Australia politics live: Pocock says power bill rebate a ‘Band-Aid’ not a cost-of-living cure; Littleproud says solution is ‘more gas’

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Queensland Premier David Crisafulli is with the PM and has welcomed the agreement, that gives an extra $2.8bn to the state’s public schools to 2034.

Crisafulli says this will bring generational reform, and highlights the challenges Queensland has in its schooling system.

It is a historic agreement… This means a lot to Queensland, and it means a lot because we’ve got some challenges in our schooling systems that other states don’t have. We are the most decentralized state. We’ve got a large portion of rural and regional and Indigenous schools.

He says the agreement was an opportunity “too good to miss”.

The negotiations have been a gradual process between the commonwealth, states and territories.

Albanese got Tasmania and NSW over the line earlier this month, South Australia and Victoria in January, and Queensland was the last state to sign on.

You can read more about that here:

The PM says the agreement signed today with the sunshine state is the biggest investment in public schools in Queensland by the commonwealth ever.

This money is tied to real reforms like evidence based teaching practices, phonics and numeracy, tutoring and more mental health support.

Today’s announcement contributes to an estimated $16.5bn in additional Commonwealth funding to public schools across the nation, from 2025-2026 ahead to 2034. It represents the biggest new investment in public schools by an Australian government ever.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese is holding a press conference, announcing the federal government has now reached a school funding agreement with all states and territories.

Every student, regardless of which school they go to, will receive this funding.

Pocock’s senate crossbench colleague Jacqui Lambie has also supported a gas reserve policy, i.e reserving gas for domestic use before it goes out to the international export market.

And like Pocock, she argues the government should be dealing with the root cause of energy price hikes rather than putting up another energy bill rebate “band-aid” for households.

We need to do something today, not not in 20 years time. Something needs to be done, we need to talk about this gas reserve policy, and I’m sorry about if that hurts political donations, too bad, so sad, it is about what’s best for the nation.

Lambie also says the energy rebates should be means tested, and targeted towards the households that really need them.

People living on or below the poverty line actually need them. What I don’t support is people like me [getting them], because they’re not means tested.

Why am I getting that money, mate? Because, quite frankly, I’d rather my 150 bucks make $300 down to the next person below me that’s feeling it really tough.

Pocock says power bill rebate a ‘Band-Aid’, not a cost-of-living cure

A little earlier, the independent senator David Pocock was on ABC News Breakfast, calling for gas to be diverted to the domestic market to keep energy prices from soaring.

He said there was a “gas export problem” in Australia that was driving up prices, and diverting it would address the predicted domestic shortfall.

We don’t have a gas supply shortage, we have a gas export problem in Australia … I’m calling for uncontracted gas [to be] diverted to the domestic market until that [shortfall] is fully met.

Asked about whether the $150 rebate was appropriate or whether that money should go instead to electrifying households, Pocock said it was “welcome” but described it as a “Band-Aid” solution.

We’re just putting Band-Aids on when we could be dealing with the root cause here. [It’s] 150 bucks versus thousands of dollars of savings if you could help households electrify.

Littleproud claims ‘people are going broke’ and says energy bill solution is ‘more gas’

The s leader, David Littleproud, has followed Katy Gallagher in the RN Breakfast studio.

Asked why the Coalition has also committed to the $150 energy bill rebate when they’ve previously called it a “sugar hit”, Littleproud says it’s because “people are going broke”.

Littleproud says the opposition will bring down energy prices by bringing more gas into the system before their nuclear plants are built and come online.

Our short term solution is more gas, and you can do that in 12 to 18 months. You can get that pressure into the grid. In the medium term, it’s about transitioning into nuclear energy.

Littleproud’s also asked about reports the Coalition would fast-track approvals for energy projects, and how exactly they would do that.

We’re going to make sure that we streamline the bureaucracy to be able to achieve that [fast-tracking] and make sure that we can cut down those times, because that gives investment confidence.

As to how that bureaucracy will be streamlined … well, we might have to wait a bit longer for those details.

Gallagher says size of public sector workforce has not ‘grown out of pace’ with work

Katy Gallagher is continuing her media rounds, speaking to ABC RN Breakfast.

Spruiking her $2bn of savings in the budget, some of it found from reducing the number of consultants in the public sector, she argues the size of the public sector workforce is about right.

I think the public service is roughly the right size. Now, there’s always ons and offs and programs that stop and all that sort of stuff, but the public service as a proportion of population is smaller now than it was in 2006, so there is absolutely no evidence to say that it’s, you know, grown out of pace with the work that it needs to do.

Gallagher is also justifying the extra $150 the government has promised (and Coalition has promised to match) in energy bill subsidies, extending the policy for an extra six months.

She says the government is trying to balance household costs as the country transitions the energy grid.

What we’re trying to do is support households as we rebuild, essentially, the energy electricity grid to make sure it can get more renewables in, because we know that’s the cheapest form of energy. So we are trying to balance, you know, those costs households are getting with the work that needs to be done and the investments that need to be done.

Jane Hume says Coalition would restore ‘fiscal guardrails’ to bring budget back to surplus in medium term

We heard Katy Gallagher this morning and the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, yesterday say “it remains to be seen” when the budget will be returned to surplus.

ABC News Breakfast has lobbed the question over to the shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, who says the Coalition would “restore those fiscal guardrails to try get us back to a structural surplus” over the medium term.

Hume admits that’s not going to be an “easy” thing to do.

We’re now seeing red ink as far as the eye can see. There are deficits now that are baked in to budgets for the next decade.

A Coalition government, a Dutton-led Coalition government will restore those fiscal guardrails to try to get us back to a structural surplus over the medium term. It’s going to take an awful lot of discipline to get us back to where Australians need to be.

What does medium term mean? Typically that’s been around five-ish years in budget speak, but Hume won’t commit to that timeline.

She says they’ll have to see the budget on Tuesday “before making a call like that”.

Clamping down on working from home would affect women most, ACTU president says

The ACTU has released data claiming one in three Australian workers would be affected if the private sector followed Peter Dutton’s work from home policy.

The ACTU president, Michele O’Neil, says clamping down on remote work would be a “productivity killer” and would hurt women the most.

The employment minister, Murray Watt, spoke to Sky News a little earlier and said he had “not seen any evidence” that working from home reduces productivity.

There are many people who can work productively from home. And in fact, it’s very likely that the increase in work from home is one of the reasons that we’ve seen such an increase in the number of women participating in the workforce.

We’re currently at record numbers of women participating in the workforce in Australia. I’d say there’s a fairly good chance that that’s partly due to the work from home increase.

Finance minister faces TV and radio interviews as budget looms tomorrow

The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, is in the hot seat this morning, facing the TV and radio interviews ahead of the budget release tomorrow.

She’s revealed that the government has found an extra $2bn in savings in this budget.

Gallagher tells ABC News Breakfast a chunk of that is from reducing the number of consultants being hired in the public service.

A big chunk of it comes through reducing the reliance on contractors and consultants, which is something that we’ve done in each budget … and that’s a big part of the $2.1 billion. But that is in addition to the savings we’ve found before. So across this Government, we’ve found $95 billion worth of savings, which has allowed us to repair the budget.

Labor is facing a long line of future deficits; asked when the budget will be returned to surplus, Gallagher says:

Well, that remains to be seen … but every budget that we have done, we have found savings. Our approach has been to look at this carefully and methodically and responsibly to find room to pay for things where we can and to find savings where we can, and over time, that will return the budget to balance.

Three-quarters of Australians back total gambling ad ban, survey finds

Three-quarters of Australians support a total ban on gambling advertising to be phased in over three years as recommended by a bipartisan parliamentary review, according to polling of 2,000 people by The Australia Institute.

The survey, which has a 2.2% margin of error, found 87% of respondents supported banning gambling ads during primetime broadcasting hours for family and children.

The federal government is yet to respond to a June 2023 parliamentary inquiry’s recommendation to ban gambling ads due to high levels of community harm. It has faced significant lobbying from sporting codes and broadcasters.

Martin Thomas, the chief executive of the Alliance for Gambling reform, said the survey results should encourage politicians to take tougher policies to the election:

It is clear that the vast majority of Australian voters support a total gambling ad ban, and yet the government has sat on its own parliamentary report that recommends such an action for almost two years now …

With such a powerful move for change highlighted in this polling, it beggars belief that the two major parties are listening more to the gambling lobby and to other vested interests than they are to families across the country who are angry and demanding.

Welcome

Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you for this budget week that many people didn’t think we would get.

We’re about 30 seconds away from the election being called, and you can feel it in the air. The politicians are buzzing around parliament house, there’s $150 on offer for your energy bills (that is not an “election bribe”, says the government), and there are political fundraisers as far as the eye can see.

We’re talking about everything this morning from energy to work from home, and of course the economy, which is facing deficits over the next decade.

So buckle up, it’s going to be a big one!