Category: Australian News

The Tasmanian government is continuing to privatise public land through its secretive expressions of interest process, Greens Senator for Tasmania Nick McKim says.
“The first-stage approval of the Mount Roland cable car is effectively a sell-off and lock up of one of the most precious and beautiful parts of our state,” Senator McKim said.
“The Liberals have learned nothing from the backlash over Lake Malbena, and want to push ahead with their secretive process.”
“Tasmania’s reserves, national parks and the TWWHA are not theirs to sell.”
“The Greens will keep fighting to keep our precious places in public hands.”

Dr Mehreen Faruqi, Senator for NSW, has has responded to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s disgraceful comments attacking her this morning. Senator Faruqi is the first Muslim woman to serve in any Australian Parliament and Australia’s only Muslim Senator.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Peter Dutton is the Minister for Home Affairs and is meant to be keeping us safe. For some time we have been saying he isn’t fit for the job but this morning’s tone deaf comments further prove it.
“He still refuses to take responsibility for his role in demonising Muslims, migrants and refugees. Trying to claim that my response to the horrific massacre and Senator Anning’s disgraceful comments that harm our community are in any way equivalent is just vile.
“Peter Dutton’s comments show that Australian politicians are still not listening. Our country needs leadership and reflection on how to stamp out hate and Islamophobia,” she concluded.

The Australian Greens are committed to real protection and restoration of our environment, backed up by solid investment and a plan to make Australia a climate hero, not a climate villain.
“The environment has been ignored by successive governments. We are seeing mass species extinction, habitat loss and the degradation of our national landscape and waterways. It is time to give the environment the protection and value it deserves,” Greens environment spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“We have listened to the advice of The Australian Panel of Experts on Environmental Law (APEEL) to develop new laws that will protect and restore the environment. While the Labor Party has signalled support for strengthening our environmental laws, a strong Greens presence in the next Senate will hold them to implementing APEELs blueprint.
“We have a plan for a cleaner, healthier planet. We will create a tough, independent environmental watchdog that can enforce a new generation of laws. Our Environmental Protection Authority will be a cop-on-the-beat, enforcing real consequences for corporations that put communities and our environment at risk. An independent Environment Commission will tell us where money should be spent, how much we need and whether it’s working.
“Too often our natural world is exploited. In just the last few months we have seen the Murray Darling in collapse with unprecedented fish kills, the world’s first climate related extinction here in Australia, protected wetlands up for sale and threatened birds exported to dodgy collectors. There is little consideration given to protecting and preserving nature by a Liberal Government that gives more in fuel subsidies to the mining industry than they spend on the environment.
“With a Labor Government the most likely outcome of the next election, it is vital we have a strong Greens team in the Senate to make sure protecting the environment is prioritised both in law and funding. We will always stand up to the fossil fuels lobby, corporate irrigators and keep up the fight to end new coal, oil and gas projects.
“Our care for the environment should be based on facts, not the whims of the government of the day. We need to get down to the business of restoring ecosystems, addressing climate breakdown and making sure we leave a thriving planet. We are living with the effects of climate change right here and now, this is about our children as much as future generations. We cannot continue down our current path if our planet is to survive.
“We have a plan, because we know we can be the generation that saves the planet.”
 A tough new environment watchdog
The Greens will introduce a new generation of environmental laws overseen by an independent regulatory body with real power to enforce environmental laws.
The Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is a relic of the Howard era. We need a new generation of environmental laws that actually protect our shared natural resources, our wild places and our threatened species.
The Greens will provide real protection for our animals, land, air and water with a national Environmetal Protection Authority with real teeth to enforce the law and provide independent expert advice, at arm’s length from the influence of politicians and the big business lobby.
Backing this Authority, the Greens’ new environmental laws would expand federal responsibility for:
•          National parks and reserves, including critical habitats, climate refugees and national biodiversity hotspots;
•          Vulnerable ecological communities;
•          Impacts from land clearing;
•          Greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution;
•          Water resources (including rivers, wetlands and aquifers);
•          Ecosystems and wetlands of national significance;
•          Invasive species.
These new laws will also allow increased community access to justice by implementing “open standing” for people and communities to challenge environmentally damaging decisions in court, without risking huge costs in public interest cases.

Australian Greens Senator, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has reacted to the Christchurch terrorist attack. Senator Faruqi is Australia’s first Muslim woman senator.
Senator Faruqi said:
“What happened in Christchurch is deeply devastating and terribly distressing.
“I am heartbroken and quite frankly scared. First and foremost we are grieving and our thoughts are with the friends and families of the victims who have been brutally killed by a white supremacist terrorist from Australia.
“As far as I am concerned, some politicians have been openly inciting hate, division and Islamophobia. Some in the media, rather than scrutinising these politicians, have been amplifying their message.
“We have been saying for years that politicians – including One Nation’s Pauline Hanson and Liberals like George Christensen and Peter Dutton – have been stoking the fires of hate and division. Other politicians have stood by and allowed this to happen, and even hoped that anti-migrant and anti-Muslim sentiment would win them votes.
“Senator Fraser Anning is a disgraceful Merchant of Hate. His statement blaming the victims for this white-supremacist terrorist attack was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen.
“Fraser Anning does not deserve to be in the Senate. The Labor and Liberal parties should have joined the Greens when we moved to censure him after his disgusting first speech where he called for a White Australia Policy and a ban on Muslim migration.
“Australian politicians need to understand that demonising Muslims and encouraging division has consequences. When they encourage hate, they are quite literally playing games with our lives.
“There are now serious questions about whether Australian Governments have focused enough on far-right extremism and taken this threat seriously. For years, I and many other Muslim Australians have been receiving threats of death and violence that haven’t been taken seriously. The Government must start listening to what we have been saying and pledge to tackle right wing extremism.”

A Daley Labor Government will deliver an additional $9 million to Coffs Harbour hospital – bringing the total investment into the facility to $203 million – as part of the Schools and Hospitals before Stadiums’ plan.
The additional Labor funding for Coffs Harbour hospital will go towards:

• Replacement of the dental X-ray machine, which has been broken for at least six months – forcing patients to go “private”; and
• Funding to deliver additional parking spaces to off-set the expected loss of 110 parking spaces under the current plan.

The overall improvements – costing $194 million – include:

• Expansion of the existing surgical and operating theatres;
• New theatres;
• A new short stay surgical unit;
• Orthopaedic and vascular unit;
• Ambulatory care area; and
• The expansion of community health.

The region has experienced substantial population growth over the last eight years and the needs of the hospital have been neglected.
NSW Labor leader Michael Daley made the announcement with Country Labor candidate for Coffs Harbour Tony Judge.
The Coffs Harbour announcement follows NSW Labor’s commitment to employ 5,500 more nurses and midwives; 1,500 more paramedics; 2,240 more cleaning, support personnel and allied health workers; and 250 more security staff to protect patients and health workers.
In an earlier announcement, NSW Labor committed to capping hospital parking fees for health workers at $10 per week – subject to current contracts ending.
Coffs Harbour hospital is under enormous pressure with its emergency department seeing about 40,000 patients a year.  About one in five (21.9 per cent) of patients waited longer than four hours. Ten per cent of patients waited longer than seven hours and 48 minutes.
As of December 31, there are 1,797 patients waiting for elective surgery at Coffs Harbour hospital with the median wait for non-urgent elective surgery is 240 days with 10 per cent of patients waiting longer than 348 days.
In addition, in 2018, there were 1,058 babies born at Coffs Harbour hospital.
Built in 2001 under then Labor Premier Bob Carr and Dr Andrew Refshauge, it is a major referral hospital for the Coffs Network of the Mid North Coast Local Health District.
With 292 beds, its services include general medicine, surgery, day surgery, planned and emergency theatre service, coronary care (including coronary angiography unit), intensive care, obstetrics, paediatrics, 24-hour Emergency Department, oncology, palliative care, rehabilitation, stroke, acute renal dialysis, high dependency and mental health and an extensive range of outpatient clinics.
Country Labor candidate for Coffs Harbour Tony Judge said: “The mid-North Coast has been neglected by the National Party and taken for granted.”
“Unfortunately, the National Party have the wrong priorities. They want to splurge $2.2 billion on stadiums and refuse to listen to the community on their health and hospital needs – while NSW Labor will invest in health and hospital services.
“Coffs Harbour deserves world-class health and hospital services in their local community.”

The Morrison Government will provide a further $40 million in grants to better support people living with dementia.
Applications are now open under the National Dementia Support Program for funding from 2019-20 to 2021-22.
Funding of $36 million will support education programs, services and resources to improve interactions between people living with dementia and those around them.
This could include projects to raise awareness and understanding about dementia, and increase the skills and confidence of people living with dementia, their carers, families, health professionals, volunteers, and contacts within their communities.
Grants may also be used to:

• support primary health care practitioners, including GPs, to improve early diagnosis of dementia;
• reduce stigma about dementia which can exist in the community;
• support people and families at or after the diagnosis of dementia;
• provide culturally appropriate education and information on dementia and support services for people, families and carers from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

This funding includes $5 million to Dementia Australia to enable the organisation to continue to provide its services for five months to 30 November 2019 while the grant process is undertaken.
This investment will ensure people living with dementia, their families and carers are continually provided the support they need during this process.
The remaining $4 million focuses on the use of innovative technology for people living with dementia.
These grants will aim to:

• assist people living with dementia to sustain their independence and remain in their own homes for longer;
• improve the quality of life of people living with dementia in both home and residential aged care; and
• support families and carers to develop skills and strategies for caring.

Dementia is one of the biggest health and social challenges facing our nation, and other developed countries around the world.
The number of Australians living with dementia will increase rapidly over the next 30 years because we are living longer and the population is ageing.
Earlier this month, the Morrison Government announced funding for a world-first national network of specialist care units for patients with severe dementia. At full roll out, funding of $70 million a year will support more than 30 specialist care units to provide best practice person-centred care for these vulnerable people.
The Morrison Government also provides $50 million each year for a number of dementia specific programs to support quality of life and care for people living with dementia.
It’s also on top of the $200 million over five years for the Boosting Dementia Research Initiative, of which $15 million is earmarked for Implementing Dementia Risk Reduction and Prevention Research Priority projects.
Applications for the National Dementia Support Program can be downloaded from the GrantConnect website by searching for GO1777 at www.grants.gov.au.

I offer my deepest sympathies to the New Zealand Muslim community in the wake of today’s senseless right wing terrorist attack in Christchurch. I extend these sympathies to Muslims in Australia and indeed around the world. My heart aches with yours on this dark and terrible day.

We must unite, as one community, against the plague of hatred and violence that is ricocheting around the world. Silence is not an option. This is a time for us to call out racism and islamophobia in all its forms, and the politicians and media commentators who enable it.
Innocent New Zealanders are lying dead in the streets of Christchurch tonight because a climate of fear and division has fueled this kind of murderous behaviour. It must stop.
Muslims contribute so much to the fabric of our great multicultural nation, a fact I’m reminded of every time I have the honour of being welcomed into their community.
We stand with the Muslim community at this time of suffering and grief, and pledge to end this senseless violence, and the hateful rhetoric that fuels it.

– Richard Di Natale, Leader of the Australian Greens

From July 1, 2019, the Greens will introduce a $2.2 billion battery storage fund providing household battery storage incentives of up to $7000 per battery (tapering down annually to July 1, 2023). Each quarter, $137.5 million will be made available for use from the fund.
Battery storage in Australia is taking off, with household battery storage uptake tripling in 2017 and expected to reach 33,000 in 2018. However, the Greens recognise the industry is still developing and this boost will improve access for households and help manufacturers reduce costs and increase production.
As the landscape and economics of battery storage are changing rapidly, the size of the grant will taper down annually and a review will be conducted halfway through the scheme to assess the size of the grant, taking into account battery prices in each state of the scheme, the resulting payback periods and the performance of the scheme. If any changes to the size of the grant in years 3 and 4 are required, 3 months advance notice will be provided.
The opportunities presented by the huge growth in distributed energy storage will be missed if the ‘behind the meter’ technology is unable to coordinate. The aggregation of home battery systems provides the opportunity to save consumers money while adding additional flexibility and security to the grid when required. To be eligible for the scheme, households will need to use qualified system providers installing battery systems that meet a set of minimum technical requirements, so batteries are safe and capable of (where technology permits) participating in a sophisticated distributed energy arrangement, such as a virtual power plant.
The goal of the scheme is to reduce the consumer’s effective payback period of batteries to as close to 3 years as possible, close to the best payback period for average solar PV systems in some parts of Australia. Guidelines will be developed to determine the precise level of subsidy provided to achieve this goal, having regard to:

• The size of the desired battery storage system;
• The cost of the desired battery storage system;
• Which state the consumer is in.

10% of the funding cap each quarter will be set aside for low income households, who will be eligible to receive double the allocated grant in that year.
The scheme will work in harmony with state-based schemes by ‘topping up’ state based grants. For example, if a household receives the Victorian Labor subsidy of $4838 in 2019, they will still be eligible to receive up to $2162 from the Federal Government grant.
This policy will be fully costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office.
Quotes attributable to Adam Bandt MP, Greens climate change and energy spokesperson:
“We want to supercharge demand for batteries in households and businesses,” said Mr Bandt.
“Instead of a one-way street, our energy system needs to transform into a distributed, coordinated smart grid with battery storage at the heart of that transformation.
“Two million Australians have already embraced solar. The next step is battery storage.
“70% of home owners with rooftop solar want batteries, but research indicates a lack of government incentives have inhibited the uptake of batteries. Instead of encouraging the uptake of batteries, the government is just spruiking coal.
“Our $2.2 billion plan will help households and businesses embrace and enjoy the benefits of battery storage and extra support will be given to low-income households to ensure they don’t miss out.
“Battery storage will help people reduce their energy bills while reducing demand on the network during peak times.
“Not only can distributed battery storage technology create virtual power plants, but they can almost double a household’s self-consumption from their solar panels.
“More battery storage will help Australia reach 100% renewables as soon as possible by keeping pollution and power prices down.”
Scheme design:

YEAR	GRANT	FUNDING CAP
1	Up to $7000	$550 million ($137.5M limit each quarter)
2	Up to $5950	$550 million ($137.5M limit each quarter)
REVIEW	REVIEW	REVIEW
3	Up to $5355	$550 million ($137.5M limit each quarter)
4	Up to $4820	$550 million ($137.5M limit each quarter)
TOTAL	N/A	$2.2 billion

Small Business:
Under the Greens’ scheme, small businesses will have access to loans up to $15,000 (tapering down to $9300 in 2023) administered by the CEFC to assist with the installation of battery storage. These loans will be repayable over a 10 year period.

The Australian Greens have announced their first suite of policies aimed at achieving full equality for all LGBTIQ+ people.
“The Greens policies will mean LGBTIQ+ people have the right to be free from discrimination, have autonomy over their bodies, and have access to holistic and comprehensive health services and secure housing.”
“LGBTIQ+ people continue to face many challenges in our society, such as students and teachers being expelled and fired from religious schools, higher rates of mental health issues and homelessness, and enduring sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts,” said Senator Janet Rice, Australian Greens LGBTIQ+ spokesperson.
“We can and must do better. The Greens plan removes religious exemptions in federal anti-discrimination laws, creates an LGBTIQ+ health strategy, replaces religious chaplains in public schools with trained, secular counsellors, and appoints an LGBTIQ+ Human Rights Commissioner and Minister for Equality, and more.”
“We especially want to stamp out dangerous sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts. We know from survivors that the ex-gay and ex-trans conversion movement extends beyond formalised ‘therapies’ in subtle and insidious ways. These change efforts pervade some religious communities, faith-based organisations, schools and the counselling industry.”
“The Greens plan will support survivors of sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts and their allies to stamp out these practices and fund $1 million for LGBTIQ+ faith organisations to build capacity for self-advocacy and $500,000 into a public health and awareness campaign.”
“The Greens have always stood with LGBTIQ+ people, and we will continue fighting for the rights of every member of our community,” said Adam Pulford, Australian Greens candidate for Wills.
“As a gay man, I am proud to be part of announcing our first set of policies to help end discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people and provide the support we need when we need it.”
The Greens plan will:

• Protect LGBTIQ+ rights in law, through a Charter of Rights and removing religious exemptions in federal anti-discrim laws
• Create a national LGBTIQ+ health strategy
• Ensure secular student support is provided in all schools
• Address the crisis in housing and homelessness for LGBTIQ+ people
• Establish a ministerial advisory group on LGBTIQ+ issues
• Stamp out sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts
• Appoint an LGBTIQ+ Human Rights Commissioner
• Appoint a Minister for Equality

Policy document available here.

$5.8 billion would be invested in providing Medicare-funded dental care in a policy announced today by Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale and Greens candidate for Macnamara Steph Hodgins-May.
“Your health shouldn’t be determined by your postcode or bank balance,” said Dr Di Natale, a former GP and public health specialist.
“Untreated dental disease can dramatically impact on a person’s health and quality of life, and it is the most vulnerable people in our community who are impacted the most. The Greens will invest $5.8 billion to provide Medicare-funded dental care to all young people, aged pensioners, full benefit recipients and concession card holders.
“Millions of Australians have delayed visiting the dentist because of high out of pocket costs, which is why the Greens have long been champions of Medicare-funded dental care. In 2012 the Greens secured Medicare-funded dental care for 3.4 million children and now we commit to build on that foundation.
“The Coalition has never supported Medicare but if the Labor party really support affordable universal healthcare Bill Shorten should commit to working with the Greens to bring dental into Medicare,” Di Natale said.
Hodgins-May said the out of pocket costs of dental treatment undermined Australia’s health system.
“I’m proud to live in a country with universal healthcare but the cost of seeing a dentist is a huge gap,” said Hodgins-May.
“There is no reason why your mouth should be treated differently to the rest of your body. Going to the dentist should be just like going to the GP and that’s exactly what the Greens will deliver.”
The policy initiative document can be found here.