Month: March 2020

Greens Senate Leader and spokesperson on Women, Senator Larissa Waters, has written to Minister for Women Marise Payne ahead of tomorrow’s meeting of Women’s Safety Ministers asking for additional funding and national coordination to improve frontline police services available to people reporting domestic and family violence.
“Women who have survived domestic violence won’t seek police help if they think they will be disbelieved or exposed to more danger,” she said.
“The reported cases of leaking survivors’ details, failures to prosecute, unfortunate remarks and under-enforcement of DVO breaches are extremely concerning and show more police training and cultural change is required within the Queensland Police Service.
“The Federal government can’t continue to say police matters are a state issue, when they could improve frontline police services on family violence through federal funding for training, enforcement and harmonisation.
“Women’s services also tell us of the urgent need for more funding for the Family Court, prevention and early intervention programs, specialist legal and support services, crisis accommodation and housing support to improve the family law system.
“We need an urgent investment of $5.3 billion for a new 10-year National Partnership Agreement on Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women between state and Federal governments.
“Governments must listen when these front line services say more funding will make a difference and invest to fix the domestic violence crisis.”
View the full letter here: https://www.facebook.com/larissawaters/photos/a.420965439098/10158087809434099/?type=3&theater

Scott Morrison has again misled Parliament by claiming all projects bankrolled under his infamous Sports Rorts program were eligible for funding despite a clear finding to the contrary by the independent Australian National Audit Office.
Last month the ANOA ruled that 43 per cent of grants made ahead of last year’s election under the $100 million Community Sport Infrastructure Grant scheme were ineligible for funding.
Despite this formal finding, Mr Morrison has claimed at least 16 times, including in the House of Representatives on February 5, that no ineligible projects were funded.
This is simply not true. Indeed, the inaccuracy of this comment was confirmed at a Senate inquiry hearing on February 13 by ANAO official Brian Boyd.
Today, in Parliament I offered Mr Morrison the opportunity to correct the record.
But instead of recognising the truth Mr Morrison doubled down, claiming “The comments that I made on that matter were made on the basis of the information that was available to me from the ANAO report.’’
For the record, the ANAO Report says:
4.31 … In this context, there were increasing risks that approved projects could have commenced works or been already delivered (in both instances, resulting in them being no longer eligible under the CSIG guidelines).
4.32 These risks were realised, with October 2019 data from Sport Australia’s grants management system indicating that:

• eight projects were completed by the time funding agreements were executed by Sport Australia; and
• 272 projects out of the 684 approved (or 40 per cent) across all three rounds had already commenced by the time funding agreements were executed.

4.33 In addition to program ineligibility, this situation suggests that — particularly in respect of the eight completed projects — those selected for funding under the program may not have required Australian Government funding in order to deliver their projects.
Public confidence in our political system requires that political leaders be honest, particularly before the Parliament.
Mr Morrison needs to be straight with the people of Australia.
He must correct the record when Parliament sits tomorrow.

Federal Labor calls on the Morrison Government to do more for struggling small businesses in bushfire affected areas by offering a targeted program of wage assistance for employers.
Small businesses in fire devastated areas around the country are desperate for financial help right now. Concern is mounting that the Morrison Government’s small business package is not getting to businesses that need it most, nor having the desired result.
These small businesses in fire affected areas are facing a cash flow crisis – while shopfronts are still standing, many have lost their livelihoods due to the ongoing bushfires, and are facing continued economic uncertainty, severely impacting their ability to employ staff.
That is why the Government should consider extending eligibility and access to wage assistance programs for small businesses significantly directly and indirectly affected by the bushfire crisis.
Wage assistance was provided to North Queensland communities of up to 26 weeks at the NewStart rate by the previous Labor Federal Government when tropical Cyclone Yasi hit in 2011. Why has the Morrison Government not considered this response already?
In addition to targeted wage assistance, Labor also continues to call on the Morrison Government to set up a Prime Minister’s Business Taskforce, as was created after the 2011 Queensland floods and brought together 10 eminent business people to provide a direct line of ongoing advice to Government.
We also call on the Government to provide greater financial counselling for small businesses by increasing the number of financial counsellors available, while introducing a voucher scheme for accredited accountants to assist small businesses with accessing bushfire recovery commitments such as grants and loans, and revising their business plans.
Over the past few weeks, the cameras may have left and the fires may have abated, but communities still need assistance. It is imperative that businesses remain viable and local workers maintain their jobs.
Labor’s suggestion can be picked up and adopted by the Morrison Government now to mitigate the pain and suffering from the current emergency, and help rebuild resilient communities in areas facing a downturn as a result of the disaster.
 
 

The National Security Committee of Cabinet has agreed today to introduce new travel restrictions, update the travel advice and implement new screening measures as part of the Government’s coordinated measures to protect Australians from COVID-19.
The Australian Government’s highest priority remains the wellbeing and safety of Australians.
These actions are based on advice that the volume of reported COVID-19 cases in the Republic of Korea, and the scale of travel to Australia from the Republic of Korea, means that they present a high risk of further transmission of COVID-19 in Australia.
Therefore, screening measures alone would not be sufficient for the Republic of Korea.
For arrivals from Italy, we will implement enhanced health screening and temperature testing arrangements.
These measures are part of our ongoing strategy of containment and minimising risk to the Australian community as detailed in our pandemic preparedness plan.
As of 5 March 2020:

• Foreign nationals (excluding permanent residents of Australia) who are in the Republic of Korea on or after today will not be allowed to enter Australia for 14 days from the time they have left or transited through the Republic of Korea;
• Australian citizens and permanent residents will still be able to enter Australia, as will their immediate family members (spouses, legal guardians or dependants only). They will be required to self-isolate at home for 14 days from the day they left the Republic of Korea.
• The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will raise the level of the travel advisory for the Republic of Korea to ‘reconsider your need to travel’ (level 3 of 4) up from ‘exercise a high degree of caution’ (level 2).
• The level of the travel advice will also be raised to ‘do not travel’ to Daegu (level 4 of 4) because of the significant outbreak of COVID-19 there. People in the Republic of Korea should monitor their health closely and follow the advice of local authorities.

Travellers from the Republic of Korea constitute at this time a materially greater risk of COVID-19 importation than other countries outside of China and Iran.
We are grateful to the Government of the Republic of Korea for the transparent way it has dealt with this outbreak. It should be commended for its strong efforts in combatting COVID-19, including with its extensive testing regime.
The travel restrictions for the Republic of Korea will now be consistent with those in place for China and Iran.
The aim of these measures is to slow the importation of COVID-19 cases into Australia to enable preparatory measures to continue and to enable a public health response to the initial cases.
The current travel restrictions regarding mainland China and Iran continue to be successful in reducing the volume of travellers from those countries and will continue.
As part of the Australian Government’s preparedness response beyond the health system, today we have also activated the National Coordination Mechanism. The mechanism will coordinate activities across the Commonwealth, state and territory governments as well as industry to ensure a consistent national approach is taken to provide essential services across a range of critical sectors and supply chains.
While we are not immune as a country, we are as well prepared as anybody could possibly be.
The Australian Government continues to monitor and respond to the COVID-19 outbreak as it evolves.
We will work in close cooperation with state Government authorities and our international partners to coordinate our response and keep Australians safe.