This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2018/dec/16/labor-national-conference-day-one-politics-live
The article has changed 16 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 12 | Version 13 |
|---|---|
| Labor fails to commit to Newstart increase despite promising voters a 'fair go' – live | Labor fails to commit to Newstart increase despite promising voters a 'fair go' – live |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| It looks like we are close to the last motion. | |
| Matt Keogh supports this one: | |
| Labor National Conference believes all older Australians deserve dignity and the highest standard of care in their final years. Every older Australian receiving aged care should know that the people who care for them can be there whenever they need, for as long as they need. | |
| We recognise that a professionally paid, trained and supported Aged Care workforce - that has time to care - is necessary to ensuring this dignity and high standard of care. We also recognise the strain that a lack of quality and accessible services place on family members and the community. | |
| As Australia’s population continues to age, governments must invest in Aged Care, Aged Care workers and a workforce with appropriate staffing numbers to provide necessary care. Quality jobs in aged care will ensure the delivery of quality care. Quality jobs are those that provide | |
| Fair wages and conditions; | |
| Predictable and stable hours of work; | |
| Sufficient time to provide quality care for service users; | |
| A defined and accessible career path; | |
| Access to representation and independent advice; and | |
| Access to ongoing training and materials in relation to the unique challenges of caring for Older Australians. | |
| Conference recognises the strong relationships that exist between staff and service users, and calls for mechanisms to be put in place to allow staff to act as advocates for the needs and interests of service users, including via access to an independent whistle-blower mechanism. | |
| Conference condemns the Liberal National Government for their 1.2 billion dollars in funding cuts to Aged Care in the 2016-17 Budget. These funding cuts have significantly affected the ability to provide meaningful care and support to vulnerable older Australians, especially those with acute and complex needs. | |
| Conference also calls on Labor to make addressing funding and workforce issues within Aged Care a key policy under a future Labor Government, and to ensure the next election is fought on supporting older Australians and those that care for them. | |
| There is quite a bit of interest in Labor’s planned environment act changes. | |
| Tony Burke didn’t hold a press conference on this, but he did release a statement: | |
| A Shorten Labor Government will ensure the federal government returns to taking a leadership role in protecting our natural environment by creating an Australian Environment Act, and establishing a Federal Environmental Protection Agency. | |
| The current environment act is now 20 years old and has never been significantly reformed. It is time to bring it into the 21st century. | |
| In 2018, it is bizarre that the national environmental law does not properly factor in climate change. | |
| Labor‘s process will involve undertaking significant reform of Australia’s environmental law, committing to an Australian Environment Act in our first term. It will be an Act which protects our environment but also supports job-creating development by streamlining and harmonising processes. | |
| Labor will also establish a new agency, a Federal EPA, with the mission to protect Australia’s natural environment. It will be informed by the best available scientific advice and, ensure compliance with environmental law, and have the ability to conduct public inquiries on important environmental matters. The new legal framework will compel the Australian government to actively protect our unique natural environment and demonstrate national leadership. | |
| Labor will establish a high powered working group of experts including scientists, environmental lawyers and public policy thinkers to refine the clear concepts that underpin this reform. We will also ensure all stakeholders including states and territories, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives, impacted industries and business groups, trade unions and civil society have a seat at the table. | |
| The Australian Environment Act will aim to tackle problems identified by industry which has identified inefficiencies, delays and hurdles in the current law. The new law will protect the environment while aiming to give business more certainty. The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government has vacated the field in environmental leadership. Under this government, Australia’s natural environment is going backwards. | |
| Under Malcolm Turnbull, Australia took the largest step backwards in conservation by any government anywhere in the world by stripping back Australia’s marine parks and just earlier this year, the Government awarded nearly half a billion dollars to a small private foundation instead of directly investing in restoring the health of the Great Barrier Reef. It’s time Australia’s environmental laws that protect of our beautiful natural land and oceans. | |
| Recent examples of either the EPBC Act failing or the Government seeming to ignore the law include: | |
| Large scale land clearing in Reef catchments in Queensland | |
| The ‘mean’ approval time being reported as 860 days | |
| Using the Sydney Opera House as a billboard, this action went against the management plan required under the EPBC Act | |
| Not using the water trigger for dams and pipelines associated with large coal mines | |
| The export of 200 rare and threatened birds to an alleged German organised crime syndicate | |
| If anyone hadn’t got the message yet, that this Labor conference (and future campaign) was about inequality, here is Chris Bowen laying it out, through his speech on Labor’s economic policy: | |
| Economic growth and equality are the key ingredients of our mission. | |
| With inequality rising around the world and in Australia, there’s never been a more important time for Labor to lead. | |
| We know that one of the greatest threats to our way of life in Australia is rising inequality, and we need to ensure that wealth is shared equally. | |
| And we know that the 20th century, late 20th century and early 21st century has seen an attack on organised unionism, and retreat from active government. | |
| We have a Government who thinks the answer to this is to cut penalty rates, to strip away the conditions of the lowest paid. | |
| And as Bill confirmed, we won’t have a bar of it and we will reverse it. | |
| And it’s this type of approach which has come at the expense of a sense of shared prosperity across our country. It’s contributed to the worst wages growth on record in our country. | |
| Wages growth that hasn’t kept up with productivity and hard work and ingenuity of our people. | |
| And it’s why we in Opposition have made the case for an activist policy that we want to put in place in Government. | |
| Under Bill’s leadership we will take to the next election, the boldest and most progressive tax reform in generations. | |
| We will make sure multinationals pay their fair share of tax. | |
| We will unwind the system which means that income tax refunds are paid at the expense of $5 billion a year to people who haven’t paid income tax. | |
| We will stop family trusts being used for tax minimisation purposes and we’ll ensure that negative gearing and capital gains tax are reformed, made fairer, and are made more progressive. | |
| This is at the heart of our approach to fund important initiatives in health, in education and housing. | |
| Labor delegates are also asking that the aged care workforce be acknowledge for the work they do in often under-resourced and difficult situations: | |
| Ongoing workforce attraction and retention is necessary to ensure quality care and outcomes for older Australians. Labor will work with workers and their unions, service providers and older Australians to develop and implement a workforce strategy to improve sector capacity and maintain and enhance quality standards. | |
| Labor will: | |
| support appropriate aged care funding that protects and maintains employment standards with proper regard to relevant industrial instruments; | |
| protect, maintain and support employment standards and training models to enhance job security and minimise the spread of casualised and insecure work; | |
| support a positive focused professional registration and accreditation scheme for employees; | |
| ensuring a base level of funding for aged care alongside consumer-directed care; and | |
| develop best practice standards and accreditation of supports in consultation with stakeholders so quality controls are established, maintained and properly funded. | |
| That amendment, comes after the original one was beefed up: | |
| Labor acknowledges the importance of proper regulation to ensure Australia’s aged care system is world leading in its approach to safety, skills and training. Labor will seek to create a nationally consistent pre-employment screening process in consultation with key industry stakeholders. This regulation scheme will mandate minimum qualifications requirements. | |
| The agreed compromise amendment on Newstart is: | The agreed compromise amendment on Newstart is: |
| Labor is committed to a social security system which keeps people out of poverty, whether they are unemployed or in retirement.That is why the previous Labor government undertook a review of the age pension and increased the rate of the pension so that Australians could have a decent life in retirement. Labor notes that after a quarter of a century with no increase to the rate of Newstart payments, the level of income for unemployed Australians is shamefully low by international standards.Labor will urgently complete a review into the inadequacy of Newstart payments and make recommendations within the first 18 months of government, on how best to address this. The review should include broad consultation and surveying of unemployed Australians about how the low rate of Newstart impacts on their health, ability to re-enter employment and to afford basic necessities, with the responses to be publicly reported. | Labor is committed to a social security system which keeps people out of poverty, whether they are unemployed or in retirement.That is why the previous Labor government undertook a review of the age pension and increased the rate of the pension so that Australians could have a decent life in retirement. Labor notes that after a quarter of a century with no increase to the rate of Newstart payments, the level of income for unemployed Australians is shamefully low by international standards.Labor will urgently complete a review into the inadequacy of Newstart payments and make recommendations within the first 18 months of government, on how best to address this. The review should include broad consultation and surveying of unemployed Australians about how the low rate of Newstart impacts on their health, ability to re-enter employment and to afford basic necessities, with the responses to be publicly reported. |
| The conference has moved on to aged care. | The conference has moved on to aged care. |
| There is no debate here. Everyone wants more money for aged care. Everyone wants standards raised. Everyone wants action before the royal commission. | There is no debate here. Everyone wants more money for aged care. Everyone wants standards raised. Everyone wants action before the royal commission. |
| From Labor’s platform: | From Labor’s platform: |
| Australia’s aged care system should give older Australians: | Australia’s aged care system should give older Australians: |
| A high minimum standard of quality care, underpinned by adequate staffing levels with the appropriate mix of skills; | A high minimum standard of quality care, underpinned by adequate staffing levels with the appropriate mix of skills; |
| The right to fair, sustainable, quality care services appropriate to their needs; | The right to fair, sustainable, quality care services appropriate to their needs; |
| Greater range, choice of support and care arrangements, and control over who provides these, the mix of support and care services, and the terms on which they are provided; | Greater range, choice of support and care arrangements, and control over who provides these, the mix of support and care services, and the terms on which they are provided; |
| The ability to easily navigate the aged care system in order to obtain the care they need; | The ability to easily navigate the aged care system in order to obtain the care they need; |
| Equity of access to services for different population groups; | Equity of access to services for different population groups; |
| Open and transparent information and data on facilities, services and staffing; and | Open and transparent information and data on facilities, services and staffing; and |
| Increased accountability of tax payer funding provided to all aged care facilities and services, including not-for-profits and private providers. | Increased accountability of tax payer funding provided to all aged care facilities and services, including not-for-profits and private providers. |
| One of the conference flash points, as we’ve alerted you to, has been whether or not the conference will agree to an increase in the Newstart payment. Left-faction delegate Darcy Byrne has been signalling for some months he would bring a motion to the floor arguing for an increase. | One of the conference flash points, as we’ve alerted you to, has been whether or not the conference will agree to an increase in the Newstart payment. Left-faction delegate Darcy Byrne has been signalling for some months he would bring a motion to the floor arguing for an increase. |
| Given there’s been a motion drafted, there have been a range of discussions over the past few days. It’s been pretty obvious that the leadership did not want to be locked into an increase, given the fiscal implications. Increasing the payment would cost billions. | Given there’s been a motion drafted, there have been a range of discussions over the past few days. It’s been pretty obvious that the leadership did not want to be locked into an increase, given the fiscal implications. Increasing the payment would cost billions. |
| Given the reluctance of the leadership to go there, there will be no conference commitment to increase the payment. | Given the reluctance of the leadership to go there, there will be no conference commitment to increase the payment. |
| The conference will, instead, agree to undertake a review into the payment within 18 months. I’m told the agreed motion will also commit the party to consulting unemployed people about the practical impact of trying to get by on such a low benefit. | The conference will, instead, agree to undertake a review into the payment within 18 months. I’m told the agreed motion will also commit the party to consulting unemployed people about the practical impact of trying to get by on such a low benefit. |
| Annnnnd the environment motions have all been carried, without debate. | Annnnnd the environment motions have all been carried, without debate. |
| I told you there had been a lot of work behind the scenes before this conference. This is why. The fights have been had behind closed doors, instead of on the conference floor, which is what tends to happen when you are five minutes from an election. | I told you there had been a lot of work behind the scenes before this conference. This is why. The fights have been had behind closed doors, instead of on the conference floor, which is what tends to happen when you are five minutes from an election. |
| For those asking, Labor has released what those on the conference room floor have labelled the “doomsday” video, which showed just before Bill Shorten took to the conference stage. | For those asking, Labor has released what those on the conference room floor have labelled the “doomsday” video, which showed just before Bill Shorten took to the conference stage. |
| Labor is about a fair go for all Australians. A fair go for every part of our nation, from bush to coast. For families, pensioners and Australians doing it tough. We have a plan to bring the fair go back into the heart of our nation. #auspol #LabConf18 pic.twitter.com/S3r5gDy1Md | Labor is about a fair go for all Australians. A fair go for every part of our nation, from bush to coast. For families, pensioners and Australians doing it tough. We have a plan to bring the fair go back into the heart of our nation. #auspol #LabConf18 pic.twitter.com/S3r5gDy1Md |
| Tanya Plibersek has spoken to Sky outside the conference hall: | Tanya Plibersek has spoken to Sky outside the conference hall: |
| .@tanya_plibersek: It's low rent for the Prime Minister to use the announcement of Australia’s next governor-general as a political distraction. It is poor form to make the appointment so close to an election without consulting the opposition. MORE: https://t.co/rwFj1pjyME pic.twitter.com/lVPdbGcIEZ | .@tanya_plibersek: It's low rent for the Prime Minister to use the announcement of Australia’s next governor-general as a political distraction. It is poor form to make the appointment so close to an election without consulting the opposition. MORE: https://t.co/rwFj1pjyME pic.twitter.com/lVPdbGcIEZ |
| Again, all of these motions are being carried, without a vote from the floor. | Again, all of these motions are being carried, without a vote from the floor. |
| We move on to this one from Michael O’Connor: | We move on to this one from Michael O’Connor: |
| Labor will support internationally recognised forest certification with robust governance arrangements which set best practice, transparent, consistent and objective standards in sustainable forest management, chain of custody and labelling, and require employers in the industry to uphold acknowledge, respect, sustain and support the principles and rights at work as defined in the ILO declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work (1998) based on the eight ILO core labour conventions. | Labor will support internationally recognised forest certification with robust governance arrangements which set best practice, transparent, consistent and objective standards in sustainable forest management, chain of custody and labelling, and require employers in the industry to uphold acknowledge, respect, sustain and support the principles and rights at work as defined in the ILO declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work (1998) based on the eight ILO core labour conventions. |
| Which has been altered, already, to this one: | Which has been altered, already, to this one: |
| Labor will require international forest certification schemes operating in Australia to have workers’ representatives on their global and Australian governing boards nominated by the International Trade Union Confederation and the Australian Council of Trade Unions respectively. | Labor will require international forest certification schemes operating in Australia to have workers’ representatives on their global and Australian governing boards nominated by the International Trade Union Confederation and the Australian Council of Trade Unions respectively. |
| Again, carried, without debate. | Again, carried, without debate. |
| The Greens have responded to Labor’s environmental policies, by claiming many of them as their own. Sarah Hanson Young: | The Greens have responded to Labor’s environmental policies, by claiming many of them as their own. Sarah Hanson Young: |
| We welcome Labor adopting Greens’ policy on stronger protections for the environment, but without proper investment and committing to no new coal, oil and gas they will fail. | We welcome Labor adopting Greens’ policy on stronger protections for the environment, but without proper investment and committing to no new coal, oil and gas they will fail. |
| We need a government committed to stopping Adani and protecting the Great Australian Bight. | We need a government committed to stopping Adani and protecting the Great Australian Bight. |
| We need a government that will invest in environmental protections and save our threatened species. | We need a government that will invest in environmental protections and save our threatened species. |
| The Greens in the Senate will ensure Labor is held to their promises on protecting the environment. We will always stand up to the fossil fuels lobby and fight for no new coal, oil and gas. | The Greens in the Senate will ensure Labor is held to their promises on protecting the environment. We will always stand up to the fossil fuels lobby and fight for no new coal, oil and gas. |
| Labor continues to ignore the calls to phase out coal and stop the Adani mine. They are still split on drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight, which not only comes at great risk to the marine environment and local fishing and tourism industries, but locks us to burning fossil fuels into the future. | Labor continues to ignore the calls to phase out coal and stop the Adani mine. They are still split on drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight, which not only comes at great risk to the marine environment and local fishing and tourism industries, but locks us to burning fossil fuels into the future. |
| Unless we transition out of burning fossil fuels, we will continue to contribute to a warming planet at a time when action to arrest climate change is more urgent than ever. | Unless we transition out of burning fossil fuels, we will continue to contribute to a warming planet at a time when action to arrest climate change is more urgent than ever. |
| Ged Kearney is moving the next section. | Ged Kearney is moving the next section. |
| It has changed from this: | It has changed from this: |
| There is no longer any credible or serious scientific doubt that human-induced climate change represents a massive risk to Australia and the world. As a result, meaningful action on climate change is urgent, at home and internationally. Labor will take strong action on climate change to mitigate the risks and impacts of climate change on Australian society and economy, and to take advantage of the opportunities transitioning to a low pollution economy represent for workers, businesses and Australia more broadly. | There is no longer any credible or serious scientific doubt that human-induced climate change represents a massive risk to Australia and the world. As a result, meaningful action on climate change is urgent, at home and internationally. Labor will take strong action on climate change to mitigate the risks and impacts of climate change on Australian society and economy, and to take advantage of the opportunities transitioning to a low pollution economy represent for workers, businesses and Australia more broadly. |
| To this: | To this: |
| The contemporary challenge: | The contemporary challenge: |
| There is no longer any credible or serious scientific doubt that human-induced climate change represents a massive risk to Australia and the world. The recent IPCC report indicates that we are experiencing a climate emergency and, as a result, meaningful action on climate change is urgent, at home and internationally. Labor will take strong action on climate change to mitigate the risks and impacts of climate change on Australian society and economy, and to take advantage of the opportunities transitioning to a low pollution economy represent for workers, businesses and Australia more broadly. | There is no longer any credible or serious scientific doubt that human-induced climate change represents a massive risk to Australia and the world. The recent IPCC report indicates that we are experiencing a climate emergency and, as a result, meaningful action on climate change is urgent, at home and internationally. Labor will take strong action on climate change to mitigate the risks and impacts of climate change on Australian society and economy, and to take advantage of the opportunities transitioning to a low pollution economy represent for workers, businesses and Australia more broadly. |