Australian News – Page 513

LABOR WILL INVEST IN 100 EXTRA JOBS FOR CAIRNS

A Shorten Labor Government will create 100 permanent full time Department of Human Services jobs in Cairns.
These 100 new and secure jobs will inject up to $7.2 million into the local economy each and every year.
This announcement will further cement Cairns as a national hub for Commonwealth Government service delivery and administration.
It is a further example of Federal Labor’s commitment to the decentralisation of Commonwealth Government service delivery.
The 100 jobs will include local service delivery and call centre roles that will provide support for people across Australia.
Regional centres like Cairns have been ignored when it comes to decentralising Government service delivery.
The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has turned its back on North Queensland, with a campaign of cuts to DHS and Centrelink that are leaving Cairns residents waiting longer to receive support.
Medicare and Centrelink services help the Cairns community when they need it the most – when people are sick, processing aged care pensions, child care support, disability support pensions and carers allowance payments.
These jobs will improve access to Medicare and Centrelink and reduce waiting and processing time for older Australians – important services that have been left to deteriorate under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government.
Income support is complex and that’s why it is important there are properly trained and permanent staff who are familiar with the personal circumstances facing income support recipients.
There are 13,000 age pensioners in Cairns, who have endured lengthy phone wait times to Centrelink as well as lengthy wait times for their pensions to be approved. There are 1,700 young people on youth allowance, who are studying or undertaking an apprenticeship – all who will benefit from the increased support as a result of these jobs.
The truth is Centrelink is in crisis under the Turnbull Government. It’s under staffed and under resourced.
The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has cut and outsourced over 1,700 staff from DHS and Centrelink and cut thousands of public sector jobs in regional Australia.
These cuts have coincided with increased Centrelink phone wait times, and income support recipients being pushed to the edge of poverty waiting months for their payments.
These roles will be permanent and full time, and staff will be properly trained to assist Australians on income support.
Labor can afford this because we have made the tough decisions to make multinationals pay their fair share of tax, close tax loopholes used by the top end of town.
We will also clamp down on blowouts in spending on contractors and consultants, and unnecessary and unreasonable travel.
Labor’s focused on Cairns jobs and Cairns services – we’re listening to the local community and making the investments needed to build a stronger local economy and create genuine job opportunities.

LABOR WILL INVEST IN 200 EXTRA JOBS FOR TOWNSVILLE

A Shorten Labor Government will create 200 permanent full time Department of Human Services jobs in Townsville.
These 200 new and secure jobs will inject up to $14.4 million into the local economy each and every year.
This announcement will further cement Townsville as a national hub for Commonwealth Government service delivery and administration.
It is a further example of Federal Labor’s commitment to the decentralisation of Commonwealth Government service delivery.
The 200 jobs will include local service delivery and call centre roles that will provide support for people across Australia.
Regional centres like Townsville have been ignored when it comes to decentralising Government service delivery.
The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has turned its back on North Queensland, with a campaign of cuts to DHS and Centrelink that are leaving Townsville residents waiting longer to receive support.
Medicare and Centrelink services help the Townsville community when they need it the most – when people are sick, processing aged care pensions, child care support, disability support pensions and carers allowance payments.
These jobs will improve access to Medicare and Centrelink and reduce waiting and processing time for older Australians – important services that have been left to deteriorate under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government.
Income support is complex and that’s why it is important there are properly trained and permanent staff who are familiar with the personal circumstances facing income support recipients.
There are 15,000 age pensioners in Townsville, who have endured lengthy phone wait times to Centrelink as well as lengthy wait times for their pensions to be approved. There are 2,700 young people on youth allowance, who are studying or undertaking an apprenticeship – all who will benefit from the increased support as a result of these jobs.
The truth is Centrelink is in crisis under the Turnbull Government. It’s under staffed and under resourced.
The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has cut and outsourced over 2,700 staff from DHS and Centrelink and cut thousands of public sector jobs in regional Australia.
These cuts have coincided with increased Centrelink phone wait times, and income support recipients being pushed to the edge of poverty waiting months for their payments.
These roles will be permanent and full time, and staff will be properly trained to assist Australians on income support.
Labor can afford this because we have made the tough decisions to make multinationals pay their fair share of tax, close tax loopholes used by the top end of town.
We will also clamp down on blowouts in spending on contractors and consultants, and unnecessary and unreasonable travel.
Labor’s focused on Townsville jobs and Townsville services – we’re listening to the local community and making the investments needed to build a stronger local economy and create genuine job opportunities.

Free Higher Education Essential for Jobs of the Future

Australian Greens Senator for NSW and Education Spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has said free higher education is the key to ensuring equitable access to jobs of the future. An Alphabeta ‘Future Skills Report’ has found that Australians will need new skills to adjust to the future of work and will need to spend an additional three hours a week in education and training and that the average Australian worker will likely change jobs 2.4 times over the next two decades.
Details of the Greens free higher education package for universities and TAFEs can be found here.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Technology is rapidly changing the way we work and learn. Students graduating today will be working in industries we haven’t even imagined yet. If we are to take advantage of automation and technological change, we need to ensure that people are able to retrain and re-skill without incurring crushing debts over and over again.
“Automation offers incredible opportunities but if we do not properly plan for it, we are open to the risk of leaving huge numbers of people behind. We know that learning, upskilling and reskilling are essential for workers to be able to thrive in the jobs of the future, particularly those whose industries will be disrupted by technology.
“Removing fees for higher education will mean people will be able to move seamlessly between jobs and careers without the threat of huge debts. It’s time to make education free again,” she concluded.

Lismore Track Reopening Shows Greyhound Racing Reform Is a Farce

Australian Greens Senator for NSW and Spokesperson for Animal Welfare, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has called the reopening of the Lismore racing track a farce. Greyhound Racing NSW closed the Lismore track ‘indefinitely’ on 17 January “as a result of unacceptably high levels of major greyhound injuries and fatalities over the past 12 months. But just one day later, the eighteenth of January, an ‘expert panel’ of three (including two representatives of the greyhound racing industry) declared that the catastrophic injuries and deaths experienced at the track in 2019 were the result of non-track related causes”. Three dogs have been killed racing in Lismore this year already.
Senator Faruqi said:
“The Greyhound Racing industry has again proven how unwilling they are to clean up their act and stop the continued deaths and catastrophic injuries suffered during greyhound racing.
“To have three dogs die on track in a matter of weeks from gruesome fractures and then pretend that it has nothing to do with the track shows that they are living in a parallel universe.
“The reality is that racing dogs always has an inherent risk. If they are not even willing to close their most dangerous tracks, I think it really shows how uninterested they are in reforming the industry.
“The Liberal, National and Labor parties shamefully continue to support the killing and maiming of greyhounds with tens of millions of dollars in public money, while schools, hospitals and community facilities are crying out for funding.
“Just recently we have heard about a vet putting down a healthy greyhound in the back of a trainer’s car while kids were present and not even this is enough for the industry to handout a lifetime ban.
“This isn’t an industry interested in reforming, it is an industry emboldened to continue business as usual.
“We need to cut off the public funding for this so-called sport and ban it once and for all. It more than two years since the racing ban backflip and dogs continue to die on and off the track” she concluded.

Murray Darling Basin Plan managers get an F

The Productivity Commission’s scathing report into the Murray Darling Basin Plan shows it is failing and needs serious reform and transparency, the Greens say.
“The Productivity Commission’s scathing assessment of the Murray Darling Basin Plan is summed up perfectly in one sentence:

“Recovering water through efficiency measures has become increasingly divorced from the environmental outcomes it is meant to achieve.”(p22)

“This report is a damning assessment of the Federal Government and its agencies’ mismanagement of the Murray Darling Basin. It shows that the original purpose of the Plan to restore the heath of the River has been undermined and the money spent is going not to the environmental outcomes but instead filling then pockets of irrigators,” Greens environment and water spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“The $13 billion of taxpayers money is not going where it was intended. Political interference from both state and federal governments has undermined the independence of the Murray Darling Basin Authority, making it an agency of government, not an Authority that looks after the River.
“No wonder the Government is trying to bury this report. Releasing it on a Friday before the Australia Day long weekend, shows just how desperate the Minister is to keep Australians in the dark.
“The Productivity Commission makes a number of salient points, but overall the scathing assessment shows that river communities and the environment have been failed by the mismanagement of the Murray Darling Basin Plan and urgent reforms are needed.
“The report calls out the lack of independence and teeth of the Murray Darling Basin Authority, showing it cannot be trusted to enforce the management rules of the River. They have a conflict of interest and are not genuinely independent. The Basin states, Federal Government and Murray Darling Basin Authority have ignored what this Plan was set out to do – improve the environmental health of the River.
“We need a cop on the beat – a independent authority with teeth – that can crack down on the mismanagement and corruption ignored by Governments, bureaucrats and corporate irrigators. We need an urgent Royal Commission.
“The Productivity Commission again proves that water buy backs are the most economically efficient and environmentally effective way to restore health to the River.
“With the River in environmental collapse, those responsible must be held to account. The big cotton lobby, corruption, mismanagement and lack of transparency have undermined the Plan that was meant to save the Murray Darling Basin. Heads should roll. Only a Federal Royal Commission can sort through the rot. It’s clear the Water Minister and his corporate irrigator mates cannot be trusted.
“People in river communities are without clean drinking water and the environment is suffering. We need urgent action now to reverse the River’s fate before it is too late.”

EQUIPPING OUR ADF PERSONNEL WITH GREATER CHOICE

A Shorten Labor Government will give our ADF members choice to select their issued boots for service – our ADF members aren’t one size fits all, and their boots shouldn’t be, either.
Our military personnel are our most critical ADF capability. It is vital they are well equipped to perform at their best and deliver on their mission.
ADF members work day in, day out, in their kit and, like us, our ADF personnel are not one-size fits all.
That’s why Labor will recognise the importance of our ADF personnel being fitted with a more individual approach.
Labor’s approach will see Defence provide a greater range of pre-approved boots to fit the needs of the ADF personnel and Defence’s requirements.
Labor will establish a panel of providers to let ADF members choose from a range of pre-approved boots that best meet their individual needs while also meeting the requirements of their service.
This will give members more choice and flexibility to suit their individual needs while maintaining ADF requirements.
The success of the ADF depends, in part, on the quality and appropriateness of personnel clothing and equipment.
Labor is committed to supporting the principle of greater choice for packs. We will work with experts in Government to determine the feasibility of expanding greater access to packs which suit both our ADF personnel and their operational requirements.
Our ADF personnel’s safety and wellbeing is a priority to Labor. That is why we are committed to ensuring our ADF members have the best possible equipment that meets their individual needs, ensures their physical health, and in turn produces better outcomes for the ADF.

LABOR WILL INVEST IN 100 EXTRA JOBS FOR CAIRNS

LABOR WILL INVEST IN 200 EXTRA JOBS FOR TOWNSVILLE

LABOR WILL INVEST IN A NEW ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE FOR PROSERPINE

A Shorten Labor Government will invest $5 million to rebuild the Proserpine Entertainment Centre – generating 43 local jobs in construction and giving the local community a vote of confidence in the future of their region.
The entertainment centre is a central part of the town’s identity, but it was badly damaged through Cyclone Debbie in 2017 and has been closed since, forcing events to relocate and limiting the region’s capacity to attract new events.
Rebuilding it is an integral step in helping the community’s ongoing recovery efforts, and to boost tourism and economic opportunities in the region – one of the most unique and beautiful parts of Australia.
Labor’s investment will go towards reconstruction of a new complex, including:

The capacity for a 300 seat auditorium for live shows and movies.
A conference and function space with a capacity for 256.
Full access for people with disability.
Enhanced facilities including green room, change rooms, loading dock and prop storage.

It’s estimated that some weeks more than 1,000 people will use the centre – providing an economic and social boost to Proserpine and the broader Whitsunday community.
A new entertainment centre would also provide a large air conditioned facility for local community groups to use, particularly local senior citizen groups.
During construction the project is forecast to have an economic output of $16.7 million and create 43 jobs during construction, and once fully operational it will generate an annual $3.3 million output and 16 fulltime equivalent jobs.
This investment is the result of the hard work and advocacy of Labor candidate Belinda Hassan – who has been listening to the local community about what they want for their region.
Residents in Proserpine and the Whitsundays have done the hard work to rebuild their community after Cyclone Debbie, and Labor’s investment will give them extra support in continuing these efforts.
This is a beautiful part of Queensland – it deserves a government in Canberra that listens and acts on the things that matter. That’s what Labor will do.