Posted by Chalmers stands by changes to stage-three tax cuts
Speaking on the stage-three tax cut changes announced last week, the treasurer said the “political argey bargey” does not matter, but what does matter is the “tangible benefits for middle Australia”. Jim Chalmers:
Everyone gets a tax cut, but there’s a bigger tax cut for more people to help with the cost of living and that’s what matters here.
He addressed the debate around bracket creep (the term for the extra tax take as wage rises see people ‘creep’ into higher tax brackets), saying:
By dropping two rates, and by lifting two thresholds, we are giving everyone a tax cut, we’re delivering $359bn worth of tax relief, and we’re returning bracket creep where we can do the most good, which is middle Australia.
And so, obviously our political opponents will stumble around, looking for excuses to oppose bigger tax cuts for more people to help with the cost of living. Our job is to get to the right outcome and that’s what we’ve done here.
Key events
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Milton Dick, this morning issued the writ for the Dunkley by-election.
The by-election will be held on 2 March. It was triggered by the death of MP Peta Murphy, who held the seat centred on the outer Melbourne suburb of Frankston.
Heatwave conditions leading to increased ambulance callouts, study finds
New research from Griffith University has found more ambulance callouts will be likely as Australia swelters through a long, hot summer and heatwave conditions.
Lead author and senior research assistant Mehak Oberai said heatwaves are known as silent killers and have been the cause of death for more people in Australia than any other natural disaster.
Not only does this lead to increased mortality, but also leads to an increase in morbidity with added pressure on the healthcare system.
We found a statistically significant increase in the likelihood of ambulance callouts for all causes by 10 per cent.
Dr Aaron Bach said the new research is proof of the need to establish holistic heat health awareness campaigns that encompass individuals, the community and the healthcare system.
As these searingly hot days continue across the country, we’ll see a further rise in the likelihood of ambulance callouts which will shine a spotlight on the real burden that heatwaves place on our already stressed health system.
The study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, used a systematic review and meta-analysis to gauge the number of ambulance callouts in Australia due to heatwaves.
Caitlin Cassidy
Greens-comissioned poll finds half of all parents think private schools should not get government funding
Seven in 10 parents think government funding should be stripped from private schools whilst the public system is underfunded, new survey data suggests, and half of parents think private schools should receive no government support at all.
The Lonergan Research poll, commissioned by the Greens, surveyed 1,005 Australian parents of public and private school children.
It also found three in five, including 48% of private school parents, believed the Australian school system was designed to benefit wealthier families.
Three quarters, including 54% of private school parents, said private schools receiving government funding shouldn’t be able to pick and choose which students they accepted.
Under the current funding agreement, extended until the end of 2024, 98% of public schools are funded below the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) – the baseline agreed to by governments to provide a decent education.
The Greens’ spokesperson on education, Senator Penny Allman-Payne, said the results showed the system was “rigged” in favour of private schools:
Under Labor and the Coalition, elite private schools have for decades been subsidised with billions of dollars of government largesse, while the public system – which is responsible for educating more than 80% of our most disadvantaged kids – has languished.
The new national school reform agreement and bilateral deals are being negotiated right now. With Labor in power federally and in every mainland state and territory they have absolutely no excuse not to deliver 100% of the SRS to every public school by January 2025.
RSCPA calls on Victorian government to listen to duck hunting inquiry and implement ban
The RSPCA is calling on the Victorian government to reverse its decision not to ban duck hunting in the state, as has been reported today.
RSPCA Victoria’s CEO, Dr Liz Walker, said the recent parliamentary inquiry recommended native bird hunting cease based on extensive evidence and a “record number of submissions from the public”.
She noted that other states like Queensland, NSW and Western Australia all banned it up to three decades ago.
Dr Walker:
Instead of sanctioning the injury, pain, suffering, distress of our native birds, the government should have listened to the inquiry and [the] millions of Victorians who also want to see it banned.
This decision simply leaves us asking when it comes to duck and quail hunting, why is Victoria different?
We urge the government to hear the millions of Victorians who have made clear their support for a duck hunting ban in Victoria and to reverse this decision.
Animal justice party says Victorian Labor will ‘see the worst of me’ after duck hunting ban ‘betrayal’
Victorian Animal Justice party MP Georgie Purcell says she is “absolutely furious” the Allan government plans to shoot down a ban on recreational duck hunting, labelling it the “ultimate betrayal”.
As we brought you just earlier via AAP, the ban is set to be shot down by the Victorian government despite it being recommended by a Labor-led parliamentary inquiry.
Speaking to 3AW, Purcell said the decision was “completely gutless” and that the government was going against the word of its own chair, Labor MP Ryan Batchelor.
We know that there’s been a lot of internal dissent within the Labor party for quite some time now about duck shooting, but there’s just a handful of senior people at the top who are making captain’s calls and going against parliamentary inquiries, their own members and even their own ministers.
Purcell said she holds a key vote in the state’s upper house and intends to use it:
The whole time I’ve been elected I’ve worked proactively and pragmatically with the government, acting in good faith that they will do the right thing [and] will listen to the evidence, the science and the overwhelming community support for ban on duck shooting.
I am planning on reneging on that relationship now. This is the ultimate betrayal not just to me but to the community and, most importantly, to ducks. I think they’ve shown the absolute worst of politicians, this government, and now they’ll see the worst of me.
Chalmers stands by changes to stage-three tax cuts
Speaking on the stage-three tax cut changes announced last week, the treasurer said the “political argey bargey” does not matter, but what does matter is the “tangible benefits for middle Australia”. Jim Chalmers:
Everyone gets a tax cut, but there’s a bigger tax cut for more people to help with the cost of living and that’s what matters here.
He addressed the debate around bracket creep (the term for the extra tax take as wage rises see people ‘creep’ into higher tax brackets), saying:
By dropping two rates, and by lifting two thresholds, we are giving everyone a tax cut, we’re delivering $359bn worth of tax relief, and we’re returning bracket creep where we can do the most good, which is middle Australia.
And so, obviously our political opponents will stumble around, looking for excuses to oppose bigger tax cuts for more people to help with the cost of living. Our job is to get to the right outcome and that’s what we’ve done here.
Chalmers announces further appointments to future fund board
Jim Chalmers said that Greg Combet will begin his tenure as future fund chair “around the middle of the year”. In the interim, the government has appointed Mary Reemst as acting chair, beginning 4 February.
The government has also appointed Nicola Wakefield-Evans and Rosemary Vilgan as part-time members of the board for five-year terms.
Chalmers said this will increase the representation of women on the future fund, and “continue the government’s really strong track record of appointing women to senior roles in Australia’s most important economic and financial institutions”.
Rosemary has a strong background in investment and a broad range of experience in executive and non-executive roles. Rosemary will begin on the board in February. Nicola has extensive experience in capital markets, corporate finance, the energy sector and corporate law. And she’ll begin on the board in March. So, these are some really important appointments.
Greg Combet announced as new chair of the future fund
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is giving a press conference in Canberra, and has just announced Greg Combet as chair of the future fund board of guardians on a five-year term.
Combet is a former Labor minister and current chair of the net zero economy agency. Chalmers said:
Greg Combet has extensive experience in investment and superannuation, as well as government and the climate and energy transformation in particular.
Greg Combet is a person of extraordinary breadth and depth and character and experience. He is the perfect appointment to take the future fund into the future. We are very pleased, [finance minister] Katy Gallagher and I, to make this appointment today after it went through the cabinet last week.
Peter Costello was the last future fund chair.
Tamsin Rose
Minns open to regulatory change after Guardian investigation reveals EPA knowledge of contaminants
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, is open to changing the laws and regulations governing the recycling of construction waste after the Guardian revealed the state’s environmental regulator has known about widespread compliance failures for more than a decade.
Internal documents from the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) revealed it has known for more than a 10 years that producers of soil fill made from construction and demolition waste were failing to comply with rules to limit the spread of contaminants such as lead and asbestos into the community.
Asked about the report on ABC radio this morning, the premier said:
The recycling of construction material I think was done with the best of intentions, which was to reuse existing material in the fast growing infrastructure needs of the state but we’ve got to make sure we get it right.
There is a pathway through it and that does rely on a strict regulatory and investigation process. If there’s law changes, or potential regulatory changes that we need to explore, then we’ll look at it closely.
The premier said he would be briefed later today by the EPA “about how the law is being implemented” and about the separate Rozelle Parklands asbestos investigation.
Status report on power outages in Queensland after ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily
Checking back in with the power outages in Queensland, associated with ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily.
According to Ergon Energy there are currently 5,252 customers without power in regional Queensland. Majority of these are in Townsville, where 4,616 are without power.
Ergon released a restoration plan over the weekend. It said 90% of power was expected to be restored by last night, and 100% by Tuesday evening, subject to weather, access and safety conditions for crews.
Early damage assessments found that around 518 powerlines were down and 129 impacted distribution feeders, caused by strong winds and debris during the cyclone and subsequent storms.
Victorian duck hunting ban set to be shot down
A ban on recreational duck hunting is set to be shot down by the Victorian government despite it being recommended by a Labor-led parliamentary inquiry, AAP reports.
In August, a Labor-chaired parliamentary inquiry called for recreational duck hunting to be banned across all Victorian public and private land from 2024.
But the state government is expected to reject the recommendation when the premier, Jacinta Allan, and ministers meet today to thrash out a response.
Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell, who was on the nine-member select committee, warned there would be repercussions. She wrote on X:
If the rumour the government is ignoring their own recommendation to ban duck shooting is true, they will not get the same version of me when parliament returns.
A disgraceful mockery of the process the community had faith in. It’s no wonder people don’t trust politicians.
Taxpayer funds are used to monitor bird populations and hunting compliance, but the report said policing was almost an impossible task because game reserves are vast and dispersed.
Despite there being no definitive evidence on wounding rates, the committee said thousands of birds were wounded each year and described it as an “unacceptable animal welfare outcome”.
The inquiry was chaired by Ryan Batchelor, one of three Labor MPs on the committee, and more than 10,000 submissions were made, a record for the state.
Former NZ PM calls funding suspension of UNRWA ‘catastrophic’
The former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark has labelled the decision of ten countries, including Australia, to suspend humanitarian funding to Gaza as “catastrophic”.
Clark, who is also a former administrator of the UN development program, said that if UNRWA is “crippled financially” this has “devastating impacts for the families living in Gaza”, because it is the largest deliverer of services – including emergency relief – on the ground.
Asked if she was concerned about the allegations against those accused Clark said that she was, but noted the UN has “acted very very quickly to deal with this”.
That’s why the suspension of aid by Australia, US and others seems a very, very harsh collective punishment of the Gazan people … we’re talking about allegations against 12 people out of 13,000. So that’s why I think the response of suspending aid has been completely disproportionate.
Nazi salute to be explicitly outlawed in NSW
The Nazi salute will be explicitly outlawed in NSW after white supremacists mounted a series of demonstrations in Sydney, AAP reports.
Police broke up a neo-Nazi demonstration on Sydney’s north shore yesterday, the third straight day public safety powers were used to disrupt the group over the Australia Day weekend.
The premier, Chris Minns, credited police for a great job but flagged the law may need to be strengthened. While the Nazi salute is explicitly banned in Victoria, it is more grey in NSW, where all Nazi symbolism is outlawed. He told Seven’s Sunrise this morning:
Explicitly the swastika is illegal in NSW, there’s a question as to whether a Nazi salute is as well.
I want to make it clear though that (salute) is not acceptable in NSW and if the current laws don’t cover it, we’ll move legislation to make it illegal.
With about half of the 61 masked men who gathered on Friday coming from Victoria, the premier warned his state had the power to unmask people. He told Nine’s Today:
Police have the right to take off your balaclava and to expose you and your identity so that everyone you know, your family and friends, your employer, your co-workers will know that you’re a racist.
BoM issues severe thunderstorm warning over northern NSW
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of northern New South Wales, with localised heavy rainfall possible: