Health News at Your Fingertips

Tony Burke to prevent employers terminating pay deals

Paul Karp

The workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, has given a further indication the Albanese government will prevent employers applying to the Fair Work Commission to terminate workplace pay deals.

Terminating a pay deal is an aggressive industrial tactic that pushes employees back onto the award, losing more generous conditions negotiated in enterprise agreements, usually in a bid to force a new deal more favourable to the employer.

In July Burke told Guardian Australia he was “willing to act in the absence of consensus” on the issue.

In a speech to be delivered to the Australian Industry Group today, Burke says:

Something I’m increasingly concerned about is the ability of employers to make cuts to workers’ pay and conditions by unilaterally terminating their enterprise agreements. I know this is an issue which will be further discussed at the Jobs Summit. But I want to be clear on my starting point: on face value, I cannot see how this tactic can possibly be justified. The solution to a decade of wage stagnation cannot be a heavy handed tactic that causes wages to go backwards.

Burke notes that Svitzer is seeking to cancel the workplace pay deal for its tugboat operators, which could cut pay by up to 40%.

Burke flags that “there may be room for a narrow exception for cases of exceptional business distress, where termination was found, on the evidence, to be likely to ensure ongoing employment of the affected workers”.

Burke also says this about what he’d like to see at the summit:

Rather than unilateral action, we’re aiming to find solutions based on consensus and cooperation. We want the Fair Work Commission to facilitate bargaining and help parties make agreements – not spend its time terminating agreements against the wishes of the workforce. We want bargaining to happen in good faith – and we particularly want to make sure the bargaining system works for small business and for women. We want agreements to deliver pay rises and productivity. I am hopeful we can achieve this because it will serve the national interest, and the interests of both employers and workers.

There were 4,911 new cases in the last reporting period, and 37 people are in intensive care.

Paul Sadler, in his interview with ABC a little earlier this morning, also spoke about the latest figures of Covid-19 outbreaks in aged care facilities:

We’ve still got 35% of aged care homes in Australia that have active outbreaks.

We’ve actually had only 27 aged care homes in the whole of Australia out of 2,700 that have avoided an outbreak of Covid.

The good news is that the numbers did begin to trend down for the first time during last week for really a couple of months now. So we hopefully have reached the peak that we’ve seen in community transmission and we are seeing that begin to decline in aged care as well but while that pandemic continues the impact on the workforce will be substantial.

Government bid for aged care pay rise to be released

The federal government is set to reveal details of its proposal for an aged care wage rise in a submission to the Fair Work umpire.

The aged care minister, Anika Wells, has promised they will advocate for a significant and meaningful pay rise for workers in the sector but stopped short of giving a specific dollar amount.

Paul Sadler, the interim chief executive of the Aged and Community Care Providers Association, was on ABC a little earlier this morning and said his association wouldn’t be providing a figure either. He said the importance was the government’s commitment to fully fund the wage increase, whatever the figure:

What we want is wage justice for our workforce. We’ve been unable to pay aged care workers what they deserve now for a long time and this Fair Work Commission case is a really fantastic opportunity to be able to do that. What is absolutely critical to that was a commitment by government to fully fund the outcome so we will be looking for the government’s submission today to confirm what Anthony Albanese and Annika Wells had promised that they will do that.

We know that the aged care workforce is not paid competitively with our colleagues in disability, in health and in retail. So [a significant increase in pay] is going to be very important.

We, like the government, have not put a dollar figure on it. It is ultimately up to the Fair Work Commission to evaluate each of the classifications across three different awards that are the subject of this particular case. But we agree with the government and the unions that there needs to be a significant pay increase.

Queensland commits $22m for livestock biosecurity taskforce

Queensland will set up a taskforce to help protect the state’s livestock from “unprecedented biosecurity risks” amid the threat of foot and mouth disease on Australia’s doorstep, AAP reports.

More than 450,000 cases of the disease have reportedly been recorded in Indonesia and thousands of infected cattle have been slaughtered.

A national biosecurity taskforce is being set up to ensure Australia can respond to potential future outbreaks, but Queensland will establish its own unit to defend against animal disease risks.

The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said 15 staff, including 10 officers based in regional areas, would be recruited to prepare Queensland’s livestock industry for future “unprecented biosecurity risks”.

She will brief her cabinet about the $22m plan when it meets at the Ekka, the Royal Queensland Show, today.

Perrottet denies he offered to create a job for transport minister

Michael McGowan

New South Wales premier Dominic Perrottet has labelled claims he offered to create a job for his transport minister, David Elliott, as “false and offensive”.

Speaking on Sydney radio station 2GB on Monday morning, Perrottet said a report in the Sun Herald yesterday stating he spoke to Elliott about taking up a senior trade role in London was wrong.

He said:

David Elliott was never promised a job outside of politics. That is deeply offensive and wrong. People will always say from time to time, discussions will be had in relation to when someone retires what they would like to do, that is normal.

However he did confirm that he spoke to Elliott about “a number of roles which he could play within the parliament” after politics.

From time to time, members of parliament – when they’re seeking to leave politics – will talk to colleagues in relation to what they might want to do next.

At that time, minister Elliott did not want to recontest the next election, but was interested in being part of the team going forward.

Asked whether he had also discussed Elliott becoming the governor of NSW, Perrottet said:

From time to time members will always say to their colleagues what they would like to do after politics … what I don’t do as premier is say I would ever make those appointments and offer people a job.

The saga over the senior trade jobs has engulfed the NSW government since John Barilaro was appointed as the state’s New York trade commissioner in June. He has since withdrawn from the position, but is due to appear before a parliamentary inquiry probing the appointments on Monday.

Man to face court over alleged murder of three people in north Queensland

Last week, a shooting left three family members dead on a remote Queensland cattle property in north Queensland near the locality of Bogie.

The 59-year-old alleged shooter, Darryl Valroy Young, is expected to appear in the Proserpine magistrates court today.

He was charged with three counts of murder and another count of attempted murder.

The sole survivor of the shooting is recovering in hospital following the incident between neighbours near Bogie, north-west of Mackay.

– with AAP

Stephanie Convery

Australian education ministers to address nationwide teacher shortages

Australia’s education ministers will attempt to address the national teacher shortage in a meeting this Friday, as universities call for longer school placements, teaching apprenticeships and collaboration between government, schools and unions in tackling the problem.

It comes amid concerns teacher shortages could worsen, with modelling suggesting demand for secondary school teachers will outstrip graduates by more than 4,000 in coming years.

The federal education minister, Jason Clare, will devote the first half of the meeting of national, state and territory education ministers to a roundtable addressing the workforce shortage.

VIP doors open at Crown Sydney casino

Gaming group Crown’s flagship skyscraper casino on Sydney Harbour will open its doors to VIP wagering after delays caused by a gaming inquiry, AAP reports.

Crown previously said in a statement:

The doors to Australia’s only VIP casino will begin opening to members and guests from 08.08.2022.

Crown had been prevented from opening the high-end casino in its $2.2bn dining and hotel tower in Barangaroo for more than a year.

The opening was hampered, then blocked, after an inquiry led by former supreme court judge Patricia Bergin found Crown was not fit to operate a casino.

The approval, finally granted earlier this year by the NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority for the members-only gaming facilities inside the upscale Barangaroo complex, is conditional for up to two years.

The conditional period, which will run for 18 to 24 months, will allow the authority to monitor changes made at Crown Sydney so they are “embedded” in the venue.

The opening marks a big step forward for the once-listed Crown, which has been taken private by US investment firm Blackstone after a successful $8.9bn takeover was ticked off in June.

National homelessness plan will tackle social housing backlog

There are currently 162,500 households on the social housing waiting list. Collins says in order to deal with the backlog, the government is working with “as many people as we can to get a plan and get us all heading in the same direction”.

That’s why we need a national plan [on housing and homelessness] … having some leadership and trying to get everyone working together means we’ll have better results and we’ll be able to get more homes in the ground faster.

By providing some leadership and getting everyone to work together on a national plan, we might be able to tackle it nationally rather than on a state by state basis.

Man charged in Perth with ‘being armed in a way that may cause fear’

A 31-year-old man has been charged over a bizarre incident in Perth yesterday.

Police received information Sunday afternoon regarding a man on King Street, Perth dressed in SWAT clothing and who was in possession of what appeared to be an assault rifle and ballistic vest.

A second call was then received that a man was inside a vehicle on King Street armed with a large firearm.

Police attended the scene under emergency conditions, but it was later established there was no real threat to the community.

The uniform the man was wearing was part of his adult entertainment work attire, according to police.

Perth police nevertheless charged the man in relation to the incident. They said in a statement:

It will be alleged the man parked his vehicle on King Street and removed a suitcase from the vehicle. It will be further alleged the man placed a gel blaster gun similar in design to an AR-15 assault rifle on the ground next to him and put on a pair of boots and a black military style mesh vest with ‘SWAT” embossed on the back.

Members of the public witnessed this at various stages and phoned police fearing the firearm was real.

The firearm was seized and subject of further examination.

Police say the man from Nollamara has been charged with “possess[ing] a prohibited weapon” and “being armed in a way that may cause fear”.

Rent assistance not being considered in budget, housing minister says

Collins is asked if the government is working on and considering lifting rent assistance. She responded that states and territories are currently sharing “the innovative things they’re doing … and how they’re managing that”.

Asked if rent assistance is being considered in the budget context, Collins responded:

We’re not at the moment, we’re talking to states and territories about what can be done in terms of rental affordability.

Ultimately it’s an issue around supply and we want to build 30,000 more social and affordable homes atop what states and territories are doing.

Labor government launches homelessness strategy

Julie Collins, the housing and homelessness minister, is on ABC radio as the Albanese government launches its homelessness strategy today.

Collins says the strategy will be “about working with local community organisations and understanding the need for social and community housing to be built right across the country.”

She says fixing homelessness is in the public interest because “everybody benefits from everybody having a safe place to call home”.

Collins served as minister for homelessness in 2013 and is asked how the situation has changed since then.

What we’re seeing, and what I’m hearing is that it’s much harder for people to be able to purchase a home and it’s much harder for people to be able to rent a home.

John Barilaro, the former NSW deputy premier, is set to appear today before an inquiry examining his controversial appointment to a plum New York trade job.

Barilaro is expected to respond to internal government documents uncovered by the inquiry and the testimony of those who have already appeared before the inquiry.

The committee is likely to ask about the evidence given by former adviser that Barilaro fast-tracked a cabinet submission that would have ministers appoint the trade commissioners rather than the public service.

In national news, the Albanese government will launch its homelessness strategy today, with the commonwealth to take greater responsibility for housing.

Julie Collins, the housing and homelessness minister, will make a speech to the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute later today – but you can find out what she is expected to say thanks to Paul Karp who reports on an advanced copy.

Let’s get going.