Deepening cultural and commercial ties between Australia and China

Minister for Youth and Sport Richard Colbeck will join Australian business and sports luminaries at the third annual AFL match in Shanghai today, celebrating the deepening cultural and commercial relationship between Australia and China. The Minister’s visit rounds off the inaugural ‘Festival of Australia’, a two-week business promotion program that showcased Australian goods and services…

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Morrison Ministry

I thank Prime Minister Scott Morrison for my re-appointment today as Australia’s Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment and as Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate. Increasing opportunities for Australian farmers and businesses to sell goods and services overseas, attracting job-creating overseas investment, as well as luring more overseas travellers to Australia forms…

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$4 million for historic Vickers Vimy

Joint release with SA Minister for Education  A re-elected Morrison Government, together with the Marshall Liberal Government will deliver $4 million to protect and preserve South Australia’s historic ‘Vickers Vimy’ aircraft, made famous for being the first ever aircraft to fly between Australia and England, almost 100 years ago.   Minister for Trade Tourism and…

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Labor’s botched child care calculations

Although Mr Shorten was not allowed within 2,500 kilometres of Labor’s costings announcement in Canberra, he botched the explanation of his fast-unravelling $9.9 billion policy of using taxpayer funds to top up private sector wages. Initially Labor announced its policy with a media release claiming a pay rise was imminent for “early childhood educators”.  One…

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Labor’s child care policy unraveling by the day

Tanya Plibersek has revealed a startling inability to explain how Labor’s highly irregular economic policy of using taxpayer dollars to top up private sector wages would work. When asked three times on AM this morning about ‘knock on’ state tax liabilities, which may threaten the viability of thousands of child care centres, the Labor Deputy…

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Labor child care jobs tax could force closures

Labor’s highly irregular plan to spend taxpayer dollars topping up private sector wages is not only an unprecedented intervention into Australia’s wages market, it has major implications for the future of many smaller childcare centres. While Labor’s scheme would not change anything about the way a centre is run, it would impose big new payroll…

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Interview on Sky News with Tom Connell

Subjects: Bill Shorten’s tax blunder; Industrial relations; US-China trade tensions; Section 44 EO&E………………………………………………………… TOM CONNELL: Campaign spokesperson and the Trade Minister as well, thanks for your time. SIMON BIRMINGHAM: G’day Tom, good to be with you. TOM CONNELL: Just to start off, in one of your old areas, child care. Now Labor’s used essentially your…

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What is Bill Shorten’s problem with retirees?

Bill Shorten misled the listeners of Jonesy and Amanda twice in his radio interview this morning about how Labor will hit Australia’s retirees with higher taxes. When asked “will that money be coming from self-funded retirees?” Mr Shorten first said: “No …  the income that people get in retirement from their dividends or their shares…

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Bowen caught short on the details

A week after Labor announced its unprecedented intervention into the wages market Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen still couldn’t tell Australians how many child care workers would be affected. When pushed on how many of the 195,000 workers would miss out Mr Bowen squibbed on a response at the National Press Club today.      …

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Shorten yet to explain why he stood by Luke Creasey

Bill Shorten today confirmed that he was aware of Luke Creasey’s social media post about disbelieving rape victims at the time he held a press conference standing by his candidate for Melbourne. As Emily Maguire from the Domestic Violence Resource Centre said this week: “Many women who are sexually assaulted don’t report it to police,…

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