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Jobs summit should support apprenticeships in female dominated trades, Independent MPs say

Independents are calling for more investment in female-dominated trades like textiles and floristry ahead of the government’s jobs and skills summit to be held tomorrow.

Zoe Daniels, the Independent member for Goldstein, will make a push at the jobs summit for the expansion of apprenticeship subsidies to feminised industries, the Australian Financial Review is reporting. Daniels told the AFR:

This jobs summit must not become fixated on getting only the high-vis industries out to work and leave the pink workforce at home yet again… We have women who want to work. We must enable them.

The AFR also reports that Independent MP for Warringah Zali Steggall believes female-centric fields such as fashion are suited to apprentice-style training. Steggall said:

There’s been too narrow a view of what are the apprenticeships and trades, it’s been a very bloke-centric approach.

Put teens to work to fill gaps: retailers

Children as young as 13 could be put to work to help fill labour shortages as Australia’s peak retail body calls for national minimum working age requirements, AAP reports.

Ahead of the federal government’s jobs and skills summit, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has released a submission calling for businesses to be able to tap into willing school-age workers.

The inconsistency in minimum age regulations across the country should be addressed on a national basis, the ARA’s chief executive, Paul Zahra, said:

An ideal model would be one where we allow 13- to 15-year-olds to work, with sensible regulations in place around not working during school hours or at times that would impact a young person’s education.

But while the government is open to hearing all ideas at this week’s summit, the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles said common sense needed to be applied when it came to putting younger teens to work. He told the Nine Network on Wednesday:

We don’t want to pre-empt what’s coming out of the jobs and skills summit over the next couple of days, but that’s certainly not a plan that the government has in mind.

The deputy prime minister said he wanted to hear ideas about how the pension system could be reformed to allow older Australians to re-enter the workforce if they wanted. He said:

Every business that you talk to, large and small, is struggling to find the people with the skills that they need and that’s what we need to be addressing.

Getting children used to the value of working was important, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said. He said:

Multi-generational unemployment, it’s very insidious … getting into a culture of work is important, but I think that really starts [with] doing jobs around the house.

Marles wants PNG security pact to bring two countries ‘as close … as we can be’

Richard Marles is asked what he’d like to see included in the security pact the minister for foreign affairs, Penny Wong, has held talks with the Papua New Guinea government about.

We’ve been making it really clear that we want to be as close with PNG as we can be.

We want to see Australia be the natural partner of choice for the Pacific.

Marles will not confirm if Australian naval ships have been issued with Solomon Islands moratorium

The Solomon Islands have announced it is banning foreign naval vessels entering its port.

Richard Marles is asked by ABC Radio whether Australia has been issued with a moratorium on its naval ships entering the Solomon Islands port like the US. However, Marles doesn’t provide a direct answer:

I’ve seen the reports … ultimately that is a matter for the Solomon Islands.

I’m confident if we put in the work we will be the partner of choice for the Solomon Islands.

US and UK both committed to helping acquire nuclear submarines, Marles says

Returning to the deputy prime minister and defence minister Richard Marles’ interview with ABC Radio. He is asked about the replacements for the ageing Collins Class submarine fleet.

He is in London at the moment where discussions are taking place with the UK, France and Germany. He is asked if he has been looking at submarine options in Europe. Marles responded that it’s a three-way process where “there is one discussion with the three countries”.

He said both the US and UK committed to helping Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarine.

We’re working through the process … with both the US and UK.

He said Australia “need to be signing options sooner rather than later”.

‘The lessons of the 80s have been lost on … President Putin’: Dutton responds to news of Gorbachev’s death

Speaking of leaders’ reactions to the news of Mikhail Gorbachev’s death, opposition leader Peter Dutton was speaking with ABC news breakfast when the news broke. His immediate reaction:

It casts your mind back to his period and the interaction with the west. Obviously, what we’re seeing today is a very different leadership style and role. I think the carnage that we’re seeing in the Ukraine is horrific and whilst people will mourn of loss, understandably, the focus at the moment is on the damage that the current Russian leader is doing.

Whilst it’s slipped from the headlines we should remind ourselves every day that these attacks are still taking place on women and children, on places of shopping centres, residential buildings etc. And unfortunately, the lessons of the 80s have been lost on the likes of President Putin. I hope that we can return it a more sensible age. That doesn’t seem possible at the moment, which is a tragedy.

Deputy prime minister pays tribute to Gorbachev’s legacy

Deputy prime minister and defence minister Richard Marles is speaking with ABC Radio from London, where he is strengthening ties with France, Germany and the UK.

ABC Radio asks Marles about breaking news this morning – Mikhail Gorbachev’s death. Marles calls him one of the key architects in ending the cold war.

The world is a much safer place as a result.

NSW trains and inner-west buses disrupted

NSW train commuters are again advised to seek alternatives as a final day of industrial action disrupts services one more time, AAP reports.

Most timetables will be reduced to a 30-minute frequency on Wednesday, while services are suspended on the T5 Cumberland and T7 Olympic Park line.

Compounding the disruption, bus drivers will be off the job in Sydney’s inner west as part of a separate dispute with Transit Systems, the private company contracted to run services in the area.

It will affect services in Region 6, which includes the inner west, some of the CBD, Olympic Park, Strathfield and Rockdale.

Meanwhile, rail workers are refusing to operate foreign-built trains, which make up about 70% of the fleet, as part of a month of industrial action that has also included area-based strikes.

Multiple unions are attempting to secure a new enterprise agreement to replace one that expired in May 2021, while the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) has been demanding changes to a fleet of Korean-built intercity trains it says are not safe to operate in NSW yet.

None of the various government ministers involved in the disputes, nor premier Dominic Perrottet, think the trains need modifying.

Most women in their 20s have experienced sexual violence, data shows

“Shocking” evidence shows most women in their 20s have experienced sexual violence, according to Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (Anrows).

Sexual violence is defined as “sexual actions without consent, which may include coercion, physical force, rape, sexual assault with implements, being forced to watch or engage in pornography, enforced prostitution or being made to have sex with other people”.

Anrows used data from the Australian longitudinal study on women’s health (ALSWH) to establish new prevalence rates for women. The ALSWH is an ongoing project collecting sexual violence data, which started in 1996.

The study includes data from more than 57,000 women across several age cohorts.

It found 51% of women in their 20s and 34% of women in their 40s had experienced sexual violence in their lifetimes, and 26% of women aged 68 to 73 had experienced sexual violence.

The national cabinet will meet later today in Sydney to discuss reducing the Covid-19 isolation period from seven to five days, following the push from NSW premier Dominic Perrottet.

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says he’s open to the shift if it’s supported by the health advice, but the Australian Capital Territory chief minister, Andrew Barr, says any reforms will not come until next month’s meeting.

The full invite list is out for the government’s jobs and skills summit to be held tomorrow including mining magnate Andrew Forrest, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, the heads of Coles and Woolworths as well as BHP and Rio Tinto.

Overall there will be almost 150 representatives from unions, universities, all levels of governments and business leaders.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers told ABC Radio’s Sabra Lane this morning the government attempted to strike the right balance in its invitations when it comes to all issues from gender to union representation. He said:

We’ve got a good problem here … people are absolutely clamouring to be involved.

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