Australia and Oceania news and discussions

[wjfox]

[Ozzie guy]

L/NP 47
ALP 61
OTH 6
In Doubt 37

[wjfox]

Sounds like the Greens are doing very well, based on the counting so far. Nearly 13% of the vote. Labour looks to have a ~5% lead over the Coalition.

[wjfox]

[Ozzie guy]

L/NP 48
ALP 72
OTH 8
In Doubt 23

[Ozzie guy]

Labor has won but it is unknown if they can form a majority government.

[caltrek]

A little more detail:

Australian Labor Party Projected to Defeat Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Coalition
May 21, 2022

Extract:

(DW) Australia's Labor Party has emerged victorious in federal elections on Saturday, ousting Prime Minister Scott Morrison's coalition, according to projections by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Labor Anthony Albanese is expected to become the country's new prime minister, however it is still not clear whether his party will command a majority in its own right or whether it will need to form a minority government.
…
Minor parties and independents were scoring unusually well, increasing the chances of a hung parliament and minority government. A record number of postal ballots, owing to the COVID pandemic, will also not be counted until Sunday, which could become a factor in close local races.

Who are the main candidates?

The Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese urged people to turn away from a "divisive" Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
...
The third candidate is Adam Bandt of the Greens Party.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/australian-labor- ... a-61885165

[weatheriscool]

Labor leader Anthony Albanese to become Australia's next Prime Minister, networks report
Source: CNN

Brisbane (CNN) Australian Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese is set to become the country's next Prime Minister after voters turned their backs on Liberal leader Scott Morrison after just one term in office, according to projections from three news networks. Albanese appeared certain to form a minority government, though it was unclear as counting continued if the party would have enough seats for a majority, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7 News and Sky News Australia reported.

Parties need a majority of 76 seats to form a majority government. Labor is currently sitting on 73, according to the Australian Electoral Commission. Albanese served as a minister in the previous Labor government under prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, before taking over as Labor leader after the party's most recent election loss in 2019. That loss knocked the wind out of Labor and they returned to this election campaign with more modest promises to avoid scaring off voters worried about radical change.

Rather than a competition of policies, this election focused on the character of the leaders -- Morrison has been dogged by accusations of dishonesty, not least from French President Emmanuel Macron. "I don't think, I know," Macron replied when asked if he thought Morrison had lied to him over a scrapped $90 billion submarine deal in favor of the AUKUS security pact with the United States and the United Kingdom. Morrison was deeply unpopular with voters and seemed to acknowledge as much when he admitted during the last week of the campaign that he had been a "bit of a bulldozer."

He was referring to making hard decisions during the pandemic and severing the deal with France, but it reflected claims about his leadership style as being more authoritarian than collaborative. Morrison told prospective voters that he'd change: "I know there are things that are going to have to change with the way I do things." Albanese immediately picked up on worksite analogy, retorting that he was a "builder" -- "If I'm elected Prime Minister, I will build things in this country," he added.

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/21/aust ... index.html

[Bird]

Result's very good.
Majority government for Labor is likely though not certain. Huge turnout for the Greens and minor parties.
The sentiment I get is that people are not happy with either of the "big two", although the choice is still clear when made to pick between them.
Scomo's gone regardless. GG.

[caltrek]

As with the CNN article linked above, and the comment by Matt, Common Dreams also notes the gains by the Greens as well as the importance of the climate issue:

Australian Progressives Hail 'Greenslide' Amid Big Left Wins and Morrison's Ouster
by Brett Wilkins
May 21, 2022

Extract:

(Common Dreams) In stark contrast to the administration of fossil fuel champion Morrison, Albanese said that "together we can end the climate wars. Together we can take advantage of the opportunity for Australia to be a renewable energy superpower."

Amanda McKenzie, CEO of the research group the Climate Council, declared that the real winner in Saturday's election was climate action.

"Millions of Australians have put climate first," she said in a statement. "Now, it's time for a radical reset on how this great nation of ours acts upon the climate challenge."

With uncertainty over whether Labor would control the 76 seats needed to form a parliamentary majority—the party held 72 seats as of Saturday evening—Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt, who was re-elected in his Melbourne House district by more than 20 points over Labor challenger Keir Paterson, signaled his party is "willing to talk" with Albanese about a possible coalition.

"The Greens are on track for our best result ever," Bandt told The Guardian, which reports the party's primary vote has increased nationally by 1.9% to 12.3%. "People have backed the Greens in record numbers and delivered a massive mandate for action on climate and inequality."

Source: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/ ... ons-ouster

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

Australia’s minimum wage earners to get $40 a week pay rise, Fair Work Commission rules

Wed 15 Jun 2022

Minimum wages will increase by at least $40 a week, with the hourly pay rate lifting from $20.33 to $21.38, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.

The commission handed down its decision in the annual wage review on Wednesday, granting a 5.2% increase to the national minimum wage and 4.6% for award minimums, amid a tight labour market and skyrocketing inflation.

The decision sets the pay of at least 2.7 million Australians on the national minimum or awards and will come into effect from 1 July.

But the commission ruled the increase will be delayed to 1 October in the aviation, tourism and hospitality sectors because of “exceptional circumstances”, including their slower recovery from the Covid recession.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... sion-rules

[caltrek]

This article (see below) is a little dated, but as there have been no more recent articles on the topic and as the last post in this thread precedes this article, I thought it would still fit.

Australian Energy Crisis Prompts Suspension of National Electricity Market
by Sonal Patel
June 16, 2022

Introduction:

(Power) The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) on June 15 indefinitely suspended spot markets in all regions of its National Electricity Market (NEM), citing critical power generation supply shortfalls that it said made it “impossible to continue” operations under national electricity rules.
AEMO—the independent system operator (ISO) that operates the competitive market serving New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania—said its spot market suspension stems from unprecedented market volatility that has been exacerbated by several factors.

Scrambling to meet supply shortfalls forecast in Queensland and New South Wales for June 14, AEMO was forced to activate 5 GW of generation that hadn’t bid into the market “through direct interventions,” said AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman. While the grid operator managed to avoid load shedding, those interventions, which follow a series of similar near-misses, showed “it was no longer possible to reliably operate the spot market or the power system this way,” Westerman said.

“In the current situation suspending the market is the best way to ensure a reliable supply of electricity for Australian homes and businesses. The situation in recent days has posed challenges to the entire energy industry, and suspending the market would simplify operations during the significant outages across the energy supply chain,” he said.

The market suspension is temporary—but no end is in sight. AEMO said the suspension “will be reviewed daily” for each NEM region. “When conditions change, and AEMO is able to resume operating the market under normal rules, it will do so as soon as practical.”

Read more here: Australian Energy Crisis Prompts Suspe ... rmag.com)

[Time_Traveller]

Kiribati faces constitutional crisis after government suspends both high court justices

Fri 1 Jul 2022

Kiribati is embroiled in a constitutional crisis after the government suspended its chief justice, leaving the judiciary in disarray as experts raise concerns about the rule of law. The move escalates an ongoing controversy over separation of powers in the Pacific nation, after Kiribati’s only other high court justice, Australian David Lambourne, was suspended in May.

On Thursday the chief justice, distinguished New Zealand judge William Hastings, was due to begin hearing a legal challenge brought by Lambourne. The suspended judge was seeking initial orders restoring his salary and facilitating his return to the country, ahead of a constitutional challenge to the suspension.

Yet rather than commence the hearing, Hastings read out a letter from the government stating that he too had been suspended with immediate effect pursuant to the Kiribati constitution. The remarkable development was first reported by the Kiribati Newsroom.

The stated reason for the suspensions of Hastings and Lambourne are allegations of misbehaviour, with a tribunal established to investigate. However, the substance of the allegations have not been made public, leaving observers concerned about the veracity of the claims. Lambourne has engaged lawyer Kiata Kabure in Kiribati and leading Australian barristers Perry Herzfeld SC and Daniel Reynolds to represent him in the case.

“The protracted dispute between judges and the executive clearly raises concerns for judicial independence,” said Anna Dziedzic, an expert on Pacific judiciaries at Melbourne Law School.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... t-justices

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

New Zealand minister: Trade deal with EU set global example on sustainability

8/11/2022 7:00 (updated: 12:04)

The sustainable food system chapter in the recently signed EU-New Zealand trade agreement should become an example for the rest of the world, New Zealand’s agriculture and trade minister Damien O’Connor told EURACTIV.

The deal, which was 14 years in the making including four years of negotiations, is the first ever to include the new EU approach towards trade and sustainable development, in which trade partners agree to follow internationally recognised environmental and social standards.

“We see the value of setting an example for the rest of the world when it comes to trade,” O’Connor told EURACTIV when asked about the sustainable food chapter in the deal.

“The greatest value of the trade agreement between the EU and New Zealand was the standards that we have set across many areas of government procurement, environmental goods and services transfer, animal welfare and labour standards,” he said.

The text does not contain binding commitments but the pledge of both parties to cooperate together, both at bilateral and multilateral levels, to promote sustainable food systems.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/agricu ... inability/

[wjfox]

[wjfox]