28 August 2006 - Media Release

Rowers in the medals

Labor congratulates the Australian Rowing team on remarkable results in windy conditions at the World Championships in Eton, UK.

12 Australian crews made through to the A finals (top 6) and the team added to their three gold medal haul on Saturday's racing with a gold, two bronze and a silver medal in racing last night.

Saturday saw two new faces, Brooke Pratley and Liz Kell, overturn Olympic and three time world champions from New Zealand to win the women's double scull. Australian team veterans Drew Ginn and Duncan Free won gold comfortably in the men's pair. The Australian Women's Four also won gold.

Reigning world champion, Dominic Monypenny kicked of a good days racing for Australia last night, dominating the men's adaptive single scull to take gold. Solid performances in difficult conditions saw the lightweight women's double win silver and the women's quad and women's eight win bronze.

The results put Australia among the top few countries in the world and places the team in good stead leading into the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Contact: Taryn Langdon 0417 148 059 or 02 6277 3334

14 August 2006 - Media Release

Win to the Aussie women in the pool

Labor congratulates the Australian women's water polo team who overcame the reigning Olympic champions Italy 10-7 to win the FINA Women's Water Polo World Cup in Tianjin, China overnight.

The determined Aussie women led the Italians by 5-0 early on in the game and never looked back.

The team were ranked 6th in the world last year. They came through the toughest of groups including the World Champions, the Olympic Champions and the team ranked third in the world, without dropping a match.

The Australians had not won the crown since 1995. The win places the team in good stead for the upcoming World Championships in Melbourne and 2008 Olympic Games.

Contact: Taryn Langdon 0417 148 059 or 02 6277 3334

10 August 2006 - Media Release

Migration vote a test of credibility for Humphries

The Senate will soon be required to vote on a Migration Amendment Bill after the Bill passed through the House of Representatives at 1pm today.

We can only hope that Liberal Senators will follow their colleagues in the House Judy Moylan, Petro Georgiou and Russell Broadbent who crossed the floor on the principle of the matter.

This Bill has the effect of forcing the detention and processing of asylum seekers offshore on islands such as Nauru, regardless of where they land.

The vote on this Bill represents a serious test of the credibility and values of members of the Howard Government. It is a test Senators like Gary Humphries will fail if he supports this Bill. It will be proof he and others have abandoned principles they claim to have held twelve months ago!

These principles meant that: children would not be detained, people would not be detained indefinitely, and people should not pay the price of their sanity because of their mental health conditions.

The Howard Government’s ruthless treatment of vulnerable people exposes the weak character of the Prime Minister and Coalition members. How can they agree that it is wrong to detain children in Australia, yet turn a blind eye and facilitate this on Nauru?

I, and the Labor party, will continue to fight for these principles. If people flee persecution then from the moment they arrive in Australian hands, this persecution should end.

Contact: Taryn Langdon 0417 148 059 or 02 6277 3334

10 August 2006 -  Media Release

Senator Vanstone’s 'own goal' on hospitality worker underpayments

The Senate heard today that a shocking 164 workers were found to be underpaid by 48 Canberra restaurants in recent investigations. These investigations and results only occurred as a result of Labor raising complaints about underpaid skilled migrant cooks and chefs in Parliament - these complaints were ignored by the Government for months.

The extent of underpayment in the ACT demonstrates the importance of Industry Awards in establishing minimum rates and conditions that apply to hospitality workers. 

In an extraordinary 'own goal', a question from a Liberal colleague prompted Senator Vanstone to launch a tirade attacking me personally and the union movement. This was a pathetic attempt to distract attention from the massive embarrassment the Howard Government is obviously experiencing having been forced to investigate even more under-payment in 48 local restaurants.

Senator Vanstone ought to be thanking Labor and the LHMU for bringing the issue of exploitation of skilled migrant workers to the Senate’s attention. She ought to be telling John Howard we need Awards to stay!

The workers and their union, the LHMU, came to Labor out of frustration that their complaints to Office of Workplace Services (OWS) were NOT being acted upon.  If the issue had not been raised in Parliament back in February, there is no way the OWS or the Minister would have stopped the exploitation, regardless of Senator Vanstone’s attempt today to rewrite history to suit herself.

The fact is that the poor management of the skilled migrant workers scheme (457 visa) and the Minister’s neglect and disinterest in this aspect of her portfolio has been embarrassingly exposed. 

It also disgusting hypocrisy that the Minister challenged the union to enforce the industry Award when it is the Howard Government’s extreme IR changes that have not only prevented unions from entering work places unannounced to inspect conditions, but have made it possible for employers to pay workers less than the Award through AWA’s!

Contact: Taryn Langdon 0417 148 059 or 02 6277 3334

9 August 2006 -  Media Release

Women Rally Against Extreme Workplace Laws

As part of the ANU Women in Education Week, ACT Labor Senator Kate Lundy will be addressing the ‘Woman after Education’ rally at ANU tomorrow at 12.30. The rally has been organised to oppose the Federal Government’s unfair industrial relations laws.

Under the Howard Government’s extreme industrial relations changes, many Australian women will have:

On top of this, gender based discrimination and harassment is still a common problem in Australian workplaces.

Under the Howard Government’s Workchoices legislation, the difficult and unfair position women workers, casual and contract workers, and low-paid workers are placed in is of grave concern.  

The Howard Government’s extreme industrial relations changes remove the protection workers had from unfair dismissal and reduce wages and conditions. 

A Labor Government will rip up this unfair legislation and abolish AWA's and statutory individual contracts so we urge working people to join the union’s campaign and support Labor at the next election.

Already the horror stories of this unfair system are here in our region for people to see, with unfair sackings and workers dismissed and re-employed on less money - all features of John Howard’s extreme IR system.

Contact: Rachel Allen 0424 529 499

8 August 2006 –  Media Release

Canberra’s Payphones Slashed

As a result of the Howard Government’s ongoing privatisation of Telstra, public payphones are set to be slashed across Canberra.

Telstra’s plans to slash 5000 payphones this year comes despite the Government’s new ‘scrutiny’ for these removals. The Howard Governments rush to privatisation has left those who are most vulnerable without access to essential telecommunication services.

Not everyone can afford a mobile or a fixed line rental.

In Canberra, educational institutions will be the hardest hit by Telstra’s desperate cost-cutting. Telstra has targeted 17 out of 23 payphones for removal at the University of Canberra. The Australian National University is set to lose over half of its payphones. Calvary Public Hospital will also lose two of its public payphones.

Telstra is only required by law to maintain less than a third of its 32,000 payphones nationwide. Existing regulations would not stop Telstra from slashing around 25,000 payphones across the country.

The Howard Government is to blame for the weakening of the Universal Service Obligation (USO), so much so that Telstra is now claiming that only certain payphones are covered by the USO, allowing even more phones to be ripped out. 

Payphone services at hospitals and educational institutions, like the University of Canberra, ought to be protected by including them in Telstra’s Universal Service Obligation.

Telstra makes a lot of money from its payphones generally, so it is not acceptable that individual phones that don’t make a profit be ripped out where they are clearly needed. 

The only way to maintain telecommunications services standards for all Australians is to keep Telstra in majority public ownership.

Contact: Rachel Allen 0424 529 499

4 August 2006 - Media Release

Women in sport and recreation Inquiry into final day of hearings

The Senate Inquiry into women in sport and recreation is into the final day of public hearings in Canberra today.

The Inquiry has heard many ideas about how to further improve women's representation at all levels of sport and recreation and there is a great deal of enthusiasm to determine the next positive steps.

However, it is clear from evidence heard in Sydney and Melbourne over the past two days that an ongoing frustration for women in sport is the low levels of media coverage.

Today the committee will hear from:

The report from the inquiry is due for tabling on the 4 September 2006.

The timetable of witnesses is available at: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/ecita_ctte/womeninsport/hearings/index.htm. 

Broadcast within Parliament House is on Channel 09.

Contact: Taryn Langdon 0417 148 059 or 02 6277 3334

1 August 2006 - Media Release

Gungahlin residents still missing out on broadband technology

Senator Kate Lundy and Bob McMullan, Member for Fraser will be launching the Gungahlin Broadband Survey today at 10.30am at the concourse outside BIG W at “the G”, Gungahlin Shopping Centre, Hibberson Street, Gungahlin.

This survey is the initiative of Ewan Brown of SETEL, and supported by the Gungahlin Community Council (GCC) and is necessary because of the ongoing frustrations of many Gungahlin residents unable to get affordable, high quality broadband services.

“Gungahlin residents have suffered with inferior broadband services for many years and they deserve better” said Mr McMullan.

“It is unfortunate that, even after Telstra’s upgrades, many Gungahlin residents are being left behind. This survey will give service providers a much clearer idea of where problems still need to be addressed.”

Senator Kate Lundy, who started the campaign against Telstra’s use of line-splitting (pair gain) technology over 5 years ago said: “It is outrageous that after many years of local pressure that the Gungahlin Community Council are still finding it necessary to survey residents because of the high level of complaints.

“I am particularly concerned that the high number of home-based businesses and small businesses located in Gungahlin are at such a disadvantage if they can’t get broadband.”

We congratulate this initiative, particularly Ewen Brown. Mr Brown understands, as we do, how important access to affordable broadband services are to growing our local economy and giving local businesses the best chance of success.

The survey is available online at www.gcc.asn.au.

We urge all Gungahlin residents to take part in the survey, and help give a comprehensive picture of the state of internet services in the area.

Contact:          Rachel Allen – 0424 529 499 (Lundy)   Margaret Watt - 0438 271 749  (McMullan)