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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Cait Kelly and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Chief medical officer Paul Kelly to retire – as it happened

Australia Beirut Sydney Israel Lebanon Qatar Airways
Chief medical officer Paul Kelly
Retiring chief medical officer Paul Kelly helped guide Australia through the coronavirus pandemic. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Wild weather forecast for southern Queensland and northern NSW

Wild weather is set to hit southern Queensland and northern NSW this week.

The BoM has said damaging winds and thunderstorms are expected from the mid-north coast of NSW to parts of south-east Queensland including Brisbane, Toowoomba and Gympie.

The warning comes as we enter Australia’s peak time for tropical cyclones, severe thunderstorms, flooding, heatwaves and bushfires.

More info here:

Updated

Bodybuilder’s gym death in Perth investigated by WorkSafe

A gym where a bodybuilder was found unconscious after 15 hours under a shower before dying in hospital is being investigated by the work safety watchdog, AAP has reported.

Giuliano Pirone was working out in a Perth 24-hour gym when he collapsed in a shower early on 20 August. His family raised the alarm at 3pm and using a signal from his phone, found him after knocking down the door about 10.30pm.

He never regained consciousness and died at Joondalup hospital about two weeks later.

WorkSafe WA confirmed on Tuesday that it was investigating the incident, including whether the gym breached its duty of care to Pirone.

Doctors believe Pirone’s blood sugar levels became extremely low and his blood pressure dropped, potentially triggering a seizure, his family previously told ABC Radio.

Updated

Concerns for missing Margaret River couple

Western Australia police have issued a statement about missing couple Ena Melville, 62, and Douglas Sims, 68 who failed to return home to Margaret River on Sunday.

Ena and Douglas are travelling in a grey Toyota Prado towing a camper trailer – registration 1GCR364 – and were last heard from on Monday 30 September 2024, when they were in the Warburton area, police said.

The couple have not made contact with family since and concerns are held for their welfare.

The Warburton area recently experienced heavy rainfall with some road closures still in place.

Ena is described as slim build, shoulder length grey/blonde hair with blue eyes.

Douglas is described as medium build with short grey hair and beard, and blue eyes.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police immediately on 131 444.

Updated

The parliament is beginning to wind down so we will hand you over to Cait Kelly to take you through the evening and some of the other news which has been happening today.

We will be back bright and early with politics live tomorrow – where we will get treated to a brunch QT (the PM is off to Asean) and then who knows what. There are 13 sitting days left this year and only 11 of those are a joint sitting (the House will sit alone while estimates is on in the first week of November) so everyone is turning the political dials up to 11.

Until tomorrow – take care of you.

Updated

The next two evacuation flights from Beirut are due to leave tonight

Updated

Peter Dutton jumps on TikTok trend

Checking in on Peter Dutton’s (official) TikTok, the opposition leader now has 9,982 followers.

What is bringing the masses rushing in?

Well he has jumped on the “three things” trend – in his case, the three things you won’t see in the media.

One is his dog, Ralph.

Another is his CRF250F dirt bike, which he rides around his multimillion-dollar 68-hectare hobby farm

And the third is a photo of him and his grandmother when he was sworn in as a police officer.

You can find his account, here

Updated

Chief medical officer Paul Kelly to retire

Chief medical officer, Professor Paul Kelly, who helped guide the nation through the start of the Covid pandemic, has announced he is retiring.

The health minister, Mark Butler, said:

His expertise, leadership and advice helped Australia successfully navigate the Covid-19 pandemic – the country’s largest public health response in over 100 years.

Professor Kelly’s constant presence, technical expertise, and clear communication provided reassurance to the public and critical advice to governments at a time of extreme uncertainty.

He has also been instrumental in the establishment of the interim Australian CDC, which will better prepare our country for future health threats and leading the development of Australia’s first National Health and Climate Strategy.

It has been a pleasure to work with Professor Kelly over the past three years, and I wish him all the best.

Professor Kelly’s last day in the department will be 21 October 2024. Arrangements to fill the roles of CMO and head of the interim Australian CDC will be confirmed in due course.

Updated

Queensland opposition leader insists ‘there won’t be changes’ to abortion laws under LNP

Meanwhile, in Cairns, the LNP leader was pressed on abortion for the second day in a row.

Two of his MPs, Tony Perrett and Kon Krause, have told community groups they continue to support a return to a ban on the health procedure.

Opposition leader David Crisafulli again refused to rule out allowing a conscience vote on the issue.

That is not part of our plan, and there won’t be changes. And that is as definitive as you will find, that is a definitive answer for you. It’s not part of our plan. We’ve outlined what our plan is. There will be no changes,” he said, in response to repeated questions.

Most members of the party voted against the legalisation of abortion in 2018 including him, and a former LNP MP yesterday raised the possibility that they might choose to do so again if a minor party introduced a bill to reverse it.

Crisafulli said “there will be no change” 12 times yesterday, and used similar language today.

I’m telling you today that there will be no change. I’m being upfront with you and telling you there will be no change. That is as definitive as I can be,” he said.

Updated

Steven Miles slams LNP’s ‘reset’ policy for ‘wayward’ youths

Queensland Labor has likened the LNP’s policy of “reset” programs for “wayward” youths to the party’s “failed” decade-old bootcamps policy. The LNP announced its latest policy earlier today.

Premier Steven Miles said:

So the LNP re-announced boot camps today, they were the failed policy that they introduced in 2012 and if they don’t want to keep being compared to the government in 2012 they should stop looking like the government from 2012.

Everyone should go back and look at what the audit report said about Jarrod Bleijie’s boot camps, and what a great failure they were.

Bleijie brought in the policy while premier Campbell Newman’s attorney general. They were scrapped under Labor after an audit report found they cost more but performed no better than traditional detention.

“They failed last time. They’ll fail again,’ Miles said. “This is all about their continuing crusade to exploit victims of crime for political benefit. That’s what they’ve themselves described it as they put this political strategy in the Queensland Police Union journal.”

Updated

Here is some of how Mike Bowers saw the last couple of hours play out:

Updated

Opposition health minister says PM needs to apologise to Tourette community

The shadow health minister Anne Ruston says Anthony Albanese needs to apologise to the Tourette community after his question time performance:

Updated

Here is some of what happened in the Senate today during question time:

Updated

Question time to be held at 10am on Wednesday

Tomorrow, question time will be held at 10am, because Anthony Albanese is headed to the Asean summit in Asia.

Aren’t we lucky? It’s a rare morning QT.

It should come with mimosas.

Updated

Question time ends.

Peter Dutton moves the motion he wanted the House to support this morning when it commemorated the 7 October attacks.

It does not have any mention of the civilian deaths in Palestine.

Updated

PM confronts opposition over vow to hold another referendum

Paul Fletcher asks:

Next week marks the one-year anniversary of the failed voice referendum where over 60% of Australians rejected the prime minister’s $450m effort to divide our country during a cost-of-living crisis. Is the prime minister still committed to Makarrata?

Anthony Albanese:

Of course, he would remember the voice referendum, because he held two forums in his electorate. He held a forum for yes people and a forum for no people. Did both during that referendum. And I note ... that it wasn’t yes and no together on engagement – it was two separate voices, two separate messages to two separate constituencies.

Because he’s worried about what’s going on up there in that corner. And he should be. And he should be Mr Speaker. (Albanese gestures to Peter Dutton.)

I’ll take the interjection from the leader of the opposition where he speaks about straight answers. He promised during the referendum campaign to have another referendum. That is what he promised to do. He said if you [vote] no, you will get another referendum and an opportunity to vote for recognition in Australia’s constitution. Now, the question for him and the question for the member for Bradfield is – is that still their position?

Updated

Sophie Scamps asks Plibersek about $26bn government spend on ‘harming biodiversity’ every year

The independent MP Sophie Scamps asks Tanya Plibersek:

This week, Australia is hosting the world’s first ever Global Nature Positive summit focusing on private investment in nature repair. Meanwhile, research from the Biodiversity Council shows the government continues to spend $26 billion every year on harming biodiversity. How can we hope to be nature positive in this country when the government continues to invest in being nature negative, and shouldn’t we first stop subsidising nature negative activities like native forest logging?

Plibersek:

I thank the member for her question. She is a diligent, thoughtful advocate for the environment, and I know her constituents thank her for that.

… Today, we announced that the Albanese government is now the global leader in ocean protection. We protect more of our marine environment than any other country on earth. We’ve added the Herd Island and McDonald Island expansion of the marine parks to the areas that we protect.

So today, we announced an additional 310,000 square kilometres will be protected by the Albanese Labor government.

That’s an area the size of Italy.

It is the largest addition to conservation anywhere in the world this year. And it comes on top of last year’s expansion of the Macquarie Island Marine Park, which was the largest addition to conservation anywhere on the globe last year – two years running we have been global leaders in conservation.

I think that’s something to be pretty proud of. And I can tell you that the delegates at this conference are so impressed by the fact that we’ve already passed our first tranche of environmental laws with a stronger water trigger.

That we are hoping to set up Australia’s first environment protection agency, if we can manage to get the Greens and the crossbench, or the Liberals and the Nationals to vote for it in the Senate. We were just one vote away from it.

We’ve doubled funding for the national parks. We’ve kept the Great Barrier Reef off the endangered listing. We’ve started the work to get Cape York on to the World Heritage List. And so much more, Mr Speaker. Australia has a right to be very proud.

Updated

Plibersek: Littleproud ‘never looked at the information from traditional owners’ relating to rejected dam

Tanya Plibersek continues:

I made a decision that a mining company can’t build a tailings dam on the head and springs of the river because it is culturally significant to First Nations people in the area.

I’d remind the leader of the Nationals that I haven’t blocked the mine. I’ve blocked the building of the tailings dam. The company themselves have said that they have investigated alternative sites for the tailings dam.

I have protected 16% of the 2,500 hectares of the site that the company owns.

I’d also note that both the chair and the CEO have bought extra shares in the company since I made my decision.

And that the share value of the company substantially increased after I made my decision.

The only thing that I would leave those opposite with is – they’ve said that they would approve this project without ever … yep says the Leader of The Nationals. He’s never looked at the information from traditional owners.

He hasn’t read a page of the 2,500 pages of documents I have examined.

He hasn’t received any information from any experts. That’s how we got robodebt. That’s how we got sports rorts. That’s how we got car park rorts. It’s picking friends and picking winners without any evidence, without any examination of the facts.

Updated

Plibersek ‘confident that I made the right decision’ in rejecting goldmine tailings dam

David Littleproud is allowed a question and the Nationals leader uses it to ask:

It’s now more than a month since Regis Resources said that the McPhillamys goldmine was no longer viable due to the minister’s section 10.

Last month, the minister promised in question time, ‘I made it clear to the company that they’ll get a statement of reasons.’ Has the minister provided a statement of reasons to Regis? If not, what is the government hiding?

(Tanya Plibersek rejected the location of a tailings dam, not the mine itself.)

Plibersek:

I’m very confident that I made the right decision. I’ve just finalised looking at the statement of reasons. It should be with the company very shortly. This week, certainly.

It’s interesting that the deputy leader of the Liberals [Sussan Ley] should be interjecting. I made the decision based on advice from the same group that she made a decision based on in Bathurst. The same group of people. For the same reasons under the same …

(Ley is interjecting here and is told to shut it by the speaker).

Updated

Before Anthony Albanese answered that question, Labor MP Libby Coker was booted for being rowdy.

PM urges Greens to vote for help to buy as Chandler-Mather says Greens are ‘ready to negotiate’ on housing

Max Chandler Mather is on his feet:

The Greens will work with Labor to cap rents, phase out negative gearing and invest the savings in a mass build of public housing. We don’t expect to get everything. We are ready to negotiate. But you have offered nothing.

For the sake of the single mums, who are one rent increase away from eviction, the families sleeping in their cars, the renters locked out of home ownership by negative gearing and the capital gains discount – will you work with the Greens to negotiate a plan to help the millions of people your Government is leaving behind?

Albanese uses a lower, flatter pitch (the ‘being very serious’ voice) to answer this one:

I’ll make three points to the member for Griffiths. The first is that we won’t be doing measures which aren’t part of our policy.

And in the case of help to buy, all we’re asking for is the Greens political party to vote for something that was their policy.

That’s the first point that I would make. Secondly is that some of the proposals that he just went through, the shopping list, including the idea that the commonwealth is in a position to freeze rents – he knows, I know, and everyone in this chamber knows, simply can’t be done. It’s not within the commonwealth’s power.

He knows that that is the case and he’s being disingenuous when he puts that forward.

Thirdly, there’s legislation before the parliament at the moment before the Senate, help to buy. Vote for it. Vote for more homes. And it goes through. There are enough crossbench votes to ensure that it happens.

I think that the Liberal party and the National party should vote for it as well. It’s beyond my comprehension why any political party would intervene to support blocking 40,000 people from home ownership.

Updated

PM withdraws comment after asking Angus Taylor ‘Have you got Tourette’s?’

Anthony Albanese then gets to:

We have all of our tax policies out there, and all of the ones that they want to talk about are things that we are not doing. We’re talking about what we are doing. Some of which they are blocking over in the other chamber, including whether it is housing policy, or whether it is tax policy.

This nonsense that they carry on with …

…. Have you got Tourette’s or something? You know you just sit there, babble, babble, babble.

(This is directed to Angus Taylor who was yelling ‘rule it out, rule it out’. Albanese seems to regret having made the comment almost as soon as it was out of his mouth)

I withdraw Mr Speaker. I withdraw. I withdraw. I withdraw and apologise.

They sit there, they sit there and interject non-stop. We regard, as does every Australian, the family home as sacred.

Updated

PM says ‘delusional’ Coalition thinks Labor is ‘going after the family home’

Anthony Albanese continues:

I’m asked in this ever growing list of fishing expeditions, and it should perhaps go to the minister for agriculture and fisheries, this question, I think, Mr Speaker.

So I might ask Ms [Julie] Collins to add to this answer.

Albanese seems to think this hilarious.

Albanese:

I’m actually asked about a new element now. Apparently now we’re going after the family home …

According to them, we’re going to go in and there will be a knock on the door, “Here we are, we’re the government, we’re here to take your home from you, we’re going to nationalise the home.”

The only political party that I’ve seen talking about mass nationalisation is those opposite who want to nationalise the energy network and then they want to intervene in the market to nationalise the supermarkets.

Angus Taylor has a point of order. Albanese is told to get back to the question.

Albanese:

He’s delusional, because he speaks about a secret plan. If it’s secret, why are they asking about it?

Just seems to me that there’s a gap there.

Albanese also seems to think this is hilarious, so apparently being delulu is contagious.

Updated

While that was happening in the Senate, Angus Taylor asks Anthony Albanese:

Does the prime minister rule out any changes to the tax treatment of the owner occupied family home, and to negative gearing?

Peter Dutton and Jim Chalmers start yelling at each other.

Albanese says:

I’ll wait for the anger and arrogance to subside.

He then clarifies: “From those opposite. From those opposite.”

Updated

Wong: ‘Sum total of the Greens’ capacity to change politics is to hold up a poster in question time’

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, spoke shortly after the Greens held up their sanctions posters in question time, criticising the party for its stunt.

Wong said:

That is the sum total of the Greens’ capacity to change politics, is to hold up a poster in question time … You think the end point of politics is to hold up a sign after you’ve told the photographers to come? Really? That is the most progressive politics, is it? You hold up a sign after you’ve told the photographers to come?

Updated

Greens protest Albanese government’s Gaza response in Senate

Over in Senate question time, the Greens have pulled out placards reading “sanctions now” after criticising the Albanese government’s response to the conflict in Gaza.

The Greens senator, Mehreen Faruqi, was asking the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, about the government’s response when her former colleague, Lidia Thorpe, suddenly walked into the chamber chanting “shame on you” and that those in the chamber were “complicit in genocide”.

The Senate president, Sue Lines, instructed Thorpe to take her seat and be quiet or leave. Thorpe chose to leave the chamber.

Faruqi continued with her supplementary questions, asking: “The ICJ has made clear that Israel’s occupation of Palestine is unlawful. Will you sanction Israel for its illegal actions and occupation?”

All 10 Greens senators simultaneously pulled out “sanctions now” posters. Lines ordered the senators to put away the slogans.

Lines said:

That was a disgraceful display, which every single senator who raised the placard knows is a contravention of the standing orders … Senator Faruqi, you are not in a debate with me. You either remain orderly in this chamber or you leave.

Faruqi chose to leave.

The Coalition’s senators looked up to the press gallery’s seats, smiling, to see who was watching.

The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, shouted toward the crossbench “you got the photo you wanted, well done”.

Updated

Chalmers says changes to negative gearing and capital gains discount are not Labor policy

Jim Chalmers addresses the question here:

I’ve been asked this question a number of times in the course of the last week or two and I’m happy to answer it again. I do get advice from time to time on contentious issues from my department, and that shouldn’t be seen as unusual.

Those opposite did it, too, Mr Speaker. They were looking at jacking up the GST and changing negative gearing, when they were in office.

We have made it really clear this our policy is not to knock off negative gearing or the capital gains discount. That’s because unlike those opposite we are focused exclusively on building more homes. We are focused on housing supply.

As the prime minister has said and as I have said, and others, we are not convinced that ditching those tax breaks would build more homes, and we want to build more homes in our communities. We have a housing policy and that’s not part of it. We have tax policies and that’s not one of them.

Updated

Sukkar booted from question time once more after interjecting

Michael Sukkar has been quiet, which is how you know he has a question.

He asks it:

In 2017 the treasurer said, ‘Any housing policy that doesn’t have changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax is just a shocker’.

On what basis has the treasurer directed his department to work on a secret new housing tax?

Jim Chalmers:

Thanks very much for the question from the shadow housing minister, who doesn’t want Australia to build any more homes.

Sukkar interjects and gets booted. His lead as most booted MP in this parliament is all but untouchable at this point.

Updated

PM invokes Liberal preferencing of One Nation after Dutton’s question on Greens

Peter Dutton is back on his feet – this is the most questions we have seen him ask in some time.

Will the prime minister take a principled [stance] and rule out giving preferences to the racist and antisemitic Greens political party at the next election?

Anthony Albanese:

When I came into this House in 1996 there was a fairly famous redhead who was elected and used to sit in that corner, because at that time Pauline Hanson was disendorsed by the Liberal party, disendorsed.

I don’t know what the voting record is in the Senate there, but as much as we talk about legislation, we put her automatically in the column of the LNP.

An LNP that has said very clearly in the election that’s under way at the moment in Queensland, the LNP are saying very clearly that they’ll give preferences to the LNP, give preferences to One Nation. To One Nation. That is what they are saying.

If they’re worried about preferences to the Greens and the Greens being elected to parliament, the only reason why there are Greens in the Queensland parliament, the only reason, is because the Queensland LNP put them there with their preferences.

(The LNP preferenced the Greens over former Queensland Labor deputy premier Jackie Trad, which is what helped get Amy McMahon over the line in West End.)

Updated

PM takes aim at Liberals and Greens in answer to question on help to buy scheme

The government questions are all on the housing legislation which is stalled in the Senate.

Anthony Albanese takes one on the help to buy legislation so he can say:

It’s a pretty simple scheme and it’s one that’s worked around the world. It’s worked in the UK, it’s worked in New Zealand, it’s worked in WA for decades. That’s why the clue is in the title: help to buy.

The Liberals, of course, never want to help and the Greens don’t want people to buy.

They’re against home ownership, so perhaps it’s understanding of why this has occurred.

But Australia’s housing crisis, of course, didn’t happen overnight.

The former government didn’t bother to have a housing minister the entire time that they were in office.

They just didn’t bother and their solution today is much the same. Stand in the way, block help, playing politics instead of progress.

Of course, the Greens political party have blocked more homes than they’ve ever built.

Updated

Zoe Daniel asks PM why he has ‘engaged with those who profit from gambling’ but not its victims

Independent MP Zoe Daniel stands and gestures to the question time public gallery while asking Anthony Albanese:

In the gallery today we have several people who have tried to meet with you and your ministers to tell you how gambling addiction has ruined their lives. They say gambling ads constantly triggered them to gamble and they’re asking you to stop all ads a to stop the normalisation. Why have you engaged with those who profit from gambling and not to these people and what and do you have to say to them as they hit here today?

Albanese:

I was with the member for Goldstein last night, so she’s fully aware of where I’ve been and fully aware of where I’ve been with today. So I reject the assertion that I won’t meet with people. The last person I met with on this issue was Tim Costello, 10 days ago.

Updated

Clare O’Neil uses the term “Noalition” in a dixer answer and is made to withdraw it after objections.

It has become Labor’s term for the coalition, but it has also now been deployed to include the Greens and the Coalition whenever they team up to frustrate government legislation.

Updated

Anthony Albanese continues:

In the lead-up to the local government elections in the Inner West council in my local area, I was extraordinarily critical of the actions of Greens councillors and their supporters in being a part of a campaign including a counterproductive campaign outside my electorate office but also in council meetings, where a council meeting had to be abandoned because of the disruption that had occurred.

The Inner West council has a lot of things to do. It looks after rubbish, it looks after roads, it looks after housing, it looks after the local community.

It is not a player in the conflict in the Middle East.

One of the things that I’ve been critical of is the attempt to argue that Australia cannot have a major role compared with a country like the United States in what occurs in the Middle East. But we can make a decision that we won’t bring conflict here.

We do have a role in that. And I’d say that people, if they are holding office in federal or state parliament or in local government need to, whatever political party they represent, bear in mind the [words] of Mike Burgess, the director of Asio, about the responsibility we have to take the heat down, the temperature down, in this country, rather than to lift it up.

Whichever political party is engaged in that, I would urge for everyone in this chamber and indeed everyone who holds a role in public life to bear that warning and caution of director general Burgess in mind.

Updated

Anthony Albanese takes a beat before answering and then says:

I reiterate this point. That there have been moments of antisemitism and racism in some of the responses that we have seen in the political debate taking place here in Australia. I have been critical of the stance that the Greens political party have made, but I make this point as well.

Many people, in the Greens political party like in other parties, the Liberal party, Labor party as well as independents, are people of goodwill who join political parties because they think that is the vehicle for them to make the change that they want.

… I would always be a member of a political party that’s a party of government rather than a party of protest. But I wouldn’t want to suggest that every member in my electorate or in other places as well has engaged in that.

He’s speaking in the lower, flat octave he uses when he is carefully choosing his words.

Updated

Dutton asks PM whether he views Greens’ stance as racist and antisemitic

Peter Dutton then asks:

Does the prime minister agree the Australian Greens have been racist and antisemitic in the stance they’ve adopted since October 2023?

Milton Dick says that is asking for an opinion and asks for the question to be re-worded.

Dutton does so:

I refer to previous statements of the prime minister where he’s been critical of the Greens political party and their stance which has been racist and antisemitic that has been adopted since 7 October 2023. Does the prime minister still have that view?

That question is allowed under the standing orders, but as a broad question, Dick says it can have a broad answer.

Updated

PM says 1,215 Australians, permanent residents and family have departed Lebanon

The first dixer is on the evacuation flights out of Lebanon.

Anthony Albanese says:

I can report that as of 8 October, a total of 1,215 Australians, permanent residents and their immediate family members have been assisted by the government to depart Lebanon. This includes six Australian government flights, two on Saturday, 5 October, carrying 407 passengers, two on the 6th, carrying 448 passengers and two on the 7th carrying 311 passengers.

There are 3,892 Australians and their immediate family members registered to depart. Vulnerable and displaced people are being prioritised and we know that hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon have been displaced. The scenes of families reuniting at Australian airports has been so moving and I’m pleased that the member for Watson, the minister for home affairs, was able to greet many of the Australian citizens when they arrived here in Sydney last night.

Albanese said there are two more flights which are scheduled to leave today. He reiterates that if people can leave Lebanon, they should.

Peter Dutton agrees with Albanese’s statement and says:

Please listen to family and loved ones back here, where they are urging you to return back to Australia. It is a precarious time in the Middle East, as we well know, and the Australian government has done a good job in providing clear advice to Australian citizens who are in the region, to take up the offer of the flights, and people should do that without hesitation and, again, I endorse and support the words of the prime minister in providing that encouragement to Australian citizens.

Updated

Question time begins

Milton Dick opens question time with a welcome to the former UK prime minister Liz Truss, who is a guest of Peter Dutton.

We are then into the questions.

Dan Tehan asks:

Was the minister the decision maker in issuing a visa to Khaled Beydoun or was the minister or his office made aware that he had applied for a visa?

Beydoun’s bio on Google reads:

Khaled A. Beydoun is Professor of Law at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. His work examines constitutional law, critical race theory, Islamophobia, and their intersections. He is the author of American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear.

The professor is in the news after comments he made at a rally yesterday in western Sydney. (The Guardian didn’t have a reporter at the rally so cannot report with confidence what the comments were, or their context, which is always important.)

Tony Burke has said he is looking at the comments to see if they breach his visa conditions.

In response to Tehan’s questions, Burke says:

That would have to the to gone to the department. I was not aware of it.

Updated

We are now less than 10 minutes out from the first question time of the week, so take what moments you need.

It has been quite the morning.

Jews Against the Occupation founder: ‘We say “not in our name”’

Vivienne Porzsolt, a founding member of Jews Against the Occupation ’48, told the same press conference:

I’ve been an activist for peace in Palestine for over 30 years. I am a Jew. My parents got out of Czechoslovakia the day the Nazis marched into Prague. And so the whole experience of that Holocaust is burnt into my bones as part of my experience. And I draw from that experience, from the Jewish traditions of humanism and justice …

I and growing numbers of Jews are saying, ‘not in our name’. The State of Israel is committing grave atrocities in our name. And I say to my fellow Jews who continue to see Israel as a guarantee of safety that we need to be aware and remember the words of Hillel, who said, ‘If I am not for myself, who shall be for me?’ And that’s the something we remember quite well, but we don’t remember the other bit: ‘If I’m for myself alone, who am I?’ So I say the state of Israel is committing atrocities in our name, and we say ‘not in our name’.

Updated

Melbourne surgeon speaks of ‘cruel injustice’ and ‘horrific crimes’ she witnessed against Palestinians while in Gaza

Now that the lower house debate over the government’s 7 October-related motion has wrapped up, let’s bring you a few more testimonies from the earlier press conference in the Mural Hall. The speakers included Palestinian Australians.

Dr Bushra Othman, a surgeon from Melbourne, said she recently returned from a three-week volunteer medical initiative with the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association. She told of her time based at al-Aqsa hospital in Gaza:

We travelled to Gaza to provide medical care, but it became clear that our main role was to bear witness to the cruel injustice, to the oppression and the horrific crimes being committed against the Palestinians there.

Othman spoke of a 21-year-old patient who “who died because of severe malnutrition and devastating injuries she suffered from a bomb while walking home”.

Othman said she also thought of a 17-year-old patient “whose right arm has been auto-amputated by shrapnel, and his mangled right leg is on the brink of being amputated, and Israel won’t allow for him to be medically evacuated”. She said:

The people of Gaza are not just headlines. They are not just numbers. They are precious lives. I stand before you today to implore immediate action be taken.

Updated

The video team have put together some of the speeches from that motion:

7 October motion passes house

The house divided and the motion passed, 85 to 54.

Australia’s first Muslim ministers, Ed Husic and Anne Aly, sat together during the motion debate.

Updated

Ley tells Coalition partyroom Labor is ‘flailing’ and says there is ‘very real chance’ of early election

The Coalition partyroom meeting this morning got a bit of an advance taste of Peter Dutton’s response to that 7 October motion, when the opposition leader told his troops of his claims that the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was trying to “walk both sides of the street”.

The opposition caucus met earlier today, with the usual criticisms of the government: Dutton claimed Albanese and Labor were “out of sync” with the public mood, the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, raised concerns about food, energy and housing costs in the cost-of-living crisis; and the deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, claimed Labor was “flailing”.

Ley spoke again of her belief there was a “very real chance of an early election” and urged colleagues to get out and keep campaigning. She claimed voters “can’t say what Albanese stands for”, according to a readout from a caucus spokesperson.

The Coalition will push for numerous bills on the government agenda to go to a committee process, or wait for ongoing committees to report, before they give their verdict on whether to support or oppose: that includes the new aged care bill, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing changes, and the wage increase for early childhood educators.

The party spokesperson reiterated the Coalition’s strong opposition to the misinformation bill, however, calling the amended version “unacceptable” and confirming they would vote against it.

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Pro-Palestine demonstrators gather on Parliament House lawns

Supporters of Palestine have been on the lawns of Parliament House this morning, calling for an end to Israel’s military response in Gaza and criticising the Albanese government for not condemning Israel’s actions strongly enough.

It comes a day after a Christian-organised rally commemorated the 1,200 Israelis attacked and killed in the country’s south by Palestinian militant group, Hamas, and the ensuing Israeli military response on 7 October 2023 in front of parliament.

Israel’s response to those attacks has so far killed more than 40,000 in Gaza, according to authorities.

The rally heard from a number of activists and advocates, including school teachers, lawyers and community leaders.

The Greens senator David Shoebridge and independent Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe also spoke to the crowd of a few hundred.

Thorpe, wearing a black keffiyeh, said First Nations people were survivors of genocide and “that’s why we stand with Palestinians and Lebanon, because we know what genocide looks like”.

“We are the survivors of genocide, and we will stand with you every minute of every day, and we will hold this government to account.”

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Greens abstaining from motion as it ‘fails to condemn the war crimes’ of Netanyahu government

The house is dividing on the government’s motion – and while the Coalition is voting no, it looks like the Greens are abstaining.

Adam Bandt told the Guardian:

The Greens can’t support a motion about a year of ongoing slaughter that fails to condemn the war crimes of the extremist Netanyahu government, acknowledge the unfolding genocide in Gaza, or put any pressure on Netanyahu’s government to stop the invasions of Palestine and Lebanon.

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Other health professionals needed at GP clinics to provide more team-based care, review finds

The government has published findings from three reviews into Medicare and primary health care.

One of the reviews examined general practice incentives, with rural and low-income patients in particular struggling to access general health care thanks to rising costs and GP shortages.

The review found there was a need for GP clinics to include other health professionals in patient care like nurses, psychologists, and dietitians. This is especially important for the growing number of patients with chronic conditions, the review found.

But because the current billing system relies heavily on fee-for-service payments, the ability of clinics to provide and bill for team-based care is currently limited. The review recommends a new flexible payment system be introduced to GP clinics to better accommodate multidisciplinary care appointments. This system would also allow clinics to better cater to patients based on location, socioeconomic status, and the types of health issues being managed, the review found.

A separate review into Medicare found current laws and policies that are supposed to encourage doctors to work in underserved areas are not working well. Relying on overseas doctors to fill shortages is leading to inconsistent care, the review found, while doctors aren’t always being correctly allocated based on areas of highest need.

The review recommends changes to the way the government allocates doctors to underserved areas, focusing on those regions with the highest need for GPs. Australia also needs to work towards being more self-sufficient to reduce reliance on overseas doctors, the review found.

A third review examined after hours care. It found getting health care after hours is complex, fragmented, and difficult to navigate for many consumers. Too many people are still presenting at emergency departments seeking care for non-emergency health needs, the review found.

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Dozens of protesters gather outside convention centre as environment summit begins

As the Global Nature Positive summit began at Sydney’s International Convention Centre, about 40 activists gathered outside to protest logging of endangered species habitat in northern New South Wales and the federal government’s recent approval of three coalmine expansions.

The NSW Forestry Corporation has resumed its activities at the Bulga state forest, inland from Port Macquarie, where citizen scientists have spent months registering den trees for endangered greater gliders in an effort to protect some habitat.

The state-government owned agency has been met with strong resistance from local forest campaigners, who say 11 protesters have been arrested at Bulga state forest since last week.

The NSW Greens environment spokesperson Sue Higginson told the protest at Darling Harbour:

Let’s all have one message here for the people on the frontline of Bulga State Forest right now … literally on their knees begging for their government to hear them and to really understand what the people who know what nature positive looks like are doing today.

We know the environment minister [Tanya Plibersek] thinks Nature Positive is heading to Taronga Zoo, holding animals in cages and telling the world we’ve got it sorted. Well, she’s wrong, and it’s time for the truth, for all of us to stand up in the face of this madness.

Higginson added that while Australia’s environmental laws were “broken”, they “are not so broken” that the government had to “approve three coalmines last week”.

Bulga local Susie Russell, from the North East Forest Alliance, told Guardian Australia campaigners had been at the forest since 5am today with two arrested after locking on to a gate and a piece of machinery. She said she felt “sick” that a global nature summit was under way in Sydney while habitat destruction in a stronghold for endangered Australian species was occurring about 400km away.

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Plibersek addresses Global Nature Positive summit as event kicks off in Sydney

The Australian government-hosted Global Nature Positive summit has kicked off at Sydney’s International Convention Centre, bringing together up to 1,000 delegates to talk about environmental protection.

The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, told the summit the event was as a chance to “take stock” and discuss ways to drive investment and activities that would protect nature.

Plibersek announced the summit nearly two years ago, at a landmark UN biodiversity conference that agreed on a framework to protect and improve nature by 2030.

The two-day summit, which has been overshadowed by the follow-up UN conference in Colombia later this month, is largely focused on how to pay for nature protection and restoration.

Scientists and environmentalists have called on the Australian government to lift spending on nature from 0.1% to 1% of its budget. Plibersek did not announce new funding in her speech.

She focused on Labor’s track record on the environment, and confirmed the government would quadruple the size of a sub-Antarctic marine park around the Heard and McDonald Islands.

You can read more about that here:

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Just on Andrew’s post there, that policy is very, very similar to the boot camp policy the LNP had while last in government in 2012-15.

The motivations around the policy were very similar as well.

Queensland LNP leader pledges $50m for early intervention centres for ‘wayward’ teens

On the Queensland election campaign trail today, the opposition leader, David Crisafulli, has announced “wayward” teens could be sent away to special “reset” programs as part of a $50m early intervention plan.

Crisafulli says 9 early intervention centres will be set up across the state for troubled youths who require a higher level of care than community-based programs can provide.

The programs would provide 24/7 intensive early intervention for them, with a stint lasting between a week and three weeks.

Those with “high-risk” behaviours – including substance abuse, aggression or truancy – will be eligible for the residential programs.

The scheme will operate on a referral basis from schools, police, shield safety and parents.

It will also be open to the siblings of “high-risk” teens.

Crisafulli says the live-in programs will be designed to intervene and divert youths before they become entangled in a web of crime. He said:

The LNPs Regional Reset Program will reset young lives with the life skills, discipline, psychological support and teamwork to turn them around early.

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The motion is continuing. The vote will go the government’s way because they have the numbers.

We’ll take a look at some of the other news which has been occurring.

Zoe Daniel: ‘The pain of more than one group of people can coexist’

Independent MP Zoe Daniel is also speaking to the motion and what Jewish members of her community are feeling.

She continues:

I note the opposition leader’s comments arguing that mentioning both sides in this conversation is unhelpful today.

Respectfully, I disagree. The pain of more than one group of people can coexist no matter where that pain began.

Shouting at each other in this place does not cancel out anyone’s pain, either; I would argue actually that that’s what’s unhelpful. This isn’t a political conversation, or it shouldn’t be.

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Paul Fletcher finishes with:

The response of the state of Israel to defend itself, to defend its people, to restore order, is a response which is appropriate and proportionate, and it is regrettable in the extreme that at a moment when we should have been able to come together in a motion of this parliament marking the one year anniversary of this appalling event, that the prime minister was unable to bring himself to use language which recognised the stark moral clarity of what has occurred here.

It is deeply disappointing that the Coalition has been put in this position. And it is so important, that on this anniversary, we acknowledge the horror, and the loss, and we express our support to the people of Israel.

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Fletcher repeats ‘conflict between good and evil’ line on Middle East

Paul Fletcher then doubles down on that analogy:

Unfortunately, the language of this motion reflects the continued equivocation of this prime minister and of this government on what should be an issue where there is clarity, on what should be an issue where it is accepted and understood and recognised that this is a conflict between good and evil.

Again, the parts of the motion the Coalition are objecting to are those which recognise the civilian loss in Palestine and Lebanon, calling for a ceasefire and de-escalation and a two-state solution.

Updated

Liberal MP Paul Fletcher literally calls the response to what is happening in the Middle East “a contest between good and evil”.

It is a test which demands in response strong and unequivocal leadership. It is a test which demands in response, moral clarity.

But we have not seen that from this prime minister and this government. We have seen on a daily basis, calculations as to which gradations of words to use, informed by domestic political considerations and assessments of which seats in Western Sydney may be at risk.

This is so much more important than those petty political considerations.

This is a contest between good and evil, and we need a clear statement of that, a clear recognition of that.

Updated

It is the references to the death of Palestinian civilians, the calls for a ceasefire and de-escalation and the need for a two-state solution which Peter Dutton and the Coalition cannot support.

The Coalition says the motion should only recognise what Jewish and Israeli people have experienced, given it is a commemoration of the 7 October attacks.

Updated

The motion continues:

(11) stresses the need to break the cycle of violence and supports international efforts to deescalate for a ceasefire in Gaza and in Lebanon and for lasting peace and security for Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese and all people in the region;

(12) affirms its support for a two-state solution, a Palestinian State alongside Israel, so that Israelis and Palestinians can live securely within internationally recognised borders, as the only option to ensuring a just and enduring peace;

(13) recognises the conflict is deeply distressing for many in the Australian community;

(14) condemns all acts of hatred, division or violence, affirming that they have no place in Australia; and

(15) reaffirms:

(a) that symbols of terror and discord are unwelcome in Australia and undermine our nation’s peace and security;

(b) the undermining social cohesion and unity by stoking fear and division risks Australia’s domestic security; and

(c) the responsibility of each Australian to safeguard the harmony and unity that define our diverse society, especially in times of adversity.

What is the 7 October motion the Coalition have rejected?

This is the motion the Coalition have rejected. We will put it over a couple of posts, as it is a long one.

(1) reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of Hamas’ terror attacks on Israel which took place on 7 October 2023, in which more than 1,200 innocent Israelis were killed, the largest loss of Jewish life on any single day since the Holocaust;

(2) recognises that hundreds more innocent people were subjected to brutality and violence on that day;

(3) calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all the remaining hostages;

(4) condemns the murder of hostages and the inhumane conditions and violence, including sexual violence, that hostages have experienced;

(5) mourns with all impacted by these heinous acts;

(6) condemns antisemitism in all its forms and stands with Jewish Australians who have felt the cold shadows of antisemitism reaching into the present day;

(7) reiterates Australia’s consistent positions to call for the protection of civilian lives and adherence to international law;

(8) mourns the death of all innocent civilians, recognising the number of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza and the catastrophic humanitarian situation;

(9) supports ongoing international efforts to provide humanitarian assistance in Gaza and Lebanon;

(10) calls for Iran to cease its destabilising actions including through terrorist organisations, the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas, condemns Iran’s attacks on Israel and recognises Israel’s right to defend itself against these attacks;

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Julian Leeser:

We have always stood with Israel, and in this side of the house, we continue to stand with Israel, because Israel is a western liberal democratic nation that believes in the rule of law, that respects human rights, including the human rights of women, of religious minorities, of LGBTI people, people not accepted by any of these terrorist organisations, or by Iran for that matter.

And it is right that our foreign policy should be based on those values, and we should not sacrifice those values at any point or at any time.

And that’s why we on this side of the house cannot support the motion in [front of the house]. We wish we could. We wish we could amend the motion.

We wish we could return it to the words that the leader of the opposition had put to the prime minister over the weekend, because they were good words.

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Julian Leeser:

We wanted to see a bipartisan resolution. But there’s too much difference in what this motion suggests in relation to the foreign policy of such this house.

We can’t have a ceasefire at the moment that would allow terrorist organisations that we list as terrorist organisations in our own country to regroup and reform and continue to attack innocent civilians.

We can’t have a ceasefire in this country when Iran continues to lob missiles into Israel, and the only reason that there haven’t been more casualties in Israel as a result of this is because of the Israeli defence systems.

We can’t have a ceasefire in this, in Israel, in the Middle East, when the hostages are still not returned. We can’t have a ceasefire when organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran refuse to recognise the right of the state of Israel to exist.

And we cannot be imposing a timetable in relation to a two state solution without negotiation, without full and proper negotiations on the final status issues.

And particularly at this time, to be going to the United Nations – to be making speeches which [say] we should set a timetable today in the wake of this terrorist activity, this terrorist attack that occurred 12 months ago … I think, fails to read the room.

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Leeser: ‘No greater falsehood’ than Labor’s claim to have no difference to Coalition in stance on Israel

Julian Leeser speaks on the 7 October attacks and then moves to the motion and why the Coalition will not support it:

Last night, the leader of the opposition received no fewer than four standing ovations in his speech.

To the Jewish community of this country, the leader of the opposition has been heroic because he has been thoroughly clear on not only the terrible attacks that occurred in Israel, but in standing against the antisemitism in this country and continuing to stand with Israel as a western liberal democratic country in the Middle East.

Before the last election, senior Labor figures told the Jewish community, in the Jewish news that there would be no difference between labor and the coalition on Israel, on the Jewish community.

And as I’ve said, no greater falsehood has ever been told in the history of Australian politics, because even before 7 October, we saw Labor changing votes at the United Nations, Labor returning to the funding of Unrwa, an organisation that has blood on its hands from 7 October, and Labor changing the capital of Israel.

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Josh Burns continues:

So I say that this today, in this place, this motion, does recognise the pain of October 7. It recognises the fact that for no excusable reason, 1000s of militants came in and ripped apart communities and traumatised the country and any and there are still over 100 hostages in the tunnels of Gaza right now, and that is causing just the most devastating pain for people right around the world, and of course, in Israel too.

And I also recognise the fact that we are all humans, that Yitzhak Rabin and many other giants of Israeli society didn’t seek war.

They sought to build peace. And those who seek to build peace were remembered kindly by history.

We have to be the peace builders too, and we have to be the people here in Australia who say that for all communities and for all Australians, you belong, you are part of the Australian society, and that we as people want to see a shared future, a shared future of people who share our humanity, our love of life, our celebration of culture and diversity and multiculturalism, and who want to see a better future for all people here in Australia, for the Israelis, the Palestinians, and all people in the region as well.

Josh Burns and Julian Leeser speak on 7 October motion

Labor MP Josh Burns and Liberal MP Julian Leeser have also spoken on the motion.

Burns spoke of what the Jewish community have been through, and says:

We are all one human race. We are all one people, and we all want to we all want to live and hand over the keys to our community and our future, to our kids of one of a world with peace and dignity. I want to see Israelis being able to live and go to work free from the threat of terror and violence. I want to see Palestinian kids grow up knowing that they have a future, too. I want to see Lebanese families being able to live comfortably.

And I know destabilising forces in the region, led by Iran, are causing just devastating impacts right across the region, and the world needs to be alive to that and honest about it, and we must be a part of the international efforts to confront that terror.

But I also know that here in Australia, we can do more to reach out to each other. And I say this as a proud Jewish Australian, the Palestinian people and the Lebanese people are not my enemy. We are all people. We all must think about the future that we need to build together.

Updated

Peter Dutton finishes his speech with further condemnation of the government for the motion it put forward. The objection is that the government motion also recognises the civilian deaths in Palestine and Lebanon and calls for a ceasefire and de-escalation in the region.

Dutton:

We have put to this prime minister a more than reasonable position, and the prime minister has rejected that position for his own political domestic advancement, and that has been recognised by millions of Australians.

And for that, the prime minister should be condemned.

It is unbelievable that this prime minister, this prime minister, departed from the precedent of the Labor party, the great right of the Labor party, people who should be speaking up, people who should be out there advocating a position as Bill Shorten is, as many people in the Labor party are able to do, but not this prime minister.

And the prime minister has taken a position today which has further diminished the Australian Labor party and is standing with the Australian public.

Updated

Dutton condemns PM for including calls for ceasefire and de-escalation in motion

Peter Dutton then condemns the prime minister and Labor for putting forward a motion which also recognised Palestinians and blames him for the Coalition not coming to a bipartisan agreement on the motion.

This is actually quite extraordinary, even for the Australian parliament.

Dutton:

On this day, the eighth of October, the day after the first sitting, day after the seven October anniversary that this prime minister wasn’t able to lead a moment of bipartisanship in this parliament, which, in my memory, is without precedent, prime minister, there has always been a bipartisan position between your predecessors.

You’re citing Biden, France, Hawke, Keating, you don’t mention them, you don’t mention Rudd, you don’t mention Gillard. There has been a position of bipartisanship on these issues, and your predecessors would have had the decency to respect the Jewish community in a way that you have not done today.

And for that prime minister, you should stand condemned.

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Peter Dutton:

There are other sections here which go well beyond the intent of what should be a motion to mark the loss of life of 1,200 people on the first anniversary … but of course, the prime minister is trying to speak out of both sides of his mouth, and that is not something that we will support in relation to this debate.

None of us support the loss of civilian life. And everybody in this place, I’m sure, condemned the actions of a terrorist organisation, a listed terrorist organisation, Hamas, when they put tunnels under schools and under hospitals, when they buried bombs and they stored their ammunitions in residential buildings, knowing that they’re using people as human shields.

But today is the day where this parliament was meant to mark what should be a solemn moment, a solemn moment where 1,200 people lost their lives. That is the position that we put to the house.

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Peter Dutton goes on:

It’s what, in part, has given rise to the antisemitism that we’ve seen in university campuses, but across society more generally, it’s what’s making the survivors of the Holocaust for the first time in their lives in our country, so that they feel unsafe here in the current environment.

So in the motion moved by the prime minister today is not just words of comfort and words of recognition in relation to October 7, and I acknowledge those words in his motion.

But of course, it goes beyond that, and it’s an extension of the way in which the prime minister has conducted the debate and himself over the course of last 12 months, trying to please all people in this debate.

Now is not the time to call for, as the prime minister does in his motion, and I’ll quote the words to the house, because I’m not sure that the prime minister did, but – the words included in the motion stresses the need to break the cycle of violence, and supports international efforts to deescalate, for a ceasefire in Gaza and in Lebanon, and for lasting peace and security for Israel, Palestine, Palestinian, Lebanese and all people in the region.

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Dutton: Labor ‘has sought to walk both sides of the street’ on topic of 7 October

Peter Dutton uses his speech to say the Coalition cannot support the motion the government has put forward and was unable to find a “bipartisan” agreement on a motion.

He uses his speech to criticise the prime minister for “walking both sides”.

On Saturday, I wrote to the prime minister, suggesting that we should arrive at a bipartisan position and bring a motion before the House to mark the anniversary of October 7. This motion was supposed to be about October 7 about the loss of human life in the circumstances that we’ve just graphically outlined, and that people across the world now come to understand.

I proposed to the prime minister a motion which was balanced and objective, and I appreciated the engagement with the prime minister when I met with him this morning.

Regrettably, we’ve not been able to arrive at a position of bipartisanship in relation to this matter. And I think when you go to the detail of what the prime minister’s proposed, it becomes clearer why the Coalition cannot support this motion before the house at the moment, as has been remarked by many commentators over the course of recent weeks, this government has sought to walk both sides of the street in relation to what has been a very divisive debate for our country.

Updated

Peter Dutton is now speaking on the motion.

For the Jewish community, as was noted last night by many of the contributors, the last 12 months has been a truly shocking experience, particularly in our country, not just because of the loss of 1,200 in the indiscriminate way in which those men and women and children were attacked, but also because of the response here in Australia and the rise of antisemitism.

Dutton goes on to criticise the protests which have taken place in Australia.

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PM quotes Martin Luther King in concluding motion to condemn 7 October attack

Anthony Albanese finishes with:

Today, as we remember those who were lost, we stand with all those who wait.

We stand with all those who endure loss, we stand with all those who endure hope.

Let us stand together as a nation and as a parliament in our shared determination to preserve the harmony that makes this the greatest country in the world, and in our shared commitment to a just and lasting peace, knowing that the truest act of strength is to protect the innocent.

That is the truth we must hold on to, the truth of a shared humanity, of the hope that peace is possible and the belief that it belongs to all people. To quote the great Dr Martin Luther King: ‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.’

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Albanese: Hamas and Hezbollah flags are ‘symbols of terror’

On the protests, Anthony Albanese says:

Each and every one of us has a responsibility to prevent conflict in the Middle East from being used as a platform for prejudice at home.

I want to be clear to anyone who thinks about taking a Hamas or Hezbollah flag to a protest: these symbols are not acceptable. They are symbols of terror.

They are illegal and they will not be tolerated here. Hamas and Hezbollah serve no cause but terror.

They have shown themselves to be the enemy of the very people they purport to represent, and we unequivocally condemn any indication of support for such organisations.

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Anthony Albanese:

It is important to recognise that the loss and grief of this past year has been deeply felt here in Australia.

Sorrow knows no boundaries. It recognises no differences. Since the atrocities of October 7, Jewish Australians have felt the shadows of the past creeping into the present.

We condemn the poison of antisemitism, whatever form it takes, this is a pain the Jewish people should never have had to endure again.

The Holocaust is not softened by the passing of time. It doesn’t recede into history.

… Our Jewish Australian community is made up of Holocaust survivors, their children and grandchildren, including, of course, our attorney general here in this parliament.

… Their family trees are heavy with loss and suffering, with acts of survival in the face of overwhelming odds. It is shocking and wrong that in 2024 Jewish people are having to draw on their courage and their resilience.

Again, I want to repeat the message that I’ve given to all Jewish Australians since the outset. You are not alone. Your fellow Australians stand with you. Our social cohesion has been built over the course of generations by people of all backgrounds and from every faith and tradition, all of us take pride in it, and all of us must work together to protect it.

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Anthony Albanese continues:

We call on all regional players to act responsibly and with restraint. We encourage all parties to engage constructively, to de escalate the current tensions. International humanitarian law must be respected. We also reiterate our call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the unconditional release of all hostages, a significant sustained increase in the flow of humanitarian assistance and an end to the conflict.

We fully endorse the efforts by the US, Qatar and Egypt to reach such a comprehensive deal, in line with United Nations Security Council resolution 2735, the situation in Gaza is catastrophic, and tens of thousands of innocent lives have been lost.

We reiterate the absolute need for the civilian population to be protected and that there must be full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access as a matter of absolute priority.

Anthony Albanese:

The number of civilians who have lost their lives over the past year is a tragedy of horrific proportions.

An estimated 40,000 Palestinians have been killed. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is devastating. Our government has consistently and repeatedly called for a ceasefire for the release of all hostages and for the protection of all civilians.

We remain committed to a two state solution as a path to an enduring peace, two states, Israel and Palestine, living peacefully side by side with prosperity and security for their people, a position that has been bipartisan in this parliament for a long period of time.

Updated

Prime minister condemns 7 October attack

The parliament has opened with Anthony Albanese standing on a motion condemning the 7 October attack.

Albanese:

[For many] the past year must have felt like a cruel eternity, the torment which I spoke to friends and families of prior to the event last night, not knowing the fate of a loved one who’s been taken hostage, or indeed having the terrible truth confirmed.

October 7 will always be a day of pain. As we mourn and reflect, we also reaffirm a fundamental principle of our shared humanity that every innocent life matters, every Israeli, every Palestinian, every Lebanese, every single innocent life.

It is the terrorists who close their eyes to that powerful, simple truth. It is the terrorists of Hamas, that are not only enemies of Israel. They are an enemy of the Palestinian people, as well.

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Greens prepare gambling ad ban push and remain open to negotiation on housing bill

The Greens are keen to push the government to act on the long-delayed gambling ad ban, planning some parliamentary debate on the issue with two pieces of legislation this week.

There’s only a handful of parliament sitting days to go this year (and, if you believe the speculation about an early 2025 election, potentially for the rest of the parliament term) and the Greens appear to be sick of waiting for Labor to respond to the recommendations of the report from late MP Peta Murphy, which called for an advertising ban. Sarah Hanson-Young is looking to add amendments to a broadcasting bill and introduce another bill of their own, with the Murphy report’s recommendations.

With just three sitting weeks left for 2024 after this week, and just 12 scheduled sitting days for the Senate, there’s not much time for the government to get moving on the gambling ad restrictions – as well as, the Greens note, other contentious reforms like the nature-positive environmental legislation.

The Greens are also sticking by their position to not support the government’s Help To Buy housing bill. Clare O’Neil is reintroducing the bill today, challenging the Coalition and crossbench to oppose it again. The Greens say they’re still open to negotiations, and say they would be happy with “some movement” on their key demands – rent caps and winding back negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions.

The Greens say they will consider any offer from the government on the housing bill, but claim they’ve received no updated offer yet and are still keen to keep talking with the minister.

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RBA releases minutes on last interest rate decision

As expected, the Reserve Bank considered only leaving its key interest rate unchanged when its board met last week.

Basically, “members felt that not enough had changed since the previous meeting to alter their assessment that the current level of the cash rate best balanced the risks to inflation and the labour market”, the RBA’s minutes have just confirmed.

That said, the board doesn’t want to preclude another interest rate rise, saying that “the data and the evolving assessment of risks would guide their future decisions”.

The key data to watch for, of course, will be the ABS’s inflation figures for the September quarter – these land on 30 October, or less than a week before the next RBA board meeting on 5 November (AKA a horse race day and the US elections).

Business, meanwhile, is also feeling a bit more upbeat (along with consumers, as we noted in our earlier post). Both confidence and conditions picked up in the past month, NAB said in its latest survey.

Confidence may remain below average but conditions are now back to their long-run average. Price pressures also “continue to abate”, a view the RBA – and the rest of us – will be happy to hear.

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People united against genocide, through the Bowers lens

Our own Mike Bowers was at the press conference a little earlier, where the Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi and independent senators Lidia Thorpe and Fatima Payman held a “united against genocide” press conference which also featured doctors, academics and researchers urging the government to pay attention to what is happening on the ground in Gaza.

Dr Bushra Othman volunteered at the Shuhada al-Aqsa hospital in Gaza and broke down in tears while speaking of what she saw and experienced.

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Ask Dolly!

Outside of politics, but inside of human-ness, one of the greatest humans of all time – Dolly Parton – will be answering reader questions for the Guardian.

Given how many times we have appealed to Dolly as our very own saviour in this blog, it makes sense that we also highlight your opportunity to ask her Dolly-ness something you’ve always wanted to know.

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Liz Truss continues backstage tour of parliament

The former UK prime minister Liz Truss truly is taking in all the sights of the Australian parliament.

We have been told she just met the speaker, Milton Dick, at the members’ hall (the private MP dining room) which is like an airport lounge, if that lounge was furnished in the 1980s.

Updated

Consumer sentiment rises despite bill stress

While many people might still feel under stress meeting their bills, a more upbeat view seems to be taking hold. The latest monthly consumer sentiment index, compiled by the Westpac-Melbourne Institute, rose 6.2% in October to its highest in two and a half years, the duo reported today.

Matthew Hassan, Westpac’s head of Australian macro forecasting, said:

Expectations have been buoyed by interest rate cuts abroad and more promising signs that inflation is moderating locally.

About half of consumers now tip mortgage rates to be unchanged or lower over the year ahead, Hassan noted. That compared with a quarter in July.

The RBA will soon release minutes this morning from its board meeting last month, and we expect it will omit the case to lift the cash rate again. (The RBA tells us the last time there was just a “hold” discussion came in March.)

ANZ’s own weekly consumer sentiment survey they conduct with Roy Morgan also pointed to a modest uptick.

Updated

The Labor caucus approved a raft of legislation, including a new bill to guarantee that the National Broadband Network will remain publicly-owned.

Of course, legislation cannot guarantee any such thing, as a future parliament and government could always repeal it - although legislation would make this more difficult, by requiring a new bill to pass the Senate.

Anthony Albanese referred to the fact Labor will make this a commitment at the election if the bill doesn’t pass.

Do we smell a Medicare privatisation style scare campaign in the works? Time is running out to save the NBN?

In any event, we should be getting more info about the bill this afternoon from the government including responsible ministers Michelle Rowland and Katy Gallagher.

Labor’s party room wrapup

Anthony Albanese addressed the Labor caucus on the government’s economic record and the 7 October anniversary.

On 7 October, Albanese expressed “horror” at the events of that day and reiterated the government’s resolution to see an end to the conflict, promising to take a principled stance in line with partners including the US and UK.

He said we could see the “consequences of escalation” in Lebanon, and that every human life matters whether Israeli, Palestinian or Lebanese. Albanese has reached out to Peter Dutton seeking support for a bipartisan resolution in parliament.

On the economy, Albanese highlighted inflation of 2.7% and the rollout of cost-of-living relief while Labor delivers two budget surpluses. The election will be about Labor’s achievements, its commitments and the “risk of Peter Dutton”, including the fact the Coalition had opposed cost-of-living relief and wage rises in the care economy.

Albanese promised a “big second-term agenda” – although several MPs tell us that this commitment was general in nature, without detail of what policies Labor would announce.

The prime minister pointed to legislation in parliament this week including Help to Buy, on Hecs debt, funding public schools and keeping the National Broadband Network in public hands.

Updated

Truss sighting in parliament house

The former UK prime minister Liz Truss has now been spotted at Aussies, the internal parliament house cafe. She’s seeing all the sights.

Updated

Payman calls for sanctions on Israeli government

The former Labor senator Fatima Payman called for sanctions on the Israeli government.

She asks “when is it enough?” and “how many more people have to be killed?” before the Labor government she was previously a member of “will label Israel’s actions as genocide?”

Israel has rejected claims of genocide as “false and outrageous”. South Africa has levelled genocide accusations against Israel at the international court of justice, which has yet to make a substantive ruling.

Updated

Thrope says both parties ‘complicit’ in genocide

Returning to the press conference Amy alerted you to earlier,

Lidia Thorpe is addressing the presser in parliament’s mural hall now:

I stand here in solidarity with Palestinians and Lebanon. We are in colonial headquarters where we have both the major parties complicit in the genocide that we’ve seen live over the past 12 months.

The Labor government has called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire since last December.

Updated

Liz Truss to watch parliament today

The former UK prime minister Liz Truss – who was famously outlasted by a 60p iceberg lettuce from Tesco in a “who will go first” battle – will be in the Australian parliament for Question Time today.

Truss is here as part of a conservative tour – she’ll be speaking at Cpac, as well as launching various books etc with the usual suspects. But first, she’ll be watching the House of Representatives question time.

I give it two questions before she wishes the lettuce was in her place.

Updated

Faruqi: the genocide is the problem, not the people protesting it

At the press conference, the Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi accused Israel of acting with impunity from the US and other “puppets”. She said Labor had “taken no action” and had been “cowardly”.

The hard truth is that both the old parties – Labor and the Liberals – pick and choose who they see as victims.

She said the old parties also picked when international law applied and who deserved justice. Faruqi said:

People will hold this Labor government to account come the election … for their complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. We will not be erased, we will not be silenced. It is the genocide that is the problem not the people protesting against it.

Updated

Lidia Thorpe has a sign with her for the press conference which reads “Sanction Israel”, Daniel Hurst reports.

Ahead of the press conference, the senator shouted “Free Palestine” at the waiting media.

Updated

Greens, Thorpe and Payman unite against genocide in Canberra

The Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi and independent senators Lidia Thorpe and Fatima Payman have arrived with a group of researchers and advocates for a press conference in Parliament House.

The group are standing as “people united against genocide”.

The presser will no doubt get a lot of attention given the ongoing battle of words between Labor and Payman. Payman is about to launch her own political party after resigning from Labor after disagreeing with how the government was handling what is happening in Palestine.

Updated

Zali Steggal to attend launch of new methane emissions detection platform

Later this week, the independent MP Zali Steggall will host professor Rod Sims of the Superpower Institute (who was also the former chair of the ACCC) and the chief scientist, Peter Rayner, at the SI in launching Open Methane, “a new open platform for detecting, measuring and locating Australia’s methane emissions”.

Open Methane aims to make some of the data a little more approachable and make it easier for people to make sense of what the numbers mean.

The Australian Conservation Foundation is in full support of the new platform, which it says will help detect and accurately report what is happening with greenhouse gas levels in Australia.

Updated

Labor insists double dissolution trigger ‘not the government’s focus’ as housing bills reintroduced to Senate

It seems like a million years ago (or two question times, depending on your measurement of time) but you may remember Anthony Albanese deliberately let the idea of a double dissolution trigger take flight when it came to the housing bills.

The government isn’t letting go of that threat, as unlikely as it may be (I’m yet to hear from any government MP that they think it is real possibility). Clare O’Neil wasn’t above letting the double dissolution chat continue a little bit longer as she spoke to ABC radio this morning about the help-to-buy legislation the government is reintroducing into the Senate:

It’s true that this bill would represent a double dissolution trigger if the parliament does decide to not work with us to make a difference to the lives of these people. That’s not the government’s focus right now, though.

And just to say something you may not hear every day – I’m actually concerned about the people at the end of this.

Like, just set aside all the double dissolution, the political parties and all the rest of it; there’s 40,000 people who we can help today, and we should go into the parliament and do it.

The double dissolution stuff is secondary. Our main focus right now is getting this bill through the parliament, and I’m really hopeful we’re going to be able to do that.

Updated

Electricians union says Coalition nuclear ‘plan’ causing ‘investment drought’ in renewables

Michael Wright, the national secretary of the Electrical Trades Union, has said that the Coalition’s nuclear “plan” is causing an “investment drought, jobs drought and chaos” by discouraging investment in renewables.

Wright made those comments to Guardian Australia after the launch of the ETU’s ad campaign targeting the $600bn price tag of nuclear energy. He said the Coalition’s timeframe for nuclear is “unrealistic” and it does not merit being called a policy because details of its cost and how much electricity would be generated are “absent”.

Nevertheless, investors in renewable energy are pulling back, meaning that Peter Dutton’s plan is already “costing ETU members work and jobs”.

Wright argued the Coalition are playing “Russian roulette with the grid” because coal is the most unreliable energy source now due to the age of generators, which cannot be extended to 2040 and beyond which would be the earliest possible for large scale nuclear. Wright:

Coal is the most variable energy source due to underinvestment – not even the owners want to put money into these generators. They are held together by union members and more hope than you’d like ... the idea that you can keep propping these up and extending their life is simply not right.

Updated

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre to present first-hand stories of experiences under ‘fast-track’ visa system

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre is bringing a delegation of refugees who have been “failed by the unfair and flawed Fast Track system” to Canberra today, in a bid to have Labor address the system.

Delegates Elnaz, Milad and Sowriya represent Afghanistan, Iranian, and Tamil communities and are part of the 24-7 refugee protest movement which has now been running for 86 days nationwide.

The protest encampments, in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane, are calling for an end to 12 years of family separation and fear of deportation for approximately 8,500* people failed by Fast Track and still waiting for a resolution.

The Abbott government introduced the fast-track policy in 2014. As the name implies, it was meant to “fast track” protection claim processing, but has left thousands living in visa limbo without full access to work, study or healthcare rights.

Labor opposed the fast-track system when it was introduced and the ASRC hopes that by hearing more first-hand stories of what it does, there will be some action for those languishing on it. Jana Favero, ASRC’s head of systemic change, said:

The fast-track policy has not just failed to ensure a timely and fair process; it has inflicted profound and lasting harm on people in need of protection and safety.

The ALP were clear in their opposition to the legislation that enabled Fast Track. A decade on, they need to stand by and honour that opposition by providing a pathway to permanency for those who have been failed by the flawed process.

It’s time for swift and compassionate action to finally give people permanency and the chance to rebuild their lives with certainty

*The 8,500 figure includes approximately 1,200 people who still do not have Department of Home Affairs decisions on their initial protection visa applications. The remaining people are going through review processes or have no options remaining.

Updated

Former treasury secretary and climate foundation chair to speak at nature summit

Labor’s nature-positive legislation will once again be on the agenda, and it comes as business turns its eye to the link between the environment and economy (yes, I know).

Adam Morton has covered some of that off here:

The former treasury secretary Ken Henry has a bit to say about that. The Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation chair will also speak at the global nature positive summit and told AAP:

We’re all suffering an extreme form of cognitive dissonance. Australia celebrates being a natural resources superpower, digging up coal and extracting gas to ship overseas. We refuse to see a connection between that and the climate change-induced nature destruction that we’re experiencing.

We don’t account for it, we don’t consider ourselves responsible for those carbon emissions ... surely we’re capable of seeing that one thing is contributing to the other, but we don’t.

Updated

McKenzie comments on Payman

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie, speaking on the same Nine program, was a little more positive:

I absolutely agree with Senator Payman’s comments that Albo should actually stick to his day job in addressing the cost of living crisis and the real concerns of everyday Australians, instead of treating her like a wayward teenager rather than a member of the Australian Senate.

So, you know, I think everybody’s entitled to run. She shouldn’t be intimidated to be running at the next election. She’s representing the state of WA in the Australian Senate for the next five years. I look forward to working with her.

Updated

Labor say Payman party affiliation ‘a matter for her’

WA senator Fatima Payman will announce her own political party this week. There has been some back and forth (through the media) between figures from Payman’s former party, Labor and the senator for days.

Rishworth was asked about the forthcoming party announcement and said:

To be honest, what Senator Payman does is a matter for her. If she really wanted to be endorsed by the Australian people, she could stand down for the Senate and run herself at the next election. But it’s really a matter for her. She wouldn’t be the first, and won’t be the last senator that gets elected with a different party and then decides to split from that party and run as an Independent. That’s entirely a matter for her.

Updated

Rishworth says Labor mindful of security situation as it works on Lebanon evacuation flights

A big focus of the early morning political interviews has been the evacuation flights for Australians out of Lebanon.

Amanda Rishworth, the social services minister, was asked about it on the Nine network and said:

We have been able to get a number of Australians, in fact over 1,000 Australians, out of Beirut, but there are still over 3,000 people indicating they would like to leave Lebanon. So, it is really important that we continue working on this, but we do have to be mindful of the security situation along with a number of other factors.

So my strong message and the message of the government is for people to take any opportunity if they want to leave, to get out. To take the first opportunity that comes their way. But we will keep, of course, working to support Australians to get out of Beirut. But we do have to be mindful of the security circumstances and other factors at play as well.

Updated

Greens announce anti-genocide press conference before parliamentary sitting

It is party room meeting day, so the parliament won’t sit until midday.

That leaves plenty of time for press conferences in the morning. Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has announced an interesting one for 10.45 which will no doubt get a lot of attention:

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens Deputy Leader with Senator Lidia Thorpe, Senator Fatima Payman, Leah House, Dr. Ola Aldassi, Dr. Bushra Othman, Dr. Musameh Muntaser, Vivienne Porzsolt, Tamara Ashmar, Sara Saleh, Diana Abdel-Rahman OAM and Olivia Serougi

The topic: “The people united against genocide”

Updated

Independents to hold press conference on gambling ad ban

Independent MPs Zoe Daniel and Kate Chaney have invited a group of Australians “with lived experience of the harm caused by their gambling addiction” to the parliament, as part of their push to have the government commit to a full ban on gambling advertising.

They’ll hold a press conference ahead of question time this afternoon.

Updated

The electrician union’s anti-nuclear ads

The Electrical Trades Union has launched an anti-nuclear ad, attacking Peter Dutton’s policy by highlighting the estimated $600bn price tag of introducing civilian nuclear energy.

The campaign will launch initially for catchup TV and digital viewers (streaming services) across key areas of Queensland in the federal electorates of Capricornia, Flynn, Blair, Bonner, Dickson and Longman, before expanding ahead of the 2025 federal election.

The ETU’s national secretary, Michael Wright, said:

Renewables and batteries in Australia are producing so much low-cost energy we are on track to hit climate targets. This will create nearly 100,000 more jobs for electricians by 2050 – so many that we need to rewire our training system to skill up enough people.

The challenge of training 100,000 locals for rewarding, secure renewable energy jobs is a good problem to have and we would like to keep it and solve it.

We are very concerned that a rapid change in direction to high-cost nuclear with decades-long timelines would derail this momentum and rob the next generation of electrical workers of renewable transition opportunities.

We think that people have the right to ask questions about this plan, about the costs, about the length of time, and about why we would need nuclear when energy from batteries and low-cost renewables have gathered so much momentum in such a short period of time.

Updated

O’Neil: ‘There will not be endless opportunities to get government assistance to leave Lebanon’

O’Neil was asked about Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and said:

You heard the deputy prime minister speak on the weekend about our belief that Israel has the right to defend itself. And I’ll leave the commentary about the situation there to the foreign minister and the deputy prime minister.

What I will say is that our government has a clear role here in trying to assist Australians who are stuck in Lebanon.

You [ABC] said 349 came through last night. I was actually tearing up a little bit watching those people come back to the airport and into the loving arms of their families.

We’re working assiduously to try to assist Australians who are in trouble there and I’ll repeat the government’s message again that for anyone Australians who are in Lebanon, now is the time to get out.

There will not be endless opportunities to get government assistance to leave Lebanon and I’d really ask everyone who is there to register with Dfat and take the first flight that’s offered to you to get home to safety.

Updated

O’Neil says 40,000 who would benefit from home ownership changes is ‘a lot of people’

One of the criticisms of the help-to-buy equity scheme is that it would only be open to 40,000 people. Clare O’Neil says in the context of the first home owners market, that is “a lot of people”.

We’re in a market where about 100,000 people are buying their first home each year. We’d be adding 10,000 additional people to that.

So that’s 10,000 people whose lives are changed. There’s not many moments in the parliament where we get the power to make a difference that big and I’d say you can have debates about the merits of this scheme, but 40,000 people having their lives transformed by government is a pretty big and important thing.

Updated

Labor accuses Greens of ‘voting against their own policy’ over housing bill block

On the negotiation stall, Clare O’Neil blamed the Greens:

We’ve had a number of attempts to get to a position of reaching agreement about this so we can get the help to people who need it but I have to tell you, the distinct impression I get is that Greens in particular don’t really want to see this bill pass the parliament.

What they’re saying is they would prefer to have a fight over making real progress for real people.

I say to all your viewers at home this is not an abstract political debate. This is 40,000 actual people, actual childcare workers, actual aged care workers, whose lives will be transformed if we’re able to get this bill through the parliament and I remind your viewers too that it’s Greens party policy to build a scheme like this – they’re effectively going into the parliament and voting against their own policy and that tells us very clearly that this is all about politics.

We want to make progress, progress for real people and that’s why we’re bringing this back in to try to get it through the parliament.

Updated

Labor to reintroduce housing bills despite no agreements in negotiations

The government has not budged on negotiations for either of its housing bills.

The Greens want changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, rent caps and more affordable homes built by the government.

The Coalition hasn’t set out its demands as clearly (it pretty much said no from the outset) but it has been pushing its own plans to make superannuation available for first home buyers.

But the government hasn’t exactly come to the table on either of these. So why is it reintroducing the help to buy equity scheme in the Senate this week?

The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, told ABC News Breakfast:

This is a really important piece of legislation that’s going to help 40,000 childcare workers, factory workers, cleaners, get into home ownership in circumstances where they’d otherwise have no real chance of doing so.

This is exactly what citizens expect of the parliament at a time like this.

We’ve got a housing crisis on our hands in this country and it’s affecting terribly the lives of people around the nation, but particularly those low- and middle-income earners who are stuck in a rent trap.

This is not the full answer, of course, for all those people but it’s a really important part of the answer and the Greens and the Liberals are today standing in the path of these very deserving people from getting government support to help put a secure roof over their head and they need to be accountable for that.

Updated

So what’s that ARC research project on islands actually about, anyway?

A blog watcher has taken the trouble to look up the research project that has Liberal MP James Stevens all hot and bothered, Archipelagic Connections in Australian and Pacific Literature:

Australia is often defined as an isolated island-continent, ‘girt by sea’. This project aims to challenge this protectionist myth by analysing literary and historical connections between different geographical sites that have been represented as enclosed in Australian history.

It expects to offer new interpretations of interconnected narratives of Aboriginal Australian, South Sea Islander and migrant enclosure in Australian literature.

The project will provide significant benefits, a more inclusive and situated understanding of Australia’s connections to the Pacific region, the intersections between colonisation, enslavement, and border protection, and Aboriginal, South Sea Islander, and migrant literatures.

Well smash us down and call us avocado – turns out that the research project is a lot more in-depth than what the Coalition would have you believe.

The national interest test statement that accompanies every successful research grant says the project “reconsiders Australia’s ‘girt by sea’ image through a literary and historical analysis of continuities between various sites of isolation and enclosure: islands, reserves, and detention centres”.

The project also contributes to national strategic initiatives into the ‘truth telling’ on Australia’s past relations to Aboriginal Australians and the study of environmental change in islands and archipelagos.

So there you go.

You can read more about projects awarded ARC grants, and why – here.

Updated

This week’s parliamentary gameplan

It’s a short parliament week (the public holiday in Canberra yesterday meant the parliament didn’t sit), so you just have to sit through three question times (huzzah).

But in those three days the government plans on reintroducing the Help To Buy legislation (the shared equity housing scheme) back into the Senate. The Greens and the Coalition still don’t support it, so at this stage in the game, it is about making a point.

(I don’t think anyone, including the government, believes they are actually going to pull the double dissolution trigger over this.)

Updated

Former defence head of Netherlands to address National Press Club

A former chief of defence of the Netherlands will warn of the increasing national security challenges posed by the climate crisis when he addresses the National Press Club in Canberra today.

Tom Middendorp, who is now chair of the International Military Council on Climate and Security, said in a statement issued in advance of his speech:

Climate change is undoubtedly the biggest gamechanger of this century. It affects not just our environment, but also our economies and security in profound ways.

For Australia and its region, the escalating climate impacts – ranging from food and water insecurity to displacement and conflict – demand urgent, coordinated action.

Our security challenges are increasingly being shaped by climate risks, and how we respond today will define the future stability of our region and beyond.

Also today, the former Australian defence force chief Chris Barrie will launch the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group’s action plan titled “Protect, Prevent and Prepare”. Barrie said:

All the billions of resources being put into confronting China will not help one iota in dealing with the greatest threat to our future security in Australia and the region – and that is climate disruption.

Updated

Opposition wade into research grants funding, again

There is a lot happening in the world, and Australia at the moment, which of course means the opposition is looking at … research grants. Specifically, the merit of projects granted an Australian Research Council grant.

The Albanese government set up a review of how the grants operated and then introduced legislation to meet the recommendations of that review, which included setting up an independent board which made decisions on the grants without political interference.

The SA Liberal MP James Stevens still wants to make an issue of the grants though, and so an “opposition analysis” of the grants has been carried out. Spoiler: he is not happy:

…Over $20m of taxpayer money has been awarded to academics for research such as “identifying the causes of gender bias in the staged English-language translations of ancient Greek tragedy” and challenging the “protectionist myth” that Australia is in fact an island continent.

These examples are just two of more than 20 projects identified by the opposition as lacking any clear benefit to the Australian community.

The island research has really sparked his annoyance:

Committing almost half a million dollars to challenge the fact that Australia is an island continent is farcical.

The same fund that is supporting important research into extreme weather events, space exploration and human brain function, has also allocated $3.7m to explore “innovative musical approaches” to “multispecies justice”. It is utterly absurd.

And of course, coming at this point of the electoral cycle, it was also be linked to cost of living:

These academic thought bubbles could not be further removed from the challenges of everyday Australians who are struggling to pay their household bills.

Australians know our country is an island. What they don’t know is why the Albanese government thinks we need to spend half a million dollars to challenge it.

There is academic debate within the geographical community over Australia’s island status. Many think it is too big to be an island, and because it sits on its own tectonic plate it doesn’t get island status – it’s a continent.

The ARC awards grants in a variety of areas.

(And Liberal ministers have a habit of having a spray at ARC funding, to the detriment of our research sector – see below from 2022.)

Updated

Good morning

Hello, and welcome to the first sitting day of the parliamentary week.

Thank you to Martin for taking us through the morning. You have Amy Remeikis with you now to take you through the parliament day, along with the Canberra team of Karen Middleton, Paul Karp, Daniel Hurst, Sarah Basford Canales and Josh Butler. We have Mike Bowers with us and he is already walking the hallways.

Ready? Coffee number two is on the stove and there is a florentine biscuit that will do for breakfast.

Let’s get into it.

Updated

Government's Gaza response backed by poll jump

The latest Guardian Essential poll shows a five-point jump in satisfaction with the federal government’s response to the Israel-Gaza war since the question was last asked in August.

Respondents were asked to think about the Australian government’s response to the Israel-Gaza war and to select the option closest to their view. The majority – 56% – chose “I am satisfied with the government’s response”, an increase from the 51% result in the previous poll.

A further 30% said the government’s response had been “too supportive of Israel” while 14% said the government’s response had been “too harsh on Israel”.

Younger voters were more likely than older voters to view the government’s response as too supportive of Israel.

The Coalition has accused the government of having “abandoned Israel”, whereas the Greens have slammed the government for failing to impose sanctions on members of “the extremist Netanyahu government”.

But the latest Essential poll indicates that about 57% of Coalition voters and 49% of Greens voters are satisfied with the Labor government’s response. Some 61% of Labor voters say the same.

Power unions question Coalition nuclear plans in new ads

The power industry union has launched an advertising campaign questioning the Coalition’s proposal to build nuclear reactors in Australia.

The video advertisements question the $600bn price tag to build nuclear reactors, in contrast to advances in battery technology and the strength of Australia’s renewable industry.

The campaign will launch initially for viewers across Queensland exposed to plans for nuclear energy, before expanding ahead of the 2025 federal election.

The ETU’s national secretary, Michael Wright, said the ads were prompted by electrical workers’ concerns that an abrupt shift towards nuclear would rob the industry of a jobs and skills boom, particularly in regional areas.

Renewables and batteries in Australia are producing so much low-cost energy we are on track to hit climate targets. This will create nearly 100,000 more jobs for electricians by 2050 – so many that we need to rewire our training system to skill up enough people.

Updated

More from the arrival of repatriation flights from Lebanon

More from the scenes at Sydney airport last night as Australians were reunited with their loved ones returning from Lebanon.

Ahmad Hamid embraced his children and thanked the Australian government for helping them get home safely. “We got our kids back from Lebanon, from the war. Thank you very much,” he said.

“The situation is very bad (in Lebanon) – the war and the airplanes.

“We spent 10 days on the phone every night. We couldn’t sleep, especially with three kids there.”

Updated

Flight lands in Sydney from Beirut

A government-assisted flight touched down in Sydney last night with hundreds of Australians and their families on board fleeing Israel’s growing assault on Lebanon, Australian Associated Press reports.

Dana Hamieh was among the 349 people who arrived in Sydney on the Qatar Airways flight after fleeing the Lebanese capital of Beirut. “We were lucky to get out of there because as we were at the airport they were bombing the surrounding suburbs,” she said.

“It was a very difficult situation to be in. Leaving our homes, our parents’ homeland and our houses and friends and relatives.”

Thousands more are expected to follow, with almost 3,800 Australians and immediate family members registered to depart with the Department of Foreign Affairs. They will travel from Lebanon into Larnaca in Cyprus before returning to Australia on connecting flights.

In two weeks, Israel’s bombing campaign has killed more than 1,400 Lebanese people and left another 1.2 million without homes.

Two more flights were also scheduled to leave Beirut today.

Passengers will be met by Australian Red Cross crew, including psychological first aid provisions, in Sydney and will then be flown on to their nearest airport.

Medical personnel will also be onboard the flight to provide assistance and a second flight will leave tomorrow and arrive back in Australia on Thursday.

The federal government is working to secure further seats on commercial airlines out of Lebanon, but the foreign minister, Penny Wong, noted flights out “are subject to security and operational restrictions”.

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog (yes, it’s a sitting week in Canberra). I’m Martin Farrer, bringing you the top overnight stories before Amy Remeikis takes the wheel.

The events of the Middle East continue to dominate the domestic news agenda today. There were jeers for Anthony Albanese in Melbourne and cheers for Peter Dutton in Sydney at events held by the Jewish community to mark the first anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel. A large crowd also gathered outside Sydney Town Hall last night “to honour and mourn and remember” Palestinian and Lebanese lives lost.

The gatherings came as a Qatar Airways flight carrying 349 people fleeing destruction in Beirut arrived back in Australia as part of the government’s efforts to repatriate people from the war-torn nation. More details to follow.

Amid the discussion about protests in Australia and finger-pointing by politicians, we have a powerful story from an Australian health worker in Gaza who gives a blunt assessment of what people back home need to know about the situation in the besieged territory after a year of war. “… it is worse than you can imagine,” Sally Stevenson says. “The destruction is everywhere, as far as the eye can see, it is in the air we breathe. There is no safe place in Gaza. For anyone, especially children.”

Our latest Essential poll, published today, shows Australians appear ready for more radical solutions to the cost-of-living crisis, with price caps on rent, groceries and energy bills topping a list of possible reforms with 70% support. Half those asked were in favour of reducing “tax breaks like negative gearing”. They were also asked about the government’s response to the Israel-Gaza war and 50% said they thought Labor had done well.

And the ETU, the Electrical Trades Union, has launched an advertising plan questioning the Coalition’s plan to build nuclear power plants in Australia. More on that in a few minutes.

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