What happened Tuesday 5 November 2024
With that, we’ll end our live coverage of the day’s news.
Here’s a summary of the main news developments:
Rank outsider Knight’s Choice caused a major upset as the local ride stunned the rest of the field to win the Melbourne Cup in a photo-finish from Warp Speed in second and Okita Soushi in third.
The Reserve Bank of Australia has left its key interest rate unchanged for an eighth meeting in a row, at 4.35%, as it awaits more evidence inflation will soon return to its preferred target range.
Police have called off the search for an 11-year-old boy swept out to sea by a treacherous current on the New South Wales coast, just hours after the family said they were hopeful he would be found.
Labor has confirmed university fees will be set using advice from its proposed Australian Tertiary Education Commission, as it ramps up attacks on the Coalition for opposing Help debt cuts.
Former Sydney police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon – accused of killing two men with his service weapon – will be back in court in two weeks, after his lawyer was replaced by legal aid.
Peter Dutton has blasted Coalition MPs for fuelling a federal debate on abortion laws, declaring there would be no change to policy if he wins government and says they must show more “discipline” on the topic.
Police are investigating alleged antisemitic abuse of a group of Jewish school students on a tram in Melbourne.
The coroner overseeing the inquest into William Tyrrell’s disappearance in 2014 has issued a warning after the toddler’s foster mother was abused outside court.
Thanks for reading. Have a pleasant evening.
Updated
Murray Watt and attorney general's department officials confirm the government is considering releasing the sealed section of the robodebt royal commission report. #auspol #Estimates
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) November 5, 2024
Search for boy swept out to sea on NSW coast called off
Police have called off a search for an 11-year-old boy swept out to sea by a treacherous current on the New South Wales coast, just hours after the family said they were hopeful he would still be found.
Police suspended the multi-agency marine search at 4pm on Tuesday, but said Tuggerah Lakes Police District, Marine Area Command and Surf Life Saving NSW, would continue regular patrols of the area in the coming days.
Authorities spent Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday searching for Laith Alaid, who was swept into the ocean as the tide raced out of a channel at The Entrance on Sunday at about 5.15pm.
Laith and his three brothers – aged nine, seven and three – had been visiting The Entrance with their 43-year-old father on a fishing trip from Sydney.
Read more:
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Jumping castle at centre of Hillcrest tragedy was tossed by ‘mini tornado’, court hears
A jumping castle at the centre of a primary school tragedy in north west Tasmania that killed six children was lifted, spun around and tossed 75 metres by a “mini tornado”, a Devonport court has been told.
Rosemary Gamble, operator of Taz-Zorb, which set up inflatable equipment at Hillcrest primary school on 16 December 2021, is facing a hearing after pleading not guilty to one count of failing to comply with health and safety duty category 2.
Zane Mellor, Peter Dodt, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones, Addison Stewart, Jye Sheehan and Chace Harrison were killed after a wind gust on the school’s oval lifted the jumping castle into the air.
Three other children were seriously injured during the end-of-year celebrations.
Read more on the Devonport magistrates court:
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Australia orders bird flu vaccines in case of outbreaks
Australia has ordered bird flu vaccinations to administer to at-risk threatened species in the event of an outbreak of the H5N1 variant of high pathogenicity avian influenza.
Australia is the only continent to have not detected the variant in any wild or domestic bird populations. It has devasted wild bird populations worldwide and killed thousands of sea lions and other mammals.
Vaccinating at-risk wild bird populations forms part of Australia’s response plan, a senate estimates hearing was told.
In response to questions from Tasmanian senator Peter Whish-Wilson, Dr Brant Smith, the first assistant secretary and national animal disease preparedness coordinator, said the department had been looking at “options for vaccines for particular threatened species”.
“We have identified types of vaccines that are available and we’re working through the commercial arrangements at the moment to have a quantum of vaccines available, if and when there’s an outbreak in Australia,” Smith said.
Deputy secretary for biosecurity, operations and compliance group, Justine Saunders, said the government would be ready to respond if there was an outbreak this summer.
But she said the formal partnership arrangements with state governments had not yet been finalised. That is expected by the end of the calendar year, Saunders said.
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Police investigate alleged antisemetic abuse of Melbourne school students
Police are investigating alleged antisemitic abuse of a group of Jewish school students on a tram in Melbourne.
A Victoria police spokesperson confirmed the force was investigating a report of “racially motivated offensive behaviour” on a tram on 4 November.
“Officers were told two men approached five girls on a tram near Balaclava [Road in Caulfield North] and shouted offensive comments at about 12.30pm,” the spokesperson said.
The males allegedly yelled “Heil Hitler” at the five students from Beth Rivkah Ladies College, according to a report in the Herald Sun on Tuesday.
Read more:
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RBA might not move on rates until May 2025
The RBA did not explicitly consider an interest rate cut at this week’s board meeting.
For the big four banks that had predicted a rate cut in February, this absence will be problematic.
The RBA has one more meeting this year with not much fresh data, at least domestically, to consider. By next January the central bank will at least have the December quarter inflation figures to review.
But without a very low number, it’s unlikely the RBA will jump straight to a rate cut. Next chance may be May, because March quarter inflation figures won’t land until late April.
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Knight’s Choice causes upset in thrilling Melbourne Cup race
Rank outsider Knight’s Choice caused a major upset as the local ride stunned the rest of the field to win the Melbourne Cup in a photo-finish from Warp Speed in second and Okita Soushi in third.
Under clear skies to the north-west of Melbourne, and with good track conditions underfoot, Irish-born jockey Robbie Dolan piloted the unfancied five-year-old gelding home in a thrilling 164th running of the famous race.
The pair had to navigate a ferocious final furlong with the field spread 10-wide with 300m to go. The lime green cap of Knight’s Choice was close to the back until a surge through the middle pushed him to the lead.
“He found another gear again, and he’s only a small little horse but he gives his all every start and that’s half the battle with him I think, and he’s proved a lot of people wrong,” Dolan told Channel 9.
The winner held off a late surge by Warp Speed to cross the line first by a head, securing a first Melbourne Cup victory for Dolan, who moved to Australia eight years ago.
Read more from Flemington Racecourse:
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Michele Bullock ducks questions about future RBA cuts or hikes
Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock refuses to be drawn into giving guidance as to the potential for rate cuts or rises next year, but said she thinks current settings are right.
“We think monetary policy is restrictive, and that’s showing up in a number of parts of demand, including private sector demand,” Bullock says.
Bullock also played down suggestions the RBA’s view of the state of the economy differed to the government’s.
Bullock says:
It’s true that the economy is not growing, and we know that in per capita terms, it is declining, and consumption per capita is declining, and what’s keeping aggregate demand, even though it’s not growing very much, what’s keeping the level high is population growth.
I think that’s what the government is getting at … I think they’re focusing on what’s happening with private demand, which is particularly weak.
We’re saying that aggregate demand is still above the ability of the economy to supply. So even though it’s not growing, it’s still above aggregate supply.”
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RBA's Bullock: September quarter underlying inflation 'still too high'
Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock has spoken about why the board thought it appropriate to keep interest rates at 4.35% at its meeting today.
“Inflation has fallen substantially since the peak at the end of 2022 as supply chain issues have abated and higher interest rates have been working to bring aggregate demand and supply closer to balance,” she says.
However, Bullock says that “underlying inflation in the September quarter is still too high”.
We have made good progress. But as we’ve seen throughout the year, this last part of the job of getting inflation down is not easy or straightforward.
We believe that settings are restrictive, and we need to keep rates restrictive for the time being. The board needs to be confident that inflation is moving sustainably towards the target and we need to see more progress on underlying inflation coming down.
We’re watching the data closely, and we’re not ruling anything in or out.”
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Nurses, pharmacists should be allowed to offer more heath services, report finds
Outdated laws and regulations are limiting some health professionals’ scope of practice, making it harder for patients to access timely and affordable health care, an independent report commissioned by the government has found.
The Unleashing the Potential of Our Health Workforce report focuses on what can be done to improve access to health care and to improve the efficiency of the health system so that patients, communities and health workers benefit.
Health professionals, such as nurses, allied health professionals and pharmacists, should be able to lead clinics, refer patients and manage certain treatments, especially in underserved areas such as rural locations, the report found. They have the skills and training to do so, the report found.
The report suggests that healthcare regulations should focus more on specific tasks or activities a professional can safely and effectively do, rather than strictly on what their job title allows them to do. This shift to ‘activity-based’ regulations would allow health workers to provide a broader range of health services safely, the report found.
The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) welcomed the findings and urged the government to adopt the recommendations so that nurses and midwives – the largest and most geographically dispersed health profession in Australia – can work to their full potential.
“ACN has been calling on the government to fund a national image of nursing campaign to educate the community about the depth and breadth of high-quality nurse-led health care,” ACN CEO Prof Kathryn Zeitz said.
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia president, Associate Prof. Fei Sim agreed. “Pharmacists are some of the most accessible healthcare professionals in our communities, yet regulatory barriers continue to limit our ability to provide care when and where our patients need it”.
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What a ride! That’s Question Time done, the race is run, the RBA decision has been handed down (more to come on that). And I’m (ahem) knackered, which means I’m handing over to Elias Visontay for the rest of the afternoon. Till tomorrow!
Albanese: people have ‘a right’ to enjoy the Melbourne Cup
Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown has asked prime minister Anthony Albanese, in the context of the big race:
Australia already suffers from the world’s highest gambling losses, with $25bn lost each year, tearing families and communities apart. Why won’t your government commit to a total ban on gambling ads?
Albanese gives Michael McCormack a thumbs up for his race calling, and says his government has done more than any previous government on gambling. He says horse racing has been around for a long time:
I don’t look down my nose or begrudge people who, in workplaces around Australia, are watching that race today. I don’t do that. They have a right to do that.
And people have a right to enjoy that activity if that is their choice. If that is their choice. Myself, I’d rather be at a footy game.
Watson-Brown says she was asking about gambling ads, not the Melbourne Cup.
Albanese says gambling is a major problem affecting Australian families and the government takes it seriously:
We’ll continue to introduce measures to back up the measures that we’ve already put in place, that have been more extensive than any government since Federation.
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Knight's Choice wins Melbourne Cup
Knight’s Choice has won the Melbourne Cup in a photo finish.
Warp Speed placed second and Okita Soushi placed third.
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McCormack dishes up some giggles with Melbourne Cup race call
Former Nationals leader Michael McCormack has managed to drag some Cup fever into the otherwise oblivious House of Representatives, with a mock race call about the coming federal election as a curtain-raiser to Question Time.
McCormack, who’s known for his comic race calls, name-checked the greatest Cup winners as he used his allotted time during MPs’ 90-second statements to holler across the House, prompting Anthony Albanese to spin round in his chair, trying to work out what the noise was about.
“They’re off and the Greens head sharp left, burst through the fence and right off the course,” McCormack began.
The teals – still awaiting collective instructions from Simon Holmes à Court – have not left the barriers. Punters had faith in Labor but in the early stages, living up to the name of the former Cup winner, Windbag, the punters’ former favourite, the prime minister, is losing ground with the cost of living Rising Fast. The treasurer, who only thinks of his Might And Power, is proving What A Nuisance he can be. He’s all over the track! Anyone could win from here. It’s a real Media Puzzle. Australians are starting to Vow And Declare Labor is giving up Without A Fight. Shocking, around the home turn, it’s the Coalition making Just A Dash.
And so it continued for the full 90 seconds, earning the Member for Riverina a round of applause.
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Chalmers takes a pot shot at shadow treasurer ‘reading out the cue cards’
Far less refreshing than Bob Katter, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor is up talking about “reckless spending” again.
Chalmers says “if the shadow treasurer is honest …” then is forced to withdraw that language.
He goes on to repeat his previously made point about the government tackling the cost of living. And he has a crack at Taylor, who yesterday talked about 2015 predictions instead of 2025. Chalmers says:
He was like that Ron Burgundy character in [the movie] Anchor Man, reading out the cue cards that he didn’t understand. That’s what we saw yesterday.
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Katter harks back to the days of ‘Black Jack’ McEwen
Back to Bob Katter. He says:
Will you implement your own advocacy of federal overriding of the states’ regulatory impositions – impositions that strangle home building, break up the cold and worthless duopoly, delivering a 30% reduction in food prices and get there … Treasurer, can you join [minister for commerce under Menzies in the 1950s and briefly PM] Black Jack [McEwen] on the wall of fame by U-turning Australia off our current highway to extinction?
Which I’m pretty sure means get rid of the red tape stopping homes being built, tackle Coles and Woolworths, make food cheaper, cap fuel prices, and try to be a little bit more like John “Black Jack” McEwen.
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Chalmers says cost-of-living is a factor explaining falling birthrate
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says:
Now, we don’t tell people what to do or make decisions for people when it comes to their own family circumstances, but we do know that the cost of living is a big factor, as the member for Kennedy rightly points out.
It’s expensive to have kids, and people make their own decisions for their own reasons. But we’re doing what we can to make it easier for people to choose to have more kids if they want to do that.
Our investments in early childhood education, healthcare, extending paid parental leave … they’re all about making it easier for people to have more kids if they want to. And we acknowledge, as the member for Kennedy did, that housing is a big part of the story here. We’ve got a big ambitious plan, and I think, as the housing minister has herself acknowledged, we do need the states to do their bit as well.
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Bob Katter says Australia is a ‘vanishing race’ thanks to declining fertility
Oh, wow! The member for Kennedy, Bob Katter, is talking about fertility rates. “We’re officially a vanishing race. Birthrates halving as families struggle to make ends meet. The cost of starting a family simply out of reach,” he says.
But treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says the falling birthrate is a long-term trend.
Australia’s total fertility rate fell to 1.5 [babies per woman] in 2023. It’s down from 1.63. It’s also been a trend around the world, though our fertility rate is above most advanced countries. The UK is at 1.44. Canada at 1.26. This is one of the reasons why our population is ageing.
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Sussan Ley pushes government on Tafe completion rates
Back to QT and those Tafe figures. Ley has repeated her questions on completion rates, this time addressing skills and training minister Andrew Giles.
Speaker Milton Dick kicks out Liberal MP Jason Wood for interjections, and we’re back to Giles.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton says there is a “sense of deja vu” about Giles and there are hoots of laughter – when I work out the reference I’ll let you know. Possibly something to do with immigration questions back when it was his portfolio.
This is messy, so we’ll just ride it out. The Speaker is calmer than many would be in his spot.
Giles says that in the 20 months since fee-free Tafe has been operating, half a million Australians have enrolled.
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RBA’s steady rates decision no surprise to financial markets
The RBA decision to leave its key interest rate unchanged wasn’t a surprise.
Governor Michele Bullock had flagged the RBA board would “look through” the fact that the September quarter inflation rate would be lower (as it was).
In the RBA’s statement accompanying its decision to stay put today, it said:
While headline inflation has declined substantially and will remain lower for a time, underlying inflation is more indicative of inflation momentum, and it remains too high.
Some observers thought the RBA would drop its wording implying that another rate rise might still be in the mix. It didn’t do it today:
The November Statement on Monetary Policy forecasts suggest that it will be some time yet before inflation is sustainably in the target range and approaching the midpoint.
This reinforces the need to remain vigilant to upside risks to inflation and the Board is not ruling anything in or out.
So anything is possible, except by the looks of it, an early interest rate cut.
The fact the Australian dollar and stocks were little changed on the verdict and the accompanying commentary suggests all is pretty much as expected. Back to the races (for some).
Updated
Here’s the news on the RBA decision from Peter Hannam:
Jim Chalmers: RBA rates decision reflects earlier rate rises and the fight against inflation
We don’t usually bring you all the guff that comes with Dorothy dixers, but treasurer Jim Chalmers is talking about that RBA decision. He says it reflects two things: “the impact of rate rises already in the system … and the progress we are making together in the fight against inflation”.
“But we know that people are still doing it tough, and that’s why our cost-of-living measures are so important,” he says.
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Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor says the country is off track, and asks why Australian families are paying the price for the government’s “reckless spending”.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the Coalition gave Australia much higher public debt and student debt, while Labor is lowering those. He says:
You think lower student debt is a bad thing… this side of the house is trying to cut your student debt, that side of the house wants you to have more student debt.
Labor’s delivered two surpluses and improved the underlying cash balance, Chalmers says, so there’s much less debt than forecast by the Coalition:
When you manage the budget responsibly, when you manage the economy responsibly... you can support people who genuinely need our help.
RBA holds interest rates at 4.35%
The Reserve Bank has left its key interest rate unchanged for an eighth meeting in a row as it awaits more evidence inflation will soon return to its preferred target range.
The RBA board ended its two-day meeting on Tuesday by keeping its cash rate at 4.35%, a move widely expected by economists and financial markets.
It’s now a year since the central bank’s last rate move, the 13th increase in a series that began in May 2022. Prior to today’s verdict and related commentary, investors weren’t fully pricing in a rate cut until the middle of 2025.
More to come…
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The Reserve Bank is about to hand down its decision on interest rates, so we’ll cram that in and keep an eye on Question Time as well. Fun!
Albanese: public eduction is a ‘triggering word’ for the opposition
Sussan Ley is up again on fee-free Tafe courses. She’s asking prime minister Anthony Albanese about courses that take six to 12 months to complete, and about their completion rates (earlier the PM said the free spots only started last year, and that courses can take three to four years).
Albanese says Tafe is public education, which is “a triggering word for those opposite”, and repeats the figures he used earlier about who’s taking them up.
He says 89% of them require up to three years’ full-time study.
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McNair yellowSquares says changes have been made in response to Voice referendum scandal
Earlier this year, Guardian Australia revealed whistleblower claims that McNair yellowSquares, a market research firm and frequent government contractor, had fabricated data purporting to show attitudes of Indigenous communities in regional Australia and suburban Adelaide while working on an Australian Electoral Commission project to test the effectiveness of advertising for the Voice referendum.
The whistleblower alleged he was instructed to attach false location data to face-to-face interviews he had conducted in inner-city Sydney. He alleged the fabrications were designed to cut costs while presenting research that appeared to have been conducted across the country.
After the reporting in August, McNair engaged an investigator to probe the whistleblower’s allegations. The findings of that probe, shared with the AEC, show 13 staff were instructed to alter location coding on the survey responses and eight staff acceded to the request.
The AEC said it is now “considering its legal position” over the scandal and remained “incredibly disappointed” in the alleged behaviour of McNair yellowSquares.
McNair’s new managing director, Gillian Milne, said in a statement the company had “sought to maintain the highest standards of integrity and accountability throughout the investigation”. Milne said changes had been made immediately in response to the investigation’s findings.
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Penny Wong asks Indian minister about Sikh activists allegations
Foreign minister Penny Wong has raised concerns with her visiting Indian counterpart Hon Dr S Jaishankar about allegations that India has targeted Sikh activists in North America for assassination.
Wong confirmed she and External Affairs Minister Jaishankar discussed the Canadian allegations during talks in Canberra on Tuesday.
“People have a right to be safe and respected regardless of who they are in our country,” Wong told journalists, when asked what security assurance she could give to Australia’s Sikh community:
That’s the essence of our multicultural democracy. We’ve made clear our concerns about the allegations under investigations. We’ve said that we respect Canada’s judicial process. We convey our views to India, as you would expect us to do, and we have a principal position in relation to matters such as the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, and also, frankly, the sovereignty of all countries.
Jaishankar rejected the Canadian allegations. He said:
Canada has developed a pattern of making allegations without providing specifics. Secondly, when we look at Canada, for us, the fact that they’re putting our diplomats under surveillance is something which is unacceptable.
The visiting minister said he was concerned that “political space” was being given to “extremists”.
Both ministers condemned the vandalism of a Hindu temple in Canada yesterday.
“People have a right to express their views peacefully,” Wong said. “We draw a line between that and violence, incitement of hatred or vandalism, and they should be dealt with by the appropriate law enforcement authorities.”
Last year, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau accused India of assassinating Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead in British Columbia, in western Canada, in June last year. The US has since accused India of involvement in a plot to kill an American Sikh activist.
Wong and Jaishankar also discussed their joint membership of the Quadrilateral, or Quad, dialogue with the US and Japan, and the two countries’ people-to-people ties, which she called “the beating heart of the relationship”.
Jaishankar echoed Wong’s view that the Quad would continue should former US president Donald Trump be elected, saying one of the few in-person global summits held during the Covid-19 pandemic was the meeting of Quad leaders in Turkey.
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Independent Zali Steggall calls on Albanese for ‘ambitious’ 2035 emissions target
Zali Steggall, the independent MP for Warringah, is asking about climate change, and the government’s position. “Will you announce and commit to an ambitious 2035 emissions target?”
Anthony Albanese says he acknowledges Steggall’s genuine commitment to acting on climate change. He says:
I share the concern identified by the work that the CSIRO have done. The science tells us, has told us for some time that Australia, not only because we are part of the globe, is vulnerable to increased temperatures – actually the science is telling us the temperature rise here is higher than the international one – because we are particularly vulnerable.
This report says that there will be a decrease in rain, but more intense. So if you have drier areas, and then you have an extreme rain event, then you will have more flooding.
It’s rowdy in the chamber, and Albanese pauses for a second, while Dick tries to bring down the level of noise.
Albanese runs through the extreme weather events that have hit Australia since he has been PM.
Now we have a very strong target that is legislated. For the first time we legislated net zero by 2050. We legislated for a 43% reduction by 2030, and I thank the member for Warringah and others who supported that decision.
We will of course take advice, based upon the science, but we remain absolutely committed to acting on climate change, to not just listening to the science but also being a part of global action on this issue, because one thing that is correct is that no country in isolation can solve this. We need to work as part of the global community to make a difference for this generation, but more importantly as well for the generations to come.
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PM says Labor intent on ‘matching up the jobs of the future with the skills and training of today’
Albanese goes on to say that older workers are also retraining through Tafe and it would be a shame to waste their experience:
That is a waste, to waste that experience and to say to those workers, when things like the car industry was shut down, because those opposite told them to leave … we think those people should not be left behind.
I tell you what is a waste as well, when housing projects cannot get off the ground because there aren’t the skilled workers to deal with them.
I tell you what is a waste as well, when businesses have to look overseas, as a number of business leaders have lobbied and said to have important labour, because we cannot provide the skilled workers here. What we are about is matching up the jobs of the future with the skills and training of today and the future.
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Labor’s quizzed on debt reduction policy
The first Dorothy dixer was on Labor’s debt reduction policy, which has not been universally celebrated (to put it mildly). Now it’s opposition deputy leader, Sussan Ley. She says just 13% of fee-free Tafe enrolments have ended up with the qualification being completed.
(There are interjections, and speaker Milton Dick says he doesn’t care how many people he has to remove.)
Ley is back up, asking how much money has gone towards courses that were never completed.
Albanese says he thanks not just Ley, but “their entire tactics committee for that question”, and:
We have been asked why is it that four-year apprenticeships or three-year apprenticeships have not been completed ... fee-free Tafe did not begin years and years ago, it began when we came in last year. As a direct result, there are more than half a million Australians that have benefited from fee-free Tafe.
He says there have been tens of thousands of enrolments:
35,000 construction sector enrolments, 36,000 early childhood educators, 49,000 technology and digital sector enrolments, 131,000 care sector enrolments, 35% of the enrolments have been in regional Australia.
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Question time begins
The starting gun for question time in the House of Representatives has fired. The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, asks: “Why are Australian families paying the price for the Albanese Labor government reckless spending and when will this reckless spending stop?
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says he’s being asked the question by the guy who was a cabinet minister and assistant treasurer and “in the entire time they were in office, they did not deliver a single surplus”, he says.
Now he’s listing a bunch of Coalition spending:
$4bn to cancel the French submarine deal. $1bn paid out to victims of robodebt. $444m to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation without a tender process or even consulting the foundation. $660m on commuter car parks where there was no train station – no train station! $420m for an offshore processing contract awarded to a firm registered to a shack on Kangaroo Island. A shack. On Kangaroo Island.
The roll call continues with the sports rorts scandals, the NBN cost blowouts, inland rail blowouts ... someone got pretty happy with the bullet points here.
Albanese says:
What we’re is investing in education and training, we are investing in Australia’s future, while we are delivering responsible economic management which is why we have cut inflation in half.
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New from Christopher Knaus on a market research firm engaged as part of the Australian Electoral Commission’s efforts to improve participation in the referendum. An AEC spokesperson said:
The AEC is considering its legal position. We will continue to do so as this matter evolves.
Evidence presented at Senate estimates about NZYQ cohort
We’ve just been catching up on some evidence from home affairs department officials to Senate estimates last night about the NZYQ cohort – non-citizens released from immigration detention as a result of the high court’s ruling that indefinite detention is unlawful.
There are now 215 people released as a result of that decision, including: 12 people convicted of murder or attempted murder; 66 of sexual offending; 97 of assault; 15 of domestic violence; 15 of serious drug offences; five of people smuggling and five with “low or no level” of offending.
Of the 215, 143 are subject to electronic monitoring and 126 must obey a curfew. A total of 65 have been charged with state or territory offences since their release.
Officials revealed that $73.3m has been spent responding to the decision.
Clare Sharp, the general counsel of the department, said in 35 cases there was a request for information about whether they might be susceptible to an application for preventive re-detention, nine of which have gone through expert review and had advice from counsel about a possible court application. The department anticipates it will apply for the first community safety order (for preventive re-detention) “in the coming weeks”.
Some 13 people have brought habeas corpus applications relying on NZYQ, two have ongoing legal cases and the rest were released either because they were given a protection visa or because they were refused but can’t be removed from Australia.
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Queensland’s truth-telling inquiry officially shut down
Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnerships minister has shut down the state’s truth-telling and healing inquiry on her first full-day on the job.
Minister Fiona Simpson officially advised its chair, Joshua Creamer, to cease the inquiry’s work on Monday night.
Simpson was sworn into her portfolio on Friday after the Liberal National party swept to power, ending Labor’s decade-long reign in the sunshine state.
That same day, Creamer, a Waanyi and Kalkadoon man, lashed out at new premier David Crisafulli for delivering an edict via the media that the inquiry immediately shut down, saying the decision would cause “a significant amount of devastation” across Queensland’s Indigenous community.
People from the Minjerribah/Terrangerri community people on Stradbroke Island opted to push ahead with information sessions over the weekend despite losing government support.
The inquiry began on 1 July 2024 and work was under way in the Indigenous community of Cherbourg to talk with about 40 witnesses, who were preparing to share their experiences with the inquiry.
The inquiry was part of Queensland’s path to treaty.
The LNP were contacted for comment.
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Liberal senator asks how many honours are being considered for potential termination.
Jumping back to this morning when the secretary of the governor general appeared before Senate estimates.
The Liberal senator, Jane Hume, asked how many appointments to the Order of Australia were being considered for termination.
The secretary, Gerard Martin, declined to offer a figure but said there was a “number of people ... being considered by the council”.
At least one of those before the council has had a legal finding made against them.
Martin took on notice the number of individuals whose honours were being considered for potential termination.
Remember, this follows the council’s recommendation to the governor general to terminate the appointment of former home affairs department secretary Mike Pezzullo after he was found to have breached the code of conduct 14 times while in the top job.
And the question has been raised for other senior officials appointed to the order that have since been the subject of adverse findings. Watch this space.
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Queensland Labor announces new shadow cabinet
Queensland Labor has announced its new shadow cabinet, after today’s party room meeting.
The body will include five new faces: Linus Power, Joan Pease, Corrine McMillan and Tom Smith. Smith, the MP for Bundaberg, held his seat in 2020 by just nine votes, and was widely tipped to lose it in 2024.
But despite a Labor wipeout across many parts of regional Queensland, Smith was able to increase his hold on the seat.
The shadow cabinet is in gender balance and contains all three of the party’s regional MPs. It will be led by Steven Miles and deputy leader Cameron Dick, the same leadership team as in government.
Dick said:
We’ll use our time ahead to reflect, to reconnect, to reset and to renew. I think the truth of the matter is that in many parts of regional Queensland, we have lost the trust of Queenslanders, and we need to now work hard to listen to Queenslanders, to reconnect and to rebuild.
Asked why regional Queensland had turned against the party– resulting in the historic loss of Rockhampton and Mackay – Miles said the government had been in for a decade, and had been “too slow” to respond to concerns about crime.
Miles said he wanted to keep Crisafulli’s government to a single term. No non-Labor premier has won re-election since the 1980s.
“They were all bad LNP governments. I expect this one will be a bad LNP government. They’ve gotten off to a very poor start, breaking at least five promises appointing DGS without any kind of process,” he said.
Aspley MP Bart Mellish was also included in shadow cabinet, despite his seat still being in doubt. Miles said the party was confident in taking both Aspley and South Brisbane, giving Labor 36 seats.
Former transport and main roads minister Mark Bailey has also been welcomed back. Portfolios have yet to be determined. Mark Ryan and Mark Furner have been kicked out of shadow cabinet to make way for the new blood.
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Wong: Aukus and the Quad will endure, whoever wins US presidency
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has confirmed she recently met with former Trump administration secretary of state Mike Pompeo to discuss the Aukus pact, as Australia prepares for a new president to succeed incumbent Joe Biden at this week’s American election.
Wong told journalists in Canberra on Tuesday that it was important to meet with both the government of the day and the potential alternative government and she had “a very good discussion” with Pompeo.
Wong said:
Obviously one of the priorities for us to discuss was Aukus and [I’m] very pleased that the sort of bipartisan support that we’ve seen previously from visiting congressional delegations who you might have heard from, but also public statements that we have an understanding on both sides of politics in the US about the importance of Aukus.
In terms of the US election, we will work with whomever the American people choose. We will work with whoever they choose for president and also for the Congress of the day. In Australia’s interests, we will look to strengthen the alliance. As you know, historically, we’ve had an alliance for many, many years, and it is a relationship that is bigger than the events of the day. It’s shaped by enduring friendship and timeless values.
Asked whether she was concerned about a possible Trump presidency upending the international order and jeopardising the future of the Quad security dialogue, Wong emphasised that the four-nation strategic dialogue would continue to be crucial.
It is an arrangement, a meeting, a grouping with countries that share very similar interests in the sort of region we want, and having countries from different perspectives. So obviously, the US, India, Australia, Japan, – it’s a very valuable strategic discussion. You know, we would see that as retaining its importance regardless of the outcome of the election.
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Dutton reminds Coalition members to ‘be ready’ for federal election
Beyond abortion, Peter Dutton reminded Coalition members to “be ready” and stay on message with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, clearly in election mode after his rally over the weekend.
The opposition leader told his party room the election could be called at any time and stand ready. Dutton said seats could be decided on local issues and hot spots, referring to his outer suburban strategy.
The deputy opposition leader, Sussan Ley, said the Coalition’s election strategy would centre on “exposing” the prime minister’s lack of confidence and a clear message.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, said federal Labor was simply copying its Queensland counterpart’s strategy of “throwing wads of money” at the public to attract votes.
With the US election imminent, Ley also said Dutton “will and can and would look forward to” working with a US administration of “either colour” while Labor was leaning towards a Democratic win.
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Kylea Tink won’t rule out challenging Paul Fletcher in Bradfield
Teal independent North Sydney MP Kylea Tink has fuelled speculation she may seek to challenge Liberal frontbencher Paul Fletcher in his neighbouring Sydney seat of Bradfield, saying she wants to continue making a contribution on important issues including climate change.
Tink was asked on Tuesday if she had decided yet whether to seek to contest Bradfield, into which some areas of her current seat are being absorbed.
“Let me bring that to you when the option is fully formed, because I’ve also learned from this place to go off half cocked is to sink yourself,” Tink said, not ruling it out.
Tink said she believed crossbench MPs had improved government legislation and she was keen to keep contributing:
I have really enjoyed that process. I found it incredibly rewarding, and having had two and a half years is of course, my intention to try and continue to contribute to this debate in a way moving forward. As to what that contribution looks like, that is still something I am looking at very closely.
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Dutton warns colleagues not to be distracted by abortion debate
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has warned Coalition party members not to be drawn on the issue of abortions in the federal election, warning it is a “distraction” that could lose votes.
In a joint party room this morning, Dutton said the issue being raised in the recent Queensland election could well have lost city seats in Brisbane. He told his party it was not an issue that could be addressed federally and that attempts by Labor to draw in the Coalition should be seen as a “distraction”.
A member said the party needed to be attuned to city tactics while praising the state branch of the party for its performance in north Queensland. The party room briefing was without senators on Tuesday due to a week of estimates hearings. It meant some of the most vocal supporters in the party of repealing abortion laws did not voice their views.
The Northern Territory Country Liberal party senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price reopened debate at the federal level two weeks ago after she gave a media interview condemning later-term abortion, which she described as anything after the first trimester, and said full-term termination “becomes infanticide”.
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Wong says Australian Sikh community have ‘right to be safe’
Foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has spoken about tensions in Canada amid plots to murder and intimidate Sikh separatists on Canadian soil after a meeting with her Indian counterpart. She told a press conference in Canberra that the Australian Sikh community had “a right to be safe and respected regardless of who they are”:
That is the essence of our multicultural democracy. We have made clear our concern about the allegations under investigations, we have said that we respect Canada’s judicial process, we have conveyed our views to India as you would expect us to do and we have a principled position in relation to matters such as the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and also frankly the sovereignty of all countries.
India’s external affairs minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said “Canada has a pattern of making allegations without providing specifics”.
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Steven Miles re-elected unopposed as Queensland Labor leader
Steven Miles has been returned as Queensland Labor leader in the first party room meeting since their loss at last month’s election.
Cameron Dick will once again serve as his deputy.
Both were re-elected unopposed on Tuesday morning.
Many in the party have credited the leadership team – also including former health minister Shannon Fentiman and infrastructure minister Grace Grace – with softening the blow at the election.
They’re expected to announce the party’s shadow cabinet in a few moments.
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Teals urge major parties to be more forthcoming on climate-action policies
Some more on the teal criticisms of the oppositions nuclear policy – the MP for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel, turned the question back on the media:
Have you asked Mr Dutton if he would work with us?
Dutton has said the Coalition will unveil details before the year’s end of its policy to reverse the current nationwide ban on nuclear energy and build nuclear reactors at seven sites across the country, if it wins government.
Independent Kylea Tink, whose seat of North Sydney is being abolished under a federal electoral redistribution at the next election, said both Labor and the Coalition must be more forthcoming on their climate-action policies:
It is not fair, it is not reasonable, and it will not be tolerated to expect Australians to go to the polls in 2025 without a clear sight on what the major parties’ targets are, how they’re going to get us there, and whether they’re going to follow the science in getting us there.
The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has suggested the government may push its 2035 target decision into next year, once the next US president is in place and American climate-change policies are clearer.
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Steggall accuses Dutton of ‘Trumpian-style’ policymaking on nuclear energy
Teal independent MP Zali Steggall has accused Peter Dutton of “Trumpian-style” policymaking on nuclear energy but not ruled out – at least in theory – supporting him to form government in the event of a hung parliament after the next election.
Teal crossbenchers are demanding both the government and opposition reveal full details of their energy and climate-change policies, including 2035 emissions reduction targets, before the next federal election, indicating those details will be pivotal in crossbench deliberations on who to support should there be an electoral deadlock.
Steggall strongly criticised the absence of detail on the Coalition’s nuclear-energy plan but – in a backhanded way – did not rule out endorsing Dutton to form government if the result was tied, telling journalists:
Peter Dutton and the opposition perpetrate an idea of fiscal management, and yet we have the biggest black-hole void within their main policy area of no costing, no amount of energy, and no roadmap or timeline in how it is achievable, in the face of all experts raising significant questions.
Now, I would say this is Trumpian-style, fact-resistant policy making, and is not deserving of government. But I am open-minded.
Steggall urged journalists to press Dutton and his colleagues for more detail.
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Plans to introduce streaming content quotas have been delayed, says arts minister
The arts minister, Tony Burke, told Labor caucus that plans to introduce Australian content quotas for streaming services have been delayed.
Burke said the government had wanted minimum content obligations for a very long time and Labor discussed this way back in 2013 before the streaming services had arrived in Australia.
Burke said the delay was caused by consideration of whether the quotas are consistent with the US free trade agreement, and it is the “worst possible time” to be negotiating about this – a reference to the US election.
Stakeholders would rather the Australian government got it right rather than rush something through, he said.
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Labor to set up commission to set cost of university degrees
The education minister, Jason Clare, has revealed that Labor will set up a commission to set the cost of university degrees, in a move that could roll back the Coalition’s jobs ready graduate package that hiked the cost of arts degrees.
Clare told Labor caucus that university fees paid by MPs and senators in the past amounted to about a 30% contribution of the cost of a degree, but now it’s more like a 40% contribution. He said the 20% reduction in Help debt “fixes that for a generation”.
Anthony Albanese also spoke about the Help debt changes, lifting the repayment threshold from $54,000 to $67,000. He accused Scott Morrison of having “deliberately lowered the threshold” and said Labor’s changes would benefit people like young automotive apprentices he recently met.
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Albanese talks election strategy to Labor caucus
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, told Labor caucus today that the next election will be framed around three ideas: what the government has done, what it will do, and the “risk” (of the Coalition alternative).
Albanese spoke about Labor achievements – which sounded similar to his Sunday rally speech – about inflation with a two in front of it (2.8%), 1m more jobs, increasing real wages, two budget surpluses and cost-of-living relief. New policies will be announced in coming months.
He also noted the Coalition were against both the income tax cuts (before they voted for them) and Labor’s plan to shave 20% of student debts.
Albanese said:
Like me, he [Paul Fletcher] got a free education but he’s now lecturing people that they can’t have their debt reduced. This is a fight we will win. They don’t see that lifting the number of people in Tafe and uni is an investment in the whole country. They still don’t have a single costed policy. [The Greens] just want to protest. We don’t want to just be in this room [in government] after the election, we want to be here with more members and more senators.
Albanese was apparently “confident” he could deliver that – an increased majority.
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2024 worst flu season on record
Australia has had a record flu season in 2024, with 352,782 confirmed cases of influenza reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System this year to date.
Flu cases in 2024 are up more than 20% compared with last year’s total of 289,133 cases, and the season has also surpassed the pre-pandemic record of 313,454 cases in 2019.
It comes amid declining flu vaccination rates, which have dropped to their lowest levels in five years for people aged five and older.
In a national survey of 25,000 people conducted by the Immunisation Coalition, 54% felt that influenza was a serious disease, while 55% reported not seeing vaccination as a benefit or being important.
In a statement, Dr Rodney Pearce, chairman of the Immunisation Coalition, called the 2024 record case numbers a “wake-up call”:
Influenza is not just a bad cold; it can have severe consequences, particularly for vulnerable populations. Yet, our surveys indicate that many Australians are disengaged and feel vaccination is unnecessary. This puts the whole community at risk.
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Paul Daley writes on US election
Various politicians are being all sanguine about the prospect of a second Donald Trump presidency. Paul Daley, it’s fair to say, is very much not “chill” with the idea:
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Consumer confidence edges higher as inflation worries ebb
The ANZ and Roy Morgan weekly survey of consumer sentiment is just another couple of data points but they do land around morning tea time as the Reserve Bank board ponders what to do with its key interest rate.
Retail sales have been generally poor for a while but there are modest signs that consumers are starting to think the cost-of-living crisis is abating. (We looked at the prospects that the “worst is over” a couple of weeks back.)
Anyway, consumer confidence is modestly on the up, rising 7.5 percentage points since July when the stage-three tax cuts kicked in, to just above 85 points.
Consumer confidence continues to edge higher...
— @phannam@mastodon.green (@p_hannam) November 4, 2024
(Via @ANZ_Research and @RoyMorganAus ) pic.twitter.com/Hw7p44Am8t
The RBA board, though, will take more comfort in the gradual decline of expectations about where inflation is going.
The latest weekly ready was steady on a weekly basis but down on a rolling four-week average by 0.1 percentage points to 4.6%. That’s the lowest since September 2021, which, coincidently, is about the time when underlying inflation was as low as it presently is.
The four-week rolling average of consumers' inflation expectations has eased to 4.6%, the lowest since September 2021.
— @phannam@mastodon.green (@p_hannam) November 4, 2024
(Via @ANZ_Research and @RoyMorganAus ) pic.twitter.com/bX3JEKpduh
Still, there’s no reason in this data or recent ABS releases to think the RBA is sharpening its rate axe for a cut in the near term.
Ahead of today’s RBA meeting, the market was only fully pricing-in a 25 basis-point cut in the cash rate to 4.1% by next July – or the other side of the federal election.
My humble guess is the first cut will come in February after December quarter numbers give the RBA more confidence that inflation is on track to be “sustainably” within its 2%-3% target band.
But a lot can change between now and then.
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Michaelia Cash clashes with officials from Attorney-General’s Department
The legal and constitutional affairs Senate estimates committee has reconvened on Tuesday morning with some friction emerging between shadow attorney general Michaelia Cash and officials from the Attorney-General’s Department over the department’s refusal to provide a list of ministerial submissions that the Coalition is demanding.
Cash and her Coalition colleagues had asked the department to provide a list of ministerial submissions created over 12 months and had separately lodged a freedom of information request.
The officials told Cash that the Coalition senators’ request was substantially the same as the FoI request, so it had been addressed through that process.
They indicated that the list had been compiled.
But they said that the FoI request had been refused because of the amount of work that would be required to put the list into a form that could be released publicly.
“It was extraordinarily onerous,” departmental secretary Katherine Jones told the committee.
The department’s chief operating officer, Cameron Gifford, said he had advised the attorney general’s office that the Coalition request “is unable to be fulfilled in its current form”. He said:
“The list of submissions is not in a form able to be provided to the senators,” Gifford said.
“That disappoints me,” Cash replied. She said the home affairs department had been able to fulfil a similar request:
The fact that there is an FoI request is quite frankly irrelevant to the Senate process and to the estimates committee.
She asked if the department was shielding the attorney-general.
“No, senator,” Gifford said:
As we have indicated it is a voluminous and complex request. It is a substantive and unreasonable diversion of resources for us to continue to progress that request. That is the sole basis on which we are unable to provide the information.
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Photos from Wong’s meeting with India’s external affairs minister
Here are a couple of pics from that meeting between foreign affairs minister Penny Wong and India’s external affairs minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, this morning.
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Jane Hume quizzes officials over stripping someone of an Order of Australia
Day two of Senate estimates has kicked off this morning and the Office of the Official Secretary to the Governor-General is up in one of the committees.
The Liberal senator, Jane Hume, is quizzing officials over the process for stripping someone of an Order of Australia appointment.
Of course, the questions are heading towards what happened in the case of former home affairs department secretary, Mike Pezzullo, whose honour was cancelled last month almost a year after he was sacked for breaching the code of conduct at least 14 times.
The secretary, Gerard Martin, said six appointees had been terminated in recent years by the governor general’s office on advice from the 19-member council. Martin said reviews were typically undertaken after public reporting, rather than referrals.
Hume has more questions but other senators are given their time so this likely won’t be the last we hear of it.
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Nine terror cases in 2024 but no link to Middle East, says Asio chief
There have been nine “terror attacks, disruptions or incidents” in 2024 but no plots have been attributed to events in the Middle East, Australia’s spy chief says.
AAP reports that Asia director-general Mike Burgess said Hamas’ terror attack against Israel and Israel’s subsequent retaliation “raised the temperature of the security environment and made the climate more permissive of violence, making acts of terrorism more likely”.
Religiously motivated violent extremism makes up the majority of Asio’s work but there has been no link between the conflict in the Gaza Strip and terror incidents in Australia, Burgess said, adding:
To be clear, I’m talking about individuals who follow a perverse interpretation of Islam, not people of Islamic faith.
One-third of the nine cases involved religiously motivated violent extremism, while the majority were motivated by racist or nationalist ideologies or a mix of ideologies.
All involve young people, alone or in small groups and with simple weapons.
People radicalised quickly and with little warning, which made it harder for the intelligence organisation to track, Burgess said.
The director-general expressed concern about the re-emergence of capabilities from terrorist groups Islamic State and al-Qaida.
People flying the flag of Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah at pro-Palestinian rallies in Australia may indicate a violent ideology, Burgess said.
However, “it might just be the actions of a misdirected individual who doesn’t really know what they’re doing”.
“As a security agency, I welcome when individuals fly the flag so to speak and indicate they’re someone we should have an interest in,” he quipped:
If people are silly enough to do that ... I personally welcome people declaring their hand.
A person simply “liking” a provocative social media post or supporting a Palestinian homeland wouldn’t trigger an automatic adverse security assessment for people on or applying for visas.
But those who support or promote violence or the destruction of Israel could be a direct or indirect threat to security, Burgess said.
His comments came after the spotlight was refocused on Palestinians being granted visas as the Coalition maintained people coming from Gaza could pose a security threat.
The opposition is fighting for a pause on people arriving in Australia from Gaza, arguing appropriate vetting processes aren’t in place, which Labor denies, saying all visas are appropriately screened.
More than 3,040 Palestinians were granted a visa between 7 October 2023 and 15 October 2024 while just over 7,250 were refused.
Four visas were refused onshore, with three of those people still having a valid visa of another class.
One had their visa cancelled on “character grounds”.
Questioned whether the federal government should have referred visas to Asio before they were granted and people arrived in Australia, Burgess said intelligence was ongoing whereas a visa approval was a static point in time:
We have seen cases where we’ve checked and they’re good and then we learn something that says that is no longer the right decision.
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Greens want plan to reduce student debt rolled out before election
The Greens have written to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, about the government’s plans to reduce student debt by 20% and change the repayment thresholds. The letter from leader Adam Bandt and deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi says the Greens welcome “the government adopting the Greens policy” but want it rolled out before the election:
We will continue to campaign to wipe student debt entirely and make university and Tafe free, but we are keen to see the government’s measure passed as quickly as possible.
We don’t consider it fair to make this change dependent on the next election result. People need debt relief and certainty now.
Even though we would like it to go much further, the Greens commit to working with the government to pass this legislation through the parliament by the end of this year. Accordingly, we request that you introduce legislation as soon as possible so that it can pass the Senate with the Greens’ support in the final sitting fortnight in November.
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Government travellers can’t collect frequent flyer points, but they can hoard precious status credits. Is that why they keep flying Qantas? Karen Middleton and Elias Visontay have had a look:
Mark Butler says ‘virtually all the nation’s health professions face restrictions and barriers in working to their fullest’
Earlier, health minister Mark Butler referred to a report on the potential of allied health professionals. I glossed over what the report was because, frankly, I wasn’t sure. But Butler has now released a “landmark independent review”, which has found that “virtually all the nation’s health professions face restrictions and barriers in working to their fullest”.
Butler says the Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce Review found that:
Removing these barriers would make it easier for Australians to get high-quality care, when and where they need it, without waiting weeks for an appointment.
This is particularly the case in regional and remote areas, where a health professional may be available and yet the regulatory and legislative settings may not authorise or enable them to provide care that is within their skills, training and experience – or what’s known as their “scope of practice”.
Fewer needless barriers would mean health teams work better together across disciplines and health professionals have greater job satisfaction, making it more likely they stay in the workforce for longer.
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Penny Wong to meet with India’s external affairs minister
Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong will meet India’s external affairs minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, this morning. She says they will “discuss how we can advance our cooperation in important sectors – including science and technology, clean energy, trade and investment – and how we can deepen our defence and maritime security engagement”.
They will also attend Raisina Down Under, the Australian version of an annual event held in India to discuss the region, and issues facing the international community.
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Rural NSW’s underground abortion networks
A small but influential number of medical practitioners who either actively obstruct abortion care or who are uninterested in providing it are leaving women unable to access abortion in many parts of rural NSW.
These are the findings of a study of 16 healthcare providers, including GP registrars, GP obstetricians, nurses and midwives, revealing the existence of often underground networks of health workers providing access to abortion care to patients.
Melissa Davey has this full report:
Some more from the independents on that call for emissions reduction clarity:
Kylea Tink (North Sydney) said:
With a potential Trump presidency showing just how vulnerable climate change policies are to political ideology, our major parties owe it to Australians to be completely transparent on their emission reductions targets and how they plan to meet them.
Zoe Daniel (Goldstein) said:
Voters deserve to be provided with the full information they need to make an informed decision on climate policy at the next election. I repeat my call for the government to up their ambition and adopt a climate target of at least 75% by 2035.
Sophie Scamps (Mackellar) said:
I particularly have grave concerns that the nuclear aspirations of the Coalition means that we will remain heavily reliant on coal up until 2050 which means Australia will continue to be a high-emitting country throughout the 2030s and well into the 2040s.
Zali Steggall (Warringah) said:
We cannot insure our way out of the climate crisis so we must mitigate it and prepare. All sectors are clear: the markets needs strong clear long-term target commitments and policy certainty.
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Teals to call on major parties to release 2035 emissions reduction targets
Ryan and other independent MPs (Kylea Tink, Zoe Daniel, Sophie Scamps and Zali Steggall) will hold a press conference later this morning to call on the major parties to release their 2035 emissions reduction targets before the next election.
Ryan told ABC Radio that Australians want to know “what the major parties think about climate change and how they plan to act on it”.
Industry wants certainty, she says, adding that people want to understand the timelines and the economic benefits. In a press release, she said:
Australians want the major parties to demonstrate a strong commitment to action on climate change. Emissions reduction targets give industry certainty and will help guide the energy transition. Voters deserve to know exactly where the parties stand, before the next federal election.
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Monique Ryan speaks about giving up Qantas Chairman’s Lounge membership
Independent MP Monique Ryan is talking about giving up her Qantas Chairman’s Lounge membership. She said it initially seemed like it “came with the job”, that it “was going to be a good opportunity to catch ministers in the lounge and also to work while in transit”. She says after she was elected she became aware of “the insidious activities of lobbyists”:
It just began to sit poorly with me to be a member of those lounges.
Asked whether there should be a ban on free flight upgrades, Ryan says “it’s up to politicians and public servants to decide how to act, and that it was a “poor look” to solicit upgrades.
“I wouldn’t be accepting flight upgrades,” she says. On corporate events, she says transparency is key, that people should know who politicians are meeting with and why. She says the most important thing is more formal meetings:
We don’t have transparency around ministerial diaries, who ministers are meeting, why and when in the most important building in this country.
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Keough responds to question about royal commission into defence and veteran suicide
Keough is also veterans’ affairs minister. Asked if people in the ADF feel like they’re not being looked after in the wake of the royal commission into defence and veteran suicide, he says there are people within the forces who have concerns about the commission’s revelations but that today’s workforce plan also talks about the culture within the defence force.
The government will respond to the commission’s recommendations before the end of the year.
Updated
The US alliance ‘in good shape’ regardless of who becomes president, Marles says
Some more from Richard Marles earlier – a meeting with US presidential contender Donald Trump’s former top diplomat Mike Pompeo went well, he said (foreign affairs minister Penny Wong was also there). He said:
Firstly, the meeting did go well and the answer to [whether Australia would have a good relationship with a potential Trump administration] is yes.
Whoever is elected as the president of the United States is a matter for the American people but be it president Harris or president Trump, we are really confident that, firstly, the alliance will be in good shape … and that includes Aukus, Australia’s procurement of our future submarines.
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‘We need to extend the average time people stay in our defence force,’ says Matt Keough
The defence personnel minister, Matt Keough, has also been talking about that retention and renumeration package for defence.
We need to extend the average time people stay in our defence force.
He says an original bonus last year had an 80% take-up rate, that retention rates were increasing and separation rates were down to 9%.
And on the satellite plans that Marles was just talking about, Keough says the program involved “a small number of satellites”:
That does mean it had a vulnerability. We’re looking at moving to more of a mesh-type arrangement of satellites, which provides greater resilience, with a more up-to-date technology, and we’ll be able to deliver the technology faster as well.
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Marles says government ‘confident’ of meeting defence force retention targets
The defence minister, Richard Marles, is talking about the boost to the Australian defence force outlined earlier, as well as the extra support for Ukraine.
“We will be there for as long as it takes to help Ukraine resolve this conflict on its terms,” he says.
On the $600m investment on workforce retention, he says:
We are very much confident that we can meet these targets and that’s because we have properly funded them and we have a plan to get there, which is about really improving the terms of service for those who work in our defence forces.
We’re increasing and expanding the bonuses for continuing on in the defence force. We’re continuing the original retention bonus after your initial service obligation for three years and beyond that. There will be another bonus for people who stay in the defence force after that. And that’s really targeting those who are in their seventh, eighth, ninth years of service, which gets to the middle ranks where we’ve got an issue. And we’re also going to grow the active reserves so there are more opportunities for people in the reserve to do full-time or part-time work in the defence force.
Asked about reports the government has cancelled a $7bn investment in military satellites, Marles says it’s not a cancellation, but a “change in direction” to a more distributed and resilient system:
This original plan goes back seven or eight years and it was about having two or three satellites above Australia to deliver that capability. Since then, we have seen technologies develop which can shoot satellites out of the sky but we have also seen technologies develop where you have thousands of micro satellites in a more distributed way providing the same effect and we are seeing that with Starlink above Ukraine.
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Health minister says ‘back and forth of referrals’ is wasting GPs’ time
The health minister, Mark Butler, is talking about a report on allied health professionals being able to refer patients to specialists without going to the GP again.
He says it’s “common sense” that if a GP has referred someone to a psychologist, and the psychologist decides they need to see a psychiatrist, they shouldn’t have to go back to the GP again:
There are all sorts of inefficiencies that mean that a lot of precious time of our GPs is being soaked up through these sort of back and forth of referrals.
He’s talking about “artificial, inefficient restrictions” on what health professionals such as nurses, pharmacists, and so on can do.
It just doesn’t make sense not to use every skerrick of skills and training that all of our health professionals have.
“There are turf wars in health,” Butler says, but adds they can be broken down.
There are also digital inefficiencies, he says, with a system that “still uses too many fax machines and too much paper”. (My transcription service corrected “fax” to “Fauci” – it must have been trained in the Covid era.)
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‘Aukus would be safe under a Trump administration,’ Dave Sharma says
Liberal senator Dave Sharma is bullish about any future that involves Donald Trump in a second term as US president. He told ABC Breakfast this morning that Australia is an “ally in good standing” and foresees no issues with the Aukus deal (some are speculating Trump v.2 might not be so keen on helping us out with the Virginia-class submarines. Sharma said:
I don’t think we will face any difficulties. Aukus would be safe under a Trump administration.
On Trump possibly increasing tensions with China, Sharma said “his rhetoric might not necessarily be what is translated into reality”. And on the Middle East, he said:
Trump, in his first term in office, and everything he said on the record since suggests he is a strong supporter of Israel’s right to defend itself and right to defeat aggressive threats against it. I don’t expect much different in the way of diplomatic strategy in the Middle East.
And on the obligatory questions on flight upgrades? Sharma said he would declare any upgrades he received or asked for but that he has “never asked for and received upgrades”.
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Good morning, all! As briefed, expect that oddly Australian blend of serious economics and the carnival of the gee gees today. Not to mention the chaos of question time (there’ll be inflated rhetoric on interest rates) and everything else in between.
Tory Shepherd now in the saddle, with thanks to Martin Farrer for starting us off.
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Reserve Bank tipped to leave cash rate unchanged
Some more on that predicted rate freeze today: the Reserve Bank will conclude its penultimate board meeting this afternoon, and all indicators point to it leaving the cash rate unchanged at 4.35%.
A year ago, Michele Bullock used her second board meeting as RBA governor to hoist the key interest rate, making it the 13th increase since the central bank had started turning the monetary screw.
Today’s rates verdict will pop up at 2.30pm AEDT, half an hour before the Melbourne Cup is run. The likelihood of the RBA staying put is virtually a certainty.
Financial markets yesterday were rating the odds of a rate cut today at just one in 20, and the RBA officials have given no hints of a cut (or raise) in their public outings since its previous board meeting in late September.
Still, Bullock will hold her now customary media conference at 3.30pm to explain the board’s thinking. Interest, so to speak, may focus on whether the board had considered a rate cut at all – something it won’t have done since the Covid disruption era.
We’ll also have the RBA’s latest quarterly forecast update to mull over. How are GDP growth, unemployment, wages and other key economic indicators likely to evolve in the couple years? (Note these also use market expectations for interest rates – which may or may not be what RBA thinks will happen and do the setting.)
But we’ve noted previously, predictions have only so much value. Bullock and her board will no doubt be keen to see how the US elections go – much like the rest of us. A lot might change in a short time.
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Freebies frowned on
As mentioned at the start, our main story this morning is our Guardian Essential poll which this month asks voters what they think of the question of politicians receiving free concert tickets and flight upgrades.
It might make uncomfortable reading for some denizens of Parliament House. A majority of voters disapproved of politicians attending major concerts (63% to 23%), receiving complimentary flight upgrades (61% to 26%), attending major sporting events such as the Melbourne Cup and grand finals (59% to 27%), and accessing VIP airline lounges (58% to 28%).
About one in seven respondents (14%) were “unsure” whether politicians should accept these.
Here’s the full story:
RBA tipped to keep rates on hold
The Reserve Bank of Australia is widely tipped to keep rates on hold but a dovish turn in its post-meeting statement could lay the foundations for a pre-Christmas cut, Australian Associated Press reports.
The clear consensus of economists and the market is that the RBA board will keep the cash rate at 4.35% at Tuesday’s meeting, given underlying inflation persists higher than they would like.
But price growth has steadily declined, with headline inflation back within the RBA’s 2% to 3% target range, aided by government energy bill rebates.
AMP chief economist Shane Oliver still believes the central bank’s first cut will most likely come in February, though a December cut remains possible if monthly underlying inflation in October falls sharply and unemployment rises:
While inflation fell again in the September quarter, the RBA will likely regard underlying inflation at 3.5% year on year as still too high, with services inflation remaining sticky and will see still low unemployment as meaning that there is no urgency to cut.
But the continuing progress in getting inflation down may see it become a little less hawkish in its commentary and it may make small downwards revisions to its inflation and growth forecasts for next year.
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Government to expand military cash bonuses to aid retention
A cash bonus scheme to keep people in the military will be expanded as part of a $600m workforce strategy.
The Albanese government is due to announce a recruitment and retention package, in addition to releasing the 2024 defence workforce plan.
In an attempt to reduce the thousands of people leaving the Australian defence force, the government in 2023 launched a trial of $50,000 bonus payments for permanent personnel near the end of their initial mandatory period of service if they committed to the military for another three years.
The scheme has been a success, with an uptake rate of almost 80% and more than 3,100 junior rank personnel choosing to stay.
So the government has decided to extend the bonus to the 2027-28 financial year.
It will be reduced to $40,000 from July 2025 but expand to permanent ADF members around the seven- to nine-year service mark, to encourage career progression to middle ranks. The plan says:
These retention bonuses are short-term initiatives to alleviate pressure on the ADF’s junior and middle ranks, and address hollowness in the force.
Defence will aim to achieve “realistic growth” of a permanent ADF workforce of 69,000 by the early 2030s, with an overall workforce – including public servants – of about 100,000 by 2040.
The defence minister, Richard Marles, said the plan would help retain and grow a highly skilled workforce.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight news stories and then it’ll be Tory Shepherd with the main action.
A majority of voters think politicians should not accept perks of office including free tickets for concerts and sporting events, flight upgrades and VIP airline lounge access. As the political fallout of the perks row continues, our latest Guardian Essential poll of 1,131 voters could spell trouble for politicians.
Anthony Albanese and his ministers will surely be hoping that the Reserve Bank cuts the cash rate after its monthly monetary policy meeting today to ease pressure on households. But the bank is forecast to hold the rate steady at 4.35% with inflation remaining – in the view of the board – still too high. More coming up.
Also today, the Albanese government is due to announce a recruitment and retention package, in addition to releasing the 2024 defence workforce plan. It includes the extension and expansion of a scheme that pays hefty bonuses to personnel who stick with the military. More on that soon.
Much of Australia is bracing for a heatwave that could make some northern areas “the hottest place in the world” this week, according to the BoM. Temperatures across some parts of Queensland and the NT are expected to exceed 40C today, while Brisbane will be into the 30s, with Sydney getting there tomorrow. Cup day looks like being a good one with a high of 26C in Melbourne, before the mercury hits the high 30s later in the week. More coming up.
