Senator Kim Carr

Another Liberal backflip will see fewer jobs from Australia’s $50 billion Future Submarine Program going to Australian workers.

The Liberals’ promise that 90 per cent of the submarine build will happen in Australia has been contradicted at a Senate hearing this week.

Labor welcomes the release of Grow. Make. Prosper; The Decadal Plan for Australian Agriculture.

The report is the work of the Australian Academy of Science’s National Committee for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

As the report points out, it is time to put a greater emphasis on the importance of better communication and collaboration of science, R&D, big data analysis and innovation in the agriculture sector.  

Labor welcomes KordaMentha’s announcement today that Newlake Alliance and JB Asset Management with support from the POSCO company has been named as the preferred bidder in the sale process of steel maker Arrium.

The Administrators will move to finalise the sale contract pending approval by the Foreign Investment Review Board.

During Senate Estimates today Chief Scientist Alan Finkel has once again highlighted that an Emissions Intensity Scheme (EIS) is the way to reach our commitments under the Paris Agreements:

"The commitment that we've made is for a 26 to 28 per cent reduction by 2030 of emissions on a 2005 baseline. Now you can get to that by having a system that involves a certain level of renewable generation. You can get to that by having a system that controls the emissions intensity if you know what the demand will be.

Immigration Senate Estimates has seen nothing but buck passing and denial from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection in response to industry led concerns about the Turnbull Government’s recent 457 policy announcement.

The Turnbull Government is all over the place on temporary skilled migration and is already walking away from their 457 “crackdown” and looking to add jobs to the skilled migration visa list as part of a review.

The Government claims they consulted with the Ministerial Advisory Council for Skilled Migration (MASCM) but this has been disputed by a member of that committee who later resigned over the lack on consultation.

Responses from the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources about the New Plant Biosecurity Partnership will be alarming to our plant industries.

Senator Carr asked a very simple question to the department about what will happen to plant biosecurity once the Plant Biosecurity CRC comes to a close and this is what the Senate Estimates committee was told:

The Turnbull Government is gearing up to “cut and run” on regional Australia by preparing to ditch a program supposed to support the spread of job creating innovation incubators in our regions.

This year’s Budget saw the handbrake pulled on a $23 million program to help fund the set-up of regional based incubators.

During the program pause the Opposition believes the Turnbull Government will be thinking of ways to deliver a future funding cut, robbing regional Australia.

Malcolm Turnbull has once again left Australian shipbuilders in the lurch.

The Turnbull Government is refusing to guarantee no more workers in the industry will lose their jobs, because they can’t. 

The Liberals’ Budget has produced a manufacturing fund that does very little for Australian auto workers or manufacturers more broadly.

What the Liberals announced is no more than an uncoordinated grab-bag of measures, none of which are actually geared towards helping auto workers find new jobs.

Today’s announcement demonstrates that the Abbott/Turnbull Government’s response to the closure of Holden and Toyota was always manifestly inadequate. 

While new funding to assist automotive firms transition is welcome, today’s announcement shows just how late the Liberals are, coming to the table for automotive firms with the impending closures of Holden and Toyota less than 5 months away.