AUSTRALIA – POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Unions lean on ALP over super choice bill

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 6 : 7-Feb-20

The union movement is urging Labor to vote against proposed legislation that would ban enterprise agreements from stating that workers must join a union-backed superannuation fund. Labor senator Tony Sheldon recently warned the party’s caucus against voting for the bill, while ACTU assistant secretary Scott Connolly says the proposed legislation would have a major impact on industry funds such as UniSuper.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, ACTU, UNISUPER LIMITED

Joyce warns PM: Nats to cross floor

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Original article by Dennis Shanahan, Rosie Lewis
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 7-Feb-20

The National Party remains divided in the wake of Barnaby Joyce’s failed bid to oust party leader Michael McCormack. Joyce and two other Nationals MPs have threatened to vote against Coalition bills after opponents of McCormack missed out on portfolios in a cabinet reshuffle. The rebel Nationals are in a position to block Coalition legislation, given that the government has a majority of just two seats in the lower house. Joyce has also criticised a proposal to change the party’s rules governing leadership spills.

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NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Darwin next stop for China evacuees

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Original article by Amos Aikman, Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 7 : 7-Feb-20

The global death toll from the coronavirus has risen to 563, and more than 28,000 people have been diagnosed with the respiratory illness, including 15 in Australia. Meanwhile, the federal government is looking at using Inpex’s former workers’ camp near Darwin to quarantine people returning from China. It is part of a contingency plan in the event that the Christmas Island facility reaches capacity. Some 273 Australian citizens and permanent residents who have been evacuated from Wuhan are currently in quarantine on Christmas Island.

CORPORATES
INPEX CORPORATION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS

Senate to investigate key figures in sports rorts

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Original article by Rob Harris
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 6-Feb-20

The Senate has passed Labor’s motion to hold an inquiry into the so-called sports rorts scandal. Amongst other things, the probe will seek the release of a report into the affair by top bureaucrat Phil Gaetjens. It cleared former cabinet minister Bridget McKenzie of any wrongdoing over the allocation of sports grants, but found that she had breach ministerial standards over her failure to declare her membership of a shooting club that received a grant. Shadow sports minister Don Farrell says McKenzie’s former staffers may want to appear before the inquiry.

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AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Fire inquiry accepts climate link: Morrison

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 6-Feb-20

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has advised that former defence force chief Mark Binskin will head the federal government’s bushfires royal commission. Morrison says the inquiry will proceed on the basis that climate change is real and contributed to the scale and severity of the bushfires. National Party leader Michael McCormack says that while human activity has contributed to climate change, it is the role of scientists to determine the extent of this. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton in turn has pointed to arson as one of the causes of the bushfires.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS

Greens want coal levy to fund more paid firefighters

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Original article by Judith Ireland
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 6-Feb-20

Greens leader Adam Bandt has proposed the introduction of a levy on coal, gas and oil producers. The levy would be priced at $1 per tonne of carbon dioxide and would raise about $1.5bn a year. Most of the proceeds would be used to hire nearly 16,000 additional paid firefighters in metropolitan and rural areas. Bandt says the nation’s firefighters are exhausted by the intensity and duration of the bushfire season. The Australia Institute also called for a levy on fossil fuel producers in late 2019, as part of its proposal for a National Climate Disaster Fund.

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AUSTRALIAN GREENS, THE AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE LIMITED

Mines, hotels to host evacuees

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Original article by Geoff Chambers, Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 1 & 7 : 6-Feb-20

The death toll from the coronavirus has risen to 492, and more than 24,000 people have now contracted the respiratory illness, including 14 in Australia. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has warned that more Australian citizens and permanent residents will probably need to be evacuated from China. He adds that the federal government may quarantine future evacuees in hotels and mining camps if the Christmas Island facility reaches capacity. Meanwhile, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has told his state counterparts that the virus’s impact on the domestic economy could exceed that of the SARS outbreak in 2003.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

Bandt abused PM with deaths claim

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Original article by Rosie Lewis
The Australian – Page: 4 : 5-Feb-20

Adam Bandt has stepped up his attack on the federal government’s environmental credentials after being elected unopposed as the new leader of the Greens. He has claimed that the Coalition’s climate change policy will result in many more deaths than the recent bushfires, as it will result in a 3-degree temperature increase. Bandt also contends that the business models of fossil fuel producers are unsustainable, and he has called for domestic coal-fired power generation and coal exports to be phased out by 2030. Larissa Waters and Nick McKim are the new joint deputy leaders of the Greens.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN GREENS

Travel ban ‘won’t be turned off’

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Original article by Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 7 : 5-Feb-20

Health Minister Greg Hunt has indicated that the federal government is likely to extend its ban on non-citizens entering Australia from the Chinese mainland, which was initially slated to last for two weeks. Wang Xining, the China’s deputy ambassador to Australia, has described it as an over-reaction and notes that the World Health Organization believes that such measures are not necessary. Wang adds that the Chinese embassy was not advised of the travel ban before it was announced, but Hunt says that senior officials in China were told of the ban as soon as the government decided to impose it.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

Government waives $1000 evacuation fee

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Original article by Richard Ferguson, Robyn Ironside
The Australian – Page: 6 : 3-Feb-20

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has advised that Australian citizens who are evacuated from Wuhan will not be charged up to $1,000 for their flight. He says the Department of Foreign Affairs had provided the government with incorrect advice with regard to the costs associated with ‘assisted departures’. However, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton had previously stated that it is "commonsense" for the government to recoup some of the costs of the chartered Qantas flight. More than 200 of the 600 registered Australian citizens in Wuhan are expected to be evacuated to Christmas Island, where they will be quarantined for 14 days.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS, QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN