Month: March 2020

Australian Greens Senator and Education spokesperson Dr Mehreen Faruqi has called on the federal government to protect the jobs of educators and child care workers. Child care is an essential public service and as enrolments fall and children are kept home, the government must intervene to ensure early learning and child care services survive COVID-19.
The government must:

• Guarantee wages for early learning staff for the duration of the pandemic, whether they are required at work or not;
• Give centres the resources they need for additional health and safety measures for children and staff;
• Ensure essential workers, such as health care workers, and others who need it, have access to care for their children, while working with the sector to ensure work from home options for carers and educators are available;
• Scrap the Child Care Subsidy Activity Test.

Senator Faruqi said:
“The last few weeks have been extremely destabilising for early childhood education and care in Australia. Child care and early learning services have been rattled by this public health crisis.
“As many families pull children out of care, the Government must intervene with funding and resources to ensure these essential education and care services survive this crisis.
“As funders of the sector, the federal government now must urgently intervene to save early childhood education from a complete disaster.
“The government must guarantee wages for child care and early learning staff for the duration of the pandemic.
“It’s also absolutely critical that workers’ health and safety is protected. Centres must have the resources they need for additional safety measures for workers and children alike. Both the government and employers must take responsibility for this.
“When this pandemic is over and families go back to work, we will need a ready-to-go workforce of carers and early childhood educators. Without guaranteeing the wages of those already in the sector, we cannot assume this will happen.
“I call on Minister Tehan and the government to work with early childhood educators to ensure the long-term viability of our education and care system.”

The Australian Greens condemn in the strongest terms the Chinese Government’s decision to formally indict Australian citizen Dr Yang Hengjun on espionage charges.
Leader of the Greens and foreign policy spokesperson Adam Bandt said the Australian Government had an important role to play in securing his freedom, and with charges now laid, the window of opportunity to get him free may be closing.
“The first duty of any government should be to keep its people safe, and while the government may be distracted, Dr Yang doesn’t have any time to spare,” Mr Bandt said.
“For more than a year, Dr Yang has been subject to appalling treatment by the Chinese authorities.  He has had no access to legal representation, he has been refused letters from family and friends, and has been denied the opportunity to meet with Australian officials.
“There have been periods where he’s been forced to sit on a stool for 17 hours straight – and now, Dr Yang could face the death penalty. We don’t even know what he is supposed to have done wrong.
“The fact that the Chinese Government has chosen to charge Dr Yang now, amidst a global pandemic, is a disgrace.  He must be released immediately and allowed to leave China with his wife.
“Calling for democratic reform in China should not be a crime. I welcome the strong statement from Foreign Minister Payne, and urge the Prime Minister to speak directly with his Chinese counterpart to call for Dr Yang’s freedom.”

The Australian Greens have joined calls for a full New Zealand-style mandatory stay at home lockdown to respond to the growing COVID-19 pandemic, backing health experts calling for a ‘go hard, go fast’ response to enforce social distancing.
Greens leader Adam Bandt and health spokesperson Dr Richard Di Natale have called on the Prime Minister and National Cabinet to adopt a lock down in line with New Zealand’s Stage 4 measures. This would require everyone, except those providing essential services, to stay home, and only make physical contact with those they live with.
“The government’s number one job is to save lives. This crisis is growing daily and the current social distancing measures are confusing and inconsistent. The Prime Minister needs to follow Jacinda Ardern’s lead and adopt a full lockdown.” Mr Bandt said.
“I am worried that the Prime Minister’s desire to keep business as usual going will place more lives at risk.
“While there may be a higher short term economic impact, taking strong measures earlier may limit the economic impact in the longer term.
“A lockdown must also be accompanied by adequate support for workers and the vulnerable, including a UK-style 80% wage subsidy, rent and mortgage holidays and a ban on evictions and foreclosures.
“The National COVID-19 Coordination Commission also needs to represent everyday people, not just big business. If it’s to be led by mining magnates, it should be balanced with the addition of someone representing the community and social services sector and the unions to speak up on behalf of people thrust into poverty.
“The lockdown must also coincide with a big boost to testing across the population and a massive effort to increase resources to hospitals and fever clinics.”
Dr Di Natale highlighted the need for stronger lock down measures in light of the rise in numbers across the country and the confused and fragmented response from governments.
“The government’s recent response to this crisis has been confusing, and the ‘national cabinet’ which was intended to provide a united national approach has clearly failed to do that” Dr Di Natale said.
“If we want to flatten the curve and give our health system a fighting chance, we must now move to this highest level of lock down, with a set of simple recommendations and Australians should expect that we could be in this position for some time to come.
“The AMA and other expert groups are now calling for stronger measures and it is time the government listened.”

Australia should look to the UK’s 80% wage subsidy as a model for getting workers through the COVID-19 crisis, Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt said today, warning that the Morrison Government’s current approach was failing and that Parliament may need to be recalled to fix it.
This call comes following Scott Morrison’s refusal to back the Greens push in Parliament on Monday for a jobs and wages guarantee, and puts the Australian Greens in unison with a growing number of business and workers groups, including the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
The Greens have also written to the National Cabinet urging a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures as well as rent and mortgage holidays, after the NSW and Tasmanian Parliaments over the last 2 days passed Greens amendments to protect renters.
“Scott Morrison’s trickle-down stimulus is failing to keep people in work because he refused to make jobs and wages guarantees part of his multi-billion dollar support package,” said Mr Bandt.
“The Greens moved in Parliament on Monday for jobs and wages guarantees but it was voted down.
“It is time for Scott Morrison to admit he made a mistake and implement a UK-style jobs and wages guarantees to protect 80% of people’s income. If he needs to recall Parliament, perhaps online, then so be it.
“We can’t just accept that Australia’s workers just have to join the queue for Centrelink until this is all over. Every job that we lose now we need to rebuild in future, so it’s vital that we keep people on the books through this lockdown.”
“Scott Morrison’s offering is a weak approach that like so many other Liberal policies, heavily favours people on higher incomes, because low-paid workers are less likely to get government support. If a worker earns less than the tax free threshold of $18,000, the employer gets no financial benefit, so those workers won’t be kept on.
“Adopting the UK model would result in employers receiving five times more for the average working Australian than the government’s current policy, and they’ll get it now, not in five months’ time.
“The ACTU has rightly pointed to the UK’s model as a far superior scheme, and the Greens back them in all the way.
“We’re also deeply concerned about reports of half measures around keeping people in housing. As of this morning, we’ve heard from tens of thousands of people who fear they will be kicked onto the streets.
“We need rent and mortgage holidays and a ban on evictions right now to ensure that people can keep a roof over their heads.
“We’re in a pandemic, and this is not the time for half measures.”

Overnight I joined G20 leaders for an extraordinary Summit, hosted by His Majesty King Salman of Saudi Arabia.
The G20 has come together to tackle what will be one of the most difficult and severe crises any of us will face.
The COVID-19 virus respects no borders.
On behalf of Australia, I urged G20 leaders to do whatever it takes to fight this twin crisis: to save lives and overcome the pandemic, and to cushion the economic blow.
G20 HEALTH RESPONSE
Working together our countries can speed up research and the discovery of a vaccine and anti-viral drugs.
We will work in partnership on a vaccine.
We may be closing borders for now to stop the spread of coronavirus but we are committed to sharing ideas and collaborating on research.
Australia’s world-leading researchers are working tirelessly with international partners to strengthen testing, develop treatments and, critically, to find a vaccine.
The G20 will take all necessary health measures to contain the pandemic and protect the world’s citizens.
Crucially, we agreed to expand manufacturing capacity for medical supplies to ensure these are made widely available, at an affordable price, on an equitable basis, where they are most needed and as quickly as possible.
ECONOMIC RESPONSE
Collectively, G20 economies are injecting trillions into the global economy, as part of targeted fiscal policy and economic measures to counteract the social, economic and financial impacts of the pandemic.
Australia has already announced economic measures worth nearly 10 per cent of GDP. I urged the G20 to act with resolve and urgency.
Collective G20 action will amplify our efforts.
We have also agreed to resolve disruptions to supply chains, to secure the flow of vital medical supplies.
SUPPORTING THE PACIFIC AND TIMOR-LESTE
I explained to G20 leaders that our Pacific island family must be a focus of international support.
There has never been a more important time for Australia’s Pacific Step-up as we all face these massive challenges.
Since January, Australia has provided support for laboratories and public information campaigns, medical equipment, health expertise and for the WHO’s regional preparedness plan. We are reconfiguring our development assistance to ensure critical health services can continue to function and to help our Pacific neighbours and Timor-Leste to manage the immediate economic impacts of the pandemic.
As we fight this virus on our shores, in our region or around the world, the G20 has committed to working together to stop the spread and to save lives.