[ad_1]
Albanese calls on Morrison to apologise for secret ministries
Anthony Albanese says former prime minister Scott Morrison should apologise for signing himself into multiple ministries and in light of the findings of the Bell inquiry.
Asked about the results, Albanese would not be drawn on whether parliament would vote to censure Morrison:
You had a shadow government operating in an unprecedented, extraordinary way. You had a prime minister who was standing up in parliament and not telling, not telling his own side, or not all of his side knew, let alone the parliament as a whole, who held what portfolio and who was responsible for decisions.
There’s a reason why, under the Westminster system, ministers are held accountable by the parliament. It wasn’t possible to hold the ministers to account because people didn’t know who the ministers were. The parliament is likely to want to express a view on that and we will have a discussion of it and we will let you know once that decision is made.
Albanese says he has yet to see an apology from the former prime minister:
Our democracy requires, I think, deserves an apology for this. I didn’t see any contrition in Scott Morrison’s statement last Friday, and I find that just extraordinary that anyone could read the Bell inquiry and not be embarrassed if you’re the subject of it.
It’s also the case that Scott Morrison said he’d fully cooperate with the inquiry, but he chose to talk with his lawyers, through his lawyers. And that of course is his right to do but I’ll leave people to draw their own conclusions there.
Key events
Filters BETA
Michaelia Cash says IR law will lead to ‘chaos and confusion’
Michaelia Cash has attacked the government’s IR bill, saying the amendments negotiated by senator David Pocock and others amount to little more than “tinkering around the edges”.
Speaking to reporters in parliament today, Cash said the bill would compel employers into an agreement and would lead to “chaos and confusion”:
What you have today is a deal has been struck and the legislation will pass. The employers of Australia, the employers who create the jobs today, remain united.
I have one last plea to Mr Albanese and that is please listen to the job creators in this country. It is going to be a really rough Christmas for so many employers out there.
Cash said she wanted the government to hold off on passing the bill over the Christmas break to talk to employers.
She also said the proposed law would “fundamentally take away the right of the employer and the employee to negotiate terms and conditions” between each other.
On the prospect that the government may move to censure Scott Morrison following the findings of the Bell report, Cash said she would “wait and see” what decision will be made tomorrow.
Proposed new IR law gives workers hope, ACTU says
ACTU secretary Sally McManus has welcomed the announcement that Labor’s industrial relations bill is likely to pass the Senate.
McManus said the law would benefit women in sectors like aged care by improving their pay and conditions:
This gives people hope. It gives people hope that we can start unwinding the large numbers of insecure jobs that we have in this country.
PM defends plan for an economic inclusion advisory committee
Anthony Albanese rejects criticism suggesting the proposed economic inclusion advisory committee is “kicking the can down the road” on a decision to raise jobseeker, as the body will have no power to actually push through a rise in the payments:
This is an important process being established that will assist government decision making but will also assist transparency. I take David Pocock at his word, as I do with others as well.
A final question now on whether the government will act to bring down gas prices.
Albanese says the government “will be having further discussions” on whether it will intervene in the federal gas market. He says it aims to make a decision before Christmas and “this remains the timetable”.
Albanese calls on Morrison to apologise for secret ministries
Anthony Albanese says former prime minister Scott Morrison should apologise for signing himself into multiple ministries and in light of the findings of the Bell inquiry.
Asked about the results, Albanese would not be drawn on whether parliament would vote to censure Morrison:
You had a shadow government operating in an unprecedented, extraordinary way. You had a prime minister who was standing up in parliament and not telling, not telling his own side, or not all of his side knew, let alone the parliament as a whole, who held what portfolio and who was responsible for decisions.
There’s a reason why, under the Westminster system, ministers are held accountable by the parliament. It wasn’t possible to hold the ministers to account because people didn’t know who the ministers were. The parliament is likely to want to express a view on that and we will have a discussion of it and we will let you know once that decision is made.
Albanese says he has yet to see an apology from the former prime minister:
Our democracy requires, I think, deserves an apology for this. I didn’t see any contrition in Scott Morrison’s statement last Friday, and I find that just extraordinary that anyone could read the Bell inquiry and not be embarrassed if you’re the subject of it.
It’s also the case that Scott Morrison said he’d fully cooperate with the inquiry, but he chose to talk with his lawyers, through his lawyers. And that of course is his right to do but I’ll leave people to draw their own conclusions there.
Any payment increases subject to the state of the budget
After some questions about commentary on the Victorian election, Albanese is brought back to the question of whether social security payments will rise. The question is that his comments just now are the clearest indicator that jobseeker payments will rise at the next budget.
Albanese, however, waters this down and says his comments are “consistent” with what he has said previously: that any decision will be subject to the state of the budget.
Each and every budget, Labor will consider what we can do to provide further assistance to people but we’ll do so in the context of the economic circumstances that we face.
So we’ll do so responsibly. I would always want to do more for people who are disadvantaged – that’s the Labor way. We don’t like seeing situations whereby people are doing it tough, but what we know is that we need to be responsible.
Albanese says though his government would have liked to have done more, they had to “do the right and economically responsible thing, which is to return 99% of the revenue growth that had occurred to the budget because that’s what the economy needed at that the point in time”.
Albanese won’t guarantee social security payments will rise
The first question is about the commitment from the government to establish an economic inclusion advisory committee.
Albanese is asked if he accepts as true that one in six Australian children live in poverty and if so, why a committee is necessary when immediate action could be taken.
Albanese:
Government will continue to make decisions, but it should make decisions based upon the best possible advice, putting out the facts there, which this committee will be able to do.
There are a range of other sources of advice. This will be an additional one. We know that I said before the election repeated again: there’s more I would like to do.
The prime minister however did not go so far as to guarantee that social security payments will rise and said there were “fiscal constraints”.
We do have to make sure that any action of the government bears in mind inflation and the economic circumstances, which are there. This committee I think will add to the amount of information and the quality of the information which is out there.
Burke: IR law would ‘get wages moving’
Tony Burke says the IR bill, if passed, will help get wages moving after a decade of stagnation.
The decision that gets taken this week means that we will have a pathway to secure jobs we will get wages moving and we will be taking action to close the gender pay gap.
We have legislation where every section of the bill is still there. There are amendments which improve it in various ways. But the bottom line is there will be a pathway now for wages to get moving again in Australia. It’ll be a deliberate design feature of how we manage things.
Now we’re going to questions.
Albanese: decade of low wages result of ‘bad policy’
Anthony Albanese has congratulated both Daniel Andrews and the Socceroos for their wins overnight, with the prime minister saying the Victorian premier and his team deserve “a great big pat on the back”.
Albanese praised Andrews for laying out a positive vision for what his government would do for Victoria against a sometimes heated campaign.
On the proposed industrial relations bill, Albanese also thanked David Pocock for his negotiations on the bill.
We went through an election saying that we wanted to get wages moving again. We said that the low wages that we’ve seen over the previous decade wasn’t a result of bad luck. That was bad policy. The former government said that low wage growth was a design feature of their economic architecture. And they certainly delivered that low wages for year after year after year.
This is a sensitive proposition and Labor has been prepared to sit down with business, with unions, with the crossbench, with civil society to work through the legislation to ensure that any improvements can be offered have been taken up.
Albanese says this method will define its approach to future legislation.
Business groups claim proposed IR law will take Australia back to the 1970s
The Australian Industry Group says Labor’s proposed industrial relations law will lead to more conflict, complexity and uncertainty.
Innes Willox, the chief executive of the national employer association, said on Sunday that the bill did not address business concerns, saying it “shattered” the system that has operated for the last four decades and warned of a return to the 1970s.
The primacy of the enterprise agreement system which has underpinned much of our economic success over the past four decades has now been shattered. There is nothing in the deal or the legislation that will drive the substantial productivity growth Australia needs to deliver wages growth.
We now truly face a return to a 1970s industrial model, entirely unsuited to the 21st-century open and productive economy we need. The ramifications of the proposals on employment, investment and business certainty will be far-reaching.
We now face the prospect of more strikes and fewer jobs. There has been no modelling on any economic benefit of the legislation, only the vague hope that employers with an industrial gun to their head will pay more and somehow not pass costs on to consumers or reduce their headcount.
Of the concessions agreed to by the government, there is very little improvement for the vast bulk of Australian businesses. They largely amount to tinkering around the edges of what at its heart remains a fundamentally flawed bill.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said his organisation appreciated efforts by senator David Pocock to consult “in good faith” but believed the bill is “fundamentally flawed and simply cannot be improved through the amendments that are now proposed”.
McKellar said his organisation remained opposed to the bill.
The bill, as it stands, will do nothing to achieve the aim of increasing wages, and will only add cost and complexity to Australian businesses at a time when they are dealing with deteriorating conditions.
Ultimately, this bill represents a fundamental delinkage of wages with productivity and will detract from the flexibility and dynamism required by modern economies.
We remain of the view that this bill is not fit for passage.
IR bill not ready to pass, says peak construction body
Master Builders Australia has welcomed changes to Labor’s proposed industrial relations reforms but is disappointed the Australian Building and Construction Commission is still facing the axe.
The industry group’s CEO Denita Wawn acknowledged Senator David Pocock’s “efforts to engage with the business community over this short timeframe” but said the organisation remained opposed to the bill in its current form and “urges the Senate to not rush this through”.
The building and construction industry welcomes the proposed expansion of a carve-out for civil construction but concerns remain for various subcontractors within the sector, including electricians, plumbers and metal workers.
Builders don’t operate in an economic silo and while many have been spared from multi-employer bargaining, they will still experience impacts from disruptions along the supply chain.
If industries like shipping, transport, warehousing and logistics are adversely impacted by multi-employer bargaining, then so will building and construction. You can’t build things if the products you need are caught up in a ports strike, can’t be delivered due to transport strikes, can’t be accessed due to logistics strikes, or can’t be obtained because of a manufacturing strike.
It is disappointing there were no amendments agreed to around the abolition of the ABCC despite glaring observations made in the recent Senate inquiry around culture and unlawful conduct in the sector.
Adeshola Ore
Greens expect to hold balance of power in Victoria’s upper house
The Victorian Greens say they are confident they will hold the balance of power in the state parliament’s upper house.
The Greens seized the historically safe Labor seat of Richmond – held by the party since 1958 – on Saturday night. But the Labor-held seats of Northcote and Albert Park, which the Greens believed were winnable, are too close to call. In the upper house, the party is hopeful it could double or quadruple its representation, where the minor party this term has just one MP.
The Greens had hoped to hold the balance of power if there was a minority government, but Labor has secured enough seats in the lower house to govern with a majority. The party’s leader Samantha Ratnam said holding the balance of power in the upper house was crucial to deliver reform on climate change and housing affordability:
We’re willing to work constructively and cooperatively with this Labor government to get really progressive reform.
Ratnam declared the result a “Greenslide” on Saturday evening, despite the party’s primary vote currently being lower than its 2010 and 2014 results.
Ratnam was asked about this at today’s press conference:
I’ve seen really significant two-party-preferred swings to the Greens in a number of areas across Melbourne. Our sitting MPs have been rewarded with a huge vote of confidence from their electorates because they’ve been working so hard to support their electorates for years on end.
We know the count is still continuing. There’s still races that are too close to call, but this is a strong result for the Greens.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese is expected to give a presser at 1.30pm.
More as it develops.
Victorians have backed ‘most ambitious climate change agenda’ ever
The head of Environment Victoria has described the reelection of the Andrews Labor government as an endorsement of the “most ambitious climate change agenda in Australian political history”.
Environment Victoria CEO Jono La Nauze said the result showed voters did not want an “each way bet” on climate change and demonstrated “what’s possible” following community-led efforts to address climate change within the state.
The Andrews government pledged to close all remaining coal power stations by 2035, build massive amounts of offshore wind and large-scale batteries, and cut Victoria’s emissions by up to 80% by 2035 – and voters gave this plan a resounding yes.
The centrepiece of Labor’s election campaign was a promise to invest in publicly owned renewable energy through a revived State Electricity Commission, and last night’s result shows voters will reward governments willing to take the fight to big polluting energy companies.
In the SEC, Victoria has the chance to show Australia what a good energy company looks like – one that acts in the public interest and delivers clean affordable energy for all.
Renewable energy will transform Victoria’s economy and it is important this transition benefits everyone, including the First Nations on whose country every wind turbine, solar panel and transmission line will be built.
In taking the driver’s seat in Victoria’s renewable revolution, the Andrews government has the opportunity to always seek First Nations consent and ensure they receive a share of the wealth generated from renewable energy projects on their land.
And given the SEC helped dig the mines in the Latrobe Valley, we’d like to see the same commitment to cleaning them up as there is for government-owned energy. If done right, the enormous task of rehabilitating the scars left by a century of coalmining can bring jobs and an improved environment to the Latrobe Valley community.
La Nauze also said that the strong result for the Greens and teal independents would pressure the Andrew government to “bring forward its closure date” for native forest logging.
Lenders offering better deals for electric cars as end of petrol cars in sight
Less than eight years from now, the sale of new petrol and diesel cars will be banned in at least nine countries.
Another 10 nations, including China and Japan, will join them by 2035.
By 2040, experts say new petrol cars will be significantly harder to find around the world as manufacturers face increasing pressure to stop production.
In the face of these depreciating assets, some financial institutions are withdrawing from the traditional car market to only offer electric and hybrid car loans.
Others offer significant discounts for loans on low- or no-emission cars.
More than 20 Australian lenders, including Westpac, Macquarie and RACQ, now offer lower rates for loans on electric vehicles, including discounts of more than one percentage point in some cases.
Bank Australia took the trend one step further this year, announcing it would no longer offer car loans for new petrol, diesel or hybrid vehicles by 2025.
The company’s impact management head, Jane Kern, says the bank created the policy after feedback from its customers and considerations of the vehicle market and its climate impact.
“We think supporting customers to buy electric vehicles makes a lot of sense, both financially, because of the running cost of electric vehicles, but also because of the future vehicle value,” she says.
Kern adds reaction to the bank’s announcement has been largely positive and she hopes other financial institutions will follow its lead.
Swinburne University professor Hussein Dia says despite Australia’s slow uptake of electric vehicles, there is soaring interest in the technology and a growing acceptance petrol and diesel vehicles will soon be phased out.
Many people recognise today that their investment in petrol vehicles (will depreciate).
In 10 to 15 years time, even if someone wanted to buy a petrol vehicle, I don’t think they would be able to find a new one on the market because car manufacturers are under a lot of pressure to stop producing and selling petrol and diesel vehicles.
China, India, the UK, France: there is a long list of countries that have policies in place to ban the production and sale of petrol vehicles by 2030 to 2040.
– AAP
Paul Karp
Pocock confirms push to increase jobseeker payments in return for support on IR bill
The ACT independent senator, David Pocock, has spoken to reporters in Canberra about his deal to help pass Labor’s IR bill in return for safeguards for small businesses and a new committee to conduct ongoing reviews of the adequacy of welfare payments.
Asked if he’d asked for payments to be increased, Pocock appeared to confirm he had:
I’ve been pushing them on jobseeker since I started meeting with relevant ministers and the treasurer. It makes no sense to me for one of the wealthiest countries in the world to have one in six children growing up in poverty. That’s not good for all of our collective [community and] I’ll continue to push them on. Having this independent committee, I think will raise awareness about the state of social security payments in Australia and hopefully will really push the government to address it.
Asked if he expects the committee to flow through to jobseeker, Pocock said:
That’s my hope. They’ll publish their recommendations at least two weeks before the budget. So, there’ll be a level of transparency there and then government will have to make the case of why they are or aren’t taking those recommendations on board.
Pocock – who has previously linked his vote to wiping the ACT’s public housing debt – ruled out that further measures might be coming in return for his vote. He told reporters “this is the whole deal” and rejected any suggestion it amounts to horse trading:
I’ve been pushing to make this bill as good as it can be. I’ve been taking concerns raised with me by various stakeholders, employers and workers, and we’ve landed with a better, improved bill.
Electric vehicle fair held in Peter Dutton’s electorate
An EV fair has been held in federal opposition leader Peter Dutton’s electorate on Sunday, with electric cars, motorbikes, bicycles, scooters and trucks on display.
The display has been organised by energy advocates Solar Citizens to promote zero-emissions transport at John Scott Park in Samford Village in the seat of Dickson.
Solar Citizens national director Heidi Douglas said those who turn out will have an opportunity to ask questions, take test rides and enjoy a cooking demonstration from celebrity chef Alastair McLeod on an EV-powered barbecue.
We’re running this event off the back of an extremely successful consultation for the first national electric vehicle strategy – where our community members made over 600 submissions, calling for strong fuel efficiency standards to address the national shortage of EVs.
There’s a clear demand in the community for EVs, but we’re just not getting enough of them into the country. People know they can save big bucks by making the switch to an EV – if only they could get access to them.
Rooftop solar is very popular in Queensland and by charging your EV from home solar during the day you can basically run your vehicle for free. With fuel and energy prices rocketing, now is the time for Australians to be able to harness our abundant sunshine to save our hip pocket.
[ad_2]
Source link