What we learned today, Tuesday 1 August
Thanks for joining us on the blog today, that’s where we’ll leave our live coverage.
Here are today’s main developments:
The Reserve Bank left rates unchanged for a second consecutive month at 4.1% in a welcome reprieve for borrowers.
However, the RBA governor, Philip Lowe, flagged that future interest rate rises may be needed to quell inflation.
During a speech at the National Press Club, the Northern Territory chief minister, Natasha Fyles, accused teal independents and “trolls” of trying to shut down the Middle Arm development over environmental concerns.
The teal independent Monique Ryan said personal name calling does a “disservice” to children in the NT and that Fyles should “spend more time caring about climate change”.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, accused Scott Morrison of behaving “as though he was the victim” of the robodebt saga following his speech in parliament yesterday.
Meanwhile, the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, accused Morrison of being “a bottomless well of self-pity” with “not a drop of mercy for all of the real victims of robodebt” during question time.
Also during question time, the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said nothing the government does “will ever be enough” for those opposite when questioned on the approval of new coalmines.
This follows news that Unesco has deemed the Great Barrier Reef will not be listed as “in danger”, but that it remains under “serious threat” from global heating.
The Greens confirmed they would meet with the Albanese government this week to continue negotiations over the stalled $5bn housing Australia future fund bill.
A former childcare worker has been charged with more than 1,600 child abuse offences against 91 young girls at a dozen early learning centres in Brisbane, Sydney and overseas over a 15-year period.
The Australian runner Peter Bol was today exonerated after recording an elevated level of synthetic erythropoietin. He has consistently maintained his innocence.
As always, we’ll be back here bright and early tomorrow. Have a lovely evening.
Updated
Penny Wong has been surprised with a cake by her colleagues to mark her 10 years as Labor leader in the Senate:
Thank you to my colleagues who surprised me with a cake to mark 10 years as Labor Senate leader.
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) August 1, 2023
It is an honour to lead our Senate team as we work to deliver a better future for all Australians. pic.twitter.com/mD3LZSoCIP
Take a moment to catch up on all of today’s biggest headlines, with the Afternoon Update from Mostafa Rachwani:
Australian of the Year begins Indigenous voice tour around Australia
The 2023 Australian of the Year ‘local hero’ and founder of Turbans 4 Australia will circumnavigate Australia to urge those from diverse ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds to support an Indigenous voice to parliament, according to AAP.
Amar Singh will spend two months completing the journey, which he officially launched in Sydney on Tuesday.
Singh said the voice is too big of an opportunity to miss out on and wants all Australians, regardless of their background, to get on board:
This is your country as well. You all need to do your bit and step forward.
Singh said he wants to put the politics to one side and ask how the voice can make life better for everyone as a country.
He will be joined for the first leg of the journey by Sydney’s first Indigenous councillor, Yvonne Weldon, who will act as co-driver.
Updated
International social media companies should operate under Australian law, Paterson says
More on the tabling of the report by the committee on foreign interference through social media:
Because WeChat didn’t participate in public hearings, senator James Paterson said social media companies should be required to establish a presence within Australia’s legal jurisdiction in order to operate here and be held accountable under Australian law.
The committee also recommended that companies who fail to meet the minimum transparency requirements should be subject to fines and, as a last resort, be banned.
It also called for the TikTok ban on government-issued devices to apply to government contractors and entities of national significance. Paterson said:
We must move beyond its whack-a-mole approach to assess and mitigate the next TikTok before it is widely deployed on government devices.
Updated
Australia’s ‘principal national security concern’ is foreign interference, committee finds
Senator James Paterson has tabled the report by the committee on foreign interference through social media.
The committee, of which Paterson is chair, has been examining the risk to Australia’s democracy by foreign interference through social media, including the spread of misinformation.
In his tabling statement Paterson said foreign interference is Australia’s “principal national security concern”.
He said the committee was particularly concerned by companies such as TikTok and WeChat, whose parent companies ByteDance and Tencent are headquartered in China.
Throughout the inquiry, companies headquartered in authoritarian countries were consistently reluctant to cooperate with Australian parliamentary processes.
TikTok was hesitant to provide witnesses sought by the committee, and was evasive in their answers when they finally did agree to appear.
WeChat showed contempt for the parliament by refusing to appear at all, and through the disingenuous answers it provided to questions in writing.
Updated
Record warm July for Tasmania
Tasmania had its hottest July on a record going back to 1910 with mean temperatures 2C above average, according to new data from the Bureau of Meteorology.
For the country as a whole, July was the ninth-warmest on record.
New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia all saw Julys in their top ten for average temperatures.
Tasmania also saw its hottest July for maximum temperatures and minimum temperatures.
Those overnight minimum temperatures in Tasmania were 2.6C above the long-term average calculated between 1961 to 1990, beating the previous record set in 1930 by 0.44C.
Updated
Liberal senator Anne Ruston is asked whether former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison should resign following the release of the robodebt royal commission report.
Ruston said it is up to Morrison to decide “his own future”, as well as the Cook electorate.
This is a matter for Scott Morrison, but we also have to remember [he] was the prime minister of this country for a number of years and I think it is a decision that should be left to him to make, and of course the members of the electorate of Cook on the next election should he choose to run again.
Updated
Coalition’s support of petroleum tax depends on seeing legislation, Ruston says
Liberal senator Anne Ruston is asked whether the Coalition will support the petroleum resource rent tax increase as outlined in the budget.
Speaking to the ABC she said it would be “foolish” for anyone from the Coalition to say they support something the government has “purported” to be bringing forward:
Unfortunately with a lot of the things we have seen they’ve said one thing and when the legislation turned up, it hasn’t looked exactly like what they said.
We would be reserving any comments around the legislation until we’ve seen it.
Updated
Labor to meet Greens this week over housing bill, Hanson-Young confirms
Sarah Hanson-Young confirmed the Greens will have a meeting with the government this week over the Housing Australia Future fund.
She told the ABC:
There will be a meeting with the government this week, so I look forward to hearing the results of that.
Hanson-Young was asked if this meeting will be a potential circuit breaker or more of a conversation:
I am always hopeful when government puts up their hand and says, come and have a meeting and let’s talk about things. It is always better to be talking.
She labelled prime minister Anthony Albanese’s “threats” of a double dissolution as “a distraction”.
Updated
Hanson-Young on petroleum resource rent tax
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young was also asked about the petroleum resource rent tax.
As my colleague Paul Karp reported, there is renewed interest in the Coalition’s position on the petroleum resource rent tax after the Greens and crossbench called on Labor to toughen their changes to raise more revenue.
Asked about the tax, Hanson-Young said “we are not going to pass this bill unless it is improved”:
The ball is in the government’s court. Come and talk to us, let’s talk about how we can get more money in the budget to pay for things that people need [during] a cost-of-living crisis, and look after the environment at the same time.
Updated
Hanson-Young says anyone ‘declaring victory’ over reef has ‘rocks in their heads’
Greens environment spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young, is also speaking on the ABC about the Great Barrier Reef.
She said that anyone “declaring success or victory” over the reef has “got rocks in their heads”:
The science is clear that our reef is in danger, that it is at risk because of global warming or global boiling as the UN has now described the era that we are in.
Hanson-Young said Australia’s global contribution to the climate crisis is often overlooked because we’re “one of the largest exporters of fossil fuels”.
While it may not be burnt here in Australia, it is being burnt overseas and we’re not just destroying our own reef, we are destroying at the reefs around the world.
Updated
Unesco’s reef decision important timing before World Heritage meeting, Labor senator says
North Queensland Labor senator Nita Green just spoke to the ABC about Unesco’s latest draft decision on the Great Barrier Reef, that it isn’t ‘in danger’ but needs more action.
Green said this is an important decision leading into the World Heritage Committee meeting in September:
Hopefully we will get that time to show that the measures that we have put in place will have an impact on the reef’s resilience to climate change.
Green is asked whether there are other nations out there that use Unesco to “pull Australia down a notch” on the reef:
I think most of the interactions with those nations or member of the World Heritage Committee happen after a draft decision … What happens at the World Heritage Committee meeting later in the year, in terms of other states and their positions, is something we will manage as well.
… I am sure that we will have a successful result at the [committee] meeting in September.
Updated
Angus Taylor: no ‘blank cheque’ on PRRT
There is renewed interest in the Coalition’s position on the petroleum resource rent tax after the Greens and crossbench called on Labor to toughen their changes to raise more revenue.
The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, refused to commit to support the government legislation, warning the opposition is “not going to sign a blank cheque”.
The Coalition hasn’t seen the bill yet, citing that as the reason for not stating its position - despite the fact the gas industry itself is urging bipartisanship.
Taylor told reporters in Canberra that resource rent taxes are “complex” and “detail matters”.
A few months ago Peter Dutton said the Coalition wanted to see less regulation and shorter approval times for new projects, but Taylor wouldn’t say if this will be a condition for support.
Updated
Chalmers expects economy to still ‘grow quite slowly’
Appearing on the ABC, treasurer Jim Chalmers is asked whether the risk of a recession has dissipated:
I think the Reserve Bank still expect the economy to continue to grow but for it to grow quite slowly.
Furthering his point, Chalmers said he expects the combination of global economic uncertainty, combined high interest rates and price pressures to “quite significantly” slow the economy, “but we still expect it to grow”.
Updated
NSW premier Chris Minns has announced the Sydney Opera House will be lit green and gold next Monday to cheer on the Matildas:
We’re lighting up the Opera House green and gold next Monday to cheer on the mighty Matildas!
— Chris Minns (@ChrisMinnsMP) August 1, 2023
Middle Arm: Ryan says NT chief minister ‘should spend more time caring about climate change’
Teal Independent Monique Ryan has responded to comments made by the Northern Territory chief minister, Natasha Fyles, during a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra today.
During her speech, Fyles called out the teal’s for their criticism of the Middle Arm initiative, saying they can “spread their nonsense about it all they want” but it will take “more than a couple of tweets” for her to back down.
In a statement, Ryan said the “personal name-calling” does a “disservice to the children and grandchildren of the NT”:
[Their] health is at risk due to the Middle Arm project and prospect of fracking in the Beetaloo Basin.
In her statement Ryan accused Fyles of “repeatedly” refusing to meet with dozens of local paediatricians over concerns from the project.
We just had the hottest July on record. We are amid a one-in-seven-million year sea ice event. The planet is boiling. The NT chief minister should spend more time caring about climate change, and less time sledging highly-respected Darwin doctors.
Updated
Queensland’s treasurer defends $2.5m government advertising campaign promoting coal royalties
The Queensland government will spend $2.5m on an advertising campaign promoting its coal royalties on billboards, television and in shopping centre displays.
The state’s acting treasurer, Maryanne Kelly, confirmed in estimates on Tuesday the government spent $1m on the first stage of the campaign last year. She said another $1.5m was budgeted for the second stage of the campaign, which launched on June 21.
The treasurer, Cameron Dick, defended the government’s spending, saying it was “very important” for Queenslanders to understand the money raised by the royalties was being invested back into hospitals and healthcare.
But those figures pale in comparison to the $40m media campaign by the Queensland Resources Council opposing the royalties.
Updated
Have interest rates peaked? It’s not out of the question
With the RBA pausing for a second month, the central bank has given itself a bit more time to hit its target range (assuming the new monetary policy board that’s coming gives that stance a tick).
David Bassanese, chief economist of Betashares, reckons that “barring an upward inflation surprise, there’s a good chance we’ve seen the last rate increase this cycle”.
He’s not quite backing in as a certainty, though, which is probably sensible given the vagaries of economics. Bassanese’s “base case” is that there will be “sufficient resilience in consumer spending in the coming months” to prompt one final rate hike in November.
Brendan Rynne, KPMG’s chief economist, also reckons there might be one more rate rise in the pipe:
Services inflation remains high, and has not shown signs of easing.
The jobs market has also “shaken off” recent rate rises, and then there’s the rebound in house prices that the RBA (and most everyone else) hadn’t foreseen.
Rynne said:
If the housing market’s strength persists, it is expected to support household consumption and weaken the effects of monetary policy.
And as noted in our running story, we don’t have the June quarter wage price index number to add to the prognostication brew:
Updated
‘Australia is so proud’: Albanese congratulates the Matildas
Closing out question time in federal parliament, prime minister Anthony Albanese takes a moment to congratulate the Matildas on their 4-0 win against Canada in the World Cup match last night.
I congratulate the Matildas on what was an extraordinary result against the Olympic champions, Canada.
I had had some friendly banter with my friend Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, and it was a remarkable result there in front of a packed gaming park in Melbourne.
… Australia is so proud of the Matildas. The good thing that is occurring here is that it isn’t just a sporting event, it is an inspiration, particularly for young girls and young women and we look forward to the next match.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton also shares his congratulations:
[It was a] remarkable sporting event with individual contributions but an enormous amount of work done behind the scenes, the coaching staff … performing at an exceptional level and providing an inspiration to a generation of young girls who could never have envisaged such heroes and such influence on their lives.
Updated
Australia remains on ‘El Niño alert’
The Bureau of Meteorology says an El Niño climate pattern has still not formed in the Pacific, keeping the country on “El Niño alert”.
In an update, the bureau says while sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific are well above thresholds for an El Niño, the atmosphere has not yet responded to that heat.
In an El Niño, typically the trade winds blowing from east to west weaken or reverse, but this is yet to happen.
The bureau said, “wind, cloud and broad-scale pressure patterns mostly continue to reflect neutral ENSO conditions,” referring to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation that swings from La Niña to neutral and to El Niño. The bureau said:
This means the Pacific Ocean and atmosphere have yet to become fully coupled, as occurs during El Niño events. El Niño typically suppresses winter–spring rainfall in eastern Australia.
Under an El Niño alert, the bureau says there is a 70% chance of the pattern eventually taking hold.
Both the World Meteorological Organization and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have already said an El Niño is in place, but they have different threshold’s than the bureau.
Updated
Whish-Wilson asks Wong how reef is being protected with government-approved coal mines
By Sarah Basford Canales
Moving over to the Senate question time but staying with the Great Barrier Reef:
Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson earlier asks how the federal government is protecting the Great Barrier Reef while approving new coal mines.
The Greens senator quizzes Senator Penny Wong why three new coal mines been approved across a 53-day period.
Senator Wong responds:
The Unesco draft decision cites significant progress are [sic] being made by the Albanese Labor government, particularly in relation to our policy on climate change, as well as measures in relation to water quality and sustainable fishing and this is all about putting the reef on a stronger and more sustainable path.
I’d note that there was public reporting of a source close to Unesco describing how … the Australian government’s approach, has changed completely and the difference in the new government and the old one is like night and day.
Senator Whish-Wilson interjects on a point of relevance:
President, I did ask specifically how was the approval of three coal mines in 53 days taking urgent and sustained action on climate?
Senate president Sue Lines dismisses the interjection so Senator Wong continues:
What I was gonna say, of course, this decision does not mean the reef is in clear. And I’d make this point. If we collectively, humanity, doesn’t deliver on the goals of the Paris Agreement, every coral reef in the world is vulnerable. Every coral reef in the world is vulnerable. So what we are doing is working with industry ...
Senator Wong’s time finishes and the questions move on.
Updated
Unesco’s Great Barrier Reef listing change is due to positive government action, Plibersek says
Environment minister Tanya Plibersek has claimed that what’s changed between Unesco’s original position when the reef was deemed in danger and now, when it’s not deemed in danger, is the government.
Responding to a question on the reef in question time, she said:
[Unesco’s recommendation is] globally significant.
What’s changed is that there is a government that is committed to action on climate change.
You can read more about the matter here:
Updated
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor asks treasurer Jim Chalmers why he used “three-year-old data to claim that Australians are finding it easier to pay their mortgages”.
Responding, Chalmers claimed Taylor was “expecting a rate rise today because he’s coming in unprepared and had to read out yesterday’s question”. Wrapping up his answer, Chalmers said:
The inflation challenge in our economy has been present for some time, and that’s why rolling out billions of dollars in cost-of-living relief, that is the number one priority of this government, because we’ve got an inflation challenge. It’s the reason why we’ve got a bigger surplus taking the pressure off inflation …
Updated
Uncertainties remain but RBA saw enough progress on rates to be patient
The RBA has made it clear that while inflation remains too high it has got time to hold off inflicting more pain on borrowers.
In fact, it seems to be giving itself even more time. Governor Philip Lowe said (emphasis added by us):
The central forecast is for CPI inflation to continue to decline, to be around 3¼% by the end of 2024 and to be back within the 2–3% target range in late 2025.
Previously, the aim was to reach inflation Nirvana by mid-2025, so the board seems less hurried.
Lowe went on:
The Australian economy is experiencing a period of below-trend growth and this is expected to continue for a while.
Household consumption growth is weak, as is dwelling investment. The central forecast is for GDP growth of around 1.75% over 2024 and a little above 2% over the following year.
The board gave itself a sneak peak at the forecasts the rest of us get to see on Friday when the RBA releases its updated quarterly statement on monetary policy.
From the glimpses the RBA has given us today, it seems the growth forecasts haven’t changed from the May update. We don’t know yet what they think 2023 GDP will look like but it doesn’t seem like a recession (in terms of a couple of months of contractions are concerned) is expected by the bank.
Updated
NDIS minister Bill Shorten said that Australia as a nation “cannot move on” from the robodebt scheme until those who were in government “actually accept accountability and responsibility”.
…[It’s] inevitable that if they don’t learn the lessons of the past, then Australians can expect it again in the future.
[Scott Morrison], with his trademark blame shifting, just says this is a political lynching of himself and he just would like Labor to move on.
But how does the nation move on when the member for Cook says one thing, but the commission rejected as untrue Mr Morrison’s evidence?
Dutton’s comments on robodebt show he ‘and his party have learned nothing’, health minister says
Circling back to question time, the health minister, Mark Butler, is asked about the mental health implications of the robodebt scheme.
After outlining the “extensive, devastating and continuing” ill-effects of the scheme, Butler said he hoped “this might lead the member for Cook [Scott Morrison] to take some lessons … but he clearly hasn’t”.
Yesterday, he blamed the public servants, calling back to that familiar phrase from 2021, ‘That’s not my job’.
Butler spoke of the leader of the opposition Peter Dutton’s response to Morrison’s speech yesterday:
… It’s a triumph of hope over experience to expect the member for Cook to take any responsibility for his actions. But what does it say that the leader of the opposition last night chose to back the member for Cook’s delusional view of that saga, instead of … standing alongside [vulnerable Australians]?
The message it does [send] to all those Australians grappling with poverty, with homelessness, with unemployment, and with mental illness, is that the leader of the opposition and his party have learned nothing, and in their view, they did nothing wrong.
Updated
More interest rate rises may be needed to quell inflation: RBA
While leaving interest rates on hold for another month, the Reserve Bank hasn’t ruled out another increase if needed to rein-in inflation.
The RBA governor, Philip Lowe, said in the statement accompanying today’s decision:
Some further tightening of monetary policy may be required to ensure that inflation returns to target in a reasonable timeframe, but that will depend upon the data and the evolving assessment of risks in making [these] decisions.
The Australian dollar dived after the verdict, sinking more than a quarter of a US cent to about 66.7 US cents. A reduced risk of higher interest rates makes the dollar less attractive to hold.
Updated
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is speaking on the RBA’s decision while in parliament for question time.
Responding to their decision to leave rates unchanged for a second consecutive month, Chalmers said this will be “a big relief for Australians with a mortgage”:
This is a welcome reprieve for Australians who are already doing it tough.
Chalmers said Australian’s will remain under the pump even after inflation moderates and after today’s RBA decision.
We know inflation in our economy is coming off, but it is still too high.
Updated
RBA leaves rates unchanged for a second consecutive month
The Reserve Bank has taken a cautionary path, leaving its key interest rate unchanged at 4.1%, extending the reprieve for battling borrowers for another month.
The RBA board’s decision was anticipated by investors who largely expected an extension of the pause in rate rises. Economists, though, had been split, with a slight majority predicting a 25 basis point hike, which would have marked a 13th rate increase since the cycle began in May 2022.
More soon.
Updated
‘Nothing we do will ever be enough’: Plibersek responds to question on new approved coal and gas projects
Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown questioned the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, on the continued approval of coalmines and gas projects “in the middle of this climate crisis”.
In response, Plibersek spoke of previous government policies:
Under the previous government you had 22 separate climate and energy policies. They didn’t land a single one. What have we done since coming to government in little over a year? We have legislated a trajectory to net zero with a 43% emissions reduction target between now and then …
Plibersek continued, saying that nothing the government does “will ever be enough” for those opposite:
I have doubled the rate of approval of renewable energy projects since becoming environment minister.
… Can I say to those opposite, we know that nothing we do will ever be enough. Whether it’s in housing, renewable energy, whether it’s on protecting the poorest and most vulnerable Australians, but I am proud to be part of a government that is acting to deliver, not just talking about it.
Updated
PM slams Morrison’s ‘self-pity’ over robodebt report
Anthony Albanese was also asked about the robodebt royal commission’s final report during question time.
He said it exposed a “shocking abuse of trust”, and that “alarm bells were going off” because every member of parliament had people coming to their electorate office saying they had debt notices they didn’t actually owe:
Yesterday, the member for Cook suggested there was only one victim of robodebt. Him. So much self-pity, so little self-awareness …
The leader of the opposition … called the royal commission a witch-hunt. Nothing to say about multiple people hounded for money they did not owe, the fact that some of them were driven to their deaths. His only sympathy for Liberal MPs who created the scheme and [to] double down on it.
Updated
Housing data likely to nudge the RBA’s needle on rates
We’ll soon get the Reserve Bank’s interest rate decision (2.30pm AEST), with economists split on whether or not the central bank will hike or pause. (The lack of wage data for the June quarter – we don’t get that until 15 August – makes this correspondent think they will pause.)
While the board has been meeting in Sydney’s Martin Place today, the ABS has provided a few more statistical snippets that point if anything to more moderate weakness in the economy.
The value of new owner-occupier loan commitments – excluding refinancing – fell 2.8% in June to $15.9bn. New investor loan commitments, though, picked up 2.6% to $8.7bn (but remains a full 15% lower than a year ago).
First home buyers, meanwhile, were down 0.8% in the number of new loans for the month, and off more than 12% for the year. At 8239, new loan commitments for this group were just half the peak during Covid in January 2021.
Building approvals for June were also lower, down 7.7% for the month. This measure though can be very volatile – it jumped more than a fifth in May.
More concerning for the RBA – and renters everywhere – was the 0.7% monthly rise in July, according to CoreLogic data.
NAB said in a briefing note:
The gap between asking rents and the outstanding stock of rents is incredibly large at 21.3 percentage points which is likely to be very important for the CPI rental component for quite some quarters, given the lags involved.
We can expect the July inflation rate to perk up a bit, given the energy, insurance and other increases that kicked in at the start of the financial year. Those problems, though, will be for next month’s RBA meeting – Philip Lowe’s last as governor – to ponder.
Stay tuned, though, for this month’s looming verdict.
Updated
Morrison has ‘not a drop of mercy for all of the real victims of robodebt’: Bill Shorten
NDIS minister Bill Shorten continued speaking on the robodebt scheme and Scott Morrison’s response yesterday:
The member for Cook then said the royal commission was a quasi-legal process, a new Morrisonian doctrine about the law.
The royal commission was not quasi-legal, it is real and constituted by the law. 46 days of public hearings, over 100 witnesses under oath.
I can see the Member for Cook lip-syncing something …
The Member for Cook is a bottomless well of self-pity and not a drop of mercy for all of the real victims of robodebt.
Updated
‘Satire is truly dead’, says Shorten after Morrison’s complaint over robodebt report’s reversal of onus of proof
The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, has just given a fiery answer to a question about the “real victims” of the robodebt scheme, responding to the former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison’s speech in the chamber yesterday.
After outlining that the “real victims” of the scheme “were those who suffered trauma, anxiety, distress … [and] who took their own lives”, Shorten says:
One person who was not a real victim was the member for Cook. Yesterday the member for Cook claimed the adverse findings against him were disproportionate, wrong, unsubstantiated or contradictory. The purpose of that statement was to frame himself as the real victim of the robodebt royal commission.
The member for Cook said and I quote, ‘In making their finding, the commission sought to reverse the onus of proof to establish their claim.’ Satire is truly dead in this country when the member for Cook complains about the reversal of onus of proof on him but not the 434,000 who didn’t have the reverse onus.
Updated
Question time begins
Question time has just started in the federal parliament.
First up, the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, is again asking the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, about the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum, and whether this is about “voice, truth and treaty”.
Albanese says what is being put to the Australian people is a “very clear proposition”:
A very clear proposition of recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia’s constitution as our first peoples.
Dutton again asks Albanese about comments he has made in the past about treaty. Responding, Albanese asks the opposition to speak on what is actually included in the referendum:
I say this to those opposite. If you believe that there is something wrong with the question that Australians will actually vote for between October and December this year, then put that case. But you are incapable of doing so.
The no campaign continues to raise things that are not a part of the question that is before the Australian people.
Updated
Labor and Greens undecided on committee into Commonwealth Games cancellation
More on the Victorian opposition’s motion to establish a committee into the cancellation of the 2026 Commonwealth Games, via AAP:
The Victorian Greens, with four members in the upper house, were yet to finalise their position ahead of a partyroom meeting on Tuesday morning.
The Victorian Greens leader, Samantha Ratnam, said they were open to supporting the motion but wouldn’t rule out a deal with the government to shoot it down.
Former minister of the now defunct Commonwealth Games Legacy portfolio, Harriet Shing, refused to say if Labor would stand in the way of an inquiry by voting against it.
Shing said she did not want to cut across settlement negotiations with the Commonwealth Games Federation.
The premier, deputy premier and I have been very, very clear about the importance of making sure negotiations can occur without public commentary creating an impact.
Updated
Commonwealth Games inquiry set to hinge on crossbench support
The Victorian opposition is lobbying the upper house crossbench to back a motion to establish a committee into the cancellation of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Victorian parliament returned from a five-week break today, and the motion could be debated and put to a vote as early as Wednesday.
The premier, Daniel Andrews, last month announced Victoria would pull out of hosting the 2026 Games, citing a forecast rise in cost.
The opposition’s deputy upper house leader, Matt Bach, said crossbenchers had indicated support for an inquiry, but talks remain ongoing. He told reporters at state parliament:
My hope is that we’ll have good news to report on that front today.
We certainly need an inquiry, given the fact that this decision has led to a massive further financial burden for Victoria (and) it’s made us a laughing stock on the world stage.
– from AAP
Updated
WA Indigenous cultural heritage laws punish farmers and pastoralists for mining company’s wrongdoing: Littleproud
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, in his address raised concerns about Western Australia’s Indigenous cultural heritage laws, which were brought in following the destruction of the Juukan Gorge caves.
Littleproud told the meeting, according to the spokesperson:
Just because a mining company did something wrong, residential property owners, farmers and pastoralists are being punished and they will continue to pay.
Numerous Coalition MPs also brought up the WA cultural heritage laws in the meeting.
On to legislation, the Coalition will wave through a number of government bills, including reforms to combat foreign bribery, respiratory disease registries to fight silicosis, and one to ban display or sale of Nazi symbols. But as expected, they will vigorously oppose amendments to the communications legislation around misinformation and disinformation.
The partyroom spokesperson said the Coalition was “uncomfortable” with the exemptions given to government and the size of the penalties, describing the bill as “a really bad piece of legislation” with “a huge amount of overreach”. The Coalition has been agitating on this for some time, but the partyroom resolved to strongly oppose the bill.
The spokesperson said the Coalition recommended the government throw the exposure draft away and start again.
Updated
Coalition continues criticisms of Labor’s misinformation laws overhaul and of Indigenous voice
The Coalition has further hardened its opposition to the government’s proposed misinformation laws overhaul, calling it “a bad piece of legislation” and suggesting Labor “throw it away” to start over again.
The opposition is also signalling it may look to pursue the government over how treaty fits in with the Indigenous voice referendum.
The Coalition partyroom met in Canberra this morning, with the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, leading off with tributes to the four ADF personnel lost in a helicopter crash off Queensland, and former LNP MP Ewen Jones who died last month. Going to business, Dutton said the cost of living was the number one issue for Australians, and predicted “much more pain to come” in the form of energy price hikes, according to a party room spokesperson.
Dutton said his team had been prosecuting a “clear message” and praised what he saw as the unity in his partyroom. The opposition leader, moving on to the referendum, claimed prime minister Anthony Albanese had committed to the full Uluru statement from the heart (voice, truth, and treaty) 34 times – but claimed the voice would not be a guarantee of improving outcomes, and “was not in our country’s best interests”.
Critics of the referendum have recently raised concerns about the treaty element of the Uluru statement. Albanese recently told 2GB radio the referendum was “not about a treaty”. The discussion in the partyroom could see this discussion break out more widely from Coalition MPs.
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NSW Council for Civil Liberties says religious vilification bill allows organisations ‘to discriminate against others’
The NSW Council for Civil Liberties has published a statement opposing the religious vilification law in its current form, with debate on the bill due to begin in NSW parliament today.
The council is arguing that the bill should “just get on with it and address all discrimination now” or be withdrawn and wait for the Law Reform Commission review into the Act to be completed, so all necessary changes can be made at once.
The Council also said it is not opposed to reforms protecting people from vilification for their religious expression, however, the bill “does more than this and fails to address other necessary issues, especially aspects of discrimination against LGBTQI+ people”.
The president, Josh Pallas, said:
It’s not fair that religious belief gains more protections when religious organisations will still be exempt from parts of the Act and be allowed to discriminate against others. We want an Anti-Discrimination Act that does not discriminate.
To move on one part, without moving on other glaring deficiencies sends a bad message to the community about whose rights and interests are privileged over others.
...We urge the opposition and the crossbench to support the proposed amendments [from the NSW Greens] to this Bill so that it better articulates its scope.
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Conversation on ‘needs-based funding’ needed for NT, says Fyles
Fyles said the idea that the Northern Territory gets more federal funding than it is entitled to is “just completely wrong”, and that funding distribution doesn’t account for the geographic and demographic factors the territory grapples with:
There needs to be a new conversation on what ‘needs-based funding’ really means.
Fyles said she is proud of the NT’s “local decision-making” policy, giving communities the ability to decide what services they need. She provides this example of the policy in action:
… I’m sure you’re all familiar with the part of the Qantas booking website that invites you purchase a carbon offset for your flight.
What you might not know is where those offsets are created.
One of the places is the outstation community of Kabulwarnamyo in west Arnhem Land. There, traditional owners use an ancient technique called ‘cool burning’ to manage both carbon and weeds in their incredible environment.
They are now recognised as world-class in land management, and they are investing those gains back into their community.
Out of the vision of their elders, who spent years battling the federal bureaucracy, they have created their own community schools to give their kids on-country education, in combination with western education.
This is a community with a sustainable economy, with jobs on country, with kids learning and growing.
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Fyles takes aim at critics of Middle Arm development
Fyles says the Middle Arm project is the masterplan for growth in the Northern Territory.
It has been developed to attract industries the territory wants to tap into including solar, hydrogen, minerals processing, advanced manufacturing, and carbon capture and storage.
We’ve got agreements with five proponents, representing billions of dollars of investment, and thousands of jobs, to progress their work at Middle Arm over the next 12 months.
She said a part of this is the Sun Cable project, slated to be “the world’s biggest solar farm”. Fyles took aim at criticism of the project:
And the teals and the trolls can spread their nonsense about it all they want … But they should know, it’s going to take a lot more than a couple of tweets for us to back down.
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NT’s critical minerals ‘key to net zero transition’: chief minister
Natasha Fyles touted the Northern Territory’s ability to mine critical minerals as an investment opportunity.
We hold 15 of the world’s critical minerals … When you see what’s already happening in the territory, just at the beginning of this minerals revolution, it’s easy to understand why we’re top of the table.
She said Core Lithium started production at its mine outside Darwin last year and has started exporting this year.
It’s the territory’s first lithium mine, and we don’t intend for it to be the last.
In fact, we’ve already approved the second.
Fyles argued that critical minerals are “key to the net zero transition at home and abroad”.
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NT chief minister champions territory’s role in defence strategy
Natasha Fyles has said she wants to highlight the opportunities the Northern Territory provides for Australia, as well as the challenges it is facing, because “the picture people down south have of us is incomplete, ill-informed, or just plain ignorant”.
She said the NT and Darwin in particular has a key role to play when it comes to the Defence Strategic Review outcomes for the ADF, and that more personnel and platforms would be heading north:
The ADF’s strategic imperatives have one thing in common. All of them relate directly to Northern Australia. And more directly, to Darwin.
You can’t have any of these outcomes without involving the Northern Territory.
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Natasha Fyles, chief minister of the Northern Territory, is speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra today.
She has just announced an initiative for the Territory called ‘Facing North’:
A few days on the Capital Hill calendar for us to bang our drum, with government, investors, employers, community and cultural leaders, to talk about the future we’re building for the Territory.
We do it because we know that for many East Coast-ers, the Territory is still something of a stereotype.
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Privacy commissioner could be asked to hand over complaint against Optus over data breach
The privacy commissioner might be required to hand over a complaint made 10 months ago about Optus’s hack as the federal court expressed frustration that the office had taken so long to investigate the claim.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner announced in October last year it would investigate Optus over its data handling practices after 10m customer records were obtained in a hack on the telecommunications company.
The investigation is running at the same time as a class action lawsuit from Slater and Gordon against Optus. But the investigation might have some crossover with the case, and Optus had sought several times from the OAIC the complaint it had received that led to the investigation. The OAIC had refused, the court heard, as it was still in the process of assessing the validity of the complaint.
Justice Jonathan Beach expressed frustration at the delay caused by the OAIC in taking 10 months so far in the investigation with no outcome, and has ordered the OAIC to be represented at the next case management hearing for the case in mid-September, indicating that the OAIC might be required to produce the complaint for Optus.
Beach also indicated that a Deloitte report prepared for Optus about the hack – which has never been made public – might be included in the discovery process for the case, however it is likely that Optus will seek to keep the report under wraps.
A similar class action against Medibank is also running at the same time.
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Thanks to Rafqa for taking us through the morning! I’ll be with you for the remainder of the day.
That is all from me this morning. I shall leave you in the hands of Emily Wind, who will take the blog into the evening.
Referendum date to be announced ‘in weeks to come’: Labor spokesperson
Staying in the Labor partyroom: on the upcoming referendum, Albanese said “some of the most vulnerable Australians need this to succeed”. The PM is still not confirming the date of the referendum, but flagged he would make an announcement on that “in weeks to come”, according to the party spokesperson.
“The more the no case talks about things irrelevant to the referendum, the more they expose the weakness of their own case. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Albanese claimed.
Later in the meeting, one caucus member asked the foreign minister, Penny Wong, about Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, taking the country “down a less democratic path”, referring to courts and settlements. Wong responded that there were some “alarming trends”, including the acceleration of settlement activity, and that Australia had put that view to the Israeli government.
Chris Knaus reported earlier that Greens senator David Shoebridge’s bill to strip entitlements from former governors-general in the case of serious misconduct was not supported by a parliamentary inquiry – the Labor caucus resolved to formally oppose that bill in the parliament. Labor will leave a bill from Matt Canavan and Alex Antic, the Human Rights (Children Born Alive Protection) bill, to a conscience vote – but noted that an inquiry recommended it not be supported.
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Albanese accuses Morrison of playing 'the victim' in robodebt saga
Anthony Albanese has accused Scott Morrison of behaving “as though he was the victim” of the robodebt saga, criticising the former prime minister’s speech to parliament yesterday where he defended himself against the royal commission findings – calling the Liberal party “the nasty party”.
Labor’s partyroom met in Canberra this morning, where PM Albanese told his caucus room that the government was “most proud” of creating new jobs. He noted that inflation was coming under control, said the government’s budget measures were having an impact, and reflected after his meeting with Nato leaders in Lithuania that Australia was in a relatively strong position on the world stage.
A partyroom spokesperson said Albanese spoke again of the “tragic loss” of four defence personnel in the Taipan helicopter crash, saying it was a tragedy for their families and the broader defence force. The PM also spoke of the Ausmin meetings, which he described as very important, and said Australia’s relationship with partners like the US was strong.
Continuing a theme from his press conference this morning, Albanese talked up the upcoming Labor national conference in Brisbane, and claimed that at the Coalition’s national conference, “you find out about their deliberations on Sky News late at night”.
Moving on to the robodebt royal commission, the partyroom spokesperson said Albanese was heavily critical of Morrison’s speech yesterday – where he claimed Labor was pursuing a campaign of “political lynching” against him.
Albanese claimed Morrison’s speech “went to the whole character of the former Coalition government”, and alleged that his predecessor “behaved as though he was the victim”.
“The modern Liberal party is prepared to be the nasty party,” Albanese claimed.
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Three men charged in NSW over violent gun crime and gang activity
Three men have been charged as part of proactive policing efforts undertaken through the task force last week set up to investigate violent gun crime and gang activity across New South Wales.
Over the weekend, detectives from Taskforce Magnus executed six firearm prohibition order checks and began proactive patrols.
The taskforce commander, Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Weinstein, said the charges were “just the tip of the iceberg”:
Over the coming days, weeks, and months ahead, anyone who associates with organised criminals can expect a knock on the door and to be dealt with accordingly if they’re found to be doing the wrong thing.
We have a way to go under the new task force, but as we begin our first week working together under the same roof as one operation, I am confident we can inflict serious damage on the criminal networks fuelling gun violence across our city.
The three men were charged with various offences including possession of prohibited drugs, breaching bail and driving while disqualified.
You can read more here:
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Dutton to receive AFP briefing on 2018 bribery investigation related to home affairs
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has received approval from the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, to meet with the AFP to receive a briefing about its claim in July 2018 they told him in his capacity as home affairs minister that the AFP was investigating Mozammil Gulamabbas Bhojani and Radiance International for foreign bribery.
Dutton said on Monday he did not recall the briefing, and had no record of it, but it is “inconsequential” because as minister he had no role in procurement.
Dutton told ABC 7:30:
I’ve asked to meet with the AFP commissioner to get further detail, that has to go through the minister’s office and she hasn’t cleared that meeting yet, but I’m happy to have that discussion with the AFP to get more detail.
The reference to “she” appears to be an error assuming that Clare O’Neil, the minister for home affairs, is responsible for the AFP. In fact, Labor changed responsibility for that to the attorney general, something which Dutton denounced them for at the time.
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Tertiary education body calls for visa changes to stop international students abandoning studies
The peak body representing independent tertiary providers is calling for urgent changes to Australia’s visa system to encourage international students to complete their studies instead of gaming the system.
Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia chief executive, Troy Williams, said international students were opting out of completing their studies but choosing to stay and work in Australia by transferring to a Subclass 408 visa.
The 408 visa was widely used during the pandemic for temporary visa holders that were about to have their visas expire, allowing them to stay in Australia for an additional year if they couldn’t go home due to travel restrictions and had no other visa options.
Williams said its eligibility had been amended in its scope, with “minimal consultation” by the Department of Home Affairs, leading to an increasing number of students using it as a loophole to move to paid work.
Today, students are able to quickly transfer to a Subclass 408 visa from their student visa and be permitted to stay in Australia to undertake work. When they do this, they often abandon their studies while still owing money to their education provider and with no intention of paying.
Williams has provided formal advice to the immigration minister to only allow international students to access the visa upon completing their studies and to prevent students from applying for a subsequent or new visa once moving on to the 408.
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Independents urge Labor to do more on asylum seekers and offshore detention
Independent MPs have held a press conference urging Labor to do more to end indefinite detention and give greater work and safety net rights to refugees and asylum seekers in Australia.
They also commented on the rather limited terms of the review by Dennis Richardson of the home affairs department’s management of contracts for offshore processing.
The home affairs minister, Claire O’Neil, announced the review on Monday following revelations the department granted contracts to a company linked to the subject of a bribery investigation.
MP Kylea Tink said:
I am not shy in calling out [the terms of] the review as wholly and solely inadequate. And in fact I think it’s quite politically expedient. If this government were truly interested in getting to the bottom of what is truly going on in terms of our treatment of asylum seekers they’d be looking at a far broader review, and they would be commissioning a royal commission.
Peter Dutton has said he has no memory of receiving a briefing from the AFP and reasons that it is “inconsequential” whether he was told about an AFP investigation into Mozammil Gulamabbas Bhojani and Radiance International because he had no role in procurement.
Asked about that, Allegra Spender said:
I might just say that I don’t think that passes the pub test. If you thought of a business who were saying they’ve given contracts to people [involved in] bribes and they got a briefing and they said it was inconsequential?
Spender said that wouldn’t meet “the expectations of the Australian people” in either a commercial governmental setting.
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Greens to continue negotiations with Labor over housing bill
The Greens are expecting to meet with the Albanese government this week to continue negotiations over the stalled $5bn housing Australia future fund bill.
The bill is set to again be introduced into the lower house this week after it failed to pass the Senate in June.
The Greens’ housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, sent a letter last week saying the party would not be pushed into supporting the bill as it stands without amendments to include rental relief.
The PM, Anthony Albanese, has previously not ruled out sending Australians to the polls early for a double dissolution election if it is unable to secure the bill’s passage. The Greens have said they’re willing to be cooperative but have urged the government to come to the table on the issues.
The minor party’s support is essential for the housing fund bill to pass after the Coalition ruled out its support.
– Sarah Basford Canales
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Police have identified all Australian children involved in child abuse offences: AFP
More on the former childcare worker charged with 1,623 child abuse offences.
The AFP believes the man recorded all his alleged offending. The AFP is also highly-confident that all 87 Australian children who were recorded in the alleged child abuse material have been identified.
The AFP is working with international authorities to help identify four children recorded in alleged child abuse material created overseas.
The case is scheduled for a mention in Brisbane magistrates court on 21 August, 2023.
The AFP’s northern assistant commissioner, Justine Gough, said:
There is not much solace I can give parents and children who have been identified under Operation Tenterfield, but I can tell you that we never gave up, and we never will when it comes to protecting children.
This is a distressing time for families, carers and the community broadly.
We know this type of news can retraumatise survivors of sexual abuse, and, please, I urge those survivors to seek support, or talk to a trusted network, if today’s news has caused distress.
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14.children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
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Former childcare worker charged with 1,623 child abuses offences
A former childcare worker has been charged with 1,623 child abuse offences against 91 children – including 136 counts of rape and 110 counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10 – in Brisbane, Sydney and overseas between 2007 and 2022, according to an Australian Federal Police statement.
The Gold Coast man, 45, was initially arrested and charged in August 2022 with two counts of making child exploitation material and one count of using a carriage service for child pornography material.
The AFP launched Operation Tenterfield immediately after arresting the man last year.
Now they are alleging further self-produced child abuse material was identified on electronic devices allegedly owned by the man.
The AFP alleges the man recorded his offending on phones and cameras while working in 10 childcare centres in Brisbane, an overseas location and one centre in Sydney.
All the children allegedly offended against were pre-pubescent girls.
• In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
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Inquiry recommends against introducing laws to strip former governor generals of entitlements in cases of serious misconduct
A government-chaired inquiry has recommended against introducing laws to strip former governors general of their taxpayer-funded entitlements in cases of serious misconduct.
Greens senator David Shoebridge introduced a bill earlier this year that would have allowed the government to remove a governor general’s lucrative yearly allowance and office entitlements if they were found to have engaged in serious misconduct.
The bill followed findings made against the former governor general Peter Hollingworth by an Anglican internal process, which found he failed to remove paedophiles from the church’s ranks while an Anglican archbishop in Brisbane in the 1990s. Survivors said Hollingworth should be stripped of his $357,000-a-year pension and lucrative taxpayer-funded entitlements following the serious misconduct findings.
An inquiry into Shoebridge’s bill recommended it not be supported, saying the legislation would deny individuals procedural fairness and may pose constitutional problems.
The bill does not provide a satisfactory mechanism for testing the allegations of misconduct levelled against a former Governor-General. Finally, the bill may be unconstitutional, because it is a matter for the courts to determine whether someone is guilty of something, not the legislature.
In a dissenting report, Shoebridge wrote that it was “hard to explain the refusal of the Albanese government, and this committee, to seriously grapple with the fundamental lack of accountability for governors general”.
No public office should be without accountability and no public payment should be made on a ‘no strings attached’ basis. For too long the position of Governor General, and the payments to past Governors General, have failed these basic tests. This Bill is a serious attempt to remedy this and provide much needed public accountability.
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Senate releases today’s agenda
The Senate will meet at midday. On the debate agenda is social services, jobs and services, animal experts, aged care and student loans.
The #Senate meets at midday today. You can find our agenda on ParlWork (at the "order of business" link) https://t.co/W0mvG4VhNr pic.twitter.com/hqyFVmbbXm
— Australian Senate (@AuSenate) August 1, 2023
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Paid family and domestic violence leave now available for small business employees
Paid family and domestic violence leave is now available for small business employees – including casuals.
“No one should have to choose between work and their safety,” the minister for families and social services, Amanda Rishworth, says.
From today, paid family and domestic violence leave will be available for small business employees - including casuals.
— Amanda Rishworth MP (@AmandaRishworth) August 1, 2023
No one should have to choose between work and their safety. pic.twitter.com/dgOmqrAKb0
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Chalmers: not possible to spend from previous year’s budget surplus
The federeal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, was asked about why last financial year’s $20bn surplus won’t be put toward housing for “Australians living rough” on ABC RN this morning. He explained that spending out of last year’s surplus is “not possible,” and that the extra billions are “now banked”:
The surplus for last year was last year – it’s no more possible to spend more out of last year’s surplus than it is to spend out of the 2007 surplus.
The surplus for last year … is an important part of the fight against inflation but it hasn’t come at the cost or the expense of helping people with cost of living – we’ve been able to do both of those things and we’ve been able to commit $2bn to build more social housing.
It’s not possible now, in the following financial year, to spend down from the previous year’s surplus, and that gets lost too frequently in this conversation.
People say all the time, what are we going to do with that $20bn – that $20bn is now banked. It is paying down some of the trillion dollars of debt that we inherited from the Liberal party.
The current year’s budget is in deficit and there are deficits in the following years. The pressures on the budget are intensifying rather than easing despite the really good progress that we’ve made so far on budget repair.
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NZ PM Chris Hipkins pauses before backing the Matildas in Women’s World Cup
New Zealand’s prime minister, Chris Hipkins, is reluctantly throwing his support behind Australia’s Matildas after their World Cup win over Canada last night, AAP reports.
The two countries have put rivalries aside to co-host the Fifa Women’s World Cup this month, winning the bid with a motto of “As One”.
While New Zealand were bundled out Sunday night, Australia progressed in stunning fashion on Monday after a 4-0 defeat of Olympic champions Canada.
Hipkins was asked today whether it was time for Kiwis to back the co-hosts Australia, and offered a long pause before agreeing.
“Go the Matildas,” he said.
“I’m going to get text messages from Albo about that.”
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PM insists Australian position to US over Assange prosecution remains unchanged
At his press conference to discuss the Great Barrier Reef, the prime minister Anthony Albanese was asked about US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s comments about Julian Assange insisting that the WikiLeaks founder is alleged to have “risked very serious harm to our national security”.
Asked if this was a sign the US won’t budge, Albanese told reporters in Canberra:
No, it’s a sign that what people have said in private they’ve been prepared to also say publicly. I’ve put the same position as leader of the opposition as I have as prime minister to the American administration. This has gone on for too long. Enough is enough.
What secretary Blinken did was just state [views] consistent with what the US position has been. We remain very firm in our view and representations to the American government, and will continue to do so.
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Sydney Opera House to light up sails at next Matildas game: premier
The sails of the Sydney Opera House will be lit up to celebrate the Matildas during their next World Cup match, the premier, Chris Minns, has promised.
The Matildas will play a yet-to-be-determined team next Monday after having their finals hopes restored with a triumphant 4-0 win last night.
Minns said he hadn’t wanted to “jinx” the Australian side previously, but he now felt confident to light up the building following the team’s “comprehensive demolishing” of Canada.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Minns said:
I think the whole country has been lifted this morning by their heroics.
Just to get that straight, the Matildas are playing in Sydney next Monday, of course we will light up the Opera House.
It’d be fantastic to get behind this amazing national team. We didn’t want to jinx it before this final group game, but the outcome was never in doubt.
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UNSW and Monash University team up for 360info newswire
UNSW and Monash University have partnered to develop a newswire headed by the founder of the Conversation.
360info, an independent resource, will offer research driven content to publishers, broadcasters, schools and outlets, drawing on the “world’s greatest challenges”.
Since its launch in 2021, 360info has partnered with around 1,000 media outlets across Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Its model employs journalists and news editors who collaborate with researchers at global universities.
UNSW’s vice-chancellor, Prof Attila Brungs, said the project would elevate the voices of the university’s academics and its research.
We welcome the 360info initiative to deliver accurate and trusted information at a time when media diversity matters more than ever. This project will prove to be a valuable resource providing reliable information for newsrooms.
The project is led by Andrew Jaspan, founder of the Conversation and former editor of the Age and the Sunday Age.
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Beware drinking and riding, Victorian police warn
Rethink drinking and riding (that’s right, not driving), Victoria police are warning.
A 32-year-old man lost his driver’s licence for being caught over the limit riding a trial-operated e-scooter.
He was intercepted by the state highway patrol at the intersection of Lonsdale Street and Exhibition Street in Melbourne’s CBD, about 5.45pm last Friday.
The rider allegedly returned a breath alcohol reading of 0.133 – almost three times the legal limit.
The man’s driver’s licence was immediately disqualified for 13 months, and he was fined $817. He was also fined for not wearing a helmet – another $240.
The penalties for e-scooter riders are the same as if they were in charge of a car.
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NSW high schoolers to learn about ‘catastrophic’ nature of colonisation
High school students across New South Wales would be taught about Aboriginal people’s experience of colonisation under a proposed change to the state’s history syllabus.
A draft of the new guide for the NSW Education Standards Authority has been released for public consultation.
The authority’s chief executive, Paul Martin, said the “catastrophic” nature of colonisation needed to be included to present a balanced understanding to students.
He told the ABC:
It would be disrespectful in 2023 have a history of Australia that didn’t include the dispossession of culture and land of Aboriginal people. That’s included in there. It’s not the only thing that’s included but if we’re being accurate about our history, we need to include those elements that are about telling the truth.
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Transport delays predicted as NSW government to convert T3 Bankstown line to carry metro trains
Tens of thousands of Sydney commuters will face travel delays for at least 12 months when they have to catch replacement buses as the New South Wales government forges ahead with the Metro City and Southwest project.
The government has confirmed it will proceed with the conversion of the T3 line to Bankstown into a line that can carry the new driverless metro trains.
The project is expected to be completed by late 2025 and cost more than $20bn, with the government on Tuesday saying it would pull an additional $1.1bn to fund the conversion from the existing transport budget.
The transport minister, Jo Haylen, said the project will be completed in two stages; with the eastern section of the line between Central and Sydenham to be completed around October next year before the conversion of the western part of the line out to Bankstown is built over the following 12 months.
Haylen said:
We don’t want to sugarcoat this – it is going to be disruptive for passengers along the Sydenham to Bankstown line for about 12 months.
Those communities have been dealing with this disruption for several years now. They want to see the service delivered.
The decision comes after the government received the interim report from an independent review it has commissioned into Sydney’s metro projects including Metro West.
The premier, Chris Minns, on Tuesday again refused to rule out cancelling or confirming Metro West would go ahead, saying the government was yet to make a decision and repeating his assertion the cost of the project had blown out significantly.
Minns said:
We have to be responsible. I’d urge everybody, don’t listen to the crowd that just tell you the to sign the cheques, close your eyes and don’t worry about the cost.
Someone has to pay for it.
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Ahead of the RBA rates decision to come today (that will either bring a 13th rate hike, or extend the pause), the federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says on ABC RN:
I put it this way, the rate rises which are already in the system have made life harder for people.
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Unlucky 13th RBA rate hike or an extended pause?
The first Tuesday of every month (save January) means another nervous wait for borrowers as we await the Reserve Bank‘s ritual rates decision, not by a puff of smoke but a 2.30pm (Aest) media release.
The reality is nobody knows what they will do - but doesn’t stop the speculation. Here’s ours in case you’re wondering:
Part of the trick is to guess what the RBA will do - which is not quite the same as what the central bank should do.
George Tharenou, the chief economist at UBS, has the best track record of RBA picking, having correctly forecast the last 12 decisions in a row. He’s predicting a 13th rate rise in the RBA’s current cycle with a 25 basis point increase in the cash rate to 4.35%. Will it be an unlucky 13th pick by Tharenou?
(There’s also one economist who has called it wrong the last couple of times who is tipping a rate rise today.)
And then there’s the ANU-compiled shadow RBA board, which aims to focus on what the RBA should do. They suggest the bank will hold the cash rate at 4.1% for a second month in a row ... but only marginally. That outcome is what the markets are actually betting on, with somewhere between a 14% and 26% chance of a rate rise today.
Next year, the number of rates meetings will be reduced from 11 to eight - so the twitchiness on the first Tuesday will be modified a bit. And then it will be more likely to be “will the RBA cut or not?”
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Bill Shorten on robodebt: ‘the people who broke the law were the Coalition government’
The government services minister Bill Shorten has hit back at Scott Morrison for his defence of his role in the robodebt program.
Shorten told Sky News:
Mr Morrison’s version is we were all co-convenors. That wasn’t the case. The opposition didn’t know the government was making stuff up and didn’t have lawful authority. This bloke has more front than Myers – according to him it’s everyone’s fault but him. He blames his department, he says the real problems emerged in 2016/17 [when Morrison was no longer social services minister], he blames the opposition, he blames Acoss.
Shorten said that the “people who broke the law were the Coalition government”, and noted that Labor raised issues when constituents complained they had received incorrect debts.
On Monday Morrison told the House of Representatives that while he acknowledged the “regrettable unintended consequences” of the scheme, he “completely rejects” the adverse findings against him.
He said the commission’s conclusions were “disproportionate, wrong, unsubstantiated, and contradicted by clear evidence presented to the commission”.
Morrison said he was “constitutionally and legally entitled” to rely on advice and his duties were therefore “fully and properly discharged”.
“The Department of Social Services continued to maintain that the scheme was lawful and did not require any legislation until the provision of the solicitor general’s advice, in 2019, five years after the cabinets submission was first considered,” he said.
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Jim Chalmers on upcoming fixed-rate mortgage cliff: ‘the best thing is to engage with your bank as soon as possible’
Federal treasurer Jim Chalmers addresses the 150,000 households coming off fixed rate mortgages in the next three months, worried about hitting a mortgage cliff, on ABC RN this morning:
First of all I’ve spoken to the bank CEOs about this challenge and the advice they have for customers is if you think you will be in trouble because of changes in your loan, the best thing is to engage with your bank as soon as possible.
If there’s something the bank can do to make it a little easier, they’re prepared to have that conversation with customers.
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RFS predicts severe bushfire season to come
Firefighters are scrambling to catch up on bushfire preparations as NSW braces for a hot summer, AAP reports.
Greg Allan, a spokesperson for the state’s Rural Fire Service, said only about 24% of planned hazard reduction burns had been done for 2022/23 because of wet weather.
Now the service is predicting a severe bushfire season.
The No 1 factor for that not going ahead was the weather conditions, the rain, the flooding, that’s meant the crews weren’t able to get out and do that important work in communities.
The Bureau of Meteorology has declared an alert for an El Niño weather event, which increases the risk of drought, heatwaves and bushfires. A weather bureau update on the prospect of an El Niño is due today.
The state government last month pledged an extra $10m for 100 more RFS crew to speed up the “critical work” before summer. The RFS’s commissioner, Rob Rogers, said the return of dry, windy conditions meant teams were needed for hazard reduction burns at “every opportunity”:
There is plenty more to be done and this boost in mitigation personnel will enable even more vital work to be undertaken.
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NSW premier to move motion of condolence for missing helicopter crew
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, will move a motion of condolence for the crew missing after a helicopter crash in Queensland when the state’s parliament returns from winter break today.
In a joint statement, he and the veterans minister, David Harris, have expressed their sadness and gratitude for the men’s service. The statement read:
This is a tragedy. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the Australian Defence Force personnel on board. All were from the 6th Aviation Regiment based at Holsworthy army barracks in Sydney and valuable members of our community.
Our thoughts are also with those who served alongside these four young men – their friends and colleagues in uniform – and the broader defence community.
We will not forget their service and their sacrifice.
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World Anti-Doping Agency has ‘no reason to question validity’ of test that returned Peter Bol’s false positive
The World Anti-Doping Agency says they have “no reason to question the validity” of the method used to pick up on the erythropoietin drug, after Olympic athlete Peter Bol was falsely tested positive:
WADA is satisfied that Sport Integrity Australia has followed all applicable processes in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code.
While we have no reason to question the validity of the analytical method used for recombinant EPO, WADA will assess the current review process in light of the particularities of this case.
You can read about the predicted “potentially massive” global impact of the Bol doping case, from Kieran Pender, here:
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Sport Integrity Australia releases statement on Peter Bol’s false positive drug test
Here is the Sport Integrity Australia statement on Olympic athlete Peter Bol’s false positive:
In January 2023, Australian athlete Peter Bol was notified of a positive finding for synthetic EPO.
A subsequent independent analysis of the athlete’s B-sample returned an atypical finding which did not confirm the result of the A-sample.
The Code requires the mandatory provisional suspension to be lifted when the B-sample analysis does not match that of the A-sample.
… Sport Integrity Australia conducted an investigation into the results. As part of this investigation, Sport Integrity Australia initiated further analysis of the samples using a different independent WADA-accredited laboratory and different WADA-recognised EPO expert.
The further analysis resulted in varying expert opinions as to the positive or negative reporting of the sample, and the A-sample was reported as negative. As a result, Sport Integrity Australia has taken the decision not to progress an anti-doping rule violation for this sample. The investigation into this sample is finalised.
Athletes in Australia should have confidence in the anti-doping system that has allowed Sport Integrity Australia to conduct a thorough investigation.
A review and strengthening of the EPO review process by WADA is an indication of good governance structures in place.
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Peter Bol 'exonerated' after drug test false positive
Peter Bol, Australian runner, has today “been exonerated” after testing positive to the erythropoietin drug.
“I have been exonerated,” he Tweets. “It was a false positive like I said all along!”
“The news from Sport Integrity Australia today was a dream come true. No one should have to experience what I have gone through this year.”
The national record holder has consistently maintained his innocence.
Bol says he is in good form and feeling well. His focus is the upcoming World Athletics Championships in Hungary.
#alhamdulillah pic.twitter.com/SDSIT253ws
— Peter Bol OLY (@pbol800) July 31, 2023
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Thanks Martin Farrer for kicking off the blog this morning.
I’m Rafqa Touma and I’ll be with you for the next few hours. If you see anything you don’t want the blog to miss, let me know @At_Raf on Twitter.
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Former high court and supreme court judges publish open letter in support of Indigenous voice
Eight former high court and supreme court judges have written an open letter in support of the Indigenous voice, saying the referendum would “enrich our democracy” and help governments make better decisions.
The list of signatories includes the former high court judge Mary Gaudron (the first female judge on the nation’s highest court), the former president of Western Australia’s supreme court Carmel McLure, and the former NSW supreme court judge Anthony Whealy. Appearing in major newspapers nationwide this morning, the letter states that the voice “would enhance Australian governance”.
The letter says:
We confidently believe that, by raising the quality of our public debate, the proposed Voice will both enrich our democracy and increase the likelihood of governments making correct decisions about matters that affect Indigenous peoples. It will also, and very importantly, give Indigenous Australians their due recognition in our Constitution as this nation’s first peoples.
If successful, the referendum on the Voice will not diminish the influence of anyone. But it will help to correct an historic wrong.
The panel of judges denied the voice would “disrupt government or destabilise the presently stable and appropriate division of power between the parliament, the executive and the judiciary”. They said this concern “deserves respect” but said it should not be a reason to vote no.
“Australia can draw upon its wealth of common sense and its capacity for sensible compromise. The Voice will not waste its time, energy, finances or goodwill with silly claims that have no chance of political or judicial support,” they said.
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PM flags review in future of Taipan helicopter crash
Also on The Project, Albanese was asked about the four Australian servicemen now presumed dead after the Taipan helicopter crash in Queensland over the weekend. Albanese said there would be a review of the incident, but declined to immediately say what the government would do with the broader fleet of those aircraft.
“Today’s the day, with respect, where we’re dealing with four families who’ve lost loved ones ... that’s my focus today. There will be an appropriate investigation and that needs to run its course, we’ll take any recommendations from that seriously,” the PM said.
“Today is not the day for me to speculate about what has occurred. It is important to not add to the difficult day that people are going through.”
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Albanese rejects more talks on housing bill
Prime minister Anthony Albanese has resisted taking up the Greens on their latest invitation to negotiate on the housing Australia future fund bill, saying the government had already put in more money to housing than their original plan – and that “the key is not rent caps”.
Albanese noted the government had put an extra $2bn to state and territory housing in June, among other updates.
“The Greens should vote for it [the Haff]... the Coalition should as well,” he told The Project on Monday night.
“Why wouldn’t you support a policy that would increase that supply?”
The Greens said on Monday they were still keen to negotiate on the Haff, which they say doesn’t go far enough – the minor party wants Albanese to coordinate action on rent increases through the Labor-dominated national cabinet and guarantee more annual funding for social and affordable housing, and said their demands were negotiable.
But Albanese seemed unwilling to entertain those requests publicly in the Channel 10 interview.
“States and territories are taking their own response ... All the premiers and chief ministers are very conscious about these issues but know the key is actually supply,” the PM said.
Albanese claimed the Greens were “setting up for political failure” and “playing politics”.
“The key is not rent caps, the key is fixing planning,” he said.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage as the federal parliament returns to the spotlight. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ve got some overnight stories to bring you before my colleague settles back into the chair.
The nation may have been gripped by the Matildas and the cricket overnight, but today the main player is the Reserve Bank. Analysts are split over the prospect of another increase in the cash rate during the RBA’s monthly meeting today, amid fresh signs the property price rebound is losing steam. Stay tuned for the big reveal at 2.30pm.
Anthony Albanese has resisted taking up the Greens on their latest invitation to negotiate on the housing Australia future fund bill, saying “the key is not rent caps”. Albanese noted on The Project last night that the government had put up an extra $2bn for state and territory housing in June. “The Greens should vote for it ... the Coalition should as well,” he said. Full story coming up.
The morning’s newspapers include an open letter from eight former supreme and high court judges, who say the Indigenous voice to parliament would “enrich our democracy and increase the likelihood of governments making correct decisions”. They say it’s reasonable to have doubts about the “possibility of disruption and instability” but “firmly believe that these are not reasons for voting no”. More on this soon.
Julian Assange’s supporters in the Australian parliament have implored the US government to “get him the hell out of a maximum-security prison” regardless of diplomatic friction over the WikiLeaks founder’s eventual fate. After a blunt refusal to consider ending the US pursuit of Assange from secretary of state Anthony Blinken at the weekend, Labor MP Julian Hill, a member of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Group, said he had “a fundamentally different view of the substance of the matter”.
