Andrews denies Victoria’s triple-zero service lacked funding
Benita Kolovos
Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, has denied the state’s triple zero call-taking service has lacked funding for more than seven years.
A review into the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (Esta), released on Saturday, found 33 people died after waiting too long for an ambulance between December 2020 and May 2022.
It found the service lacked a sustainable funding model and did not have the budget to recruit more staff at the start of the pandemic.
Andrews says the government has been supplementing Esta’s budget since 2015 and it had been reaching its benchmarks prior to the pandemic:
Nothing in that model would avoid the system being overwhelmed by thousands of additional calls for day after day after day.
Key events
Josh Butler
Suicide prevention a ‘personal priority’, says Albanese
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australia’s suicide statistics are a “stain on our national conscience”, saying prevention was a “personal priority” of his as PM.
Albanese spoke at a Suicide Prevention Australia event in Parliament House this morning, where a new report highlighted the impact of financial pressures on suicide and mental health. Amy already brought you some of his comments from a brief doorstop outside the event, where he acknowledged cost of living pressures ahead of another expected Reserve Bank rate rise.
But inside the event, Albanese made more lengthy remarks, saying “we really need to do better” on addressing mental health and suicide issues, and spoke of the need to “dispel the shame and stigma” attached to those.
Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to people like you for your extraordinary courage,” Albanese told those working in the suicide prevention space.
The event, at a small function room inside parliament, was packed – Albanese noted the size of the crowd, remarking on how suicide touched so many people, and said it was “deeply saddening it [this event] is needed”.
All of us have lost people we’ve gone to school with, gone to university with, worked with.
I know Australians care deeply about one another but we cannot allow this ongoing stain on our national conscience. We need to do better.”
We cannot change the past or undo the heartache it’s caused, but we can and must build on the progress that has been made.”
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Greens party room update
Paul Karp
The Greens party room met on Tuesday morning, resolving to continue to put pressure on Labor over rental stress and rising interest rates.
Janet Rice, the chair of the community affairs references committee, will lead a Senate inquiry into the cost of living and poverty – something that could put pressure on Labor to raise jobseeker, especially closer to the 2023 budget.
The Greens will move in the Senate to disallow regulations that cause the crisis payment for national health emergencies to expire at the end of September. This is a payment for income support recipients to allow them to isolate, similar to the covid disaster payment.
There was no discussion of the new super disclosure rules that Labor enacted late last week.
Simon Birmingham on ensuring energy security in Australia
On Sky News a little earlier today, Simon Birmingham was asked whether there was a lesson for Australia in the UK energy crisis, given the UK’s shift to renewables.
Birmingham was a lot more measured than his party’s leader, who spent the morning trying to stir up a scare campaign about power rationing:
Well there are lessons that we need to learn. Now, of course, much of what’s happened in terms of the immediacy of some of these shocks relates to the pressure that Russia has put on by depleting or turning off gas supplies in different ways to parts of Europe and the sanctions that have been applied back to Russia in terms of seeking to diminish energy dependency.
It’s to the credit of many European nations that they are willing to bear some of this pain to be able to apply those sanctions on to Russia.
And we should always remember that Australia has the luxury of having a rich supply of energy, both traditional energy sources and renewable energy sources.
And we need to make sure that we continue to harness all of those opportunities to keep energy security in Australia.
Our challenges are real, but when you compare them against 10% inflation in the UK, 80% increases. 80% increases in energy prices.
It puts in some perspective where we are at.
But of course, he is still an opposition politician and he finished with:
But nonetheless, I know many Australian households today will see the Reserve Bank probably increase interest rates again and be wanting to know what the new Labor government in Australia has in store to help them with the real cost of living pressures that Australians are feeling too.
Peter Hannam
Consumer confidence up
Economists have noted Australians’ spending has been holding up nicely even while consumer confidence levels rather resemble a recession. (“Whinge and binge” is our trademarked slogan, with all rights reserved, etc.)
Well, consumer sentiment hasn’t surrendered entirely and has lately bounced back to the highest levels since early June when the RBA board had barely strapped on their hiking boots.
The weekly survey by ANZ and Roy Morgan showed confidence rose in most “major states” (yes, that included South Australia) except NSW.
Most of the subindices also showed a rise with the exception of “future financial conditions”, which suggested respondents are keeping a wary eye of the RBA.
(As mentioned earlier and here, the central bank is widely tipped to lift its cash rate for a fifth straight monthly meeting later today, probably to 2.35%. Technically, that would be 23.5 times the level of its rate before the RBA raised the level from 0.1% – but that’s overegging things.)
Should the RBA board members take a peak at the ANZ/Roy Morgan’s report this morning (am thinking, over morning tea with shortbread biscuits), they might also take some heart from this chart, showing that punters are not yet expecting inflation to spiral out of control.
Still, they’d also be aware that the end of the fuel excise “holiday” on 29 September will add about 25 cents per litre in one hit, waking some of those inflation worries from their slumber.
Pressure building to scrap stage-three tax cuts
In the background of everything happening in the parliament at the moment is growing tension over the stage-three tax cuts.
They aren’t due to come into effect until July 2024. So right now, the government has parked them – it won’t become an issue for the government’s budget until 2024, so it will be put off until it absolutely has to be dealt with. Labor says it has no plans to change the Morrison plan, which was legislated with Labor’s support, but at a cost of $243bn to the budget and counting, while people are being told it is too expensive to raise the jobseeker rate, or bring forward the planned childcare cost relief package, resentment is building.
And the crossbench are feeling it. One of the most vocal is Jacqui Lambie, who was one of the four votes in the Senate (along with Centre Alliance) who gave the Morrison government the support it needed to pass the cuts if Labor decided to stand against it (which it didn’t).
Labor chose to support the bill, because the Morrison government wouldn’t unhook the stage-three tax cuts from the earlier phases which gave cuts to lower- and middle-income earners, and Lambie supported the cuts as part of a deal to wipe Tasmania’s public housing debt.
Labor and Lambie both stated at the time they were reluctant supporters of stage three. Lambie said at the time the cuts were (then) six years away and there was an election in between. Now, Lambie is saying it is time for the cuts to be scrapped, with the money spent on health and other essential services.
I wouldn’t expect any movement on stage three this year. But the pressure is absolutely building.
Party (room) time
The party room meetings are being held, which is why you are not seeing a lot of politicians at the moment (and why the chambers are not sitting).
We will bring you the news of what happened at those meetings very soon.
Andrews denies Victoria’s triple-zero service lacked funding
Benita Kolovos
Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, has denied the state’s triple zero call-taking service has lacked funding for more than seven years.
A review into the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (Esta), released on Saturday, found 33 people died after waiting too long for an ambulance between December 2020 and May 2022.
It found the service lacked a sustainable funding model and did not have the budget to recruit more staff at the start of the pandemic.
Andrews says the government has been supplementing Esta’s budget since 2015 and it had been reaching its benchmarks prior to the pandemic:
Nothing in that model would avoid the system being overwhelmed by thousands of additional calls for day after day after day.
Sarah Martin
Morrison “will determine if and when he leaves parliament”, says Stuart Robert
Scott Morrison’s ally and former cabinet colleague Stuart Robert was asked this morning about the latest Guardian Essential poll which shows that more than half of people surveyed think the former prime minister should resign over the secret ministries scandal.
Speaking on ABC News Breakfast earlier, Robert said he would leave the decision up to Morrison, but said “these are important issues, and they are being elevated as they should”.
My view is already on the record in that respect, but the former prime minister will determine if and when he leaves parliament and when he stops representing the members for Cook, and we’ll leave it up to the good [burghers] of the seat of Cook to work out what their elected representatives should or shouldn’t do.
I’ve made the point when this came to the fore, that if this had gone to cabinet, cabinet probably would have decided this was unnecessary and of course the fullness of time has shown it’s unnecessary.”
The poll found that just over half (51%) of those surveyed believed he should resign from parliament, including a third of Coalition voters, while 58% believed he should front the Bell inquiry, and 58% said he had diminished the reputation of the former government.
Poll finds majority think Morrison should resign over secret ministries
In his interview with Australia’s hardest-hitting-journalist, Scott Morrison was asked if he felt he should have apologised louder and faster (as well as given a pint of blood) to people over his secret ministries. Morrison said he has made his statements on the matter.
Meanwhile, it doesn’t seem that voters are satisfied with those statements, as Sarah Martin reports:
Most voters think Scott Morrison should resign from parliament over his decision to secretly appoint himself to five additional portfolios while prime minister, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll, which also finds trust in government in steady decline.
As the former prime minister continues to defend his decision to take on the additional portfolios without informing his colleagues or the public, the survey of 1,070 people finds that just over half (51%) say he should resign from parliament, including a third of Coalition voters who believe Morrison should go.
Most people (58%) also believe he should appear at an inquiry into the issue which is being led by the former high court justice Virginia Bell. Morrison has indicated he may be prepared to cooperate, but has also said the inquiry should look more broadly into the management of the pandemic.
Suicide prevention groups call for government help
Josh Butler
Suicide prevention organisations are sounding the alarm on the impact of cost of living pressures on mental health, with a troubling new report finding 40% of Australians saying money issues are causing them more distress in the last year, and experts warning it is “the biggest risk to suicide rates”.
Suicide Prevention Australia released its annual State of the Nation in Suicide Prevention report on Tuesday, with a YouGov survey of 1,000 people reporting 70% experiencing “elevated distress” compared to last year.
Top of the concerns list was cost of living issues. Of other causes of distress, 26% said isolation and loneliness, 19% said unemployment and job security, and 23% said family or relationship breakdowns.
Feeding the family and keeping a roof over our heads are two of the most basic human behaviours,” said Suicide Prevention Australia CEO, Nieves Murray.
While inflation and interest rates keep rising, we must be prepared and proactive to prevent mental distress and suicide rates from doing the same.”
Suicide Prevention Australia referenced Tuesday’s expected Reserve Bank rate rise in releasing its survey. Murray said this was “the first time an economic issue has overtaken social issues like drugs, loneliness and family breakdown” in issues of distress.
Murray called for “increased action from their federal government” on suicide prevention, including a new suicide prevention act “that looks to take a whole-of-government approach” on the issue.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org
