SUNSHINE STATE IN LNP HANDS; MISSILE ORDER
LNP back in power in the Sunshine State
Almost 10 years of Labor government in Queensland has come to an end, with the Liberal National Party winning a workable majority in the October 26 election. LNP Leader David Crisafulli is poised to hold around 50 seats in the 93-seat Queensland Parliament, defeating Labor Premier Steven Miles in a poll that focused on cost-of-living and crime rates. Initial counting has Labor losing more than 15 seats at the election, mostly in regional areas out of the Brisbane-Gold Coast strip. It is only the second time that the LNP - as the merged party or in coalition - has won power at a Queensland state election in the past 38 years. This century, it has held office for just one term, from 2011 to 2015, when Mr Crisafulli served as Minister in the Newman government. Unlike other states, Queensland does not have an Upper House.
$7 billion US missile boost for Navy
Australia’s Defence Ministers have announced a major upgrade of air and missile defences, under a $7 billion agreement with the United States to acquire long-range missiles. Defence Minister Richard Marles and Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the acquisition of the Standard Missile 2 Block IIIC (SM-2 IIIC) and Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) would boost the long-range capability of the Navy’s surface combatant fleet. They said the two missiles were the most advanced air and defence missile defence weapons in the world and would be progressively deployed across Navy’s Hobart class destroyers and in future, on the Hunter class frigates. The SM-6 missile would provide Australia with extended range air defence capability against air and missile threats, an offensive anti-ship capability and for the first time, a terminal ballistic missile defence capability.
King reaffirms gas export security to Japan
Resources Minister Madeleine King has reinforced Australia’s support of energy exports to Japan, and promoted the potential for bi-lateral co-operation on the development of critical minerals. At a business forum in Nagoya, Ms King said Japan was Australia’s second largest export market for resources and energy, with exports including LNG, iron ore and coal worth $99 billion in 2022-23. She said that Australia understood that Japan depended on reliable, secure and affordable energy imports, and it would not let Japan down. The Minister added, however, that industry needed to make every effort to ensure that Australian homes and Australian industry had ample supplies of gas at affordable prices. Ms King said that secure supplies of natural gas were also needed for viable, diversified, critical minerals supply chains.
Australia-UK partnership to develop renewable energy technology
Australia and the United Kingdom have agreed to establish a climate and energy partnership to focus on the development of renewable energy technologies, such as green hydrogen and offshore wind. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and UK PM Keir Starmer said the Australia-UK Climate and Energy Partnership would build on the two countries’ co-operation on renewable energy and climate finance. Meeting at a forum in Samoa, the two PMs discussed gains under the Australia-UK free trade agreement. The two leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to the highest standards of non-proliferation, under the nuclear-powered submarine project to be delivered through AUKUS.
Legislation toughens penalties for NDIS provider offences
NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has unveiled legislation designed to strengthen deterrence and compliance powers in dealing with providers attached to the disability insurance scheme. Mr Shorten said that penalties for providers would increase from a maximum of $400,000 to above $15 million when a participant was hurt or injured under the provider’s care. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission would also have the power to refer providers for criminal prosecution, for example, where there was a serious failure to comply with registration conditions. Mr Shorten said the legislation would also strengthen information-gathering powers to improve monitoring and compliance of NDIS providers, as well as extend the scope and application of banning orders to include people operating in other critical areas of the NDIS.
Annual GDP growth slides, productivity flat
Revised annual figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics have underlined the nation’s two-year decline in economic growth, workplace productivity and terms of trade. For the 2023-24-year, gross domestic product rose by 1.4 per cent, down from 4.2 per cent growth recorded in 2021-22, while GDP per capita fell, by -1.0 per cent, down from 3.7 per cent growth two years ago. Growth in GDP per hours worked was zero (0.0 per cent), up from the -3.7 per cent drop in 2022-23 but below the 1.5 per cent growth of 2021-22. Terms of trade – the relationship of export to import prices – fell by -6.3 per cent last financial year; in 2021-22, it rose by 12.1 per cent.