MINco cancellation shows Federal Government’s apathy for water issues

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Member for Shepparton Suzanna Sheed has criticised the Federal Government for cancelling the scheduled meeting of water ministers in Adelaide this week.

MINco, where state water ministers meet to discuss the vital issues regarding the Murray-Darling basin and which usually meets twice a year, will not have its planned November meeting.

“I am deeply concerned that the Federal Water Minister Keith Pitt sees no need for a MINco meeting this year considering the serious water issues the states are facing.

“There has only been one MINco meeting in the past year, yet we are at the pointy end of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan with major water recovery issues yet to be resolved before the stocktake in 2024,” Ms Sheed said.

“Our major concern in the Goulburn Valley is that the Southern Basin will not have met its water recovery target by 2024, and we do not want any further water take from our districts if this issue is not resolved when a full assessment of water recovery is undertaken in 2024.

“In the Goulburn-Murray irrigation district, we have given up so much water already, with disastrous impact on our dairy industry. We still have our smaller core of dairy farmers, our horticulture and mixed farming to protect, all of which are under threat from future water buybacks.

“We are the most obvious target for buybacks because of our abundance of secure high-reliability water.

“Time is running out for the Basin Plan, but we still have an opportunity to act now before we reach a crisis point and we are held to ransom to part with our water at the eleventh hour by way of buybacks.

“We need to talk through the introduction of a more flexible rollout of the projects, giving the plan a better chance of ultimate success.

“There are projects being reworked at the moment between the Federal Government and the New South Wales Government in relation to Menindee and we need to know what this means for Victoria.

“In the last few years, the flow down the Darling River were insufficient to make a contribution to the share of water required to be delivered to South Australia, leaving the Murray River system to make up the difference.

“We need to hold New South Wales and Queensland accountable for not making any efforts to enforce the 1995 Murray Darling Basin Cap, which limited water allocation in each basin and provided there would be no further development of water storages that would increase water use.

“Victoria introduced Farm Dams legislation in 1998, which was incorporated into the Victorian Water Act. This allowed for the licensing of current dams but prevented further development unless it was transferred from an existing licence.

“New South Wales not only failed to introduce similar laws, but it defiantly ignored this cap agreement and we have seen irrigators continue to build enormous dams to harvest water. This issue needs to be discussed at MINco before the 2024 deadline of the Basin Plan.

“We also want our Victorian MINco representative, Water Minister Lisa Neville, to be able to ask questions and request detailed plans on the future of the struggling Barmah Choke.

“With a Federal election looming in the coming months, we should be aware that this government had plenty of time to make positive decisions on behalf of irrigators in the Southern Basin but failed to do so.

“One has to question whether the Federal Government is trying to push its disastrous management of the Murray-Darling Basin under the carpet to save face ahead of the election.

“The Coalition’s neglect of the Southern Basin is in stark contrast to the attention paid to the Northern Basin. Irrigators in the Northern Basin seem to be operating outside of the rules of any agreement and benefitting handsomely in the process.

ENDS

Media contact
Elaine Cooney 0447 820 466│elaine.cooney@parliament.vic.gov.au

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Sheed calls for regional Victoria to be exempted from Windfall Tax

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In parliament last week, Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed called for an amendment to the Windfall Gains Tax and State Taxation and Other Acts Further Amendment Bill 2021, to exclude regional Victoria from the operation of the windfall tax.

Ms Sheed’s proposed amendment was supported by members of the cross bench and opposition Liberal and National party members and voted against by 51 government members. The bill was ultimately passed by the majority, without the amendment.

Ms Sheed said that while the bill aimed to introduce a number of taxation amendments, including the introduction of a land tax concession, an exemption from the absentee owner land tax surcharge for land used for certain long-term rental housing developments and exemptions from land tax for non-racing clubs and various other legislative amendments, she was opposed to the introduction of the windfall tax in regional Victoria.

“I understand that the windfall tax is suitable for developers who receive multi-billion-dollar windfalls overnight, like those at Fisherman’s Bend in 2012, but it should not be imposed on our regional landowners,” Ms Sheed said.

“The Property Council of Australia claimed that it would increase housing prices with the most pronounced increases in regional Victoria and the Urban Development Institute Australia said the tax would impact housing supply.

Ms Sheed said that with pressure already being felt as a result of the shortage of land available for development in many regional areas including Shepparton, a tax like this would have a negative impact on regional growth opportunities.

“It will only lead to further hardship for our regional communities, and especially our farmers, if their properties are rezoned,” Ms Sheed said.

“Prices of property in regional Victoria rose 10.8 per cent in the last quarter and property in Shepparton is being bought quickly, with homes only on the market for 23 days before being sold.

“While rental rates in Melbourne dropped by 3 per cent in the June 2021 quarter, regional Victoria faced a 9.3 per cent increase.”

ENDS

Media contact

Elaine Cooney 0447 820 466│elaine.cooney@parliament.vic.gov.au

Sheed airs concerns about female job security In

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In parliament today, Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed aired concerns that the pandemic has had a devastating impact on the job security of women in the district.

Ms Sheed highlighted that the number of people employed in Greater Shepparton fell 18 per cent from February last year to September this year. “The pandemic has shone the spotlight on the unstable nature of employment in our region, and the most affected have been women,” she said.

“It has unveiled the entrenched gender inequalities that were hidden below the surface.” Ms Sheed told the parliament that more than 10,000 local women were out of work in this period, compared to only 2,282 men – a ratio mirrored across Victoria with female job losses being five times more than men.

Monthly labour force data shows that this is the highest ever rate of female unemployment.
“I am especially concerned about our Shepparton girls and women in the 15 to 24 age bracket, where a loss of 5,329 jobs occurred,” Ms Sheed said.

“We know that women are often in more casualised labour environments such as the care industry and retail, which has been impacted greatly by COVID-19 restrictions. Recent labour force statistics showed retail had 3,800 job losses and health care dropped 2,000 of its workforce in Shepparton, between February 2020 and August 2021.”

Ms Sheed said she was concerned that some of these female job losses could continue for months or years and result in long-term disadvantage and economic insecurity.

“Women are already on the back foot when it comes to the 14.2 per cent gender pay gap and lower superannuation balances due to taking time off for child rearing, we do not need to see the gap widened by a disproportionate number of women in unstable work,” Ms Sheed said.

“As a community, employers need to look at the type of work contracts they offer women and make them full-time and permanent if that’s the type of work the employee is seeking.

“I will be looking into these figures and speaking with women who have been affected by unemployment in the past 18 months to see how they can be better supported.”

ENDS

Media contact

Elaine Cooney 0447 820 466│elaine.cooney@parliament.vic.gov.au

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Sheed calls for on-farm quarantine option

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In Parliament this week, Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed called on the Victorian Health Minister to advocate to the Chief Health Officer for on-farm quarantine for Pacific Islander seasonal workers.

Ms Sheed said while there was a quarantine facility set up in Tasmania for Pacific Islander workers, the cost to the Victorian Government and farmers was significant.

“I have had discussions with several orchardists, including Silver Orchards owners Rien and Maurice Silverstein, who will be employing Samoan workers in the coming weeks here in the Goulburn Valley,” Ms Sheed said.

Mrs Silverstein said that instead of undergoing hotel quarantine in Tasmania, the fully vaccinated workers could quarantine at the farm, away from other workers for 14 days, and have their groceries delivered by family members.

“We have the accommodation capacity in three separate farmhouse buildings for seven workers and have a permanent employee who could collect our workers from the airport and bring them directly to the farm in a vehicle exclusively for this purpose,” she said.

Ms Sheed said as Victoria moved towards the 70 per cent double vaccinated rate, with an imminent easing of restrictions and with home quarantine under discussion, it led to the consideration of on-farm quarantine to be adopted in appropriate settings.

In her question without notice to Health Minister Martin Foley, Ms Sheed said arrangements were currently underway for double vaccinated workers from Samoa to hotel quarantine in Tasmania at significant cost to both the Victorian government and farmers.

Ms Sheed asked Mr Foley if he would advocate to the Chief Health Officer for on-farm quarantine for these workers.

Mr Foley said the transition from hotel quarantine to alternative arrangements was risk based and he would make the representations Ms Sheed requested.

ENDS

Media contact
Elaine Cooney 0447 820 466│elaine.cooney@parliament.vic.gov.au

Windfall Gains Tax and State Taxation and Other Acts Amendment Bill 2021

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I know there are only a few minutes left, but I am pleased to rise and speak on the Windfall Gains Tax and State Taxation and Other Acts Further Amendment Bill 2021. I would like to start by seeking to amend the member for Kew’s reasoned amendment. Accordingly, I move the following amendment to the member for Kew’s reasoned amendment:

That after ‘consultation’ the following words be inserted ‘with regional Victorians on whether they should be included with metropolitan Melbourne in the application of the windfall gains tax, and’.

The reason I do this is that regional Victoria is in a particular situation. In fact the member for Euroa has outlined in considerable detail the housing stress that exists in regional areas. I can say that there are high levels of disadvantage in regional Victoria. They are not only exhibited in relation to housing stress, they exhibit themselves in so many ways: people in regional areas earn lower incomes; people have poorer outcomes in relation to health; and they have lower standards of education. There are many areas of opportunity denied to them. It is so important that in the recovery phase regional Victoria has the opportunity to thrive, and this tax will prevent that.

Constituency Question- Shepparton GPs

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My constituency question is for the Minister for Health. In May 2011 the Victorian government released the Victorian Health Priorities Framework 2012–2022, which outlines the planning and development priorities for the Victorian healthcare system for the coming decade. The framework provides greater certainty to rural and regional Victorians about what they can expect from their local health services. In the short- to medium-term goals outlined in the plan the Victorian government plans to distribute the health workforce to match the needs of rural and regional communities. Shepparton district GPs are reporting high workforce turnover and low retention capacity. This is leading to a lack of healthcare accessibility for patients. What steps has the Victorian government taken to make sure regional areas such as the Shepparton district receive their fair share of health staff?

Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021

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This is a very important piece of legislation. Let me show it to you. This is the principal act, the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008. It is about 285 pages. These are the amendments. This is the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021. It is about 110 pages. Let me tell you the chronology of this. On Monday night I was telephoned to say that this bill was going to be introduced into Parliament this week and that I could have a briefing that night, together with the other Independents. I was told that the bill would be introduced the following morning and first read, and what we have seen happen is that. Then it was second read on Wednesday morning, and here we are on Thursday morning debating very important legislation. It is important because we are still in a pandemic. It is important because Victorians throughout the last 20 months have obeyed the rules and they have gone and gotten vaccinated. They understand a lot about what is happening. More than anything else they want to be safe, and they want their families to be safe. But they also trust in us to do the work that we need to do. When I consider that chronology of providing this legislation to the Parliament and bringing it on in this way, it really concerns me.

The work we do in this place is really important work. The work we produce here in this house should be the result of very careful and thoughtful consideration. It should be followed by intelligent debate. Everything we do in this chamber is premised on the notion that we know what we are doing. When we come to vote on this bill, we should ask ourselves: do we know what we are voting on? I do not understand this bill. I have not had time to come to understand or to know this bill. I have just outlined the chronology of access I have had to this bill. I doubt anyone in this house has had the time to read this bill, given that it only became publicly available yesterday. Everyone in this house needs the opportunity to have time to come to understand such an important piece of legislation as this, and we have not. There may be those who have been involved in consultations and discussions while this bill has been drafted. We know that this has been a process going on since March this year.

When I stood in this place—the only person on this side of the house—and supported this government’s COVID legislation, I supported it because we needed it, because there was not a vaccine being rolled out in great quantities then. We were in a very fearful state about our futures, so we needed legislation. We all know we need a framework to deal with a pandemic such as this—something that has not happened in our country for over 100 years. So if I do not understand this legislation, I dare say very few other members in this place do.

I reflect back on the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017 in the previous Parliament, where that legislation was released early to the public. It was released to all of us. We all had the opportunity to consider it in great detail, and we spent day and night without a break in this place debating an important piece of legislation, which really went very much to the importance of life-and-death issues, not for a huge number of people but for quite a number of people—hundreds of people every year for whom that legislation now enables some relief. Here we have a piece of legislation that also affects people’s health. It can be a matter of life and death. It is for that reason important that we know and understand what is going on.

I would have liked the opportunity to take this back to my electorate, as I am sure many other members would. The proper operation of this Parliament is important. Every Tuesday morning when this house is sitting I stand up and I read out a motion seeking to bring back to this house a non-government business program to give members on this side of the house the opportunity to raise matters of importance to their electorates, to bring on a private members bill, to maybe look at the regulations and disallow some or at least debate these things. We do not have that opportunity in this house—the only legislative assembly in Australia that does not provide members on this side of the house the opportunity to do those things.

In a pandemic I think it goes without saying that the government must rely on the trust of the people in the government, and if you do not have that, you develop a highly charged and dangerous situation. Consultation is so important. It has been said here that there has been wide consultation. I am not satisfied that that has happened. People who allegedly were consulted are now saying that they were not sufficiently consulted. We need more time to consider this legislation. There are oversight provisions in this legislation, and it quite significantly changes the method of dealing with a pandemic that is contained in the existing legislation. These things are really important. What will the Parliament be able to call for? What will it be able to examine? What will it be able to look at? I have not had time to find all that out yet, but I am very interested. I am very interested in knowing how this bill will impact on Parliament’s ability to scrutinise legislation, and I am not yet satisfied that it does that.

What I am saying is not written in the standing orders or in the constitution, because it is so obvious that it ought to go unsaid, and yet here we are having this debate. I call on the government to adjourn this debate for two weeks, to consult much more broadly, to brief the people who should be briefed and to let us help our communities understand what this is about. They will not be reading the legislation, but they rely on me to represent them and to at least make an informed decision.

Sheed speaks out against rushed pandemic legislation

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Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed will today vote against the passage of the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021 in parliament.

Ms Sheed said the bill was only made publicly available yesterday and a last-minute briefing by the government was given late Monday evening, with a view to the bill being introduced the following morning.

“I would have liked the opportunity to take this back to my electorate,” Ms Sheed said.

“Everything we do in this chamber is premised on the notion that we know what we are doing. When we come to vote on this bill, we should ask ourselves: do we know what we are voting on?”

Ms Sheed agreed that there should be fit-for-purpose pandemic legislation, but she needed the time to consult with the community and experts on the details of the bill.

“There may be aspects of this bill that we could improve on, such as parliamentary oversight and transparency,” Ms Sheed said.

Ms Sheed compared the debate of this legislation to the Assisted Dying Bill, which was released to the public, the opposition, and crossbenchers early and there was the opportunity for wider discussion.

“We spent day and night in this place debating a piece of legislation, which really goes to the importance of life and death issues…here we have a piece of legislation that also affects people’s health. It can be a matter of life and death,” she said.

“We need more time to consider this legislation.”

ENDS

Media contact
Elaine Cooney 0447 820 466│elaine.cooney@parliament.vic.gov.au

Sheed calls for urgent investment in Shepparton to boost employment opportunities

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Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed has called on the Victorian Government to deliver consistent and targeted investment in Shepparton amid stark unemployment figures released this week.

Ms Sheed said the number of people employed in the Greater Shepparton region fell 18 per cent from February last year to September this year.

“This means Shepparton has been the most impacted local government area in the entire state in terms of job losses since the pandemic began,” Ms Sheed said.

“These figures represent a loss of 12,292 jobs in our district and we urgently need State Government investment in major projects and manufacturing opportunities, so we don’t see this trend continue.

While the impacts of the pandemic certainly contributed to these job losses, other data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that the lack of harvest workers in the district only accounted for a reduction of 2,200 workers.

“We lost 3,800 workers from the retail trade industry, 2,000 from health care and social assistance, and 1,200 from the utilities sector between February last year and August this year.

“The pandemic has raised the unstable nature of employment in our region, and it is time we received much-needed investment in long-term permanent projects to give our workforce the certainty it needs during our post-pandemic recovery and into the future.

“I want Shepparton to be first on the Victorian Government’s list when looking at job-creation deals such as manufacturing, energy production, and major projects such as the Shepparton Bypass.

“Earlier this year, the Victorian Government signed a memorandum of understanding with Hanwha, a major South Korean global company, to build and maintain Australian military vehicles in Geelong, creating hundreds of highly-skilled jobs.

“The City of Geelong is supported by a consistent stream of targeted investments in major projects, and we can see this translates to positive employment statistics, with the city boasting a growth of 18,197 jobs from February last year to September this year.

“We need the same, if not more investment in Shepparton, to see our employment rates increase and our industries grow.”

ENDS

Media contact

Elaine Cooney 0447 820 466│elaine.cooney@parliament.vic.gov.au

Sheed welcomes Children’s Bill

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In Parliament this week, Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna welcomed the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Child Protection) Bill 2021.

Ms Sheed said the bill includes further Aboriginal child placement principles, more advice and assistance when there is concern for the wellbeing of an unborn child, prevention of witnesses in family violence being personally cross-examined by parties of the alleged violence, the provision to support young people making the transition to adulthood, and other important changes.

“During my time as a family lawyer and as an independent children’s lawyer, I saw many tragic instances of family breakdown and child displacement, which can cause long-term trauma for children,” Ms Sheed said.

“In First Nations families we often see grandmothers providing long-term care for their grandchildren and this form of kinship care is seen as culturally important as well as maintaining the familial links.

“The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported 1 in 18 Aboriginal children were in out-of-home care from 30 June 2020 – that’s 11 times the rate for non-Indigenous children. Shepparton has the second highest First Nations population outside of metropolitan Melbourne, and it is a great concern to my community to see an over representation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. This bill seeks to help close this gap of over-representation of Aboriginal children in care by 45 per cent by 2031.”

Ms Sheed said there was strong evidence when children in out-of-home settings reached adulthood, without any financial or social support they were at a higher risk of turning to drug and alcohol abuse and crime – and were often left homeless.

“In a Deloitte research report called Guiding young Victorians in care into adulthood, it was reported that extending state care from 18 to 21 would halve their homelessness rate, multiply their higher education participation by 2.5, and reduce their alcohol and drug dependence from 15.8 per cent to 2.5 per cent,” Ms Sheed said.

“This bill is seeking to do exactly that. By offering a safety net to these vulnerable members of our community and giving them choices once they reach adulthood, it will give them the chance to succeed in whatever path they take.

“In January, Victoria became the first jurisdiction to extend Home Stretch to all young people leaving foster, kinship, and residential care up to the age of 21 rather than leaving them to have to find their own way in life when they reach the age of 18 years.

“The bill ensures that those who do leave their care situation will be given practical help to find and set up a home as well as the financial assistance they need to take that first step to living as an independent adult. On top of this, they will be supported with assistance to get into education, training, or the workplace as well as the relevant health and community services they require at this crucial period of their lives.

“These provisions will help steer our young people on a positive path of securing a safe place to live, gaining an education or trade, and continuing to feel a part of the community.”

ENDS

Media contact

Elaine Cooney 0447 820 466│elaine.cooney@parliament.vic.gov.au

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