88.9 FM Tamworth
Monday, 12 February 2024
Jimmy Booth (Host)
Well, Tim Ayres talks about what was very much a happy week in Parliament, I think you might say we also talk about the anti-renewables rally.
Senator Ayres
This was a very good week of Parliament, I was really pleased to see that Albanese government introduced our cost-of-living relief measure, tax relief, which will deliver tax cuts for every single Australian taxpayer. It's a good package delivered at the right time for the right reasons.
Jimmy Booth
It seems to be fairly popular with the public even though there's of course the allegation of a broken promise.
Senator Ayres
Well, Peter Dutton wants to play politics. With this, Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers have made the right decision at the right time for the right reasons. It's there to deliver cost of living relief for Australian taxpayers, it means taxpayers who are in middle Australia, nurses and teachers and tradies will get tax relief that they would not have got before under Scott Morrison's five year old proposal, it means 1000s of dollars extra a year for ordinary taxpayers.
Jimmy Booth
And starting from the first of July of this year.
Senator Ayres
This tax package will be delivered in full on one July, I'm very confident that it will now pass the parliament. It has been interesting to watch the liberals who said they would fight it every inch of the way, then they said they would oppose it. Now they've said they'll support it, there was some confusion about whether they would try and roll it back if they won government, they've had a very confusing position. In the end, they've been forced to support it because it's the right package for Australia.
Jimmy Booth
Also, the IR laws and people being contacted outside of hours, it looks like that's going ahead.
Senator Ayres
These are big reforms for Australian workplaces. It means that the casual workers who've been pushed to the back of the queue for far too long, now have got stronger rights. As you know, casuals might have casual pay, but mortgage payments, rent payments, the bills, they aren't casual. And this means that the casuals will have stronger rights. It's also about time to re-weight, the framework in favor of looking after people who are not paid for 24 hours a day but are responding to calls and emails 24 hours a day. And I think this will be a welcome relief to give those workers more rights.
Jimmy Booth
Also, there were a number of people from this district who traveled down to the anti renewables rally last Monday. We are told that nobody from the government addressed them but no doubt you would have heard the message with the people out the front.
Senator Ayres
Well, it was a small rally outside of the parliament last week. We're focused on talking to farmers and farming communities in the regions in which they live, cleaning up the mess of the framework that was introduced by the last government, the Morrison and Turnbull and Abbott Governments. And the independent report that Chris Bowen has commissioned has identified weaknesses in the previous Morrison government's consultation framework for transmission lines and for renewable energy projects. And we're going to keep consulting with farming communities about those issues and make sure that the balance is right. Every economic development in the regions comes with challenges and needs to be consulted through properly whether it's a coal mine, a wind farm, a transmission line, or a new industrial area. They all bring jobs, opportunity. Lower prices are good for workers and good for consumers. But we need to make sure that we get the balance right in terms of consultation and the other environmental issues that sit around these projects.
Jimmy Booth
One of the things that some of the people were calling for was a Senate inquiry. You sit in the Senate; do you think that's possible?
Senator Ayres
There is so much consultation going on at the moment, particularly in rural and regional communities being led by Chris Bowen as the responsible Minister, I want to focus on what it is that ordinary people are saying in the regions in which they live to inform the government's approach to reform and delivering this important national project.
