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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Daisy Dumas, Amy Remeikis and Martin Farrer (earlier)

Further details of Labor’s hate speech bill confirmed – as it happened

Peter Dutton
Anthony Albanese during question time at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday.
Anthony Albanese during question time at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Summary

As our live news coverage winds down for the day, here’s a look at what’s been keeping us busy this Wednesday:

Thank you for joining us – we’ll be back bright and early tomorrow morning.

Updated

Labor ‘has one path left’ through the Senate, say Greens

Following Peter Dutton’s remarks at a fossil fuel mining lobbying event today in Canberra, the Albanese government “has one path left” through the Senate to protect the environment, the Greens say.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the Greens’ spokesperson for the environment, said the nature positive bills have been stuck in political limbo between polluters and environmentalists.

Today we heard a diatribe of destruction from Peter Dutton.

Dutton’s demands for more fossil fuels, more pollution and more destruction make the choice for the Albanese government clear: work with the Greens and the crossbench to protect the environment or capitulate to Gina Rinehart and the big polluters.

The Greens are prepared to work with the government for a nature-positive outcome. The ball is in the prime minister’s court.

Updated

Man who ‘flipped the bird’ in question time was not signed in by politician

The mystery man who allegedly “flipped the bird” at politicians in Tuesday’s question time was not signed in by a politician, the Speaker’s office has confirmed.

On Tuesday the independent MP Zali Steggall told parliament a “gentleman in jeans, black T-shirt, overweight and bald” had made the gesture to the chamber. Steggall claimed the man had looked to the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, in support.

A Western Australian One Nation politician posted a video of a man, referred to as “Shane” in a popular Canberra pub on Tuesday night, saying: “I would like to raise a finger to the prime minister of this great nation one more time. So, please put your drinks down and vote Albo 1”.

The man raised both hands and gestured with his raised middle fingers. The video showed others had joined in.

Guardian Australia asked the Speaker’s office whether the man Steggall referred to had been signed in by a politician. A spokesperson for the Speaker’s office said the man was not.

Littleproud told ABC on Tuesday he had only signed one person into Parliament House that day – the Nationals’ Bullwinkel candidate, Mia Davies – and said Steggall was “looking for attention”.

Read more:

Updated

Government’s hate speech bill won’t address ‘rising tide of public homophobia and transphobia’, says Alastair Lawrie

And again on the topic of the hate speech bill, Alastair Lawrie, director of policy and advocacy at the Justice and Equity Centre, said:

We are concerned by reports that the government’s promised hate speech bill will not contain the broad-based civil vilification provisions which are needed by LGBTIQ Australians, people of minority faiths, people with disability and others.

A bill that focuses narrowly on acts and threats of violence would be rarely used in practice, and would not adequately address the serious challenges being experienced by these communities, such as the rising tide of public homophobia and transphobia over the past 18 months.

The Justice and Equity Centre continues to support the expansion of civil vilification protections under commonwealth law, to ensure that, in addition to existing laws on racial vilification, they also cover religious belief, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, and disability at a minimum.

Updated

Rodney Croome calls for incitement to hatred against LGBTIQA people to be prohibited

Continuing on the topic of the hate speech bill, Just Equal spokesperson Rodney Croome has responded:


The government’s plan to amend the criminal code to prohibit incitement to violence against LGBTIQA people needs to occur because we are one of the few groups not already protected.
But with rising hate against our community, especially transgender people, our top priority is to prohibit vilification against LGBTIQA people in the Sex Discrimination Act.

Prohibiting incitement to violence but not incitement to hatred is like curing the symptoms rather than preventing the illness.

Anti-LGBTIQA vilification has already been prohibited in Tasmania, Queensland, the ACT, NT and partially in NSW, so the federal government has no excuses.

Updated

Labor’s hate speech bill will not criminalise vilification

In May the Albanese government promised to create a hate speech bill that would protect people from vilification and hate speech.

The Age has reported, and Guardian Australia has independently confirmed, that the bill will not criminalise vilification, such as inciting hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule.

The bill will in fact set a higher threshold of only criminalising incitement to acts of violence or threats of violence, aligning sexuality and gender with existing protections for race.

Advocates noted that on Tuesday the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said in question time:

The government will be introducing legislation this week to create new criminal offences and strengthen protections against hate crimes. These offences will protect the community, including the LGBTQIA+ community and other targeted groups, from the threat of force or violence and from those who would urge violence against them, which we know is only too real.

This was a distance short of the original commitment.

Updated

Cold fronts moving across Australia to bring lower temperatures over coming days

Temperatures are set to drop across much of Australia as two cold fronts make their way across parts of the country over the next few days, the Bureau of Meteorology has forecast:

Updated

Smoky in Sydney amid hazard-reduction burns in city’s north

The New South Wales Rural Fire Service has warned Sydney residents that smoke from hazard-reduction burns is currently affecting the region.

The smoke is forecast to subside over the course of tomorrow.

Updated

Jacinta Price alleges ‘opportunists’ claiming Indigenous heritage to block resources projects

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has claimed “opportunists” are making “false claims” to membership of Indigenous groups to scuttle resource projects seeking environmental approval, Guardian Australia’s Paul Karp and Karen Middleton write.

The shadow minister for Indigenous Australians made the claim on Wednesday while defending a Coalition plan to designate which Indigenous groups would need to be consulted by project proponents, as revealed by the shadow resources minister, Susan McDonald, at a Minerals Week event.

Read more below:

Updated

Zoe Daniel skeptical of social media ban for children

Thank you, as ever, Amy Remeikis. Let’s get on with the remainder of the news on this Wednesday afternoon.

Social media bans for children are forging ahead at breakneck speed, but not everyone is on board. Speaking with the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, the independent MP Zoe Daniel said the policy developments felt like “the equivalent of announcing a recipe without producing a cake”.

She told the ABC:

I’m not convinced that the systems exist for it to be effective. There are a lot of concerns about potential privacy risks, and also young people don’t want it, and it might be difficult to enforce … I think there are other things that we can do which would be better policy, more effective and less simplistic.

Instead, she suggested that social media companies should be playing a bigger part in the protecting the online safety of children.

If you speak to most experts, they would argue that platforms should be taking responsibility for their systems. They also should be making those systems transparent so that we can [ask] ‘What mitigation factors do you have in place to make sure that harm is prevented?’

If you created a system where the platforms are legislated to do no harm, you might not need to verify age.

Updated

And on that wide-ranging note, I will hand you over to Daisy Dumas who will take you through the evening.

We have one more day of a joint sitting left, and you can feel the house MPs starting to get itchy feet, while their Senate colleagues stare longingly at an exit many won’t get until the end of next week.

With the government looking to push through as much legislation to the Senate as it can before the Senate-only week, Thursday is looking pretty busy.

We will be back with you early on Thursday morning. Until then, as always – take care of you.

Updated

‘Aukus is fundamental’ to Australia’s defence against China threat: Joyce

Barnaby Joyce finished by saying China’s increased engagement with Pacific island countries was aimed at “encirclement” of Australia:

If things turn against us, we’re in a world of strife, because we have one big thing in our pocket – that we have a military agreement with the United States of America.

Joyce questioned whether “the good mums and dads” in the United States would “happily send their family members over to be killed on behalf of Australia” because they “might have other ideas about that”. He said that was why the Aukus deal was so important to Australia:

I call to the Australian people and to all to just understand history. Don’t understand my politics. Disregard me completely. Dislike me as much as you like, but like a history book – really have a good read of that. And as you have a read of that, think of all the things that you cherish about Australia, your particular causes that you want to pursue and want to sustain.

The only way they’ll sustain that is if you have a formidable capacity to defend your nation, and we have a formidable gap to fill* before we have the capacity to do that. And Aukus is fundamental in that process.

*Joyce was a senior member of the nine-year-long Coalition government that first was inclined to pick a Japanese submarine model, before signing a deal with the French, before tearing that up to pursue Aukus in 2021.

Updated

Joyce claims Greta Thunberg supports nuclear energy and says Australia must ‘take the leap’

Let’s bring you some more from that *wide-ranging* speech from Barnaby Joyce.

The Coalition frontbencher told the federation chamber:

We’ve got to get out of this naivety that we are smarter than everywhere else in the world – we’re not. And we’ve got to also take the leap. For goodness sake, if Greta Thunberg can support nuclear energy, then I don’t think it’s a huge leap for us to. I mean, it just stands to reason.

This would be the same Thunberg that Joyce previously teed off at. In a speech in 2022, Joyce criticised Australian school students who were “challenging in the court the government’s right to approve the expansion of coalmines”. Joyce said at that time:

If they are looking to their future maybe they should consider how they will pay for defending it from the most egregious form of aggression that may be forced on them in their lifetime.

Will they stand behind their views when Greta Thunberg’s “blah blah blah” oration fails to defend their rights and liberties?

For the record, Thunberg previously said it would be a “mistake” for Germany to shut down its existing nuclear plants in favour of reopening coal plants, telling a German TV program in October 2022:

I personally think it’s a very bad idea to focus on coal when [nuclear] is already in place.

In 2021, Joyce said he accepted that “humans have an influence on climate” but he refused to say whether he accepted key findings of the IPCC’s latest global summary of climate science, declaring he won’t be “berated” or participate in a “kangaroo court”.

Updated

Question time and Sussan Ley – in pictures

Here is some of how Mike Bowers saw question time, or alternatively, how Mike Bowers captured part of a millennial classic.

Updated

ACT government calls for environment ministers' meeting over bird flu and wildlife

The ACT government has called for a meeting of federal, state and territory environment and agriculture ministers about preparedness for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in Australian wildlife.

The territory’s environment minister, Rebecca Vassarotti, from the ACT Greens, said local ecosystems were at heightened risk through spring due to the arrival of migratory birds and it was not clear if Australia was properly prepared to respond if the disease was introduced.

She said given the catastrophic effects the highly pathogenic strain has had on wildlife globally “we must ensure we are fully prepared to respond”:

I have written to the federal environment and agriculture ministers requesting that the Australian government arrange a joint meeting with all state and territory governments to strengthen and align our preparations for a potential H5N1 avian influenza incursion.

Given the unique nature of H5N1, it is unclear whether or not existing national biosecurity response and funding mechanisms will be triggered, or be adequate to support states and territories to properly respond.

Earlier this week the federal government held a national training exercise to test planned responses if the strain were to arrive on Australian shores and affect native wildlife.

The agriculture minister, Julie Collins, said the government was very concerned about the impact the disease could have on native species and the broader environment and economy.

The situation remains dynamic and we are committed to provide an agile inter-governmental, industry and community response to protect Australian industry, trade and wildlife.

Updated

Barnaby Joyce's emotive speech on democracy, defence and totalitarianism: 'We need to become as powerful as possible'

In a very wide-ranging parliamentary speech, the Coalition frontbencher Barnaby Joyce has warned that “history pulsates in and out” and said a failure to have a defence force would mean “you don’t have to worry about climate change any more … coz you don’t have a nation any more”.

Joyce, the former deputy prime minster and now shadow minister for veterans’ affairs, backed the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine plan during a federation chamber debate today.

During his speech on the naval nuclear regulator legislation, Joyce said that “if you have a desire to protect the liberties and freedoms from everything from gender, sexual preference, environment, everything that we have, then you better be able to defend it”. He contended that totalitarianism was on the rise and democracy was on the wane around Australia:

Democracy is becoming smaller, and we have to understand how history works. If we deny history, we are total – not only are we fools, but we’re also dangerous.

History pulsates in and out, power pulsates in and out, democracy pulsates in and out, and totalitarianism and the rise of one power to subjugate another to take over areas is just the nature of history. It’s the nature of humankind. So we need to become as powerful as possible, as quickly as possible.

It is absolutely indelible in what this nation has to do. We need a defence force, because without a defence force, you don’t have to worry about Indigenous policy, because there will be no Indigenous policy, coz you won’t have a nation. You don’t have to worry about climate change any more. That policy is over coz you don’t have a nation any more. You don’t have to worry about your house coz that no longer exists. Forget about your super – it’s irrelevant. It’s gone.

Most importantly, the freedom for your children is also gone. They will live in a vassal state at the best, as supplicants and subject to an iron boot at worst. Now people say that’s excessive. It’s not – that’s just the history of the world. That’s just how it works, and we have a massive step to take, and we better do it in a big, big hurry.

Updated

Jason Clare defends international student cap

The education minister, Jason Clare, has told reporters he has “nothing but respect” for David Lloyd and hasn’t listened to his National Press Club address yet after the Labor party was accused by the Universities Australia chair of placing the sector at the centre of a national debate for “political rather than policy purposes”.

Lloyd condemned both major parties today over the government’s proposed international student cap, which he said would act as a “sledgehammer” to universities.

Clare said what he was doing with the caps was returning international student numbers for universities back to last year’s numbers.

That’s all. And I’ve made the point on a number of occasions, that as a government we’re committed to returning migration levels in Australia to pre-pandemic levels. Our universities don’t run the migration system in Australia, a government should. This will help us to do that. But also to make sure that we’re managing what is a really important asset for Australia.

Clare said it was his “intent” for the caps to be permanent, adding the soon-to-be-established Australian Tertiary Education Commission would act as a steward to the system.

There are some universities that are educating about the same number of Aussies today as they were a decade ago, but many more international students … International education is important [but] we’ve got to protect its integrity, we’ve got to protect community support for it.

Updated

Fatima Payman opposes government’s proposed social media age limit

Independent senator Fatima Payman has given a Senate speech against the government’s proposed social media age limit

Payman addressed the speech to gen Z and gen Alpha and so said she would be using their slang:

To the sigmas of Australia, I say that this goofy air government have been capping not just now, but for a long time.

A few of you may remember when they said there’ll be no Fanum tax under the government I lead.

They’re capaholics. They’re also yapaholics.

They yap non-stop about how their cost of living measures are changing lives for all Australians – just put the fries in the bag, lil bro!

They tell us that they’re locked in on improving the housing situation in this country. They must have brain rot from watching too much Kai Cenat and forgot about their plans to ban social media for kids under 14.

If that becomes law, you can forgor skull emoji all about watching Duke Dennis or catching a dub with the bros on board.

Chat, is this prime minister serious? Even though he’s the prime minister of Australia, sometimes it feels like he’s the CEO of Ohio.

I would be taking a L if I did not mention the opps who want to cut WA, gas and services, tax. The decision voters will be making in a few months time will be between a mid government, a dog water opposition, or a crossbench that will mock both of them. Though some of you cannot yet vote, I hope when you do it will be in a more goated Australia for a government with more aura.

Skibidi.

If you don’t understand it, it’s probably a sign that you are not the target audience, and maybe should also invest in a retinol.

And even if you don’t understand it, it is still more coherent than a Bob Katter or Barnaby Joyce speech. No cap.

Updated

What did we learn in question time

It was another question time session in search of a landing.

After exhausting non-issues in the last parliament session, the Coalition is back on the economy – but the very particular niche of the government fighting the RBA. The tagline of the questions – why is the Albanese Labor government fighting the Reserve bank while Australian families are going backwards? – might appeal to the press gallery hall monitors, but probably won’t have much sway out in voter land.

And, in the end, the Coalition undermined its own message by giving the example of a couple who are being smashed by interest rates – which, given it was Jim Chalmers saying that interest rates were “smashing the economy” which kicked off this whole thing, seems a strange way to make the opposite point.

The most interesting thing of that question time was Anthony Albanese’s answer to Zali Steggall on the government’s proposed partial gambling ban. It was the strongest defence he has given so far:

Updated

Question time ends

Anthony Albanese then reads out from a handwritten card he received this morning while waiting for Australia’s Paralympic team to arrive home from Paris.

Hi, my name is Rafferty Stevens, but you should call me Raff.

I’m 12 years old, and I play wheelchair basketball and tennis. I’m ranked No 43 in the world for tennis, and I am in the state performance program for wheelchair basketball.

My wish is to represent Australia in wheelchair basketball at the Brisbane 2032 Paralympic Games. Thank you for putting money towards Paralympic sport.

I promise to train hard at tennis and basketball so I reach my goal.

Kind regards,

Rafferty Stevens.

So to Raff and Alicia, your mum, we collectively are very confident that you’ll get there in 2032 and for those Paralympians who arrived home today, that is the sort of inspiration that you have. Your conduct and your performance has changed lives, changed the life of this young man. It’s a great thing.

There is a rousing hear hear from both sides of the chamber.

Updated

Interest rates smashing the economy and the treasurer fighting the RBA

LNP MP Henry Pike asks:

Jess and Russell from Alex Hills have told me ‘our interest rates skyrocketed. We now have to find an additional $500 every week. The government seems indifferent to whether we can put food on our table.’ With falling disposable income and sticky high inflation hurting households, why is the Albanese Labor government fighting the Reserve Bank while Australian families are going backwards?

I think you know what the answer is, but this question just deserves a moment – it is about interest rates, which are set against the RBA’s cash rate, and not set by the government.

So Jess and Russell’s issue is with interest rates. The second part of the question asks why the government is fighting the Reserve Bank, which is a reference to Jim Chalmers having said that interest rates were “smashing the economy”.

So Pike just asked a question about a couple who were being smashed by interest rate rises and then asked the treasurer why the government was fighting the RBA.

Updated

Anika Wells gives update on funding for Paralympic athletes

Sports minister Anika Wells paid tribute to Australia’s Paralympians and then gave a funding update:

The Albanese government’s commitment will shift the balance of sport funding in this country, from 85% able bodied and 15% people with disability, to 75% and 25%.

This is part of a record government spend in sport overall of almost $500 million. Over the next two years.

We also invested an additional $20 million to help our Olympic and Paralympic athletes qualify for Paris and we provided Australia’s para-athletes with the same financial incentives for winning medals at the Paris Games.

As our Olympians, our Paralympian gold medallists received $20,000, our silver medallists received $15,000, and our bronze medallists received $10,000.

Because we recognise high performance sport is exactly that. No matter which body you are performing high performance sport in, from playground to podium, from junior pathways to Paris, from backyards to Brisbane 2032, the Albanese government is backing our Australian athletes here to coach them.

Updated

Federal corruption watchdog looking into allegations against parliamentarians

The National Anti-Corruption Commission is looking into allegations of corrupt conduct against six current or former parliamentarians, new figures show.

The federal integrity body, which opened its doors in July 2023, released its latest weekly figures on Wednesday revealing 26 of the 29 corruption investigations it launched last financial year were still under way.

Among those being investigated are six former or current parliamentarians and three former or current parliamentary staff.

Other top officials being looked at include seven current or former senior executive officials and eight law enforcement officials.

Once a referral is made to the Nacc, it undergoes a preliminary investigation to determine whether there is any potential corruption. If the watchdog determines there is potential corrupt conduct, it can launch a solo or joint investigation into the matter with other relevant agencies.

The Nacc said:

The above categories do not capture all the corruption investigations and some investigations fall under multiple categories, but they provide a flavour of the commission’s activities. In considering them, it is important to remember that most corruption investigations do not ultimately result in a finding of corrupt conduct.

Updated

Anne Aly continues:

The assessment criteria remained broadly similar across all CCF rounds for sustainability funding, but there were some changes in the grant guidelines reflecting lessons learned on reviews of previous grant grant rounds and those lessons and the feedback that we got on those was that the round should be open to applications from priority areas as well as services that had been successful in previous rounds, as well as vulnerable and disadvantaged cohorts.

Now, I appreciate that it can be disappointing for services when they don’t get when they’re not successful in competitive grants.

I can really appreciate that and I can appreciate the difficulty for families and communities, and I can appreciate the way in which we can continue to discuss this, particularly for your electorate as well, for the member for Indi, I’d encourage the member to relay to those services that there is a special circumstances round that they may be eligible to apply for, and encourage them to see whether or not that is a viable option.

Anne Aly questioned on ‘vital childcare services’ closing due to lack of funding

Helen Haines asks the minister for early childhood education, Anne Aly:

Out of school hours and care services at small rural schools across my electorate face imminent closure after sustainability funding was cut. If these services close, parents won’t be able to work in a cost of living crisis. It is clear there is not enough money in the community childcare fund. Will the minister stand by while vital childcare services close due to a lack of government funding?

Aly:

I thank the member for Indi for her question and in the constructive way in which she has engaged in relation to early childhood education in her electorate and indeed on issues on early childhood education right across Australia.

Now the community childcare fund that the member alluded to supports early childhood education and care services to open and to stay open.

And just by way of background, it’s a more than $600 million programme currently supporting around 700 services across Australia, and 85% of those services are in regional and remote areas.

The recently announced CCF, or Community Childcare Fund, round for more than 380 services received offers of Office of Sustainability support to help them remain open and 90 services received offers of capital support.

That’s to help them undertake important modification or expansion of their work. And that includes five services in the member’s electorate that received sustainability funding and two services that received capital funding the CCF round for grant opportunity was a competitive grant.

It’s a competitive grant process run by the department, and decisions are made at arm’s length from the minister. I make no apologies for that. In the interests of transparency, transparency in the interests of accountability and in the interests of integrity, it is important that these competitive grants are run in a way in which selection is based on merit. The guidelines for the grant opportunity were published on Grant connect.

Updated

Deputy opposition leader told to leave chamber under 94A

Andrew Giles takes a dixer and the Coalition starts oohhing and ahhing and Milton Dick has to give a general warning.

The question is:

How is the Albanese Labor government supporting Australians to gain the skills that are in demand while easing cost-of-living pressures? What approach to skills has the government rejected?

Giles is making his way through the question and gets to the compare and contrast part and then Sussan Ley decides to jump up:

I appreciate that this minister hasn’t been on his feet for quite some time, but the question to him from his own side did not invite a compare and contrast, nor did it invite him to consider the policies of the opposition.

Someone makes the quip that Labor is “very sensitive over there”.

But then it seems everyone is so busy congratulating themselves on being the cleverest in the room, they didn’t actually listen to the question.

Tony Burke:

I just raise two things. One, that was a deliberate abuse of a point of order, and two, it was done after you’d given a general warning.

Milton Dick takes the sort of deep breath your divorced friend who has just returned from a three month eat-love-pray sojourn gives when made to face their ex again and says:

The deputy leader of the opposition didn’t hear the question, because in the question it said what approaches were rejected? [Labor starts ooohhhing and ahhhing.]

I don’t need sound effects on my right either. So I’m willing to give everyone a fair go when it comes to points of order, if anyone jumps up but not to be taken advantage of, it’s not appropriate.

It’s not how this parliament is going to work, and it’s not how this parliament has worked. So there’s consequences for actions. The deputy leader will leave the chamber under 94A.

Clare O’Neil says something and Milton Dick goes to pull her up by calling her her old title – the minister for home affairs, before correcting it to housing and homelessness.

Paul Karp hears someone in the opposition say “we can’t tell either”.

Updated

Coalition persists with inflation theme

The Nationals MP for Nicholls, Sam Birrell, asks the next Angus Taylor question (Taylor is still in the chamber, but it looks like the Coalition tactics team wants to share around the love):

Over the last two years Australian households have experienced the largest fall in disposable incomes in the OECD, that is more than the UK, the US, Germany, France, Italy and Canada. With full disposable income and sticky high inflation hurting households, why is the Albanese Labor government fighting the Reserve Bank of Australia as families are going backwards?

I think you know what the answer is. You have heard it a million times today.

Jim Chalmers:

I say respectfully to the honourable member if we agree that Australians are doing it tough, and I think that we do, it is a bit bizarre that those opposite want people to earn less.

They want to get less help with the cost of living and they did want everyone to get a tax cut. They don’t want every household to get energy bill relief and they presided over a decade of deliberate wage stagnation and wage suppression. Those opposite have got to make up their mind, they have to decide whether they agree that people are doing it tough, and we understand that people are doing it especially tough. And they have to decide whether they want to be part of the problem or part of the solution. Part of the problem would be if they swung the axe at Medicare and pensions and all the things that they’re planning in the $350 billion in cuts, that would make things worse rather than better.

Updated

Mehreen Faruqi on international student cap: ‘come back with an education bill, not a migration policy’

The Greens deputy leader and spokesperson for higher education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has backed comments made at the National Press Club by the Universities Australia chair accusing Labor of treating the sector like “political footballs” as a result of the international student cap.

In a Guardian essential poll this week, a majority of respondents (53%) said the Albanese government’s plan to cap international student enrolments in tertiary education at 270,000 in 2025 had got the number “about right”, while (37%) said this was still “too high” and just 10% said it was “too low”.

But Faruqi said Labor’s “hot mess of a policy” was nothing more than a “political game” to win border wars before the election.

Both Albanese and Dutton are singing from the same migration songbook. This time international students are the targets and higher education the collateral damage in their race to the bottom.

The prime minister knows how to backflip - it’s time to backflip on these reckless and illogical caps, go back to the drawing board and come back with an education bill, not a migration policy.

Updated

Albanese: “I do not believe the state has an absolute right to determine the behaviour of individuals across the board.”

Anthony Albanese finishes with:

I think that would have an impact and an intrusion into people’s personal liberties which is not appropriate in my view.

I respect that some people have a different view [but] I do not believe the state has an absolute right to determine the behaviour of individuals across the board.

What I do believe though is we have a responsibility to restrict the damage that harmful advertising can have. I think we need to act and part of what we’re looking at when the ads are available, [that] is a major factor here.

I do not think that there should be advertising aimed at children, there should not be any advertising during children’s programs, I think we need to make sure that adults can be adults but children can be children.

And the connection as well between sport and gambling needs to be broken because sport should be enjoyed for what it is, sport.

That is an important focus of why we are undertaking these consultations.

Updated

Albanese on proposed partial gambling ad ban: ‘an approach which is responsible, that makes a difference’

Zali Steggall gets one of the crossbench questions and asks Anthony Albanese:

To the prime minister. In your previous answer you talked of giving parents peace of mind and protecting children. But you are being selective with which harm you address. Young Australians are being targeted and groomed to highly addictive harmful gambling by constant advertising, are you ignoring the vast majority of Australians calling to fully ban gambling advertising as soon as possible?

Albanese says no and then gives the strongest defence of the government’s proposed partial ban we have heard so far.

I thank the member for her question and the answer is no, we’re not.

My government has done more to act against harmful gambling that any government in Australian history.

More in just two years by undertaking action, we know when we look at where the harmful gambling comes from, almost 70% of that harmful gambling is poker machines. More than around about 15%, the figure at the top of my head, comes from lotteries and lottery tickets as well.

I am yet to see anyone stand up in this place [to] advocate banning completely all advertising of lottery and lottery tickets.

We know that gambling advertising – when it comes to sport, too prevalent – we know that it can be really annoying apart from anything else when you are watching sport and we know that we want to take an approach which is responsible, that makes a difference as well.

That is why we have undertaken serious consultation with everyone from Tim Costello, the antigambling lobby, who don’t want advertising stopped, many of them want gambling stopped.

And that is the truth of their position and that is a legitimate position for them to take but it is not one that I have, in terms of stopping all racing for example, stopping all gambling right across the board.

Updated

RBA governors, past and present

Sussan Ley gets to ask a question:

The ABC’s Jacob Greber has reported a senior Labor figure described RBA governor Michele Bullock as a nutter and the RBA in general as barbarians and weirdos. Has the treasurer spoken to Wayne Swan or Paul Keating in relation to these matters? With falling disposable income and sticky high inflation hurting households, why is the Albanese Labor government fighting the Reserve Bank while Australian families go backwards?

Milton Dick says he thinks the first part of the question is more of an opinion, but he’ll allow it.

Jim Chalmers:

I’m happy to answer all of it.

First of all I have not spoken to those former treasurers for more than a couple of weeks now and I know that those opposite are going around and pretending and getting people to write somehow there has been some [issues] with the comments that former treasurers have made about these matters. I know that they are perfectly fine with former treasurer Howard, former treasurer Costello, former treasurer Frydenberg out there in the public debate but if you’re a former Labor treasurer you have no business being involved in it.

I know that.

I’ve not spoken to either of those two guys in the commentary of their views in at least a couple of weeks. As regards to the other part of the question, the question about the comments reported by Jacob Greber who is out there in the gallery, as of this yesterday or the day before and I said I completely disagree with those comments.

I completely and utterly disagree with the comments that were made to Jacob in this regard, I think I already make that clear and if I have not, I make it clear right now.

I have a respectful working relationship with Governor Bullock and with her colleagues. As Governor Bullock has made it clear on a number of occasions we work well together, we have the same objective, different responsibilities.

Because of our combined efforts we have seen inflation halve since we came into office. That is important, that is the main game. The primary fight against inflation. At the same time as we roll out cost of living help, get the budget in better nick and invest in the Future Made in Australia and in housing and skills, so I don’t agree with those comments, I haven’t discussed them with anyone, but I’ve answered this question before and I’m happy to answer it again.

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‘Sticky high inflation’ and ‘Australian families going backwards’

Angus Taylor takes another run at Jim Chalmers with a variation of the same question we have heard all question time.

This is an old tactic, designed to put a minister under pressure or at least get under their skin. And while it can work, Chalmers has never really succumbed to it – because he’ll happily say the same thing day in and day out, while also slamming Angus Taylor, because that remains one of his favourite pasttimes in the parliament.

Taylor:

Independent economist Chris Richardson says governments are throwing a lot of money at the symptoms of the cost-of-living crisis, but that worsens the cause of it. With falling disposable income and sticky high inflation hurting Australian households, why is this government fighting the Reserve Bank while Australian families are going backwards?

Chalmers:

In terms of people doing it tough, I think it speaks volumes that when the home affairs minister was talking about a $16,000 pay cut, those opposite were chuckling about it. Doesn’t that just go to the core of their approach and the difference between their approach and our approach?

He is told to stick to the question.

Chalmers:

We will do more to acknowledge that people are doing it tough. We are acting on it, helping with the cost of living and getting wages moving again.

We are getting real wages moving again as a consequence of our efforts. Now, if the commentary that the shadow treasurer read out is true now, imagine how much worse it will be if we were still running the huge deficits that we inherited from those opposite?

They were running massive deficits when we came to office and we [changed] two of those huge deficits into two substantial surpluses. And the Reserve Bank governor has made it really clear that those surpluses are helping in the fight against inflation.

And when we came to office, the most recent budget from those opposite had zero savings in it, we found almost $80m in savings and put that in our three budgets. When those opposite were spending almost all of the upward revision to revenue from a stronger labour market and stronger commodity prices, we banked almost all of it, we do that deliberately.

That has been an important part of our fiscal strategy, which has helped us clean up a lot of the mess that we inherited from those opposite, and because of our efforts we are saving tens of billions of dollars in interest repayments, which is also helping the budget, making room for us to provide cost-of-living help and invest in housing and energy and skills, and in A Future Made in Australia, and those are important objectives. When I am asked about government spending, I think we are in the third year now of a three-year parliamentary term.

It is long past time, if those opposite think there is $315bn too much spending in the budget, then it is incumbent on them to come clean on their cuts, and to tell us where those cuts will come from.

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Tony Burke on wages and the labour-hire loophole

Tony Burke takes a dixer on wages, which he can answer as the minister responsible (Murray Watt is in the Senate) and it’s an area he is very comfortable traversing (especially compared with home affairs and immigration, which are his portfolios now).

Burke:

A whole lot of us, when we exercise our right to disconnect on Thursday afternoon, a whole lot of us will fly home.

When [Coalition MPs] fly home are you going to tell the Qantas flight attendants what you are intending to do to their pay?

Because for a long time the labour hire loophole, and it was legal and used by Qantas and other companies, the pay differences were not small. So you have enterprise agreement that had been negotiated and then you could use a labour hire company, on this occasion it was also run by Qantas, and undercut the rates that were agreed to.

Now, for the flight attendants you might be seeing on Thursday afternoon, if they are employed directly, it is $68,500 a year they are on. If they are employed through the labour hire company, through the labour hire loophole, it is $52,000 that is the award rate.

A $16,000 pay cut! It is good enough for them to help you onto the plane, good enough for them to serve you a drink while you are on the plane, it should be good enough to say they won’t get a pay cut, and yet, when you commit to abolishing same job, same pay, you commit to cut people’s pay at the exact time that people are under pressure, the answer is not for people to be paid less.

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Coalition continues attack over inflation and interest rates

Angus Taylor is back to make Jim Chalmers’ day:

Last week the treasurer accused the RBA of smashing the economy. Former RBA board member Warwick McKibbin said ‘for the treasurer to come out and say this is the Reserve Bank’s fault, I don’t think a serious economist in the country would agree with that’.

With falling disposable income and sticky inflation hurting households, why is this government fighting the Reserve Bank while Australian families are going backwards?

Chalmers:

Thank you for the very similar question I answered comprehensively a moment ago. I will repeat ... Let me go through it once again (there is a crack here about the shadow treasurer taking longer to understand things here, but I miss the exact phrase).

First of all, any objective observer of the economy understands the combination of global economic uncertainty persistent inflation and higher interest rates are slowing our economy, in our case quite considerably, that is a point I have been since at least June of this year.

That is the first point. Second point, when it comes to taking responsibility for our part in the fight against inflation, I do, I said that not just earlier today but I have said that on a number of occasions and I mean it.

I take responsibility for the fact that when we came to office and there were differences as far as the eye could see and $1 trillion in Liberal debt, not enough to show for it, that we took important steps to try and clean up the mess that we inherited.

We turned those two big Liberal deficits into Labor surpluses. We found savings, we tried spending restraint because we knew that if we got the budget in better condition, we would help the governor and the Reserve Bank in their fight against inflation, and Governor Bullock has acknowledged we are helping in the fight against inflation.

I make the same point again. I repeat the point that I made earlier – the worst thing any responsible decision-maker in our economy should be contemplating right now is $315 billion in secret cuts. And the reason why they haven’t come clean on that is because it is a recipe for recession. Theirs is a recipe for a recession ….

Taylor has a point of order on relevance, because Chalmers wasn’t asked about alternative policies, “particularly alternative approaches that don’t exist”.

Chalmers returns to his answer, which expands on what he says is the recession risk of a Coalition government.

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Albanese on social media age verification: ‘regulating technologies is difficult’

Anthony Albanese takes the next dixer on the social media age verification policy:

The solutions aren’t simple. That’s why we need to have trials and make sure that we get these things right, regulating technologies is difficult. We’re entering a new frontier but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try. We must. This is a complex problem.

Young people can find ways to get around rules. But just because the occasional young person might get access to alcohol doesn’t mean we say we won’t worry about restricting alcohol to over-18s, we’ll just let it all rip. We actually regulate and we organise as a society, we make decisions about protecting people. And that is what this is about.

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Bob Katter asks a question but, as is tradition, we cannot tell you what it was about.

We can tell you that the crossbench MPs who sit behind him – Allegra Spender, Kylea Tink and Elizabeth Watson-Brown, are now masters at the “holding back the bemused expression while Katter speaks” expression.

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The dixers (questions written by the government tactics team and given to government backbenchers to ask to government ministers) have all been about the social media age verification policy announced yesterday.

Today’s message from the government – it is not about telling parents what to do, but helping them with additional tools.

Hmmmkay.

Milton Dick brings out his Dugald voice to tell the chamber to get it together after a bunch of interjections and Garth Hamilton gets booted for not picking up what Dugald is putting down.

There is far too much noise in the chamber. We’re not having a repeat of yesterday. I’m asking all members to show restraint today to improve the tone of the chamber. To cease interjections. The member for Groom is interjecting through that answer. He will leave the chamber under 94A. There are consequences for actions in this place far too much noise this week. Today things will be quiet.

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Treasurer questioned on inflation and interest rates

Angus Taylor gets the second question (must be trying to get him in before he gets thrown out for interjections).

Last week the treasurer accused the RBA of smashing the economy. BlackRock’s head of Australia fixed income Craig Vardy has said it was because the treasurer ‘needs a diversion from the key part the government is playing by not reining in spending to help bring inflation down’.

With falling disposable income and sticky high inflation hurting households, why is this government fighting the Reserve Bank while Australian families go backwards?

Chalmers seems happy to see Taylor back across from him:

If the shadow treasurer doesn’t think that the combination of global economic uncertainty, persistent inflation and higher interest rates is slowing the economy, it’s no wonder that nobody takes him seriously. Those are facts borne out in the national accounts.

Self-evident by any objective observer of our economy who knows that higher interest rates are slowing our economy.

It’s a point I’ve been making since at least June of this year. Now I’m asked whether I take responsibility for our part in the fight against inflation and I do.

And as the prime minister said a moment ago in the year of our election inflation was 7.8%. And now it’s got a 3 in front of it. Inflation has halved on our watch.

In that regard I do take responsibility for the fact that we’ve turned two huge Liberal deficits into two big Labor surpluses. The fact we have designed our cost of living help to take the edge off some of the price pressures in our economy.

I take responsibility for banking almost all of the upward revision to revenue. I take responsibility of working with my great colleagues in the other place to find almost $80 billion in savings.

I take responsibility for the fact that Governor Bullock has said our two surpluses are helping in the fight against inflation. I’ve made it very clear that we have a role to play in the fight against inflation and that’s one of the reasons why we are making welcome and encouraging progress and because we’re getting inflation down, and because we’re getting wages up, real wages are growing again in our economy after they were falling substantially when we came to office.

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Question time begins

Peter Dutton opens the questions today:

My question is to the prime minister. Core inflation in Australia is higher than every major advanced economy. It is higher than the US, the UK, Canada, the euro area, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and New Zealand, Prime Minister. With falling disposable income and sticky high inflation hurting households, why is the Albanese government fighting the Reserve Bank while Australian families go backwards?

Anthony Albanese:

I’m asked about international comparisons. And I can’t do better than quote Michele Bullock, the RBA governor, who said this on August 6, 2024. “We didn’t go as high as the Fed. Our interest rates are lower I would observe than the Bank of England, the US Fed, Bank of New Zealand, all have interest rates up above 5%. Bank of Canada did too. We don’t”.

Peak headline inflation hit on an annual basis at 7.8% in Australia. That was before we came into government. It is now half. We have halved inflation from where it was in 2022. In the UK, 11.1%. In New Zealand, 7.3%. Canada, 8.1%. The US, 9.9%. The current cash rate here in Australia is 4.35%. In the UK it’s 5%. In New Zealand, it’s 5.25%. And in the US it is 5.5%. The cash rate under the leader of the opposition as assistant treasurer was 6.75%. 6.75%.

Michael Sukkar yells some things (timeless statement).

Albanese:

The member for Deakin thinks it was funny that his leader was once assistant treasurer.

Because the bizarre joke is that those people came in here when inflation was double what it was, what it is today, when we came into office. When employment has seen some 980,000 jobs [added]. When we see wages, wages increasing rather than decreasing. Which is what those opposite wanted to see. When we see the workforce participation rate at record levels. When we see the gender pay gap at a record low of 11.5%. And when we see the economy, of course under us, experiencing modest growth. Modest growth but growth nonetheless. Those opposite, if they had their way and implemented the more than $300 billion of cuts, we would have seen a devastation in our economy had we followed what they want to do.

We are not sure how it is possible, but those three minutes went for about two months.

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Peter Dutton also gives a shout out to … Qantas:

Qantas do an amazing job in bringing back our Paralympians and Olympians and have done so since the end of the second world war and 1968 since the Paralympics.

Seems like there might be a little bit of damage control going on after Bridget McKenzie freelanced on Coalition policy when it came to airlines. (McKenzie called for divestment powers, naming Qantas specifically and saying it might be made to sell off Jetstar, before she was made to walk her own comments back.)

Updated

Question time is delayed while Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton pay credit to Australia’s Paralympian team.

Albanese:

To every member of the Australian team, I simply say you’ve done yourself proud. You’ve done your families proud. But you’ve done our nation proud as well. Australia is so proud of you. Congratulations. And welcome home.

Mehreen Faruqi denounces Israeli airstrikes on al-Mawasi ‘humanitarian zone’

The deputy leader of the Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, began her speech to the Senate with denunciation of the Israeli airstrikes on al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone” in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday:

‘We were all asleep. Then suddenly everything was turned upside down. The colour of the sky changed … the sky was filled with screams, crying and the sound of ambulances.’

That was how an eyewitness described Israel’s latest massacre in Gaza, committed yesterday. There have been just too many. We can’t bear to look, but we should never look away. Families were sheltering in tents in what was supposed to be a safe zone and they were burned alive, buried in the sand. The bombing was so severe it left a deep crater ... and melted bodies. At least 19 people were slaughtered, and the death toll is expected to climb. That is on top of the 41,000 Palestinians already slaughtered.

Dr Elspeth Pitt, a Scottish emergency doctor working at a field hospital run by the British medical humanitarian organisation UK-Med, said the clinic “received 26 patients, mostly women and children” and “had to do several amputations and dealt with shrapnel injuries and burns”, the Guardian has reported.

The Israeli military said it had “struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre embedded inside the humanitarian area in Khan Younis”. Israel has said it is targeting Hamas, not the Palestinian people.

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Deputy Greens leader offers solidarity to Melbourne weapons expo protesters

In a speech to the Senate, the deputy leader of the Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, has offered her solidarity to “the thousands protesting in Melbourne today to say no to the business of war”.

Vision from the scene shows at least one protester being arrested and Victoria police using pepper spray on others at a rally outside the Land Forces exposition at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre this morning, as my colleagues report here.

Faruqi told the Senate:

My solidarity is with the thousands protesting in Melbourne today to say no to the business of war and to say no to Australia being complicit in genocide, because that is where this Labor government has shamefully positioned this country.

Labor tries to distract and deflect, but there is no deflection. So long as we have defence contracts with Israeli weapons companies, the Labor government is complicit in genocide, so long as you refuse to impose sanctions on Israel, this Labor government is complicit in genocide, and there are no excuses for inaction.

The UK has suspended some arms sales to Israel. Canada today is halting more arms sales to Israel. What will it take for the Labor government to take action against the apartheid state of Israel? Your hollow words and pointless phone calls are nothing but a smokescreen, and everyone can see through it. Do something. Take action.

The Australian government has called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza since December and has repeatedly called on Israel to comply with international law, but has so far resisted calls to describe Israel’s conduct as genocide and to impose sanctions against members of the Israeli government.

South Africa has brought a case before the international court of justice accusing Israel of genocide. Israel denies the claim and the ICJ has yet to rule on the substantive accusation, but the court said in an interim ruling in January that “at least some of the rights claimed by South Africa” were “plausible” including “the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts”.

Updated

Would you look at that – it is almost time for question time.

Hold on to your loved ones.

Updated

Susan McDonald attacks Labor’s critical minerals agenda

The love-in that has been the Mineral Council’s conference, also known as the “which major party loves the resources sector more, let us count the ways”, has heard from both major leaders now.

Peter Dutton, however, was not asked about his opposition to the production credits the government has proposed as part of its critical minerals Future Made in Australia policy.

Dutton had called the production credits “welfare for billionaires” but apparently asking Dutton if he would keep them wasn’t a priority of the conference during his appearance.

The LNP senator Susan McDonald did touch on the credits, and it seems the Coalition is still not a fan:

Their entire critical minerals agenda has been focused on the production tax credits, the un-costed, un-mapped and un-delivered production tax credit that is a major plank of the so called Future Made in Australia policy. It is fast becoming a never-to-be-made-in-Australia policy.

Updated

Just on Peter Dutton’s final point there, what he never mentions is the cost of private consultants who come in to do the job when public servants are sacked.

The jobs still have to get done – and when the public servants are not there, consultants are contracted, usually at much higher hourly rates than a public servant, to complete the projects.

Dutton says Australians ‘crying themselves to sleep’, unable to pay for insurance, car costs and school fees

Peter Dutton has labelled Anthony Albanese’s government “a Whitlam-style government” whose policies would deliver “dire consequences” for Australia’s economy if it was given another term in office.

Answering audience questions at the Minerals Council annual conference, Dutton has condemned the government’s industrial relations, tax policies and compliance arrangements as undermining productivity and taking Australia back to the 1970s.

Dutton said Australians were “crying themselves to sleep”, unable to pay insurance policies, car costs and school fees.

That’s the reality of life at the moment and of what has happened in this country in just a very short period of two years.

Dutton queried the growth of the federal public service.

You’ve got to ask yourself: do we need 36,000 more public servants?”

Updated

Dutton says he will ‘turbocharge’ mining and de-fund the Environmental Defender’s Office if he wins office

Peter Dutton has vowed to “turbocharge” the mining industry, saying he will de-fund the Environmental Defender’s Office if he wins office at the next election and overturn Tanya Plibersek’s decision rejecting one aspect of the proposed McPhillamys goldmine project in central-western NSW.

He said he would halve and then cap timeframes for approving resources projects.

I want to see more excavators digging. I want to see more gas flowing and more trucks moving and that requires removing those regulatory roadblocks which have needlessly inhibited projects coming online until years after they should have started.

Dutton said he wanted to mine, export and use more uranium.

He said a Dutton Coalition government would be “the best friend” of Australia’s resources sector.

To support you, to make your industry strong, is to support our country and to make that country strong into the future as well.

Updated

Dutton vows to stand ‘unashamedly’ with resources sector if Coalition wins next election

Peter Dutton has vowed to stand “unashamedly” with Australia’s resources sector if he wins office at the next election, accusing the Albanese government of using cultural heritage protection laws to “stymie” important resource projects.

Addressing the Minerals Council’s annual conference in Canberra on Wednesday, Dutton said he was concerned “the bad old days are returning” under the Albanese government, with industrial law favouring unions and hurting the wealth-creating mining industry.

He accused Labor of making what he called “adversarial policies” to silence internal critics, protect itself against the Greens’ electoral threat and appease unions.

“These three factors - placating the party members, preventing the bleeding of the votes, and pleasing the union bosses - are shaping much of the government’s policy platform,” Dutton said. “So let’s be under no misapprehension that the government is putting partisan interests and political survival ahead of our national interests.”

He said returning Labor at the next election risked the prosperity of the resources sector “and all Australians”.

Updated

There were snakes in the parliament today (I think you can finish the joke yourself).

A Threatened Species day event was held, meaning MPs piled into the courtyard to have photos with animals.

Mike Bowers was there:

Updated

Price cites Barossa gas project as one being affected by Indigeneity claims

Asked which projects are affected by alleged opportunistic claims, Price cited the Barossa project, which sparked a federal court case in which Justice Natalie Charlesworth concluded that the views of three Tiwi traditional owners were not “broadly representative” of the beliefs of Tiwi people who would be affected by the pipeline and concluded that the EDO had engaged in “subtle coaching” of Tiwi Islanders.

Price said:

The problem is that we do know - and this is an issue that is brought up quite regularly, that is of concern to Aboriginal groups - of people claiming to be part of those groups who aren’t. There is an unnatural incredible increase on those who call themselves Indigenous and establish themselves within certain groups ...

We’re hearing the calls from Aboriginal people across the country who are sick of the exploitation and we need to have it sorted out one way or another instead of completely turning a blind eye to it, which is what the Albanese government is doing.

In fact, the Albanese government is already developing a national standard for First Nations engagement as part of its proposed environmental laws, which will clarify for proponents which Indigenous groups need to be consulted.

Asked if the increasing proportion of people identifying as Indigenous needs to be tested, Price responded:

It is an absolute problem. This is why we’ve got to clean up the whole process, clean up these organisations, and focus on supporting marginalised Australians not on the basis of race but on the basis of need. Because of the opportunities that exist there are those that would seek to advantage of those opportunities.

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‘False’ claims of Indigeneity being made to thwart projects, shadow minister for Indigenous Australians says

The shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, has suggested that “false” claims of Indigeneity or membership of an Indigenous group are being made to thwart projects seeking environmental approval.

Asked how the Coalition plan to “designate” which Indigenous groups would be consulted by project proponents, Price told reporters in Canberra:

We’ll be looking at what the structures are that currently exists, that they’re doing their work appropriately so that what we don’t, in fact, get are those who are making false claims to try to bring an end to development projects in those areas. We want to make sure there is less opportunity for opportunists to come along and put an end to projects, particularly when, as we’ve seen, the Environmental Defenders Office exploit Indigenous Australians for the purpose of shutting down projects.

Senator Kerrynne Liddle backed Price on this point, arguing that traditional owners are being “ignored” because they are not members of “organisations that have been built to so-called represent them”.

Updated

For those not watching the US presidential candidate debate (will someone please think of the cats!) Peter Dutton is about to deliver his “let’s be BFFs” speech to the Minerals Council shindig and the chair of Universities Australia, Professor David Lloyd, is about to give the National Press Club address.

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Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission ‘quite simply not as strong as it could or should be’, Kylea Tink says

Following Andrew Wilkie and Helen Haines’ criticism of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission legislation, Kylea Tink also says it does not go far enough:

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission is quite simply not as strong as it could or should be.

We know self-regulation doesn’t work – in any sector. Placing the Privileges Committee in charge of sanctioning MPs found to have significantly breached the standards is like asking arsonists to put out their own fires and means there is no guarantee that disciplinary actions will be impactful.

As with debate around other new integrity measures – including the National Anti-Corruption Commission – we must have a process and consequences that hold people to account and offer an appropriate level of transparency.

Importantly, we must also acknowledge that, as a democracy, we are not breaking new ground here. In fact Australia is behind a number of other parliaments, including the UK, and for this reason I think we should be stepping into this boldly. Australians expect it and it’s time our parliament met those expectations.

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Advocates and MPs to hold press conference soon on Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission amendments

After failing to have proposed amendments for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission passed in the House (most of the amendments were around strengthening the commission and making it more transparent) independent and crossbench MPs are going to try again in the Senate.

A group of advocates and MPs pushing for a commission with more teeth will be holding a press conference on the issue very soon.

Among the attendees are Renee Carr, the executive director of Fair Agenda, Saffron Zomer from the Australian Democracy Network and Andrew Wilkie, Larissa Waters, Kylea Tink, Helen Haines and Zoe Daniel.

Updated

Queensland opposition promises inquiry into ‘horrific system failures’ behind childcare sex offender

Queensland’s LNP opposition has promised a “major independent inquiry” into the police investigation of childcare worker sex offender Ashley Paul Griffith.

Griffith was convicted of 307 sexual offences last week, committed at childcare centres where he worked in Brisbane and Italy between 2004 and 2022.

He was caught after specialist police recognised blankets in child sexual abuse uploaded online. Griffith was twice investigated in 2021 and 2022 by a separate police unit after reports by children. Both times he was cleared.

The LNP promised to direct the Queensland Family and Child Commissioner to conduct an inquiry into what they called the “horrific system failures that allowed one of the most dangerous and heinous self-confessed pedophiles in Australian history to repeatedly offend in Queensland.”

The report would be made public once complete, they said.

Shadow attorney general Tim Nicholls said the Griffith case “raises serious questions about the efficacy of a system that should have kept Queensland children safe”

A monster was able to carry out his heinous crimes within the current system and we must do everything in our power to fix the failures of that system.

This major inquiry will examine what went wrong, how it could have be prevented, and importantly it must rebuild faith in the child protection system.

A police inquiry - which has not been made public - cleared their investigation in 2022. Police minister Mark Ryan has already ordered a second internal review following Griffith’s conviction.

Health minister Shannon Fentiman yesterday said “if there is anything that comes up in that review that requires us to look more broadly, then we will.”

The investigation would commence following the sentencing of Griffith.

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Jason Clare introduces National Student Ombudsman legislation

There was a lot of emotion as Jason Clare announced he would be introducing legislation to establish a National Student Ombudsman. Camille Schloeffel, a survivor advocate and founder of The Stop campaign and founder and director of End Rape on Campus Sharna Bremner are among those who walked a very long road to get to this point and were in Canberra to see the legislation be introduced.

Updated

Independent MP Helen Haines backed fellow independent Andrew Wilkie in his attempt to strengthen the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission, with an amendment calling on the privileges committee to be made to publish why it may not follow recommendations made by the review panel.

It was voted down.

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Shadow resources minister says it is ‘unfortunate’ there was no bipartisan approach to the voice referendum

Answering questions at the Minerals Council’s annual conference, Senator Susan McDonald said it was “unfortunate that there wasn’t an opportunity to have any sort of bipartisan approach” to last year’s voice referendum.

So now we are going back to what we believe, which is that there is local community groups who are acknowledged and recognised, both in legislation [and] reality.”

McDonald referred again to Tanya Plibersek’s decision to reject the proposed location of a tailings dam at the proposed McPhillamys goldmine near Blayney in NSW on the basis of advice from the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation when another group, the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council (OLALC) which initially opposed the development, later changed its position to neutral.

McDonald said formal Indigenous designation was required to assist the mining industry so “they don’t end up with this, you know, frankly horrifying situation where a group in Orange, who are the recognised native title holders, were disregarded”.

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Coalition and Labor senators vote down bill to ban native forest logging

A private member’s bill put forward by former Greens senator Janet Rice to ban native forest logging, has been put up for debate in the Senate – and the Coalition and Labor senators voted it down.

Private member’s bills are at the mercy of the House and Senate in terms of when they come they come up for debate – and if the government isn’t supporting them, then it can take a very, very long time.

Greens senator Nick McKim was scathing in response to the vote:

Labor and the Coalition have turned their backs on Australia’s forests, our wildlife and our future.

Today’s vote – which had the support of crossbenchers Senator Pocock and Senator Payman – shows that the only thing standing in the way of ending native forest logging is the Labor party.

They’re choosing to protect the interests of logging corporations over the environment and the long-term survival of threatened species like the Leadbeater’s possum and the Swift parrot.

The evidence is clear – native forest logging has to end if we are serious about protecting biodiversity and addressing climate change.”

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Shadow resources minister says a Coalition government would designate ‘recognised’ Indigenous communities

Shadow resources minister Susan McDonald has questioned Indigeneity in relation to heritage claims over mining developments and demanded the government designate approved Indigenous groups, singling out a proposed New South Wales goldmine project as impeded by “activist lawfare”.

“Often, keynote speeches include a traditional acknowledgment of the land on which we meet,” McDonald said on Wednesday, in opening remarks to the Minerals Council annual conference which did not include an Indigenous acknowledgement.

“But after the Labor government’s decision on Blayney goldmine, I don’t know anymore how we are supposed to confidently determine who the traditional custodians are.”

McDonald said Indigeneity used to be about how a person defined themselves and “the impacts of that decision were largely confined to themselves”.

“But now, the impacts can be imposed on others,” McDonald said.

“Now, how someone identifies – who they identify with – can now jeopardise an entire gas or mining operation, deprive other Australians of jobs and income, and deprive other Indigenous Australians of their collective say on the future of their communities.”

She said the government must designate “recognised” Indigenous communities and vowed that a Coalition government would do so if it won office

The resources sector cannot be left to guess.”

Updated

The house is rocketing through its morning agenda.

It is a Senate-only week next week, so the government is trying to get through as many bills as it can, to ensure the senate is kept busy.

You can follow along with the business, here.

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RBA chief economist to speak on employment

Sarah Hunter, the Reserve Bank’s chief economist, is giving a speech this morning in Sydney on “Understanding the journey to full employment”.

As the title hints, we’re not there yet, and although the unemployment rate has been rising, it will likely have to go higher – in the RBA’s estimates – before the labour market becomes “consistent with low and stable inflation”.

On the face of it, there’s not a lot new in the speech given that we haven’t had any major stats on employment since July figures landed four weeks ago when the jobless rate ticked higher to 4.2%.

The economy, though, was still generating new jobs at a rapid clip. (We get August numbers on 19 September.) Hunter:

[O]ur current assessment is that the labour market is operating above full employment but has moved towards better balance since late 2022.

The question is whether that movement can continue without another RBA interest rate rise (unlikely but still a chance) or the jobless rate jumping more higher than the 4.4% level that looks to be the RBA’s present maximum over the coming couple of years.

Employers are cutting hours and there are fewer job vacancies, but Australia has also got more people looking for work. Should the participation rate ease back from record levels, for instance, the unemployment rate may hover closer to the 4% rather than, say, rise towards 5%.

No doubt politicians will be watching as closely as the RBA in coming months. Stay tuned for Hunter’s answers to audience questions, which may provide additional insight.

Updated

Further details on proposed student ombudsman and national code

The education minister has provided additional detail on Labor’s legislation to introduce Australia’s first dedicated student ombudsman and national code to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in the higher education sector.

The ombusdman will allow students to escalate complaints about the actions of their higher education providers, operating independently, impartially and with a trauma-informed complaints mechanism. The code will then enforce stricter prevention and responses to gender-based violence across the sector – including student accommodation providers.

The ombudsman will be legislated first, with a new expert unit being established in the Department of Education currently working on the code. The minister for education, Jason Clare, said for too long students hadn’t been heard.

That begins to change with this legislation. I want to thank Sharna Bremner from End Rape on Campus, Camille Schloeffel and the team from the STOP Campaign, Renee Carr from Fair Agenda, Dr Allison Henry and all those who have fought for this.

Updated

New alliance proposes $5bn investment in rooftop solar and thermal improvements

A new alliance, including faith groups, social services, unions, clean industry, regional communities and climate and environment organisations, is launching one of its first major policies today.

Renew Australia for All is working on climate and energy solutions and one of its first priorities is to help people access renewable energy home upgrades, regardless of their living conditions.

The energy bill savings plan calls for an initial $5bn investment, backed by $50bn over a decade, to “repower homes and communities everywhere with rooftop solar, batteries, electric appliances and thermal improvements, so that all Australians reap the benefits”. ACTU president Michele O’Neil, who is part of the alliance, said:

We are a large and diverse coalition united in our knowledge that the best way to cut power bills fast while creating good jobs is to support all Australian households to reap the benefits of having solar panels, batteries, and electric appliances in their own homes.

We need to help all households harness the power of Australia’s abundant sun and wind – not saddle them with the cost of an expensive nuclear fantasy.

Updated

Plibersek tells resources sector she will ‘carefully weigh the evidence’ on mine approvals

Tanya Plibersek has told the resources sector that the government t would “respect and protect” Australia’s cultural heritage because “nobody wants another Juukan Gorge”.

In a speech to the Minerals Council’s annual conference, Plibersek promised the resources sector that the government would always “carefully weigh the evidence” and listen to advice when considering whether to approve mining projects.

In what appeared to a veiled reference to the pushback against her rejection on Indigenous heritage grounds of one aspect of the proposed McPhillamys goldmine project near Blayney in central western New South Wales, Plibersek said the sector would not always agree with her decisions.

There will be times as a minister that l make decisions that you like … But hard decisions are part of this job and l’m not going to shy away from them.

Plibersek rejected the proposed location of a tailings dam within the McPhillamys project, prompting the proponent, Regis Resources, to declare the project unviable.

Addressing the council on Wednesday, Plibersek praised the contribution of the resources sector but emphasised her determination to protect heritage when necessary.

What you will get from me and from this government, though, is a commitment to carefully weigh the evidence, to listen to advice, to apply the law, and a commitment to make approvals that are quicker and easier wherever we can.

She said she had undertaken to consider expeditiously a reapplication with a different location for the tailings dam.

Updated

Queensland government says gender pay gap among public servents is at ‘all-time low’

The Queensland government has claimed success in narrowing the gender pay gap among public servants. The premier, Steven Miles, told parliament this morning that the gender pay gap was at an “all-time low”.

Female Queensland public servants are only paid 5.94% less than their male counterparts, about half the national average, he said. About 70% of the state’s public servants are women.

The pay gap also narrowed for the other “diversity target groups”: Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people with a disability, culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and women in leadership.

Today’s data is proof that what we are doing is working, but there’s always more to do.

Updated

Kylea Tink welcomes ban on insurers discriminating based on genetic testing

The independent MP Kylea Tink has welcomed the news the government is moving to ban insurance companies from having access to genetic data.

You can read more about the decision here:

Tink:

Everybody should have the right to ensure their genetic data isn’t used to discriminate against them.

I have advocated strongly for a full ban on genetic discrimination since I was elected by the North Sydney community. This has included making public calls for reform, submissions to inquiries, meetings with the assistant treasurer and hosting advocates and those with lived experience in parliament to call for this change.

By banning insurers from accessing the results of private genetic tests, Australia is removing a barrier to better health and financial security that simply doesn’t make sense in this day and age.

We now have the ability to predict and treat diseases more effectively, helping Australians live longer and healthier lives yet, up until now, the risk of genetic discrimination by insurers has discouraged many from getting tested.

This ban will finally remove that barrier, ensuring that genetic testing can be used to improve health, and deliver financial security through life insurance, without fear of discrimination.

Updated

Indigenous rangers meet with MPs over plastic pollution

Rangers from the Northern Territory have arrived in Canberra to meet with MPs over plastic pollution along the Arnhem Land coast.

Dhirmurru Rangers said they collected 10 tonnes of plastic in just one cleanup of 5km of coastline.

For visual purposes, that is like finding 60 2L milk bottles every metre.

The rangers want the government to commit to stronger action through the global plastics treaty and join the global ghost gear initiative – a campaign focused around lost and abandoned fishing gear.

The rangers are particularly focused on fishing nets, which tangles marine animals as it drifts. Wanga Mununggurritj, a senior ranger with the Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation, said:

Plastic pollution harms the health of land and sea Country and requires urgent action. We came to Parliament House in Canberra to ask the Australian Government to support Dhimurru Rangers and all other rangers across our communities to help stop plastic pollution including ghost nets to protect Country for the next generation.

Updated

King says WA Liberals and Nationals support Labor minerals tax incentives

The resources minister, Madeleine King, also used her speech to continue the “who loves you more” battle the Labor government is having with the opposition when it comes to the resources sector.

The government put the critical minerals and rare earths industry at the heart of its policymaking through the Future Made in Australia plan. Under that plan, the government committed to [a] $17.6bn critical minerals production tax incentive.

As you know, this measure is being opposed by the Coalition.

[The] shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, was out attacking the policy as “welfare for billionaires” within just a few hours of the budget being released, without checking in with businesses that all had input into designing the Incentives.

The shadow treasurer probably should also have taken a moment to check with his Western Australian colleagues. Alongside Western Australian premier Roger Cook, the Western Australian Liberals and Nationals all support our production tax incentives.

And I note reading The West Australian this week, some federal WA Liberals are also wishing Mr Dutton would change his mind on this.

It remains baffling to me why the Coalition would choose to dismiss industry driven policy for the sake of getting up a soundbite about “welfare for billionaires”. This is no way to run resources policy. Even from opposition.

Updated

Resources minister says ‘we can always do better’ on mine approvals

The resources minister, Madeleine King, delivered her address to the minerals industry people who are in Canberra for Minerals’ week.

King was asked about the approvals process for mines in Australia and said:

There are frustrations at some levels about how long approvals can take. The World Bank puts us fourth on rankings on how we do run our approvals processes. I admit and I have said this in public that we can always do better and seek to do so. It’s a continuous improvement is what I like to say.

Updated

PM calls for police to be respected by protesters

Anthony Albanese was asked about the Melbourne protest on the Seven network earlier this morning:

People have a right to protest peacefully, but you don’t say you’re opposed to defence equipment by throwing things at police. They’ve got a job to do and our police officers should be respected at all times.

Updated

You can read more about the protest in Melbourne here:

Updated

Meta allows deepfake posts to stay up if labelled as AI-generated

David Pocock‘s deepfake videos of the prime minister and opposition leader were allowed to remain on Meta’s platforms because he acknowledged they were deepfakes in the videos, Meta has said.

On Sunday, Pocock released an AI deepfake video of Anthony Albanese announcing a complete ban on gambling advertising, and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, supporting the ban on advertising, in order to show the dangers of deepfakes on politics.

On Wednesday, Pocock pointed out the videos were still up, and Meta’s director of public policy for APAC, Simon Milner, said it was due to how Pocock had framed the video:

Political advertisers are required to disclose if an ad that they post contains certain kinds of photorealistic video or realistic sounding audio, which was digitally created or altered by AI. And we also require people to disclose when they post organic content ... you made it clear to people that these were the altered and therefore that’s why those posts can stay on our platform.

He said four policy people in Australia work on the platform’s handling of elections, and the company was dedicated to working with election authorities and was committed to labelling misleading content.

Updated

David Pocock urges parliament to sit longer to pass anti-AI electoral laws

David Pocock, the independent senator for the ACT, has called for parliament to sit for longer this year if it means it can successfully pass legislation on AI use during elections. Appearing on Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast Full Story, Pocock said:

We make up our own rules … let’s sit longer, let’s add another week or two to dedicate to working through legislation that would enhance and protect our democracy at the upcoming election. If experts are saying we expect to see the use of generative AI, why aren’t we dealing with it?

Last weekend, Senator Pocock pulled a deepfake AI trick, posting apparent videos of Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton agreeing to ban gambling ads.

Listen here to Senator Pocock and interview with Reged Ahmad on why he thinks time is running out to address the threat of election AI deepfakes:

And for more news stories you can subscribe for free to Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast Full Story on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Updated

We Vote for Palestine campaign touts some stats

The We Vote for Palestine campaign – which is targeting local elections – says that a week after launching, it has:

  • 1,500 people have pledged to vote for candidates that will fight for Palestine.

  • 4,000 emails have been sent by constituents to their local candidates requesting they take the WVFP pledge.

  • 130 NSW candidates have taken the pledge so far.

  • WVFP announces plans to open pledges for VIC Candidates late September.

You can read more about the campaign (and others) and the role it could play in coming elections, here:

And a reminder that this Saturday is NSW council election voting day. If you’re not voting early, don’t forget to look for where you can snag a sanger on the day.

Updated

Liberals accuse Meta of bias in AI hearing

Liberal senator James McGrath has questioned Meta executives if the company is biased against the Coalition, alleging Meta has donated $40,000 to the Labor party in the past 20 years but has not donated to the Coalition. McGrath asked whether this demonstrated that Meta was biased against the Coalition in its distribution of news.

Simon Milner, Meta’s director of public policy for APAC, disputed the notion that Meta is a distributor of news and that the company was biased:

Just to be clear, we are not a news distributor. It is not what we do. That’s not what our services do, and also we do not take any political position.

McGrath made the comments in response to what he said were biased responses from Meta’s AI chat bot to questions about the greatest Australian prime ministers, which he said previously only mentioned Labor PMs, but Meta said that response had changed in recent months. McGrath also suggested the bot was giving biased responses when asked about Hamas.

Milner said Meta was working with researchers to improve the responses given, and it showed the need for more data in the AI:

It is incredibly helpful to have a lot of data from Australians in the training models, because that enables us to have output from those models, both in terms of what we produce and what others produce, which reflects the diversity of Australian society, including the range of different political beliefs and positions from across the country.

Updated

Recent ADF or DoD staff will also be prevented from being appointed to lead regulator

A government source familiar with the amendments said:

Since announcing the Aukus pathway, the government has stated that Australia will not be responsible for the storage or disposal of spent nuclear fuel from the US, UK or other countries (that is, the part of the submarine that generates high-level radioactive waste). As responsible nuclear stewards, we will ONLY be responsible for high-level radioactive waste from our own, sovereign nuclear-powered submarines.

To put the matter beyond doubt, the government will move to amend the ANNPS bill to clarify that nothing in the bill is to be taken to authorise the storage or disposal in Australia of spent nuclear fuel that is not from an Australian submarine.

The government will also amend the bill to ensure that anyone who has worked in the Australian Defence Force or the Department of Defence in the previous 12 months cannot be appointed as director general or deputy director general of the new regulator.

Updated

Labor to close Aukus loophole on nuclear waste

The federal government has bowed to pressure and will close a loophole in Aukus-related legislation to make clear that Australia will not accept high-level nuclear waste from the US, the UK or other countries.

Later today, Labor plans to move amendments to its proposed legislation, the Australian naval nuclear power safety bill 2023. The bill covers the way the nuclear-powered submarine program will be regulated and includes the creation of a new statutory agency, the Australian naval nuclear power safety regulator.

The government’s bill for regulating nuclear safety talked about “managing, storing or disposing of radioactive waste from an Aukus submarine”, which it defined broadly as Australian, UK or US submarines.

This prompted concerns from the Greens and other critics that it could pave the way for Australia to store waste from other countries. In May, a Labor-chaired inquiry called for a legislative safeguard to specifically rule out accepting high-level nuclear waste from the US and the UK.

The government will move a series of amendments to its own legislation today to address these concerns. The defence minister, Richard Marles, said the amendments would “reaffirm the government’s already-established commitment that Australia will not be responsible for the storage or disposal of high-level radioactive waste from the US, UK or other countries”.

Updated

Meta can’t say if Australians will get ability to opt-out of Ai data scraping

The parent company of Facebook and Instagram could not say why European users can opt out of having their data scraped by Meta’s AI for training, but Australian users cannot.

Meta has paused its launch of its AI product in Europe due to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy rules and users based in Europe can opt out of Meta’s AI training on their data.

The Labor chair of the inquiry examining AI policy, Tony Sheldon, on Tuesday question Meta executives why it was good enough for European users but not Australians. He said:

I’ll be very frank with you. I’d like to opt out in Australia ... and I’d like to have the options similar to Europe, for all Australians, including for myself personally. Why can’t I have that option?

After being asked whether Australians would get the option, Melinda Claybaugh, Meta’s director of privacy policy, said the Europe offer was “in response to a very specific legal frame” and would not say whether Australians would be able to get similar rights.

Earlier in the hearing, Claybaugh stressed Meta’s model is trained from publicly scraped data from the internet, which in terms of Facebook and Instagram would be posts that users have set to public.

Updated

Speaker to appear before joint committee on civic education and engagement

The speaker of the house, Milton Dick, will appear in front of the joint standing committee on electoral matters this morning.

The committee is looking into “civics education, engagement and participation in Australia”.

Dick, even before he was speaker, had a keen interest in these areas, and he has been trying to bring back some decorum to proceedings like question time, because of how much the rabble can turn people off.

Updated

Student ombudsman law and mandatory national code on fighting gender violence to be introduced

The education minister, Jason Clare, will introduce legislation to parliament today to establish the nation’s first Student Ombudsman and a mandatory National Code for universities to prevent and respond to gender-based violence.

As part of his address, Clare will refer to meetings with women from the STOP campaign, End Rape on Campus and from Fair Agenda who detailed “a confused and inadequate response process within our universities” to gender-based violence:

… a response process where one in two students felt like they weren’t being heard when they made a complaint.

In short, a protracted failure of the higher education sector, and of government, to do anything to properly address a situation summarised so poignantly – and so heartbreakingly – in the words of this student: ‘I’m sick of my friends being assaulted, I’m sick of begging to feel safe, and I’m sick of feeling ignored’. Well, today, we act.

The national student ombudsman will be a new statutory function of the commonwealth ombudsman to handle student complaints on a “broad range” of issues aside from gender-based violence, in cooperation with education departments and the regulator.

Updated

Additional police are reportedly being sent to the Melbourne exhibition centre – where a global military and weapons expo is being held – as anti-war protests continue.

Updated

Peter Dutton will deliver his speech to the minerals’ week crowd at parliament house later today, where he will declare he is the ride or die, BFF, bestie to the mining sector.

Sussan Ley told Sky News, essentially, “no cap”:

We know that we will be, and we are, the best friend that the mining industry in Australia will ever have, and you only had to be in the great hall in this Parliament a couple of nights ago, to listen to Anthony Albanese’s tone deaf speech, not getting the perfect storm that is confronting an industry that has created much of Australia’s wealth, prosperity, national income and jobs right across this country, including Queensland, including the Hunter, including Western Australia.

So we have to get this right. And to see that industry, as I said, facing this perfect storm of policies around industrial relations, energy policies, environmental approvals, red tape. Remember, these are global companies, and they don’t need to invest in Australia. They can choose somewhere else in the world. So, we have to get this right. And I know the government has not got it right.

(Mining companies can not just ‘choose somewhere else in the world’. They go where the minerals and resources they want are. And a lot of those minerals and resources are in Australia.)

Updated

Sussan Ley: anti-arms ‘protesters should get a job’

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s team have released her transcript from her interview this morning on Sky News.

The topics, according to her staff?

Coalition’s paid parental leave changes; mining; Melbourne [protesters] should get a job

The protesters Ley are referring to are those who are protesting in front of the global military and weapons expo happening inside Melbourne’s convention and exhibition centre.

Well, my thoughts are for law enforcement, when confronted with these large numbers and our police and the people who keep us safe are diverted from all of the things they need to be doing to address this sort of nonsense.

These people need to get a job.

They need to actually, it’s like rent a crowd every single time we have one of these protests, I back our defence industries every single day of the week and I know that Australians massively and absolutely do so as well.

Updated

Government promotes recognition of coercive control abuse, especially amongst young people

As reported a bit earlier this morning, the government is releasing new resources to help younger people recognise coercive control.

Coercive control is an abusive behaviour which can create power and dominance over people. It doesn’t have to be physical abuse – it can be anything which leaves someone feeling intimidated and over time, can take away a person’s independence and freedom.

The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, says coercive control “almost always underpins family and domestic violence”:

Understanding and identifying these dynamics is fundamental to an effective response to family and domestic violence.

The new resources include videos and fact sheets for young people entering into relationships to help identify what it can look like, and what someone can do if it happens.

If you or someone you know is affected by family, domestic or sexual violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800RESPECT.org.au.

Updated

HMAS Sydney deploys to support UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea

The HMAS Sydney has begun its latest work in Operation Argos, which has been established to support the United Nations Security Council’s sanctions against North Korea.

HMAS Sydney and its crew will “monitor and deter illegal ship-to-ship transfers of sanction goods in the region,” Defence says.

​Australia has been part of Operation Argos since 2018 and in that time 12 ships have been deployed alongside 13 maritime patrol aircraft.

Vice Admiral Justin Jones, the chief of joint operations, said Australia remained “committed to enforcing United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea until it takes concrete steps towards denuclearisation”:

​Defence regularly deploys ADF assets on Operation Argos to monitor and deter shipments of sanctioned goods, alongside partners including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

These deployments, as part of an international pressure campaign on North Korea to denuclearise, demonstrate Australia’s commitment to the global rules-based order.”

Updated

Queensland Greens push for state-owned mining company

Speaking of the Greens, the Queensland Greens have announced they want to set up a state-owned mining company (it’s not as odd as it sounds).

The party will launch the policy today at state parliament.

A tenatively named Queensland Minerals would exploit some of the estimated half-a-billion dollars worth of critical minerals in the north-west minerals Province, near Mt Isa. The company would mine minerals like zinc, cobalt, copper, lead and gold, all of them necessary for renewable energy development.

Greens MP Michael Berkman said about 86% of the profits of the existing mining sector goes offshore because the industry is owned by “big multinational corporations”.

Instead of squandering the next mining boom sending profits overseas, the Greens want to keep them right here in Queensland.

100% of profits from Queensland Minerals would go back to the people of Queensland, with an extra $14bn to spend on things like hospitals, schools and housing.

The best job for a coalminer is another mining job, which is why we’d give former coal and gas workers priority for jobs at Queensland Minerals.

The governments of several countries, like Norway’s and Chile’s, own their own mining companies. About a third of the world’s resource production is carried out by state-owned firms.

Updated

There is a very big battle between Labor and the Coalition for the state of Western Australia occurring at the moment.

The Liberals see Tagney and the independent-held Curtin as gains, while the WA Nationals are making a play for the new seat of Bulwinkle (which would be a bit historic in its own right, given the Nats haven’t had a federal member since Tony Crook held O’Connor between 2010-2013. The WA Nationals are not in alliance with the WA Liberals)

WA helped Labor to majority government at the last election and is crucial to the plans of both major parties at the next poll. And mining has once again become a hot-button issue, with both the major party leaders claiming they are the greatest friend to WA in Canberra (Peter Dutton will be very explicit about that in his coming speech to the minerals’ council today)

The assistant minister to the prime minister, Patrick Gorman, has written an op-ed in the West Australian newspaper ahead of Dutton’s speech where he takes aim…. at the Greens.

The Greens Party is eroding democracy more than you know. The combination of their “block everything” approach and their dishonest slogans is undermining democracy.

Gone are the environmental campaigners of the 1990s that I remember from growing up in Fremantle. Replacing them is a marketing machine that, like a pyramid scheme, only cares about its own survival. And it is the people who vote for them who get hurt the most.

I have sat in parliament gobsmacked at the Greens’ destructive approach that has defined them this term. They tried to destroy the Housing Australia Future Fund. The Greens led the protection racket for the corruption in the CFMEU. Now the Greens say they will vote to oppose environmental protection australia [legislation].

I am a progressive. Sadly the Greens are now just aggressive

Updated

Anthony Albanese is starting the day in Sydney, where he will greet Australia’s Paralympians who are returning home from Paris.

The official welcome starts at 8.30

Dan Tehan outraged over tattered flag after devastating winds

Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan is continuing to moonlight as Australia’s flag hall monitor.

Canberra, like a lot of NSW and Victoria, was hit by very strong winds recently – strong enough to bring down trees – and the flag above parliament house, which flies 24 hours a day (with a special dispensation to fly at night – it is a whole protocol thing) didn’t do so well.

The staff who look after it only go up when its safe to do so. But Tehan is OUTRAGED (once again – this is a running theme with Tehan) that the flag is not looking pristine.

It’s not the government’s job to look after the flag – it’s the job of apolitical parliament staff. Tehan knows that, but here we are.

Updated

House values spiral amid interest rate and cost of living pressures, data shows

House values dropped in almost 80% of Melbourne suburbs in the past three months, property data shows, with falls also recorded across 30% of suburbs analysed nationally.

The data from CoreLogic analysed values in 3,655 suburbs over the three months until August. The ABS says there are 15,353 suburbs and localities across the country.

In a statement, CoreLogic said it found Melbourne (79.1%) and regional Victorian suburbs (73.8%) made up the majority of falls over the quarter. More than half of the suburbs in Hobart (54.3%), Darwin (51.2%), and Canberra (51.6%) also experienced declining values, while all suburbs analysed in Perth saw values increase.

Kaytlin Ezzy, an economist at CoreLogic, said quarterly value declines were becoming more common as high interest rates and cost of living challenges continued to bite:

While values are still rising at the national level, albeit at a slowing pace, beneath the headline figure, we’re starting to see some weakness, particularly in Victoria.

Ezzy said declines in Melbourne were concentrated in more affluent regions.

The proportion of suburbs in quarterly decline nationally was 29.2% in August, up from 17.2% a year ago.

After Melbourne, Sydney was the Australian city with the largest increase in the proportion of suburbs in decline over the past year, from 3.8% to 25.9%.

Updated

Good morning

A very big thank you to Martin for starting us off on what is going to be a jam packed day – and that’s not even counting the US presidential candidate debate.

You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day – ready? Let’s get into it.

Updated

Experts call for vaping enforcement in wake of uptake study

More on that vaping study we mentioned earlier: Public health experts say the research highlights why the government’s vaping reforms introduced this year now need to be strongly enforced.

Prof Becky Freeman, the study’s supervisor from the University of Sydney, said “when it comes to teenage smoking, up until recently Australia was an international success story. Our Australian teenage ever-smoking rates dropped from 58% in 1996, to 14% in 2023. But recent data has suggested a possible increase in teenage smoking over the same time period that vape use has exploded.”

“Public health experts have warned that teenage vaping uptake has the potential to undo the positive progress Australia has made in reducing smoking. This latest study shows how real that threat is.”

Adjunct Prof Terry Slevin, chief executive of the Public Health Association of Australia, says that while public health experts have welcomed the reforms positive change won’t happen overnight.

“We need to make sure that state and territory governments are harmonising their local legislation and enforcement with the federal reforms. All levels of government will need to work together to protect young people.”

Updated

Caitlin Cassidy has been reading through the speech to be made by Universities Australia chair Prof David Lloyd at the National Press Club today.

In it, he will accuse both sides of parliament of using the tertiary education sector as a “political plaything” in a scathing critique of Labor’s proposed international student cap. Here’s her full story:

Updated

Teenagers who vape are five times more likely to try smoking, study finds

Teenagers who vape are at least five times more likely to go on to try smoking than those who have never vaped, new research has found.

The study published today in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health found an “alarming trend”: the younger a person starts vaping, the higher their risk that they will subsequently try smoking.

The researchers calculated 12-year-olds who had vaped were 29 times more likely to go on to try smoking than those who had never vaped, 13 year olds were over 11 times more likely, and 14 year olds six times more likely. By comparison, 17 year olds were twice as likely to have tried smoking if they had vaped.

The study analysed the answers of 5,114 teenagers aged 14 to 17 who took part in the Generation Vape survey in 2023, recalling information going back to when they were 12 years of age. Using the responses to questions about their age and the order of starting smoking/vaping, the researchers constructed retrospective timelines of initiation events.

“While e-cigarettes may have been initially claimed as a smoking cessation aid for adult smokers, the stark disparities in [rates] for younger adolescents are a sobering reminder of the broader public health consequences of a market that has failed to contain vaping product marketing and access,” the researchers wrote.

They also found the initiation of vaping appeared just as likely to lead to smoking beyond non-experimental levels as to mere initiation of a few puffs.

Lead author Sam Egger from the Daffodil Centre said: “It’s the first Australian study to look at the relationship between teenage vape use and smoking over time, and across different ages.”

Updated

Royal visit to include fleet review, cancer research and meeting with First Nations groups

The Sydney schedule for the king and queen’s visit doesn’t yet include the King Charles III Stakes horse race, scheduled to run at Randwick on the first full day of his visit. The king’s mother was famed for her love of horse racing but her son reportedly didn’t share the same fervour.

But it will include both royals conducting a fleet review of the Royal Australian Navy and an appearance at a “community BBQ celebrating Australia’s cultural diversity and showcasing quality produce from across New South Wales”.

Charles will meet the Australians of the Year, Prof Georgina Long and Prof Richard Scolyer, who will brief him on cancer research. His schedule in Sydney also includes a meeting with First Nations representatives and groups. The exact dates for each of these commitments are yet to be confirmed.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said in a statement:

The royal visit is an opportunity to showcase the best of Australia – our rich culture, our sense of community, and contributions to science, research and global progress.

His Majesty first visited Australia in 1966, and has a strong personal affection for our nation. We are delighted that His Majesty is recovering well and has made visiting Australia once again a priority.

Australians look forward to welcoming the King and Queen back to Australia in October, and highlighting the best of the Australian spirit.

Updated

Royal visit details announced

King Charles and Queen Camilla will hear about the global impacts of the climate crisis, meet political and community leaders and inspect naval ships during their visit to Australia next month.

Buckingham Palace and the Australian government have released details about the royal visit scheduled to run from 18 October to 23 October, with stops in Canberra and Sydney.

Charles and Camilla are expected to be welcomed to Parliament House and attend a reception for political and community leaders. They are also expected to meet Australians who have excelled in the fields of health, arts, culture and sport.

The king and queen are expected to attend the Australian War Memorial and visit the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra, where they will “meet with staff and volunteers to discuss the global impacts of climate change”, according to a summary of the schedule.

Charles will also hear from CSIRO scientists on their work to deal with the impact of bushfires in Australia, while Camila will join a discussion on family and domestic violence.

Updated

Dutton to slash environmental activist powers if elected

Peter Dutton says he will slash the power and influence of environmental groups to challenge mining proposals if he wins government, Australian Associated Press reports.

“A government that I lead will not allow activists to dictate economic policy and to pull the handbrake on our prosperity,” Dutton is expected to say in an address to the Minerals Council of Australia on Wednesday, according to notes distributed to the media in advance.

Dutton will commit to defunding the Environmental Defenders Office and limiting the ability for third parties to challenge decisions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act if he becomes prime minister.

“And we will cut green tape while striking the right balance between our responsibilities to the environment and the economy,” the notes read.

The Environmental Defenders Office, the national body dedicated to protecting climate and communities through running litigation and advocating for law reform, had millions of dollars of federal funding restored by Labor after it was cut in 2013.

Dutton will promise to “turbocharge” the mining sector to help steer the nation through the economic slump and into another boom. “A Dutton coalition government will be the best friend that the mining and resources sector in Australia will ever have,” he will say.

“I want to see more excavators digging, more gas flowing, and more trucks moving.

Updated

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog following all the news and developments from Canberra – but also around the country. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ve got some of the early headlines before Amy Remeikis takes you through the main action.

Our top story this morning highlights the plight of asylum seekers detained on Manus and now stranded in Papua New Guinea who face being made homeless this week because they can’t afford to pay their rent. Asylum seekers have been threatened with eviction if an alleged $110,000 rental arrears debt is not paid, leading to urgent calls for the Australian government to intervene to prevent them becoming “homeless”.

The chair of Universities Australia will accuse both sides of parliament of using the tertiary education sector as a “political plaything” in a scathing critique of Labor’s proposed international student cap. Speaking at the National Press Club today, Prof David Lloyd will call the decision to cap international student enrolments at a maximum of 270,000 the most “extraordinary intervention” by a government into universities since the Morrison government vetoed six Australian Research Council grants in 2021.

Teenagers who vape are at least five times more likely to go on to try smoking than those who have never vaped, new research has found – more on that coming up.

Some of the itinerary for the king and queen’s visit to Sydney and Canberra next month has been revealed; we’ll pop the details in this blog for you.

And Peter Dutton is to give a speech today at Minerals Week in which he will promise to be a “best friend” to the mining industry, get rid of regulation and reduce the ability of environmental groups to challenge projects. He wants “more gas flowing and more trucks moving”.

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