Summary
Here is a wrap of the day’s politics, in case you missed a bit:
Prime minister Anthony Albanese says legislation to impose a minimum age for teenagers accessing social media and gaming platforms will be introduced into parliament before the next election (and experts responded by saying bans, although seductive to parents, are not the answer).
Opposition leader Peter Dutton committed to overturning the live sheep export ban if elected at the next election. Nationals leader David Littleproud said it would be the first bill he would introduce as an agriculture minister.
The federal government published the draft of its National Suicide Prevention Strategy, and the public has been invited to give their feedback.
The Greens’ Nick McKim demanded treasurer Jim Chalmers use his intervention powers to override the Reserve Bank board and cut interest rates immediately.
Question time was hectic. Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor was ejected amid a fierce RBA debate, and independent MP Zali Steggall said a member of the public gallery “flipped the bird” and accused Littleproud of threatening her.
Thanks for tuning in, Amy Remeikis will be with you for another Australia politics live blog tomorrow morning.
Updated
Unregistered babies risk missing out on care, education
Thousands of babies won’t be registered in Australia in 2024, which could inhibit their access to education, healthcare and future employment.
Up to 12,500 births are never registered with Birth, Deaths and Marriages, a report using a combination of Australian Bureau of Statistics data has found.
The report published by Unicef Australia raises concerns about a lack of access to childcare for young people without birth certificates, but says most of the children unregistered live in remote parts of the country where childcare is not accessible.
Unicef Australia’s head of policy and advocacy Katie Maskiell said data for the Certify Hope: Rights from the Start report was pooled from a range of sources that fed into the ABS, but recognised the information could be incomplete.
It is the first time unregistered births have been measured and analysed nationally.
“We know that these are some of the barriers, the distrust of government services from a stolen generation perspective,” Maskiell said.
We know that there are barriers for remote communities in terms of accessibility to the internet, lack of services on the ground in those communities in the first place ... we’d heard all of that anecdotally, but the data now kind of confirms those barriers.
Only 22.1% of First Nations births in the most remote areas were registered more than one year after birth, according to the report.
- Australian Associated Press
Updated
Mother arrested and in hospital after two children found dead in Blue Mountains home
Two children have been found dead in a Blue Mountains home by their father with the boys’ mother in hospital under police guard.
New South Wales police said officers were called to the home in Faulconbridge at about midday on Tuesday over welfare concerns for a woman and two children.
The bodies of the boys, aged nine and 11, were discovered inside the home by their father, also a resident, who then contacted police, Supt John Nelson said.
Police said their 42-year-old mother had self-inflicted injuries and was taken to Westmead hospital in Sydney under police guard. She was in a stable condition and had been arrested, the NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, told reporters.
You can read the full story from Emily Wind here:
'Looking for attention': Littleproud says he did not threaten Steggall
Nationals leader David Littleproud tells ABC News that independent MP Zali Steggall was “looking for attention” after chaos erupted in question time earlier today.He says:
I think Zali Steggall is looking for attention and I think we should leave it at that.
Zali Steggall – who was sitting at the back corner of the parliament, cannot even see where I’m sitting – made an assertion I encouraged this gentleman to make an obscene gesture to the prime minister and that’s not something [I’ll] have my integrity questioned over.
I don’t know this man, I didn’t sign in, the only person I signed in was Mia Davies, our candidate in Bullwinkel. She was in the Speakers’ gallery. These people were in the public gallery. Our people that had come in from outside protesting about what this government had done and they were very upset with the response they had [in] question time from the prime minister.
Updated
NSW health minister says hundreds of elective surgeries cancelled due to strike
The NSW health minister, Ryan Park, who told a budget estimates hearing he would apologise to any patient who missed treatment due to the strike, said hundreds of elective surgeries were cancelled.
While the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association is yet to announce further strikes, neither it nor the government have ceded any room on pay negotiations, setting the scene for further industrial unrest.
The union president, O’Bray Smith, said members cared about patients “unlike this government” and warned they would not back down from their demands.
Speakers accused government figures of hollow praise when thanking them for their service throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, suggesting real gratitude would be shown through a pay rise and improved conditions.
Protesters held signs including “fuck the praise, where’s the raise?” and “you don’t pay, we don’t stay”.
Labor has offered a 10.5% wage increase to all public-sector workers over three years, including a mandatory rise in superannuation payments.
- Australian Associated Press
Updated
‘Not going away’: nurses and midwives demand wage increase
Nurses and midwives across NSW have walked off the job, defying the state’s industrial umpire while declaring they will “stand up and fight back” in their intensifying pay dispute.
Thousands hit the streets today for a 12-hour protest, the first major stop-work action from the cohort since Labor returned to power in NSW.
Their demands for a 15% one-off wage increase have been rebuffed as unaffordable by a state government baulking at the multibillion-dollar cost.
Rallies took place at more than a dozen locations across the state, including a major protest outside the premier’s Sydney electorate office, where a boisterous crowd accused Chris Minns of turning his back on emergency workers.
A skeleton staff was maintained at hospitals but longer waits in emergency departments were expected.
- Australian Associated Press
More to come in the next blog post, stay tuned.
Updated
Here is a video of the chamber erupting during question time, as the independent MP Zali Steggall accuses the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, of threatening her (which Amy Remeikis reported with the full context here about an hour ago).
Updated
The CSIRO chief research scientist, Pep Canadell, said the Global Carbon Project’s Global Methane Budget showed that methane emissions from human activities had increased by 20% in the past two decades.
“As a result of increased anthropogenic methane emissions, concentration in the atmosphere is now 2.6 times higher than its pre-industrial (1750) level,” he said.
Canadell warned that methane concentrations are following the trends of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s “most pessimistic” illustrative future for greenhouse gas emission trajectories.
These findings would indicate global mean temperatures above 3C by the end of this century, which exceeds the target of limiting global warming by 1.5C.
If the trend of anthropogenic methane emissions continues to increase, it may jeopardise the success of the Global Methane Pledge – an international commitment to reduce by 30% methane emissions by 2030.
- Australian Associated Press
Updated
Greenhouse gas levels soaring, report warns
Concentrations of methane, a key driver of climate change, have risen faster than ever over the last five years, the Global Carbon Project’s Global Methane Budget shows.
The budget, published today in the journal Earth System Science Data, is produced by international scientific agencies, including the CSIRO.
After carbon dioxide, methane was the most important greenhouse gas contributing to human-induced climate change, the CSIRO’s chief research scientist, Pep Canadell, said.
While it remains in the atmosphere for a much shorter timeframe, it has a higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide (86 times larger over 20 years), because methane holds more heat in the atmosphere.
- Australian Associated Press
Keep an eye out for more to come in the next post.
Updated
Rafqa Touma will be taking you through the evening news, so make sure you stay tuned to the blog.
The Canberra team are also working on new stories for you, so make sure you come back for those too.
I’ll be back at sparrow’s tomorrow to continue the parliament sitting – day three has a bit more of a festive vibe than usual, as next week is a Senate-only sitting, so the house MPs can taste freedom.
You may have noticed a bit of a switch up in how the prime minister is choosing to deal with Peter Dutton this week – there are a lot more pointed comments about him being “angry” and “ranting” but he is also trying to adopt more of the “statesman” approach to dealing with him in question time. The moment there are shouts and heckles, Albanese immediately stops and walks away.
All of it points to us getting closer to an election, with the leaders working on trying to redefine themselves – and the narrative – any way they can.
We’ll continue to bring you all of that tomorrow – but until then, take care of you.
Updated
What is the government proposing to do about gambling ads again?
Social media and their toxic algorithms are like pokies for kids.
— Jason Clare MP (@JasonClareMP) September 9, 2024
To keep our children safe, we’ll legislate a minimum age for social media.
From Mike Bowers’ lens to your eyeballs:
Updated
Speaker reminds members to guide their guests
Milton Dick makes his ruling:
I am just going to deal with this issue, because it is a serious issue that what the member has raised, I want to remind all visitors and people who are guests of members, there are established forms of behaviour. Members in the gallery are not here to participate. They are here to observe.
So I’m asking all members when they sign in guests or offer guests tickets … (there are more interjections from the Coalition benches).
… [A message] to all members of the gallery not to interject, converse or signal and I further remind all members, if you do invite guests to the gallery, I consider their conduct to be a reflection on you. I want to be clear that if this behaviour continues, the privilege may be revoked, just as it has been done in this term.
Updated
Steggall refuses to withdraw description of ‘bald, overweight’ member of public gallery who ‘flipped the bird’
Zali Steggall continues:
The leader of the Nationals thinks it’s appropriate to threaten me.
Milton Dick restores order (it takes a little bit) and then Steggall continues:
Now I’ve identified the gentleman, because clearly, he has been signed in by a member of parliament to attend the gallery. That conduct is not becoming of a member of a visitor to the chamber. It’s a reflection. It is a reflection on the speaker and all of us here, and I do take offence at that behaviour.
If we are here to improve standards, it has to come from all including visitors.
So I ask the speaker, is that appropriate conduct of signed in guests in the public gallery?
I can also point out I do take offence to the threat that was made to me by the leader of the Nationals, that I should ‘be careful’. That is not appropriate conduct in this chamber.
Sussan Ley now gets to make her point of order:
I did stand up earlier because I thought that that was disgraceful, that body shading remark by the member for Warringah, the pejorative [bald, overweight] description of a member of our public galleries, and it should be withdrawn immediately.
Dick asks Steggall if she wants to withdraw.
Steggall does not because she “wants the offender to be identified from the video”.
Updated
'Are you threatening me?': Steggall to Littleproud as question time ends
Anthony Albanese confirms that he has asked for an early question time in the next house sitting week for Asean.
And then all hell breaks loose when Zali Steggall asks the speaker a question and gives a description of a member of the public gallery.
She asks about the responsibility of members who sign in guests to the gallery, and says that during David Littleproud’s question to Anthony Albanese about the farmers’ protest, Littleproud gestured to the gallery. As the farmers Littleproud acknowledged went to leave the gallery, Steggall says:
A gentleman in jeans, black T-shirt, bald, overweight, flipped the bird ….
The chamber ERUPTS over her use of “overweight”.
Sussan Ley jumps to her feet, but Milton Dick asks her to wait and says to Steggall to continue, but without that much detail.
Steggall:
The description is so that that person may be identified from video content, because upon leaving the gallery, flip the bird the finger to the chamber, and in doing so, look to the leader of the Nationals for support. Now that is again …. (Steggall breaks off and turns to Littleproud directly.)
Are you threatening me? Leader of the Nationals, are you threatening me?
The chamber is out of control now.
Updated
PM fields another question on housing
Anthony Albanese, who is still not annoyed, answers the question:
It is a fact that the member for Griffith attended a rally in which there were [offensive signs] and the member for Griffith [was] standing in front of those signs, there is precedent for that sort of thing.
And the [former] member for Warringah was rightly condemned then at the time for standing outside this chamber, inside with those sorts of signs and that sort of behaviour.
You are rightly condemned to and I will say this to the member for Griffith, Renee Coffey won’t be found anywhere near one of those demos because she is concerned about it.
And I’ll say this as well, that Renee Coffey would vote for more houses in this house and in the Senate. She would vote for the build to rent scheme that the member for Griffith has voted against.
She wouldn’t have held up the Housing Australia Future Fund. Renee Coffey would have voted for it straight away, not held it up. And indeed, as well, Renee Coffey would support the policy and vote for the same policy that we have, that those opposite from time to time have said they have.
And that’s in the Greens party platform of a shared equity scheme. Renee Coffey won’t be shy about that when she occupies this chamber after the next election, because the member for Griffith says he cares about housing but never takes an opportunity to actually vote for it.
If you want more social homes, vote for them. If you want more rental properties, vote for them. If you want more private home ownership. Vote for it. It’s pretty simple. It’s pretty simple. Renee Coffey understands that, and I was very honoured to launch her campaign in Griffith, because Renee Coffey wants more homes, because that will be more doors that she can knock on.
Updated
‘Absolutely not annoyed’: PM asked about house tax ‘handouts’
Max Chandler-Mather hasn’t annoyed the prime minister for a while, but as Beetlejuice says, “it’s show time”.
MCM:
To the prime minister. Over the next decade, property investors like the prime minister will benefit from $176bn in tax handouts in the form of negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. Published polling shows a large majority of the country supports the Greens push to scrap negative gearing. Will Labor scrap these grossly unfair tax handouts to property investors that turbocharged house prices and hurt millions of ordinary people?
It is apparently not in the standing orders to refer to a member’s personal circumstances. In this case, that the prime minister owns multiple houses.
Albanese definitely isn’t annoyed:
I bet also he doesn’t talk about the housing problem when he’s addressing a rally. A rally in Brisbane of … to defend corrupt conduct in the CFMEU. I bet he doesn’t do that.
No, absolutely not annoyed. Don’t put it in the political blog that the prime minister was annoyed, because he absolutely wasn’t.
Adam Bandt says:
If the first part of the member’s question was ruled inappropriate, then surely that comment ought to be ruled inappropriate. And secondly, it is not relevant to the question.
Tony Burke is also not annoyed and responds:
The government’s taken action against organised crime, and if he’s willing to stand up and make those sorts of statements, and then wants to throw motives around here. So you can’t play with a glass jaw, you throw that around, it comes back at you.
Updated
Question on economics and fighting the RBA (again)
Liberal MP Keith Wolahan (also known as the great moderate hope for the Liberal party) asks Jim Chalmers:
Last week’s National Accounts data shows that under Labor, real disposable income has fallen by 8.7% on a per capita basis. Independent economist Warren Hogan said, quote, ‘We are going backwards in terms of our living standards, having created a disaster for Australian families.’ Why is the Albanese Labor government fighting the Reserve Bank while Australian families go backwards?
(I refer you to the point about economists being like flowers, in that you can pick any one you’d like to make your particular point.)
Chalmers:
They’ve got a lot of nerve asking about incomes, having opposed all of our efforts to get incomes moving again in this country after they presided over a decade of deliberate wage stagnation and wage suppression.
And we know this because former minister Mathias Cormann said the quiet bit out loud. And he said that stagnant wages were a deliberate design feature of their economic policy architecture.
And we take a different view. We take a different view when it comes to incomes, and our view is that we needed to get wages moving again in our economy, and we are pleased to see that that’s happening because this side of the House is all about Australians earning more and keeping more of what they earn, and that’s what we’re on about, Mr Speaker. And that side of the House is all about screwing people down.
It’s all about blaming working people and the most vulnerable for our inflation challenge in our economy. It’s all about screwing people down and denying them the tax cuts that they need and deserve to get by at a difficult time. Their approach is all about denying people a bit of help with their electricity bills. Their approach is about denying people a bit of help with early childhood education fees. It’s about denying people cheaper medicines, and it’s about denying people the wages growth that has been missing for too long in our economy, Mr Speaker.
Now, if they want to ask about the national accounts, they should be upfront and say that if we had taken their advice, Australia’s economy would be in recession right now and people would be doing it even tougher.
And I invite those opposite, and I invite the public beyond to think about the consequences of their $315bn in secret cuts and what that will mean for incomes and what that would mean for living standards and what that would mean for an economy which is already barely growing, Mr Speaker.
Updated
Census omitting intersex question ‘profoundly disappointing’: human rights lawyers
The questions about variations of sex characteristics will not be going ahead.
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) president, Nicholas Stewart, said:
While the decision to include questions on sexuality and gender is welcomed, the decision to not include a question on innate variations of sex characteristics is profoundly disappointing. It means that governments and services across Australia will not have access to much-needed information on the health and wellbeing of people with innate variations of sex characteristics (intersex variations).
This decision is at odds with the 2020 ABS Standard, and new standards for health and medical research.
The Intersex community is the most invisible and under-counted population in the LGBTI umbrella, with complex ongoing health needs, including mental health needs. People with innate variations of sex characteristics suffer from serious health inequalities across a range of metrics and are poorly served in terms of mental and physical health support, particularly as adults.
Updated
PM asked about LGBTQ+ protections
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie asks Anthony Albanese:
Prime minister, in defending the census debacle, the deputy PM said, ‘We’ve seen how divisive debates have played out across our country and the last thing we want to do is inflict that debate on a sector of our community right now.’
So, prime minister if your government is so concerned about divisive debates, will you enact comprehensive vilification protections and appoint an LGBTIQA+ human rights commissioner and an equality minister?
Albanese:
We value every Australian. Every Australian should be valued, their sexual orientation or their identity.
That is really important in the development of the 2026 census. The ABS came to the government with potential changes.
It planned to trial, including changes it had not itself recommended for the census.
We paused the process to make sure that we get it right, so that there weren’t the sort of implications that were contained in the question by the member for Clark.
The truth is that for many people, if they’re marginalised in parts of Australian society, we don’t want to add to that and to add to the pressure, which is there. We engaged with the community and held additional discussions with the ABS to make sure that we got the direction right, and I believe that we have and that we can move forward in a way that doesn’t have the unintended consequences that the deputy prime minister was precisely talking about.
I would say it’s a responsibility of everyone in this parliament to engage in debate respectfully and not to inflame community tensions. Sadly, um, there are examples of us failing of that test being failed.
The government will be introducing legislation this week to create new criminal offences and strengthen protections against hate crimes. These offences will protect the community, including the LGBT community and other targeted groups, from the threat of force or violence and from those who would urge violence against them, which we know is only too real. Our government does support the work of the Australian Human Rights Commission.
We already have in place a commission which works to ensure that human rights of all Australians, including those from the LGBTQ+ community, are protected and that is really important and my government will continue to be committed to that and continue to work with the community towards that objective.
(“Paused” the process is like when one “pauses” a manual transmission car in a hill start while being watched by a bunch of Gen Zs.)
Updated
Question on why government is ‘fighting with the RBA’
Yup, Angus Taylor was next to ask a question (but got booted) so Paul Fletcher picks up the mantle:
Last week’s national accounts revealed productivity is going backwards, real disposable income collapsed and Australians are paying more tax and more for mortgages. RMIT economics Prof Sinclair Davidson said, “All the economic indicators are going the wrong way and what is the government doing fighting with the RBA? Having created a disaster for Australian families, why is the Albanese Labor government fighting the Reserve Bank while Australian families go backwards?
(The great thing about economists is that they are like flowers – you can pick any one you want.)
Jim Chalmers:
I thank the honourable member for asking the question the shadow treasurer was supposed to be asking before he got turfed out a few months ago. The question goes to the pressures that people are feeling in our economy right now and we acknowledge them, but more than acknowledge them, we are doing something about it. It beggars belief in the context of an economy which is slowing considerably and an economy where people are under considerable cost-of-living pressure, it beggars belief that those opposite oppose our cost-of-living relief for people doing it tough.
Chalmers continues, but his heart just isn’t in it, now that he doesn’t have Taylor to bounce off of.
Updated
Bridget McKenzie walks out of Senate after warning over slogan T-shirt
Over in Senate question time, the Coalition is focusing its questions on live sheep export bans in response to the rally outside Parliament House earlier today.
The National Farmers’ Federation takes issue with a number of Labor agricultural and trade policies, with the federal government’s proposed ban on live sheep exports by 2028 at the top of the list.
The Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie, who earlier stood on stage with other Coalition members at the rally, is singled out for wearing a shirt under her blazer that reads the slogans “keep the sheep” and “save the merino”.
But the Senate president, Sue Lines, says it counts as a prop and that’s a no-no in the chamber. Lines instructed McKenzie to “turn it inside out or leave the chamber”. McKenzie buttoned the blazer but it wasn’t enough.
Lined said:
Senator McKenzie, unless you intend for the whole of question time to sit there and hold the blazer, that is not appropriate. I’ve given you an option.
After that, McKenzie stands up and leaves the chamber.
Updated
Angus Taylor ejected from question time amid fierce RBA debate
Jim Chalmers takes a dixer on the RBA legislation just so he can slam Angus Taylor a little more (it is his favourite past time).
He is so successful at riling Taylor up, Taylor gets booted. (Continuing today’s theme with these two, we think that confirms that Taylor is Drake.)
Taylor gets sent out and looks immediately regretful, because he obviously had a question coming up on this and now he doesn’t get to ask it.
Chalmers:
I tried to work with the shadow treasurer in a bipartisan way. Accommodated every single one of the six issues he raised with me. I have accommodated every single one of the concerns he raised with me by making sensible changes to what had originally been proposed as I met with him, arrange briefings for him, engage with him genuinely and respectfully and publicly and privately on this really important matter.
That’s because my preference was and continues to be a bipartisan agreement between the major parties.
I say respectfully, I’d rather not deal with the crossbench in the Senate because they want these changes to endure any future changes in government.
That is why I tried to take the shadow Treasurer seriously even if he is colleague so.
Unfortunately all along in this process we have been hostage to the shadow treasurer’s ability to carry an argument internally in his show so he’s been unable to do that.
And so again if the House listens closely they will hear the familiar sound of the shadow Treasurer getting rolled once again.
And the decision they’ve announced today is a responsible so it creates uncertainty, it is disappointing but is not surprising because this is what happens when the opposition leaders’ destructive negativity collides with the shadow treasurer’s weakness – this is why they have no credibility on the economy.
They are always looking for unnecessary conflict to distract from the fact they have no credible or costed economic policies and they won’t tell us we are $315bn in cuts are going to come from.
(That is quite the spin – that the government can’t get its own legislation through because a shadow minister can’t win an argument with his own party, but it is smart because it has the ring of truth to it.)
Updated
Question on government’s ‘anti-farming policies’
Rick Wilson (Liberal MP from O’Connor) asks Anthony Albanese:
Today thousands of farmers from around Australia have travelled to Canberra protesting Labor’s decision to ban live sheep exports and other anti-farming policies. After two years of bad ideological rhetoric and job-killing policies it’s been reported the mining industry, representing 10% of GDP, the prime minister’s mineral wheat speech, as a declaration of war. Can the prime minister explain why he has fixated on policies that in West Australia risk jobs and make life hard for families and businesses in my state?
(Now I know the farmers were telegraphing they expected at least 2,000 people at the rally, but our reporter thinks there were “about 500” at the protest this morning.)
Albanese:
It’s a very broad question from the member for O’Connor. An electorate I was in just last week. In Collie, a place where there is going to be a nuclear reactor sometime in the 2040s or 2050s if those opposite are to be believed.
We are yet to have any costings … yes, you have a process but that is what they say. And, of course, Collie used to be, for a long time a place where coal mining and through the coal-fired power station was a major generator of jobs and economic activity but that is a region that is in transition.
And what’s happening is the government is working with the private sector, including the resources sector on that transition. And there you can see on the site right next to the power station there, 500 people at work building a big battery that will store enough energy for 860,000 homes.
Wilson is on his feet and Dick warns him that it will be hard to be on relevance, because the question was loosey-goosey and therefore the prime minister is being relevant.
Wilson does not take the warning and says it is on relevance.
Dick calls upon the strength of a thousand Queensland woodchoppers and tells Wilson he will ensure the prime minister is relevant.
Albanese continues but it is nothing we haven’t heard before.
Updated
PM asked about live exports
David Littleproud is next up and he asks:
In the gallery today are farmers whose livelihoods depend on the live sheep export industry. If the government continues with its ban on live sheep exports, Sudan is one country that will take up Australia’s share of this market. Prime minister, who has higher animal welfare standards - Sudan or Australia?
Anthony Albanese:
I met with the leadership of the National Farmers’ Federation once again early this morning to discuss this issue, just as I had, have had constructive discussions with sheep farmers, here in Canberra and their families in Kalgoorlie.
One of the things I pointed out is when the leader of the National party came into government in the first year, in 2014/15, 2.1m sheep were exported by sea at a value of $224m last year, in which they held office, there were 475,000 sheep, were exported by sea at a value of $80m. Over the decade, the Liberals and Nationals were in government, live sheep exports by sea decreased by over 1.5m. That is just a fact of what occurred. At the same time, at the same time, exports of sheep meat have escalated to some $4bn in value.
Littleproud wants to know RELEVANCE because IT WAS A VERY TIGHT QUESTION (emphasis Littleproud’s own)
Milton Dick says the prime minister is being relevant.
Tony Burke wants to know how many more times opposition members can made ridiculous points of order claiming relevance. Dick tells him to sit down too.
Albanese:
Australia’s lamb and mutton exports were worth $4.5bn in 2022, 2023. They are escalating in places like the UK, we have hopefully have an announcement soon about an agreement with the UAE, where as live sheep exports by sea were less than $77m in that first year – less than 0.1% of Australia’s estimated agricultural production in that year. We are giving certainty to sheep producers and supply chains by legislating the phase-out.
Littleproud yells a little more and Dick tells him to save it for the matter of public importance debate after QT.
Updated
PM fields question on Orange goldmine
Independent MP Andrew Gee asks Anthony Albanese:
The decision by the minister to make a section 10 declaration over Blaney has been met with shock, anger and concern. These concerns include a lack of transparency, lost jobs, the timing of the decision, with state and federal environmental approvals given, the contrary opinion of Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council and the impossibility of moving the dam in existing boundaries – will you meet with me and consider reversing this decision?
Albanese says his door is open to any member and then hands the question to Tanya Plibersek who says:
I have a lot of respect for the member and he has been to my office to discuss in project with me and he brought with him Scott Ferguson, the mayor of Blaney, I was pleased to meet with him.
I understand the company in question wants the most cost effective option for the building of their tailings dam, [that’s] doing their job for shareholders. Me doing my job for the people of Australia and parliament is applying the law on the basis of the evidence.
There were people who wanted to stop this project, who wanted to go ahead unchanged. I haven’t taken either course. I have said that the tailings dam can’t be built on the head waters and springs of the Bulubula River.
If the company want an alternate design they said they looked at four sites, 30 design options, they can do that. This is a 2,500-hectare site. My section 10 declaration applies to 400 hectares. That’s about 16% of the existing site. I haven’t blocked the mine.
My decision protects the springs of the Bulubulah River. I would say to the house, I have ticked off more than 40 mining projects. This is not about a project that is about making sure that when we tick off on mining projects they have all the necessary approvals based on the evidence in front of me as the decision maker.
What I certainly wouldn’t do is do what those opposite seem to be doing, which is saying, we don’t need to look at the evidence, we don’t need to read the reports. We don’t need to hear from the experts, we will tick it off because we like the look of it. That is not the way to make decisions and it’s exactly that attitude that led to the problems that those opposite had with robodebt, car park rorts, sports rorts, secret ministries, visa scandals, Origin 360, the Leppington Triangle, back-lands, the visa privatisation scandal – I mean the list goes on. People want consistency.
Updated
Coalition no longer supporting government’s RBA legislation: Taylor
Angus Taylor concluded with:
I’ll finish by saying, it seems to me that the treasurer and Labor’s objective in driving this legislation is two fold. Number one, to put the Reserve Bank in a position where it can direct it as to what it should do. This is going back to the bad old days pre-1996*, of Bernie Fraser and Paul Keating, where Paul Keating would boast about directing the Reserve Bank on what it should do.
It’s clear that’s the picture that a treasurer, who indeed wrote his thesis as a love letter to Paul Keating, it’s clear that that is the objective of this treasurer in this process. It’s also been clear in recent days that the Labor party is prepared to, and the government is prepared to, use the Reserve Bank as a punching bag, as an excuse, as a means of blame shifting for its failures. We think it’s completely unacceptable, and we’re no longer in a position where we can work with the government on this legislation.
(The transcript includes the * and notes it ‘indicates a minor correction.)
Updated
‘This is not how you conduct a negotiation’: Taylor on Chalmers and RBA
Ahead of question time, Angus Taylor held his press conference in response to Jim Chalmers’ press conference, where he dropped his own diss track about the RBA legislation negotiations.
Chalmers listed off a bunch of concessions he said he had given Taylor as part of the negotiations in his press conference, concluding that because the Coalition had decided to stand against the legislation, despite seemingly being in favour of it, Taylor got “rolled again”. Chalmers also included a diss that he was taking Taylor seriously, even if his own party wasn’t (like we said, it’s Kendrick and Drake, but for lame people).
Taylor responded:
This is the treasurer’s legislation, not ours. And from the start, we’ve made clear that we were concerned that this strategy from the government was a sack and stack strategy for the Reserve Bank board. He ignored the recommendations of the review when he made his first two appointments on the day the review came out. On the very day the review came out, he ignored the recommendations of the appointment process. He ignored the Coalition’s feedback when introducing the legislation in November, our notes and letters went unanswered for the best part of the year. And throughout, we were resolute, both publicly and privately, in our focus on making sure that we had continuity and stability in the Reserve Bank board, and that the sack and stack strategy wasn’t going to be useful. Now frankly, over the last 10 days, our concern about the motives of this government, with respect to this review, have only deepened.
This is not how you conduct a negotiation. Spend 10 days bagging the Reserve Bank, and then introducing legislation into the parliament was completely unacceptable from our point of view, and it’s why we can’t support this legislation. The Reserve Bank now needs to be able to get on with the job of doing what it’s doing within the context it has. It needs stability, it needs certainty, and now is not the time to be pursuing these reforms, given what we’ve seen from the government over recent times.
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Vietnamese restaurant owners in Bathurst granted permanent visas
A small bit of good news.
The Nguyễn family who run the only Vietnamese restaurant in Bathurst, central western New South Wales, have been granted permanent work visas.
We wrote earlier this month that the family were facing deportation after an issue arose with their temporary working visas. As Dellaram Vreeland reported, head chef Thi Huế Dao moved to Bathurst with her family in 2015 but in 2019, they were told their employer sponsor was ineligible to continue sponsoring their visa as the result of an alleged breach of immigration rules. They’ve been stuck on bridging visas since and requested ministerial intervention.
The Bathurst community has been rallying around the family. Local independent bookshop BooksPlus, which had a petition in store, thanked everyone who participated in the campaign, saying on Facebook: “this is a fantastic outcome for the family and our town”.
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Shoebridge urges two-way weapons trade ban with Israel
Returning to the earlier presser, the Greens also want the government to follow the United Kingdom and prevent exported military components from being on-sold to Israel, after Penny Wong endorsed Britain’s move to suspend 30 arms export licences.
Senator David Shoebridge said Australia had not done as much as the UK to apply pressure to Israel.
But Shoebridge criticised the British government for continuing to supply F35 aircraft parts to a “common pool” in the United States, which he said it knew would be re-exported to Israel but over which it argued it had no end-user control.
He said Australia’s F35 component exports also did not prevent re-export to Israel.
We are again saying that the Australian government should urgently have a two-way weapons ban with Israel, to not provide F35 weapons parts or other weapons parts to Israel, either directly or indirectly, and to end the import of weapons from Israel, from Israeli companies that are profiting from the appalling war crimes, in genocide in Gaza.”
Israel denies it is committing genocide.
The foreign minister has backed the British move and told Guardian Australia that the government was working with counterparts including the UK to apply pressure to change the situation in Gaza.
Wong reiterated that Australia “has not supplied weapons or ammunition to Israel” for at least the past five years:
Earlier this year we made clear the only export permit applications approved for items to Israel are for those items returning to Australia for our own defence and law enforcement.
This refers to temporary transfers for repairs and maintenance by Israeli firms.
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‘Social media is causing social harm’: Albanese
Milton Dick has to interject again to warn people for interjecting.
Anthony Albanese:
Social media is causing social harm. It can be used as a weapon for bullies and a vehicle for scammers, worst of all a tool for online predators. And that is why we ensuring that we will get the legislation right. As part of this we will consult across the parliament. I don’t think this should be an issue in which we are yelling at each other. I think this is an issue in which we should be yelling at social media companies to do the right thing.
And that is what I seek. And I hope the parliament has the maturity to do that.
(There are a lot of interjections at this and Dick has to step in again)
Dick:
This is a serious issue. We need to do better. I’m asking everyone in the house to show some restraint, ask questions respectfully and listen to the question respectfully as well.
Albanese:
The government may not be able to stop every threat on social media but we have a responsibility to do everything we can to help as many young Australians as we can. We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. This is a change that will change our country for the better.
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Question on age verification for social media
David Coleman gets a question. He is the shadow minister for communications, in case you needed a reminder.
Coleman:
The prime minister announced in May the government would fund a trial of age verification for children accessing social media. Can the prime minister confirm the trial has not started and that the tender documented for the technical trial was issued today?
The Coalition benches think this is hilarious.
Anthony Albanese:
There were three stages of the preparation of this. The first two stages are done. This is stage three. Of issuing the contract to make sure …
(There are jeers from the Coalition benches and Milton Dick again tells people to shut it)
The government funded this trial in our May budget. The minister and department have been working through the first two stages, the third stage to make sure the tender you need to know what you are putting a tender out for … to make sure the technology has got right.
We been cooperating of course with the eSafety commissioner. A body for which we quadrupled funding, quadrupled.
Social media has a social responsibility to have a social licence. We want to make sure arising out of this age verification that we are able to move forward in a way which no country in the world has been able to solve this problem.
We are seeking to do the best in the world. That is why you have to actually get it right.
And I am surprised that those opposite seek to make this a partisan issue. Because I think this is an issue which is of concern for all parents. Because social media is causing …(there are more interjections)
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Littleproud pushes lifting live export ban on sheep
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, believes if the Coalition loses the next federal election, but gains four or five seats in Western Australia, a second term Labor government should ditch the live export ban on sheep.
In a Sky News interview on Tuesday, after speaking at a rally of incensed sheep farmers outside Parliament House, Littleproud said many Western Australians would be going to the ballot box with the issue of live sheep exports on their mind.
Littleproud said:
Not too many people went to the last ballot box voting on live sheep exports … this time in Perth and West Australia, they are, and they’re cranky because east coast politicians are trying to tell them how to live their lives.”
The Nationals leader again responded to a question about a farmer who heckled Littleproud’s track record as water resources minister while he was at the rally.
The man accused Littleproud of not fronting farmers during a drought and water management crisis in the late 2010s.
Littleproud told Sky News:
I’ll put my time as water minister against any other water minister ever – the reforms that I put in place I’m proud of.”
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Anthony Albanese:
In the question the leader of the opposition was asked, he lied about Peter Malinauskas. He did not say that.
(There is a lot of interjections and yelling, so Milton Dick tells everyone to shut it.)
Thank you, Mr Speaker. The leader of the opposition’s angry rant rather than ask a question about a new minimum age for access to social media that my government has announced that we will introduce legislation by the end of the year.
That we have in our May budget funded the trial of age verification technology to make sure we actually get this right. You need to trial the technology.
This is something that has been a scourge of young people in particular throughout the western world. It is something that governments are grappling with throughout the western world.
This is about giving children the childhood and parents peace of mind. I want young Australians grow up playing outside with their friends off their phones and on to the footy fields and the netball courts.
That’s what I want and that’s what parents want as well. I find it extraordinary that those opposite coming here on an issue like this and seek to yell and rant angrily.
But that characterises everything they are about. When it comes to detail from an opposition that what nuclear reactors around Australia with no costings, no plan for how they actually would occur, just saying they will be … (He runs out of time.)
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Question time begins
Peter Dutton, who did not ask a single question yesterday, asks the first one today, and manages to accuse the government of hastily issuing a policy with no detail, with an entirely straight face.
Which is a feat in itself, really, given some of the Coalition’s recent offerings.
Dutton:
The Coalition announced in June our plan to stop young children from gaining access to harmful social media content. The prime minister has been incapable of taking action on this issue for months. Yesterday premier Peter Malinauskas said he had enough of waiting for the prime minister to make a decision.
Now in a rushed way the government has made a partial announcement of a policy without detail. Why is the Albanese government hopeless at everything?
There is much noise.
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Labor MP Sam Rae, who is sent out when Labor needs a little rah-rah boost (he delivers dixers from the school of louder is more) is also known for his hair, which follows the Dolly Parton tradition of the higher the hair, the closer to [insert deity here]. (He just delivered the last 90-second statement, drawing the house’s attention to him.)
But Rae’s hair height is also being discussed as a potential recession indicator by those who are made to observe parliament – because the wave has dropped.
Jim Chalmers has not included it in an economic update as yet, but we hear Labor are eagerly waiting a return to 2022 height levels.
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Question time looms …
There is just under 15 minutes until question time.
I have consumed an emotional support bahn mi in anticipation (extra chilli) so I hope you have something to help you get through it.
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Community legal centre advocates call for $5m a year in specialist funding
Economic Justice Australia, the peak organisation for community legal centres, is “pleading” with the government to support social security legal services with an additional specialist funding stream of $5m each year.
It comes off the back of the government’s announcement it would commit $3.9bn as part of the national access to justice partnership, the main source of financial support for Australia’s community legal sector. EJA’s CEO, Kate Allingham:
Social security is recognised as a fundamental human right precisely because it acts as a buffer against so many different types of crises, from alleviating poverty and homelessness, to supporting youth justice and social inclusion, to assisting victim-survivors of domestic violence.
Everyone has the right to an adequate safety net, and without specialist funding for social security legal services, the sizeable holes in this safety net will remain unpatched. And we have already seen just how bad things can get when the system fails.
We hope that bundling the national access to justice partnership funding in with the cover-all announcement on Friday wasn’t an attempt to use the crisis as a Trojan horse to renege on previous commitments.
We remind government that the agreement was a pre-existing commitment. We also remind them of their duty to listen to the recommendations made by the robodebt royal commission and provide specialist funding to social security legal services.
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Pill-testing laws introduced in Victoria
Victorians will be able to access pill-testing services at music festivals this summer to help identify presence of deadly substances.
In June, the premier, Jacinta Allan, announced pill-testing would become permanent in Victoria after an 18-month trial. The legislation, introduced to parliament today, will enable mobile sites to be set up across 10 music festivals this summer and throughout the implementation trial.
A permanent pill-testing site close to nightlife in inner-Melbourne will also open by the middle of next year. The state’s mental health minister, Ingrid Stitt, says the reform will provide people with accurate information about substances:
We know that people are taking drugs in our community, but we also know that the volatility and the dangers involved in the illicit drug market are increasing.
The legislation is expected to pass the state parliament, with the support of upper house crossbenchers from the Greens, Animal Justice and Legalise Cannabis parties.
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Caritas Australia calls for Australia to push for Gaza ceasefire
Caritas Australia – the an aid agency of the Catholic church – has called on the Australian government to “use all our diplomatic power to push for a ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access” in Gaza.
Damian Spruce, the aadvocacy associate director at Caritas Australia, responded tothe deadly Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis:
The protection of the lives of civilians has to be the highest priority for states in any conflict, but since October 7th, the UN has reported over 40,000 deaths in Gaza. Of the 32,000 that have been identified, over 10,000 are reported to be children.
At least 294 aid workers have been killed in that time – that’s more than twice as many in any year, globally, in the past decade – alongside 885 health workers. In July, of 534 attempted aid missions, 244 were denied or impeded.
At its most basic level, International Humanitarian Law demands rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access, freedom of movement for humanitarian workers, and the protection of civilians including medical and aid workers. It also demands the protection of refugees, prisoners, the wounded and sick.
We are nearly a year into this conflict, and from day one civilians, humanitarians, and medical workers, should have been protected.
The harm being done to thousands of innocent people simply cannot continue. We must use all our diplomatic power to push for a ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access, as well as adherence to international humanitarian law on all sides.
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Greens demand treasurer intervene over interest rates
The Greens’ Nick McKim is demanding that the treasurer use his intervention powers to override the Reserve Bank board and cut interest rates immediately.
McKim says he is willing to enter into good-faith negotiations with Jim Chalmers on the changes to the bank’s structure that he is trying to legislate, but opposes the removal of section 11 of the RBA Act which gives the treasurer an override power in circumstances where the government and the bank disagree on what is “to the greatest advantage of the people of Australia”.
That power should be used. It exists for a reason, and Dr Chalmers should be using that power to bring down interest rates and provide relief for mortgage holders and renters in Australia.”
McKim also wants Chalmers to retain section 36 of the Banking Act, also set to be scrapped, which allows the bank to direct the flow of credit it provides when it engages in quantitative easing, or increasing the money supply.
He rejected suggestions that overriding the central bank on interest rates would push up interest rates.
The people who have not caused inflation are paying the price. What is driving a significant part of inflation in Australia is the spending of people who have savings that is mostly older, wealthy people ... The people who are paying the price are the people who are carrying debt, which is overwhelmingly younger Australians – people who have recently entered the housing market.
The Greens are seeking to persuade Chalmers to abandon negotiations with the Coalition over the RBA legislation and return to talks with the Greens.
In his negotiations with the Coalition – which are ongoing – Chalmers has offered to retain the override power but with a new public-interest test added to limit the circumstances in which it could apply. The power has never been used since the RBA was established 64 years ago.
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A farewell to arms: Australia backs curbing weapons sales to Israel
In case you missed it earlier this morning, Daniel Hurst reports that Australia has backed the UK decision to curb some of its arms sales to Israel, which has put it at odds with the United States.
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There is also an Extinction Rebellion protest outside the Melbourne Convention and Entertainment Centre where a global military and arms expo is being held. (Their costuming is definitely more out there than the other rallies being held today)
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Tammy Tyrell says social media age limits smack of ‘somebody please think of the children’
Independent Tasmanian senator Tammy Tyrrell has some thoughts about the proposed social media age limit:
The proposed social media ban for kids smacks of ‘won’t somebody please think of the children!’
I’m yet to see anyone put forward an age verification process that’ll work and doesn’t ask kids to hand over important data to social media companies. If someone of my age knows about virtual private networks (VPNs) then the kids definitely do!
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Coalition still seeking clarification on Labor’s proposed aged care bill
The Coalition is deciding its position on aged care, with a spokesperson saying:
The Coalition remains in good faith discussions with the government on their aged care legislation, but there remain significant details that the government has not confirmed.
With the opposition having only received the government’s 550 page bill a week ago, we are seeking clarification from the government on the details that will be contained in so-far-unseen subordinate regulations and on surprise new provisions.
This is the kind of detail that older Australians and their families deserve to know.
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Food report at the Canberra protest(s)
For those inside the parliament, we are told there are three food trucks, two coffee vans and two different ice-cream vans on the parliament lawns servicing the farmers’ protest (and the Falun Gong protest by default).
The souvlaki smells particularly great.
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There was a counter protester outside the farmers’ protest – it seemed no one read her sign and assumed she was with the group.
But she was in environmentalist green, not Nationals green. Those who know, know.
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The farmers protest is sharing space with the ongoing Falun Gong protest out the front of parliament.
However, there are now food trucks, which brings a nice festive atmosphere to the whole shebang.
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Greens senator says age limits won’t make tech companies ‘take responsibility for their unsafe platforms’
The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young also weighed in on the push to ban some children (the age cutoff has yet to be set) from social media platforms.
She said “just kicking off teenagers” was “not going to make these big tech companies take responsibility for their unsafe platforms”. Hanson-Young told reporters:
We need to be making sure these tech platforms are regulated properly, that their business models that use people’s data, sell their data and target them with opaque algorithms - that’s what needs to be challenged here. Kicking teenagers off of social media is not the way forward. It’s not supported by any of the experts or the evidence.
Hanson-Young said a parliamentary social media inquiry was looking at these issues and it was “quite clear that if you want to make social media a safe space for young people, you have to regulate the tech companies”.
She said addressing algorithms, data protection, transparency, and proper regulation was “the way to make everyone, including young people, safer online”, adding:
I understand that the prime minister wants something to be done, but he’s got all the tools he can use to make sure social media can be a safe space for everybody, regardless of age and regardless of whether you’re 15 or 16.
Swimming in the surf is dangerous. We don’t ban teenagers from going swimming. We teach them how to swim, and we tell them to swim between the flags. That’s what we need in relation to social media and protecting young people online.
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Dutton says PM ‘doesn’t lead, he follows’ at party room meeting
In the Coalition party room opposition leader, Peter Dutton, said Australians are “losing faith” in the government due to their “lived experience” of Labor’s governing which was “all bad”.
Dutton criticised Labor’s handling of a proposed social media ban for kids, noting the trial Anthony Albanese announced months ago is yet to begin and he has “no idea” what age the ban would apply from. South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas had made the PM “look foolish” and Albanese “doesn’t lead, he follows”.
Nationals leader, David Littleproud spoke about the farmers’ rally and Tanya Plibersek’s decision on the tailings dam of a proposed goldmine at Blayney.
The party room got an update from Dutton on aged care legislation: the Coalition is still working in good faith with the government but there are significant details contained in subordinate legislation they want clarification on; and some “surprise” inclusions in the bill, which Guardian Australia understands relate to union representation in the sector.
On the legislation list: the Coalition are seeking amendments on paid parental leave and want to send family law changes to a Senate inquiry.
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Greens meet with environment minister over protection laws
The Greens have met with Tanya Plibersek to discuss proposed changes to the government’s environmental protection laws, in a sign the government has not closed the door to a potential crossbench path to securing its bill.
But the Greens’ environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, raised concerns that “that the prime minister seems to be wanting to be friends with Gina Rinehart more than he wants to be friends with Blinky Bill” and could opt for a Coalition deal.
Hanson-Young held a press conference at Parliament House a short time ago alongside representatives of the Environment Centre Northern Territory, the World Wildlife Fund, the Australian Conservation Federation and the Wilderness Society. The speakers also included traditional owners from the Northern Territory who spoke about water protection and ending land clearing.
Hanson-Young said the government needed to fulfil its promise to “fix Australia’s broken environment laws” but the proposal as it stood was “weak”. She implored the government to “do what is right by nature” and not to do a deal with the Coalition:
The easy road, the gutless road, would be to roll over and do what the mining lobby want and to vote with Peter Dutton.
Hanson-Young confirmed that she had met yesterday with Plibersek, the environment minister, and “reiterated our offer of working together”. Hanson-Young welcomed the fact that “we are having an open conversation”, adding:
She knows, the government clearly knows, that what they’ve put on the table so far is not enough, but we are willing to work together to get something done. The ball is in the government’s court now: work with Peter Dutton to trash nature, or work with the Senate, the Greens and the crossbench, to protect it.
For more on this issue, see this latest story by my colleague Lisa Cox:
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Experts agree addressing larger-scale factors could lead to sizable reductions in suicides
(Continued from previous post)
Suicide is the main cause of death for younger Australians and was behind more than one-third of deaths among 15 to 24-year-olds in 2022. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are more than twice as likely to die by suicide than the non-Indigenous population.
It comes as medical journal the Lancet published a series of six articles on Wednesday calling on governments to more comprehensively address the impact of poverty, debt, addictions, homelessness, abuse, discrimination and social isolation on a person’s decision to consider suicide.
Prof Jane Pirkis, the director of the centre for mental health at the University of Melbourne, authored one of the papers and said; “Addressing these more upstream factors is likely to lead to sizeable reductions in suicide rates”.
In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, Mental Health America is available on 800-273-8255
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Labor releases draft national suicide prevention strategy
The federal government has published the draft of its National Suicide Prevention Strategy, and the public has been invited to give their feedback. The strategy is open for comment until 27 October.
The strategy has been informed by people with lived experience of depression and suicide. It says addressing the social factors contributing to suicide – such as loneliness, childhood abuse, and financial stress – is critical to prevention.
Such stressors can lead people to feel “trapped in their circumstances,” and people need to be able to feel they can live a meaningful life, with hope for the future, the report says.
Any suicide prevention strategy “ must do more than support people who are experiencing suicidal distress – it must also reduce the likelihood of people experiencing suicidal distress in the first place,” the report says.
Wellbeing is more than simply the absence of illness but encompasses quality of life.
Experiences of childhood abuse and neglect, alcohol and drug-related harm, and intimate partner violence against women were associated with almost half (48%) of suicide deaths and self-inflicted injuries in 2019. These socioeconomic factors and related stressors known to elevate suicide risk must be addressed, the report says.
Similarly, economic uncertainty, social exclusion and loneliness, chronic pain, and family separation or bereavement were associated with increased suicide risk.
(continued in next post)
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14.
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PM to attend Asean next month
Anthony Albanese has confirmed he will be attending Asean on Wednesday, 9 October, which means an early question time. Rather than leave it to the acting prime minister (we would assume that would be Richard Marles) there will be a special 10am question time on that day.
If there must be a brunch question time, there should at least be mimosas. That should be in the standing orders.
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Inside all of us are two wolves:
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The farmer’s rally, through the Bowers lens
Here is how Mike Bowers saw the protest:
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Given Sarah’s post about David Littleproud being heckled and questioned at the rally, a reminder that the most recent ‘Keep the Sheep’ donations drive referred to Peter Dutton as the “alternative prime minister” and Littleproud as Dutton’s “potential deputy”.
Littleproud faces down heckler over track record as water minister
After Peter Dutton and David Littleproud delivered their speeches to the crowd of farmers on Tuesday morning, the rally’s emcee asked them a few questions on the stage.
Dutton was asked whether he would listen to farmers, not just look them in the eye and tell them how it is, as Littleproud said a few moments earlier.
The opposition leader responded his door would “of course” be open, before accusing the Labor government of selling out farmers for inner-city votes.
The government is listening to Green voters in inner cities, Sydney and Melbourne. That’s why you are being sold out, and that is not a feature of the Liberal and National party coalition.”
A member in the crowd began heckling Littleproud about his track record as water resources minister. The loud PA equipment meant the Nationals leader’s voice easily boomed over the heckler as he defended his decisions.
I’m happy to stand here every day of the week and tell you what I did as a water minister and the reforms I put in place that has meant more people are sitting in regional Australia, more businesses are still surviving, rather than this lazy buyback option.
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If the ‘getting government out of your life’ line sounds familiar, it is probably because you may remember this rant from a former Nationals leader on Christmas Eve, 2019.
Merry Christmas pic.twitter.com/QGYPv51pTN
— Barnaby Joyce (@Barnaby_Joyce) December 24, 2019
Dutton commits to overturning live sheep export ban if elected
Down on the front lawns of Parliament House, a large contingent of Coalition politicians joined a rally of farmers who are protesting against Labor’s ban on live sheep exports.
The leaders, Peter Dutton and David Littleproud, addressed the crowd of hundreds from as far as Western Australia.
Dutton committed to overturning the live sheep export ban if elected at the next election. Littleproud later said it would be the first bill he would introduce as an agriculture minister. Littleproud continued:
The first international trip I take goes to Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan to show them the respect that we should show our great international trading partners, that we’ll give them the food security they deserve, and we’ll trust them with the best product in the world, coming from Western Australia.
The opposition leader used the opportunity to attack the prime minister’s agricultural and export policies, saying it was creating “uncertainty” overseas.
Littleproud said the Coalition’s policies were ultimately about “getting out of your life”.
A Dutton-Littleproud government is simply going to look you in the eye, tell you how it is and get on with the job. That’s our commitment to you.
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Labor’s background briefing: questions on misinformation and disinformation
After every party room meeting, there is a background briefing where the minutes of the meeting are discussed. It is attributed to “party room sources”, but it is an official briefing.
As we have previously discussed, it is one of those weird political traditions. John Curtin used to hold off-the-record briefings with the senior press gallery reporters during WW II where he would explain where Australian troops were being positioned and what the hopes for the battle were. From there it morphed into “here is what each party is doing on policy and what was discussed in party room meetings”.
At the Labor caucus briefing, reporters learned there were two questions from the backbench on the coming misinformation and disinformation legislation.
Someone wanted to know if misinformation and disinformation was differently defined. The answer is yes.
The second question was whether it would cover media organisations. The answer to that was no.
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Sports funding to be tied to gender quotas for organisation board positions
AAP has taken a look at sports minister Anika Well’s latest policy anouncement:
Australian sporting organisations will lose government funding if half their board members aren’t women within three years.
The federal government says under a new policy, 50% of board directors and chairs, and also sub-committee members, must be women or gender diverse from 2027. If not, funding will be withheld from noncompliant national sports organisations. Wells said in a statement:
We need more women making decisions for more women.
Our sporting systems are not equal and this policy will help address the gender imbalances prevalent in sports leadership.
The incredible results by our women in Paris (at the Olympics and Paralympics) and the success of teams like the Diamonds, Stingers and Southern Stars has seen a surge in female participation but we still do not have an appropriate balance of senior leadership.
Wells released the national gender equity in sport governance policy on Tuesday with backing from the government agency Australian Sports Commission (ASC).
Currently, only 25% of national sporting organisations and national sporting organisations for people with disability are chaired by a woman.
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You know we are getting closer to an election because the amount of social media videos from politicians increase:
I want children to have a childhood and parents to have peace of mind. pic.twitter.com/ag2u52Bpui
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) September 9, 2024
Malinauskas says he supports raising social media ban to 16
South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas, who really kicked along the federal government response to social media age verification with its announcement it would be moving forward with an ban on under 14s, has spoken to the media about the federal announcement.
On the age limit, Malinauskas said:
We adopted the position really out of the precedent that came out of Florida that we thought there was a value and consistency there. If the federal government determines that 16 is a better way to go we would support that. I would put a higher premium on consistency across the country. Over and above any particular age. If at 16 so be it. I would welcome that just as long as we have a law passed that puts the obligation on the social media companies and protecting our children.
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Keep the Sheep praise Dutton and Littleproud for joining rally
This is part of the donations call from the Keep the Sheep organisation, who are fighting against the (already passed) legislation to phase out the live sheep export industry.
WA is the only state where live sheep exports still occur, with every other state moving to a different export market. WA farmers have vowed to make it an election issue and given WA’s role in helping Labor win majority government in 2022, the campaign has Labor worried.
From the Keep the Sheep donations drive:
We even had the alternative prime minister Peter Dutton and his potential deputy David Littleproud, join us in our fight at the rally.
They are standing with us and will Stop the Ban and Keep the Sheep if elected at the next federal election.
Anthony Albanese, on the other hand, did not front up.
But he can ignore us at his peril.
(The reference to Dutton as the alternative PM, but Littleproud as “potential” deputy also reveals some of the ongoing ructions within the National party and its supporters over the leadership.)
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Court to decide whether to fine AGL for taking welfare money from hundreds Australians
The federal court is expected to decide early next year whether to impose financial penalties on energy giant AGL for using Centrepay to wrongly take hundreds of thousands of dollars from the welfare payments of vulnerable Australians.
The court last month ruled that AGL had breached national energy retail rules 16,000 times through its use of Centrepay, a government-run payment system, to deduct money from the welfare payments of roughly 500 people who were no longer its customers. The court ruled AGL contravened the rules by failing to notify the customers and failing to refund the money.
It is now deciding on what relief AGL should be forced to make for the contraventions.
The case appeared briefly before Justice Kylie Downes on Tuesday, where the parties agreed to a hearing on 11 December to decide. Downes indicated that timetable would allow her to make a ruling early next year.
There is still no indication from AGL on whether it will appeal. In the meantime. the Australian Energy Regulator is weighing up whether to take action against three other energy retailers who are accused of similarly misusing Centrepay to wrongly deduct money from the welfare payments of former customers.
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Greens party room meeting discuss Reserve Bank, social media ban and Israel arms sales
The Greens party room have met, discussing Reserve Bank reforms given the Coalition has backed out of a deal with the government to pass them.
On the RBA negotiations with the government, the Greens want:
To retain section 11, which allows the government to override the RBA on cash rate decisions; and
To retain Banking Act section 36, which allows the RBA to direct banks where to lend when it engages in quantitative easing
The Greens are calling for a two-way ban (on imports and exports) of weapons and weapon parts with Israel. They noted my colleague Daniel Hurst’s story that foreign affairs minister Penny Wong backed the UK’s decision on arms exports but want a more meaningful commitment in the Australian context.
The Greens also discussed the proposed social media ban, noting that no relevant experts including the eSafety commissioner want the age ban. The minor party is of the view the Labor-Coalition plan will let big tech off the hook from cleaning up their platform, and want more regulation instead.
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Social media ban ‘unlikely to keep our children safer’, says expert
More experts are coming out to warn against age verification on social media and gaming apps as a cure to some of the social destruction wrought by bullying and harassment on the apps.
Professor Amanda Third has quite the academic resume: a professorial research fellow in the Institute for Culture & Society; co-director of the Young and Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University; and a faculty associate in the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University (2020-2023).
Third says while banning social media for young adolescents “is very seductive, especially for parents”, it is not the answer.
Parents really need support to address their concerns and to find ways to ensure their children can be safe online.
Moreover, bans compel platforms to shift into compliance mode rather than focusing on building optimal digital environments.
While tighter regulation is necessary, I’m concerned that bans are very difficult and costly to enforce, and that those resources are better invested in building better digital environments for children and educating them and their families. Importantly, bans are unlikely to keep our children safer and may indeed risk exposing them to additional harm by creating environments that prevent them from seeking help when they need it.
Bans are unlikely to help those children who are most vulnerable online, which, research shows, are those who are already most socially marginalised and often don’t have the support of trusted adults.
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Here is a a selection of some of the grievances farmers are protesting today.
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Queensland academic criticises Labor’s planned social media age ban
One of the blog powers that be has directed our attention to a LinkedIn post from Daniel Angus, the director of the Queensland University of Technology’s digital media research centre.
Angus echoes other peak body’s frustrations with the social media age verification push the government has adopted – because it is not based on evidence.
Angus:
The Australian federal government’s reckless decision this morning to impose an age ban on youth using social media – before the joint inquiry into social media in Australia has even issued a proper interim report from hundreds of expert submissions – shows utter disregard for evidence-based policy.
This kneejerk move undermines the joint inquiry and deliberative democratic principles and threatens to create serious harm by excluding young people from meaningful, healthy participation in the digital world, potentially driving them to lower quality online spaces, and removing an important means of social connection.
It also means that very large online platforms are going to be let off the hook in making necessary reforms to the quality of content on their platforms, as this simply places a gate at the door rather than improving what’s on the other side.
If this is how the Anthony Albanese government “listens” to experts, it seems the inquiry was just a sham to begin with. No doubt this populist policy will sell well with the older demographics, but it’s a misguided distraction from the necessary structural reforms that would provide long term benefit to youth in this country.
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A truck convoy has arrived in Canberra – better late than never.
The convoy is part of a wider protest from farmers, which Gabrielle Chan talks about in this piece:
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The Coalition are now claiming credit for the social media age verification policy the government has adopted.
Anthony Albanese has already given credit to FM radio hosts Fitzy and Wippa. News Corp has also been running a campaign, which the coalition jumped on very early.
Experts in this space however say it is not about age limits, but regulation of the sites themselves.
Earlier this year, I announced that a Coalition government would raise the social media access age to 16, and we would achieve this within our first 100 days in office. pic.twitter.com/7nsUNiIIhj
— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) September 10, 2024
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NSW healthcare workers rally in Sydney
Nurses and healthcare workers are protesting outside NSW premier Chris Minns’ office this morning. They are demanding a better pay deal from the NSW Labor government.
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AHRC to conduct consultations with victims of workplace sexual harassment
The Australian Human Rights Commission will host consultations tomorrow with people who have been sexually harassed at work.
Called “Speaking from Experience”, the project follows the 27th recommendation of the Respect@Work report to have people with experience of sexual harassment speak about what they believe needs to occur to promote change.
The sex discrimination commissioner, Dr Anna Cody, will lead the consults with community organisations in Canberra. Cody:
Everyone deserves to feel safe and respected at work.
Survivors of sexual harassment have invaluable insights into the challenges and solutions needed to create safer workplaces and this is their chance to have their say.”
The Commission aims to hear from all survivors, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers, culturally and racially marginalised workers, young workers, workers with disability and LBGQTI+ workers. All sessions are confidential.
In-person consultations will be held in Canberra on the 11th and 12th of September. For more information on Speaking from Experience and how to participate, visit: https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/speaking-experience
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Greens and crossbench continue appeal for Labor to collaborate on environmental legislation
Sarah Hanson-Young is continuing to push for the Labor government to work with the Greens and the crossbench, including David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe, on environmental legislation rather than negotiating with the Coalition:
The Albanese government has a choice: work with the Greens and the crossbench to protect the environment, or capitulate to Gina Rinehart to fast-track destruction and pollution.
The Greens and crossbench are urging Labor to salvage what’s left and halt the extinction and climate crisis: there is a pathway forward in the Senate.
A complete capitulation to Gina Rinehart and the polluters in a deal with Peter Dutton would leave Labor with zero credibility on the environment and climate heading into the next election.
The nature positive laws are back in the headlines, with the Greens and crossbench pushing for Labor to go further.
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Advocates say raising people above poverty line is major solution to lower suicide rate
There will be more about the draft national suicide prevention plan being discussed today. But antipoverty advocates say one of the solutions to cutting Australia’s suicide rate is staring the government in the face; raising people out of poverty.
Kristin O’Connell, a spokesperson for the Antipoverty Centre, pointed to the data during the Covid lockdowns when welfare payments were doubled, raising people above the poverty line. At the same time, suicide rates for people on income support lowered.
O’Connell said “income insecurity was treated as a crisis during the Covid lockdowns and it must be treated as a crisis now, particularly when poverty and living cost pressures are being felt even more acutely”:
The community knows that more services will not meaningfully reduce suicide without direct, adequate, material support.
Any talk about suicide prevention is meaningless without recognising that governments are pushing people to suicide every day that they don’t lift all social security payments.
The government is not serious about suicide prevention and mental health if it refuses to increase Centrelink payments to at least the poverty line and abolish “mutual” obligations.
In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. International helplines can be found at befrienders.org
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A view from the ground of the farmer’s rally
Our own Mike Bowers has been out the front of parliament for the farmers’ protest, which was meant to include a truck convoy.
So far, there are no trucks and about 100 people out the front. Organisers said they were expecting at least 2,000 people.
The speeches and rally isn’t expected to begin until 11am (ish) but this was the schedule sent out for what was meant to occur this morning:
6.30am: convoy departs the Goulburn ram
7.00am: second convoy departs the Ampol Foodary in Yass
8.30am: two convoys converge at Barton/Federal highways
Travel into Canberra, route to include the State Circle (circling for 30 mins, ETA 9am-9.30am)
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Angus Taylor has announced a press conference to respond to Jim Chalmers’ press conference about the RBA reforms.
This is like Kendrick Lamar and Drake, but for lame people.
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Party room meetings under way
The party room meetings are going on right now, which means you won’t hear from politicians until the meetings finish.
The parliament sitting won’t begin until midday.
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Psychologists say social media age ban ‘distraction from real issues’ of regulation and moderation
The Australian Association of Psychologists (AAPI) have weighed in on the social media age verification chat and says the proposed ban are “a distraction from the real issues at hand”.
What do they believe the real issue is? Making social media and online spaces safer.
Instead of an age limit, the association wants the government to broaden its social media reforms, removing the ability for the platforms to self and co-regulate and establish an independent regulator with teeth to enforce compliance.
Carly Dober, a practicing psychologist and director at the AAPI, said the prosed age ban “fails to recognise the benefits to young people, especially marginalised young people, gain from social media”:
Raising the age alone is a distraction from the real issues at hand. There is not enough work being done on misinformation and disinformation that young people can access, and there is not enough work being done on regulating hate speech and bullying on various social media platforms.
Increased action and legislation are needed to ensure that deepfake/AI-manipulated content is banned and those bans enforced.
The platforms themselves and the experience on the platforms themselves would remain unchanged if the government relies solely on age limit bans.
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Labor celebrates 30 years of affirmitive action and gender quotas
Last night, Labor celebrated 30 years of its gender quota affirmative action, which has led to 50:50 representation in the parliament.
There are moves at the state levels to not be so strict over the 50:50 gender representation because it has been achieved federally, and at the same time there is a push to start including diverse targets as part of the affirmative action.
But last night, it was a celebration of what the party has achieved so far, complete with a video message from Julia Gillard and appearances from the OG affirmative action campaigners, including Sheila O’Sullivan, Jeannette McHugh and Meredith Burgmann.
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Allan says Victoria was prepared to ‘go it alone’ on social media ban for children but supports national plan
Returning to Jacinta Allan on the social media ban, the Victorian premier said Victoria and South Australia were prepared to go it alone on a social media ban for children.
The South Australian government has proposed draft legislation to ban children aged 13 and under from using social media platforms. It follows an independent review conducted by the former high court justice Robert French which outlines the draft bill.
Allan says Victoria will partner with the commonwealth to create a national plan:
It certainly makes sense to have a national regime in place, because I think we all understand that technology does not stop at state borders.
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Birmingham claims Labor want to ‘destroy’ the independence of the RBA
On why the Coalition is digging in its heels, Simon Birmingham said:
Well, there was always a tinge of this reform that felt like it was far more bureaucratic and administrative in setting up separate, different boards and creating additional complexities.
All of that regardless, we’ve got a Labor government who’ve had a long time to negotiate an outcome here. They’ve been dogmatic about seemingly wanting to stack the board, and we’re just not going to tolerate that, particularly when their motivations have become quite clear and transparent in the last couple of weeks with this Labor assault on the independent Reserve Bank board.
This country has been very well served by having clear custodians of monetary policy for decades now who Peter Costello gave clear guidelines and independence to and is that type of framework that has kept us with one of the strongest economies in the world, and we shouldn’t be letting Labor tinker with it or destroy it.
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Birmingham claims Labor wants to ‘sack and stack the board’ of the RBA
Liberal senator Simon Birmingham spoke to Sky News this morning about why the Coalition was against the RBA reform legislation Jim Chalmers was trying to push through the parliament:
Well, you’ve seen Jim Chalmers wanting to blame everybody but the Albanese Government for the out-of-control inflation that continues to hurt Australians. His latest target has been to hurl blame at the Reserve Bank.
It’s clear that he wants to sack and stack the Reserve Bank board with his Labor mates and people who will do the government favour, rather than putting good economic policy first.
We’re just not going to tolerate that. We want to ensure that the Reserve Bank maintains its independence and maintains the ability to put the critical fight against inflation first, rather than doing the bidding of the Albanese government.
There was a suggestion that a workers’ advocate could sit on the RBA board, with Sally McManus’s name floated. Under the reforms, which were the recommendation of an independent panel, there would be a second RBA board, still chaired by the governor, which would deal with governance of the bank. But seems like the Coalition is digging in its heels on all of it.
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Jacinta Allan welcomes social media age limit plan
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, says she is “thrilled” the federal government will implement a nation-wide plan to impose age limits on social media platforms.
Anthony Albanese has announced plans to mandate age barriers for social media platforms, with legislation to be introduced in parliament before the end of the year.
Allan announced on Monday afternoon the state would embark on consultations to impose an age-limit on social media. Speaking to reporters this morning, Allan says social media is “doing more harm than good:
I’m absolutely delighted and thrilled that the prime minister has stepped up and is determined to take a national approach.
We need to help parents in pushing back against that tsunami – that social media tsunami that swamps kids – and we need to help teachers. Most importantly we need to help kids.
Federal and state leaders are yet to negotiate a position on the best age but the prime minister says the government will consider imposing a social media ban on children under the ages of 14 to 16.
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PM says his preferred minimum age to use social media would be 16
The prime minister has congratulated FM radio hosts Fitzy and Wippa (that’s Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald and Michael “Wippa” Wipfli) from Sydney radio Nova FM for the social media age verification campaign “you’ve been very much leading”.
The campaign the hosts have been leading is for a social media ban for teens under the age of 16. Asked if that is what the government will support, Anthony Albanese said:
Well, one of the things that we wanted to do is to make sure that when I had the discussion at national cabinet last week with all the Premiers and Chief ministers, that we don’t end up having eight different systems.
So, the right age is between 14 and 16.
I have a personal view. I err on the side of a higher limit -
Host: 16?
Albanese:
That’s where I’m at. But I want to make sure that we don’t end up with different systems in different states. We want a national approach to an issue, which is a national issue. So, that’s one of the reasons why we’ve got out there and made this announcement, perhaps earlier than we would have.
We were going to wait for the trial and then make an announcement. But we wanted to make it clear … where we were headed, that we will have legislation by the end of the year.
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Legal services warn reversal on Closing the Gap risks ‘dramatic increase in child incarceration’
Karly Warner, the chair of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) – the peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services – said their organisations is “bracing” itself for a “a dramatic increase in child incarceration around the nation”, with multiple state and territory governments walking back Closing the Gap commitments.
The tragic shift back to failed, punitive policies will lead to a lot more children in jail and more dangerous communities.
We fear the worst when it comes to children in custody. We are already seeing an increase, and recent history tells us that the outcomes will be unimaginable and tragic.
State and territory governments around Australia are ignoring the evidence on what prevents crime. That means more and more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are going to be locked up in circumstances that other children wouldn’t be, compounding generations of structural racism and discrimination.
Warner said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services were struggling to help people, including victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence;
Law and order posturing about punishment, power and control has never worked before and it won’t work now. The responsibility of governments is to do everything possible to prevent crime, not to look tough in response.
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PM says facial recognition technology may be part of social media age check trial
In an earlier interview with the Seven network, Anthony Albanese did not rule out facial recognition being used as part of the social media age verification trial.
That is one of the things we will be trialling, but there is a range of technologies that we can use.
He did say though that social media companies would also be made to uphold the laws:
We also want to put some responsibility back on to these social media companies. Social media companies have a social responsibility and we are seeing the mental health issues are rising from young people. We know that this is having a devastating impact. I pay tribute to those parents, courageous, brave people, who have spoken about their own experiences with their children about the harm that has been caused. We need to act as a society.
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Chalmers says Angus Taylor ‘rolled again’ by own party room as RBA legislation stalls
The gist of what Jim Chalmers was saying, according to our own Paul Karp, was that Angus Taylor (the shadow treasurer) has been “rolled again”.
This is an ongoing theme from Chalmers suggesting Taylor has been rolled (that is, overruled) in shadow cabinet. Previous examples include the divesture powers for supermarkets, which became Coalition policy, and on nuclear policy.
Chalmers said Taylor was initially positive to the RBA reforms – and he did seem to be willing to look at them in his public comments. Chalmers said that Labor “tried to take Angus Taylor seriously” even when his own party didn’t.
Chalmers said he will continue negotiations on the RBA legislation, which includes with the Greens and crossbenchers, but didn’t rule out dropping the legislation altogether.
Updated
Update imminent on Chalmers RBA presser
We are just chasing the audio of Jim Chalmers’ press conference. Our own Mike Bowers says Chalmers gave a list of the concessions he gave to Angus Taylor in the RBA legislation negotiations – which Chalmers says was everything Taylor asked for – but the Coalition are still saying no to passing the legislation.
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Joyce reinterprets McKenzie divesture call as attack on Qantas-Virgin duopoly
Barnaby Joyce was also given the job this morning of translating what Bridget McKenzie meant when she wrote an op-ed calling for divesture powers for airlines, and then said no, it was actually about getting the treasurer to look at the tools he had (after it emerged publicly that this was not coalition policy and had not been discussed at shadow cabinet). Joyce:
What Bridget was clearly saying, and I agree with her 100%, is that monopolies and near monopolies exploit customers. If you don’t have competition, you don’t have anything to worry about. And Qantas has been doing a very good job at that.
They play the virtue card through things such as a voice, I believe that it is a guise, a smokescreen to what they’re doing in marketplace, in the background.
Especially in regional areas, people are touched. Rex have almost gone broke. Bonza, that used to offer competition, is driven out of the market.
We have slots tied up in Sydney so that other operators can’t get into the profitable markets – one of the busiest in the world. When they say there’s not enough airlines.
One of the busiest air routes in the world is Melbourne-Sydney. So spare me that there’s not enough room in the marketplace for other players.
And we have to get a fair return back to people, especially people in regional Australia. And I think that Bridget was completely correct in dealing with the issue of competition and making sure that competition exists.
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Barnaby Joyce says Coalition support of Labor push for social media age controls
Over on the ABC, Barnaby Joyce has indicated the Coalition are in support of the social media age limit policy the government has announced.
Joyce:
Peter Dutton has indicated support from this right from the start. I think one of the issues that we believe is we should have started this earlier.
There is no argument that the insidious nature of social media, especially I have to say it, having lived through it with young girls at an influential age and issues such as body appearance and weight.
In fact, I went to the United States to try to have meetings with the senators there as they have been going through the same issue. This is an issue across the globe that people are trying to deal with … [not just] Australia.
But of course, we concur with the remarks that for the development of any child, we want them outside – not on their tablet or on mum and dad’s phone. We want them to interact with other people – not interact with a piece of glass and wiring, which is basically what’s happening.
So I think that we’re very much inclined in support, and Peter has stated that, and the issue that we’ve said within the Coalition is that we want to start this process much earlier.
We seem to be bogged down in other issues and this is incredibly important and we need to deal with it.
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Breakfast debates, part two
That continued:
Amanda Rishowrth:
After this answer that was a great deflection. A great deflection …
Bridget McKenzie:
[Interrupts] What are you doing about it? What are you doing, Amanda? Two and a half years…
Rishworth:
… [a] great deflection Bridget from having announced a policy, you’ve then walked away from it by lunchtime. I mean, this is the kind of chaos policymaking that we have [with the opposition].
McKenzie: [Interrupts] So on-brand for Labor. Play the woman, not the ball …
Rishworth: Don’t blame me, Bridget, for [you] making a mistake.
McKenzie: I’m blaming you for high air fares.
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An example of the breakfast debates
A textbook case of that scenario played out on the Nine network this morning with the National’s Bridget McKenzie and Labor’s Amanda Rishworth.
McKenzie was asked about her “the ACCC should have the power to divest airlines, actually, no, I meant the treasurer should just look at the tools he has to increase competition” mess from yesterday.
(McKenzie wrote an op-ed calling for divesture powers for airlines, singling out Qantas and suggesting it could be made to sell Jetstar under said non-existent powers until her party’s leader, David Littleproud, came out and said it wasn’t Coalition policy and had not been discussed in shadow cabinet and McKenzie was forced to reverse ferret.)
She was asked about what happened on the Nine network:
McKenzie: Oh, look, I’m on the side of the Australian traveller, as is the…
Host : I know, but did you tell anyone [in shadow cabinet]?
McKenzie:
Well, we’ve got a policy we actually put forward last year in the Qantas inquiry, a set of recommendations, one of which included that we needed to do a competition review that was holistic, that actually looked at divestiture laws. My opinion piece. My opinion piece, Karl, went to the fact that Jim Chalmers has done nothing in two and a half years [while] air fares have gone up 50%.
Host: So, David Littleproud. David Littleproud. Had a little brain fade, did he?
McKenzie:
[Laughs] I’m just going to say that I am on the side of Australian travellers and the Coalition is. And I want to know, Amanda [Rishworth], what is Jim Chalmers doing about it? And why is Catherine King been silent?
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Amy’s analysis: the morning rounds
For reasons known to people on a lot higher pay grades than us, Australia’s political debates tend to play out on breakfast television now, with the format going something like this:
Very Well Paid Host says something folksy with bite in regards to a political quagmire to Politician A.
Politician A tries to defend policy/themselves.
Very Well Paid Host interrupts as the audience surrogate, saying “but come on” or “you have got to be kidding”
Politician A doubles down.
Very Well Paid Host interjects again.
Politician A tries to laugh it all off.
Politician B (who has been silent to let Politician A sit in the discomfort) then jumps in with the political equivalent of “can’t relate”.
Politician A and B then get into a debate, that usually gets a bit personal, with both speaking over each other.
Very Well Paid Host shrugs and says “politics, huh” and moves on to singing puppies or the like.
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Both the Nine interview and the ABC interview ended with a discussion about the AFL.
Albanese defends IR record and says mining – and renewables – critical for future
It is also minerals week, which means there is a lot of Minerals Council dinners and events happening in Canberra. There was one last night – the Australian minerals industry parliamentary dinner, where Albanese spoke.
We are told the prime minister wasn’t exactly warmly embraced at the dinner, and the Minerals Council’s chief executive, Tania Constable, took the opportunity to slam the Labor government for its IR reforms, which she said was bringing conflict “to every workplace in every industry”. Albanese dismissed the criticism:
The workplace relations legislation was passed some time ago. Industrial action per capita is down compared with the former government prior to this legislation being carried.
We want workers to be paid properly. We want as well people to earn more and keep more of what they earn.
That’s why we introduced tax cuts. That’s why we think that two people who are working side by side with the same experience working for the same company, undertaking the same work shouldn’t be the subject of manipulations in order to pay them less.
That’s my government’s position, but we work very cooperatively with the sector and the mining sector in Australia is doing very well.
I’m very optimistic about how they can achieve even more in the future. That’s why we have measures like our support for critical minerals.
We want production tax credits to reward success and investment in the minerals that will drive the global economy in this century. We’re blessed by having some of the best resources under the ground and in the sky, the best solar resources in the world.
If you combine those two things, we can set ourselves up for a very positive future indeed, and the resources sector will be critical to that.
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Draft national suicide prevention strategy to be released
A new draft national suicide prevention strategy will be launched later today. Anthony Albanese says it will be open to consultation.
We know that every life lost to suicide is one too many and there are too many [lost] around our country. We want to make sure that we take advantage of the best research which is there, but also the experiences which are there as well. J
Just yesterday, we received the royal commission into the suicide for veterans and Defence Force personnel. That is a chilling report of seven volumes, with 122 recommendations concentrating, of course, on that area.
We’ll respond to those recommendations soon. We’ll go through the report diligently. And we know that suicide, though, has an impact on all sections of our society in our cities, in our regions, young and old, tragically, and men and women and we know that we need to do better.
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Albanese says social media age ban laws to be introduced by year’s end
OK – let’s get off the footy fields and on to the policy itself. What age group is the government looking to target the ban at?
Albanese:
Well, we’re looking at the range between 14 and 16. That’s one of the reasons why we’re having a trial.
And what we’re looking at is how you deliver it. This is a global issue that governments around the globe are trying to deal with. So we can look at the experience and look at the response of social media companies.
Social media has a social responsibility in order to have that social licence that they require to operate in a decent society. They’re not above everyone else. They can’t just say, “We’re a big multinational company. We can do whatever we like, regardless of the harm that’s being caused.”
So we’ll look at this age verification trial. We know that it’s not simple and it’s not easy. Otherwise, governments would have responded before. But we’ll look at the experience.
We’ll look at the report and work that Justice French has done. But we will also have that legislation before the parliament by the end of the year, because we know that this is what parents are talking about – after school, in the parents and citizens groups, at the sideline of sport, on the weekend, they’re talking about the impact this has.
And we know for example, that the – which many state governments have done – of phones from school has made a positive difference. So we know that if we get our youngest Australians off these devices, then it can make a positive difference for them.
Updated
Anthony Albanese – still in the prime minister’s courtyard – stops looking into the Nine camera for their broadcast and turns to the ABC’s, where he speaks about much the same thing as he did five minutes ago. (You may spot what is termed in the biz as some “lines” being repeated here).
Well, we’re listening to parents and listening to the community and I want to see kids off their devices and on to the footy fields and the swimming pools and the tennis courts.
We want them to have real experiences with real people. We know that social media is causing social harm.
Prepare to hear a lot about footy fields and swimming pools in the coming months.
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PM says social media giants have social responsibility
And on the inevitable fight with the social media giants, Anthony Albanese says:
We’re certainly prepared to muscle up against them and to take action as the national government, because they do have a social responsibility here.
These big multinational companies think they’re above all the people who provide the income for their massive profits that they undertake. But they do have a social responsibility. And that is something that we as a government are prepared to take on.
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Albanese flags expectation of support for social media ban for children
Anthony Albanese says the government will be moving quickly with its legislation and expects to find support in the parliament for it:
We’re going to introduce legislation by the end of the year. So we are going out with this trial that we funded in the budget in May, and we want to have that legislation introduced into the parliament so that people can see the clear direction that it’s going in.
We want to work across the parliament as well. This is something that is certainly not a party political issue or shouldn’t be.
This is an issue about defending our youngest Australians and giving a bit of peace of mind to parents as well, who are really concerned about what the young ones are having access to and the social harm that it’s causing.
Social media has a social responsibility also to do the right thing here, not to pretend that it’s nothing to do with them because it is causing harm.
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PM speaks on social media ban for kids
Anthony Albanese is doing the media rounds this morning, speaking on the government’s announcement it will ban children from social media platforms. This came after the South Australian announcement yesterday it would be moving to ban children under 14.
Albanese told the Nine network:
Well, we want to work with the states and territories. What we didn’t want to develop is eight different systems. We know this is a national issue and it’s pretty simple. We want to get kids off their devices and on to the footy fields, on to the netball courts, into the swimming pools.
We want them to have real experiences with real people, and we know that social media is causing social harm, which is why we put funding in the budget to have a trial to make sure that we get it right.
It’s not easy. We accept that and the result mightn’t be perfect, but we need to try to make a difference here because this is something that is causing social harm and every parent is concerned about what their young ones are having access to.
There are really advanced countries around the world who are attempting to do it, and they’ve had great difficulties.
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Former NSW Liberal leader John Brogden speaks on National Suicide Prevention Day
Today is National Suicide Prevention Day.
The former NSW Liberal leader turned mental health advocate John Brogden has spoken to some high-profile Australians about their mental health for a book, Profiles in Hope, with all proceeds going to the Lifeline charity.
As part of the promotion, Brogden has spoken to the ABC about his own suicide attempt. But before we go any further – a reminder that help is always available.
In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. International helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Brogden:
I was leader of the opposition in New South Wales. I’d been in the role for more than three years.
I’d lost an election, but that was always the plan – lose one and win the next one and get better known.
And I was doing well in the polls. Sometimes we were able to match where our opponents then in government were. Sometimes just behind them.
So it was a real opportunity to win government and become premier. And then I said and did a few very stupid and offensive things at an event, and three weeks later, resigned my role as opposition leader, and then the next day, things are become so catastrophic in my mind, that I came to a point where I thought not only the only thing to do was to take my own life, but the best thing to do was to take my own life.
Because I felt so ashamed, I felt [like] such a burden. I’d felt that I’d let so many people down, and that the best thing to do was to go, to exit.
And that doesn’t make sense in many ways. Because you leave behind people who love you, people who care for you.
And I ask people [who are] at this point, to make sure that they do not judge the most irrational of all actions, rationally. So from that perspective, I hit rock bottom, obviously.
And I had to leave post-mortem particulars at the time … I had to leave politics at the time. I didn’t think that I could come back.
And as you said, as well as my other roles in life have had a lot to do with Lifeline, but it was a terrible time.
But I’ll tell you what was most significant, for all of the difficulty on the way down, [there was] incredible support and empathy and sympathy on the way back up.
Updated
Ask Amy: what’s the go with the RBA legislation?
The RBA legislation comes after the RBA review. That is why Michelle Bullock holds the press conference after each meeting now; part of the RBA review was a recommendation for the governor to better explain the RBA board’s decisions.
The RBA board also recommended the government scrap the never-used emergency power for the treasurer to force the RBA to act. That power was set up after the Great Depression when the government of the day tried to force the Commonwealth Bank (then Australia’s central bank) to fund a national infrastructure program to keep the economy stimulated. The bank refused and Australia was plunged into depression.
When the RBA legislation was set up, that was remembered and the emergency power became part of the whole she-bang.
When Chalmers announced he would be getting rid of the power, as per the suggestion of the RBA review board, former treasurers and RBA governors all came out and said that wasn’t a great idea – that the power was needed for insurance.
The legislation would also put in place a second RBA board, which would review governance of the RBA. There were questions over whether that was necessary as well.
So the Coalition have been playing hardball on the legislation. Chalmers gave some ground by saying the emergency power would be kept, but negotiations between the government and LNP have been increasingly stalled.
It looks like they may have come to a grinding halt, meaning Chalmers may not get this legislation through the parliament.
Updated
Treasurer calls press conference over Reserve Bank legislation
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has called a press conference for 8am (in the blue room, the second most fancy press conference location) over the RBA legislation.
It’s early for a couple of reasons – it is party room meeting day, so Chalmers is getting ahead of that, but Chalmers, as you may have noticed, is also trying to take back the agenda at large.
He has made quite a few interventions lately (commenting on RBA interest rates, Peter Dutton’s leadership style, the census question debacle) so there is a pattern emerging.
Updated
Good morning
A very big thank you to Martin for starting us off this morning. He is absolutely right – it is a day of protest. You’ve got Amy Remeikis on the blog and the entire Guardian brains trust at your disposal. Coffee number three is on the stove.
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
Updated
Our rural affairs writer, Gabrielle Chan, has been looking at today’s farming protest and how it compares to the last one endorsed by the National Farmers’ Federation which was, amazingly, nearly 40 years ago in 1985.
Updated
Murdoch's real-life succession drama to begin in Nevada court
The battle between Rupert Murdoch and his children over the future of his media empire begins this week in Nevada as observers attempt to force the court to make the secretive dispute public.
Murdoch wants to change the structure of his family trust to give all voting power to his oldest son, Lachlan. If successful, Murdoch’s other adult children, Prudence, James and Elisabeth, will lose their voting power.
Of the children, Lachlan is the most politically aligned with his father while his younger siblings have expressed reservations about the direction of the companies, particularly during Donald Trump’s presidency.
The only information available to the public are the key dates of the trial, which is being held in Reno, Nevada, listed on the court’s website. The trial is slated to have a status conference today followed by a series of evidentiary hearings starting 16 September.
Read the full story here:
McKenzie reiterates walkback on airline divesture powers that is not Coalition policy
The shadow transport minister, Bridget McKenzie, was again forced to clarify the Coalition does not explicitly support breaking up Qantas just hours after floating the possibility of forced divestiture powers in the aviation sector.
McKenzie warned in a newspaper piece yesterday the competition watchdog’s review of the aviation sector “will be a failure if it does not address the role of divestiture”.
But her Nationals leader, David Littleproud, said it wasn’t Coalition policy. And then she was quizzed again on the issue on ABC’s 7.30 last night when she said it would be “one of the tools” that could be used to introduce more competition.
Our full story is here:
Nurses to strike in New South Wales
A widescale nurses’ strike has triggered warnings to keep ambulances and EDs clear of minor cases as Labor feels the heat for “refusing” to fix a gender pay gap, Australian Associated Press reports.
Nurses and midwives were expected to walk off the job across NSW for 12 hours today after demands for a 15% pay rise this year were rebuffed.
NSW Health, which had begun contacting patients about postponing surgeries, challenged the strike in the state’s industrial relations commission yesterday, emerging victorious late in the afternoon. The commission ordered the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association to cease the strike action immediately.
In the face of official orders to halt their strike, rallies are scheduled in 16 locations including Albury, Newcastle, Tamworth and outside premier Chris Minns’ electorate office in Sydney.
Life-preserving staffing will be maintained but longer waits in emergency departments and planned surgery cancellations are expected.
The union said members were not taking industrial action lightly.
Labor was “refusing to fix the gender pay gap” and deliver the state’s largest female-dominated workforce fair and reasonable pay, the association’s general secretary, Shaye Candish, said. Three in four NSW public health workers are women, with median salaries 3.2% below their male counterparts.
While dismissed by the premier as unaffordable, an immediate 15% pay rise could be covered through capturing $3bn in lost commonwealth health funding, the union says.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ve got some of the main overnight stories before Amy Remeikis comes along.
The Albanese government is hoping to regain the political initiative by introducing legislation to set a minimum age for social media platforms before the next election. The prime minister is expected to announce plans today for legislation to be introduced into parliament but will stop short of specifying the age, arguing the government wants to wait for the conclusion of an age-verification trial which begins its final phase this week. Read the news here – and of course the blog will cover developments.
More voters are blaming the Albanese government for interest rate rises with 44% finding fault with ministers, according to the latest Essential poll, although the number blaming “prices going up” stayed the same as seven months ago at around 58%. Better news for the government was that 53% thought the proposed cap on international student enrolments was “about right”.
It’s a big day of protest up and down Australia. In New South Wales, nurses and midwives are planning to walk off the job from this morning for 12 hours after demands for a 15% pay rise this year were rebuffed – though the state’s industrial relations commission yesterday afternoon ordered the union not to go ahead.
In Canberra farmers from across the country plan a protest starting at 11am with the planned phase-out of the live sheep trade, the Murray Darling Basin plan, and increases in biosecurity charges the main issues. Gabrielle Chan brings you the history – and the complaints that should be on their list, but aren’t.
And in Melbourne activists intend to disrupt a military expo that starts tomorrow. We’ll have all the developments as they happen.
