Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

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Source: Australian Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry

The Albanese Government is reforming financial advice rules so that more Australians can access the advice they need without the huge price tag. The Delivering Better Financial Outcomes package delivers on this commitment, ensuring Australians can access quality and affordable financial advice.

This is about cutting red tape that adds to cost without providing a benefit to consumers. It will also expand access to financial advice about savings, retirement and insurance for all Australians.

The first components of the next tranche of legislation:

• replace the statement of advice with a more fit‑for‑purpose client advice record
• provide clear rules on what advice topics can be collectively charged for via superannuation
• allow superannuation funds to provide targeted prompts to members to drive greater engagement with superannuation at key life stages

The Government continues to develop legislation to modernise the best interests duty and create a new class of adviser. Reforming the best interests duty and removing the safe harbour steps will provide advisers with confidence to deliver appropriately scaled advice. The new class of adviser is also vital to allowing life insurers, financial advice licensees, superannuation funds and other institutions to expand the supply of quality and affordable advice to consumers.

These remaining pieces will be consulted on and combined with the draft legislation released today to be introduced into Parliament as a single package. The whole package works together to expand access to affordable, quality financial advice.

Releasing this legislation now gives stakeholders more time to review and comment on the parts of the next tranche that are ready to be reviewed. It also demonstrates the Government’s ongoing commitment to reform financial advice laws.

The Government invites feedback to ensure that the reforms deliver on their objectives and operate effectively across all parts of the financial advice industry. Consultation is available on the Treasury website and closes on 2 May 2025.

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Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff has strengthened the Health Information Privacy Code 1994 to improve legal protections around newborn babies bloodspot samples. These samples are collected as part of a national newborn metabolic screening programme, also called the heelprick or Guthrie Test. The samples are held permanently unless parents request their return. The amendment will restrict how information derived from the samples may be used and disclosed. DNA testing is getting cheaper and faster all the time and that makes national bloodspot collections more valuable. Because of this it is possible someone in the future will want to use the collection as a national DNA database. If this were to happen, trust in the programme would be severely damaged.

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A recent scan of school websites and some popular childrens game sites showed there is often no information given to users about how their personal information collected via the site will be used and shared. The scan was part of an international internet sweep day, involving the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner and other overseas data protection offices in the Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN). Each participating office selected a range of websites to scan. The first step was to see if the site showed any sort of privacy policy at all. We found that in a selection of the larger New Zealand schools websites we looked at, very few had any sort of policy at all.

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A new resource to help teachers teach internet privacy issues to primary and intermediate school students was launched on 11 February to coincide with Safer Internet Day and the start of the 2014 school year. The online resource named OWLS is a joint project by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and NetSafe, in partnership with the NZ National Commission for UNESCO. It was introduced to students and teachers at Tawa School in Wellington by the Associate Minister of Education and Minister of Youth Affairs, Nikki Kaye. The Privacy Commissioner, Marie Shroff, says the internet and mobile technology expose children to a range of risks that previous generations have never had to deal with. Teaching children how to protect their privacy online increasingly involves schools because children are experimenting in digital media from very young ages.

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26 Jun 2020, 16:00

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards welcomed Parliament passing the Privacy Act 2020 with unanimous support.

The new Act replaces the 27-year-old Privacy Act 1993. Many of the changes are based on recommendations from the Law Commission’s comprehensive 2011 review of New Zealand’s privacy laws.

“The new Privacy Act provides a modernised framework to better protect New Zealanders’ privacy rights in today’s environment,” Mr Edwards said.

“I am grateful for the cross-party support of Parliament on this issue. It is an endorsement of the significance of privacy as a universal human right that the Bill was passed with the multi-party support of the House.”

Key reforms in the new Privacy Act include:

• Mandatory notification of harmful privacy breaches. If organisations or businesses have a privacy breach that poses a risk of serious harm, they are required to notify the Privacy Commissioner and affected parties. This change brings New Zealand in line with international best practice.
• Introduction of compliance orders. The Commissioner may issue compliance notices to require compliance with the Privacy Act. Failure to follow a compliance notice could result a fine of up to $10,000.
• Binding access determinations. If an organisation or business refuses to make personal information available upon request, the Commissioner will have the power to demand release.
• Controls on the disclosure of information overseas. Before disclosing New Zealanders’ personal information overseas, New Zealand organisations or businesses will need to ensure those overseas entities have similar levels of privacy protection to those in New Zealand.
• New criminal offences. It will be an offence to mislead an organisation or business in a way that affects someone’s personal information or to destroy personal information if a request has been made for it.  The maximum fine for these offences is $10,000.
• Explicit application to businesses whether or not they have a legal or physical presence in New Zealand. If an international digital platform is carrying on business in New Zealand, with the New Zealanders’ personal information, there will be no question that they will be obliged to comply with New Zealand law regardless of where they, or their servers are based.

The Act comes into effect on 1 December 2020.

To view a PDF of the file, click here.

For more information – contact Feilidh Dwyer 021 959 050

Source: New South Wales Department of Education and Communities

The Northern Territory Police Force has charged a 26-year-old male for multiple drug offences in Marrara. 

On Tuesday 11 February, the Gangs Task Force executed a search warrant at a residence in Bellamack. Police located and seized over $130,000 in cash and 60g of Ecstasy tablets from the residence.

The alleged offender was not present at the time of the search.

Later, on Friday 21 March, Gangs Task Force arrested 26-year-old Mongols member.

When police located the male at accommodation in Marrara, the male refused to exit his room. 

Entry to the residence was gained and the male was arrested without incident.

During a lawful search of the accommodation, police seized a traffickable quantity of MDMA and a quantity of cannabis.

The 26-year-old has been charged with the following offences:

• Supply schedule 1 dangerous drug – Commercial quantity
• Possess schedule 1 dangerous drug – Commercial quantity
• Receive / possess / tainted Property
• Possess schedule 1 dangerous drug – Traffickable quantity
• Destroy evidence
• Possess schedule 2 dangerous drug – Less than traffickable quantity.

He has been remanded to appear in Darwin Local Court 25 March 2025

Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Timothy Gardiner said, “Police will not tolerate the violent and criminal behaviour exhibited by outlaw motorcycle gangs in our community.

“These organisations thrive on intimidation, drug trafficking, and violence, and we are committed to dismantling their operations.

“We will pursue them relentlessly until they no longer pose a threat to our community.”

Source: New South Wales Department of Education and Communities

The Northern Territory Police Force has arrested a 33-year-old male with driving offences following a crash in Nhulunbuy this morning.

Around 8am, police attended a two-vehicle collision on Matthew Flinders Way nearby a school. No reports of injuries were made at the time of the crash.

One of the drivers self-extracted from the vehicle and fled the scene by foot.

Nhulunbuy police located the male nearby and he was arrested after returning a positive roadside breath test.

The male is expected to charged later today and will appear in court at a later date.

Nhulunbuy police would like to thank other motorists and witnesses who provided valuable and timely information in relation to the incident.

Source: Australian Attorney General’s Agencies

Tourism Ministers met in Adelaide on 21 March 2025 to discuss their collective and continued efforts to supporting Australia’s travel and tourism industry. 

Chaired by Minister for Trade and Tourism, Senator the Hon Don Farrell, the Minister was joined by Chief Minister Andrew Barr MLA of the Australian Capital Territory, the Hon Jeremy Rockliff MP, Premier of Tasmania, the Hon Zoe Bettison MP from South Australia, the Hon Andrew Powell MP from Queensland and Steve Dimopoulos from Victoria. Ms Karen Jones, A/g Chief Executive Officer, Destination NSW attended on behalf of the Hon Stephen Kamper MP; Ms Suzana Bishop, Chief Executive Officer, Northern Territory Department of Tourism and Hospitality attended on behalf of the Hon Marie-Clare Boothby; and Ms Anneke Brown, Managing Director, Tourism Western Australia attended on behalf of the Hon Reece Whitby MLA.

Tourism Ministers noted the impact of recent natural disasters across Australia on communities and businesses, including tourism businesses. Ministers acknowledged the work of the Commonwealth, State, Territory and local Governments to support these regions to recover, and the importance, when regions are ready, of attracting visitors back.

Tourism Ministers noted the progress update for the THRIVE 2030, Australia’s national strategy for the long-term sustainable growth of the visitor economy, and welcomed the achievements of governments and industry, as highlighted in the THRIVE 2030 Recovery Phase final report, which was released at the meeting. Ministers acknowledged that State and Territories had collaborated with the Commonwealth to deliver:

• the National Sustainability Framework and Toolkit to help tourism businesses become more sustainable;
• the WELCOME Framework to provide practical advice to make tourism businesses more accessible and inclusive;
• the Longitudinal Indicators for the Visitor Economy (LIVE) Framework, to better measure the visitor economy across economic, social, environmental and institutional dimensions; and
• the Choose Tourism workforce program.

Tourism Ministers welcomed the establishment of the First Nations Visitor Economy Partnership, which met for the first time on 18 March, to support greater First Nations participation and economic opportunities in the visitor economy. Ministers were pleased that a record 3 million trips had included a First Nations experience in 2023-24. 

Ministers noted an update on Australia’s tourism industry from Austrade CEO, Dr Paul Grimes, including Tourism Research Australia’s work to modernise its data collection. Ministers discussed performance and current conditions in domestic and international tourism and noted that:

• Data from Austrade’s Tourism Research Australia shows that over the 12 months to September 2024, visitor expenditure (from tourism and international education) reached $211 billion, including $80 billion in regional Australia, exceeding the THRIVE 2030 visitor spend target for 2024 of $166 billion, including $70 billion in regional expenditure. 
• International visitor numbers continued to recover towards pre-COVID levels, with 8.3 million short term visitors arriving in Australia in 2024, up 15% on 2023 numbers. Australia’s top 5 international markets in 2024 were: New Zealand, China, the United States, the United Kingdom and India.
• Domestic visitor overnight spend was $110.3 billion in 12 months to September 2024, which was slightly up on year before. 
• The investment pipeline for tourism was strong, with 346 projects, worth $64 billion, underway in 2023-24. 

Ministers welcomed a presentation from Tourism Australia on its efforts to drive international demand for Australian holidays and business events, with an emphasis on coordinated marketing efforts with the States and Territories tourism promotion agencies. 

Ministers welcomed recent developments in Australia’s aviation industry, including the announcement of the Australian Government’s support for Regional Express (Rex) Airlines, noting aviation is a critical enabler of tourism in Australia. Ministers acknowledged ongoing challenges with insurance affordability. 

Ministers agreed to continue collaborating to address these shared challenges, and maximise opportunities for Australia’s visitor economy.

Source: Murray Darling Basin Authority

ROB KIDD [HOST]: One of the big challenges that parents in regional and rural areas can face is what to do when kids start to look at tertiary studies. Traditionally, kids have had to leave home and head to the city, and that’s not always something that they really want to do or even have to do. But a new study hub will allow students to complete higher ed studies and stay in their hometowns. Funding has been announced for Regional University Study Hubs in Clermont and Moranbah, with hopes that they could actually be open by mid-year. Federal Assistant Minister for Education and Regional Development, Anthony Chisholm, here with the ABC’s Jenae Madden.

ANTHONY CHISHOLM [ASSISTANT MINISTER]: What these hubs do is create an environment for people to thrive and learn. The staff who are appointed to run these centres come with good experience, so they’ve often got a degree themselves. They might be from a teaching background, or they might be from a community background, and they provide great mentorship to those students who are coming in. You’ve got to remember that a lot of the people studying at these centres are often first in family, so they don’t have an experience of studying at a higher education institution. So, that can be quite daunting. So, to have that support and give people the confidence, but also someone to turn to when you need help, these centres provide a remarkable service to those communities and those people who are studying for the first time. 
They often have some meeting rooms where you can go and be by yourself and do your online tutorials, do that in private. Then they have some bigger areas where you can study by yourself, but in an environment where there’s other people who are dedicated and studying at the same time. And then you’ll often have people who are there as part of the workforce, who are there to answer questions or provide support and give people that encouragement they need or answer a question when they need it as well. So, they often operate outside of normal day hours. So, if you are working during the day or you’ve got caregiving responsibilities during the day and you need a quiet space at night, quite often they’re open later into the evening as well. They’re in the centre of town, so they’re easily accessible and they’re providing that service for people to go and study and have that opportunity to do that locally.

JENAE MADDEN [JOURNALIST]: The stats say that half of young people across the country have tertiary education. Meanwhile, those in Clermont and Moranbah, that’s only at 16 per cent. Can you talk to us a little bit about this gap?

CHISHOLM: There is no doubt there’s a gap between those living in rural and remote locations versus those in the cities when it comes to tertiary study. And it can be the remoteness, it can be the cost, it can be the thought of having to move away from home to study. All those things, I imagine, are factors. By having these centres, it means that you don’t have to move away. One of the other tasks that they do is they get out amongst the local high schools and communities and let people know that this service now exists, so that people who might be in Year 11 or 12 or maybe didn’t pursue study straight after school, they can go, alright, this is here in my local community, I can stay, live at home, enjoy that support, but study. And as I mentioned, the exciting thing from what I’ve seen is that a lot of the people who are studying at these centres are studying in the health field, are studying in the education field, and they’re exactly the type of workers that we need in these communities. These centres are making a significant contribution already across the country, and I’m confident that these two in Clermont and Moranbah will also do that.

MADDEN: I guess there’s a focus on these study hubs, but are there opportunities for jobs in the region later on?

CHISHOLM: Absolutely and the best examples of the centres that I’ve seen have a good link with local industry, and I’d expect that to be the case here, given the nature of Moranbah and Clermont and what the work is happening there, whether it be in mining or whether it be in renewable energy. There’s a wealth of opportunities, and I’d be very confident that these centres, once established, will have a really good industry linkage. We’ll also have that when it comes to local high schools, so that we can see those younger people identifying that, yes, I can stay and study locally, and there’s a range of jobs that I can go into as a result. That’s the perfect example of why these things will be significant contribution.

MADDEN: The Clermont and Moranbah study hubs, they were announced in May. I’m wondering if there’s something new, like, has there been additional money given to this? I think it was 2 million initially.

CHISHOLM: So, that was a State Government commitment to building the infrastructure and the State Government announcing they would help build new facilities out of their mining fund that they had. Our announcement today is that we’ll support them to establish themselves and give them some operational funds to employ those coordinators.

MADDEN: Okay and what are the figures there?

CHISHOLM: It’ll be negotiated between the Federal Government and the proponents. But for instance, it’s normally in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it can also include some money if they do need additional money for infrastructure. But that’s worked through with the proponents and the Federal Government.

MADDEN: So, is there a baseline that’s being committed to or something like that?

CHISHOLM: Well, it’s basically support to establish them, and then those negotiations will happen between the Education Department and the proponents.

KIDD: Assistant Minister for Education and Regional Development, Anthony Chisholm there speaking with Jenae Madden.