AUSTRALIA – POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Gig workers, truckie safety, industrial deaths on Labor’s agenda

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 4 : 1-Apr-21

Delegates at Labor’s two-day national conference have backed key measures in the party’s industrial relations platform, including minimum entitlements for workers in the gig economy and the introduction of national industrial manslaughter laws. Labor will also abolish the Australian Building & Construction Commission and the Registered Organisations Commission if it wins the next federal election, and scrap the government’s building code and union demerge laws.

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AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. REGISTERED ORGANISATIONS COMMISSION

Treasurer warns of subsidy dangers

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Original article by Geoff Chambers, Richard Ferguson
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 29-Mar-21

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the federal government will continue to provide economic stimulus following the end of the JobKeeper scheme on 28 March. He has flagged further targeted support for sectors that have been hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and says the wage subsidy scheme had ‘stemmed the tide’ of coronavirus-induced job losses. However, he cautions that fiscal discipline is also necessary to prevent higher taxes and higher debt in the future. Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers says JobKeeper should have been extended in a "responsible, temporary, and targeted fashion", and he has warned that the Coalition will be responsible for any job losses in coming weeks.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Andrew Laming to quit politics after unacceptable behaviour

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Original article by
SBS News – Page: Online : 29-Mar-21

The Liberal-National Party has confirmed that Queensland MP Andrew Laming will not contest the next federal election. The announcement came one day after a woman accused him of taking a picture of her bottom on his mobile phone in 2019, and two days after he apologised for trolling two women from his constituency online. The announcement that Laming would step down from Parliament had been made by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who said that Laming’s behaviour had been "unacceptable".

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LIBERAL-NATIONAL PARTY OF QUEENSLAND, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

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.

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

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

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

Rare earth miners want plan backed with cash

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Original article by Jacob Greber, Peter Ker
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 8 : 5-Mar-21

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced a 10-year ‘road map’ for the creation of more mineral processing operations in Australia. His plans have won backing from rare earths and critical minerals producers and from green groups such as the Climate Council and WWF-Australia, but producers have called on the government to back up its plans with actual money and support. Charlie Richardson from Accenture notes that Australia has over 90 per cent of the raw materials used to make lithium-ion batteries, but no manufacturers producing them. He says this is both a "both a missed opportunity and a sovereign risk".

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, ACCENTURE AUSTRALIA LIMITED, LYNAS RARE EARTHS LIMITED – ASX LYC, HASTINGS TECHNOLOGY METALS LIMITED – ASX HAS, WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE AUSTRALIA, CLIMATE COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED, ARAFURA RESOURCES LIMITED – ASX ARU

Porter’s alleged victim insisted we shut the case: police

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

The family of the woman who was allegedly raped by Attorney-General Christian Porter in 1988 has expressed support for an inquiry into the circumstances that led to her death. Labor leader Anthony Albanese has also pushed for an independent inquiry into the allegations against Porter, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison says there is no precedent for such an inquiry. Meanwhile, New South Wales police say the alleged victim advised that she did not want to make a formal statement on 23 June, citing medical and personal reasons. The woman took her own life the following day.

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AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, NEW SOUTH WALES POLICE FORCE

Increased rollout after jab target miss

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Original article by Adeshola Ore
The Australian – Page: 5 : 1-Mar-21

The federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout has fallen well behind schedule; just 30,000 people nationwide received the Pfizer vaccine in the first week of the rollout, compared with the government’s target of 60,000 by the end of February. However, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the arrival of the first 300,000 overseas-made doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will allow the inoculation of priority groups to be ramped up. Meanwhile, Victoria has recorded no new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, although residents in 10 suburbs in Melbourne’s east have been put on alert after virus fragments were detected in wastewater.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, PFIZER INCORPORATED, ASTRAZENECA PLC