THE Select Committee on Workforce Australia Employment Services will continue its inquiry at a public hearing in Canberra on Wednesday,  May 17, with a focus on First Nations peoples, people with disability, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and people with experience of the justice system.

The committee will hear from peak and representative bodies and government agencies, as well as from organisations representing the social enterprise and social ventures sector.

Committee Chair, Julian Hill MP, said, "It's a myth that all unemployed people are ready to work or able to do the jobs available. In fact, the data shows a giant mismatch between what employers are seeking and the enormously complex caseload of unemployed people including skills gaps, disabilities and illness.

"There is strong evidence that the current system has failed to invest in people and is not adapted to their diverse needs, backgrounds, and circumstances," he said.

"Trotting out stereotypes of ‘dole bludgers’ who should just ‘get a job’ will get a headline but won’t actually change anything. Long-term unemployment won’t be reduced without understanding the actual experiences of people.

"Listening is critical so we can make recommendations for a future employment services system that meets the needs of all Australians. Many people argue that social enterprises can contribute much more to helping the most disadvantaged jobseekers to remain engaged and prepare for employment in the open market’.

Further information about the inquiry, including Terms of Reference, future public hearings, published submissions and hearing transcripts, is available on the inquiry website.

Public hearing details

Date              17 May 2023
Time              8.45am – 3pm
Location      Committee Room 1R3, Parliament House, Canberra 
                          and by videoconference
Witnesses  Australian Council of Social Service
                          Economic Justice Australia
                          National Indigenous Australians Agency
                          Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
                          Coalition of Peaks
                          Settlement Council of Australia
                          Social Ventures Australia
                          Social Enterprise Australia
                          Justice Reform Initiative
                          Western Australian Association for Mental Health

The hearing will be live broadcast via the Parliament’s Watch, Read, Listen website.

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THE Australian Workers' Union has announced it will move a resolution at the upcoming ALP National Conference that would commit Labor to "a tax on unprocessed exports of critical minerals and establish a production subsidy scheme to foster domestic refining, processing and component manufacturing from critical minerals".

AWU national secretary Daniel Walton will outline the union's new position in a speech to the Sydney Institute on Wednesday night.

Mr Walton has also announced today that after nearly seven years at the helm he has decided to move on from his role as national secretary. Mr Walton will stay on for the next couple of months to help handover and oversee the leadership transition.

"It has been a singular honour to lead the AWU and I'm incredibly proud of what our union has achieved by working together since 2016," Mr Walton said.

"We helped save the steel industry from the brink of collapse. We've celebrated inspiring industrial wins. We've helped improve conditions for vulnerable workers like fruit pickers. And we've had a positive impact influencing the national agenda, especially on energy prices and a fair go for manufacturing.

"Along the way we've modernised our processes and structures and our union is now growing strongly. I'm so pleased the AWU is today in great shape to continue the mission it started in 1886: fighting for a fairer deal for Australian workers."

Mr Walton also announced the AWU would begin a push for a new tax on the export critical minerals – such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earths – which are vital for the manufacture of renewable energy technology. Mr Walton will argue that the current free-for-all approach of raw mineral exports to China is compromising the national interest.

"We need to apply a significant, punitive tax on the export of raw critical minerals from Australia. And we need the revenue raised to be pumped directly back into subsidies for the manufacturing and processing on critical minerals onshore," Mr Walton said.

"Australia has been blessed with the world's most enviable supply of critical minerals, but simply digging these precious material up and loading them on ships is an incredibly limited way to view the opportunity.

"We lack a substantial national capacity to turn our critical minerals, like lithium, into anything useful. We are relying on the idea that we can just export these raw minerals to China and they will send us back the components and goods we need.

"But if Australia wants to make batteries that rival China’s do we think China will be happy to keep selling us the components we need? Do we really want to assume that we can keep digging up critical minerals, shipping them to China for processing, and China will just keep shipping them back to us to manufacture batteries? It’s not a bet I’d feel confident about.

"If we continue to just ‘let the market rule’ it will mean only one thing: Australia’s raw materials will be shipped off to China and China will be the only player in our region with the sovereign capacity to turn them into anything useful.

"The US is using its raw economic heft through the Inflation Reduction Act to force investment in its manufacturing capacity through subsidies. Australia is not in the same position to call the shots like this. But what we do have is a big chunk of the world’s critical minerals within our sovereign soil.

"That’s our leverage and we would be absolute fools not to use it. We know demand from the world for our critical minerals is astronomical. We have the power to create the rules under which they can have them. Treasury doesn’t have access to enough carrots to encourage the change we need here. We need to get out the stick."

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IN RESPONSE to the significant findings in a recent Auditor-General report, the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit (JCPAA) has expanded the scope of its existing inquiry into the Defence Major Projects Report (MPR) to include a detailed examination of Defence's procurement of Hunter Class Frigates, one of the projects included in the MPR.

Chair of the JCPAA, Julian Hill MP, said, “This is a deeply concerning report by the Auditor-General into a critically important Defence project. Given the seriousness of the concerns the committee initiated this inquiry less than 24 hours after the tabling of the report, and has scheduled initial public hearings for Friday 19 May.”

The committee has also invited written submissions by Friday, June 15, 2023 and has requested submissions from the contractor, BAE Systems, as well as the British High Commission.

Further information about the inquiry, including the updated terms of reference, is available on the Committee website.

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FINDING collaborative ways to fund improvements to mobile phone infrastructure services across regional and remote Australia will be the focus of the public hearings in Adelaide, Alice Springs and Perth this week.

The House Communications and the Arts Committee will also hear evidence from state and territory governments, Indigenous communities and First Nations media, business chambers, councils, health services, fire and emergency services and community groups on the impacts of unreliable mobile coverage.

The hearings are investigating how to improve the reliability in South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia for its parliamentary inquiry into regional mobile carrier infrastructure.

Committee Chair, Brian Mitchell MP, outlined the majority of mobile infrastructure was not co-located, especially in regional areas. The committee wants to better understand why the rates of co-location for Australia’s major mobile providers dramatically decline as they move from urban to regional and remote areas.

The committee will be seeking views on whether co-investment is the best tool to encourage multiple telecommunications providers in regional areas to invest in and share ‘multi-carrier’ mobile towers to improve the range and reliability of their services.

Public hearing in Adelaide
Witnesses: SA Department for Energy and Mining, SA Forest Products Association, Grain Producers SA, Outback Communities Authority, District Council of Mount Remarkable, emergency services and community groups
Time and date: 9:30am to 1pm ACST 15 May
Location: Balcony Room, House of Assembly, Parliament of South Australia

Public hearing in Alice Springs
Witnesses: First Nations Media Australia, Indigenous Community Television, Central Desert Regional Council, Alice Springs Town Council, and community groups
Time and date: 8:30am to 12:15pm ACST 16 May
Location: Spinifex Room, Double Tree by Hilton Hotel, 82 Barrett Drive

Public hearing in Perth
Witnesses: WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, WA Local Government Association, AHA WA, Bunbury business chamber, WA Country Health Service, WA Grains Group and Fortescue Metals Group
Time and date: 9:30am to 1pm AWST 17 May
Location: CPO, Exchange Tower, 2 The Esplanade

The inquiry’s terms of reference and information about the Committee may be found on the Committee’s webpage.

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