Latest news with #SussanLey
The Guardian
11 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Morning Mail: Can Ley rebuild the Liberals? AFL faces gambling hit, Trump woes continue
Morning everyone. Can Sussan Ley make the Liberals great again? Today we start a four-part series in which our political reporters ask whether she can survive the internal brawls and forge a more inclusive era of conservative politics. Talking of Maga, Trump supporters are burning their signature hats in protest at their esrtwhile hero's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. In Victoria, the regulator is considering an unprecedented intervention which could limit the AFL's wagering revenue, concern grows about rogue tradies preying on the vulnerable, and the 12-year-old swimmer who has qualified for the world championships. Super windfall | Major Australian media production companies, including the producers of Neighbours and Home and Away, may be ordered to pay workers millions of dollars in alleged unpaid superannuation after a 2024 tax office ruling. Wager limit | The Victorian gambling regulator is considering whether to make an unprecedented intervention in a dispute between the AFL and bookmakers, which could set a limit on the league's revenue from wagering. Tradie trouble | Governments and consumer groups are becoming increasingly worried about rogue tradies who are targeting vulnerable Australians – especially the elderly – to pressure them into unnecessary work such as roof repairs. Solitary concerns | Advocates have serious concerns for the wellbeing of Robert Barnes, an Indigenous man who they say has been in solitary confinement in a South Australia prison for 'close to 800 days'. 'Grossly inappropriate' | Allegations about Mark Latham's conduct in the NSW parliament have once again raised the issue of how to deal with workplace behaviour. As Anne Davies writes, there's no easy fix other than leaders making fixing the culture inside political parties and inside parliaments a priority. Epstein prosecutor fired | The Department of Justice has reportedly fired Maurene Comey (pictured), the daughter of former FBI director James Comey and a prosecutor in the federal Jeffrey Epstein case. It came as Donald Trump's efforts to dismiss the criticism over his administration's handling of the Epstein files as a 'hoax' showed no sign of working as some of his supporters recorded videos burning their signature Make America Great Again hats. Follow developments live. This week's edition of our Politics Weekly America podcast also discusses the issue. Gaza attack | An Israeli strike has hit the only Catholic church in Gaza, killing two people and injuring several others including the parish priest, who used to receive daily calls from the late Pope Francis. Plane all-clear | Air India has said it found 'no issues' with the fuel switches on its other Boeing planes after the fatal crash that killed 260 people last month, as a US report suggested investigators have turned their attention to the actions of the plane's captain. MI5 sting | A former Tesco worker caught buying a gun in an MI5 sting operation has denied compiling a kill-list of colleagues and customers he had allegedly branded 'race traitors'. Young gun | A 12-year-old swimmer, Yu Zidi, has qualified for the world championships in Singapore after her performance at China's nationals placed her times among the world's elite this season. Newsroom edition: why is Jim Chalmers listening to Ezra Klein? The most-talked about book in Canberra right now is Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Nour Haydar asks editor Lenore Taylor and head of newsroom Mike Ticher if the Abundance agenda is right for Australia. Sorry your browser does not support audio - but you can download here and listen $ In the first of a four-part series, our political reporters have been talking to Liberal party insiders about whether Sussan Ley can move beyond the Dutton years and climate wars and forge a new, more inclusive era of conservative politics. One says: 'It feels like we're moving into a whole new era of more openness … so I think it's been a breath of fresh air so far.' The trailer for the last season of Stranger Things has just been released and is chock full of heavy metal, demons, tornados and flamethrowers. One of our television critics, Stuart Heritage, is hopeful that the series might have rediscovered its emotional core. Sign up to Morning Mail Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Golf | World No 1 Scottie Scheffler laid down an ominous marker on the first day of The Open at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, but local favourite Rory McIlroy is in with a shout. Rugby union | Lions coach Andy Farrell looks relaxed as the first test approaches but he knows his team can't be complacent even though the Wallabies have some gaping holes in their selection. Football | England have staged a remarkable fightback late to force Sweden into extra time in their battle to secure a place in the semi-finals of the Women's European championship. Follow the action live. Cycling | A devastating attack from Tadej Pogacar on first Tour de France's first day in the Pyrenees helped the defending champion reclaim the yellow jersey and leave his rivals trailing after stage 12. The Liberals are leading the latest polls in the Tasmania election, the Mercury reports, but a minority government remains the most likely outcome. Melbourne's suburban rail loop project is locked in a $7m compensation battle over its takeover of a park in Burwood, the Age reports. The ABC reports that two men charged with the murders of Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson in Mexico have alleged ties to organised crime, according to court documents. The Sydney Morning Herald claims that Icac raided City of Parramatta offices hours before a council meeting. Billionaire Annie Cannon-Brookes has finished the first part of her revamp of Dunk Island in far north Queensland with the opening of a new beachfront restaurant, the Australian reports. Melbourne | Public hearing at University of Melbourne of the 'people's inquiry' into campus free speech on Palestine. Environment | Social services minister Tanya Plibersek is making an announcement at OzHarvest in Sydney at 9am. Media | Interlocutory judgment in Antoinette Lattouf's legal challenge to the ABC. If you would like to receive this Morning Mail update to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here, or finish your day with our Afternoon Update newsletter. You can follow the latest in US politics by signing up for This Week in Trumpland. And finally, here are the Guardian's crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword
ABC News
12 hours ago
- Business
- ABC News
Anthony Albanese and Sussan Ley face fresh challenges in new parliament
Anthony Albanese hasn't been in any rush to convene the new parliament, which Governor-General Sam Mostyn will open on Tuesday. It's only mildly cynical to observe that governments of both persuasions often seem to regard having pesky members and senators around too much as a hindrance to business. Accountability is all very good in theory — facing it in practice is another matter. In this first fortnight of the new parliament, however, much of the attention will be less on the government than on the opposition. Liberal leader Sussan Ley has handled her early weeks without tripping. But her critics hover like crows on the fence in lambing season. Angus Taylor, who narrowly lost the leadership ballot, retains his ambition. The right-wing media wait for Ley's mistakes. Ley will need to maintain a strong grip on her team's messaging, especially on foreign and defence policy, or the Coalition will open itself to criticism. Taylor, now the defence spokesman, attracted attention this week when he went out on a limb on Taiwan, telling the ABC, "we should have a joint commitment with them [the US] to the security of Taiwan". Ley, who says she wants to avoid unrelenting negativity, must choose the Coalition's targets carefully. It has been presented with some useful fodder, with the (inadvertently) leaked Treasury brief to the re-elected government that urged the need for tax rises and spending cuts. This is manna from political heaven because it is on the Coalition's favoured economic ground, and raises issues for which the government doesn't have immediate or clear-cut answers. As important as Ley's performance will be, so will be that of Shadow Treasurer Ted O'Brien. Taylor's handling of the job last term was a serious weakness for the Coalition. Facing a well-prepared and confident counterpart in Jim Chalmers, O'Brien must find his feet quickly. Sensibly, he has hired on his staff an experienced, credible economist, Steven Hamilton, who has been an assistant professor of economics at George Washington University in Washington DC. Hamilton has also been a regular contributor to The Australian Financial Review, so he has a feel for, and contacts in, the financial media. The government has a mix of legislation to introduce in this initial fortnight. Albanese promised during the campaign that Labor's first cab off the rank would be its commitment to cut student debt by 20 per cent. It also foreshadowed early action to lock in penalty rates. It didn't anticipate having to rush in a bill to strip funding from childcare centres that do not meet safety standards. This follows the recent revelations of abuse. The first parliamentary fortnight comes in the run-up to the government's August 19–21 productivity roundtable (named by Chalmers the "economic reform roundtable"). With expectations inevitably exploding, observers will be watching closely the dynamics between the treasurer and the prime minister in parliament. The two agree that delivering election promises should be the floor, rather than the ceiling, of ambition for the second term. But their degrees of ambition differ. Chalmers fears Albanese's is limited; the prime minister fears his treasurer's will overreach. Will Albanese show a restraining hand on the roundtable in the weeks before it? As the government wants to emphasise delivery to voters in the early days of the parliament, Chalmers hasn't rushed to seek the deal he needs with the Greens on his controversial changes to superannuation tax arrangements. The plan is to increase the tax on balances of more than $3 million, and tax the unrealised capital gains. The Greens want the $3 million reduced to $2 million and that amount indexed. It's a fair assumption that a compromise will be reached when negotiations occur. That will be a relatively easy test for the Greens under their new leader, Larissa Waters, who has also said she wants to be constructive while holding the government to account. Later on, though, will come harder issues, including whether the Greens will sign up to a new environmental protection authority, stymied by political obstacles last term. In general, the Senate will be less complicated for the government in the coming months than last term, given the Greens hold the sole balance of power on legislation contested by the opposition. That means things are more frustrating for other Senate crossbenchers. In his stand on staffing, Albanese is not improving their mood. Pauline Hanson's One Nation doubled its representation to four senators but has no extra staff. Staff allocation is up to the prime minister, who has once again been arbitrary about how many staff individual Senate crossbenchers receive. This is an unfair and indefensible system — there should be independent, consistent rules. ACT senator David Pocock hasn't lost any staff, but he has lost clout, compared with last term when his vote could be crucial and he was able to trade it for concessions from the government. The new numbers deal him and other non-Green crossbenchers out of the game. In the House of Representatives, the Teals retain strong representation but, as in the last parliament, they can only exert (limited) influence, not power. For a while early this year, when it looked as if there would be a hung parliament, they were preparing wish lists. One new Teal will be sworn in next week, Nicolette Boele, who won the seat of Bradfield from the Liberals. She can't know, however, whether she will see out her term. The Liberals have challenged the result after she won by just 26 votes. The matter will be decided by the Court of Disputed Returns. There are three possible outcomes: the court confirms the result; the result is overturned and the seat awarded to Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian (who was allowed to vote in the Liberal leadership and supported Ley); or a fresh election is ordered. The Liberals are taking some risk with the challenge. If there were a new election, and they lost it, that would be another setback for them and could destabilise Ley's leadership. Michelle Grattan is a professorial fellow at the University of Canberra and chief political correspondent at The Conversation, where this article first appeared.
The Guardian
17 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Not just electoral, but ideological: the challenges facing a Liberal party in existential crisis
Sussan Ley was yet to officially put up her hand to replace Peter Dutton as Liberal leader when the dirt began to circulate. A 'scorecard' spread through Liberal circles on 7 May ranking Ley, Angus Taylor and Dan Tehan – who at that stage was yet to rule himself out of the race – against a series of metrics, some more unconventional than others. These included whether the candidates were 'beholden' to the factional powerbroker Alex Hawke (tick for Ley), had been sacked as a minister (another tick for Ley) and supported Israel (a cross for Ley, owing to past support for a Palestinian state). Guardian Australia has confirmed the scorecard originated inside the party but was unable to verify exactly who wrote it. But the intent was clear: to sabotage Ley's hopes of becoming the first woman to lead the federal Liberal party. A similar subterranean campaign was launched after Ley floated ambitions for the foreign affairs portfolio in Dutton's pre-election reshuffle of his shadow cabinet. The campaign achieved its desired outcome as Ley missed out on the role despite convention dictating the deputy leader has claims to the portfolio of their choosing. The scorecard wasn't so effective. Ten days after the Coalition's catastrophic election defeat, Ley defeated Taylor – and the powerful forces supporting him – to win the leadership, putting her at the helm of a party in existential crisis. Ley inherited the leadership with the Liberal party reeling from its worst defeat in its 80-year history. Across consecutive elections, the Liberals have lost more than 30 lower house seats, have been all but wiped out in the capital cities, deserted by women and migrant communities and abandoned by young people. Its problems are not just electoral, but ideological. At the heart of the party's problems is a deep and unresolved rift between more moderate liberal forces and rightwing conservatives, divided on many issues, but above all the climate crisis. In her first two months in the job, Ley and her inner-circle of MPs and senior advisers have begun the process of repositioning and rebranding the party. Conversations with more than 20 Liberal MPs and party insiders, including a mix of Ley's supporters and detractors, indicate the step-change has been largely well received internally as senior colleagues across the factional divide rally behind the new leader. But Ley's fledgling leadership will be tested as internal brawls over net zero and gender quotas, and the lingering animosity over a shadow ministry lineup that rewarded supporters and punished rivals, threaten to tear the party apart. Attempts to drag the party to the centre will face resistance from powerful conservatives forces, including the former prime minister Tony Abbott, who are hellbent on entrenching the party on the political right. 'I am worried this is going to be a very divisive period,' one MP said. In a new four-part series, Guardian Australia delves into the internal struggle to shape the future of the Liberal party, including one fringe senator's crusade to transform it from within. It will also examine the party's fraught relationship with the Nationals, and how the latest chapter in the long-running climate wars risk fracturing the Coalition – permanently. Ley officially declared her candidacy for the Liberal leadership on 9 May, writing in a statement that Australia 'expects a change in direction and a fresh approach from the Liberal party'. But the groundwork for the tilt was laid much earlier. In the final stretch of the federal election campaign, between Anzac Day and 3 May, the deputy leader visited 22 seats to campaign alongside Liberal MPs and candidates. Liberal sources says those timely seat visits were crucial for Ley in building internal support for the eventual leadership election. One MP joked they were surprised Ley didn't 'die' from the intensive travel. Sources outside Ley's inner circle allege she was deliberately using the visits to 'manoeuvre' ahead of a potential leadership challenge against Dutton. In doing so, she 'disappeared' from the national campaign, one Liberal said, to the point where people were asking, 'What the fuck is going on?' The relationship between Dutton and Ley had deteriorated amid suspicions Ley's camp was leaking against the leader, including internal talking points exposing the mixed messaging on the Coalition's threats to break up certain industries in cases of market failure. 'She was clearly positioning herself for the week after the result. I didn't realise she was that cunning,' the Liberal said of Ley's apparent attempts to distance herself from Dutton. The alleged manoeuvring is denied by those close to Ley, who say she wasn't preparing for a tilt, nor expecting Dutton to lose his seat. Ley eventually prevailed 29 votes to 25 over Taylor after the moderates, members of her own centre-right faction and a collection of unaligned MPs swung behind her. Despite the thin margin of victory, which was aided by votes from senators Linda Reynolds and Hollie Hughes – both no longer in parliament – and Gisele Kapterian, who ultimately lost Bradfield, Ley's camp is not concerned by the numbers. They say they are 'relaxed' about her support in the party room, and are confident she would win by a bigger margin if another ballot were held now. But several Liberals doubt Ley is the long-term solution. In fact, some MPs have already formed the view that the person capable of returning the party to government is not even in parliament. 'Some Liberals are discussing the WFJF – the waiting for Josh Frydenberg faction,' one Liberal source said, referring to a potential, long-speculated political comeback for the former treasurer, who lost his seat of Kooyong to the independent Monique Ryan in 2022. Sign up to Five Great Reads Each week our editors select five of the most interesting, entertaining and thoughtful reads published by Guardian Australia and our international colleagues. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Saturday morning after newsletter promotion 'People are already looking on the horizon.' Another MP said: 'I think Sussan needs to make some decisions and take people with her very quickly, otherwise events will outpace her'. One of Ley's closest confidantes and friends is senator Anne Ruston, a South Australian who sits somewhere between the moderates and centrists, but who hasn't been a factional player. The two are known to have honest conversations, and Ley seeks Ruston's advice. The deputy leader, Ted O'Brien, is in the inner circle, as is Alex Hawke, a centre-right powerbroker who helped orchestrate Scott Morrison's unexpected rise to the prime ministership in 2018. Also inside the tent are the senior New South Wales moderate Andrew Bragg, who encouraged Ley to run and made calls to colleagues on her behalf, his factional ally Maria Kovacic, and the Queensland senator James McGrath, who has been tapped to conduct a review into the party's long-term future. Kovacic, Hawke, McGrath and Bragg were all elevated in Ley's first shadow ministry, irking internal rivals who viewed the appointments as rewards for loyalty over merit. In her first weeks as leader, Ley addressed a core group that Dutton wouldn't: young people. She joined 25-year-old Billi FitzSimons in a podcast for the youth social media platform the Daily Aus, spoke to SBS's The Feed and Triple J's Hack program on the ABC. To FitzSimons, Ley promised: 'I will not be in lecturing mode. I will be in listening mode.' It's a mantra she has repeated, including to members of the Chinese community – another group that abandoned the Coalition in droves – at a Sydney event on 7 July with her shadow attorney general, Julian Leeser. On 25 June, Ley stepped on to the National Press Club stage to share her log cabin story and provide a blueprint for reform. The significance of fronting up to press gallery journalists at that forum, which her predecessor shunned for three years, was not lost on those reporters, nor her colleagues. In her pitch for the leadership, Ley promised to be more collaborative with colleagues, who felt sidelined under Dutton's highly centralised operation. Backbench committees will now play a greater role in shaping policy after being largely neutered during Dutton's tenure. Victorian MP Aaron Violi, the new chief opposition whip, says it's a big opportunity for the party to open up more 'respectful and robust' policy debates, 'to give the backbench a bigger voice and ensure they have a direct line to shadow cabinet policy development'. Several MPs, including Bragg, used the word 'open' to describe the new regime. 'It feels like we're moving into a whole new era of having a lot more openness, and frankly, I mean the idea that political parties can be these black boxes when everything's a secret, it's so passé, so I think it's been a breath of fresh air so far.' Dr Jill Sheppard, a lecturer in politics at Australian National University, says allowing open debate and disagreement will be critical for Ley to manage – and survive – a divided party room. 'If she is to get through to 2028 [the next federal election] that'll be the key to her success,' Sheppard says. 'It won't be because of [gender] quotas or support from the moderates or anything else. It'll be an internal process of policy development that makes everyone feel included.' Ley has made clear that she wants to empower, not control, her frontbench when it comes to selling the party's message in the media. The leader's team has created a manual for shadow ministers to help them engage with journalists, a markedly different approach from Dutton's office, who largely shunned the Canberra press gallery. In another change, Guardian Australia can reveal Ley will issue frontbenchers with 'charter letters' that outline expectations for them in the role. Such letters are standard practice for prime ministers to keep their ministers in check, but are rarely issued by opposition leaders. Of the myriad challenges facing the Liberals, the one Ley appears most desperate to confront is the task of increasing the number of women in the party's parliamentary ranks. Women make up 33% of the Liberal party room in Canberra, compared with 56% for Labor. At the press club, Ley described herself as a 'zealot' for action to increase female representation but stopped short of endorsing a particular method, such as gender quotas. She accepts the power to introduce such a mechanism rests with the party's state and territory branches, which are responsible for the process of selecting candidates. Kovacic – a public advocate for quotas – says Ley is 'determined to drive change'. 'Starting with the structural reforms needed to achieve gender balance in our federal party room, her willingness to collaborate, listen and remain open-minded about how we reach that goal is a testament to her respect for members and colleagues,' she said. The events of recent weeks in the NSW division, where even preliminary discussion of gender quotas quickly descended into internal warfare, illustrates just how difficult change will be.
West Australian
18 hours ago
- Politics
- West Australian
MARK RILEY: Coalition must adopt cautious approach as it bids for relevance in new-look Parliament
If Jim Chalmers wants to see what real productivity looks like, he needs only wander into the basement at Parliament House and visit the name-plate makers. Tucked away behind the wood shop and the paint shop, off the subterranean corridor known as 'Bourke Street', the plate makers are beavering away at an unprecedented mountain of work. The unexpected enormity of the Albanese Government's election win has created a plate-making boom. When the 47th Parliament has its ceremonial opening on Tuesday, 49 new members of the House of Representatives and 17 new senators will assume their seats for the first time. There have also been 17 ministerial and assistant ministerial changes to the Government team since the election. All those new MPs and senators and ministers, and assistant ministers require name plates to hang outside their offices and display on their desks. The plate-making team has been flat-strap keeping up with demand. The change in the complexion of the Parliament will become unavoidably obvious on Wednesday when the houses sit for the first time to consider business. Tuesday is purely a ceremonial day. There aren't enough seats on the Government benches to accommodate all 94 Labor MPs. Many will have to relocate across the aisle to claim spots normally reserved for Opposition members. And there will be so few Coalition MPs that those who haven't snared a shadow ministry position will all huddle in a bunch behind the leader to fill her camera shot and create the illusion of numbers that don't exist. In between that huddle and the expanded crossbench will be a vast emptiness, an electoral crater blasted into the landscape by the conservative forces' catastrophic defeat. That void will serve as a constant reminder to Sussan Ley and her team that they are effectively powerless to stop any Government legislation passing through the House. Their only opportunities will come during question time. But they should use them wisely. The temptation will be to go hell for leather after everyone and everything that moves on the Government benches in a desperate quest for relevance. But it is a temptation they should resist. Those who have been around for a while will know what happens when impatient oppositions overplay their hands. Think Malcolm Turnbull and the ute-gate disaster. Real opportunities will present themselves. Big governments can overplay their hands, too, just as John Howard did with WorkChoices when he controlled both houses between 2004 and 2007. The main game, as always, will be the economy. The Opposition should concentrate on that. The Budget presents them with rich pickings, like the heroic assumption that government spending will halve from a vertiginous 6 per cent last financial year to 3 per cent. Independent observers know there is little chance of Treasurer Jim Chalmers achieving that without increasing tax revenues. Some of those observers suspect the coming productivity roundtable has been designed to create cover for him to do that. That should be easy to exploit for an Opposition that is already framing the second Albanese Government as a 'typical tax-and-spend' Labor outfit. And although a massive majority is a good problem for a government to have, it can still be a problem nonetheless. Labor's gains in the Senate mean it no longer has to negotiate with a fractious crossbench to pass its bills. It only needs the Greens. But that is as perilous as it sounds. The Greens will routinely attempt to drag Labor's legislation to the left as the price for its balance of power votes. Over time, that will build the impression of a Labor Party shifting inexorably leftwards from its preferred position closer to the centre. And that will present the Coalition with a critical choice. It can either allow Labor to make that drift and attempt to claim the vacant centre itself, or it can offer its own balance of power numbers on legislation and drag the Government in the other direction — towards the values of the conservative right. The best approach? Make that choice on a case-by-case basis. So, while the most visible theatre of the 48th Parliament might still be in House of Representatives question time, the big show will be in the Senate. And how the Opposition performs there will largely determine how many of the name plates after the next election are made for Coalition MPs.
News.com.au
a day ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
Sussan Ley urges states to ‘step up' on safety at childcare centres, vows to work ‘constructively' with Labor
Sussan Ley says the Coalition 'stands ready' to work 'constructively' with Labor to enact stronger childcare policies and called on the states to 'step up'. This comes after Victorian childcare workers Joshua Brown, 26, was hit with 70 child abuse charges. On Wednesday, a 21-year-old Queensland man was also charged with indecent treatment of a child at a Brisbane childcare centre. Speaking from Moreton Bay, Queensland, the Opposition Leader said parents 'don't have the confidence' or the 'faith and trust' in centres to look after their children and keep them safe. 'Our children are precious and it is disgusting and unacceptable that these incidences have taken place, and it makes me feel physically sick every time I hear of something,' she said. 'It's our young children and babies who are at risk in childcare centres with these hideous individuals on the loose.' Education Minister Jason Clare is set to introduce new legislation that will allow the Commonwealth to pull funding from centres that are not complying with standards and allow anti-fraud officers to undertake snap investigations without a warrant or police presence. Ms Ley vowed to work 'constructively' to pass the legislation. While she held off commenting on whether she had confidences in Victorian police following reports authorities had been contacted after Mr Brown was sacked from a Melbourne childcare centre due to a complaint from a parent and alleged mishandling of an incident report, Ms Ley said states needed to do more. 'So I simply say this, we have to do better. State governments have to do better when it comes to the working with children checks, which I understand are the most lax in Victoria right now,' she said. 'So it isn't good enough for state governments to sit around the table and talk about uniform legislation so that individuals can be tracked across state boundaries but not actually act on that,' she added, backing a national register for childcare workers. Mr Clare has also supported a national database, which would be led by the states. On Wednesday, he said legislation for the stronger childcare laws was 'almost finalised' and the funding threat was the 'biggest stick that the Commonwealth has to wield'. 'What I'm hoping is that that threat is going to be strong enough to get the boards of these companies or the investors in these companies to sit up and listen and realise that we're serious here and if you don't meet the standard, then the funding will be cut off,' he told the ABC. Centres found to be not meeting safety standards would also be publicly named and shamed through an online register. The Coalition has also confirmed it's been briefed on the proposed legislation; however, opposition education and early learning spokeswoman Zoe McKenzie voiced concern the proposed Bill may not go far enough. 'The government's foremost responsibility now is to keep our children safe. Parents, who rely on early learning centres across Australia so they can participate in the workforce, are calling on governments to provide that confidence,' Ms McKenzie said. 'The government must ensure its proposed legislation improves safety and removes the risk of this ever happening again.'
