Posted by Steve on August 12, 2011
Reports today of the Coalition’s own expenditure review committee acknowledging it needs to find $70 billion of savings demonstrates how the Coalition under Tony Abbott is rapidly losing its economic credibility, Australian Greens leader Senator Bob Brown warned today.
“$70 billion of cuts to the budget during a period of increasing economic insecurity overseas will put thousands of small businesses and Australian jobs at risk.
“This is on top of the massive cuts to the public service we know are a certainty under an Abbott government,” said Senator Brown.
“The Coalition is also committed to a surplus for purely political purposes, yet has promoted unspecified tax cuts with no explanation of how they’ll pay for them. If the global economy takes another significant downturn this $70 billion hole would most certainly increase, and these reckless Coalition policies could send the economy into recession.
“Tony Abbott’s opposition to the carbon price and the mining tax – both of which are supported overwhelmingly by economists – would force ordinary Australians to foot a multi-billion dollar bill while leaving big polluters and wealthy foreign-owned mining companies free to continue to send their profits off shore,” said Senator Brown.
Posted by Steve on August 10, 2011
The Australian Greens say they hope a High Court challenge to the National School Chaplaincy Programme, which began today, will succeed and lead to an overhaul of the scheme.
“This is of course a programme where Australian taxpayers spend hundreds of millions of dollars on staff to support students who can do so without appropriate qualifications,” Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, Greens’ spokesperson for youth affairs, said.
“I look forward to hearing the results as they unfold in the court and hope that the High Court will uphold the need for students to have qualified staff there to support them, and ensure that it is quality over anything else that we hold up as important for our young people and children.
“Whether it’s bullying at school, issues to do with sexuality and other questions about the world, let’s make sure people have access to qualified support, not simply people who are there because they happen to have some connection to a religious group.”
Posted by Steve on
The Australian Greens have welcomed the announcement of the Government’s first steps to establish a National Disability Insurance Scheme but plans must be backed up by a sustainable funding commitment.
“We agree with the Productivity Commission that funding for disability should be a core function of Government, and we are pleased that the Government has announced it will start work on the foundations of a NDIS. The foundation work is essential however the community needs to be assured that funding for the Scheme will be available” said Senator Rachel Siewert, spokesperson on disability services.
“So far the Government has been silent on how it will fund the scheme. There must be a commitment from Government that funding will be provided, to ensure the valuable work they will be doing on the foundations of the Scheme is not all in vain.
“We also with the Productivity Commission that current disability funding and support is underfinanced, unfair, fragmented, and inefficient, and gives people with a disability little choice and no certainty of access to appropriate supports. This new scheme must put an end to this ineffectiveness.
“The Australian Greens urge State and Territory Governments to get behind the NDIS. This needs urgent attention and shouldn’t be delayed by any bickering with States.
“Implementation should start as soon as possible as it will take some years for the full Scheme to be operational. The Greens will be carefully assessing the fine detail to make sure it as effective as possible and provides life-long support for those living with a disability,” said Senator Siewert.
Posted by Steve on July 25, 2011
The Australian Greens have condemned the Malaysian Solution reached today which will involve sending up to 800 people, including unaccompanied children, to an unknown fate.
“Under this deal, the Australian government is shirking its international obligations to offer protection to those seeking our assistance,” Greens’ immigration spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said.
“The Greens are doubtful that in reality the rights and protections of 800 vulnerable people sent by Australia will be any different to the 94,000 asylum seekers already in Malaysia.
“Ultimately these 800 people will be subject to domestic Malaysian law, and we know these laws do not meet appropriate human rights standards.
“We do not support any policy to expel unaccompanied children and families to a country which has not signed the UN Refugee Convention.
“This four-year deal is a waste of Australian taxpayers’ money that would be better spent increasing our humanitarian intake so 800 people do not have to board boats before 4,000 refugees are taken from Malaysia.
“Both houses of parliament have already condemned this deal, but it can be enacted because the Immigration Minister does not need parliament’s approval.
“Nearly 10 years ago the Greens condemned the Pacific Solution. We condemn its newest version, the Malaysian solution.”
Posted by Steve on July 10, 2011
The Australian Greens, the Labor government and the Independent MPs today announced an historic agreement on a climate action package that will put a $23 per tonne price on carbon pollution, as was first proposed by the Greens, support householders and invest billions of dollars in clean, renewable energy.
This package, which the Greens have helped shape, is the first vital step towards tackling the climate crisis and building a cleaner, healthier, more secure Australia for all of us.
Major steps forward on emissions reduction targets, support for renewable energy, energy efficiency and landscape carbon, closing coal-fired power plants, limiting the use of international offsets and a floor price mean that pollution cuts that were pushed into the distant future under the government’s original plans will now be pulled forward into the next few years.
While a climate action package designed by the Greens would have been more ambitious straight away, what we have achieved is a firm foundation for the future. Where the Rudd government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme acted as a ceiling on action, constraining our efforts for decades to come, this carbon price package acts as a platform on which stronger action can be built in the years ahead.
The carbon price agreement:
• Lifts Australia’s 2050 emissions target to 80%, lays the foundations for science-based climate action in the coming years and supports the effort to reach an ambitious global climate agreement;
• invests $10 billion in renewable energy, establishes ARENA, supports energy efficiency and starts planning for a 100% renewable energy future;
• helps the most vulnerable Australians;
• will begin to close coal-fired power stations and prevents the building of new commercial coal-fired power stations;
• ensures that emission intensive industry compensation will be based on rigorous independent analysis as soon as possible;
• limits the use of international offsets;
• begins to shift transport onto a cleaner base;
• makes voluntary action to cut emissions count; and
• invests $1.7 billion in protecting biodiversity and supporting farmers.
The Greens put climate action back on the political agenda after a federal election campaign during which it was a low priority for both Labor and the Coalition. By establishing a Multi-Party Climate Change Committee to deliver a carbon price as a condition for Julia Gillard to continue as Prime Minister, and by negotiating strongly and in good faith, the Greens have delivered a truly transformative package for the Australian community, economy and climate.
With this first step agreed, the Greens will continue to campaign for the much stronger action we need to effectively and efficiently tackle the climate crisis.
Posted by Jim McDonald on July 9, 2011
Letter to the editor, Sydney Morning Herald:
Your coverage on global emissions (SMH 9/7/11) highlights Australia’s percentage of the total world emissions (1.5%). What it fails to do is to compare our emissions with countries that emit a similar percentage. Australia’s population is 35% of France’s, 37% of the UK and Italy, 44% of South Africa and South Korea, 48% of Spain’s and 9.5% of Indonesia’s, yet shares the same percentage of the world’s emissions as each of these countries. These figures put Australia’s poor record on emissions into a context that requires a serious programme of emission reduction. I hope the carbon tax accelerates the moral obligation on all polluters to improve on this national disgrace.
Jim McDonald, Noosa Greens Candidate, 9 July 2011
Published Sydney Morning Herald, 11 July 2011
Posted by Steve on July 7, 2011
Greens MP and banking spokesperson Adam Bandt has released a new banking bill that will ensure direct debits and credits follow customers when they switch banks, making it easier for consumers to move their accounts.
The Banking and Consumer Credit Protection Amendment (Mobility and Flexibility) Bill 2011 contains a mechanism for account portability. If a customer asks, banks will be required to forward all direct debits and credits to the customer’s new bank for 13 months after they switch.
The bill will also include requirements that banks issue a pro-rata refund of lenders mortgage insurance when consumers switch loans and ensure people can make an informed choice before rolling over term deposits.
“The Greens Bill will mean direct debits and credits automatically follow customers when they switch banks, if the customer so chooses” Mr Bandt said.
“A customer’s old and new banks will have to make sure there is a seamless changeover.”
“This will remove a big barrier to switching accounts and help businesses who can lose out when their customers change banks.”
“This bill is an important step towards full account portability.”
“Mortgage insurance can cost thousands of dollars. If someone wants to switch banks, they lose that money and have to pay it again to their new bank.”
“The Greens Bill will require banks at the start of a mortgage to tell people they are entitled to a pro-rata refund if they leave their mortgage early. If customers do switch mortgages, their old bank will be required to give the customer a pro-rata refund of the unused insurance premium, removing a big barrier to switching mortgages.”
Posted by Steve on July 3, 2011
The Australian Greens have welcomed the Productivity Commission’s report into the early childhood education and care workforce and hope it results in necessary improvements to the sector.
“The Opposition wants delays on the required reforms to the sector, but we say the brakes should not be applied,” the Greens’ early childhood education and care spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said today.
“We agree with the Productivity Commission’s draft findings that government should help pay for the cost increases associated with improving staffing to children ratios and boosting the skills of those staff.
“The Greens call on the federal government to conduct an independent cost-benefit analysis with the end goal of creating a more affordable child-care sector.
“We believe the government should carry the costs and not pass them on to parents, particularly those from lower socio-economic backgrounds who can least afford rising child care fees.
“The Greens also note the federal government’s long-term goal of lifting the level of people from lower socio-economic backgrounds who attain tertiary education and believe starting with the early childhood education and care sector is crucial to achieving this.”
Posted by Steve on July 1, 2011
The Australian Greens are calling on the federal government to alter the powers of the Foreign Investment Review Board to include water licenses.
It comes amid an overwhelming response from everyday Australians toward the acquisition of prime farming land by foreign companies and shows the Federal government must act to ensure water allocation licences in the Murray Darling Basin and other part of the country are protected.
“Australians don’t want foreign companies buying up prime agricultural land so they can be turned into mining sites and they do not want water allocation rights acquired by parties not interested in protecting future flows,” the Greens’ water and Murray Darling Basin spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said today.
“The Greens want the federal government to publish a list of foreign owners of water licences, not just land ownership.
“We also want the Foreign Investment Review Board’s powers to be strengthened to include assessing water licenses, because currently the board does not examine this vital part of Australia’s future.”
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