Employment minister Tony Burke admitted on Sunday that the Morrison government’s controversial changes to the jobseeker scheme were flawed, but said there was not enough time to prevent the new system rolling out. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Employment minister Tony Burke admitted on Sunday that the Morrison government’s controversial changes to the jobseeker scheme were flawed, but said there was not enough time to prevent the new system rolling out. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Tony Burke: “too late” to scrap changes to unemployment benefits
Employment minister says it’s too late to change jobseeker points system
I just wanted to return to Tony Burke’s comments to Sky News this morning, where he also said it was “too late” to scrap changes to unemployment benefits due to be introduced next month.
The employment minister said instead the government will be looking to alter the scheme, which will change from the JobActive scheme to a new program called Workforce Australia, which will require job-seekers to earn 100 points a month through applying for jobs, sitting interviews and undergoing training.
The controversial changes were introduced by the Morrison government, and were criticised by advocates for being confusing and potentially more difficult to work with.
Burke admitted the scheme was flawed, but said there was not enough time to prevent it rolling out:
It’s actually too late to not have a points system at all.
It’s about getting inside it and making it logical, and making sure that when all these contracts take effect in a couple of weeks’ time, we’ve actually got a system that helps long-term unemployed people.
What the government has designed, some of it is more punitive than actually getting the job done.
We want to make sure — and I’ll be changing it over the course of the next week — to make sure that we can have a system that’s designed to get people into work, rather than some media stunt to punish people.
That’s where we’ll leave our coverage for today. Thanks so much for sticking with me. Don’t forget, the Logies ceremony is still to come tonight.
The ceremony is being held on the Gold Coast and stars have just begun arriving on the red carpet.
Seven nominees are up for the Gold Logie, including Hamish Blake, Julia Morris, Karl Stefanovic, Melissa Leong, Ray Meagher, Sonia Kruger, and Tom Gleeson.
Tony Armstrong, of the ABC, is getting a lot of support for his first Logie. He’s up for the Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent.
Police raids on climate protesters, support for Assange and new housing scheme
It’s been a busy Sunday. Let’s recap the day’s events:
Police conducted a massive operation against climate protesters in Colo, in Sydney’s north-west on Sunday morning. Climate protesters Blockade Australia said they were surrounded by police and described the police actions as “repressive”. Police say they were investigating the group’s activities in an unmarked car, when their officers were subjected to “violence”. A massive police response began after the protesters either slashed or let down the tyre of a police car, police said. Police said the protesters were planning more disruptive protest activity across the state, following an earlier blockade of Port Botany in March.
The New South Wales government announced a $780m shared equity scheme to help vulnerable and low-income Australians buy a home. The shared equity scheme will benefit single parents, older singles, nurses, police and teachers, allowing buyers to enter the market with a deposit as low as 2% of the sale price. It will see the government contribute an equity share of 40% for a new home or 30% for an existing dwelling.
Supporters of Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange are urging the Australian government to do more to prevent his extradition to the United States, following the UK home office’s decision late Friday. But the Albanese government insists it will not conduct “diplomacy by megaphone”, while repeating its view that the case has gone on for too long.
The NSW government has also announced it will spend $25m to install the Aboriginal flag on a permanent spot on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The Aboriginal flag will fly alongside the Australian and NSW state flags.
The employment minister, Tony Burke, said it was too late to scrap a controversial points-based mutual obligation system for jobseekers, insisting the concept is “right”, but needs tweaking.
The fire at the Dapto substation has been contained by firefighters in New South Wales.
Assange case has gone on too long, says Tony Burke
The Albanese government insists it will not conduct “diplomacy by megaphone” as it faces calls to do more to prevent the extradition of WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange to the US.
The minister for employment and workplace relations, Tony Burke, said the government’s view was that the case had gone on too long and that conversations were happening.
We’re not going to conduct diplomacy by megaphone. This case has gone on for far too long. We said that in opposition, we’ve repeated that in government.
The issue needs to be brought to a close. Australia is not a party to the prosecution that’s happening here [and] each country has its own legal system.
The days of diplomacy being conducted and conversations with government being conducted by megaphone, text messages being exposed – that was the way the previous government behaved. We’ve been building constructive relationships again with our allies and they’re conversations that happen government to government.
Australian donations to Ukraine at more than $5m so far
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that about 10,000 Australians have now donated a total of more than $5m to the crisis appeal for Ukraine in the four months since the Russian invasion.
The donations have been made to the Ukraine Crisis Appeal, a charity set up in 2015 by the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, with Rotary Australia and Caritas Ukraine.
Whistleblower advocate group calls for lobbying of PM over Assange case
The Alliance Against Political Prosecutions is urging its supporters to inundate prime minister, Anthony Albanese, with messages in support of Julian Assange. The home office announced late Friday to order the extradition of Assange to the United States over the leaking and publication of the WikiLeaks cables a decade ago.
AAPP, a group which supports persecuted whistleblowers, is planning protests this week in support of Assange. In a statement to supporters on Sunday, it said:
[Assange] has not seen freedom now for 10 years.
Assange has committed no crime. What he did was publish information about US war crimes in Iraq and other information on Afghanistan and other matters. He has been charged under the Espionage Act, but he didn’t obtain the information, US intelligence officer, Chelsea Manning, did. She was subsequently pardoned by President Obama. How can it be that Assange is still in prison when the whistleblower is now free, and no other media outlet which published the information has suffered any consequences?
These proceedings against Julian Assange are clearly an attempt to intimidate journalists everywhere. They are a travesty of justice and a threat to press freedom and must be ended.
The Victorian government has issued its latest update on Covid-19 hospitalisations, deaths and vaccinations. The state recorded 5,472 new cases and was notified of 19 deaths yesterday.
Here’s their statement in full:
There are 422 Covid-19 cases in hospital in Victoria – with 21 active cases in ICU, including nine on a ventilator, and an additional six cleared cases in ICU.
6,271,134 vaccine doses have been administered by Victoria’s state-commissioned services, with 836 doses administered yesterday at state-run centres.
68% of Victorians aged 16 and over have had three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine. 94% per cent of Victorians aged 12 and over have had two doses.
5,472 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded yesterday. This includes 3,689 who tested positive on a Rapid Antigen Test and 1,783 who returned a positive result on a PCR test.
Sadly, the department was notified of 19 deaths yesterday in people aged in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. This brings the total number of deaths in Victoria since the pandemic began to 3,750.
There are 41,195 active cases in Victoria.
11,612 PCR tests were processed yesterday. The total number of PCR tests performed in Victoria since the pandemic began is 21,294,656.
Blockade Australia released a statement a little earlier today about the police raid on the Colo property. It said:
Police are raiding our beautiful camp. Groups of cops in cammo (sic) gear with guns surrounded our camp this morning. Dog squad, riot police, helicopters and fully militarised police are all over us. Of course, they will take all our means of communication first, so sorry, no livestreams are likely. This is how an extractivist state responds to the challenge of saving our life support systems. This is how a system based on climate destruction responds to a movement of nonviolent climate defenders. Repression +++
NSW police ‘feared’ for their lives during raid on protesters, assistant commissioner says
Police say they are expecting to charge more protesters after today’s raid on a group of climate protesters in Colo.
He said they were “in the area” investigating the group, which has been linked with previous disruptive protests.
Assistant commissioner, Paul Dunstan, said police “feared for their lives”.
Those police that were attacked by that group this morning feared for their lives. They called for urgent assistance and police from all over the Sydney metropolitan area responded to assist and provide aid to those police officers.
He said a search warrant is currently being executed at the area.
We believe that group was engaging in behaviour, planning and preparing to conduct the extreme forms of protest this group has conducted previously.
Dunstan was asked what specifically the group were alleged to have been planning.
Practicing rehearsing and constructing items to conduct similar methods of protest that they conducted during the March protest activity, where you saw elaborate objects being formed and put in the middle of the roadways to ultimately disrupt vehicle activity and trains around the Sydney area.
Police raid climate protesters, allege officers were subjected to 'violence'
New South Wales police are speaking about a raid on a group of climate protests on a property at Blue Mountains. Concerns have been raised about the heavy-handedness of police actions.
Police say the group, Blockade Australia, was “planning and preparing” for “extreme forms of protest”.
They alleged that officers were “attacked” with one police car tyre’s slashed or let down.
The officers called for assistance and a more substantial police response arrived. Acting commissioner Paul Dunstan said:
On this occasion there was certainly violence against police.
Queensland Labor aiming to halt loss of votes to Greens party
Queensland Labor state president, John Battams, has said his party needs to improve its communication on its environmental credentials, or face a “Greenslide”
Speaking to The Courier-Mail, Battams said he wanted to redirect the party to better communicate their efforts on combating the climate crisis, particularly in areas where “our vote is not what it should be.”
I think that if we can show the value of having a Labor government in Queensland and a Labor representative locally, and if you analyse the achievements of a Green representative in the Parliament, I think people may come around to the view that voting Labor is a very good thing to do,” he said.
And … we need to better communicate our environmental success to people, particularly younger people.
Perrottet says he wants to be known as "the education premier"
NSW premier, Dominic Perrotet, spoke to the Sun-Herald this morning, saying he wants to continue working on education reforms, aiming to “modernise the education system and reform it.”
In an interesting interview, the premier said he wanted to slash teachers’ administration burden so they can spend more time teaching, and to improve access to vocational classes for students.
He also says he wanted to improve teachers pay, and to “reward excellence”:
[Teacher pay] is an area that has not reformed for a long period of time because there are many vested interests.
That doesn’t mean we can’t do it. I want to work with the Teachers Federation. But they can’t be the eternal custodians of the status quo.
We have to work in ways that modernise the teaching profession, reward excellence and prompt excellence to encourage others like any other workforce.
We need to look at having more admin staff in schools.
It’s taking them away from what they are actually qualified to do. I’m on it, and it’s not going to be tinkering around the edges.”
Tony Burke: “too late” to scrap changes to unemployment benefits
Employment minister says it’s too late to change jobseeker points system
I just wanted to return to Tony Burke’s comments to Sky News this morning, where he also said it was “too late” to scrap changes to unemployment benefits due to be introduced next month.
The employment minister said instead the government will be looking to alter the scheme, which will change from the JobActive scheme to a new program called Workforce Australia, which will require job-seekers to earn 100 points a month through applying for jobs, sitting interviews and undergoing training.
The controversial changes were introduced by the Morrison government, and were criticised by advocates for being confusing and potentially more difficult to work with.
Burke admitted the scheme was flawed, but said there was not enough time to prevent it rolling out:
It’s actually too late to not have a points system at all.
It’s about getting inside it and making it logical, and making sure that when all these contracts take effect in a couple of weeks’ time, we’ve actually got a system that helps long-term unemployed people.
What the government has designed, some of it is more punitive than actually getting the job done.
We want to make sure — and I’ll be changing it over the course of the next week — to make sure that we can have a system that’s designed to get people into work, rather than some media stunt to punish people.
The AAP is reporting health ministers from the world’s 20 largest economies will thrash out ways to prepare and respond to future disease threats, looking beyond the remaining challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Under Indonesia’s G20 presidency, its health minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, will convene a meeting on Monday to discuss ways to strengthen global health systems.
Australia’s Health Minister, Mark Butler, will attend the gathering virtually.
“Australia welcomes Indonesia’s G20 health priorities and looks forward to working with other countries to ensure the world is better prepared for future disease risks,” Butler said on Sunday.
Everyone, no matter where they live and what their circumstances, should have access to quality, affordable and safe health care and as a member of the global community Australia stands ready to help communities in our region and beyond.
The meeting aims to address concerns and build on the success stories that emerged during the pandemic.
Ministers will consider ways to reduce impediments for travellers as they cross borders, with a pilot project to examine how countries can recognise vaccine certificates used by different jurisdictions, helping get trade and travel back to normal.
The meeting will also discuss building on some of the frameworks that have been so important globally during the pandemic.
Butler says Australia is investing in its own vaccine production capacity and establishing an Australian Centre for Disease Control, helping ensure it is better prepared for future pandemics.
He says the government is also committed to working with the Indo-Pacific region to strengthen health security and respond to the pandemic.
Australia has already shared more than 40m vaccine doses and will continue to work with its Quad Vaccine Partners - India, Japan and the US - to distribute them where and when they are needed.
Ministers will also discuss a range of other health priorities including tuberculosis, recognising that while the pandemic has demanded attention, continued efforts are needed to avoid losing progress elsewhere.
Australia’s ski resorts are enjoying bluebird days this weekend after record dumps across the Victorian and New South Wales alps.
The weather continues to provide welcome relief to ski resorts, which were battered by pandemic restrictions across the past two snow seasons, severely limiting attendance and forcing some closures.
The perfect conditions will continue over the next week, with more snowfall predicted.
At Perisher and Thredbo, more snow is forecast for Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Mt Buller and Mt Hotham are forecast for snowfall every day from Tuesday to Sunday.
It’s Christopher Knaus here, taking over the blog for the next half an hour.
Good news out of the Illawarra. Emergency services have declared the fire at the Yallah substation, near Dapto, to be contained.
Fire and Rescue NSW said the fire was caused by a “mechanical failure of a redundant transformer”.
Approximately 100,000 litres of oil was involved in the incident, which has since been confined to a bunded area, and poses no threat to the environment.
Specialist hazardous materials firefighters remain on scene monitoring the smoke plume and the temperature of the impacted transformer and oil tanks.
The fire has significantly reduced in intensity. However, it is anticipated it will burn for a number of days. Although there is minimal smoke in the area, residents are encouraged to monitor the situation and stay indoors and keep their doors and windows closed as required.
Shellharbour airport has also resumed normal operations.
FRNSW continues to work with Transgrid and the NSW Environment Protection Authority to monitor the situation to ensure the safety of residents and the environment.
