Health News at Your Fingertips

Phil Coorey asked whether the government was anticipating lifting the migration target, off the back of the jobs summit.

Albanese said he’l be undertaking “genuine consultation” on the matter with business and union representatives this week.

He adds that it “probably wasn’t the wisest decision during the pandemic to tell everyone who was a temporary visa holder to leave”.

And to provide them with no income and no support, which means many of them have left, with ill feeling towards Australia and that spreads around. We’ve got a globalised labour market. And we need to enhance our reputation, Australia is a great place to live, or to visit, and we need to always bear that in mind and I think some of the actions that occurred then weren’t wise.

He then said that migration targets are not just about numbers, they are about addressing areas of urgent need in skills shortages, but doing so without undercutting the pay and conditions for workers.

Albanese also made some comments that appear to go against the use of temporary visas to address skills shortages. He said:

The idea that you train someone and bring them out here for a couple of years and then go and try and find someone else to do the same job is in my view incredibly inefficient. And is part of a way that potentially the IR systems are undermined by that as well. Far better to give someone a sense of ownership and a stake in this country. We’re with the exemption of First Nations people all migrants, or descendants of migrants, we are a migration country. We need to look at ways in which those pathways are got through in areas of skills shortage that can be identified as ones that will continue to be there.

Karen Barlow from The Canberra Times asks what Albanese has discovered about the state of the public service since coming into government.

Albanese said the “independence and processes of the public service were undermined over a long period of time”.

I’ve been somewhat surprised because some of the detail isn’t known until you’re in government, that people who I knew, good professional public servants, put off by the department of you know, widgets, then reemployed, as contractors, being paid more than they were as the dep sec of the department of widgets …

The truth is that cabinet processes under the former government were completely trashed. Cabinet isn’t power point presentations from pollsters. It’s for serious consideration of policy based upon advice from the public service. There’s someone here I met just before, who is a former secretary, who spoke about that.

I think that it will take time to rebuild, but we’re doing that. I met with the secretary of all the departments of the public service. Every one of my ministers has gone to their department and had meetings, not with the secretary and dep secs and the executive, with all of the public service who are there. I met with all the workers at various agencies, including our intelligence agencies. And that’s been really well received. Guess what, who knew if you treat your workers with respect, you’ll get better outputs.

Nine News’s Chris Uhlmann asked about Australia’s mineral wealth. Specifically, he asks: “Can you tell us what work is being done to find out what minerals Australia will need, how many minerals we’ll need, what will happen to the cost curve of those resources when the entire world wants them at the same time.”

Albanese says that Australia has “a lot” of the rare earths and minerals that are in demand and will increasingly be in demand over the coming years.

What we need to do is to make sure that in the structures that are put in place, we can still have access to them. But also I believe it’s an opportunity for us to take a bit of a different approach to what perhaps we’ve done in the past with resources. The exporting of our resources will continue to be important. Where possible, we should value add here. With the changing nature of the production process with labour being less a portion of input costs for production, we have that opportunity.

Albanese says manufacturing on-shore also goes to Australia’s national security.

We need to actually learn these lessons of the pandemic to be more resilient, to take more advantage, to stand on our own two feet, and it’s one of the reasons why I’m so optimistic about Australia’s future. We have these natural advantages and let’s not waste the opportunity.

ABC’s Andrew Probyn up next, asking if Labor would now reconsider its decision not to strike out the stage three tax cuts.

Albanese says:

Well, Andrew, people need to look at what happened with the tax cuts. Which were that we actually tried to amend out the stage three of the tax cuts. And we weren’t successful. And they were legislated.

And what we said at the time, if you go back and look at the comments that I made, I said at the time that it wasn’t wise to consider that you knew in 2019 exactly what the economy would look like in 2024-25. But the Parliament made a decision. The Parliament made a decision to legislate those tax cuts, and we made a decision, we made a decision that we would stand by that legislation rather than relitigate it, and we haven’t changed our opinion.

Probyn:

But if it wasn’t wise then, have you got the courage to argue why it’s not wise now?

Albanese:

This is a bonus question to Mr Probyn. I don’t want to channel my predecessor about Andrew, Andrew, but … We made those statements then and we weren’t successful. We weren’t successful at the time. We inherited it, and I said that we haven’t changed our position that we articulated when we made that call.

Because we were in a situation of all-or-nothing at the time. And we voted for tax cuts because to vote against the package would have been voting against tax cuts including for people who desperately needed it at the time.

That’s five “at the times” in the PM’s two-parter response, just so you’re quintuply sure it was a decision made in 2019.

Albanese suggests wages growth will help reduce debt in budget

Sky News’s Keiran Gilbert asks Albanese whether his government is prepared to undertake the budgetary reform needed to pay for the growing costs of things like the NDIS and aged care.

The PM replies:

It’s a good question. And it’s one that government will have to address. Of course, over a period of time.

He then speaks of the fiscal situation the government has inherited from the Coalition, with a trillion dollars in debt and rising expenditure. He suggests that increasing wages will help:

If you improve secure work, if you improve the wages that people are paid, they pay more tax, they are less of a burden on the welfare system, businesses increase their profits, therefore there’s more company tax being paid as well. You boost productivity, you boost national economic growth, our plan is a growth agenda.

Legislation to criminalise wage theft to be introduced in early September, says PM

The Conversation’s Michelle Grattan asks whether the government is willing to legislate for significant reform on the industrial relations system “even if there is not consensus”, and whether any of that legislation will precede the white paper.

Albanese says they will have some legislation ready for the next parliamentary session, which begins 5 September.

That’s the legislation to change the Fair Work Act to make wage theft a crime and a range of other measures we committed to in the election. We’re hopeful if this week near consensus emerges from the discussions on Thursday and Friday, then we would look at change in an expedient fashion.

He praised Sally McManus and Jennifer Westacott, who are both in the audience, for coming together to agree on a number of points before the job summit. But says that even if consensus cannot be reached, “we also are prepared to lead on issues”.

Albanese says he will not commit to extending Victoria’s scheme to waive nursing and midwifery HECS debts

To questions now. National Press Club president, Laura Tingle, starts by asking whether the federal government will expand on Victoria’s announcement to offer free university degrees for nursing and midwifery by waiving the HECS debt for nurses who are already working.

Albanese says he will not make such a commitment on the stage, and quips that finance minister, Katy Gallagher, is present at the talk to make sure he doesn’t “make multibillion-dollar commitments on the run”.

On the substance of the question, he says:

I did speak to Premier [Daniel] Andrews this morning and it’s a good initiative that he’s undertaking. But we have our own initiatives as well. Fee-free TAFE, the additional university places, aimed at areas of skills shortage.

So, the different levels of government have to pull the levers that are available to them. And we are certainly pulling those levers for across the workforce, across the health workforce, including the commitments that we’ve made to support increases of wages, for example, for people in aged care.

So that’s a no, at least for now.

‘Labor governments change the country’ with cooperation, says Albanese

Albanese wraps up his address with:

This is how Labor governments change the country. Investing in people’s potential, rewarding their hard work, supporting their aspirations. If we cooperate, if we work together, if we act with purpose and unity and ambition, then we won’t just ride out these tough times, we’ll be well on our way to a better future. And it is that better future that remains our light on the hill, as it always has been. Thanks very much.

‘We need to rebuild trust in government’, Albanese says

Back to Anthony Albanese at the National Press Club. He has been outlining his government’s ambitions, and the need to govern by consensus and cooperation.

He said:

I’m not saying this will be easy, or it can come without compromise. But I do want the Australian people to know we’re up for this challenge. Put simply, we’re having a crack …

[Governments can] draw on our national values. Governments foster a culture of reform and progress, and co-operation, nourish the spirit of shared effort for fair reward. Whether it’s the summit or the parliament, or national cabinet, or here indeed with the Canberra press gallery, we’re never going to agree on everything. We won’t have 100% of people 100% happy with every decision and with every outcome.

But I know we’ll get more done and we’ll do it better if we disagree constructively, if we debate respectfully, if we look at the substance of issues rather than question motives, and together, if we search for solutions.

Good government must drive this culture to make the case for reforms. In order to do that, we need to rebuild trust in government. My colleagues and I don’t share the strange self-loathing of our predecessors, raging against the role of government while in government. Obsessing over secrecy, having to be shamed into doing the bare minimum at the last possible moment. An ideology that meant even as they made government bigger, the Liberals and Nationals showed no interest in making government work better.

100 days ago, on 21 May, the Australian people voted for a better future. Australians have placed their trust in our new Labor government and I thank them for it.

We are determined to repay that trust by demonstrating a commitment to transparency and integrity. Holding ourselves to a higher standard of behaviour than “it’s not illegal”. Creating an anti-corruption commission with real power and authority, and examining brutal failures of government services like robodebt to make sure that kind of betrayal of vulnerable people can never ever happen again.

Above all, we recognise that renewing people’s trust in government requires us to prove government can deliver for people. I know good government can change lives. But I understand that many Australians feel like government doesn’t work for them. That politics is obsessed with the short term. And frankly, the only way to change that is to deliver on what matters to the Australian people.

South Australia has recorded one new death from Covid-19, as well as 565 positive test results.

Australia lost a decade to ‘inertia’ caused by needless political conflict, PM says

Albanese says “the best way to achieve progress is to bring people together”.

That’s why they are seeking cooperation and bipartisanship at the jobs and skills summit this week, he said.

I know there’s a school of political thought that views cooperation as capitulation, I know there’s those who think everything has to be about conflict, but Australians have conflict fatigue. Our country has lost nearly a decade to the inertia that division produces. We’ve seen the damage it does to the economy, the toll it takes on the country.

He adds:

Not only does a culture of division and dysfunction and conflict create these kind of urgent problems in the short term, it stops our country building for the long term. If your priority is scoring day to day political points, then the future loses out. This is why our government is focused on solutions, not arguments.

‘Australia is already in the recovery phase’ of the pandemic, says Albanese

Albanese says that while Australia is still recovering from – indeed, is still in – the Covid-19 pandemic, it is time to remove from the first phase of emergency response to one of reform and recovery.

He says that the response to the pandemic in first few months was a race, and was not treated as such by the former government.

We found ourselves economically exposed, hanging on the end of the global supply chain. And we saw the harm of petty partisanship, the damage which was done by the federal government stoking division with the states.

He added:

Whatever we may wish, Covid isn’t gone, or forgotten. Our health system, our hospitals, and our extraordinary healthcare workforce are still under enormous strain. We continue to encourage all Australians to get their third and fourth dose of the vaccine. We’ve made it a priority to cooperate with state and territory leaders and the health experts to provide support and resources where they are most needed.

But clearly, no one is going back to the response phase. Australia is already in the recovery phase. And that’s presenting its own economic challenges. Including significant and unpredictable supply and demand imbalances which are driving up costs for businesses, as well as for families. Our immediate priority as a Labor government is shoring up the economy to give families, households, businesses, the security and certainty they need.

Albanese says the pressure placed on health, aged care, and education workers during the pandemic saw them “pushed to breaking point”. Those sectors had already been underfunded, he says.

It’s no wonder people are exhausted. It’s no surprise that so many teachers and nurses and carers are thinking about leaving their vocation …

Over the next decade we’ll need more educators and more carers and more nurses in every part of our system. We won’t do that with broken institutions and burnt out staff. And whether it’s educational skills or healthcare or aged care, we can’t just stem the bleeding and hope for the best. We can’t return to business as usual when we know that business as usual was simply not good enough. We have to aim higher than just recovery. That’s why I say we need reform to achieve renewal.

PM says government focused on building ‘a better future’ of fair wages, growth and quality services

Albanese begins by acknowledging the traditional owners (but not naming the Ngunnawal people) and saying: “I’m proud to lead a government that’s advancing the implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.”

He continues:

Colleagues: the great privilege, the great opportunity, and the solemn responsibility of government is putting our ambition for the country into action. Converting the promises of a campaign into the progress of a nation. Writing our vision for Australia’s future into the laws of the land.

Our government is only 100 days into this journey. But we’re resolved on the destination of a better future. We are focused on building a fair wage, strong growth, a high-productivity economy; an Australia where working hard means you can pay the bills, support your family, save for the future and achieve your aspirations.

An Australia where everyone can trust in quality services. Strong Medicare, affordable childcare, decent aged care, and a national disability insurance scheme that fulfils its great promise.

An Australia where investments in education and training and skills and housing and infrastructure and technology mean the doors of opportunity are open to everyone, in every part of our great country.

I recognise that we’re facing challenging times right now. I know a lot of people are doing it really tough. But I’m optimistic about our country. I believe in the Australian people and I’m energised by the work of building a better future.

Anthony Albanese is speaking at the press club to mark 100 days in office.

We previewed the prime minister’s speech this morning – you can read it here:

A severe weather warning has been issued for damaging winds in Victoria’s eastern ranges.

Here is more on the arrest of Comanchero bikie boss, Tarek Zahed, who was arrested yesterday and charged with murder for the 2014 killing of 29-year-old Youssef Assoum.

Rise in retail sales across Australia in July outstrips expectations

Retail sales rose 1.3% in July, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

AAP reports that results were higher than expected, with most analysts anticipating a 0.3 to 0.4% increase in retail sales for the month:

The latest lift in retail turnover follows a slowdown in momentum in the past two months, with retail sales increasing by 0.2 per cent in June and 0.7 per cent in May.

“After slowing growth in recent months, the 1.3 per cent rise in July was the largest since the 1.6 per cent rise in March,” ABS head of retail statistics Ben Dorber said.

Overall retail trade was up 16.5 per cent compared to the same time last year.

Turnover lifted in five of the six industries, with department stores reporting the largest rise of 3.8 per cent.

“This shows that, despite cost-of-living pressures, households are continuing to spend,” Dorber said.

Household goods was the only category to record a fall in turnover, down 1.1 per cent for the month.

Spending in this category has fallen three times in four months.

Tasmania was the only state to record a slowdown in retail sales – its first decline all year.

Turnover in the state fell 0.3 per cent in July.

Retail sales were strongest in Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and Western Australia.

Meanwhile, employers are offering higher pay packets to entice workers into vacant jobs but the boost in advertised salaries is still falling short of inflation.

Salaries listed on job ads have surged 4.1 per cent over the year to June, although growth is no longer accelerating.

In July, advertised salaries for new hires grew another 0.4 per cent, following a 0.4 per cent uptick in June.

While wages are trending upwards amid fierce competition for workers, advertised salary growth was still falling behind the 6.1 per cent annual increase in the consumer price index in the June quarter.

The data, released by job marketplace SEEK, revealed salary growth across the board.

“Unlike previous labour market booms, such as the mining boom, this is not a situation in which some parts of the country pull ahead much more rapidly than the rest,” SEEK economist Matt Cowgill said.

“The labour market has been almost uniformly strong.”

Advertised salaries picked up across every state and territory, although South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory recorded relatively modest uplifts.

The Australian Capital Territory has reported 148 positive Covid test results on Monday.

There are 106 people with Covid in hospital in the ACT, including two in ICU and one on a ventilator. No new deaths were reported on Monday.

RTBU says NSW government dropped requirement for new enterprise agreement before alteration work on new train fleet as a ‘stunt’

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union has dismissed as a “stunt” an offer by the NSW government to withdraw its requirement that a new enterprise bargaining agreement be struck before it begins work on the new intercity fleet, in a bid to head off a large train strike on Wednesday.

More from AAP:

The union is scathing about the latest offer contained in “an eleventh-hour letter” after a weekend spent negotiating the industrial stoush that’s caused widespread disruption for commuters all year.

RTBU NSW secretary Alex Claassens said “this latest stunt by the government doesn’t add anything to the progression of the dispute”.

“You can’t just send us a letter late on Sunday, especially one as poorly drafted as this, and expect everyone to jump to attention,” he said in a statement on Monday.

Claassens said the union needed more time “to work through the letter and sit down and explain what they mean by it”.

“If they don’t then this really was just a stunt to get a headline,” he said.

“When we get something that is capable of us accepting, we can move forward with the democratic process of taking it to our members and delegates, for them to decide on it.”

He accused a “revolving door of ministers” of spreading misinformation about the dispute “for the benefit of the members and the travelling public”.

The mothballed NIF has been at the centre of negotiations with the union, which maintains the trains are not yet safe to operate in NSW.

The union has been conducting industrial action including targeted, rolling stoppages throughout August.

The action is due to culminate with workers refusing to operate foreign made trains on Wednesday, which would affect about 70 per cent of the fleet.

Negotiations continue at a meeting between rail unions and government officials on Monday.