Source : the age
Good morning and welcome to our national news live coverage for Tuesday, June 30. I’m Emily Kowal, and I will be bringing the news at it happens this morning.
Here are our top stories for today:
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said the government is “engaging” with the issue of paying teenagers superannuation when they work fewer than 30 hours per week, as he spruiked changes to the system set to come in this week.
“We’re engaging on all these sorts of issues. We’re always looking for ways to improve the system, but for us, our time and effort and energy has been going into this change, which comes in from tomorrow,” Chalmers told Sky News.
From July 1, employers will have to make superannuation contributions within seven days of paying employees. Currently, superannuation payments only need to be made on a quarterly basis. The change is expected to increase the value of superannuation accounts over time.
Chalmers said the change means “thousands of extra dollars for workers.”
Asked about the Greens proposal to pay superannuation to nearly 500,000 teenagers who work fewer than 30 hours per week, Chalmers said: “We didn’t need the Greens political party to tell us that this was an important issue. I met with a delegation of young workers just last week talking about this, we’re always looking for ways to strengthen the superannuation system.”
Chalmers did not make it clear whether the government was intending to make alterations to the way superannuation is paid to teenagers.
Nationals leader Matt Canavan has glossed over suggestions that the Liberals and Nationals parties need the support of One Nation to get into government.
Speaking on Sky News, Canavan said Australia needed a change of government. Asked if the Liberals and Nationals would need the support of One Nation to achieve this goal, Canavan said the Coalition was “best served by putting our own foot forward.”
“We have got to fight for what we believe in, and I believe that our country needs a change of government, a change of direction. Things are going backwards at a rapid rate right now,” said Canavan.
“We need to change our country because things are going own the toilet right now.”
Pressed on the topic of One Nation, Canavan redirected questions.
“What the clear focus on is defeating this government. That’s the primary goal that we’ve got to do because that’s the only way we change the country. Talking about other political parties is not going to change the country,” he said.
Liberal Senate leader Michaelia Cash has repeatedly rebuffed questions over the Coalition’s record low polling, insisting that Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s leadership is safe.
“There’s a long way to go between now and the next election, and our focus is on putting forward a credible plan to the Australian people that will improve their standard of living,” Cash told Nine’s Today this morning.
“I walk through shopping centres and people come up to me, and they say: ‘Please change the government. We cannot afford any more of a Labor-Greens dirty deal’,” Cash said before dismissing a question over the uncertainty of Taylor’s leadership.
The questions come after dual polls this week showed the Coalition’s primary vote falling to between 17 and 18 per cent, sparking calls for a party “rebrand” from frontbencher Melissa McIntosh. Cash dismissed the statement.
“Australians don’t want us to rebrand, they want us to change the country that is actually going backwards under Larissa Waters, the Australian Greens, and Anthony Albanese,” she said.
The Christian Brothers in Australia transferred some of its most valuable colleges to a separate trust for just $1 each but now claims it will be broke by September and unable to compensate hundreds of survivors of shocking clerical abuse.
At least three prominent schools in NSW, including Waverley College in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, were passed by the Catholic order in 2018 to the Trustees of Edmund Rice Education Australia.
Documents obtained by this masthead reveal other NSW schools including St Patrick’s College in Strathfield and St Pius X College in Chatswood were also transferred that year for the nominal consideration of $1 each.
The move came just months before state governments across Australia removed the controversial Ellis Defence, which had limited civil claims against churches since 2007.
The transfer of schools between the two entities has fuelled claims by abuse survivors and their lawyers that the Christian Brothers engaged in a deliberate strategy to shield its assets from civil claims.
Read the full investigation here.
A striking absence of snow has left Australia’s slopes muddy and bare as the ski industry pins its hopes of a salvageable season on a late downfall to cover the alps.
Skiing businesses rely on the winter school holidays to bring hordes of families to the Australian alps to kick off the ski season.
But as students begin their holidays in Victoria and start marking off the last days before winter holidays begin in NSW this weekend, a glum would-be skier posted a clip of himself standing beneath chair lifts on a slope of dull muddy grass marked by a strip of manufactured snow.
Snow coverage in Australia is in long-term decline due to increasing temperatures caused by climate change, data from the Bureau of Meteorology shows. This year’s season is also expected to be hit by the onset of an El Nino weather pattern, declared by the Bureau of Meteorology on June 16, which causes warmer and drier conditions.
However, resort operators in NSW and Victoria insist the lacklustre start to the season is not uncommon.
Read the full story here.
Good morning and welcome to our national news live coverage for Tuesday, June 30. I’m Emily Kowal, and I will be bringing the news at it happens this morning.
Here are our top stories for today:
