CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says last week’s big-spending budget is aimed at securing Australia’s economic recovery, pushing unemployment lower, and building confidence to encourage households to spend. Figures on May 18 will give an idea as to whether he has been successful on the latter, with weekly Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) –Roy Morgan consumer confidence survey due. Roy Morgan is an Australian-based independent market research company, which now operates globally. As a guide, the latest Newspoll released at the weekend found 44 percent of respondents believe Frydenberg’s third budget will be good for the economy,…
Author: zenger.news
CANBERRA, Australia — Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers claims last week’s federal budget risks leaving too many people behind, even as the economy recovers. He believes that in a budget that included AU$100 billion ($780 billion) in new spending and a continuing rise towards AU$1 trillion ($780.42 billion) in government debt, Australians doing it toughest were barely an afterthought. “It’s not a recovery if we go back to the type of inequality and immobility which has characterized the Liberals’ eight long years in office,” Chalmers will tell an event run by peak welfare group Australian Council Of Social Service (ACOSS). “It’s not a recovery if aspiration is only…
SYDNEY — Health Minister Greg Hunt has defended the pace of the vaccine rollout in residential disability care despite only a sliver of the high-priority group receiving a coronavirus jab. Hunt on May 17 said 999 disability care residents and more than 1500 workers had received their jabs, despite being in the first phase of the rollout. There are an estimated 23,000 people in disability residential care. The minister revealed the updated figures after the disability royal commission was told only 834, or four percent of residents, had received a single dose by May 6. Counsel assisting Kate Eastman described the…
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia state of Victoria’s acting premier Dan Andrews has defended plans to increase property taxes for the wealthy after Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the move as “punishing”. Last week, Treasurer Tim Pallas announced AU$2.7 billion ($2.11 billion) in budget measures that will mean developers and other wealthy landowners making a larger contribution compared with those at the bottom and middle of the wealth scale. The changes include a 0.25 percent increase in land tax for taxable landholdings between AU$1.8 million ($1.40 million) and AU$3 million ($2.34 million) and 0.3 percent for those exceeding AU$3 million ($2.34…
CANBERRA, Australia — Jacinda Ardern has packed rugby but no bungee into Scott Morrison’s Queenstown weekender this month as she looks to use the Australian Prime Minister’s visit to entice tourists across the ditch. The Kiwi Prime Minister has picked the stunning South Island city for the annual leaders’ talks, to be held on May 30 and 31. The trip will kick off with a trans-Tasman Super Rugby clash between the Otago Highlanders and Melbourne Rebels. The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR’s Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They…
CANBERRA, Australia — Obliterating tariffs on coronavirus vaccines is a key measure New Zealand will push for at a forthcoming Asia Pacific leaders meeting. New Zealand is hosting this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings, in an online format for the coronavirus era. Chair of senior officials for this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Vangelis Vitalis says removing tariffs on coronavirus vaccines and related products will be focused on to ensure the region can be protected against the virus. He likened the proposed changes to an “express lane for vaccines”. “It would zoom through the customs procedures in a way they are currently not…
SYDNEY — The South-eastern Australian state of New South Wales premier says more Australians need to be vaccinated before having a conversation about opening the nation’s borders. “I don’t want us to be closed off from the world longer than we need to,” Gladys Berejiklian said on May 18. Berejiklian appears keener to open borders than Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is sticking to a mid-2022 timeline. Berejiklian says community safety always has to come first, “but we also believe that you can make some decisions about easing restrictions or opening up to the rest of the world, with facts and science backing you.”…
BRISBANE, Australia — Rights afforded to traditional owners and custodians are not being upheld due to deficiencies in the legislation, an inquiry has heard. Consultancy group Australian Heritage Specialists provided submissions to a parliamentary inquiry into the destruction of Indigenous heritage sites at Western Australia’s Juukan Gorge sitting in Queensland on May 18. In Queensland, the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act recognizes that groups who have been shown by the Native Title process to have no traditional connection still have standing to give advice on traditional knowledge. The Australian Heritage Specialists believe the Act contains gaps in basic rights and equality and has identified where it…
SYDNEY — In Australia’s New South Wales, teaching isn’t the stable profession it once was, a report has found, with one in five New South Wales state school teachers now employed on short-term contacts. A study of 18,000 public school teachers, who are members of the New South Wales Teachers Federation, explored the workload reports of teachers in temporary employment. The research was drawn from a broader study in 2018. The report found many teachers on temporary contracts felt they needed to work harder than the permanent staff in order to “prove themselves” to the school executive. “There is a huge expectation…
BRISBANE, Australia — Australia’s Queensland could become the fourth state to legalize euthanasia with the government introducing a voluntary assisted dying bill to parliament next week. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the proposed laws are aimed exclusively at people who are suffering or dying. She says Labor Members of Parliament will be allowed to have a conscience vote on the bill and she indicated she will support it after watching the painful deaths of two of her close relatives last year. “There are going to be opposing views, I understand this, but I also understand these are deeply personal issues,” Palaszczuk said…