised.
Online coursesThe University of Queensland, the University of
NSW, ANU and Monash University, all part of the elite Group of Eight, are about to take their first steps in the world of massive open online courses (MOOCs). According to the Financial Review, several studies of MOOCs show they are most popular among mature age students, and they are not used as much by graduates.
Training reviewEducation Minister Christopher Pyne is plan-ning to unveil an eight-member panel to review the training of teachers, expected to be chaired by Australian Catholic University vice-chancel-lor Greg Craven, whose education faculty has some of the lowest entry scores in the nation. According to The Australian, other members on the panel will include Independent Schools Victoria chief executive Michelle Green, who has campaigned heavily on school funding, and Grattan Institute education researcher Ben Jensen.
Education warningA leading British Conservative Party thinker says the federal government will regret the in-troduction of a national curriculum, predicting it will inevitably fall into the hands of a radi-cal and unrepresentative elite. According to The Australian, European Parliament MP Daniel Hannan, who will visit Australia this month, said the experience in Britain had shown poli-ticians on the Right were virtually powerless when pitted against “a permanent Left bureau-cracy”. “We introduced our national curriculum in 1988 when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, supposedly as a way of stopping loony Left teachers,” Mr Hannan said.
Childcare callA survey of 700 childcare operators by industry website CareforKids also found two-thirds of centres had employed debt collectors to chase down parents, with one centre reporting it was $600,000 out of pocket. Australian Childcare Alliance president Gwynn Bridge said bad debts were growing as childcare became more unaffordable. Assistant Minister for Education Sussan Ley said she was ‘’very sympathetic’’ to the industry’s concerns about bad debts. ‘’There’s no doubt families are doing it tough at the moment and it doesn’t help childcare fees skyrocketed 50 per cent under Labor, but there’s no excuse for parents deliberately ducking their bills,’’ Ms Ley said.
BERThe Australian reports that Labor’s $16.2b ‘Building the Education Revolution’ scheme, one of the signature policies of the Rudd and Gillard governments, has been condemned as an international case study of legislative and bureaucratic failure. A paper by three Australian academics published in the International Jour-nal of Public Administration says ‘the stimulus program of building multi-purpose school halls, science labs and libraries highlights the pitfalls governments need to avoid when rolling out large-scale public expenditure programs’.
Foreign affairsDFAT joins the BritsThe Australian reports that ‘Australia and Brit-ain have embarked on even closer foreign rela-tions co-operation to save money, agreeing to share embassies in Iraq and Afghanistan and combine aid projects.
Good news for whalesIn a landmark case the International Court of Justice in The Hague endorsed Australia’s claim that the Japanese whaling program, described as scientific research, is unlawful. As a result
Japan needs to immediately end its killing of thousands of whales in the Antarctic seas.
Pell called upPope Francis has appointed Australia’s Car-dinal George Pell to one of the church’s most senior jobs in Rome. According to The Austral-ian, Cardinal Pell’s new position, as Prefect for the Economy for the Holy See and the Vatican, ranks on a par with the Secretary of State, Cardi-nal Pietro Parolin, an Italian, second behind the Pope in the church’s hierarchy. Cardinal Pell, who has been spending increasing amounts of time in Rome, will relocate there. No Austral-ian cardinal has been appointed to such a senior Vatican role before.
Indonesian spying claimsAccording to The Australian, the federal gov-ernment faces a fresh test of its relationship with Jakarta amid new allegations an Austral-ian intelligence agency spied on Indonesia last year and passed the information it gathered to the US. In the latest damaging leak of top-secret information from former US security analyst Edward Snowden, The New York Times says an Australian intelligence agency spied on a US law firm representing Indonesia in a trade dis-pute with the US.
Fiji shiftForeign Minister Julie Bishop has urged Fiji and its Pacific neighbours to embrace her pro-gram of rapprochement with the island nation as the moves to bring Fiji in from the cold won strong support throughout the region.
Fraser’s musingsIn The Age, Malcolm Fraser wrote: ‘Basic state-ments on human rights, on the way govern-ment should behave, are fine as expressions of noble sentiments, but when it comes to a test, the Commonwealth fails. It used not to be that way. The Commonwealth was more influential than any other organisation in ending apartheid. While the result became highly controversial, it also played a significant role in Zimbabwe. In Perth two years ago, the Commonwealth had before it a report calling for urgent reform. The organisation has gone backwards since then. In-stead of fighting for human rights, it has played a role in damaging human rights.’
DefenceDestroyer reportAccording to The Australian, a former secretary of the US Navy and an Australian shipbuild-ing expert have been appointed to investigate the building for the Royal Australian Navy of three powerful Air Warfare Destroyers, which is facing a massive cost blowout of about $800 million. Defence Minister David Johnston will announce at a defence conference today that he has appointed the American Don Winter and Australian John White to produce a report on the troubled project, which is Defence’s biggest current program.
ShipbuildingA partial slowing of activity in naval shipbuild-ing due to a lull between projects would cost the economy up to $400 million just to retrain workers when activity picked up again, says an industry commissioned report.
Bailout pushDefence Minister David Johnston is pushing for the next multibillion-dollar warship project to be built in Australia, bailing out local shipbuild-ers which are up to 30 per cent more expensive than competitors overseas.
In the gunAccording to the Financial Review, Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s audit commission will recommend a restructure and job cuts to the government weapons purchaser – the Defence Materiel Organisation – in a bid to reduce over-runs and delays on defence projects.
Defence spendCoalition will target a near-doubling of the na-tion’s defence budget to $50 billion within a decade, under directions given to the authors of a white paper to be announced next month. According to The Australian, Defence Minister David Johnston will take a formal submission for the white paper to cabinet.
Easy meatAccording to Tony Wright in The Age, “Every-one, from the Chief of the Australian Defence Force down, has sprung to the ramparts to pour boiling oil upon the head of Senator Stephen Conroy for having had the impertinence to of-fend Lieutenant-General Angus Campbell, the lion of Operation Sovereign Borders. General Campbell, you might have imagined, was am-ply equipped to defend himself, even from Sen-ator Conroy’s overenthusiastic charge that he was involved in a cover-up concerning Manus Island.”
DronesUp to seven giant unmanned aircraft would be bought for $3 billion under a government plan that would transform the country’s ability to patrol its borders. According to The Austral-ian, the move could see unmanned planes with the wingspan of a 737 passenger jet patrolling the ocean used by asylum-seeker boats to Aus-tralia’s north within six years. Although the un-manned aircraft would be primarily purchased for military reasons, to spot enemy ships and planes in a conflict, their ability to patrol as much as 40,000 square nautical miles in a sin-gle mission means they would also be used to detect illegal fishermen and asylum-seekers, pa-trol offshore oil and gas assets and provide early warning for bushfires.
JobsAccording to the Financial Review, the ship-building sector has emerged as the next flash-point in the battle to save manufacturing jobs with the government having just months to fast-track defence projects or face another 1400 layoffs at the Williamstown shipyards in Mel-bourne. If shipyard operator BAE Systems does not receive a commitment for new defence pro-jects from the government by the end of March, there will be substantial layoffs from the middle of 2014.
Sports & artsASADAThe Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority has completed its investigation into suspected use of banned peptides by AFL and NRL foot-ballers without interviewing the one person who knows what players were given. According to The Australian, ASADA’s outgoing chief exec-utive, Aurora Andruska, has confirmed that the 12-month investigation, which was launched on the “blackest day in Australian sport”, has end-ed, with the strength of evidence gathered now being assessed by retired Federal Court judge Garry Downes.
Politicising arts fundingFederal Arts Minister George Brandis has been accused of seeking to politicise funding, as fallout continues over the Biennale of Sydney and the departure of sponsor Transfield Hold-
ings. Labor and the Greens say Senator Brandis threatening to cut funding to artists who oppose government policy on asylum seekers.
New albumDame Vera Lynn is to release a new album – at The Age of 97.
Good jobThe Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority is looking for a new CEO. E-mail [email protected].
SocietyPell points the fingerAccording to a report in The Australian, Car-dinal George Pell has criticised senior Catho-lic Church clerics, staff and lawyers over their roles in a child sex abuse case during one of his last public appearances before he leaves to take up a senior Vatican appointment.
Pell wants state to decideAccording to a report in The Age, Cardinal George Pell has called on the federal govern-ment to set up an independent body to recom-mend what damages should be paid to victims of child abuse, as he gave evidence to the child sexual abuse royal commission. He reiterated his belief that the Catholic Church should cre-ate a corporate legal entity that could be sued by victims and said abusive priests should be insured against being sued for sexual abuse.
InsuredAccording to the Herald Sun, priests should carry insurance to cover them for child sexual abuse and the Catholic Church should be able to be sued by victims. Cardinal George Pell outlined his vision for the future at the Royal Commission into child sex abuse. The church has always argued it cannot be sued for the acts of the priests because it did not employ them.
Pell off to RomeIn the face of the Catholic Church’s PR disaster over child sexual abuse by clergy, Australia’s premier Catholic figure, Cardinal George Pell, must have mixed feelings about his new job as Prefect of the Vatican’s new Secretariat for the Economy in Rome – one assumes mostly posi-tive.
Divorce cutA trial offering $200 marriage-counselling vouchers has been recommended for a perma-nent rollout on the grounds it will save taxpay-ers millions by avoiding expensive divorces. Mounting the case for the scheme to be made permanent, Social Services Minister Kevin An-drews said that if the scheme could prevent just 200 divorces it would have paid for itself.
No filesAccording to a report in The Australian, thou-sands of Australians who grew up in children’s homes have been unable to find any records of their childhood, including vital information such as where they were born, or the identity of their parents.
No joy for dadsThe Age carried an op-ed piece by Ben Mox-ham, formerly chief ‘equality officer’ for the British Trade Union Congress, in which he ex-presses concern with the way the parental leave issue is being debated in Australia: ‘The risk is that a once-in-a-generation policy reform just entrenches the role of women as chief nappy-changers, while fathers are left to get on with their careers or their golf. That would be a shame because the benefits of shared parenting
during the first year of a baby are overwhelm-ing….’
Age pensionThe Age pension is approaching $20,000. The latest increase, to $19,916, opens up the wid-est gap yet between the single pension and the single Newstart unemployment allowance of $13,273. Once close to each other, the pension and Newstart began to diverge in 1991 when the government pegged the single pension to 25 per cent of male total average weekly earnings and left unemployment benefits pegged to the consumer price index. The gap widened again in 2009 when the Rudd government lifted the peg for the pension from 25 per cent of male earnings to 27.7 per cent.
Abused rent schemeAccording to The Australian, Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews has flagged a major shake-up of the National Rental Affordability Scheme in the wake of revelations the program has been manipulated to build student housing that is being let to wealthy foreign students.
Fix itAccording to The Australian, the head of the St Vincent de Paul Society has attacked Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews, accusing him of “gleefully bagging” the Rudd govern-ment’s flagship social housing scheme without committing to its future.
Charities watchdogSocial Services Minister Kevin Andrews is poised to try and abolish the national chari-ties watchdog, despite overwhelming support within the charity sector to keep the Austral-ian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission. Among other duties, the commission registers charities, helps them meet their obligations, investigates complaints and maintains a public charities register.
Good jobWalk Free, the organisation dedicated to eradi-cating modern slavery and human trafficking is looking for a CEO. E-mail [email protected].
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