Australia news live: Victoria to axe thousands of public sector jobs; Dreyfus says opposition MPs apologised over antisemitism debate tactics
Victorian government announces review into public sector
Benita Kolovos
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, and state treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, are holding a press conference to announce a review into the public sector.
Allan said the review will be led by Helen Silver and will focus on “waste, inefficiency and duplication”.
This independent review is ensuring a laser-focus on every dollar of expenditure in the Victorian government’s budget, like households are focusing on every dollar that they spend, so too is the Victorian government.
The premier repeatedly said the review will not affect frontline services. She said her government will continue to invest in and support “frontline services” – such as teachers, nurses, police, crime and child protection.
Symes, who became treasurer in late December, said she has formed the view the budget “really needs a refresh”.
This is about ensuring that our frontline services are protected, the critical services of government that Victorians rely on are supported and promoted, whilst identifying duplication, inefficiencies, overlap, and indeed, maybe some of those programs that have been around for say 20 years, that are just not meeting the needs of the Victorian community.
Key events
Palmer argues ‘Australians do want Trump policies’ and says 10k have signed up for rebranded party
Billionaire Clive Palmer was up on the Today Show earlier, after yesterday launching a rebranded Trumpet of Patriots party to contest the upcoming election.
This came a week after he lost a high court bid to re-register the United Australia party (UAP) ahead of the poll.
Palmer said that preferences would be decided by the party, and that 10,000 new members had joined up yesterday. He said:
Australians do want policies of Donald Trump, common sense policies, and I think you’ll see a big change. We don’t plan on having our preferences distributed. We plan to win seats.
You can read analysis on Palmer’s new political venture from Dan Jervis-Bardy below:
Up to $2bn in support flagged for Whyalla in support package ahead of announcement
AAP is reporting that as much as $2bn in funding will be poured into the Whyalla steelworks as part of a rescue package, in a bid to save thousands of jobs.
As we flagged earlier, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, will visit the city today and announce a support package, one day after the crisis-hit GFG Alliance was ousted and the steelworks was placed into administration.
The Advertiser splashed on its front page today that taxpayers would “bail out Whyalla to the tune of more than $2bn”.
Minns hopes to ‘lower the rhetoric’ as negotiations continue with rail unions
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has been speaking with reporters this morning, after the Fair Work Commission ordered rail union work stoppages be suspended until 1 July.
He said this was an “important decision” that “gives us all an opportunity to land a deal”, and moving forward the state government would look at “lowering the rhetoric”.
It was very important for the NSW government and myself to explain to the travelling public why we were in the [Fair Work] Commission, why we had rejected the union’s demands and why we needed relief from the commission.
But now the job of lowering the rhetoric, getting around the table and landing a deal is hugely important. And I’m not going to, because there’s no need at the moment to be, offering a running commentary about negotiations.
Ultimately, when the deal is done, we’ll present it to the people of NSW. But … I think the government’s earned the right to say that the public should have confidence that we will protect the taxpayer and the travelling public in any negotiations.
Paterson downplays likelihood of Australian troops being deployed to Ukraine
James Paterson was also asked about those comments from Donald Trump, who escalated his attacks on Volodymyr Zelenskyy and called the Ukrainian president “a dictator”.
Paterson said it wasn’t his place to comment on US foreign policy, but on what Australia should be doing, he said:
We have a very strong interest in Ukraine’s successful defence. The principles that Ukraine and its allies are fighting for are ones we share … I think we should continue to stand with Ukraine, and support President Zelenskyy.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott suggested on Sky News that Australia should join with the UK and other like-minded nations in developing some sort of coalition to protect the freedom of Ukraine.
Paterson said he wasn’t aware of any formal request from the government on a proposal like that, and the most direct means for Australia to support Ukraine was through “military aid and assistance”.
We’re a long way away from Ukraine and we have our own neighbourhood which is troubled. I don’t think the deployment of Australian troops is on the cards.
Shadow home affairs minister suggests ‘shortlist of obvious candidates’ behind plot to harm Australian activist
The shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, was up on ABC News Breakfast earlier, responding to Asio boss Mike Burgess’s annual threat assessment speech last night.
He described it as a “very sobering and bleak assessment” by Burgess, noting many Australians would be “startled this morning” by news at least three countries have plotted to harm Australians abroad and on home soil.
Paterson said it wasn’t “his place” to “disclose something that the Asio has not, which is the nation states behind it”, but said “there is a shortlist of obvious candidates”.
I assure you the specific targets in these instances will be aware they were the targets, they would have been debriefed by Asio and the federal police as part of the investigation and would have been warned to take steps to protect themselves.
He said that “targeted diaspora communities have an understanding of what’s happening to them too”.
It’s a question about foreign policy, really, whether you openly disclose which nation states are involved in this … It’s a very serious disclosure, can’t be made lightly and must be done with the support of government.
Two men charged after prominent Jewish leader’s former home targeted last month
Two men have been charged after a prominent Jewish leader had his former home in Sydney vandalised, with four cars damaged and two set alight, and one graffitied with the words “Fuck Jews”.
The Dover Heights home once owned by Alex Ryvchin – the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry – was splashed with red paint on 17 January.
Yesterday, NSW police said detectives yesterday arrested and charged a man with accessory before the fact to damaging the property.
The 37-year-old man, and a 33-year-old man, have also been charged with accessory before the fact to damaging property in company, and participating in a criminal group, after five vehicles and two houses were vandalised with offensive graffiti on 11 January in Queens Park.
Detectives yesterday arrested the men at a correctional facility, where they were taken to Riverstone police station and charged. The men have been remanded in custody to appear in Downing Centre local court on 3 April.
Andrew Messenger
Brisbane bus drivers strike for two hours
Brisbane’s bus drivers have walked off the job for two hours this morning, as a result of a dispute over pay.
The action took place from about 4am until 6am and only affected routes in the Brisbane city council bus system, not other councils in south-east Queensland. Council estimated that about 436 routes would be affected earlier this week.
The lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, told 4BC radio that about 80% of bus journeys went ahead this morning despite the industrial action.
The vast majority [of buses] turned up, and the people of Brisbane appreciate that.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union hopes for a pay rise of about 4.5%, compared with a council offer of 3.5%, in the first year and 3.75% and 3.25% in the second. Schrinner said:
This has to be paid for by ratepayers so we have to be responsible. We’ll keep talking, we’ll do that in good faith.
Benita Kolovos
Scope of review into Victorian public sector
Here’s the scope of Helen Silver’s review into the Victorian public sector, via the government’s media release:
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Identify overlaps, inefficiencies, functions and programs within the VPS that can be streamlined or eliminated.
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Provide recommendations to improve processes, and make sure all VPS departments and programs work efficiently provide recommendations to reduce the VPS back towards its pre-pandemic share of employment – including an examination of the appropriate levels of executives.
Benita Kolovos
Symes hopes to accept ‘all’ recommendations from review to address budget problems
Jaclyn Symes said she would receive interim recommendations in April, to be reflected in her first budget in May. A final report will be delivered to government by the end of June.
Pre-empting any of the questions, I will make that report public.
Integrity agencies will not be included in the review, nor the department that runs the parliament. But ministerial offices will be examined.
Symes said she has also prepared for some pushback from stakeholders, and “some of these decisions will be difficult.”
There will be stakeholders that are attracted to programs that have existed for some time. It is up to government to look at those recommendations and really determine whether they are in the best interests of Victorian families in a cost of living crisis.
I do not shy away [from the fact] that some of those will be difficult and some people won’t like some of the recommendations, and therefore, as I said, there’ll be hard decisions for government to make. But I’m determined that this work can’t be for nothing.
The recommendations will come to government and I want to be in a position to accept all if I can … because it’s needed to address the budget recurrent problem that we have. I haven’t shied away from that. This is what the purpose of the review is all about.
Benita Kolovos
Up to 3,000 public sector jobs will be cut, Victorian treasurer says
Jacinta Allan and Jaclyn Symes have been taking questions, with Symes confirming about 5-6% of jobs will be cut in the public sector.
What we have asked Helen [Silver] to look at is resizing the [Victorian public service] to the share of employment that existed pre-pandemic … That’s a funky way of saying on the raw figures, between 2,000 to 3,000 VPS jobs would be expected to go.
I have also had additional conversations with the [Community and Public Sector Union] in relation to any of the ramifications of those decisions. But again, this is a process of collaboration, discussion. There will be some difficult decisions to make, but they are important decisions.
