Health News at Your Fingertips

Question Time approaches

We are getting closer to Question Time, or, as it has been known from last week, CFMEU/ABCC time.

Surely the Coalition has moved on by now, but who knows! That is the excitement of question time.

Peter Hannam

Latest RBA rate decision due tomorrow

This time tomorrow (well, 2.30pm, Canberra time) we’ll have the RBA’s rate decision after its August board meeting. Everyone is pencilling a rate hike, not least because inflation is already running at the highest in two decades and might well nudge 8% by the year’s end.

Should the cash rate target be elevated to 1.85% – the closest thing to a consensus call – the extra 50 basis point increase will add an extra $140 to your monthly repayment bill per $500,000, according to RateCity.com.

It’s worth remembering that the RBA lifting its cash rate remains something of a novelty. Before they moved during the official election campaign (awks), you had to go back to November 2010 for the previous increase (Americain won the Melbourne Cup that day, since you asked).

And you have to go even further back to find a comparable series of rate rises. From August to December of 1994 (who knows whose music led the charts at the time?), the RBA lifted rates by 75 basis points and then two bouts of 100 basis points. Makes you wonder why they didn’t smooth things out a bit.

Of course, we’re much smoother these days, although the Morrison government and the soon-to-be-trounced treasure Josh Frydenberg might wonder why they didn’t get a bit more warning about that May move. One for the memoirs perhaps.

Anyway, here’s what those pesky investors are predicting … including about 200 basis points more increases (including tomorrow’s move) before the RBA will pause and then start cutting.

Here is the moment Greens senator Lidia Thorpe made her thoughts known in the Senate during her swearing in:

Josh Butler

Sophie Scamps: the secret to overcoming a century of party-dominated politics was listening

Mackellar MP Sophie Scamps claims “politics in this country may never be the same” after the unprecedented wave of new independent members who won office at the May election.

In her first speech to parliament on Monday afternoon, Scamps – one of half-dozen new MPs partly supported by Climate 200 – described the trend as a “wave of change”.

What was the “secret”? How did someone like me – a GP never previously active in politics – overcome more than a century of party-dominated politics?

The key, the power, I believe, was simply listening. Like my other crossbench colleagues, I listened to my community.

Scamps spoke of watching the election results in 2019, when Zali Steggall won Warringah from Tony Abbott, and had a “lightning bolt” moment that year courtesy of a friend of her 12-year-old son.

I have long been troubled about the impact that climate change will have on the health and wellbeing of children and future generations. This day, my son and his friends were asking me about climate change – and I responded – that they would one day need to act on it.

[My son’s friend] Mathias looked up at me earnestly and said – “Yes, because you adults have failed us.” His comment found its target. I listened – and decided to act.

Scamps said she was previously “horrified” of public speaking, saying it wasn’t easy to choose to run for parliament. Referencing Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings, she made a plea for others to work together on climate change: “I urge you too, to step onto the road and join me in this journey.”

Scamps spoke of visiting flood victims in Lismore and of her concern over extreme weather events. She also blasted “all-too-frequent acts of corruption in our politics” in stressing the importance of a national integrity commission, and the importance to “keep our democracy strong”.

We must ensure that political appointments to government agencies are independent, merit-based – and that this is enshrined in law.

Scamps also mentioned her desire to see youth mental health services expanded, her support for Labor’s plans to bolster aged care standards, and backed the Uluru statement from the heart.

Paul Karp

Prediction: Labor will be pressured to allow industry-level wage bargaining

Steven Amendola, partner at employment law firm Kingston Reid, has suggested that Labor will come under pressure to allow industry-level bargaining to lift wages.

Amendola told an online forum about IR reform on Monday:

Whilst Labor has said previously that they don’t favour sectoral or industry bargaining, the only way that I see enterprise bargaining as broadly impacting wage growth … is if they allow a broad based industry or sector bargaining, so that might get revisited.

This is an interesting observation because although Labor’s 2021 platform promised to “improve access to collective bargaining, including where appropriate through multi-employer collective bargaining”, it wasn’t something that featured in their election policies, a sore spot for the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

Amendola noted the Fair Work Act already allows multi-enterprise agreements for industries with low bargaining power, but it “hasn’t worked terribly well if at all”.

To stimulate more wages growth, you want it to be more broadly based.

Amendola cited deals struck in the construction sector, where the CFMEU negotiates for “pattern agreements” that have “strong” terms and conditions for employees. Allowing unions to seek similar agreements among cleaners, aged care and other sectors where they are not traditionally as strong could lift wages.

Stephen Smith, the head of workplace relations at Australian Industry Group, said it had fought “tooth and nail” against industry level bargaining and would do so again.

He noted Labor’s platform referred specifically to low-paid industries, arguing that and supporting industry-level bargaining by unions like the CFMEU and AMWU was like chalk and cheese.

I can’t see Labor being foolish enough to go down that path.

Some truly wonderful pictures in this gallery:

Kelly Burke

Byron Writers Festival moves location from North Byron Parkland after Splendour in the Grass washout

The Byron Writers Festival has abandoned its venue for this year’s events, after the Splendour in the Grass music festival was washed out on the same ground late last month.

The three day writers festival, opening on 26 August, was to have taken place at the privately-owned North Byron Parklands in Yelgun, 23km north of Byron Bay. But after months of rain, the sodden grounds turned the Splendour festival into a mud fest last weekend, with thousands of concert goers taking to social media to complain and demand refunds.

The Byron Writers Festival has announced it will pitch its five marquees closer to the township, on a plot of land adjacent to the luxury resort Elements of Byron.

The festival’s artistic director, Zoe Pollock, said in a statement the last minute change of venue had been “expedited” by the resort and Byron Shire Council, the majority of whose councillors have always been against the use of the North Byron Parklands for major events that attract tens of thousands of people.

As descriptions of the Queen and the institution she represents go, “coloniser” is not inaccurate.

One of the reasons why builders are struggling is because they are locked into contracts when building materials were relatively cheap (compared to now and the supply chain issues).

Luke Henriques-Gomes wants to chat to you if you have been made to complete one of these courses:

For those who have this burning issue on the top of their minds, Madeleine King was asked about whether there would be any relief for beer drinkers in the October budget given the inflation on beer in that press conference as well.

She declined to answer.

Mike Bowers was in the blue room (the second most fancy press conference location for governments) as Madeleine King spoke about the ACCC gas report.

Peter Hannam

What’s missing between today’s ACCC gas report and January’s?

To underscore the different approach being taken with the Albanese government – and the ACCC –on gas supply, here are a couple of extra points.

The resource minister, Madeleine King, said it would be “lunacy” to try to browbeat NSW and Victoria over gas, noting that previous efforts by the Morrison government basically got nowhere.

In 2020, to refresh a few memories, the federal government and the then Berejiklian governments were cheering a deal that was supposed to inject 70 petajoules of extra gas into the east coast market – mainly through the development of the Narrabri gasfield in northern NSW.

In exchange, the NSW government would tap into $3bn to support the roll-out (think transmission lines) for renewable energy. As a few people noted at the time, there was no consequence if NSW did nothing.

Anyway, the seemingly interminable approval for that Narrabri field has trundled along with Santos still to make a final financial sign-off of the deal.

That’s another way of saying: nothing extra can happen in terms of new gas supplies in the near term. It’s all about making sure what “excess” or uncontracted gas there’s floating around (some 167PJ of gas) doesn’t all get sucked up and shipped overseas.

Not the biggest ask, you’ve have to say, given we’ll be paying over-the-odds for it anyway (and way more than it’s costing to produce).

But the other point worth noting is what was in the January ACCC report
but isn’t in this one.

Whereas that previous one highlighted “bans, moratoria and other regulatory restrictions on onshore exploration and development”, you won’t find words like that in this new ACCC report.

Similarly absent are paragraphs like this:

Government processes may be contributing to the lack of diversity and the slower development of new sources of supply. Governments play an important role in influencing the development of gas in the east coast gas market, with states and territories responsible for releasing acreage, granting permits to explore for, appraise and produce gas in tenements located onshore and within three nautical miles of the coast.

Guess what, that’s gone too. Quite an interesting point of difference, by the looks of it.

Albanese: People respond to a bit of honesty and integrity in politics

Anthony Albanese has maintained his chats with Adelaide radio 5AA, something he used to do with Christopher Pyne and then did himself when Pyne retired.

He is asked by the host about his Newspoll approval ratings (61% approve of the job he is doing so far) and said:

Oh look I’m not a commentator, and polls will go up and down. I’m just doing the job that I was elected to do … when you get some positive feedback, that’s good. But it won’t always be, so I’m very conscious about that. But I believe people are responding to the positive agenda that the new government is setting, I have an extraordinarily talented team … that have come into government, a mix of vast experience.

People like Penny Wong, our Senate leader, a great South Australian, and so many others from South Australia, Amanda Rishworth, Mark Butler, and Don Farrell are all cabinet ministers. They are all people of great capacity, who are making an enormous difference to the nation. I think that that experience as well, we have come into government, we’re trying to get things done, put in place measures that we committed to prior to the election, and achieve outcomes for people.

And where we need to tell people exactly what is going on, even if the message is difficult, like Jim Chalmers was last week. I think people respond to a bit of honesty and integrity in politics as well.

Greens: Get rid of negative gearing and capital gains tax in the housing market

Nick McKim also has thoughts on the housing market as a whole:

The government also needs to step in to help new-owners and renters.

Having lured new homeowners into taking on record levels of debt, the RBA is now punishing them doubly.

Interest rate rises reduce the value of their asset and increase their monthly mortgage repayments.

Getting rid of negative gearing and capital gains tax would reduce demand in the housing market without affecting mortgage repayments for homeowners.

And the additional revenue could help fund 1 million new social houses that will provide renters with an affordable and secure alternative to the Hunger Games that is Australia’s private rental market.

Greens: RBA ‘needs to hit pause’

The Greens’ treasury spokesperson, Nick McKim, says the RBA should not raise rates tomorrow and people should not be paying the price to solve inflation rises:

The RBA needs to hit pause. Inflation is being driven by supply side shocks and corporate profiteering. Jacking up interest rates will not fix these problems.

The RBA needs to be honest about this with the Australian public. Monetary policy cannot curb inflation without punishing workers, renters and new homeowners, none of whom are the cause of the problem.

They should not increase rates tomorrow. And the treasurer needs to step in and use the levers that the Australian public have given him.

We need a super profits tax to reign in corporate profiteering and to fund cost-of-living relief, such as free childcare and putting dental care and mental health into Medicare.

We can’t wait for the government’s review to get fiscal and monetary policy working together. A failure to use fiscal policy will only increase the likelihood of the RBA overreaching.

King: former approach of attacking states didn’t work

Asked about her approach not to push the states around or tell them what they should be doing about gas pipelines, Madeleine King says:

I would note, the former minister, the resources or energy minister, the approach they took of attacking state governments didn’t work, did it? The evidence is here today. Those situations have not changed in those states.

It would seem like lunacy to follow that path and also it is not my style. I don’t think it is helpful to beat people over the head.

I don’t think it is helpful to refer to legislation as a big stick. It is not helpful to call it a trigger either, to be honest. It is just language.

We need to work together on these things. I know the states are very activated around their energy needs.

They will have to have a pretty decent think about what needs to happen. As for Narrabri itself, there is a lot of approvals required. I am not sure if there is anyone in particular to blame on this, whether it is the proponents [or] some of the applications may be lacking? I don’t know.

The state government … my understanding is Matt Kean is keen on that being developed. There is a lot to work through. I am not here to push people around.

Resources minister: no utility in breaking long-term contracts for gas supply

Q: So is the answer to send less to China to ensure Australian supply?

Madeleine King:

These are international long-term contracts. They are important. There is no utility in Australia seeking to break international long term contracts. We depend on international investment, not just for gas, for iron ore development, for so many things in this country, we want to be known and remain, as we are known, as a reliable trading partner.