Senator John Williams
Senator for NSW
The Hon. Greg Hunt MP
Minister for Health
MEDIA RELEASE
30 January 2019
The Australian Government is making a significant investment of $36.8 million for Parkinson’s medical research through the Garvan Institute’s Australian Parkinson Mission and in Parkinson’s nurses to improve the life of people living with the disease and ultimately to find a cure for this devastating condition.
Senator for New South Wales John Williams said Parkinson’s disease is recognised as the second most common neurodegenerative disorder in Australia.
“More than 100,000 Australians including me endure its progressive and debilitating symptoms – and without a medical breakthrough, this number is expected to double in 15 years,”
Communities in Richmond are being encouraged to contribute to the Australian War Memorial initiative Places of Pride.
The Nationals Senator for New South Wales John Williams says Places of Pride is an online national register of war memorials that will record the locations and images of every publicly accessible memorial in Australia.
He is suggesting that RSL’s, local councils, community groups and individuals take a photograph of the war memorial in their town or village and upload it to the register which will be the basis of a new display in the proposed expanded galleries of the War Memorial.
“Ultimately visitors will be able to log in the name of their town on the website and see their memorial come to life.
This is an extremely important program which will connect all Australians, united by pride and loss, with memorials from the Boer War to Afghanistan”, Senator Williams said.
Further details can be found at www.placesofpride.awm.gov.au
Dairy farmers, processors and representative organisations are encouraged to have their say to help shape Australia's first mandatory dairy code in Bega on Monday the 19th of November.
Senator for New South Wales John Williams is urging local farmers and stakeholders to take part and help improve contracts between farmers and processors.
“We need farmers and processors in the Eden-Monaro region to have their say and make sure the code will work for them and our local region,” Senator Williams said.
“The code will aim to make contracts fairer, more transparent and enforce a dispute resolution process.
The Nationals Senator for New South Wales John Williams has welcomed the establishment of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) which opened for business today.
The new one-stop shop will deliver free, fast and binding service for all financial complaints, whether they relate to banks, credit providers, insurance companies or superannuation funds.
Senator Williams has been a long-time advocate for the new body and was involved in numerous discussions with industry and consumer groups as to its framework and powers.
He pushed for the higher monetary limits and compensation caps that had not been available under the old Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and Credit and Investments Ombudsman (CIO), saying any new organisation would need “more teeth” so the public could have confidence in it.
“For example, FOS and CIO could only deal with consumer complaints where the value of the dispute was up to $500,000.
The Hon Michael McCormack MP
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development
Leader of The Nationals
Federal Member for Riverina
Senator The Hon Michaelia Cash
Minister for Small and Family Business, Skills and Vocational Education
Senator for Western Australia
Senator John Williams
Senator for New South Wales
The Liberal and Nationals’ Government will invest $60 million to trial a wage subsidy as an incentive for employers in regional and rural communities to engage more apprentices.
Minister for Small and Family Business, Skills and Vocational Education Senator Michaelia Cash said the trial would see up to 1,630 new Australian Apprentices in areas of skills needs.
“There are 3.3 million Australian small businesses which contribute around $395 billion annually to our economy. Small business plays a vital role in our community, from giving young Australians their first real job to supporting our local charities and sporting organisations,” Minister Cash said.
“Through this incentive we are securing the skills our regional and rural businesses need to remain competitive and give local students new opportunities at home.”
Today in the Australian newspaper my opinion piece on coal-fired generation appears on page 14. It is titled We Fiddle, Our Coal Burns Across The World.
"There has been a lot of discussion of late on coal-fired electricity and climate change. The IPCC has come out with another meeting and people like former Liberal leader John Hewson have entered the debate. Take a look at the facts. Australia has 22 operating coal fired generating plants of at least 30 megawatts capacity producing 128 million tonnes of CO2 per year, with no plans to construct any new ones. Compare that with China, our biggest trading partner, which has 1,003 coal fired power generating plants operating to the same capacity and a further 130 under construction. I repeat another 130 under construction.