O75 Public Administration

Biden Covid rescue plan clears Senate

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Original article by Michael Mathes
The Australian – Page: Online : 8-Mar-21

The US Senate has approved President Joe Biden’s US1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion) relief package by 50 votes to 49 vote after much negotiation and a marathon voting session. It will now go back to the House of Representatives, where the Democrats have a majority and where it is expected to be adopted. The legislation provides stimulus cheques of $US1,400 for most Americans, along with $US41 billion for COVID-19 vaccine distribution and $US49 billion for increased COVID testing, tracing and research. The bill also allocates $US350 billion to state and local governments and $US130 billion to schools.

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Rise puts union leader on $470k

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 8-Mar-21

United Firefighters Union secretary Peter Marshall received $470,280 in the 2019-20 financial year, $51,000 up on the previous year. This is according to figures released by the Registered Organisations Commission, with Marshall being Australia’s highest paid union official. Former Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Mark Stone was paid $506,366 in 2019-20, while Pharmacy Guild of Australia national president George Tambassis received $394,720 and Aged & Community Services Australia secretary Patricia Sparrow received $323,025. It is understood Marshall is paid more than double the amount earned by ACTU secretary Sally McManus and ACTU president Michele O’Neil.

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UNITED FIREFIGHTERS’ UNION OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. REGISTERED ORGANISATIONS COMMISSION, VICTORIAN EMPLOYERS’ CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, THE PHARMACY GUILD OF AUSTRALIA, AGED AND COMMUNITY SERVICES AUSTRALIA INCORPORATED, ACTU

Two cabinet ministers attended event at which woman alleged Christian Porter raped her

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Original article by Paul Karp, Christopher Knaus, Katharine Murphy, Naaman Zhou
The Guardian – Page: Online : 6-Mar-21

Attorney-General Christian Porter has strenuously denied allegations he sexually assaulted a woman during a 1988 debating competition at the University of Sydney. It has been revealed that current federal Health Minister Greg Hunt attended the event as a member of the University of Melbourne debating team, while Communications Minister Paul Fletcher is understood to have been one of the event’s adjudicators. A spokesperson for Hunt said he had never met the woman in question to the best of his knowledge, while a spokesperson for Fletcher declined to comment.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS, AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT

Voucher boost for suffering tourist mecca

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Original article by Michael McKenna
The Australian – Page: Online : 8-Mar-21

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced a scheme that will see Queenslanders given a $200 voucher to spend on holidays in Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. The voucher scheme will cover travel from 15 March to 25 June, with 15,000 vouchers available from 8 to 11 March. In announcing the scheme, Palaszczuk repeated her call for the federal government to extend its JobKeeper program for industries such as tourism beyond its scheduled end of 28 March, while Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwin said other parts of Queensland would also benefit from a voucher scheme.

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QUEENSLAND. DEPT OF THE PREMIER AND CABINET, QUEENSLAND TOURISM INDUSTRY COUNCIL LIMITED

Australian workforce hits a record high in February as employment and unemployment both increase

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 8-Mar-21

The latest Roy Morgan employment series data shows 1.93 million Australians unemployed in February (up 250,000 on January) equal to 13.2% of the Australian workforce. There were more people looking for both full-time work (up 98,000 to 790,000), and part-time work (up 152,000 to 1,140,000), but under-employment was down 300,000 to 1.14 million. Overall, there were 12,703,000 Australians employed (the highest since March 2020), up 28,000. This increase was driven by a rise in full-time employment, up 125,000 to 8,322,000 but part-time employment was down 97,000 to 4,381,000. The combination of these factors led to the workforce increasing to a new record high of 14,633,000 in February. Roy Morgan’s unemployment figure of 13.2% for February is over double the current ABS estimate for January 2021 of 6.4%.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS

Jab deliveries to rise despite Italy’s ban

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Original article by Ben Packham, Adeshola Ore
The Australian – Page: 5 : 8-Mar-21

Health Minister Greg Hunt said on 7 March that the federal government was confident in the continuity of COVID-19 vaccine supplies to Australia. This is despite France threatening to join Italy in blocking exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia. Hunt was speaking as he received his vaccine jab, as did Julia Gillard, while he said that Australia would soon be delivering more than 500,000 vaccinations a week. GPs will be brought in for phase 1b of the vaccine rollout, which will commence on 22 March, while the federal government is aiming to have four million Australians receive their first vaccine jab by early April.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH, ASTRAZENECA PLC

Aged care tax killed off

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Original article by Tom McIlroy
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 5-Mar-21

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has acknowledged that funding for the aged-care sector needs to be increased, but he says that growing the economy is the best way to do this. The final report of the aged-care royal commission has recommended increasing funding for the sector via the tax system; however, Tony Negline from Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand says this is not appropriate, given that the bulk of aged-care funding already comes from taxpayers. Negline has proposed options such as requiring nursing home residents to use the equity in their family home and a reduction in the capital gains tax discount.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO AGED CARE QUALITY AND SAFETY, CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Record trade surplus adds to recovery

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Original article by Matthew Cranston
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 6 : 5-Mar-21

Australia’s trade surplus rose to a record $10.2bn in January, compared with market expectations of just $8.3bn. Strong growth in the resources sector’s exports was a key driver of the record trade surplus; the value of iron ore exports rose by 14.2 per cent month-on-month to $16.1bn, while LNG and coal exports rose by 7.9 per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg notes that in addition to growth in iron ore export volumes in January, the price of the steel input remains well above the Budget forecast of just $US55 a tonne free on board.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

PM backs Reynolds despite offensive slur on ex-staffer

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Original article by Rosie Lewis, Sharri Markson, Tom Dusevic
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 5-Mar-21

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds faces renewed scrutiny and potential legal action as the fallout from the alleged rape of an ex-staffer continues. The media has reported that Reynolds described Brittany Higgins as a "lying cow" in her office on the same day that the former media adviser publicly revealed that she had been raped by a colleague in March 2019. Higgins’ lawyers has raised the threat of legal action if Reynolds does not publicly withdraw her comment and apologise. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described Reynolds’ comment as ‘inappropriate and wrong’, but stresses that she not referring to Higgins’ rape allegation.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF DEFENCE, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

Italy blocks export of 250,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Australia

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Original article by Daniel Boffey
The Guardian – Page: Online : 5-Mar-21

The Italian government has ruled that AstraZeneca cannot ship 250,000 doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to Australia. Italy has become the first country to invoke the European Union’s export authorisation mechanism with regard to coronavirus vaccines. The EU has ordered some 400 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine; problems at the biotechnology group’s plant in Belgium means that it has now committed to supplying just 40 million doses in the March quarter, well down on the 120 million doses that it was meant to supply.

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ASTRAZENECA PLC, EUROPEAN COMMISSION