Australia must address ‘chronic supply shortage' for housing market
Ms Creagh told Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood that there must be 'more' housing supply to reach the country's targets.
'I guess addressing that chronic supply shortage that we know we have.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
25 minutes ago
- ABC News
CSIRO could be facing hundreds more job cuts this year, union warns
There are fears hundreds more Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) jobs could be axed this year, the union has warned. The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) issued a statement on Thursday morning saying that Australia's national science agency was enduring its "biggest job cuts in a decade". Last year, 440 positions were slashed, and the CPSU said "approximately 200 contract jobs were left to expire, with hundreds more cuts expected to be made to research units later this year". The union said it had made a submission to the Economic Reform Roundtable, warning the nation's capacity for productivity and innovation was being "actively undermined". The union is calling for the federal government to intervene to prevent further proposed cuts. CSIRO Staff Association section secretary Susan Tonks said there was a "clear disconnect between the government's talk about boosting productivity and their failure to support the very institution that helps deliver it". "But deep job cuts at the CSIRO are directly undermining Australia's ability to innovate, compete and grow. And this will continue to be the case as long as this government sits on its hands while hundreds of staff at the CSIRO are shown the door with little to no explanation. "If this government is serious about productivity, it must step in, stop the cuts, and back our country's peak science institution." The CSIRO has been contacted for comment. Ms Tonks said concern among staff was high. "If you're looking at the May budget papers and the workshops … there's workshops coming up to assess what science will be done, and what research will continue in September," she said. "And looking at all the numbers and everything that's coming up, it's looking highly likely that there will be similar numbers [to last year's cuts] coming across the research portfolio. "There's still assessments to be done, but given what we've just come out of, the anxiety and the concern and anger from staff is high." She said it was "hard to say" which areas within the CSIRO would be targeted. "But I think everything's going to be looked at," she said. "Looking at recent conversations with staff in preparation for some of those that are going to go through, there's quotes like, 'We need to be simpler as an organisation, we need to exit some areas and do fewer things better.'" She said it was "unsettling" for staff who had already been through recent changes, and warned some might not remain at the CSIRO if uncertainty lingered. "It's worth noting, public investment in research and development is what delivers innovation, it increases productivity," Ms Tonks said. "The CSIRO's been behind some of the most important scientific innovations that we've had in Australia. "We need to make sure that we back it."
News.com.au
33 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Labor looks to speed up PBS listings amid calls from lobby groups
Health Minister Mark Butler says he is looking at recommendations to speed up medicine approvals amid pressure from lobbyists both within Australia and in the US. Medicines Australia has repeatedly highlighted that Australia lags behind comparable countries in listing new medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) – a list of federally subsidised medicines. It takes an average of 466 days from when the Therapeutic Goods Administration approves a medicine to when it becomes affordable on the PBS, according to the peak body. This is much longer than in the UK and Canada, for example. The lengthy timeline has also angered the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which has framed the PBS as a 'non-tariff trade barrier' that harms American companies in representations to the Trump administration. Lengthy PBS listing times is among PhRMA's core criticisms. Mr Butler said on Thursday he would look at Medicines Australia's recommendations to make the 'approvals system quicker'. 'We're getting an enormous number of new medicining coming on to the market,' he told the ABC. 'We're living through a turbocharged period of discovery bringing more and more new medicine, so making sure that we can assess them and approve them very quickly to get them into patients as quickly as possible is something I've said is a real priority for us this term.' Because the PBS compels drugmakers to negotiate prices with the federal government, PhRMA has accused Australia of 'freeloading' on US-funded research and development. Meanwhile, American consumers pick up the bill, according to the lobby group. 'The medicines industry, understandably, given their interest, want to make prices higher as well, so there will be a bit of a debate about how we do that,' Mr Butler said. 'But I'm very much on the page of getting medicines more quickly into our system, our PBS system. 'It's a terrific system and we're trying to make medicines cheaper at the same time for Australians.' PhRMA has explicitly urged the Trump administration to 'leverage ongoing trade negotiations' to influence Australia's PBS policies. Mr Butler has echoed Anthony Albanese and fellow senior government ministers in ruling out any 'compromise' on the system as part of tariff talks. For the moment, Donald Trump's concern with the sector appears to be largely focused on bringing down prices in the US rather than punishing allies for having cheaper medicines. A RAND Corporation report found that Americans pay nearly four times more than Australians for medicines and about three times more than the average in other developed economies. The answer, according to the US President, is to make pharmaceuticals in the US. In a warning shot to firms, Mr Trump this week threatened to slap tariffs of up to 250 per cent on foreign-made products. With Australian pharma exports to the US worth more than $2bn in 2024, it would hit producers Down Under hard. Exports are mostly blood products and vaccines but also include packaged medicines and miscellaneous products, such as bandages. 'We'll be putting (an) initially small tariff on pharmaceuticals,' Mr Trump told US business news channel CNBC. 'In one year, 1½ years maximum, it's going to go to 150 per cent and then it's going to go to 250 per cent because we want pharmaceuticals made in our country.' He did not say what the initial rate would be, but earlier in the year he said duties on the sector would start from 25 per cent.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Woodside slammed by regulator for safety incidents at multiple WA decommissioning sites
A key union says it is aware of "significant failures" in Woodside's safety management at one of its offshore projects, days after the national regulator ordered it to suspend its decommissioning work over similar issues. The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) last Thursday revoked the oil and gas giant's decommissioning obligations at Griffin and Stybarrow gas fields until it completed "essential planning and preparatory activities". The orders come after what NOPSEMA called "preventable health and safety incidents" at both sites. NOPSEMA asked BHP to decommission both gas fields in 2021, a year before its petroleum arm was bought by Woodside. Decommissioning refers to the process of safely closing a mine or oil and gas site, with the expectation that the impacted environment will be rehabilitated afterwards. In May, 16,000 litres of oil spilled into the ocean during removal operations at Woodside's Griffin oil and gas field, which NOPSEMA said had the potential to expose workers to hydrogen sulphide. Meanwhile, the regulator said there had been unsuccessful recovery attempts and the presence of hydrates in some infrastructure at Stybarrow. A Woodside spokesperson said the company had made substantial progress towards decommissioning the Stybarrow, Griffin and Minerva fields, concluding a multi-year decommissioning program. "Across the campaign, more than 25,000 tonnes of infrastructure, including over 140 kilometres of pipe and 100 subsea structures, have been brought to shore to enable recycling and reuse," it said. A Woodside spokesperson said NOPSEMA's revised general directions provided additional time and clarity for essential planning and preparatory activities. The regulator's directions were welcomed by Maritime Union of Australia organiser Doug Heath, who has sent the regulator a deluge of reports about "near misses" at Woodside's decommissioning projects. He told the ABC that "a fundamental breach" had occurred at one of Woodside's offshore projects just this week. "We've had a series of incidents where workers have suffered, in one case a punctured lung," Mr Heath said. "In other cases, there have been a series of near misses." In March, NOPSEMA confirmed it was investigating lifting and crane operations at McDermott's DLV 2000 vessel, which has been decommissioning the Stybarrow gas field. Two years ago, Woodside contractor Michael Jurman died while working at the North Rankin offshore facility, an incident that NOPSEMA is still investigating. Since then, Woodside's health and safety data showed the number of high-potential incidents and total recordable injuries had increased. Mr Heath said the company had not learned its lesson. "If they need the regulator to tell them that they're not doing a good enough job, they've got some significant failures within their HSC management," he said. "[Woodside is] doing more decommissioning work than probably any other oil and gas company in WA, but their standards have slipped over the course of time. A Woodside spokesperson said safety always had been and would continue to be its priority, and it was continuously taking action to strengthen its safety culture.
