CONTINUING its focus on ParentsNext, the Select Committee on Workforce Australia Employment Services will hear from Commonwealth departments and agencies, peak representative bodies for service providers, and an organisation supporting young parents on January 18, 2023 in Melbourne.
The hearing follows two days of meetings with stakeholders in regional New South Wales and regional Victoria to explore current employment services and alternative programs and to gain insights from parents, employers and providers outside the major cities.
Committee Chair, Julian Hill MP said, “During this inquiry, we have heard that while many parents have benefited from ParentsNext, these benefits can be overshadowed by the harms created by the punitive nature of the current program. We want to hear from everyone.”
The committee will make recommendations relating to ParentsNext by the end of February 2023, as part of its larger inquiry into Workforce Australia Employment Services.
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
Time 8.30am – 11.45am AEDT (Melbourne Time) Location Balmoral Room, Stamford Plaza, 111 Little Collins Street, Melbourne Witnesses Brave Foundation National Employment Services Association Jobs Australia Department of Employment and Workplace Relations Department of Social Services Services Australia
An audio broadcast of the hearing will be available via the Watch, Read, Listen website.
LENDING for new homes has his a 10-year low, returning to numbers not seen since 2013, accourding to the Housing Industry Association of Australia (HIA).
“There were only 5,057 loans for the construction or purchase of new homes in November, the weakest month since June 2013,” HIA economist, Tom Devitt said.
The Australian bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the Lending to Households and Businesses data for November 2022 today.
“This reflects the very well broadcast housing downturn, with new housing loans over the 12 months to November 2022 down by 36.2 percent on the preceding year,” Mr Devitt said.
“Investors and owner-occupiers, alike, are retreating from the market.
“This contraction in lending occurred before the RBA increased the cash rate in December and we expect an ongoing decline in lending as the full impact of the increase in interest rates flows through to households.
“There are long lags inherent in this cycle and the full impact of the increase in the cash rate in 2022 will not be observed until late in 2023.
“The RBA has already undertaken the steepest hiking cycle in a generation, and it needs to hold fire on further hikes to give their actions to date time to play out.
“The RBA will not restore the economy to stable growth by putting the building industry through boom-and-bust cycles.
“As building activity slows in 2023, the RBA will be under increasing pressure to reverse course in the second half of this year,” Mr Devitt said.
The number of loans for the construction or purchase of new homes declined in all jurisdictions in November 2022 compared to the same month in 2021, led by the Northern Territory (-58.3 percent), and followed by the Australian Capital Territory (-39.7 percent), Queensland (-30.8 percent), Western Australia (-30.3 percent), South Australia (-29.7 percent), New South Wales (-26.8 percent), Victoria (-15.2 percent) and Tasmania (-7.4 percent).
SAFEWORK NSW is now reminding food delivery riders if they do not adhere to the new safety laws that begin today it could prove costly for them.
Acting head of SafeWork, John Tansey said from today all food delivery riders must wear high-visibility personal protective equipment (PPE) and carry their training verification record or risk being fined.
“We made a major step to improve safety for riders on 1 July last year, when it became law for food delivery booking providers to supply their riders with PPE,” Mr Tansey said.
“Today it becomes law for riders to wear the supplied PPE, which is a high visibility vest and food bag and carry a training verification record. Riders found to not be wearing their PPE will be hit with a $144 fine for each offence.
“We now have the strongest safety environment for food delivery platforms and riders anywhere in the world and will continue to work with industry to ensure a culture where people and safety comes first.”
Safework NSW advised that from today all riders:
Will be legally required to use or wear the PPE that has been provided to them while delivering food or drink.
Must produce their training record if requested by a SafeWork NSW Inspector or NSW police officer.
Penalties and fines will apply to platforms and riders who cannot show they have met these requirements.
AUISTRALIA must stabilise its population below 30 million to stop the growing impacts on climate and biodiversity, as well as preserve quality of life, according to the environment organisation Sustainable Population Australia (SPA).
SPA president, Jenny Goldie was commenting on the latest report from the Centre for Population, the Treasury office which advises the Federal Government on population. That report is due to be released on Friday, January 6.
“The slowing of Australia’s population growth due to the pandemic should have been wholeheartedly welcomed,” Ms Goldie said.
“It is madness for the government and its business backers to restart extreme population growth by going flat-out with even higher levels of Net Overseas Migration (NOM). It’s even higher than we saw before the pandemic when it averaged 226,000.”
Ms Goldie said, "like the October Budget" the new report demanded annual NOM of 235,000. The report expects Australia to grow from its current 26 million to 30 million people by 2032-33.
“The Treasurer, and his media acolytes, like to portray the 235,000 as ‘normal trend’ and ‘nothing to see here’. It is three times Australia’s historic average. In fact, Canada is the only rich nation in the world with a more aggressive immigration program," Ms Goldie said.
“Even with the new Federal Labor Government policies for emissions reduction, an extra four million people will still add tens of millions of tonnes of extra emissions each year – possibly as much as 80 million tonnes.
“That is not trivial when we are facing a climate crisis. Most of that 80 million tonnes will be new emissions, not a redistribution of emissions around the planet. That is because the average migrant who comes to Australia is coming from a country with one-quarter as much per capita emissions as Australia,” Ms Goldie said.
“Add to that the impact of population growth on habitat and species loss. The State of the Environment 2021 report released in July 2022 was quite explicit about population growth having ‘high impact’ on biodiversity.
"For instance, the last remaining habitat of koalas in the Sydney Basin is currently threatened by housing development. Nationally, the Environment Minister is confronted by 140 development applications which, if approved, can only worsen the koala crisis.
“We have already returned to the pre-Covid levels of population growth, of which most Australians believed they had seen the end. The pre-election silence of both major parties on the topic of immigration made clear that each understood more population growth was not what most Australians wanted.
“The people are now entitled to ask why they have been ignored,” Ms Goldie said.
“Why are the impacts of population growth on the two gravest crises we face – climate and biodiversity – being ignored? The Treasurer’s radical population program can only be a negative for real wages and housing affordability. It will erase the Covid low-unemployment windfall.”
This biennial conference aims to strengthen parliamentary institutions by bringing together Speakers and Presiding Officers.
Held January 3-6, 2023, more than 120 delegates will attend the conference, including Presiding Officers, parliamentary staff, and observers from 32 Commonwealth Parliaments. The Presiding Officers represent the breadth of parliamentary systems in the Commonwealth and are from some of the smallest to the largest of nations.
The proceedings will begin with a procession of Speakers and Presiding Officers in their ceremonial robes, to be led by First Nations dancers and singers to the Great Hall.
“We are looking forward to welcoming our parliamentary colleagues from the Commonwealth to Australian Parliament House,” President Lines said. “As we emerge from the pandemic, we will look to strengthen our relationships and learn from each other to ensure that our debates and parliamentary processes continue to be robust.”
Delegates will attend workshops and plenaries on topics relating to their roles as Presiding Officers, including the pandemic, security, e-parliaments, and the central role Presiding Officers play in leading innovation. This will be the first CSPOC to be held in three years.
“The last few years have taught us that things can change very quickly, and the role of parliamentary institutions has been reinforced. It is so important for us to work together and learn from one another,” Speaker Milton Dick said.
The first CSPOC was held in Canada in 1969. The program for CSPOC 2023 is available on the website.
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