Month: October 2021

The LNP has gagged debate on a bill to stop the destructive fossil fuel project PEP-11, despite Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Liberal MPs Lucy Wicks, Jason Falinski, Trent Zimmerman and Dave Sharma having all voiced opposition to the project.
Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, said:
“Coastal communities right around the nation are opposing offshore fossil fuel projects in this critical time of climate emergency.
“After parading about NSW pretending to listen to and agree with communities unanimously opposed to PEP-11, Scott Morrison has yet again proven that he cannot be trusted to walk the talk on matters of climate change. There’s not a shred of legitimacy left in the bloke.
“Scott Morrison’s inability to stay true to his word on PEP-11 is symbolic of the Liberals’ subservience to the Nationals, who are now effectively holding coastal electorates held by NSW Liberal members to ransom.
“It’s becoming a hallmark of this Government to gag debate any time the going gets tough or it is faced with an iota of scrutiny.
“Although today’s bill didn’t get to see the light of day in the Lower House, the fight is not over. I will be introducing a bill into the Senate to ban all offshore oil and gas drilling and seismic testing.
“There is clearly broad community support across the political spectrum for a ban on seismic testing. Earlier this year the Australian Senate passed a motion supporting local fishing communities calling for a moratorium on all future seismic testing unless the corporation responsible for the oil or gas exploration can prove there will be no impact on local fishing stocks.
“The Greens will never stay silent while our oceans are under siege from big, greedy oil and gas corporations who buy their power with hefty political donations, especially not in midst of a climate emergency.”

Building a better Australia demands vision, ambition and a concrete plan. Thursday marks the 49th anniversary of the opening of the biggest nation-building project conducted in Australia – construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme.
This colossal undertaking – including seven power stations, 16 dams, 80km of aqueducts, 145km of tunnels and 1600km of roads and railway tracks – transformed Australia by providing electricity that drove post-war reconstruction and development of modern industry. It encouraged the rise of multicultural Australia, with migrants from 30 nations making up two-thirds of the workforce.
The Snowy was a visionary project conceived by Ben Chifley’s Labor government. When Chifley produced legislation in 1949, the conservatives, led by Robert Menzies, voted against it. Menzies, the father of the Liberal Party, refused to attend the launch. Fortunately, when he became prime minister Menzies accepted the project’s nation-building value, put aside politics and got to work. But his initial folly typified a weakness of the Liberal and National parties: their preference for politics over action.

Short-termism explains why the current Coalition government dismantled the former Labor government’s plan for a 21st-century, fibre-based National Broadband Network and replaced it with a second-rate system based on 19th-century copper technology.
It’s why it has spent a decade talking down climate action for political gain, ignoring opportun­ities for jobs and economic growth that come from investing in cheap, renewable energy. And it is why, after more than eight years in office, Scott Morrison has failed to articulate a long-term vision for the future of this country.
Australia needs a plan to rebuild our economy. It’s not enough to return to the pre-Covid situation. We must build back stronger, addressing weakness exposed by the pandemic. This is at the core of Labor’s plan for a future made in Australia.
It is extraordinary that Australia lacks the capacity to manufacture mRNA vaccines or to be self-sufficient when it comes to basic medical supplies. And it speaks to our lack of federal leadership and planning that most of the resources we mine and the food we grow is sent overseas in bulk when we could be adding value to these exports through manufacturing, creating jobs and new businesses.
The Coalition government has made our nation too reliant on imports, leaving us isolated and vulnerable at the end of precarious international supply chains. A Labor government will change this, taking inspiration from Chifley’s example of long-term thinking in the national interest.
We’ll work with states, businesses and trade unions to revitalise the economy. We can become more self-reliant and self-sufficient. We can become a renewable energy superpower. Labor’s ambition is economic transformation that directly benefits working families, driven by the rise of cheap, renewable energy. This will make all businesses more competitive, create secure jobs, lower household power bills and open up new opportunities.
To help businesses seize those opportunities, we’ll create a $15bn national reconstruction fund, providing loans and other support to new enterprises in areas such as value-adding, renewable energy, defence industries and transport.
Australia has the resources and brainpower to make everything from wind turbines to electric batteries, train carriages to military hardware, medicines to macaroni. The NRF will help take these industries to the next level.
As part of our plan to create secure jobs, Labor will ensure Australians get the skills to work in these new jobs by increasing investment in training. We’ll also use the commonwealth’s considerable purchasing power to support Australian businesses.
Under our 10-point Buy Australian plan, a Labor government will prioritise, wherever possible, use of local suppliers when purchasing defence materiel, medic­ines and medical equipment as well as transport goods such as buses, trains and ferries. We’ll work with state governments to ensure that when they spend federal money they adhere to our Buy Australian policies.
While Menzies initially resisted Chifley’s design of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, it is to former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s credit that he committed to expand the Snowy project. However, Morrison has done nothing to ensure Snowy 2.0 will be efficiently connected to the national electricity grid. It will be finished in 2025 but won’t be connected until 2027. That’s absurd.
But that’s the thing about vision. It’s not about your next media conference or ticking off a list of politically convenient concepts. Vision is about planning for the long term – getting it right for today and setting up a better and more prosperous future.

The Australian Government has secured access to two additional COVID-19 treatments to support the National Plan to Transition Australia’s COVID-19 response, following expert medical advice.
Under a new agreement with Roche Products Pty Ltd, Australia will be supplied with 15,000 doses of the COVID-19 antibody-based therapy, Ronapreve.
First supply of this treatment is expected to be available by the end of this month through an initial shipment of 5,000 doses and will be held in the National Medical Stockpile.
Use of this treatment will occur in line with the regulatory approval by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and advice from the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce.
Ronapreve is a combination of two monoclonal antibodies – casirivimab and imdevimab. It is designed to block infectivity of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. The two monoclonal antibodies bind to two different sites of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and flag the virus as ‘foreign’, prompting the body’s immune response.
Ronapreve can be administered intravenously for COVID-19 patients in a health care facility and is expected to be targeted for use in unvaccinated people who are at risk of developing severe disease. Treatment with ronapreve has been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalisation and death by up to 70% in patients with confirmed COVID-19.
In addition, the Australian Government has secured access to 500,000 treatment courses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 oral antiviral drug, to be used in combination with the protease inhibitor drug ritonavir, subject to regulatory approval by the TGA.
This treatment which is still undergoing clinical trials is expected to help to reduce the severity or onset of illness in adults who contract, or have been exposed to, COVID-19. It is expected to be available over the course of 2022, subject to final clinical trials being completed by Pfizer and the necessary TGA approval process.
This oral antiviral treatment is taken every 12 hours for five days and is designed to block an enzyme the virus needs in order to multiply early in its lifecycle.
Co-administration with a low dose of ritonavir is expected to help slow the metabolism, or breakdown, of the treatment in order for it to remain active in the body for longer periods of time at higher concentrations to combat the virus.
Ritonavir has been used extensively in combination with other antivirals for other viral diseases to help slow metabolism in a similar way.
On 1 October 2021, the TGA granted provisional determination to Pfizer Australia in relation to this treatment which means that Pfizer can apply to the TGA for approval through this fast track approval process once the clinical trials are complete.
Whilst vaccination remains the best protection against COVID-19 our Government continues work to ensure that Australians have early access to safe and effective treatments as they are made available. These agreements reinforces our strong response to managing COVID-19 outbreaks and ensures that Australia benefits from new pharmaceutical technologies.
As with all COVID-19 treatments, both of these medications will be rigorously assessed by the TGA for safety, quality and effectiveness before it can be registered for use in Australia.
The TGA is treating all COVID-19 treatment applications with the greatest priority as part of the Department of Health’s response to the pandemic.
Following regulatory approval by the TGA, Ronapreve will join other COVID-19 treatments including sotrovimab and remdesivir that are already available to health professionals, through the National Medical Stockpile to help treat people with COVID-19.
Australia has also secured an advanced purchase agreement for 300,000 courses of the promising oral COVID-19 treatment Molnupiravir for supply in 2022 subject to TGA approval.
These purchase agreements have been supported by the Science and Industry Technical Advisory Group, which is the Australian Government’s expert group advising on COVID-19 vaccine and treatment purchases.
Further review of the clinical guidelines for use of these treatments in Australia will be undertaken by the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce.

From Tuesday the Morrison Government will provide women leaving a violent relationship access to a one-off payment of up to $5,000 to help them establish a life free of violence.
Under the two-year Escaping Violence Payment trial women will receive financial assistance of up to $1,500 in cash with the remainder available for goods and services or direct payments of bonds, school fees or other support to help establish a safe home.
The UnitingCare Australia Consortium has been selected as the service provider to deliver the payments and will also support women to engage with other relevant services that support women and their children. This includes other Commonwealth or state and territory government funded community services.
Minister for Women’s Safety Anne Ruston said the payments would help address the financial barriers that may stop women leaving violent relationships.
“We know that financial hardship as well as economic abuse, which may involve interfering with work or controlling or withholding money, reduces women’s ability to acquire and use money and makes it difficult to leave violent relationships,” Minister Ruston said.
“The new Escaping Violence Payment aims to help address those issues so women have more security when making that brave decision to leave any form of intimate partner violence – including physical violence, coercive control and financial abuse.
“The payments will assist people who need financial support to leave. We know the size of the house a woman is fleeing doesn’t matter – often she bundles the kids into the car, maybe the dog too and they leave with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.
“The Morrison Government is absolutely committed to ending domestic, family and sexual violence and this new program offers another tool in the toolkit under our record $1.1 billion investment in women’s safety.”
UnitingCare Australia National Director Claerwen Little said the Escaping Violence Payment would help women to access some of the essentials needed to create a safe home and life for themselves and their children.
“The UnitingCare Network has extensive experience supporting victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence and staff would leverage that knowledge to provide a wrap-around service for women and their children,” Ms Little said.
“We believe that all people, especially women and their children, have the right to live freely and without fear, and this payment is an important step forward to ending violence against women and their children.
“As part of the individualised support packages, UnitingCare Network agencies will provide tailored assistance and engage with other relevant agencies that support women and their children including other Commonwealth or state and territory government funded community services.”
The Escaping Violence Payment is not considered taxable or reportable income and will not impact on any other social security payments a recipient may be receiving. Eligibility includes financial stress and evidence of domestic violence including, but not limited to, a referral from a family and domestic violence service provider with a risk assessment and safety plan, an AVO, court order or a police report.
Women can apply for the payment through UnitingCare Network from 19 October 2021. More information will be available at unitingvictas.org.au/escaping-violence-payment
The Escaping Violence Payment will build on and complement existing programs offered by state and territories, as well as Australian Government support offered to women experiencing violence, including:

• Services Australia’s Crisis Payment for Extreme Circumstances of Family and Domestic Violence
• No Interest Loan Scheme for Women Experiencing Domestic Violence
• Emergency Relief
• Keeping Women Safe in Their Homes.

The two-year trial will be independently evaluated to assess the benefit of the payment, including demand, eligibility criteria, needs of specific cohorts, and how it works with related services.
The $144.8 million Escaping Violence Payment trial is part of the landmark $1.1 billion women’s safety package contained in the 2021-22 Women’s Budget Statement.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800RESPECT.org.au