Strange bedfellows: Greens, conservatives team up in hopes of WA Labor's first upper house defeat in five years
Greens homelessness spokesman Tim Clifford will move a motion in parliament this afternoon calling on the Cook government to report back on the recommendations of the Funding of Homelessness Services in Western Australia report handed down by an upper house committee in June 2023.
Clifford will also call on the Cook government to recommit to ending homelessness with corresponding funding.
Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House, Liberal MLC Nick Gorian, confirmed his team would support the Greens' motion, which would give it the numbers to pass after Labor lost its majority in the house at the March 8 poll.
If Labor doesn't support the motion, it will be the first time the party has lost a vote in either house since before the 2021 election. Labor's leader of the Upper House Stephen Dawson would not be drawn on the party's position.
Loading
The report made 57 recommendations aimed at improving the state's response to homelessness, including better funding and better-tailored services.
Only three of those were not supported, with most recommendations supported or supported in-principle.
The government has not yet reported back on the implementation of the recommendations it supported.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
23 minutes ago
- Perth Now
Major tax reform probably 'a bridge too far': CBA
A leading economist has poured cold water on hopes that the federal government could pull off a major tax overhaul at its productivity summit. At the same time Luke Yeaman has urged Treasurer Jim Chalmers to consider increasing means testing to raise more revenue. Mr Yeaman, the former deputy Treasury secretary under Dr Chalmers who now leads the Commonwealth Bank's economics team, said a "grand bargain" between the federal and state governments on tax reform was unlikely, at least in the short term. While the government could find some joy in improving areas like housing and energy infrastructure approvals and capital gains tax, large-scale reform around areas like the GST would likely prove too difficult. "There's no doubt that Australia needs a bolder reform agenda," Mr Yeaman said as he released CBA's economics update for the 2026 financial year on Wednesday. "We've had a successful economy, steady growth that has led to a feeling of complacency in the system." With Labor holding a large majority in parliament and Labor governments in most states, expectations will be high for the government to deliver something substantial a the August roundtable, he said. But given fiscal challenges faced by all levels of government and Dr Chalmers's requirement that reforms be at least budget neutral will likely make large-scale reform around GST "a bridge too far" in the short term, although it could lay the groundwork for reform down the track. Governments have typically needed to "buy" reform by spending extra to compensate people who are made worse off. Increasing means-testing on major spending programs should therefore be revisited to achieve the government's aims of fixing the budget deficit and help fund tax cuts elsewhere to boost work incentives and abolish inefficient taxes such as stamp duty and payroll tax. Large outlays in recent years on energy rebates and Medicare spending have typically benefited everyone, even high-income earners with more capacity to pay. "So I think there's an opportunity to look at some of the key spending programs and whether you can drive more means testing and user contributions through that," Mr Yeaman said. Another potential area for reform was around planning and zoning, where Mr Yeaman said he saw a real appetite for change. Senior government figures, including Housing Minister Clare O'Neil and Assistant Minister for Productivity Andrew Leigh, have called to slash red tape slowing approvals for important projects like residential construction and clean energy generation. "If the government wants to achieve its goals in infrastructure, housing, net zero and future industries - without that, I don't think you'll achieve those objectives," Mr Yeaman said. "I think there's been too much focus on new regulation to protect and manage risk. There's an opportunity to rebalance that towards a more growth-focused agenda on regulation."
Sky News AU
30 minutes ago
- Sky News AU
Treasurer Jim Chalmers under fire for refusal to ‘take feedback' on superannuation tax changes
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been accused of refusing 'to listen' after he repeatedly rejected calls from a litany of groups to index the government's 'flawed' unrealised gains tax on super accounts. Opposition to Labor's plan to double the tax rate from 15 to 30 per cent on super accounts over $3 million has picked up pace, with former prime minister Paul Keating and secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions' Sally McManus blasting the government for not indexing the policy. Mr Chalmers is being urged to dump or drastically overhaul the plan ahead of the upcoming economic reform roundtable. It comes as after a report from Wilson Asset Management revealed the move would inflict a $20 billion hit to the budget over four years, with an array of small growth businesses and startups forgoing billions in tax revenue. Liberal MP Aaron Violi blasted the Treasurer for declining to heed the advice of a long line of industry experts and said the government should be willing to make concessions if it wanted to tackle stagnating productivity. 'It's clear these changes to superannuation indexation are not supported by Sally McManus at the ACTU. Paul Keating let the cat out of the bag yesterday about indexation, that most if not all Australians ... will now be hit,' Mr Violi said. 'Indexation is one of those red lines for us as a Coalition because we know more and more Australians will hit that $3 million mark in the future and the reality is that $3 million today will be different to $3 million in ten, twenty and thirty years. 'Jim Chalmers has to be prepared to listen and take the feedback, and I don't know anyone outside of Jim and Anthony Albanese that think this is a good proposal.' Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at Wilson Asset Management Geoff Wilson also despaired that young Australians entering the workforce today would be caught up in the tax due to wages and inflation shifts over time. "In terms of destroying the aspirations for young Australians, that's what this tax on unrealised gains is going to do,' Mr Wilson said. He also savaged the government for taxing unrealised capital gains which is widely considered an unprecedented move that goes against decades of Australian taxation theory. 'It's illogical, it's flawed, some people are saying it's s criminal theft, paying tax on a profit or a gain you may never make.' Mr Wilson told Sky News he would be penning a formal submission to the government's productivity roundtable containing his fund's dire findings and arguing that the tax would be a productivity killer. Mr Violi railed against the government for targeting unrealised gains, and said the move was sparking alarm and outrage among his constituents. 'That principle of taxing unrealised capital gains, farms in my community and others that might have a paper profit but they don't actually have the money to pay an extra tax on that, they are the two red lines for us,' Mr Violi said. Labor MP Julian Hill told Sky News that the change would only impact a modest amount of wealthy Australians. 'We took the tax change to the election, we have a mandate, that's our position, I think that we've won that argument with the Australian people.'
The Age
38 minutes ago
- The Age
I'll be there for you: After his welfare revolt bruising, Starmer should call his friend Albanese
London: Anthony Albanese learned the hard way that saving money on disability support was a political nightmare. Now the prime minister's friend and counterpart in Britain, Keir Starmer, has just learned an even tougher lesson. Starmer has suffered a serious blow to his authority from rebel Labour MPs, who forced him to retreat on welfare savings meant to save more than £5 billion, or about $10.5 billion. He survived a storm in parliament to pass a draft law with some of the changes, but only after throwing most of the savings overboard. Starmer, who marked his first year in power only days ago, now has a gap in his budget that seems to be worth about £4.5 billion, although the rapid pace of the vote left some of his own team confused. 'I am not sure that all colleagues understood what they voted for,' one Labour MP, Paula Barker, told the BBC after the vote. Albanese will know exactly what Starmer is dealing with – and so will Bill Shorten, the former government services minister who made tough calls over two years to slow the growth of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Shorten got there in the end, but only after months of concern from Labor caucus members and some hard politics with state premiers about where to find the savings. The Greens were strongly against, and the Liberals and Nationals played games to drag out the vote – before most of them agreed to the overhaul last year. Labor did not split. Starmer got there in the end, but with far greater wounds.
