Month: September 2024

What on earth was the Labor government thinking when they created the highly paid position of ‘Ambassador for First Nations People’?

It’s important to look at the timing. Justin Mohamed was appointed in March last year when Labor was still thinking there was strong support for the voice to Parliament, seven months before the referendum. In May last year, Labor’s Budget allocated $13.6 million to the new ‘ambassador’.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the ‘first nations ambassador’ is supposed to “implement a First Nations approach to foreign policy” and “embed First Nations perspectives and interests across the Government’s trade and investment activities”.

It doesn’t close any gaps. It doesn’t lift aborigines living in remote communities out of disadvantage. It doesn’t bring law and order to Alice Springs and other communities plagued by crime and dysfunction. It doesn’t stop the corruption and nepotism in the aboriginal industry. All the ‘ambassador’ position appears to do is be a ‘voice’ – not to Parliament, but to DFAT.

All the current ‘ambassador’ appears to have done is rack up frequent flier points. He’s made a bunch of trips to the United States, and one to Switzerland. So far his travel has cost taxpayers almost $150,000 on top of his $300,000+ salary.

Peter Dutton has said he’ll scrap the worthless position. One Nation never supported it in the first place, but we’ll scrap it too. Australian diplomacy needs only one perspective: the Australian perspective.

The Albanese Labor Government is committed to ensuring Australians are paying a fair price for their groceries and our farmers are getting a fair price for their hard work, with the Government today releasing the ACCC’s Supermarkets Inquiry Interim Report.

When families are doing it tough, they need a Government that’s on their side and a tough consumer cop on the beat – and that’s the important role the ACCC is playing.

In January, the Albanese Government tasked the ACCC to look into supermarkets, and today the Government has released the ACCC’s Supermarkets Inquiry Interim Report, which explores in detail issues including concentration and competition in the sector, rising prices and shrinkflation, supermarket buyer power and other consumer and producer concerns.

During its initial work, the ACCC received over 80 public submissions and spoke to more than 21,000 customers across Australia between February and April 2024 – the largest number of responses it has ever received for a consumer survey.

It also held seven roundtable discussions across the nation for farmers and produce wholesalers to discuss their experiences with supermarket supply chains.

The Government is supporting a competitive and sustainable food and grocery sector that is fairer for Australian families and farmers, and this Inquiry is a key component of our work.

The Interim Report makes no specific findings or recommendations, which are set to be in a Final Report that is handed to the Government in early 2025, but the ACCC’s work is exceptionally detailed.

We support their thorough investigations, which will strengthen the sector.

The Government’s economic plan is all about easing the cost of living for Australians – and we know that grocery prices are a key part of pressures people are facing right now.

The Albanese Government is taking a range of actions to make sure Australians are paying a fair price at the checkout and Australian suppliers are getting a fair price for their goods, and the ACCC Inquiry is a key component of the work to identify and fix ways the industry is letting down consumers and producers.

This follows the ACCC announcing legal action against Coles and Woolworths for misleading consumers through discount pricing claims on hundreds of common supermarket products.

A new mandatory Food and Grocery Code, currently open for consultation, will ensure Aldi, Coles, Woolworths and Metcash are subject to multi-million-dollar penalties for serious breaches of the Code. 

Yesterday, CHOICE released its second government funded price monitoring report, giving Australians accurate data on where to get the cheapest groceries.

This is only one part of the Government’s broad competition policy agenda. We’ve banned unfair contract terms and increased penalties for breaches of competition and consumer law.

We are delivering the most significant merger reforms in Australia in almost 50 years, and working with the states and territories to revitalise National Competition Policy.

The next phase of the Supermarkets Inquiry will see the ACCC conduct hearings with the supermarket sector throughout October and November 2024.

The ACCC has invited further feedback on the key issues raised in the Interim Report by 18 October 2024.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese:

“I directed the ACCC to commence an inquiry into supermarkets in January and today they deliver their Interim Report.

“This is an important piece of work and we will study it closely.

“My Government is taking a range of actions to make sure Australians are paying a fair price at the checkout and Australian suppliers are getting a fair price for their goods.

“Customers don’t deserve to be treated as fools by the supermarkets. They deserve better than that.”

Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh:

“The Albanese Government’s ACCC Supermarket Inquiry is the biggest, most thorough look at supermarket competition in over 15 years.

“Businesses need to do the right thing by Australians – and the Albanese Government is committed to improving the food and grocery sector so it works for families and farmers.

“Greater competition is critical for lifting dynamism, productivity and wages growth, putting downward pressure on prices and delivering more choice for Australians dealing with cost-of-living pressures.”

One of the largest seismic blasting proposals ever in Australian history has been withdrawn by proponent TGS following immense community pressure.  

The monster seismic blasting proposal off the Victorian and Tasmanian coasts was grossly unpopular from the get-go. TGS repeatedly reduced the size of the blasting area from 75,000 sq km back in 2022, to 45,000 sq km in 2023, to 31,500 sq km in 2024; before finally announcing the project’s end today. 

Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson: 

“This win belongs to all the people who have rallied hard for years to protect marine ecosystems and avoid irreversible changes to the Earth’s climate.

“This is a historic moment. Community pressure works!! 

“Increasingly people from all walks of life are waking up to the dangers of seismic blasting in our oceans – there’s no plausible excuse for it! 

“This is a siren call to all the fossil fuel companies eyeing off our oceans: your time is up. 

“It’s unforgivable that our government continues to allow big oil and gas corporations to blast our marine environment for more fossil fuels at this time in history. 

“People want their leaders to start taking bold and radical climate action, and today’s news is welcome proof that with enough sustained pressure people power and protest action works.”

Acting Leader of the Victorian Greens, Sarah Mansfield: 

“This is a huge win for people power. First Nations and local communities have been fighting to protect Southern Sea country from seismic blasting for years. 

“While Labor and the Liberals continue to support new coal and gas projects in a climate crisis, what this shows is that when people come together to fight for our climate, we can win. 

“We need to put an end to all new oil and gas projects. The community won’t give up the fight for our oceans and our climate, and The Greens will be right there with them.”

The Auditor-General has today handed down a scathing performance audit report, Supporting students with disability, which exposes a decades-long failure to adequately fund and deliver targeted supports, monitor school practice and track outcomes for students with disability.

The Auditor-General’s report has been described as damning by Greens NSW MP Abigail Boyd, who chaired the recent parliamentary inquiry into the Experiences of children and young people with disability in NSW educational settings. The report from that inquiry was tabled just last month, and reinforces the Auditor-General’s findings that children with disability and their families are seeing no real improvement in their experiences within NSW’s education system, despite stated government policies and commitments.

The Auditor General’s report found the Department of Education failed to implement their own inclusive education policies and procedures, monitor outcomes and ensure targeted supports for students with disability, despite being aware of these gaps for almost two decades.

It also found serious gaps in the Department’s complaints management process which is neither student-centric nor accessible, and called for independent advice and disability expertise to be provided to parents and guardians of students with disability.

Abigail Boyd, Greens NSW MP and Spokesperson for disability rights and inclusion:

“The message coming through in this and previous reports is loud and clear – when it comes to disability rights and inclusion, the NSW Government is all words and no action.

“The NSW Department of Education has knowingly and persistently underfunded measures that would deliver greater inclusion for people with disability, and then chosen not to measure what they know will be the harmful outcomes of their decisions. This is a shocking abrogation of responsibility, and cannot stand.

“With such limited oversight of our education system, it’s no wonder that students with disability continue to experience exclusion, discrimination and neglect in our schools. The latest suspension data from the Department reveals that year on year, students with disability continue to make up half of all suspensions.

“In light of this and multiple other audit reports, parliamentary inquiries and the Disability Royal Commission, it is clear that the Department is unable to oversee itself and its performance under its legal obligations under anti-discrimination legislation.

“We can no longer leave the Department to its own devices. We need an independent oversight body for children with disability in our education system — as unanimously recommended by all members in the recent multi-partisan parliamentary inquiry report — with the primary purpose of advocating for students with disability and their families at its core, with the ability to oversee all issues from enrolments and adjustments to exclusionary discipline and allegations of discrimination.

“The NSW Government must commit to implementing in full all recommendations of this report, our parliamentary inquiry, and the Disability Royal Commission. Anything less than this will constitute a tragic failure of leadership and serve to perpetuate the cycle of disadvantage experienced by disabled people in this state.”

Australia will join Germany, Canada and the Netherlands to take unprecedented action to hold Afghanistan to account under international law for the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls.

This action is being brought against Afghanistan for violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, to which Afghanistan is a party.

We urge Afghanistan to participate in negotiations, as provided for under the Convention.

Australia is strongly committed to protecting and promoting the rights of women and girls at home and around the world.

Today we were united with partners from all regions of the world on the importance of strong international action in response to the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls.

The Taliban has demonstrated contempt for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls in Afghanistan, through a campaign of sustained and systematic oppression.

This includes denying girls their right to education and attempting to erase women from public life.

We will not stand by and allow the situation in Afghanistan to become a ‘new normal’.

We have heard the calls of Afghan women and we are committed to defending their human rights and amplifying their voices.

The participation of women and girls in society is essential to achieving peaceful societies and sustainable development.