THE House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics will hold a public hearing with the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Philip Lowe, on Friday, August 14, via videoconference.

The RBA last appeared before the committee in February 2020.

At its meeting on August 4, the RBA Board decided to maintain the current policy settings, including the targets for the cash rate and the yield on three-year Government bonds of 25 basis points.

Commenting on the decision, the RBA Governor said, "This accommodative approach will be maintained as long as it is required. The Board will not increase the cash rate target until progress is being made towards full employment and it is confident that inflation will be sustainably within the 2–3 percent target band."

The RBA Governor said, "The Australian economy is going through a very difficult period and is experiencing the biggest contraction since the 1930s. As difficult as this is, the downturn is not as severe as earlier expected and a recovery is now underway in most of Australia.

"This recovery is, however, likely to be both uneven and bumpy, with the coronavirus outbreak in Victoria having a major effect on the Victorian economy."

Committee Chair, Tim Wilson MP said,  "The committee will be scrutinising the RBA’s measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are interested in learning more about the RBA’s plans to support a strong recovery for the Australian economy.

"There’s never been a more lively time to discuss monetary policy, with reckless proposals for Modern Monetary Theory floated in the media. This hearing will provide a good opportunity for the RBA to outline the shortcomings of such proposals." Mr Wilson said.

Public hearing details

Date: Friday, 14 August 2020
Time: 9.30am to 12.30pm
Venue: Videoconference

The hearing will be broadcast live at aph.gov.au/live.

ends

THE Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) has signed its first memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a recognised Business Activity Statement (BAS) agent association, the Australian Bookkeepers Association (ABA). 

TPB chair Ian Klug said that a number of other recognised professional associations had expressed interest in similar agreements.

"We are delighted that the ABA is the first recognised professional association for BAS agents to join us in signing this MOU," Mr Klug said. 

"In developing these agreements, we are highlighting our intention to work collaboratively with tax and BAS practitioner associations to promote the integrity of the tax profession."

Mr Klug said that the agreement with the ABA, signed yesterday, will facilitate better information exchange between the two organisations.

"This TPB and ABA MoU will increase our mutual capacity to enhance the integrity of the BAS agent profession, including sharing information and intelligence about BAS agents’ compliance with the tax practitioners Code of Professional Conduct," Mr Klug said.

ABA director, Peter Thorp, said the spirit in which the MOU has been agreed is beneficial for both ABA and the TPB.

"The MoU will lead to greater co-operation, better communication and more streamlined procedural dealings between the ABA and the TPB," Mr Thorp said.

"A closer working relationship like the one envisaged in the MOU can only benefit the bookkeeping profession as a whole."

Mr Klug said the TPB is developing MoUs with other recognised professional associations and will announce more in coming months.

About the Tax Practitioners Board

The Tax Practitioners Board regulates tax practitioners in order to protect consumers. The TPB aims to assure the community that tax practitioners meet appropriate standards of professional and ethical conduct. Twitter @TPB_gov_au, Facebook and LinkedIn

About Australian Bookkeepers Association:

Australian Bookkeepers Association advances the cause of the bookkeeping profession in Australia. It does this in accordance with its Objects that foster education, training representation and professionalism. Twitter @ AustBookkeepers, Facebook and LinkedIn.

ends

A PARLIAMENTARY inquiry into the impact of COVID-19 on Australia’s defence, trade and international relations will hear from the Department of Health.  

Senator David Fawcett, Chair of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, said the department had been at the forefront of Australia’s COVID-19 response.

Senator Fawcett said, “Australians can rightly be proud of the achievements of our health authorities in responding to and managing the COVID-19 pandemic, though of course there is still work to be done. The committee looks forward to hearing from the Department about recent developments in the fight against COVID-19 and the steps we might take as a nation to build our resilience as we emerge from the pandemic.”

Full terms of reference for the inquiry are on the Committee website.

Public hearing details

Date: Thursday 13 August
Time: 3pm – 4.30pm AEST 
Location: By teleconference

The hearings will be audio streamed live at aph.gov.au/live.

ends

A LEGISLATED10-year hold on the rate of royalties applied by the State Government to Queensland's resource commodities will create more jobs and strengthen COVID-19 recovery efforts, according to the Queensland Resources Council.

QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane said maintaining royalty rates – already Australia’s highest - at current levels for the next 10 years sends a clear message to investors around the globe that 'Queensland is open for business'.

"Before COVID-19 hit, the Queensland Government confirmed the royalty rates on coal and metals would remain stable until 2022, and for petroleum until 2025, which the resources industry welcomed," Mr Macfarlane said.

"Given the importance of the resources sector in leading the State in its economic recovery, the QRC welcomes today’s announcement by the LNP that it would legislate a 10-year freeze on royalty rates until 2030, because it’s exactly what Queensland needs right now.

“As the peak representative body for Queensland's explorers and producers of coal, metals and gas and supplier companies, the QRC calls on all members of State Parliament to support the LNP’s proposal to give the industry the confidence to play its part in Queensland’s COVID-19 recovery.”

Mr Macfarlane said the resources industry had been through a period of turmoil and upheaval with Queensland’s royalty regime, to the sector’s detriment.

"We know Queensland’s regulatory uncertainty has already impacted investment decisions for resource projects which operate for decades, and benefit our state economy for even longer,” he said.

“A decade of royalty certainty is the shot in the arm the Queensland economy needs as we unite and recover from COVID-19.”

Mr Macfarlane said as Queensland’s largest export industry, the resources sector was committed to paying its fair share of royalties, and the LNP proposal would lock in that definition of fair for a decade.

“Without new investment, jobs, exports and royalties the Queensland Government will simply not be in a position to finance a COVID-19 recovery,” he said.

“Before COVID-19, the Queensland resources sector employed more than 372,000 Queenslanders and generated $76 billion in economic activity across the State, creating more than $5 billion in government royalty revenue.

“Queensland needs to secure every job and every dollar, if we are to bounce back from COVID-19 as quickly and as strongly as possible,” Mr Macfarlane said.

www.qrc.org.au

ends

THE INQUIRY into food pricing and food security in remote Indigenous communities will hold a public hearing tomorrow.

Julian Leeser MP, Chair of the House of Representatives Indigenous Affairs Committee, said the Committee would hear from stakeholders from Queensland, including the key industry players Community Enterprise Queensland and Sea Swift, and also from Indigenous peak bodies from the Northern Territory and New South Wales.

"The Committee looks forward to gaining further insights into the complexities of the food supply chains and store management in the top-end of Australia, and the experiences of Aboriginal organisations with food pricing and availability," Mr Leeser said.

The hearings will be conducted via telephone and video links due to social distancing requirements relating to COVID-19. Full programs are available at the inquiry website.

Public hearing details

Date: Wednesday 12 August
Time: 9am to 11am; 1pm to 4.40pm
Location: Via conference call

An audio broadcast will be accessible at aph.gov.au/live

ends

THE Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell said a new report by the Grattan Institute makes a clear economic case for affordable childcare.

“Cheaper childcare: a practical plan to boost female workforce participation” estimates an overhaul of the childcare subsidy system would add $11 billion to GDP per year and increase hours works by 13 percent," Ms Carnell said.

In the report, the Grattan Institute recommends the Federal Government invest an extra $5 billion per year on childcare subsidies.

Ms Carnell says affordable childcare is critical to ensuring women can work, including women in small businesses.

“38 percent of small businesses are owned and operated by women and that number has been growing,” Ms Carnell said.

“Many of these women are mothers who rely on childcare as they work to get their businesses back up-and-running again.

“For those surviving on JobKeeper, childcare fees are unaffordable. That means one parent – mothers more often than not – need to spend more time at home. It’s bad for business and even worse for the economy.”

The report refers to the ‘workforce disincentive rate’ which leads many mothers to work three or four day weeks, because working an extra day would offer virtually no take-home pay.

“Now is the time for the government to be implementing innovative ways to increase the female participation rate,” Ms Carnell said.

“The report shows that under the current system, a family with two kids in childcare on $60k FTE - the primary carer gets $2 per hour for day four and nothing for day five.

“There’s no doubt that affordable childcare would allow more women to work on growing their businesses, which would deliver productivity gains," she said.

“While the Grattan Institute recommends an expanded subsidy scheme, the government could also make childcare more tax-effective.

“After all, getting people back into jobs is key to Australia’s economic recovery.”

www.asbfeo.gov.au

A PARLIAMENTARY inquiry into the impact of COVID-19 on Australia’s defence, trade and international relations will hear from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) at its next public hearing.  

Senator David Fawcett, chair of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, said ANSTO is a leading producer and exporter of some of the most important nuclear medicines used in diagnosing and treating cancers, heart disease, and neurological disorders.

Senator Fawcett said, “ANSTO has worked hard to ensure Australians have ongoing access to vital nuclear medicines during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is also doing important work in the processing of rare earth metals, an area that has great potential to enhance Australia’s sovereign capabilities.”

Witnesses from ANSTO will give evidence on their work in nuclear medicine, and their work in international forums like the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as in rare earth mineral processing.

Full terms of reference for the inquiry are on the Committee website.

Public hearing details

Date: Tuesday 11 August
Time: 4:30m – 5.30pm AEST 
Location: By teleconference

The hearings will be audio streamed live at aph.gov.au/live.

ends

THE Federal Court has handed a major legal victory to 10 Australian seafarers who undertook a two-month sit-in to prevent their vessel, the MV Portland, from being replaced by foreign flag-of-convenience ships crewed by exploited workers.

The seafarers and their union, the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), have been in a four-and-a-half year legal battle with the Fair Work Ombudsman, which is seeking fines and damages over allegations the crew’s refusal to leave the vessel constituted unlawful industrial action.

In November 2015, the crew found out from media reports that Alcoa was planning to sack 40 Australian seafarers and sell the MV Portland, which had been carrying alumina from Kwinana in Western Australia to its Portland Aluminium Smelter in Victoria for 27 years.

The 10 seafarers on board refused to sail the vessel to Singapore, where it was to be sold, occupying the vessel for two months before they were forcibly removed by security guards in the dead of night and replaced by a foreign crew.

Federal Court Justice Mordecai Bromberg ruled in favour of the MUA’s argument that a clause in the vessel’s employment agreement that stated it was in place “whilst the vessel operates in the trade” meant it had ceased to apply at the time of the sit-in.

In his judgement, Justice Bromberg said that given the critical nature of this argument to the FWO’s case, it would seem to follow that the substantive proceeding should be dismissed.

MUA assistant national secretary Ian Bray said the decision was a significant win for the seafarers involved.

“For four-and-a-half years, the Fair Work Ombudsman has pursued legal action against the union and our members, refusing numerous attempts to mediate a resolution and instead taking it to trial in the Federal Court,” Mr Bray said.

“The ruling by Justice Bromberg, which confirms the long-argued position of the MUA and our members that the employment agreement ceased to operate once Alcoa announced the MV Portland was being replaced from service, blows a hole in the FWO case.

“This is a significant victory for the 10 brave Australian seafarers who spent two months on board this vessel, without pay, in an effort to defend one of the few remaining Australian-registered vessels trading on our coast.

“After four long years, this not only brings us a step closer to averting fines for our members, it could be a watershed industrial relations decision with significant implications for other workers.”

Mr Bray said the public should hold the Turnbull, Abbott and Morrison governments to account for their role in not only sending these jobs offshore, but then prosecuting the Australian workers who tried to save them.

“Every step of the way, the Federal Government has been supporting the loss of these skilled jobs,” he said.

“They issued the temporary licences required to use foreign flag-of-convenience vessels to undertake this trade around the Australian coast, they granted the visas for the foreign crew who were flown in to replace these seafarers, and they then set their industrial relations attack dog on them.

“Rather than support Australian jobs, we have seen successive Coalition governments continue the decimation of Australia’s maritime supply chains, leaving the nation almost completely dependent on foreign vessels to move essential goods around our coastline.

“The only way multi-national companies like Alcoa have been able to get away with slashing the jobs of Australian seafarers is because the Federal Government continues to support this race to the bottom by issuing temporary licenses to use foreign vessels with exploited crews on coastal shipping routes.

“Four-and-a-half years on, Alcoa is continuing to use flag-of-convenience vessels crewed by seafarers that are paid as little as $2 per hour, all while enjoying multimillion dollar taxpayer-funded subsidies from the Victorian Government.

“Despite happily taking millions from Australian taxpayers, this American multinational refuses to employ a single Australian seafarer on what is clearly a permanent domestic trading route.” 

ends