Could do better - NAPLAN results show many children aren't meeting expectations
The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority described this year's results as broadly 'stable'.
The federal government says it has made the biggest investment in public schools ... worth $16 billion over the next 10 years, with funding tied to real and practical reforms.
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News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
How the Albanese Government plans to revolutionise the taxes you pay for driving a car
Australia's new tax on electric vehicle drivers is set to kick off with a trial period for trucks before it stings cars. can reveal that the Albanese Government is looking at a staged rollout to test the proposed new EV tax and trucks will be the first cab off the rank. It is also interested in a new road user charge that sends price signals on the best time to be on the road, or the freeway. Over time, it could replace petrol taxes and apply to all cars based on distance travelled and when cars and trucks are on the road to tackle congestion. Free ride for EVs nearly over The free ride enjoyed by drivers of electric vehicles is coming to a close with Treasurer Jim Chalmers and state governments finalising plans for a new road-user charge. All Australian motorists who buy petrol and diesel at the bowser pay 51.6 cents a litre in fuel excise. But drivers of EV vehicles pay nothing. 'The status quo won't be sustainable over the next decade or two,'' Treasurer Jim Chalmers told 'As more and more people get off petrol cars and into EVs we've got to make sure that the tax arrangements support investment in roads. 'But we're in no rush, changes of this nature will be made, because the status quo won't work in 10 or 20 years.' The Treasurer made no secret of his support for a road user charge before the election, but favours a staged rollout of the changes. Based on a planned NSW road user scheme, a national rollout will depend on your mileage but might cost between $300 and $400 a year. Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas said that electric vehicles are 'heavier and do more damage to the road network as a consequence than do internal combustion engine vehicles'. 'By giving drivers a clear signal about the cost of infrastructure, they would have an incentive to use it more efficiently,' the Productivity Commission report said. How does fuel excise work? The current rate of fuel excise is 51.6 cents in excise for every litre of fuel purchased. For a typical household with a car running on petrol, the tax costs more than $1200 a year. But the flat sales tax isn't paid by drivers of pure electric vehicles, who simply need to plug in their cars to recharge. While registration and driver's licence fees go to state and territory governments, fuel excise is collected by the federal government. Australian motorists paid an estimated $15.71 billion in net fuel excise in 2023-24, and are expected to pay $67.6 billion over the four years to 2026-27. However, governments have long-warned that a road-user charge will be required to fill the gap in the budget left by declining revenue from the fuel excise, as the petrol and diesel engines in new cars consume less fuel and Australians adopt hybrid and electric cars. What does the AAA say? The Australian Automobile Association (AAA) is calling for a national approach to road-user charging but wants a guarantee the revenue will be earmarked for road upgrades. The AAA backs a distance-based road-user charging as a fairer and more equitable way to fund land transport infrastructure. The 2024 federal budget forecasted a reduction in fuel excise receipts by $470 million over four years from 2024-25. Roadblocks to reform Currently, New South Wales is the only state with firm plans to introduce a road-user charge from 2027 or when EVs reach 30 per cent of new car sales. Plug-in hybrid EVs will be charged a fixed 80 per cent proportion of the full road-user charge to reflect their vehicle type. Western Australia has also stated an intention to implement a road-user charge. Meanwhile, Victoria's electric vehicle levy had to be scrapped following a ruling from the High Court. Two Victorian electric car owners launched a legal challenge on the basis the tax was not legal as it was an excise that only a federal government could impose. They won, with the High Court upholding the legal challenge. There have been several false starts to enshrine a road-user charge including in South Australia, where the former Liberal Government planned to introduce a charge for plug-in electric and other zero emission vehicles, which included a fixed component and a variable charge based on distance travelled. It was later pushed back to 2027 due to a backlash before the legislation was ultimately repealed. 'Gold standard' for reform Some experts argue the gold standard for reform is a variable rate that factors in the vehicle's mass, distance travelled, location, and time of day. But there's a big barrier to the Commonwealth imposing those charges because the Constitution prohibits it from imposing taxes that discriminate between states or parts of states.
West Australian
an hour ago
- West Australian
MICHELLE GRATTAN: Consensus goal may elude
One observer describes next week's economic roundtable this way: 'Chalmers has opened a can of worms — and everybody has got a worm'. Even those close to the roundtable are feeling overwhelmed by the extent of the worm farm. There are many hundreds of submissions, five Productivity Commission reports, Treasury background papers, and stakeholders in the media spruiking their opinions ahead of the event. Business, unions and the welfare sector have largely settled into their predictable wish lists. In areas such as the housing crisis, it's actually not difficult to say what should be done — you hardly need this meeting to tell you. It just seems near impossible to get the relevant players (whether they be States, local councils, the construction industry) to do it, or be able to do it. On issues of deregulation generally, when it comes to specifics, a lot is contested. As the ACTU's Sally McManus says, 'one person's regulations are another person's rights'. As much as Treasurer Jim Chalmers might like to project the sunny side of Australia's situation, independent economist Chris Richardson (who will be at the summit's day three tax session) puts it more bluntly. 'We have a problem: the average Australian saw their living standards rise by just 1.5 per cent over the past decade,' he posted on X. 'That's embarrassingly shy of the 22 per cent lift in living standards enjoyed across the rich world as a whole, and way below what Australians achieved in times past. 'You'd have hoped that both sides would have talked about tackling that challenge at the last election, but they didn't.' Richardson is hoping the roundtable can achieve 'enough consensus to change some things', which the Government can use as a springboard. But he's worried the meeting could underperform, given its 'lead-up hasn't seen much consensus', Economist Richard Holden from UNSW says to be successful, the roundtable needs to get 'broad agreement on some version of the ' Abundance agenda' (a reference to a currently fashionable book focusing on loosening regulatory blocks) – especially as it applies to housing. 'In addition, to be successful would require that big issues like federation and tax reform are referred to Treasury for serious consideration and to present the Government with options by year's end.' There are two approaches for a government that wants to promote economic reform. It can, as then treasurer Paul Keating did at the 1985 tax summit, put up a model and see how much it can make fly. Or it can, as Chalmers is doing, ask a wide range of participants for their ideas, and then decide how much of what emerges to pursue — in terms of what has wide support and what fits the Government's agenda. The closer we get to the meeting, the harder it becomes to anticipate its likely import (or lack of). Signposts are there, but they could be false signals, or ignored later. Despite all the talk about tax, the Government — specifically the Prime Minister — has flagged it doesn't have the stomach for radical reform. Certainly not this term. Anthony Albanese said last week, 'The only tax policy that we're implementing is the one that we took to the election'. This doesn't rule out new initiatives this term — the phrasing is carefully in the present tense — but from what we know of the PM's approach they would likely be limited rather than sweeping. Independent economist Saul Eslake said that a few weeks ago he was optimistic the summit would give Chalmers the licence to spend some of the vast political capital the election yielded. 'But the Prime Minister has made it clear he is not getting that licence. The Government is not prepared to venture much beyond its limited mandate from the election. 'The best that can be hoped for is a willingness to have an adult conversation with the electorate between now and the next election with a view to seeking a bold mandate in 2028,' Eslake says. Predictably, the roundtable is putting the spotlight on the Albanese-Chalmers relationship. This can be summed up in a couple of ways. The PM is more cautious when it comes to economic reform, the Treasurer is more ambitious. In political terms, it's that 'old bull, young bull' syndrome. The different styles are clear. The 'old bull' is blunt, sounding a touch impatient, for example, when he's asked about tax. The 'young bull' is publicly deferential to his leader. One of the most potentially significant discussions at the roundtable will be around AI. Unlike many well-worn issues, this is a relatively new, and quickly changing, area of policy debate. There are varying views within Government about whether firm or light guardrails are needed and whether they should be in a separate new act or just via changes to existing laws. Chalmers is in favour of light-touch regulation. The unions are not on the same page as Chalmers' regulatory preference, and they want a say for workers. The unions were the winners from the 2022 jobs and skills summit — the Government delivered to them in spades at the meeting, and later. It's not clear they are in as strong a position this time. Their big claim for the roundtable — a four-day working week — has already been dismissed by the Government. Regardless of the diversity of views among those rubbing shoulders in the cabinet room next week, one man will stand out as something of an oddity. Ted O'Brien, shadow treasurer, invited as a participant, will be as much an observer. O'Brien might say he wants to be constructive, but his role means he will want to be critical. But he has to tread carefully. Others in the room, and outside observers, will be making judgments about him. For O'Brien, the gathering should be a networking opportunity more than an occasion for performative display.
ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
Rooftop solar and home batteries could reduce the need for wind farms, research finds
At first blush, Suzanne Bradshaw and Greg Ash could be your typical household power consumers. They live in a house they built six years ago on a battleaxe block in the inner Perth suburb of Mount Lawley. Like so many households, theirs is one that increasingly relies on electricity — from the gadgets under their roof to the solar panels on top of it. But look a little closer and a different picture emerges. In a workshop attached to the house are a number of kilns — electric furnaces used by Ash to make glass. "I've been working on glass, this type of glass, for 23 years now," the 72-year-old says. "So they [the kilns] can consume a fair bit of power." Given their power needs, the couple have had to take steps to mitigate their exposure to the grid — and its associated costs. They were early adopters of solar power, forking out more than $20,000 for panels when the technology was still relatively expensive. In 2019, when they moved into their new house, they installed an even bigger system and followed it up with a battery a couple of years later. And to round it out, they have signed up for a type of dynamic pricing known as a time-of-use tariff, enabling them to draw dirt cheap power off the grid between 9am and 3pm every day. It costs them about nine cents for every kilowatt hour they buy from their retailer during those hours — but up to 45 cents per kilowatt hour at other times. "The good thing about that is if it's an overcast day and you're not getting as much solar coming in, you can top up your battery during the middle of the day," Bradshaw says. "That also means we're not using electricity during the peak… that other consumers need." The couple's circumstances are increasingly common among Australian consumers. Australia has long led the world in its adoption of rooftop solar and Western Australia is no exception. There are more than four million small-scale solar installations across the country's homes and businesses — equivalent to about one in three customers. It's a similar figure in WA, where about 400,000 small-scale customers have solar. And now, courtesy of generous subsidies led by the Commonwealth, uptake of batteries is booming, too. For the first time, registrations for batteries under the Federal Government's small-scale green energy scheme exceeded those for solar panels in July. A new report commissioned by the office of Brad Pettitt, the leader of the WA Greens, is urging the Cook Government to go much further. The report, written by green power advocates Sustainable Energy Now, suggests WA has barely scratched the surface of its rooftop solar capacity. It says "only 13 per cent of the potential capacity" for rooftop solar has been realised in WA's main grid, which spans the country's south-western corner. And it notes that of those customers who have solar, fewer than one in 20 have a battery as well. The lobby argues that better capitalising on WA's capacity for small-scale solar power and batteries could dramatically cut the need for large-scale projects required as part of the transition away from fossil fuels. "Fully utilising suitable rooftops" could slash the need for wind and solar farms while halving the requirement for new high-voltage power lines and saving billions, it argues. Crucially, it says small-scale solutions will also be much quicker than large-scale ones, a key advantage given the government's plan to get out of coal power by 2029. Pettitt says the state's current plan, which relies on large-scale projects, is off track. "The fastest and fairest way to decarbonise is actually utilising our rooftops," Pettitt says. "There are savings in the billions around needing less transmission. "We're saying 'let's get smart about this, using existing rooftops, we don't need to clear vegetation, we don't need to put in new transmission, we can do it now and we can do it quickly'." Not everyone supports the proposal. Greg Watkinson, the former chief executive of WA's economic watchdog and a director of Electricity Market Advisory Services, says there are risks for consumers in the plan. He says there are significant costs incurred by households and small businesses when they invest in solar panels and batteries and many can over-capitalise. By contrast, he says there are economies of scale when big businesses invest in large-scale projects such as major batteries and wind farms. What's more, he says those big businesses are sophisticated investors "who know what they're doing and it's their money to burn — if they waste it, it's on them". "The risk is that households end up spending too much," Watkinson says. "If we ended up having solar panels on everyone's roofs, maybe we'd be spending too much. "I expect we would be, so I don't think that's the way to go." WA Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson declined a request for an interview. Instead, she issued a statement in which she said the government "recognises the importance of harnessing our vast rooftop solar resource". The Minister noted the government is helping up to 100,000 households to get batteries through its — albeit watered down — subsidy scheme. Glass artist Greg Ash thinks he's ahead of the game now he's got a battery along with his solar panels. "All you have to do is look at what's happening in the eastern states as opposed to here," Ash says. "We're better off with our power and gas than they are, but it will come back and bite us here, so people should be looking at solar and battery. "And hopefully that will get cheaper for the average person."
