Caboolture’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Business Procurement Workshop

Media Release

Curtis Pitt 

Treasurer and

 Minister for Employment 

Massive demand for tender tips

Caboolture’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Business Procurement Workshop was maxed-out last night due to demand from Indigenous-owned enterprises wanting to learn how to win government contracts.
Treasurer and Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Curtis Pitt said the event was part of a statewide series but demand for the workshop at Caboolture RSL had surpassed capacity.
“This is all about giving local Indigenous-owned companies practical advice on how to tender for government business as well as an insight into how tenders are evaluated and awarded so they can ensure their bids for current procurement opportunities are competitive,” Mr Pitt said.
“This is part of our commitment to address the under-representation of Indigenous-owned enterprises in Queensland.
“Getting this right is important because we know Indigenous businesses are large employers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
“Procurement investment form the Queensland Government is worth approximately $18 billion per year.
“Small changes are already starting to show. In the 2014-15 financial year the projected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander procurement spend is $55m.
“This is a significant increase on previous years, but it is just the beginning and I hope that as a result of this workshop series that there will be a significant increase in the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander enterprises engaging in future procurement opportunities.
“I hope participants learn about all the available programs and services which can assist their business.” At the workshop participants learnt about available programs and services which can assist their business and heard firsthand about how the Queensland Government’s agenda of economic participation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is being rolled out across government, industry and the community.
Information about future Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Business Procurement Workshops is available on the Queensland’s Governments Business and Industry Portal at www.business.qld.gov.au

Tony Abbott says 'heads should roll' at ABC after rebroadcast of Q&A

Extract from The Guardian

Greens accuse PM of ‘tasteless, degrading rhetoric’ and planning a ‘politically charged witch-hunt’ after PM says public broadcaster has betrayed the country.

Daniel Hurst Political correspondent

@danielhurstbne

Thursday 25 June 2015 14.21 AEST 

Tony Abbott has declared that “heads should roll” at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation over the handling of a Q&A program that included a question from a person who pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Asio officers.
In a dramatic escalation of his rhetoric against the public broadcaster, the prime minister said the ABC had “compounded that terrible mistake, that betrayal, if you like, of our country … by rebroadcasting the program”.

The criticism came as the government announced its own review of the Q&A controversy. The communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said he had asked his department to investigate the matter and report back to him because he wanted “to get a better understanding of exactly what occurred”.

The ABC had already announced a review and conceded the Q&A program had made an “error of judgment” by allowing Zaky Mallah to join the studio audience and ask a question of the panel on Monday. In 2005 Mallah was acquitted of two terrorism offences but pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Australian Security Intelligence Organisation officials.
Coalition ministers, MPs, News Corp Australia papers and talkback radio hosts have seized on the Q&A controversy to intensify their longstanding criticisms of the ABC’s editorial decisions.
Abbott suggested on Thursday that some unnamed people at the ABC should lose their jobs over the issue. The prime minister was asked what he thought of the decision to proceed with a scheduled replay of Monday’s Q&A program on ABC1 on Wednesday.
“Utterly incomprehensible,” he told reporters in Canberra. “Here we had the ABC admitting a gross error of judgment and then compounding that terrible mistake, that betrayal, if you like, of our country … by rebroadcasting the program. Now, frankly, heads should roll over this.
“I’ve had a good discussion with the communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull; I know he has made a very strong representation to the ABC.
“We’ve announced that we are not satisfied with an internal ABC inquiry because so often we’ve seen virtual whitewashes when that sort of thing happens. There is going to be an urgent government inquiry with recommendations and, frankly the ABC ought to take some very strong action straightaway.”
When asked whose heads should roll, Abbott ended the press conference and walked away.
The Greens accused the government of taking the debate about ABC editorial standards “to hysterical levels of stridency” as part of a wider attack on public broadcasting.
Senator Scott Ludlam said the ABC had already announced a review but the government had “magnified this issue beyond any reasonable proportion”.
“I find it impossible to believe that an Abbott-ordered inquiry into the public broadcaster will be anything other than a politically charged witch-hunt,” Ludlam said.
“The prime minister’s language today, including the comment that ‘heads should roll’ is tasteless, degrading rhetoric designed to weaken the public broadcaster and step up the government’s high-pitched flag-based fear mongering.”

I want to get a better understanding of exactly what occurred because there are conflicting reports

Malcolm Turnbull

Turnbull said he and Abbott had discussed the issue and were “taking this very, very seriously”.
“The management needs to take responsibility for this and there needs to be consequences of this, the management understands that,” the communications minister said.
“As far as I am concerned as the portfolio minister I want to get a better understanding of exactly what occurred because there are conflicting reports and I’ve asked my department to investigate it and report back to me.”
In a brief statement, the department said it would complete its report next week and the ABC had agreed to fully cooperate.
Turnbull rejected calls – advocated by some government MPs – for a blanket boycott of the program by Coalition ministers. Some backbenchers have also called for the program to be taken off the air.
He said individual ministers would make their own judgments and he would continue to appear on Q&A if invited to do so. “I think we are in the business of getting the message of the government across,” Turnbull said.
“We need to take advantage of every platform that’s available.”

The defence minister, Kevin Andrews, told the Australian newspaper he would continue to refuse any requests to appear on Q&A “until it becomes balanced”.
The Labor senator Helen Polley played down the prospect of a blanket ban on Coalition MPs appearing on Q&A, saying she did not believe “that they would be that silly”.
“I think that some may say that it might improve their ratings if Mr Andrews doesn’t appear on Q&A,” she said.
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said the ABC “did make a big mistake in terms of that last show, in allowing that person to be in the audience”.
But he added: “I wouldn’t want to see the show shut down; I wouldn’t want to see the ABC punished forever and a day. I would be more than prepared to go on Q&A.”
The prime minister’s statement was condemned by the journalists’ union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.
The union’s CEO Paul Murphy said it was clear the government was trying to influence editorial decisions at the national broadcaster.
“In the past year the government has attacked press freedom, the freedom of access to information and freedom of expression through its amendments to Australia’s national security laws,” Murphy said.
“Now the government is at it again with this inquiry over an incident for which the ABC has already apologised and launched its own investigation into. Clearly the government is seeking to directly influence editorial decisions at the national broadcaster.
“The prime minister has even pre-empted the outcome of the inquiry by distastefully insisting: ‘Heads should roll over this’. He should withdraw this threat and the proposed inquiry.”
The Q&A incident is already subject to an internal investigation by the ABC TV department and an external independent review.

Mark Scott fires back: 'I hope no one wants the ABC to be a state broadcaster'

Extract from The Guardian

Managing director fiercely defends ABC’s independence after furious government criticism over Zaky Mallah’s appearance on Q&A.

Amanda Meade and Daniel Hurst

Thursday 25 June 2015 21.01 AEST 

The ABC is not a state broadcaster designed to be the communications arm of the government, Mark Scott has said, in a passionate defence of the independence of the public broadcaster.
“I hope no one seriously wants the ABC to be a state broadcaster,” the managing director said. “We know the examples. North Korea and Russia. China and Vietnam.”
If the ABC was to align itself with successive governments and “positively reflect the government’s agenda”, the cherished 80-year-old institution would be destroyed, Scott said in a pointed speech in Melbourne on Thursday evening.
“A question was posed this week: whose side is the ABC on,” Scott said, referring to Tony Abbott’s response after the ABC allowed former terrorism suspect Zaky Mallah to ask a question on Q&A.

“The ABC is clearly Australian, it’s on the side of Australia.”
Scott’s speech was delivered several hours after the prime minister escalated his attack on ABC management’s handling of the Mallah affair by declaring that “heads should roll” because the ABC had rebroadcast the offending episode.
The government announced a snap review of its own on top of the external review to be conducted into Q&A.
Scott said there were always stories or coverage that frustrated politicians but this week had produced some irrational responses.
“In my nearly nine years at the ABC, when we’ve had governments both Labor and Liberal, there have been ABC stories that generated the wrath of the government of the day,” Scott said in the address to the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs.
Understanding the importance of the independence of the public broadcaster from political pressure and interference was a mark of the maturity of our democracy, he said.
“But even for the ABC, things seemed to have been taken to a new level when on Wednesday we scored four covers on one day in the News Limited tabloids, complete with photoshopped ABC flags being waved by jihadi protestors,” he said.
“Not all parties to the conversation have seemed vested in pursing a rational discourse.”
Scott addressed the Q&A matter head-on, conceding mistakes had been made but praising the program’s role in general. Scott said the risks of having Mallah on live TV were not adequately considered, but he praised the show’s producers for managing the complex job of pulling a live audience together each week and the panelists for being brave enough to appear.
“We will reflect on the events of this week, have the program independently reviewed and look to ensure that it pursues and delivers its potential to be public broadcasting at its best – to inform, to educate and to entertain,” he said.
Scott said the program, which started in 2008, deserved to have the longevity of a Four Corners and should survive more than 20 years.
“Like Four Corners, it’s a show that should endure when all current management and production teams are long gone, an enduring part of Australian public life.”
Earlier, the communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, echoed Scott’s view of the ABC’s role, but reiterated his criticism of the Q&A affair.
“Mark Scott runs the ABC, answerable to the board,” Turnbull told the ABC’s 7.30 program.
“I don’t run the ABC, neither does Tony Abbott. It’s a public broadcaster. It is not a state broadcaster. So the responsibility is with the board, and the management, and they have to front up to this responsibility, and we’re entitled to know exactly what happened, because it was an extraordinary sequence of events.”
Turnbull declined to repeat Abbott’s comment that “heads should roll”.
“Look, I will decide what metaphors I use and the manner in which I use them,” he said.
“I said today that [allowing Mallah on Q&A] was a very, very grave error of judgment, and the management has to take responsibility for it, and that there should be consequences. I don’t want to take it any further than that. But this was a very serious error of judgment.”
Asked about Abbott’s suggestion that the ABC had betrayed Australia, Turnbull said a lot of people would say the ABC had “betrayed, if you like, its own very high standards”.
It is understood the communications department’s review will look at the context in which Mallah appeared on Q&A, including the decision-making process, any physical security protocols, the rebroadcast of the episode, and broadcasting codes.

Parliament rises for midwinter break; Coalition MPs try to put freeze on early election speculation

Extract from ABC News

By political reporters Julie Doyle and Matthew Doran

Updated about 5 hours ago

Photo: Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaks during Question Time. (AAP: Lukas Coch)

Video: election speculation dominates last day of Parliament (7.30)

Related Story: Photo op for Coalition MPs with Abbott could signal early election

Related Story: Shorten 'regrets' denying discussing leadership with Rudd

As the chill of a Canberra winter descends on the nation's capital, Coalition MPs are trying to put a freeze on speculation the Prime Minister will call an early election.

On Thursday, the ABC saw dozens of MPs taking up an offer from the Prime Minister's Office to update their "working photographs" - posing for pictures with Tony Abbott used for promotional material.
They included frontbencher Paul Fletcher, Government Whip Andrew Nikolic and the man who instigated the spill for the Liberal leadership in February, Luke Simpkins.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has had to deal with days of questioning his conduct in toppling previous Labor leaders Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, and the anticipation for his appearance before the trade unions royal commission.
While that is enough to put a spring in the step of the Coalition party room, backbenchers are keen to tow the party line as dictated by Ministers, that Tony Abbott will not jump early and call an election.
"I'm going back to my electorate who are really happy, it's a good time to be a federal Member of Parliament in a country electorate," said Nationals MP Andrew Broad.
"I don't worry too much about an election, what I do worry about is trying to do the job."
Mr Broad said the photo shoot with the Prime Minister was merely routine, and a good opportunity for MPs to remind their electorates that their local members have a direct line to the decision makers.
"The people in the street, through one degree of separation to their local member, can have access to the leader of the country," he said.

Most members of the community are sick to death of all the self-indulgent squabbling and navel gazing.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie

It is a sentiment echoed by Liberal MP Dennis Jensen.
"You guys have got this crazy theory going about 'Oh, it's all for an election'. It's nonsense," he said.
"They're photographs to be taken at any time."
Liberal National MP George Christensen said he happily posed for a photo with Mr Abbott.
"I haven't got my corflute posters done yet, and I don't expect to in the next six weeks," he said.
"The Prime Minister has told the party room an election will be held next year."
Amid all the speculation of whether an election could be called during the six-week break, Independent MP Andrew Wilkie said he had had a "gutful" of the arguments.
"I'd like everyone to just take a big deep breath and get back to running the country," he said.
"I'm sure the Government will go to an election when they think they can win.
"Most members of the community are sick to death of all the self-indulgent squabbling and navel gazing."

Labor MP Terri Butler calls for Prime Minister to 'fess up'

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten conceded he regretted comments he made to Melbourne broadcaster Neil Mitchell at the height of Labor's 2013 leadership crisis, which the ABC's The Killing Season this week exposed as lies.
The documentary revealed details of a secret meeting between Mr Shorten and former prime minister Kevin Rudd on June 19, 2013 - the week before Mr Rudd unseated then-prime minister Julia Gillard.
As Labor MPs left Canberra, Queensland's Terri Butler, who took over Kevin Rudd's seat when he resigned from Parliament, wanted to shift the focus back on the Prime Minister's record.
"I'm from Queensland, right, in Queensland our politicians have got a pretty good history of fessing up when they make a mistake," he said.
"Bill Shorten did the same thing. You know who else should fess up? The Prime Minister should fess up.
"The Prime Minister should come clean, stop pretending that he hasn't made cuts to education when his own budget papers say that he has.
"He should come clean with the electorate, I don't think he will because he's a man who's already shown himself to be someone who will say anything at all to get elected, and then get in, with a smile on his face do the exact opposite. I'll take Bill Shorten any day."

Bill Shorten will give evidence to the trade unions royal commission on July 8, when he will be questioned over deals he supervised as leader of the Australian Workers Union (AWU).

Speaker Bronwyn Bishop ejects 400th MP from House of Representatives; Labor raises concerns

Extract from ABC News

By political reporter Eric Tlozek

Posted 18 minutes ago

Photo: Ms Bishop has ejected a record number of MPs in her relatively short time as Speaker. (AAP: Alan Porritt)

Related Story: Laming ejected from Parliament after pouring fuel on himself

Related Story: Jewish Labor MP walks out after Abbott's Goebbels comment

Map: Parliament House 2600

The Opposition has raised fresh concerns about the performance of House of Representatives Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, after she ejected her 400th MP from the chamber.

Ms Bishop ejected five MPs during a rowdy final Question Time before Parliament's winter recess.
One of the ejected MPs, shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus, was suspended for three sitting days after he failed to leave the chamber when directed.
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese protested when Wakefield MP Nick Champion was thrown out soon after.
"The Member for Wakefield is number 400 of people who've been thrown out, he's the Brian Lara of this Parliament," he said, referring to the West Indian cricketer's record Test score.
Labor said Ms Bishop had ejected 393 Labor MPs during her time in the Speaker's chair, but the Liberal MP said she had been justified.
"This Parliament only has 150 members but you have a lot of recalcitrant offenders," she said.
Labor has previously accused Ms Bishop of bias, compared her to a Harry Potter villain, referred her to Parliament's privileges committee and moved a no-confidence motion in her.
Ms Bishop has ejected a record number of MPs in her relatively short time as Speaker.
Former speaker Harry Jenkins, a Labor MP, previously held the record after ejecting 252 MPs.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne was formerly the most-disciplined MP, but has since been surpassed by Mr Champion.

Labor said he had been ejected more than 50 times, the first MP to reach a half-century.

Peter Greste says Q&A with Zaky Mallah 'didn't cross the line' to incitement

 Extract from The Guardian

Australian journalist who spent 400 days in an Egyptian jail says government is shooting the messenger in slamming the program

Greste said the ABC could have handled the material more sensitively, but that the criticism that has followed is designed to shut down public discussion. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Staff and agencies

Wednesday 24 June 2015 17.24 AEST

A controversial Q&A broadcast involving comments from Zaky Mallah didn’t cross the line in inciting Australians to join Islamic State terrorists, Peter Greste says.
The Australian journalist, who was released in February after spending 400 days in an Egyptian jail cell for reporting on political events following unrest, says the government is shooting the messenger in slamming the program.

The ABC, which admitted an error in judgment, has been heavily criticised for allowing the convicted criminal airtime during Monday night’s program.
Greste said the ABC could have handled the material more sensitively, but that the criticism that has followed is designed to shut down public discussion.
“Anything that closes down debate I think is a bad thing, as long as the debate doesn’t overstep the boundaries of becoming incitement ... and I don’t think that debate crossed that line,” Greste told a media lunch in Melbourne.

Peter Manning, a former executive producer of Four Corners and ex-head of ABC TV news and current affairs, told Crikey on Wednesday the ABC shouldn’t have apologised. “I think senior ABC management needs to get their act together to defend freedom of speech, and the Q&A program, and not buckle at the first whimper from the federal government as they did yesterday,” he said.
Greste also said the treatment of the Human Rights Commission president, Gillian Triggs, was another example of a public institution attacked to deflect attention from an issue critical of government.
“I think the way that the government has responded to it ... is deeply concerning,” he said. “What we’re seeing, I think, is an attack on the messenger increasingly, rather than engagement with the message.”
Australian Associated Press contributed to this report

Free trade agreement: Voters oppose China-Australia deal after hearing controversial elements: poll

Extract from ABC News

By political reporter Dan Conifer

Posted 19 minutes ago

Photo: The agreement will see some Chinese workers brought in without advertising jobs locally. (Tara De Landgrafft)

Voters in marginal seats across four states strongly oppose key aspects of Australia's free trade agreement (FTA) with China, according to an opinion poll.

The two countries signed the agreement last week, with the Prime Minister Tony Abbott hailing it as "history making".
The deal could see prices on electronics fall for Australian consumers, and eliminate tariffs on various commodity and agriculture exports to China.
But more than 90 per cent of people surveyed by UMR Research said they would oppose the agreement altogether if the following two parts were included:

First, Chinese investors in infrastructure projects valued at $150 million or more being able to bring in Chinese workers without advertising jobs locally.
Second, Chinese firms gaining some rights to sue Australian governments for policy changes that adversely affect their interests.

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) national secretary Michael O'Connor said the whole economy will be covered by the deal.
"What we have here is a radical altering of the labour market in our country, we've ceded sovereignty to another nation when it comes to regulating our labour market," he said.

ChAFTA pros and cons:

Who are the main beneficiaries of the free trade deal with China, who misses out, and where might some Australians be left worse off?

"We have a situation where nearly every sector of our economy will be exposed in this area with a situation where staff, labour, jobs will be offered to Chinese nationals rather than locals.
"We think a whole range of economic activity will be covered by that arrangement, and that means a lot of jobs therefore will be allowed to be sourced exclusively from China."
Less than 30 per cent of those surveyed in New South Wales and Queensland opposed the deal before being told about the specific elements.
The automated poll of more than 2,000 people was conducted by UMR Research for the CFMEU in April and May.
Electors from Capricornia and Flynn in Queensland, Gilmore and Macquarie in New South Wales, Corangamite and Dunkley in Victoria and Hindmarsh in South Australia were surveyed.

FTA will come into force after legal and parliamentary processes in both countries, including reviews in Australia by two parliamentary committees.