Federal election 2016

Coalition

(The Hon Christian Porter MP, Minister for Social Services)

As you are no doubt aware, the Australian Government is in a caretaker role. This will continue until such time as the outcome of the election is known. In the interim, the following factual information may be helpful.

The NDIS does not extinguish people’s common law rights.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (The Act) creates the framework for the NDIS. It includes eligibility criteria, age requirements and what constitutes reasonable and necessary support. The Act provides assurance that people with disability will be able to receive supports based on their needs, and that they will have choice and control over that support.

The NDIS is on track to be delivered on time and on budget. In 2011, the Productivity Commission estimate that once fully operational in 2019-20, the NDIS will assist around 460,000 people costing $22 billion per year.

ALP

(The Hon Jenny Macklin MP, Shadow Minister for Disability Reform)

Disability policy statement.

Greens

(Senator Rachel Siewert, spokesperson on Disability Services)

We are committed to ensuring that autonomy and choice must underpin individuals’ engagement with the NDIS and any proposed NIIS, including retaining their common law rights.

Coalition

(Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash, Minister for Employment)

No response.

ALP

(The Hon Brendan O’Connor MP, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations)

The Australian Labor Party is the only party that can form government that will protect Comcare. There were three pieces of legislation presented to the 44th Parliament by the Coalition regarding Comcare. Each sought to weaken the scheme and each were opposed by Labor. Only the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment (Exit Arrangements) Bill 2015 successfully passed the Parliament.

As you’d be aware, the other two Bills (Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment (Improving the Comcare Scheme) Bill 2015 and the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2014) sought to significantly attack and weaken the scheme. You can access my Second Reading speeches for both Bills by following the links.

The Orwellian titled Improving the Comcare Scheme Bill sought to exclude workers from the Comcare scheme and significantly reduced the compensation available for those who remained eligible. The Bill attempted to reduce the liabilities of the Comcare scheme at the expense of people injured at work. Labor also believed the 2014 Bill would have directly and indirectly risked the workplace health and safety of Australian workers. It sought to remove the rights of Australian workers to fair and reasonable cover when they suffer the misfortune of a work related illness or injury. It is thanks to Labor’s strong opposition to these Bills that they were never enacted.

Labor is committed to improving Comcare to ensure it is an effective regulator and that injured workers get fair and adequate compensation for their injuries or illness, and are rehabilitated and helped to return to work in a suitable role. We will oppose any changes to Comcare to allow employers to exit other Australian Workers’ Compensation schemes, thereby undermining the viability of those schemes. Also, Labor does not support any move to outsource or privatise Comcare.

On the specifics of your letter, Labor does believe that it must be a priority of all workers compensations schemes to ensure adequate workplace safety regulation and fair compensation for workers. Labor also firmly believes it should be a priority of all schemes to do all within their capacity to return people to work.

Greens

(Adam Bandt MP, Greens spokesperson on employment and workplace relations)

The Australian Greens are strong supporters of workers compensation and the protection of occupational health and safety, we will continue to fight hard in defence of adequate workplace protections and we will continue to support positive reform.

For this reason we have opposed recent legislation before the Parliament which has threatened the current arrangements for workers compensation such as the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2014.

In relation to your specific questions.

We agree that the first priority of all workers compensation schemes should be to ensure adequate workplace safety regulation and fair compensation for injured workers.

Attached is a speech Mr Bandt gave on the 2014 legislation.

Coalition

(Senator the Hon George Brandis QC, Attorney-General)

The issues you raise about a national redress scheme for victims of child sexual abuse and statutory limitation periods for civil claims are ongoing matters of policy and it would be inappropriate for the government to deal with them during a caretaker period.

Redress was discussed at the 27-28 April 2016 meeting of the Law, Crime and Community Safety Council (the LCCSC). The LCCSC consists of ministers with responsibilities for law and justice, police and emergency management. Each Australian state and territory, the Australian Government and the New Zealand Government is represented by a maximum of two ministers. In relation to redress the Communique for the meeting states that:

Ministers noted an update from the Commonwealth and that consultation will occur through First Ministers’ departments.

ALP

(The Hon Mark Dreyfus QC MP, Shadow Attorney-General)

Labor established the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to give the thousands of people affected by these evil crimes an opportunity to finally be heard. In its final report into redress and civil litigation, the Royal Commission determined that around 60,000 survivors of child sexual abuse should be given access to redress. A Shorten Labor Government will establish a single National Redress Scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.

The Royal Commission has recommended that appropriate redress for survivors include direct personal responses, counselling and psychological care as well as monetary payments. The Royal Commission recommended the cost of redress be met by the perpetrators of the abuse, with the Federal Government and the States and Territories acting as a funder of last resort.

Labor calls on Malcolm Turnbull to take a bipartisan approach to redress for survivors of child sexual abuse and commit to a truly national redress scheme.

This is the number one recommendation of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and the preferred approach of survivors themselves.

Unfortunately, the Turnbull Liberal Government has refused to commit to a national scheme, nor make any funding commitment.

This has been truly devastating for survivors, their families and advocates, who all want to see survivors get the redress they deserve.

If there was ever an issue that needed bipartisanship, this should be it.

Labor announced our commitment to implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission in October 2015.

Under Labor, there will be a truly national redress scheme.

This will be administered by a National Redress Agency, with input from a Council of survivors, their representatives and experts on the impact of abuse.

Labor has committed $33 million to the scheme, including an initial $20 million to establish the National Redress Agency, which will work to get the scheme established.

Labor is committed to the Commonwealth acting as a funder of last resort where organisations at which abuse occurred no longer exist.

However, where those institutions still exist, Labor is committed to ensuring the institutions themselves are required to pay redress. That is only fair.

Labor set up the Royal Commission, and we are determined to see survivors get the redress they deserve.

We honour again the tireless advocacy of survivors, their families and representatives without whom there would have been no Royal Commission and whose advocacy now continues to ensure survivors get the redress they deserve.

Under Labor, it will happen.

Greens

(Senator Rachel Siewert, spokesperson on Family, Aging, Community and Disability Services)

I also confirm that the Greens are committed to implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, including for a single national redress scheme. Survivors deserve a fair system that ensures just redress across the country, and provides appropriate counselling and psychological support. As part of our costed election platform, the Greens have committed to a national redress scheme, to be implemented in line with the recommendations of the Royal Commission. Our proposal for the redress scheme would include:

• Redress payments ranging from $10,000 to $200,000
• Providing counselling under Medicare, and
• Providing case management style support.

In line with the recommendations of the Royal Commission, the scheme would be funded by institutions. Where this is not possible, then Commonwealth and state and territory governments would split the responsibility for providing funding of last resort.

Full details of the scheme are available at http://greens.org.au/redress.

Coalition

(The Hon Kelly O’Dwyer MP, Assistant Treasurer)

The Government, by convention, assumed a caretaker role on 9 May prior to the election and this will continue until the election result is known or, in the event of a change of government, when the new government is appointed.

For this reason the Government is unable to respond to correspondence that addresses policy issues during this period. You may wish to write again once the outcome of the election is known.

ALP

(Jim Chalmers MP, Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation)

In light of the recent allegations of unethical conduct in the life insurance industry, Labor agrees that there is a need for a Code of Conduct to set out best practice standards for insurers, including in relation to underwriting and claims management.

As you would be aware, the Government has asked the Financial Services Council (FSC) to draft a Life Insurance Code of Practice for the industry.

It is Labor’s view that any Code drafted by the FSC will need to be robust and respond specifically to the industry shortcomings that were exposed recently. We agree that an important element of this is a mechanism of enforcement of the Code.

When the draft Code is released, Labor will carefully examine it to determine whether it lives up to the expectations of the general public for a life insurance sector that acts ethically and in the interests of consumers.

Labor will also consult broadly with consumer advocacy groups on any draft Code to ensure it meets the highest reasonable standards of consumer protections.

I appreciate your advocacy for a Royal Commission, which we believe is the only way to expose and address the systemic problems we see in our financial services industry.

Greens

(Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, spokesperson on Finance)

The Greens support a Royal Commission into the banking and insurance sector (draft terms of reference). We led the call for such an inquiry following the revelations of misconduct within the financial services sectors, including the wealth management and insurance arms of vertically integrated banks. We believe that a Royal Commission is needed to understand the full extent of the problems within the sector, and to properly inform the policy responses.

We support some form of ‘enforceable’ standard for the insurance and superannuation sector. However, we want to keep open the possibility of these standards being provided for directly or indirectly through law or regulations regarding the banking and insurance sectors’ duty of care to their customers.

• identifying bad behaviour and calling it out via an Inquiry,
• establishing enforceable minimum standards that insurance policies should meet, particularly in relation to total and permanent disability and death policies provided via superannuation funds, through a Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 amendment, and
• encouraging and ensuring higher standards of behaviour within the sector through the establishment of a new code of behaviour

Coalition

(Senator the Hon George Brandis QC, Attorney-General)

With regards to funding for Community Legal Centres, the five year National Partnership Agreement on Legal Assistance Services commenced on 1 July 2015 and provides $1.3 billion of Commonwealth funding for legal aid commissions and Community Legal Centres. This is the first time Commonwealth funding for Community Legal Centres has been included in a National Partnership Agreement. Under the National Partnership Agreement, states are responsible for distributing available Commonwealth funding to individual Community Legal Centres, informed by collaborative, evidence-based planning of services in each state.

ALP

(The Hon Mark Dreyfus QC MP, Shadow Attorney-General)

In government, Labor delivered a boost of $30 million over two years for Legal Aid Commissions.

The Abbott-Turnbull Government has cut $24 million from Community Legal Centres, $15 million from Legal Aid Commissions, and $13 million from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services.

160,000 people were turned away from Community Legal Centres last year alone and Centres face a 30 per cent funding cut on 1 July 2017, which will see many centres having to close their doors to clients.

That tells you all you need to know about the difference in priorities between Labor and Liberal.

Community Legal Centres help vulnerable people at times of great need, when they are unable to pay for legal help themselves.

A Shorten Labor Government will ensure frontline legal services receive approximately $43 million in funding over three years from 1 July 2016 so they can keep doing their vital work.

Legal Aid funding is a joint arrangement with the States and Territories. A Shorten Labor Government would work with the States and Territories to negotiate appropriate funding arrangements.

Access to justice is a fundamental right of all Australians. Only a Shorten Labor Government will ensure that right is safeguarded – the only guarantee you will get from the Turnbull Government is further funding cuts.

Greens

(Senator Nick McKim, spokesperson for Legal Affairs)

The Greens are absolutely committed to adequate funding for the community legal sector, Legal Aid, and the court system.

Access to justice is a fundamental human right, and Legal Aid and Community Legal Centres provide much needed support and legal advice to people who would otherwise be on their own.

We believe that investment into legal services actually saves the community money. Underinvestment merely shifts costs to other areas of government like health, housing and child protection.

The government's cuts mean thousands of people in need of assistance are turned away, with a direct impact on their lives and the lives of their families and communities.

Unmet legal need sees thousands of Australians suffer, including families in crisis, women escaping domestic violence and those seeking assistance on welfare rights, immigration and refugee applications.

The government recently ignored its own Productivity Commission report which recommended significant increases in funding for Legal Aid and CLCs to help reduce pressure on a court system already under significant strain.

The government has also engaged in an ideological attack on environmental defenders’ offices, stripping $10 million of badly needed funding.

The Greens have also consistently opposed the government’s increases in court fees, including the divorce tax, which would have put even greater strain on families in crisis.

The Australian Greens will soon be announcing a comprehensive Access to Justice policy suite that provides the resources needed for the community legal sector, Legal Aid and courts to do their jobs in a comprehensive and timely way.

Coalition

(Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash, Minister for Employment)

No response.

ALP

(The Hon Brendan O’Connor MP, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations)

In relation to the matter you raise regarding all Commonwealth workplaces being covered by Commonwealth workplace health and safety legislation, no matter wherever they are in the world, I’d be happy to meet with you to learn more about the matter and discuss the detail with you.

Greens

(Adam Bandt MP, Greens spokesperson on employment and workplace relations)

We also agree that that all Commonwealth workplaces should be covered by Commonwealth workplace health and safety legislation, wherever they are in the world.