What we learned today, Thursday 16 February
With that, we’ll wrap up our live coverage of the day’s news.
Here’s a summary of the main developments:
The bodies of two miners who went missing at Dugald River underground mine yesterday have been found.
The New South Wales Liberals are facing internal pushback from senior women in the party who are furious that an upper house MP has avoided any formal sanctions despite admitting he circulated explicit photos of a female rival.
Former Morrison government ministers Josh Frydenberg and Greg Hunt are backing rival candidates in the Liberal party preselection battle for the seat of Aston, after the retirement of Alan Tudge.
Police have labelled last year’s shooting of two police officers and a neighbour in the Queensland town of Wieambilla as Australia’s first fundamentalist Christian terrorist attack.
Dominic Perrottet has lashed out at allegations his younger brother tried to orchestrate a $50,000 branch-stacking operation to unseat the federal Coalition MP Alex Hawke, demanding the inquiry running the probe “leave my family out of it”.
The world is at risk of descending into a climate “doom loop”, a thinktank report has warned.
Thanks for tuning in, we’ll be back tomorrow to do it all over again.
Updated
Liberals still not satisfied with voice proposal after second meeting with working group
The shadow Indigenous Australians minister, Julian Leeser, says the Liberal party is still not satisfied with the voice to parliament proposal and has concerns about the success of the referendum, even after a second meeting with the government’s internal working group.
Leeser and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, met with the group (which includes Linda Burney, Pat Dodson, Megan Davis, Pat Anderson and other Indigenous leaders) for a few hours this afternoon. In a brief press conference afterwards, Leeser thanked the group and government, calling it a “respectful meeting, a good discussion”.
“But we said at this point in time, we don’t think the referendum is on track for success,” Leeser said.
He again reiterated Dutton’s earlier concerns about wanting more detail on how the voice would work, but raised a fresh criticism about minor changes to the proposed constitutional alteration.
Two weeks ago, the working group released legal advice from its constitutional expert group that suggested an introductory line (“In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as the First Peoples of Australia”) could go before the three previously-suggested lines that would enshrine the voice.
Leeser claimed “those words keep changing”.
He said he and Dutton asked questions in the meeting but did not expect to get answers to the 15 questions the opposition leader had previously proposed.
Leeser said discussions would continue. Dutton had earlier said “for us to be here with you is important and we’re keen to continue the discussions”.
But at this stage, to sum up, basically no change in the Liberal position.
Updated
Bodies of miners found at Dugald River
The bodies of two miners who went missing at Dugald River underground mine yesterday have been found.
Mining services firm Perenti says that following a significant search and rescue operation the Barminco employees Trevor Davis and Dylan Langridge were discovered fatally injured.
The CEO of Perenti, Mark Norwell, says it is a “devastating outcome” and sent his deepest sympathies and condolences to the “families, friends, colleagues and loved ones of Trevor and Dylan, both of whom should have come home safely from work yesterday”.
Yesterday morning, approximately 125 metres below the surface, an incident occurred resulting in three Barminco employees, one in a drill rig and two in a light vehicle, falling around 15 metres into a void within a previously backfilled stope.
The drill rig operator was rescued and received medical treatment for minor injuries but Davis and Langridge did not survive.
Langridge was 33 and joined Barminco in 2020 as a truck operator at Savannah before joining the service crew at Dugald River later that year and taking up the role of operator.
Davis was 36 and joined Barminco in 2020 as a shotcrete operator at Rosemont, before transferring to Dugald River as a charge up operator in November 2021.
Norwell said:
Our immediate and ongoing focus is on providing support to the families, friends and colleagues of Trevor and Dylan.
This tragic incident is devastating and will have a lasting impact on not only the families and friends of Trevor and Dylan but also on the workforce of Dugald River, the Cloncurry and Mount Isa communities and the entire Perenti workforce.
The safety of our employees is an absolute priority for Perenti, as it is for the industry more broadly. I am devastated that the families and friends of our two workmates have lost their loved ones. This outcome is simply not acceptable.
Norwell said in collaboration with relevant authorities the company would work to understand the circumstances behind the incident and what measures needed to be implemented.
Updated
Senate estimates hears update on Australians detained in China
Officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have also given updates on two particularly high-profile consular cases: Australians Cheng Lei and Dr Yang Jun, who are detained in China.
Consular officials were able to visit Cheng in January for the first time since September, after visits were deferred by Chinese authorities on Covid grounds. Officials were also able to have a video meeting with Yang in January.
Ian Gerard, an assistant secretary in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said it had been 10 months now since Cheng had been subject to a closed trial, and Australia would continue to advocate for her rights, welfare and interests at every opportunity.
Gerard said that Australia was informed in January that the latest deadline for a verdict in Cheng’s case had been extended by three months to 19 April this year (this is the fourth time the verdict has been deferred). He said there had still been no clarity provided to Australian officials on the precise charges she was facing.
Gerard said Australia continued to provide consular assistance to Yang, who faced a closed trial on 27 May 2021 “and is yet to learn the outcome”. Gerard said the ongoing delays were “troubling” and the Australian government would continue to advocate for him. Yang’s verdict deadline was also deferred, once again, to 9 April this year.
The minister, Penny Wong, said the trade minister, Don Farrell, again raised the cases in his video meeting with China’s commerce minister last week:
Because these two cases are such a priority for us, I ensure and the prime minister ensures they are raised in our bilateral engagements with [Chinese] counterparts ...
We are deeply troubled by the ongoing delays in both cases. We have made representations in relation to procedural fairness, standards of justice, consular visits and so forth, and we will continue to advocate for both Ms Cheng and Dr Yang to be reunited with their families as soon as possible.
The Coalition’s Simon Birmingham replied that the opposition, all MPs and all Australians “hold them in their thoughts and wish the government every success in their advocacy and securing outcomes”.
Updated
Victorian Bar Council emails members about search of barristers’ accounts in homophobia investigation
More information has emerged about the search of barristers’ email accounts that occurred as part of an investigation conducted by the Victorian Bar Council.
Guardian Australia reported last week that the accounts had been accessed as part of a probe into the production of a homophobic notice that had been posted in a legal chambers.
The search alarmed lawyers, who were concerned it may have compromised highly confidential information it had shared in relation to clients and their cases.
The bar council president, Sam Hay KC, sent a further update to members on Thursday afternoon, saying that he hoped to answer a number of questions that had been raised since the access was revealed.
The email to members, which was obtained by the Guardian, says that the search was conducted by two council employees under the instruction of the council chief executive, Paul Clark, following a discussion Clark had with Roisin Annesley KC, the former bar president.
“The question of ‘authorisation’ is complicated,” Hay wrote in the email.
Hay continued:
Mr Clark was simply doing what he could to assist the president with the investigation, and the president was acting in good faith to respond to the notice.
At the time the search was conducted in August last year, neither the then bar council, nor the bar council executive, were consulted as to the deployment of the search software prior to its use.
Hay said Annesley and Clark believed the search of the email accounts was permitted under the bar council’s terms and conditions. He said:
Those terms and conditions are being amended to make clear that a search of the type that occurred is not permitted in future, and to enshrine the clear and shared understanding that electronic environments used by members are to be maintained in the strictest confidence and will only be interrogated under the compulsion or authorisation of the law.
Earlier this week, Hay declined to answer further questions from the Guardian about the case.
The Victorian legal services board received a referral relating to a barrister who was alleged to have made the notice last August. It has declined to comment on the status of its investigation into the barrister.
Updated
Sean Turnell a ‘free citizen’ and should be able to travel freely, Dfat says
Still at Senate estimates, and the Coalition’s Simon Birmingham has thanked all Australian officials who successfully worked for Prof Sean Turnell’s release from detention in Myanmar since the previous round of estimates hearings.
Ian Gerard, an assistant secretary in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is asked about Myanmar’s subsequent decision in December to annul Turnell’s amnesty and issue a subpoena for him to appear in a Myanmar court.
Gerard reiterates that this is a “deeply concerning development”. He says it is particularly concerning that Turnell had now been asked to answer for an undetermined accusation following his release.
Birmingham asks whether this action puts Turnell at risk if he visits other countries.
Gerard replies:
Due to our ongoing support to Prof Turnell it’s difficult to expand on this out of privacy considerations, but certainly we consider Prof Turnell to be a free citizen and we’re working hard with him to support him on this so he can travel overseas should he wish to.
Updated
Universities will not open any new Confucius Institutes, Penny Wong says
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, says she expects Australian universities will not establish any new Chinese government-linked Confucius Institutes on their campuses.
A Senate estimates committee has been told that Wong has not torn up 56 existing arrangements under the foreign veto laws, after receiving advice that “risks” have been “mitigated against”.
But Wong made clear new institutes would not be approved:
Obviously, we will keep the arrangements under review and the government’s expectation is that Australian universities will not establish new institutes and I understand this has been communicated to the sector.
Updated
Australia may extend sanctions on Russia
Officials have kept open the possibility of announcing further sanctions against Russia next week to coincide with the first anniversary of Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine.
Friday 24 February will make the anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, although the war began in 2014 with the invasion and annexation of Crimea and parts of the Donbas region.
In response to questions from the Coalition’s Simon Birmingham at Senate estimates this afternoon, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said a range of countries were expected to coordinate announcements to mark the anniversary.
Chris Cannan, a first assistant secretary, said officials would “not be in a position to announce here today” measures that Australia might take. Speaking generally about the need to not give time for individual named targets of sanctions to shuffle their assets, Cannan mentioned “the importance of not announcing them prior to them taking effect”.
Birmingham offered bipartisan support for further sanctions and also further assistance to Ukraine.
Updated
Westpac halts planned branch closures
The bank has said it will pause plans to close regional bank branches while a Senate inquiry into the affect of regional bank branch closures takes place, joining the Commonwealth Bank as the second of the big four to promise a temporary stay on closures.
It comes just a week after Westpac announced it would close 20 branches this year, including eight in regional Australia. On Wednesday, a Westpac spokesperson said no decisions on the future of other branches would be made during the inquiry.
Read more from Emily Middleton’s report:
Updated
Fury among NSW Liberals as MP escapes punishment for sharing explicit photos of female rival
The New South Wales Liberals are facing internal pushback from senior women in the party who are furious that an upper house MP has avoided any formal sanctions despite admitting he circulated explicit photos of a female rival.
Peter Poulos has apologised for making “a regrettable mistake” by forwarding photos of a fellow NSW Liberal party MP from a 1980s Penthouse modelling shoot during a preselection battle five years ago.
This week the premier, Dominic Perrottet, stood by Poulos, admitting his actions were “incredibly inappropriate” but that “people make mistakes”.
Exclusive from Michael McGowan and Tamsin Rose:
Victoria’s quarantine centre to return to federal control
The facility, which is currently being used to house flood victims, will be transferring back to federal operations at the end of March.
The state minister for emergency services, Jaclyn Symes, on Thursday confirmed the remaining flood victims staying at the centre, located in Mickleham in Melbourne’s north, will be supported into their own homes or into alternative accommodation in the coming weeks.
She said:
Now the flood waters have receded and it’s safe to return, we’re helping everyone who’s staying at the centre to return to their communities and we’ll keep providing support to everyone who needs it once they’re back in their communities.”
The Centre for National Resilience was established as temporary emergency accommodation on 18 October to house those displaced by flood waters.
So far, 255 flood victims have been supported by Emergency Recovery Victoria (ERV) to either return to their own homes or into alternative accommodation closer to their hometown.
There are 44 people still staying at the centre who will be paired with a recovery support worker, who will help with housing and access services like mental health support, financial aid and job services.
If residents cannot return home, they will be helped into a private rental, social housing or supported accommodation such as hotels and caravan parks.
ERV is also working on a range of options including a pilot program where people are able to stay in caravans and modular homes placed on their own properties while their homes are repaired or rebuilt.
The $580m facility was used for quarantine purposes for about eight months last year. It had only been closed for one week before it reopened to house flood victims.
Updated
International students returning to Australia
The university sector has welcomed new data showing a boom in the return of international students to Australia.
New Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Thursday showed approximately 59,480 international students arrived in Australia in January.
This was more than double the number of students who returned in the same period last year.
Universities Australia chief executive, Catriona Jackson, said:
These students make a significant contribution to our cultural fabric and economic prosperity, adding $40.3bn to the economy pre-Covid.
There is still a way to go in reaching pre-Covid numbers, but we are pleased by the progress to date.”
Jackson also said “it’s important to note that this data would not capture any increase in numbers of Chinese students after Beijing’s decision to return to its pre-Covid position of recognising only face-to-face study for students enrolled at overseas universities”.
“More students coming from China – our largest source market – will be a welcome boost as we work back to the position of strength we held prior to the pandemic,” she said.
Updated
Penny Wong’s UK speech caused ‘no sense of discomfort’
The Australian foreign affairs minister’s speech in London about Britain’s colonial history caused “no sense of discomfort or diplomatic tension” with the UK, a senior official has said.
The Coalition opposition used a committee hearing in Canberra on Thursday to suggest that Penny Wong’s remarks caused an unnecessary “distraction” during annual high-level talks between Australia and the UK.
During a wide-ranging speech in London two weeks ago, Wong welcomed the UK’s “tilt” to the Indo-Pacific region but also reflected on different experiences of British colonisation.
Read more:
Updated
The House is wrapping up, Senate estimates still going
That is pretty much it for the first sitting fortnight of the year – a very big thank you to each and every one of you for helping me get through it. We could not have done it without you.
The Canberra team are still working away for you, and Elias Visontay will take you through the rest of the afternoon of news here, but it is a short farewell from me, as I return to the general political pool until the next sitting week.
Mike Bowers should be back from his other projects by then, so the whole band will be back together.
Thank you again for choosing to spend your day with us – you truly do make it bearable.
You’ll have a general news blog from tomorrow and Politics Live will be back with you at the next sitting, which I think is early March.
Until then, take care of you Ax
Updated
More types of identification accepted for voting enrolment
The government has made a regulation expanding the types of ID that can get someone on the electoral roll to include Medicare number or a notice of a person’s Australian citizenship.
The explanatory statement for the regulation notes this is “one of a range of measures being pursued by the Australian Electoral Commission to help close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous enrolment”.
It said:
This expanded list of identity documents will allow those individuals who have previously been ineligible to enrol on the electoral roll due to not having the required identity evidence, to enrol and participate in House of Representatives and Senate elections, by-elections and referendums ...
This will mean any person who has a medicare card and access to the internet can enrol to vote or update their enrolment easily online, regardless of their location.”
Updated
What does that mean?
The CPA’s Elinor Kasapidis says keep records of everything:
Before the pandemic, taxpayers who worked from home could claim 52 cents an hour and required a dedicated work from home area. The revised method does not require you to have a separate office.
When the nation went into lockdown the ATO introduced a shortcut method for work from home expenses. You could claim 80 cents for each hour worked from home and did not need an ongoing diary or calculations of running expenses.”
The shortcut method that was used by millions of people over the last few years to make their deductions is no longer available.
So from March 1, you can’t claim the shortcut method. Which means – keep a work diary.
Australians will need to keep an ongoing diary for each day of the year they work from home from March onwards. A four-week diary representative of the year isn’t going to cut it. They also need to keep some records about their expenses incurred while working from home, such as copies of utility bills.”
The ATO has announced some changes to how you can make some claims, if working from home
We reported this was under consideration in November last year
The ATO has confirmed it:
Revised fixed rate method
The revised fixed rate method can be used from the 2022-23 income year onwards. The changes are:
Rate
• The cents per work hour has increased from 52 cents to 67 cents.
The revised fixed rate of 67 cents per work hour covers energy expenses (electricity and gas), phone usage (mobile and home), internet, stationery, and computer consumables. No additional deduction for any expenses covered by the rate can be claimed if you use this method.
What can be claimed separately
• The decline in value of assets used while working from home, such as computers and office furniture.
• The repairs and maintenance of these assets.
• The costs associated with cleaning a dedicated home office.
Home office
• The revised fixed rate method doesn’t require taxpayers to have a dedicated home office space to claim working from home expenses.
Record keeping
• Taxpayers need to keep a record of all the hours worked from home for the entire income year.
– the ATO won’t accept estimates, or a 4-week representative diary or similar document under this method from 1 March 2023.
• Records of hours worked from home can be in any form provided they are kept as they occur, for example, timesheets, rosters, logs of time spent accessing employer or business systems, or a diary for the full year.
• Records must be kept for each expense taxpayers have incurred which is covered by the fixed rate per hour (for example, if taxpayers use their phone and electricity when working from home, they must keep one bill for each of these expenses).
Updated
ANZ joins NAB in predicting the RBA’s cash rate will peak at 4.1%
A second month in a row of falling employment and the highest jobless rate since May have not been enough to dissuade ANZ from lifting its forecast for how high the RBA will go in lifting interest rates.
The ANZ has just elevated its prediction by an additional quarter-point increase, and now expects the central bank to reach a peak rate of 4.1%.
Nearly 70% of mortgage debt has already been impacted by higher variable rates, and to date there is little evidence of a material impact on overall spending,” ANZ economists said.
Persistence in inflation pressures suggests that the cash rate will remain in restrictive territory for some time,” they said.
ANZ expects the RBA will add to its ninth consecutive rate increase in February with a 10th, 11th and 12th increase in March, April and May, respectively. The rate would then hold at 4.1% and not start retreating until November 2024 - an 18-month pause, in other words.
So far, Westpac and CBA, the other two of the big four banks, are sticking with their RBA peak rate forecasts of 3.85%, perhaps not for long.
Updated
Northern Territory’s new alcohol restrictions begin
In the Northern Territory, the new liquor restrictions are now in effect and will be enforced from now on.
The NT parliament passed amendments to liquor laws introduced late on Monday, in the first sitting for the year so liquor restrictions announced earlier this month, in remote communities and town camps can now be enforced.
The Territory has been facing pressure over rising crime and antisocial behaviour in Alice Springs in recent weeks after liquor bans lapsed at the end of July.
The NT government says it will be taking an “educative approach” to let communities know that these restrictions are in place.
The laws mean that for the next three months town camps and remote Indigenous communities will revert to being dry areas and communities will develop Community Alcohol Plans.
Areas wanting to have alcohol will need to have a community vote with at least 60% of people aged over 18 supporting it and then it must be approved by the territory Director of Liquor Licensing to reverse the dry zone, the NT government said this is to ensure it is in the public interest and will not have significant adverse impacts.
The majority of all 96 major communities across the Territory are already dry zones, which means about a dozen communities will be affected by these laws.
The chief minister, Natasha Fyles, said the laws are a new approach and will be coupled with community investment, that is referring to the nearly $300m in federal funding announced recently for anti-crime measures, community safety, and more funding for Aboriginal health and family and domestic violence prevention groups.
These restrictions are also temporary, providing us time to invest in new, smarter, long-term reforms required to break the cycle of alcohol, crime and disadvantage. People in the Territory want safer communities now. They also want us to address the issue at its source so that our communities continue to be safer in the future.”
Updated
Dr Monique Ryan asks for support for Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry
The Kooyong independent MP wants the government to support the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) “in its efforts to recruit much-needed donors”.
From the release:
The ABMDR is the peak body for bone marrow and stem cell donations in Australia.
These are used for treatment of life-threatening conditions like leukaemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma and bone marrow failure.
Every 31 minutes, an Australian is diagnosed with a blood cancer. Almost 6000 Australians lose their lives to blood cancers every year.
Dr Ryan says she wants the government to allow the ABMDR “to use $12.8m it already has in the bank - money it could use for donor recruitment and tissue-typing”.
This money is in the bank already.
The government could free it up with the stroke of a pen, allowing the ABMDR to do its job and help save Australian lives. We could be finding new donors, and treating gravely ill patients, within weeks. I ask the government to share the sense of urgency felt by patients and their families. We have to support this vital service in its efforts to help Australians.”
Updated
Peter Dutton meets government’s referendum working group for second time
Their first meeting a few weeks ago didn’t significantly change the thinking of the Liberal party on its position regarding the voice to parliament (they’re still reserving their position, pending their requests for more detail on the proposal) but today is Dutton’s first in-person meeting with the group, after he dialled in by video last time.
In brief remarks at the start of the meeting, Dutton said there was “a lot of passion” around the referendum.
Every Australian shares the desire to see an improved outcome for Indigenous Australians. There can be debate about the pathway to get there and the next steps, but for us to be here with you is important and we’re keen to continue the discussions
We’ll bring you more news, if more comes to light this afternoon, from the meeting and Dutton’s response.
Earlier, most of the House crossbench joined the meeting to discuss their own electorates. Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel has just released a statement, describing the meeting as “a taste of the direct, practical information and guidance that a First Nations voice would provide.”
As an independent crossbencher I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in this important process as we seek to enshrine an indigenous voice in our constitution,” she said.
We will begin our campaign to help the Goldstein community understand the voice with forums and information next week.”
Updated
Defence media have released a statement:
Today the Royal Australian Navy and Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) have strengthened the relationship between military and civilian maritime jurisdictions to support safety at sea and delivery of naval capability.
Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN and Chief Executive Officer AMSA, Mr Mick Kinley, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which provides the process to move vessels from Australia’s civilian regulation authority (known as Flag administration) to operate under a Defence Flag administration.
Vice Admiral Hammond said the MOU provided greater agility for Defence and partner agencies to quickly respond to a variety of needs and contingencies in the maritime environment.
…The Pacific Support Vessel, ADV Reliant is an example of what this MOU will enable.
ADV Reliant was procured from the commercial market via a rapid acquisition process. It was quickly transferred from civilian to Defence Flag administration, enabling its timely and flexible employment in support of Australia’s Pacific partners.
Greens senator on stage three tax cuts
Over at Senate Estimates, Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has paid a nod to the elephant in the room - $254bn in approved tax cuts - when rebuffed over her calls for universal early childhood education.
The Productivity Commission commenced a review this year to consider the impacts of a universal 90% subsidy.
Faruqi:
The first five years of a child’s life are the most critical … research shows the importance of high quality early childhood learning on children’s development, especially disadvantaged children.
Why haven’t you asked the Productivity Commission to make early learning universal and free?”
Assistant minister for education, Senator Anthony Chisholm, said he understood Faruqi’s “passion” but it came in the midst of a “difficult financial environment”.
I don’t think anyone in the community doesn’t think the government has an ambitious agenda when it comes to early childhood education.
We understand there’s much more we need to achieve … we have an ambitious agenda but we also have difficult financial environment we confront which I’m sure you’re well aware of … we are committed to doing what we can within the budget constraints that we have.”
Faruqi:
Perhaps if you can the stage three tax cuts you’ll have less budget constraints … that was just a comment, not a question.”
Updated
The Greens senator Janet Rice has been asking the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) why men who have sex with men still face barriers to donating blood.
There is a three-month abstinence period requirement for men who have sex with men to donate blood.
Prof John Skerritt, of the TGA, said the regulator can’t make any changes “unilaterally” and that moves to remove these barriers would need an application from Lifeblood (a branch of the Australian Red Cross).
Skerritt said he was aware of other approaches taken overseas, including in the UK, where rather than using a “population-based approach” officials undertake an “individual risk assessment”.
He said:
We have been discussing [this] with them and coincidentally we’re meeting with them tomorrow afternoon, and that will be on the agenda. But in many ways ... we are responsive to a submission [from Lifeblood]. We’ve also been discussing the potential of removing all controls on plasma donations, irrespective of sexual history.
Skerritt told the inquiry that one of the reasons they’d been told that Lifeblood was reluctant to consider the “individual risk assessment” was because it required donors to be asked how often they practised anal sex. “And they’re actually worried that in an Australian context there would be a number of people offended by that question, and it would negatively affect the number of donations. But these discussions are ongoing.”
Rice pointed out that recent Canadian research found that the introduction of individual risk assessments “would not reduce the amount of blood available”. She said it appeared the public was being “held to ransom by the attitudes of Lifeblood, who aren’t accountable to us, like the government”.
Updated
Mary Doyle is expected to be Labor’s candidate for the byelection in the federal seat of Aston, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
Nominations for potential Labor candidates for the seat are due to close at 4pm on Thursday and Guardian Australia understands Doyle is the only nominee.
Doyle, a mother of three, former union organiser and breast cancer survivor, slashed outgoing Liberal MP Alan Tudge’s margin from 10.1% to 2.8% in the May 2022 election.
Updated
Sally Rugg and Monique Ryan to return to court
Sally’s Rugg’s fair work litigation against her boss, independent MP Monique Ryan, will return to court on Friday after mediation on Thursday failed to settle the matter.
In January Rugg launched federal court action against Ryan and the commonwealth, alleging a breach of the Fair Work Act’s adverse action provisions over an attempt to dismiss her for refusing to work “unreasonable” additional hours.
At a hearing on 3 February Rugg and Ryan’s lawyers revealed they had agreed to delay Rugg’s application for an interim injunction to get her job back by a fortnight pending mediation in an attempt to settle the matter. The commonwealth agreed to extend Rugg’s employment to 17 February on “miscellaneous leave”.
Justice Debra Mortimer ordered that the matter go for mediation before judicial registrar Alison Legge. That mediation was held on Thursday, but failed to settle the matter, which will now return to the federal court at 10:15am on Friday.
The hearing will consider Rugg’s application for an interim injunction to keep her job pending final determination of the case. That will require her lawyers to show there is a serious question to be tried and the balance of convenience lies with the chief of staff keeping her job.
The case could become a test case of the Fair Work Act’s right to refuse unreasonable additional hours, which has rarely been litigated in white-collar professional contexts.
The Act specifies that matters to be considered in judging reasonableness of additional hours include: health and safety, personal circumstances, the needs of the workplace, extra payments for additional hours, notice given to require or refuse the hours, the usual patterns of work in the industry, and the level of the person’s responsibility.
On 3 February Rugg’s lawyers, Maurice Blackburn, said in a statement:
The issues at the core of Ms Rugg’s substantive complaints are deeply important to her. She notes that the 2021 Human Rights Commission’s inquiry into commonwealth workplaces and the subsequent Set The Standard Report demonstrated that these issues are important to many staff across commonwealth offices of the federal parliament.”
Updated
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton both add their words to Bob Katter’s statement.
The chamber then holds a moment of silence and reflection for the two men.
Bob Katter has asked for a moment of indulgence to speak about the missing miners in north-west Queensland.
Mr. Speaker, our miners create three quarters of Australia’s income. Mining is intrinsically dangerous occupation, I represent Mount Mulligan. 72 human beings cease to exist in 15 seconds, the entire male population of a town 23 died in 15 seconds at Mount Leishan at Charters Towers where I live, where my son worked in the mines.
My hometown of Cloncurry where I once was a miner myself, Dylan Langridge, and Trevor Davis are two boys trapped underground in Cloncurry’s Dugald River Mine.
In such times when I faced darkness I turned to Slim Dusty and Stan Costas’ very sad song, When life is going easy, God is far from our mind but when the bad things and sad things do darken our day, we call out to Jesus in the most selfish way.
And so my ask for the parliament to give one minute of prayer and reflection for these Australian boys in the gravest of danger.
Updated
Question time ends.
But wait, there is more.
One more dixer for Anthony Albanese
The PM takes what I think is the last dixer of the week, in order to deliver the sort of speech he used to give when Labor was in opposition, during the matter of public importance debates:
I am asked about what we are doing this year with legislation to make a difference and… there is three pieces of legislation that are before this Parliament. The housing Australia future fund, affordable housing, housing for women escaping domestic and family violence, housing for frontline workers. The national reconstruction funds.
Supporting Australian manufacturing, secure jobs, dealing with supply chain challenges.
On the safeguard mechanism providing businesses with certainty and in the climate was which is why it is supported by the business community across the board. All of those policies are supported by the sectors.
Those opposite come here and ask about the challenge that we are facing. Welcome back. They say no to every solution… having presided over the creation of the problems… they say no to the solutions. No to affordable housing. No comeback to housing for veterans and women escaping domestic violence. No to secure jobs. No two industries in our region. No to energy price relief. No to ending the climate wars.
Though don’t have amendments. They don’t have ideas. They just say no. At a time when Australians want us to come together and offer real solutions those opposite offer nothing but cynical, negative politics making Tony Abbott look positive is what they are doing.
Now we are investing in making things here in Australia - in evaluating. Those opposite are determined to add no value at all… either in industry or in this Chamber.
We are investing to make sure that Australians have a roof over their head. Those opposite are determined to slam the door on them. We are investing in ending the climate wars, moving Australia forward… giving businesses certainty that it needs.
Those opposite us stuck in the past and they want us to all go back there to join them. The leader in the Senate of the opposition has a different view though.
He said this this week - I think it is in Australia’s interest for us to have greater policy certainty in the long run there. He argued for the safeguards mechanism. He says this come back we need to make sure that we in a country leading in terms of our work around omissions reduction that we as a Parliament are trying to provide greater certainty for Australian business for the long run. He had to say that after the election
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The shadow energy minister, Ted O’Brien is up next and wants to know this from Chris Bowen:
Can the Minister guarantee that no businesses will close and no jobs will be lost as a result of Labor’s changes to the safeguard mechanism?
Bowen:
Thank you very much, and I thank the honorable member for his question and welcome him back to Australia after his highly successful tour of nuclear success stories that he conducted just last week.
I tell you what I will guarantee. I guarantee you that the safeguard mechanism reforms that we are putting in place will put Australian industries in the best possible position to make the most of the decarbonisation that is occurring around the world. I guarantee this...the reforms that we put in place for which I have always given due credit to the member for Hume like I do… always give due credit to the member for Hume for the Safeguard credits which he said will provide business for the lowest cost.
I guarantee it will provide the basis for the lowest cost.
That is what I guarantee.
I guarantee that the support from the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry reflects the views of industry, that finally, after 10 years, the denial and delay of government without one energy policy, one climate change policy, [seek to oppose] which we are implementing...
He decides he has also completed his answer, after what looks like a point of order is about to be raised.
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Google still thinks that Ken O’Dowd is the member for Flynn, so Col Boyce might need to up his media menchies.
Boyce asks Mark Butler:
Regional health services in my electorate are under enormous pressure. Can the Prime Minister explained to the communities of Central Queensland why Labor has broken its key election promise to have an urgent care clinic up and running within 12 months?
Butler:
I need to check my calendar for 2022, pretty sure the election was in May. (it being February means it has not been 12 months as yet)
We are very proud of the policy we talk to the election to deliver 50 urgent care services over the course of this year, I say to the member and all people in the house and have an interest in making it easier to see a doctor and cheaper… that there has been absolutely terrific buy in from every single state and territory governments. Liberal and Labor alike.
The last few months, we have been engaged very closely with them on the locations of these services that will be in their jurisdiction, on protocols between the urgent care service and the local hospitals, on protocols between the urgent care service and local ambulance services...
This is a really important reform for Australia.
We know, many members of this house will know that primary care services have been trying to get up an urgent care service model in Australia for years, and the truth is that the Medicare system alone doesn’t support it, which is why we took a model to the last election.
…I would like to think that those opposite will get behind a model that would make it easier to see a doctor after being responsible for 10 years of cut and neglect to Medicare that had put Medicare in its worst shape in a 40-year history.
I think the member should talk to his leader who bears more responsibility than any single person in this country for the condition of general practice after trying to force a GP tax on every single Australian, pensioner, concession cardholder, child, and when that couldn’t get through the Senate and freezing the Medicare rebate for six long years, a practice continued by the deputy leader of the opposition when she was the minister for health as well.
I am happy to take questions about the fact that we were the only party who went to the last election, promising more investment in Medicare, promising to strengthen a model we have such pride in as the creator of that great universal healthcare system, and promising...
There is almost a point of order, but Butler feels he has concluded his answer.
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Zali Steggall has the next crossbench question
She asks whether the Labor government will stop the Pep-11 decision, after the federal court overturned Scott Morrison’s decision to not allow it.
Anthony Albanese:
The member asked a question, which invites an answer, that is in breach of the law. That has been determined, in a court case of which is why we are in this circumstance in the first place. The minister for resources will make a decision according to the law.
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Back to question time and Paul Fletcher wants to know:
My question is to the prime minister and I refer to his previous answer. If he is happy to claim credit for increases in employment since the election why is he not prepared to take responsibility for the eight consecutive increases in interest rates on his watch?
Anthony Albanese:
Thanks very much Mr Speaker. They are very predictable every day, every day question one from the leader of the opposition, question two from the deputy leader then we have question three and we go to the crossbenches.
Question three from the shadow Treasurer not to the treasurer but to me then we go to the back then I think about what they will do. I say to the Member for Bradfield, congratulations...
Peter Dutton:
On relevance Australian families are hurting in this prime minister, his arrogance...
That is not a point of order.
Albanese:
Certainly, it is a fact that inflation is causing pain to people, and interest rates, interest rates when they are 3.35%, compared with where they were placing pressure on families, just as the leader of the opposition’s watch they were 6.75%, 6.75% compared with 3.35%
But those opposite who come this chamber decide their tactics, the manager of opposition business, who asked this question is in charge of the tactics in this place. And they come in and they voted against every piece of legislation that would make a difference to people. It would make a difference. They vote against housing package. They vote against the national reconstruction fund. They vote against energy price relief, a vote against industrial relations changes which are aimed at lifting wages. They vote against every initiative that is put forward.
But this afternoon... don’t be alarmed if the oxygen masks drop from above, it is because the member for Bradfield is speaking.
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Back in Queensland and police deputy commissioner, Tracy Linford, says the attack was the first of its kind in Australia, likening it to the Waco massacre in the US in 1993.
The Trains’ belief system, she says, is based on the theory that “Christ will return to the Earth for a thousand days, but it will be preceded by an era, or a period of time of tribulation and widespread destruction and suffering.”
Linford says the Covid pandemic, climate crisis, global conflict and social disparity had seen them spiral into increasingly radical theological beliefs.
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Clare O’Neil takes a dixer on national security
The minister for home affairs is able to repeat her message from earlier in the week:
It’s no secret that we face enormously difficult geopolitical challenges, in fact the most difficult our country has faced since the Second World War and how we manage those challenges as a parliament will define the Australia my children enjoy as adults. Our ability to shape the nation’s future is depending on how free and fair our democracy is and how Australians engage with it, the stronger our democracy the more choices we have on how our future look.
The Member for Adelaide asked about the biggest challenge to Australia, the threat of foreign interference. Countries can quite legitimately influence what happens in other countries in legitimate ways, we do it with our embassies, but we will not tolerate attempts to engage in our policies or interfere with our communities in ways that are coercive, corrupt being, deceitful or clandestine. We will not tolerate attempts by foreign powers to harass, watch and coerce Australian citizens.
Foreign interference is real.
It is relentless and it is happening in all of our communities every day and our Government stepping up efforts to fight. Earlier this week I spoke publicly for the first time about how one country, Iran is attempting to influence Australian democracy in deceptive ways and trying to harass, watch and control the activities of Iranian Australians.
Earlier this week I held a roundtable with other ministers and community leaders to talk about how we can work together on these problems.
Asio is very focused on these issues, I shared on Monday some detail about a plot that was foiled recently by our security agencies with an Iranian Australian family were put under surveillance by the Iranian government, in their own home, in our country. And my message to regimes seeking to interfere with Australia and Australians is - don’t. We are watching you and we will catch you. To tackle this problem somethings will need to change.
Speaker, I really hope we will have bipartisan support for these initiatives, I’m getting some backchat here and I’m not sure why that would be the case because these are serious problems we are only going to be able to tackle that we work together across the aisle as one country.
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The independent MP for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie has a question for Tony Burke:
The National Library of Australia’s online platform provides all of the world’s largest digital archives of local history, but its funding is set to expire in June. This news is causing concern among historians, family researchers and students. Will the government commit to funding Trove beyond June, keeping its status free for all Australians?
Burke:
I thank the member for Mayo for the question. She is among many members raising this issue with me. I’m not in a position to announce a decision going through the budget process at the moment in terms of Trove allow me to say this first of all: Trove is something when we were last in government we were committed to with the funding. That funding was stripped away when we lost office.
When the previous government recommitted funding to Trove, the funding was time-limited and that is why we are confronting an expiry date of 30 June this year. To those not familiar with Trove, this is how what is available on our collecting institutions becomes available to the whole of Australia.
A whole lot of people whether searching family history or academics, are able to get access to what’s in our collections even if it is not on display, and can find out a good deal not just of Australia’s story but of their own personal story in the background of their own areas.
The government is very much aware of the significance of Trove, you will not find us showing a lack of commitment to it, if I can put it in those terms, but decisions on exact funding profiles are made in the current budget process and I’m looking forward to being able to provide more to the House as those decisions progress.
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Queensland police say Wieambilla shootings ‘a religiously motivated terrorist attack’
Breaking in to question time for a moment:
Queensland police have announced last year’s fatal shooting of two officers and a neighbour on a remote property was an act of terrorism.
Speaking at a press conference in Brisbane, deputy commissioner Tracy Linford said the conclusion was reached after detectives examined a diary, text messages and social media postings by three members of the Train family who died in a shootout with police.
Our assessment has concluded that Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train acted as an autonomous cell and executed a religiously motivated terrorist attack.
The Train family members subscribed to what we would call a broad Christian fundamentalist belief system, known as premillennialism. It’s a belief system that comes from Christian theology.”
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The shadow home affairs minister Karen Andrews has the next question and is backed to being INCENSED
The last time Labor dismantled the Coalition’s strong border protection policies over 800 boats arrived and tragically 1200 people died at sea. Now it has been revealed that the Australian Navy has had to divert resources to provide assertive extra patrols in anticipation of an increase in illegal boat arrivals. Doesn’t this prove that Labor’s policies to end the deterrent of temporary protection visas provides an incentive to people smugglers to restart their evil trade?
Anthony Albanese:
I thank the member for her question. The government is fully committed to Operation Sovereign Borders, we have made that very clear, and.. this government will be tough on borders without being weak on humanity.
And that is the position that we took to the election, and that is the position that we are implementing. It might seem obscure to those opposite, the idea of a government implementing the policies that they took to an election, but that is precisely what we are doing. And when when the secretary of the Department of Home Affairs was asked about whether the department advised against the changes has announced today, he announced as crisply as he could in one word... ‘No’.
…but I am asked by the member opposite about the potential for boats attempting to get here. I seem to remember millions of Australians getting a text message on election day, but when we were the government, when they were the government. Getting a text message... It is true that perhaps the minister wasn’t the one who authorised it, perhaps the other minister for home affairs was the one who authorised it. One of the most disgraceful, manipulations that we have seen in Australian politics on your watch.
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The Liberal MP for Flinders, Zoe McKenzie, has a question for the PM:
My question is to the prime minister. According to KPMG analysis, Australians will face a $16,500 increase in mortgage repayments this year following eight consecutive interest rate rises on the government’s watch. Where are the cheaper mortgages the prime minister promised to deliver, and why do families always pay more under Labor?
Anthony Albanese:
I am asked about our shared equity scheme that we announced during the election campaign.
I have got... I do say that the New South Wales treasurer had this to say when they of course announced their own shared equity scheme. Thousands register for shared equity homebuyer helper ahead of launch the treasurer said this ‘I understand the federal Liberal party opposed prime minister Albanese’s scheme but I think it makes sense. He was then asked if they can change their term, if they can come to their senses, and he said this... They will see the light. I think it makes sense.’
Turn the light on.”
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Angus Taylor has a question for … the prime minister. (The usual he-didn’t-ask-the-treasurer groans sound.)
In the job figures today we see the dangerous combination of stubbornly high inflation and job losses. Labor’s only answer is to spend more money when history tells us this is exactly the wrong approach. Why does Labor always get the big economic calls wrong?
Anthony Albanese:
It is [a] very broad [question], Mr Speaker. Every day the treasurer sits there and he expects a question and it just never happens. But maybe when we get back that will happen. I live in hope.
Well of course, it was an increase in the unemployment rate to 3.7%, up from 3.5%. I do note that that is still lower than the unemployment rate that we inherited when we came to office. I do note also that there were more jobs created on our watch in our first six months than in any government in history …
I’m asked as well about debt, from the mob that left us $1tn of debt. We have nothing to show for it! And then you have our programs, like the national reconstruction fund which is supported by industry, which is supported by workers, which will be a great example of new industry policy creating new industries, particularly in the regions, allowing us to deal with the constraints that are there in supply chains, but those opposite are opposing it.
And then you have the safeguard mechanism where, once again, they are just opposing it. Well, this is what the chief executive of Ai Group Manufacturers said today: A form of political extremism is at play here. It has cost us before and it could cost us again. That is what the Australian Industry Group have had to say. Andrew McCullough, again, not an affiliate.
This is not the time for another [climate war] or once again, being negative. For the sake of certainty and the achievement of our emissions reduction goals, the safeguard mechanism must pass parliament. Past failure to deal with this reality has crept certainty for industry and investors and lift our energy set in disarray.
I wonder who the energy minister was? Australian businesses and households are now paying the price. Indeed they are.
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Plibersek says best thing Greens can do for emissions reduction is to back the safeguard mechanism
Max Chandler-Mather gets the first crossbench question, but he doesn’t get to hear the whole answer from Tanya Plibersek, as he is thrown out for abusing a point of order (not that it matters, because he has heard this answer many, many times before):
Q: The Greens have offered to pass your government’s climate legislation in full with one amendment, no new coal and gas mines. There is no ultimatum, just an offer to pass the bill this afternoon if you stop opening coal and gas mines but this morning you said on Sky TV “of course” you would approve new coal mines. Are you seriously willing to dump your whole climate plan because Labor wants to open new coal and gas mines?
Plibersek:
I really want to thank the member for his question. And I can tell you that I am so very delighted to have a question from the Greens about practical action on climate change and the environment.
We are the only government that has a plan to bring down emissions in Australia, an emissions reduction target of 43% by 2030 with a clear path to net zero by 2050 enshrined in law. And I would like to see you back that, because what happened when you lined up with the Liberals last time to block the carbon pollution reduction scheme … What we saw was more emissions for longer because you voted with them. (DRINK! – Amy)
I am proud of what we are doing on this side to bring down carbon pollution. It’s not just the safeguard mechanism, it’s the $20bn for rewiring the nation so we can get more renewables into our electricity grid. It’s the legislation I took through this parliament on reducing ozone-depleting gases, it’s the methane pledge, it’s the $3bn in the national reconstruction fund to...
Chandler-Mather rises on a point of order, but as he does, Dick rules that Plibersek is being relevant.
Chandler-Mather:
Mr Speaker, I understand that reasoning but on relevance...
Dick:
I want to be clear with everyone – my rulings and respect for standing orders applies to everywhere, everyone, no matter where you sit in this chamber. I was specifically told the member for Griffith that the minister was being relevant. He has abused the standing orders and he will leave the chamber under 94(a).
Plibersek:
Thank you. Thank you Mr Speaker and I’d like to say to the Greens that the best thing they can do to see emissions reductions in this country is to back the safeguard mechanism. This is a legislated path that sees us reducing emissions by 43% by 2030 on a credible path to net zero but I would add that what I would also like to see from the Greens’ political party is their support for our environmental ;aw reform when it comes before this parliament, because those environmental laws will see faster, clearer decision-making for business and much stronger protections for our environment because we know … we have to protect our environment.
We have to do better at protecting what is precious, we have to do better at repairing what is damaged and we have to do better at managing our natural environment for the future. So back us on the safeguard mechanism, back us on the national reconstruction fund, back us on housing affordability and back us on our environmental law reform.
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Liberal attack lines on cost of living continue
That seemed like a very long three minutes, but Sussan Ley just got her latest question in:
One month before the election, the prime minister promised he would deliver on reducing cost-of-living pressures or Australian families because he had a plan. Because of Labor’s policies, interest rates are rising higher than they otherwise would and Australian families are paying an extra $18,000 a year on a typical mortgage. The prime minister is failing Australians because he doesn’t have a plan. Why do Australian families always pay more under Labor?
Anthony Albanese:
Thank you. The governor of the Reserve Bank has made a number of appearances this week, and one of the things that he has said is that our policies are taking pressure off inflation. He has indicated that monetary policy is working hand-in-hand with fiscal policy. That is what he has said. And, indeed, what we are seeing is the measures that we have put in place making a difference.
This is what the Origin statement to the Australian Stock Exchange declared today … the announcement in December 2022 by the federal government of price gas and coal is in response to global and domestic shocks. But more recently we have seen prices decline. That is what Origin have said.
Dr Steven Kennedy of the Treasury, [who] has served both the former government and the current government with distinction, said this. Following the December announcement, national illiteracy rises have declined significantly. Lower futures prices will be reflected in the default market offer announced by the regulator around the middle of the year. Over the year, two June 2024. Treasury expects the coal and gas caps to reduce inflation by half a point. That is what they had to say. But not everyone supports...
Sussan Ley:
Point of order on tedious repetition.
Tony Burke:
That standing order applies to debate. If it applied to questions, none of her questions would be in order.
(There is laughter at that)
Milton Dick rules that it just manages to be a relevant point of order.
Albanese:
Those opposite oppose every action in which we put forward to try to reduce inflationary pressure and to deal with the challenges which arise from, at a time when we have acknowledged the struggle that is going on, of the people of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian war unfortunately [is] having an impact on global prices. They are feeding into inflation globally. That is just a fact. But those opposite oppose price caps, they oppose the safeguard mechanism legislation, they oppose [the] housing Australia future fund, they oppose the national reconstruction fund, they oppose this increase in the wages for the lowest-paid workers in Australia.
What is it? What is it about the last election where they didn’t get the memo? People are over conflict fatigue. We want to look for solutions and a positive agenda, and all those opposite, having created the problem is, they now stand in the way of all of the solutions.
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Ed Husic has fun with a dixer but is made to withdraw after this bit:
The biggest threat we have got happens in the Coalition party room, which I am genuinely concerned is a massive hypnosis event where they bring in the RSL entertainment and the person says, when I click on my fingers, you will forget 10 years ...
I’m more surprised Husic didn’t make reference to Biggie.
Updated
Question time begins
Peter Dutton starts off with the current economic situation, ending with “why does everything cost more under Labor”.
Anthony Albanese:
Australians are paying the price for a decade of Liberal and National governments.
No economic plan, they had 22 energy policies and didn’t land one. The leader of the opposition raises a number of issues. On wages, he says they are not rising fast enough. But he was a part of a government that [saw] low wages as part of their economic architecture. It wasn’t bad luck, it was bad policy. Bad policy.
And then … just after, on the day that they voted against the housing Australia future fund, [he spoke] about housing.
Well, we have a plan to deal with housing, we have legislation, which includes the $10bn housing Australia future fund that includes specific programs for veterans, specific programs for women and children escaping domestic violence, and they voted against it.
And if you look at the comments of the Reserve Bank governor, he has spoken very clearly about supply chain issues and pressures as being a major cause of inflation in this country, and yet they have indicated they are going to vote against a national reconstruction fund. A program that will assist business going forward.
Now, we on this side will stand up for Australian jobs and we’ll stand up for Australian families, which is why we have a plan that came in on 1 January that is already making a difference for cheaper medicines.
The first decrease in the price of medicines in 75 years since, once again, a former Labor government, only Labor governments do the big reforms, introduced the PBS.
And then we have cheaper childcare comes in on the 1 July, we have got fee-free Tafe, 180,000 places in areas of skills shortage, taking the pressure off the cost [of living], but also at the same time, helping to fill those skills shortages and those supply chain issues.
We have our energy price relief plan where they came in here and they voted against $1.5bn of support ... $1.5bn. The truth is that those opposite just say no to everything. They used to be the Coalition, now they are just the no-alition. They say no to absolutely everything.
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Into question time!
It’s the last one, so let’s goooooo!
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Royal commission into robodebt extended to 30 June
The royal commission into robodebt is being extended, after a request from the commissioner:
The governor general, His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), has amended the Letters Patent to extend the royal commission into the robodebt scheme.
Royal commissioner Catherine Holmes AC SC advised the government that a short extension was needed and the government has agreed. The royal commission will now deliver its report on 30 June 2023.
The royal commission has been examining, among other things:
The establishment, design and implementation of the robodebt scheme, who was responsible for it, why they considered it necessary, and any concerns raised regarding legality and fairness,
The handling of concerns raised about the robodebt scheme, including adverse decisions made by the administrative appeals tribunal,
The outcomes of the robodebt scheme, including the harm to vulnerable individuals and the total financial cost to government, and
Measures needed to prevent similar failures in public administration.
The government acknowledges the considerable work of commissioner Holmes and her team to date and looks forward to receiving the royal commission’s final report.
Further information on the royal commission, including the terms of reference, is available at https://robodebt.royalcommission.gov.au/
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Crossbench meets with voice referendum working group
Nearly the entire House crossbench is currently meeting with the voice referendum working group, in a bid to boost cross-party support for the vote. But the Indigenous leader Pat Anderson warned the meeting that negative campaigning on the referendum is “getting ugly now and will get worse”.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, will join the meeting later today, his second meeting with the group, where he’s expected to get a chance to ask some of the questions he’s been calling for detail on.
The meeting, chaired by Linda Burney and featuring Indigenous leaders like Megan Davis and Pat Turner, was joined today by a clutch of crossbenchers including Allegra Spender, Andrew Wilkie, Helen Haines, Dai Le, Kylea Tink, Zoe Daniel and Monique Ryan.
In the opening remarks, which were open to media, Anderson – the co-chair of the Uluru statement – backed the support of the crossbench.
“We’re going to need all the friends we can possibly get. This is getting ugly now and it’ll get worse. Hang in there and hold the line,” she told the crossbenchers.
Spender, who this week was among a cross-party group of co-chairs to launch a support group for the Uluru statement, said many people in her community were “passionately in support of” the voice concept. She called it a “unique moment” in Australia’s history and pledged the support of those crossbenchers to the campaign.
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‘Unprecedented’ collapse in property listings weighs on Domain
An “unprecedented” collapse in the number of new homes on the market, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, is outpacing even the shaky listing rates recorded during pandemic lockdowns, Domain Holdings chief executive Jason Pellegrino said on Thursday.
The falls are weighing on the real estate company, which reported a drop in net profit of almost 38.9% to $15.9m in the six months to December.
While revenue increased across the various business units of the listed company, which is 60% owned by publisher Nine, its residential division was down and business costs were up sharply, dragging down the overall result.
Shares in Domain rose in trading on Thursday as the result was stronger than previously forecast.
Pellegrino said the scale of listings declines during the last three months of 2022 eclipsed pullbacks recorded during the pandemic and the banking royal commission, which scrutinised lending practices.
It is telling that the scale of the listings declines during the latest December quarter eclipsed both those events, with Sydney and Melbourne recording listings declines double the market average.
Despite this challenging market environment, we remain optimistic about the longer-term prospects for the market with upsides from the return of immigration, encouraging auction clearance rates and the increasing attraction to investors of rising rental yields.
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Foreign affairs roundup from Senate estimates
A few points other points highlighting from the pre-lunch session of foreign affairs Senate estimates:
1. Diplomatic footprint under review
The Dfat secretary, Jan Adams, refused to rule out cutting back Australia’s diplomatic representation in some countries as a result of an internal review that still remains private:
I don’t think we’re going to be ruling in or out anything.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, added that it was normal for a new government to “make sure we are optimised” and spending scarce money in a way that provides the “best return on investment for the country”.
2. Rudd to advance ‘the policy of the Australian government’
There were some fireworks when the Coalition’s Simon Birmingham asked when the appointment of Kevin Rudd as ambassador to the US went from “complete nonsense” as Anthony Albanese said prior to the election to “complete truth” now. Birmingham also asked Wong:
When did the prime minister tell you, minister?
Wong said she did not discuss conversations with colleagues but said “I think technically it’s my decision.” Wong said consultation with the prime minister “particularly in relation to very senior appointments is par for the course”. Wong also tried to brush away Albanese’s pre-election comments by asking Birmingham:
When did the deputy prime minister stop being a Manchurian candidate? That may be the easiest response.
Asked about Rudd’s previous criticism of the Aukus deal, Wong said the former prime minister “will advance the Australian interest and the policy of the Australian government”.
3. Nuclear weapon ban treaty
Officials were tight-lipped on the timing of any decision on Australia’s position on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Labor party platform include a position to sign and ratify the treaty, but subject to a number of conditions including working for universality and an effective verification regime.
Jeff Robinson, an assistant secretary for disarmament issues, said there was not a formal “review” but said agencies “in anticipation of being asked to provided formal advice have been looking afresh at Australia’s position, particularly in regard to those conditions”. But he added it was up to the government to decide on a process and timing for any such review.
Wong added:
Universality and verification - in a world where you have nuclear weapons - is central to making steps to lessen the number and hopefully reduce and remove nuclear weapons from the globe.
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Israeli settlements ‘an obstacle to peace’ says Wong
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has raised concerns about Israel’s decision to authorise nine settlements in the occupied West Bank, declaring that “settlements are an obstacle to peace”.
In response to questions from the Greens senator Jordon Steele-John, Wong also expressed support for a statement issued by France, Germany, Italy, the US and the UK that criticised the settlement plans.
Marc Innes-Brown, a first assistant secretary at Dfat, began by saying Australia was “closely monitoring the situation in areas in the West Bank and elsewhere. It’s quite a tense situation”. He told Senate estimates:
Generally we are concerned about the overall situation, Senator. And we have registered our concerns with both the Israeli government and also the Palestinian authority about the increase in tensions in the area.
Steele-John:
Minister, are you concerned about Israel’s decision to push ahead with the construction of mass settlements across the green line against international law?
Wong:
Yes – I mean, we do not support unilateral actions which reduce the prospects of a just two-state solution. Settlements, I’ve said in here previously, I think other ministers have said – settlements are an obstacle to peace.
I note that the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the US and the UK issued a statement two days ago ... which stated that the ministers were deeply troubled by the Israeli government’s announcement that it is advancing nearly 10,000 settlement units and intends to begin a process to normalise now nine outposts previously deemed illegal ... I would like to associate Australia with the joint statement made by those members of the G7 and I understand that Australia’s views were communicated to Israeli counterparts.
Pressed on when those representations were made, Innes-Brown said Australian ambassador Ralph King “took up this issue” with the Israeli foreign ministry on 13 February.
Asked by Steele-John whether the Australian government had made representations to the Israeli government condemning violence against Palestinians, Innes-Brown said:
We’re concerned about the escalating violence in the West Bank and also in Israel – there have been terrorist attacks in Israel during this period. And we have taken the issues up including very recently both in Israel and via the Israeli embassy here in Canberra both to the ambassador and the deputy head of mission.
Innes-Brown also confirmed that Australia had raised in November the case of Mohammad el Halabi, the former Gaza director for World Vision International, who is appealing his conviction:
We have raised his case, including his appeal, noted our ongoing interest in the case and also raised our hope that the appeal process be conducted expeditiously.
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33 health practitioners face action for Covid-related issues
There are 33 health practitioners in Australia currently subject to compliance actions from the healthcare watchdog for Covid-19 related issues including spreading misinformation about the pandemic, Senate estimates has been told.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency’s (Ahpra) chief executive, Martin Fletcher, told Senate estimates 16 of those individuals were facing action due to making claims about a “fake pandemic”, claims about government-led mind control, other false claims about the vaccine and for issuing fake vaccination certificates or exemptions.
In some cases practitioners were suspended from practice, while others can only work under supervision.
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Amy’s analysis on stagflation claims
Stagflation is when you have high inflation and high unemployment.
Inflation is high, yes, but there are expectations that it has peaked. That doesn’t mean that the pain is all over – it takes time for inflation effects to flow through the economy and it will take some time for inflation to drop back down to the RBA’s target rate of 2-3%.
Unemployment though, is at historic low levels. 3.5% to 3.7% is an uptick, but it is still lower than before the pandemic. The RBA is talking about a full employment rate of 4.5%. Full employment as defined by monetary policy issues aside, 4.5% is still considered a low unemployment rate (despite the harm it causes to those caught within it).
I don’t think there is anyone seriously suggesting Australia is heading towards stagflation just yet.
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Liberals warn of stagflation as unemployment rate jumps
Michaelia Cash and Angus Taylor are holding a press conference on the unemployment rate.
But it is mostly about how terrible it thinks the government’s economic plan is.
Taylor:
Today we saw ominous signs in the jobs data, the early signs of a very dangerous combination. Stubbornly persistent inflation alongside job losses … the last time we saw an extreme version of this, known as stagflation – stubbornly persistent inflation alongside job losses and unemployment – was back in 1975 under the Whitlam government.
We know from history just how dangerous this combination is. We also know what governments should and shouldn’t do, and top of that priority is to avoid borrowing more money.
Just this week we have seen Labor crowing about borrowing an extra $45bn at a time of stubbornly persistent inflation and [the] real risks of stagflation emerging, as we have seen in the data today.
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Question time looms …
The last question time of this first two weeks of sittings is less than half an hour away.
There is a lot to talk about, but also expect to hear dixers that could be a press release and questions about energy prices from the people who voted against market intervention.
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So there we have it – the tools used to combat high inflation, in this case, nine consecutive interest rate rises, also mean higher unemployment.
And that means people pay the price in more ways than one.
‘We expect it to be difficult for a little while longer’
And then the final question:
Q: The RBA is forecasting the economy to grow in line with population growth in the next two years at about 1.6% so no real per capita growth in the economy. The figures show today two consecutive months of a fall in total employment. The ABS’s retail figures showed a fall in the amount of spending and consumption over the last three month. The HIA figures today point to a real downturn in housing. Are you getting worried that the economic canary is looking a bit sick?
(That is from the Nine newspapers’ Shane Wright, who is maybe also the best baker in the gallery as well. The more you know.)
Jim Chalmers:
I think any treasurer is worried about the prospect of a slowing economy, and I am of course.
When the economy slows, when the unemployment rate picks up even if it still remains at or near historic lows, there are human consequences for that, just as there are human consequences for the decisions that the Reserve Bank takes and so obviously as we enter what we expect will be a really difficult year for the economy and for our people, clearly the prospects for a slowing economy and high inflation than we would like for longer than we would like – obviously that is a turn.
But obviously we have the ability had to put in place the right economic plan which invests in growth and fixes our supply chains and gets that wages growth at the same time as we get on top of the inflation challenge and I remain optimistic about the future of our economy, in the future of our country, but as I have said for some time now, others have said for some time now, we expect it to be difficult for a little while longer.
Our job is to make life easier for people where we can and to also make sure that we are putting in place the right economic plan to deal with these pressures in our economy in the medium term as well and that is what we are doing.
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‘Sometimes that is a difficult balance to strike’
Q: Given that at least half of Australia’s inflation outbreak is supply driven, are you at all worried about the prospect that unemployment will increase as expected but high inflation will be entrenched?
Jim Chalmers:
I’m certainly concerned that we will have inflation in our economy which is higher than we would like for longer than we would like and even as the unemployment rate most likely ticks up a bit more, obviously that is a concern for us and the balance that we have to strike as a government is not dissimilar to the balance that the Reserve Bank has to strike, which is getting on top of this inflation challenge while being cognisant of the fact that our economy is expected to slow considerably throughout the course of this year, as a consequence of those high interest rates and the slowing global economy as well.
We have to rebalance all of those considerations up. Sometimes that is a difficult balance to strike at but I am confident we have got the right plan.
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‘Haven’t changed our position’ on stage-three tax cuts
And then we get a question on the stage-three tax cuts, which are legislated to begin from mid next year.
Q: The RBA has inflation staying above the top of its target until mid2025. The stage-three tax cuts pick up in mid-24. Presumably they are going to add to some aggregate demand in the economy. Is that the right time to be bringing those tax cuts in even the RBA inflation forecast?
Jim Chalmers:
As you know we haven’t changed our position on those tax cuts. In every budget we consider the conditions at the time and our expectations for the economy but our priorities lay elsewhere in some of the things they have been talking about.
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‘We won’t be messing with the independence of the Reserve Bank’
Why doesn’t Jim Chalmers talk to RBA governor Philip Lowe about interest rates?
Chalmers:
I’m so pleased you asked me about that, because I thought what Governor Lowe said yesterday was a really important affirmation of the appropriate role between the government and the Reserve Bank. Governor Lowe and I talk frequently about the economy. We talk frequently about the bank itself. We spoke last night, for example. We speak frequently. And the point that Governor Lowe was making, which I agree with 100%, is that I don’t ring up the Reserve Bank governor on the morning of the board meeting and say this is the outcome that the government want.
What I’m saying is, we do talk about the pressures on the economy, these steps that the government is taking and the steps that the Reserve Bank is taking, but when I’d look at what Governor Lowe said yesterday about this, he said there is no pressure from the Treasury, he said we talk about the economy, not just this treasurer but treasurers before him. They don’t give me views about what interest rates should or shouldn’t do and that’s because we respect and cherish the independence of the Reserve Bank. And one demonstration of that is by no that no matter what the Reserve Bank review says when I received it on the 31 March, we won’t be messing with the independence of the Reserve Bank, it is an important feature of our system.
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‘Making good progress on most recommendations of jobs and skills summit’
Q: Last night’s Senate estimates heard that up to 36 action items out of the jobs and skills summit, 16 haven’t been implemented. What is the holdup there and when do you expect the full 36 to be implemented?
Jim Chalmers:
I didn’t see that evidence last night but if those numbers are correct then that sounds like we are making good progress on most of the recommendations of the jobs and skills summit. And not all of them were recommendations for immediate effect. Some of them involved further work, some of them crossed multiple levels of government.
I thought the jobs and skills summit that was promised and I hosted here last year was an important demonstration of our willingness to bring people together around some of our big economic challenges and I was absolutely delighted with the spirit in the room and the work that has been happening since the jobs and skills summit.
We said at the time that we would implement what we could as fast as we could and that some issues would be matters for considering in subsequent budgets and that is the approach that we have taken.
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No decision on whether Philip Lowe will keep helming RBA
Q: Would you like to see Philip Lowe remain as governor beyond September?
Jim Chalmers:
As I have said before, the decision that the government takes on Governor Lowe’s reappointment or otherwise will be made closer to the middle of the year and the reason for that is that I want to see what the Reserve Bank review says about the structure and processes and objectives of the Reserve Bank going forward and I want to make sure that whoever we appoint governor has the ability to put in place the directions that we agree after having received the report.
I think you all know and we have talked about it in this room a number of times: I have a good respectful relationship with Governor Lowe.
He has a hard job to do, which is to try and get on top of this inflation challenge without crunching the economy and we have a hard job to do in the government as well, which is to provide that relief and repair those supply chains and show that restraint in the budget so my time is best spent focusing on my job, which is to focus on those things.
I have said repeatedly and I mean it, the government hasn’t taken a decision when it comes to Governor Lowe’s position. We will genuinely consult on that with my cabinet colleagues, with the prime minister and others and resolve that closer to the middle of the year.
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‘Coalition’s pigheaded approach has dealt the Greens into the game’
Does unemployment have to rise in order to tackle inflation and what would be the economic consequences of what the Greens want in return for its support on government bills (safeguards, housing fund) in the Senate:
Jim Chalmers:
First of all I think it is broadly accepted that the interest rate rises which are in the system are about taking some of the heat out of the economy and that has consequences for the unemployment rate. I suspect we are seeing the beginning of that in the number that is released today.
Our job, our objective, our aspiration, is to try and grow the economy as fast as we can with unemployment as low as it can be without adding to these inflationary pressures and obviously there is a relationship between all of those object is in the economy. Now, when it comes to the various pieces of legislation before the parliament, what the Coalition’s pigheaded approach has done is it has dealt the Greens into the game.
When the Coalition takes the absurd decision to oppose, for example, the safeguard mechanism that they designed and supported nine months ago, then that makes the Greens more relevant than they would otherwise be.
One of the implications of the obstructionism that we see from the opposition is that it makes the Greens relevant.
At the same time it is effectively a vote for higher inflation for even longer. And so they should reflect on that. When it comes to the safeguard mechanism, for example, the business community is crying out for certainty so that they can invest. And these characters in the opposition wandering around pretending to be the party of business. The business community right across the board, or the peak organisations, they want to see this past.
They want the stability, they want the certainty, they know that the safeguard mechanism is the best way to make sure that our economy is increasingly powered by cleaner and cheaper energy, at the same time as we don’t damage the competitiveness of our industries.
That is agreed broadly across the business community. And the opposition turning their back on that makes the Greens more influential than they would otherwise be.
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‘The May budget won’t be identical to the October budget’
Why does Jim Chalmers think a neutral budget position (in terms of its impact on inflation) is better than a contractionary budget position?
Chalmers:
Where we are committing public funds, that has an economic dividend, not every dollar that you spend in the budget is inflationary. A lot of the investment we have been making – in early childhood or fixing supply chains or or because of other ways – are about expanding the capacity of the economy so it can grow faster without adding to this inflation.
And so, as I think I might’ve said to you on the weekend, to David [Speers] or on other occasions, the magnitude of the spending matters but so does the nature of the spending and what you actually investing in.
Whether it’s the IMF or others, they know that our plans to deal with labour shortages in our workforce, our plans to make early childhood education cheaper and some of the other things we are doing – our important investments in growing the economy without adding to inflation and also, we need to recognise that the May budget will be delivered in circumstances which are little bit different to October, when the inflation peak was ahead of us.
In May, we hope that the inflation peak is behind us. We are entering what we expect to be much slower economic growth as a consequence of these rate rises and global conditions and so, we need to weigh all of that up. The May budget won’t be identical to the October budget. It will have some of the same guiding principles but every budget has to factor in the economy as it is evolving and that’s what we will do.
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‘Our plan to build more affordable homes’
How would you achieve the housing goals and improve housing supply at a time when climate rates are hitting the construction industry?
Jim Chalmers:
We’ve got a number of indications that the housing market has often become one the obvious consequences of rising interest rates, as you say and as the data commentary around the data this week has said.
Our plan to build more affordable homes is one that recognises the pressures on the industry and one of the reasons why I’ve got the building industry together within traditional investors, state governments, local governments is because we want be able to understand from the industry one of the pressures, whether it’s workforce pressure, the cost of building materials, some of the issues around planning and zoning of inland releases.
And that intel that we got from the industry go out in our housing policy.
We don’t have enough homes in this country. We’ve got vacancy rates incredibly low, rent inflation is much higher than we would like, so we need to build more homes. That’s what the housing Australia future fund is all about.
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ACCC has ‘important role’ looking into savings accounts interest rates
What does the treasurer think about banks who pass on interest rate increases very quickly, but are slow to increase the interest rates on saving accounts?
Jim Chalmers:
I understand that people are furious when mortgage rates go up and they got much lower or not at all [for saving accounts].
This is the reason why I asked the ACCC to do some work in the space because you want to make sure that banks are doing the right thing here. I think there is a lot of community anger about this. I show people’s concern about … savings interest rates when they’re on the way up and the ACCC has an important role to play looking into it.
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Inflation challenge because of ‘global conditions and weaknesses in our supply chains’
Given the RBA governor was speaking abut a “central target” of full employment sitting at 4.5% (it is currently 3.7%, up slightly from 3.5%) what does Jim Chalmers think full employment is?
Chalmers:
I think our expectation for employment have changed over the course of recent years. I think if you would ask most economists, maybe a decade ago or around then, they would have considered full employment to be in the 4 or 5% and I think that the fact that we’ve been able to maintain unemployment rate with the three in front of it is recalibrated people’s expectations.
When it comes to the interaction of the labour market and what we expect to see in interest rates, I’m not going to get in the business of predicting or otherwise future movements in interest rates but it’s very clear that we’ve gotten an inflation challenge in our economy because of global conditions, because of weaknesses in our supply chains.
And what I mean by that is this inflation threat that we have in our economy is not because of workers doing the wrong thing or too much wages growth or anything like that. We’ve had stagnant wages growth in the best part of the decade so we know what the cause of this inflation challenge are.
I think the experience of the last couple of years has taught us a lot about our expectations for full employment. [It] is one of the reasons why I’ll be releasing with my colleagues the employment white paper later this year. It’s because I think we do have a lot to learn from the last couple of years about the nature of our labour market and where the opportunities lie. We want to learn those lessons and want to set aside for the future.
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‘We’ve still got unemployment with a three in front of it’
To the questions.
Would the treasurer expect rising unemployment to slow interest rate rises?
Jim Chalmers:
Obviously, the Reserve Bank board will factor this into the decisions that they take in subsequent months, but in terms of expectations, I been saying for some time in this room and another occasions that we expect unemployment to take up a little bit but we need to remember that the unemployment rate is still near historic lows and so we need a bit of perspective when it comes to this number.
We’ve got unemployment with the three in front of it. We’ve had an amazing period of six months of new of jobs growth throughout the course of last year and that’s one of the things that we have going for us. Despite all of the difficulties in thrown at us from around the world and despite these rate rises, we’ve still got unemployment with a three in front of it and I think it’s important to remember, we will impose, we will hear than here and then here.
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Chalmers acknowledges families of two missing Queensland miners
The treasurer, who is a Queensland MP, also takes a moment to acknowledge what the families of two missing mine workers in Cloncurry are going through, as well as the community at large:
Our hearts go out to the families and the workers and the community in north-west Queensland. As they seek to locate these two miners that have gone missing, Dylan and Trevor, I know that this will be a really difficult time and I know that that is a wonderful town, really terrific part of Australia. Really wonderful community. I know they will be doing a tough right now as the search continues and our hearts go out to them.
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Opposition ‘voting for even higher inflation for even longer’
Jim Chalmers then uses the last third of his opening statement to this press conference to give the opposition a serve:
We already saw the end of last year, the opposition vote against a bit of relief for families and pensioners and small businesses, when it comes to their energy bills. They have learned absolutely nothing from their diabolical decisions that they took in December and now, they are shaping up to oppose us on safeguards, housing fund, the national reconstruction fund fund as well.
And I think we do need to shine a light on the fact that in voting against manufacturing jobs, [boosting] a supply chain, voting against more affordable jobs, the opposition is voting for even higher inflation for even longer.
That is the inescapable conclusion from the way that the opposition is playing politics with the government’s economic plan.
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Inflation ‘the biggest threat to our economy’
On inflation, Jim Chalmers says:
Inflation is the biggest threat to our economy and dealing with it is the government’s highest priority. And we’ve made that clear on multiple occasions and our three-point plan, as you know, is relief, repair and restrain. Cost-of-living relief where we can do that without adding to inflation. Repair our supply chains, including our workforce, because broken supply chains and labour shortages have been a big part of the story. As the governor said, when it comes to inflation in our economy and spending restraint as well in responsible budget, we saw a lot of that in October.
These three things relief, repair and restrain are the guiding features of the budget in October and there will be the guiding features of the budget in May as well.
That’s because it’s the right strategy in an economy where inflation is expected to have peaked but will be higher than would like for longer than would like. The government strategy is the right one.
And this was a point made yesterday by [RBA] governor [Philip] Lowe, presenting his evidence and taking questions here in front of the parliamentary committee.
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Jim Chalmers: unemployment rise expected
The treasurer is in the blue room (the second fanciest press conference location, after the prime minister’s courtyard) for his first Canberra press conference in a while.
He is addressing the “uptick in the unemployment rate” from 3.5% to 3.7% and says it is what the government had expected.
The unemployment rate today was a bit softer than it has been but it is still around historic lows.
It moderated today but coming on the back of what was the fastest jobs growth of the first six months for a new government on record so we started from very strong foundation and very strong base when it comes to job creation in the first six months of this government and it’s come off a little bit when we’re talking about January this year.
The outcome today was completely consistent with what the budget anticipated in October and also what my predecessor’s budget anticipated in March as well.
We have been expecting an uptick in the unemployment rate as the economy slows a bit as the obvious consequence of a slow global economy mixed with the impact of interest rate rises here in our own economy.
This is the expected outcome, expect the consequence of global turbulence and rising interest rates playing out in our economy. And our current expectation, expectation of the Treasury and the Reserve Bank is that our economy will slow a bit more and unemployment will take up a bit more in the coming months.
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Bob Katter is claiming a (temporary) win, after Westpac told his office it would hit pause on its plan to shut some regional branches of its banks, while a senate inquiry into bank closures is carried out.
We’re deeply appreciative that we, the KAP, have achieved a pause,” Mr Katter said.
There’s real danger for the major banks with the KAP’s determination to proceed with the postal bank, following the courageous initiative taken by Christine Holgate, who was sacked by the Liberal-Nationals when she was trying to do this.
Whilst this is a small battle in a big war, we thank Westpac for its concisions.”
‘Economy may be beginning to finally buckle’, says economist
Economists are sharpening their quills and are paring their forecasts about how soon and how high the RBA will need to go with its cash rate given the softish jobs numbers for January.
David Bassanese, economist with BetaShares (and a former journalist), reckons the labour figures along with weak retail sales and a slump in consumer confidence suggest “the economy may be beginning to finally buckle under the weight of interest rate increases”.
As such, it suggests the RBA may not need to raise rates too aggressively in coming months.
He is sticking with his prediction the RBA will lift its cash rate in March and April, bringing it to 3.85%, before pausing. (That’s the peak rate for ANZ, Westpac and CBA, while NAB this week lifted their estimate to 4.1%.)
However, Sean Langcake, head of macroeconomic forecasting for BIS Oxford Economics, is more circumspect. He notes the ABS’s caution in highlighting that while more people were unemployed in January some of them were expecting to start in a new jobs shortly.
This will boost employment and weigh on unemployment in the February data.
In other words, the data is not conclusive. “But it is clear the market is tracking sideways, albeit in a very tight position,” he said.
We’ll have treasurer Jim Chalmers offering his view shortly.
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Pathway to consultation on veterans compensation claims
Veteran affairs minister Matt Keogh has asked for input into how the department should streamline compensation claims for veterans (and the legislation that goes with it).
From his release:
The pathway for consultation anticipates:
New claims under existing schemes will cease after a transition period, from which point all new veteran claims will be dealt with under an improved Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act (MRCA) as the sole ongoing act. The MRCA currently services the majority of claims.
All benefits under existing schemes will continue unaffected, with only new claims or claims relating to deteriorated conditions to instead be covered by the single ongoing act.
The consultation process will inform the way forward for government to simplify veterans’ legislation.
The Albanese government is committed to a thorough and considered process which will deliver a better future for veterans and their families.
More information on the pathway, and an opportunity to provide feedback can be found here.
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So many reasons to act on renewable energy – including economic competitiveness and the economy, as Peter Hannam reports:
Australia’s natural renewable energy advantage in the race to create a green hydrogen industry is at risk of being overwhelmed by ‘huge and aggressive’ policy support in the US and the Middle East, according to Fortescue Future Industries’ Guy Debelle.
Debelle, formerly FFI’s chief financial officer and now serving as a director, said the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act was mostly aimed at accelerating decarbonisation and was ‘one of the largest pieces of industrial policy we’ve ever seen’. Without a formal spending cap, it could eventually top US$1tn ($1.44tn).
‘It’s not just money,’ Debelle told a gathering of business economists in Sydney on Wednesday. ‘It’s actually people, it’s expertise and knowhow, which [are] migrating to the US.’
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Slowing jobs growth hints at impact of rate rises
The ABS’s jobs data combines both seasonally adjusted and trend terms which, among other things, can offer slightly different signals.
For instance, in seasonally adjusted terms, the economy shed about 11,000 jobs but in trend terms, it added the same amount. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 3.7% (as opposed to 3.5% in December) and 3.5% in trend terms (unchanged for the month).
Headline writers will go with 3.7% but the trend numbers are also looked at closely by economists. Trend employment was up 0.1% for the month, with hours up 0.2%.
As the ABS’s Bjorn Jarvis says, the underlying trend pointed to a slowdown in growth.
The latest monthly increase in trend employment was around half of the monthly average for the 20 years before the pandemic, having been above the average for most of 2022.
As noted previously, markets viewed the latest numbers as being on the weak side, implying higher borrowing costs are doing their intended job of lowering demand in the economy. As a result, the RBA may not need to be so twitchy when it comes to lifting its cash rate.
The benchmark ASX200 was almost 0.9% higher for the day in recent trade, close to doubling the size of the advance it had made prior to the jobs figures.
RBA governor Philip Lowe will no doubt be asked for his view about the jobs market when he fronts a house economics committee tomorrow.
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Australia ‘doesn’t seek to dominate’ region following Aukus, says Wong
Penny Wong has given an insight into the position she puts to south-east Asian and Pacific counterparts when defending Australia’s plans for nuclear-powered submarines under the Aukus deal.
The foreign minister told a Senate hearing today that Australia “does not seek to dominate” or “impinge on sovereignty – quite the opposite”. She said Australia “does not seek to acquire this capability for anything other than contributing to the peace”.
Her defence came in response to a question from the Greens senator Jordon Steele-John, who noted Wong had been active in travelling around the region and asked what feedback she had received from neighbours expressing concern about Aukus. Wong replied:
There is no doubt that there were aspects of the previous government’s announcement in relation to the Aukus partnership which I think were not well handled and which enabled narratives which are unhelpful to how it is perceived in the region and we are managing that.
It has been a feature of my discussions with many countries in the region. And if I may articulate in summary what I say. I say this is a partnership which reflects a long-standing and deep technical cooperation with the United States and the United Kingdom. Secondly, in relation to submarines it is logical and rational that Australia would seek to replace an ageing capability. And I make the broader point, which is the point that many countries particularly in the Asean region are focused on, Australia does not seek to acquire this capability for anything other than contributing to the peace. We see this as an important part of contributing to a strategic equilibrium, which is the context for a region which is peaceful, stable, prosperous and respectful of sovereignty. That is the way we approach this.
Steele-John asked for a list of countries that had raised the Aukus issue. Wong said she would not go into such detail, but added that she was “happy to say in this forum it has been a feature of most if not all of my bilateral and regional engagement”. Wong said it was not the only thing discussed in those talks, but it it was “something I have proactively addressed given some of the issues which have been raised publicly”.
Wong said the submarine plans were rational “particularly in a context of a region where we are seeing others substantially grow their military capability”. (That clearly includes China, but she didn’t name China explicitly.)
Steele-John focused on the nuclear power and whether nations had raised concerns about “increased nuclearisation and militarisation of the waters of our region”.
Wong replied:
We don’t accept – and neither do existing international treaties including the NPT [non-proliferation treaty] and the Rarotonga treaty [the South Pacific nuclear-free zone treaty], that nuclear-propelled equals nuclearisation. Australia has, under this government, under previous governments as a matter of how Australian government operates, we have no intention of ever acquiring a nuclear [weapon] capability. Secondly, in terms of militarisation, I’d invite you to consider some of the public discussion about the relative militarisation and investment in military hardware and we are a very minor player in terms of that process. But we all want a peaceful region. We seek to acquire this capability in order to contribute to that. Australia does not seek to dominate, we don’t seek to impinge on sovereignty - quite the opposite. We seek a region - because we are a middle power - where sovereignty is respected.
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Greens continue to hold firm on blocking new coal and gas projects
The Greens have held a press conference, continuing to press on their concerns about blocking new coal and gas projects (the sticking point in the safeguards bill), the national reconstruction fund and the housing bill (which they think doesn’t add enough to housing supply).
Leader Adam Bandt said:
The government has to explain to the Australian people why it wants more coal and gas mines in the middle of a climate crisis. The Greens have offered to pass the government’s climate legislation tomorrow on one condition: the government stops making the problem worse and stops opening new coal and gas mines.
You can’t put the fire out while you’re pouring petrol, on it ... Coal and gas pollution can continue to go up under the government scheme, as long as they buy enough tree-planting permits ...
At the moment, the government is simply adopting the untenable position that they want to keep expanding coal and gas ... One project, just one of the over 100 projects that are on the books at the moment, just one of them in the Beetaloo basin could lift Australia’s pollution by up to 11% ... If the Northern Territory gas stations go ahead, we are talking about unleashing 68 years’ worth of Australia’s pollution across the country. These are mega climate bombs that we are trying to stop that Labor wants to open.
Bandt suggested the Greens demand could be accommodated in a few ways: specifying that fossil fuel projects can’t be “new entrants” to the safeguard mechanism scheme or by inserting a climate trigger in environmental legislation so greenhouse gas emissions are considered for approvals.
Asked if there could be a grand bargain, trading the coal and gas demand for better support for renters and housing supply, Bandt suggested the Greens are currently treating them separately.
We’re up for good faith negotiations with the government on the ... the reconstruction fund, their housing legislation and the climate legislation. And we’re having discussions across separate portfolios with the government.
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Minister’s tribute to Ash Wednesday 40th anniversary
Emergency management minister Murray Watt has given a statement on the 40th anniversary of the Ash Wednesday bushfires.
The fires, which swept across Victoria and South Australia, were widespread and devastating. They remain one of the most significant emergency events in our nation’s history.
As we reflect, our thoughts are with the families and friends of the 75 people who lost their lives.
We recognise the impact the fires had on entire communities, with 2,600 homes and buildings destroyed, vast numbers of livestock lost and the devastating environmental impact of 310,000 hectares burned.
We thank the thousands of firefighters, volunteers, emergency and ADF personnel who responded to the Ash Wednesday fires, and we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving to protect their communities.
Today will be difficult for all whose lives were impacted by the bushfires. We encourage people to seek the support needed, as we observe this anniversary.
After arriving in Australia with nothing, my grandmother lost everything once again when her home in Macedon was lost in the Ash Wednesday fires. But it was what she saw, rather than what she lost, which stayed with her.
For those who remember, for those who were lost, for those who are still haunted – we are thinking of you.
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Top leagues under pressure to protect players from head trauma
On Full Story today, inequality reporter Stephanie Convery tells us contact sports bodies like AFL and NRL are under growing pressure to protect their players from concussions and head trauma linked with a neurodegenerative disease called CTE.
I do think that this is an existential crisis for sporting organisations and leagues, because it means that the thing that used to be so characteristic of their game may not be the characteristic thing anymore. And that is scary for them.
Kathy Strong, whose husband Terry Strong suffered from severe CTE after playing semi-professional rugby for years and died in 2021, says sporting bodies should be responsible for looking after their players in the long term.
I think for players, all players – grassroots, elite professionals – there should be some form of insurance, so these players, if it happens to them, there is that support. And not just financial support, but, you know, emotional support, all kinds of support.
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Jobless rate rise is higher than expected
Australia’s jobless rate lifted last month to a seasonally adjusted 3.7%, higher than the 3.5% level expected by economists.
The economy added about 11,400 jobs, 9,200 of them full time. That too was worse than predicted, with forecasts eyeing a 20,000 net gain.
Ahead of the ABS's January jobs report, investors were forecasting the RBA's cash rate will rise by a bit over 75bps from 3.35% now. By their view, we won't see a rate CUT until well into 2024. In the meantime, there's a 3-in-4 chance the rate will lift another 25bp next month. pic.twitter.com/auMP5XBlIt
— @phannam@mastodon.green (@p_hannam) February 15, 2023
Labour market numbers can jump around a bit, including if the participation level moves. Last month, that rate edged lower by 0.1 percentage points to 66.5%.
The dollar dropped a tad against the US dollar after the jobs figures, implying investors are betting the slightly weaker-than-expected employment numbers mean the RBA won’t have to lift its key interest rate quite as high to cool the economy.
More to come.
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NAB reports $2.15bn profit for last quarter
After the Commonwealth Bank announced a $5.1bn profit for the last six months yesterday, NAB has reported $2.15bn in cash earnings for the last quarter.
That’s an increase from the last quarter (which was about $1.8bn) with interest rate increases playing a pretty big role:
1Q23 cash earnings rose 18% compared with the 2H22 quarterly average. The higher interest rate environment, resulting from central bank actions to curb inflation, has benefitted our revenue this period. But this is also causing economic growth and house prices to soften, and loan repayments to increase.
We know these changing circumstances, combined with cost-of-living pressures, will create difficulties for some of our customers and we have a range of options available for those needing support. Overall though, continued strong employment conditions and healthy savings buffers mean most customers look well placed to manage through this period
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Unemployment rises to 3.7%
The ABS has just released the last month’s employment data – the jobless rate rose to 3.7%
In seasonally adjusted terms, in January 2023:
unemployment rate increased to 3.7%
participation rate decreased to 66.5%
employment decreased to 13,721,900
employment-to-population ratio decreased to 64.0%
underemployment rate remained at 6.1%
monthly hours worked decreased to 1,836m.
full-time employment decreased by 43,300 to 9,567,800 people
part-time employment increased by 31,800 to 4,154,100 people
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Perrottet accuses Labor of attacking his family following branch-stacking allegations
New South Wales premier Dominic Perrottet has accused Labor of “playing games with my family” after an upper house inquiry heard allegations his brother sought $50,000 to fund a branch-stacking operation to oust federal Liberal MP Alex Hawke.
On Wednesday an inquiry probing links between developers and councillors in the Hills Shire in Sydney’s north-west heard allegations from businessman Frits Mare that Jean-Claude Perrottet, along with Liberal party powerbroker Christian Ellis, asked for a $50,000 contribution from him in 2019 to “get rid of” Hawke and “stack his seat”.
The inquiry has taken the extraordinary step of hiring private contractors to issue a summons to Jean-Claude Perrottet and another of the premier’s brothers, Charlie Perrottet, in order to force them to give evidence at the inquiry.
Dominic Perrottet repeatedly refused to answer questions about the allegations raised at the inquiry on Thursday, saying Labor were “playing politics a month out from an election”. He said:
I think the public can see through it.
He said he had not spoken to either of his brothers about the allegations and did not know where they were or why they had refused to answer the summons.
But he became visibly frustrated by repeated questions about the probe during a press conference on Thursday. He said:
The Labor party are playing games with my family. Leave my family out of it.
The inquiry was sparked by a speech given by state Liberal party MP Ray Williams to parliament last year in which he alleged several senior members of his party were “paid significant funds” install new councillors who would be friendly to the Sydney developer Jean Nassif.
But Perrottet said Williams had “never mentioned any of my family members”, saying Labor were “attacking [my] family members to cover the fact they don’t have an economic plan.
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Australia considering more sanctions against Iran, Wong reveals
The foreign affairs minister Penny Wong has signalled that she is considering further use of sanctions against Iran. She made the comments while also taking a swipe at the Coalition over its accusations that the Australian government has been slow to act on Iran.
The Liberal senator Claire Chandler, who chaired a recent Senate inquiry into human rights in Iran, asked during an estimates committee hearing today why, given the urgency of the situation, the government had waited until human rights day to announce the first round of sanctions and then waited until the eve of her Senate inquiry report for the second tranche.
Wong:
Senator Chandler, I have to say in this context, given what is happening in Iran, given how much we are seeking to do, I regret the tone of partisanship with which you approach these issues and including through the Senate inquiry. It’s a matter for you.
This government has worked more than any previous government – we’ve done more work in relation to human rights in Iran than any previous Australian government.
It doesn’t appear that briefings to you or your party change the partisan tone of your questions. We make judgments about sanctions. We’ve made the judgements.
Responding to the Chandler-led inquiry’s call for Australia to scale back diplomatic relations with Iran, Wong said successful Australian governments – since 1968 – had maintained diplomatic relations with Iran, “not because it’s a reward [but] because it’s a channel for Australian interests to be prosecuted, it’s a way of engaging”. Wong added:
I have asked the department to look at expanding our autonomous sanctions regime in relation to Iran …
As I said to members of the Iranian community yesterday, the brutality of the regime which we all stand against is at a threshold which is devastating and tragic. The Iranian people have been and are courageous in the face of the brutality. I regret we live in a world where we can’t change that but what we can do is speak with one voice to try to put pressure on the regime and that’s what this government is seeking to do.
Chandler:
Thank you for those comments, Senator Wong. I do disagree with your assertion that my questions are partisan in nature. These are concerns that have been raised with me directly by the Iranian community.
Wong:
The whole way in which you have dealt with this has been partisan. This is regrettable. People are dying and I find some of the way you dealt with this really regrettable.
Chandler:
I regret the fact that you have characterised my concerns in that way. That is all from me, chair.
Wong:
For example: I hope you are going to be consistent. The TPV [temporary protection visas] decision that you and your colleagues are very opposed to. Do you know how many Iranians will stay as a consequence of that? 6,000. So if you are really serious about protecting Iranian Australians and those who are here and not sending them back to a brutal regime then maybe you might acknowledge that that decision protects 6,000 people.
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January jobs to offer snapshot of economy’s trajectory
We’ll get the ABS’s labour market figures shortly.
The market consensus is for the economy to have added about 20,000 jobs last month, though some, such as ANZ, forecast the tally will be twice that.
The jobless rate is predicted to remain at December’s level of 3.5%, or close to the lowest since the mid-1970s. (Cue: what bands were popular back then.)
Labour market numbers will be closely watched by the RBA, with a strong outcome reinforcing its view that demand in the economy remains too strong and that higher interest rates will be needed.
As things stand, investors have pencilled in three more 25-basis-point rises in the RBA’s cash rate before it hits a peak and slowing subsides.
Ahead of the ABS's January jobs report, investors were forecasting the RBA's cash rate will rise by a bit over 75bps from 3.35% now. By their view, we won't see a rate CUT until well into 2024. In the meantime, there's a 3-in-4 chance the rate will lift another 25bp next month. pic.twitter.com/auMP5XBlIt
— @phannam@mastodon.green (@p_hannam) February 15, 2023
The RBA is banking on the jobless rate remaining sticky at about 3.5% by June even as borrowers get pummelled by higher debt costs and edge gradually towards 4.5% by mid-2025.
If RBA governor Philip Lowe (and his fellow eight board members, he reminded us yesterday) is wrong, unemployment might shoot up a bit faster than that.
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General password sharing won’t be considered unlawful activity
After the release of the latest copyright infringement survey from the attorney general’s department last week, which we reported here, tech news sites raised concerns that the department had redefined what it considers to be piracy to include account sharing.
Given Netflix’s recently announced crackdown on the practice of people sharing accounts between households, it caused some concern that there might be some government intervention here.
Guardian Australia asked the department about the change and the department said the “credential sharing” referred to as unlawful activity in the survey was where people pay a small fee to access a shared/unknown account of someone else online and was not referring to multiple households sharing logins.
The separate question in the survey about general password sharing was not meant to indicate it was considered unlawful activity but to gather some initial data on a topic emerging in public debate and were not factored into what the survey counted as unlawful activity.
The department did consult with a number of stakeholders on the survey in advance, but Guardian Australia understands that questions about password sharing were not directly requested by any streaming service.
A spokesperson for Netflix told Guardian Australia it did not request the inclusion.
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Wong’s colonialism comments ‘unexceptional’: Dfat secretary
At Senate estimates, the Dfat secretary, Jan Adams, also weighed in on Penny Wong’s comments about colonialism in the UK:
Really it certainly was not the mainstay of the discussions both formally and informally. We spent a lot of time together. Frankly it was, in the context of modern Britain, an unexceptional comment ...
There was no sense of discomfort or diplomatic tension whatsoever. I can say that with complete confidence. We were very focused on the main issues actually of the speech, which actually were the subject of the questions at that event... the realities in the Indo-Pacific and major power competition and the responsibility of all countries in addressing that. We were talking about strategic equilibrium in the region, management of the tensions in a way that is going to ensure communications, guardrails if you like. As the minister has said, another issue that actually we spoke quote a lot about was Russia-Ukraine.
Wong adds that she is happy to offer the Coalition’s Simon Birmingham “a briefing on some of the disinformation that we seek to challenge”. She offers that such a briefing “might be useful” on “this side of the optimal pathway decisions” (that’s the nuclear-powered submarine plans).
Birmingham says he has never declined a briefing from Wong. But he argues that aspect of Wong’s speech in the UK seems to have been a “distraction”. He mentions comments by the Australian newspaper’s Greg Sheridan that this was the “worst and strangest speech” of Wong’s life.
Wong:
I have a lot of regard for Mr Sheridan. On this obviously I would tell him to relax and I maintain my view that working how we maximise Australian influence including in how we speak about who we are and recognise where others are is a central part of the job of anyone in this role.
Wong adds that some had claimed she had “confronted” the UK on its colonial past, but she says but at no point did that appear in the speech.
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Kelly: 892 people have died this year from Covid
Chief medical officer Prof Paul Kelly has provided the latest figures for deaths with Covid-19, revealing 892 people have died so far this year, including 308 in aged care.
Kelly told estimates 18,190 people had died with Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, including 14,855 in 2022 and 892 in 2023, as at 8 February.
In total, 5,075 people died in residential aged care throughout the pandemic, including 3,855 in 2022 and 308 in 2023.
The data was sought by the opposition’s health spokesperson Anne Ruston, who said she was trying to understand why the situation in aged care had “deteriorated” in the latter half of 2022.
It seems there’s been a massively increased number of people who have died in aged care from Covid at the end of 2022, but I don’t think I’ve heard what you’re doing to try and deal with that. It almost seems like no one’s really taking much notice of the fact that so many people died in aged care at the end of 2022.
Kelly said the department was not “ignoring the issue”. He said the fact there had been more deaths in 2022, including in aged care, was because “we are living with Covid” and there had been large numbers of infections. Kelly said the worst months in aged care had been in early 2022.
Kelly said the case fatality rate has dropped dramatically from the “dark days” early in the pandemic, when there was a one in three chance of dying from Covid among those who caught it in aged care.
Kelly said deaths from any cause was a “sad but unfortunately inevitable event”. “It’s a very common daily event in aged care.”
The hearing was told the aged care vaccination rate was currently about 85% and the department was rolling out a further booster. Antivirals were also available to those in aged care.
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Home insurance dropping in northern Australia, industry chief says
Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation chief executive Christopher Wallace has told estimates that insurance customers are benefiting from a 13% price reduction for home insurance in northern Australia and 32% in high risk areas.
Labor’s Deborah O’Neill noted there appears to be a “vast difference” between these figures and Morrison government promises of savings of up to 58% from the reinsurance pool.
Wallace said ARPC wasn’t part of the original Treasury modelling, but it was “very confident” it can reduce premiums.
He said:
The average cyclone insurance in Townsville will be $624. In Cairns $427. Darwin $457. These are really good solid prices for home insurance. We want to wait a bit longer for lived experience. These are quite important numbers.
Asked if anyone will experience price increases, Wallace said the principle is to have a “subsidisation from low-risk to high-risk areas” to achieve greater access to insurance.
He accepted that some insurance consumers might face price increases in low-risk areas like Brisbane, Perth and northern NSW, but said these would be “small percentages” as a result of a “different view of risk” once insurers join the reinsurance pool.
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Plibersek brings up Greens’ blocking of carbon pollution reduction scheme
Chris Bowen has been careful not to criticise the Greens overly much in his public comments over the safeguards legislation negotiation.
But other Labor ministers have been very quick to bring up the spectre of 2009 and the CPRS.
Tanya Plibersek was one of those ministers in question time yesterday. And she repeated it on Sky news this morning:
I think Greens voters, Greens supporters in the community would be shocked to see the Greens walking over to sit next to Peter Dutton and Barnaby Joyce and vote against a safeguard mechanism. And it would take them right back to when the Greens voted with the Liberals to block the CPRS, the carbon pollution reduction scheme, out of the previous Labor government.
What we know is that the Greens and the Liberals voting together to block the CPRS meant more emissions for longer and I would be shocked if, at the end of the day, the Greens were prepared to do that again, to stop an emissions reduction plan from Labor that would be the equivalent of taking two-thirds of Australia’s cars off the road by 2030.
This is a substantial reduction in carbon pollution emissions. It might not be everything the Greens want, but the idea that they would vote against it and block action on climate change, I think, would appal their supporters.
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Wong: colonialism comments in UK ‘opportunity to find more common ground’
The foreign affairs minister Penny Wong has dismissed suggestions from Simon Birmingham that her comments about colonialism while in the UK had caused an unnecessary “distraction”.
During a wide-ranging speech in London two weeks ago, Wong reflected on different experiences of British colonisation. She said her father was descended from Hakka and Cantonese Chinese and many from those clans “worked as domestic servants for British colonists, as did my own grandmother”.
She said such stories “can sometimes feel uncomfortable” but understanding the past enabled leaders to better shape the present and the future, adding:
It gives us the opportunity to find more common ground than if we stayed sheltered in narrower versions of our countries’ histories. It helps open the world to us. It helps open the Indo-Pacific to us.
Birmingham asked a series of questions about the speech – and how it was received – at a Senate estimates hearing today.
Wong replies:
If we recognise our history and we recognise how we have changed, we find more common ground and we deal with some of the ways in which others seek to constrain us. And in the context of the Aukus and the Quad that is about Australia’s influence and power in the region and if you can’t see that I’m surprised.* Because I would have thought you understand that, unlike some.
Birmingham:
I might understand many things, but also I understand the importance of balance, the importance of respect where you are, the importance of how you put your messages. Are there positive aspects ... of the UK’s historical contribution around systems of democracy, systems of justice?
Wong:
Of course there are.
* China has branded both Aukus and the Quad as exclusive “cliques”. Chinese diplomats have sought to portray the Aukus deal among Australia the US and the UK as an “Anglo-Saxon clique”.
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Victoria may go it alone on raising minimum age of incarceration
Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, has made his strongest indication yet that the state will abandon a national process to raise the age of criminal responsibility to go it alone.
Speaking to reporters in Heidelberg West, in Melbourne’s north-east, Andrews said it was his intention to bring legislation before parliament to address youth justice, child protection and bail reform in the “first half of the year”:
That’s subject, obviously, to a range of cabinet processes. Some people have been very focused on the age issue. We’re giving that one more go to try and get a national consensus and if we don’t, as we said some time ago, we won’t hesitate to do our own thing. We’d prefer not to do that, I think a national law would be better but at some point you have to call time on national processes that just don’t deliver.
Across Australia, children as young as 10 can be arrested by police, remanded in custody, convicted by the courts and jailed.
It is estimated almost 600 children aged between 10 and 13 were in custody last financial year. More than 60% were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Federal, state and territory attorneys general have been examining the issue for some time. In December they released a draft report that was commissioned in 2020, which recommended raising the age of criminal responsibly to 14 without exception. But at this stage it is is working on a proposal to raise the age to 12.
Some jurisdictions have already abandoned the process, with the Northern Territory raising the age to 12 from next year, the Australian Capital Territory to 14 by 2026 and the Tasmania government will lift the minimum age of incarceration to 14 while leaving the age of criminal responsibility at 10.
The councils of attorneys general will meet in April but Andrews said the government may not wait until then to move on the issue:
I’m not necessarily keen to wait that long. The attorney [general Jaclyn Symes] … speaks to her colleagues quite often so it wouldn’t necessarily be a formal meeting. You can get on the phone to talk to people.
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Kelly expects ‘at least another couple’ Covid waves this year
Australia’s chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, says he expects further Covid-19 waves throughout the year.
Kelly is appearing with his health department colleagues at Senate estimates this morning.
Kelly said there had been a “number of waves” in the last 12 months, including Omicron, though the most recent wave was “settling”.
But he added:
I predict there will be at least another couple this year.
He said the world was still in a pandemic and the World Health Organization had determined again recently that Covid-19 “remains a public health threat to the world”.
And we’ve seen what’s happened in China recently in terms of very large rates of infection and deaths in that country, as they’ve opened up and accepted living with Covid.
The secretary of the department of health, Prof Brendan Murphy, reiterated that the prime minister Anthony Albanese and health minister Mark Butler had committed to a “deep inquiry” into the pandemic. The details of that inquiry are yet to be determined.
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Asic officials questioned about complaints
In Treasury estimates, the Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has been probing whether there have been any complaints about the leadership of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
At first, Asic officials took these questions on notice, leading to a warning from Bragg that it is “not a very good look for you to be looking as if you’re covering up” complaints made about the agency.
Asic chair Joe Longo then revealed that he had received correspondence from the Treasury secretary about deputy chair Karen Chester.
Chester told the committee she takes accountability and transparency seriously. She said:
Given Senator Bragg’s questions, I think it’s important I share I am aware in early 2021 some allegations were made about myself. These were referred to Treasury, which undertook and oversaw an investigation. No adverse findings were made.
Bragg asked for a copy of the letter, which Longo took on notice.
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House passes affordable housing fund bill
Speaking of housing, the affordable housing fund legislation passed the house last night and the legislation streamlining some of the other aspects (like establishing the national housing supply and affordability council) has also just passed.
It still has to get through the Senate though, which will not happen until at least next month.
Housing minister Julie Collins, though, was taking a moment:
This is a turning point for housing in our country, but it has sadly been blighted by those who voted no to more social and affordable housing.
This is vital investment in the future of housing in our country.
We know it is desperately needed, and we will continue to work hard to deliver it.
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The Greens are holding a press conference at 11.30 to talk safeguards mechanism and affordable housing and other balance of power issues.
That is the same time as the unemployment rate comes out, so we will bring you what we can.
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Malcolm Roberts quizzes Wong on gender equality ambassador
The One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has been asking in Senate estimates about Australia’s gender equality ambassador, Stephanie Copus Campbell, and about the salary and whether she intends to travel to countries like Saudi Arabia.
In a back and forth, Roberts volunteers the observation that his party leader, Pauline Hanson, is a woman.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, talks about the broad principles behind having this ambassadorial position:
We want a world where girls can aspire to do what women can do in this country and we don’t have such a world, so the ways in which we try to work with others to achieve that include through this ambassador.
It leads to this exchange in which Roberts is keen to put his views on the record:
Roberts:
There’s a battle going on. I can tell you a story of meeting with an executive in northern West Virgina in 1981 – I was fairly young … She was telling me that she was appointed to her position … because she was a female to meet affirmative action quota ands she said it’s highly embarrassing to be that way, whereas my mother took the opposite position. You treat women as women, meaning two things – they are different and they bring secondly they a raft of characteristics that men don’t have and that’s wonderful for diversity.
My belief has been that we should be employing women and other minorities – women are not minorities they’re a majority actually, but you know what I’m getting at – other groups that are minorities because they bring a diversity of views, not because of their gender. My office currently has exactly 50/50 female/male [split]. Not because we want to comply with the ratio but because those women are damn good and we want their views. I’m thinking wouldn’t it be better to show by our actions that we value women? I mean, you’re the foreign affairs minister. When you go visiting a country you are showing that Australia values women.
Wong:
Yes, but you know, you need lots of ways you in which you try to tackle a problem. Inequality, development is a multi-faceted problem. So we also have thematic ambassadors, who, as I said, they do things that I wouldn’t be able to do. We don’t have ministers engaging at some of the levels at which ambassadors can work, being able to spend the time on one particular issue. There are extraordinary women through our region, in south-east Asia and the Pacific, who are doing extraordinary things …
Roberts:
Well, minister, with respect, and I sincerely mean that because I have enormous respect for …
Wong:
One thing: you always are respectful in how you deal with me, Senator Roberts.
Roberts:
And I sincerely respect your abilities. However, I think that some of these positions – and going back to 2011 doesn’t justify having these positions. So I hear your arguments, I acknowledge them. So often these days positions like this and other ambassadors are created to tick a box and they’re not meaningful. I’m just making sure – part of my role is to make sure funds are spent properly.
Wong:
Sure and you’re entitled to ask the questions and I appreciate how you have asked them. What I would say is Ambassador Copus Campbell is absolutely not a tick-a-box kind of person. And if you want to meet her, I’m sure she’d be very happy to engage with members of parliament and senators.
Roberts:
Australia was the second country in the world to give women the vote and we were better off for it.
Wong:
South Australia was the first place in the world where women could stand for parliament.
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Wong on China: ‘importance of engaging with one of the great powers’
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, says her trip to Beijing in Beijing was the first ministerial visit to China in years. She says she put the case that Beijing should remove trade tariffs and other impediments on the trading relationship. On why the Australian government has been pursuing dialogue, Wong says:
We also recognise the importance of engaging with one of the great powers and encouraging continued dialogue between the great powers as well.
Wong speaks again of the importance of encouraging the US and China to put in place so-called guardrails to avoid competition spiralling into conflict. She says the aim is to “avoid miscalculation, which is always a risky thing”.
Wong says she discussed a range of issues with China’s state councillor, Wang Yi, including the war in Ukraine:
On Russia my consistent position has been to encourage – and I’ve done this publicly – China to use its particular status as a member of the P5 [the veto-holding permanent members of the UN security council] and its relationship with Russia to seek to facilitate the end of that conflict. We also went to the consular issues I’ve discussed earlier.
Asked about the next steps on stabilising the relationship with Beijing, Wong says whoever is in government in Australia “will always have to manage differences in our relationship with China”:
And we always also, in my view, have to seek to continue to engage given China’s place in the world and place in our region.
In part I think this next phase in the relationship – what I’ve described as stabilising, because I don’t think it was useful to Australia to have the relationship where it was, nor have this as a domestic political issue in the way it was. It’s a challenging relationship to manage. It’s not assisted by the heat of election campaigns and the relationship being used in that context. One of the key things obviously is the trade impediments. We have consistently said we think it’s in both countries’ interests for those trade impediments to be removed.
Wong says one of the things she and Wang agreed was that there were a number of areas “where officials would continue to work”. While a lot of the focus is on ministerial meetings, Wong says it is also important to “re-establish a working architecture in the relationship”. She says the relationship is also about what happens at lower levels than ministers:
In part we need to try to get in the structures and dialogues which previously existed working again. We’re not going to agree on everything. In fact there may be many things we don’t agree on, but it is better for us to have a capacity to engage about those issues.
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Department of Social Services: 3.1% of age pensioners in work over December
Just rounding up some notable things we learned out of Senate estimates late last night.
Over in the community affairs committee, the Department of Social Services was asked about the Labor government’s plan to allow age pensioners to earn more before their payments are cut. The policy allows age pensioners to earn an additional $4,000 over this financial year without losing any of their pension.
The policy came into effect in November but it appears to have little effect so far.
Quizzed by the Greens senator Janet Rice about pensioner employment figures, Troy Sloan of the department said 3.1% of age pensioners were in work over December, the first month where the policy was in effect.
Sloan stressed the figures were “very early”, but said that compared with the 3.1% of age pensioners in work in November 2022 and 3% in December 2021.
We also learned that the government has made some progress improving waiting times for the escaping violence payment, which was introduced by the Coalition and is administered by Uniting Vic.Tas. The payment includes up to $5,000 in financial assistance including $1,500 in cash for people fleeing domestic violence.
The latest figures show the average time a person has waited for the payment has fallen from 33 days to 24 days. Under questioning from the Greens’ Larissa Waters, Liz Hefren-Webb, of DSS, noted that applicants could get an initial $500 up front when they applied. But she said the aim was to get the waiting times down to 10 days. It’s hoped they will achieve that target by the end of the financial year.
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Dreyfus establishes Nacc joint commission
Mark Dreyfus isn’t the most flashy of politicians, but he certainly has a bit on his plate at the moment.
In the last day the attorney general has established the joint committee on the national anti-corruption commission – with ALP senator Linda White chairing and independent Helen Haines serving as deputy chair.
That’s the oversight committee on the Nacc, which now means the Nacc commissioner and senior officers can be nominated for the committee’s approval.
The whistleblower protections legislation went through the house on Wednesday, so will go to the Senate and a vote after the committee report into it is handed down.
The hunt for the new AAT president started and the privacy review was released.
So a big 24 hours for Dreyfus, who will most likely go through this list in a very dignified dixer delivery.
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Wong: Labor taking ‘more calm and consistent tone’ with China
Senate estimates is looking into Australia’s diplomatic thaw with China.
The foreign affairs minister Penny Wong says Labor “came to government with a very clear view about seeking to stabilise the relationship”. The government sought to engage “but to do so in the context in our national interests”. Wong says:
I think we’ve sought to take a much more calm and consistent tone and approach in our relationship with China.
Obviously that became quite a heated topic of domestic political debate under the previous government, which we didn’t regard as being in our national interest.
Wong says the government has maintained Australia’s necessary policy positions but to manage differences “wisely”:
The overarching approach is to not shift from those things which are about Australia’s interests and about who we are, but at the same time seek to manage those differences and not seek to prosecute a domestic political agenda with them.
So, for example, Australia’s not shifted its position, nor how we articular our view, in relation to international law and the South China Sea.
Australia has, on human rights, continued to press, articulate [human rights] in our engagements, including at my level, on matters of human rights.
[On] consular matters – we obviously have put our views at the prime minister’s level, my level, and at other levels including the department and at post level, about in particular [imprisoned Australians] Dr Yang [Hengjun] and Ms Cheng Lei.
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Bowen: ‘All negotiation must be in keeping with election mandate’
So what is the government willing to negotiate on with the Greens (and the other crossbench senators it needs) when it comes to the safeguards mechanism?
Here is what Chris Bowen told ABC’s RN Breakfast this morning:
Everything that we consider will be in keeping with our government’s approach in our election mandate, nothing more, nothing less. We went to the people seeking a mandate. That’s what we’ll implement. Now, just as with the other things that we’ve done that we’ve gotten through the parliament, like the Climate Change Act, where there are suggestions or requests which I think make sense and are in keeping with our mandate and add or complement to what we’re trying to do, then I’m all ears.
Where somebody says, ‘look, we really want you to break this election commitment’, then sorry, no, we’ll move on to the next topic because we won’t be doing that. And I think, as I’ve said, I think our track record as a government under Anthony [Albanese]’s leadership of mature, sensible adults willing to talk to people of good faith, I believe that’s our track record and I believe that track record will continue.
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Veterans’ affairs minister Matt Keogh will make an announcement on the government’s response to the royal commission into defence and veteran suicide interim report this morning.
We will bring you that very soon.
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Significant drop in bulk billing revealed
If you haven’t seen this investigation from health editor Melissa Davey, Nick Evershed and Natasha May, it is well worth your time:
The number of Australians who are fully bulk-billed by their GP has dropped significantly in just three years, with one electorate experiencing a decline of 18%, a Guardian Australia investigation reveals.
Experts say the decline of bulk billing – where the full cost of a consultation is paid for by Medicare without any additional gap fees – is putting serious strain on overstretched emergency departments and other health services.
Data obtained exclusively by Guardian Australia reveals a 4% decline across the country, with a far bigger drop in some areas, including the northern suburbs of Perth, the central coast of NSW, and areas between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. In WA, there was a decline across all electorates between 2019 and 2022.
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New Zealand has asked Australia’s help in disaster response
New Zealand has requested Australia’s help for disaster response, Elizabeth Peak from Dfat has just told Senate estimates:
Yes, I can confirm we have received a formal request from New Zealand less than an hour ago.
We set up yesterday a national management coordination function to be able to respond very quickly when the request came through, and, and we will certainly do that.
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Dfat says no Australians still unaccounted for after Turkey-Syria quake
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is up at Senate estimates this morning. It begins with an update on the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
Jan Adams, the head of Dfat, describes it as a disaster of “horrendous proportions”:
We are deeply saddened that three Australians have died in the earthquakes and again extend our condolences to the families.
Adams says Dfat has been provided consular assistance to about 80 Australians and their families.
Kate Logan, head of consular, says this consular assistance typically involves help with travel documents, travel out of affected area and welfare checks. She says Dfat is also “in touch with all three families” of the Australians who died and offering support. She says no Australians were still unaccounted for.
There are some questions about whether the Australian search-and-rescue team to Turkey could have been sent sooner (the foreign minister approved the mission on Wednesday morning last week; the team was dispatched early on Friday morning; they arrived on Sunday).
Officials said Australia provided humanitarian funding in first instance to allow organisations in area to provide life-saving support (the initial package was announced on 7 February). It was seen that teams from Europe were “better placed at the time to respond to the immediate call”. That was consistent with Turkey’s disaster plan, which seeks European assistance in the first instance.
Dfat official Beth Delaney said the situation in Syria, meanwhile, was “extremely complex” and Australia continued to “call on all actors to provide humanitarian access to those in need”:
We’re very aware of the access issues. We have called on all parties to improve access for those needing humanitarian support in Syria. What I would say is the early actions we took on Tuesday meant our contribution through Unicef they were actually able to provide supplies immediately. They have pre-positioned funding ... They had staff on the ground in north-west Syria. That meant they were able to purchase and deliver those supplies immediately.
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Australia’s first guidelines for supporting autistic children
Amanda Rishworth and Mark Butler have announced Australia’s first “national guideline for supporting the learning, participation and wellbeing of autistic children and their families”.
It has been developed by the commonwealth-funded Autism CRC in accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council’s framework for best practice guidelines.
From the ministers’ joint release:
Autistic children deserve a childhood full of love, family, fun, learning and personal discovery. They should be safe, have their rights respected and be supported. Many autistic children experience challenges to their learning, participation, and wellbeing.
The recent announcement of $2m in commonwealth funding to the Autism CRC and commencement of work on the national autism strategy will also support the implementation of this guideline.
This guideline is an important step, outlining 84 recommendations to support consistent, effective and efficient delivery of evidence-based supports for autistic children up to 12 years of age. The evidence-based and inclusive development of this guideline is a demonstration of how the government will develop its national autism strategy
More information about the guideline here.
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The house sitting has started – it is the last one of this sitting fortnight, so it is business, business, business at the moment.
War memorial head grilled on sponsorship from arms manufacturers
The Australian War Memorial appeared before Senate estimates late last night. Director Matt Anderson was grilled on the memorial’s acceptance of sponsorship and donations from arms manufacturers. The Guardian revealed on Wednesday that the memorial had accepted more than $830,000 from arms manufacturers since 2020-21.
But Senate estimates heard that figure rose to $1.8m when counted from 2018-19.
Donors and sponsors included Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Thales.
Greens senator David Shoebridge asked whether the memorial was aware that Thales was currently facing prosecution in South Africa for the alleged corruption of government officials to influence defence procurement.
Anderson said he was not aware of that fact.
Shoebridge:
Do you think that might be an issue you’d take on board in terms of the reputation of the war memorial in receiving money from a corporation like that?
Anderson:
I think you said they were allegations, senator?
Shoebridge:
They’ve been charged and they’re facing criminal prosecution. Do you think that might be an issue you’d take on board?
Anderson:
Senator, whenever we consider sponsorship arrangements with defence industry or any sponsor, we have a partnership arrangement, partnership agreement and framework, where we consider any number of things. That of course includes the reputation of the company and the record of the company will be considered as part of any sponsorship agreement.
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Submissions uploaded for inquiry into buy-now-pay-later sector
The submissions for the government’s inquiry into the buy-now-pay-later sector have been uploaded.
The government plans on regulating the sector, which, unlike credit cards, doesn’t require any checks for people to sign up to, resulting in many becoming financially overwhelmed.
There haven’t been a lot of eyes on the sector – assistant treasurer Stephen Jones says that is going to change.
Given BNPL schemes have been set up for people to buy everyday staples like groceries, it is probably beyond time.
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Opposition not yet briefed on proposed green card lottery
The shadow home affairs minister Karen Andrews was asked about Labor’s proposed green card lottery this morning:
Let me answer that very generally by saying we know that there is a need for skilled and unskilled workers in this country here. We hear stories every single day of how many businesses are struggling to find the workers that they need.
Now I have not received a briefing on that policy, but I would be very happy to be briefed on that policy position and how the government proposes that that will work. I am open to looking at whatever solutions the government actually has to make sure that we continue to look at how we are going to meet the skilled workforce, the unskilled workers that are needed here in Australia, because it is critical.
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Speaking of Mark Dreyfus, if you haven’t seen the upcoming privacy reforms he is leading, Paul Karp has you covered:
Government seeking new Administrative Appeals Tribunal president
Attorney general Mark Dreyfus says the government is now officially looking for the new president of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and additional members while it works out what will eventually replace the AAT.
Whoever ends up leading the AAT will then end up leading the new body, once it is established.
Dreyfus announced the end of the AAT after declaring it a “disgraceful exhibition of cronyism” by the former Liberal government.
So who is the government looking for?
It is essential that the new president has the skills, expertise and personal qualities to lead the AAT during a period of significant and exciting reform. The appointment is full-time for a period of up to seven years.
To ensure the recruitment process attracts the strongest possible field of candidates, appropriately qualified individuals can apply for the role directly or be nominated by a third party.
And as for the additional members?
The government has committed $63.4m over two years for at least 75 additional members to address the current backlog of cases in the AAT and reduce wait times.
This is an exciting opportunity for appropriately qualified individuals to make an important contribution to the most significant reform of the federal system of administrative review in decades. All new appointments will be made in accordance with the new AAT appointment guidelines.
This transparent and merit-based selection process is an integral part of the Australian government’s commitment to providing the community with a trusted federal administrative review body that serves their interests.
Applications will close at 11.55pm AEDT on Wednesday 8 March 2023. Details here.
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Lottery system for Pacific residents to move to Australia
The minister for international development and the Pacific, Pat Conroy, has revealed that the government will introduce an American green card-style lottery for permanent residency for 3,000 people from Pacific countries.
Conroy told ABC News Breakfast:
The intention is to start the scheme after 1 July this year. This is a change in our permanent migration system to allocate 3,000 permanent migration spots to families from the Pacific each year is a critical way of improving and building our people to people links with the Pacific family. It is revolutionary and it will deepen our ties to a region that is critical to our future.
Conroy noted this will add to the Pacific Australia labour mobility scheme, which provides work placements of nine months to four years.
He said:
We have ramped up that since coming to government. It was 24,000 when we won power in May. We set a goal of 35,000 by 1 July this year and we hit that in December. That is filling labour shortages, skilling up Pacific workers for when they go home and sending $500m of income back home. The Pacific engagement visa, which we’re introducing into parliament today, is different. That is about permanent migration. This is allocating 3,000 spots to Pacific families each year to make a new life in Australia, to deepen the Pacific diaspora in Australia and deepen our people-to-people links.
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There is no one in the parliament who knows more about energy policy (yes, this includes the MPs) than Katharine Murphy.
And she’s also very adept at cutting through the noise to what is actually going on.
In this case, it’s the negotiations on the safeguards bill. If you missed her this morning on ABC radio’s RN Breakfast, here you go:
Will the Greens torpedo climate legislation? - Politics with @murpharoo https://t.co/brwolmkjbF
— RN Breakfast (@RNBreakfast) February 15, 2023
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Lowe: RBA wants to see unemployment rise to 4.5%
The ABS will release the latest unemployment data today at 11.30am.
During the RBA governor Phil Lowe’s appearance in front of the Senate estimates committee, he said the bank’s “central scenario” was seeing the unemployment rate rise to 4.5%, as that would help to lower inflation to 3% in coming years.
The unemployment rate is currently 3.5%. The tight labour market has meant people who struggled to get a job because of age or disability or lack of skills are now finding it easier to find employment (not in all cases, obviously – employers have still not worked out how to work with chronic illnesses, or people who can not work “normal” shifts because of physical or other limitations) but under Lowe’s “central forecast”, Australia’s “full employment” level of unemployment would increase to 4.5%, once again closing off the job market for many.
A certain level of unemployed people is built into the economic infrastructure as a way of lowering inflation.
Under this thinking, Australia’s leaders seem incapable of balancing actual full employment with inflation, meaning some people are always made to suffer.
Officials know this and yet they don’t pay unemployed people above the poverty line, even though by being unemployed, they are essentially taking one for Team Australia.
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Economic inclusion committee a ‘sham’, says Antipoverty Centre
The economic inclusion committee was set up as part of the government’s negotiations with David Pocock to get its IR legislation across the line last year.
The Antipoverty Centre, which is run by people with lived experience of welfare and poverty, says the detail on the committee has only confirmed its fears it is a tick-and-flick exercise that won’t actually help lift people above the poverty line.
Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and DSP recipient Kristin O’Connell said the committee “has no power [and] no people who are economically excluded”:
It has no credibility whatsoever.
No one who claims to value the voices and lives of people in poverty should associate themselves with this sham committee. If you support the exclusion of unemployed people you are contributing to our demonisation.
Any person who thinks the “sustainability” is a crucial question while we endure a welfare system that is killing people is rejecting the humanity of people who can’t afford to live.
We are sick and tired of endless inquiries, reports, consultations and advisory bodies that always reach the same conclusions but are too cowardly to insist on obvious solutions.
The government does not need new information or advice from so-called experts who know nothing about our lives. It knows what’s needed as well as we do: poor people need money.
And that’s why it can’t have the real experts in poverty on its committee – the prime minister needs an excuse to hide behind when he refuses to increase welfare payments to the poverty line in the federal budget.
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Details of the economic inclusion committee revealed
During social services estimates yesterday, the department tabled the details for the economic inclusion committee, which has been set up to review the adequacy of social services payments ahead of each budget. The committee can make recommendations, but the government does not have to take those recommendations up.
According to the tabled document, the committee will consider and provide advice and proposals on:
a) Economic inclusion, including approaches to boost participation through policy settings, systems and structures, in the social security system and other government programs and policies
b) The adequacy, effectiveness and sustainability of income support payments, including options to boost economic inclusion and tackle disadvantage
c) Options to reduce barriers and disincentives to work, including in relation to social security and employment services
d) Options for tailored responses to address barriers to economic inclusion for long-term unemployed and disadvantaged groups, including place-based approaches at the local level
e) The impact of economic inclusion policies on gender equality, including consideration of work being undertaken by the women’s economic equality taskforce
f) The trends of inequality markers in Australia and any other relevant advice
The committee’s report to government should include supporting discussion and analysis. In providing advice on these matters, the committee will have regard to the government’s fiscal strategy, existing policies and the long-term sustainability of the social security system.
The committee’s report to government should include supporting discussion and analysis. In providing advice on these matters, the committee will have regard to the government’s fiscal strategy, existing policies and the long-term sustainability of the social security system.
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Where the parties stand
So the Greens are pushing hard against new coal and gas but have not indicated they are willing to kill off the legislation.
The government is saying it won’t move on that line but it does see some wriggle room.
So there is plenty of room left in this one – there is no imminent vote in the Senate, but this can not drag on forever.
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Chris Bowen on what the government is willing to negotiate on:
We’re willing to negotiate on everything that we consider will be in keeping with our government’s approach and our election mandate. Nothing more, nothing less. We went to the people seeking a mandate. That’s what we will implement.
So Chris Bowen’s line here is “we’ll do anything for safeguards, but we won’t do that”.
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‘We will get things done’
Chris Bowen is taking a conciliatory tone in this interview.
Asked if Labor is willing to see the legislation fall over, if it won’t meet the Greens’ “no new coal, no new gas” line, Bowen says:
Well, I don’t believe it’ll get to that point.
I welcome Adam’s confirmation this morning, in his words that this is an offer, not an ultimatum.
I think that’s the spirit in which they should be approached. That’s the spirit in which it should be dealt with.
And that’s the spirit in which we’ve dealt with everything in the climate change space since last May.
I mean, this is a common situation. I’ve come on this show. And you said to me, Chris, you’re not going to get your climate change bill through because the Liberal side goes too far and the Green side doesn’t go far enough.
And I say we’re a government of adults, mature people working in good faith across the parliament.
We will get things done. Same with our EV tax cut. It didn’t originally have support. Same with our energy bill relief package. It originally didn’t have the numbers. We worked through it.
We get it done …
I would be astounded if the Senate with the numbers that it has … would say no to the biggest emissions reduction, the only chance for big emissions reduction from our big industrial emitters.
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Bowen on breakfast radio
Chris Bowen is about to deliver his message for the day on ABC radio RN Breakfast.
It will all be about the safeguards mechanism. The Greens say their “no new coal or gas projects” isn’t an ultimatum but an offer to the government.
Bowen says:
We won’t be doing that.
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Good morning
A very big thank you to Martin for kicking us off today.
Welcome to parliament Thursday – it’s the last sitting day of this first fortnight and while there is no legislation being passed (the Senate is tied up in estimates) there are all sorts of negotiations going on.
The safeguard mechanism. The national reconstruction fund. The affordable housing fund. It’s all happening.
You’ll have Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp, Josh Butler and Paul Karp to take you though it, with me, Amy Remeikis, on the blog for most of the day.
It’s going to be at least a four-coffee day. I have two running at once.
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
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Plastic pollution
About two-thirds of the rubbish volunteers plucked from the environment last year was plastic, a jump of almost 20% in one year, Australian Associated Press reports.
Clean Up Australia’s national rubbish report for 2022, released today, says 366,144 pieces of rubbish were picked up by the organisation’s volunteers last year. Of those, 63% was plastic of some sort.
That’s up 17% on 2021, driven by a rise in finds of soft plastic, hard plastic and polystyrene.
Soft plastics topped the list at 18%, followed by cigarette butts at 14%. Then came single-use plastic bottles, takeaway food containers, drink cans, and pieces of glass and plastic packaging at 5% to 6% each.
The top 10 were rounded out by chips and lolly bags, bottle caps and lids, and face masks – counted for the first time in this report – at 3%.
Volunteers found about one-third of what they recovered on roadsides and footpaths, one-third in waterways and 20% in parks.
Queensland bushfires rage on
Efforts to contain bushfires in Queensland’s Western Downs have stretched into a fourth day with emergency warnings in place for residents north of the town of Miles, Australian Associated Press reports
Residents of Kowguran and Guluguba were told to prepare to leave last night as a large, fast-moving fire travelled from Welshs Road and L Tree Creek Road towards the Leichhardt Highway.
The Queensland Fire and Emergency Service warned conditions could get worse quickly.
Multiple warnings were also in place for Myall Park and Hookswood.
Toowoomba residents vent anger about crime
Youth crime is a huge issue in Queensland and last night police minister Mark Ryan, youth minister Leanne Linard and the state’s police commissioner Katarina Carroll attended a community forum in Toowoomba’s Armitage Centre to hear the concerns of locals.
A packed audience told harrowing stories about crime levels and called on the ministers and police chief to take action, some admitting that they had considered vigilante action themselves.
Eden Gillespie was there for Guardian Australia and has the full story:
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of what promises to be another lively day in Canberra and beyond. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll bring you some of the main overnight stories before Amy Remeikis takes over.
The big political question question is whether the Greens will back the government’s reform of the safeguard mechanism to help reduce industry emissions. Tanya Plibersek says Greens voters would be shocked if the party goes ahead with its threat to “sabotage” the government’s plan and votes alongside the Coalition to torpedo the scheme. The Greens, who want the government to ditch all coal and gas projects in exchange for their support, say their stance is more an offer than an ultimatum.
We’re setting the news agenda today with an excellent investigation that shows the number of Australians who are fully bulk-billed by their GP has dropped significantly in just three years, with one electorate experiencing a decline of 18%. A former senior federal health official says the data shows that where you live matters but also that bulk-billing practices can be successful.
Australians would be able to opt out of targeted ads, erase their data and sue for serious breaches of privacy, under a proposal to be unveiled today by attorney general Mark Dreyfus. He will argue that our privacy laws have not kept pace with the changes in the digital world and need reform.
And two miners were missing in Queensland after their ute plunged into a huge hole after a “ground collapse”. The accident happened at Dugald River near Mount Isa yesterday. Drones are being used to find the men and we’ll keep you updated with the search effort.
With all that, let’s get going …
