Australian Politics
Wednesday, December 13, 2023
New Qld premier chosen by a deal between unions
No voice for individual party members? Democracy? Leftist authoritarianism at work again. Elite rule is instinctive to them
A secretive industrial deal between two unions over government-funded infrastructure projects has installed Steven Miles as Queensland’s next Labor premier.
Just days after Annastacia Palaszczuk resigned, union powerbrokers were quick to stitch up a factional agreement that would secure Mr Miles’s accession to the top job and avoid a drawn out battle that would have followed a contest for the leadership.
Treasurer Cameron Dick and his 18-member Right faction threw their support behind Mr Miles after the deal was struck late on Monday night, cruelling chances of Health Minister Shannon Fentiman who declared her plans to run for the leadership just hours earlier.
Multiple sources briefed on the negotiations said the agreement between United Workers’ Union boss Gary Bullock and Australian Workers Union leader Stacey Schinnerl was centred on the government’s Best Practice Industry Conditions Policy, which forces unions and contractors to negotiate agreements on government-funded civil construction projects worth more than $100m.
Ms Schinnerl had been unsuccessfully lobbying the government for months, anxious the policy gave the militant construction union the CFMEU and its members an advantage in civil construction and road-building projects. Both unions have been battling for industrial coverage on the lucrative taxpayer-funded projects, which traditionally fell into the AWU’s jurisdiction.
Ms Schinnerl finally had the upper-hand when Mr Bullock had to rely on the Right faction as kingmaker to give Mr Miles the numbers in caucus.
According to sources briefed on the negotiations, Mr Bullock offered to relinquish the Left’s hold on the transport and main roads portfolio – currently held by controversy-prone Left minister Mark Bailey – to the Right.
Along with that, there were concessions to the AWU on the BPIC policy that would sideline the factionally unaligned CFMEU and potentially other non-UWU Left unions which had fallen behind Ms Fentiman, including her own AMWU, as well as the ETU.
An AWU spokesman said the union supported best-practice industry conditions for workers engaged in the civil construction industry, and “we have been constructively engaging with multiple government departments for years to get the best possible outcome for our members”.
“It’s time for our party to stick together and focus on winning the next election – the stakes are too high for working people for our movement to be divided,” the spokesman said.
The Australian has been told the deal was done before Mr Dick – who has always pushed back against union influence over the parliamentary Labor Party – was in the room. He was saddled with it, and then had to take it to a two-hour telephone hook-up of his Right faction MPs last night.
A deep reshuffle of cabinet is expected later this week, with Mark Bailey, Annastacia Palaszczuk and Stirling Hinchliffe to depart from the ministry, along with potentially more, including Craig Crawford and Mark Furner.
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Jacinta Nampijinpa Price's brutal Christmas message for Anthony Albanese - as she calls on Aussies to celebrate Australia Day
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has hit out Anthony Albanese's government and called for a cancelled Australia Day event in Britain to be reinstated as she called for Australians to be 'proud' of their national day again.
During an interview with 2GB's Mark Levy, Senator Price urged Anthony Albanese to reverse the decision made by the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Stephen Smith, to cancel the annual Australia Day Gala.
Mr Smith cancelled the Australia Day Gala black-tie, run by the not-for-profit Australia Day Foundation to fund scholarships for Australians to study in Britain, citing the 'sensitivities' the event touches on 'for some Australians'.
Price said the move by Mr Smith, the former Labor MP who was hand-picked to the plum diplomatic posting by the Prime Minister, was 'unAustralian' and 'uncalled for'.
'I would like to understand where Mr Smith thinks he can make this determination all by himself. Who gave him permission to do so?' she asked.
Senator Price argued the result of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum showed that 'Australians are sick of being put down'.
'I think it is a put down to put an end to any celebrations of Australia Day,' she said.
She called on Australians to celebrate Australia Day next year.
'I think we have to get back to being proud of what it means to be Australian in this lucky country and appreciate what we do have.
'I think the Prime Minister should be overturning those (Mr Smith's) actions because they are uncalled for and unAustralian.'
She also accused Voice advocates of failing to come to terms with the real meaning of the measure's defeat at the October 14 referendum, which saw over 60 per cent of voters reject it.
On Monday UNSW Professor of Law Megan Davis argued the Voice lost because of Australians' 'hatred of politicians' who were 'too front and centre' of the Yes campaign.
Senator Price said this response 'demonstrated just how of touch' Yes advocates with everyday Australians who voted down the Voice 'because they didn't want Australia to be divided along the lines of race'.
'Every day Australians were sick of being called racist of being told they were on the wrong side of history if they voted no,' she said.
'They said yes to a united Australia where we recognise each and every one of us as Australian citizens equal, regardless of race gender or any other label.
'It’s just a pity there are still some supporters of the Voice who can’t come to terms with that.'
Senator Price also hit out at energy minister Chris Bowen, who began a speech at the Cop28 climate talks in Dubai with a modified Acknowledgment of Country, which normally is used to honour Aboriginal traditional owners.
'It has lost any meaning now if you are going to other parts of the world and suddenly this pops up in your address.'
As the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians Senator Price was scathing about her government counterpart Linda Burney.
Senator Price said Ms Burney, as Minister for Indigenous Australians, appeared 'lost for any ideas on how to move forward' other than going back 'for more discussions' with Voice advocates.
'It is time for action no more talk and if you don’t have many ideas than you are probably not the right person for the job, Senator Price said calling for an audit of how tax payer money is spent on Indigenous issues.
Senator Price was asked if she would consider running for Prime Minister but laughed off the suggestion.
'I need to sit back and get to know the job a little bit more,' she said seemingly about her own portfolio,' Senator Price said.
'It’s been a huge 18 months and there is a lot of work that has to be done but I am very grateful for all the support out there.'
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The universities set to lose millions of dollars in international student crackdown
Universities and private colleges considered at high risk of recruiting international students to Australia to work rather than study stand to lose tens of millions of dollars in revenue under the government’s new migration strategy.
Victoria University and Federation University in Victoria and Wollongong and Newcastle universities in NSW are among those whose ability to easily recruit international students is in jeopardy, according to confidential independent ratings seen by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Meanwhile, the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia, which represents hundreds of private colleges, described the new migration strategy as “reckless” and said Australia’s broken visa processing system was to blame – not students.
“There is a real risk that it will diminish Australia’s reputation as a high-quality [educator of] international students,” ITECA chief executive Troy Williams said on Tuesday.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles on Monday released the federal government’s migration strategy, which plans to halve immigration numbers within two years. Australia’s net migration reached a high of 510,000 in the year to June 2023.
The strategy is designed to weed out people using the student visa system as a back door to the job market, aiming to cut new arrivals by targeting universities and colleges considered the highest risk of accepting students coming to Australia to work rather than study.
A new process to be introduced before the end of the year by the Department of Home Affairs will result in swift processing of student visa applications only for low-risk providers.
A spokesman for O’Neil said it had been put in place to protect the integrity and quality of Australia’s international education sector. “If providers are doing the wrong thing, they will face slower processing times,” he said.
The strategy will leave Australia’s most established and richest universities such as the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney largely untouched, while other universities and private colleges with a track record of recruiting non-genuine students will be targeted.
“Higher risk providers will experience slower processing times as visa decision makers consider the integrity of a provider, as well as individual student applicants,” the strategy said.
A table of university risk ratings produced by a firm working in international education based on confidential Home Affairs data – seen by this masthead – placed Victoria’s Federation University as the riskiest university for students entering Australia to work rather than study.
Universities with the best record are ranked tier one. Federation University was the only institution rated at the worst level, tier three.
A Federation University spokeswoman said it had been “disproportionately impacted by a sharp increase in visa refusals from India by the Department of Home Affairs earlier this year, which has now been addressed”.
“We are confident that following ongoing consultation with the Department of Home Affairs that we will return to a tier two rating for 2024,” she said.
Private colleges with higher risk ratings will also have their student numbers cut by the strategy.
ITECA said in a statement that the new migration strategy was “highly problematic, based on broad and often inaccurate generalisations about quality [in private colleges], and data from a broken visa processing system”.
“The language in the migration strategy is reckless,” Williams said. He warned of a potential “massive overcorrection” that would hurt the entire international skills training sector.
Visa grant rates had already begun to fall in recent months amid controversy over visa rorting, students moving to lower-cost courses, ghost colleges that act as shopfronts for so-called students to access the jobs market, corrupt agents and the exploitation of students.
Among the measures to be put in place to reduce student numbers are a tougher English language test and a new “genuine student test” – although it is unclear how this will differ from the existing “genuine temporary entrant” statement that prospective students must complete now.
The strategy also stops international students who enrol at an Australian university from dropping out of that course after six months and switching to a cheaper vocational college.
And it winds back the post-study work rights available to tens of thousands of students, with temporary student visas available at present for stays of up to eight years.
Students who are working in Australia on a “temporary graduate visa” will also be blocked from staying in the country for years more by enrolling in a new course once their graduate visa ends.
Not everyone in the sector believes the new strategy will slash international student numbers.
Associate Professor Peter Hurley, a director of the Mitchell Institute policy research group within Victoria University, said it was unlikely the new migration strategy would drastically change things.
“There are 860,000 international students and their families now in the country,” he said. “The students I think the government is targeting in this migration strategy are those in private colleges, along with those who have finished their course [and who have post-study work rights].”
Hurley said the migration strategy would simply cut back the growth of student numbers, rather than actively reducing them.
“This is the story of international migration policy over the past two decades: we have a big boom, we change the settings so numbers fall a little, and then the increase starts again,” he said.
Hurley said that England and Canada were also reining in their growth in post-study work rights because “post-pandemic, student numbers just exploded in those countries as well”.
He said Australia’s growth in international students, though, had been remarkable since the emergency phase of the pandemic had ended. “In two years, we have added about 450,000 people to the population – about the same population as Canberra – as international students returned to Australia.”
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Livestock, aquaculture industries raise alarm amid illegal fishing surge off WA
Rubbish, abandoned campsites and reported sightings of illegal fishers off Western Australia's north coast have sparked concerns that serious animal diseases could slip into the state's $3-billion livestock industry.
Fishers working in remote waters off the Kimberley say illegal Indonesian fishers are regularly landing on the Australian mainland, harvesting sea cucumbers with trawl nets and leaving litter on beaches and the sea floor.
An Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) spokeswoman said the authority had recorded 211 foreign fishing vessels intercepted in WA waters since the beginning of the year, but many fishers who regularly work off the northern coast believe the number of arrivals could be much higher.
Vansittart Bay sea cucumber fisher Corrie Mcintosh said he was regularly finding noodle packets and water bottles with Indonesian writing strewn on the usually pristine beaches.
He said the amount of rubbish he was finding was increasing and led him to believe many fishers had regular contact with the Australian mainland.
"A lot of it is very new, and some of it is disintegrated — the effort has been widespread for quite a while out there," Mr Mcintosh said. "It's pretty daunting knowing that they can get in and land on Australia undetected.
"It's almost laughable now — it's been going on for a while, there's been reports put in. "Without pointing the finger, it's like it's fallen on deaf ears."
In April, 11 Indonesian fishers were rescued from the Rowley Shoals off the Kimberley coast after Cyclone Ilsa destroyed their boat. They were shipwrecked for six days without food or water.
AFMA said at the time it would not attempt to prosecute the men for illegally entering Australian waters.
Last month, 12 people were found in a remote part of WA after travelling by boat from Indonesia. It is not known at this stage if they were fishers or asylum seekers, but without proper controls both groups could pose a biosecurity threat.
On his most recent fishing trip to Vansittart Bay, Mr Mcintosh saw an illegal fishing crew. "Where they were fishing they were touching the mainland, they were working on the mainland," he said.
Mr Mcintosh and his crew followed the boat and were able to see dragnets that they suspected were used to catch sea cucumbers.
"There's lots of reports of a number of boats in one fishing operation, up to four or five boats fishing the mainland, walking the mud flats, camping and living ashore," he said.
"It's a lot more than we are hearing about. "[Border Force] are doing the best they can now that they're there. "There's probably not been enough resources thrown at this issue."
It is not just those involved in aquaculture who are concerned about the impacts of unregulated fishers.
The Kimberley Pilbara Cattlemen's Association (KPCA) said the biosecurity risk illegal fishers posed was cause for concern.
"We're very concerned particularly with the nearness of both foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and lumpy skin disease (LSD) in our near-neighbours," chief executive Bron Christensen said.
FMD is extremely contagious in livestock and can be carried on footwear and clothing, as well as in food.
LSD is spread primarily via biting insects.
Indonesia is responding to widespread outbreaks of both diseases and an outbreak of either could cost Australia billions.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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