What needs to be done:

Workforce participation

We do not support an increase in the pension age, but we do believe older Australians should be both encouraged and supported to be involved in the paid or community service workforce. For those who receive a pension, income tests should be relaxed further so that they can supplement their income without penalty. Community service volunteers should be automatically covered by a government funded insurance scheme.

Cost of Living

Utility cost increases should be pegged at no greater than the CPI. Any increases above the CPI should be rebated to those on a government pension, or self-funded retirees who have reached the eligible pension age.

Housing/Retirement/Aged Care

Government policy should encourage and deliver where possible affordable, comfortable and well-maintained retirement and aged care accommodation. Developers and providers of retirement accommodation must meet all existing government requirements, as well as be required to provide transition accommodation options for residents who may require low or high care facilities in the future. These transition options should be on, or adjacent to, the existing retirement estate.

Bill Free by Mail

We believe that older people who are less familiar with the internet should not be charged by corporations or utilities for delivery of paper bills or documents by mail.

What needs to be done:

• The Government should take steps which will require manufacturers to regularly disclose the percentage and country of origin of specific ingredients to the Department of Industry for publication on its website
• The Government should undertake an analysis and report on the benefit of an administrative mechanism which will give manufacturers the ability to apply for a ruling on Country of Origin Labelling claims
• A single federal authority should be formed to accredit the use of all Made in Australia symbols
• Government departments should be required to procure a much greater proportion of Australian produced and manufactured products and services
• Government departments should be required to procure a much greater proportion of Australian produced and manufactured products and services
• Have more effective anti-dumping laws to prevent below-cost imported goods flooding the market and destroying Australian jobs in the process

What needs to be done: 

• Have an efficient and effective Emissions Intensity Scheme (EIS) based on world's best practice
• Australia needs to quickly move toward a cleaner and more affordable energy future. This will involve reduced reliance on economically unsustainable technologies
• Government policies need to facilitate innovative and job creating energy industry opportunities through research, adoption, education and manufacturing of new technologies 

• Australian energy resources should be available to Australians before being available for sale to the rest of the world. An allocation for domestic use prior to export would also help lower the cost of energy for consumers. And gas producers must comply with a strict 'use it or lose it' rule to their gas reserves 

• Australian taxpayer funded research into renewable energy and climate change needs to be made more easily available to Australian industry to ensure our competitive advantage in these areas is encouraged 

• The importation of substandard and unsafe products related to renewable energy and or climate change must be stopped

See media release here.

What needs to be done:.

• Establish a national anti-corruption commission and ensure that the SA ICAC can hold meetings in public for maladministration cases
• Ensure politician entitlements and claims are reported in a timely and transparent way
• Put in place whistleblower legislation that protects the informant and compensates them for any loss of income due to their actions. The changes brought about by the Nick Xenophon Team at a federal level last December are a big step forward, but these need to rolled out to the corporate and public sectors as per the governments firm commitments.
• Government services (federal, state, local) must be delivered quickly and efficiently and be fully accountable to the public
• Review duplicated services at a federal, state and local government level and determine the most appropriate entity to deliver these services

What needs to be done:

• Government resources should be directed to maximising patient outcomes that involve enhancing local care and existing GP clinics
• Preventative health care must be an absolute government priority, with targeted funding to reduce chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and osteoporosis. This should include comprehensive and effective public education campaigns
• Telemedicine should be expanded for regional communities to improve access to specialist medical care
• Address medical practices which pursue quantity over quality
• The 30% private health insurance rebate should be reinstated to ensure greater participation and affordability. This in turn takes pressure off the public hospital system
• The Australian health care system should be subject to rigorous evidence based assessment to identify and eliminate waste and maximise efficiency

What needs to be done: 

• With pokies being the biggest cause of problem gambling, the immediate implementation of the Productivity Commission’s recommendation for $1 maximum bets per spin and $120 in hourly losses (compared to $10 per spin and $1200 an hour) is required
• Challenge the major parties to conduct a referendum on implementing $1 maximum bet reforms.
• Ensure the Productivity Commission regularly updates its gambling research
• End micro-betting on sports events, which can lead to corruption and match fixing in sports 
• Remove ATMs from venues with poker machines
• Reinstate ban on EFTPOS acess in SA poker machine rooms 
• Ban the ability to bet on the outcome of a lottery, for example Lottoland
• The Commonwealth needs to develop an approach to wean state governments off their $5billion a year of gambling taxes

What needs to be done: 

• Treat personal drug use as primarily a health issue, rather than a criminal issue, with well funded rehabilitation programs - including mandatory rehabilitation in certain circumstances.
• Develop programs and an Australia wide change in culture that seeks to minimise addiction in the first place
• Explore innovative ways to disrupt and minimise the drug business model
• Enable the ability of the public to simply and safely “inform” on dealers to significantly reduce any localised interest in dealing and cut off the sale and revenue elements of any drug based business model
• Current resources should be focussed more on prevention and rehabilitation
• An increase in spending is required to establish better access to rehabilitation clinics along with a clear transition into skills and job training 
• Drug trafficking legislation should be modified to allow authorities to rapidly and simply seize assets of those involved in trafficking and distribution


What needs to be done:

• There should be an option for all new utility proposals (such as generation and network assets) to be community owned (or owned through a co-operative) 
• Change the National Electricity Market rules and enhance the power of the Australian Energy Regulator to rein in the wasteful and costly gold-plating of electricity assets that consumers end up paying for. Over time this will have a greater impact on reducing electricity prices than any other single measure.
• Price increases should be set at no greater than the CPI

Examples of what needs to be done: 

• Storm water harvesting – which is more efficient than desalination – must be fast-tracked
• States which were early adopters of water-efficiencies must be acknowledged in any federal scheme. Irrigators should be able to access federal infrastructure grants for value-adding to agricultural produce more easily
• Wasteful practices throughout the Murray-Darling Basin must be addressed as a matter of urgency to ensure a fair distribution of water rights across the entire system

What needs to be done:

The Federal Government must ensure government procurement officers conduct procurement in accordance with the full intent of the new Commonwealth procurement rules negotiated by NXT in December 2016 and which came into effect on 01 March 2017. Those rules require officials to:

• ensure applicable Australian Standards are mandated in all procurements
• ensure that the procurement is carried out considering relevant regulations and/or regulatory frameworks, including but not limited to tenderers’ practices regarding a) labour regulations, including ethical employment practices; b) occupational, health and safety; and c) environmental impacts.
• consider the economic benefit for all procurements above $4 million dollars

Compliance with the new rules must be made mandatory for any Federal funding granted to the States.