The SPEAKER ( Hon. Bronwyn Bishop ) took the chair at 12:00, made an acknowledgement of country and read prayers.
Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Regulatory Levies) Amendment Bill 2014
It is a dangerous industry. It is an industry marked by great capability and great risk.
Work on the offshore hydrocarbons environment is important for our country. It is important for the economy. But it is not so important that it should bring with it unacceptable risk to the environment or to the health of our workers.
That this bill be now read a third time.
Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Regulatory Levies) Amendment Bill 2014
That this bill be now read a third time.
Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency Repeal Bill 2014
That all words after 'That' be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:
"whilst not declining to give the Bill a second reading the House notes that the Government has failed to guarantee that the critical independent research to Government and industry in relation to Australia's current, emerging and future skills and workforce development needs will continue to be carried out and made public."
The Agency has been a great source of new ideas stimulating fresh thinking and innovation amongst employers, institutions, sectors and representative groups. Government departments usually don't have the freedom to promote new ideas nor the discretion to advance them provocatively.
The Agency's research on the demand and supply of skills in a transforming economy has been well received and been particularly influential. It is precisely this work which will be needed as Australia's economy further restructures.
IBSA has worked closely with AWPA and has greatly appreciated the initiatives to improve productivity, management, innovation and skills utilisation in Australian workplaces. It is important also to acknowledge the high level of industry expertise on the AWPA board which has made it an authority on the workforce development and skills needed to respond to industry needs. Their experience has greatly contributed to forward thinking beyond the bureaucratic frameworks.
AWPA, and its predecessor Skills Australia, have been an invaluable source of independent tripartite advice, research and advocacy in relation to the national skills agenda.
At a time when there are considerable skills challenges ahead, a decision to abolish the independent national skills agency is a retrograde step.
In this submission, we also express our disappointment in the way the whole process has been handled by the Government, even putting aside the merits of the decision.
The ACTU wishes to place on record its appreciation of the work done by the Board and staff of the Australian Workplace and Productivity Agency, and its predecessor, Skills Australia.
I would like to note my support for the unfunded and additional work taken on by the Chair of AWPA, Mr Philip Bullock, to lead the engagement for Australia with the Indian VET sector. Mr Bullock did an excellent job and leaves an important legacy for the sector beyond the work that AWPA was charged to do.
There is now no source of independent advice—
With much disgust I read in the Courier Mail how you want to cut the Dementia Payment to Nursing Homes. I suggest you spend a day and a night in one of these homes and see what the staff have to endure in their working day. My husband has Advanced Dementia and needs a lot of their time as do the others. He now spends most of his time in a regency chair as he is no longer steady on his feet. Now has pressure sores and extra medical aides have to be used to try to stop this from happening further. This is an extra cost to the home and you want to cut funding. Who the hell do you think will have to pay when this funding stops, the good old pensioner who has very little money left over from his pension. The other alternative is the home will have to make cuts and once again the patient will suffer.
The way I see it is, it is now a crime to become old and need help …
… each Duntroon-educated officer was literally worth his weight in gold.
There is no point pretending that the broken agreements of the federal budget won't hurt the people of NSW.
The budget goes a long way to restoring all important business confidence that will drive investment and job creation, particularly for Australia's two million small businesses—
For small business especially, this has been a major burden that has reduced profitability, suppressed employment—
We do support the abolition of the carbon tax.
We will obviously as an opposition have to take stock and over the next year or two build an alternative policy.
Actually, we have been arguing in the parliament for an emissions trading scheme ever since the election.
That this House:
(1) express its disapproval of any future deployment to Iraq of Australian combat forces;
(2) call on the Prime Minister to make a clear public statement today ruling out any future deployment to Iraq of Australian combat forces; and
(3) call on the Government to instigate a Royal Commission into Australia's involvement in the invasion of Iraq and subsequent 11 years of war—
and in particular the conduct of the main Australian protagonists for this unmitigated foreign policy, security and humanitarian disaster, including then Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Denison from moving the following motion forthwith:
That this House:
(1) express its disapproval of any future deployment to Iraq of Australian combat forces;
(2) call on the Prime Minister to make a clear public statement today ruling out any future deployment to Iraq of Australian combat forces; and
(3) call on the Government to instigate a Royal Commission into Australia's involvement in the invasion of Iraq and subsequent 11 years of war, and in particular the conduct of the main Australian protagonists for this unmitigated foreign policy, security and humanitarian disaster, including then Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
The adverse impact of the budget on the Australian economy and on confidence.
The Index is still in firmly pessimistic territory …
… A very high 74% of respondents recalled news on 'Budget and taxation' with a wide majority viewing the news as unfavourable.
That is the highest level of recall for this topic since we began running the survey in the mid-1970s, surpassing those seen during the GST introduction in 2000 …
A very high 74 per cent of respondents recalled news on 'Budget and taxation', with a wide majority viewing the news as unfavourable. That is the highest level of recall for this topic since we began running the survey in the mid-1970s …
In an uncertain and fast-changing world, we walk tall—as a nation confidently living within its means.
The Index is still in firmly pessimistic territory … down 6.6% from its pre-Budget level in April and 15.6% below its post-election high in November last year.
Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency Repeal Bill 2014
There is now no source of independent advice to government, no way of questioning policy and no research on what Australia needs in the future.
There are few times in our working lives where we contribute in an area which has the potential to positively impact so many people and for this opportunity we remain grateful.
In terms of future arrangements, we are pleased that the Minister has decided that many of the functions of AWPA will transfer and be incorporated into the Department of Industry. The agency's secretariat staff are public servants within the Department of Industry which will assist the transfer process. The Government will in due course initiate the necessary legislative changes—
That this bill be now read a third time.
Business Services Wage Assessment Tool Payment Scheme Bill 2014
Business Services Wage Assessment Tool Payment Scheme (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2014
Just come and sit down for a while or two,
Politicians, as well as us usual people,
If you take our jobs away from us,
It leaves us poor and bored,
For there is nothing to adore.
Sit for a while
With a happy go lucky smile
Upon our facial dials.
Dear politicians just think for a while
And leave our jobs for us, please,
So that we can wear happy go lucky smiles
Upon our facial dials for a fairly long time.
That this bill now be read a third time.
Business Services Wage Assessment Tool Payment Scheme (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2014
That this bill be now read a third time.
Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Measures) Bill 2014
That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:
"the House declines to give the Bill a second reading as:
(1) the Government has failed to provide sufficient information about the impact on families of the changes to the Child Care Benefit;
(2) the Government has not completed an assessment of impacts on workforce participation of the changes to the Child Care Benefit;
(3) the changes to the Child Care Benefit should not be legislated just weeks before the Productivity Commission inquiry into Childcare and Early Childhood Learning provides its interim report;
(4) families have not had a chance to have their say on these changes; and
(5) for these reasons, calls on the Government to remove the changes to the Child Care Benefit, set out in Item 2 of Schedule 1, from this Bill, to allow separate and fully informed consideration by the Parliament of the changes to the Child Care Rebate and the Child Care Benefit."
We will make child care more accessible and more affordable for Australian parents.
… further increase the financial pressure on Australian families who are already struggling to meet the costs of child care.
There are parents having to make the heartbreaking decision to leave the workforce because their wages do not cover the cost of child care.
We have no intention to make childcare less affordable and every intention to make it more affordable.
Freezes to the Child Care Benefit thresholds will have a significant impact on low and middle income families accessing early childhood education and care services and should not be supported.
The government has announced a budget that hits families on low to middle incomes the hardest (eg by proposing to cut family tax benefit B payments for single parents with children over 6). This Bill only adds to the financial strain on families and has the potential to undermine their ability to access child care.
The Government's proposed 'gold plated' Paid Parental Leave (PPL) Scheme should be abandoned and the existing PPL Scheme retained. This would allow additional funding to be devoted to child care measures. If additional funding was available through the abandonment of the proposed PPL Scheme, the measures in this Bill may no longer be necessary.
We have a very sensible approach to ask the Productivity Commission to examine those settings, to have a look at the entire world of female participation in the workforce—usually it is female—and at the cost and availability of child care.
Goodstart believes that while the inquiry is underway, current policy settings and indexation should be maintained to ensure affordability for families.
To make such changes in the context of a wide ranging review into the provision of early education and care in Australia (Productivity Commission Inquiry) seems to be contradictory to the development of sensible, well developed policy.
In the 2013 ACA What Parents Want Survey 48 per cent of respondents indicated that they would decrease their usage of childcare or withdraw their child completely if out-of-pocket childcare fees increased by 10 per cent.
… paid parental leave money will be much better put into investing in the first two years. Then women will go back to work.
The Government's role is to fund it.
…to abandon his paid parental leave scheme and redirect the money to maintaining childcare benefits.
…the Coalition's proposed "gold-plated" PPL scheme "should be abandoned" and the less generous scheme introduced by Labor retained.
…the more generous PPL scheme should then be used to reverse the continued freezing of the Child Care Rebate at $7500 a year and the non-indexation of Child Care Benefit thresholds for three years announced in the May budget.
Our approach will ease the financial burden placed on child care centres and families, without compromising the standard of care that must be provided.
The Coalition understands that many families are struggling to find high quality child care that is flexible and affordable enough to meet their needs.
… shows that child care costs to parents have increased by 27 per cent over the past three years.
… concerned that parents all over the country are reassessing whether they can afford good quality childcare, or the number of days … per week they use.
We understand that there is a direct relationship between affordable child care and the amount of hours parents—especially women—can work.
Tax Laws Amendment (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
Income Tax Rates Amendment (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
Family Trust Distribution Tax (Primary Liability) Amendment (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
Fringe Benefits Tax Amendment (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
Income Tax (Bearer Debentures) Amendment (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
Income Tax (First Home Saver Accounts Misuse Tax) Amendment (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
Income Tax (TFN Withholding Tax (ESS)) Amendment (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
Superannuation (Departing Australia Superannuation Payments Tax) Amendment (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
Superannuation (Excess Non-concessional Contributions Tax) Amendment (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
Superannuation (Excess Untaxed Roll-over Amounts Tax) Amendment (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
Taxation (Trustee Beneficiary Non-disclosure Tax) (No. 1) Amendment (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
Taxation (Trustee Beneficiary Non-disclosure Tax) (No. 2) Amendment (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
Tax Laws Amendment (Interest on Non-Resident Trust Distributions) (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
Tax Laws Amendment (Untainting Tax) (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
Trust Recoupment Tax Amendment (Temporary Budget Repair Levy) Bill 2014
It's forest which has been logged, its forest which has been degraded, in some cases, its plantation timber that was actually planted to be logged.
I came to appreciate the forest wasn't just a place of beauty, but it was a source of resources.
But why should we lock up, as some kind of world heritage sanctuary, country which has been logged, degraded or planted for timber?
We have quite enough National Parks, we have quite enough locked up forests already. In fact in an important respect, we have too much locked up forest.
At the undergraduate, PhD and postdoctoral level more than 50% of our staff are women. At the laboratory head level the number drops to less than 25% and at a professorial level, it drops further to 10%. Indeed, when the previous director … at that point the only female professorial member of staff in our 94-year history—retired after 13 years in the job, none of our 20 professorial fellows was female.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Hon. BC Scott ) took the chair at 12:15.
… with the retirement of the eminent constitutionalist Geoffrey Sawer, Professor Zines became the leading commentator on the Australian Constitution.
Zines rightly belongs in the company of eminent Australian constitutional scholars before him, particularly William Harrison Moore, Kenneth Bailey and Sawer—
Although difficult to decipher I soon realized that they—
all signified, in relation to views and propositions I was expressing an advancing, an all important word—'why?'
This not only taught me much about the art and skill of how to supervise … but also went to the heart of the academic endeavour.
… provide outstanding opportunities for students from diverse education backgrounds to enter and exit tertiary education …
Fees will go up and they will go up quite significantly.
… most universities will increase tuition fees to international student fee levels, which are currently about three times higher.
… discouraging disadvantaged students and/or diminishing the quality of education that students from poorer backgrounds receive, …
… this road was comprehensively demonstrated not to represent value for money and, indeed, not to be conducive to good planning.
Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2014-2015
Australia has always been our friend but the change in their government last year has resulted in problems.
Prime Minister Abbott's comments on Monday with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper are a further indication that Australia is isolating itself on this issue.
… you can't run aid on borrowings.
Most countries within the Indo-Pacific have received an increase on 2013-14 funding levels.
Gender equality and women's empowerment will be a key priority across the aid program. Australia will continue to take a lead role on gender equality and women's empowerment in our aid program and advocacy, including through the Ambassador for Women and Girls.
I'm also keen to focus our aid scholarships on opportunities for young women and girls, an investment that can pay extraordinary dividends. An educated girl is a girl who has the tools to change not only her community but to change the world. Education and its long-term social and economic benefits will be an important part of our aid and soft-power diplomacy efforts and scholarships will be a signature policy.
It's time for DFAT to reassert its position as the primary source of advice on foreign policy.
Limits on women's participation in the workforce across the Asia-Pacific region cost the economy an estimated US$89 billion every year.
I was on the record saying that the budget Labor gave [in 2012] left things in an unsustainable mess.
Defence has been under financial pressure for the past few years because of cuts made by the Rudd and Gillard government in a futile attempt to get back into surplus.
We will deliver those submarines from right here at ASC in South Australia. The coalition today is committed to building 12 new submarines here in Adelaide.
The nation's top defence analysts warn that the Gillard government's deep cuts are threatening the future of the United States alliance and Australia's status as a middle power.
Given 41 per cent of GPs in urban areas are over 55 anyway, these guys are probably more like 60-plus, and so they, I think that if you squeeze them. . . or require them to go through a lot of change in order for them to be able to continue to provide a service then they'll just choose retirement.
The Nationals will provide increased financial support for doctors who provide health services in rural and remote communities, through increased Medicare rebates and scheduled fees …
Frustration in the delay of the processing of their refugee status determinations and lack of information about the likely timing for the completion of these determinations. Further anger and frustration resulting in the consequent uncertainty about their future including and, in particular, how long they will be kept at the Manus centre and frustration arising from the lack of information about what resettlement in PNG would mean for them and their families.
… the processing has recommenced on both Nauru and on Manus Island and Australian officials were assisting with training and providing support for that assessment process. That is underway and has been happening now for around about three or four weeks.
During an hour-long briefing of senior staff, the then acting regional manager of security provider G4s, John McCaffery, said he had been told that no refugee-status determinations would take place "for the foreseeable future" because of lack of funds.
There were some—
completed very soon after my first deployment—
I understand. When we got back to the island the second time—
I was led to believe that about 50 RSD interviews had taken place. There were no decisions, but I understood about 50 RSD interviews had taken place. As I said, in our second appointment it was made very clear to us, on 5 February, that there was no plan for RSD, only CAPS interviews—
So we were being deployed simply to undertake that initial process of taking the statement, filling in the forms and then providing them to the Australian immigration department, who would then provide them to PNG.
Is he aware of any development applications for the vicinity of Kurnell Peninsula which will or may potentially impact on aircraft movements at Kingsford-Smith Airport.
I am advised that in February of this year the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development made submissions to the NSW Department of Planning's Pre-Gateway Review of Amendments to State Environmental Planning Policy (Kurnell Peninsula) 1989, and the Sutherland Local Environment Plan Independent Review.
The proposed amendments related to an application for a 2,000 block residential development, to be located under southerly arrival and departure flight paths for Kingsford-Smith Airport.
The Department's advice was that the proposed development was likely to be subject to significant aircraft noise.