Below is a summary version of this edition. Paid subscribers gain access to the full version of the newsletter as well as accessing video content in the members site and also there are back copies of the newsletter.
Visit http://insidecanberra.com/subscribe to select your option.

The Week in Politics

The week started with something very different. The Prime Minister was joined in the Prime Minister’s Courtyard by former War Memorial Director Brendan Nelson, as it was announced that the Prime Minister has written to the Governor-General requesting he seek the approval of Her Majesty The Queen to posthumously award a Victoria Cross for Australia to Ordinary Seaman Edward ‘Teddy’ Sheean.

The Prime Minister said, “The Victoria Cross is the highest award that can be provided to any Australian serviceman or woman for their valour. It is a very serious award. And as Prime Minister and as a government, we have a very special responsibility to ensure that the integrity of the Victoria Cross is upheld for all of those who’ve been honoured by being bestowed, having bestowed upon them that award and all the others that will.”

Dr Nelson spoke about the review process and said, “As the Prime Minister said, awarding a Victoria Cross eight decades after the events is something that should not be entered into lightly and only when the evidence is compelling and the case for doing so is exceptional. And that is precisely the case here. This young man, this young Tasmanian Ordinary seaman, Edward or Teddy Sheean, was the youngest, lowest-ranked sailor on HMAS Armidale. The ship was attacked just after 3:00pm on the 1st of December 1942.”

This week the Prime Minister was busy behind the scenes. He did however front the media again on Friday to provide an update along with the acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly.

The PM had also earlier in the day given a speech for the launch of IBM and soldier on’s skills build program.

The Prime Minister said, “The challenges of supporting veterans that have returned from Afghanistan and the Middle East, most recently, are different to those who have been in Vietnam, Korea or Malaysia or places like that. And then, of course, back to the Second and First World Wars. Every generation that has passed through that period of service has presented new challenges for them. And one of the most interesting challenges, which is a positive one, is what we’re here to talk about today, and that is as part of the Veterans Employment Programme, the programme that I believe we’re seen to be really connecting veterans to workplaces, to jobs, and that requires the skills and the skills investment that has been made here by IBM to ensure that we can equip today’s veterans to be successful in a digital economy. It’s great for them. It’s great for IBM. It’s great for the Australian economy. It’s great for jobs. COVID or no COVID, the challenge is the same of equipping our veterans with skills.”

Later at Parliament House in the courtyard the Prime Minister mostly spoke about the COVID-19 situation including fielding questions about the Ruby Princess inquiry.

On Saturday morning the Prime Minister delivered a commemorative address at the Australian War Memorial to mark 75 years since the end of World War 2.

He shared stories about Australians that had fought in the war and were at the event, Derek Holyoake and Lance Cooke.

Derek was 16 when he joined the Navy. He pretended to be 17. He was on the HMAS Hobart when it was hit by a torpedo. 

Lance was a flight mechanic. He kept our Beaufighters in the air. He checked every spark plug to keep our pilots and navigators safe. And as he said “They were my mates”.

And Les, like Derek, tried to enlist at 16 – except the enlisting officer told him to “try the scouts!” 

Les wasn’t perturbed. He returned at 17 and his Dad signed up too. 

Why did Les join up? He put it simply…”it was the thing to do… you didn’t give it a second thought”

There was another reason too, he said: “to stop the bully”. 

The Prime Minister said, “So Ben Chifley declared 75 years ago; Fellow citizens, the War is over.”

Copyright Reforms to Better Support the Digital Environment

The Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP announced on 13 August 2020 copyright reforms to provide a more flexible and adaptable framework to better support the needs of Australians to access content in an increasingly digital environment.

The proposed changes follow two years of extensive industry consultation and finalise the Government’s response to the copyright recommendations made in the Productivity Commission’s 2016 Intellectual Property Arrangements Report.

Copyright law seeks to create an appropriate balance between competing interests. It is concerned with encouraging the creation and dissemination of works of art and intellect, but it also acknowledges that there are appropriate limits to the rights of copyright holders. Maintaining the correct balance is always a difficult task and this is even more so in the digital age. The reforms seek to maintain this balance and are very welcome given the increasing importance of the digital society.

This article is not legal advice, please contact Mills Oakley for more specific information or advice in this area as required.

By Paul Amarego, Special Counsel and Siobhan Ingall, Associate at Mills Oakley

Mission possible?  Let’s hope so.

Well, Dr Larry Marshall, Chief Executive of CSIRO, certainly thinks so and this was reflected in the title of his address to the National Press Club last Wednesday.  It was:

‘Mission possible – A vision for Australia’s recovery and future resilience.’

But Dr Marshall’s choice of words in the current context was significant.  

He emphasised, quite rightly, Australia’s remarkable record of scientific achievement over such a long period.

Larry’s list of achievements in fields of science and technology is itself impressive, both individually and through his multitude of organisations.

Whether his and others’ success can be repeated in the field of COVID-19 and other deadly viral disease remains to be established. But who knows?  

His optimism has yet to be supported by results – and such words as ‘resilience’ were perhaps not always within the lexicon of researchers.

Those of us who can remember the ancient TV ‘Mission Impossible’ series however, knew that the missions would always turn out to be possible.  

Let us hope that these will occur without the change of prefix!

By Jon Millard

From the Archives

The following content is from Inside Canberra Volume 61, No 604 published on 15 August 2008

Voters stick with Rudd but clouds gather

While the polls remain great for the Rudd Government, it would be foolish to take too much for granted with a slowing of economic growth now a reality and unemployment on the way up. In its latest quarterly economic review, the Reserve Bank forecast 100,000 jobs will be lost in the next 12 months and it could be higher if the financial crisis hitting world economies, because of the US sub prime crisis, worsens. This can be weathered by Rudd. Recall that during the 1993 election campaign, the economy recorded an historic one million unemployed. Yet Keating went on to win the election, mainly because the public would not trust John Hewson and his GST.

Ferguson warns PM on carbon leakage

Reaction to the green paper shows how difficult, politically, dealing with climate change will be for the Rudd Government. It might well mishandle climate change through a combination of timidity and bad design of an emissions trading system (ETS). There were raised eyebrows in Parliament House following the none-too- veiled warning to Rudd by Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson. In Bangkok, referring to the ETS he told Anne Hyland (Fin 9 Aug) the government had to work out a balance which would prevent a carbon leakage, “which means we are pure but all our jobs go offshore”.  He added, “That’s something that neither I nor the great majority of Cabinet will sign up to.” He didn’t literally mean ‘all’ jobs would go offshore, only those involving industries subject to competition from imports or heavily reliant on exports, or both.

Photos from this week

More photos can be viewed or purchased at https://photos.keatingmedia.com.au/

Use the code – (available to paid subscribers) to receive a 50 per cent discount on any photo purchases.

Above is a summary version of this edition. Paid subscribers gain access to the full version of the newsletter as well as accessing video content in the members site and also there are back copies of the newsletter.
Visit http://insidecanberra.com/subscribe to select your option.

Below is a summary version of this edition. Paid subscribers gain access to the full version of the newsletter as well as accessing video content in the members site and also there are back copies of the newsletter.
Visit http://insidecanberra.com/subscribe to select your option.

The Week in Politics

With Parliament not sitting the main focus has been on Victoria’s continued struggle to fight against COVID-19.

The Prime Minister spent Monday in Sydney where he announced that the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission is moving into a new mode, shifting its focus to concentrate on creating jobs and stimulating our economy as we learn to live with this pandemic…

AUSMIN

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women Marise Payne, Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds, United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, and United States Secretary of Defense Mark Esper met in Washington DC on 28 July 2020 for the 30th Australia-US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN). 

You can read the Joint Statement Australia-US Ministerial Consultations here – https://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/united-states-of-america/ausmin/joint-statement-ausmin-2020

Victorian COVID-19 Aged Care crisis

On Wednesday the Prime Minister was back in Canberra and fronted the media with Professor Brendan Murphy who was in his new role as Secretary of the Department of Health….

On Thursday Victoria reported the most COVID-19 cases in a single day with 721 new cases. That figure grabbed a lot of attention so when the Prime Minister assembled the media on Thursday he had to address that situation…

Closing the Gap Agreement

The Prime Minister switched back to discussing the Closing the Gap Agreement and opened by saying, “The issue of achieving those aspirations for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians together are of great significance to our country, not just now but into the future. It is a national aspiration, a national goal, a national task. 

Ken Wyatt, Minister for Indigenous Australians was invited to speak and said, “The concept of Closing the Gap was an idea that arose from the Human Rights Commissioner of the day, Tom Calma. Tom put forward a series of propositions and the first signing of a Closing the Gap Agreement was done by a former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd… 

Pat Turner said, “Today we now have a comprehensive set of commitments from governments that places Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations at the centre of Closing the Gap. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people know what is best for our communities, not governments, and this National Agreement means that decisions of Government on Closing the Gap need to be negotiated and agreed with us.”

On Friday Shadow Minister for Home Affairs Kristina Keneally released a media release that claimed the Government had covered up mistakes made in the Ruby Princess debacle…

Small business – Big task

Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, Kate Carnell AO, and Peter Strong, CEO of Council or Small Business Australia, addressed the National Press Club last Wednesday on the topic of ‘Australian Small Businesses s Sector Critical to Unlocking Jobs’…

By Jon Millard

Subscribers gain access to the full version of the newsletter as well as accessing video content in the members site and also there are back copies of the newsletter.
Visit http://insidecanberra.com/subscribe to select your option.

From the archives

The following content is from Inside Canberra Volume 53, No 219 published on August 4, 2000

Outlook hopeless on land degradation

The most ominous failure of the ALP National Conference went unreported, yet concerned the most serious crisis facing Australia today – the degradation of vast tracts of agricultural land, mainly through salination. Unless dealt with, it will mean a catastrophic reduction in agricultural output, the ruin of infrastructure such as roads, railways and buildings and in the end it will turn hundreds of now viable communities in the hinterland into ghost towns. This issue is infinitely more important than who wins the next election, the threat of inflation, problems of the GST or unemployment. For South Australia and Adelaide, of course, this is an issue of paramount importance – is the State to have a future with a guaranteed supply of clean water or not?

State rights no answer

It was not surprising therefore essay was the source of a resolution put to the national conference states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and SA should see their powers over the catchments of the Murray Darling basin to allow the issue of land degradation to be dealt with on a national basis. Moving the resolution, Ralph Clark, a state SA MP, said the health of the basin was declining at a rate which was outstripping healing efforts. Seconder, Labor Senator Chris Schacht, a member of Federal Labor’s front bench, declared national intervention was required to overcome state rights. The states, he said, had failed to agree on action. Not surprisingly, the resolution was easily defeated, with Victorian Premier Steve Bracks and Queensland Premier Peter Beattie declaring they had no intention of ceding any powers. And that was that.

Cooperation not the answer

This means neither of the Labour Party nor the collision are prepared to act beyond pious appeals for “cooperative” approach is to deal with the problem. The states haven’t enough funds to go anywhere near dealing with salination in the Murray–Darling basin and in the WA wheatbelt. And on basic strategies for the basin, the four States simply cannot agree. If the restoration of health in the basin involved, for example, closing down the cotton industry, no New South Wales government would do so and even if it did, could not possibly afford the massive compensation which would be required for cotton growers. As things now stand, a future Federal Government will not act until degradation of the interior of the continent reaches catastrophic proportions. Just as the States pre-Federation could not even agree on a rail gauge, with the mess eventually having to be fixed by the Commonwealth so the disagreement by the states over land degradation will eventually have to be addressed by the Commonwealth, if it’s not too late.

Beazley unconvincing on trade

As we have been forecasting for months, the feature of the National Conference was the stoush over “free trade”. Predictably, the counter argument for a “free trade” from Doug Cameron, national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, was defeated on faction numbers 105 to 82. If the outcome was ever in doubt, it was a raised when Kim Beazley entered the debate to support Peter Cook, Shadow Trade Minister, and oppose the Cameron amendment. The conference simply could not deliver a slap in the face to its leader on such a critical issue following the term of Labor had been in since the Della Bosco furorel. Yet Cameron made the best speech of the conference and received the greatest applause of any speaker. Cameron said later the issue was not over, and it isn’t. Labor will have to take account of the fact whatever the details of the argument, the electorate is overwhelmingly on Cameron’s side and against the free trade dictum of the Labor establishment. Beazley spoke with considerable vigor, but the content was anything but convincing. For example, he would not have impressed industry with his assertion “nought, five, 10% tariffs make no darned difference at all. Does it mean a Labor government would accept the recommendation of the productivity commission the remaining 5% tariff would be abolished? We doubt it, but why leave it hanging as Beazley has? The trade policy approved by the national conference is basically the same as that followed by the Hawke and Keating Government’s and then the Howard Government. Its core is to plead with our trading partners to open their markets to Australian exports, particularly agricultural products and lead as the most open market in the world.

Boosting bids for airport

Late last month, David Mortimer, chairman of the Sydney Airport Corporation, officiated at the launch of the upgrade of the international terminal at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport. He declared to an audience of aviation VIPs the $600 million cost of the terminal extensions was well spent. What he didn’t touch on was the anger of the international airlines, including of course Qantas and Ansett, at being asked to make major contribution to this spending through a 130% increase in aeronautical charges. The airlines, with good reason, believe they, and ultimately the passengers, are being asked where exorbitant charges far above CPI increases in the interest of Finance Minister John Fahey and his department maximising the building of KSA, the “jewel in the crown” of Australian airports. Yet there is considerable doubt whether the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will be prepared to endorse such a massive increase by the Sydney Airport Corporation which is in a monopoly position. Alan Fels said last week it would be a month or two before a final ruling was made on the proposed aeronautical charges at KSA. He gave more than a hint of being unimpressed saying it is a very large increase their seeking. He added most people expect there will be some reduction on what’s proposed.

Above is a summary version of this edition. Paid Subscribers gain access to the full version of the newsletter as well as accessing video content in the members site and also there are back copies of the newsletter.
Visit http://insidecanberra.com/subscribe to select your option.

More photos can be viewed or purchased at https://photos.keatingmedia.com.au/

Below is a summary version of this edition. Paid subscribers gain access to the full version of the newsletter as well as accessing video content in the members site and also there are back copies of the newsletter.
Visit http://insidecanberra.com/subscribe to select your option.

The Week in Politics

This week Labor finally got what they wanted from the Government in terms of further details regarding JobKeeper and JobSeeker. The Government had consistently said they would provide an update this week when the Treasurer provided the Economic and Fiscal update. Prime Minister Scott Morrison got the jump on that when announcing the plan from October through to March at a press conference on Tuesday.

One of the major announcements came on Tuesday when Prime Minister Scott Morrison entered the Prime Minister’s courtyard alone. This was due to the special COVID-19 protocols that Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was required to follow after receiving a travel exemption to visit Canberra from Melbourne. The Treasure after removing a mask entered the courtyard after a short delay.

The Prime Minister and Treasurer announced that JobKeeper and JobSeeker would be extended through to March 2021. Before getting to that announcement the Prime Minister briefly updated the media about the COVID-19 fight in Victoria. He said, “I can confirm that I have spoken with Commodore Hill overnight and Lieutenant General Frewen again this morning, the ADF resources are in place in Victoria now, working closely with the Victorian government, making some real ground in terms of the arrangements they are putting in place, I intend to speak to the Premier later today, and have been in regular contact as you would expect, but today, it is to address the other significant element of the crisis and the challenge that our nation faces. We have always been addressing this crisis as a dual headed one. The health crisis and the economic crisis. The COVID-19 recession that it has become, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, and our national response to both of these challenges.”

JobKeeper press conference

The details that everyone wanted to hear were about the extension of the support programs. 

The JobKeeper Payment will be extended by six months to 28 March 2021 and the temporary Coronavirus Supplement for those on income support will be extended until 31 December 2020.

At a doorstop interview that followed Labor’s Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers said, “Labor is inclined to support what the Government has announced when it comes to JobKeeper. We will work through the detail of what’s being proposed. When we see the legislation, if there are improvements that can be made, we will seek to make those improvements. We’ve been responsible and constructive throughout this recession, and we will continue to be so. We will continue to put people and their jobs before politics. We will continue to point out where the Government can do a better job with what they’re proposing to do to deal with this first recession in three decades.”

Also on Wednesday the Treasurer when speaking to Karl Stefanovic took an opportunity to prepare people for the shocking numbers that would appear in his Economic and Fiscal update the next day. 

The Treasurer said, “You are going to see eye watering numbers around debt and deficit. Numbers that Australians have never, ever seen before. That’s the harsh reality of this pandemic. The coronavirus has required the Government to spend unprecedented amounts of money to support people in need.”

Economic and Fiscal Update

On the big day the Treasurer was joined by Finance Minister Mathias Cormann as he let the Australian people know that real cost of protecting lives and livelihoods as a result of the coronavirus. 

The Treasurer said, “As a consequence of lower receipts and higher payments the deficit is estimated to be $85.8 billion or 4.3 per cent of GDP in 2019/20 and $184.5 billion or 9.7 per cent of GDP in 2020/21. 

Finance Minister Cormann said, “So yes, we find ourselves in a very challenging fiscal position, but we need to keep things in perspective. We are in a better, stronger, more resilient position than most other countries around the world.” 

Senator Cormann later asked the media what was the alternative. “You asked about the levels of debt as a result of where we are here today. I ask you, what is the alternative? Are you suggesting that we should not have provided the support we did to boost our health system, to protect jobs, to protect livelihoods? I mean, in the circumstances what was the alternative?”

The Shadow Treasurer responded by saying, “These are dark days and confronting numbers in the budget update today. The defining features of what has been released today are the deepest downturn on record and high and rising unemployment. We now know the Government expects 240,000 Australians to lose their job between now and Christmas. Australians already knew that things were grim when it came to jobs in the economy, but what they desperately wanted to hear today from the Government was a plan with how to deal with that unemployment. Australians who are looking to the Government for a plan to deal with this jobs crisis in this recession and a plan to create new jobs in the recovery would have been deeply disappointed by the Government’s failures to present that plan today.”

Chalmers also said, “What we got today wasn’t a plan, it wasn’t even half an update. It wasn’t a plan, it was a pamphlet.”

The Treasurer and Finance Minister did release a 184 page update document which can be viewed at https://budget.gov.au/2020-efu/downloads/JEFU2020.pdf

The National Cabinet again met on Friday and the Prime Minister was joined by the Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly to provide an update.

At the time of the press conference the Prime Minister announced There have been over 13,000 confirmed cases in Australia and sadly 139 people have died.

National Cabinet recommitted to the suppression strategy to address COVID-19. The goal remains suppression of COVID-19 until a point in time a vaccine or effective treatments are available, with the goal of no local community transmission.

The National Cabinet agreed to move to single-touch environmental approvals underpinned by national environmental standards for Commonwealth environmental matters.

The Prime Minister kept his press conference to just over 30 minutes to allow the media’s attention to focus on the Treasurer’s National Press Club Address.

Early in the Treasurer’s speech he said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are just over half way through 2020 and it has already been a devastating year.

From the drought to the fires and now COVID-19.

Lives have been lost.

Businesses have closed.

Family dreams shattered.

It’s not right, it’s not fair, but it is our harsh reality.

Decent, hard-working Australians from all walks of life, through no fault of their own, are paying a heavy price.

Despite the darkness, we have seen once again the remarkable spirit and strength of the Australian character.

In his conclusion the Treasurer said, “This is a difficult time for Australians. It will test many of us like we have never been tested before.”

No one should underestimate the size of the mountain we have to climb.

But we can be confident that as a nation we have the ability to manage these challenges and the plan to do it.

Underpinning the recovery has been a strong spirit of collaboration across the country.

From the Commonwealth and the States and Territories through the new National Cabinet.

From our big cities to our small towns.

From business to the unions and the banks. 

Australians have come together to tackle this crisis.

If we continue to work together in the spirit of cooperation that we have shown in our response to date, we will emerge stronger.

There is hope for the future.”

The Leader of the Opposition gave his opinion on the Economic and Fiscal update when he held a doorstop interview on Friday afternoon. He opened by saying, “Yesterday was a lost opportunity from the Federal Government. A lost opportunity to explain to those 240,000 Australians who the Government says will lose their job between now and Christmas that the Government has a plan to actually create employment…”

JobKeeper and Income Support Details

On Tuesday the Prime Minister and Treasurer announced the long awaited details for JobKeeper and other support payment beyond the first stage which ends on September 27. Below are details for the JobKeeper scheme until March 2021.

The payment rate of $1,500 per fortnight for eligible employees and business participants will be reduced to $1,200 per fortnight from 28 September 2020 and to $1,000 per fortnight from 4 January 2021. From 28 September 2020, lower payment rates will apply for employees and business participants that worked fewer than 20 hours per week…

The Nationals claim credit for helping cattle industry

Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management David Littleproud has said the decision of the Attorney-General not to appeal against the Federal Court of Australia’s decision in Brett Cattle Company Pty Ltd v Minister for Agriculture  was a strong vindication for Northern Australia’s cattle producers…

Northern Territory enters the space race

The NT and Federal government are teaming up to take advantage of the territories location to expand the Top End’s space sector,

Federal Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Northern Territory Government and the Australian Space Agency came at an opportune time…

From the Archives

The following content is from Inside Canberra Volume 48, No 28 published on July 28, 1995.

Keating Lectures

When Paul Keating was Treasurer he arranged for a special briefing on basic economics for his mate John Laws, host of Australia’s biggest talk-back radio show at the Reserve Bank headquarters in Sydney. Mr Keating said at the time:- “Who needs the Press Gallery when you have got John laws “. 

Well maybe after his Wednesday appearance on the Laws show Mr Keating might decide the radio whiz needs another course in economics or he might go back to the Press Gallery. At least the gallery know what he is talking about. Mr Laws and his callers on Wednesday showed a deplorable red necked degree of economic illiteracy which plainly had the PM boiling. Hence the Pryor cartoon in the Canberra Times on Thursday showing Mr Keating in the Sun King garb saying into the microphone “Have you ever asked yourself John how 95% of your listeners can be wrong 100% of the time”. Which is funny – but most members of the Caucus are not laughing. The day after Wayne Goss scrapped home by a handful of votes and everyone was saying how all in the Labor Party – State and Federal – had to listen to the electors. Mr Keating was not listening, he was lecturing. He simply cannot understand how the dopey bastards can’t see we have got a terrific economy and they should be thanking the Government, not criticising it. If Mr Keating keeps this tack up he is for the high jump. And perhaps the only person left in the whole world who can tell him this is Kim Beazley.

Howard needs “Honest John”

Can John Howard win the next election if he is no longer widely regarded as “Honest John”? Mr Howard appears to be going the right way about finding out. His appearance before the Senate Select Committee on Airport Noise on Tuesday reeked of hypocrisy and opportunism. Rightly pulled up by Labor’s Senator Michael Forshaw for comments in 1990 that complaints about aircraft noise under the east-west runway were “grossly exaggerated”, Mr Howard asked to forget about what he then said. This, he says, is because the noise now generated was much greater than expected. He was also reminded that in 1989 the Leader of the National Party, Tim Fischer and the then Opposition spokesman on Aviation, Charles Blunt, urged speedier construction of the third runway to end the dangerous use of the east-west cross runway.

Runway politics and lives

Committing himself to opening the east-west runway should he come to power Mr Howard said:- “I am unconvinced there are any strong safety arguments and it is purely political bloody mindedness by the Government not to do so”. Perhaps he is right. After all cross runways are used all over the world and in fact San Francisco have two sets of parallel runways operating. But if Mr Howard comes to power and orders the opening of the east-west runway against the safety advice of his experts he better start praying for the good health of the air traffic controllers. Should there be a major disaster at the intersection of the east west and the parallel runways, he would have no alternative but to resign.

Business council wants a brawl

Incidentally the reaction of the Business Council to the BIE report was much more robust. Mr Glen Dudley, chairman of the Council’s Transport Task Force, said in part “I am therefore calling on the Government to act to immediately reduced leave and on-costs in the coastal shipping industry…”. What is Mr Dudley on about? The Australian Constitution does not allow Government to arbitrarily set pay and conditions for workers. This is done under the IR system by way of award changes or enterprise bargaining. Certainly The ASA statement did not call for such arbitrary action. Mr Dudley went further saying that if users are to benefit from coastal shipping changes then greater competition may also be necessary. “The removal of cabotage is an obvious starting point…” he said. One wonders what BHP thinks of Business Council reaction. BHP being the largest ship owner and user on the coast and the largest member of both the Council and the ASA. Certainly BHP and the ASA are not in favour of the removal of cabotage.

More photos can be viewed or purchased at
https://photos.keatingmedia.com.au

Below is a summary version of this edition. Subscribers gain access to the full version of the newsletter as well as accessing video content in the members site and also there are backcopies of the newsletter.
Visit http://insidecanberra.com/subscribe to select your option.

The Week in Politics

At a press conference on Friday last week the Prime Minister let the gathered media know that he would be spending some time with Jenny and his girls. He also said, “And a reminder everyone, again, to everybody down in Victoria, the whole country is with you. All of the country is with you. The resources of the nation are there to support you at this very, very difficult time, to do what is necessary to get life as closely back to normal as we possibly can in the shortest period of time. 

He was perhaps thinking back to the time when he was heavily criticised for holidaying in Hawaii during the bush fires. The Prime Minister was again criticised when this time he attended the Cronulla Sharks match on Saturday night. 

After working so hard for the country he deserves some time off but a photo that was shared on Twitter by Peter FitzSimons set off the hateful comments.

In an interview on Monday with Ray Hadley it was Hadley that also emphasised the need for Prime Minister Morrison to take some down time. Hadley said to Morrison, “Do us a favour, will you? At some stage, take at least one day off. Turn the phone off and just absolutely relax. I know you went to the footy and there are people, a minority of people are blowing up about that. But I just think that, you know, the same message for the Premiers in Queensland and New South Wales and the Ministers. Everyone needs a break. A circuit breaker, a 24 hour period where you just don’t have to answer any questions or deal with the nonsense we’re dealing with at the moment.”

The Palace letters did show that the Queen was not aware of the decision Governor-General John Kerr would make in sacking Whitlam but still the debate rages.

Speaking at a doorstop interview the Labor leader Anthony Albanese said, “It is, I think, a blight on our character as a nation that a democratically-elected Government was dismissed…

1000 Defence Force personnel will be deployed to Victoria

With the situation worsening in Victoria the Prime Minister released a joint statement with Premier of Victoria Dan Andrews. It announced that a further 1000 Defence Force personnel will be deployed to Victoria to support the coronavirus response.

JobTrainer 

On Thursday the Prime Minister was joined by Senator Michaelia Cash, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small And Family Business to discuss the latest unemployment figures and to announce JobTrainer. Morrison announced the government will invest $2 billion to give hundreds of thousands of Australians access to new skills by retraining and upskilling them into sectors with job opportunities, as the economy recovers from COVID-19.

Labor Force Figures

The Labor Force figures released on Thursday showed:

Employment increased 210,800 to 12,328,500 people. Full-time employment decreased 38,100 to 8,489,100 people and part-time employment increased 249,000 to 3,839,400 people.

Unemployment increased 69,300 to 992,300 people.

Unemployment rate increased 0.4 pts to 7.4%.

Participation rate increased by 1.3 pts to 64.0%.

Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 64.3 million hours to 1,664.7 million hours.

$400 million incentive to boost jobs for screen industry

On Friday the Prime Minister visited the movie industry locations on the Gold Coast to announce a $400 million incentive to boost jobs for the screen industry. 

National Farmers Federation President wants new IR and more for the bush

Fiona Simson the National Farmers Federation (NFF) President gave a broad ranging speech in which she outlined what the NFF is after for a regional agricultural recovery.

She mentioned her last address to the club in August was about outlining a bold long-term growth for the next 100 billion industry being the farm gate and agriculture.

“If only we’d had a crystal ball to see what was ahead” she said.

From the Archives

The following content is from Inside Canberra Volume 64, No 742
published on July 15, 2011

Abbott wins over the people – for now

Lincoln once observed, you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. Tony Abbott has not quite done the impossible, but this week’s Newspoll – taken before the details of the carbon tax were announced – finds that 60% of the people have been fooled by Abbott into resisting the tax. A mere 30% are in favour of the carbon tax. This is an astonishing achievement. He has managed to win a debate by sheer force of assertion and defeated the government which had the considerable advantage of possessing all the facts.

Wealthy Australia cries poor mouth

Abbott was also able to convince householders they would be in dire straits should  a  carbon  tax  arrive.  Despite  the  sympathetic  noises  coming  from the  pollies  about  cost  of  living  pressures,  the  country  is  in  good  shape, unemployment  is  below  5.0  per  cent,  and Australia  has  recently  gone  to the lead as the wealthiest nation (barring some little tax havens) in terms of income per head, exceeding the US for the first time this century. (True, there are soft patches and David Jones has warned of a downturn in retailing. The government should think again about rushing into surplus in 2012/13. The public is not the slightest bit interested in the surplus target and it would be foolish to soften the economy by pulling money out of the private sector). On top of that the carbon tax is supported in near unanimity by climate scientists and economists.

Treasury modelling shows GST did not hurt economy

An interesting chart from Treasury shows how little changes in taxes makes to longer term prosperity. It modelled GDP out to 2050, with and without the GST operating. At 2050 GDP was modelled as exactly the same without the GST. A clear mistake the government made was to delay the introduction of the carbon tax to July next year. This gives Abbott another year to do his Mandrake the Magician act in persuading the people there are terrors before them which don’t exist. It would have been far better to have started the scheme, say at $10 a tonne, in July this year.

Abbott’s difficulty with carbon comp

The Government has immeasurably added to Abbott’s difficulties once the carbon tax is operating by its generous assistance measures, including tax cuts. Abbott must now go to the next election promising to cut all the benefits the Gillard government gave for compensation for price changes caused by the carbon tax. To claw back money from pensioners on the grounds there will not be a carbon tax under an Abbott government will be a very hard sell.

Turnbull attacks Abbott

Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull has intervened in the debate in a manner which can only hurt Abbott. In an interview with ABC New England, Turnbull on Wednesday said Abbott had twice changed his position on a carbon tax. Turnbull says Abbott moved from supporting a carbon tax, to supporting a market based emissions trading scheme, and then opposing both policies outright. And he says having done that, Abbott resigned from shadow cabinet in 2009 to challenge him for the leadership. But Turnbull says he has given Abbott the “consistency and loyalty” that he, himself, did not enjoy as leader. “He [Abbott] had been in support of a carbon tax at one point, he supported an emissions trading scheme,” Turnbull said. He added, “Then – and I’m not suggesting that he did so other than what were for good reasons – he changed his position and resigned from the shadow cabinet and challenged me for the leadership and was successful. I have given Tony Abbott a consistency and loyalty that I didn’t receive consistently from my colleagues when I was leader. He said the Coalition supported an emissions trading scheme under John Howard and went to the 2007 election ‘with that as our policy’. After Tony Abbott took over from me as leader of the Liberal Party the policy was changed to one of absolute opposition to any emissions trading scheme.” Turnbull has said he still personally supports a market-based emissions trading scheme and has described the Opposition’s “direct action” plan as expensive and easy to dump. But when asked if the Government’s carbon price plan has merit, he was more circumspect. “Look, I think the best thing I can say is not express a personal view and just simply say that the Coalition’s policy is to be opposed to it,” he said

Sad views on climate

Most disheartening, for those of us who are thinking about the future of our grandchildren, is the latest Lowy poll showing combating climate change has continued to drop among issues ranked as priorities by Australians – with only 46 per cent seeing it as “important” compared with 75 per cent in 2007. The number of people willing to pay an extra $10 each month for energy fell to 19 per cent – down from 25 per cent last year. Does Tony Abbott ever think of what the history books will say about him? He has succeeded in persuading a majority of Australians that global warming is not a threat, or if it is, little needs to be done about it now. All of this is a devastating comment on the failure of Julia Gillard, who despite all the advantages and prestige of her office cannot match Abbott. But she is at least prepared to be questioned about her policies. Abbott on the other hand has rejected many offers of an appearance on Meet the Press and the 7.30 Report. He knows that if an experienced interviewer had five minutes with him, he would have trouble explaining whether his top priority is to become PM or to see to it that Australia does its bit to avert a climate change catastrophe.

UN endorses same sex marriage

The debate on same sex marriage at the ALP National Conference in December will be a test for Gillard. The left delegates at the conference will be pushing for same sex marriage to be part of the ALP platform. Gillard, although from the left herself, is unwilling to endorse it because she fears widespread community opposition. It has nothing at all to do with her beliefs. But she is reading the politics the wrong way. Those who have a strong aversion to same sex marriage, enough to change their vote at an election, would be small in number. Australians are not highly religious and less than nine per cent attend church regularly. Those who are most against same sex marriage would in the majority be non-Labor voters anyway. Those arguing at the conference for acceptance of same sex marriage have recently acquired an ally of some significance – the United Nations. The ABC has reported the UN Human Rights Council has passed a resolution seeking equal rights for everyone regardless of their sexual orientation, marking progress for gay rights despite strong Arab and African opposition. The resolution was passed narrowly with 23 votes in favour, 19 against and three abstentions, after an emotional debate that saw African states accusing South Africa of breaking ranks with the region and siding with the West after it introduced the issue.

Below is a summary version of this edition. Subscribers gain access to the full version of the newsletter as well as accessing video content in the members site and also there are backcopies of the newsletter.
Visit http://insidecanberra.com/subscribe to select your option.

The Week in Politics

The Eden-Monaro by-election held our attention over the weekend. As the votes were counted it was Fiona Kotvojs for the Liberals that saw a swing of 1.35% to her and a -3.29 swing against Labor, however it was Labor’s Kristy McBain that would claim victory, Kotvojs conceded defeat on Thursday.  

On Sunday Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann announced that he would be leaving politics. He fronted the press in Perth and said, “Having decided not to recontest the next election, I can confirm that I have advised the Prime Minister that the end of this year would be an appropriate time for an orderly transition in my portfolio.”

On Monday as had been seen on the previous two Mondays, it was infrastructure announcement day, This time the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments will support construction jobs across Victoria by jointly investing an additional $525 million to deliver shovel-ready infrastructure projects and urgent road safety upgrades. 

Subscribe to read the full newletter

Political Waste

Timing is everything in politics. There is no point in making an important political announcement if it is going to be overwhelmed by events. This occurred yesterday when two federal politicians whose electorates run along the NSW and Victorian border at the very time that the premiers of Victoria and NSW were announcing that that same border was going to be closed.

Government Services Minister Says All of Government Services will be online by 2025

On Tuesday the Minister for Government Services Stuart Robert made a broad policy statement regarding the future of Government Services in a digital age at the National Press Club. Starting his speech with the infamous line from President Ronald Reagan the 40th President of the United States – “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”. The line President Reagan said are the most terrifying words in the English language.

Minister Robert went on to explain how he thought his departments would make this a statement citizen will believe. He said there have been failures which become public such as 30 million call blocks every year from genuine callers and long wait times, but he said those have all been rectified. Talking on the Government Disaster Recovery Payments the Minister said the average call wait time was measured in seconds and the payments were in most circumstances made in minutes. He said, “We only make mistakes once”.

Go Local First’ National Campaign to Support Small Businesses

A national campaign launched today at the Mocan and Green Grout Café in New Acton. The campaign will support the recovery of Australia’s small businesses by calling on all Australians to ‘Go Local First’.

Funded by the Morrison Government, the campaign led by the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) will urge Australians to ‘Go Local First’ when they are purchasing products and services to help the small business sector get back on its feet.

The campaign will highlight the vital role of small businesses in our nation’s economic recovery from COVID-19.

From the Archives

The following content is from Inside Canberra Volume 58, No 454
published on July 8, 2005

IR hurting Howard as polls swing to Labor

Only a week ago, in the wake of the Latham rage against the ALP and Beazley, there was talk of Labor needing to find another Leader. After this week’s polls, no-one now is talking about a new leader. The sudden slump in the Government’s standing can only be a reflection of concern among voters about John Howard’s IR agenda. Right from the moment he unveiled the radical changes, it was obvious there would be a bad reaction to it. This is confirmed by the ACNielsen poll, which found 83% of those surveyed were aware of the Government’s planned changes to IR, with only 17% saying they were unaware. Of those who were aware, 60% opposed the changes and only 21% supported. The three latest polls (taken early July and after the IR “reform” announcement) all pointed to a surge of support for Labor. Nielsen was best for Labor, with a finding it had a two-party preferred lead of 54% (ALP), to 46% (Coalition). Morgan and Newspoll had the two-party preferred vote much closer.

Latham attack on ALP – Beazley, fails

Averaging the three polls gives the ALP a 39.8% primary vote to the Coalition’s 42%. This produces a two-party preferred average vote of ALP 51.5%, to the Coalition’s 48.5%. The polls also disagreed on approval ratings. Nielsen had Howard’s approval rating down 10% (to 49%), and Beazley down 4%, to 42%. Yet, as preferred PM, Howard dropped 5% (to 50%), and Beazley rose 4%, to 39%. Newspoll had Howard’s approval rating down 7% (to 47%), with Beazley down 2%, to 39%. As better PM, Newspoll had Howard down 3% (to 51%), and Beazley up 1%, to 29%. Given the bagging Beazley and the ALP copped from Latham, Nielsen had some interesting data on this. Asked who had done the better job as ALP Leader, 57% said Beazley and 26% Latham. Asked do you agree with Latham that Labor is “beyond repair”, 54% disagreed and 29% agreed. Asked whether they agreed with the statement that Beazley stood for nothing, 52% disagreed, and 36% agreed. In summary, the old adage still is relevant – Government’s are voted out of office, Oppositions are not voted in. There is a long way to go till the next election, but Howard, in pursuit of his ambitions to smash the unions, may have thrown Beazley and the ALP a lifeline.

ACCI spells out IR game

While saying it will counter the union advertising campaign against IR ‘reform’, the Government  is  yet  to  even  sketch  out  the  arguments  for  much  of  the  changes. Unburdened by the political necessity to soften the intent of the sweeping changes, ACCI has spelt out what the game is all about in its analysis of the proposals. As ACCI CEO, Peter Hendy, is a former chief of staff to Peter Reith and Peter Anderson, (who runs workplace policy for ACCI) a former staffer to Tony Abbott, it can be assumed they are well plugged in to the aim of the IR changes. The only reason Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews, has advanced for taking the minimum wage from the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and giving it to the new Australian Fair Pay Commission (AFPC), is that the AIRC has not applied “sufficient rigour” to the economic analysis of what flows from its decisions. The Commission rejects this.”

Pell,churches speak out

It is not just the unions which have attacked this proposal. Concern has been expressed by the Australian Council of Churches. Most significantly, Cardinal George Pell, (a close friend of Howard) and a social conservative, has warned the Government against “overreaching.” He says – “We’ve had a long period of prosperity in Australia and I think that means that the necessity for radical change needs to be established.” In its support for the new proposed threshold, ACCI does not attempt to put a figure on the number of jobs this would create. The Government’s ‘guesstimate’ is 75,000, yet there is no solid evidence it would create any jobs at all. ACCI is inconsistent in its argument on unfair dismissal. It comments on claims the proposed ceiling would create a disincentive to the growth of businesses under 100 employees (because they would not want to grow to over 99 and face unfair dismissals rules). ACCI says such a claim “is plain wrong.” And – “Employers do not stop their businesses growing simply to avoid employment obligations.” Exactly! That is the core of the argument against the claim unfair dismissals legislation is a handicap to job creation. As ACCI says, if a business is growing an employer doesn’t stop its growth because of unfair dismissals.”

Photos from this week

More photos can be viewed or purchased at
https://photos.keatingmedia.com.au

Below is a summary version of this edition. Subscribers gain access to the full version of the newsletter as well as accessing video content in the members site and also there are backcopies of the newsletter.
Visit http://insidecanberra.com/subscribe to select your option.

The Week in Politics

The Government are looking to break a 100-year trend where a government has not won a by-election seat from the opposition since December 18, 1920.

Liberal candidate Fiona Kotvojs is contesting the Eden-Monaro by-election but she is facing an uphill battle if we can believe a poll from the Australia Institute. 

The poll has the Labor candidate Kristy McBain 52% to 48% with the two party preferred numbers.

In the primary vote McBain leads with 38.1%, Kotvojs 37.5%, the Greens Cathy Griff has 7.3% and the Nationals candidate Trevor Hicks on 5%.

The voters in Eden-Monaro will be casting their vote tomorrow.

Infrastructure $1 billion announcement for NSW

The week has been mostly focussed on announcements by the government about infrastructure and defence as well as campaigning.

It all kicked off on Monday with the Prime Minister in Sydney to jointly announce a $1 billion investment in shovel-ready infrastructure projects and road safety upgrades.

Environmental Approval for Snowy Hydro 2.0

On Tuesday morning the Prime Minister flew by helicopter to visit the site of Snowy 2.0 at Lobs Hole in Kosciuszko National Park 

Dr Kotvojs was on hand to introduce the Prime Minister , Minister for Energy Angus Taylor, and the Minister for Environment, Sussan Ley.

The big announcement was Australia’s largest ever renewable energy project, Snowy 2.0, has been given the green light. The government said the project would create thousands of new jobs and put downward pressure on electricity prices.

$1.35 billion cyber security investment 

Also on Tuesday the government announced Australia’s largest ever investment in Cyber Security with $1.35 billion over the next decade to enhance the cyber security capabilities and assistance provided to Australians through the Australian Signals Directorate and the Australian Cyber Security Centre.

$270 billion to defence spending over 10 years

There was more to come on the defence front. The Prime Minister visited the Australia Defence Force Academy to deliver a speech during which he launched the Australian Government’s 2020 Defence Strategic Update and the 2024 Structure Plan.

“My first priority is keeping Australians safe,” the Prime Minister said.

Prime Minister visits Electro Optic Systems

On Thursday the Prime Minister was again talking defence and was again out on the campaign trail with Fiona Kotvojs.This time they visited Electro Optic Systems Pty Ltd (EOS) which is an Australian technology company operating in the space and defence markets.

The Prime Minister used the occasion to strongly endorse Kotvojs as the Liberal Party candidate as he was streamed live on Facebook.

Albo on the campain trail

On Friday it was Anthony Albanese who was doing what he could to get Kristy McBain elected as the member for Eden-Monaro. The opposition leader joined McBain in Narooma for a doorstop interview.

A Change In Our Defence Posture

Professor Owen Harries died on the weekend. He was famous as a promoter of the ‘realist’ view of geo-politics. Harries supported the Vietnam war because he was concerned about the expansionism of China but he opposed the Iraq war because he believed the neo-conservative approach of trying to democratize the Middle East, was an exercise in futility.

In a tribute to Professor Harries, the current Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has adopted a realist approach to our future defence posture.

By John McDonnell 

Joint Council on Closing the Gap Communique

The Joint Council met today and made recommendations about a National Agreement on Closing the Gap. The National Agreement is based on, and underpinned by, Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander peoples’ priorities. It is built around four new Priority Reforms that will change the way governments work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 

The Priority Reforms are:

Developing and strengthening structures to ensure the full involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in shared decision making at the national, state and local or regional level and embedding their ownership, responsibility and expertise to close the gap

From the Archives

The following content is from Inside Canberra Volume 63, No 693
published on July 2, 2010

Elections: No rush, but don’t delay too long

We don’t know when Julia Gillard will call an election, nor the date of the poll. Sundays are good days to go Government House seeking an election. The shots of Gillard leaving for, arriving at, and coming back from Yarralumla, would be all over evening TV and, on Monday morning, would dominate the news. Before that, she has to give a little time for the aura of Prime Minister to settle over her. Also, the new PM would want to demonstrate she is not rushing into an election just because of good polls. On the other hand, she is being told by many MPs the sooner she jumps in and takes advantage of her popularity, the better.

Reuters poll trend good for Gillard

Reuters Poll Trend – which analysed all the polls this week – has the two-party preferred as ALP 51.6%, Coalition 48.4% (a gap of 3.2%), bettering the thin advantage Rudd had in the last Reuters Poll Trend, of only 1.4%. The improvement under Gillard would have been even greater, but for a strange Morgan poll. It showed that after Gillard took over, Labor was 2% behind the Coalition. All the other polls – Newspoll, Nielsen, Essential and Galaxy – showed Labor improving with the departure of Rudd. As ‘Preferred PM’, Gillard has opened up a 19.2% lead over Tony Abbott, an increase on the last reading of Rudd, where the lead was 15.8%.

Late August, early Sept looking likely

The election will not be next year because of the NSW state election in March, nor can it be as late as November/December, because of the Victorian state election on 24 November. This suggests that the latest date for an election could be the first or second Saturday in November. More likely it will be soonish, 28 August or 4 September. Gillard need not worry about being accused of taking the Parliament out early on these dates. The average time between elections since 1949 is two-and-a-half years, and a late-August, early-September election would be around the average.

Gillard not hurt by her frankness as an atheist

Julia Gillard will not be hurt by revealing that she is an atheist. The founding fathers wisely decided that Australia should have a secular Constitution, not attached to any religion. Of the 12 Prime Ministers since the war that preceeded her, Kevin Rudd alone was overtly Christian. He wore it like a neon sign on his sleeve. Press conferences outside church on a Sunday were common. Neither Curtin, Chifley, Menzies, Holt, Gorton, McMahon, Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Keating nor Howard were regularly seen on their knees – apart from funerals and weddings. Hawke, as PM, was an agnostic, and Whitlam a proud atheist. Whitlam earned the undying hatred of the churches when he removed sales tax from the contraceptive pill for women. The general population thought it a great idea.”

Emerson opposes lease restrictions

On 16 June, in an interview on radio in Canberra, Craig Emerson was forthright about his opposition to the policy: “We believe in competition. We believe it is good, more competition is better. And when you knock competitors out of the market, then the others that remain in the market know that they don’t have to face that stiff competition. And the potential losers from that are the supermarket customers in the ACT. So we don’t support the policy of the government here in the ACT”. Inside Canberra finds the arguments of Emerson curious. If Woolworths and Coles continue to win choice sites for new supermarket leases, surely that amounts to lessening competition and greater movement towards a supermarket duopoly. The Commonwealth has the power to strike down decisions of territory governments. Rudd did not use the powers to side with Emerson, and we doubt that Gillard will. Often forgotten in the argument about consumers’ rights are the rights of suppliers to Woolies and Coles. Be it pig farmers, potato growers, or biscuit manufacturers, the two supermarket giants can wring tough supply deals from them.”

Photos from this week

More photos can be viewed or purchased at
https://photos.keatingmedia.com.au

Below is a summary version of the latest newsletter. To read the full newsletter you need to subscribe. As a subscriber you gain access to our membership site which includes back copies and access to video content from Inside Canberra forums and other content filmed at Parliament House or when we get out and about. Go here to select your subscription.

The Week in Politics

The theme this week followed on from the Prime Minister’s visit to Polo Flat where he spoke about infrastructure and jobs as part of the Snowy 2.0 project. Polo Flat is a construction site for the concrete segment factory.

On Monday Prime Minister Scott Morrison was on hand at West Pennant Hills to do a drive through of the NorthConnex tunnel, a major milestone for the M1-M2 link in Sydney’s north. 

This week the government made several announcements about funding to unlock infrastructure jobs around the country. The total funding announcements, across all projects was close to $1 billion dollars.

Both Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Leader of the Opposition Anthony Albanese were supporting their candidates for the upcoming Eden-Monaro by-election.

The Prime Minister visited Allied Natural Wood Exports woodchip mill with Minister Littleproud and Dr Fiona Kotvojs, Liberal candidate for Eden-Monaro. 

The Prime Minister announced four new initiatives to support the forestry industry, wine producers and apple growers hit by the bushfires and the effects of COVID-19 are set to form a major plank in the rebuilding effort in communities across Australia.

Albanese gave a plug for Labor’s Kristy McBain when speaking at the National Press Club on Wednesday. 

When talking about Kristy McBain during the Q&A session Albanese said, “people should cast a vote for Kristy McBain. She’s the outstanding candidate. She’s the only person as well who, I will get a chance for an ad here, the only person who their party wanted. The truth is that the Libs and Nats were too busy fighting each other within and fighting against that went on for weeks which is why the by-election was delayed. Kristy McBain was our first choice. She’s the best choice for Eden-Monaro.”

Albanese also fronted the media at Parliament House on Tuesday along with Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus as they called for a Royal Commission into Robodebt.

On Thursday the Prime Minister was in Sydney with Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety, and the Arts to announce a $250 million JobMaker plan to restart Australia’s creative economy.

The week ended with another National Cabinet Meeting and with the announcement that Australia and New Zealand will host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, also the Finance Minister issued a media release with the monthly financial statements for May.

When It Comes To Zero Emissions – Renewables Won’t Cut It

In her recent Quarterly Essay “The Coal Curse – resources, climate and Australia’s future”, Professor Judith Brett argues that our best prospect for a prosperous future is to move to a manufacturing economy powered by renewable energy. As the essay makes clear, Professor Brett is a political scientist who knows nothing about electrical and energy engineering.

At the same time as Professor Brett was compiling her essay Australia was being visited by Professor Chris Greig of Princeton University who heads up the Rapid Switch Project, a project involving universities in Australia, India, China, Europe and the United States and who was a recent guest on an Energy Policy Institute of Australia webinar. He said the essential aim of the project is to develop a deeper understanding of viable pathways to achieve zero emissions futures and explores how fast we can expect to decarbonise the whole of any economy.

Go here to select your subscription and access for the full version.

By John McDonnell

Albo on science

Science was the principal subject of the Opposition Leader’s address to the National Press Club on Wednesday last and the Government’s approach to supporting and funding it.  

Whilst there was general agreement about its importance and support for it, the second point was one of some disagreement,

Mr Albanese’s speech was decidedly direct and focussed on the importance of science to the country’s future – [em rule] and who could disagree with that?  Well, certainly not this scientist.  

A few of his salient points were as follow.

Go here to select your subscription and access for the full version.

By Jon Millard

Eden-Monaro candidate Kristy McBain visits Yass

Labor candidate for Eden-Monaro Kristy McBain visited Yass on Wednesday morning to meet with locals and hold a doorstop interview with Shadow Minister for Health Chris McMahon. 

The main focus for McBain was to talk about the need for a maternity ward at Yass hospital. McBain and Bowen were looking to gain some mileage out of the Prime Minister’s answer about women being forced to give birth on the side of the Barton Highway.

The full video of the doorstop interview will be available in the membership site. Visit http://insidecanberra.com/subscriber-content/

Go here to select your subscription and access for the full version of the newsletter and access video content.

Government spends big on infrastructure

Last Sunday the government announced the first of a series of infrastructure investments in shovel-ready projects as part of the Commonwealth’s JobMaker plan. First up was a $223 million partnership with the McGowan Government.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said further investment in infrastructure would play a critical role in the Commonwealth’s JobMaker plan and help the West Australian economy as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Partnering with state and territory governments to invest in more major infrastructure projects across Australia is a key part of our JobMaker plan to rebuild our economy and create more jobs,” the Prime Minister said.

Go here to select your subscription and access for the full version.

From the Archives

The following content is from Inside Canberra Volume 60, No 549 published on June 29, 2007

“Mass media not that interested in Aboriginal initiative

John Howard’s initiative to sort out Northern Territory aboriginal settlements has had one plus for him: he has kept Kevin Rudd quiet for a week. Since Howard’s release of the totally unexpected plan to take over Aboriginal communities, the main political criticism has come from Aboriginals themselves and social academics. If this NT initiative was aimed at wedging Labor (which we believe it was), it hasn’t worked. Rudd immediately said he supported the campaign. The TV media most watched by voters – NINE, SEVEN and TEN news – has not given a big run to goings-on in the NT.

Remote issue for most voters

In Sydney, The Daily Telegraph, and in Melbourne, The Herald Sun, have shown limited interest. On the other hand, the two Fairfax broadsheets – The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne’s The Age – have come out against the scheme all guns blazing. On Wednesday, The Age was particularly tough, with a big front page story headed – ‘The Government is using these children to win the election’, along with, ‘This is our black children overboard’. Its headings were all quotes from angry residents of the town who had stories of neglect by governments (the NT Government as well, of course). For most voters, the plight of Aborigines in Northern Australia is a long way removed from their daily lives. Unlike the Tampa and children overboard (which was used to generate fear of terrorists), there is nothing threatening about Aborigines.

Pearson has a criticism

Noel Pearson is condemning ‘nay’ sayers against the government intervention program, yet himself raises queries. He has criticised the program for docking the welfare payments of responsible Aboriginal parents, as well as those said to be neglecting their children. Treasurer Secretary, Ken Henry, this week addressed the Pearson organised Cape York Conference in Cairns. The edited version of his speech in Wednesday’s Canberra Times did not criticise the Government’s plan, nor did he mention it. We can take it for granted that, as with Howard’s Murray-Darling water scheme and his plan for dealing with global warming, Treasury was not consulted on the program for intervention in Aboriginal settlements, thank you very much.

Treasury chief says fix the basics

Henry, who 18 months ago had visited Cape York settlements, believes welfare has to be changed to improve economic and social incentives. Yet to do this, Aborigines need to leverage their human capital through better education, physical and mental health. None of Henry’s views feature in Howard’s plan. On the contrary, the Howard plan provides for the government to manage the withholding of payments to assure children are given proper care. How this is to be done via police and the Army, is far from clear.”

Boswell election promise

Ron Boswell declined to comment about Hall’s move, but he insists opposition to the mandatory code – which he says he fought successfully for – is not the view of a majority of growers. From our contacts we doubt this. Boswell also insists John Anderson, when Nationals leader during the last election campaign, did not promise supermarkets would be required to abide by the Code. Anderson’s press release of 1 October 2004 said, in part – “A re-elected Coalition government will impose a mandatory code of conduct on the horticultural industry. The code will give producers a fairer deal on their terms of trade and on resolving disputes with produce buyers, which are in many stances, large supermarket chains.” Clearly, growers were entitled to believe the code would include supermarkets. Anderson promised the code within 100 days of re-election of the government, yet it was not until late last year it became a reality.”

Barnaby against supermarkets

The Nationals are furious growers have turned to independent and former Nat, Bob Katter, to speak for them. Obviously,  pressure from big supermarkets saw the Howard government buckle on forcing them into the code. Barnaby Joyce told us this week that while he regarded Hall as a good friend, it would not prevent him from continuing to campaign against the over-centralisation of the Australian retail market by the major supermarkets. Joyce says this over-centralisation is not in the interests of Australian consumers because it lacks competition. Secondly, it denies the right of Australians to go into small business. “If they do go into the retail business against the supermarkets they are driven out by pricing cutting – something which in the United States means a jail sentence – but in Australia it is quite alright”, Joyce said. He added he was preparing amendments to the Government’s own Trade Practices Act amendments currently before the Senate. He believes they lack sufficient protection for small business.

Global warming questions

Australian industry awaits John Howard’s decision on his plan to reduce global warming by controlling emissions. Sometime next year (if he wins the election), Howard says he will announce a long term ‘aspirational’ target for reducing emissions. A national cap and trade emissions trading scheme will begin operation in Australia no later than 2012. The severity or weakness of the cap will decide how many permits will be circulating, and in turn, the emission trading market will decide their value, day by day, or even hour by hour. The Government will also decide whether to: give the permits to emission polluters free of charge; put a specific price on permits; or auction the permits. The Business Council of Australia wants free permits. The renewables and power generators favour auctions, with the funds being used for much needed research into low emission technology over and above funds already being raised by companies, or being provided by governments.

Emission trading deficient

“Coleman pointed out emissions trading failed miserably in Europe. Then there is the difficulty of designing the security to be traded, the fixing of their volumes and policing against scam merchants selling carbon havens. “Weaknesses and holes in artificial government-run markets all too often simply provide generous windfalls for speculators,” Coleman warns. He dismisses out of hand the idea that the UN could run a global emissions trading system. Schwarzenegger is more ambitious than Rudd, whose 60% reduction target for 2050 has been attacked by Howard as guaranteeing ruination for the economy, and elimination of the coal industry. Arnie has a target of 80% by 2050. Further, far from saying it will create a burden, he says it is already beginning to transform the Californian economy in the same way as space and aviation did, and later when IT produced the Silicon Valley economic bonanza. The Governor says scientists and venture capitalists are flocking to California to take part in the development and deployment of clean technology. What can be done immediately in Australia is to embark on a full-scale energy efficiency program spanning the home to the factory, and transport. Authorities say it could reduce emissions by 30%, and far from costing anything, would save the nation billions in hard cash.”

Inquiry into renewables

The House Industry and Resources Committee is to report on renewable energy, and has announced it will now include bioenergy in its study. Biomass can be converted into bioenergy using a variety of materials such as agricultural crops, forestry and food industry residues, municipal landfill wastes and waste streams from agricultural product processing. The inquiry is at the request of the Minister for Industry, Ian Macfarlane. Written submissions on the terms of reference close on 29 June. Contact the committee on ir.reps@aph.gov.au.”

Govt to talk up Defence

From now to the election, watch out for a lot of hype from the Government reminding voters that it is only John Howard who is to be trusted to look after our national security. Announcements were made last week in regard to construction programs for three air warfare destroyers and two big amphibious troop carrier ships (although little explanation of why they are needed), with funding set at billions of dollars more than first estimated. The respected Australian Defence Business Review magazine notes the annual Defence+Industry Conference in August, and  2007 Land Warfare Conference in October (both being held in Adelaide), as additional platforms for major new defence and national domestic security announcements. Recall that Adelaide is one of the Government’s election prospect bad spots. Brendan Nelson will deliver the third Defence Update (from the original 2000 Defence White Paper) during the election campaign, no doubt accompanied by further – as yet unknown – Defence announcements.

Diggers want action in Iraq

Meanwhile, John Howard has sparked speculation that he may be considering beginning a phased troop withdrawal from Iraq, before the election. On Meet the Press last Sunday, the PM was confronted with a video of Brendan Nelson addressing Australian troops earlier in the year in the south of Iraq. The video showed an Australian soldier saying to the Minister, that while Nelson was talking about NATO nations not pulling their weight inAfghanistan, others were sayingAustralia was not pulling its weight in these conflicts. The soldier went on – “And there’s really a very real sense that our forces are being withheld from actual combat roles … I think that some of our coalition partners are starting to certainly make comments on the ground to (Australian) soldiers about that.

Photos from this week

More photos can be viewed or purchased at
https://photos.keatingmedia.com.au