SUBSTANTIAL benefits will flow to a wide range of Australian industries from the implementation of the China Australia Free Trade Agreement, according to the just released Treaties Committee report.

China’s burgeoning middle class and ageing population both present significant potential for Australian businesses and industry. Producers will be able to capitalise on Australia’s reputation for premium quality, clean, green food and their proximity to one of the largest markets in the world, according to the report.  

Committee Chair, Mr Angus Taylor MP said it’s essential that ChAFTA is implemented quickly to help businesses and industry catch up.

“Australia is currently at a disadvantage as some of our major competitors, including New Zealand and Chile, gain ground in the expanding Chinese market,” he said.

Regarding the controversial issues involving Australia’s immigration framework for temporary workers, the report found that current safeguards are adequate, providing that the government organisations responsible for ensuring compliance are sufficiently resourced. The committee’s recommendations focus on ensuring that the relevant departments have the necessary funding to police compliance.

Ongoing concerns with non-tariff barriers were also confirmed, including sanitary and phytosanitary regulations. The committee has recommended that the Department of Agriculture be provided with the resources necessary to enable effective progress in removing these barriers.

Further recommendations target the need to provide information to business and industry about free trade agreements generally and better equip them to take full advantage of the opportunities available.

“We are well aware that only 19 per cent of Australian exporters make use of Australia’s existing free trade agreements. To achieve the promised economic growth, more steps must be taken to increase uptake,” Mr Taylor said.

The committee also released its report into the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The AIIB is being set up to address the expected multi-trillion dollar shortfall for infrastructure spending across Asia in coming years. New infrastructure will drive economic growth and jobs, providing opportunities for Australian trade and business.

Both reports are available on the committee’s website: http://www.aph.gov.au/jsct

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THE Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) has relaunched its digital hub with a fresh new look and expanded content; a terrific resource for IPA members, the accounting profession and the general public.

The pubacct.org.au site incorporates the IPA’s journal, Public Accountant and so much more.

The hub features past and present articles from the IPA’s journal, new and timely articles of interest, up-to-the minute news and updates from the IPA, videos, polls, expert advice, opinion pieces and regular blogs.

The hub is fully integrated with the IPA’s social media channels through which readers can access and share articles and commentary and is accessible on all devices: desktop, tablet and mobile.

“We thought it timely to do a refresh and deliver a more dynamic communication avenue for members and others,” said IPA chief executive officer, Andrew Conway.

“While our journal is highly valued by our members, we want to provide an ease of access medium with new and current content.

“Our objective is for the IPA to be a world leader in accountancy and SME thought leadership and our digital hub paves the way for truly meaningful, and at times provocative, dialogue on the big issues.

“The accounting world is constantly changing and our hub provides a dynamic way for IPA members, their clients, colleagues and others to interact,” said Mr Conway.

www.publicaccountants.org.au

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The Public Works Committee will hold a public hearing in Canberra tomorrow to examine an Airservices Australia proposal to refurbish air traffic control towers.

The hearing is part of the committee’s inquiry into proposed Brisbane and Cairns Control Tower Life Extensions. If approved, the works will see the facilities upgraded in preparation for the roll out of new technologies.

Airservices Australia said the towers are more than 20 years-old and largely original. Modernisation will ensure the towers have the capability to meet a forecast 60 per cent increase in aviation traffic across Australia’s air space by 2030.

The estimated cost of the project is $23.9 million (excluding GST). Construction work on the Cairns tower is scheduled to commence in early 2016 and to be completed by the end of the same year. Work on the Brisbane tower will start in late 2016 and is expected to be completed by mid-2017.

The Committee Chair, Senator Dean Smith, said the committee is looking forward to considering the works in more detail.

Public Hearing Venue: Committee Room 1R6, Parliament House, Canberra
Date: Friday, 16 October 2015
Time: 10.00am to 11.00am

The hearing will also be webcast at www.aph.gov.au/live.
Full details on the project are available on the committee’s website: www.aph.gov.au/pwc

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THE resource industry’s employer group, AMMA, has congratulated the Federal Government and the Senate on the passage of important amendments to workplace relations laws, including reforms that will help secure new resource industry projects and bring more jobs and investment to this country.

“Crossbench Senators have shown they are willing to help tackle fundamental problems with our workplace relations legislation,” says AMMA executive director Scott Barklamb.

“Employers will now have a mechanism to progress new project agreements when bargaining with trade unions stalls, while also ensuring employees are not disadvantaged.”

Analysis from KPMG (commissioned by AMMA) found the Fair Work Act’s greenfields agreement system “has resulted in costs and delays to major projects in Australia in recent years”.

Mr Barklamb said, "Today’s amendments will provide a safety valve, allowing the Fair Work Commission to approve an employer’s proposed agreement if a deal cannot be reached. Presently, such agreements remain in limbo or the employer is forced to concede to exorbitant union demands just to get the work underway.

"AMMA continues to have concerns at the test for such agreements; that they meet or exceed ‘prevailing industry standards’. The impact and validity of this requirement will be tested as Australia competes for future investment within tightened global markets.

“We also welcome the Senate voting to close a loophole in the bargaining system that allows unions to take strike action before genuine bargaining has commenced,” Mr Barklamb said.

“This will finally see an end to the ridiculous ‘strike-first, talk later’ bargaining tactics of some unions.

“The resource industry is however very disappointed that other important reforms did not pass, including removing the artificially inflated rights the previous government gifted unions to enter workplaces, greater individual flexibility, and clarification on when annual leave loading is payable when leaving employment.”

AMMA said it looked forward to the successful passage of the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014 creating "a more positive and constructive environment for further workplace reform".

www.amma.org.au

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“Australia is increasingly confronting a collision between the approaches imposed by the Rudd-Gillard government in 2009 and the realities of doing business and keeping people in work in 2015,” Mr Barklamb says.

“Today’s amendments must be the first step in overhauling the Fair Work Act, to better support the interests of employers and employees, and the wider Australian community.

“The resource industry welcomes this progress as a demonstration that the Senate is capable of meeting this challenge when it engages with how our workplace relations laws actually operate in practice and sees through deliberate misinformation and scare campaigns.”

THE administration of the Early Years Quality Fund (EYQF) will be the focus of a public hearing tomorrow by Parliament’s Joint Public Accounts Committee.

The committee will hear from representatives of United Voice and Good Start Early Learning.

Committee Chair, Dr Andrew Southcott MP, said that a number of issues raised in the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report on the EYQF required further public scrutiny.

“The ANAO noted that the level of funding available under the EYQF, which was estimated to only cover around 30 per cent of all long day care workers, meant the program would most likely be oversubscribed. Indeed, the $300 million funding cap was reached less than 13 hours after the application process commenced.

“The report concluded that the design of the EYQF policy contained inherent risks and it was foreseeable that these risks—particularly the funding constraints, the first-in first served approach and the short timeframes—would affect access to the program and its ultimate success. The committee will be interested to hear the views of the union and Australia’s largest day care provider on the findings of the ANAO report," Dr Southcott said.

The EYQF was established in July 2013 to provide grants to long day care providers in order to supplement wage increases for childcare workers for a period of two years. The EYQF was ceased in late 2013 and replaced with an alternative program.

The ANAO’s findings and recommendations are set out in Report No. 23 (2014-15), Administration of the Early Years Quality Fund.

Public hearing date: Thursday, 15 October 2015
Venue: Committee Room 2R1, Parliament House, Canberra
Program
10.45am United Voice
11.30am Good Start Early Learning (via teleconference)
12.15pm Close

Further information about the committee’s inquiry, including the program for the hearing, can be accessed from the committee’s website at www.aph.gov.au/jcpaa. The hearing will also be streamed live at http://www.aph.gov.au/News_and_Events/Watch_Parliament.

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WHETHER the Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) provides economic benefit through remittances will be investigated today, when the Joint Standing Committee on Migration holds a public hearing as part of its inquiry into the Programme.

Committee Chair, Louise Markus said the SWP provides potential economic and development benefits to seasonal workers, their families and communities.

“Remittances from the Seasonal Worker Programme have provided increased income to seasonal workers and their families which have led to investments in individual household needs and education as well as local community health and water access projects,” she said.

The committee will hear from the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program of the Australian National University as it examines:

• how the SWP supports development in the Pacific;
• the role of seasonal workers in the horticulture industry;
• whether the SWP should be expanded to include other countries and sectors;
• how the SWP affects Australian jobs;
• increasing access for overseas women and youth workers; and
• issues with attracting seasonal workers, including the granting of visas.

Public hearing details:
Date: Wednesday, 14 October 2015
Time: 9.50 am
Location: Committee room 1R4, Parliament House, Canberra.

The hearing will be audio webcast live on: www.aph.gov.au/live
Members of the public are welcome to attend. For a program and more details, visit the committee’s website: http://www.aph.gov.au/mig

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AUSTRALIAN shipbuilder Austal will discuss how its high speed ferries and navy ships are making inroads into Middle Eastern markets with federal parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade at a public hearing in Canberra on October 14.

The Trade sub-committee’s inquiry into trade with the Middle East will hear from Austal about the potential of Australia’s manufacturing sector to find new export opportunities in a region with a population of more than 350 million.

Austal is a global defence prime contractor, designer, and manufacturer of defence and commercial ships. For more than 25 years, Austal has been a leader in the design, construction, and maintenance of mostly high performance aluminium ships for governments, navies and ferry operators around the world.

Defence vessels designed and built by Austal include the Littoral Combat Ship for the United States Navy, and military high-speed vessels for transport and humanitarian relief, such as the Joint High Speed Vessel for the US Navy and the High Speed Support Vessel for the Royal Navy of Oman.

Austal opened its regional representative office in the United Arab Emirates in 2010, and has also been delivering maintenance and repair services to government-owned aluminium high speed vessels in the Sultanate of Oman since 2009.

Offshore industries are another growth opportunity in the Middle East as high speed vessels can move more personnel and stores out to oil and natural gas platforms than helicopters at less cost. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company ordered two 45m high speed ferries in 2014 for this purpose.

Public hearing
Date/Time: Wednesday 14 October 2015, 11:05 am
Location: Committee Room 1R3, Parliament House, Canberra
Organisation: Austal

Live audio broadcast will be available at www.aph.gov.au/live

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MARS Petcare will give evidence about the opportunities for milkfish aquaculture to supply product to the pet food industry when it appears before the Northern Australia Committee in Canberra on Tuesday, 13 October.

The public hearing is part of the committee’s inquiry into opportunities to expand the aquaculture industry in Northern Australia.

Committee Chair, the Hon Warren Entsch MP, said: ‘Milkfish is a non-carnivorous fish which has been grown in Asia for hundreds of years in a variety of aquaculture systems. As a tropical fish suited for pond aquaculture, milkfish production in Northern Australia could provide the pet food industry with an important high quality ingredient.’

Large scale milkfish aquaculture is undertaken in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Milkfish is an important ingredient in cat food.

Where: Committee Room 2R2, Parliament House, Canberra
When: Tuesday, 13 October 2015, 6.15 pm–6.55 pm

Hearing programs are available at: www.aph.gov.au/jscna

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