From 38m agoKey events35m agoLabor skills initiative to target building more agile economy38m agoGood morningFilters BETAKey events (2)Jim Chalmers (4)1m ago19.23 EDT
Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt says Australia ‘is “much better prepared for this coming season” than the country was heading into the Black Summer bushfires.
He says the government has implemented “almost all of the recommendations of the bushfire Royal Commission”.
They include establishing one coordinated national emergency management agency, rather than two separate organisations under two separate ministers which existed before. We will actually have more aircraft available for firefighting than we ever have had in this country, including one extra large water bombing aircraft and plenty more helicopters than we’ve had before, and I know that the states have done everything they can when it comes to hazard reduction, given the incredibly wet circumstances we’ve been in over the last couple of years.
9m ago19.14 EDTPaul Karp
Government confident Covid inquiry will be “broad and comprehensive”
Chalmers also defended the scope of the Commonwealth’s covid-19 inquiry, which has been criticised for excluding “unilateral” actions of the states and territories.
Asked if the inquiry should look at border closures, Chalmers acknowledged the issues were “contentious” and there wasn’t a “unanimous view about the best way forward”.
He said:
“But I’m really confident that the review that we have set up will be broad and comprehensive and it will take into consideration all of those Commonwealth responsibilities. We focused on the Commonwealth responsibilities because we’re a government that takes responsibility for the things that are in our wheelhouse. And that’s what the review is largely about.
But also and this goes directly to your question, you know, there is nothing preventing the states and territories participating in this review, We’ve said that now for some time for some days, since the review was announced, there’s nothing preventing those issues being considered.
But our primary focus here is on Commonwealth responsibilities, learning the lessons from the past so that we can do things better in the future in anticipation, that that won’t be the last pandemic or the last crisis that we go through as a country.”
18m ago19.05 EDT
Employment white paper to feature nine new policies
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has revealed there will be nine new policies in Monday’s employment white paper – including the national skills passport announced this morning.
Chalmers told Sky News:
The emphasis is on action. Something like 70 policies, already implemented, another 80 or so underway but will sketch out 31 future reform directions as well. And as part of all of that there will be nine new policies.
So some analysis, but an emphasis on action and what the employment white paper is all about is a more dynamic and more…
2023-09-23 18:14:44
Link from www.theguardian.com
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