The SPEAKER ( Hon. Bronwyn Bishop ) took the chair at 10:00, made an acknowledgement of country and read prayers.
… difficult to predict the timing and strength of the expected upturn in non-mining investment.
That the House take note of the report.
That the order of the day be referred to the Federation Chamber for debate.
(1) with concern that unemployment in South Australia is higher than the national average;
(2) that South Australia has a talented workforce that deserves a government determined to:
(a) reduce taxes and regulation;
(b) grow the state’s economy, and
(c) liberate the people of South Australia to realise their destiny; and
(3) that the Australian Government has a plan to build a stronger South Australian economy so that everyone can get ahead through abolishing the carbon tax, ending the waste, stopping the boats, and building the roads of the 21st century.
SACOME welcomes the introduction of legislation to repeal the Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT), in line with the Liberal party's election commitment to abolish the damaging tax.
The MRRT is an unfair tax, and discriminates against South Australia in particular due to our vast amounts of magnetite iron ore, …
(c) liberate the people of South Australia to realise their destiny; and …
Prime Minister Tony Abbott says many Holden workers will be "liberated" by the loss of their jobs at the carmaker.
That this House:
(1) notes:
(a) the United Nations Human Rights Council's Report of the detailed findings of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) released on 17 February 2014;
(b) the gravity, scale and nature of human rights violations and crimes against humanity which have been and are being committed systematically by the DPRK, including murder, enslavement, starvation, torture, rape and persecution on the grounds of race, religion and gender, and other inhumane acts;
(c) first hand testimony from DPRK refugees, escapees and asylum seekers;
(d) the political and security apparatus of the DPRK and the use of tactics including surveillance, selective distribution of food, fear, public executions and forced disappearances; and
(e) the crimes against humanity against non-DPRK citizens through international abduction and forced repatriation;
(2) recognises the significance of the public hearings held by the commission of inquiry, in informing the report;
(3) acknowledges the work of the Chair of the commission of inquiry, the Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG, and his important contribution to improved international understanding and capacity to respond to the state of human rights in the DPRK; and
(4) calls on the Government to take all available steps to:
(a) support the recommendations of the report;
(b) urge United Nations action on the findings of the report; and
(c) support efforts to hold those responsible for crimes accountable through the International Criminal Court.
The gravity, scale and nature of these violations reveal a State that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.
... there was this pregnant woman ... The babies who were born were usually dead, but in this case the baby was born alive. The baby was crying as it was born, so we were curious, this was the first time we saw a baby being born. So we were watching this baby and we were so happy. But suddenly we heard the footsteps. The security agent ... told us to put the baby in the water upside down. So the mother was begging. 'I was told that I would not be able to have the baby, but I actually got lucky and got pregnant so please let me keep the baby, please forgive me.' But the agent kept beating this woman, the mother who just gave birth. And the baby, since it was just born, it was just crying. And the mother, with her shaking hands she picked up the baby and she put the baby face down in the water. The baby stopped crying and we saw this water bubble coming out of the mouth of the baby.
A man left his work unit to take some potatoes because he was extremely hungry. Fearing that the guards would try to consider this an attempted escape, he tried to hide. The guards chased tracker dogs after him. The dogs found and mauled the man until he was half dead. Then the guards shot the victim dead on the spot.
(1) with concern:
(a) the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 survey, which are the worst for Australia since testing began and show that Australia is falling further behind its regional neighbours on critical objective measures; and
(b) that, in spite of a 44 per cent increase in education funding by the Government during the last decade, student performance has declined, which indicates that there is much more to improving educational outcomes for our children than simply increasing funding;
(2) that the PISA 2012 survey has also revealed how critical teacher quality is to Australia's education system and to lifting student outcomes and how outcomes for students, regardless of which school they attend, are directly affected by the quality of the teaching they receive;
(3) that the Government's response to the PISA 2012 survey emphasises the critical importance of teacher quality to Australia's education system and to lifting student outcomes, coupled with a robust curriculum, expanding autonomy for principals, and encouraging more parental engagement; and
(4) the Government's consistent commitment to ensuring a fairer, needs based funding arrangement for schools nationally, to deliver better schools for Australian students.
… ATAR cut-offs were an indication of supply and demand for a course, and that an individual's ATAR was no indication of how he or she would perform at university or in the workplace.
Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2013-2014
Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2013-2014
Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2013-2014
And I want to give people this absolute assurance: no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to pensions, and no changes to the GST.
The Government will achieve savings of $11.5 million by not proceeding with funding for the Building Multicultural Communities programme, announced in 2013‑14 Budget …
They promised something they didn't have the money for. They didn't allocate the money for it.
… there's not enough “try a trade” for those kids in school so they can see what it is they want to do.
… what we need to do is make sure that from a pathway in say Year ten, they're directed into a career in the trade that suits them …
… for the development, prototyping and promotion of technologies and workflows for deep compositing.
Their contributions include early advancements in key deep compositing features such as layer and holdout-order independence, spatial and intra-element color correction, post-render depth of field, and precise blending of complex layer edges.
… the best assistance the government and the opposition can provide is the removal of the carbon tax, which has cost this industry hundreds of millions of dollars. To that end, I just say we applaud the government's position on this.
I think the workers of this country do not want talk; they want action.
Some will tell you that our industrial relations system is dragging us down.
And I won't be popular amongst my friends in the labour movement for saying this - but I agree.
There's no doubt in my mind that the coalition's boat person policy is absolutely not working.
Turning back the boats was always a furphy.
I look forward to an explanation today or alternatively, them facing a dose of reality for a change and dropping this policy.
Mr Abbott is peddling a myth to the Australian people. … he's trying not to be exposed as telling the Australian people something that can’t and won’t work.
I think companies will unleash their balance sheets, and I think consumers will as well if there is a change of government.
That, in accordance with the provisions of section 10 of the Archives Act 1983, this House appoints Mrs Prentice as a member of the National Archives of Australia Advisory Council for a period of three years.
… Immigration Minister Scott Morrison claiming Labor senator Stephen Conroy keeps showing ''how small a man he is' …
The Leader of the Opposition in his response to this motion today has demonstrated how small a man he is when the challenge is put to him.
That orders of the day Nos 2 and 3, government business, be postponed until a later hour this day.
Opportunity is the first essential ingredient to achieve success.
… … …
To realise our country’s full potential, every Australian must have the opportunity to compete and earn just reward for their effort and success.
We will not adopt the fantastic hypocrisy of modern conservatism which preaches the values of families and communities, while conducting a direct assault on them through reduced wages and conditions and job security.
The difference is human civilisation. A 4 degree C temperature increase probably means a global [population] carrying capacity below 1 billion people.
Even with the current mitigation commitments and pledges fully implemented, there is roughly a 20 percent likelihood of exceeding 4°C by 2100. If they are not met, a warming of 4°C could occur as early as the 2060s.
The economic growth debate is … best framed not in terms of 'growth' versus 'degrowth' but as a shift in priorities from limitless growth in the consumption of energy and resources to improvement in important social and ecological priorities. In Prosperity without growth: Economics for a finite planet , UK economist Tim Jackson makes a compelling argument that our ability to 'decouple' conventional economic growth from ecological destruction is highly questionable and that our focus must be on a redefinition of prosperity— a vision 'in which it is possible for human beings to flourish, to achieve greater social cohesion, to find higher levels of wellbeing and yet still to reduce their material impact on the environment.'
That the health of land and water—and of woods, which are the keepers of water—can be the only lasting basis for any civilization's survival and success … If civilisation is to survive it must live on the interest, not the capital of nature.
Capitalism lures us onward like the mechanical hare before the greyhounds, insisting that the economy is infinite and sharing therefore is irrelevant. Just enough greyhounds catch a real hare now and then to keep the others running till they drop. In the past, it was only the poor who lost this game, now it is the planet …
Things are moving so fast that inaction itself is one of the biggest mistakes. The 10,000-year experiment of the settled life will stand or fall by what we do, and don't do, now. The reform that is needed is not anti-capitalist, anti-American, or even deep environmentalist; it is simply the transition from short-term to long-term thinking. From recklessness and excess to moderation and the precautionary principle.
The great advantage we have, our best chance for avoiding the fate of past societies, is that we know about those past societies. We can see how and why they went wrong. Homo sapiens has the information to know itself for what it is: an Ice Age hunter only half-evolved towards intelligence; clever but seldom wise.
We are now at the stage when the Easter Islanders could still have halted the senseless cutting and carving, could have gathered the last trees' seeds to plant out of reach of the rats. We have the tools and the means to share resources, clean up pollution, dispense basic health care and birth control, set economic limits in line with natural ones.
If we don't do these things now, while we prosper, we will never be able to do them when times get hard. Our fate will twist out of our hands.
Infrastructure is already a major commitment of the federal government and I think you’ll see an even greater commitment, because there is a great need to lift our national productivity.
You can vote Liberal or Labor and you'll get exactly the same amount of funding for your school.
So, we will honour the agreements that Labor has entered into. We will match the offers that Labor has made.
Australian Research Council Amendment Bill 2013
Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment Bill 2013
Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Consumer Protection) Bill 2013
Therapeutic Goods Amendment (2013 Measures No. 1) Bill 2013
Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2013
Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2013-2014
Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2013-2014
Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2013-2014
First, the bill includes funding to enable the Department of the Treasury to make an $8.8 billion one-off grant to the Reserve Bank of Australia. The grant will strengthen the Reserve Bank's financial position to the level considered appropriate by the board of the Reserve Bank. This will ensure that the Reserve Bank is adequately resourced to conduct its monetary policy and foreign exchange operations in an environment of financial market volatility.
The Coalition went to the Australian people with a plan to get the economy and budget back on track. That is what we will do and today is the first step.
… … …
Today we reveal the full impact on the Budget and the economy of six years of Labor Government.
… … …
We have inherited from the Labor Party Budget deficits totalling $123 billion over the next four years and unless we take action the Budget will be in deficit for at least a decade.
And we have inherited from Labor gross debt that will reach $460 billion within the next four years. Unless we take very substantial budget reform, it will rise to $667 billion over the next decade.
This document also forecasts economic growth to remain below trend of 3% for the next two years as the unemployment rate continues to rise to 6¼%.
… … …
Based on new more realistic assumptions and, our determination to bring hidden budget problems out in to the open, the cumulative underlying cash balance has deteriorated by $68 billion in just four months.
… the Clean Energy Regulator has released figures detailing the carbon tax bills for all liable entities for the 2012-13 financial year.
In its first year of operation, the carbon tax was a $7.6 billion hit on the Australian economy and a direct hit on around 75,000 businesses.
16 of the 20 largest carbon tax bills have gone to electricity companies. The power sector is being hit with $4.1 billion in additional costs …
Manufacturing has been slugged $1.1 billion—and that's putting pressure on jobs …
Regional and rural Australia is being hit with dairy and meat processors, and sugar refineries copping carbon tax bills.
Despite a $7.6 billion tax, emissions for the first 12 months barely changed by 0.1%.
Operation Sovereign Borders is making progress. The boats have not yet stopped but they are stopping under the Abbott Government with people smugglers on the back foot and arrivals down to levels not experienced since the days of the Howard Government.
… … …
The full suite of measures the Coalition is implementing, including operations at sea, are combining to prevent people smugglers from sending people on the dangerous boat journey to Australia. These are policies the previous government never had the resolve, will or interest in implementing.
Preventing people who arrived in Australia illegally by boat from being resettled in Australia is one thing but preventing successful people smuggling ventures to Australia entirely is another.
whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading the House notes that:
(1) the Government repeatedly stated before the election 'that if debt is the problem, more debt is not the answer';
(2) the 2013-14 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook showed a $17 billion blow-out in the 2013-14 budget deficit, which at the time represented a $167 million budget blow-out per day since the Government took office;
(3) 60 per cent of the predicted budget blow-out in 2013-14 was due to the decisions of the Government alone;
(4) the Government has sought to pave the way for deep cuts to the federal budget by deliberately blowing out the budget and establishing its Commission of Audit; and
(5) these cuts would be another example of this Government saying one thing before the election, and doing the complete opposite after it.
This funding commitment is great news because it will boost the economy by upgrading key roads and infrastructure to better connect areas of economic opportunity with the local communities.
We look after 12 communities at Cape York. That averages about 160 births a year. We provide midwifery and child health services. All our child health nurses are midwives as well, so they will often do a dual role which is great for continuity. They are fly in, fly out. All of our registered nurses are midwives or have partnerships with specially trained maternal and child health workers who are community based. So they lead the way; it is a health worker led program that we provide, taking a lot of cultural guidance and appropriate management from there.
In Cairns base [hospital]—there is no other option—at the main delivery suite at that facility … Currently there are no other options. If ladies dare not come down they are considered to be absconding and threatened with the Department of Child Safety. This is at 36 weeks—a good month before their due date, and often they may go over.
They are threatened with the Department of Child Safety becoming involved with their management because if they do not leave their home at 36 weeks into the pregnancy they are 'deemed as not responsible'.
It is an unborn risk notification.
… if they do not comply with this recommended schedule and policy of management of their antenatal care and leave their community, friends and family and live down in Cairns, they are threatened with the Department of Child Safety. It depends on a lot of other circumstances, but that threat is used regularly for ladies …
It is not a government policy—it is just a threat. It is there and it is used.
It is standard practice.
This is very difficult when you have different clans in the same room and it is completely inappropriate.
I have worked also in Walgett, New South Wales, which does not seem very remote to most people but women are not allowed to birth in Walgett. They have to catch a bus at their own expense to Dubbo, which is three hours away—again, at 36 weeks. There is no accommodation supplied; they have to find their own accommodation. They have their baby at Dubbo hospital and then a day or two afterwards, because they want to come home, they get on a bus and come home.
On day 3, their milk comes in. They have got no support—no midwife—and they do not know what to do. All their mothers bottle-fed—the whole generation of mothers before—so not only is it about where you birth, it is about the support you get before and after. There were seven midwives from Canberra who would fly in fly out to Walgett. Walgett is not remote, but they could not get anyone to work there.
Mine are very, very similar issues.
The birth journey for Kimberley women varies depending on where they are geographically … What it looks like for really remote communities and particularly for East Kimberley women, is a Greyhound bus—usually a mail plane and a Greyhound bus—at 36 to 38 weeks.
… can take two days in and out … women are out—
… two to three days post birth and back onto a Greyhound bus.
Flinders Medical Centre will not accept a client that is retrieved without an escort, so they all have to have an escort.
The main thing with ladies … from the Top End is that they would arrive with next to nothing and it is freezing … They have no money, they have got no Medicare card … They might have their Basics Card with them, which is totally useless in Adelaide because there is only Target in the city and all the Caltex servos that take that Basics Card …
When the ladies get flown out at 36 weeks, they get put into a system which is so different …
… a hospitalised, once a week, ante-natal, really busy clinic, where they do not know the midwife and they will see somebody different every time they go who may not be aware of the often very complex social situations and family situations that the midwives and health workers looking after them in the communities are very aware of and can manage their care around. Again, it is a very daunting experience.
I think when they are about 2 or 3 years of age.
You would not recommend that they be taken away when they are absolute infants ?—No ; because then you would have the burden of them that all children are at such a young age. When they are a couple of years of age they do not require so much attention and they are young enough to be attractive.
Do you think that their experience of two years with the black mother would seriously interfere with them ?
No. There would not be time for them to establish habits and customs. I am quite aware that you are depriving the mothers of their children, and the mothers are very fond of their children; but I think it must be the rising generation who have to be considered. They are people who are going to live on.
It's evil! It's toxic! 2005's most polluting power station in the industrial world! … what can I do?
It's dirty and unnecessary and it's time for it to go.
The best time to close Hazelwood was yesterday but the next best time is today.
Because when I was on the board 2011—I finished July 2011—we made a very large loss because of the very high Australian dollar. The following year after I'd left, there was a small profit of over $1 billion. The treasurer was requested not to extract that from the balance sheet of the bank. He ignored that request and took $500 million so that he could reach the budget surplus in 2012-13. That to me is economic vandalism. It wasn't that he may not have been asked to put more money in, but he was certainly asked not to take money out.
It is in Australia's national interest for there to be peace and prosperity in our region—it is part of our national interest. So that is why we are consolidating our efforts on our neighbourhood—the Indian Ocean Asia Pacific—where we can make the biggest difference. This is where we have a responsibility to foster peace and prosperity.
Now I know from a report on the ABC last night that apparently my priorities are wrong because I am not funding the reconstruction of the Grenada Parliament House in the Caribbean. According to the ABC I have got my priorities wrong. The previous government, in order to buy the vote of the Grenadian Government for the Security Council seat and believe me I support us being on the Security Council, promised to rebuild their Parliament House—committed $3.5 million to do it, a million dollars has already gone. The Grenadian Government actually campaigned at the last election on the basis that they would not put a dollar into the building of their parliament house because the Australian Government and others would do it.
… it is time that some in today's union leadership recognised that their members' long-term interests are aligned with their long term job security.
… view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Labor's carefully costed fibre to the node network is based on a detailed calculation of the number of nodes required to reach 98 per cent of Australians. This includes the number of upgrades of exchanges and pillars internodes that are required.
A … survey of 38 Queensland magistrates found that 74% agreed with the proposition that protection orders are used in Family Court proceedings as a tactic to aid a parent’s case and to deprive their partner of contact with their children.
When you have heard the evidence, you realise that this is a person who's so determined to win that he or she will say anything. I'm satisfied that a number of people who have appeared before me have known that it is one of the ways of completely shutting husbands out of the child's life.
It's a horrible weapon.
The audiology report confirmed Holly has auditory processing disorder. Everything that was stored away in the back of my mind came flooding forward: can't remember spelling words; can't follow multiple instructions; reluctant to participate in class discussions; unable to do the work; doesn't understand money; being overwhelmed at her birthday party—everything I'd noticed or been told about Holly now had a reason behind it.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Hon. BC Scott ) took the chair at 10:30.
She was a fantastic boss and a wonderful mentor. She encouraged me to strike out on my own to start up Redstick.
… the areas selected for trials have seen substantial remediation from Telstra prior to providing access to NBN Co.
… [recommends] it to anyone who likes connecting with their family and friends over the internet—
With the NBN we can manage our finances online, stream Italian news programs and Skype with our friends and family from all over the world. Our old ADSL was so unreliable we couldn’t do any of those things, but the NBN has opened my eyes up to what I can do with the internet.
That this House:
(1) notes:
(a) that investment in infrastructure is a vital contributor to economic growth;
(b) the broad support in the House for:
(i) the principle that infrastructure priorities should be developed by experts, based on the benefit to the national economy;
(ii) Infrastructure Australia as an independent source of infrastructure advice to government; and
(iii) the continuance and enhancement of the successful role played by Infrastructure Australia since its formation in 2008; and
(c) the overwhelming desire of infrastructure providers, financiers, and others involved in the infrastructure chain, for a robust, bipartisan approach to the governance of Infrastructure Australia; and
(2) resolves that:
(a) the issue of the future governance of Infrastructure Australia be referred to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications for consideration and report back to the House by 30 April 2014;
(b) the Committee seeks formal submissions from the public, and specifically stakeholders across the infrastructure chain, on the matter of the governance of Infrastructure Australia;
(c) Infrastructure Australia, the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development, other relevant federal agencies, COAG and its member governments, including local government, be specifically requested to provide input; and
(d) until such time as this review is completed, the Infrastructure Australia Amendment Bill 2013 not be further proceeded with in the House or the other place.
The ability to undertake this evaluation without interference is critical to the effective operation of an independent and empowered IA. It is unclear why there should be a need for a power to carve out 'classes of projects'… Good planning should prioritise any infrastructure projects of the highest economic and social value, and not differentiate by project class …
It is critical to public confidence in the decisions made by government that wherever possible these evaluations are made public, and a huge component of public disclosure is the publication of these reports…
It would be a concern if evaluations are not published because the demonstrated economic or social value is at odds with the decision by government about whether or not to support a particular investment. Publication of evaluations should be the norm except where there is a justifiable reason not to do so.
… objects to this provision on the grounds that it impairs Infrastructure Australia’s ability to objectively evaluate projects based on their merit, and introduces the potential for political bias.
(i) the principle that infrastructure priorities should be developed by experts, based on the benefit to the national economy;
Australia will become a Gigabit Nation before the end of the year …
Recognise that the Commonwealth has a role in influencing the quality of planning in our major cities, investing in urban transport infrastructure, and encouraging a consistent national approach to decisions on urban transport.
That this House:
(1) commends the Government for its strong commitment to small businesses in Australia;
(2) notes that:
(a) small business is essential to the Australian Economy;
(b) there are approximately 2 million actively trading small businesses in Australia employing 4.6 million people;
(c) small businesses generate over $900 billion in income and contribute around 34 per cent of Industry Value Added;
(d) under the previous Labor Government, 412,000 jobs were lost in small business and there are 3,000 fewer employing small businesses than was the case when the former Coalition Government left office; and
(e) the share of employment provided by small businesses has shrunk from 53 per cent of the private sector workforce in 2007 to 43 per cent under the former Labor Government; and
(3) supports small business owners throughout Australia by endorsing the Coalition's Small Business Policy that outlines 23 initiatives to further remove challenges and roadblocks in their way.
That this House:
(1) notes that in July 2013, general elections were held in Cambodia, the results of which have been disputed and led to civil unrest;
(2) notes that on 2 and 3 January 2014:
(a) 5 people were killed by Cambodian security forces while protesting in Phnom Penh; and
(b) 23 people were detained for participating in protests to secure a better wage for garment workers; and
(3) calls on the Australian Government to:
(a) join human rights organisations and multinational business leaders to express deep concern over the actions of the Cambodian Government;
(b) condemn violence against protesters; and
(c) ask the Cambodian authorities to release those detained for social and political activism.
There is a place for quiet diplomacy that relies on quiet engagement to encourage significant behavioural change. But when states behave badly enough for long enough, loud megaphones can also be in order.'
It is time for Cambodia’s political leaders to be named, shamed, investigated, and sanctioned by the international community.
… surveyed the emerging extractive industries … The results were alarming. Patterns of corruption … are now being duplicated … The same political elite who squandered the … timber resources are now responsible for managing its mineral and petroleum wealth.
That this House:
(1) recognises that:
(a) 13 to 20 March 2014 is national Coeliac Awareness Week, with the aim of increasing rates of testing and diagnosis of coeliac disease;
(b) coeliac disease is one of Australia's most commonly under-diagnosed conditions, with an estimated 80 per cent of sufferers currently not diagnosed; and
(c) diagnosis and treatment immensely improves well-being and quality of life for sufferers of coeliac disease; and
(2) congratulates Coeliac Australia, and its five state organisations, on their work in promoting awareness of the disease, improving quality of life for sufferers, and fundraising for research of coeliac disease.
Coeliac disease affects people of all ages, both male and female.
You must be born with the genetic predisposition to develop coeliac disease.
The most important genes associated with susceptibility to coeliac disease are HLA DQ2 and HLA DQ8. Either one or both of these genes are present in virtually every person with coeliac disease. While 30% of the population carry one or both of these genes, only 1 in 30 of these people (approximately) will get coeliac disease.
A first degree relative (parent, sibling, child) of someone with coeliac disease has about a 10% chance of also having the disease. If one identical twin has coeliac disease there is an approximate 70% chance that the other twin will also have coeliac disease (but may not necessarily be diagnosed at the same time).
Environmental factors play an important role in triggering coeliac disease in infancy, childhood or later in life.
That this House:
(1) notes that:
(a) 28 February is Rare Disease Day and encourages all Members to acknowledge that around 10 per cent of the population including 400,000 children suffer from these diseases;
(b) rare diseases, of which there are more than 8,000, are complex, often with inadequate or no treatment; and
(c) 80 per cent of rare diseases affect children and most begin in childhood only to continue throughout life;
(2) recognises that:
(a) for best practice treatments to be achieved, Australians with rare diseases must have access to a wide range of trials; and
(b) a rare disease registry is potentially valuable to the progress of medical research in this field; and
(3) acknowledges:
(a) the vital role organisations play in assisting the patients with treatment and quality of life; and
(b) that an investigation into the establishment of a national patient registry, free of commercial interests, for research purposes would benefit the wellbeing of many patients.
People everywhere feel we're taking one step forward, two steps back.
Something's gone very wrong.
The future isn't what it used to be.
… companies are minimising their tax, bringing in migrant workers and paying them less, and then turning around to say they've got no money and they'll have to close down and go off shore.
The federal government will slash Australia's contribution to global initiatives to tackle climate change, health and sanitation crises in developing countries as part of its $650 million cuts to foreign aid.
The cuts, announced on Saturday, will strip almost $250 million in funding from the Asia-Pacific region and south Asia, despite Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's assurances that Australia will renew its foreign aid focus on the region.
Plan International said the timing of the cuts was almost as damaging as the cuts themselves, given the 2013-14 financial year is already more than 10 months underway.
The government will cut $61 million comes from the Pacific region, with only Nauru —
Australia will also cut $116 million in planned expenditure from East Asia, including $59 million from Indonesia, $71 million from South and West Asia, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, $113 million from Africa and the Middle East and $5.3 million from Latin America and the Caribbean.
Australia spent $3747 million in international aid in 2012-13, and Labor had budgeted for this to increase to $4223.5 million this financial year.
But 10 months into the financial year, the government released its revised 2013-14 foreign aid spending on Saturday, showing it will spend $3598 million this financial year. This is $625.5 million less than Labor's predicted spending and $149 million less than last year's spending.
Australia will cut $75.4 million from humanitarian, emergency and refugees programs, including $8.5 million from the International Committee of the Red Cross, $4 million from planned donations to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and $1 million from the United Nations Peacekeeping Fund.
It will also cut $23.9 million from UN, Commonwealth and other international organisations, including $6 million from the United Nations Development Programme, $4.2 million from UNICEF, and $3.4 million from the World Health Organisation.
Two days before the September election, the Coalition announced it would no longer commit to a timeline for Australia to contribute 0.5 per cent of its gross national income to overseas aid, which was part of Australia's commitment to the Millennium Development Goals.
I am really impressed with the change in thinking of a number of multi-lateral organisations. GAVI for example, its international finance facility for immunisation is using capital markets to create new funding for its work. The finance facility uses donor funds as collateral to issue bonds on the capital market, these bonds generate funds that are then used to finance crucial immunisation programs. That is the kind of thinking we need, get away from the old models of government handouts because ultimately our overseas aid is an investment in our region, an investment in the people, an investment in the future and we expect sold returns from that investment.
Duba, like many others, is a testimony of the TB program implementation in Papua New Guinea's Western Province.
In February 2012, five year old Duba was admitted to Daru General Hospital with an enlarged spleen and his parents were slowly losing hope that he would live. During that time the TB Program was picking up phase with the upgrading of Daru General Hospital.
A Gene X-pert machine and a digital X-ray machine were put in place by AusAID and Duba underwent Multi Drug Resistant-TB testing. He was diagnosed with MDR-TB, however, Duba's case is a primary infection meaning that his family doesn't have a TB history.
Duba commenced treatment right away and his treatment duration like any other MDR-TB case is for 2 years. Now one year and three months on, Duba is enjoying life like any other normal kid. He still has some more months to complete his treatment. We are proud of his treatment success so far and he will have a story to tell when he grows older.
By responding to these incidents quickly … the Government has an opportunity to show transparency and accountability, which will strengthen democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar.
No public figure will dare criticise what is becoming an active campaign of ethnic cleansing for fear of what it will mean for his or her popularity.
The one person, almost universally respected and loved, who could help put an end to the murder, rape, torture and marginalisation of Burma's Muslim minority is Nobel Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi. She has by far the most popular influence in Burmese politics, but rather than speak out against the violence, she has made vague comments that tacitly endorse the government’s deliberate inaction on this crisis. What hope do the Rohingya have if Burma's best-known "peace activist" won't speak out?