Category: MIL-OSI

Source:

There have been large protests across Türkiye, including in Istanbul, in recent days. Demonstrations and protests may continue and may turn violent. A protest ban is in effect and there are restrictions to freedom of movement for those suspected of participating in protests. This is likely to be strictly enforced. Avoid protests and large public gatherings. Monitor the media and follow the advice of local authorities (see ‘Safety’).

There have been several recent deaths reported in Istanbul and Ankara from methanol in counterfeit drinks. Stick to reputable venues and be wary of suspiciously cheap alcohol (see ‘Safety’).

You’ll need an e-visa for tourism or business if you’re staying for less than 90 days (see ‘Travel’).

Source: Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science

The Albanese Labor Government and Minns Labor Government are working together to deliver more critical frontline family, domestic and sexual violence services in NSW.

Both governments have demonstrated their commitment to ending gender-based violence by renewing the five-year National Partnership Agreement on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence Responses.

Under the agreement, the Australian Government will provide an additional $110.6 million to NSW to bolster family, domestic and sexual violence services and action in the state.

This additional investment will bring the total Commonwealth funding by the Albanese Government for NSW to $210.6 million since 2022.

Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth, said renewing the FDSV National Partnership demonstrated the dedication of governments to making real and meaningful change for Australians.

“Under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032, all governments have made a commitment to ending gender-based violence in Australia, which requires us to come together and focus efforts and funding where it is needed most for victim-survivors and people at risk of violence,” Minister Rishworth said.

“This funding and renewed agreement with NSW will strengthen funding to frontline services and further our shared goal of creating a safer Australia.”

Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Jodie Harrison said addressing domestic, family and sexual violence is priority for the NSW Government.

“We welcome the additional $110 million from the Federal Government under the National Partnership Agreement. With matched funding by the NSW Government, we will be focusing on the important work of driving down the prevalence of domestic, family and sexual violence in our state.”

The renewed FDSV National Partnership will deliver over $700 million across all jurisdictions in new, matched investments from the Commonwealth and states and territories, supporting frontline FDSV services, including specialist services for women and children impacted by FDSV, and men’s behaviour change programs.

An additional $1 million will also be used for an independent evaluation of the renewed FDSV National Partnership.

More information on the FDSV National Partnership Agreement is available on the Federal Financial Relations website.

If you or someone you know is experiencing, or at risk of experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence, you can call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732 or visit www.1800respect.org.au for online chat and video call services:

• Available 24/7: Call, text or online chat
• Mon-Fri, 9am – midnight AEST (except national public holidays): Video call (no appointment needed)

If you are concerned about your behaviour or use of violence, you can contact the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491 or visit www.ntv.org.au

Feeling worried or no good? Connect with 13YARN Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Crisis Supporters on 13 92 76, available 24/7 from any mobile or pay phone, or visit www.13yarn.org.au No shame, no judgement, safe place to yarn.

Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

Source: Australian National Party

Source: New South Wales Community and Justice

Murder Investigation Underway

Saturday, 22 March 2025 – 2:49 pm.

Police are continuing to investigate the circumstances of an incident at Dickson Street, Glenorchy on 11 March where a man sustained a serious head injury.
“Sadly, police can advise the man has died earlier today in the Royal Hobart Hospital, and our thoughts are with the young man’s family and friends,” said Detective Acting Inspector Nicholas Bowden, from Glenorchy CIB.
The police investigation is now a murder inquiry.
Emergency services were called to the scene about 11.30pm on 11 March, arriving to find a 19-year-old man unconscious and non-responsive outside a property.
“The young man has received a stab wound to the head.  A police investigation is ongoing into the circumstances surrounding this incident,” he said.
“Detectives are following a specific line of inquiry.  Investigations indicate that the person or people responsible and the victim knew each other, and that this was an isolated incident.
“If anyone has any information in relation about this matter, I ask them to come forward.
“In particular, if anyone saw a small four door sedan, possibly silver in colour, with several occupants, in the area of Dickson Street at the time, please contact Police.  We are particularly interested in dash cam or other CCTV vision.”
Information can be provided to direct to Glenorchy CIB on 131 444 or anonymously through Crime Stoppers Tasmania at crimestopperstas.com.au or on 1800 333 000 – quote OR769213.

Source: New South Wales Community and Justice

Closing of 19th Australasian Police & Emergency Services Games

Saturday, 22 March 2025 – 2:00 pm.

Emergency service workers and volunteers will today mark the closing of the 19th Australasian Police & Emergency Services Games.
Tasmania Police Assistant Commissioner Rob Blackwood said the games had brought together not just police, fire, ambulance and SES, but also those emergency staff that work in customs, corrections, royal lifesaving, environment and the coast guard.
“Throughout the week we have seen participants enjoying both friendship and sportsmanship, with more than 2,000 competitors in over 50 individual sporting events and over 5,000 medals being presented to our competitors.” he said.
“It was extraordinary to see everyone come together to support one another while also enjoying some healthy competition. Supporting the mental and physical health of police officers, as well as other emergency services is extremely important, and we hope this year every participant is walking away with great memories.”
“This year more than 200 volunteers also donated their time to make the games possible and I’d like to take the opportunity to thank them, as well as all of the sponsors, clubs and venues who are hosting the events.”

Source: New South Wales Community and Justice

Firearms Incident in Lutana

Saturday, 22 March 2025 – 9:06 am.

Around 9:30pm on Friday 21 March 2025 police were notified that a firearm was discharged into a residential address on Derwent Park Road, Lutana causing damage to a window.
Several people were inside the property, thankfully, no one was injured.
A crime scene was declared for the purpose of forensic examination.
Witnesses observed a silver hatch style vehicle leaving the area through Goodwood.
The incident appears targeted and there is no suggestion of a risk to the wider community.
If you were in the area around the time and witnessed suspicious activity or have dash cam or CCTV footage of the silver vehicle, please phone 131 444 or contact Crime Stoppers Tasmania on 1800 333 000 or online at crimestopperstas.com.au.
Information can be provided anonymously. Please quote Offence Report 770152.

Source: Australian Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry

Peter Stefanovic:

A year‑long ACCC investigation into the power of Coles and Woolies has revealed that they are some of the most profitable retailers in the world, but no findings regarding price gouging.

Joining us live now is the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. Treasurer, thanks for your time this morning. So let’s start off with the government response to this.

Jim Chalmers:

Good morning, Pete. This is an important piece of work from the ACCC. We commissioned this work, and we’re pleased to see it released, and what it shows is what we need when it comes to supermarkets is more scrutiny, more information and more competition, and we are already acting on each of those fronts.

We are cracking down on the supermarkets because we don’t want to see the supermarkets treat Australians like mugs. We know that a big part of the pressure that people feel is at the checkout, so we are keeping the supermarkets in check, checkout, and this ACCC report will help us as we continue to do that.

Stefanovic:

How exactly are you keeping them in check, because as they say, it’s an oligopoly?

Chalmers:

This report covers a 5‑year period, it says that these price rises beginning in 2021, so covering the life of 2 governments, it says that these price rises started to slow in 2024, which is consistent with what we’re seeing with the inflation figures. Food inflation’s come down from 5.9 per cent when we came to office to 3 per cent now, so slower.

But people are still under pressure, and so whether it’s our Budget next week, our government more broadly, the big focus is on the cost of living, and cracking down on the supermarkets is part of that.

We’ve made the Food and Grocery Code mandatory, we have empowered and funded the ACCC to apply more scrutiny, we’re working with the states on planning and zoning to make it easier for new competitors to enter the market. We’re funding CHOICE, we’re doing a whole bunch of things, we’re reforming the unit pricing code, which is about shrinkflation which drives people absolutely nuts.

We’re doing about half a dozen really important things, consistent with the recommendations of the report today. We are cracking down on the supermarkets. We do want to make sure we get a fair go for farmers and families, and that’s what all of our efforts on supermarkets and cost of living more broadly are all about.

Stefanovic:

Right. That $3 million education campaign though, what’s that actually going to do to help consumers and businesses?

Chalmers:

First of all, that’s not all we’re doing. We funded the ACCC an extra $30 million. The $2.9 million we’re announcing today is all about educating and helping suppliers, so effectively farmers and their peak organisations to train up their people to get a better deal when they’re negotiating with the supermarkets.

Stefanovic:

But the supermarkets –

Chalmers:

And the Food and Grocery Code –

Stefanovic:

– will just disregard that, won’t they, because they’re just too powerful.

Chalmers:

They’re engaged in a negotiation, and we want to tool up and beef up the skills and abilities of the people doing the negotiating. But that’s not all we’re doing on this front. Making the Food and Grocery Code mandatory was all about a fair go for farmers and families as well.

There are a range of things that we are doing. The recommendations released by the ACCC, we welcome them, we accept all of them in principle, we’re acting on a range of them already, because we do acknowledge that we need to apply more competitive pressure in the supermarket sector. We’re doing that, but the ACCC will inform the work that happens from here as well.

Stefanovic:

Okay, just – ‘cause we’re almost out of time, but I want to get you on this story this morning about big tech now pushing Donald Trump to target Australia over our laws on social media and the digital economy. They claim these laws are causing them to sacrifice revenue. What’s the government’s response to this, this morning?

Chalmers:

First of all, it’s not surprising that the tech giants would have that view, but our job, and we embrace this, is to make decisions in Australia’s national interest, to protect kids online – for example – or to make sure that there’s a level playing field in our media with our media organisations, so those are our motivations there.

We’re not surprised that from time to time the tech giants will have different views about that. But our job is to implement the best set of arrangements that we can to look after Australians online.

Stefanovic:

Right. I mean we also saw this with big pharma this week, but when it comes to big tech, I mean Tump’s got Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, all in his corner. I mean what sort of a chance do we have against that?

Chalmers:

I’m obviously not privy to the conversations that they have with President Trump from time to time, it’s self‑evident that they’re very close with the US Administration. Our focus and our job is to make our case in the US, as we have been doing, but to also make sure that we continue to make the best decisions that we can for Australia.

I think a lot of people around the country – not just parents, but including parents – they want to make sure that there are appropriate protections for people online. The tech giants won’t always like that, they won’t always agree with that, but we’ve got to do that job on behalf of the people of Australia, and there will be different views about how we go about that as we roll it out.

Stefanovic:

All right. Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, thanks as always for your time.

Source: Australian Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry

Patricia Karvelas:

For more on this, I want to bring in the Assistant Minister for Competition, Andrew Leigh. Andrew Leigh, lovely to speak to you.

Andrew Leigh:

Likewise, Patricia. Thanks for having me on.

Karvelas:

Now, a lot of Australians would probably fear – perhaps a little disappointed – that the report doesn’t suggest price gouging has occurred given people’s lived experience and worry that business as usual for the big 2 will occur after this. Is that a fair assessment?

Leigh:

Well, the report’s pretty harsh on the majors. I don’t think they’ll like it, but I think a lot of Australians will. It shows very clearly that the big supermarkets are among the biggest in the world and that they have increased their market share in the 17 years since we last had a supermarket report.

It shows too, that there’s a bit of high‑low pricing going on where the majors take it in turns to put items on special with a sort of seesaw pattern, which looks pretty suspicious to me.

The report makes very clear that the government’s approach of a mandatory Food and Grocery Code has been the right one, that we are on the right track with working with the states and territories on planning and zoning, and that we need to continue our action in tackling shrinkflation where the majors have become Olympic champions.

Karvelas:

The report says it’s not a duopoly, it’s an oligopoly. But Coles and Woolworths are among the most profitable supermarkets in the world. Does it concern you that they are that profitable? Does that demonstrate something about what’s going on here?

Leigh:

Absolutely, Patricia. I want families to get a fairer deal at the checkout, and I want farmers to get a fair deal at the farm gate. And that’s why we’ve got the mandatory Food and Grocery Code, the work we’re doing on shrinkflation, but also why we fund CHOICE to do quarterly grocery price monitoring, so people can see where they’re getting the very best deal.

And it’s why we’re providing $3 million for training for suppliers, particularly those fresh produce suppliers so they can take advantage of Labor’s new mandatory supermarket code when it comes into effect next month.

Karvelas:

The ACCC did find that both Coles and Woolworths have a limited incentive to be competitive on prices, so without serious intervention or a serious kind of a big stick – something that they feel fear or fearful about, how does that actually change?

Leigh:

Yeah, I think that’s a really astute question Patricia. We’ve seen over the course of the last 17 years the rise of Aldi, but we’ve also seen the fall in Metcash. And as a result, we’ve seen the big 2 supermarkets actually increase their combined market share.

What the ACCC recommends is we look hard at planning and zoning in order to create the opportunity for a new player if it was to come in to be able to start up. People will remember Kaufland made an attempt to enter the Australian market, and that would have brought welcome competition. We also have Costco and Amazon as potential competitors, and the report makes clear that we need the right competition settings to allow new competitors to pressure the majors in order to keep prices as low as possible.

Karvelas:

The regulator has also recommended the supermarkets provide more transparency in their negotiations with fresh produce suppliers. They found that there’s a bargaining imbalance, right? That’s essentially what their conclusion was. So, what does transparency there look like? Like, how would transparency be achieved?

Leigh:

Yeah, so what’s going on Patricia is that the fresh food suppliers are required to sign an annual contract, but then week to week they’re engaging in auctions around what the prices will be. And the ACCC has said that there ought to be price transparency as to what the prices are that come out of those auctions.

And so farmers can say ‘well, I’m not getting a great deal from Coles, I’m going to go to Aldi or to Woollies’. That gives them greater power, and alongside the additional funding for supplier training and the new anonymous complaints process they’ll be able to make through the ACCC under Labor’s new mandatory supermarket code, that will help tilt the scales in favour of suppliers. Because let’s be honest, for too long, the supermarkets have been stacking the shelves in their favour.

Karvelas:

The ACCC said it had been unable to stack up claims that the big 2 were sitting on parcels of land to keep out competition. That’s been talked about as land banking. So, are you certain that they’re not doing this?

Leigh:

There’s a lot of sites that are being held. I think the draft report referred to about 100 sites which are being held, and so that’s certainly something we need to keep an eye on. And that’s why we’ve set up this work with the states and territories through getting National Competition Policy back on track.

The Commonwealth has put aside $900 million into a productivity fund, which goes to things like ensuring that states and territories have competition front of mind when they’re doing planning and zoning.

That hasn’t always been the case, as you know Patricia. But getting a competition lens across decisions like this makes sure that consumers get the best deal. We’re holding the supermarkets in check so Australians get the best deal at the checkout.

Karvelas:

Now, this report has landed, obviously, at the 11th hour before an election so we’re not going to get, sort of law reform before the election. There are very different policies being offered by you and the Coalition on this.

David Littleproud, who is the Nationals leader and has really been pushing for divestiture powers, addressed this today and said that this is a report that’s been delivered that’s essentially politically palatable to you. I just want you to respond to that criticism that this is a report that essentially lets the government off the hook.

Leigh:

Well, that’s a shocking slur on the independent ACCC which worked hard on this report. David Littleproud’s, of course spitting in the dummy. Because this report has found what every other serious competition report has found. The Harper Review, the Hilmer Review, the Dawson Review, the Emerson Review – none of them recommended divestiture powers, and this report does not either.

The difference between David Littleproud and Labor is we’re interested in solutions that work. He’s interested in slogans. The mandatory supermarket code which Labor put in place was voted against by the Liberals and Nationals.

David Littleproud and his mates set up a voluntary toothless code of conduct and that’s what they wanted to continue. It took Labor to put in place a code with multi‑million dollar penalties over the votes of the Liberals and Nationals.

Karvelas:

He says that without that big stick and without the sort of fear of divestiture that we’re not going to see big change. Could he have a point?

Leigh:

He’s all hat and no cattle. The fact is the divestiture powers are very rarely used around the rest of the world, and a big stick that sits in the shed isn’t going to have very much impact on what you do.

Really, we’re focused here on the measures that will make a difference for Australians. Measures which will help achieve results, like getting food inflation down to about half what it was when we came into office. Food inflation was running at 5.2 per cent when we took office Patricia. We’ve managed to get that down quite considerably.

For the first time in a very long time, we’ve managed to get these additional powers for suppliers, which they just didn’t have under the Liberals and Nationals who took a hands off, laissez faire approach to this. It’s taken Labor to step on the side of the farmers and the side of the families to get both a better deal.

Karvelas:

I want to ask you just a couple of other questions because we’ve got a Budget coming and you have an economic hat, not a sort of farmer’s hat but an economic hat after your last hat comment, I want to talk about structural reform of the budget.

Every day there’s another spending announcement, and some of the spending may be very worthy. So I don’t want to have a debate about whether the spending is worthy or not, because I think cheaper medicines people would probably want delivered. But there seems to be no strategy for paying for it. Are we going to see that strategy on Tuesday?

Leigh:

No look, I think that’s really unfair on Jim, Katy and the team that have worked to put this Budget together. The deficit that you’ll see is significantly smaller than the deficit that we inherited from our predecessors. And that follows 2 surplus Budgets where we have made difficult decisions in order to get spending under control to crack down on the rorts and waste that we inherited from the Liberals and Nationals.

This is a Budget which is fiscally responsible, which aims to make investments for the future, which contains a big focus on dynamism and competition because we understand we need to get productivity going again.

Ultimately, it’s that economic growth in the economy Patricia which will allow us to work towards paying down debt. That’s the very best way of managing to grow the economy. And I know that a pro‑growth progressive like Jim Chalmers is always thinking about those issues.

Karvelas:

Sure, growth is very important – no one would dispute that. But you have to make some tough decisions. Are they being put off until after the election? I mean, I would ask this to any Coalition people too.

It seems to me that there is no serious discussion about the way that the budget looks in the years ahead. And we are clearly spending more than we’re taking in.

Leigh:

No, look, I don’t think that’s a fair critique. If you look at what we did in multinational taxation for example, no government has taken more action on multinational tax than ours. We closed the debt deduction loophole. We put in place a floor on global company tax. We’ve put in place transparency measures like country‑by‑country reporting.

All of this is aimed at increasing the tax take and making sure multinationals pay their fair share, which also has a competition benefit too because then Aussie small businesses aren’t going up against multinationals with one hand tied behind their backs. So, that’s been an area of serious tax reform for us.

Of course, changing the personal income tax cuts so every taxpayer got a tax cut, but within the same budget envelope was a key decision we took last year, opposed by the Liberals and Nationals but ultimately in the interest of the Australian people.

Karvelas:

Just finally, big tech have been lobbying the Trump administration to put tariffs on us for our approach to, you know, making them pay in our country. What’s your message to big tech? Are you prepared to take them on?

Leigh:

We certainly have been. The social media minimum age laws that were passed through last year were a marker of that. And the News Media Bargaining Code ensures that those platforms which benefit financially from great journalism make a financial contribution towards it.

You know, these are sensible measures which don’t seek to curtail the platforms that many of us use and benefit from, but which recognise that in a modern economy we need the rules to advance, to keep pace.

Karvelas:

Do you expect that big tech will, you know, some of these bosses –Elon Musk – there are others will insert themselves into our election campaign?

Leigh:

I certainly hope not. I think we ought to be running an election which is free of foreign interference and one which is a contest of ideas. Now of course Patricia, I hope that in every single election, you don’t always see it, but we need to remember that goal and that the Australian democracy really is an extraordinary creation. We’re great democratic innovators, and part of that democratic innovation is ensuring we can have a contest of true ideas and strong policies.

And, you know, I really hope the Liberals and Nationals actually start coming up with some of those policies, because I think it’s good for the nation when we have competing policy portfolios, not just a government with a big agenda and strong ideas against an opposition with hot air and a bunch of slogans.

Karvelas:

Andrew Leigh, lovely to speak to you. Thank you.

Leigh:

Likewise, thanks Patricia.

Source: Australian Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry

Ali Moore:

The big issue you might remember, that the government is making the code – the supermarket code – which deals with relationships with suppliers, mandatory. Dr Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. Dr Leigh, welcome.

Andrew Leigh:

Thanks Ali, great to be back with you.

Moore:

The 20 recommendations from the ACCC. They go to things around providing us with information about package sizes, being more transparent with suppliers. You’ve got the code of conduct that you’re making mandatory. You’ve got the 2 bigger – the 2 big players in court over misleading conduct. But I guess beyond that is this just the bed that we’ve made and now we’ve got to lie in it?

Leigh:

I don’t think so Ali. I think we’re able to continue to take action against a significant duopoly whose profits are among the highest in the world and whose margins have been growing over the last 5 years.

This report really is a deep dive data analysis. They analyse over a billion prices and uncover some problematic practices, such as oscillating specials where a product will be on special in Coles one week and Woolies the next week. And that just keeps on going on and on for week after week.

What we’ve done is provided resources to fund CHOICE, to give shoppers more information about where to get the best deal. As you said, we’ve made the Food and Grocery Code mandatory with multi‑million‑dollar penalties. Unfortunately, the Liberals and Nationals voted against it, but our view was we needed to toughen that code, and today we’ve announced additional funding for supplier groups to get the training they need, particularly those fresh food suppliers who are really feeling the squeeze.

Moore:

I guess though Andrew Leigh, I found that curious. You’re putting $2.9 million, so let’s call it $3 million into helping those suppliers. And the wording is that will empower farmers to enforce their rights under the Food and Grocery Code.

It’s not a lot of money to cover a lot of suppliers, a lot of supplier agreements across the country, and the mere fact that you’re supplying it would imply that you are expecting the big players to fight their suppliers when they think it’s in their advantage to do so. So will there be more money where that’s coming from?

Leigh:

Well I mean, one way to think about it is that the big piece of reform we’ve done is taking a toothless voluntary code set up by the Liberals and Nationals and turned it into a mandatory code with multi‑million‑dollar penalties. That comes into effect next month.

And then as that’s coming into effect, our view is we want suppliers to take the very best advantage of it that they can. So this is $3 million directed towards those fresh food suppliers. And the ACCC says those suppliers feel a particular squeeze because they’ll be required to sign up to annual contracts around volume, but then have these weekly price auctions with the notion that if they don’t supply to one of the majors, they end up having to take produce down to the markets and often get much lower returns for their hard work.

Moore:

But that didn’t actually answer the question. If you’ve given them $3 million, if it becomes a constant issue of the big players fighting suppliers, disputing what they take – you know, that they raise under the code, is there going to be more money to help them do that?

Leigh:

Well Ali, that’s why I’m putting it in the context. The big reform is the change in laws, which directly empowers the suppliers, a tougher Food and Grocery Code and an anonymous complaints process going through the competition watchdog to deal with the fact that many of these suppliers said they feared retaliation. And then, as the icing on the cake, we’ve got that additional training for the food and grocery suppliers.

We’re also making sure that we’re clamping down on shrinkflation. I mean, if shrinkflation was an Olympic sport, some supermarkets would be gold medallists. And so enforcing the Unit Pricing Code ensures that Australians are getting a fair deal at the checkout.

Moore:

You’re listening to the Assistant Minister for Competition, Dr Andrew Leigh. We’re talking about the supermarkets and the, well I guess the amount of market power that they have. No word from the ACCC, no recommendation around divestiture of stores – the Coalition is keen on that. That is something that you argue is not necessary and is not the answer?

Leigh:

Yeah, it hasn’t been recommended by any of the past competition reviews, not Hilmer, not Harper, not Dawson, not Emerson, and not this report. We’re focused on practical solutions that the experts say will make a difference. Divestiture isn’t in that list.

We’re very aware that there are shrinkflation, there’s sneaky prices, there’s unfair deals, and we’re tackling those head on to get a fair deal for families at the checkout as you go, and a fair go for farmers at the farm gate.

Moore:

Another issue if I may Andrew Leigh – to what extent are you worried about the tech companies? This has been in the headlines all day. Today, American tech companies are going to Trump arguing that that move by Australia to effectively tax the big tech players unless they fund domestic news content in this country. Tech companies in the US are saying, you know, that’s a non‑tariff barrier if you like, and Trump should act. How worried are you that Trump will act?

Leigh:

Oh well obviously the new US administration is taking a different approach on a range of issues. But on this one we have a system in place which funds quality journalism, which has been operating for a number of years now, that is not aimed at any particular country. It’s an approach which sees journalism funded through the forms which are making significant money through the journalism that they are linked to.

Moore:

Can I ask you another question without notice Dr Leigh, which may be a little short? We’ve just seen that Infrastructure Australia has put out its assessment of the Suburban Rail Loop, which is a massive project here in Victoria, and it’s going to rely for at least a third of the money required to come from the federal government. You’ve so far allocated $2 billion to go into preliminary works. Further funding is dependent on this review. Have you had a chance to catch up with that?

Leigh:

I haven’t. That’s been squarely in the remit of my colleague, Catherine King who’s both a Victorian and the Infrastructure Minister so I’ll leave the specifics of that to her.

But I know we’ve made record investments in infrastructure, and as somebody who comes to Melbourne often, I certainly will look forward to being able to catch the train from the airport soon.

Moore:

Gosh,don’t hold your breath. I mean, even with that announcement this week Dr Leigh, you would know that there was an agreement to sort of discuss an agreement, and we’re not going to get it by 2033 at the earliest? Do you think you’ll still be coming to Melbourne then?

Leigh:

I certainly hope so Ali, and you know, the key is to get this thing moving. So, I’ll be keen to use it as soon as it’s in place.

Moore:

You and many others I’m sure Dr Andrew Leigh, thank you.

Leigh:

Thanks Ali.

Ali Moore:

The Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury there.