O75 Public Administration

‘Hell of a journey’: campaign run ends after 14,500km

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Original article by Tom McIlroy
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 12-Oct-23

Former Liberal MP Pat Farmer has finished a 14,500-kilometre run around Australia in support of an Indigenous Voice to parliament. Starting his run in Tasmania in April, Farmer arrived at Uluru on Wednesday, where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles were among those to greet him. Farmer said the run "was a hell of a journey", while Albanese described him "as an absolute inspiration". Farmer spoke in favour of Indigenous constitutional recognition in towns and cities along his run, while he referred to the voice referendum on 14 October as a "turning point in Australia’s history"

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ATHLETES – AUSTRALIA]

Moves to cut apprentice dropout rate

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Original article by Andrew Tillett
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 8 : 4-Oct-23

Federal Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor has told the National Press Club that a review is underway into how high dropout rates for apprentices can be addressed. He said low pay was one reason why many apprentices dropped out, while the review would also look at issues such as how they were welcomed in the workplace and mistreatment by co-workers. He also said that work was in hand to address the perception that TAFE and private vocational education providers were inferior to universities.

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NATIONAL PRESS CLUB (AUSTRALIA)

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION – AUSTRALIA]

Ethnic swing away from PM could bring down Voice

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Original article by Tom McIlroy
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 4-Oct-23

Australian Development Strategies chairman John Black says there was a significant change in voting intentions against Labor by Asian Australians between the Aston byelection in April and the Fadden byelection in July. He says the shift away from Labor by Chinese and Indian Australian voters could be critical to the result of the Voice referendum, and could see it defeated. Black, who is a former Labor senator, says the party has previously relied on multicultural voters to bolster its support in outer suburban areas, so it would be worried by their apparent change in voting intentions.

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AUSTRALIAN DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES PTY LTD,[SPACE]AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

REFERENDUM – AUSTRALIA,[SPACE]VOTING – AUSTRALIA]

Victoria’s Commonwealth Games legal bill balloons to $1.3m

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Original article by Gus McCubbing
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 4-Oct-23

Victoria’s upper house is to conduct an inquiry into the cancelled 2026 Commonwealth Games, with the inquiry to start later in October. Filling out a questionnaire in response to the inquiry, the Department of Premier and Cabinet has stated that law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler was paid $1,265,982 for legal services regarding the state’s withdrawal from the Games. Arnold Bloch Leibler’s work was said to have begun in June, meaning it was engaged around three weeks before then Premier Daniel Andrews announced his government was cancelling the games; it ended up having to pay $380 million in compensation to Commonwealth Games bodies

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ARNOLD BLOCH LEIBLER

LAWYERS,[SPACE]VICTORIA – POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT]

Bullock keeps calm continuity

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Original article by Michael Read
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 4-Oct-23

Reserve Bank of Australia has left the cash rate at 4.1 per cent for the fourth month in a row at its October board meeting, which was Michele Bullocks’s first as RBA governor. She said keeping the cash rate at 4.1 per cent would give the RBA more time to assess the impact of rate increases to date, in a statement that was quite similar to the final one issued by her predecessor Philip Lowe in September. Bullock stated that inflation appeared to have peaked, but that it was still too high and would remain so for some time to come. Treasurer Jim Chalmers welcomed the RBA’s decision to keep the cash rate unchanged, but shadow treasurer Angus Taylor claimed Labor was not doing enough to tackle what he said was " stubbornly high inflation"

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RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA,[SPACE]AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

INTEREST RATES – AUSTRALIA]

Australia’s wealthiest 20% worth 90 times the country’s poorest, new report reveals

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Original article by Cait Kelly
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 27-Sep-23

The Australian Council of Social Service and the University of New South Wales have released a report which highlights the nation’s growing wealth gap. The report, which is based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data from 2019, concluded that superannuation and property investment have been key drivers of growth in wealth over the last two decades. The wealthiest five per cent of Australians were worth an average of $6.7m in 2019, accounting for one-third of the nation’s combined wealth. Likewise, the wealthiest 20 per cent of Australians were worth an average of $3.2m. In contrast, people in the lowest quartile relied on an average of $419 each week in social security payments for half of their income.

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AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE, UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Doha views Qatar Airways flight block as national insult

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Original article by Robyn Ironside
The Australian – Page: 2 : 27-Sep-23

Australian Qatar Business Council chairman Simon Harrison has appeared before a Senate hearing into the federal government’s decision to reject Qatar Airways’ request for more flights to Australia. He said the decision has caused "sensitivities" in the local Qatar business community. He added that Qatar regards it as a "national insult" that the decision has been linked to an incident in which Australian women were strip-searched at Doha airport in 2020. Qantas chairman Richard Goyder and CEO Vanessa Hudson will appear before the committee on Wednesday; former CEO Alan Joyce may be summonsed to appear when he returns from overseas.

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AUSTRALIAN QATAR BUSINESS COUNCIL, QATAR AIRWAYS, QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN

Economists rip into Labor’s white paper

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Original article by John Kehoe
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 27-Sep-23

The federal government’s employment white paper is continuing to attract scrutiny from economists and the Opposition. Labour economist Mark Wooden says the white paper lacks substantive measures to meet the government’s stated goal of making the economy more "productive, dynamic and competitive". The Centre for Independent Studies’ chief economist Peter Tulip doubts that the government’s policies will reduce the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment, adding that Labor’s industrial relations reforms may increase the NAIRU. Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor in turn says the government should focus on policies that result in low inflation and low unemployment.

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Uluru statement a ‘declaration of war’: Mundine

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Original article by
The New Daily – Page: Online : 27-Sep-23

Indigenous leader Nyunggai Warren Mundine used a National Press Club speech on Tuesday to reiterate his view that the proposed Indigenous Voice to parliament is divisive. Amongst other things, he refuted claims by ‘Yes’ advocates that Indigenous Australians currently do not have a voice, contending that they have many voices and that hundreds of Indigenous organisations are involved in policy-making that affects First Nations people. Mundine also described the Uluru Statement from the Heart as "a symbolic declaration of war against modern Australia". Leading ‘Yes’ campaigner and Uluru statement architect Megan Davis says this comment is "inflammatory".

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ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence down 3.4pts to 76.4 – lowest since mid-August

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 27-Sep-23

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence fell 3.4pts to 76.4 in the week to 24 September; it has now spent a record 30 straight weeks below the mark of 80. Consumer Confidence is now 11.4pts below the same week a year ago (87.8), and 1.7 pts below the 2023 weekly average of 78.1. Consumer Confidence was down in the four largest States of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, but unchanged in South Australia. Now 19% of Australians (down 1ppt) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year, while 54% (up 2ppts) say their families are ‘worse off’ financially. Only 7% (down 1ppt) of Australians now expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next 12 months, while 35% (up 1ppt) expect ‘bad times’. Meanwhile, 19% (unchanged) of Australians say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items, while 54% (up 1ppt) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.

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