Tag: Australian Labor Party

The Story: Scott Morrison, the prime minister of Australia, denied on Monday, April 25 charges that, if re-elected next month, his government will make cuts...

What does the enthusiasm from top Democrats about the strike, and others like it, say about the party’s relationship to unions right now? But labor’s in a position now to make them prove exactly how serious they are about that support, and I think that’s why we’re seeing what looks like a surge of enthusiasm from this year’s crop of candidates. Ed: Well, there’s a supply as well as a demand side to this phenomenon: all these candidates pursuing a fixed quantity of labor resources and endorsements. But is that renewed attention simply a result of the party’s leftward drift, or is it because labor has actually gotten more powerful too? Members have told me that their fellow workers didn’t need a lot of convincing to stay in their unions after Janus. Unions promise workers a way to better their conditions. Ben: You wrote that unions may take a while, perhaps a long while, to endorse a Democratic candidate. I’d say the other front-runners to be the labor candidate are Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris, who’s really working hard to position herself as a pro-teacher candidate. Ed: That’s especially interesting insofar as AFT is a union whose membership skews pretty heavily female. Sarah: There might be an interesting gender divide within the labor movement this year.

Here is a look at some of the big questions and issues looming in WA politics in 2019. The key question remains who would take over if Dr Nahan were toppled. Probably the Labor Government's biggest headache in 2018 was the state's prison system, highlighted by chaotic scenes in the Mid-West when 10 prisoners escaped amid a riot that caused millions of dollars' worth of damage. The Government will be hoping increased public sector construction work and an improvement of the mining sector get that number trending in the right direction in 2019. In terms of leadership chatter, the Liberals will undoubtedly draw the most attention, but there has been some speculation about the future of Mia Davies in the top job for the Nationals. The more stable trend unemployment figure falls from 5.2 to a six-and-half-year low of 5.1 per cent The widely watched seasonally adjusted unemployment number rose from 5 to 5.1 per cent The ABS says 37,100 jobs were created in November, but they were dominated by part-time positions Despite the better-than-expected addition of 37,100 jobs to the economy in November (most economists had been tipping around 20,000), the unemployment rate edged up to 5.1 per cent due to an increase in the proportion of the population in work or looking for it, known as the participation rate, which rose to 65.7 per cent. ACT and NSW have lowest jobless rates, WA highest The ACT had the nation's lowest jobless rate at 3.4 per cent (in trend terms), which is not unusual given that many of its residents move there for work and leave when that work finishes. "There hasn't been a lower jobless rate in that time," Mr James wrote in a note. Mr James said the jobs market remained in "strong shape", with the more stable trend unemployment rate easing from 5.2 to 5.1 per cent. More people than ever are looking for jobs and finding work."

Former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill is to quit state parliament, bringing an end to his 16-year political career. Mr Weatherill told parliament on Thursday it had been a privilege to serve as an MP, minister and premier. He thanked a wide range of people, from Labor Party branch members, his office staff, parliamentary officials to public servants and paid a special tribute to his family. "I don't know how, frankly, you can be sustained in a leadership role in politics without the love and affection of a family," Mr Weatherill said. "It's tough, it's really tough. You need family or friends or some other support system to allow you to get through things." Mr Weatherill said when he took over as premier, South Australia was hit by three significant shocks, the mothballing of the Olympic Dam mine expansion, the aftermath of the global financial crisis and the loss of car maker Holden. "We really fought back from that and decided to tackle these challenges," he said. The former premier said he was also proud of the achievements the government made during his time as leader, including its infrastructure programs, its efforts to increase the use of renewable energy, and its role in securing the frigate and submarine construction programs. Mr Weatherill entered the parliament in 2002 and served as SA's 45th premier from October 2011 until Labor's election loss in March this year.

Many solar incentive programs were uncapped, and their costs blew out as the price of PV systems dropped rapidly. Read more: Households to get $2000 subsidy for batteries under Shorten energy policy More recently, my colleagues and I have lamented the Victorian government’s return to the bad old days of solar subsidies. Yet most households will be financially better off installing solar even without this subsidy. Batteries are better able to help cut the cost of the entire energy system and so don’t just benefit the people who install them – they also benefit electricity consumers more generally. While solar has historically reduced peak demand to some degree, the Australian Energy Market Operator considers that this effect is reducing as solar has pushed peak demand later in the day. In a perfect world, households would have enough private incentive to install batteries when they benefit the entire system. If households faced higher electricity prices at times of peak demand, they would be rewarded for reducing system-wide costs by installing batteries. These so-called “virtual power plants” allow the controller to reduce a household’s draw on the grid at peak times, thus reducing costs for both the household and the system. Federal Labor should increase the benefits of its policy by mandating that people who receive a subsidy participate in such a scheme, and by targeting installations to areas where the network most needs support. And its cost is capped, which reduces the risk of the sort of cost blowouts that have plagued solar subsidy schemes.

Mr Mundine is reportedly considering a tilt at the marginal NSW seat of Gilmore, which will not be recontested by Liberal Ann Sudmalis at the federal election. "When he couldn't get a seat in the Labor Party, he's looking elsewhere. I guess that's his democratic right," Mr Shorten told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday. Mr Mundine was Labor's national president between 2006 and 2007 but has been a strident critic of the party in recent years. Pressed on why he turned his back on Labor, he said "loyalty cuts both ways". "I gave my life to the Labor Party, I worked very hard for the Labor Party, and I've stood up for the Labor Party for many years," Mr Mundine said. "The issue here is if you want to contribute to society and want to contribute to the political space and a political party says 'no' to you on several occasions, then loyalty goes both ways." Mr Shorten said Labor's candidate for Gilmore Fiona Phillips would fight on local issues, rather than personalities. "She doesn't want a seat in parliament because she thinks that's her right, that she's owed a seat," the opposition leader said. Ms Sudmalis announced her decision to quit in September, launching an extraordinary spray at NSW state MP Gareth Ward for running a campaign against her, an accusation he denied.

There’s a reason why the cohort of voters colloquially known as “Howard’s battlers” have a semi-mythical status in contemporary Australian politics. This group of working and lower-middle class Australians had traditionally voted Labor, but for much of Howard’s reign they kept the plain-talking and mostly uninspiring PM in office. Labor will repeal tax cuts for companies earning $10m-$50m Read more Howard had little of the charisma or gravitas of his previous prime ministers, but he was a canny political operator who knew how to connect with the majority of voters who made up working class and middle Australia. It’s also why his opponent is trying to use the very same group to bring the PM down. Even before Labor’s deputy leader Tanya Plibersek mentioned in an interview last week that the term “aspiration” was a mystery to her, Malcolm Turnbull and his ministers had been accusing Labor of denying workers the motivational benefits of personal income tax cuts and trumpeting that only the Coalition understood the aspirations of such everyday Australians. “Stick with me if you want to get ahead”, the PM was essentially promising voters. The opposition couches its approach in terms of equity and fairness rather than resentment. But the effect is the same The difficulty for Malcolm Turnbull is that aspiration ain’t what it used to be. Longman byelection: will One Nation decide who wins? Read more Of course Longman is also the tightest of the five byelection contests, with the seat being extremely marginal after Labor snatched it with the help of One Nation preferences in 2016.

That’s right, it is budget reply day, where Bill Shorten will lay out Labor’s economic plan. We’ll be back with that, and everything else that happens tomorrow bright and early, so make sure you get your rest. For anyone who missed it, we are heading to a super Saturday of byelections, probably on 16 June, where Labor will fight to keep Perth, Fremantle (where the Greens may pose a threat) Braddon and Longman (which will be the big contest) and the Liberals will attempt to wrestle Mayo from Centre Alliance. The campaigning has begun. The budget seems like it was delivered a lifetime ago. No doubt we will be back on it tomorrow though. Won’t that be exciting? I know I can’t wait. A big thank you to Mike Bowers, for dragging my carcass through the day, and to the Guardian brains trust. As always, a big thank you to you for reading, and for sticking through our technical difficulties.

Photo:(ABC News: Matt Roberts) Scott Morrison's third budget will be described in many ways in the next few weeks. But the best way of describing what it is, and what drives it, is as a reflection of the transformation of Australian politics since the Coalition returned to power in 2013. And gone is the hangover of the global financial crisis in the budget's figures. This is a budget that is almost wholly and solely about tax — or more accurately, tax cuts. No-one sees it as a budget of profound tax reform. Mr Morrison was making lots of noise on Tuesday night about returning the budget to surplus and about how net debt is peaking in 2017-18. But any substantive improvements are still a long way away, in some cases close to a decade away. After that, it falls away over the next three years. But there is no great ambition attached to this — just the impact of the economy on reducing proportional spending. And it leaves room for the Government to make further decisions between now and the election if Labor seeks to outplay it in terms of election promises.

Federal Labor Member for Perth Tim Hammond has announced he is resigning from Parliament, triggering a by-election in one of Western Australia's highest-profile seats, saying he cannot be a federal politician and a good father to his three children under six. Tim Hammond says he is leaving federal politics to spend more time at home Voters in the seat of Perth will now face a by-election before the next federal poll It is believed WA Labor state secretary Patrick Gorman could be a candidate Mr Hammond, 43, said the toll the job was taking on his family was too great. "It wasn't working in relation to how present I needed to be at home, as a dad to three wonderful little children. The six-month-old was an unexpected but wonderful blessing that wasn't on the cards when I was elected two years ago. By-election to test Labor's popularity in WA Mr Hammond confirmed that his resignation would take effect in the near future, meaning the voters of Perth would face a by-election before the next federal poll scheduled for 2019. "After two years of travel and a lot of time spent on the opposite side of the country, Tim has decided to put his family first," Mr Shorten said. His WA colleague, Member for Burt Matt Keogh, said the fly-in fly-out (FIFO) lifestyle of MPs from WA was very hard on families. Hammond 'probably not interested' in state politics WA Premier Mark McGowan described Mr Hammond's decision as brave but understandable. Mr McGowan said federal MPs often had to spend long periods away from their families. But Mr McGowan indicated Mr Hammond had not sought to move into state politics.