The hearing follows two days of meetings with stakeholders in regional New South Wales and regional Victoria to explore current employment services and alternative programs and to gain insights from parents, employers and providers outside the major cities.

Committee Chair, Julian Hill MP said, “During this inquiry, we have heard that while many parents have benefited from ParentsNext, these benefits can be overshadowed by the harms created by the punitive nature of the current program. We want to hear from everyone.”

The committee will make recommendations relating to ParentsNext by the end of February 2023, as part of its larger inquiry into Workforce Australia Employment Services.

Information about the inquiry, including terms of reference, future public hearings, published submissions and hearing transcripts, is available on the inquiry website.

Public hearing details

Time              8.30am – 11.45am AEDT (Melbourne Time)
Location        Balmoral Room, Stamford Plaza, 111 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
Witnesses     Brave Foundation
                       National Employment Services Association
                       Jobs Australia
                       Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
                       Department of Social Services                       
                       Services Australia

An audio broadcast of the hearing will be available via the Watch, Read, Listen website.

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LENDING for new homes has his a 10-year low, returning to numbers not seen since 2013, accourding to the Housing Industry Association of Australia (HIA).

“There were only 5,057 loans for the construction or purchase of new homes in November, the weakest month since June 2013,” HIA economist, Tom Devitt said.

The Australian bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the Lending to Households and Businesses data for November 2022 today.

“This reflects the very well broadcast housing downturn, with new housing loans over the 12 months to November 2022 down by 36.2 percent on the preceding year,” Mr Devitt said.

“Investors and owner-occupiers, alike, are retreating from the market.

“This contraction in lending occurred before the RBA increased the cash rate in December and we expect an ongoing decline in lending as the full impact of the increase in interest rates flows through to households.

“There are long lags inherent in this cycle and the full impact of the increase in the cash rate in 2022 will not be observed until late in 2023.

“The RBA has already undertaken the steepest hiking cycle in a generation, and it needs to hold fire on further hikes to give their actions to date time to play out.

“The RBA will not restore the economy to stable growth by putting the building industry through boom-and-bust cycles.

“As building activity slows in 2023, the RBA will be under increasing pressure to reverse course in the second half of this year,” Mr Devitt said.

The number of loans for the construction or purchase of new homes declined in all jurisdictions in November 2022 compared to the same month in 2021, led by the Northern Territory (-58.3 percent), and followed by the Australian Capital Territory (-39.7 percent), Queensland (-30.8 percent), Western Australia (-30.3 percent), South Australia (-29.7 percent), New South Wales (-26.8 percent), Victoria (-15.2 percent) and Tasmania (-7.4 percent).

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AUISTRALIA must stabilise its population below 30 million to stop the growing impacts on climate and biodiversity, as well as preserve quality of life, according to the environment organisation Sustainable Population Australia (SPA).

SPA president, Jenny Goldie was commenting on the latest report from the Centre for Population, the Treasury office which advises the Federal Government on population. That report is due to be released on Friday, January 6.

“The slowing of Australia’s population growth due to the pandemic should have been wholeheartedly welcomed,” Ms Goldie said.

“It is madness for the government and its business backers to restart extreme population growth by going flat-out with even higher levels of Net Overseas Migration (NOM). It’s even higher than we saw before the pandemic when it averaged 226,000.”

Ms Goldie said, "like the October Budget" the new report demanded annual NOM of 235,000. The report expects Australia to grow from its current 26 million to 30 million people by 2032-33.

“The Treasurer, and his media acolytes, like to portray the 235,000 as ‘normal trend’ and ‘nothing to see here’.  It is three times Australia’s historic average. In fact, Canada is the only rich nation in the world with a more aggressive immigration program," Ms Goldie said.

“Even with the new Federal Labor Government policies for emissions reduction, an extra four million people will still add tens of millions of tonnes of extra emissions each year – possibly as much as 80 million tonnes.

“That is not trivial when we are facing a climate crisis. Most of that 80 million tonnes will be new emissions, not a redistribution of emissions around the planet.  That is because the average migrant who comes to Australia is coming from a country with one-quarter as much per capita emissions as Australia,” Ms Goldie said.

“Add to that the impact of population growth on habitat and species loss. The State of the Environment 2021 report released in July 2022 was quite explicit about population growth having ‘high impact’ on biodiversity. 

"For instance, the last remaining habitat of koalas in the Sydney Basin is currently threatened by housing development. Nationally, the Environment Minister is confronted by 140 development applications which, if approved, can only worsen the koala crisis.

“We have already returned to the pre-Covid levels of population growth, of which most Australians believed they had seen the end. The pre-election silence of both major parties on the topic of immigration made clear that each understood more population growth was not what most Australians wanted.

“The people are now entitled to ask why they have been ignored,” Ms Goldie said.

“Why are the impacts of population growth on the two gravest crises we face – climate and biodiversity – being ignored? The Treasurer’s radical population program can only be a negative for real wages and housing affordability. It will erase the Covid low-unemployment windfall.” 

www.population.org.au

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SAFEWORK NSW is now reminding food delivery riders if they do not adhere to the new safety laws that begin today it could prove costly for them.

Acting head of SafeWork, John Tansey said from today all food delivery riders must wear high-visibility personal protective equipment (PPE) and carry their training verification record or risk being fined.

“We made a major step to improve safety for riders on 1 July last year, when it became law for food delivery booking providers to supply their riders with PPE,” Mr Tansey said.

“Today it becomes law for riders to wear the supplied PPE, which is a high visibility vest and food bag and carry a training verification record. Riders found to not be wearing their PPE will be hit with a $144 fine for each offence.

“We now have the strongest safety environment for food delivery platforms and riders anywhere in the world and will continue to work with industry to ensure a culture where people and safety comes first.”

Safework NSW advised that from today all riders:

• Will be legally required to use or wear the PPE that has been provided to them while delivering food or drink.
• Must produce their training record if requested by a SafeWork NSW Inspector or NSW police officer.
• Penalties and fines will apply to platforms and riders who cannot show they have met these requirements.

For further information visit the SafeWork NSW food delivery industry page: https://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/your-industry/transport,-postal-and-warehousing/food-delivery-industry

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