What we learned: Thursday, 20 February
With that, we will wrap the blog for the evening. Thanks for reading. Here were the biggest developments of the day:
The prime minister has announced $2.4bn for the Whyalla steelworks. He told the workforce he knew that it had “been a difficult time”.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has issued a rare rebuke of Donald Trump after the US president labelled the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a “dictator”. The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said we “cannot assume we can rely on America” under Trump.
Australia will “watch every move” of three Chinese warships which have been detected off the country’s east coast, the defence minister has said.
Tasmanian authorities have begun euthanising false killer whales that beached on the state’s remote north-west coast.
The home affairs department will return to its former “super portfolio” status under a Coalition government, the shadow home affairs minister has promised.
And Google and Meta do not meet the requirements to partner with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the organisation has said, after the two tech companies ended their official involvement and ditched diversity obligations in the US.
Updated
Victorian government urged to add protections for protesting to anti-vilification laws
Human rights and legal groups have urged the Victorian government to add a “public interest” defence to its anti-vilification legislation.
The Human Rights Law Centre and Federation of Community Legal Centres both issued statements on Thursday afternoon as the Victorian government continued negotiations with the Greens after an attempt to gain the Coalition’s support failed.
The government had removed the “political purpose” defence that was opposed by the Coalition and Jewish community groups in an effort to shore up support. But the Coalition has now raised concerns about the civil element of the bill, forcing the government to turn to the crossbench to negotiate.
As those negotiations continued on Thursday, the two groups said the government’s removal of the defence without any replacement was concerning.
They urged the government to add a new safeguard to protect “legitimate public protest and freedom of political communication”.
The federation said this type of defence has “clear legal precedent” and would safeguard Victorians’ right to protest.
Their chief executive, Louisa Gibbs, said:
Community legal centres have a long history of supporting local community activists standing up to injustice by leading protest movements to achieve justice and human rights. Laws that infringe on rights to protest have far-reaching implications for our democracy and particularly for people in our society who face the greatest structural barriers to justice.
Sarah Schwartz, legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said:
It represents a positive step that anti-vilification laws will now protect everyone from hate, no matter their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or ethnicity. Any exceptions to these laws for the purpose of religious teaching should be extremely limited, otherwise these laws risk being selectively applied, and undermining principles of equality and non-discrimination.
Updated
