Category: Economy

MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Adjournment Motion on Enhancing the Well-Being of Women – A Gendered Informed Response to Menopause

Source: Asia Pacific Region 2 – Singapore

SPEECH BY MDM RAHAYU MAHZAM, MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND MINISTRY OF DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT AND INFORMATION, ON RESPONSE TO ADJOURNMENT MOTION ON “ENHANCING THE WELL-BEING OF WOMEN: A GENDERED INFORMED RESPONSE TO MENOPAUSE” ON 16 OCTOBER 2024

1. Sir, Assoc Prof Razwana spoke about enhancing the well-being of women going through perimenopause or menopause, and gave suggestions that the Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Ministry of Education (MOE) could consider to better support women through this critical phase in their lives. I thank her for her speech and suggestions. I agree with many of the points raised by Assoc Prof Razwana. She shared about the health impact of menopause on women and how we can address this impact with training of healthcare providers, research into contributing factors and management, public education and social support. I will now address her points in my speech.

Health Impact of Menopause on Women

2. Every woman’s experience during menopause is different. Some may experience significant impact to their health and well-being, beyond the more common symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats, and insomnia. For example, cardiovascular health may be affected. This is because as the protective effects of oestrogen on the heart diminish, this can potentially lead to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. Changes in metabolism during menopause can also result in weight gain, particularly around the abdomen, which may increase the risk of diabetes and other metabolic disorders. Assoc Prof Razwana also highlighted that women undergoing menopause can experience changes in mood, which can impact their mental well-being.

3. It is important to note that while these health impacts are of concern, they can be managed. Regular check-ups, a healthy lifestyle, including exercise, eating well, and finding ways to relax can help. Simple things like using moisturisers for dryness and choosing appropriate clothing to manage hot flushes can also make a difference. For significant symptoms impacting quality of life, women should see their doctor to explore suitable interventions to manage the impact on both physical and mental health.

The role of training and research for the healthcare system

4. We agree that educating our medical students and medical practitioners on menopause is important, and we have been doing so. In our three local medical schools, knowledge of symptoms, diagnosis and management of menstrual disorders, including menopause, is one of the core learning outcomes for the medical students. Postgraduate family medicine programmes such as the Family Medicine residency programme and the Graduate Diploma in Family Medicine include training on common women’s health conditions, including menopause, in the curriculum. Professional bodies such as the College of Family Physicians Singapore also run skills courses on a variety of topics relevant to primary care practice.

5. These efforts enable our primary care doctors to be a source of support to women in managing the health issues that may arise during this life transition. Under Healthier SG, the relationship between the primary care doctor and enrolee is central. Women who are experiencing menopausal symptoms can inform their primary care doctor, who would be well-placed to assess the symptoms, the patient’s needs and make recommendations on further management. The member also mentioned KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) and the KK Menopause Centre. This multi-specialty practice comprising gynaecology, family medicine, dermatology and mental health specialists, has been trained to support a range of needs of women with menopausal-related health issues. Mental health services are also available in various care settings to identify women who may be experiencing psychological symptoms and provide interventions when required.

6. Research into menopause would provide more insight into how it affects women’s overall health and well-being, and enable better ways to manage menopause symptoms and its impact. The National University Hospital currently conducts the Integrated Women’s Health Programme (IWHP) which is a cohort study looking at health issues experienced by Singaporean women. Issues studied include the associations between menopause and age-related health issues such as osteoporosis and sleep disturbances. The research team plans to conduct follow-up studies, and we look forward to further insights that the IWHP and other researchers can provide on women’s health in general, as well as menopause specifically.

Empowering women through better support and awareness

7. Women should not feel ashamed, misunderstood or embarrassed to speak openly about menopause. As a society, we should work to remove the stigma surrounding menopause, and we are already taking steps to educate the public. Reliable information on menopause can be found on HealthHub and the websites of our public healthcare institutions (PHIs). KKH has also launched the Women In all Stages Empowered (WISE) Health Guide, which highlights important health advice for women, including advice on menopause. Education about menopause is important to help women understand what to expect and how to manage the changes to their body. We will continue to empower women to approach menopause with confidence and make informed decisions about their health and well-being.

8. To truly enhance women’s well-being during menopause, we must address not only the physical symptoms but also the psychological and social impacts. This includes combating stigma, promoting open dialogue, and ensuring that women have access to accurate information and supportive resources. Civil society and community organisations are well-placed to participate in this effort. They can play a critical role in providing support for women, and creating platforms for the public in general, to discuss and better understand issues surrounding menopause. MOH is supportive of such efforts.

9. In addition, many women who are going through menopause are concurrently taking on caregiving responsibilities. We support caregivers to balance caregiving while pursuing their aspirations and caring for their own health. We are enhancing options to make childcare and eldercare more accessible, affordable and available, for example, by scaling up childcare and eldercare capacity, and providing multiple layers of financial support. These, in tandem with other moves to support women at work, will support women to better balance their responsibilities and their own health and well-being.

Educating the young and supporting women in the workforce

10. Assoc Prof Razwana also spoke about suggestions for MOE and MOM, touching on educating people about menopause in schools, and workplace policies that better support women with menopause.

11. In MOE’s Sexuality Education and Science curriculum, students learn about menstrual health in women. Primary 5 students learn about the physiological changes that occur during puberty, such as menstruation. Students are also educated on human reproduction and issues related to menstrual health in Lower Secondary Science and Upper Secondary Biology. In Upper Secondary Biology, students will also learn about changes to the menstrual cycle as a female ages, leading to menopause.

12. On workplace policies, women who experience severe menopausal symptoms can already seek subsidised medical treatment at PHIs, and take sick leave to rest and recover, just like any other medical need. There have been calls for menopause leave or reproductive leave in other countries. Most recently in the UK, the Government rejected a call by the Women and Equalities Committee to conduct a trial of menopause leave last year. Like the UK, our preferred approach is to support women to remain in the workforce and be well-supported at work. Introducing specific menopause leave may inadvertently negatively impact the employability of women in this age group rather than helping them, which we should be careful to avoid.

13. In addition, flexible work arrangements (FWAs) can help employees with other medical conditions to balance the care needs for their condition with work responsibilities, including women experiencing perimenopause or menopause. The upcoming Tripartite Guidelines on FWA Requests, which will take effect on 1 December this year, aim to cultivate a norm where employees feel it is acceptable to request for and use FWAs. We encourage employers to use these Guidelines to engage their employees in conversations and find mutually beneficial arrangements.

14. The government will continue to work with Tripartite Partners to foster supportive workplaces so that all employees can participate fully at work while managing their own personal needs such as family responsibilities and medical conditions.

Conclusion

15. In conclusion, supporting women through menopause is not just a medical issue, it is also about awareness and empowerment. The Government is committed to building a society where all Singaporeans have full and equal opportunities to flourish and achieve their aspirations. Civil society and community organisations have an important part to play as well. Together, by providing education and support, we hope to take a whole of society approach to enable women to navigate this transition with confidence, maintaining their well-being and full participation in all aspects of life.

16. Thank you.

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Australia: Joint press conference, Bendigo

Source: Australian Treasurer

LISA CHESTERS:

It’s also an important milestone in Bendigo here, particularly in this particular precinct to officially open the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic and I’m so proud to have the Treasurer of Australia, a good friend of mine, Jim Chalmers here to do that official opening. I acknowledge also too all of our amazing health professionals that are here, our doctors, our nurses, our administrators, people who do bookings, we’ve got [indistinct] here. Thank you very much for joining us the CEO of Bendigo Health, the Primary Healthcare Network they’ve also joined us here today. And I know that we are having a press conference in the middle of what is a very busy day here at Bendigo Primary Care. Thank you for hosting us.

This has been a long time coming for us here in Bendigo. As I was telling the Treasurer, it was the former Treasurer, Wayne Swan, who actually funded the initial funding for this building to be built. It was built under the former Labor government’s GP Super Clinic funding model and the idea back then, and I’m telling the former federal Member for Bendigo’s story Steve Gibbons, and [indistinct] who also served on the board for a while with the Primary Healthcare Network. The vision was for always for this to be a Medicare‑funded Urgent Care Clinic. The ability to do that after‑hours care, the ability to bulk bill where it wasn’t about your credit card, it was about your Medicare card, making sure that everybody in our postcode could have access to that primary care that they needed after‑hours.

So, it took us a long time to get here. There was a period when we were in Opposition where we had funding cuts to Medicare, it made it very hard for doctors to bulk bill and very hard for clinics to stay open. But the investment that we’ve seen in Medicare has really turned that around and has brought us to where we are today. So, it’s a proud moment for us in Bendigo. It’s a proud moment for our health precinct, but it’s a really proud moment for us in federal Labor. We’re committed to Medicare and we’re reinvesting and strengthening Medicare each and every day, which is why I’m really proud to introduce the Treasurer of Australia here to officially open the Medicare Urgent Care part of this clinic. So welcome back to Bendigo, Jim.

JIM CHALMERS:

Thanks, Lisa. It’s very kind of you, Lisa, to invite me here and to introduce me to all of these healthcare super stars at the Urgent Care Clinic here in Bendigo for a very, very proud day for your wonderful local community, and for all of the people who are providing just first‑class healthcare for people of this community and the surrounding areas as well. It’s a real honour to be here as Treasurer. It’s a real honour to have funded so many of these Urgent Care Clinics around Australia. In our 3 Budgets we found $720 million to fund Urgent Care Clinics – 76 of them so far – including this one that we open today.

One of the things that is really terrific about Urgent Care Clinics is the way that they help healthcare providers in communities like this one work as a team, take pressure off the local hospital, work with each other to provide the best standard of care that we can for the families and pensioners and people of communities like this one here in Bendigo.

This one’s got a terrific vibe to it, a really amazing vibe to it, because you can tell the teamwork that makes it all work here in Bendigo. As I understand it, more than 800 presentations already. It’s only been open for a month or so, taking the pressure off Bendigo Hospital and providing a bit of peace of mind too for local families and local pensioners and others, knowing that they’ve got another option that they can come to when they’re looking for Healthcare and where they can stay out of the emergency department if that’s possible.

Most importantly a massive thank you to all of you. It’s a really proud day, a really exciting day. Before we unveil the plaque, I just have to make some broader points as well. We’ve also got a national announcement that’s happening today and so I just wanted to touch on that.

One of our motivations when it comes to the billions of dollars we’re investing in strengthening Medicare, and the $720 million we’re investing as part of that in Urgent Care Clinics is helping people with the cost of living. Out‑of‑pocket health costs are one of the big pressures on household budgets, and so what we’re trying to do as an Albanese Labor government is to try and take some of the sting out of these cost‑of‑living pressures that we know people are feeling right around Australia in communities like this one.

So out‑of‑pocket health costs, but also the tax cuts for every taxpayer, energy bill relief for every household, cheaper medicines, cheaper early childhood education, which is a real passion of Lisa’s, more rent assistance, getting wages moving again, fee‑free TAFE, strengthening Medicare, all of these things are about easing cost‑of‑living pressures. Easing cost‑of‑living pressures are the number one priority of the Albanese Labor government. That’s why we’re investing so substantially in easing out‑of‑pocket health costs, and that’s one of the reasons why Urgent Care Clinics are so important.

But today we’re taking another step as well. Today we are announcing the next steps in banning unfair trade practices. A lot of businesses in our community do the right thing and they’ve got nothing to worry about, but we’re also seeing the troubling escalation in dodgy trading practices, whether it’s the way that people find it hard to get out of subscriptions, the way prices increase while people are making a transaction, the farming of people’s information, dodgy marketing practices like pretending that there’s a limited time that people can buy something online.

There are a whole bunch of practices that we are worried about, which put additional pressure on people when it comes to the cost of living. So, we want to ban unfair trading practices. We’ve put in train the steps to do that today. Yesterday we talked about our intention, our willingness to ban surcharges on the use of debit cards. People shouldn’t have to pay huge fees to use their own money. Yesterday’s announcement was about debit cards, today we’re talking about banning unfair trading practices. This is all part of our efforts to deal with or address these cost‑of‑living pressures that people are under.

From time‑to‑time people will say to us: how big a difference can you make in Medicare out‑of‑pocket health costs? How big a difference can you make with all of this competition policy, empowering the ACCC, banning surcharges on debit cards, cracking down on dodgy trading practices? The truth is we are coming at this cost‑of‑living challenge from every conceivable angle. Not with one or 2 policies, but the highest priority of this Albanese government dealing with cost‑of‑living pressures that we know people are facing in housing, in out‑of‑pocket health costs and in other areas as well. The highest priority for our government, and that’s why these Urgent Care Clinics are so important as well, as part of our efforts.

Okay, tricky questions to Lisa, easy questions to me. I’m in your hands.

JOURNALIST:

I was just wondering if I start on just why – or if there is any particular urgent need that you’ve seen for this place [indistinct] prior to this opening? Was there an urgent need?

CHESTERS:

Yeah, definitely. This is one of the clinics that was funded for a short period by the state Labor government, and then our Health Minister – Mark Butler – let me know that negotiations were on that the federal government would take it over as part of its Medicare Urgent Care Clinic. We know that there had been pressure on EDs. Any parent that’s had to go up there with an urgent issue knows the wait times. Locally we knew it anecdotally, we also knew it through the data coming through that there was a lot of pressure on EDs. We also knew because the previous government cut so much money out of Medicare – and froze the Medicare rebate and froze the Medicare incentive – that doctors weren’t doing after‑hours services any more. So, the need was there, the data was there and that’s why I’m really proud that our government has prioritised this clinic, coming on board with the federal fund and becoming a federally funded Medicare Urgent Care Clinic.

CHALMERS:

I really want to pay tribute to Lisa Chesters here. Strengthening Medicare is one of Lisa’s reasons for being and one of our government’s reasons for being, and we know from Lisa’s advocacy for this local community just how important it is to build an Urgent Care Clinic here to take some of the pressure off the hospital. There’s an urgent need in a lot of communities around Australia for more bulk billing options and more Medicare‑supported doctors, and that’s why we’re building 76 of these and providing $720 million to keep them running. It’s obvious in communities like these the need, and we’re delighted to see the way that all the different parts of the health system are working together to make it a success already. It’s only been open for a month, but already hundreds of people who would otherwise be in the ED at the hospital are coming here to get first‑class treatment and that’s a great thing.

JOURNALIST:

Just on another local health issue, and then we can go to other matters. We got word earlier this month that Bendigo Health has flagged job cuts at some of the hospitals, 5,000‑odd staff. The Australian Nursing Midwifery Federation says there’s a major restructure but they understand 9 full‑time clinical nursing jobs will be lost. What do you say to those staff who believe there isn’t any investment into expanding the health workforce by the federal government?

CHESTERS:

It’s one of those ones we’ll have to take on notice. It really is a state government matter but what I will say is that I know that the state and federal government are constantly in discussions about how can we better fund our health and hospitals sector. It is something that I know that they’re working through methodically. They’ve engaged the unions in doing this in a fair and transparent process. It’s not new, but it really is one that the state government is working closely with the Bendigo Health on.

JOURNALIST:

What’s the difference between a federal Urgent Care Clinic and the state‑run Priority Care Clinic?

CHESTERS:

The federal government pays the bills for a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic. That’s essentially the big difference. Which is our role, it’s primary healthcare and it fits within the broader GP, Medicare scope of practice.

JOURNALIST:

And how – what does it work when a patient comes in? How do they present? What’s the process?

CHESTERS:

You can call, the majority of patients are encouraged to make a phone call to book themselves in. They first are triaged by the nurse or the team that answers the call. If it’s considered to be emergency, they’re encouraged to call an ambulance, 000, or go straight to EDs. But if it’s more an urgency care matter they make an appointment for them. They don’t have to be sitting here; they’re sent a reminder message and then just encouraged to be here about 20 minutes prior to the appointment and I’m hoping I got that right. Not that I’ve had to use the service yet. It’s because we use online, because we’re all used to using the phones and the booking system, it’s well organised. On the busier days it’s 10 til 10. Critical being that after‑hours after‑school opportunity, over the weekends. And it’s a service that’s proving to be very popular because it is where you can get a bulk‑billed GP appointment within 24 hours of needing one.

JOURNALIST:

Just on the announcement today, regarding putting an end to hidden in‑ticket purchases, like you promised to consider debit card surcharges, this is a promise that will mean there’ll be consultation down the road. When it’s possible your government may not be in power next year, why not just act now rather than push [indistinct] down the track?

CHALMERS:

Consultation is a good thing. We want to make sure that as we crack down on excessive fees and we crack down on dodgy trade practices that we’re doing that in a way that looks after the interests of consumers and small businesses, and makes sure that there aren’t unintended consequences. We’ve shown a real enthusiasm, a real willingness, a real commitment to crack down on the sorts of fees and practices which risk ripping people off. We have empowered and funded the ACCC to do their really important work and we’ve flagged the next steps that we’re taking when it comes to this. But I don’t think we should see consultation as a bad thing, consultation’s a good thing. We’re a government that works through issues in a considered and a methodical but ultimately in an impactful way. We know that people are at risk here when it comes to anti‑competitive behaviour and dodgy behaviour, and fees that they increasingly can’t afford, and so we’re acting on their interests and we’re making sure that we get it right.

JOURNALIST:

Look, I just want to confirm which industries the government are wanting to focus on in this crackdown. Are you looking at live music? There’s been some discussion about gym subscriptions.

CHALMERS:

We’re talking about a wide range of practices but including subscription traps – where it’s really hard to get out of a subscription, that happens across a number of different sectors. Drip pricing where there are hidden fees throughout the stages of a purchase. There are manipulative online practices, including where there’s a sense of urgency like a countdown timer to make people make rash decisions about what they want to buy. We’re worried about dynamic pricing which is where, during the actual course of the transaction the price keeps escalating. We’re worried about businesses which ask customers for too much information, in some cases much more than is necessary to buy the good or the service. We’re also worried about those instances where it’s hard to contact a business if you haven’t got the product that you were looking for or you had some other question after sale. These are the sorts of issues that we’re looking at. That obviously has relevance to a whole range of sectors – particularly those available for online purchasing. We’re not taking a very specific sector‑specific approach here. We’re looking at all of these potentially dodgy practices and making sure we can rub them out where we can.

JOURNALIST:

Given lock‑in subscriptions are a fundamental part of some business models, like gyms, how will you stop them, those businesses from being shuttered down completely?

CHALMERS:

We obviously want to see a healthy, profitable business sector but those profitable businesses can’t be making profits on the back of dodgy practices. Again, as a huge supporter of the business community in this country – and particularly the small business community, we want to make sure that there aren’t unintended consequences for the vast majority of businesses who do the right thing. But when some are tempted to do the wrong thing, we need to crack down on that. We need to make sure, when it comes to subscriptions, it can’t be incredibly easy to sign up to a subscription and incredibly difficult to get out of it. We get a lot of feedback about that. We want to work with the ACCC to crack down on that too.

JOURNALIST:

Look, do you think the timing of the PM’s decision to buy a new home is poor given an election is coming up? Many Australians are struggling to pay their mortgage or rent. I mean, look, I understand that the PM – people can buy property wherever they want, but I mean here, and particularly in Bendigo, we have a huge homelessness problem. The list of people waiting for social housing are at a 1,000 in this local area. I mean, what do you say especially to those who are sleeping rough and may see coverage of the PM buying such an expensive house on the Central Coast and, you know, wondering what this government’s on about?

CHALMERS:

I understand. The government’s highest priority is easing the cost of living and a big part of that is our housing agenda. Too many people are sleeping rough. Too few people can find an affordable place to rent or buy. It is becoming too hard for young people in particular to get a toehold in the housing market, and these are the motivations behind the $32 billion that we have invested through 3 Budgets in building more homes, to make it easier for more Australians to find a place to rent or find a place to buy. This is our highest priority, cost of living, and housing is an important part of that.

When it comes to the decisions that the Prime Minister has made about his own personal arrangements, I do understand that there’s a lot of interest in it. We do understand, I think collectively, that Prime Ministers decisions like this are scrutinised. I would say a couple of things about that. First of all, I work incredibly closely with the Prime Minister. I work as closely, if not more closely than anybody else. I have seen first‑hand for myself his 100 per cent focus on easing the cost of living and building more homes for Australians and making the right economic decisions for the right economic reasons. I cannot fault for one second his commitment to easing the cost‑of‑living pressures that people confront and building more homes as the important part of that.

He has made a decision with Jodie that they want to have a place which is closer to Jodie’s family. I think a lot of Australians would understand that aspect of it. Certainly, I understand that aspect of it. But his focus is on easing cost‑of‑living pressures for the whole country, I’ve seen that laser‑like focus for myself up close.

JOURNALIST:

In terms of the Urgent Clinics here Bendigo and other areas, is it going to help the healthcare system or is it just going to shuffle everything around and not take the pressure off?

CHALMERS:

It’s already taking pressure off the emergency department at Bendigo Hospital. One of the heartening things just meeting some of the professionals who have joined us today, some of them on their day off – we appreciate that – one of the things that really strikes you about this Urgent Care Clinic, and I’ve seen it in others, is the way that the whole health system, the whole local health ecosystem, works together to deliver great outcomes for people, often at the most stressful times.

Lisa and I know, as parents, it’s so stressful when your kid is sick or your mum, and you want to make sure that there are options and the heartening thing, the inspiring thing frankly, about the work in clinics like this one and emergency departments is the way that the place is working together. I just heard really quite a remarkable thing about where, if one place is quieter than the other, there are calls between different parts of the health system to make sure that we’re getting people through. That’s exactly as we want it. That means that every single cent of these hundreds of millions of dollars we’re investing in Urgent Care Clinics is money well spent.

JOURNALIST:

Those that don’t have access to these Urgent Care Clinics, as such, what do you say to them if they’re struggling to get into their GPs, their EDs are full, you know, what do they do?

CHALMERS:

We’re building as many as we can afford to build. There are 76 of these now, that’s what $720 million is buying. Every community would like one and we are doing our best to put one in as many communities as we can – here in Bendigo, in my hometown, right around Australia. We know that there’ll always be a need for more investment in health. We’re enthusiastic about that, billions and billions of dollars of investment in strengthening Medicare to help ease out‑of‑pocket costs to give people peace of mind when they’re sick or when their loved ones are sick, and people should expect that to continue for as long as there’s a federal Labor government working closely with state governments like this one.

JOURNALIST:

Australian birth rates declined once again. Is this becoming a problem for our economy?

CHALMERS:

That has been a long‑term trend and there are reasons for that, including good reasons for it. As I’ve said before, it can be expensive to have kids, and people make their own decisions for their own reasons. My job, working closely with Lisa and other colleagues, is to make sure that people can have the choice of whether to have more kids or not. Our investment in early childhood education, our investment in healthcare, paying superannuation on paid parental leave, all of these decisions that we’ve taken as a government working closely with Katy Gallagher, the Women’s Minister and others, is about making it easier for people to have more kids if they want to. But we know that affordability is a big part of that challenge and that’s why our cost‑of‑living help is so important as well.

JOURNALIST:

Is the government talking to Westpac about the repeated outages that we’ve been seeing this week, affecting mobile and online banking? I believe there’s been 3 already this week for customers of Westpac and St George, BankSA.

CHALMERS:

We have been speaking with Westpac about these really concerning developments. They have had a number of outages in recent days, and when something like that happens it enlivens the cybersecurity part of our government. In the last couple of years we’ve gotten much better at working with private sector entities like Westpac and others who are the subject of various – whether it’s denial of service or other kinds of interruptions. But we do work closely, whether it’s with the banks or the other businesses and organisations, to make sure that when something happens like this, as unwelcome as it is, that we’re responding when we can and that also we’re keeping each other informed as things develop.

JOURNALIST:

Does more need to be done to secure crucial services for bank customers? I mean this is not unusual.

CHALMERS:

Unfortunately, this is a sign of the times. We are seeing more of these sorts of interruptions in an economy which is becoming increasingly digital and where the technological changes so fast we are at risk of some of these sorts of interruptions. We’ve got a colleague now, Andrew Charlton, who’s been appointed to oversee cybersecurity in particular, working closely with Tony Burke. Our whole government sees it as an important part of our responsibilities to make sure that we catch up and keep up with developments in this space because we don’t want to see people inconvenienced by these kinds of interruptions.

JOURNALIST:

I have just one more question, sorry. Just on the economy and from a business perspective, here in Bendigo, there’s been significant issues in the CBD for some time: for‑lease signs on shop fronts, particularly in the Hargreaves Mall. We hear from businesses and ABC Central Vic, that your government is not doing enough for small businesses. What do you say to people in regional communities like Bendigo who despair in the fact that they may not be able to sustain businesses or even keep shop fronts open until the end of the year?

CHESTERS:

The problem with the Bendigo Mall is a perpetual problem that we’ve had for decades, and anybody who says otherwise hasn’t lived in Bendigo for a long time. It’s long been identified that the challenges sometimes relate to the landlords and who they’re trying to attract into the businesses in the mall. We’ve also had some other issues in the mall. There’s quite a bit of construction going on. But this is one of those ones which local chambers of commerce, Be.Bendigo has worked with the City of Greater Bendigo to bring them all together to talk about ‘what’s the vibe? What do we want? Who do we want to prioritise to be our businesses?’ It really starts with the landlords, it starts with Be.Bendigo and it starts with local government. In terms of the federal government support that we have with small business, we’re doing what we can, whether it be the instant asset write‑off, whether it be helping people with their payroll, whether it be investing where we can, supporting people with skills, helping with apprentices, making sure that we’ve got the skilled workers that we need coming through our TAFE. This is the federal government making sure that we stay in our lane and our responsibility. This issue comes up every federal election, every state election, every local government election. But the answer is the same. It comes back to what are the landlords, what’s the vision, how are they working with our local chambers of commerce about who we want to attract in businesses in the CBD.

JOURNALIST:

I mean, Bendigo itself are driving hard the tourism dollar here. We’ve seen major events here. We are seeing a comedy festival here. People are travelling to this town in particular and wanting to come to Bendigo to see the lovely, you know, Bloom Festival and a couple of days ago it was beautiful. But seeing – walking a couple of shops – blocks down the street, it’s not such a great story. I mean, I think that there obviously needs to be a whole – is there not a whole – isn’t there more – shouldn’t there be more approach to ensure that the city is at least pleasurable for people to visit?

CHESTERS:

It is and people love coming to Rosalind Park. What the state government has done in reducing train fares to get people into town’s been fantastic. Any day on the weekend I love getting stopped and people asking me for directions because it means they’re not local. It means we’ve got people coming in. Last weekend was a big example of that. This weekend coming. The town is abuzz on the weekend and that’s what you want to have happen. I’m sure the landlords will get together with Be.Bendigo and City of Greater Bendigo to work it out. We are seeing a revival and a change of shops coming into the mall. This is one of those issues where if you get too many people involved in the discussion, it takes longer.

MIL OSI News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Grassley Emphasizes Value ESOPs Bring Local Economies at IA-CEO Conference

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Iowa Chuck Grassley

POLK COUNTY, IOWA – U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, today delivered a keynote address at the 2024 Iowa CEO Employee Ownership Conference in Ankeny.

Grassley discussed the future of our nation’s business landscape as the baby boomer generation enters retirement, as well as his longstanding support for Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs): “[…T]his tax-advantaged tool has helped boost productivity, create wealth among the workforce, expand prosperity and grow civic roots in communities across the country,” he said.

Download photos HERE. Grassley’s prepared remarks follow.

Iowa Center for Employee Ownership (IA-CEO)

Employee Ownership Conference

FFA Enrichment Center/DMACC Campus, Ankeny

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Good morning. It’s good to be here with all of you.

Thank you, Randy, for your work with the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), a school near and dear to my heart. And thank you for the invitation to speak about another subject near and dear to my heart: building prosperity for Iowans across our state.

Now, typically, I wouldn’t be able to join you in person on a weekday in the middle of October. But since we’re in the thick of a presidential election year, Congress is out of session until after November 5th.

As you know, we’re also in the thick of harvest season. This week, my son and grandson are on our family farm in New Hartford running the combine and hauling grain from the fields.

I’m the second generation of our fourth-generation family farm, so I understand what weighs on the minds of Iowans looking to pass on the reins of a farm or small business. Although, a farmer never really retires.

Like most family farms in Iowa, a lion’s share of our small- and medium-sized businesses are owned by baby boomers. These operations are expected to change ownership in the next five to 10 years. Finding the future stewards of these farms and businesses is top of mind for communities across Iowa.

It will have tremendous impact on the tax base, population, school enrollment, jobs, economic vitality and social capital of the local and regional community.

This year, I completed my 44th year holding question-and-answer sessions with Iowans in all 99 counties in our state. Two issues that regularly come up at my meetings with small businesses and manufacturers are workforce shortages and employee retention.

The workforce and succession planning are top of mind for so many small businesses in Iowa, including those of you here in this room. As the baby boom generation prepares to pass the torch, a sizeable segment of our state’s economy will hinge on the strategic transition of farms and businesses.

Changing ownership of a business the same family has owned and operated for decades is complicated. Potential buyers and sellers need to navigate a maze of issues, including complex family dynamics, taxes, financing and more.

A decade or so ago, the impending demographic shift was often referred to as the Silver Tsunami. Since 2011, roughly 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day. I would suggest the so-called tsunami has delivered rolling waves of changes, instead of catastrophic disruptions to health care, housing, transportation and community services. I attribute that to forward-thinkers, like those of you attending today’s conference.

We’ve seen across many sectors of the economy that not all of the demographic disruptions hit the fan at once.

That’s partially because people are staying in the workforce longer, by choice or financial necessity.

Like I said earlier, a farmer never really retires. The same often goes for a family-run business, perhaps due to the fact owners don’t always have a viable succession plan or buyer. Having a succession plan can give families, landowners and small businesses much-needed peace of mind. After putting years of sweat and investments into their farm or business, many Iowans are what we call cash-poor and asset-rich.

As we look ahead to this era of transition in business ownership, it’s important for leaders in government, business and academia to collaborate. Together, we can anticipate the challenges and embrace the economic opportunities this demographic shift will present.

From that standpoint, I applaud the efforts of your organization, in partnership with my alma mater, UNI.

I want to commend you for taking a proactive approach. You’re grabbing the bull by the horns to identify the obstacles and possibilities that lie ahead. By engaging stakeholders and raising public awareness, your efforts can help expand local economic vitality and prosperity for generations to come.

You understand that a majority of the businesses owned by baby boomers will close for good if a viable buyer isn’t found. Usually, a viable buyer is restricted by the sale price, or there simply isn’t a buyer available at all.

Let’s not underestimate the benefits your efforts will bring workers and the community. Day in and day out, workers help build and grow a company. When workers are able to capture financial equity in their employing business, it fosters an ownership culture that strengthens morale and reinforces roots in the community.

These dynamics sow the seeds for broader advantages for nearby schools, civic clubs, volunteer fire departments, places of worship, and more.

If you think about it, your mission kills two birds with one stone. On the one hand, you provide an off-ramp for business owners to pull wealth from their business, monetizing the retirement nest egg they’ve feathered for decades.

On the other hand, you’re expanding ownership opportunity and offering a piece of the financial pie to the workforce, empowering employees to share in the fruits of their own labor.

As a former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, fostering economic growth is central to my philosophy on tax policy. That includes my support for federal tax advantages for Employee Stock Ownership Plans.

Everything these days goes by an acronym, but “ESOPs” have been around for decades.

A century ago, big corporations like Proctor & Gamble, J.C. Penney and Sears Roebuck provided stock ownership through a tax vehicle Congress added to the federal tax code in 1921.

The iteration we have today sprang up in the 1950s, for the purpose of transitioning ownership of a company to its employees.

ESOPs were formally recognized in law in 1974 thanks to the efforts of Senator Russell Long – one of my predecessors at the helm of the Senate Finance Committee.

An ESOP allows companies to use IRS tax-qualified plans as a tool for business succession, and as a workplace empowerment tool to foster an ownership culture. They provide the seller better options to manage tax liabilities from the sale of the business rather than what many consider tax confiscation at the point of sale.

Senator Long once declared ESOPs would be the perfect elixir to the economy. In fact, he used the term “Geritol,” if anyone here remembers that once-popular vitamin supplement.

The good news is ESOPs have outlasted Geritol. For decades, this tax-advantaged tool has helped boost productivity, create wealth among the workforce, expand prosperity and grow civic roots in communities across the country.

When Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of 1984 that included tax-free, roll-over treatment, Washington cleared the path for privately held businesses to transfer ownership, unlocking a burst of economic activity and new ownership to the next generation of employees.

To this day, ESOPs are a preferred tool for business succession in America.

From my platform on the Senate Finance Committee, once again, I will have a front row seat at the tax policymaking table in the new Congress. With 2025 will come a major tipping point for the U.S. economy, as lawmakers and a newly elected president confront a tax cliff. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that I helped shepherd into law in 2017 is set to expire at the end of next year.

This package enacted across-the-board tax cuts for every American taxpayer. As a result, businesses and families kept more of their hard-earned money in their pockets.

That means Iowans got to save, spend and invest more of their own money. If the 2017 Trump tax cuts expire, we will say good-bye to trillions of dollars in tax breaks.

The 2017 tax law also unlocked opportunities for small business across our state – the engines of the nation’s economy. Whether a business was structured as a “C” corporation or subchapter “S,” the law lowered tax rates on their income. This tax cut applies to ESOPs with partial employee-ownership.

The law lowered the maximum corporate tax rate from 35 percent to a single marginal rate of 21 percent, empowering businesses to expand, hire more people or raise wages.

Just as importantly, for pass-through businesses the law lowered tax rates across the board and created a new 20 percent business income deduction.

Together, those reforms shrunk the top federal income tax rate from 39.6 percent to 29.6 percent. Farmers and small businesses operate on tight margins. These tax breaks make a tremendous difference on the bottom line.

I’m always on the lookout for ways to continue to build on the success of ESOPs. A provision I’ve long cosponsored to make ESOPs a more attractive option for S corporations was incorporated into the SECURE 2.0 Act, which Congress passed at the end of 2022.

I’ve written tax policy in the U.S. Senate for more than four decades and counting. I’ll let you in on a secret: When you tax something – anything – you get less of it.

Tax laws influence purchase decisions on items ranging from cars and clothes to farm machinery and investments. Just consider back-to-school tax-free shopping weekends. Or how states with no state income tax attract people from high-tax states.

On the flip side, high taxes on cigarettes, gambling and alcohol aim to limit those behaviors. Tax incentives operate the same way, informing research and development, college savings and homeownership.

I’m sure many of you want to know what’s going to happen on those expiring tax cuts in 2025. That crystal ball will get some clarity after November 5th.

In closing, I want you to know I agree ESOPs are a key instrument for communities to foster economic prosperity across our state.

Ownership is a core principle in America’s promise of prosperity — and freedom itself — that our nation’s Founders enshrined in our Constitution.

In my 99 county meetings, I’ve seen good things happening and economic vitality thriving in communities with ESOP-structured businesses.

ESOPs can provide that pathway to prosperity.

Business owners preparing to retire can get tax-advantaged cash in their pockets, after many years of building their business.

Employees can build equity in the company and find greater satisfaction on the job.

With your advocacy, communities can realize more opportunities to keep valued businesses thriving and tap into the ownership culture that attracts a dynamic workforce.

Thank you again for inviting me to speak to you today. I look forward to continuing this conversation and welcome your feedback. I’m happy now to open up the floor to questions.

-30-

MIL OSI USA News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Cassidy Convenes Louisiana Energy Security Summit, Highlights Louisiana Investments and Future Economic Potential

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Louisiana Bill Cassidy

BATON ROUGE – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) hosted the “Louisiana Energy Security Summit: Unleashing American Abundance in a Changing Global Landscape” at the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge, bringing together leaders from the federal, state, and local government levels, industry, the research community, and elsewhere.

In his keynote address, Cassidy highlighted the geopolitical challenges confronting U.S. manufacturers operating internationally. Adversaries exploit lax environmental and labor standards to gain an unfair trade advantage over American companies.
“We are working to preserve the jobs we have in Louisiana and create more in the future,” said Dr. Cassidy. “We can do this by requiring that trade with countries like China be fair, and not allow them to pollute the atmosphere while we’re working to clean it.”
“The Foreign Pollution Fee Act is a trade policy that rewards U.S. businesses and workers while penalizing foreign polluters. It creates a level playing field for American companies on the global stage. It’s a win for American workers, the U.S. economy, our national security, and the environment,” added Dr. Cassidy.
The summit featured ten panels which explored protecting U.S. interests from unfair trade practices, Louisiana’s low emissions manufacturing advantage, and the role of natural gas in strengthening U.S. geopolitical influence. Panelists included presidents and CEOs from Entergy, First Solar, Buzzi UnicemUSA, Orsted, and Aluminum Technologies, former Trump administration officials, and leaders from Louisiana trade associations and major energy and Fortune 500 companies.

“We have the talent, we have the resources, we have the God-given location here in Louisiana with the Mississippi River, the Gulf, so much pipeline running underneath us, some of the greatest ports in the country, we’ve got all those tools. We just need to make sure we marry those with good policy,” said Louisiana Association of Business and Industry President Will Green. “If we do, we will be unstoppable here in Louisiana.”
“This is an energy economy here in Louisiana. We send it out, and we bring it in. It’s a manufacturing powerhouse. This state embodies what we can achieve again, if we open our alliances and we shut down our adversaries,” said Former Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality James Connaughton.
“There is a market disadvantage for U.S. producers and manufacturers,” said Former Energy Deputy Secretary Mark Menezes. “This is basic fairness. As a consumer you have choices to make on products. You can choose a U.S.-made product or something that is imported. The choice is easy. And as a consequence of making that choice you address the fundamental fairness of this, you recognize the importance of the U.S. role, and you incentivize U.S. manufacturers to come back from China.”
“Everyone in this room knows China has not relaxed. They have increased production and are flooding the market,” said Huntsman Corporation Vice President of Global Communications and Government Affairs Kevin Gundersen. “We have gotten away from [our] competitive advantage, and we have leaned into our disadvantage as a country. I think there needs to be a course correction.”
“We already import more than 26 million tons [of cement] per year. All of the countries where we import cement—they don’t have all the environmental regulations we do. They don’t have all the laws. They don’t have all the regulation, so we already have a disadvantage,” said Buzzi UnicemUSA President and CEO Massimo Toso. “So we do appreciate the effort by Senator Bill Cassidy and his colleague to put in place a carbon border adjustment mechanism.”
“Non-market actors overseas, subsidies, and unfair trade practices make it cheaper to produce goods than companies like ourselves,” said CF Industries Vice President for Public Affairs Linda Dempsey. “We’ve got the best workers and the best standards, but the second piece really is flipping the switch on the trade rules.”
“The cheap solar panels that are brought in from China don’t have the same standards of which we hold ourselves accountable to creating an unfair blade,” said First Solar CEO Mark Widmar. “Between American ingenuity, passion, creativity, and know-how, we can outcompete, but we need fairness.”
Background
Cassidy and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced their Foreign Pollution Fee Act to level the playing field with Chinese manufacturing and expand American production.
Earlier this month, he released the 3rd episode of Bill on the Hill, where he highlights his Foreign Pollution Fee Act and discusses China’s growing economy and military coming at the expense of the American worker. After hearing fellow Americans share their concerns, Cassidy presented his plan to address the nexus between economic development, national security, and the environment. His Foreign Pollution Fee Act would even the playing field while holding China accountable.
He penned editorials in Foreign Affairs, The Washington Times, and jointly in the USA Today Network discussing the geopolitical threat that China poses to U.S. global standing. Cassidy also joined Greta Van Susteren on Newsmax to discuss his foreign pollution fee, noting the competitive advantage China receives from intentionally ignoring environmental standards.
Last Spring, the Louisiana Senate and House of Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution urging Congress to pursue an industrial manufacturing and trade policy to counter competition from China. Learn more here.
Last Congress, Cassidy released a landmark energy policy outline in response to the Biden administration’s assault on domestic energy. The outline details how we can successfully reset U.S. energy policy, including Cassidy’s plan for an Energy Operation Warp Speed to cut permitting red tape and unleash domestic energy and manufacturing. In support of this complete vision and in addition to the Foreign Pollution Fee Act, Cassidy led Republican colleagues in opposition to a domestic carbon tax and introduced the first comprehensive judicial reform for permitting bill. He also pushed back on disastrous proposals from the Biden administration to limit development in the Outer Continental Shelf with the introduction of the WHALE Act and the Offshore Energy Security Act of 2023.

MIL OSI USA News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Cassidy Announces $22.6 Million for Caddo-Bossier Parish Port Commission from his Infrastructure Law

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Louisiana Bill Cassidy

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) announced the Caddo-Bossier Parishes Port Commission will receive $22,595,853.00 for the Port of Caddo-Bossier I-69 Connector from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s INFRA grant program. The project will connect I-49 to the future I-69 Corridor Project Frontage Road by upgrading and extending Stonewall Frierson Road.
“Having reliable roads to connect our ports to the rest of the state is essential for doing business,” said Dr. Cassidy. “The Caddo-Bossier I-69 connector will be yet another reason companies choose to invest in North Louisiana and allow us to build an economy for 2050.”
Cassidy’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act increased the money available for the INFRA grant program, helping make this project possible.

MIL OSI USA News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Senator Peters Helps Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Strengthen Cybersecurity at U.S. Ports

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Michigan Gary Peters

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) helped introduce bipartisan legislation to strengthen cybersecurity at U.S. ports. Port security is critical to the success of our nation’s economy, supply chains, industrial base, and national security. However, cybersecurity vulnerabilities continue to threaten their security. For instance, many U.S. ports, including strategic ports used by the military, utilize Chinese-made cranes that could expose the port to malicious cyber activity and disrupt port operations. The Protecting Investments in Our Ports Act would strengthen the security of U.S. ports by requiring all applicants for competitive grant funding from the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) to have necessary digital infrastructure or software in place to address cybersecurity threats.

“This commonsense, bipartisan bill would help strengthen our nation’s defenses against cyberattacks by making sure ports have the necessary digital infrastructure and safeguards in place to protect both U.S. national security and supply chains as goods move throughout our waterways,” said Senator Peters.

“Senator Peters’ steadfast approach to legislating in a technology driven age will continue to provide critical protections for U.S. Ports and the infrastructure investments being made by the American taxpayer. The Senator clearly understands that as Port investment evolves with technology, that proactive cybersecurity planning must accompany federal spending,” said Captain Paul C. LaMarre III, President of the American Great Lakes Ports Association.

The PIDP, which falls under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Maritime Administration, helps ports on our Great Lakes, coasts, and rivers improve the movement of goods and services. The Protecting Investments in Our Ports Act would ensure applicants of the program have certified that they have an approved National Maritime Transportation Security Plan to reduce cybersecurity risks. Peters introduced the legislation with U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX).

In 2021, Peters helped Congress pass the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which provided robust funding for transportation and port infrastructure projects across the country. The historic law invested more than $17 billion in U.S. port infrastructure to make needed repairs and upgrades, reduce congestion to strengthen our supply chains and expedite commerce, and lower harmful emissions near ports to reduce environmental impacts on local communities.

As Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Peters has led also numerous efforts to ensure our nation is better prepared to defend against cyberattacks. His historic, bipartisan provision to require critical infrastructure owners and operators to report to CISA if they experience a substantial cyberattack or if they make a ransomware payment was signed into law. Peters’ bipartisan bill to enhance cybersecurity assistance to K-12 educational institutions across the country was also signed into law. Peters’ bipartisan bills to bolster cybersecurity for state and local governments, strengthen the federal cybersecurity workforce, and help secure federal information technology supply chains have been signed into law.

MIL OSI USA News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Australia: Interview with Nick Bryant, RN Drive, ABC Radio

Source: Australian Treasurer

NICK BRYANT:

So, with the cost of living biting and a national election looming, the federal government is threatening to ban debit card surcharges from the start of 2026, a plan which has been slammed on the other side of politics. Stephen Jones is the Assistant Treasurer. Stephen, welcome back to Radio National Drive.

STEPHEN JONES:

Good to be with you, Nick.

BRYANT:

The RBA reckons Australians are losing about a billion dollars a year to surcharges. Take me through what the government is proposing and what it would look like in practice?

JONES:

Well, this is understandably in response to consumers saying, ‘why am I having to pay money to access my own money to pay for a cup of coffee or a grocery – a basket?’ That’s a pretty reasonable concern by Australians. The plan, we want to ensure that we remove those surcharges, but we want to do it in a way that doesn’t lump the cost of that on small businesses, a simple ban on its own would mean that small businesses are picking up the tab. So, we’ve got to go upstream to look at that whole network of charges that is leading or ending in a small business and their customers. So, it’s the banks, it’s the card service providers, Visa, Mastercard, EFTPOS, but it’s also the payment systems operators. So, we’ve got to look at all of that, untangle it, work out what a reasonable cost for providing those services is, and ensuring that Australians aren’t being slugged by these unreasonable surcharges just to access their own money.

BRYANT:

This would only apply to debit cards, but a lot of people use their credit cards to pay for things. Why not have those surcharges go as well?

JONES:

Good point. Around about 90 per cent of the exchanges that we’re talking about are done on a debit card, particularly for younger Australians who are more likely not to have a credit card. They might have a buy now, pay later account and a debit card, but more and more people are using debit cards for their day‑to‑day retail transactions. So, the case is cut and dried in this area. Credit products are a little bit different and are treated differently, always have been. So, the biggest part of the big problem is the debit cards, where people are being slugged a surcharge to use their own money, many times in instances where they can’t get the cash out or they can’t use it.

BRYANT:

Now, the Head of the Commonwealth Bank basically said during parliamentary proceedings or in this parliamentary committee, that this issue was being infused with populist politics, that the bank’s payment operations are actually making a loss. So, is this performative politics? Is this a bit of bank‑bashing?

JONES:

Absolutely not. And as I said in response to your earlier question, it’s not just the banks, it’s the card providers, the system providers such as Visa, Mastercard, EFTPOS, they’ve got charges in the system. It’s the payment network systems who run the rails around which our payments run throughout the country. Most of them not known to everyday consumers, but they’ve got charges in the system as well. So, it’s about untangling all of that. We’ve got the Reserve Bank looking at what it actually costs to run those rails, to run those charge systems, and what is being passed on to the consumer and where the excessive charging is. Job of work between now and Christmas. We’ll get the results of that, we’ll move on that early in the year – new year – and giving the whole system clear signal from the 1 January 2026. If they haven’t moved on it, we will.

BRYANT:

Now, the Opposition has been critical of your proposals. Here’s what the Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, had to say today.

[Excerpt]

PETER DUTTON:

This is actually a plan for a plan. I mean, this Prime Minister always promises but never delivers. And we’re very happy to look at anything the government’s going to propose. It’s not an announcement, it’s just that they’re looking at it and it could come in, in 2026. Australian families need help now from this government. And instead of making good decisions, the government’s made bad decisions.

[End of excerpt]

BRYANT:

I mean, he’s got a point, hasn’t he? This is a plan for a plan. It’s what Donald Trump had in that debate, a concept for a plan.

JONES:

Peter Dutton’s got no plan for the economy and no economic policies. He had 9 years to do something about this. It wasn’t a priority for him then. It wasn’t a priority for any of the 3 years when he had my job. It wasn’t a priority for any of the 9 years when he sat around the cabinet table. And now he’s criticising the government for wanting to do something which needs to be done. We’ve got a clear process for dealing with it. It’s not populist; it’s about ensuring we do the right thing, which is about ensuring we take all the evidence. We ensure that we don’t have any unintended consequences, such as having small business pick up the costs for a ban on surcharging. So, we’ll do it in the right way. We’d expect Peter Dutton to support it because it’s in the interests of consumers. But we remember that he’s voted against every single measure that we’ve put in place to provide cost‑of‑living relief for Australians. Whether it’s energy bill relief, whether it’s provisions which enable workers to get better pay rises, whether it’s medicines relief. In every opportunity Peter Dutton has had to vote in favour of cost‑of‑living relief for Australians, he’s done the opposite.

BRYANT:

If you just join me here on Radio National Drive, I’m speaking with the Assistant Treasurer, Stephen Jones, about the government’s promise to crack down on debit card surcharges. There is a process underway. You’re waiting for the Reserve Bank to finish its review into retail payments regulation. They’ve been waiting for you to pass legislation to provide them with more powers, which is now stuck in parliament. You’re saying this change won’t happen until 2026. People are hurting now. Why can’t this be expedited?

JONES:

Well, it can be expedited if the Opposition votes for the bill, which is before the Senate right now. That’s available for them to do that. They’ve said they’ll oppose it. They can vote in favour of the bill, the payment systems reform bill, which is in the Senate now, and that would give the government the additional powers. At the moment, those powers sit solely with the Reserve Bank of Australia. We’ve given a pretty good indication about what we’ll do as a government. Of course, the bloke who wants to be the alternative Prime Minister for Australia could announce his policy, but he hasn’t.

BRYANT:

And let’s talk about the man who is the Prime Minister at the moment. There has been a lot of talk today about the PM’s new luxury ocean view home he’s bought on the Central Coast in NSW. Isn’t this a bit tone‑deaf at the time of a cost‑of‑living crisis ahead of what will surely be a cost‑of‑living election and in the middle of the housing crisis? The optics of this just aren’t very good.

JONES:

Look, the PM and his fiancée Jodie are planning to get married next year. They wanted to buy a place in the area where Jodie grew up and 3 generations of her family live, and I think they’re entitled to do so. The housing that we’re focused on is our housing program, our plan to build new homes to ensure that we have a roof over the head of every Australian. We’ve got legislation before the parliament which is being blocked by the Coalition and the Greens. They should get out of the way and enable that to occur so we can help everyday Australians, through our Help to Buy Scheme, get access to the housing market. This is the housing issue that everyday Australians are focused on and it’s the focus of our government.

BRYANT:

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones, thank you for joining me on Radio National Drive.

JONES:

Good to be with you.

MIL OSI News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: Economy – Transmission of monetary policy to financial conditions: A speech by RBNZ Assistant Governor Karen Silk

Source: Reserve Bank of New Zealand

16 October 2024 – A speech will be delivered by Assistant Governor Karen Silk at the Citi Australia and New Zealand Investment Conference in Sydney, Australia.

Financial conditions are significantly influenced by monetary policy settings and are therefore something that we monitor closely. The banking system is a key channel through which monetary policy settings influence financial conditions in New Zealand.

Specifically, monetary policy affects bank funding costs and, in turn, the lending rates banks offer. This impacts the amount of money that households and businesses have to spend and shapes their inclination to save and invest.

During the post-COVID period, tight monetary policy settings implemented to reduce inflation have made financial conditions more restrictive. This has contributed to a weakening of aggregate demand in the economy and increased our confidence that consumer price inflation is moving sustainably back to its target mid-point of 2%.

However, the ongoing effects from the monetary and fiscal policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which significantly increased liquidity in the banking system, have supported lower bank funding costs. This has impacted the extent to which banks have increased their lending rates.

The upshot of this is that financial conditions were less restrictive during the recent tightening cycle for the same level of the Official Cash Rate (OCR) when compared with previous cycles. However, through ongoing monitoring we have been able to identify and factor this into our decision-making to ensure that financial conditions have been where we needed them to be to achieve our monetary policy objectives.

As liquidity is being drained from the banking system, bank funding conditions have been normalising towards their pre-COVID state. Over time, this is likely to influence the amount of decline in bank lending rates, even as wholesale rates fall, as banks seek to maintain their net interest margins.

The factors discussed in this speech are important for understanding the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission, but there are many others that are considered in monetary policy decision-making. While we remain confident that inflation will converge back to the 2% target midpoint in the medium term, we will continue to assess and respond to the risks arising from broader economic conditions to manage inflation back to this level.

More information

Read the related Bulletin here: https://govt.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bd316aa7ee4f5679c56377819&id=b1b3bdc72d&e=f3c68946f8

MIL OSI New Zealand News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: Economy – The cost of living crisis is coming to an end, with inflation close to 2%. We’re back in band – The cost of living crisis is coming to an end, with inflation close to 2%. We’re back in band – Kiwibank

Source: Kiwibank

Pay rises are finally running above inflation. The cost of living crisis is coming to an end, slowly. It may not feel like it, yet, but inflation has eased, and will ease further.

* The RBNZ engineered a long, harsh recession in order to get inflation back within its 1-to-3% target band. They focus on the 2% mid-point. And we’re close… very close. At 2.2%, inflation has fallen from a rapid peak of 7.3%.

* The RBNZ can declare victory in the war on inflation. And they have acknowledged the success, with rate cuts.

* There is more disinflationary pressure in the pipeline as the economy continues to operate below its productive capacity. Tradables is the reason we have returned to 2%. And the eventual normalisation in domestic price pressures is why we see 2% sustained in the medium-term. It’s the two phases of 2%. Phase 1, imported. Phase 2, domestic.

* The light at the end of the tunnel is burning brighter. Cost pressures are easing. Great news for businesses and households, and interest rate relief is coming thick and fast. Policy settings are still restrictive, but more interest rate cuts are coming. Falling inflation, and falling interest rates will help household budgets, and business opex.

The good news – deflationary pressures are becoming more broad based. There were more goods and services recording declines in prices. And there were fewer goods and services recording hikes in prices.
The bad news – there’s still some very chunky prices hikes in council rates and insurance premiums to pay. The $5 fee for prescriptions also hurt.

Importantly, core inflation recorded a 1% gain on the quarter, and eased to 3.1% over the year.

Beneath the surface, there was some (welcomed) weakness in housing related costs. Despite a sharp 12% increase in council ratees over the quarter, lower labour costs and cheaper materials costs helped on the construction front.

Earlier this year, we had forecast inflation falling back within the RBNZ’s 1-3% target band in the September quarter – but only just (2.8%) given the persistent strength in domestic inflation. While that remains the case, inflation has now fallen to 2.2%. And we still have cheaper imported prices to thank for bringing inflation closer to the RBNZ’s 2% target.

The two phases of deflation.

The first phase is the deflation of prices for imported goods. Known as tradables inflation, imported prices are falling, and are DOWN -1.6% over the year. Imported prices peaked at a whopping 8.7%, and have fallen swiftly with the decline in global inflation rates.

The second phase is the deflating of domestic prices. Domestic inflation is a slow-moving beast. The good news is that it is moving in the right direction (south). Non-tradables prices have eased from 5.4% to 4.9%. It’s fallen some distance from the 6.8% peak, although it is still sitting high above the long-term average (~3%).

MIL OSI New Zealand News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: Financial support for women’s health: UNFPA and Charité present new “WomenX Collective” programme in Berlin

Source: United Nations Population Fund

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, launched its new “WomenX Collective” programme at the World Health Summit in Berlin on October 15, in conjunction with the opening of its first hub office in a global network of centres specializing in the promotion of women’s health, especially sexual and reproductive health, in the German capital.

The Berlin office will be run in cooperation with Charité – Universitätsmedizin and the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH). With their new partnership, UNFPA and Charité aim to promote women’s health, particularly in middle and low income countries and to address the lack of solutions and financial resources in this field.

“Every minute, at least two women die globally from breast or cervical cancer or from pregnancy-related complications due to inequitable access to healthcare,” says Dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA. “Through the WomenX Collective, UNFPA and Charité aim to help bring innovative health solutions to underserved communities, closing the health gap for women worldwide.”

Initial financing commitments in place

With initial funding commitments from international donors, including the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), Organon & Co., as well as a donation from Deutsche Postcode Lotterie, the WomenX Collective programme aims to raise at least $100 million in catalytic investment by 2030 to support women’s health projects, scale innovative solutions locally and promote these solutions across sectors. This has the potential to avert more than 10.4 million unintended pregnancies, 3.2 million unsafe abortions, and 21,000 maternal deaths. With the network of hub offices, the programme aims to bring together experience and technical expertise from different countries and regions, as well as modern technologies and sustainable financing. The office in Berlin will be followed by a hub in Nairobi in 2025.

To mark the opening of the hub office and the ceremonial signing of the partnership between UNFPA and Charité, partners of the WomenX Collective programme will be joined by Dr. Bärbel Kofler, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, as well as representatives of the German healthcare sector and stakeholders from the Global South.

Additional quotes from participating organisations:

“The investment in women’s health is convincing with numbers: Through new, women-centred evidence-driven investment opportunities, we want to show that for every euro invested, a dividend of over 7 euros is possible by 2030″, says Dr. Nigina Muntean, Chief of Innovation at UNFPA. “By investing in women’s health and fostering innovation, we can unlock significant economic returns and ensure advancements reach those most in need.”

“Women’s health is still under-researched and under-funded,” says Prof. Dr. Heyo K. Kroemer, Chairman of the Board of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and partner of the WomenX Collective initiative. “We are convinced of the collaborative and integrative approach of WomenX, so I am pleased that Charité can make a contribution here. In order to address women’s health in a sustainable way, we need strong partnerships with institutions from the global North and South.”

“We are delighted to welcome the WomenX Collective programme under our roof and to contribute to the success of this important project,” says Prof. Dr. Christopher Baum, Chairman of the BIH Board of Directors at Charité and Chairman of the Translational Research Department at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. “WomenX Collective aims to leverage proximity to innovations and experts and Berlin features an outstanding ecosystem of health and innovation.”

“The opening of UNFPA programme in Berlin in partnership with the Charité/BIH offers an opportunity to intensify the diverse initiatives in the field of women’s health and to make this even more effective,” says Prof. Dr. Jalid Sehouli, Medical Director Department of Gynecology including center of oncological surgery (Campus Virchow Klinikum) and Department of Gynaecology (Campus Benjamin Franklin).

About UNFPA:

UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. UNFPA’s mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. UNFPA calls for the realization of reproductive rights for all and supports access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services, including voluntary family planning, quality maternal health care and comprehensive sexuality education.

About Charité:

Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, a cutting-edge medical institution, is a leader in diagnosis and treatment, with a special focus on severe, complex, and rare diseases and health conditions. A medical school and university medical center in one, Charité has earned an outstanding reputation worldwide, combining first-class patient care with excellence in research and innovation, state-of-the-art teaching, and high-quality training and education. At Charité, people and their health come first. Charité is dedicated to transformative translational research, applying the very latest scientific findings to prevention, diagnostics, and treatment and harnessing clinical observations to develop new lines of research and scientific questions. Charité’s foremost goal is to actively help shape the medicine of the future, all with one aim in mind: improving patients’ lives and quality of life.

With more than 100 departments and institutes spanning four campuses and 3,293 beds, Charité is one of Europe’s largest university medical centers. At Charité, the areas of research, teaching, and medical care are closely interconnected. Averaging about 23,500 across the entire group of companies, Berlin’s university medicine organization remained one of the capital city’s largest employers in 2023. Last year, Charité provided care for some 138,000 inpatients and day case patients and about 788,000 outpatients. There are 9,879 students enrolled in medicine, dentistry, health care sciences, and nursing programs here, at one of Germany’s largest medical schools. https://www.charite.de/en/ 

About the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité:

The mission of the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) is medical translation: transferring biomedical research findings into novel approaches to personalized prediction, prevention, diagnostics and therapies and, conversely, using clinical observations to develop new research ideas. The aim is to deliver relevant medical benefits to patients and the population at large. As the translational research unit within Charité, the BIH is also committed to establishing a comprehensive translational ecosystem – one that places emphasis on a system-wide understanding of health and disease and that promotes change in the biomedical translational research culture. The BIH was founded in 2013 and is funded 90 percent by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and 10 percent by the State of Berlin. The founding institutions, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Max Delbrück Center, were independent member entities within the BIH until 2020. Since 2021 the BIH has been integrated into Charité as its so-called third pillar. The Max Delbrück Center is now the Privileged Partner of the BIH.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Padilla, Ruiz Celebrate Groundbreaking of Salton Sea Species Conservation Habitat Project Expansion

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

Padilla, Ruiz Celebrate Groundbreaking of Salton Sea Species Conservation Habitat Project Expansion

WATCH: Padilla highlights Inflation Reduction Act funding for Salton Sea habitat conservationSALTON SEA, CA — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife, and Congressman Raul Ruiz, M.D. (D-Calif.-25) joined federal and state leaders to announce the expansion of a restoration project at the south end of the Salton Sea through the Salton Sea Management Program (SSMP). The event celebrated the groundbreaking of the expansion of the Species Conservation Habitat (SCH) Project after the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation awarded California $70 million from the Inflation Reduction Act for the project last December.
The investment is a portion of the $250 million that Padilla, Ruiz, the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, and Representative Juan Vargas (D-Calif.-52) secured for the SSMP from funds included in the Inflation Reduction Act for drought resiliency. The federal funding commitments were made in the 2022 Commitment to Support Salton Sea Management Related to Water Conservation in the Lower Colorado River Basin Agreement.
The expansion of the SCH Project represents a multiagency collaboration to address the ecological challenges facing the Salton Sea. The commitments made by the federal and state governments, as well as from regional agencies, will add 750 acres to the project’s footprint. This unprecedented support helps set the current project footprint at nearly 5,000 acres with the potential to expand to around 8,000 acres.
“As the Salton Sea lakebed recedes, toxic dust is contaminating air quality and threatening the stability of the local ecosystem,” said Senator Padilla. “The $250 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding we secured for the Salton Sea Management Program is essential not only to protect public health in surrounding communities, but to restore the habitat of the abundant aquatic and avian wildlife in the region. Today’s exciting groundbreaking of the Species Conservation Habitat Project expansion will expand critical wetland habitat and improve air quality around the hazardous exposed lakebed.”
“For years, my constituents have shared their concerns about the harmful impacts of the Salton Sea. As a physician in Congress, I have been committed to addressing this ongoing public health and environmental crisis,” said Congressman Ruiz, M.D. “Thanks to our partnership with the Biden-Harris administration and the $4 billion secured through the Inflation Reduction Act to stabilize the Colorado River Basin, we are bringing vital resources to our communities that will protect the health, environment, and economy of our region.”
“Our largest project at the Salton Sea to suppress dust and restore habitat is getting bigger,” said Wade Crowfoot, Secretary for the California Natural Resources Agency. “The Biden-Harris Administration and our Congressional delegation delivered major funding to get this done, and it’s another step forward at the Sea. I’m proud of our partnerships and progress, while we all know much more work lies ahead.”
“It was less than two years ago that we signed a memorandum of understanding for the Salton Sea, and here we are today breaking ground on phase two of the Species Conservation Habitat Project, on the heels of signing the largest water conservation agreement with the Imperial Irrigation District,” said Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. “We’re grateful to our partners in the State of California, the Imperial Irrigation District Board, and farmers and growers in the Imperial and Coachella Valley for leading the way for the Sea and the Colorado River Basin.”
“California’s commitment to protecting the Colorado River by conserving 1.6 million acre-feet under the Lower Basin Plan would not have been possible without the leadership of the Biden-Harris administration and Commissioner Touton,” said JB Hamby, Chairman for the Colorado River Board of California. “Their historic $250 million investment in California’s Species Conservation Habitat — the largest ever for Salton Sea restoration — marks a turning point. Together, these efforts protect both the Colorado River and the Salton Sea.”
Located at the south end of the Salton Sea, near the community of Westmorland, the project aims to restore ecological value at the Salton Sea and help protect regional air quality by
Creating a network of ponds and wetlands;
Providing a habitat for fish and birds that visit the Salton Sea; and
Suppressing dust within the project area.
In August, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Imperial Irrigation District agreed to conserve nearly 230 billion gallons of water by 2026, facilitate land access for project implementation, and provide an additional $175 million in federal funding to accelerate California’s Salton Sea restoration efforts.
Comprised of the California Natural Resources Agency, the California Department of Water Resources, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the SSMP is implementing a 10-year plan to improve the conditions around the Salton Sea by constructing 29,800 acres of habitat and dust suppression projects while establishing a long-term pathway for the Salton Sea’s success.
Senator Padilla worked to include $4 billion for drought resiliency and inland waterways, including for projects to address historic drought impacting the Colorado River Basin and Salton Sea, in the Inflation Reduction Act. The $250 million in federal funding Padilla secured for the SSMP allows the Department of the Interior to contribute to vital restoration projects at the Salton Sea, including to expedite existing projects that the State of California and California water users are contributing to, like the SCH Project. Last Congress, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee advanced Padilla and Senator Feinstein’s Salton Sea Projects Improvements Act to give the Interior Department additional authorities to invest in Salton Sea ecological improvement projects and address the public health and environmental crises at the Salton Sea. Padilla also applauded the Department of the Interior last year for awarding approximately $367 million to California partners to protect the Colorado River Basin, including to restore the Salton Sea.
Additional photos from the event are available here.

MIL OSI USA News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Major crackdown on NHS waste
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

A new strategy is being published to radically cut the number of single-use medical devices in the health service.
Move to scrap single-use MedTech as Health and Social Care Secretary launches waste blitz

Tens of millions of disposable items are binned after just one use

MedTech companies incentivised to produce sustainable products – pumping millions back to NHS frontline and cash into economy

The government is launching a major crackdown on waste in the NHS to save millions of pounds a year, helping to divert more resources to frontline care.

A new strategy – the Design for Life Roadmap – is being published to radically cut the number of single-use medical devices in the health service and reduce our reliance on foreign imports.

Disposable medical devices substantially contribute to the 156,000 tonnes of clinical waste that the NHS produces every year in England alone. The roadmap paves the way to slashing this waste and maximising reuse, remanufacture and recycling in the NHS.

Doing so will create thousands more UK jobs and help transform the country into a life sciences superpower. As it stands, millions of devices like walking aids and surgical instruments are thrown away after just one use.

Harmonic shears – surgical devices which seal patients’ wounds using ultrasound waves – each cost more than £500 and around 90% of them are binned after a single use. Innovative companies are already purchasing these used devices and safely remanufacturing them at a lower price.

The government will encourage more of this kind of innovation to safely remanufacture a wider range of products and drive costs down, including by changing procurement rules to incentivise reusable products and rolling out examples where hospitals are already leading the way on cutting wasteful spending and practices.

Approximately £10 billion each year is spent on medical technology like this in the NHS, but too much of it is imported via vulnerable routes that risk disrupting patient care.

A Circular Economy Taskforce has already been created to foster more highly skilled green jobs and smarter use of our resources. An economy wide shift to a circular economy could add £75 billion to the economy and create 500,000 jobs by 2030.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said:

The NHS is broken. It is the mission of this government to get it back on its feet, and we can’t afford a single penny going to waste.

Because the NHS deals in the billions, too often it doesn’t think about the millions. That has to change. This government inherited a £22 billion blackhole in the public finances, so we will have a laser-like focus on getting better value for taxpayers’ money.

Every year, millions of expensive medical devices are chucked in the bin after being used just once. We are going to work closely with our medical technology industry, to eliminate waste and support homegrown medtech and equipment.

The below case studies illustrate the potential savings:

Mid Yorkshire Trust uses 330,000 single use tourniquets in a year, but a single reusable tourniquet can be used 10,000 times. In a one-year trial, reusable alternatives saved £20,000 in procurement costs and 0.75 metric tonnes of plastic waste.

In Northampton Hospitals NHS Trust, a single Ophthalmology department saved 1,000 pairs of disposable scissors and £12,000 in a year by switching to reusable pairs. Single-use scissors are often used in surgical settings. NHS procurement data shows that several million pairs of single-use scissors were purchased by the NHS in a single year (2022-23). That is the equivalent of hundreds of pairs of scissors thrown away every hour.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust saved £76,610 in costs purchasing 604 remanufactured Electrophysiology (EP) Catheters, and generated a further £22,923 for selling used devices for collection. If the same approach were to be scaled up across the UK, the NHS could save millions of pounds per year on EP catheters alone, just a few product lines among hundreds of thousands.

Harmonic shears are complex devices for performing surgical procedures and cost more than £500 each, yet around 90% are binned after a single use. Leeds University Teaching Hospitals Trust has demonstrated that companies can safely remanufacture them, giving up to 50% cost savings.

The Design for Life programme will reduce this kind of waste and achieve an NHS-wide move to sustainable alternatives– also supporting the government’s net zero goals.

A new roadmap sets out 30 actions to achieve this shift – including how the government will work with companies to encourage the production of more sustainable products, along with training for NHS staff on how to use them.

Taking this approach will mean more money can be spent in the UK, driving growth, creating more engineering, life sciences and research jobs – all while securing savings for the NHS budget.

Many of these products include precious metals such as platinum and titanium which are in high demand but go to landfill when they could be recovered and sold. A reduction in the amount of disposed single-use devices will also reduce the country’s carbon footprint and plastic pollution.

The government will encourage industry figures to innovate by making sure benefits of reusable MedTech are part of how the NHS chooses the products it buys.

Baroness Merron visited University College London Hospital on Tuesday, 15 October. The hospital is a member of the Circular Economy Healthcare Alliance, which advocates for sustainable practices within the NHS.

Health Minister Baroness Gillian Merron said:

Design for Life doesn’t just deliver on the Health Mission, to build an NHS fit for the future, it also delivers on our Growth Mission to make the UK a life science superpower and our commitment to get the NHS to net zero by 2045.

She toured a mock operating theatre and was shown various sustainable products its NHS staff use – from simple products like gowns and scissors to sophisticated, expensive products like harmonic shears.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of NHS England, said:

While the NHS is treating record numbers of patients, we know there is much more to do to ensure taxpayers get value for money.

The NHS made a record £7.25bn worth of efficiency savings last year and is targeting a further £9bn of savings for 2024/25. But we are rightly still looking for ways to get our money’s worth for every penny we spend.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The Design for Life programme was developed with more than 80 stakeholders from the UK MedTech industry, the health and care system, and research organisations.

It forms part of the government’s ambition to transform the UK into a life sciences superpower and ensure sustainability.

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Published 16 October 2024
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI: EBC Financial Group Expands Asset Management Capabilities with Second Australian Financial Services Licence

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

SYDNEY, Oct. 16, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In a significant move toward expanding its global asset management footprint, EBC Financial Group (EBC) has successfully obtained an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) for Asset Management from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC). This acquisition strengthens EBC’s ability to provide sophisticated investment solutions to institutional investors, professional investors, and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) worldwide. By securing the AFSL, EBC is not only deepening its presence in Australia but also enhancing its capacity to serve clients across global markets, aligning with its broader strategy to offer diversified and regulated asset management services on a global scale.

The new licence, issued to EBC Asset Management Pty Ltd, strengthens the group’s existing offerings. It complements EBC’s existing AFSL for General Financial Advice, enhancing the group’s ability to deliver a comprehensive range of investment strategies across asset classes such as real estate, fixed income, equities, and alternative investments, including private equity and venture capital funds. This marks a key milestone in EBC’s continued effort to expand its global financial ecosystem.

Global Strategy: Addressing an Evolving Investment Landscape
As global economic uncertainties and market volatility increase, more HNWIs and institutional investors are seeking stable asset management solutions. EBC’s acquisition of the AFSL for Asset Management is a strategic response to these changing dynamics, enabling the company to offer flexible investment options and enhanced market access. By securing this licence, EBC is well-positioned to address the growing demand for reliable, diversified investment strategies, not just in Australia but across global markets, ensuring clients worldwide can benefit from EBC’s expertise in regulated and transparent environments like Australia’s.

Previously, under the AFSL for General Financial Advice, EBC provided a wide range of financial products and services to both retail and wholesale clients. The new licence empowers EBC to offer specialised services exclusively for wholesale clients globally. These services include general financial product advice on managed investment plans (excluding investor-directed portfolio services) and securities. Additionally, EBC is now authorised to facilitate financial product transactions, including issuing, applying for, acquiring, varying, or disposing of interests in managed investment schemes and securities. This also extends to offering custodial services that provide enhanced protection and transparency for client assets.

Kris Wang, Country Head of EBC Financial Group in Australia, stated, “The acquisition of this licence reflects our commitment to maintaining the highest regulatory standards while broadening our asset management capabilities. We are dedicated to delivering a diversified and robust investment portfolio designed to meet the varied requirements of high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors.”

Strategic Expansion into Australia’s High-Net-Worth Market
Australia is home to a substantial number of HNWIs, with approximately 400,000 individuals whose assets exceed USD 1 million. By obtaining the AFSL for Asset Management, EBC is positioned to capitalise on this market, offering investment strategies that cater specifically to the wealth management needs of Australia’s growing high-net-worth population, including family office solutions and international investment products. EBC’s global experience will also help clients navigate regulatory complexities and optimise cross-border investments.

“We see immense potential in Australia’s growing high-net-worth segment,” added Wang. “Our goal is to leverage our global expertise to help investors optimise their portfolios through diversified and innovative investment strategies. We also plan to expand our services to include family office management and other global investment products in the near future.”

Custody and Family Office Services: Core to Future Growth
Custody services, which are a core component of EBC’s long-term strategy, are a vital addition to EBC’s Australian service offerings. Through custodial services, EBC ensures the segregation of client funds, enhancing asset transparency and compliance. EBC’s planned family office services will offer bespoke wealth management support to HNWIs and institutional clients, addressing complex cross-asset and cross-border wealth management needs, including tax optimisation and wealth inheritance, further strengthening EBC’s ability to serve clients worldwide.

With the new asset management licence, EBC Financial Group continues to solidify its global presence, offering premium financial services to wholesale clients in both developed and emerging markets. This strategic move aligns with EBC’s broader mission of delivering sophisticated investment solutions that meet the evolving demands of investors worldwide.

About EBC Financial Group
Founded in the esteemed financial district of London, EBC Financial Group (EBC) is renowned for its comprehensive suite of services that includes financial brokerage, asset management, and comprehensive investment solutions. EBC has quickly established its position as a global brokerage firm, with an extensive presence in key financial hubs such as London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, the Cayman Islands, and across emerging markets in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa, and India. EBC caters to a diverse clientele of retail, professional, and institutional investors worldwide.

Recognised by multiple awards, EBC prides itself on adhering to the leading levels of ethical standards and international regulation. EBC Financial Group’s subsidiaries are regulated and licensed in their local jurisdictions. EBC Financial Group (UK) Limited is regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), EBC Financial Group (Cayman) Limited is regulated by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), EBC Financial Group (Australia) Pty Ltd, and EBC Asset Management Pty Ltd are regulated by Australia’s Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

At the core of EBC Group are seasoned professionals with over 30 years of profound experience in major financial institutions, having adeptly navigated through significant economic cycles from the Plaza Accord to the 2015 Swiss franc crisis. EBC champions a culture where integrity, respect, and client asset security are paramount, ensuring that every investor engagement is treated with the utmost seriousness it deserves.

EBC is the Official Foreign Exchange Partner of FC Barcelona, offering specialised services in regions such as Asia, LATAM, the Middle East, Africa, and Oceania. EBC is also a partner of United to Beat Malaria, a campaign of the United Nations Foundation, aiming to improve global health outcomes. Starting February 2024, EBC supports the ‘What Economists Really Do’ public engagement series by Oxford University’s Department of Economics, demystifying economics, and its application to major societal challenges to enhance public understanding and dialogue.

https://www.ebc.com/

Media Contact:
Susindhraseghar Chandrasekar
Global Public Relations (APAC, LATAM)
susindhra.c@ebc.com

Chyna Elvina
Global Public Relations Manager (APAC, LATAM)
chyna.elvina@ebc.com

Douglas Chew
Global Public Relations Lead
douglas.chew@ebc.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2ef43b93-2ecf-4d4c-a6ca-8c91ff2aa721

The MIL Network –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Australia: Joint doorstop interview, Brisbane

Source: Australian Treasurer

JIM CHALMERS:

Welcome to the most important electorate in Australia, the People’s Republic of Rankin. Welcome to the PM, Clare, Meaghan, this is our home patch. Cameron Dick and I and Shannon Fentiman, we’re really proud to represent this part of South East Queensland. We’ve got really 2 fantastic announcements to be making today.

The first one which Clare will elaborate on is that we are announcing more money for this part of the world for more housing. More housing for Meadowbrook, more housing for South East Queensland, more housing for middle Australia, and most importantly, more housing for essential workers and social housing tenants near where the jobs and essential services are being provided. The wonderful thing about this part of South East Queensland – we’ve got a university there, a hospital and a TAFE there, a retail centre there, 2 motorways, a train station – and this is all about making sure that we build more homes for Australians where the jobs and essential services are. And so it’s a really important day to be making this announcement. This kind of funding is at risk with the worst combination of David Crisafulli and Peter Dutton and we make that clear as well today.

More homes for our local community. Our highest priorities are housing and the cost of living and the Albanese Labor government, the Miles Labor government, we work together really closely to do whatever we can to build more homes and to ease the cost of living for more people. And a really important part of what we’re announcing today are our efforts to crack down on excessive charges when it comes to using credit cards and debit cards and tapping your phone. Too many Australians are paying too much when they tap their phone or use their credit cards. Too many Australians are paying too much when it comes to excessive fees on debit cards, in particular. We are cracking down on excessive fees for debit cards and we are funding the ACCC to do their important work in this regard as well. We are prepared to ban surcharges on debit cards subject to the important work that the RBA is doing, and also making sure that there aren’t unintended consequences for small businesses and for consumers. This is all about a better deal for consumers and small businesses. People are paying surcharges which are too high just to use their own money, and we want to see what we can do to crack down on that. We are prepared to ban the surcharges on debit cards subject to making sure that consumers and small businesses are the beneficiaries of any change. This is a really complex system. There are a number of fees at play in this system. It’s why the RBA’s work is so important, and it’s why it’s so important that this Albanese Labor government is taking action to crack down on excessive fees. While this work is being undertaken, we will provide $2.1 million to the ACCC for their education and monitoring and to make sure that businesses are doing the right thing when it comes to the charging of these fees and surcharges. We are making it really clear today. This Albanese Labor government is about easing the cost of living and building more homes. Whether it’s excessive surcharges using debit cards, whether it’s building more homes in communities, just like the Miles government, we are focused on the main game for middle Australia and that’s why we’re here today. I’ll throw you over to the Deputy Premier and Treasurer of Queensland, Cameron Dick.

CAMERON DICK:

Well, thanks, Jim. It is terrific to have the Prime Minister, Jim, Clare and Meaghan in Logan here today to announce more homes for Queenslanders. And this is what happens when you have a State Labor government and a Federal Labor government working together to deliver for the people of Queensland. This isn’t something you get from the Greens and it is certainly something you would never get from the LNP. It’s also great to have 2 Queensland based institutions, the Australian Retirement Fund and the Brisbane Housing Company, collaborating together to deliver on this project. We’ve already got homes through that collaboration coming out of the ground in Redcliffe, Chermside and Southport and now we will see more homes right here in Logan for hardworking Queenslanders. And so we very much welcome this announcement today and we thank the Prime Minister and his federal team for supporting Queensland.

I just wanted to say something briefly before I hand over to the Prime Minister on David Crisafulli and the LNP’s election commitments, their costings and of course, their plan for cuts. Yesterday, David Crisafulli said he wouldn’t borrow for the operational costs of government. That would mean David would have to cut $3 billion as soon as he took office in October. It means David Crisafulli would have to cut $10 million a day, each and every day until the 30th of June next year to deliver on his promise. That means there are 17,000 Queenslanders whose jobs are now on the line under David Crisafulli and the LNP. And that is before he even finds one cent to pay for the $18 billion in election commitments that are unfunded and that he has already announced in this campaign. David Crisafulli won’t even tell Queenslanders the total of the election commitments he’s made in this campaign so far. That’s because he would have to tell Queenslanders what he would have to cut to deliver on those promises.

I’ll hand over to the Prime Minister and thank him again for coming to Queensland and making this important announcement for the people of our state.

ANTHONY ALBANESE:

Well, thanks very much, Treasurer. And it’s great to be here with 2 treasurers and 2 housing ministers and I think 3 local members here in Logan. It’s fantastic to be, particularly to be in my friend, the Treasurer’s electorate of Rankin, and to show what happens when good Labor governments work together. This is about 1,100 new homes for Queenslanders – 1,100 new homes that will be built, including right here on this site, but throughout South East Queensland as well. It comes on top of, just a couple of weeks ago, the announcement we made in Cairns with about 500 new affordable and social homes being built there. This is about increasing housing supply, which is what our commitment is to do.

It’s also about easing the cost of living and the measures that the Treasurer spoke about before in outlawing debit card surcharges, having a real crack at making sure that people, when they use their own money, there shouldn’t be surcharges on them using their money. And that’s why we are providing additional funds – $2.1 million for the ACCC – but also the Reserve Bank doing their inquiry to make sure that the details of this are got right, that small businesses looked after on the way through. This is my government’s priority, looking after the cost of living whilst also delivering on housing supply in partnership with state and territory governments. And it stands in stark contrast to our opponents. Be it David Crisafulli, who doesn’t seem to have too many policies I’ve got to say, at the Queensland election, and certainly no costed ones, and the Federal Opposition that today Michael Sukkar was out there once again just being opposed to our investment in new housing. They said they’ll get rid of the Housing Australia Future Fund. They’ve said they’re against the targets that we’ve set in partnership with state and territory governments, with those financial incentives for better planning for state and territory governments to make sure that we increase the supply. This project here as well is about our support for infrastructure in order so that homes can be built. It’s one of the missing pieces in the puzzle of housing supply that we are addressing. Making sure that energy, sewerage, water can all be connected so that new homes can be built. Something that we are providing that was never provided under the former government that didn’t for a while even bother to have a Housing Minister. I’ll turn to Clare and then we’re happy to take questions.

CLARE O’NEIL:

Thank you, PM and Treasurer, can I thank you for welcoming us to your beautiful electorate. We all know a bit about Jim Chalmers and one way to get the guy talking is to ask him about his community here in Rankin and you won’t hear the end of it. He is a huge advocate for this local area, he’s very proud of where he comes from, and it’s fantastic to be here. This is a really big and important announcement for South East Queensland where the Albanese government and the Miles Labor government here are announcing 1,100 new homes for Queenslanders. Five hundred will be constructed on this site here in Meadowbrook and 600 others will be scattered around some of the nearby suburbs. This is a reflection of what gets done when state and federal governments identify something that matters hugely to our constituents and that’s housing, and then works together to make a difference to that problem. We are, without question, one of the boldest and most ambitious Commonwealth governments on housing that we have seen for a generation in this country. We came from a standing start. The Prime Minister here mentioned that for most of the time the Coalition were in power, they didn’t even have a Housing Minister. Didn’t even have a Housing Minister. That’s how tapped out they were on this critical problem. Well, we have changed all that. Our country, led as it is by a Prime Minister whose access to housing in his childhood totally transformed the rest of his life. So, what are we doing? We’re building more homes. An ambitious target to build 1.2 million homes around the country over the coming 5 years. We’re helping renters through the work we’re doing with National Cabinet and lifts to the Commonwealth Rent Assistance payment. And we’re making sure that more Australians can own their own homes. We’ve helped 120,000 citizens get into home ownership in the time we’ve been in government. And we would be able to do more if other parties in the Parliament would come together and work with us. Now, we’ve got boldness and we’ve got ambition. But what do I see when I look at other parties in the Parliament? Well, I see the Greens who say some of the right things about housing. But when it comes time to make real progress for real people, instead of helping childcare workers and aged care workers get into housing, they instead try to play politics and stand in their path. And then I see the Liberals who have not a shred of credibility when it comes to housing. We heard this morning the Shadow Housing Minister, Michael Sukkar, make extraordinary admissions in a radio interview where, firstly, he said that the government is being too ambitious about housing. He says that if the Liberals are elected federally, they will scrap having a housing target altogether. Well, it’s that kind of low ambition that got us to where we are right now. And that is in a housing crisis where this is affecting the lives of millions of people in our country and the Liberals want us to lower our ambitions. The second thing he told us is that they want to make more cuts to states and territories in the funding that we’re giving them to make housing possible. Well, this is where we are right here. 1,100 new homes that’s made through that partnership that we’ve worked through with National Cabinet and we know with the Liberals we’ll get what we always get. That is cuts, cuts, cuts that hurt real people.

ALBANESE:

Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST:

PM, on the banking surcharge, it’s been welcomed by some, but others are saying that a few cents here and there might not save people that much in a cost living crisis. I guess, how do you expect it to assist people if they’re only saving small amounts on these surcharges?

ALBANESE:

We think it’ll make a difference. And when people go and they see a price up on the board at the business where they’re making a purchase – that should be the purchase price. There shouldn’t be hidden charges and surcharges there when people are using their own money. Bear this in mind – a debit card is taking money directly from people’s accounts. It is their money and there shouldn’t be surcharges on it.

JOURNALIST:

Prime Minister, this is a housing announcement, do you think it’s a good look to be buying a $4.2 million home during a cost‑of‑living crisis?

ALBANESE:

Well, Jodie and I are getting married, as is known, and I’m pleased about that. And Jodie’s a Coastie. She’s a proud Coastie. She’s as proud of being a Coastie as Jim is here, of being a Logan lifelong resident. There are 3 generations of Haydons on the coast there. And when your relationship changes, your life changes and you make decisions. But what I’m focused on is making sure that everyone can get a roof over their head. I’m focused on increased public housing and social housing investment. That’s why we have our Housing Australia Future Fund. We’re focused on increased rentals, which is why we have our Build to Rent scheme. And we’re focused, in addition to that, in getting more housing supply, such as the 1,100 homes for Queenslanders that we’re announcing right here.

JOURNALIST:

PM, buying a $4 million dollar home is very different to buying a modest family home or living on a block like this. Do you think it’s a good look?

ALBANESE:

I have – of course, I am much better off as Prime Minister. I earn a good income. I understand that. I understand that I’ve been fortunate, but I also know what it’s like to struggle. My mum lived in the one public housing that she was born in for all of her 65 years. And I know what it’s like, which is why I want to help all Australians into a home, whether it be public homes or private rentals or home ownership.

JOURNALIST:

PM, it’s been reported that Australia is seeking an assurance from PNG it won’t sign new security agreements with China in return for the $600 million assistance package for its NRL bid. Can you confirm if there is a security element in this agreement and what exactly it says?

ALBANESE:

This is a relationship between friends and what we don’t do is have our security arrangements out there in public. What we do is to work with our friends and partners. Papua New Guinea has made it very clear that Australia is their security partner of choice.

JOURNALIST:

PM, do you plan to retire at that house on the New South Wales Central Coast?

ALBANESE:

Sorry?

JOURNALIST:

Are you planning to retire there?

ALBANESE:

I’m planning to be in my current job for a very long period of time.

JOURNALIST:

Are you going to rent it out in the meantime?

ALBANESE:

I’m planning to be in my current – I haven’t bought it yet. To be clear, it hasn’t settled yet, these arrangements, I’m very transparent. I declare everything. I’ve declared, some time ago, if you followed the story that I was selling a house in the Inner West that will make a contribution towards this.

JOURNALIST:

There’s been a lot of commentary around the hope from Federal Labor that some of the frustration may be taken out on October 26 and then maybe go easy at the federal election. What do you make of this and are you concerned about support for Labor in Queensland?

ALBANESE:

I want people to vote Labor in Queensland and to return Steven Miles as the Premier and this bloke here as the Deputy Premier, because I want a government that actually cares about Queenslanders. It’s a government that’s committed to increasing housing supply, that’s committed to dealing with cost‑of‑living pressures, including the 50 cent fares. I had the privilege of going on Gold Coast Light Rail yesterday. It’s committed to the free school lunches to make sure that people are looked after. This is a government that is getting things done and is worthy of re‑election and I’m very pleased to campaign with them.

JOURNALIST:

PM, Canada has expelled 6 Indian diplomats, accusing them of being part of a criminal network targeting the Sikh diaspora. Have you spoken, or do you plan to speak with Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau about this?

ALBANESE:

I speak with the Prime Minister of Canada all the time.

JOURNALIST:

Does Australia –

ALBANESE:

I speak with the Prime Minister of Canada all the time. And what I do in my relationships with international leaders is I have proper discussions with them and that’s how we get things done. And that’s why – one of the reasons why my government has been so effective in international diplomacy.

JOURNALIST:

On the Bruce Highway, why won’t you match Peter Dutton’s commitment for an 80/20 split.

ALBANESE:

He hasn’t done anything. His commitment? He was part of a government that didn’t fund things, that was good at media releases. I’ll give you the big clue. You can’t drive on a media release. What you can drive on is a road. And to build a road, you need money. So, Rockhampton Ring Road, for example, was $700 million short in terms of its funding. The former government made announcements with $0 attached to it, from time to time. When we came into government last time, we put record funding into the Bruce Highway. $1.3 billion under the Howard government, $7.6 billion under us, and we have $10 billion in our plan for the Bruce Highway, including additional money that we put in in the last Budget.

JOURNALIST:

So, those accusations are credible that we were talking about just before?

ALBANESE:

I’ve answered your question.

JOURNALIST:

Queensland has – you took a 50 cent fare yesterday. Obviously it’s a fair bit more expensive in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, to take a light rail, in Canberra. Should it not be? I mean, it’s increased our patronage in Queensland and would not do the same thing elsewhere?

ALBANESE:

Well, it’s a matter for state and territory governments. But I say this, that the Queensland government – and Cameron or Meaghan might want to comment on this as well – it’s been a huge success. Increasing patronage gets cars off the road, saves people money and also it’s good for people’s health. It’s good for a range of reasons to increase public transport patronage and from a Commonwealth government perspective, I make this point, when it comes to infrastructure. Gold Coast Light Rail, $365 million in the 2009 budget from the government when I was the Infrastructure Minister and now stage 3 underway, will be completed next year. It was opposed by the LNP – state and federal. You had federal LNP members like Steve Ciobo collecting petitions against Gold Coast Light Rail. Cross River Rail, major project to increase the whole capacity of the network was funded $715 million from the Commonwealth with an availability payment going forward each year in partnership with what was the Queensland LNP government then, originally started under the Labor government. Tony Abbott got elected, the whole thing crashed, and then they came up with this ridiculous plan that didn’t go anywhere. Cross River Rail would be open today if Labor governments had kept being elected. That’s why we believe in this. That’s why we’re funding Sunshine Coast Rail as well.

JOURNALIST:

Question for Mr Dick, please.

ALBANESE:

Sure.

JOURNALIST:

Credit rating agency S&P Global has warned Queensland’s AA+ credit rating is in danger of being downgraded due to your spending. How concerning is that?

DICK:

Well, S&P Global and Moody’s went through the Queensland Budget books top to bottom, left to right, up and down after our Budget, and they reaffirmed our AA+ credit rating. And when you look at our competitor states, our comparative states in New South Wales and Victoria, we are streets ahead of them when it comes to budget management and fiscal management in this state. Just a week ago, I announced the unaudited financial results for Queensland. Our net debt for last financial year has been halved from $12 billion to just under $6 billion. Our surplus went up from $600 million to $1.7 billion. And let’s put that in comparison to New South Wales and Victoria. So, our net debt at the end of last financial year was $5.7 billion. In New South Wales , it was $97 billion. In Victoria it was $136 billion. So, that means New South Wales debt is 16 times higher than Queensland and Victoria’s debt is 22 times higher. And so we are in a really strong position to make commitments and deliver on them because our commitments are fully funded. And the question for David Crisafulli and David Janetzki, who did 2 train wreck interviews today, the Shadow Treasurer who’s been in an LNP witness protection program, has not been seen with the Leader on the campaign trail for 2 weeks. And that is disrespectful to train wrecks because a train needs momentum and forward movement before it can run off the rails. We haven’t seen or heard from that bloke. And when he came out today, he didn’t say to Queenslanders – he couldn’t even tell Queenslanders what the total cost of their commitments would be, nor how they would pay for them. Now, their election commitments in this campaign are twice as high as ours. The LNP election commitments in this campaign now total $18 billion, twice as high as Labor. We’ve been upfront about how we’re paying for that. The only way that David Crisafulli can deliver on his promise of not borrowing for operational costs of government, by spending more, reducing taxation, lowering debt, delivering balanced budgets, not having a fiscal deficit, having a fiscal surplus. He has promised all of those things in this campaign. The only way he can deliver that is by cutting and that is what he is going to do. And that should put a shiver down the spine of every Queenslander, because the last LNP leader who offered to the community that he would look after the money of the people of Queensland, the last LNP leader who said that he would deliver a fiscal surplus was Campbell Newman. And 14,000 Queenslanders paid for that promise with their jobs. They built nothing for 3 years. So, they cut operating expenditure and they cut infrastructure expenditure. And the hide of David Crisafulli to say to Queenslanders that he respects money. The hide of David Crisafulli. David Crisafulli doesn’t respect public or private money. This is a man who was responsible for a training company that collapsed under $3 million of debt and owed the Australian Taxation Office $750,000. That’s not a man who respects money. That’s a man who disregards every single creditor of that company, including creditors that came from this community. And so we are fighting hard for the future of Queensland. Fully costed, fully funded plans, our promises will be delivered within the budget envelope and the funding envelope we’ve set aside. You cannot say the same for David Crisafulli.

JOURNALIST:

He wouldn’t have said what they’d said if they didn’t have concerns, though, surely?

DICK:

Well, let’s see what happens when I do – if I have that privilege – when I do the Budget update in December and when I do the Budget next year. Because there are 2 aspects to budgets, one’s expenditure and one’s revenue. And so you have to look at the budget position in total before we go to the ratings agencies and before they look at us. And so we’ll continue to deliver as we’ve delivered for every budget, except my first one, we’ve beaten our debt projections in every budget that I’ve delivered as Treasurer and we’ll continue to work hard to maintain that AA+ credit rating. We are the only state of the big 3 states that didn’t have a credit rating downgrade during or subsequent to COVID. That was because of our effective and appropriate financial and budgetary management and we’re going to continue on that path and people can trust us to deliver on our promises. The only thing you can trust David Crisafulli to do if he’s elected Premier is to cut. Anything else?

JOURNALIST:

Mr Janetzki was on radio this morning that he would release his costings once they make their final announcement. Is that the typical convention? Are you aware of that? And do you think it’s good enough considering voters already going to the polls?

DICK:

Look, this is all just a smokescreen for David Crisafulli to hide his plan for cuts. Our Party, Queensland Labor, has been the most transparent of any political party in any election in history. We put our costings live 2 weeks ago. We said upfront what we would do and how we would pay for it. And I released a budget economic and tax plan 2 weeks ago. Two years ago, David Crisafulli promised to release a tax and debt plan for Queensland. It is now 11 days until the election. David Crisafulli has been the Leader of the LNP now for more than 1,200 days and he still won’t be honest with the people of Queensland. And look, it’s just obvious the reason they won’t tell Queenslanders the total of their election commitments is because they would have to reveal to Queenslanders what they need to cut to deliver those election commitments. Which is why they’re hiding their costings, hiding their funding sources, because their single biggest funding source is to cut. And that’s why they’re not being honest with you.

JOURNALIST:

Amy McMahon from the Greens reckons you’re a hypocrite for recommending a preference for the Katter Australia Party in North Queensland. Are you not assisting an anti‑abortion party here by putting them above the Liberal Party?

DICK:

I don’t take political advice from the Queensland Greens Political Party. I never have and I never will. Anything else?

JOURNALIST:

What have you made of voter sentiment on the ground?

CHALMERS:

I don’t like being called the other Treasurer, but sure, you go ahead.

JOURNALIST:

What have you made of voter sentiment around the area? How closely will you be watching the result, particularly around this area?

CHALMERS:

Oh, look, Queenslanders right around our state desperately need a re‑elected Miles Labor government. You know, I was listening to Cameron and to the PM a moment ago. You know, Cameron is running one of the strongest budgets in the Commonwealth and that’s because we have a couple of things in common. You know, we are all about responsible economic management so that we can afford to provide cost‑of‑living relief for people who really need it, whether it’s in our community right around Queensland or indeed right around Australia. So, we have that in common and we want to work with the Miles Labor government after the election in a couple of weeks’ time. Now, as Cameron rightfully pointed out a moment ago, David Crisafulli and Peter Dutton have got something in common as well. Neither of them will come clean on their secret cuts. And those cuts that Peter Dutton and David Crisafulli won’t tell us about will make Queenslanders and Australians personally financially worse off. They’ll come after wages, they’ll come after housing, they’ll come after health. They will absolutely gut the joint. And we know this because Peter Dutton did that last time with Medicare when he was the Health Minister. And we know this because David Crisafulli is essentially Campbell Newman 2.0. And that was devastating for our local community. That has been a real low point for this part of the world seeing the way that Campbell Newman slashed and hacked at the essential services that local people desperately need. You asked a moment ago about our surcharging change and what it will mean for the cost of living. Now, that’s an important step that we are taking to help ease the cost of living, but it’s not the only step. Tax cuts for every taxpayer, Energy Bill Relief for every household, cheaper medicines, Rent Assistance, cheaper early childhood education, getting wages moving again. And here we have an enthusiastic and willing partner in the Miles Labor government. Cheaper fares for these communities in the outer suburbs are absolutely transformational. I’ve lost count of the amount of times that people have come up to me and said, ‘if you run into Cameron, or if you run into Steven, can you tell him how much we value those 50 cent fares?’ So, I’ll do that in front of all of our friends now, Cam. People appreciate the Energy Bill Relief that we’re working together with Steven and Cameron and Meaghan to provide. And so we desperately need a Miles Labor government re‑elected. We love working with these guys, not because we always have an identical view about every single issue, but because we’ve got a heart for local people. And that shows when it comes to housing, when it comes to health, and when it comes to cost of living.

JOURNALIST:

Sorry, just on the sentiment, you pick up anything on the ground around you?

CHALMERS:

Yeah, well, in our communities, people are desperately relying on the cost‑of‑living help that the Miles government and the Albanese government are providing. Now, we know that people are under pressure. You know, we know that people are doing it tough, but more than acknowledge that, we’re doing something about it. In all of the ways that I ran through a moment ago. And today, in addition, when it comes to surcharging on people’s debit cards, people shouldn’t be paying huge fees to use their own money. The Prime Minister has made that clear and we’ve made that clear today. So, in these local communities, we take no votes for granted. We don’t take any outcome for granted in this election. But I know I’ve seen what it’s like to have mostly state LNP members around here. I’ve seen what it’s like to have mostly Labor state members around here. We desperately need Labor members in this part of the world to look after the interests of the people and to work with Albo and I to make sure we’re rolling out that cost‑of‑living help.

JOURNALIST:

So, Queensland has – the Liberal National Party in Queensland has 21 of the federal seats in Queensland. Do you think that a plebiscite on nuclear power might change that?

CHALMERS:

Oh, we need to do better federally in Queensland. We’ve made that clear. You know, Anthony is an honorary Queenslander. You know, he spends a lot of time here in Queensland and I think Queenslanders understand because he is a practical, pragmatic leader and we are practical and pragmatic people in Queensland. And so, we need to do better, we’ve acknowledged that. Queensland is front and centre when it comes to our efforts as a Federal Labor government, including in the upcoming federal campaign. But first, we’ve got to re‑elect these guys because 2 Labor governments working together are better for local communities like this one.

JOURNALIST:

Queensland Labor has announced help for GP clinics that bulk bill. Isn’t that a tacit admission that Federal Labor hasn’t done enough to stop the gap, the Medicare gap, which has led to this?

CHALMERS:

No, I think it’s a tacit admission that both Labor governments are investing, in our case, billions and billions of dollars in strengthening Medicare. Now, there’s an Urgent Care Clinic down the road in Browns Plains which is making a major difference, taking the pressure off Logan Hospital, which is just next door. These are the investments that Labor governments make in local communities in getting out of pocket health costs down. And we welcome the contribution that the Miles Labor government comes to the table with when it comes to providing more money for health, so that we can get out of pocket costs down, so we can get the waiting times down, so that we can take pressure off local hospitals. But most importantly, make sure that we’re providing the healthcare that local families and pensioners need.

JOURNALIST:

When you were in Opposition, how many days before the election did you announce your costings?

CHALMERS:

Well, we did, unfortunately, we had a couple of goes at it when we were in Opposition and the timing of that varied. The difference was, you know, we didn’t have a big agenda for secret cuts like David Crisafulli does, and like Peter Dutton has. You know, Peter Dutton and Angus Taylor say that there’s $315 billion of spending in the Commonwealth Budget that they don’t support. That includes pension indexation, that includes Medicare funding, that includes funding for veterans, it includes funding for housing. And David Crisafulli and Peter Dutton are joined at the hip when it comes to their secret plans for cuts. I don’t think Queenslanders are asking too much when they say to David Crisafulli, ‘come clean in time for us to make an informed decision.’ And when they do, and if they do, they will understand that the Miles Labor government is providing cost‑of‑living relief, investing in housing and health, and David Crisafulli will cut all of those things as sure as night follows day.

JOURNALIST:

Why upgrade the travel advice to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories?

ALBANESE:

It’s a dangerous place at the moment. We know that that’s the case. So, what we do is we take advice from our security agencies and the government then implements that advice. We know that travelling into an area where there is conflict is a dangerous thing to do and it’s appropriate that the federal government make announcements in accordance with that advice from the security agencies. Can I just make one further point before we wrap up, which is that I was noticing – Clare probably noticed as well this morning – Michael Sukkar actually speak about the delay in implementing the Housing Australia Future Fund roll out and Help to Buy scheme that’s stuck in the Senate. Well, Labor are the builders, they’re the blockers. Between the LNP and the Greens, they blocked the Housing Australia Future Fund and now they’re still blocking the Help to Buy scheme. They could vote for it tomorrow or the next day that Parliament sits, but they don’t. So, they vote against it, block it and then complain that there’s a delay in its implementation. That says it all about how hopeless the Opposition are when it comes to policies that will actually deliver more housing supply. Thanks very much.

MIL OSI News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Australia: Nine new projects to support innovation in SA communities

Source: University of South Australia

16 October 2024

LGA SA CEO Clinton Jury and UniSA Dr Alyson Crozier.

Projects focusing on improving health and fitness, addressing regional staff shortages and tackling pest birds in South Australia are just some of the initiatives funded through the latest round of the Local Government Research and Development Scheme.

Nine new projects supporting local councils will share in nearly $500,000 to fast-track solutions and help build stronger communities.

LGA South Australia CEO Clinton Jury said significant interest in the funding program highlighted its importance and the demand for resources to drive local innovation.

“The Local Government Research and Development Scheme is unique to South Australia and the latest funding round was highly competitive, with 37 applications seeking almost $2.5 million,” Mr Jury said.

“The successful projects address issues such as health and wellbeing, workforce attraction, social inclusion and sustainable practices, all of which are important to local government and communities.

“I congratulate this year’s recipients and look forward to seeing these initiatives in action and making a positive difference across the state.”

One of the funded projects, being led by University of South Australia, will involve monitoring usage of outdoor fitness equipment.
It will involve tracking usage data of fitness equipment in several metropolitan and regional council areas, including user patterns and preferences, which can be used to inform future planning decisions and lead to improved outcomes for all councils across South Australia.

University of South Australia project lead Dr Alyson Crozier said using an evidence-based approach when purchasing outdoor fitness equipment would ensure councils are making the best choices informed by user feedback.

“More than 200 free-to-use outdoor fitness equipment stations have been installed by councils across South Australia to promote physical activity and healthy lifestyles,” Dr Crozier said.

“However, there is limited information about which machines are being used most by community members, and how they’re being used.

“We know purchasing these machines has a cost, so councils need to be confident they’re investing in equipment they know is popular, functional and will be used regularly by their residents and visitors, rather than sit dormant.

“Through this project, we hope to track and share data that councils can use to make informed decisions about the type of outdoor fitness equipment they install in future, leading to even better planned spaces being created for communities to use and enjoy.

“We’re excited to get started and appreciate the funding support we’ve received through the Local Government Research and Development Scheme to bring this initiative to life.”

To be eligible for funding, projects had to demonstrate clear long-term benefits and address future local government needs in the areas of climate and environment, community wellbeing and inclusion, planning and infrastructure, financial sustainability or building sector capability.

Each year the Local Government Research and Development Scheme delivers up to $2 million for innovative projects which benefit South Australian councils and help tackle sector-wide challenges.

To learn more about all nine projects funded through the latest Local Government Research and Development Scheme round, visit: http://www.lga.sa.gov.au/research

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Media contacts:
LGA Media M: +61 476 853 689 E: media@lga.sa.gov.au
UniSA Media – Annabel Mansfield M: +61 479 182 489 E: Annabel.Mansfield@unisa.edu.au

Other articles you may be interested in

MIL OSI News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: Falling Inflation Reflects a Falling Economy

Source: Council of Trade Unions – CTU

Data released by Stats NZ today showed inflation slowed to an annual rate of 2.2%, reflecting lower petrol prices and a weaker economy, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney.

“The data shows that petrol prices fell 8% annually, and vegetable prices fell 18% annually. These reflect both softer global demand and a return to normal harvests after Cyclone Gabrielle. Prices for discretionary spending items such as furniture, electronics, or second-hand vehicles fell. This suggests weak demand and low consumer confidence, which is exactly what you would expect when unemployment is rising,” said Renney.

“Inflation and rising costs that can’t be avoided by households kept rising much faster than the headline rate. Electricity costs are up 7.4% a year. Rates bills rose 12% last year. Pharmaceutical products rose 17% with the reintroduction of prescription fees. Housing insurance was up 20% from last year.

“Rents were the biggest contributor to annual inflation, up 4.5%. It’s clear that the landlord tax cuts aren’t working to reduce rents. Low-income households, struggling after real terms cuts to the minimum wage this year, will still be feeling the pinch of these increases.

“One of the biggest drivers of the fall in inflation was the reduction in early childhood costs associated with the new family boost payment. Without that change quarterly inflation would have risen from 0.6% in September to 0.9%. Yet we know that more than half of all eligible households aren’t claiming that support – meaning that fall is unlikely to be translating into families’ pockets for many. Petrol pricing was supported by the one-off removal of the Auckland Fuel Tax, and with rising oil prices globally that fall is unlikely to be sustained.

“Inflation is falling right now, but low-income workers might not be feeling the benefit as inflation they can’t escape keeps rising. Lower inflation is good news if it doesn’t come at a cost of much higher unemployment, which every forecast tells us will be happening.

“With inflation now being back in the target band, the Government has no reason to not invest in making sure that unemployment doesn’t happen. Anything else is a choice,” said Renney.

MIL OSI New Zealand News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI China: China to work with other countries to pursue open, inclusive sci-tech cooperation

Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

China to work with other countries to pursue open, inclusive sci-tech cooperation

BEIJING, Oct. 15 — China stands ready to work with other countries to pursue open and inclusive sci-tech cooperation, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

According to the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024 recently released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, China moved up one spot to 11th place in the ranking of the world’s most innovative economies compared with last year, remaining the only middle-income economy in the top 30.

In response to a related query, spokesperson Mao Ning said since the GII was launched in 2007, China has steadily moved up in various GII rankings. According to this year’s report, China is one of the fastest 10-year climbers and leads with the most science and technology clusters in the top 100, showing strong momentum in and broad prospects for innovation-driven development, she said.

Mao said the improvement of China’s innovation capability is a result of its increasing research and development (R&D) spending and open and inclusive international cooperation.

According to statistics, China’s R&D expenditure topped 3.3 trillion yuan (over 450 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, up 8.4 percent year on year, Mao said, adding that China has established sci-tech cooperation relations with more than 160 countries and regions and signed 118 inter-governmental agreements on sci-tech cooperation.

The sound environment for innovation and rich human resources in China have attracted more and more multinational businesses to set up R&D centers in this country, she said.

“China’s sci-tech innovation serves the interests of China and the whole world. In the face of the new round of scientific and technological revolution, we stand ready to work with other countries to pursue open and inclusive sci-tech cooperation, share the outcomes of sci-tech innovation and jointly address global challenges,” Mao said.

MIL OSI China News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Australia: Allens advises TPG Telecom on $5.25bn sale of fibre network and Enterprise, Government and Wholesale fixed line business to Vocus

Source: Allens Insights

Allens has advised TPG Telecom on an agreement to sell its fibre network infrastructure and its enterprise, government and wholesale (EGW) fixed line business to Vocus Group Limited for an enterprise value of $5.25 billion.

The sale will include all of TPG Telecom’s fibre and fixed line network infrastructure, its EGW fixed line business, its PPC-1 international submarine cable system and its wholesale broadband business, Vision Network.

The sale price is inclusive of a potential $250 million contingent value payment related to subscriber targets for the Vision Network business.

TPG will retain its mobile and radiocommunications network infrastructure, consumer and EGW mobile business and its consumer and small office/home office fixed retail business, including fixed wireless.

The deal also includes a long-term strategic partnership between TPG and Vocus, with Vocus to provide TPG with ongoing access to its fibre infrastructure.

Allens acted for TPG Telecom on the strategic review of its Vision Network business in 2022. The firm then advised TPG Telecom on negotiations with Vocus and its owners, Macquarie Asset Management and Aware Super, when the parties decided to explore a larger transaction.

‘This transaction demonstrates that telecommunications infrastructure continues to be a highly attractive asset class for financial investors,’ said co-lead Partner and Head of Allens’ Technology, Media & Telecommunications group, Gavin Smith.

‘The pace of digitisation, and the continued growth in requirements for data transmission and storage, means that the physical infrastructure underpinning that trend is highly valued.

‘Allens has had a long-standing relationship with TPG Telecom. We are delighted to advise it on this transformational transaction which allows it to unlock the value of its fixed line networks.’

Co-lead Partner Julian Donnan said: ‘This deal will allow TPG Telecom to focus on its mobile and its consumer and small office/home office fixed retail business, including fixed wireless. We congratulate the teams at TPG Telecom and its financial adviser, Bank of America, with which we worked closely. We also congratulate the Vocus, Macquarie Asset Management and Aware Super teams’.

The deal cements Allens’ position as the leading advisor on telecommunications M&A activity in Australia.

The firm advised on all major Australian and New Zealand telecommunications tower transactions between 2021 and 2024, including: the Morrison and Future Fund investment into Amplitel (Telstra towers); the sale by TPG Telecom of its towers portfolio to OMERS/Waveconn; AustralianSuper on its acquisition of a majority stake in ATN (Optus towers) and the acquisition by ATN of Axicom; Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s acquisition of a majority stake in Connexa, the Spark New Zealand tower company; Connexa’s acquisition of the 2degrees NZ tower portfolio; and NorthLeaf Capital Partners and InfraRed Capital Partnerson their acquisition of Fortysouth, the Vodafone New Zealand towers business. Allens also advised Morrison and Brookfield on its acquisition of Uniti Group.

Allens legal team

Lead partners

Gavin Smith, Julian Donnan

M&A and Capital Markets

Tom Story (Partner), Kimberley Lowrie (Managing Associate), Stephanie Rowan (Senior Associate), Harry Martin (Associate), Will Brown (Senior Associate), Sophie Stitch (Lawyer)

Technology, Media & Telecommunications

Jessica Mottau (Partner), Isabelle Guyot (Managing Associate), David Liao (Senior Overseas Practitioner), Alexandra Martin (Senior Associate), Isaac Nankavill (Associate), Isabelle Orazio (Lawyer), Tasnim Ahsan (Lawyer), Matilda Winnell (Lawyer)

Competition, Consumer and Regulatory

Rosannah Healy (Partner), Robert Walker (Partner), John Yiannakou (Managing Associate), Edison Wang (Senior Associate), Tom Hodgson (Lawyer)

Real Estate & Development

Victoria Holthouse (Partner), Tom Wilson (Senior Associate), Jayne Williams (Senior Associate), Alex Jeffares (Associate)

Banking & Finance

Alan Maxton (Partner), Sarah Denton (Senior Overseas Practitioner), Robert Lau (Senior Associate)

Intellectual Property

Tommy Chen (Managing Associate), Max Jones (Senior Associate)

Employment & Safety

Veronica Siow (Partner), Sikeli Ratu (Partner), Eden Sweeney (Associate)

Contact for further information

Public Relations & Social Media Manager

MIL OSI News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: Release: Sluggish economy means struggles ahead for Kiwis
Source: New Zealand Labour Party

While today’s inflation numbers are good news for Kiwis, there are still struggles ahead with rising rents, rates, insurance and high unemployment.
“Inflation is at 2.2 percent, but the rest of the economy is sluggish,” Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said.

“The Reserve Bank was already on track to get inflation back into the target band. However, non-tradable inflation is still high. Rents are up 4.5 percent, local authority rates and payments are up 12.2 percent.

“Skilled workers are leaving the country in droves, and with cuts to the apprenticeship boost, the workers to fill the gaps simply won’t exist.

“New Zealand continues to grapple with a growing infrastructure deficit that has been generations in the making. If the Government was truly serious about tackling it, you would think having a skilled workforce would be critical.

“Nicola Willis wants to take credit for getting inflation down. She should take responsibility for these statistics as well:
- Net New Zealand citizen migration has never been higher at 56,100
- There are 10,000 fewer people working in construction than when this Government took over
- 22,000 more people are on Job Seeker Benefit
“This Government’s decisions have led to a stagnant economy with fewer jobs,” Barbara Edmonds said.

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MIL OSI New Zealand News –
January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: Release: Cuts to Apprenticeship Boost will fail future NZ

Source: New Zealand Labour Party

The Government’s cuts to the Apprenticeship Boost programme will leave New Zealand without the workforce it needs to build homes, schools and hospitals.

“As we see more and more skilled workers leaving the country, Penny Simmonds has cut the very tool that would ensure more people are trained to fill the gap,” Labour tertiary education spokesperson Dr Deborah Russell said.

“Apprentices in road construction and maintenance, drinking/wastewater treatment, welding and mechanical engineering are just some of the industries where the Apprenticeship Boost no longer applies.

“New Zealand continues to grapple with a growing infrastructure deficit that has been generations in the making. If the Government was truly serious about tackling it, you would think having a skilled workforce would be critical.

“With the economy stagnating, now is the time to support more businesses to take on apprentices to stimulate employment.

“After the global financial crisis, the previous National Government let apprenticeship numbers plummet and did nothing to support businesses to continue to put resource into training. Labour did the opposite during COVID-19 and supported businesses to keep people in work.

“Cutting the Apprenticeship Boost is only adding to rising unemployment, as thousands of Kiwis leave or lose their jobs in construction under National.

“Labour was proud to support businesses to keep on more than 62,000 apprentices through the Apprenticeship Boost programme.

“This is another example of Penny Simmonds taking the tertiary sector backwards. She will go down as the Minister who set polytechnics up to fail and failed New Zealand’s future workforce,” Dr Deborah Russell said.

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MIL OSI New Zealand News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI: Constellation Software Inc. Announces Release Date for Third Quarter Results

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

TORONTO, Oct. 15, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Constellation Software Inc. (TSX:CSU) announced today it intends to release its third quarter results on November 8, 2024.

The Company’s quarterly results will be disseminated via press release and made available on the Company’s website (http://www.csisoftware.com) and the SEDAR website (http://www.sedarplus.ca), after markets close on Friday, November 8, 2024. As outlined in Constellation’s press release on February 23, 2018, Constellation has ceased holding conference calls to discuss the Company’s quarterly financial results. In lieu of the quarterly calls the Company has created a link on its website where shareholders can submit questions to management. Periodically the Company will publish responses to selected questions received. The Company believes this Q&A facility will eventually prove to be a more effective tool than the conference calls because it will be searchable and will provide an archive of all previous responses.

The Company’s goal in establishing this policy is to allow all investors ongoing access to information disclosed about Constellation’s strategy, operations, and ongoing business plans.

Website link: https://www.csisoftware.com/investor-relations/shareholder-q-and-a

About Constellation Software Inc.
Constellation Software acquires, manages and builds vertical market software businesses.

Contact:

Jamal Baksh
Chief Financial Officer
416-861-9677

The MIL Network –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: More good news for Kiwis

Source: New Zealand Government

Today’s inflation figures are more good news for New Zealanders, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says.

Stats NZ reported today that the inflation rate had dropped from 3.3 per cent in the year to June to 2.2 per cent in the year to September. That is down from 5.6 per cent just a year ago and over 7 per cent in 2022.

“At 2.2 per cent inflation, it is also the first time the rate has been back within the Reserve Bank’s target range of 1 to 3 per cent since March 2021.

“The era of crushing price rises is now over.

“Kiwis can look forward to mortgage rate reductions and businesses will find it easier to invest and innovate with a lower cost of borrowing.

“The steps the Government is taking to reduce inflationary pressures by restoring discipline to public spending, reducing the red tape that is stifling innovation and development, and rebuilding business confidence are working.

“Together with the tax relief that took effect on 31 July, and the FamilyBoost childcare payments that many families are now receiving, falling inflation and interest rates mean large numbers of families are now better off than they were a year ago.

“There is more work to be done to get the economy growing, but New Zealanders can be confident we are headed in the right direction.”

MIL OSI New Zealand News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI China: China to work with Tajikistan to tap cooperation potential: Premier Li

Source: China State Council Information Office

Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Tajik Prime Minister Kokhir Rasulzoda on the sidelines of the 23rd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Islamabad, Pakistan, Oct. 15, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Tuesday that China is ready to work with Tajikistan, focusing on the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, to tap the potential of cooperation in various fields and expand cooperation in emerging industries in a bid to inject more impetus into common development.

Li made the remarks during his meeting with Tajik Prime Minister Kokhir Rasulzoda on the sidelines of the 23rd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Li said that in July, President Xi Jinping paid a successful state visit to Tajikistan, during which the two heads of state jointly announced the decision to elevate China-Tajikistan relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in the new era, and to build the China-Tajikistan community with a shared future at a higher level, drawing a new blueprint for the development of China-Tajikistan relations and cooperation.

China is ready to work with Tajikistan to further implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, carry forward traditional friendship, deepen mutual political trust, firmly support each other on core interests, lift China-Tajikistan all-round cooperation to a new level, and bring more benefits to the two peoples, he said.

China is going to work with Tajikistan to strengthen the synergy of development strategies. Guided by the vision of the China-Tajikistan community with a shared future and focusing on the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, China stands ready to tap the potential of bilateral cooperation in various fields, advance cooperation in such fields as trade, investment, mining and agriculture, as well as in emerging industries including new energy and digital economy, promote connectivity, and strengthen people-to-people exchanges and cooperation in culture, education and tourism, in a bid to inject more impetus into common development, he said.

China will work with Tajikistan to implement the outcomes of the first China-Central Asia Summit, strengthen multilateral cooperation, jointly carry out the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, advocate an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, practice true multilateralism, and uphold international fairness and justice, Li said.

Rasulzoda said that the traditional friendship between Tajikistan and China is profound, mutual political trust is solid, and bilateral relations are at the highest level in history.

Tajikistan congratulates the People’s Republic of China on its remarkable development achievements since its founding 75 years ago, and thanks China for its long-term valuable support for Tajikistan’s development, he said, noting that President Xi paid a successful state visit to Tajikistan not long ago, which strongly promoted the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between Tajikistan and China to a higher level.

Tajikistan is willing to work with China to fully implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state of China and Tajikistan, strengthen exchanges at various levels, promote the Belt and Road cooperation, deepen cooperation in such fields as trade, investment, e-commerce, energy, industry, transportation and agriculture, expand cooperation in emerging fields like digital economy and green economy, and deepen cultural and people-to-people exchanges to better benefit the two peoples, he said.

Noting that Tajikistan supports the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind and the three global initiatives proposed by President Xi, Rasulzoda said Tajikistan expects to work with China to promote cooperation between Central Asian countries and China, deepen cooperation within the framework of the United Nations and the SCO, and jointly uphold regional and global peace, stability and development.

MIL OSI China News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI China: Large-scale debt swap eyed to boost economy

Source: China State Council Information Office

A worker counts Chinese currency renminbi at a bank in Linyi, East China’s Shandong province. [Photo/Xinhua]

China is likely to approve a debt swap program worth trillions of yuan as the beginning of a broader plan to decisively forestall any downward economic spiral, economists and policy advisers said.

The debt resolution program — set to be the biggest of its kind in recent years — reflects policymakers’ priority not only to stimulate short-term growth, but also to proactively tackle major structural challenges, opening the door to further substantive policy support, they said.

The policy focus for the coming quarters should include further addressing local governments’ delayed payments to businesses, acquiring idle housing and helping struggling real estate developers overcome difficulties, they said.

The economists and advisers added that by alleviating debt pressures facing local governments, the debt swap plan will improve corporate performance, reinvigorate business expectations and serve as an important stepping stone to economic stabilization.

Noting that this approach is as essential as direct demand stimulus, Robin Xing, chief China economist at Morgan Stanley, said, “Resolving the debt issue is a critical step in stopping a key deflationary downward spiral.”

Xing added that the debt swap program would go beyond merely reducing interest payments. “It can improve the liquidity and balance sheets of local businesses (as local governments honor payables), but more fundamentally, restore stability in the regulatory environment and thus business expectations.”

He estimated that the debt swap program will be no less than 6 trillion yuan ($843 billion) over multiple years, with the central government taking over some local debt burdens, and added that this year may see a 2 trillion yuan supplementary fiscal package for local debt resolution and bank recapitalization.

Finance Minister Lan Fo’an said on Saturday that the Finance Ministry plans to increase the debt limit by a large scale at once and replace the hidden debt of local governments, without disclosing the specific size of the plan.

The market is waiting for the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature, to convene in late October or early November to approve the specifics of the plan.

Sheng Zhongming, a research fellow at the CF40 Institute, which is affiliated with the China Finance 40 Forum think tank, said that a debt swap would convert high-cost and structurally complex implicit debt into more sustainable low-cost and standardized government bonds, reflecting a policy orientation of securing this year’s growth target while tackling persistent structural problems.

China must confront the key structural issues of local debt risks, outstanding government payments to businesses, real estate concerns and the recapitalization needs of banks, Sheng said, which will require at least 10 trillion yuan in additional public funds over several years in order to be effectively addressed.

Wang Yiming, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, suggested leveraging central government funding to address local governments’ overdue payments to businesses that accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To further address the real estate downturn, a feasible solution could be establishing a special fund, financed by fiscal funds, to acquire housing stock and convert it into government-subsidized rental housing for new urban residents, said Wang, who also serves as a monetary policy committee member of the nation’s central bank.

Li Daokui, director of Tsinghua University’s Academic Center for Chinese Economic Practice and Thinking, said it is imperative to address the situation in which local governments face extremely tight cash flows while banks are flush with liquidity.

Li suggested that local debt at least equivalent to 20 percent of the country’s GDP, or around 30 trillion yuan, should be replaced with longer-term treasury bonds.

MIL OSI China News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Senator Markey Maps Need for Climate Action and Highlights Federal Investments in Massachusetts Climate Resilience, Following Extreme Weather Events Across the Country

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey

Calls for more investment in resilient schools and hospitals and for a federal climate emergency declaration

WATCH: Senator Markey, advocates discuss climate resilience

Senator Markey joined by City Councilor Gabriela “Gigi” Coletta Zapata; Brian Swett, Boston’s Chief Climate Officer; Dwaign Tyndal, Executive Director of Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE); and John Walkey, Noemy Rodriguez, and Roseann Bongiovanni from GreenRoots.

Boston (October 15, 2024) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today was joined in Boston by local officials and advocates to call for increased federal investment to bolster the climate resilience of regions at risk of sea level rise – exacerbated by devastation from climate change-fueled storms, as well as highlight ongoing resiliency projects in Massachusetts, following two devastating hurricanes in the southeastern United States that are expected to cost $300 billion and have resulted in more than 250 deaths. Senator Markey announced that over the past two years, Boston, Chelsea, and Revere have already secured more than $75 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act for resiliency projects that include building resilient transportation corridors in Roxbury, greening the Chelsea Creek waterfront, and making the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) Blue Line more flood resistant. In total, Massachusetts has secured approximately $200 million for climate resiliency projects from those two laws so far. Senator Markey was joined by Brian Swett, Chief Climate Officer for the City of Boston; Boston City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata; Roseann Bongiovanni, Noemy Rodriguez, and John Walkey from GreenRoots; and Dwaign Tyndal, Executive Director of Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE).

“If we don’t drive down our emissions as a country, we could see more than six feet of sea level rise by the end of the century. That’s sunny-day flooding in neighborhoods from East Boston to Back Bay. TD Garden wouldn’t be flooded with a sea of fans—it would be flooded by the sea itself. Back Bay will go back to the bay,” said Senator Markey. “Our task is twofold. One, cut climate pollution by ushering in a clean energy revolution unlike any we’ve seen before, dismantling our dependence on fossil fuels. And two, prepare for the future by investing in resilient buildings and strong communities. Thanks in part to the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are well on our way to meet that second goal. In Massachusetts, we don’t wait, we create.”

“Chelsea and East Boston, the two communities that we serve at GreenRoots, are frontline environmental justice communities that are disproportionately impacted by environmental assault. On a daily basis, environmental justice communities throughout the United States and in the Global South face increased frequency of severe storms, storm surge, sea level rise, drought, heat island impacts, wildfires and much more. We need federal leadership like that of Senator Markey’s to prioritize policies and investments in climate resilience and climate justice, an end to fossil fuel use, and implementing greater renewable, resilient energy,” said Roseann Bongiovanni, Executive Director of GreenRoots.

“Many of the people here have immigrated as a result of natural disasters in their home countries, and with climate change, we know that natural disasters are only going to be increasing in number. When this happens, we need to ask the questions, ‘Where are we going to go? What is going to happen to us?’ These are the questions and worries that many of us have, not just for East Boston, but all over the country. We are the first generation feeling the effects of climate change and we may be the last generation that can do something about it,” said Noemy Rodriguez, Waterfront Initiative Organizer at GreenRoots.

“We know that when climate change happens, the least among us are the first affected and the worst affected. We frequently say that people are a paycheck away from disaster. According to FEMA, just an inch of floodwater in a home causes roughly about $25,000 in damages. There are over 400,000 Massachusetts residents living in the hundred-year flood zone which means more than a one in four chance of having a flood during a 30-year mortgage period. If home ownership is the route to generational wealth that we would leave to the next generation, we need to be planning and prepared for this,” said John Walkey, Director of Climate Justice & Waterfront Initiatives.

“Boston is deeply grateful for Senator Markey’s unwavering leadership in securing critical federal funds that are bolstering our city’s climate resilience. Thanks to our partners in the federal government, Boston has secured over $60 million in grants for coastal resilience projects helping us protect our neighborhoods from rising sea levels and extreme storms. However, with the increasing frequency of extreme weather, much more work remains, and additional funding is essential to fully safeguard our city and its most vulnerable communities,” said Brian Swett, Chief Climate Officer for the City of Boston.

“We have a moral obligation to move quickly to identify all strategies and tools that are at our disposal to ensure that Boston’s forty-seven-mile coastline is resilient and to protect these residents. I want to thank Senator Markey for his leadership in the Senate, and President Biden’s leadership in securing these necessary federal funds that Boston is now being awarded, which will help protect our communities. This is our next big challenge. We need the resources, capital, and collaboration to adequately protect Boston. We need the vital investments coming down the pike from the federal government in both green and gray infrastructure to protect our future. I am hopeful, with the level of partnership and leadership on display here across all levels of government, advocacy groups and philanthropy, and I know that we will continue to lean in and get it done,” said Boston City Councilor Gabriela “Gigi” Coletta Zapata.

“This is a reminder, a call to arms, a warning and a reality check. We may have more resources than imagination to deal with this issue. We have all the policy, the information, and the possible solutions. The struggle now is to push beyond our imagination to do what we need to get this done. This is not going to be a part of the political cycle, or fundraising cycles, but part of the continual struggle and persistence that many of us are here today are taking part in,” said Dwaign Tyndal, Executive Director of Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE).

The destruction of extreme weather events is disproportionately felt by Black, Brown, low-income, and immigrant communities, who are burdened by historical disinvestment and the compounded effects of legacy pollution and dangerous infrastructure sited in their neighborhoods. Under the Biden-Harris administration, including through the historic Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, federal funding has come to Massachusetts to help prevent the worsening impacts of climate change and support the Commonwealth’s climate resilience efforts, but continued federal investment in resiliency and clean energy will be needed to help avoid worsening disasters and billion-dollar storm recoveries in the future.

Senator Markey has been working to ensure that Massachusetts is climate resilient and prepared for extreme weather events, which are only increasing in frequency due to climate change. On October 4, Senator Markey joined Mayor Jennifer Macksey for a briefing on the Hoosic River Flood Mitigation Study, a project that aims to evaluate potential flood risk reduction measures and support development of a new flood mitigation system built with 21st-century engineering standards. Senator Markey led the effort to get the study included in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), advocated for $750,000 in funding for the Army Corps of Engineers this year, and has secured $950,000 in the pending appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25).

In September, Senator Markey announced a grant of $472 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to the MBTA to fully replace the North Station Draw One Bridge and renovate Platform F at North Station. The grant is the largest federal award the MBTA has won to date. The nearly half a billion-dollar grant will provide critical support for one of MBTA’s top priority projects and a vital transportation asset to MBTA’s north-side operations. It will also support more than 14,500 jobs, make the bridge more climate resilient by bringing it above projected sea-level rise, and lower emissions.

In August, on the second anniversary of the historic Inflation Reduction Act, Senator Markey launched his Climate Hub, a centralized site with resources to help stakeholders navigate opportunities from both the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Together, these two laws have created the largest and most significant climate and clean energy investments in history, putting the United States on a path to address the climate crisis, repair historic harms to disadvantaged communities, create good-paying union jobs in the clean energy economy, and work towards a Green New Deal future.

MIL OSI USA News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: ADB to Support Green and Low-Carbon Urban Development in Chongqing, PRC

Source: Asia Development Bank

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (16 October 2024) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $200 million equivalent loan to help build and implement green, low-carbon, climate-resilient, and cross-sector urban development measures in Chongqing Gaoxin District in Chongqing Municipality, the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

“Chongqing has ambitious climate change targets, as well as a strong commitment to evolving Chongqing Gaoxin District into a low-carbon, nature-based, and climate-resilient city. But a holistic and integrated approach is critical to long-term success,” said ADB Country Director for the PRC Safdar Parvez. “This results-based lending program will foster collaboration among stakeholders and benefit almost a million residents.”

Chongqing experiences severe climate events, such as high temperatures, mountain fires, heavy rain, and droughts. The city’s rapid urban and industrial development has also degraded environmental quality, with Chongqing Gaoxin District facing frequent flooding, subpar infrastructure, and poor river water quality.

The Chongqing Gaoxin District Green and Low-Carbon Urban Development Program will support green and low-carbon infrastructure and services, including improved domestic wastewater management, green buildings, and renewable-energy-powered district heating and cooling supply. It will also support the development of a green eco-district—which applies sustainable urban practices like efficient resource usage and lowered carbon emissions into design and operation—and application of nature-based solutions, including enhanced flood mitigation capacity and urban green spaces.

The program will also strengthen institutional capacity and human capital to build and implement green and low-carbon initiatives, as well as train students, especially females, for roles toward climate-resilient urban development.

ADB’s climate finance for the program is $124 million, with an estimated $72.75 million in mitigation costs and $51.25 million in adaptation costs. The total program cost is $841.9 million equivalent. It is expected to be completed in 2030.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 69 members—49 from the region.

MIL OSI Economics –

January 23, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Why China now wants to put some limits on its ‘no limits’ friendship with Russia

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Guangyi Pan, Teaching fellow, international politics, UNSW Sydney

Just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China announced to much fanfare a “no-limits friendship” with Russia, suggesting a future of close collaboration in trade, energy and, perhaps most importantly, security.

Now, more than two years into the war, the meaning and interpretation of this “no-limits” commitment has evolved.

There has been much debate in Chinese society in recent months about Beijing’s alignment with Moscow. While some have advocated for a more formal alliance with Russia, others have taken a more cautious stance.

In sharp contrast to 2022, China’s growing wariness is increasingly being discussed in the open, even among those who were previously censored. In early 2022, for instance, a joint letter by six Chinese emeritus historians opposing Russia’s invasion was censored by the government. The scholars were also warned.

Now, however, it appears the government is seeking to balance its relationships with both Russia and the West. Beijing may not want to be seen as a “decisive enabler” of the war.

For example, the once-prominent “no-limits” friendship language quietly vanished from a Sino-Russian joint statement in May.

And Beijing’s response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit that month was notably subdued. Putin ingratiated himself with Xi, saying they were “as close as brothers”. Xi’s response was more perfunctory – he called Putin a “good friend and a good neighbour”.

Scholars are also articulating their concerns about China’s political and economic investments in Russia, both publicly and privately.

Shen Dingli, a leading scholar of Chinese security strategy at Fudan University in Shanghai, said China doesn’t want to be seen as collaborating with Russia against Ukraine or any other country.

He also quoted Fu Cong, China’s former ambassador to the European Union, who said last year the “no-limits” [friendship] is “nothing but rhetoric”.

And in August, after Putin referred to China as an “ally” during a visit to far-eastern Russia, Chinese scholars promptly sought to clarify this statement to prevent any misunderstanding China wants a formal alliance with Russia.

These statements carry weight. In many respects, leading Chinese scholars at the government-affiliated universities act as propagandists to convey and justify the government’s stance on issues. As a result, subtle shifts in their commentary provide insights into the strategic mindset in Beijing.

Why China is rethinking its ‘no-limits’ friendship?

There are three elements driving this re-evaluation of the Russia-China alignment.

First, there is growing scepticism of Russia’s state capacities. The mutiny by the Wagner Group last year and Ukraine’s recent incursion into Russia’s Kursk region have prompted critical reassessments in Beijing of Russia’s political stability and military preparedness, as well as the growing anti-war sentiment in Russia.

As Feng Yujun, director of Fudan University’s Russia and Central Asia Study Centre, argued, the Wagner rebellion was a reflection of Russia’s internal conflicts and domestic security challenges. He noted every time Russia has faced both internal and external crises in history, its regimes have become less stable.

More recently, Feng has been even bolder, predicting Russian defeat in Ukraine. He argued China should keep its distance from Moscow and resume a policy of “non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-partisanship”.

Second, China’s sluggish economy and its underwhelming trade with Russia have further exposed how dependent both countries are on the West.

While Russia-China trade reached a record US$240 billion (A$360 billion) in 2023, it has slowed so far this year, as Chinese financial institutions have sought to limit connections with Russia.

The relationship still heavily favours Beijing. Russia accounts for only 4% of China’s trade, while China accounts for nearly 22% of Russia’s trade.

Many Chinese experts are now warning against an over-dependence on Russia, instead calling for more cooperation with neighbouring countries. This echoes a recent concern Russia has been using its natural resources as a bargaining chip to extract greater benefits from China.

Russia’s value as a military ally

Finally, there are rising Chinese concerns its international outlook does not align with Russia’s.

Zhao Long, deputy director of the Shanghai Institute of International Relations, says there is an important difference in how they view the world:

Russia wants to destroy the current international system to build a new one. China wants to transform the current system by taking a more prominent place in it.

Shi Yinhong, a strategist at Renmin University in Beijing, has highlighted an unbridgeable gap preventing a stronger China-Russia alliance. He says there’s a deep mutual mistrust on regional security. Russia has never promised support for China in the event of a conflict over Taiwan, just as China has avoided involvement in the war in Ukraine.

As Russia’s war in Ukraine reaches a stalemate, its value as a military ally is increasingly being questioned in China.

Recently, Feng Yujun warned China risks being led by the nose by Russia, despite being the stronger economic partner. He says every time China has attempted an alliance with Russia in history, it has had negative consequences for China.

Consequently, it is crucial for China to maintain its long-term partnership with Russia without undermining its constructive relationship with the West.

Russia has arguably benefited from the current competition between the US and China, as it has sought to exploit the rivalry for its own benefit. But this has also led to uncertainty in the China-Russia relationship.

As another analyst, Ji Zhiye, argues, relying too heavily on Russia will leave China isolated and vulnerable. And this is not a position China wants to be in.

Guangyi Pan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Why China now wants to put some limits on its ‘no limits’ friendship with Russia – https://theconversation.com/why-china-now-wants-to-put-some-limits-on-its-no-limits-friendship-with-russia-238436

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Australia: Interview with Paul Taylor, 3BA 102.3FM, Ballarat

Source: Australian Treasurer

PAUL TAYLOR:

It’s nice to have in studio in person the federal Treasurer of Australia Jim Chalmers. Good morning to you, my friend.

JIM CHALMERS:

Good morning to you Paul, thanks for having me.

TAYLOR:

Well, we’ve only met once but I feel like I’m –

CHALMERS:

We’re old mates.

TAYLOR:

Well we have met, we’re old mates, aren’t we?

CHALMERS:

That’s how Australia works.

TAYLOR:

Once upon a time I got to speak to a Prime Minister, he of the budgie smuggler fame, and now I get to speak to the federal Treasurer. How are you?

CHALMERS:

There you go. I’m really good thanks, and I wanted to shout out from the outset the wonderful people at the George Hotel for one of the best coffees I have ever had. Thank you so much.

TAYLOR:

I’ll have to go and get one now, now you’ve put that in my head. We only have Nescafe downstairs. But see the thing is, Jim, it’s free and I’m a bit of a tight person.

CHALMERS:

Oh, right. Yeah, the moths fly out of your wallet when you open it kind of guy.

TAYLOR:

Yeah, they do. I’m rather rapt that you joined us here today because today’s is a special day and, Jim Chalmers, it’s World Banana Day. So I went to our local fruit and veg, Wilsons Fruit and Veggies just up the road in Mair Street and I got you a banana.

CHALMERS:

You got me a nana.

TAYLOR:

I got you a banana for World Banana Day. Can I just say I probably, if I were you, would start to eat that because to get through this interview you’re going to need all the energy you can muster.

CHALMERS:

Oh, I see. You’re buttering me up at the start with a nana.

TAYLOR:

I’m trying to.

CHALMERS:

You know I saw that banana in front of me and I thought, ‘I wonder if Paul’s going to tuck into that while we’re talking’.

TAYLOR:

I’ve got one for me, don’t worry. There we go, we’ve got one each.

Where do we start? Well you and the Prime Minister, Mr Albo, must be, I don’t know, shaking in your boots at the moment. Coalition are ahead two‑party preferred basis, 2 points, 51 per cent. Behind in the primary vote as well, 38 to 31. It seems that Albo’s setting himself up for retirement, just bought himself a $4.3 million on the beach pad. What’s happening here, Jim?

CHALMERS:

Well I think when it comes to the opinion polls what I try and do, and I think what we try and do collectively, is we don’t get too carried away when they’re really good, we don’t get too carried away when they’re really tight. The truth is, when you’re in my line of work, you learn not to take anyone’s vote for granted, and particularly when people are doing it tough. There’s a lot going on around the world and around the country. we don’t take any outcome for granted. I think the polls are reflecting the fact that people are under pressure, and we understand that.

When it comes to the other part of your question, I work as closely if not more closely than anyone with the PM, with Anthony, and I’ve seen for myself his total focus is on how we roll out this cost‑of‑living help, how do we build more houses for people to rent and buy, how do we take some of this pressure off people where we can? And I understand there’s interest in the place that he bought. I do understand that, and I think we all understand that when you’re in our line of work, people will have an interest in those sorts of private decisions that you take. In this case, he and Jodie wanted somewhere a bit closer to Jodie’s family in that beautiful part of Australia on the Central Coast. But I want to assure your listeners and anyone who checks out our interview, I see how focused he is on the cost of living, on housing for more Australians because those are the main issues that are putting pressure on people right now, and I think that’s reflected in our politics.

TAYLOR:

Would you agree it’s bad timing on the Prime Minister’s behalf?

CHALMERS:

I’m not going to give him free advice or kind of second‑guess –

TAYLOR:

You are a money man though. Surely you can give him free monetary advice?

CHALMERS:

I don’t give him free advice about these sorts of things. He’s very fortunate that he has Jodie and Jodie’s very fortunate that she has that loving family on the Central Coast and they want to be nearer to them. I’m not pretending that people don’t have a legitimate interest in the sorts of things that Prime Ministers do.

TAYLOR:

This is the talk of Australia at the moment.

CHALMERS:

I understand that. I think he understands that too. I spent yesterday with him in my own community just south of Brisbane around Logan City. He understands that too. But really the assurance that I can give your listeners and the country beyond is, he is extremely focused on all of the things that we’re doing to try and ease some of these cost‑of‑living pressures that people are confronting. That’s his focus.

TAYLOR:

There’s a couple of things out of that answer that you’ve given me. You’ve mentioned cost‑of‑living crisis, you’ve mentioned the housing crisis. Jim Chalmers, are we still the lucky country or are we not the lucky country any more?

CHALMERS:

Well I believe you make your own luck. I’m not the first one to say that but I really believe that this country has not just an amazing history, and being in Ballarat is really to be struck by the incredible history of our country, but our future is even brighter, and when Donald Horn wrote that book about Australia being a lucky country it was tongue‑in‑cheek. He was saying we were lucky despite the leadership that was being shown at the time. And so how I think about the future of this place is I think we’ve got enormous potential, we’ve got almost limitless opportunity. It matters how we share that opportunity. And the decisions we take now about the energy transformation and how we adapt and adopt technology and how we provide good services to people and how we make sure regions like this one are part of our story of economic success, these are the big challenges that we confront. We can be more than lucky. We can be successful not by accident but by design.

TAYLOR:

I’ve got some stats that I want to give to you and throw your way which make it extremely difficult to see the brighter light here in Australia that you speak of going forward. Eighty‑five per cent of Australians, 85 per cent, are now convinced, convinced, they’ll never be able to buy their own home except maybe through the bank of mum and dad. Eighty‑five per cent.

CHALMERS:

There’s a real intergenerational element to this. I’m off to Ballarat High shortly and I anticipate that one of the questions I’ll get will be about housing because there’s a real sense in Australia, and not an unwarranted one, that it’s harder to get a toe hold in the housing market and that’s why probably the biggest, if not the biggest, and certainly one of the biggest investments we’ve been making as a government is the $32 billion we found in 3 budgets to try and build more homes. Because the best thing we can do to make it easier for people to find somewhere to rent or somewhere to buy, somewhere to raise a family, is to build more homes. We don’t have enough homes in this country. We’re starting from a long way back. We’ve got a lot of investment flowing right now and that’s really important because we need to turn this ship around.

TAYLOR:

Housing Accord, 1.2 million homes by 2029. The HIA have come out today and said we need 22,000 carpenters, 17,000 sparkies, 1,200 plumbers. Now we’re going to import a heap of doctors into the country. Should we be doing the same with our plumbers and our carpenters and our sparkies? I don’t know. Is immigration the way to go? Because once they get here they’re not going to be living in swags, they need homes to live in, don’t they, Jim?

CHALMERS:

The first priority, the most important thing we can do is train more tradies. The housing pipeline is nowhere near what we want it to be. We agree with some of the analysis from the industry and from others that says we’re starting from a long way back but that doesn’t mean you kind of throw your hands in the air and say, it’s all too hard. We’re investing a bunch of money, but we do need the tradies. We need the carpenters and the plumbers and the sparkies to be able to build these homes. And so it’s not talking out of school to say that a big part of the conversations we’ve been having with the new Housing Minister, Clare O’Neil, a proud Victorian, is how we actually build the capacity to build all these homes and the most important part of that is skills. There will be a role for migration in that but the primary role is for TAFE and training, making sure that we can get the skills that we need to build the homes that we need.

TAYLOR:

Yeah, there’s a lot of work ahead for the Albanese government, the Prime Minister saying he wants to be there for a long time to come. Is that the charter of this government, to dig in, to show Australia that we can find the light at the end of the tunnel?

CHALMERS:

That’s our objective because we want to bed down the changes that we’re making. We want to build the homes, build the skills base, all of these important things that you’ve been asking me about this morning and that sometimes takes time, takes more than one term.

If you think about the story of this government, we have done a lot, we’ve got a lot more to do, and the country has a lot to lose if we go back to the worst aspects of the government that preceded us.

We don’t pretend that we have every issue fixed in this country, but if you think about – in my part of the shop – the progress that we’ve made together, and I don’t claim 100 per cent of the credit for this, this is to Australia’s credit – we’ve halved inflation, we’ve got real wages growing again, we’ve created a million jobs in a soft economy, we’ve got tax cuts flowing to everyone, and yet we’ve still delivered a couple of surpluses and we’ve avoided $150 billion in debt which means we pay less interest on it. So we’ve made a heap of progress as a country together, working together, but we know that there is more to do and that’s why we need another term to do it.

TAYLOR:

Just quickly, direct you to a feature in our local paper, the Ballarat Courier this morning, a story that says growing numbers of Ballarat families are facing ‘relentless poverty’, quote unquote, with parents being forced to choose between buying food and paying for other essentials, including medication, bills and school costs because times are tough out there and it’s not easy. Families are suffering. I see it first‑hand. I volunteer for an organisation called the Soup Bus and the Soup Bus goes out and helps the homeless, those in need, and now it’s families in crisis who are showing up. We’ve now got a community house that I do a lot for up in Wendouree West and we are seeing more and more families come in for a feed because they simply can’t afford to put food on the table.

CHALMERS:

Yes. I don’t disagree that there are a lot of people doing it really tough, and if you think about those 3 budgets that we’ve handed down, really the most important part of those budgets, really the government’s reason for being, is in the near‑term to try and take pressure off people and in the longer term to build more opportunities for people.

If you think about the things that we’re doing which are motivated by what you’re raising with me, I don’t dispute what you’re raising with me, I see it in my own community and around Australia that people are doing it tough, so that’s why the tax cuts are so important, the energy bill relief for every household, cheaper medicines, rent assistance, cheaper early childhood education, fee‑free TAFE, getting wages moving again. All of those things are motivated by what we see with our own eyes around Australia, which is people doing it tougher than we would like them to do.

We have to get on top of this inflation and cost‑of‑living challenge and we are. We’re rolling out a bunch of help in the most responsible way that we can, but we acknowledge that even with that help that we’re rolling out, billions of dollars of assistance for people who are doing it tough, we know that that the pressures are still there and as a Labor government, we take our responsibilities to the people that you’re referencing very seriously.

TAYLOR:

I know you can’t tell the RBA what to do but in your mind how soon before we see interest rates drop?

CHALMERS:

Well the first part of your question’s right. I try not to pre‑empt or predict or second‑guess the decisions that are taken rightly and independently by the Reserve Bank. They do their job, and I do mine. My job is to help them in the fight against inflation and we made a heap of progress as a country in the fight against inflation, and they’ll weigh that up. They’ve got a meeting in November, another one in December, and then not ‘til February. I know there’s a lot of interest in that and the decisions that they might take, but I try and mind my own business and focus on what I can control and leave them to do their job.

TAYLOR:

All right, great to see the government backing the ACCC where price gouging is concerned with the supermarkets, the big 2, Woolies and Coles. How much, is it talk, is it rhetoric, that the government are now going to take the big banks to task about fees where credit and debit cards are concerned? Is it really going to happen? Are we going to see the end of that gouging when it comes to the big banks?

CHALMERS:

We don’t want to see people charged these big fees just to use their own money, that’s why our primary focus is on debit cards. Debit cards are now actually most of the payment system. I think it’s just edged over 50 per cent of payments are from debit cards, so that’s people using their own money, and you shouldn’t get slugged just to use your own money, so we do want to crack down on that.

We’ve got some work to do with the Reserve Bank and others to make sure that we do it the right way and one of the things we want to be really careful about there is the impact on small business and consumers. We want to make sure consumers and small businesses are beneficiaries of any change that we make but we are prepared to ban surcharges on debit cards subject to that work.

TAYLOR:

Jim Chalmers, it’s been an absolute pleasure to have you here in person. Great to see you getting out and about and into the regional areas given you’re the federal Treasurer. I want to thank you for your time, for your candid answers and enjoy your banana on World Banana Day.

CHALMERS:

Well thanks for having me on your show, Paul, and thanks for the nana as well. I’ll eat that shortly, it looks terrific.

TAYLOR:

Thank you very much. The federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

MIL OSI News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: Parliament Hansard Report – Wednesday, 16 October 2024 – Volume 779 – 001421

Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard

Question No. 2—Prime Minister

2. Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his Government’s statements and actions?

Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON (Prime Minister): Yes, and especially our actions to get on top of inflation. This morning Stats New Zealand confirmed that inflation fell to 2.2 percent in the September quarter, the lowest rate in more than 3½ years, and it is clear that our plan, our economic plan, is working, which is why under our Government we’re getting on top of inflation fast. Just before the election last year, Treasury picked that inflation would have only fallen to 3.1 percent by this time and wouldn’t have reached 2.2 percent until the end of next year. And that’s despite all the scaremongering from the Opposition that fully funded tax relief, which Labour didn’t support, for supporting working families with the cost of living would actually push inflation higher. It didn’t do that. But, instead, our economic plan is delivering lower inflation, lower interest rates, two interest rate cuts in 10 months versus, I think, six or seven increases over the last six years. Importantly, what we’re seeing is that the foundations for economic growth to get New Zealand back on track are in place.

Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Why did his Government cut funding for apprenticeships in critical infrastructure sectors when apprentice numbers are already in decline, compounding the skills shortages in the trades sector?

Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Well, what I’d say to the member is the Apprenticeship Boost was actually another case of Labour leaving behind another fiscal cliff. We’ve made funding for Apprenticeship Boost permanent so the programme wouldn’t expire like it would under Labour and, at the same time, we’re targeting it at the skills that we need.

Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Why has he and his Government cut funding for apprenticeships in areas such as pipeline construction, bitumen resurfacing, road construction and maintenance, and drinking and waste-water treatment when this country is facing major challenges in those areas and this will only exacerbate skill shortages?

Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Well, we have to make sure we are spending money carefully. That’s what we do on the side of the House; we don’t waste money. That’s only a very small proportion of those that are actually using Apprenticeship Boost, and what I’d say to you is that we are making sure that we’ve got support for the skills we need like building and agriculture and manufacturing, forestry, food, and hospitality.

Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Why was providing over $200 million in tax breaks to the tobacco company Philip Morris more important to his Government than keeping people in apprenticeships?

SPEAKER: Just a moment. I think there’s a word there that probably shouldn’t have been in it. Do you want to ask that question again.

Hon Member: What’s that?

SPEAKER: I think you referred to the entity belonging to someone, which it didn’t. So just ask the question again.

Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Why was providing over $200 million in tax breaks to companies like Philip Morris, the country’s largest supplier of cigarettes, more important to his Government than keeping people in apprenticeships?

Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Well, I reject the characterisation of that question. What I would say to that member is that on this side of the House we are very committed to lowering daily smoking rates. We are determined to deliver on Smokefree 2025 and we’re going to make alternatives available. Also what I’d say is, with respect to the so-called tax that he talks about, what we’ve done is make sure Treasury is conservatively estimating the loss of excise tax by any shift that happens to an alternative product other than cigarettes.

Rt Hon Winston Peters: Prime Minister, how often have you met someone whose logic is that when the tax on cigarettes go up, as it did December last year, it somehow is a concession to some business?

Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: It’s just prudent to actually set money aside. And for the most extreme scenario, if we get a shift from cigarettes to alternative products—that’s what we’re accounting for.

Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Why should the construction sector have trust in his Government when they are cutting apprenticeships and, in their first 10 months in power, they have spent their time gutting school building programmes, shelving State housing projects, cancelling major infrastructure projects, and leaving the industry staring down a pipeline that’s looking more like an empty barrel?

Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Again, what you see is you see a business confidence at a 10-year high. Why is that? Because they know this is a Government dealing with and improving the economic fundamentals. We are making sure there is financial discipline and no wasteful spending. We’re making sure that inflation now, for the first time in 3½ years, is within the band. Interest rates cuts are coming down; confidence is up. That leads to economic growth and people in work.

Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: If things are so good for the building and construction sector, why are there 10,000 fewer people employed in the building and construction sector now than there were the day he became Prime Minister?

Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Because this economy is dealing with the lag effects of woeful economic mismanagement by that member and his former Government. What is good news is that consents are up 2 percent; the Infrastructure Commission’s latest pipeline estimates a total of over 6,000 projects—$147 billion worth; and the Transport Government policy statement put in $33 billion for the next three years. If the member cares a lot about it, I look forward to his support of our fast-track legislation, because that was a great idea from David Parker. We’ve built on it; there’s 149 fantastic projects: 55,000 potential new homes, 30 percent increase in electricity generation, and 180 kilometres of new roads, rail, and public transport.

Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Why won’t he admit that his Government doesn’t care about the damage it causes to New Zealand’s infrastructure, workforce, and economy, as long as his favourite pet projects like tax breaks for landlords and tobacco companies get billions of dollars that could so desperately be spent elsewhere?

Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Aww, it’s a terribly sad day for the Leader of the Opposition. We have good news, which is we have inflation in the bands, we’ve delivered income tax relief for low and middle income working New Zealanders—people the Labour Party used to care about but don’t any more—we’ve got fast-track legislation sitting there, and he refuses to support it. Come on board, do something positive.

MIL OSI New Zealand News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: African Development Bank supports BIASHARA Africa 2024 Business Forum

Source: African Development Bank Group

The African Development Bank has lent support to the Biashara Africa 2024 Business Forum or AfCFTA Business Forum, held from 9-11 October 2024 in Kigali, Rwanda.

The meeting, organized by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), brought together industry leaders, policymakers and government representatives to promote African trade and foster economic growth on the continent. This year’s forum was themed “Dare to Invent the Future of the AfCFTA.”

As part of ongoing institutional support to the AfCFTA Secretariat, an African Development Bank delegation to the forum included Acting Director for the Bank’s Industrial and Trade Development department Ousmane Fall, Trade Policy Officer Abou Fall and Trade Facilitation Officer Rachael Nsubuga.

During the opening ceremony President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and AfCFTA champion emphasized connectivity across the continent in his remarks.

“How well we adapt as Africa to crisis depends on how strongly connected, we are,” Kagame said, urging governments to strengthen governance and institutions to prioritize implementation of AfCFTA protocols on trade in goods, services and movement of people for efficient trade.

Fall delivered a statement underscoring the Bank’s commitment to support African member countries through a comprehensive strategy to address investments tacking policy and regulation, corridors infrastructure, technology and connectivity constraints.

He noted that the African Development Bank has been very active in addressing access to trade finance as a major impediment to productivity. So far, the Bank has facilitated more than 3,000 trade transactions involving 170 financial institutions in all regional member countries for a cumulative trade value of over $12 billion since the inception of The Bank Trade Finance Program.

Africa accounts for only two percent of global production, although it is most integrated in global value chains, but in the less profitable segments of value chains, Fall said.

The Biashara 2024 Business Forum held business exhibitions and side events on diverse topics such as unlocking the trade potential of Africa; trade finance; value chains; partnerships for Africa’s trade; and business to business events.

The AfCFTA is the world’s largest free trade area bringing together the 55 countries of the African Union (AU) and eight regional economic communities. The overall mandate of the AfCFTA is to create a single continental market with a population of about 1.3 billion people and a combined GDP of approximately US$ 3.4 trillion.

MIL OSI Economics –

January 23, 2025