The SPEAKER (Mr Harry Jenkins) took the chair at 10:00, made an acknowledgement of country and read prayers.
HEALTH Minister Nicola Roxon has blamed the increase in the number of older Australians for the failure of her reforms to cut hospital waiting lists …
That the House take note of the report.
That the order of the day be referred to the Main Committee for debate.
That the House take note of the report.
That the order of the day be referred to the Main Committee for debate.
By its very nature, outdoor advertising is a public broadcast medium, and because it is static, can be examined more closely by members of the public. It is not possible to filter those who see the advertising and there is no opportunity for members of the community to exercise choice not to see it.
That the House take note of the report.
That the order of the day be referred to the Main Committee for debate.
That the House take note of the report.
Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment (Fair Protection for Firefighters) Bill 2011
Carbon Tax Plebiscite Bill 2011
Air Services (Aircraft Noise) Amendment Bill 2011
The practical impact of aircraft noise on the people in the communities that I represent is much greater than suggested by theoreticians, the forecasters who sit comfortably in offices in Canberra.
Any changes to aircraft routes over populated areas will have to be examined by the aviation noise ombudsman. The aviation noise ombudsman will ensure that committee complaints regarding excessive aircraft noise ... are heard without bias and judged fairly on the merits of the case.
By adopting a solution-driven approach it is more likely that cases where something can be changed will be identified. At the same time, it is important that information provided to complainants responds specifically to the issues raised in each individual case.
That this House:
(1) acknowledges the importance of the role that non-government schools play in reflecting the diversity of Australian society and serving a broad range of students, including those from a variety of religions, social backgrounds, regions, and socio-economic circumstances;
(2) supports the continuation of a funding model into the future that distributes funds according to socio economic need and which recognises that every non-government school student is entitled to a basic level of government funding;
(3) calls on the Government to continue to support parents in their right to choose a school which they believe best reflects their values and beliefs, by not penalising parents who wish to make private contributions towards their child's education, nor discouraging schools in their efforts to fundraise or encourage private investment;
(4) notes the many submissions made to the Review of Funding for Schooling by non government sector authorities requesting that changes to school funding arrangements not leave schools or students worse off in real terms;
(5) acknowledges that any reduction in government funding for non-government schools would need to be addressed by increasing the level of private income required to be raised by the school community (such as school fees), or through a reduction in the quality of the educational provision in affected schools; and
(6) calls on the Government to make a clear commitment to the continuation of current funding levels to all non-government schools, plus indexation, and for this to be the basic starting point of any new funding model resulting from the Review of Funding for Schooling process.
It has long been the coalition's policy to maintain the existing SES funding model ...
This review process is welcome and needed. ...
Food Standards Amendment (Truth in Labelling—Palm Oil) Bill 2011
That the House take note of the report.
That the order of the day be referred to the Main Committee for debate.
That the House take note of the report.
That the order of the day be referred to the Main Committee for debate.
Customs Amendment (Serious Drugs Detection) Bill 2011
That the amendment be agreed to.
That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Truss speaking in reply to the ministerial statement for a period not exceeding eight minutes.
Competition and Consumer Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2011
While the Coalition's draft Bill would need some revision and modification, it would appear to be the preferable alternative on the basis that it would require demonstration of an anti-competitive purpose and a substantial anti-competitive effect, rather than simply imposing a blanket prohibition on disclosure.
I say '3,000' but—as I have been told by Tamil community leaders, and I have no doubt as to this—this number is, in fact, far higher in reality. The Tamil population in Greenway is one of the largest in the country …
Openness, accountability, compassion, full respect for human rights and an inclusive process of dialogue between representatives of all ethnic communities will support the course of reconciliation that must occur in Sri Lanka's near future to avoid a return to the past. This is my humble plea in the spirit of the great friendship between our countries.
I can't make investment decisions; I have been left in limbo.
The Coalition will announce a decision on how it will proceed with the project within a matter of weeks.
We are talking about $1 a tonne in the coal industry. It is not something that is going to affect the economics of the coal industry...
Just get rid of the bloody thing.
That the House take note of the following documents:
Air Passenger Ticket Levy (Collection) Act 2001 —Report to the Commonwealth made under section 24 for the period 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011.
Broadcasting Services Act 1992 —Digital television transmission and reception—Report, July 2011.
Department of Health and Ageing—Report to Parliament on barriers to generic medicines entering the market through the inappropriate use of intellectual property rights over product information, 30 June 2011.
Electoral Matters—Joint Standing Committee—Report on the 2007 federal election events in the division of Lindsay: review of penalty provisions in the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 —Government response.
Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade—Joint Standing Committee—Review of the Defence annual report, 2008-09—Government response.
Health Insurance Act 1973 —Extended Medicare Safety Net—Review of capping arrangements—Report, 2011
In accordance with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001, Senator Thistlethwaite is to be appointed a member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services;
In accordance with the Intelligence Services Act 2001, Senator Bishop is to be appointed a member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security;
In accordance with the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement Act 2010, Senator Furner is to be appointed a member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement;
In accordance with the Public Accounts and Audit Committee Act 1951, Senator Thistlethwaite is to be appointed a member of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit;
Senator Marshall is to be discharged from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and that, in accordance with the Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner Act 2006, Senator Singh is to be appointed a member of the committee;
Senator Marshall is to be discharged from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works and that, in accordance with the Public Works Committee Act 1969, Senators Gallacher and Urquhart are to be appointed members of the committee;
In accordance with the resolution agreed to by both Houses, Senators Crossin and Sterle are to be appointed members, and Senators Edwards, Fawcett and McKenzie are to be appointed participating members, of the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Immigration Detention Network;
In accordance with the resolution agreed to by both Houses, Senators Bilyk and Parry are to be appointed members of the Joint Select Committee on Cyber Safety;
In accordance with the resolution agreed to by both Houses, Senators Fawcett, McEwen, Parry and Stephens are to be appointed members of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade;
In accordance with the resolution agreed to by both Houses, Senators Edwards, Fawcett and McKenzie are to be appointed participating members of the Joint Select Committee on Gambling Reform;
In accordance with the resolution agreed to by both Houses, Senators Edwards, Fawcett and McKenzie are to be appointed participating members of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network;
Senators Boyce and McEwen are to be discharged from the Joint Standing Committee on Migration and that, having been nominated in accordance with the resolution agreed to by both Houses, Senators Cash and Singh are to be appointed members of the committee;Senator Cameron is to be discharged from the Joint Standing Committee on the Parliamentary Library and that, having been nominated in accordance with the resolution agreed to by both Houses, Senators Humphries, Marshall, McKenzie and Singh are to be appointed members of the committee;
Senator Pratt is to be discharged from the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties and that, having been nominated in accordance with the resolution agreed to by both Houses, Senators Coonan, Singh, Thistlethwaite and Urquhart are to be appointed members of the committee; and
In accordance with the resolution agreed to by both Houses, senators are to be appointed to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters for the committee's inquiry into funding of political parties and election campaigns as follows:
Senator Birmingham as a member; and Senators Edwards, Fawcett and McKenzie as participating members.
That Mr Melham and Ms Vamvakinou be appointed members of the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Immigration Detention Network.
That the amendment to the resolution of appointment of the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Immigration Detention Network be agreed to.
Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Fibre Deployment) Bill 2011
Australia is a different country. Its geography and spread of the people, the level of telecommunications development and the level (of competition) between the operators—I will not say which one is a giant or not—all of those conditions, you do not find them elsewhere and therefore you do need to have the guts to tackle the problem.
The Coalition will conduct an urgent review of whether to mandate that all 'greenfields' connections must be fibre.
The Coalition believes that new dwellings should have a fibre connection rather than a copper connection.
… the evidence the inquiry received demonstrates that there is a vigorous private market for the construction of fibre infrastructure in new developments.
GFOA companies have been competing with one another, Telstra Velocity, Opticomm, VicUrban, Multinet Broadband and other carriers/operators ... for over ten years.
... there is already a very healthy competitive market between experienced wholesale network carriers in Greenfields ... that is not acknowledged by Government.
Deployment of FTTP networks by GFOA carrier/operators are currently costing $1,500 per lot ... for networks where the functional performance specifications and standards equal or exceed the current functional performance specifications and standards of NBN Co networks that cost more than double the price to build.
... it appears to be the intent of the Government and NBN Co, that it plans and needs NBN Co to be the monopoly provider of FTTP in Greenfields developments;
After over two decades of national economic and financial reform, the NBN proposal in its present form represents a very serious threat to the long-term competition in the telecommunications sector.
The increasingly apparent risk is that the commonwealth could, over time, fully replicate a dysfunctional telecommunications market structure that has hindered investments in the current broadband market. This would be the result if it simply replaces Telstra's market power with an NBN Co infrastructure monopoly with all the attendant inefficiencies and constraints on investment, innovation and future policymaking.
Where the committee found areas of dispute, these were less about the Bill and more about the underlying policy that has led to this Bill.
Notice must be given to NBN Co. of the requirement … ( some time before expected completion of the network? Within some time after completion? )
Traditionally as the USO provider we have been deploying copper based infrastructure at the request of developers. More recently a competitive fibre deployment industry had arisen and a number of providers, including Telstra, deployed fibre in many new developments under contract to the developer.
The legislation needs to make it very clear who is responsible for the delivery and that there are certain obligations on the provider to do that in a very timely way, otherwise it will delay development.
It should not take more than a couple of phone calls and a meeting to sort out it being put into the critical path of the development, otherwise those projects will be delayed whilst certain things are waiting for a provider to provide that infrastructure.
The Government expects NBN Co to provide guidance on technical specifications as early as possible.
The installation of FTTP is taking place in a competitive context, with developers typically contracting out the provision of infrastructure and services in developments.
Australia's Academic and Research Network say they're doing what the NBN will do in a decade, today.
… the research network announced yesterday that it successfully boosted the delivery speeds of its existing fibre optic network simply by placing 40GB 'muxponders'—supersized transponders—onto either ends of the cable.
Labor Senator Glenn Sterle took a swipe at Canning MHR Don Randall over his claims Carey Baptist College’s broadband and internet problems were due to the National Broadband Network.
Mr Sterle said Mr Randall attempted to lay blame on the NBN despite knowing the problems had existed for more than a decade.
NBN Co. ... would be the wholesale provider of last resort in new developments within or adjacent to its long-term fibre footprint and meet the associated cost of this obligation.
False
First, the government investment is capped at $26-27 billion, not 43. The remainder will come from revenue and NBN Co’s private debt.
The private sector demand a ROI of at least 12%, because they need to earn a profit for their shareholders. The NBN has a projected 6-7% ROI—
… while this is well below commercial rates, it's quite acceptable for a Government, which is not seeking to earn a profit.
… was preceded by a similar bill which was introduced into the Senate in March 2010, but lapsed on the proroguing of the 42nd Parliament. The Fibre Deployment Bill 2010 shared a similar purpose to the Bill under inquiry, that is, to ‘ensure fibre-ready and fibre infrastructure installation in new developments.’ This Bill differs from its predecessor in that the Fibre Deployment Bill 2010 ‘was more dependent on subordinate legislation for activation of the key provisions in the Bill’, while the current Bill includes those key provisions.
On the Korean issue, we had the Korea-Australia-New Zealand Broadband Summit in Hobart a few weeks ago. I asked the Korean communications commissioner about these issues … I asked the CEO of the Korean Communications Commission. He is a senior representative in creating the plans by which the Koreans are doing these investments.
Korea has a Fibre-To-The-Home Council and is clearly running, in their advice to us, fibre-to-the-home network planning. They are doing fibre to the home. They are just sequencing it as we have done, fibre to the basement, as you have said, we have done some fibre to the node and we are keeping on going and now doing fibre to the home. It has not stopped. Their program continues and their objective is fibre to the home.
Live Animal Export Restriction and Prohibition Bill 2011
That this bill be now read a second time.
Australia currently exports beef, sheepmeat and goatmeat to over 40 Islamic countries including the Middle East and North Africa, as well as nearby South-East Asian nations. Australia has a reputation as a clean, safe and reliable source of halal food and beverage products, and is recognised as a leader in Halal export. It is estimated that the growing market for Halal products worldwide is worth around $685 billion per annum.
Australia predominantly exports to wealthy countries in the Gulf, who import a huge amount of refrigerated goods, not just meat. Suggestions that these countries lack of such basic appliances are not only misguided, they are culturally insensitive.
Thank you for supporting the ban on live export.
I am a local resident of Darwin and my family have been involved in the pastoral industry for over 130 years, although we now live in town.
Live Animal Export (Slaughter) Prohibition Bill 2011
Second Reading
Debate resumed.
That this bill be read a second time.
We should not seek to make a profit on the back of the torture, misery and suffering of powerless animals.
Auditor-General Amendment Bill 2011
I have been using the Occasional Care Facility at the Mornington Community Contact for 2 years with my eldest child ... This service has provided me with a small break each week of 3-5 hrs which I have found to be invaluable.
I began using occasional care in July 2010 when I left my position in government employment services to concentrate on my family.
… a communist faction that stayed loyal to Moscow in the early 1970s after the Communist Party of Australia split over its response to the Soviet Union's brutal suppression of the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia in 1968.
... not just another program but an experience! At its core is the heartbeat of 2000 volunteers with a mission to serve young people and assist them through some of the most important years of their lives.
The Republic of Croatia, as a sovereign and independent state, which guarantees cultural autonomy and all civil rights to Serbs and members of other nationalities in Croatia, can form an alliance of sovereign states with other republics.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Hon. Peter Slipper) took the chair at 10:30.
LightnUp runs workshops and activities throughout the year, in Lismore, the Northern Rivers and throughout regional and increasingly, metropolitan Australia. The workshops and events include lantern making, shadow theatre, illuminated puppets, masks and costume making, ritual and celebration and story development.
LightnUp also hires out the lanterns, undertakes commissions and creates special lanterns and props for weddings, parties, conferences and special events.
Recognizing that forests and sustainable forest management can contribute significantly to sustainable development, poverty eradication and the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals …
I am pleased that the government has listened to the business operators in these remote areas and accepted that more time is required to adjust their use of power.
This outcome provides greater certainty for job-creating businesses in our outback towns while still encouraging more efficient use of energy at a time when there is a great deal of upward pressure on the cost of generating electricity.
Plain and generic packaging of tobacco products, through its impact on image formation and retention, recall and recognition, knowledge, and consumer attitudes and perceived utilities, would likely depress the incidence of smoking uptake by non-smoking teens, and increase the incidence of smoking cessation by teen and adult smokers.
Plain packs that feature large graphic health warnings are significantly more likely to promote cessation among young adult smokers than fully or partially branded packs. The findings support the introduction of plain packaging and suggest use of unbranded package space to feature larger health warnings would further promote cessation.
The tobacco companies are asking us to contact our MPs regarding plain packets on tobacco. Anything the Government of any colour does to annoy and do down the tobacco lobby is OK with me, so go ahead.
PEOPLE living in deprived areas have a 70 per cent higher chance of suffering a stroke than those in wealthy suburbs.
Effective preventative measures in the more deprived areas of the community could substantially reduce rates of stroke.
"It is less well known, but tobacco companies also spent large amounts subsidising good quality biomedical research in fields such as virology, genetics and immunology. They funded the work of several Nobel prize winners," Proctor says. "But they only encouraged this research to serve as a distraction. The idea was to build up a corpus of work on possible causes of diseases which could be attributed to cigarette-smoking.
While the research body on the effects of plain packaging is small and necessarily experimental, industry candour in internal documents and trade literature shows that tobacco product packaging is seen by the industry to be a persuasive form of advertising. Plain packaging legislation remains an important but curiously under-explored part of comprehensive tobacco control legislation designed to eliminate all forms of tobacco advertising and promotion. Given the near universal appropriation by governments of sometimes substantial parts of tobacco packaging for health warnings, and the failure of any company to ever succeed in finally resisting this appropriation or in being compensated for any loss of trade predicted by the industry, the failure of international tobacco control to advance plain packaging is all the more remarkable.
While the industry promotes an unattainable high standard of proof for research showing that plain packaging would reduce smoking, they do not hold this same high standard with their own position that packaging only effects market share and only serves to encourage brand switching among adults.
Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment Bill 2011
Kevin Rudd's "toolbox of the future" program has been beset with problems. The opposition highlighted controversies about whether parents were going to be levied by schools to pay for maintenance and whether students could take computers home.
This program was poorly conceived. The goal of comprehensive computer access for high school students was right, but it should have been done on a matching subsidy basis. Families should have been required to put in some of their money and be responsible for maintenance costs. They could then own the computer and the kids could take them home. Income-earning families could have been subsidised through a rebate and welfare families could have been assisted through SET-style facilities.
SET-style facilities could form the basis for solutions to school uniforms and other costs that another federal program is aimed at. Instead, all these programs have been conceived on the basis of a 100 per cent handout.
In writing, for instance, in the 2008 NAPLAN test the group started in Year 3 right on the NT mean (or average) of 338, a full 70 points below the national mean. Then the NT and Exodus progress lines diverged as the Exodus children gobbled up the phonics program in 2009 and learned to read.
By Year 5 they had literally closed the gap, reaching the Australian average for their age group. It was the same story with reading.
Education … beyond all other devices of human origin, is a great equalizer of conditions of men—the balance wheel of the social machinery.
The education system, as I knew it before, has been of low standard. The curriculum in the past, as it is in all cape Aboriginal communities, has been of very low standard. By the time our children go out to mainstream schools they are hardly there—a child in grade 8 still has the understanding of a child in grade 1. Speaking for Aurukun, I was one of the persons who were invited to the States last October; I went to New York and Los Angeles visiting African-American schools. What we have brought back to Aurukun is a new kind of teaching method and we are having that implemented in the school. Of course it took time. At the beginning it pretty much had been, in my words, chaos before that. Since having this new program come in, if you come to the classrooms in Aurukun the kids are fully focused. This new method of teaching has got them going. The teacher is full-on with the tasks given and you cannot believe it when you enter those classrooms—it is as if some of those kids are play-acting. They are not; they are just full-on, focused. I guess in time we have to have expectations for our children to be educated in a way where they have to balance both worlds—the Western world and the traditional way. Of course we want them to hang onto the traditional way because that is where they are going to be identifying themselves for the future. And with them having to venture out into mainstream, we want them to compete. It is a competitive world out there. We want our black little kids to start taking on the world. That is the aim of all this.
Despite the concerted efforts of successive Commonwealth, State and Territory governments to address Indigenous disadvantage, there have been only modest improvements in outcomes in some areas such as education and health, with other areas either remaining static or worsening. Even in those areas where there have been improvements, the outcomes for Indigenous Australians remain far short of the outcomes for non-Indigenous Australians.
Vietnam, which served as the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2010, demonstrated little respect for core principles in the … (ASEAN) Charter to "strengthen democracy" and "protect and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms."
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
In the boldness and buoyancy of these words there are echoes of many of the great foundational texts of western civilisation, from Sophocles' "wonders of man" chorus through Christ's Sermon on the Mount on up to the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man. So even if this First Article cannot guarantee what it declares, if its writ cannot be made to run in China or Zimbabwe or Guantanamo, it nevertheless gestures so confidently towards what human beings desire that it fortifies a conviction that the desirable can in fact be realised.
… … …
Since it was framed, the Declaration has succeeded in creating an international moral consensus. It is always there as a means of highlighting abuse if not always as a remedy: it exists instead in the moral imagination as an equivalent of the gold standard in the monetary system. The articulation of its tenets has made them into world currency of a negotiable sort. Even if its Articles are ignored or flouted—in many cases by governments who have signed up to them—it provides a worldwide amplification system for "the still, small voice".
… … …
Flouted though the Articles have been and continue to be, their vulnerability should perhaps be regarded as an earnest of their ultimate value. If, for example, an effort were to be made to enforce them by the exercise of military power—as in the effort to enforce "democracy" on Iraq—it would not only end in failure but would discredit utterly the very concept of human rights. They would be stigmatised as the attributes of an imperium rather than an inherent endowment of the species.
It is this vulnerable yet spiritually inviolate quality which makes them attractive not only to the wronged and the oppressed of the Earth, but to writers and poets as well. The Universal Declaration is not a sure-fire panacea for the world's ills; it is more geared to effect what I once called "the redress of poetry" than to intervene like a superpower. This idea of redress I discovered first in Simone Weil's book, Gravity and Grace, where she observes that if we know the way society is unbalanced, we must do what we can to add weight to the lighter side of the scale. The Universal Declaration, it seems to me, adds this kind of weight and contributes thereby to the maintenance of an equilibrium—never entirely achieved—between the rights and wrongs.
I, Colin Madigan AO, make the following declaration under the Statutory Declarations Act 1959 :
I served in HMAS Armidale throughout her short life of six months from launching to sinking in action on December 1, 1942.
My action station was on the bridge in the Asdic cabinet and when they order "Abandon ship" was given I had difficulty extricating myself because of my Mae West, which was inflated. I could hear Teddy Sheean's Oerlikon firing all the time and when I eventually got into the water I saw his tracer shells coming up from under the surface. He had gone down with the ship, still fighting.
This act was awe-inspiring. It enters the universal temple Pantheon which records the world's great legends and in this instance combines that rarest of all qualities, altruism. The official gazettal of a Victoria Cross is overdue.
… the release by the World Health Organisation's cancer research report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) which says that radio frequency electromagnetic fields generated by mobile phones are 'possibly carcinogenic to humans' and asserts that heavy usage could lead to a possible increased risk of glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer …
… the Australian Government, through the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), welcomes the report and considers that the classification by IARC corresponds to the current ARPANSA advice, including its advice on practical ways in which people can reduce their exposure to the electromagnetic fields produced by wireless telephones …
… the methods to reduce exposure include:
(a) limiting call time;
(b) preferring the use of land line phones;
(c) using hands free or speaker options;
(d) texting instead of making voice calls; and
(e) using phones in good signal areas which reduce power levels for communication…
… that ARPANSA has also recommended parents encourage their children to use these methods of reducing exposure.
An increased risk of brain cancer is not established from the data … However, observations at the highest level of cumulative call time and the changing patterns of mobile phone use since the period … particularly in young people, mean that further investigation of mobile phone use and brain cancer risk is merited.
… are 'possibly carcinogenic to humans' and asserts that heavy usage could lead to a possible increased risk of glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer
… a positive association … between exposure … and cancer for which a causal interpretation is considered credible, but chance, bias or confounding cannot be ruled out with reasonable confidence.
… available studies are of insufficient quality, consistency or statistical power to permit a conclusion regarding the presence or absence of a causal association—
or no data on cancer in humans are available.
This is a really difficult issue to research. Even given the limitations of the evidence, this report is clear that any risk appears to be so small that it is very hard to detect, even in the masses of people now using mobile phones.
The problem is that no one takes responsibility. There is a lot of buck-passing going on … and everyone has given up on even trying to control them.
As with semi-urban areas, wild dogs can lower the quality of life in rural areas by posing a constant threat to livestock and, in exceptional circumstances, posing a threat to human safety. Threats to human safety are known to escalate when wild dogs encroach on settlements and are not actively repelled. The tendency for this is greatest at tourist attractions … where some people seek or encourage 'contact' with the wild dogs.
One of the challenges is that whenever we act we need to do it at the same time as the states are acting … Otherwise, all you do is keep trimming the numbers rather than making a real impact. When it can be coordinated, and from time to time it is done, there is an opportunity to be able to have a very direct impact on invasive species.
Productivity enhancing reform is so crucial to our economic (and social) futures because productivity growth itself – the ability to get more out of a country’s resources – is the mainstay of economic progress.
Following a stellar performance in the 1990s, driven in large part by the structural reforms initiated in the previous decade, our productivity growth in the early 2000s fell back to its long term average. That in itself is no cause for alarm. But since then it has fallen below even pre-1990 rates. In the most recent year for which we have data, 2009-10, there was only slight growth in (the traditional 12 industry) market sector MFP; though this was an improvement on the previous year when MFP, buffeted by the global crisis, actually fell by 2.4 per cent, something not seen in almost 30 years.
In practice, it is likely that the majority of the increased cost will be shared between governments and parents. The Australian Government will fund up to half of the increase in costs through current child care subsidy arrangements, the Child Care Benefit and the Child Care Rebate. However, parents are likely to pay the majority of the remainder of the increase.
The impact of this increase will not be felt evenly—disadvantaged children often come from disadvantaged backgrounds, and many forms of disadvantage place additional pressure on family budgets. In the absence of appropriately targeted additional funding, the increase in ECEC costs will see some children have reduced access to, or be withdrawn from, ECEC services, many of whom would have stood to benefit most from these services.
One out of every nine women gets breast cancer. There are doctors who say that statistic has worsened lately and now stands at one out of every eight. The disease is particularly violent in younger women and the primary growth in the breast spreads rapidly to the liver, the lungs, the bones and the brain. Is there anything worse than being a young woman with cancer whose chances are slim? It turns out that there is - being a young Palestinian woman with cancer whose chances are slim.
… even if part of it is particularly shocking; there are hundreds of Palestinian patients in a similar condition and every injustice always has a security excuse. There is terror, everyone is only carrying out orders and they are going by the book. But a book that prevents medical treatment to dying patients, hassles them and humiliates them, is a wicked book, and a society in which only the metal detector speaks is a sick society.
If you don't have core beliefs as a politician, real path-finding instincts groomed out of conviction, you will never be a good communicator because—and this may seem corny, but it's true—the best communication comes from the heart.
In respect of a speech made to the Australian Industry Group on 25 June 2010 by the then Minister for Defence Materiel and Science, where it was said that between 2009 and 2015, the Government expects to create 7500 training opportunities and provide places for 3500 students to participate in Defence Industry Pathway Programs, to date, how many:
(a) training positions have so far been created, and at what
(i) cost per position, and (ii) total cost; and
(b) school students have participated in industry pathway programs, and at what
(i) cost per participant, and (ii) total cost.
(a) The Skilling Australia's Defence Industry (SADI) Program has created 20,578 training opportunities since its inception in 2005. Eight hundred and thirty two training opportunities have been created through the Defence Industry Innovation Centre since 2010.
(i) The average cost per SADI opportunity, calculated by dividing total funding committed to the Program by the number of opportunities, is $2,646. However these training opportunities encompass everything from short one-day courses to Masters and Doctoral degrees over several years.
(ii) Total funds committed to the SADI Program from inception to end of financial year 2010-11 is $54,445,428.
(b) Seven hundred and seventy school students have participated in the Industry Pathway Programs to date (99 in SA; 400 in NSW; and 271 in WA).
(i) The cost per participant varies from state to state: $754 in SA; $350 in NSW; and $38 in WA. While the WA figure is comparatively low, WA has requested additional funding of approximately $2 million which, if agreed, will expand their program and alter the cost per student in WA.
(ii) Total cost per state: SA $74,646; NSW $140,000; WA $10,298. The total cost across the three states to date is $224,944.
What are his reasons for (a) refusing the sale of the Australian Stock Exchange Ltd to Singaporean company Singapore Exchange Ltd, and (b) approving the sale of SunRice to Spanish company Ebro.
Under Australia's foreign investment review arrangements, proposals are assessed on a case-by-case basis to determine whether a particular proposal would be contrary to Australia's national interest. This assessment takes into consideration a range of factors that vary from case to case.
I found that the proposed acquisition of ASX Limited by Singapore Exchange Limited would be contrary to Australia's national interest. The reasons for my decision are set out in my media release dated 8 April 2011.
I found that the proposed acquisition of Ricegrowers Limited (SunRice) by Ebro Foods S.A was not contrary to Australia ' s national interest . In reaching this conclusion I took into account a range of national interest considerations which are set out in Australia ' s foreign investment policy and took advice from a range of sources including the Foreign Investment Review Board.
In respect of
(a) 105mm Hamel, and (b) 155mm M198 Howitzer, artillery pieces:
(i) how many are currently in the Australian Defence Force's fleet;
(ii) when are they due to be retired;
(iii) what are their respective end of service life dates;
(iv) can the end of service life dates be extended, if so, what would be the cost and required work; and
(v) what will happen to them once they have been replaced under LAND 17.
(a) In respect of the 105mm Hamel artillery pieces:
(i) There are currently 101 Hamel guns in the fleet.
(ii) The Hamel fleet will be withdrawn from service in 1 Regiment and 4 Regiment from February 2012. A fleet of six Hamel guns will be held at the School of Artillery to be used in support of observation of fire courses.
(iii) The current end of service life date is 2012.
(iv) The end of service life date can be extended, however the Hamel gun will be unable to be used as part of the digitised offensive support network established by Project Land 17. The cost to continue a maintenance and spares program for a reduced fleet of 61 Hamel guns (not including the initial quantity of 40 Hamel guns being readied for disposal) is estimated to be approximately $0.5m per annum. This cost does not include training and ammunition requirements.
(v) All guns will eventually be withdrawn to Joint Logistics Unit – Victoria (Bandiana) before disposal. An initial quantity of 40 Hamel guns is being readied for disposal.
(b) In respect of the 155mm M198 Howitzer artillery pieces:
(i) There are currently 33 M198 guns in the fleet.
(ii) The final M198 guns will be withdrawn from service to coincide with the issuing of M777A2 in February 2012.
(iii) The current end of service life date is 2012.
(iv) The end of service life dates can be extended. The cost to continue a maintenance and spares program for a fleet of 33 M198 guns is estimated to be approximately $0.75m per annum. This cost does not include training and ammunition requirements. A re-build of the M198 fleet would be required if the service life was extended beyond 2015. Re-building the fleet is estimated to cost an additional $0.15m per gun commencing from 2015 at a rate of five guns per year until 2020.
(v) All guns will eventually be withdrawn to Joint Logistics Unit – Victoria (Bandiana) for long term storage. The M198 fleet is expected to be retained in long term storage until 2020.
Is the Australian Defence Force converting all regular field artillery batteries to medium artillery.
(1) Yes, the Australian Defence Force is in the process of converting all regular field artillery batteries to 155mm guns. This is being done under LAND 17 Phase 1 which will deliver both self-propelled and towed guns able to fire precision munitions at very long ranges, and at high rates of fire.
(1) When is second pass approval expected to be given for LAND 17 Phase 1C.
(2) How many (a) towed, and (b) self-propelled, guns is the Australian Defence Force acquiring under LAND 17.
(3) Which companies are still being considered as possible suppliers of the ADF's future self propelled guns under LAND 17 Phase 1C.
(1) Defence plans to seek Government's agreement for Second Pass in 2012.
(2) The Australian Defence Force intends to acquire under LAND 17 the following guns:
(a) Defence is in contract for the delivery of 35 M777A2 Lightweight Towed 155mm Howitzers.
(b) The request for tender for the Self Propelled Howitzers sought 18 systems for Defence.
(3) There were two submissions received in response to the request for tender, from Krauss Maffei Wegmann and Raytheon Australia/Samsung Techwin. Defence is now finalising further work to address the capability's support arrangements that were outside of the Self Propelled Howitzer tender. These elements are critical to having a workable and fully costed capability that Government can consider for approval.
In the 2008, 2009 and 2010 and 2011 (to date) calendar years:
(1) How many people died of a terminal illness in hospital.
(2) How many people died in (a) palliative, and (b) in-patient palliative, care facilities.
(3) How many palliative care facility out-patients died at home.
(4) What information exists on terminally ill patient preferences for dying in (a) hospitals, (b) palliative care facilities, or (c) home.
(5) What information exists concerning the cost implications of terminally ill patients dying in (a) hospitals, (b) palliative care facilities, or (c) home.
(6) What policies has the Government developed to help manage the needs of the terminally ill, including the costs.
(1) The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has reported that 74,365, 74,380 and 73,033 admitted patients died in hospital in 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 respectively. Data on their causes of death are not available.
(2), (3) and (4) No national data are available for the past ten years, and no surveys have been published on these matters since 2003.
(5) No national studies have been conducted concerning the cost implications of caring for terminally ill patients in different care settings.
(6) The Australian Government has policies in place to increase patients' access to subacute care services, including palliative care, to help manage the needs of the terminally ill.
Through the subacute care component of the National Partnership Agreement on Hospital and Health Workforce Reform, the Australian Government provided $500 million in June 2009 to expand states and territories' provision of subacute care, including palliative care, over the period 2009-10 to 2012-13.
The Australian Government has committed a further $1.623 billion over the four years 2010-11 to 2013-14 through the subacute care element of the National Partnership Agreement on Improving Public Hospital Services, for states and territories to deliver and operate at least 1,300 new subacute care beds and equivalent community-based services nationally, including for palliative care.
The National Palliative Care Strategy released in February 2011 outlines a number of action areas. The initial priorities for implementation of the Strategy include work on:
In respect of the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority Update (Issue 18, 22 March 2011) which states that the My School 2.0 website had received 400 000 visits since its launch, (a) how many unique visitors accessed the website, from what state and city, and how many of these were visits to the school finances section, and (b) what is the breakdown on the number of hits by each unique visitor (i) to the first version of the My School website, and My School 2.0, per month since their respective launch dates, and (ii) accessing the first version of the My School website, and My School 2.0, per month since their respective launch dates.
(a) The My School 2.0 website was launched March 4, 2011. During the period March 4, 2011 to June 9, 2011 there were 862,326 visits, representing 503,801 unique visitors.
The geographic breakdown of unique visits to My School 2.0 covering the top 20 visitor locations is as follows:
These visits include 491,387 views of the school finance pages during the reporting period.
(b) ACARA reports website statistics as page views per visit, rather than hits. This is regarded as more meaningful in terms of usage. Data on the breakdown of the number of page views by each unique visitor to the first version of the My School website are not available. ForMy School 2.0 since its launch date of March 4, 2011, monthly averages of page views per visit have been as follows:
Can she provide an update on the Government's progress towards implementing a national disability insurance scheme, including timeframes.
In February 2010, the Government asked the Productivity Commission to conduct an independent Inquiry into the costs, benefits and feasibility of a national long-term care and support scheme for people with disability. This included consideration of a national disability insurance scheme.
A national disability insurance scheme would be a complex and transformative reform that requires detailed consideration. The Productivity Commission's Inquiry is assessing whether a national disability insurance scheme would be appropriate, practical and economically responsible in the Australian context.
The Productivity Commission has consulted widely, including with people with disability, their family and carers, governments and service providers. As part of this process, it released a draft report on 28 February 2011. The Productivity Commission is due to deliver their final report to Government on 31 July 2011.
The Government looks forward to the final report and will respond after carefully considering its findings.
Can he provide a Terms of Trade breakdown by specific industry sector in as much detail as possible.
The ABS official statistics do not provide an explicit industry sector breakdown of the Terms of Trade. A breakdown would require price level data for both the imports and exports by industry. While the source of exports can be attributed to broad industry classifications, the industry destination of imports is not able to be readily determined with accuracy.
(1) By state and territory, visa type, offence, and where relevant, the nature of the sentence, what number of charges were laid and convictions recorded against non-citizens each year between 2006-07 and 2010-11, where (a) no custodial sentence was given, and (b) a custodial sentence was imposed for (i) 12 months or less, (ii) between 12 months and 3 years, (iii) between 3 and 10 years, and (iv) more than 10 years.
(2) Are the states and territories and other Commonwealth agencies required to report to his department, all charges laid and convictions recorded against non-citizens; if so, what are the specific requirements, and have any proposals been made to change them.
(1) My Department does not collect the data sought in the question. The Department considers the preparation of an answer to the question would involve significant diversion of departmental resources in the seeking of information from each state or territory and the Australian Federal Police and, in the circumstances, does not consider that the additional work can be justified.
(2) My Department has in place some information sharing arrangements with state, territory and other Commonwealth agencies. Such agencies are not required to report to my Department on charges laid and convictions recorded against non-citizens. No proposals have been made to change this arrangement.