Internet Australia has criticised the government over the launch of its Data Retention Grants Program, reiterating that $128.4 million allocated to the initiative falls "well short" of the total costs incurred by ISPs.

The Grants Program, introduced last week, involves a single funding round to assist eligible telcos and ISPs with the cost of retaining a range of customer data for two years under the Data Retention Act.

There is a significant gap between government funding being provided and the expected cost to the telco sector of implementing data retention, according to the peak body representing Internet users, which also expressed concern over the late release of the program.

“Internet Australia welcomes the release of the Data Retention Grants Program. However, we are concerned that it has taken so long for this to occur. Our ISP members have had to incur considerable costs without knowing what, if any, compensation they might receive,” the organisation said.

In September, the Internet society called for “urgent clarification” around data retention funding to cover the introduction of the Data Retention Act on October 13th, with CEO Laurie Patton warning ISPs could go out of business if they were not adequately reimbursed.

In the 2015-16 federal budget the government set aside a total of $131.3 million over three years for implementing data retention; which included the cost of administering the grants program, providing technical guidance to the telco sector, and the development of data retention standards.

A government-commissioned PwC study estimated that the capital cost of implementing the data retention regime would be between $188.8 million and $319.1 million. The government's funding package is therefore "less than half the amount the government itself estimated as the cost to industry when the data retention bill was presented to parliament," said Patton.

Internet Australia believes the shortfall will be passed on to the consumer. The PwC study pegged the average cost to customers over 10 years (without government funding) would equate to between $1.83 and $6.12 per annum, with a median price of $3.98 per customer per annum.

The Grant Program will operate over three years from 2015-2018, managed by the Attorney-General’s Department. Applications for funding close at 5pm on 23 February, and telcos have been encouraged to read the Program Guidelines prior to applying.

This article was originally sourced from the CIO website here and was written by Bonnie Gardiner. 

Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) Australia will be renamed Good2Give in late April 2016 with a new identity to drive $300 million in donations to charitable organisations by the end of 2020.

The not-for-profit organisation was established 15 years ago to make it easy for businesses and donors to connect with the causes they care about. Building on this commitment, Good2Give sets out an ambitious target to significantly grow giving and build low-cost donations through workplaces for charitable organisations.

Good2Give remains affiliated to the CAF Global Alliance of organisations that supports charities and not-for-profits in over 100 countries, while positioning itself to leverage opportunities that will inspire and enable giving across Australia and New Zealand.

Good2Give’s game-changing software for workplace giving as well as its work in managing corporate foundations and their grants programs has supported businesses and donors to give $140 million in the past 15 years. More than $14 million was received by over 1500 charitable organisations in the past 12 months alone.

Today Good2Give sets the ambitious target to reach $300 million in donations within the next five years by continuing to invest in and leverage software to deliver ever more efficient ways for business and donors to support the charities they care about.

Lisa Grinham, Chief Executive Officer of Good2Give, said: “We’ve made extraordinary progress since our establishment 15 years ago. Today, as Good2Give, we see an enormous untapped opportunity to scale our capacity and make giving as a part of normal working life.

“Our purpose-built software solutions are having great outcomes in significantly increasing donations across workplace giving and corporate grants programs. Both of which are providing critical support for the charity and not-for-profit sector.

“Our new name embodies this commitment. It’s about Good2Give making it easy, efficient and rewarding to give to the causes we all care about. We know it’s good to give, we know how great it makes you feel – and we are excited to help make this a part of people’s everyday lives.

“Being part of a global family of organisations spanning Britain, the United States, Canada, Russia, India, South Africa, and Brazil is integral to our heritage. We’re continuing to work closely with our CAF colleagues, and look forward to building our expertise to ensure maximum impact in Australia and New Zealand in the coming years.”

This media release was directly sourced from the Good2Give website here. 

For more information contact:

Lisa Grinham

Chief Executive Officer

Ph 02 9929 9633 / 0419 922 700

E: lgrinham@cafaustralia.org.au

Elena Mace

Marketing Communications Manager

Ph 02 9929 9633 / 0421 484 261

E: emace@cafaustralia.org.au

AMA President, Professor Brian Owler, said today that the Government’s MYEFO statement is another chapter in the Coalition’s consistent health policy since being elected – cut health funding and shift costs to patients.

Professor Owler said the axing of the bulk billing incentives for pathology and diagnostic imaging services will increase the health cost burden for Australian families, with the poorest and the sickest being hit the hardest.

“These measures are simply resurrecting a part of the Government’s original ill-fated co-payment proposal from the 2014 Budget,” Professor Owler said.

“It is yet another co-payment by stealth.

“The Government is continuing to retreat from its core responsibilities in providing access to affordable, quality health services for the Australian people.

“Cutting Medicare patient rebates for important pathology and imaging services is another example of putting the Budget bottom line ahead of good health policy.

“These services are critical to early diagnosis and management of health conditions to allow people to remain productive in their jobs for the good of the economy.

“The AMA strongly opposes these measures, and we will be encouraging the Senate to disallow them.”

Professor Owler said the AMA welcomes the belated introduction of new MBS items for sexual health medicine services and addiction medicine services, which were recommended by the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC).

“These new items will provide better access to these services in the private sector, where currently most people need to wait for these services in public hospitals,” Professor Owler said.

Professor Owler said the health sector needs some detail and explanation from the Government on other unexpected cuts.

“The Government has announced savings of $146.0 million from redesigning 24 health programs covering population health, medical services, eHealth, and health workforce,” Professor Owler said.

“And there is a further $31 million in savings over four years for public hospital services, again without explanation.

“All up, MYEFO has delivered another significant hit to the health budget with services and programs cut, and more costs being shifted on to patients.

“Continuing a worrying pattern, there has been no consultation with medical and health organisations about the nature and extent of these cuts.

“It does not fill us with confidence about the Government’s ongoing range of reviews, including the MBS Review, the Primary Care Review, and the review of the private health insurance sector.

“The Government is repeatedly cutting away at the Health budget despite there being no evidence of a health funding crisis.

“It is folly to frame health policy on the basis of outdated spending projections from the Commission of Audit,” Professor Owler said.

Other key MYEFO measures include:

• the abolition of the National Hospital Performance Authority (NHPA) and its highly valued health reporting arrangements;
  
• the abolition of the National Health Funding Body and Funding Pool (the death of activity based funding?);
  
• on the plus side, there is extra money for the Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training Program, which supports clinical training in rural areas; and
  
• $93.8 million is flagged for an integrated medical training pathway for rural areas, a concept lobbied for by the AMA.
  

This media release was directly sourced from the Australian Medical Association website here and was written on 15/12/2015 . 

Taxing superannuation at marginal rates then offering a rebate would be an administrative nightmare and leave too many people worse off, the peak body for super funds says.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) on Thursday joined the Financial Services Council in warning the government not to raid super to fund changes elsewhere in the tax system.

The groups, which represent super funds, said taxing contributions at marginal rates less a 15 per cent rebate would diminish retirement savings and increase reliance on the age pension for 80 per cent of Australians. ASFA chief executive Pauline Vamos said such a system would require either the ATO to administer rebates or employers to calculate extra withholding tax and remit that to the ATO.

"The administration costs of putting this in place are going to be significant, both on the tax office and on superannuation funds," she said.

"There could also be unintended consequences for members. For example, you could be waiting months to get your rebate, which means you have less in your account and therefore a lot less benefit through compound interest."

"Once you start applying marginal tax you move away from the fundamentals of what the system is about," Ms Vamos said.

"It's about encouraging people to save; you're going without wages today to save for the future. [The FSC] are trying to dissuade the government from going down this path and we agree."

Because their members' businesses depend on it, both the FSC and ASFA want the government to compel workers to put more money into super, not take extra out in tax.

To read the full article please click here. 

This article was originally sourced from The Australian Financial Review here and was written by Joanna Mather. 

The ABS today released housing finance figures for November 2015, showing that total lending activity increased during the month, but still remains below the high point reached in August of last year, said the Housing Industry Association, the voice of the residential building industry.

“This is a positive update for Australia’s housing sector, showing that lending activity remained healthy toward the end of last year,” commented HIA economist, Diwa Hopkins.

“Looking at the detail, lending activity among investors is still below what appears to be the cyclical peak back in April last year. More strength is evident in the owner occupier segment of the market, with the latest level of lending activity on par with recent highs.”

The value of investor lending increased by 0.7 per cent during the month of November, but was 7.7 per cent lower than a year earlier. The value of owner occupier lending, net of refinancing was up by 1.7 per cent and is some 22.8 per cent higher than a year earlier.

“Today’s figures also highlight that owner occupiers remain active in the new housing market, with the value of lending to those purchasing or constructing a new dwelling up by 0.7 per cent during the month to be 8.8 per cent higher than a year previously.”

“These signals from housing finance are consistent with other indicators pointing to very healthy levels of activity in the residential construction sector in early 2016,” said Diwa Hopkins.

In terms of new home lending to owner occupiers across the states and territories, six out of the eight experienced annual increases during November 2015: New South Wales (+9.7 per cent), Victoria (+8.2), Queensland (+2.3 per cent), South Australia (+6.3 per cent), the Northern Territory (+96.6 per cent) and the Australian Capital Territory (+8.2 per cent). New home lending to owner occupiers in November 2015 compared with a year earlier was lower in Western Australia (-15.9 per cent) and Tasmania (-10.7 per cent).

This media release was directly sourced from the Housing Industry Association website here. 

For further information please contact:

Diwa Hopkins, Economist on 02 6245 1308

The Perth Convention Bureau’s (PCB) 2016 Aspire Awards are now open to individuals involved with not-for-profit associations who can apply for the City of Perth, the City of Mandurah and Giving West Scholarships funded by PCB under its Aspire Program. The aim of the Aspire Program is to assist the individual’s personal and professional development through attendance at a relevant international conference. The funding covers travel, accommodation and registration expenses to the maximum value of the award.

Application information and guidelines are now available at http://www.pcb.com.au/aspire; the deadline for applications is the 31st March 2016.

Perth Convention Bureau will be hosting a free educational workshop lunch on the 12th February 2016 at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, aimed at helping potential applicants learn more about the Aspire program, application process and hear from previous successful applicants. To find out more information about this click here. 

A wide range of assistance and advice is available to help you apply, for more information contact PCB’s Director Stakeholder Relations, Tracey Cinavas-Prosser on +61 (0)8 9218 2925 or email aspire@pcb.com.au.

Support ensures Integrated Care congress is in good health

More than 500 health practitioners, researchers, clinicians and policymakers across the health and social care sectors from Asia Pacific, Europe, the US and across New Zealand are expected to attend the 4th World Congress on Integrated Care. The event, co-hosted by General Practice New Zealand (GPNZ) and the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) will take place November 23-25, 2016 at TSB Arena and Shed 6, Wellington. Tourism New Zealand has helped spark a chain of activity around the world that will encourage international delegates to attend and open up a raft of opportunities to benefit local association members.

GPNZ Chair Shelley Frost says the decision to bid for the event came after New Zealand members received the residual benefits of Sydney hosting the 2nd World Congress in 2014. “GPNZ hosted a two-day event that saw a number of the keynote speakers stop in Wellington en route home to Europe and the UK from Sydney. The idea of getting support for our bid was underway. We initially made contact with Positively Wellington and they introduced us to the benefits of working with Tourism New Zealand.”

International reach

Through its Conference Assistance Programme, TNZ prepared bid material incorporating a special promotional booklet including a letter of introduction from Frost, a letter of support from the Mayor of Wellington, and a draft programme and draft budget. Frost received funding support for travel and accommodation to deliver the bid to the IFIC board in Edinburgh in person. The result was a win for New Zealand, beating interest from other nations. “The promotional video was outstanding really, it drew people in and really presented our country well,” Frost notes. “And the Foundation was very impressed with the presentation and standard of the document; so much so, that they are now using it as a template for future events.”

Post-win, Tourism New Zealand has offered ongoing support. “We can’t make the 3rd World Congress in Mexico in November in person because it coincides with the GPNZ AGM, but TNZ is assisting with promotional material to be presented there on our behalf, including an update of the video welcoming delegates to New Zealand, and Save the Date cards for a seat drop,” Frost notes. “They are also helping with material for a stand at the International Conference on Integrated Care in Barcelona in May. We really want to hit that event hard to get more European delegates coming over here to New Zealand. We are looking at silver fern badges and other innovative ways to attract people to this side of the world.”

TNZ’s support has extended to local assistance, too. Organisers particularly wanted to host the event in Wellington to ensure key policy makers would be able to attend and be exposed to the international visitors. “TNZ also supported our attendance at the ‘Show Me Wellington’ event, which really opened up our eyes to what the city can offer and ways we can ‘jazz up’ our conference experience,” Frost adds. “Wellington is a great little city. There are a lot of opportunities. We will hold our conference dinner at the marae at Te Papa which will provide such a lovely, unique cultural flavour for our international visitors.”

Local benefits

Frost adds that the benefits of hosting the event are two-fold: “We in New Zealand learn from the world leaders in healthcare; plus we have the opportunity to showcase our own initiatives and put our GPNZ member networks on the world stage. New Zealand has a very good health system, and our meso-level primary care networks in particular are the envy of many other health systems.

“As well as networking opportunities and relationship building, we can hopefully build up future research partnerships,” Frost continues. “We are also looking to set up an exchange programme with the UK and host visiting delegations from other countries to come and look at what we are doing in this field. We are also looking at options pre and post-conference including a possible study tour of New Zealand which could see delegates travel into the regions. So as well as the conference proper, it has opened up a whole raft of other opportunities. Added to that, we are developing an Asia Pacific hub for IFIC and this will cement New Zealand’s role within that.”

Unexpected support

Frost sings the praises of the support from Tourism New Zealand - and only wishes she had been aware of it earlier. “We had no idea of the benefits open to us. GPNZ has hosted a number of conferences without any understanding of the support that is possible,”she says. “TNZ has been such an proactive, easy group to work with. Nothing was a problem for them. They were so professional, they met challenging deadlines at times and adapted their existing documentation and materials to the health sector and to our organisation. It will be a long-term relationship.”

The Motor Industry Association recognises the impact on the world if emissions of greenhouse gases are not limited, and that the global motor vehicle industry has a part to play as a supplier of products which produce CO2.

New Zealand needs to do its "fair share" to reduce global emissions. In the new vehicle space context, it must be recognised in any proposed policy initiative New Zealand is a technology taker.

The major source markets of vehicles for the New Zealand market have in place a variety of policies aimed at reducing CO2 and/or improving fuel economy.

Under business as usual, as long as vehicles destined for the New Zealand market meet the relevant standards in the source market New Zealand will, by default, have a continuing reduction in CO2 emissions. Between 2006 and 2014, New Zealand emissions from the light vehicle fleet fell 36 percent.

Worldwide, the motor industry is spending billions of dollars on research and development of new technologies and refining existing technologies for improving fuel efficiency, as well as developing new technologies such as hybrid vehicles, fully electric vehicles and into the future zero-emission, hydrogen-powered vehicles. All of these technologies are being developed for mass production.

(In this series, being run to coincide with the [ http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/290317/climate-talks-people-power-will-save-the-planet Paris climate change talks], we will publish opinion pieces from Greenpeace, Sanford, the Motor Industry Association, 350 Aotearoa, Mainfreight, Straterra, Federated Farmers and the Environmental Defence Society. Air New Zealand, Fonterra, Holcim and Genesis Energy were invited to contribute, but declined.)

Fast-emerging Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) offer significant fuel-saving benefits via improved traffic management to avoid congested areas.

The New Zealand transport sector can play its part in reducing emission levels, if the right policy settings are put in place. In MIA's view, the policy settings most likely to help accelerate the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from transport are ones which accelerate the uptake of new technology and limit the age at which used imports come into the country.

Another would be favourable tax policies which cost the government little in forgone revenue, at least for a period of time upon which they can be reviewed to see if they should continue, but which influence fleet buyers to purchase low emission vehicles.

Policies which address the emissions of the total fleet, including the use of vehicles, will result in more overall savings than policy initiatives which focus only on a segment of the market.

This information was directly sourced from the Radio NZ News website here. 

The return of competition on several regional air routes is being welcomed by the Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIA).

Jetstar’s new regional air services starting today provide another option for both domestic and international travellers wanting to visit more of New Zealand, TIA Chief Executive Chris Roberts says.

Local economies in the regions served by the new Jetstar services will benefit as visitors spend their money in local shops, markets, restaurants and bars.

The boost to local economies will mean jobs are created both directly in tourism and indirectly in sectors that service the visitor industry.

Tourism 2025 identified that air connectivity and regional dispersal are both crucial to increasing the tourism industry’s contribution to New Zealand’s economy and achieving the industry’s goal of $41 billion annual revenue by 2025, Mr Roberts says.

He emphasises that tourism operators and their communities will need to work together to support Jetstar’s new regional routes and ensure their sustainability.

“Jetstar has signalled that the initial five regional routes will build a strong base for considering more regional destinations. We support their approach of building up a sustainable network that will encourage visitors to get off the beaten track and see more of New Zealand.”

The new services will provide a strong regional distribution option for international visitors flying Qantas as well as Emirates, China Eastern, China Southern, American Airlines and their other partners, Mr Roberts says.

“We applaud Jetstar and the Qantas Group for showing a serious and long term commitment to New Zealand and our tourism industry,” Mr Roberts says.

This media release was directly sourced from the Tourism Industry Association New Zealand website here. 

The Ministry is seeking submissions on the Exposure Draft of the Incorporated Societies Bill.

For its members AuSAE will be running sector discussions in February and March 2016, and will be making a submission based on sector feedback on behalf of our members. 

The below information has been directly sourced from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment website here. 

The Incorporated Societies Act 1908 does not say anything about several important matters that affect the operation of societies. The main purpose of the draft Bill is to remove uncertainty about those matters. The additions that we think are the most important are outlined below.

Clauses 48-55 relating to officers’ duties – Officers of incorporated societies already have duties under the common law. Clauses 48-55 are aimed at being clear about what those duties are and to whom they are owed.

Clauses 56-65 relating to conflicts of interest – There is nothing about conflicts of interest in the 1908 Act. The purpose of these provisions is to define what a conflict of interest is, and make it clear what an officer needs to do if his or her duties of loyalty to the society come into conflict with a competing personal interest that he or she may have.

Clauses 31-32 and Schedule 2 (see pages 95-96 of the Bill) relating to dispute resolution – Whether they realise it or not, all societies already have obligations under the common law to resolve, or participate in the resolution of disputes or grievances that may arise within their society. The main aim with Schedule 2 is to provide a set of simple rules for resolving disputes fairly.

The deadline for making comments is Thursday 30 June 2016.

The Ministry’s Request for Submissions highlights key issues raised by the Exposure Draft. It also invites comments on Agricultural and Pastoral Societies legislation.

Please email your submissions to societies@mbie.govt.nz. Queries should be sent to the same email address.