That's it for today, thanks for reading
Here are the main stories on Monday, 25 July:
- The former prime minister Scott Morrison will miss the first week of the new parliament because of a visit to Japan;
- Another former PM, Paul Keating, slams a planned visit to Taiwan by US house speaker Nancy Pelosi as a “reckless and provocative act” that would be “foolish, dangerous and unnecessary”;
- Parcels are being checked for foot-and-mouth disease but the Australian government says the border should not shut, despite calls from the Coalition;
- Senator David Pocock calls for ‘climate trigger’ in environment laws ahead of new parliament opening;
- Crossbench MPs including Zali Steggall, Dai Le, Kate Chaney, Sophie Scamps, Kylea Tink, and Zoe Daniel met the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, this morning to discuss cuts to their office staffing, but left empty handed;
- Albanese also addressed caucus ahead of the first sitting day tomorrow; and
- Australia records 32 Covid deaths and more than 35,000 cases.
We will see you here tomorrow for all the action from parliament and across the country. Enjoy the rest of your night.
Victorian government names alternate planning minister
AAP reports on the fairly odd way the Andrews government is seeking to avoid conflicts arising from the planning minister having a brother who is a prominent lobbyist:
The Victorian government has appointed another minister to rule on cases connected to a lobbying firm with family ties to the state’s planning minister.
Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio will rule on matters involving Hawker Britton, whose director John-Paul Blandthorn is the brother of planning minister Lizzie Blandthorn.
Hawker Britton’s clients include construction giant John Holland, tasked with building the West Gate Tunnel, Mirvac, the Dennis Family Corporation and Melbourne Airport.
Blandthorn was given decision-making powers on planning permits and land rezoning following her appointment as planning minister last month, in a sweeping cabinet reshuffle ahead of the November state election.
In response to potential or perceived conflicts of interest, the Andrews government announced an alternate minister would be delegated for matters linked to Hawker Britton but did not confirm who would fill the role until Monday.
Opposition planning spokesman, Ryan Smith, said the situation remains “unworkable” despite Blandthorn’s exclusion, and called for the premier to immediately appoint a planning minister capable of performing the role.
“Victoria’s planning and construction sectors deserve certainty and consistency in decision making,” he said in a statement.
Blandthorn’s office has been contacted for comment.
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Paul Keating blasts planned Nancy Pelosi visit to Taiwan as ‘foolish, dangerous’
Former prime minister Paul Keating has slammed a planned visit to Taiwan by US house speaker Nancy Pelosi as a “reckless and provocative act” that would be “foolish, dangerous and unnecessary”.
In a statement just released, Keating said:
US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi – the third-ranked figure in the American hierarchy – is reported to be planning a visit to Taiwan, despite the urging of Administration officials from her own party. It is hard to imagine a more reckless and provocative act.
Across the political spectrum, no observer of the cross-straits relationship between China and Taiwan doubts that such a visit by the Speaker of the American Congress may degenerate into military hostilities.
If the situation is misjudged or mishandled, the outcome for the security, prosperity and order of the region and the world (and above all for Taiwan) would be catastrophic.
A visit by Pelosi would be unprecedented - foolish, dangerous and unnecessary to any cause other than her own.
Over decades, countries like the United States and Australia have taken the only realistic option available on cross-straits relations. We encourage both sides to manage the situation in a way that ensures that the outcome for a peaceful resolution is always available.
But that requires a contribution from us – calm, clear and sensitive to the messages being sent. A visit by Pelosi would threaten to trash everything that has gone before.
When the United States has a divided foreign policy on an issue of such grave importance, the world begins a slide onto very thin ice.
You can read more about that planned visit here:
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Two high-profile retailers pause use of facial recognition technology in stores
Kmart and Bunnings have paused the use of facial recognition technology in their stores, amid an investigation from Australia’s privacy regulator.
Consumer group Choice last month revealed Bunnings and Kmart were using the technology – which captures images of people’s faces from video cameras as a unique faceprint that is then stored and can be compared with other faceprints – in what the companies say is a move to protect customers and staff and reduce theft in select stores.
The two companies are now being investigated by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) over their use of the technology and whether it is consistent with privacy laws.
The full story is here:
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Caroline Kennedy says 'many' Aukus announcements to come
AAP has this report, adding to the news we brought you earlier regarding the incoming US ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy:
The newly minted United States ambassador to Australia has hinted further announcements on the trilateral AUKUS security alliance are imminent.
Caroline Kennedy handed over her credentials to the governor general in Canberra on Monday where she hosted the US embassy’s first Indigenous welcome to country and smoking ceremony.
Kennedy is due to meet with prime minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday.
“The United States and Australia are the closest allies,” she told reporters after the ceremony.
“I’m really looking forward to meeting the prime minister. I haven’t met him yet.
“I know (Mr Albanese) had a great meeting with President Biden so I’m looking to follow up on that and see what can best do to advance our shared goals.”
Kennedy also pre-empted further announcements on the Aukus alliance between Australia, the US and the UK when asked about what message she would be bringing to the prime minister.
“There are many announcements that are going to be coming in the coming weeks, so I think it’s best to let those unfold,” she said when asked about the alliance.
Upon her arrival on Friday, Kennedy admitted the US needs to take up a greater role in the region, as Washington renews its national security strategy in the Indo-Pacific.
“China certainly has a big presence here in the region,” she said after landing.
“The US needs to do more. We’re putting our embassies back in and the Peace Corps is coming, and USAID is coming back.
“It’s certainly a big focus now. This is a critical area in the region.”
The ambassador also confirmed she would be travelling to Solomon Islands with US deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman at the end of next week.
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Thank you Amy Remeikis, who as we all know would NEVER miss a parliamentary sitting week.
Nino Bucci assures me he is like a coiled spring, ready to take the blog for the evening.
Mike Bowers (who is at the War Memorial for the Last Post ceremony because he never stops) and I will be back tomorrow morning for the opening of the 47th Parliament.
Until then, check back on the site for updates and we will see you back for Politics Live very soon.
Take care of you.
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Market moves on clean energy bid
While there’s understandable interest in the Albanese government’s climate negotiations with the Greens and new independent (and teal-tinged) ACT senator David Pocock, financial markets are making their own moves.
Shares of Genex Energy gained almost half (44%) in value today after Atlassian co-founder and tech billionaire Scott Farquhar and his wife, Kim Jackson, made a takeover bid for the developer of a pumped-hydro scheme in an old gold mine in Queensland.
A tidy jump in @Genex_Power's share price today, although still well shy of the 23 cents being offered by @scottfarkas and his wife Kim Jackson (and Stonepeak) to take over the company. pic.twitter.com/Dg9DNJuiFe
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) July 25, 2022
The bid, which includes Stonepeak (“a leading alternative investment firm specialising in infrastructure and real assets”), is 70% above the “last undisturbed closing price” of Genex on Friday of 13.5 cents. Compared with the previous month’s average share price, the offer is almost double.
Farquhar and Jackson’s Skip Essential Infrastructure Fund were already shareholders of Genex prior to snapping up a share of just shy of 20% of the ASX-listed company.
Much like his co-founder buddy at Atlassian, Mike Cannon-Brookes, Farquhar has been tipping his toe in the post-fossil fuel world. Skip and Stonepeak, according to a statement, are “passionate about achieving a successful transition to a renewable energy-powered future”.
(MCB’s most prominent move in this space has been his tilt to takeover AGL Energy, Australia’s biggest electricity generator and (reported) greenhouse gas emitter. Mike foiled AGL’s demerger plan and apparently is lying low while the company gets a new chairman.)
Farquhar is a lot less active on social media than Mike but we can’t help wonder at this last tweet that Scott ‘liked’:
Octopuses have shown high levels of intelligence, and the ability to use trial-and-error problem-solving. If part of an octopus intelligence is distributed in its arms, watch this one gathering data with them to open a jar [source, full video: https://t.co/XFvv6knbpD] pic.twitter.com/igcoagX2cs
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 7, 2022
Still, Atlassian is keen to make it clear that Jackson, not Farquhar, is leading the bid. It’s apparently “very much in her wheelhouse” and taps into Jackson’s extensive experience in infrastructure.
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The traditional Last Post ceremony at the Australian War Memorial is being held. It is held every day, but the one before a new parliament is a little different as the MPs attend. Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton will both lay wreaths.
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Well it looks like agriculture minister Murray Watt has the support of the National Farmers’ Federation over not closing the Australian-Indonesian border:
Extraordinary attack from Nationals leader David Littleproud on @NationalFarmers for daring to question his record on biosecurity & his border hysteria. Unlike the Opposition, we will work with industry to keep FMD out, not just play politics & endanger ag trade. pic.twitter.com/xv7RiObKAU
— Senator Murray Watt (@MurrayWatt) July 25, 2022
🤷♀️😂 He seemed to think we were representative a couple of months ago 🤔 (except when we were pushing for the national bio-security strategy or more $$ for bio-security that is …😉)
— Fiona Simson (@afsnsw) July 25, 2022
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Alok Sharma visits Canberra
Alok Sharma, the British Conservative cabinet minister who was president of last year’s Cop26 UN climate conference in Glasgow, is in Canberra today as part of his global advocacy role for stronger action that lives up to the 2015 Paris agreement.
He met with several members of the Albanese government – the defence minister and deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, the climate change minister, Chris Bowen, and assistant climate change minister, Jenny McAllister – and visited the city’s Stirling Park for a private tour of cultural and ecological sites with Ngunnawal guides.
At a press conference in the park, he told journalists his key message was:
I very much welcome the fact that Australia is back on the frontline in the fight against climate change.
While Sharma described the government’s 2030 target of a 43% cut below 2005 levels as a “great start”, he added: “I think there’s an opportunity to build on this.”
Noting the ongoing wildfires in Britain, Europe and the US, and Australia’s own experience with fire and floods, he said:
We can no longer say that climate change is something that happens to other people. It doesn’t recognise borders and that’s why we need all of humanity to act together on this most vital issue.
He was also asked about Australia’s hopes of hosting a major climate summit in partnership with Pacific countries and what other countries would expect from it if it was successful. He replied:
When you do become the host and you ask others to show ambition they in turn very politely ask you to explain what your level of ambition is. I spent a large part of 2020 talking to countries, explaining to them that they’ve got to show more ambition and I was always asked what was the UK’s 2030 emissions reduction target.
Britain’s target is a 68% cut by 2030 compared with 1990 levels. It is equivalent to a 63% cut below 2005 levels.
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US ambassador to Australia welcomed to Ngunnawal country
A smoking ceremony has been held at the US embassy to welcome Caroline Kennedy to Ngunnawal country.
US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy takes part in a smoking ceremony with Ngunnawal Elders. It’s the first Welcome to Country at the US Embassy. @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/UexXNqCZGj
— Pablo Viñales (@pablovinales) July 25, 2022
The ambassador gave a few remarks at the end:
This is really one of the most important days of my life, to become, officially, the United States’ ambassador to Australia, and to be here on this Ngunnawal land.
And to mark this moment with a ceremony that carries so much significance makes me feel a great deal of responsibility and strengthens my commitment to work to strengthen the bonds between our nations and our peoples.
You here represent the oldest civilisation on Earth, and I think that the traditions and values and cultures that you have passed on and are passing on really have so much to teach the rest of us as we seek to reconcile our differences in this fractured world and face the great challenge of caring for our environment. So I’m grateful that you’re here today as I begin this new chapter.
The United States and Australia are the closest of allies, and we are global partners working for peace and stability, health security, and economic prosperity and opportunity in this region and beyond.
And so, during my time as ambassador, my husband and I look forward to meeting as many Australians and First Nations peoples as we can, and learning from the next generation how we can all pass on a more just and peaceful and healthy world to our children. So, thank you, all, very much for coming.
And thank you all for conducting this ceremony and for explaining this – I will keep this with me during my time here.
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Territory rights bill to be introduced next week
A bill to overturn a federal ban on the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory from making their own laws on voluntary assisted dying will be introduced to parliament next Monday.
The private member’s bill, on territory rights, was agreed in the Labor caucus room meeting today. Member for Solomon, Luke Gosling, will introduce the bill in the House of Representatives and the chamber will debate it for several hours.
Labor will give members a conscience vote on the issue.
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What is a conscience vote?
A conscience vote is basically a free vote that allows members of parliament to vote according to their personal beliefs – that is, not having to vote along the lines of their political party. (However, the choice lies with each party as to whether they will allow their members a conscience vote.)
These votes are usually used for social issues like abortion and euthanasia.
Liberal MPs are supposed to always have the right to vote on their conscience (it is one of the main differences in the party structures) but very rarely do.
Your questions answered: who is the Speaker of the House?
After a federal election and the official opening of parliament, the Speaker of the House of Representatives is chosen in a secret vote. They are members nominated by the government, and are expected to treat all members equally.
The Speaker doesn’t usually contribute to debates, and they don’t vote unless there is a tie. They act like a chairperson – running House of Representatives meetings and making sure standing orders (rules) are obeyed.
Over in the senate, that role is played by the president.
You may have seen people “dragged” to the chair. Not in the “drag them” sense, but the successful nominee does pretend to be quite reluctant about taking up the role.
The parliament website describes it thusly:
The custom had its origin in the genuine reluctance with which early Speakers accepted the office, for the role of spokesman for an emerging body of legislators bent on opposing the royal will was a dangerous occupation … Until discontinued by Speaker Onslow in 1728 it was the custom for the Speaker-elect to struggle with his proposer and seconder, resisting every inch of the way to the Chair with the result that he was literally dragged to it.
Now, they just get an extra $159,000 or so on top of their backbench salary for their trouble.
Why do MPs sometimes hold papers over their heads?
Sometimes members of parliament hold a piece of paper above their heads when talking and it looks a bit odd.
It comes from tradition in the British parliament, where members would either put on a hat or cover their head with a paper to get the Speaker’s attention when it got loud in the chamber during division vote time (when bells ring and people move around).
We don’t actually have anything in the Australian Senate or House of Representatives rules making the paper-over-head thing official. Instead, discussion about a division vote is supposed to come after the bells.
Nonetheless, some Australian members of parliament have a thing about British tradition, and so continue to cover their heads to speak during a division to speak.
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Greens leader says legislation should not ‘put obstacles in the way’ of lifting emissions reductions target in future
Adam Bandt has also spoken to the ABC about the upcoming climate legislation and going further than the 43% target:
If legislation put in place an obstacle on that, if the legislation says you have to come back to parliament to change the law before you can lift your target, that would be an obstacle that at the moment a current government doesn’t have.
Our point is if we are going to legislate targets, don’t put obstacles in the way of future governments that might be prepared to listen to the [science on this] and have ambitious targets.
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Anika Wells says ADF in aged care ‘getting us through the winter wave’
Aged care minister, Anika Wells, has bookended her day with ABC appearances. After radio this morning, Wells is now on Afternoon Briefing, where she is again talking the extension of the ADF in aged care centres. She uses very similar lines to this morning:
I was grateful to the defence minister to allow us to keep having the ADF in aged care until 30 September to make sure we can get everyone through the winter wave.
I think it is important for people and us to know this is an extreme measure, a desperate measure. Nobody wants ADF troops deployed to aged care, they have plenty of other important work to do. [They are] getting us through the winter wave and part of the job is turning the Queen Mary around and addressing the workforce shortages in the coming winter.
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Shadow emergency services minister questions Labor appointment of special envoy for disaster recovery
The shadow emergency services minister, Perin Davey, has some thoughts on Labor’s disaster envoy:
After sacking the independent national resilience and recovery commissioner, the Labor government have announced a new role for one of their own, appointing Senator Tony Sheldon as special envoy for disaster recovery.
Davey questioned how a Labor insider would do a better job than an arm’s length commissioner.
“I find it extraordinary that Labor called out our government for appointing a temporary drought envoy – which identified the need for an independent coordinator, yet here they are getting rid of the commissioner and going back to what they called ‘jobs for the boys’,” she said.
“We need to know what the special envoy will do, what his responsibilities are, what his accountabilities will be and importantly, how much extra resources he gets in terms of staff and salary.
“As a public servant, the NRRA commissioner, and before him, the coordinator general for drought, was accountable to Senate estimates. We need to know who Senator Sheldon will be accountable to.
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And from the third picfac of the day (the Labor caucus meeting) as seen by Mike Bowers:
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John Curtin hotel’s survival hopes buoyed by Victorian heritage win
We have had a few people ask for an update on this – and Benita Kolovos has delivered:
The John Curtin hotel in Melbourne could be saved from redevelopment after the state heritage agency recommended it be included on the Victorian heritage register due to its cultural and historical significance.
The Victorian Trades Hall Council and the National Trust of Australia on Monday confirmed Heritage Victoria has assessed their nomination of the Curtin, as it is affectionately known, and recommended it be placed on the register.
Their joint nomination cited the hotel’s association with the labour movement, its continuing role as a live music venue and links to Labor’s longest-serving prime minister, Bob Hawke.
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The US once again has an ambassador in Australia:
US Ambassador to Canberra Caroline Kennedy is welcomed to country pic.twitter.com/MM1ukK6hG3
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) July 25, 2022
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What is the difference between the House and Senate?
The Australian parliament is split up into two: the Senate and the House of Representatives. (And because we are a commonwealth, the Queen of England technically joins them.)
The Senate has red seats and carpet, with 76 senators that represent states and territories. The House of Representatives has green seats and carpet, with 151 members that represent each electorate.
If you think back to election day, you might remember receiving two ballots. The white one was for the Senate, and the green one for the House of Representatives.
Bills (aka legislation) usually originate in the House of Representatives. To become law, they have to get through further debate and discussion in both the House and the Senate.
The parliament is split like this so each chamber can hold the other to account.
Is there a code of conduct for parliamentarians?
Under the House of Representatives Standing Orders, a “disorderly” member can be told to leave the debate for an hour by the Speaker of the House. That disorderly conduct might look like disobeying orders of the House, using “objectionable words” or persistently disregarding the authority of the Speaker.
Once booted out, that member then can’t participate in the meeting, make a speech or vote during that hour.
This mostly happens during Question Time, when members of parliament put tough questions to the government (usually the liveliest/shoutiest part of the sitting day).
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What does a parliamentary sitting look like?
Tomorrow, the 47th Australian parliamentary sitting is commencing in our House of Representatives. It is the first of Anthony Albanese’s government.
Yes, members of parliament will be sitting in chairs, but that’s not the whole meaning of the term. Parliament sitting is basically a formal meeting that happens around 20 weeks a year in one- or two-week blocks. It is when the whole parliament – the government, opposition and independents – come together to talk and make decisions on things like laws.
The days are heavily scheduled and bound by rules set out in standing orders. They start with government business, which is when planned issues or proposed laws are presented and debated.
Then members give statements until Question Time rolls around at 2pm. This is when speakers take questions, a lot of the time from their opposition, to put each other to the test, highlight their own achievements, and make the opposing party look weak.
After that is the presentation of documents, where government documents like annual reports and investigation findings are put forward and ministers can motion that “the house take note of the document” (which means they want to bring it up for debate).
Then comes the matters of public importance; a discussion on one issue, usually brought up by the opposition criticising how the government is doing something.
After that are prepared statements from any ministers that want to speak, and finally the day ends on more government business.
What is that ominous Black Rod?
A rod made of ebony wood that wears a silver crown lives in the Senate. It is called the Black Rod, and is a ceremonial object carried by the Usher of the Black Rod while doing things like escorting the President of the Senate into and out of the Senate to start and finish each sitting day, standing guard, and delivering messages or bills from the Senate to the House of Representatives.
The Rod has an usher?
Yep! When not at work Ushering the Rod in the Senate, they have practical responsibilities like organising finance, human resources, printing and accommodation for senators and staff in the Department of the Senate.
The Usher of the Black Rod is a tradition that dates back to the 1500s in Britain. They served the British House of Lords, and were an officer of a British order of Knighthood called the Most Noble Order of the Garter. If someone offended the order, the Black Rod itself was used to discipline them. (We don’t do that in Australia, I don’t think.)
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Your questions answered: maiden speeches
What is a first speech?
The first speech given by a newly elected member of parliament is sometimes referred to as a maiden speech. (Where the name comes from, I do not know.)
Etymology aside - there is a tradition that a first speech is heard without interruption after the chair announces a first speech is being made. In return, the speaker should avoid being controversial and provocative. However, that tradition has been broken before. For example, Pauline Hanson saying “I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians” – among other things – in her 1996 maiden speech. And in 1953, John McEwen interjected Gough Whitlam’s.
Technically, Australia’s parliament doesn’t really use the term “maiden speech” anymore. (On the parliament website and Hansard records, only “first” speeches are referred to.) But colloquially, we still throw the phrase around.
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Mike Bowers was there for picfac number two (and three, the photos just haven’t loaded as yet):
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So for anyone who hasn’t paid attention to federal politics since May 22, that speech probably helped catch you up on what Labor is planning on doing.
Albanese thanks party, tells caucus to ‘enjoy tomorrow’ as parliament returns
Anthony Albanese finishes with:
Our task is very different. Our task is to unite people, look for common ground and common purpose. That’s something I want this caucus to do.
This caucus has such a critical role to play ... We have a great responsibility to the people who have sent us here. People who need a Labor government to make a difference to their lives.
I’m very confident that over coming weeks, months and years, that is precisely what we will be doing.
So, welcome to Canberra. Welcome back. And enjoy tomorrow.
This is the fourth time since World War II and the fifth time in 100 years that Labor has formed government from opposition.
We are only able to do that because of your hard work, because of your commitment, because of your principles, because of the people, the party members and volunteers and union members who have sent you here, you do so much work and will never be interested in appearing in a public forum.
We have a great responsibility to those people to really be the best government that we can possibly be and to make them proud. I’m very proud to lead this party and to lead this government and I hope that we make the people who have sent us here collectively proud each and every day.
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PM says asylum seeker boat announcement during election campaign was ‘unprincipled’ and ‘appalling’
He then moves on to the report of the Sri Lankan boat announcement, on the last day of the election campaign (Paul Karp covered that report here):
Albanese:
I think if we needed a final reminder of the legacy that we inherit, it’s come out on the weekend with the report into what occurred on May 21. Actions by a government breaching all convention. Breaching all principles and breaching everything that is decent. Trying to scare people into a vote on polling day and trying to trash the separation that is there between government and the independent public service during caretaker convention periods.
This is unprecedented for a government to act like that on polling day ... what we know now is that then prime minister gave a statement before any public statement had been given by the department.
This is a guy who used to say that he would not give answers to anything about these issues, they were on-water matters. And here we have an unprincipled action by a government that was desperate and was prepared to do anything whatsoever to try to retain power.
And it was an appalling act, and it should be – they should be held to account for that appalling act on the final day. That trashing of convention which is the way the politics has to operate if we’re going to have faith in the political processes. It was one last example of a government that will be defined by its seeking of division in society.
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PM: ‘We’re not really interested’ in wedge politics
Anthony Albanese:
The former government sat around and talked about how do we wedge the other side of politics? We’re not really interested in that. What we are interested in is getting solution to people for the challenges that are there and we will be doing that.
We will also, of course, be dealing with the legacy that we’ve inherited. $1 trillion of debt with not much to show for it is a real challenge. For the people that we represent, who are suffering under cost of living pressures, and we know that that is the case, but we know as well that you can’t continue to spend money without having consequences. We want value for money, which is why we will be going through the budget line by line, getting rid of the waste and the rorts that we have seen that costs so much, not just in terms financially but has cost in our humanity as well.
Schemes like robodebt have cost us as a society but as well, of course, sports rorts and all of these things that were baked into the budget. We will be going through, going forward.
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Then he moves on to legislation:
Labor governments don’t just occupy the space, we are here to make a difference and this week we will have legislation, at least 18 pieces of legislation, including legislation for our climate change target. Legislation for 10 days paid domestic and family violence leave, something we’ve spoken about for a long period of time. Legislation to respond to the aged care royal commission. Why do you have a royal commission and then, you sit on the recommendations? That’s what the former government did. And legislation to create Jobs and Skills Australia which is important in the lead-up to the jobs and skills summit that will be held here in a little over one month’s time here in the Parliament.
In addition to that, in coming weeks we will have child care legislation. We will be acting on our urgent care clinics, putting them in place. We will, by the end of the year, have legislation on the anti-corruption commission.
We will, as well, be advancing the Voice to Parliament enshrined in our Constitution. In all of this, in all of this is the what, and the how is also important, so we want to change the tone of politics in this country. We want to be more inclusive.
We want to make sure there’s less shouting more delivery.
He moves on to Covid and foot-and-mouth disease:
In addition, we have the ongoing challenge of course of dealing with Covid and Mark Butler has been working with the health authorities and I’ve been working with states and territories to deal with the consequences of Covid, making sure that we get those messages out there, making sure that people continue to do the right thing, get their boosters if they are eligible, making sure that support is available and that’s why we’ve extended support for the hospital network, beyond that which was envisaged by the former government.
We of course have also had to deal with natural disasters. All of these things are not unrelated. The floods, where many people in Susan Templeman’s electorate have been hit with three floods and a bushfire in the last few years.
The consequences of that – we were there, providing support earlier than ever before, the earlier deployment of the ADF, earlier deployment of state support, the support that goes from the two levels of government but also, earlier engagement of support that is provided by the commonwealth with those payments.
And Bill Shorten was straight on to the government services to make sure that that support was available really early, and Murray Watt has had an enormous amount to deal with between that and dealing with responsibly the foot-and-mouth disease issue that we know is affecting Indonesia.
We were there, up on the ground, making a difference and making a difference here, not trying to create opportunistic positions, like our opponents, but working with the National Farmers’ Federation, the Northern Cattlemen’s Association, the sector that were directly affected and doing action in consultation with them.
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Climate change is a national security issue, says PM
Anthony Albanese is going through what has been done and what the agenda is moving forward:
Climate change is a national security issue. That is well understood throughout the world, but nowhere more so than with our Pacific neighbours. And when we met at the Pacific Islands Forum just a couple of weeks ago, our changed position was included in the communique and it was very much welcomed going forward. And it has made an enormous difference.
As well, we have dealt with the challenges that come to government and one of those is, of course, the consequences of having a decade of inaction on energy policy means we’ve had a decade of failure of investment in new, clean energy, because how can you invest ... when you don’t have any going forward, when there is no policy framework?
Business has been crying out for that framework but we’ve had to deal with the consequences of that inaction and Chris Bowen has done a remarkable job in dealing with a challenge.
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Anthony Albanese continued:
Already we have made the changes that we made to the minimum wage and I said during the election campaign I held up my $1 coin and said that people on $20.33 deserve an extra $1 an hour which is what we’re talking about and, indeed, the fair work commission granted them $1 and now with an increase there is no doubt that that would not have occurred had the change in government not happened on May 21.
We already submitted our naturally wonderful nationally determined contribution to change the climate change targets to the United Nations framework convention on climate change. 43%. Consistent with what we took to the election. But is meant we have been able to walk through the door of international discussions, not just about climate but about trade and economic relationships, about how social relationships, whether that be at the Quad leaders meeting, whether it be at Indonesia, the NATO summit, where European countries welcomed the change in our position and we’ve restarted negotiations for a European trade agreement that’s very much in the interests of Australia. That change has made an enormous difference.
PM: Labor government ‘will hit the ground running’ in parliament
Anthony Albanese continued:
It will be a big deal tomorrow, particularly, there are many people who have been here for a while without having sat on a different side of the chamber.
And, believe me, as somebody who has done both, one is much better than the other. But it is also an enormous privilege and one that we should never take for granted and we should cherish each and every day.
We have an incredible responsibility is the political party in Australia that seeks positive change in the interest of working people, that seeks to change existing power relationships in society in favour of more equality and in favour of fairness, to make a difference in the way that we legislate on the way that the government acts each and every day.
And the government has, fair to say, in its first two months that we celebrated just a day or so ago, on the 21st, we have certainly hit the ground running and we have hit the ground running because Labor governments are passionate about changing things for the better.
We were elected with a significant platform, one in which you will be reminded of with the governor general speech before the parliament tomorrow when parliament opens.
That governor general speech will outline a government of ambition, a government which sees it has a responsibility. To break Australia out of the inertia that the former government was stuck in. We often came to the parliament without much to do in terms of an agenda before the parliament.
This Labor government will not be like that and we will hit the ground running.
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Anthony Albanese addresses caucus
The prime minister is delivering a speech to the party room (cameras have been invited):
I pay my respect to elders past, present and emerging and commit on behalf of the government to the Uluru Statement From The Heart in full.
We will have more to say to that, about that at a festival that I will be attending along with members of the team on the weekend of Friday and Saturday.
... Welcome to our new senators. To get a third senator from WA ... I spoke during the campaign and I did say, I was confident about three in WA, you could feel the sense of change that was there throughout that great state.
But it took a significant campaign including a Senate campaign to get that third seat across the line and in Linda [White], I am so pleased that I have a dear friend of mine for decades, we were both very young, we met very young and Linda has been an extraordinary contributor through the ASU particularly for women’s work and for equity and social justice issues.
She also has, of course, been a member of the ALPA national executive of long standing, and has done great work ... chiefly in terms of letting some of our thinktank playing a leading role there and in Linda and Fatima we have two outstanding additions to the team so, welcome.
But, indeed, I think we have a great team and I welcome all of you here the day before Parliament begins.
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June quarter CPI figures due Wednesday
A busy few days ahead on the economics front, with the ABS due to release its June quarter CPI figures on Wednesday.
It feels like a long time ago that the March quarter numbers landed right in the middle of the formal election campaign, with the “headline” or raw numbers coming in at an annual rate of 5.1%.
That number was large enough to raise immediately the prospect of the first rate rise by the RBA that duly landed the following Tuesday, damaging the Morrison government’s case that it was a strong economic manager.
The central bank subsequently lifted its cash rate at its June and July board meetings and investors are already speculating that another large rate hike is coming at its August gathering next week almost regardless of what the June CPI numbers look like:
Investors remain very 'bullish' about the pace of interest rate rises. There's a three-in-four chance that the RBA will lift its cash rate by 65 basis points to 2% at its board meeting on August 2nd - at least according to their bets. pic.twitter.com/3rufqZi5zd
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) July 25, 2022
As it is, the main inflation question seems to be how well the RBA’s prediction that the CPI peaking at 7% will go. Economists are tipping the June number will come in at more than 6%, but if anything, the forecasts (including the RBA’s) have been underestimating the price rises so far and may fall short again.
Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is due to release his statement on the economy on Thursday. He will be waiting for what those Australian inflation numbers before finishing his script but will also will have an eye on what the US Federal Reserve – America’s central bank equivalent – does Thursday morning, our time. Another big rate rise in the US will have flow-on effects globally.
Energy prices, meanwhile, are likely to remain highly influential for inflation at home and abroad. While petrol and diesel prices have another couple of months to run with the 22.1 cents excise discount (unless Chalmers extends it), wholesale electricity prices remain highly elevated – and are likely to remain so particularly in NSW for quite a while yet.
Latest data on future wholesale power prices...some modest pullback but still elevated. (Back in the March quarter prices had doubled in the National Energy Market but only to a piffling $87/mwh: https://t.co/ugb4JBsMTO ) pic.twitter.com/iDEJYvmHnK
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) July 25, 2022
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For those missed the earlier post
Thank you to those who have expressed concern.
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) July 25, 2022
In short - Penny v Surfboard and Surfboard won. pic.twitter.com/aN5LdZC6CG
National Covid summary: 32 deaths reported
Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 32 deaths from Covid-19:
ACT
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 790
- In hospital: 162 (with 1 person in ICU)
NSW
- Deaths: 7
- Cases: 10,769
- In hospital: 2,329 (with 58 people in ICU)
Northern Territory
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 334
- In hospital: 70 (with 1 person in ICU)
Queensland
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 6,109
- In hospital: 1,024 (with 28 people in ICU)
South Australia
- Deaths: 19
- Cases: 3,363
- In hospital: 384 (with 11 people in ICU)
Tasmania
- Deaths: 2
- Cases: 1,025
- In hospital: 49 (with 2 people in ICU)
Victoria
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 10,261
- In hospital: 855 (with 35 people in ICU)
Western Australia
- Deaths: 4
- Cases: 3,856
- In hospital: 432 (with 24 people in ICU)
Scott Morrison issues statement on absence from parliament sitting
The former prime minister and current member for Cook, Scott Morrison, has issued a statement explaining why he is not attending parliament this sitting week.
Morrison said:
Prior to the new government advising the sitting schedule for the remainder of 2022, I had already accepted an invitation to join other former Prime Ministers from Canada, the UK and New Zealand to address an international event to be held in Tokyo this week. As a consequence I will be unable to attend the first three sitting days of the new Parliament this week.
Both the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition were advised of my intended travel and absence from the Parliament this week.
While in Tokyo, in addition to making an address on the role of the Quad in promoting stability in the Indo-Pacific, I will be holding a series of meetings with Japanese political and business leaders and will have the opportunity to join other former leaders to express my condolences for the passing of Prime Minister Abe following his assassination.
I will return to Australia to be present in the Parliament on August 1, 2022.
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Emergency services minister asked about music festival locations after Splendour in the Grass hit with torrential rain
Murray Watt was asked (as emergency services minister) whether we need to rethink where we hold festivals, given climate change and the impact of weather on these events.
He said not yet, but there are people looking at these sorts of things.
Here is what the aftermath of Splendour looked like as everyone packed up and left (after some bogged car assistance in a lot of cases):
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Crossbenchers leave staffing meeting empty-handed
A group of metropolitan crossbench MPs including Zali Steggall, Dai Le, Kate Chaney, Sophie Scamps, Kylea Tink, and Zoe Daniel met the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, this morning to discuss the staffing cuts.
Guardian Australia understands the MPs have left empty-handed, with no softening of the cuts.
Albanese indicated he may revisit the issue after the review of the Members of Parliament Staff Act, due by 30 September. There’s also a suggestion that electorate office allowances might be increased, to allow EO staff to travel to parliament during sitting weeks more often.
On Friday we revealed that One Nation senators Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts and senator David Pocock had their staffing allocation upped from five to six. The Jacqui Lambie Network’s senators are expected to get the same.
The United Australia party’s Ralph Babet has also written to the prime minister.
Daniel said:
I will work with the staff I’ve got. I thank the prime minister for his time and his readiness to consider this matter further. I look forward to further constructive conversations with him on this and other matters.
A spokeswoman for Tink said:
Kylea was happy to have the opportunity to meet with the PM today. We’re moving forward with the staffing we’ve been allocated and just getting on with the job.
A spokesperson for Ryan said:
It was a really constructive and positive meeting. We did not yet receive a definitive answer, but it was a great opportunity to meet the Prime Minister today and begin what will be ongoing discussions. It was clear from the meeting that everyone present had the best wishes of Australian polity at heart.”
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Your questions answered: why are they called the Liberal party?
Why is the Liberal party called the Liberal party?
Google says the word “liberal” means progressive. So Australia’s major conservative party being called the Liberal party can get a bit confusing.
The word liberal comes from the latin word liber, which means free. (It sounds a bit like our English word, liberty.) But different philosophies and governments around the world have different ideas of what exactly is free.
In America, people think liberalism equals progressive, democratic, even socialist. It is about personal freedom, and the liberties and rights of the individual. That is social liberalism, aka freedom for people.
In Australia, our Liberal party is more aligned with economic liberalism, aka freedom for business. Economic liberalism is all about protecting property rights, resolving market failures, and free trade across borders.
The Australian Liberal party developed out of conservative parties that formed in the early 20th century to oppose the growing strength of trade unions and the Labor party (which is our more centre, and by American definition, liberal party).
In short, the word “liberal” doesn’t have to mean socially progressive because America says so.
Here is what Robert Menzies, the father of the Liberal party had to say about it:
... what we must look for, and it is a matter of desperate importance to our society, is a true revival of liberal thought which will work for social justice and security, for national power and national progress, and for the full development of the individual citizen, though not through the dull and deadening process of socialism.
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Health minister announces $6.8m package to support families grieving stillbirth
Health minister, Mark Butler, has released this announcement:
The Albanese Government is providing a package of $6.8 million in targeted funding to help ease the grief of stillbirth for bereaved women and families.
Women and families mourning the death of a baby or infant will receive support through funding of $4.2 million to Red Nose Australia’s Hospital to Home program.
A further $2.6 million will be for stillbirth education and awareness initiatives focusing on groups at higher risk of stillbirth, including First Nations women, women from cultural and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, and refugee and migrant groups.
Sending all the love to anyone affected by stillbirth or pregnancy loss.
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US ambassador to Australia takes up residence in embassy in Canberra
US ambassador Caroline Kennedy is in Canberra today, taking up residency in the US embassy.
It’s been about a year and a half since an ambassador has been in residence, so there is a bit of work for Kennedy to get to, and not just in Australia:
Incoming US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will visit Solomon Islands at the end of next week to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal https://t.co/lmKPxbQRv5
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) July 24, 2022
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Your questions answered: bills and laws
What is a bill?
A bill is basically a proposal for a new law, or a change to an existing law. But before actually becoming law, it has to successfully make its way through a pretty long process.
Bills can come about in different ways – from parliamentary committees set up to examine an issue, or a government department coming across a problem and drafting a bill with their minister to fix it, to community groups or businesses approaching members of parliament with suggestions.
A bill is first introduced into either the House of Representatives or Senate, and has to be passed by a majority vote in both chambers.
If successful, it is signed by the governor general - this is the royal assent, and is the last step before the bill becomes law. Then the bill is known as an Act of Parliament, which will give a date that the new law will begin its duties as law.
Sounds simple enough, but it can take years for a bill to pass through parliament.
How bills become laws
To actually pass through the House of Representatives, to the Senate, and then to the governor general, bills go through lots of different readings.
In the House of Reps, the first reading is when the bill is introduced.
The second reading is when members debate and vote on the bill’s main ideas.
Then – after public inquiries into the bill, reports tabled back to the House, and more detailed consideration over any changes made – the third reading is when members vote on the bill in its final form.
Then to the Senate it goes. Again, the first reading is when the bill is introduced. The second is when senators debate and vote on the bill’s main ideas. Then come more public inquiries and reports and detailed consideration until finally, the third reading, when senators vote on the final bill.
If passed in the Senate, it arrives at the governor general’s desk for its royal assent.
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Scott Morrison’s last Facebook post was about making curry while watching the Sharks, so it seems like he is pretty busy in post-prime ministerial life.
Scott Morrison says he is not attending parliament until the August sitting. Is it possible he mightn't be back in parliament at all?
— Michelle Grattan (@michellegrattan) July 25, 2022
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Fun fact about picfacs
Short for picture facility, picfac is an Australian phrase (at least according to the Oxford Dictionary peeps) and has been in use since the 1990s (as a term, obviously politicians have been pretending to hold conversations for the cameras since cameras existed).
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Labor opens party room doors for photos
And in the third picfac (photo opportunity) announcement of the day, Anthony Albanese has thrown open the doors of the Labor caucus room for photos of the whole parliamentary team.
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Your questions answered: green and white papers
What are green papers?
A green paper is a government document that goes through details of specific issues, and outlines potential policy and legislation changes for those issues (for example, a green paper about the issue of an ageing population and the potential for a new aged care system).
A green paper doesn’t actually commit to any action or change Instead, it is about prompting discussion, and acts like a first step towards changing the law.
Their name come from the UK tradition of printing on green paper to help tell them apart from other documents.
What about the white ones?
After a green paper is published, the government talks to the public for their thoughts and feedback. From those discussions, a white paper is born. (It gets its name from historically being published without a cover, and being bound in plain paper).
White papers are documents with actual legislative intention, proposing change to policy or law. They are sometimes debated before a bill is produced. (Then that bill is debated and goes through a whole process of voting and debating and signing before it becomes a law. Stay tuned for how they work, coming to the liveblog soon.)
But in short: green is for consultation/discussion, white is for proposal.
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Behind the lens with Mike Bowers
Our photographer Mike Bowers has had a very busy morning. Here is just some of where he has been so far:
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Sarah Collard was there.
Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney announcing that the grieving families of loved ones who have been affected by the devastating collapse of Youpla will be able to finally bury their loved ones.
— Sarah Collard (@Sarah_Collard_) July 25, 2022
“There are many Aboriginal people in morgues” pic.twitter.com/4A4aaE5Wo0
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Linda Burney's pledge to Aboriginal families hurt by collapse of 'despicable' Youpla
Linda Burney has held a press conference and spoken about Labor’s pledge of $4m for Aboriginal families affected by the collapse of funeral fund Youpla, as reported by Lorena Allam and Ben Butler:
Burney said the company was “despicable” and had left families who had paid into funeral funds for years believed their loved ones would be buried with dignity.
The Indigenous Australians minister said the government was “absolutely committed” to those families getting a proper funeral for their loved ones:
We are talking to a number of government agencies that will be involved in a scheme, but I can assure you there will be someone on the end of a phone line for people to talk to.
That is what we have been advised by our First Nations members, and that is what we will do.
Minister [Stephen] Jones has outlined for those people that have an active policy between the 1st of April and 1st of November 2023, we believe that will cover the investigations we have done so far, in terms of families and numbers of people.
Obviously we will be sensitive to particular issues. In terms of timing, it is very much what we have just said, that we are working as hard as possible and with the appropriate consultation in getting something [set] up that will allow people to go through, as you know, a very important part of Aboriginal culture and that is Sorry Business.
I can promise you that both minister Jones and myself are absolutely committed, along with the prime minister, to making sure that those families will get what they are justly deserving of, and that is a proper decent funeral, culturally appropriate, because they can’t do it at the moment because of the falling out with this particular fund.
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Things have started off really well:
Extraordinary attack from Nationals leader David Littleproud on @NationalFarmers for daring to question his record on biosecurity & his border hysteria. Unlike the Opposition, we will work with industry to keep FMD out, not just play politics & endanger ag trade. pic.twitter.com/xv7RiObKAU
— Senator Murray Watt (@MurrayWatt) July 25, 2022
Your questions answered: dixers
Why is everyone talking about Dorothy Dixers?
A Dorothy Dixer is a question planted by a government minister and asked by a backbencher of their own political party during question time.
The dixer tactic has a few goals: to give free publicity to the government, to help the minister speaking look good, to make the opposition look bad, to raise the profile of the backbencher asking the question, or to waste the available question time as to avoid harder questions.
The term Dorothy Dixer has been used in Australian politics since the 1950s, so the public and press are often on the lookout.
So ... who is Dorothy Dix?
Dorothy Dix was an American advice columnist who was known to make up and submit her own questions so she was able to publish more interesting answers in her columns. Now it makes sense, right?
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Anika Wells will be presented a Commonwealth Games blazer as the minister for sport in about an hour.
(This will be another picfac.)
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The pomp and ceremony to expect as parliament opens
There have been a few questions about what happens tomorrow, when the 47th parliament officially opens.
For those who haven’t been part of a first sitting week of the parliament, there will be a few bits of pomp and ceremony to get through.
Don’t expect anything to actually happen tomorrow in terms of parliamentary proceedings.
There will be a Welcome to Country ceremony in the Great Hall.
Then the chief justice of the high court, Susan Kiefel will show up, alongside justice Stephen Gageler. Kiefel, as the deputy of the governor general, will walk into the Senate (which is officially known as “attending” the Senate) and address the members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The new Senate president and Speaker of the House will be elected (fun fact – the previous Senate president and Speaker remain in place, with pay packets, until new people are elected, so Slade Brockman and Andrew Wallace have stayed in those positions).
The governor general, David Hurley, will arrive in the early afternoon and there will be a royal salute and inspecting of the guard and then he heads into the members’ hall, where the newly elected Senate president and Speaker of the House will welcome him.
Hurley will then head into the Senate and summon the House of Representatives (the Queen’s representative stays out of the house, as it is the people’s house) and once everyone is in the red chamber, he addresses the MPs, and the parliament is open.
There is a 19-gun salute (21 gun salutes are reserved for royalty and heads of state) on the parliament forecourt, and then the GG leaves (about 4.40pm)
After all of that, the House will re-commence its sitting from 5pm.
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Your parliament questions answered: question time
What on earth does ‘I move that member be no longer heard’ mean?
Remember those standing orders we explained a little earlier? Well, under those rules in the House of Representatives, a member of parliament can propose that the member speaking “be no longer heard”. Basically, it is trying to get the member to stop their speech.
If the House votes in a majority to move the proposed motion, the member speaking must immediately stop talking and sit back down.
There is no procedure like this in the Senate (only the President of the Senate can warn of irrelevance and discontinue a parliamentarian’s speech).
In the House, the former government would “move the member no longer be heard” almost every time there was a motion to suspend standing orders, which Labor argued was shutting down debate. It will be interesting to see how Labor handles these interruptions to the schedule.
What is question time?
Each parliamentary day includes a dedicated “question time”. When question time rolls around, all the members are present in the chamber and, usually, the most topical, challenging and controversial conversations are had.
Backbenchers ask the questions of ministers in the government (usually written by either the minister’s staff, or the staff from the manager of government’s business office). These are usually on issues the government wants to talk about and are called “dixers”.
Shadow ministers ask the questions of ministers, and these are the questions to pay attention to. The minister can answer – or not answer – the question in any way they like. The Speaker is supposed to make sure they stay on topic, but there is usually a pretty slim link to the question. And no, the minister does not have to answer the question either – and there are no repercussions for when that happens.
Question time is usually held for an hour, but it is at the prime minister’s pleasure, meaning it is the PM who calls time on it. That can be abused when it suits the government. Malcolm Turnbull once allowed question time to keep going and going as his government tried to run down the clock on a Medevac bill vote it didn’t want held. Scott Morrison would cut QT short when there was an issue he didn’t like being prosecuted by the Labor shadow ministers.
What does it mean when a question is ‘put on notice’?
Sometimes a minister is asked a question during question time that they cannot or do not want to answer. The question is then “taken on notice”, and will be responded to later in writing.
The answer, once prepared, is always available on the parliament’s public record. There is no time limit in which the question has to be answered. But for the House of Representatives, if it has been 60 days and the minister hasn’t replied, they can be asked for an explanation.
Is that different to ‘questions on notice’?
Yes! There is a difference between a question being “put on notice” and “questions on notice”. Questions on notice are written questions to a minister from a member of parliament, usually asking for detailed information. The answers are also published.
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The Greens are also holding a party room meeting today – with a few new faces.
That will be held from 2pm, including with the new senators and the three new Queensland MPs.
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Anticipation in the air at parliament house this morning
Reporter Rafqa Touma is interning with us in Canberra this week – I asked her to take a look around and see what the mood was in parliament house this morning:
A soft fog lays low over tiles at the Parliament House entrance this morning. More feet than usual are being welcomed into its Marble Foyer.
Photographers lug heavy camera lenses up stairwells and the clicking of shoes of people in suits blurs into one sharp echo.
All Department of Parliamentary Services staff are wearing masks. The journalists and staffers running about, not as much.
Anticipation of the Albanese government’s first parliamentary sitting tomorrow has stirred a collective hum in the air. Or perhaps it is the building tension of a government expected to face its first test on climate, with the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, pushing for greater emission reduction targets.
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Greens calls for construction watchdog ABCC to be abolished
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has backed Labor’s policy to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
Bandt said:
The ABCC has got to go. For some time the Greens have had that position for a number of years, and we took it to the election.
The ABCC is an affront to the rule of law. You should not have fewer rights at work just because you happen to work in a dangerous industry like construction – that is the situation at the moment.
... people in dangerous industries have fewer rights at work than colleagues in other industries because they have to work in construction .. The sooner [the ABCC] is gone, the better.
The workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, announced on Sunday that Labor will introduce a new bare-bones building code stripping the body’s powers back.
The new code is a disallowable instrument, but with Labor’s 26 senators and the Greens’ 12, that’s exactly half the Senate: not enough to pass legislation by themselves, but enough to block a disallowance.
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Rafqa’s report on Adam Bandt and his mention of the budget reminds me – you’ll be hearing Jim Chalmers’ economic statement this week.
The treasurer has vowed to lay out “exactly” the state of the budget and the Australian economy ahead of Labor’s budget being handed down in October.
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Bandt: government’s 43% emissions reduction target is ‘too weak’
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, is urging the government to strengthen their climate bill and emission reduction target, which he says is “too weak,” among other issues.
He told Laura Jayes on Sky News:
It doesn’t really compel the government to do anything. At some stage, the penny is going to drop.
We don’t want legislation to be a break on any future government that decides they don’t want to do more.
One of those [issues] is making sure this bill is a genuine floor - it can’t go below.
He paints us a hypothetical picture:
Pauline Hanson ... we don’t want someone like that to be able to say, no we don’t want targets locked in law.
Why put obstacles in the way of more ambition governments in the future?
Bandt urged the government give people “incentives to get off fossil fuels” and into electricity [for their vehicles].
The big gas corporations, who are holding this country ransom, have to pay their fair share.
At the moment the government is saying we want more coal and gas ... scientists are screaming at us, saying keep this in the ground ... To make net zero by 2050 ... you can’t have any coal or gas projects, starting now.
The advice is crystal clear.
This comes off the back of negotiations over the Labor government’s climate bill and 43% emissions reduction target anticipated later today.
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Your parliament questions answered: backbenchers and committees
What are backbenchers?
Our parliament has both frontbenchers and backbenchers. If you imagine the layout of the House of Representatives; the front row of seats facing the speakers are where the ministers (frontbenchers) sit, and the backbenchers sit behind them.
Backbenchers are members of parliament who are not ministers or shadow ministers. They represent their electorate by debating and voting on proposed laws and bring up issues that their electorate care about. You will find a lot of their speeches just before parliament closes (when they have speaking spots) and in the federation chamber.
But without their votes, governments can’t pass its legislation in the House. In the Liberal party, where MPs can vote against legislation without ramifications, this gives them a lot of power. For Labor, voting against a caucus decision means expulsion from party, so it is a little more tricky for them.
What are committees?
Parliament can appoint a group of up to 10 members of parliament to investigate specific issues or proposed laws. This is a Select Parliamentary Committee.
The committee invites submissions on the issue from experts, interest groups and the community. They also hold public hearings where they can hear directly from these groups.
Their findings are reported back to the House, so parliament is well informed before making any big decisions about those issues or laws.
Some committees never stop running, continuously examining issues like employment or education. These are called Standing Committees. And yes, MPs are paid more to be on a committee, or to chair it.
The parliament considers the committee’s findings, but it doesn’t mean it will adopt them. Some, such as the intelligence committee, usually have their recommendations taken up (there have been rare occasions under the last government where this doesn’t happen) which sees legislation amended; others have their recommendations and reports completely ignored (the report into question time, for example).
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Labor: traveller compliance with foot-and-mouth disease measures is up
After criticism that not all passengers returning from Indonesia have been screened for foot-and-mouth disease at their Australian return port, Murray Watt has released this statement:
Biosecurity officers at international airports have reported improved compliance from returned passengers from Indonesia over the weekend, as the Albanese government’s strong measures to keep FMD out of Australia continue to ramp up.
All passengers returning from Indonesia were risk assessed by border officials, which led to nearly 3,700 travellers more intensively being assessed or questioned by biosecurity officers in Melbourne Airport on Saturday alone.
The rates of undeclared FMD risk items and undeclared contaminated footwear was also drastically down compared with last week.
The increased compliance comes as airports that receive direct flights from Indonesia will begin to roll out sanitisation foot mats this week.
Darwin, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne Airports have all taken delivery of the foot mats with some having started testing them prior to use, with other airports expected to follow in the coming days.
It is important to remember that these foot mats are not a silver bullet to keep FMD out of Australia but provide another layer of protection in addition to measures already imposed.
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You may remember one of the first blow ups with the new government was over the staffing allocations for the non-major party and independent MPs.
Paul Karp has been following the story:
ICYMI Anthony Albanese has already softened staffer cuts - but only for One Nation and David Pocock (so far). PMO is meeting Jacqui Lambie today. Xbench MPs still haven't had any joy.https://t.co/cz7Wxjcni8
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) July 25, 2022
And of course, before standing orders can be suspended, there is the motion to suspend standing orders (which you may be familiar with after the last parliament).
These moves often fail in the House, because the government has the numbers and if it chooses to block something, it is usually blocked.
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Your questions answered: standing orders
What are standing orders?
The House of Representatives and the Senate are governed by rules called “standing orders”. Standing orders control things like the times they will meet and the type of business they will discuss – basically structuring how the House and Senate operate.
What does it mean when standing orders are ‘suspended’?
It is not unusual for the House or Senate to suspend a standing order – ie to press pause on one of those rules governing how they operate. This is so they can do something that would otherwise not be allowed: for example, introduce a proposed law that has not been scheduled for debate without delay, or discuss new business after a sitting day has ended.
In the House of Representatives, suspending standing orders is usually used by the Opposition as a way to bring up topics they think are important.
But the House and Senate can’t just get around any rule at any time. They need more than half (an absolute majority) of the whole House or Senate to vote in favour of a motion to suspend.
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Guardian readers’ questions on parliamentary procedure
A couple of weeks ago, I asked on Twitter if there were any parliamentary procedure questions you would like answered, or what was something you wanted to know about politics but had never asked.
So throughout the day, we will give you some of the main questions which were asked and the answers.
This isn’t something that will be a one-off, either – after the response to Murph’s podcast answering reader questions, it is something we would like to keep going throughout the parliamentary term. We won’t be able to get to all questions, but we will do our best – the more we understand about our democracy and how it works, the better off we will all be.
I’ll have more information soon about where to send those questions – at the moment, Twitter is best, but I’ll work on a system for those who don’t have Twitter or don’t want to be so public.
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Coalition members slightly at odds on FMD border closure calls
Earlier, the shadow employment minister Michaelia Cash did not fully back the Liberal leader, Peter Dutton’s call to shut the border. Cash told reporters in Canberra it was “a decision for the ALP”.
Dutton’s formulation, by contrast, was that the government should shut the border, unless there was a “significant piece of intelligence” that said not to.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, is speaking to Sky News repeating that it’s a decision for the government.
We should be stopping any person with foodstuff from Indonesia.
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Opposition calls for manufacturing fund commitments from previous government to be honoured
Sussan Ley, the deputy leader of the opposition, has some thoughts on Labor’s review of the manufacturing fund. (The government is reviewing all of the things, and a month into that review, Ley wants commitments nothing will be changed in this area.)
From Ley’s release:
Deputy leader of the opposition and shadow minister for industry Sussan Ley is calling on the Albanese government to rule out tearing up commitments made to Australian manufacturing businesses by the previous government and to honour investments for skills, apprenticeships and trainees in full.
Projects totalling around a billion dollars, funded through the previous government’s $1.3bn Modern Manufacturing Initiative, are at risk of being torn up by [the minister for industry and science] Ed Husic alongside record investment in skills and training.
Industries include:
- Defence, space and national security
- Recycling and clean energy
- Food security and processing
- Medical Products
A month into a review of the Modern Manufacturing Initiative, grant recipients are in the dark about whether their funding will be ripped away. Companies who were promised millions of dollars in crucial funding, have been waiting since the election for direction and have received no timeframe and no clarity.
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Deputy NSW Labor leader Prue Car on leave after cancer diagnosis
The New South Wales deputy Labor leader, Prue Car, has announced she will take leave after a cancer diagnosis.
Car, the shadow education minister, issued a statement on Monday revealing that after undergoing tests doctors had discovered “a large tumour on my kidney”.
She said she would take leave “over the coming weeks” for treatment, but said she still hoped to return to contest the state election in March.
Car said in the statement:
I am deeply grateful to have access to the world-class health care we are so lucky to have in Australia as I receive treatment. I would like to acknowledge our hard-working, compassionate, skilled but overworked doctors, nurses and allied health professionals who are guiding me through this process.
Over 4,300 Australian women and men are diagnosed with kidney cancer each year.
Early detection is key in the treatment of any cancer. I encourage anyone concerned about their risk or experiencing worrying symptoms to contact their doctor.
I look forward to being back out and about soon fighting for our community, contesting the 2023 NSW state election as the Labor candidate for Londonderry and, as deputy Labor leader, working hard to elect a Chris Minns Labor government.
I am buoyed by such loving support from my incredible family, friends, colleagues and my beloved local community - thank you for your support.
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I have been told by Penny Wong’s office that the foreign minister injured her arm in a surfing accident while on holidays recently.
Wong is expected to recover soon, but there will be no carving up the surf for a while.
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Mike Bowers, as always, is on the case.
(We have asked Penny Wong’s office for an update on the foreign minister’s injury.)
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There are some images coming out of the picfac – which is a picture opportunity, no questions – with Anthony Albanese’s ministerial meeting.
The ministers and the PM are all masked up. Albanese isn’t wearing his Souths mask – he has a disposable one, as do a lot of the other ministers, so it may not have been a planned “masked up” message
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George Christensen is still trying to make George Christensen happen:
Sorry, but you’ll need to pay me a lot more than $220 for this. pic.twitter.com/VSlYkt8PWN
— Byron Kaye (@byronkaye) July 24, 2022
Marles: important ‘Defence plays its part’ in aged care
Here was Richard Marles, the defence minister and deputy prime minister, this morning at a doorstop at parliament house, talking about the decision to extend the ADF deployment in aged care centres.
There is a massive shortage of staff in the health, aged care and disability care sectors. The ADF has been stretched rather thin covering gaps from Covid, as well as natural disasters and aged care. At some point, there needs to be a discussion about the role of the ADF in civilian care and how much they are used to plug gaps.
Q: Is this something that aged care centres were really pushing for? Give us a an idea of how much they’re struggling at the moment.
Marles:
I think there is a significant load which is on aged care centres now. This is something that was asked of me by the minister for health and the minister for aged care.
So it was something that we took very seriously, looked at very carefully, because it did involve extending the workforce beyond the 12th of August. But given the situation that we’re facing – a thousand outbreaks in aged care centres across Australia – it was important that Defence plays its part.
Q: Is fourth dose coverage still a concern? And will the ADF help with sort of bringing up those rates in aged care?
Marles:
I think now that we have, you know, greater availability or access to fourth doses, that [it] is really important that we are seeing people get their fourth dose – I got mine last week.
It’s obviously important that we’re seeing that happen in an aged care setting as well. Vaccinations are a really critical part of how we deal with the response and the outbreaks that we’ve seen, the latest omicron variant, and so it’s very important that occurs.
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(A very big thank you to Paul Karp for heading to that presser – it was not played live, so he rushed out to ensure you could have it covered)
Opposition commits to restoring Australian Building and Construction Commission at next election
The shadow employment minister, Michaelia Cash, has held a press conference blasting Labor for its plan to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
Cash cited the fact that even the Rudd-Gillard government had a building industry-specific industrial regulator, and high court findings that the construction union is a “recidivist offender” that treats fines as the “cost of doing business”.
The ABCC had a 91% success record in litigation, Cash said. Of course, it’s worth noting that the Fair Work Act is highly restrictive and sets such a high threshold on taking industrial action that it arguably breaches ILO conventions on collective bargaining.
Cash said the Coalition is “absolutely” committed to restore the ABCC if elected at the next election.
Asked if she was embarrassed to be a minister in a government that had compromised national security by revealing a boat interception before the operation was complete, Cash said that no caretaker conventions were breached and she was proud to have been part of a government that took responsibility for Australia’s borders. Not the question, but there you go.
Cash said Labor’s efforts to stop foot-and-mouth disease were “too little too late”.
Cash revealed she holidayed in Bali and returned to Perth to find “no checks at Perth airport”, explaining the reason for the Coalition’s call to close the border is they have no faith the Australian government has the situation under control.
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Aged care pay rises ‘going to take a while’
But that doesn’t solve the problem of aged care workers in the future. Wells says pay is one of the issues, with workers able to “be paid more stacking shelves at Woolies”.
Wells says the government is focussed on getting a pay rise as the first step towards recruiting more staff, but there is a process:
Well, we’re still going through the Fair Work process, our submission isn’t due until the 8th of August. The commissioner will be considering those submissions after further hearings in September, so that is why I’m saying this isn’t something we’re going to solve this fortnight, this isn’t something we’re going to solve this winter.
This is going to take a while to turn the Queen Mary around. No one is under any illusions about that.
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Additional 220 ADF personnel to be deployed to aged care
It was a busy morning on ABC radio – Anika Wells, the minister for aged care, also spoke to ABC Radio’s AM about the extension of ADF staff in aged care “to get through the winter wave”.
The ADF had been attempting to step down and withdraw from aged care because obviously this is a desperate extreme measure, that a sector would be so neglected that the sort of last-chance opportunity was taken by the previous government in February to deploy the ADF into aged care.
So since that time, the department has been putting together a surge workforce and building that up, so that that has been going up as the ADF has been going down.
... the ADF have generously agreed to put an additional 220 general duties personnel into aged care to get us through this winter wave, alongside the clinician-led teams that will already circulating around the country.
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NSW reports seven Covid deaths; Victoria records no new deaths
NSW Health has reported seven people died of Covid in the last 24 hours. Victoria reported no deaths.
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) July 24, 2022
Our thoughts are with those in hospital.
More data soon: https://t.co/OCCFTAchah pic.twitter.com/PwNL5yzpNP
COVID-19 update – Monday 25 July 2022
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) July 24, 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 4pm yesterday:
- 96.8% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
- 95.3% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine pic.twitter.com/ox5ynwCnoL
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Agriculture minister: expert advice on FMD says border closure ‘not needed’
Murray Watt on ABC Radio National this morning said he has asked for advice on whether Australia should close the border with Indonesia and has been told no.
This in relation to the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.
I am relying on the best biosecurity advice I have available to me because just as we listen to the experts to get ourselves through Covid as a country, it’s important that we listen to people who know what they’re talking about here.
And the advice to me is that that measure is not needed. There’s foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks in about 70 countries around the world at the moment and we’ve never closed the borders to those countries ... I don’t know where the opposition stands on this because they’ve got some people out saying close the borders, some other people say no.
Industry is united in saying that we should not close the border.
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Australia is making international news again – this time for having the 9th most delayed airport in the world.
Peter Dutton says Australia should shut border to Indonesia over foot-and-mouth scare
After the Coalition was divided last week on whether the Albanese government should shut the border to keep foot-and-mouth disease out, the Liberal leader, Peter Dutton, has further evolved his position.
Dutton told 2GB:
I believe the borders should be closed, absent the information the government’s got ... If there’s an argument why the border shouldn’t be closed, that’s for the prime minister to make. If he’s got a reason, then let him explain it.
Dutton confirmed his position is that the border should close, unless there is “some significant piece of intelligence that this is under control”.
Dutton also called on Anthony Albanese to “take the lead, not the hapless [agriculture] minister in Murray Watt, the most junior minister, who I don’t think instills anyone with confidence”.
Dutton said the government was “playing with a loaded gun” because if FMD gets into Australia, hundreds of thousands of livestock will be slaughtered, an $80bn export industry will shut down, it will take years to recover and prices of meat at the checkout will be “through the roof”.
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Queensland Labor MP Graham Perrett woke up and chose violence this morning (in my experience, Canberra residents are very protective over all things Canberra, but most particularly, their bus stops).
These Canberra bus-stops really are unique. pic.twitter.com/n1YvUArllC
— Graham Perrett (@GrahamPerrettMP) July 24, 2022
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Michaelia Cash is upset Labor plans on winding back the powers of the Australian Building and Construction Commission and will be holding a doorstop on that, as the shadow minister, in about 30 minutes.
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It’s that time of year (again) – the time when party room meeting doors are flung open to allow the media in for very awkward opening speeches.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will hold a minister’s meeting and I think there is also a caucus meeting. The National party is meeting (probably without the media invite though) and so are the Liberals.
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And here is that fog.
Sydney Harbour had a bit of fog as first light failed to make much impact.
— tim ritchie (@timritchie) July 24, 2022
Ferry lights were much more illuminating. pic.twitter.com/diMGIShsbU
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Long lines at Sydney airport
Having had a look at social media, it seems anyone travelling from Sydney airport is once again facing lines which snake all the way outside.
There are a few who will be travelling to Canberra – may I suggest the bus? It’s cheap, very comfortable and given those lines, will get you down the Hume faster than a flight at the moment.
(Apparently fog is to blame this morning)
@SydneyAirport you are clearly aren’t fit to run an airport pic.twitter.com/kzSwVffLXN
— Ben Fisher (@ben__fisher) July 24, 2022
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David Pocock ‘excited’ about the coming parliamentary term
Independent senator David Pocock is on ABC Radio’s RN.
Katharine Murphy has an update on the climate trigger he has called for:
Pocock is absolutely across all the issues Patricia Karvelas is asking him about (climate, ABCC, cashless welfare card) but refreshingly, he is not media trained within an inch of his life and responds to the questions like a human.
Pocock doesn’t waste words – he is only answering the questions he is being asked, and there is no fluff.
On climate, his position is as Murph has reported.
On the ABCC, he says he respects Labor’s mandate to scrap it, but wants to know what will be going in its place.
On the cashless welfare card, he supports it being scrapped: “it seems to me to be a failed policy”
He’s happy he has been granted one extra staffer by the government as “there is a huge amount of legislation to get across”.
And he’s “excited” about the coming term and wants to be as accessible as possible to his ACT constituents.
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Murray Watt: ‘We want to make sure the country is better prepared for natural disasters in the future’
Murray Watt is also the minister for emergency management – what does he think about holding festivals in flood zones, given what happened at Splendour in the Grass?
(The Queenslander drops in that he was planning on attending Splendour, but decided he needed to work on foot and mouth disease instead – he wanted to see the Strokes, he tells Patricia Karvelas.)
He says the response to climate events needs to change, but no one is looking at depriving regions of being able to hold festivals at this point.
What we’ve said is that we want to make sure the country is better prepared for natural disasters in the future. And also that we respond a lot faster and frankly, I think we demonstrated it can be done after the recent New South Wales floods. So to be clear, there will be a review of events and these kinds of places.
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Murray Watt says every piece of mail from Indonesia and China is being screened for animal products, as part of the foot-and-mouth disease response.
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Australia targeting high-risk passengers from Indonesia for FMD screening
Murray Watt has responded to reports that not every passenger returning from Indonesia has been screened for foot-and-mouth disease, and says there was never an expectation that every passenger would be screened:
We have never said that every single passenger returning from Indonesia is being thoroughly screened, taken away for questioning, having their luggage search.
You can imagine the chaos that would cause at airports. But what we are doing is risk profiling every single passenger who comes back in the country, and I’ve got some figures from my department over the weekend in response to those reports.
Just in Melbourne Airport alone just on Saturday, there were over there around 3,700 passengers coming in from Indonesia, who were questioned, who were screened, who had [their] shoes cleaned, some combination of measures to make sure that they were they were safe.
And the reason those passengers were chosen is that they either declared that they had been on a farm, been near livestock, were carrying a product something like that, or they didn’t declare it and for some reason in our risk profiling system they were picked up as a possible risk.
So I know there were some reports about people who just roll in through the airport [who] didn’t see anything, nothing happened ... I think they confirmed that they heard this specific message that we’re now playing on every flight coming back in from Indonesia, about the foot-and-mouth disease risks ... but we don’t bother searching every single passenger because they’re low risk.
What we try to do is make sure that our resources are targeted at people who are the highest risk.
And importantly, we try to target our resources at the importation of meat products, because – as I’ve said all the way along – while there is a risk that a traveller could bring this back from Bali, that risk is much lower than meat products being brought into the country, and that’s why we need to make sure that we’re doing a lot of work around that as well which we are.
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Watt: ‘Australia remains foot-and-mouth disease free’
The agriculture minister, Murray Watt, says “Australia remains foot-and-mouth disease free”.
Viral fragments have been detected in some products from the travelling public and imports, but not the live virus, Watt says.
“We have absolutely no evidence at all we have the virus in Australia,” he tells RN.
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Defence minister: ADF deployment into aged care extended until end of September
The defence minister, Richard Marles, told ABC News Breakfast:
There is a significant number of outbreaks, more than a thousand across the country. And so it’s important that we need to be doing everything we can to meet the challenge of that. It’s not just extending the military support to aged care, it’s actually increasing it up to 250 personnel through until the end of September. And it’s an important step, given what the sector faces. It’s obviously important to note that this is not a long-term solution, it’s not what the Defence Force is for. But in this moment, it’s really important that we do everything we can to provide all the assistance necessary, and so this is the right step to take.
... It is an extreme measure and it’s right to describe it as that. We’re doing this now because of the significant number of outbreaks, but as I said, it’s important to understand that we can’t see this as a normal fallback, to go to the defence force. We saw the previous government really, I think, too heavily on this because they didn’t do the work to make sure that there was a surge workforce in place, which we are ensuring happens. But given the number of outbreaks that we’ve got right now, this is the right thing to do, and I’ve got no doubt that those personnel will equip themselves professionally and fantastically in the way they do their work.
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Good morning
It’s the day before the 47th parliament sits and Canberra is once again buzzing with people and anticipation as MPs, staffers and all the associated hangers-on descend on the capital ahead of the first offical day.
So it’s a busy time. We have a lot to get through as agendas are laid out – and that doesn’t even take in everything that is going on outside of parliament.
Climate is still one of the biggest issues (timeless statement). As Murph reports:
Senate kingmaker David Pocock says the Albanese government would build parliamentary support for its climate bills if it was prepared to insert a climate trigger as part of its looming revamp of national environmental laws.
Ahead of the opening of the 47th parliament on Tuesday, the independent senator for the Australian Capital Territory said last week’s state of the environment report, which documented an alarming deterioration in Australia’s natural heritage, made a stark and compelling case for considering greenhouse gas emissions when new development proposals are assessed.
“Reading the state of the environment report, climate cuts across everything,” Pocock told Guardian Australia. “Climate change will affect every part of our lives. For me, [a climate trigger] really needs to be considered and needs to be in there because [the climate crisis is] clearly already having a huge impact”.
Meanwhile, foot-and-mouth disease (the reason you are all seeing FMD reported across social media) is still worrying the agricultural sector – Murray Watt will speak on that very soon.
And of course, the pandemic is ongoing. As Natasha May reports:
As Covid-19 cases continue to rise across the country, the government has extended defence force support to aged care facilities until the end of September.
There are currently more than 6,000 residents and more than 3,000 staff who are infected in aged care facilities. There will be up to 250 Australian Defence Force [members] helping aged care facilities get through the winter wave.
The new federal parliament meets for the first time tomorrow with the intention of introducing at least 18 pieces of legislation in its first week, covering aged care Royal Commission recommendations as well as climate change, domestic violence, and jobs.
So there is a bit going on.
We will cover it all and more as the day (and weeks) unfold. You have Katharine Murphy and Mike Bowers already on deck and all over all the things, as well as Tory Shepherd, Paul Karp and Josh Butler.
You have me, Amy Remeikis, on the blog for most of the day (I’ve missed you) covering off all of the issues, so I hope you have had your weeties. I am on coffee number three and it hasn’t even hit the sides.
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
