16 News

The Coalition Government will convert the records of Australia’s Second World War servicemen and women into digital files as part of a new program focused on recognising the service of our veterans.
The digital records will make them easier to access so Australians can discover the as yet untold stories of their relatives and how they defended our nation during times of war.
Around 80 per cent of our 1,062,000 WWII service records are yet to be digitised through the National Archives of Australia.
Next year marks the 75^th Anniversary of the end of WWII and we want to ensure Australians can remember and understand the service and sacrifice of those who came before us.
The digitised records will be freely available to all Australians wherever they live and will provide a comprehensive source of information for students, journalists, authors, academics, and families interested in knowing about the service of our Defence Forces.
This initiative will build on the Howard Government’s “Gift to the Nation”, which saw the full digitisation of the First World War service records.
The Morrison Government will also expand the well-known Saluting Their Service grants program by delivering an extra $10 million so local communities can honour the service and sacrifice of our veterans, with a particular focus on commemorating the Second World War and beyond. We will also increase the maximum amount available for community grants from $4,000 to $10,000 to ensure local communities can commemorate this important anniversary appropriately.
Remembering our veterans’ service doesn’t just happen in Australia so we will invest up to $10 million to work with the Government of Papua New Guinea and local landowners on projects to commemorate the bonds between Australia and PNG from the Second World War, particularly around the Kokoda Track.
We will rollout the second stage of the successful ANZAC 360 app with $154,000. It will focus on key Second World War battles and campaigns in South East Asia, using virtual reality and 360 degree drone technology and we will undertake scoping studies to develop a new interpretive facility near the Bomona Commonwealth War Cemetery in Port Moresby and to replace aging facilities at Sandakan Memorial Park in Malaysia.
Of those on active service in WWII, more than 27,000 were killed in action or died; over 23,000 were wounded and over 30,000 were taken prisoner of war. This is an important milestone for millions of Australians whose ancestors served their nation bravely during this conflict.
The Coalition will continue to put veterans and their families first.

The Coalition will boost support for veterans and their families as part of a $63.2 million suite of initiatives to create Veterans’ Wellbeing Centres across the country, deliver job opportunities and secure health and housing services for the future.
We will invest $30 million in a network of six new Veterans’ Wellbeing Centres that will bring together the key services for our veterans and their families.
The new Centres will integrate government and non-government support for Australians who have served in our Defence Forces with local health services community organisations, advocacy and wellbeing support. They will partner with ex-service organisations and state and territory governments across Australia.
Our government has a strong track record delivering services and support to our veterans and their families. We understand the role that ex-service organisations play in supporting veterans after their service has concluded.
In order to support them to deliver those services, we want to help more organisations find more veterans meaningful civilian jobs. That’s why we will also invest $16.2 million to support organisations including Soldier On, Team Rubicon and State Branches of the RSL. Along with other ex-service organisations, these groups will also be able to use the new Veterans’ Wellbeing Centres to deliver their services.
We know how important exercise physiology and physiotherapy are for Totally and Permanently Incapacitated (TPI) veterans so we will deliver an extra $17 million to exempt them from the new ‘Treatment Cycle’ requirements that were due to commence on 1 July 2019, allowing TPI veterans to continue to access these important allied health services under existing arrangements.
A re-elected Morrison Government will also make it easier for veterans to access the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme. We will extend the time for eligible veterans to access the program from two to five years after they complete their ADF service. This will allow veterans and their families more time to settle their affairs and find a home once their service has been completed.
We will also extend eligibility to the Defence Service Homes Insurance Scheme to allow any current or former ADF member who has at least one day of service to access home building insurance through the Scheme. That means veterans can access more competitively priced home building insurance, particularly in disaster prone areas, which will lower the cost of living for veterans and their families, particularly in northern Australia.
The Coalition has introduced legislation to create an Australian Veterans’ Covenant, which, in partnership with the ex-service community, will formally recognise the unique nature of military service and acknowledge and honour the service and sacrifice of our service personnel.
We also understand it is important our veterans are appropriately recognised by the community and businesses, even when they’re not wearing their medals and uniforms. That’s why we’ve launched the Australian Veterans’ Card and Lapel Pin, so veterans can be appropriately recognised, including by businesses who want to offer special discounts and offers to veterans.
The Coalition’s plan to put our veterans and their families first builds on an extensive record of support for veterans:

• The record $11 billion we deliver to support 280,000 veterans and their families each year
• Extending access to the DVA Gold Card for civilian medical teams in the Vietnam War
• $500 million we’ve committed to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs to better meet the needs of veterans and their families
• $100 million we invested in the Sir John Monash Centre in France
• $498 million committed over the next nine years to redevelop the Australian War Memorial and allow the Memorial to display more of their collection and proudly tell the stories from recent years in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Solomon Islands and East Timor.
• Delivering our $1.4 billion in fairer indexation for military superannuants
• Supporting Kookaburra Kids to help the children of veterans affected by mental illness.
• Cutting waiting times for claims through the Department and streamlining the process through the new MyService system

Only the Coalition can be trusted to deliver for veterans and their families.

Labor presided over a huge growth in 457 visa numbers when last in Government and did little to protect Australian workers from being displaced by temporary visa holders.
The number of 457 visas granted hit a record high under Bill Shorten as Employment Minister with more than 126,000 visas granted in 2012-13. At the same time, Bill Shorten approved a deal with fast food outlets to bring in hundreds of foreign workers to flip burgers and Brendan O’Connor as Immigration Minister even admitted that over 10,000 visa holders were rorting Labor’s program.
When we came into Government we cracked down on, and then abolished completely, Labor’s out of control 457 visa program. In doing so, we have significantly reduced the number of visas granted – less than 65,000 visas granted in 2017-18 compared to the 126,000 visas granted under Labor in 2012-13.
Salary has also increased in the new Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) program compared to the 457 visa program. In 2017-18, we saw a $15,000 higher average remuneration ($110,000 compared to $95,000 for the 457 visa program) demonstrating people are more highly skilled and experienced under the changes introduced by the Coalition.
The Coalition implemented Labor Market Testing—an initiative that didn’t exist under Labor—to ensure Australians are always prioritised for Australian jobs. Employers can only bring in overseas workers if Australian workers are not available.
And we introduced the Skilling Australia Fund levy which requires employers nominating under the TSS visa program to pay a fee of at least $1200 that goes towards improving training for Australian workers.
Given Labor’s dismal history with Australia’s skilled visa program, their announcement today would be laughable if it weren’t for the fact it would put small and regional businesses out of business and severely impact our economy.
Labor is once again succumbing to its Union leaders and the Greens, while at the same time increasing the Humanitarian Program by 52,000 places over four years at a cost to the Australian taxpayer of $6.2 billion.
Labor has time and again proven that they cannot be trusted to manage our border protection and immigration programs, and they cannot be trusted to manage money. If you can’t manage money, then you can’t run the country. That’s why Labor is the Bill Australia cannot afford.

A re-elected Liberal National Government will invest up to $300,000 over the next three years to support the continuing operations of the Western Port Biosphere.
The $100,000 per annum funding will allow the Biosphere to expand their conservation efforts, including continued on-ground work on monitoring native Southern Brown Bandicoot populations, the UNESCO Ramsar wetlands and local water quality.
Liberal Member for Flinders, the Hon. Greg Hunt MP, said the funding would help secure long term stability for the Biosphere.
“We live in such a unique part of Australia here on the Peninsula and that has been recognised by UNESCO Biosphere status,” Minister Hunt said.
“The team here at Western Port Biosphere do a tremendous job in protecting and studying our local plant and animal life and the Liberal National Government is supporting them in their duties by providing $300,000 over the next three years to expand their work.”
“This funding commitment gives the Biosphere long term certainty in funding so that they can get on with the important job of conservationism in Western Port.”
“This is extremely welcome news,” Executive Officer of the Biosphere, Mr Greg Hunt said. “This will enable us to ramp up our activities right across the Biosphere, to protect threatened species such as the Southern Brown Bandicoot and to add further projects that investigate the balance between conservation and development.”
“After all, finding better ways to live in our environment is what a UNESCO Biosphere is all about.”

The Queensland Greens today launched their federal campaign with leader Dr Richard Di Natale, co-Deputy Leader and Senator for Queensland Larissa Waters, and lower house candidates in the key election battleground state.
The Greens are running candidates in every lower house seat in Queensland and are focused on campaigning to hold the senate seat Senator Waters won in 2010. The Queensland Greens are running their biggest campaign ever, already knocking on more than 50,000 doors across the state, and signing up more volunteers than ever to help.On the day the election was called, a new volunteer signed up every three minutes and a new wave of volunteers have flooded in to help since the far right targeted Greens election posters over the weekend, defacing them with swastikas.
“I’m thrilled to be running with such a fabulous team in Queensland which is a crucial state for both the lower house and the Senate,” Senator Waters said.
“It’s a stark choice between Greens or right-wing conservatives in the balance of power in the Senate and that will make all the difference to any new government being able to get their agenda through the parliament and getting the policy change Australians are ready for.
“It’s no surprise our candidate materials are being targeted by the far right – we stand for a multicultural and equal society. We are the defence against the far right, as the final Senate seat in Queensland will be a battle between Greens, One Nation, Anning and Clive Palmer.
“Big money shouldn’t buy preferences or election outcomes, and it shouldn’t buy policy outcomes. Greens don’t take corporate donations – we are here for people and planet.”
Senator Waters said the Greens in Queensland were campaigning on a plan for a better future for all Queenslanders with a positive message of hope and people getting their democracy back.
“Here in Queensland, the Greens will be campaigning for cleaning up politics – ending the corrupting influence of corporate donations, strong action on climate change and supporting coal communities as the economy transitions, job-creating investment in affordable housing and clean energy, free education from childcare to TAFE and uni, and bringing dental and mental health into Medicare,” Senator Waters said.
“We’ve had a government that’s spent six years cutting services and making life harder for people, while giving big tax cuts to big corporations to give them bigger profits, while the rest of the community and the environment suffers.
“It’s high time we ended the corrupting influence of big corporate donors to political parties, so our democracy can work for people and the planet not corporate profits.
“The Greens have fully costed our policies and we can fund these promises by making big corporations pay their fair share and stopping that tax dodging with one in three mega corporations not paying a cent of tax.
“I cannot wait to see the back of this government and boot them out. But even with a change of government we need Greens in the Senate to hold Labor to account and push them to go further and do more for people and the planet, not their corporate donors.”
“I’ve loved being a voice for Queenslanders since 2010 and with their support I will keep doing that in the Senate, working for a future for all of us.”

Bill Shorten’s proposed plan to spend $1.5 billion opening up dirty natural gas drilling in the Galilee and Beetaloo Basins proves that the Labor Party just isn’t serious about tackling dangerous climate change and the Greens will use our power in the Senate to block any such move, Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale and Greens Sen. Larissa Waters said.
“We are in the middle of a climate emergency and we can’t be opening up any more coal, oil or gas fields if we are going to hand over a sustainable environment to our children and grandchildren,” Di Natale said.
“Australia’s fastest growing source of emissions is leaking methane from gas projects and Labor’s plan will simply add to Australia’s growing emissions when they need to be going the other way.
“The Greens will use our numbers in the new Senate to exclude any NAIF funding for fossil fuel projects because taxpayer money shouldn’t be used to continue subsidising polluting industries.”
“The Beetaloo Basin, for example, is the single biggest gas reserve in the country. Bigger than any of the North West Shelf reserves that have already propelled Australia to be the World’s biggest gas exporter.
Even the NT government’s own report into fracking found that opening up the Betaloo Basin would increase Australia’s emissions by 6.6%. So Bill Shorten needs to explain how exactly he’s going to reach Labor’s 45 per cent emissions target while also opening up these dirty, polluting gas fields?”
“What Queensland needs is a plan to help transition coal and other affected communities away from dirty, polluting fossil fuels and towards a clean green energy future based on renewables, not empty promises of jobs that we know won’t last over the long term,” Waters said.
“The Greens would protect our land, water and climate by pushing to ban any new or expanded gas mining and to ban gas fracking, and instead drive a jobs and investment boom in clean renewable energy.”
“The big gas companies have anticipated around 1,200 fracking wells will be mined right across NT’s countryside if the Basin is opened up.”
“We need to keep it all in the ground if we want any hope of keeping a safe climate system.”
“This is the policy you get when corporate donations corrupt our political parties. Labor has accepted $2 million from gas and oil companies since 2012,” she said.

A Shorten Labor Government will drive economic growth and job creation in regional Australia with a comprehensive Regional Tourism Plan that will deliver more jobs, better attractions, better airports and smarter marketing for this critical industry.
The strategy will include $95 million in grants to improve infrastructure around existing tourism attractions, $30 million to expand the range of tourism experiences in individual regions and $25 million for Tourism Australia to get more international visitors to Australia and showcase our beautiful country to domestic tourists.
In addition, a Shorten Labor Government will invest $100 million to help local councils maintain and grow regional airports – ensuring they can operate safely and connect more Australians with the regions.
Tourism is a significant industry – it is at the heart of our regions and provides a significant boost to economies around the country.
Regional tourism provides more than half a million jobs in related industries, with 43 cents in every tourism dollar spent in regional Australia.
However over six years of cuts and chaos, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has failed to support growth of this critical sector, refusing to invest in domestic tourism marketing or to adequately support the industry in its attempts to improve the tourism offering.
Labor’s Regional Tourism plan, the result of extensive consultation with industry, local communities and local government, will bring a new focus to regional tourism. It includes:
Building up existing tourism offerings:

• Investing $40 million to improve infrastructure around existing regional tourism attractions to build upon their success and improve the experience of visitors
  • Projects will be delivered in partnership with local and state governments or industry.
  • Labor’s investment will include support for Rottnest Island in Western Australia, Freycinet National Park in Tasmania and Sovereign Hill in Victoria.
  • In addition, there will be a further $55 million for infrastructure and facilities upgrades at other world-renowned tourism destinations, which brings this total package to $95 million.

Creating new tourism in our regions:

• Investing $30 million to unlock new tourism opportunities so individual regions can offer a broader range of experiences to visitors
  • Eligible projects could include feasibility or concept studies such as First Nations cultural experiences, agri-tourism, eco-tourism, new infrastructure or upgrades to existing infrastructure.
  • The fund could also be accessed to improve accessibility at tourism sites which could include disability toilets, improvements to pathways at lookouts for wheelchair access, charging infrastructure for mobility scooters and safety improvements to railings and signage.
  • These projects will also be delivered in partnership with state and local governments or industry.

Attracting new visitors at home and abroad:

• Boosting the Tourism Australia Budget by $25 million so it can
  • Promote domestic tourism on top of its existing role of international marketing to encourage more Australians to holiday at home.
  • Increase its capacity to work with airports, airlines and governments to facilitate additional joint marketing activities with the aim of encouraging international airlines to put on additional flights and develop new routes.

Supporting regional aviation:

• Creating of a $100 million fund to improve and grow the nation’s regional airports
  • Councils report a significant backlog in aviation in airport maintenance and would access this grant fund to clear the backlog with projects funded on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
  • Better maintenance of regional airports will not only improve the tourist experience, but more importantly, allow ensure that airports maintain the highest possible levels of safety.

Australia’s tourism offerings are among the best in the world.
However, retaining Australia’s competitive advantage as a tourist destination requires investment in high- quality, accessible infrastructure, particularly in regional areas.
This makes a significant difference to the local economies of regional and rural towns across the nation.
Labor’s investment in regional tourism will grow the number of international and domestic visitors to regional Australia, supporting local businesses and growing local jobs.
This election is a choice between Labor’s plan for better investment in regional tourism, or bigger tax loopholes for the top end of town under the Liberals.
After six years of Liberal cuts and chaos, our united Labor team is ready.

All five Men’s Sheds across Hasluck will benefit from the Morrison Government’s National Men’s Health Strategy 2020-2030 with more than $19 million to improve the health and wellbeing of Australian men and boys.
The Strategy supports continued and expanded funding to support the Men’s Shed movement, including:

• An increase to $1 million per annum for grants to enable Sheds to apply for funding twice a year for health and wellbeing activities and events, shed improvements and tools and equipment
• $1.5 million to fund regional coordinators in each state and territory to provide direct assistance in Men’s Sheds
• $3.6 million to the Australian Men’s Shed Association to support Sheds at a national level
• $2 million to equip every Men’s Shed in Australia with a portable defibrillator
• $100,000 to establish a web based platform ‘Men’s Shed Exchange’, to encourage members to contribute ideas on attracting and retaining membership and how to stage regional events. Andrology Australia will host the portal.

 
On the whole, Australian men and boys enjoy long, healthy lives, with a current average life expectancy of more than 80 years, the eighth highest in the developed world.
Despite this, our men and boys face challenges in their health and wellbeing. They die earlier than women, and more often from diseases that can be prevented. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men live significantly shorter lives than other men
Overall, the National Men’s Heath Strategy lays out a clear blueprint for actions on the five priority health issues affecting men’s health:
 

• sexual and reproductive health and conditions
• mental health
• chronic conditions
• injuries and risk taking
• healthy ageing.

 
Important health issues for men include infertility, coronary heart disease, prostate cancer, overweight and obesity, diabetes, bowel cancer, lung cancer, injuries, mental health and suicide.
Health and medical research is one of the four pillars of the Government’s Long-Term National Health Plan.
Tragically, deaths by suicide in Australia occur among males at a rate three times greater than that for females.
This is why we are providing $114.5 million for a trial of walk-in integrated Adult Community Mental Health Centres at eight locations nationally; and $11.5 million for the National Mental Health Workplace Initiative to assist businesses to create mentally health workplaces.
Our Government’s strong economic management ensures the continued record investment into vital health initiatives.
For more information on the Government’s investments in men’s health please visit: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing….