THE National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) have warned of serious risks to freedom of expression stemming from a code of conduct adopted by the Bendigo Writers Festival.

The festival issued a code of conduct to participants in La Trobe University-sponsored events directing them to “avoid language or topics that could be considered inflammatory, divisive, or disrespectful”.

It also mandated adherence to La Trobe’s Anti-Racism Plan, which adopts the Universities Australia definition of antisemitism. 

More than 50 writers, academics and hosts including NTEU and MEAA members withdrew from the festival over the code. 

“It’s especially galling that La Trobe University management has used its role as a sponsor of the festival to stifle academic freedom and freedom of expression – the very principles universities are built on," NTEU national president Alison Barnes said.

“This is exactly why the NTEU strongly argued against Universities Australia’s definition of antisemitism – it risks conflating uncomfortable criticism of government policies with discrimination.

“The NTEU will always unequivocally oppose all forms of racism and discrimination including antisemitism and Islamophobia," Dr Barnes said.

MEAA acting chief executive Adam Portelli said, “MEAA supports creative and media workers' right to freedom of expression, even when uncomfortable or inconvenient. In fact, it is in the very nature of artistic expression to be disruptive.

“These workers deserve the freedom to express opinions without fear of being silenced or censored," he said.

“This can be done while ensuring an environment free from discrimination and vilification.”

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“It’s not a choice between the economy and nature; you can have both or you can have neither,” ACF CEO Kelly O’Shanassy, who will attend the roundtable session on Better regulation and approvals said.

“The Great Barrier Reef, which supports 64,000 jobs and injects around $6.4 billion a year into the economy, is in serious strife because of repeated coral bleaching from hotter oceans.

“The Murray-Darling Basin, which supports more than 30% of Australia’s food production, is in a dire state, with some ecologists describing the ecosystem as on the brink of collapse," O’Shanassy said.

“Faster decisions are crucial, as is stronger nature protection. Australia’s failed national nature law facilitates neither. 

“The national nature law contains a series of convoluted processes with no defined outcomes or transparent institutions – a recipe for slow, unpredictable decisions and ecological and economic decline. 

“Three elements of environmental law reform are essential to faster decisions and stronger nature protection. 

“National environment standards are needed to define the rules on nature protection and guide project proponents on where they can build and where nature needs to be protected because of high conservation value habitat," Ms O’Shanassy said.

“An independent national EPA is needed to administer the standards through making assessment and approval decisions, ensure compliance and enforcement and oversee any accredited arrangements that allow for further efficiencies.

“Better coordination across federal, state and territory governments is needed, but the simplistic idea of handing over Commonwealth responsibilities to State and Territory governments for ‘single touch approvals’ won’t work," she said.

“Research by ACF shows roughly half Australia’s GDP (49% or $896 billion) has a moderate to very high direct dependence on nature. Speeding up decisions without boosting nature protection will simply accelerate extinction and put the brakes on our economy and jobs.”

www.acf.org.au

Read ACF’s submission to the Economic Reform Roundtable.

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WITH the Albanese Government’s Economic Reform Roundtable kicking off today, Weld Australia is calling out the false promise of deregulation.

According to Weld Australia, the Productivity Commission’s push to 'slash red tape' completely misdiagnoses Australia’s productivity challenge.

"The problem is not standards," a Weld Australia spokesman said. "It is non-compliance and weak enforcement. Regulations like the National Construction Code (NCC) and Australian Standards exist to protect people, property and the environment and underpin economic resilience".

Geoff Crittenden, CEO of Weld Australia, said,  “What the Productivity Commission calls ‘red tape’ are the very rules that keep people alive and our major infrastructure and assets safe and standing.

“Let’s be honest about what’s in the firing line: the National Construction Code, building codes, and Australian Standards. These are not there to stifle growth or productivity. They exist to protect people, property and the environment. Deregulation is not reform. It’s negligence.

“If anyone thinks safety standards are ‘excessive’, ask the family of the worker who fell through a roof and never came home. Ask the parents of a young apprentice who died in a confined space. Ask the owners staring at cracking walls in non-compliant apartments, or households whose homes burned to the ground because a cheap battery exploded.

"Ask the state governments forced to rebuild infrastructure at more than double the initial construction price because it wasn’t built to Australian Standards in the first place,” Mr Crittenden said.

“Removing regulations and standards boosts margins and profits for corner-cutters. It doesn’t build a safer, more productive nation; it builds risk.

“Australia’s problem is not too many rules. It is too little compliance; too little enforcement of the rules. In construction particularly, too many players only worry about standards if they get caught. Compliance and enforcement are chronically under-resourced. Against that reality, calls to ‘slash red tape’ are not only laughable, they reveal a complete misunderstanding of what is going on in this country.

“If we want to go the American way — weak compliance, big profits for a few, and catastrophic failures for the rest — keep talking deregulation,” Mr Crittenden said. “If we want a productive, modern economy, look to the countries that actually top the global productivity tables. Some of europe’s most productive economies like Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands, are also among the most regulated. They don’t cut standards to grow. They enforce standards to grow.

“Talk of freezing the NCC or watering down Australian Standards is dangerously naïve. The right response is enforcement: certify fabricators against recognised standards, inspect before steel is erected, and hold everyone to the same rules, including overseas suppliers. That’s how you lift quality, extend asset life and truly improve productivity.”

Weld Australia said Australia has already been paying the price of weak compliance. Recent cases include a Brisbane rail footbridge installed despite 1,150 welding non-conformances; a major recreation centre roof collapse during construction; and a flood of low-quality imported heat-pump water heaters in the absence of a clear performance standard. These are not isolated incidents. They are systemic red flags that shorten design life and push unplanned costs onto governments and communities.

Weld Australia’s is calling on the Economic Reform Roundtable to:

1. Enforce a level playing field for all fabricated steel: Mandate and enforce that all fabricated steel erected in Australia complies with AS/NZS ISO 3834, whether fabricated locally or overseas. This is the minimum to ensure quality and safety without disadvantaging Australian fabricators.
2. Adopt a harmonised procurement framework that bakes in compliance: Incorporate the South Australian ST-SS-S1 model into the NCC and state government specifications (including clause 7.7 for overseas fabrication) so that inspection and competence requirements are clear before steel is erected.
3. Establish a National Fabrication Authority: Create an independent, not-for-profit body to certify Australian and overseas companies to the same standards and to inspect fabricated steel before installation, mirroring Canada’s successful approach via the Canadian Welding Bureau. This can be implemented without new legislation by aligning State Government technical regulations.
4. Measure what matters: whole-of-life cost and economic resilience: Shift procurement and policy settings from lowest-price wins to asset life, maintenance burden and safety outcomes. That is how productivity genuinely improves.

“Standards enable safe innovation, consistent quality and predictable markets. The choice is not growth or safety. It is growth through safety and compliance. Where Australia is falling down is not the rule book. It is the absence of a capable, independent system to check and enforce the rules before failure occurs,” Mr Crittenden said.

“Australia needs courage and conviction to enforce regulations and Australian Standards. If the round table delivers one thing this week, let it be a commitment to compliance: one set of rules for everyone, verified independently, with safety and whole-of-life value front and centre.”

Weld Australia represents the welding profession in Australia. Its members are made up of individual welding professionals and companies of all sizes. Weld Australia members are involved almost every facet of Australian industry and make a significant contribution to the nation’s economy.

The primary goal of Weld Australia is to ensure that the Australian welding industry remains locally and globally competitive, both now and into the future. Weld Australia is the Australian representative member of the International Institute of Welding (IIW).

https://weldaustralia.com.au/

THE Economic Reform Roundtable must be open to meaningful reform that lifts living standards for those falling behind and makes Australia a better place, according to Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) CEO Cassandra Goldie.

“This roundtable is an historic opportunity to make Australia a fairer, better country, both for people and for the planet,” Dr Goldie said.

“We must move beyond sectoral interests and build consensus around solutions to lift the living standards of our community, especially those with the least. 

“Discussions about productivity cannot be separated from discussions about the kind of society we want to live in. Many members of our community have experienced an unprecedented fall in their living standards – and they need meaningful reform.

“We are hopeful that everyone in the room will bring ambition, along with a spirit of collaboration and curiosity, to the discussion over the coming days. We cannot afford to waste this opportunity.”

ACOSS has proposed a range of policy options to strengthen social services, support the community sector to innovate, streamline social security and broaden the income tax base by removing opportunities for people with high incomes to avoid tax via private trusts and property tax concessions.

ACOSS is also calling for reforms that improve employment opportunities, especially root and branch reform of a failing employment services system and boost access to social housing. ACOSS will also urge strong climate targets and investment to deliver faster benefits to households, reducing energy prices and consumption. 

“We must better prepare and train people for jobs and support people on low and modest incomes to secure affordable, accessible and energy efficient housing,” Dr Goldie said.

www.acoss.org.au

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