Apologies for the late posting – uni and work has been a bit busy….
The fortnight began with debates on several issues in parliament, including Childcare, company tax, and the Racial Discrimination Act. The Government wanted to pass changes to childcare rebates to allow the lower income earners to have more of their childcare costs covered, which in theory encourages more women to rejoin the workforce. Labor isn’t too thrilled, and the sector has concerns about the legislation, mainly because it cuts rebates to unemployed parents who aren’t actively looking for a job or volunteering.
The government also tried to change the Racial Discrimination Act, in particular the wording to section 18C, but also the process of making and dealing with a complaint. The plan was to change the words in 18C to “offend, insult and humiliate” to the word “harass”. They couldn’t have picked a worse day to introduce the change to parliament – Harmony Day – and Labor made sure to point that out. The wording change did not get through the senate, but the process changes did thanks to the NXT and other cross benchers.
There is still argy bargy over power and energy in South Australia but the real issue now its the fact that the Hazelwood Mine is closing in April. The sector, the South Australian based NXT, and other groups want a plan for what will happen next. The big plans in SA and the Snowy hydro plan will take a few years to sort out, and there will be a shortfall in energy production on the east coast. The government seems to have committed to putting together a plan after they negotiated with the NXT to get their company tax legislation through the senate.
Pensioners now have the option of changing in-home care service providers if they so wish. The federally funded package has introduced ‘portability’ which allows people to take all their services – help to cook, clean, bathe, etc – and move to another provider if they don’t like the current one. Private companies have become involved, and are now in competition with mainly church-run providers, which the government believes will increase competition.
It’s been discovered that many young people don’t know a lot about their superannuation (no kidding). They are unclear about what super options are out there, what kinds of super plans there are and many don’t know how to check their balances. The study has recommended that, given many young people have several different super plans from different jobs, workers should be given one super fund when they join the workforce and be able to take that super fund with them everywhere they go and not be forced to join their employers’ chosen super fund every time they changed jobs.
Also this fortnight, Cyclone Debbie hit the North Queensland coast causing damage and flooding across Queensland and Northern NSW. Floodwaters are still causing issues in Queensland, but is now receding in New South Wales and the clean-up has begun.
Finally this week, there is still hostility between the Liberal and the Labor parties over the Fair Work Commission decision to cut penalty rates; Li Keqiang, the Chinese Premier, paid a visit to Canberra and Sydney to have talks with PM Turnbull and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian; and Julia Gillard has become the new Chairperson of mental health group Beyond Blue, taking over from former Liberal Premier of Victoria Jeff Kennett.
Tweet of the Fortnight
https://twitter.com/LauraKParr/status/845840154971406336
Things I’ve Been Looking at Online
People share their experiences of racism – ABC Online
Why Older people are scared of a cashless society – ABC Online
Kara L 