This week's Australian political news
National Cabinet sets course for re-opening
All states and territories, except Western Australia, have agreed in-principle to a national re-opening of borders within Australia by Christmas as the nation recovers from Covid-19. National Cabinet last week secured agreement to provide a framework for re-opening, guided by a common criteria on health systems. It will be informed by the Federal Government’s recent national review of hotel quarantine and ongoing work on digital contact tracing and public health systems.
Education Minister cautious on international enrolments
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan has acknowledged it was too early to ascertain how many international students would be able to study in Australia next year, with South Australia and Northern Territory the first jurisdictions poised to welcome international students in November. A further One issue was the Government’s priority on allowing Australians to return before Christmas. Mr Tehan said Australia was able to accommodate more than 80 per cent of its foreign students this year, but it was too difficult to estimate when students could return next year to key markets in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
New Bill to insert national security test for investment
Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar this week introduced legislation into Parliament to insert a new national security test and other compliance powers into Australia’s foreign investment framework. Under the legislation, investments could be ‘called in’ for review if they raised foreign investment concerns. The Federal Treasurer would also be equipped with a last resort power to review actions if exceptional circumstances arose, and to impose conditions or issue a disposal order where there were no other remedies for the identified national security risk.
Inflation resumes in September quarter
Australia’s Consumer Price Index has risen 1.6 per cent in the September quarter, lifting prospects for an economic rebound. The CPI increase follows a 1.9 per cent fall in the level of inflation for the June quarter, as the economy struggled during the early months of Covid-19 restrictions. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the price of furnishings, household equipment and services jumped 12 per cent in the quarter as people continued to work from home. A resumption of child care fees in July, after a period of free child care, contributed 0.9 per cent to the rise in inflation. For the year to September 2020, the annual rate of inflation rose 0.7 per cent.
RBA talks up recovery
Rising demand for consumer items have lent weight to the views of Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor Guy Debelle that the nation was emerging from economic recession. Appearing before the Senate Estimates committee, Dr Debelle said he believed there was positive growth around Australia in the September quarter, with the drag of economic restrictions in Victoria a little less than expected. Australia recorded two quarters of registered negative growth in the March and June quarters, recording its first recession for almost 30 years.
Feds ease access to defence industry grants
The Federal Government will ease the contribution thresholds for small and medium-sized business to access defence industry grant programs. Current 50:50 co-contribution levels will be amended, with new applicants for capability improvement grants or defence global competitiveness grants needing to fund only 20 per cent of the value of their eligible project; new applicants for a sovereign industrial capability project grant will only be required to fund 30 per cent of their eligible project. Maximum values for the three grants will also increase, including the maximum value for the sovereign industrial category rising from $1 million to $1.4 million.