The first of 17 brand new Waratah Series 2 trains is entering service this week, three months ahead of schedule, thanks to the NSW Government’s $4.3 billion More Trains More Services program.
Minister for Transport Andrew Constance said the new trains will support increasing patronage across the network, and will be more comfortable and reliable for customers.
“We have seen rapid growth in the number of train journeys over the past few years, which is why it is so important that we invest in new trains and new infrastructure right across our rail network,” Mr Constance said.
“It is exciting to see this train on the tracks three months ahead of schedule, after it was one of 17 fast tracked for delivery at the start of 2019.
“The remainder of the trains will be delivered by the end of this year and will be rolled out progressively after testing. When they are all on the tracks our customers will have 41 brand new Waratah Series 2 trains to enjoy.”
Sydney Trains Acting Chief Executive Suzanne Holden says the new Waratah Series 2 trains will operate on the T2 Inner West & Leppington, T3 Bankstown and T8 Airport & South lines.
“They’ll feature air conditioning with advanced temperature control, high definition customer information screens, internal and external CCTV, as well as priority seating, wheelchair spaces and hearing aid loops,” Ms Holden said.
Over the next 10 years, the More Trains More Services program will roll out world-class technology to transform the rail network and provide customers with reliable, high capacity turn up and go services.
The next stages of the program will focus on delivering improvements to the T4 Illawarra, T8 Airport and the South Coast lines.
For more information, visit: https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/projects/current-projects/sydney-growth-trains
NSW ECONOMY HARD HIT BY COVID-19 BUT READY TO BOUNCE BACK
New South Wales and Australia have fared better than many developed economies following the worst months of COVID-19, with the ABS today releasing the June quarter national accounts.
Data shows that Australia’s Gross Domestic Product contracted by 7.0 per cent in the June quarter, while NSW saw its State Final Demand decline by 8.6 per cent.
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the results were consistent with NSW being the first, and initially hardest hit by COVID-19.
“The June quarter captures the worst months of the pandemic for NSW, with a number of public health orders coming into effect throughout March,” Mr Perrottet said.
“About two-thirds of NSW’s population lives in Greater Sydney and metropolitan areas, which means when restrictions were in place there was a significant reduction in citizen mobility which would have contributed to the 13.3 per cent decrease in household consumption.
“Thanks to our allocation of almost $16 billion in targeted health and economic stimulus measures, consistent management of new COVID-19 clusters staving off a second wave, and many of the state’s restrictions being gradually eased throughout May and June, we expect to see a significant bounce back in the September quarter.”
Mr Perrottet said the Government had now turned its attention to its Recovery Plan, recently announcing a guaranteed $100 billion infrastructure pipeline over four years.
“Not since the Great Depression has Australia or the world faced such uncertain economic times, but we will do whatever it takes to see NSW come back stronger than ever,” Mr Perrottet said.
“We can see from today’s release that dwelling investment, such as the building of new homes and renovation of existing homes, dropped by 7.6 per cent, which reaffirms our commitment to investing in job creating infrastructure projects.
“We will continue to power ahead and drive investment which is being powered by our $3 billion Infrastructure and Jobs Acceleration Fund.
“This fund will be used for job-creating projects touching every corner of the state, supporting up to an extra 20,000 jobs in NSW.”
Since restrictions eased in NSW, employment has started to rise with more than half of the 269,000 people in NSW who lost their job between March and May finding employment.
In July alone, NSW’s employment rose by almost 57,000 of which about 65 per cent were women. This was made up of 23,300 full-time jobs and 33,600 part-time jobs.
The NSW 2020 Budget is set for 17 November 2020.
Senate Sends Strong Message To Gov On Unis Bill
Australian Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that the Senate has fired a warning shot at the Morrison Government, voting 24-24 for a Greens motion to establish an inquiry into the Job-ready Graduates Package legislation.
Though the motion was defeated, it was supported by Labor, the Greens, and Senators Lambie, Griff and Patrick.
Senator Faruqi said:
“The Senate has sent a strong message to the Morrison Government today. This hugely significant legislation must go to a Senate inquiry.
“The government can’t just ram through whatever it wants, whenever it wants. The Senate has established processes to scrutinise bills. This is part and parcel of our democracy.
“Less than a week has passed since the final legislation was made public by the government. This is a once-in-a-generation change to university fees and funding. To try to push it through without an inquiry would be autocratic and shameful,” she said.
Rental Snapshot Shows Gov Must Invest In Social Housing, Retain JobSeeker Rate
The Greens have said that Anglicare Australia’s latest Rental Affordability Snapshot update, released today, has shown that only a tiny percentage of rentals (1 percent or less) are affordable for Australians on low incomes, and this will only get worse if the JobSeeker payment is reduced in the coming months.
Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Australian Greens Housing spokesperson, said:
“Renters are doing it tough during the Covid crisis. With unemployment skyrocketing, many are struggling to make ends meet.
“As bans on evictions and rental increases are wound up across the country, we’re at serious risk of seeing more people pushed into homelessness.
“We need to extend eviction bans nationwide and invest urgently in social housing. Building 500,000 new publicly-owned homes will be critical to solving the housing crisis and ensuring everyone has a place to live.
“The pandemic has revealed that the government has the ability to implement powerful measures to tackle poverty and homelessness. What is lacking is political will,” she said.
Senator Rachel Siewert, Australian Greens Family & Community Services spokesperson, said:
“The Government has no plan to manage the rental stress that is coming in just weeks when JobSeeker is back below the poverty line.
“Anglicare highlights yet again how important a permanent increase to the JobSeeker payment is in ensuring that no one is living in poverty.
“Even with the temporary JobSeeker increase there are still very few affordable properties to rent for people on income support.
“Everyone in our community should have safe, affordable housing and an income to ensure this,” she said.
Bishops Rorting Poor Students Must Be Held Accountable: Greens
Australian Greens Spokesperson for Education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has reacted to the Catholic Schools NSW documents leaked to the ABC that confirm their practice of taking funding meant for disadvantaged schools to subsidise fees in wealthy areas.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Private school rorting of their disadvantaged students like this should be illegal. It’s an indictment on our education system that it’s not.
“This is galling confirmation of the dirty open secret of Australian school funding.
“Liberal and Labor governments have been running a protection racket for private schools for years.
“That this went on was well known, but the major parties have spent years avoiding putting in place transparency requirements that would have confirmed it.
“For too long, private schools have benefited from opaque reporting requirements that mask where public funding is going. Every last public dollar spent in the private system should be reported and justified at a school level.
“It’s clear the NSW Catholic Schools are more concerned with losing enrolments to public schools than they are about giving disadvantaged, First Nations and regional students the funding they are allocated.
“The ethics of this aren’t just between the Bishops and God. The Bishops were fully aware they were ripping off low-SES families to help the wealthy. It’s public money. They must apologise and be held accountable.
“This is the system that successive Labor and Liberal governments have lavished with billions in special deals while they starved hardworking public school teachers and students of basic funding.”
$16.9 million investment for Australian health and medical research
The Morrison Government is proud to have invested more than $1 billion in ground breaking medical research through the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians.
As part of this investment, more than $16.9 million has been awarded to researchers to study women’s health issues and aspects of primary health care, and to facilitate more and better clinical trials of new and improved treatments.
In the lead up to Women’s Health Week (7-11 September 2020) the MRFF grants announced today are:
- $5 million over five years to the National Women’s Health Research, Translation and Impact Network, for research with strong potential to improve health outcomes for women and girls
- $5 million over four years to the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance to be a national partner providing specialised leadership and support to both investigator-led and industry clinical trials, and to Clinical Quality Registries
- more than $6.9 million to five projects to improve primary health care in the areas of contraception and abortion for rural women, health care for people in aged care, diabetes in Indigenous Australians, nutrition and heart disease, and the health of urban Indigenous people (details below).
Compared with men, women have a higher life expectancy but experience more disease burden from living with disease, rather than dying early from disease and injury.
The women’s health network will use the funding for research into nine priority areas, including reproductive health, mental health, and preventing cancer and heart disease.
The project will also boost national and international collaboration on women’s health, build health workforce capacity and develop leaders in women’s health.
In addition to these grants, I am today announcing new grant opportunities worth more than $86.5 million, for clinical trials and other vital research.
Clinical trials grant opportunities totalling $77.2 million will provide up to:
- $24 million for the Million Minds Mission Mental Health Research supporting access to new approaches to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and recovery
- $3 million for clinical trials to examine the benefits of medicinal cannabis for managing pain, symptoms and side effects for cancer patients
- $25.2 million for international clinical trial collaborations
- $25 million for clinical trials of new or improved treatments for rare cancers, rare diseases and other illness with unmet clinical need.
Other grant opportunities are making $9.3 million available for research:
- $4.8 million for primary health care research
- $4.5 million from the MRFF and National Health and Medical Research Council for research into silicosis, a preventable lung disease related to inhalation of fine silica dust from artificial stone bench tops.
Investing in health and medical research is a key priority of our Government’s Long Term National Health Plan. Research of all kinds is essential to improve our prevention of disease, health care and treatments, and to make our health system work better for all Australians.
The Morrison Government’s MRFF is a $20 billion endowment fund. The MRFF is a long-term investment supporting Australia’s best and brightest researchers. Further information about the MRFF is available at www.health.gov.au/mrff.
| Primary health care research grants | Recipient |
Funding |
| The ORIENT study: Improving rural and regional access to long acting reversible contraception and medical abortion through nurse led models of care, task sharing and telehealth | Monash University |
$1,928,519 |
| Translation of culturally informed diabetes training for Aboriginal Health Practitioners on Aboriginal health outcomes: a cluster randomised trial of effectiveness | University of Adelaide |
$1,299,036 |
| Addressing the evidence gap on medical nutrition therapy for primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease in regional and rural communities | University of Newcastle |
$1,028,236 |
| Transforming access, relational care, and primary health care in an urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population through patient-centred medical homes: a prospective observational cohort study using mixed methods | University of Queensland |
$1,209,747 |
| Using big data to create evidence-based primary health care service delivery and policy for the Australian aged care sector – a nationwide study | University of South Australia |
$1,435,801 |
| Total |
$6,901,339 |
Government Passes Legislation Through The Parliament To Extend Jobkeeper Payment
The Morrison Government is continuing to provide unprecedented levels of support to households and businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic after legislation passed the Parliament today allowing the extension of JobKeeper by six months to 28 March 2021.
As part of our plan to keep businesses in business and Australians in jobs, the JobKeeper payment has provided cash flow support to more than 900,000 businesses and income support to around 3.5 million workers to date.
This extension will provide further support to significantly impacted businesses so more Australians can retain their jobs and continue to earn an income.
The passage of the JobKeeper legislation will also see an extension to the vital workplace flexibility that has been available for businesses receiving JobKeeper payments. Similar flexibility will also be provided to legacy JobKeeper businesses where their turnover remains between 10-30 per cent down.
As the economy reopens the payment will be tapered in the December and March quarters to encourage businesses to adjust to the new environment, supporting a gradual transition to economic recovery, while ensuring those businesses who most need support continue to receive it.
A two-tiered payment will also be introduced from 28 September 2020, to better align the payment with the incomes of employees before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Morrison Government has provided an unprecedented level of economic support totalling $314 billion to cushion the blow for Australians during COVID-19.
The JobKeeper payment will continue to remain open to new participants that meet the eligibility requirements.
Eligible businesses can apply for the extended payment online via ato.gov.au
City of Newcastle supports trial for small bars and restaurants to boost night-time economy
Council voted unanimously to support a trial to extend the trading hours of restaurants in the city until midnight and to 2am for small bars, as proposed in the City of Newcastle’s After Dark Strategy adopted 2 years ago.
Twenty-seven small bars and restaurants have opted into the proposed trial as part of efforts to grow the night time economy and support the hospitality industry recovery from the impact of COVID-19 related restrictions.
Venues include wine bars such as Coal and Cedar, Basement on Market and Big Poppys, as well as iconic restaurants such as Scratchleys, the Edwards, Three Bears Kitchen and the Signal Box.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the Newcastle Night-time Economy trial was a collaborative process involving both local and state governments that would allow for an evidence-based understanding of the community’s needs.
“City of Newcastle’s Newcastle After Dark strategy is our plan for creating a safe, vibrant and diverse night-time economy. The Strategy was unanimously endorsed by the Council in November 2018 and supports venues designated as low risk such as small bars to be exempt from current lock-out laws and permitted to trade until 2am.
“The After Dark strategy highlights that the growth of venue diversity is paramount to increasing the appeal of the Newcastle’s night-time economy to demographics who are currently not catered for.
“The trial will begin in October and will allow 27 low impact venues to open later and relax current drinking restrictions to provide a boost to the local hospitality, entertainment and creative sectors.”
“Newcastle’s night-time economy has undergone significant changes over the past 15 years. We acknowledge that for Newcastle to thrive as a diverse and vibrant City, our night-time economy must be strong.
“The hospitality and creative industries have also struggled in the wake of COVID-19 with job losses, income reduction and loss of revenue because of the impacts of Public Health Orders, restrictions to venue capacities and a general reluctance for people to attend public places.
“We hope to see a positive outcome from the trial for these industries through increased night-time economic development, cultural participation and activation in our City.”
Deputy Lord Mayor Cr Declan Clausen successfully moved a resolution to support an Independent inner-city residents’ representative member being appointed to the Committee for Night Time Jobs and Investment.
The Deputy Lord Mayor’s resolution will also see City of Newcastle write to the Minister for Customer Service, the Hon. Victor Dominello MP, requesting the Minister re-instate Newcastle based Liquor Licensing Compliance Officers, to both assist in overseeing proposed licensing regulatory changes, and to gather crucial data throughout the Newcastle Night Time Economy trial.
City of Newcastle together with the Liquor and Gaming NSW, the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, Newcastle Tourism Industry Group and the NSW Police have worked together to facilitate the trial relaxation of the current conditions for low risk venues.
Local restaurateur and owner of Scratchleys on the Wharf Neil Slater said the trial is a valuable opportunity to revitalise what the City has to offer after dark.
“These changes to the night-time economy are all part of a revitalised Newcastle precinct. The trial will allow for a more sophisticated Newcastle that has matured and is ready to take our place as one of the great cities of Australia,” Mr Slater said.
“We want to offer visitors and locals alike a truly wonderful city by day or night.”
NSW GOVERNMENT PUTS TAMWORTH INTERMODAL ON TRACK FOR DELIVERY
A major upgrade of the Tamworth Intermodal Rail Line is on target for delivery with the Deputy Premier John Barilaro and Member for Tamworth Kevin Anderson today announcing $28 million for the project to support regional NSW’s freight sector, creating hundreds of regional jobs.
Mr Barilaro said this investment will fund works to reinstate a section of non-operational railway line, support the development of an intermodal rail facility in Westdale and link Tamworth to the state’s major port.
“This significant investment is key to the development of the new intermodal rail hub that will better connect Northern NSW’s producers and businesses to the world,” Mr Barilaro said.
“This funding will restore and raise five kilometres of track on the West Tamworth to Barraba line and install new level crossings to activate rail freight access to Tamworth’s new Regional Freight Terminal.
“When complete, a functioning intermodal rail hub and freight terminal in Tamworth will create a direct rail route to vessels docked at Port Botany, saving businesses significant freight costs.”
Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Paul Toole said the NSW Government was investing in the rail freight network to increase capacity, secure reliable freight movements across the state, and meet future freight demand.
“Inland intermodals are an integral part of moving freight throughout NSW by providing a delivery point load breakdown services and an interface for road to rail integration,” Mr Toole said.
“With a projected 28 per cent increase in the regional freight task by 2036 from just four years ago, facilities like the one at Tamworth will play an increasingly important role in connecting NSW’s products to export markets.”
Member for Tamworth Kevin Anderson said the NSW Government is investing in the infrastructure, programs and services that support industry development, improve productivity and economic growth and make regional NSW a great place to live, work and play.
“This is a huge milestone for the people, producers and businesses of Tamworth. The Tamworth intermodal will make the city the freight capital of the New England and North West and drive enormous investment and job growth locally,” Mr Anderson said.
“In 2016, 482 million tonnes of freight was moved in NSW and with that volume expected to increase to 618 million tonnes by 2036, this project is one of the big picture infrastructure investments delivered by the NSW Government to help Tamworth and regional NSW’s industry succeed.”
CELEBRATING OUR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATORS
Today marks Early Childhood Educators Day, celebrating our dedicated and passionate early childhood educators and recognising their positive contribution to improving outcomes for children in NSW.
To coincide with this important day, Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning Sarah Mitchell has announced a new Early Childhood Education scholarship program to increase the number of qualified Early Childhood Teachers, in line with the NSW Government’s Early Childhood Education Workforce Strategy.
“These scholarships support the NSW Government’s vision of a highly qualified and sustainable workforce which meets the needs of children and families, including those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, those in regional and remote locations as well as children with additional needs,” Ms Mitchell said.
“Supporting high quality candidates to study and take up careers as early childhood educators is key to our commitment to ensure children across NSW have access to quality early education wherever they live and whatever their circumstances.”
Ms Mitchell said early childhood educators play a critical role in children’s development. Attending early learning services teaches children social skills, practical skills and early literacy.
“Our early childhood educators are there guiding children, building their confidence and helping them make sense of the world around them,” Ms Mitchell said.
Successful applicants will be offered a scholarship of up to $20,000 to undertake or complete an approved early childhood teaching degree qualification recognised by the Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA). Up to 40 scholarships will be awarded each year for three years.
Scholarships will be prioritised to meet emerging workforce needs including those already employed in eligible early childhood education services, Aboriginal people, those in regional and remote areas and/or those with high numbers of disadvantaged children. Applications close 4 October.
Further information about the scholarships and how to apply is available here.