THE
FAWCETT
FLYER
November 2015
Printed and Authorised by Senator David Fawcett - 13/100 King William Street Adelaide 5000
www.senatorfawcett.com.au
Defence Update
A word from
David
Touring BAE System’s Glasgow shipyard
With my last newsletter for 2015, the year is quickly coming to an end. It is
however, far from being a quiet period going into summer, as in Government we
continue to deal with a host of pressing national and international issues.
On the international stage, the Paris attacks are still dominating the
intelligence and security landscape while the recent downing of a Russian
bomber jet on the Turkey-Syria border has added heat to the already crowded
operating area in the Middle East. It was only a matter of time before
miscalculations were made in the conflict and the onus is now on involved
nations to ensure this miscalculation does not lead to escalation.
Domestically, the Committees I Chair have remained active with the Defence
Committee tabling its inquiry into Government support for defence exports and
the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services
continues to hold hearings across Australia on constructive defaults.
I trust you and those close to you have a blessed Christmas and a safe summer
break as we lead into the new year.
Yours sincerely
David Fawcett
Joint Standing Committee on Foreign
Affairs, Defence and Trade
Inquiry into Government Support for Defence Exports
The Committee’s inquiry into Government Support for Australian Defence industry
exports has just been tabled. The Committee found that while some elements of
the defence industry are fundamentally important to the operation and materiel
support of equipment used by Defence, they have often been placed at a
commercial disadvantage by current Government procurement practices, including
a lack of support to secure export markets. The report outlines how the Commonwealth can build sovereign capability through a more strategic engagement with
the defence industry when planning maintenance and procurement expenditure.
Delegation to the United Kingdom and Germany
Sandwiched between two sitting periods, I recently had the opportunity to
represent the Coalition on a Parliamentary Delegation to the UK and Germany.
Meetings with the UK Parliament’s Defence committee, the procurement arm of the
Ministry of Defence as well as major industry stakeholders such as BAE Systems
provided a great opportunity to explore in some detail their approach to naval ship
building and the development of sustainable procurement cycle for complex
weapons systems.
In Germany, meetings with both their Defence Committee and Security Committee
were dominated by the refugee crisis which is seeing hundreds of thousands of
people (economic migrants as opposed to refugees from the Syrian conflict are
to make up nearly half the number) flooding into Germany without any controls,
security or even complete identification and health checks. The recent Paris attack
involving a “refugee” who came to Europe as part of this uncontrolled movement
of people highlights the complex nature of the threat European nations are now
facing.
Federal News
families, employees and sometimes whole communities has been profound and in
many cases there appears to have been a significant injustice done to the
businesses concerned.
The Committee is in the process of hearing from witnesses in hearings across
several states and we expect report early next year.
Counting the votes in the Chamber
during the ChAFTA division.
Parliamentary Joint Committee on
Treaties
ChAFTA passes the Senate
Along with the Japan and Korea free trade agreements the Treaties Committee
has kept busy this year scrutinising the China Australia Free Trade Agreement
(ChAFTA). Earlier in November—as the duty whip—I was pleased to be on the
chamber floor to count the vote when ChAFTA was approved by the Senate.
The passing of the implementing legislation for ChAFTA means that Australian
businesses are one step closer to realising the huge benefits of having liberalised
access to the world’s fastest growing economy.
Parliamentary Joint Committee on
Corporations and Financial Services
Submissions are now closed for the Committee’s inquiry into constructive defaults
and hearings into this issue began earlier this month.
As Chair of the Committee, I have had the opportunity to meet one to one with
many of the witnesses who have presented compelling submissions showing
cases where viable businesses have had their loans impaired and companies destroyed despite having met their repayment obligations. The impact on individuals,
Parliamentary Joint Committee on
Intelligence and Security
The lethal attacks in Paris last month were part of an ongoing assault on the
freedoms and rights that generations of Australians and allies have fought to
preserve. Liberal, plural, secular, democracies are being undermined by those
who want to replace them with an authoritarian theocracy based on one traditional
interpretation of Islamic religious law.
We delude ourselves if we think that this is all about disaffected youth responding
to perceived grievances by lashing out in a radical way. A radical—by definition—
seeks to move away from tradition. What we see in the rise of Islamic State—and
the creation of a physical Caliphate across large swathes of Syria and Iraq—are
people being inspired by one traditional interpretation of Islam so intensely that
they are better identified as zealots working towards a loosely defined but common goal.
In a key speech at the start of this year, Egypt’s President el Sisi (a Sunni
Muslim) identified the key role that Islamic leaders have to challenge—and seek to
change—these traditions and interpretations of Islam. In July this year, Prime
Minister Cameron of the UK correctly identified the complimentary, but different
role that leaders in free democracies have to identify and reject the intolerant
traditions preached by the zealots that erode the very rights and liberties that
underpin our form of Government and way of life.
Prime Minister Cameron was picking up on the “paradox of tolerance” which was
explained by philosopher Karl Popper who said, “If we extend unlimited tolerance
even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant
society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed,
and tolerance with them.”
Amongst the calls to “not let terror divide us”, it is important to remember that the
strength of our Australia’s society is not just in our unity but also in our eternal
vigilance to recognise and take action to deter or defeat threats. In this context,
both el Sisi and Cameron identify the dangers of the incremental “accommodation”
of intolerant views.
Slashing Red Tape - Helping Businesses
Grow
The dangers from intolerant zealots are manifested in various forms but removing
hard won women’s rights are perhaps the most obvious. The zealots advocate
misogamy, discriminating against women and girls by enforced segregation in
public, defining “permissible” domestic violence and as increasingly evidenced
in the UK, depriving women of the family law protections gradually enshrined in
secular law over recent decades. Intolerance more broadly extends to lone wolf
violence against individual members of the public through to coordinated mass
attacks such as we saw in Paris and Ankara. As Prime Minister Turnbull repeated
in his recent security statement, extreme violence comes from extreme ideas and
we need to tackle both.
From 1 July 2016, the Government will move its focus on cutting red tape to
regulation reform that directly enhances innovation, competitiveness and
productivity.
Building on previous measures, the Coalition Government is continuing to take
steps to give our law enforcement agencies the powers they need with the most
recent tranche of counter-terrorist legislation currently before the Parliament.
The new measures include amongst other things the ability for control orders to
be placed on people as young as 14 (who are increasingly represented amongst
those committing acts of violence), as well as banning intolerant speech that
incites genocide.
The Intelligence and Security Committee will be scrutinising this new legislation in
coming weeks to ensure we attain the balance between increasing powers
needed by authorities while preserving the personal freedoms that underpin our
society.
In UK and Germany, I had the opportunity to
meet with MPs to discuss a range of
topics including defence, counter
terrorism and migration
When we came to office, the Coalition made a commitment to reduce red tape by
$1 billion annually and I’m pleased to inform you that we have already achieved
that target with almost $4.5 billion in red tape savings in our first two years.
For every $1 added to the cost of regulation, the Government has made decisions
that cut over $11 and in total has repealed over 10,000 legislative instruments and
introduced legislation to repeal over 3600 spent and redundant Acts from the Commonwealth books.
Simply removing red tape is not the only way that government can get out of the
way of small business.
For example, in July 2015 the ATO upgraded its online services to allow sole
traders to manage their activity statement and PAYG instalments within ATO
Online. Sole traders can now view, lodge, revise or pay their obligations from
anywhere with an internet connection by using their myGov credentials.
If you have any ideas to help us further reduce the red tape burden on small
businesses you can submit it here: http://www.cuttingredtape.gov.au/form/tell-us
Community Matters
Speaking to locals with Tony Pasin
at the Riverland Field Days
Paskeville and Riverland Field Days
Since my last newsletter I was pleased to represent the Party with fellow
Liberal Parliamentarians at the Riverland Field Days with Tony Pasin and the
Yorke Peninsula Field Days with Steven Griffiths. As usual, these days were a
great exposition of the best of regional communities and commercial ventures.
At the Riverland stall with the Member for Barker, Tony Pasin, among the
many locals we had the opportunity to meet “George the Farmer” who
educates children on food and fibre production.
Onkaparinga and Marion Councils receive
a further $1.3 million in untied grants
The Cities of Onkaparinga and Marion are set to receive another funding
instalment as part of a total Commonwealth grant of over $5.4 million in this
financial year.
The funds are granted through the Financial Assistance Grant programme and are
untied. The Coalition understands that local Councillors and council management
are the best at determining where funds should be allocated inside councils. The
flexible grants ensure that bureaucrats in Canberra do not have the opportunity to
misallocate funds and inefficiently spend taxpayer money.
Prescott College
Southern Opening
In September I represented the
Education Minister to open the
new science labs and senior school
classrooms at Prescott Southern
College, Morphett Vale, in my
patron seat of Kingston. The
facilities were a co-investment
by the Federal Government and
the school. The Government
provided $768,900 of the total cost of $1,398,000.
Opening new facilities with students
and principal Christine Clark
I look forward to attending a similar opening in the future, as the College has
again received funding in the latest round of grants under the Capital Grants Programme. The Government has provided a $289,130 contribution to go towards
building a modern general learning area and staff room facilities
I also enjoyed opening facilities at Pedare Christian College in Tea Tree Gully
where I was able to speak to the student leaders about leadership and the opportunities they were positioned to embrace at school and beyond.
Annual National Prayer Breakfast
As Treasurer of the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship, I was pleased to help
convene this year’s National Prayer Breakfast at Parliament House. Over 250
attendees from various states, including parliamentarians from both sides of
politics, came together in prayer for the country.
The keynote speaker was Michael Ramsden who is a joint Director of the
Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and an Honorary Fellow at Wycliffe
Hall. An economist by profession who specialises in systemic risk in financial
systems, since the GFC he has been in demand around the world by leading
companies in the financial services sector to speak from a faith perspective
about ethical responses to a crisis.
Remembrance Day 2016
Retirement of Bev Baldock
For this year’s Remembrance Day I attended a ceremony for the launch of the
‘Commonwealth Parliamentarians who have served in war: the First World War’
exhibition.
It is with some regret that I advise of the
retirement of Bev Baldock from my office. Bev has
been a stalwart of the Liberal Party in South
Australia over the past 15 years.
There were 119 parliamentarians who served in the First World War. Sixteen
served during war years and two WWI veterans went on to become Prime
Minister ­– Stanley Bruce and Earl Page.
1800RESPECT marks 5 years of service
As part of the Commonwealth’s Women’s Safety Package a further $5 million
in funding has been given to the 1800RESPECT service. 1800RESPECT has
received over 147,000 contacts since it began in 2010.
The 24/7 national hotline and online counseling service is accessed more than
100 times a day, highlighting the need for this continuing service in the fight to
end domestic violence.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family
violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800737732 or visit www.1800RESPECT.org.
au
New Website
Last month I launched my new website which can be found at:
www.senatorfawcett.com.au
Leading into the next federal election it will be a valuable additional point of
contact for communicating the Coalition’s policies to the public, as well as
receiving voters’ feedback and opinions.
Bev’s foray into politics began by chance in the
early ‘90s when her local councilor at
McLaren Vale jogged up her driveway to welcome
her to the neighbourhood.
Bev and husband Ken
following her
retirement
By 1993 she was on the then Noarlunga Council
before it became the City of Onkaparinga in 1997.
In her work as a councilor she came to know Robert Brokenshire, who was
Member for Mawson at the time. In 2000 Bev went to work for Robert in his
capacity as Minister for Police, Correctional Services and Community Services.
In 2002 Bev began work for Senator Nick Minchin, who was then the Minister
for Finance. She stayed with Nick until his retirement and after my election in
2010 I was fortunate to have her join my team.
Together with my staff we farewelled Bev and we wish her and her husband,
Ken, all the best as they enjoy a long and happy retirement together.
David Fawcett
Liberal Senator for South Australia
Get in Touch
Deputy Government Whip in the Senate
Chair, Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services
Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (Chair, Defence Subcommittee)
Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security
Parliamentary Joint Committee on Treaties
Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
Coalition Backbench Committee on Legal Affairs
TEL: 08 8205 1040 EMAIL: [email protected] WEB: www.senatorfawcett.com.au