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Government backs wage rises for low-paid workers
Josh Butler
Labor has called on the Fair Work Commission to ensure low-paid workers don’t “go backwards” due to rising inflation rates, backing pay rises for workers like shop assistants, cleaners and workers in the care economy.
The new government has made its long-awaited submission to the minimum wage inquiry, setting out a clear position that workers should not suffer effective pay cuts due to inflation. Employment minister Tony Burke said that the government hadn’t limited its call to only minimum wage workers, but instead backed pay rises for all workers on low rates. At a press conference in Sydney, he said:
We don’t want anyone to go backwards, but there’s a particular priority right now with respect to low-paid workers.
Labor’s submission makes specific reference to the 5.1% inflation figure in setting out its position that wages shouldn’t go “backwards”.
Burke rubbished suggestions that such wage rises would add to inflation pressures, saying:
Inflation is not being driven by high wage growth. How do we know this? We don’t have high wage growth.
The factors that are providing upward pressure right now on inflation are not wages. It’s not one of those factors. The whole concept that the sort of spiral that may be referred to in the early 1980s does not reflect the economic conditions now.
We have some DAMAGING WINDS coming, the SA SES is warning.
The @BOM_SA have issued a Severe Weather Warning for DAMAGING WINDS
For people in Adel Metro, Mt Lofty Ranges, Lower Eyre Pen, Eastern Eyre Pen, Yorke Pen, Mid North, KI, Murraylands, Upper SE and Lower SE districts.
For more info, visit https://t.co/BuU3rJXFbk pic.twitter.com/fvrzgw2pMe
— SASES (@SA_SES) June 3, 2022
Further to our post from earlier about a man being sentenced for breaching laws that prohibit misleading or deceiving Australians about casting a vote, the ABC reports he received a 20-month sentence to be served in the community.
Icac chief blasts false claims pork-barrelling is legal
AAP reports on the laments of the outgoing ICAC chief commissioner:
Disinformation about the legality of pork-barrelling has been spread by senior politicians who appear not to grasp the law, the chief commissioner of the NSW corruption watchdog says.
Outgoing chief commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, Peter Hall, said comments by the former prime minister Scott Morrison suggesting pork-barrelling was not illegal lacked understanding.
Pork-barrelling is the practice of spending taxpayer funds to shore up political support, or in the context of an election, win votes.
“There appears to be an amount of uncertainty and disinformation as to the lawfulness or otherwise of pork-barrelling practices,” Mr Hall told a forum convened by Icac on Friday.
“During the last federal election, the former prime minister [Scott Morrison] in reference to the practice of pork-barrelling raised the question, as reported in The Sydney Morning Herald, quote, ‘No one is suggesting anyone has broken any laws are they?’.
“Some ministerial comments to similar effects have been made at the state level, suggesting that pork-barrelling is normal and legal.”
Hall also cited the Berejiklian government’s notorious $252m Stronger Communities fund as a clear example of pork-barrelling, saying almost its sole motive was political, calling it “clearly on the other side of the line”.
Read more from Guardian Australia’s Michael McGowan below:
Further to our post from earlier about the beefed-up Australian delegation heading to Indonesia, the prime minister Anthony Albanese says he’s been on the blower:
I just spoke with President @Jokowi ahead of my upcoming visit to Indonesia. I look forward to continuing our discussions about the ongoing partnership between our nations, including revitalising our trade relationship.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) June 3, 2022
The idea of Albanese calling ahead makes me wonder if he asked whether they needed to bring their own bedding or anything. Perhaps he asked where’s good to stop on the way.
Josh Taylor
Search engines delist sites hosting material linked to Buffalo terror attack
Last month we reported the eSafety commissioner had issued notices to eight overseas-hosted websites that were hosting material associated with the terror attack at the Top Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York, where 10 people were killed.
Four of those sites subsequently removed the videos and manifestos, but four did not.
Today the eSafety commissioner has said after making informal requests to Google and Microsoft – the company behind search engine Bing – and then a formal link deletion notice to Google, the remaining four sites have been delisted from search results on both sites.
eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said:
This senseless act of violence claimed many innocent lives, and was planned and documented in the most deliberate and disturbing way.
We are determined to do everything we can under the act to protect Australians from exposure to this horrific material and to prevent it being used to promote, incite or instruct in further terrorist acts.
West Sydney locals exhausted by floods: MP
AAP has this report from the NSW floods inquiry:
Cavernous potholes along evacuation routes, blocked drains and gouged riverbanks in western Sydney’s Hawkesbury region need to be fixed before the flood-prone community is inundated again, an inquiry has been told.
The effect in the Hawkesbury region is different to the devastation wrought in northern NSW, the federal Labor MP for Macquarie Susan Templeman told the NSW upper house inquiry in Windsor on Friday.
She said this year’s disaster, coming on the back of bushfires and another flood in previous years, had taken an enormous emotional toll on the community.
“Not just as a result of the natural disaster, but of the very slow response that has been delivered to them,” Templeman told the hearing.
State Liberal MP for Hawkesbury Robyn Preston said the community is exhausted, and both agreed there was an urgent need to restore riverbanks damaged in the flood.
“The biggest single failure by the state government has been to resolve the riverbank destruction,” Templeman said.
“There are giant horseshoe-shaped gouges out of the river on people’s land.”
Christopher Knaus
Former defence force chief supports medicinal use of psilocybin and MDMA
The former chief of the Australian Defence Force admiral Chris Barrie is advocating for the use of medicinal psilocybin and MDMA-assisted psychotherapies for the treating of post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans.
The Australian Capital Territory government is currently pushing to decriminalise the personal use of psilocybin and MDMA.
In a statement issued by Mind Medicine Australia, Barrie said he had “no comment on the pros and cons” of the ACT’s push.
But, he said, if it was successful, the ACT should also remove any barrier to using the drugs to treat patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression and related post-traumatic stress disorder. Barrie said:
If this happens, it would be ridiculous if a medical practitioner, properly trained in the application of psychedelic-assisted therapies, couldn’t prescribe MDMA or psilocybin to treat a patient suffering from treatment-resistant PTSD or treatment-resistant depression in a much safer clinical environment.
Sufferers with treatment-resistant PTSD or treatment-resistant depression can be at severe risk because, by definition, they have exhausted conventional treatments. Allowing a medical practitioner in the ACT with Special Access Scheme approval from the TGA to provide psychedelic-assisted therapy gives the patient the opportunity of receiving a treatment that has been shown to be safe with high remission and response rates.
Mind Medicine Australia said current ACT law meant medical practitioners who administered such drugs would be criminally liable for doing so, even if they have the requisite approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration to treat using MDMA.
Peter Hannam
Gas the big mover as coal power dropped in past month
Some commentary out today suggested renewables might not have been kicking in this last week, making energy market conditions a bit tougher in eastern Australia.
There’s some truth in that, such as in normally wind-powered South Australia there were periods when the spinning turbines slowed, and the state had to rely on a lot more gas and interestingly, diesel-power generators to keep the lights on.
Data from EnergyQuest on the share of different fuels in the national electricity market in May shows a 514% increase in “oil” for the month in SA.
Overall, though, the NEM data shows reduced output from coal-burning power stations was significant last month, with generation from such plants down 7.8% from a year earlier.
Gas use was the big mover, lifting its share of the market by about half to 9.2%. Renewables, though, also picked up a lot of the slack caused by coal outages.
Wind energy rose 9% and solar 5.2% from a year earlier. All that extra rain has also been handy for mainland hydro plants (mostly in the Snowy Mountains), with output up 27.4%, EnergyQuest said.
SA, meanwhile, is doing some interesting things, energy wise. On the one hand, wholesale power prices are currently (pun!) negative:
On the other, the Australian Energy Market Operator is warning about some issues in the state overnight that might affect system security.
“Aemo estimates that, in the absence of sufficient market response by 1700 hrs 03/06/2022, Aemo may need to intervene by issuing a direction requiring one or more SA synchronous generating unit(s) to operate or remain synchronised to maintain power system security in SA,” the market notice issued this afternoon says.
It’s only an alert at this point, but one perhaps to keep an eye on, during this crazy week in energy.
AEC successfully prosecutes man for misleading voters
The Australian Electoral Commission has released a statement on the first successful prosecution of a person for breaching laws that prohibit misleading or deceiving Australians about casting a vote.
The statement says that Cheng Fan was convicted and sentenced on Thursday for a number of offences relating to a series of spam emails circulated during the 2020 Eden-Monaro by-election.
The statement does not say what sentence he received, other than that it included a penalty for distributing matter that the court considered was likely to mislead or deceive an elector in the relation to the casting of a vote. The Australian covered his alleged offending in detail in this piece (paywalled).
Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said:
Yesterday’s sentencing of Mr Fan demonstrates that those who seek to undermine the integrity of Australia’s electoral system will be brought to account.
A result like this draws a line in the sand as it provides precedent for any similar misbehaviour in the future.
This result is also a credit to the Electoral Integrity Assurance Taskforce, to which the AEC referred this matter in 2020.
The work of the Taskforce is one more reason Australians can be confident in the integrity of our elections.”
AEC Statement: Sentencing of Mr Cheng Fan
This is Australia’s first successful prosecution for misleading or deceiving voters about the act of casting a vote.
“A result like this draws a line in the sand” – Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers pic.twitter.com/44YVNiBP9k
— AEC ✏️ (@AusElectoralCom) June 3, 2022
Lisa Cox
NSW extends north coast forestry contracts
The New South Wales government has extended wood supply contracts on the state’s north coast by five years.
Most wood supply agreements on the north coast were due to expire next year but they will now continue through to 2028.
The state’s deputy premier, Paul Toole, and the agriculture minister Dugald Saunders, said the decision would give businesses certainty.
Saunders described timber as “the ultimate renewable product” and said under regional forestry agreements – which exempt the forestry industry from assessment and approval under national environmental laws – the state “had committed to growing and regrowing timber in an environmentally responsible manner”.
Independent MLC Justin Field slammed the decision to extend the contracts.
He said ongoing logging of native forests on the north coast was unsustainable, would further damage habitat for threatened species including the endangered koala and would set back post-fire recovery. Field said:
I’m disgusted these contracts have been extended despite the fact the NSW government has been sitting on independent expert advice for over a year that recommends logging restrictions in response to the 2019-20 fires.
Once again we see the National party ignoring science and the environmental and climate impacts of their decisions and the Liberal party, and particularly environment minister James Griffin and treasurer Matt Kean, just go along with it.
The charities watchdog is resigning (he was a Turnbull government appointment, but is a former Labor MP).
The head of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission the Hon Dr Gary Johns has announced he will step down from the role at the end of July. #auspol
— Political Alert (@political_alert) June 3, 2022
New hospital pledged by Victorian opposition
Speaking of health, AAP has this report:
The Victorian opposition has promised to build a second new regional hospital if it wins the November state election and will call on the newly installed Albanese government to chip in.
Opposition leader Matthew Guy on Friday announced plans to invest $400m on the new $600m facility in Warragul, replacing the existing West Gippsland hospital.
The Liberals and Nationals would request $200m from the federal government to make up the funding shortfall.
Despite having no assurance and Labor ending nine years of coalition rule in Canberra, Guy is confident he can secure federal support for the project.
“That is something that we would negotiate with the federal government over time,” he told reporters.
“Both the coalition federal government and the Labor party now in government have made those commitments to other states. We would hope that they would do this facility as well, and I couldn’t see why they wouldn’t.”
The Victorian opposition took a similar Warragul hospital promise to the polls in 2018, when it shed 10 lower house seats.
The announcement follows new pledges for a $700m hospital in Mildura, a $400m infectious diseases response centre and a promise for construction on the Melton hospital to begin within 12 months of an election win.
Push on for state health funding boost
Some state leaders believe the pandemic provides Albanese with an “opportunity” to reform health funding, AAP report:
Prime minister Anthony Albanese is facing calls to immediately extend Covid-19 support given to the states and territories as well as find a long-term fix for hospitals.
Albanese is expected to hold talks with state and territory leaders, and the peak local government body, in mid-June at the first national cabinet meeting under his leadership.
The most immediate issue is extending the Covid response partnership which is due to expire in September.
ACT chief minister Andrew Barr said state and territory leaders want the partnership to be extended as they grapple with ongoing virus cases.
In the medium-term, state and territory leaders need greater support for elective surgery, which in some of the larger states has come to a halt.
“It’s a national problem and we recognise across the nation there is a backlog,” Barr told ABC radio on Friday.
“We are going to need to catch up – that is going to require resources.”
In the longer term, the hospitals and health funding national partnership will need renegotiating.
The partnership started as 50-50 under Kevin Rudd, before Tony Abbott trimmed it back to a 40% federal share.
Malcolm Turnbull brought it back to a 45% contribution from the Commonwealth, but state and territory leaders say it should be brought back to 50%.
Doctors say lives are at risk if governments do not work together to adequately fund the system and handle the increased demand.
“Healthcare reform is long overdue,” AMA NSW president Dr Michael Bonning said.
NSW premier Dominic Perrottet and Victorian premier Dan Andrews are backing a broad discussion on health funding at Mr Albanese’s first national cabinet.
Nine newspapers reported Perrottet saying the pandemic presented an opportunity for the new prime minister.
“After any crisis, good leaders would come in and drive reform for the future and that’s Anthony Albanese’s great opportunity,” Perrottet said.
Government backs wage rises for low-paid workers
Josh Butler
Labor has called on the Fair Work Commission to ensure low-paid workers don’t “go backwards” due to rising inflation rates, backing pay rises for workers like shop assistants, cleaners and workers in the care economy.
The new government has made its long-awaited submission to the minimum wage inquiry, setting out a clear position that workers should not suffer effective pay cuts due to inflation. Employment minister Tony Burke said that the government hadn’t limited its call to only minimum wage workers, but instead backed pay rises for all workers on low rates. At a press conference in Sydney, he said:
We don’t want anyone to go backwards, but there’s a particular priority right now with respect to low-paid workers.
Labor’s submission makes specific reference to the 5.1% inflation figure in setting out its position that wages shouldn’t go “backwards”.
Burke rubbished suggestions that such wage rises would add to inflation pressures, saying:
Inflation is not being driven by high wage growth. How do we know this? We don’t have high wage growth.
The factors that are providing upward pressure right now on inflation are not wages. It’s not one of those factors. The whole concept that the sort of spiral that may be referred to in the early 1980s does not reflect the economic conditions now.
Tony Burke expands on Fair Work submission
There’s not a lot new here, other than the submission being finished, but Burke makes a couple of other main points.
He says the submission, if adopted, would help reduce the gender pay gap:
One of the chief characteristics of low paid workers is they’re predominantly women. This submission, if followed through by the Fair Work Commission, will have a significant impact on the gender pay gap.
Burke had a number of digs at the Morrison government’s approach to wages, and made sure to connect that approach to the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, saying:
Dutton … seemed quite happy to put all the obligation on inflation back on low paid workers and on the heroes of the pandemic. That’s not the view of the Australian government now.
Burke has finished speaking.
Burke confirms the government’s submission to the Fair Work Commission does not just relate to those on minimum wage, but all “low paid workers”. He added:
We referred to low wage workers. Who are these people? Workers. Who are these people? They’re largely the heroes of the pandemic. They’re the people who both sides of politics made lovely speeches about after the pandemic, but only one side of politics, the Labor government now, was willing to fight for.
Keeping wages low no longer the government’s position: Burke
Tony Burke is speaking in Sydney.
Labor’s submission to the minimum wage inquiry: “the government recommends that the Fair Work Commission ensures that the real wages of Australia’s low-paid workers do not go backwards”
Tony Burke: “Keeping wages low is no longer a position from the government of Australia.” pic.twitter.com/z6rdzGHnxw
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) June 3, 2022
Rates relief for flood-hit residents
AAP reports that the NSW government is waiving rates next year:
Flood-devastated residents in northern NSW are getting a helping hand from the state government, with a $40m package waiving rates for the next year.
Minister for regional NSW Paul Toole announced on Friday that 2022-23 rates will not be due for residents in the seven Northern Rivers local government areas whose property has been assessed as damaged.
“Northern Rivers residents have been to hell and back, and receiving a rates notice for a home or business they still can barely access is the absolute last thing they need,” Toole said.
“This rates relief is one less thing they need to worry about as they continue to rebuild their lives.”
Minister for local government Wendy Tuckerman said the scheme will also include farms and businesses that were flooded.
“This program will cover the residential, commercial and farm rates of eligible ratepayers for one year, helping them as they get back on their feet,” she said.
The government also announced on Friday an investment of $60m to repair up to 15,000 kilometres of flood-damaged roads, bridges and culverts.
Some roads were still being repaired following the devastating 2019-20 bushfires when the 2022 floods hit.
The federal and state governments have committed more than $3.5bn in joint funding since the floods claimed the lives of 10 people in northern NSW and far-western Sydney, with the town of Lismore hit the hardest.
An upper house inquiry into the disaster response from late February to early April heard from affected residents in Lismore earlier this week and is in Windsor on Friday.
Woolworths to scrap reusable plastic bags
AAP reports that the supermarket giant is saying bye to the bag:
Australian shoppers can expect another change at the checkout, as Woolworths prepares to dump all reusable plastic bags from its stores over the next year.
The grocery giant on Friday announced its permanent shift away from the bags, which cost shoppers 15 cents each.
Eight in 10 shoppers already bring their own bags, the chain says, but shoppers will still be able to buy paper or fabric bags in store.
Woolworths-owned retailer Big W will scrap plastic bags by the end of June next year in favour of not-yet-announced reusable options.
The move will remove more than 9000 tonnes of plastic from circulation annually, Woolworths claims.
Reusable plastic bags have already been pulled from distribution at Woolworths in Western Australia, where a state government ban comes into effect at the end of this month.
The grocery giant will start the gradual phasing-out with stores in September this year in South Australia and the Northern Territory, before moving on to other parts of Australia.
The bags were introduced in 2018 to help customers adjust after single-use plastic bags were dumped.
“The reusable plastic bags have played their part and now it’s time to do away with selling plastic shopping bags at our checkouts for good,” Woolworths managing director Natalie Davis said.
“We know the change may be an adjustment for some customers and that’s why we’re phasing this change in over the coming year.”
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