14 June 2017: Federal Labor will introduce a Bill today to require the Productivity Commission to consider inequality in its work.

The Bill will be introduced by Senator Jenny McAllister and builds on a proposal by Chris Bowen that the Productivity Commission regularly report on how we are tracking as a nation in improving equality of opportunity and social mobility.

A Senate Committee is calling for a target to close the gender pay gap. Chair of the Committee Senator Jenny McAllister said “It is time to do more than just measure the gender pay gap. It is time to take action.” 

The Turnbull Government’s crack digital team has confirmed they didn’t lift a finger to fix the NAPLAN online failure.

All Australian states and territories pulled out of NAPLAN online in April, blaming technical glitches and failures – meanwhile the Turnbull Government’s Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) didn’t try to help get the project back on track.

For some years, I have been asking officials in the (inaudible) agencies of government how they are approaching the challenges that are faced by Australian women, and on every occasion the answer has been extremely disappointing. Which is to say that this government has abandoned any pretence at all at serious examination of the different impacts of their economic decisions on women. 

Speaking in the Parliament today, Liberal MP John Alexander was caught out trying to hide the cuts Malcolm Turnbull has made to schools in Bennelong.

Official data from the NSW Government shows schools mentioned by Mr Alexander will lose funding because of Malcolm Turnbull’s cuts.

The Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee sat in Townsville yesterday to hear evidence about regional public service jobs as part of our inquiry into the move of the APVMA.

We spoke to 13 councils from across Australia, 12 more than Barnaby Joyce spoke to before deciding to move the APVMA and its 150 jobs to his own electorate during a tight election campaign. 

A Senate hearing in Townsville today will consider cuts to public sector jobs in regional centres. The Senate Inquiry into the Operations and Effectiveness of Government Decisions on the Location of Commonwealth Departments has previously heard that the Turnbull Government wasted millions of taxpayer dollars relocating a government agency from Canberra to Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce’s electorate last year.

Malcolm Turnbull, in this morning’s papers, has set his own test for the performance of the Government in this budget. He’s said that that test is opportunity, fairness and security. Well, from everything we know, in relation to education, this budget won’t meet that test. 

FRAN KELLY: Australia has one of the most gender segregated workplaces in the world. This is according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, and there been almost no progress on this front made in the last twenty years. 

The government’s refusal to take climate change seriously is leaving it increasingly isolated and exposed. Today, a Senate committee has sided with investors in their calls for guidance for Australian firms on disclosure of carbon risk.