What we learned, Thursday 30 May
And that’s where we’ll wrap up this evening. Here’s a snapshot of what we learned today:
The Labor senator Fatima Payman has resigned from two parliamentary committees, after speaking out in recent weeks to accuse the Israeli government of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and using the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
At Senate estimates, ABC managing director, David Anderson, defended journalist Laura Tingle against what he called this week’s “frankly vicious attacks”.
The immigration minister, Andrew Giles, has revealed the government is using drones to track the 153 people released from immigration detention as a result of the high court’s ruling on indefinite detention.
Officials from the Attorney General’s Department have refused to speculate on how Australia would act if the international criminal court issues an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister.
The Ukrainian president and European Union ambassadors have privately urged the Australian government to send a high-level minister to a peace summit in Switzerland to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The parliamentary human rights committee has recommended the creation of a federal Human Rights Act.
The federal government has committed $107m to help people who are still in the live sheep export trade (by sea) transition by 1 May 2028.
The Greens will introduce an amendment to the prominence and anti-siphoning bill to ensure sport remains on free-to-air television.
Coles and Woolworths have been granted a 10-month reprieve to help deal with the 11,000-tonne mountain of soft plastics discovered after the demise of recycling program, REDcycle.
The NSW health minister has warned of a “triple threat of flu, Covid and RSV” this winter, which has already resulted in a surge of emergency department presentations.
China lifted most of its sanctions on Australian beef exports.
Mining company BHP has given up on its attempts to buy rival miner Anglo American for $75bn in what would have been the biggest takeover deal in Australian history.
More than half of the nation’s gas exports attract zero royalty payments, Australia Institute research has found, effectively giving away a public resource to multinational corporations for free.
Thanks for your company today. We’ll be back with more live news tomorrow morning, bright and early. See you then.
Updated
David Anderson rejects suggestion ABC cowered to ‘News Corp pile-on’ over Tingle comments
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has told Senate estimates there are many people who are upset that Laura Tingle was counselled by ABC management because they agree with what she said.
Hanson-Young asked ABC managing director if the ABC has “cowered to a News Corp pile-on”.
David Anderson agreed it was a News Corp pile-on but denied the ABC was cowering or had reacted to the Australian’s criticism:
Yes, it was a News Corp pile-on but we are not cowering.
Anderson said he thinks Tingle’s writers’ festival comments have hurt the ABC and the journalist herself partly because they have been unfairly reported by some media:
I will say that you know, some media organisations have really taken this and run with it. There is also social media trolling happening for our people as well. Again, all of which is hurtful to both individuals and the ABC itself. So that’s why I, like Ms Tingle, are regretful that this is the situation that we’re in.
Anderson agreed that News Corp was “obsessed” with the ABC but disagreed the corporation should be banning its journalists from ABC platforms.
Updated
Coalition ‘appalled’ by guilty verdicts given to ‘Hong Kong 47’ pro-democracy campaigners
The shadow minister for foreign affairs, Simon Birmingham, has released a statement saying the Coalition is “appalled” by the guilty verdicts handed down against 14 people who were part of the pro-democracy campaigners known as the “Hong Kong 47”. One of the people found guilty is a dual Hong Kong-Australian national.
Birmingham said:
We urge the Albanese Government to raise Australia’s concerns, particularly for Mr Ng as well as other defenders of democracy and basic rights, with both Hong Kong and Chinese authorities.
The decimation of freedoms and rights in Hong Kong in recent years is a tragedy that cannot and should not be put in the rear view mirror. The Chinese Government’s actions warrant constant and consistent pressure from Australia and nations which also valued the freedoms and rights that Beijing promised to uphold in Hong Kong but has instead destroyed.
The Coalition offers its strong bipartisan support for all actions that send a clear message opposing the diminution of rights and freedoms for the people of Hong Kong. We continue to call for reinstatement of those rights previously guaranteed by the Basic Law and Sino-British Joint Declaration.
Two Australian residents from Hong Kong still have a bounty over their heads from Hong Kong authorities seeking their return to face trial for their support of pro-democracy activities. This action must be dropped for the two Australians as well as others outside of Hong Kong.
The blatant destruction of individual human rights in Hong Kong cannot and should not be forgotten or accepted by Australia.
Updated
The committee was also told Stefanic and Saunders continued to work together for eight months after the conflict was declared until Saunders went on a temporary secondment to Services Australia in April 2023 and did not return.
In October, six months into the temporary secondment, Saunders retired from the public service after being offered an incentive-to-retire payment worth $315,126.
Earlier on Thursday, de Brouwer said Woolcott had told him that Woolcott and Stefanic had discussed moving the deputy secretary to another workplace to manage the conflict of interest as early as August 2022.
De Brouwer also confirmed Stefanic had come to see him in June 2023 about presenting the perceived conflict of interest with Saunders – who had already left DPS on secondment – to the presiding officers, the Senate president, Sue Lines, and the speaker, Milton Dick.
But a few hours later, de Brouwer clarified the earlier discussions between Stefanic and Woolcott hadn’t been a “formal” declaration.
He didn’t make the declaration to the presiding officers at that stage [when talking to Woolcott]. He made that declaration later, because he was raising questions around what does this constitute? … the purpose of raising it with Peter Woolcott was to get his counsel and guidance on these issues.
De Brouwer added “there was not a relationship” – a romantic one – between Stefanic and Saunders and “that was very firmly conveyed” by Stefanic.
On Tuesday, Stefanic told the hearing it is a “close friendship” and he only made the conflict of interest due to “gossip” and “rumour” within department.
Updated
The Australian Public Service commissioner, Gordon de Brouwer, has clarified some of his earlier evidence in Senate estimates relating to exactly when a parliamentary services boss formally declared a conflict of interest relating to a close personal relationship with his deputy.
Shortly before 4pm, Liberal senator Jane Hume sought to clarify the timeline presented to estimates on Tuesday by the Department of Parliamentary Services secretary, Rob Stefanic and by de Brouwer on Thursday.
De Brouwer responded that the conflict-of-interest declaration Stefanic made to former APS commissioner, Peter Woolcott, was much “more nuanced” than interpreted earlier in Thursday’s hearing and Stefanic’s reference to it being a “declaration” was a “shorthand way of saying this was a complicated thing”:
I know that the secretary used the word – he made a declaration – but having gone through the conversations with Mr Woolcott and with the secretary, he raised a series of concerns about whether there is a conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest … I think those things have all been conflated into a declaration to the commissioner on August 22, that there was a conflict of interest … my understanding is that that conversation was much more nuanced.
Under questioning by senators on Tuesday, Stefanic said he made a formal declaration of conflict to the then APS commissioner Woolcott in regards to the personal relationship with then deputy Cate Saunders in August 2022 but said there was no documentation of it to his knowledge.
Continued in next post
Updated
Labor senator Fatima Payman steps down from two parliamentary committees
The Labor senator Fatima Payman has resigned from two parliamentary committees, after speaking out in recent weeks to accuse the Israeli government of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and using the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
Earlier this week, Payman, a backbench first-term senator, labelled Israel’s strike on a displaced persons’ camp in Rafah “deplorable” and called on her own government to stop trade with Israel and recognise a Palestinian state.
When Payman spoke out to accuse Israel of genocide on 15 May, she said her “conscience has been uneasy for far too long”.
Prominent mainstream Jewish groups have labelled the “river to the sea” chant as “hateful”, but defenders of the phrase say it has a variety of meanings and can also refer to equal democratic rights and freedom for all Israelis and Palestinians.
The Liberal MP Julian Leeser told parliament on 16 May that the phrase “demands the destruction of the Jewish state” and asked the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to “show strong, not weak, leadership and remove Senator Payman from the joint standing committee on foreign affairs, defence and trade”.
The next day, Payman told Guardian Australia she used the phrase to assert “a desire for Palestinians to live in their homeland as free and equal citizens, neither dominating others nor being dominated over”.
A government spokesperson said in a brief statement late today:
Senator Payman has resigned from the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee.
The government’s policy is clear – we support a two-state solution.
Payman, who remains a senator, has been contacted for comment.
Updated
ABC managing director defends Laura Tingle in Senate estimates
Laura Tingle is one of the most respected and admired journalists in the country and does not deserve the “ferocity and frankly vicious attacks” we have seen this week, ABC managing director David Anderson has told Senate estimates.
Anderson clarified that Tingle was not spoken to by the news director Justin Stevens for her racist country statements but it was in relation to the opposition’s post-budget policy position on immigration.
Anderson said:
As 7.30 chief political correspondent, Ms Tingle is required to ensure her comments, even at an external event, have sufficient context to support the statements made.
Contrary to some media reports, the issue Mr Stevens raised with her was not a response to Laura calling out racism in Australia. The issue was the public comments at the recent Sydney Writers’ Festival did not provide the relevant context and explanation to support her analysis of the opposition’s post-budget policy position on immigration.
Updated
If you’re looking for a quick catch-up on the news of the day (if, for some reason, you haven’t been glued to this here liveblog since 6.30am), the Afternoon Update is out now:
And with all of that, I will hand you over to Steph Convery to take you through the evening.
There is no house sitting tomorrow, but estimates will continue and the team will make sure you are up to date with everything you need to know there.
A very big thank you to everyone who followed along with me this week – you make it all worthwhile. I’ll be back early Monday morning for the next week of house sittings and estimates, but until then – take care of you. Ax
Coles and Woolworths given extension to deal with soft plastics in storage from REDcycle collapse
Coles and Woolworths have been granted a 10-month reprieve to help deal with the 11,000-tonne mountain of soft plastics discovered after the demise of recycling program, REDcycle.
NSW’s Environment Protection Agency this month gave the supermarkets an extension to comply with clean-up notices issued last year to address the fire and pollution risks posed by 5,000 tonnes of soft plastic material stored in 15 stockpiles across NSW.
The supermarkets moved the waste plastic – much of it packaging from supermarket-bought foods – to safe storage as an interim measure while seeking alternatives to landfill.
NSW EPA director of operations, Adam Gilligan, said that revising the time period “gives the supermarkets an opportunity to secure a solution for the material so that the vast majority of the material doesn’t end up in landfill”.
We know the public, who diligently collected and dropped off their soft plastics, has been disappointed in Redcycle and the best outcome for this material is to see it recycled and reprocessed.”
Updated
Joyce: we don’t want ‘solar factories’ in our back yards
And of course, the conversation goes to nuclear. Barnaby Joyce is not letting go of the dream. Asked by Anne Aly where the nuclear reactors would go, Joyce says:
What you should do is say to people I know there are some concerns so here’s the deal; if you can see it, your power’s for free. If you are within 50km of it [we] will give you half-price power and you’ll get some towns thinking you put on that hill and paint it red.
Aly suggests he offer his colleagues that solution, to calm down the “not in my back yard” crowd.
Joyce goes classic Joyce and says:
If you want to know what we don’t want in our back yard, it’s no solar factories* no transmission lines, solar factories and wind turbine factories from every part of the world with Chinese, Nigerians, or coming in and making it and it’s pensioners who end up paying the power bill.
*We are not sure, but we think a “solar factory” might be “the sun” in which case, no, I don’t think anyone wants the sun in their back yard, that is probably correct.
Updated
Barnaby Joyce says some things in response to Anne Aly, but I have not had to decipher Joyce for some time and am not match fit.
Joyce:
I think like I’m going crazy we [the Coalition] did not bring in directive 99, the Labor party brought it in, Mr Albanese brought in because the basically the acting prime minister of Australia, Jacinda Ardern, wanted it brought it in and all these problems are from directive 99 not from any directive that we had, it is the Labor party’s directive.
I must be living in an alternate universe if this is where it came from.
And I was born in Australia, Tamworth-based hospital 1967, 20 past four, I asked my mother about it. (This is in response to him being a New Zealand citizen under section 44, through his New Zealand-born father)
That would make him an Aries (sun) Aries rising and Cancer moon for all our astrology girlies out there. (We are assuming he was born in the morning)
Updated
New Zealand agreement about giving ‘people like Barnaby a pathway to citizenship’
Anne Aly manages to get a word in following Barnaby Joyce’s rant on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing:
The agreement with the New Zealand prime minister was about giving New Zealanders who have lived a long time in Australia, people like Barnaby, a pathway to citizenship in Australia, that has worked extremely well. I go to citizenship ceremonies as I’m sure you do and there are a number of people who have been in Australia for such a long time you are New Zealanders are grateful for the opportunity to now has become citizens.
That was as far as it goes. Active 99 as I have said has not and does not differ substantially from previous directives.
Those decisions were made by an AAT, a Liberal stacked AAT that made the same decisions on several occasions prior to us coming into government including the release of 102 sex offenders and 40 violent domestic violence actors.
Updated
‘Labor member for Bass’: McKenzie has hot-mic moment
Just circling back to an earlier exchange in the Rural and Regional Affairs committee. We’re just catching you up on another hot-mic incident from a little earlier today.
It’s in the context of a jolly exchange between agriculture minister Murray Watt and Tasmanian Liberal Jonathon Duniam, about a recent forestry event in Tasmania that Duniam missed.
Duniam observes that his Tasmanian Liberal colleague, Bridget Archer, the Member for Bass, attended.
Sitting beside Duniam, Nationals senate leader Bridget McKenzie breaks into a slow smile and can’t resist a jibe at her often-outspoken Coalition colleague and namesake.
The Labor member for Bass.
McKenzie says under her breath.
And then she repeats it, as Duniam stifles a laugh and gives her a shut-up tap on the arm.
McKenzie chuckles and makes faces at others off camera who clearly heard the remark. She says confidently to persons unseen and unheard:
Nup, the mic was off.”
‘Fraid not, senator.
Updated
Former New Zealander Barnaby Joyce declares Jacinda Ardern ‘prime minister of Australia’ over directive 99
Barnaby Joyce, who used to be a New Zealander (and was nominated for New Zealander of the year, during the section 44 times) gives former-former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern a promotion by declaring she was “prime minister of Australia”.
He tells the ABC:
This [ministerial direction 99] is payment to Jacinda.
He does not say what the payment was for.
Joyce:
We do not come up with directive 99, this is a Labor party decision. She [Anne Aly, his media sparring partner in this interview] could have a job on State of Origin, I’ve never seen more dodging and swerving and evasive action to deal with the issue that this is a decision of the Labor party, that is what these people get out on the street.
99 out of 100. It was a bad decision and what we have is the Prime minister, because he does his numbers and the numbers man is more important than the fact it is a … completely incompetent ministry which otherwise, the minister [Andrew Giles] would be gone.
He then seems to remember the main talking points:
The bottom line of this, we have a weak prime minister, that is a sad thing, a weak prime minister that should have dealt with and has not dealt with it and has this myriad of dodgy, weak,excuses.
Updated
Don Farrell says discussion ongoing on increased Senate representation for the territories
The trade minister, Don Farrell, is also the special minister of state, which is a fancy way of saying he sits as the minister for a bunch of government agencies, like the electoral commission.
He is asked on the ABC whether or not he is open to increasing the representation of some states or territories in the Senate and says:
The issue of increased representation for the territories is the subject of discussion. I cannot say any agreement has been reached at this point and I have indicated all the way along in these negotiations I would like to get an agreed outcome, not a disputed outcome.
I think Australian politics works best when the political parties can work out an agreement to the future. The committee that looked at this issue recommended having a look at the issue of additional representation from the territories. I think there is an argument for it, but it is still the subject of discussions.
Updated
For those who weren’t turned into the chamber, here is the prime minister answering a question on the links between major sporting events and upticks in domestic and family violence, which was posed by independent MP Zali Steggall.
Albanese said he had met with the crossbench to discuss violence against women earlier today.
Updated
Wong responds to guilty verdicts in Hong Kong 47 trial
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has released a statement in response to the verdict in the “Hong Kong 47” trial, which included Australian citizen Gordon Ng.
We are deeply concerned by the verdicts handed down today for some members of the NSL47, including a guilty verdict for Australian citizen Mr Gordon Ng.
The Australian government raises consular and human rights concerns directly with the Hong Kong and Chinese governments regularly and at the highest levels. We will continue to do so, including in the case of Mr Ng.
We also continue to request consular access to Mr Ng from Hong Kong authorities. Noting Mr Ng has avenues of appeal available to him, I will not comment further on his case.
Australia has expressed our strong objections to the Hong Kong authorities on the continuing broad application of national security legislation to arrest and pressure pro-democracy figures, opposition groups, media, trade unions and civil society. We know that the application of these laws also has implications for individuals outside of Hong Kong, including in Australia.
The systemic erosion of Hong Kong’s rights, freedoms, autonomy and democratic processes has been consistently raised with China and Hong Kong. We have called on Hong Kong authorities to uphold those elements which have been so crucial to Hong Kong’s success, including its high degree of autonomy and the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the basic law and Sino-British joint declaration.
During China’s universal periodic review in January, we recommended China to cease suppression of freedoms of expression, assembly, media and civil society, consistent with human rights committee and special procedure recommendations, including the repeal of the national security law in Hong Kong.
Updated
Opposition asking question over drone usage to track people released from immigration detention
The shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, said he was “startled” by Andrew Giles revealing that drones are used to monitor people released from immigration detention.
Paterson said that when he was asking the Australian Border Force commissioner Michael Outram on Wednesday he “didn’t talk about drones” when asked how ex-detainees are monitored.
Paterson called on Giles to clarify how drones are used: are they above people’s houses or “following them down the street”?
Paterson - whose Coalition favours ankle bracelets and curfews - said without “any clarity” on how drones are being used he couldn’t say if he is in favour.
Updated
Deakin University apologies after admitting to multimillion-dollar wage theft
Deakin University has admitted to multimillion-dollar wage theft after a two year campaign by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU).
On Wednesday, the vice-chancellor, Prof Iain Martin, wrote to staff admitting it had disclosed the “inadvertent underpayment” of some sessional academics to the Fair Work Ombudsman.
I sincerely apologise on behalf of the university and particularly to those affected. This should not have occurred. We are working hard to identify the extent of the issue across the university, fully remediate affected staff and improve our systems and processes.
The underpayments related to the misapplication of marking formulas used to calculate pay, which meant some sessional academics were not paid for the actual hours they worked. Two affected schools had so far been identified.
The NTEU estimates the payments could exceed $10m, with some individuals underpaid more than $45,000. It lodged a dispute with management in 2022 alleging systemic underpayments of sessional staff for marking, which it alleges is widespread across the organisation.
NTEU’s Victorian division secretary, Sarah Roberts, said the two-year delay was a “disgrace”.
As late as February this year, management was still insisting the piece rate used to fleece workers didn’t exist – despite staff presenting rock solid evidence.
The admission comes just a day after the University of Queensland revealed it owed $8m in wage theft.
Updated
Case of Robert Jovicic raised over directions decision
Over on Sky News, James Paterson is asked about a Howard government decision to deport someone to Serbia where they had no connections, did not speak the language and no family support and ended up homeless. The context is whether or not decisions to report people who don’t have citizenship but have grown up in Australia with no connection to their birth nation can sometimes go too far.
Robert Jovicic had come to Australia when he was two, but was deported as an adult after serving time in prison for burglary. He was allowed to return to Australia 3.5 years after he was deported on compassionate grounds, and given permanent residency under the 2007 Rudd government.
Paterson, who has been blessed/cursed (depending on how you see it) with what appears to be an ageless face (and some colleagues believe is the reason he grew a beard) is forced to say he was “in high school when that happened” and therefore doesn’t have much idea about it.
Updated
Question time ends
There are four more next week.
Huzzah.
Allegra Spender asks Milton Dick to clarify a question that was raised by Monique Ryan yesterday – is it necessary, under the standing orders, for the opposition to include things like the nationality of the people they are talking about in the questions over ministerial direction 99?
Spender and Ryan’s point is that the inclusion of things like nationality is unnecessary to the question, because the question’s point is about the direction being used to overturn visa cancellations.
They think that the inclusion of things like nationality in this context – particularly since the opposition has also been outlining the crimes or alleged crimes – is dog whistling.
Dick says he is not going to make a blanket ruling that no details can be used, but he is going to keep an eye on any future questions, taking their points into consideration.
Updated
Another question over direction 99 and NZ
Dan Tehan is back! What a treat this last week has been.
My question is to the Prime Minister in a home affairs brief to the immigration minister dated 8th of August 2022, it states and I quote ‘at the recent Australia New Zealand leaders meeting, the Prime Minister committed to a common sense approach to the removal of New Zealand citizens long-term resident in Australia’. Is this brief accurate?
Anthony Albanese:
So let me get this right about the question. It’s a question about a brief from one minister, not from my department, from another department to a minister of which I wasn’t a party to either. So it’s not from me or to me. And I obviously haven’t seen the brief.
There are the longest points of order and responses and it’s all a bit ridiculous, because Albanese is talking about the brief, so therefore he is in order under the standing orders, and all of this is time that we will never get back.
Albanese:
Mr Speaker, so I’m asked about a brief that I haven’t seen that wasn’t from me. That wasn’t to me. So I haven’t seen it. I haven’t seen it. What order?
…What I do know, Mr Speaker, what I do know is that [Peter Dutton did] decide a 45-year-old New Zealand man convicted of three charges of an indecent act with a child under 16 should be allowed to stay in Australia.
The decision was made in accordance with ministerial directions 79, which was issued by the leader of the opposition’s junior minister, the member for Banks, and which directed decision-makers to apply the principle that Australia may afford a higher level of tolerance of criminal conduct in relation to non-citizens who had lived in Australia for most of their life.
Updated
A public coda to the PM’s note on violence against women
Paul Karp is in the chamber and hears someone yell down to the MPs from the public gallery:
And personally [something] all the men on the floor of the house need to address!
They leave after imparting their message.
Updated
Albanese says ‘whole of society’ in addition to ‘men in particular’ must be engaged on issue of violence against women
(continued from previous post)
Anthony Albanese goes through what the government has previously announced and adds:
There is nothing wrong with having a beer, there is something wrong with excessive consumption leading to the violence that does tragically occur too much. This is something that the whole of society has to confront, and men in particular have to take responsibility … for changing attitudes, changing culture, because it demeans everyone, it demeans women.
It can lead, of course, tragically, to death. It has an impact on children and we often see people who have experienced and witnessed violence against their mums. Tragically, it being repeated through generations.
But it also harms men. It harms all of us when we don’t have good relations that are respectful.
That’s something that brings joy to people regardless of their gender. And it’s something that should not be taken for granted as something that’s a benefit of a society like Australia.
Unfortunately, it’s not.
But I thank the member for, for her question. I thank her and others as well.
Can I refer to the member for Curtin who rang me over the weekend and we had a discussion about a dreadful violent incident, in her electorate on the weekend.
Tragically … every weekend, every week. Every month, every year. There’s just too much of this. And it is something that we in this House have a responsibility to address. State governments who are the front line of community service delivery, have a responsibility to address. But our whole society needs to be engaged with as well.
Updated
Zali Steggall targets role of alcohol and gambling in domestic violence
Independent MP Zali Steggall has the next independent’s question and she asks:
To the Prime Minister, next week on State of Origin game night. statistics show that women and children in New South Wales are almost 40% more likely to experience domestic violence.
Alcohol and gambling are known drivers of domestic violence and government violence prevention frameworks in Australia have been reluctant to tackle [the] multibillion-dollar alcohol and gambling industries.
When will your government take greater steps to regulate these harmful industries to keep Australian women save in this national crisis and encourage greater prevention strategies and sporting codes like the NRL.
Anthony Albanese said he had a “very constructive” discussion with her and the other crossbenchers today “about this critical issue”.
Violence against and is indeed a national crisis and I except completely the startling statistics that the member raised with me earlier today about a spike that will occur when a major sporting events like the State of Origin game being held next Wednesday night is held and that there is a link, of course we know, between alcohol, excessive alcohol consumption and domestic violence, most tragically.
The solutions to that, of course, are not simple.
We don’t have barriers in this country to people having a beer or a glass of wine. And, therefore, we need to make sure that we put in place measures that do make a difference, so recognising those that, and I accept that the member has brought forward.
Preventing violence against is a priority of this government as part of our commitment to gender equity that we regard as one of the things we want to be characterised by.
We need to focus on prevention but we also need to focus on perpetrators and I thank the member’s question goes to that responsibility of sporting codes as well. And can I say this from my experience, a range of the football codes do significant work out there, when in peer groups, if you like, are promoting safety and promoting good behaviour.
(continued in next post)
Updated
Jacinda Ardern questions dominate question time
Here is how all the Jacinda Ardern questions kicked off.
I hope someone lets New Zealand’s former former prime minister (there has been another two since she led the country) know that there are those who believe she had much more power over Australian policy than she might have suspected.
This figure is a little dated, so take it with a grain of salt, but in the 2022 Lowy Institute poll, 87% of the Australians surveyed expressed either “a lot” or “some” confidence in New Zealand’s then prime minister Jacinda Ardern “to do the right thing” on international issues.
Updated
Uno over direction 99 questions in the House of Reps
Dan Tehan is up next in QT:
My question as to the prime minister. At the Australia-New Zealand leaders meeting on 8 July 2022, did the prime minister commit to change the ministerial direction regarding the removal of New Zealand citizens?
Anthony Albanese:
The shadow minister who I think held this portfolio at one stage talks as if direction 99, the premise of this is that it set an entirely new standard, when he knows that it did not.
Direction 90 talked of a higher level of tolerance for criminals who have lived in the Australian community for most of their lives. Direction 79, signed by Mr Coleman in 2018 ...
Tehan has a point of order. Tony Burke reverses uno his point of order with a point of order of his own. Milton Dick looks like he wants to skip a turn, but he can’t, so he just says that Albanese is being relevant but he will be listening to make sure he stays relevant.
Albanese:
If the minister or the former minister or anyone who had been involved in any process at international levels thinks that you said down and you go through directions in ministerial guidelines you are just wrong. You are just completely wrong. That is absurd.
And that is why the premise of this question is wrong.
Directions 90, 79, and 65 all said that Australia may afford a higher level of tolerance for people based upon how long they had been in Australia.
The premise of this dry gully that the opposition is going down is completely wrong, as evidenced by the number of people who were released into the community on this minister’s watch, who is now the leader of the opposition, when he was the minister because of decisions that were overturned by the AAT, they are appointments that were made.
Updated
Australia to also miss UN tribute for late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi
Cutting away from question time for a moment:
Australian officials will stay away when the UN general assembly holds a tribute to the late former Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, later today.
Reuters reported yesterday that the 193-member general assembly traditionally met to pay tribute to any world leader who was a sitting head of state at the time of their death, but the US planned to boycott today’s event for Raisi.
Guardian Australia has confirmed that no Australian official will attend the general assembly tribute to Raisi, who died in a helicopter crasher earlier this month.
Earlier today, the Coalition’s assistant spokesperson for foreign affairs, Claire Chandler, issued a statement saying the Australian government had “a moral obligation to boycott today’s appalling UN general assembly tribute to the man known to many Iranians as the Butcher of Tehran”.
Chandler said:
The actions of the UN in organising this tribute and by senior officials paying personal tributes to Raisi have appalled many in the Iranian diaspora community.
Updated
eSafety commisioner denies designs on global censorship
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has said her office has “no designs” on monitoring or censoring the internet globally, in her first estimates appearance since the battle between her office and X began over seeking the removal of 65 tweets containing videos of the Wakeley stabbing attack.
Inman Grant said under her powers she doesn’t have the option of saying just remove content from Australia considering most of the content sits on servers overseas:
The server sits largely on servers in California, it sits in one place when it is removed. And the general practice of all of these companies is to remove illegal content like terrorist content or anything inciting crime and violence and child sexual abuse material.
And that prevents the circulation of this content from continuing to be live. And, we already know that there’s this new tsunami of this content and that we’re never going to sterilise the internet.
But I think it’s really important just to underscore, we respond to reports from Australians. We respond to their concerns.
Inman Grant also sought to correct claims reported in the Australian that she had a conflict of interest in her seeking the removal of a tweet alleged to be bullying a transgender man given she had appeared in a press release with the man. Inman Grant said she had never met the man in question, and had no involvement in the decision to issue X with a removal notice - she was in the US tending to her mother in hospital when it was issued by a delegate.
Updated
Victorian student protests wrap pro-Palestine uni encampments as University of Sydney movement continues
Melbourne’s sole remaining student encampment has packed up for the end of semester, but pro-Palestine protestors vow they will not stop lobbying for universities to disclose and divest ties to weapons manufacturers.
After almost four weeks of occupying the Alumni courtyard, RMIT’s Students for Palestine group held a closing rally today alongside staff and union representatives. They follow Deakin, La Trobe, Monash and Melbourne University in wrapping up their camps.
Liam Ward, a lecturer at RMIT and union branch committee member, said Israeli forces were destroying universities and schools in Gaza.
It’s scholasticide. And yet where are our university’s leaders? Where is their outrage at this wilful destruction of all they claim to hold dear?
Gemma Seymour, a student at RMIT and organiser of the encampment, said over the past three days they had been outraged by footage of children and families in Rafah being “blown apart and burnt alive”.
We will not sit still while Gaza is bombed and we will not sit still while our university allows this to happen.
In New South Wales, protestors at the University of Sydney are continuing with their encampment, after refusing a series of concessions offered by the vice chancellor, Mark Scott. Today, students are holding a picket outside the finance committee, in protest of the university’s ties to weapons companies including Lockheed Martin.
RIGHT NOW 📍at F23! We've just heard Lockheed Martin is meeting with our uni in this building! Shame!!! Blood is on your hands. #freepalestine 🇵🇸🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/rC8k6XkAv1
— USyd Students for Palestine (@SFP_USyd) May 29, 2024
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Milton Dick says former senator Nova Peris is in the gallery.
Peter Dutton is among those giving her a big wave.
LNP MP Michelle Landry then asks:
Was direction 99 an initiative of the Minister?
Andrew Giles:
Yes. (That is the whole answer)
Albanese directs direction 99 question to relevant minister
Nationals MP Kevin Hogan asks:
Prime Minister, did you receive any advice that your direction 99 would result in more criminals having to stay in Australia?
Anthony Albanese:
That is a question appropriately given to the minister. It is not my direction.
The opposition benches erupt, the Labor benches erupt in response and there are never-ending points of order about relevance and whether or not a minister who has had a question wrongly directed to them can even be irrelevant, and then Albanese finishes with:
The premise of the question is wrong. As the former minister knows, because he issued these directions himself, directions that resulted in almost 1,300 hard-core criminals being released from immigration detention centres, as he knows, these are extensive documents that come from ministers.
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Albanese denies giving corporations guarantee over lack of climate trigger
Brisbane Greens member Stephen ‘let my lack of tie continue to trigger every National MP’ Bates got a question in there:
Today’s media are reporting that you gave big corporations an iron-clad guarantee that new environment laws would not include a climate trigger to stop more coal and gas mines.
Prime Minister, did you give such a guarantee, when did you give it and why was it kept secret from the Australian people?
Anthony Albanese:
No.
(That is the whole answer)
Updated
Anthony Albanese finishes his answer there:
I am directly talking about the issue which the question went to, which goes to people who have been released, including 1,003 on this former minister’s watch, the Leader of the Opposition, as a result of the AAT, including 102 sex offenders and 64 child sex offenders.
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Opposition continue to try to link direction 99 to NZ PM
Sussan Ley gets a question:
Did the prime minister implement direction 99 at the request of New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern?
So, yes, it seems we have run out of policy questions.
Anthony Albanese:
What we do is we determine our own policy according with our own interests and that is what we have done and, indeed, the request publicly from New Zealand was to remove section 501. We did not do that. We did not do that. We have created a pathway for better citizenship for New Zealand people who have been here to have that pathway to citizenship and I am pleased that, indeed, 20,000 plus Kiwis now call themselves Australian citizens as well. That’s a good thing. That’s a good thing! So they can fully participate in society.
But we are also making sure we get these things right by abolishing the AAT, abolishing the AAT, something that this week, this week [the opposition] voted to defend, they voted to defend this system.
Peter Dutton is on his feet, telling the speaker:
Well, we took your advice on board, the question was very tight indeed and we seek your direction to whether the prime minister is relevant to the question that was asked of him.
Milton Dick says he is being directly relevant to the question but he can’t control the answer.
Dutton wants him to say that he is ruling the prime minister is being relevant, but Milton Dick says he is answering the question.
Dutton repeats his question – is the prime minister relevant and within the standing orders? Dick says he is within the standing orders.
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GP peak body disappointed in lack of funding for onsite doctor in Parliament House
The peak body for general practitioners has expressed its disappointment there is no funding for an onsite GP at parliament house, despite recommendations in the sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins‘ review of parliamentary workplace culture.
The statement from the Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) comes after the Department of Parliamentary Services secretary yesterday told Senate estimates that funding for an onsite GP wasn’t sought in the most recent federal budget.
RACGP’s vice president, Associate Prof Michael Clements, says the college backs the calls of parliamentarians including Senator David Pocock, Senator Jane Hume, Dr Mike Freelander and Dr Sophie Scamps for an onsite GP at parliament to improve the health and wellbeing of people working there.
We would be very happy to facilitate it.
Politicians and their staff work long hours and may not be able to go offsite for medical care, meaning they’ll miss out unless there is a GP onsite.
Health and wellbeing should be a priority in any workplace including Parliament House. An onsite GP at parliament would help ensure those making critical decisions for our country can access the care they need to live healthier lives.
Scamps, who is a GP by training, told the Mandarin she has previously been asked to assist visitors who have collapsed in Parliament House, and that there are a range of conditions that present themselves in a high-pressure workplaces like Parliament House that an onsite GP could assist.
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APS explains decision to offer retirement payment to person at centre of perceived conflict of interest issue
Earlier in Senate estimates, the Australian Public Service commissioner, Gordon de Brouwer, explained the circumstances behind why a senior parliamentary services official was seconded to Services Australia – and subsequently accepted a retirement payment – after her boss declared a conflict of interest about their personal relationship.
To recap, the Department of Parliamentary Services boss, Rob Stefanic, told estimates on Tuesday he was not having a romantic relationship with his then deputy secretary, Cate Saunders, and that he formally declared a conflict of interest in August 2022 due to “gossip” and “rumour”. He later described it during the hearing as a “close friendship”.
On Tuesday, the estimates committee was told Stefanic and Saunders continued to work together for eight months after the conflict was declared until Saunders went on a temporary secondment to Services Australia in April 2023 and did not return. In October, six months into the temporary secondment, Saunders was offered an incentive-to-retire payment worth $315,126 and left the public service.
De Brouwer, who became APS commissioner in May 2023, said his predecessor, Peter Woolcott, had told him that Woolcott and Stefanic had discussed moving the deputy secretary to another workplace to manage the conflict of interest.
According to de Brouwer’s recount on Thursday in Senate estimates, Woolcott approached the then Services Australia chief executive, Rebecca Skinner, and asked whether a job was available for Saunders.
The deputy accepted the temporary role - which was a step down in seniority. De Brouwer said “this appointment was coming to an end, there wasn’t an ongoing position available in Services Australia and it was not possible given the declaration of the conflict of interest for … the person to return back to DPS, that the CEO of Services Australia decided to offer incentive to retire, which is their prerogative and their right”.
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US visitors are in the chamber
There are a bunch of US congress representatives in the speakers’ gallery today. The delegation is apparently participating in the Aspen Industry Institute congressional program, which Google tells me is:
… a nongovernmental, nonpartisan educational program serving the United States Congress.
Established in 1983, the congressional program’s focus on scholarly engagement gives senators and representatives the opportunity to delve into complex and pressing public policy issues with internationally recognised experts in a neutral, off-the-record setting.
Since the program’s inception, over 500 members of Congress, more than 1,600 international parliamentarians, political and government leaders, and scholars have been involved.
Which includes US congressman, Dan Crenshaw (R), who is a long way from Texas.
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Speaker asks everyone to please tone it down on the insults so we can get on with things
Jim Chalmers takes a dixer so he can say this about Angus Taylor:
Could it be because the last time they came into office they smashed Medicare and they came after people on pensions and payments and they brought in Robodebts?
Now, it is easy to dismiss this shadow treasurer because of his bumbling incompetence and his incoherence and his failure to even explain the most basic details on the opposition leader’s budget reply, Mr Speaker.
Paul Fletcher gets up with the parliamentary verbal version of what we used to call at my Gold Coast high school “earrings off, rings up” and says to Milton Dick:
You commendably have been working to increase standards in this house. Standing orders say that personal reflections on other members should be considered highly disorderly. In fact, the leader of the house raised the very same standing order just a few moments ago. We ask you to direct the treasurer to cease his repeated practice of undignified personal attacks!
Tony Burke then fronts up:
It is a serious issue, Mr Speaker, and if the manager of opposition business is seriously proposing that we want to set a standard where most of the questions are out of order, then we can go there. But to be asking the questions they have been asking today and then suddenly get precious with the glass jaw when anything comes back is absurd.
The speaker, Milton Dick, adjudicates:
I just want to remind the house that it is highly disorderly to reflect on members, so the manager of opposition makes a very good point. If, moving forward, everyone can agree that questions we won’t reflect on members and in the answers we won’t reflect on members we won’t have this problem. So the treasurer can cease his critique and return it to the question.
Updated
Labor target Coalition immigration releases during Dutton tenure
(Continued from last post)
Albanese continues:
In that tweet, the leader of the opposition said they cancelled visas; the cancellation power is exercised within the limits of the constitution.
He said the quiet bit out loud, Mr Speaker. The quiet bit out loud. Because the reality is that on this bloke’s watch, 1,300 hardcore criminals were released from immigration detention centres. 1,300.
Not because of a decision of the high court …. but on his watch. They were released, no curfews, no ankle bracelets, no monitoring, no regard for community safety.
It included 102 sex offenders, 64 of whom are child sex offenders, 40 domestic violence offenders, four murders, alleged murders or individuals convicted of accessory to murder, including a British man who was convicted in 2016 of being an accessory to the stabbing of an associate in a drug operation [and who] helped another man carry a victim’s body to the boot of a car and dump it in a makeshift grave.
Another British man convicted of being an accessory to murder when a drug associate shot another man in what was described as a gangland execution.
Section 501 has not changed. What we did change was the capacity of Kiwis to become Australian citizens and I am pleased that 20,000 of them have taken it up.
20,000 of them have taken it up and that is the difference that it has made.
On this bloke’s watch, the AAT decided a 45-year-old New Zealand man, convicted of three charges of an indecent act with a child under 16, should be allowed to stay. On this bloke’s watch.
Sussan Ley:
It isn’t right for the prime minister to talk about the opposition in his answer.
Dick says that is on the opposition for throwing away their one point of order on relevance for this question.
Albanese:
That of course was made in accordance with ministerial direction 79, which was issued when this guy was the senior minister and the member for banks [david coleman] was the junior minister. but there are many more.
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Speaker pulls up Dutton on not being able to take criticism
Anthony Albanese:
All the anger is there in just one question. The anger, the abuse, it is all there Mr Speaker.
He has moved on from abusing journalists. The leader of the opposition made a tweet yesterday...
(Peter Dutton and the opposition are interjecting like their lives depend on it at this point)
Dutton gets up on a point of order:
On relevance, the prime minister was asked a question on a serious matter where literally dozens of Australians have fallen victim to criminals...
Milton Dick says it has been 28 seconds.
Tony Burke has some thoughts:
It is completely unreasonable for the leader of the opposition to be so precious that he cannot take any criticism in return.
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Dutton targets Albanese’s ‘sycophantic’ relationship with NZ PM in tactical shift
This next question from the opposition is a bit interesting, because it points to the government maybe succeeding in taking some of the heat out of the policy issues around ministerial direction 99 yesterday.
The government started pointing to Peter Dutton’s own record while immigration minister – that 1,300 detainees who had been convicted or accused of crimes had been released (again, it is normal for Australian citizens to be released once they have served their sentence).
But given the opposition’s attacks over the ministerial direction signed by Andrew Giles being used by the AAT to reinstate visas Giles had cancelled – including people convicted or accused of crimes – the government hit back.
So now, we have this question from Dutton:
Direction 99 was created as a result of the Prime Minister’s meeting with former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern in July of 2022. Why did this weak and incompetent prime minister put his close and sycophantic relationship with Jacinda Ardern ahead of the safety of Australians?
Which would point to the opposition moving on from pursuing this on policy and getting a little more personal.
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Where’s Richard Marles? On his way to Singapore
The defence minister (and deputy PM), Richard Marles, is not in question time as he is on his way to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
It’s about security in the Indo-Pacific (which is a gathering of nations which has come into vogue in recent years – and which, you might note, does not include China)
What is Marles doing? According to his official statement:
The deputy prime minister will deliver remarks during the third plenary session on ‘Building Cooperative Security in the Asia Pacific’.
While in Singapore, the deputy prime minister will also participate in the 12th Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) defence ministers’ meeting.
The FPDA continues to provide a valuable contribution to regional security by deepening practical collaboration between member nations – Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
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Dan Tehan begins Coalition attack lines on Andrew Giles
Question from Dan Tehan – huzzah.
Was the minister informed by the prime minister before the prime minister advised the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, that he would weaken our immigration laws to allow criminals to stay in Australia?
This isn’t a question that they actually want answered – this is a question aimed at soundbites and the 6pm news.
Andrew Giles:
It is a question that no-one can accept the premise of. I do not quite know what the shadow minister is wanting me to answer.
What I can say is this - in putting in place ministerial direction, I had regard to our national interest and common sense, including the protection of the Australian community, and that was the advice that I was given.
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Question time begins
We are in the 90-second airing of the grievances/how good are community events (there is no in-between)
The theme, as we have gotten closer to when people start paying attention to the chamber (which means the closer we get to question time), is this: The opposition asks how terrible is Andrew Giles? While the government’s line is: how great is this government.
We are now at questions without notice.
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‘Surely now someone will do something’: Australian psychologist reports from Gaza
(continued from previous post)
Australian psychologist Scarlett Wong, who returned from Gaza last month, described how the few remaining hospitals in the territory were under severe strain:
We were supporting a maternity ward, where women were having C-sections, sometimes without anaesthesia, if you can imagine. I had twins myself and I can’t imagine. And women were having babies and then they had to go immediately to vacate their bed for someone else. MSF built an extension so that women could have another 24 hours, because women were displaced from everywhere, there weren’t from Rafah and they had nowhere to go.
We just tried to give them another 24 hours, so that they can let the milk come in, so they can lactate, so they can learn. But the problem is the women were saying to us, ‘we’re stuck in a tent where we know nobody, 20 other people ... we can’t get formula, we can’t get water.’ So what do you do?
And as a mother, that’s very [confronting] - and they have done nothing [to deserve it], these women and these children.
Wong said many children were running around barefoot because they had grown out of their shoes in the seven months since the war began. She also described children flying kites while Israeli quadcopter drones shot at targets nearby.
All the children go, ‘Oh, quadcopter … it’s not far away’.
Asked what Palestinians said to her and other colleagues who came to help, Wong recalled: “They say you guys are crazy, you guys are brave, but thank you.”
Recalling conversations from a month ago - prior to the Rafah offensive - Wong said people were questioning why the world wasn’t acting to stop the war. They told her: “Surely now someone will do something.”
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Scarlett Wong gives account of widespread suffering in Gaza
An Australian psychologist who recently returned from an assignment in Gaza, Scarlett Wong, has described the desperation of the people she met.
Christos Christou, the global president of Médecins Sans Frontières (also known as Doctors Without Borders), gave a shout out to Wong during his National Press Club address on Tuesday.
Wong subsequently spoke to Guardian Australia about her experience on an MSF assignment as a mental health activity manager. The role included three weeks on the ground (two of these weeks were in Rafah, from late March to early April, prior to the latest Israeli ground offensive).
Wong said it was important not to dehumanise Palestinians:
I think what people need to realise is that they’re human beings just like you and me.
Children haven’t gone to school for eight months. Remember during Covid, what that was like for us for just a couple of months.
People are in tents. Imagine half of Sydney crammed into Bondi living in makeshift tents through all sorts of weather.
And we have something called child’s heads of households, which is, say a 12-year-old who’s now effectively the mum of five children, who themselves is still a child.
We have women who can’t lactate - new mums who can’t lactate because they’re dehydrated and malnourished. I want to say that I don’t agree with that term, malnourished, because it really underplays it. It’s a misnomer. It’s manmade starvation
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Government to pursue age assurance technology trial and amending codes developed under Online Safety Act
(continued from previous post)
The trial will look at the effectiveness of the technologies, the ease at which people can bypass it and the willingness to adopt. Gannon noted that in recent years there was an increasing reluctance for people to hand over identity information to companies, meaning they might seek to bypass any age assurance tech that uses ID.
Gannon said:
We will be working closely with industry as a whole but they won’t be undertaking the trial – we will be.
But the social media companies would be required under codes developed under the Online Safety Act in parallel with the trial to assure user ages, Gannon said.
There is no date set on when the trial would end, but Gannon noted the trial was funded just for the 2024-2025 financial year. There was a risk if the technology was rushed out that it wouldn’t work, she said:
There’s a risk that families and parents and carers have a false sense of security about the technologies that they have in place that they may place undue trust in a system thinking their children are being kept safe when actually their children can bypass it quite easily or it just doesn’t work.
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Age assurance trial likely to focus on preventing underage internet users accessing porn sites
The trial of age assurance technology is likely to initially focus on preventing under-18s from accessing porn websites, while the government conducts more research and consultation on the more vexing issue of age limits for social media, Senate estimates has heard.
Since the federal government announced the $6.5m trial of age assurance technology, there has been little detail around how it would work or what it would do. In Senate estimates on Thursday, Bridget Gannon, the first assistant secretary for the online safety branch in the communications department, said the initial focus would be on online pornography and the effectiveness of technology to prevent people under 18 from accessing it.
There would be more consultation on what to do regarding social media, she said:
There’s wide agreement there should be age limits on social media [but] there are different views on what that age should be... we’ll be doing some consultation and research to really nail down what that age should be, and then trial the available technologies to assess their effectiveness.
Gannon said the trial would examine different technologies for how they work, and also manage other issues like privacy and security and where the intervention should be at the internet service provider level, or the social media companies or other type of services.
(continued in next post)
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Question time looms …
Consider this your 30-minute warning that the last question time of the week is about to begin. I think we all know what the main topic of the opposition’s questions are going to be.
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Human rights commission welcomes report recommending human rights act
The human rights commission has welcomed a parliamentary committee report recommending a national human rights act.
The commission’s president, Emeritus Prof Rosalind Croucher AM, “welcomed the committee’s report and urged the government to act on its recommendations”
Human rights are not adequately protected at the national level. Whenever laws are made, their impact on people’s rights and wellbeing should be front of mind. We have before us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to anchor the protection of basic rights in law. The time is right to strengthen Australia’s human rights framework.
We all deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, no matter who we are or where we live. A human rights act would embed these values into public life and promote better understanding of human rights. It would give people access to justice if their rights are violated and make governments more accountable for protecting human rights – no matter which party is in power.
Updated
As our Paul Karp points out the government wasn’t completely clear in its original announcements about its “enhanced surveillance” – but we weren’t told it meant drones.
In November it was described as "compliance" and "surveillance" functions.
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) May 30, 2024
Why are we only hearing now that this means drones? What do they do? Hover near ex detainees houses around curfew time? pic.twitter.com/NzuIAsesWE
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APS commissioner speaks on perceived conflict of interest between department secretary and deputy
The Australian Public Service commissioner, Gordon de Brouwer, is now addressing an issue about a perceived conflict of interest involving senior executives within the parliamentary services department raised in a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday.
The discussions related to the relationship between the department secretary and his then deputy, which has been the subject of media reporting and unrest among parliamentary staff and whether it created a conflict of interest and if that was appropriately declared and managed.
The Department of Parliamentary Services boss, Rob Stefanic, on Tuesday denied having a romantic relationship with his then deputy secretary, Cate Saunders, telling Senate estimates he formally declared a conflict of interest in August 2022 only due to “gossip” and “rumour”. He later described it during the hearing as a “close friendship”.
De Brouwer tells the estimates hearing he met with the presiding officers – the Senate president, Sue Lines, and the speaker, Milton Dick – a “number of weeks ago” to discuss the issue after a media report in early May raised questions about an incentive-to-retire payment to Saunders worth $315,126. De Brouwer says he was briefed on conversations his predecessor, Peter Woolcott, had with Stefanic in August 2022 when the declaration was first made.
On Tuesday, the estimates committee was told Stefanic and Saunders continued to work together for eight months after the conflict was declared until Saunders went on a temporary secondment to Services Australia in April 2023 and did not return. In October, six months into the temporary secondment, Saunders was offered an incentive-to-retire payment, and left the public service.
On Thursday, De Brouwer said he was satisfied the conflict was “declared and it was managed”.
“In terms of understanding what the nature of the ... [when] there’s a friendship, where does that become a close personal relationship? And it was also clouded with what was regarded by the secretary as very, very malicious gossip.”
The DPS is exempt from freedom of information laws.
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Drones being used to track some released from immigration detention after high court decision
The immigration minister, Andrew Giles, has revealed the government is using drones to track the 153 people released from immigration detention as a result of the high court’s ruling on indefinite detention.
At Senates estimates the Australian Border Force revealed at least two murderers or attempted murderers are not required to wear electronic ankle bracelets.
Asked about this, Giles told Sky News:
Well they are being monitored ... The Border Force commissioner Michael Outram dealt with this in Senate estimates yesterday. What’s being done through our strong rules which impose strict visa conditions on everyone in the cohort, including daily monitoring, as well as the other discretionary conditions. There is a quarter of a billion dollars that we’ve invested in supporting our law enforcement agencies to enforce that and that’s enabled things like using drones to keep track of these people. We know where they are.“
Giles was then asked why they aren’t all wearing ankle bracelets.
He replied:
Because the law doesn’t allow it. The law requires a consideration for each person’s circumstances. That’s what the law requires ... That’s why we put in place a community protection board to provide advice to the delegates so that experts are forming a view on this. There is is so much being done for this cohort: spot checks, random house checks, as well as the use of drones that I just touched on. And the contrast here is to those people I spoke about earlier, who Peter Dutton released, without any conditions at all.
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China lifts sanctions on some Australia beef producers
The National Farmers Federation might be cranky about the live export bill (no more transporting live sheep by sea by 1 May 2028) but it is pleased that China has lifted sanctions on five more Australian beef processing facilities:
This is another important step in the right direction towards improving our trading relationship with one of Australia’s major partners.
This builds on the welcome lifting of restriction on wine imports announced in March this year.
Australian agriculture is a trade dependent sector, exporting more than 70% of what it produces and China is a valued trading partner for Australian farmers.
We thank Ministers Don Farrell, Penny Wong and Murray Watt for their tireless work to resolve these suspensions.
We will continue to work with the government as it progresses the resolution of remaining trade impediments for the meat and rock lobster sectors.
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Victoria proposes longer family violence intervention orders as part of suite of anti-domestic violence measures
The Victorian government has flagged it will move to implement longer family violence intervention orders to prevent victim-survivors having to return to court multiple times, as part of a series of women’s safety reforms.
The Allan government has proposed a range of family violence reforms, amid a spate of domestic violence killings across Australia. Other proposals include giving Victoria police the power to issue longer safety notices - that give victims time to get intervention orders from the courts.
The government will also run an Australian-first pilot of “justice navigators” that will provide support to victim-survivors of sexual assault by guiding them through their recovery, compensation and options in the criminal justice system.
Speaking to reporters, Victoria’s attorney general, Jacyln Symes, says courts generally serve intervention orders for between six to 12 months:
We are looking at enduring family violence intervention orders to reduce the amount of times people may have to attend court and re-tell their story and demonstrate they are feeling unsafe. Make [the orders] longer so there is less of that trauma.
Symes says the government will consult with stakeholders to determine the minimum time length for family violence intervention orders. She says legislation for the range of reforms is expected to be introduced in parliament next year.
Updated
NZ engaging with Australia over direction 99 visa policy
Our New Zealand correspondent, Eva Corlett, has asked NZ’s foreign minister, Winston Peters, about the changes to Australia’s ministerial direction 99, which could impact New Zealand-born citizens found guilty of a crime in Australia.
Peters says:
We understand Australia intends to make changes to its deportation policy.
We accept that Australia has the right to determine what level of offending by non-citizens is unacceptable. But we do not want to see deportation of people with little or no connection to New Zealand, whose formative experiences were nearly all in Australia.
We note Prime Minister Albanese’s previous commitment to take a “commonsense” approach to deportation of people to New Zealand who had effectively spent their entire lives in Australia. We are engaging with Australia at a political level on this matter.
Updated
NZ budget big on tax cuts and reduced public spending
For those keeping an eye on New Zealand, AAP has reported on its budget (some elements may seem familiar):
New Zealand will slug tourists and immigrants with higher fees as the government pulls every lever to pay for tax relief and reverse a lurch into structural deficit. NZ’s finance minister, Nicola Willis, on Thursday handed down the coalition government’s first budget since winning office in 2023.
Its centrepiece is tax cuts, including income tax relief which will make 3.5 million Kiwis better off but deny the government $NZ3.7bn ($A3.4bn) of revenue in 2024/25.
To keep the cuts fiscally neutral, Ms Willis has found the same amount in savings and new revenue, allowing the government to argue they are not inflationary.
The suite of tax relief targets lower middle-income earners, with poorer families with young children the biggest beneficiaries through a childcare rebate.
Those families could be up to $NZ135 ($A125) a week better off, while an average-income household with two young children will benefit by $NZ126 ($116) each week.
Higher-wage earners will be $NZ20 ($A18) a week better off, while minimum wage earners will see an extra $NZ12 ($A11) a week and retirees living off the pension will get just an extra $NZ4.50 ($A4) a week.
Along with the income tax cuts are broad public spending cuts across the entire government.
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Outcome of robodebt investigation due ‘next month’
The Australian Public Service commissioner, Gordon de Brouwer, has told Senate estimates he will likely issue a statement about the outcome of the 16 robodebt referrals in the “next month”.
The public service boss said one of the 16 people “did not meet the threshold to issue a notice of suspected breach” but seven final determinations - meaning an outcome of the investigation - had been given to those referred.
De Brouwer said another seven were still underway.
In those cases where the individual is a current public servant, employing agencies have been provided with advice regarding an appropriate sanction and sanctions have been imposed or are in the process of being imposed.
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Katy Gallagher defends budget funding for frontline services as adequate in face of Greens criticism
In the Finance committee, Greens senator Larissa Waters has been asking Minister Katy Gallagher about the budget’s funding for frontline services for survivors of family and domestic violence.
Waters suggests there’s no new money.
Gallagher rejects this analysis. She says there is a total of $3.4bn underpinning the national plan to end violence against women and children.
I don’t accept the view that there is nothing in this budget to support women’s safety. There is. And there is more work to do.”
Waters says frontline services say they need about $1bn every year but the federal government are allocating between half and two thirds of that. She asks:
How do you explain the shortfall, when you’re finding funding for all sorts of other things?
Gallagher says the commonwealth has primary responsibility for funding prevention and there is new money for that and a substantial package for housing. She then adds a reminder that funding frontline services is mostly the responsibility of the states and territories.
Waters, who is appearing by video link from her home in Queensland because of a Covid outbreak in her family, is visibly unimpressed by the answer. Gallagher responds:
Don’t roll your eyes. We live in a federated model.
She says all governments have signed up to resource the national plan.
Updated
Cash continues attacks over direction 99 visa issues
We’re back in the legal and constitutional affairs committee, where Michaelia Cash is back grilling attorney general’s department officials about the direction 99 issue.
She has resumed her concerns that the AG Mark Dreyfus hadn’t called a meeting of what’s called the “significant legal issues committee”, an AG’s department special group that meets a few times annually to discuss major legal concerns.
Departmental officials said that meeting is convened 3-4 times a year, usually focusing on a handful of very major legal issues facing the commonwealth and briefly touching on a few dozen more.
The department said neither it nor Dreyfus had convened a meeting on direction 99, much to Cash’s disbelief. She is continuing questions about what the AG’s department did or didn’t do, once the legal issues around direction 99 became evident - and again voicing concern that, despite the AG’s department being responsible for the administrative appeals tribunal, there didn’t appear to be any action quickly taken.
The assistant minister, Anthony Chisholm – representing the AG – has stressed a few times that the AAT is an independent body.
In a statement just now, Cash accused Dreyfus and the department of being “blissfully unaware dangerous criminals were being allowed to stay in Australia as a result of the Albanese government’s disastrous Direction 99.”
This was despite Mr Dreyfus having direct oversight of the administrative appeals tribunal, an agency within his own portfolio, which made numerous decisions allowing many hardcore criminals to remain in Australia as a result of the direction.
Cash variously accused Dreyfus of being “incredibly incompetent”, “a culture of complacency” and having “let the Australian people down.”
Chisholm in the hearing criticised the opposition as being unhelpful and “uncooperative” in dealing with recent immigration department issues.
Updated
Mobile connectivity program continuing under Better Connectivity Plan, officials say
Reports of the death of the federal government’s mobile blackspots program have been greatly exaggerated, the communications department has told Senate estimates.
The shadow minister, David Coleman, claimed earlier this month that the program to improve mobile connectivity through funding new towers had been “abolished” by pointing to an obscure line in the budget papers that mentioned “the conclusion of the mobile black spot Program”.
Officials said the line was a “fairly standard financial reference” mentioning the end of appropriation of funding, which is how the mobile blackspots program has been funded under both Labor and Coalition governments - through round-based funding that is funded per budget.
Officials said it was just a reference to earlier funding rounds coming to an end, and the program was “absolutely” continuing on under a separate program, the better connectivity plan for rural and regional Australia program.
There had been no change in how the funding to the program is allocated since it commenced under the former Coalition government, estimates was told.
Updated
NFF vows to fight live export phase out bill and ask MPs to ‘do their homework’ on industry
The National Farmers’ Federation is warning MPs and senators to “do their homework” before passing the government’s live sheep export (by sea) phase out bill.
The legislation would phase out the industry by 1 May 2028. Just over $100m has been put aside for the industry’s transition. But the NFF’s president, David Jochinke, said the industry will fight to keep the practice going.
Activists want you to think this industry hasn’t changed. They want you to think that the ghastly scenes seared in our memories from many years back are still true today. That is completely false.
The fact is we haven’t had a serious welfare incident on water since sweeping reforms more than seven years ago.
Banning live sheep exports means banning something that does a huge amount of good. Australia’s trade sets the global standard for animal welfare; gets safe, affordable protein to those in need; and supports thousands of jobs in Western Australia.
Jochinke said supporting the bill was the first step towards supporting groups who want “to end animal agriculture”:
Unless you and the people you represent agree with an end to livestock production in Australia, listen to the farmers – not the fanatics.
We’re talking about the first permanent export ban by parliament on a mainstream commodity. This couldn’t be more serious.
… I think the government has underestimated how hard the industry will fight for this.
Updated
New data ranks Melbourne highest in average student debt
Residents in the seat of Melbourne have the highest average levels of student debt in the nation, new data from the parliamentary library shows.
The data, provided to the Greens and released today, found 38,115 people with Hecs/Help loans live in Adam Bandt’s seat, totalling $1.3bn. Their average debt is $34,475, compared with the national average of $26,500.
Coming in second is the seat of Sydney ($33,771), followed by the inner west seat of Reid (32,717) and Grayndler, held by the PM. The average student debt in Grayndler is $32,135, totalling $800m.
Seats set to be targeted by the Greens in the next election, including Wills and Higgins, also rank in the top 10 for average student debts.
Senator Mehreen Faruqi, deputy leader of the Greens and spokesperson for higher education, said Labor’s student debt relief policy, announced in the federal budget, was a “tokenistic farce”.
The root of the crisis remains totally intact: people will still graduate with massive debts that will grow every year and take longer and longer to pay off. Albanese was lucky enough to go to university when it was free, but he’s shackling his constituents with obscene, out-of-control debts for making the same choice.
Updated
Acting speaker’s hot mic mishap – video
For those who had asked, here is acting speaker Scott Buchholz’s hot mic episode.
A good reminder for everyone around microphones – chances are, there will be one on.
Updated
Human rights act can ‘re-lay the foundations’ for a fairer society, Kylea Tink says
Here is Kylea Tink speaking on the need for a human rights act – Tink sat on the committee and said that given the evidence, she did not see the need for the Coalition’s dissenting report.
Updated
What are the government’s obligations and procedures on ICC arrest warrants?
Let’s return to an issue we covered a little earlier. As mentioned, officials at the attorney general’s department mentioned that Australia’s domestic procedures are laid out in the International Criminal Court Act 2002.
Part 3 sets out how to deal with “requests by the ICC for arrest and surrender of persons”. The procedure is that the attorney general sends a notice to a magistrate setting out the ICC’s request. If the attorney general has issued such a notice and certain requirements are fulfilled, a magistrate “must issue a warrant”. But the attorney general appears to have discretion, as set out in section 22:
The Attorney‑General must not issue a notice under section 20 or 21 after receipt of a request for the arrest and surrender, or for the provisional arrest, of a person for a crime unless the Attorney‑General has, in his or her absolute discretion, signed a certificate that it is appropriate to do so.
We expect officials will be asked further about this issue in Senate estimates later today.
Updated
Back to acting speaker Scott Buchholz’s unfortunate hot mic episode which we reported on a little earlier (and yes, there will be video for you), we understand that he will be spoken to by Milton Dick (the actual speaker) and reminded about his responsibilities while in the chair.
Being one of the acting speakers is a prestigious job for a backbencher, and it is seen as a privilege, with one of the responsibilities to uphold the high standing of the position.
Which means minding your Ps and Qs.
In the house, the government’s NDIS bill is being debated.
The coalition’s Michael Sukkar attempted to move a motion ahead of that debate that essentially said that the previous Labor government (Gillard) “mismanaged” the scheme, but that didn’t go anywhere.
Debate on the bill has resumed.
Electoral commissioner tells estimates his role is not ‘truth cop’
Yesterday the electoral commissioner, Tom Rogers, appeared in front of Senate estimates, where he assured One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts that he did not want to be “the truth cop” (it was Roberts’ description) when it came to election misinformation.
I am the reverse of the truth cop. I do not want to be the truth cop at all.
... The truth at election time is quite often in the eye of the beholder and the determination of what truth is, is not something I wish to be involved with.
However where disinformation about the electoral process is spread … we correct the record. We don’t stop anyone from saying anything, but we certainly correct the record.”
Roberts takes back the characterisation of “truth cop”.
Last night we appeared at @auSenate Estimates. Discussion included our communication.
— AEC ✏️ (@AusElectoralCom) May 30, 2024
"Truth at election time is often in the eye of the beholder...however, where disinformation about the electoral process is spread, we correct the record." - Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers pic.twitter.com/9QpnPe4N7s
Updated
Telcos ‘siginificantly downplayed’ number of devices cut off from triple zero after 3G shutdown, department says
The mobile network industry initially “significantly downplayed” the number of devices that would be unable to call triple zero when the 3G networks shut down, the communications department has said.
In March, the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, revealed 740,000 4G mobiles would not be able to call triple zero when the 3G networks are shut down – a figure much higher than initially expected.
That announcement came after the department requested more information from industry in February, after being told in November last year that the shutdown would just affect a “small number” of devices.
Officials told Senate estimates this was downplaying the matter, and when more information was sought, the industry came back with 740,000 4G mobile devices that can’t make emergency calls using Voice Over LTE on the 4G network, meaning they could only call via 3G.
The telcos have been actively contacting those customers affected to get new devices. Vodafone shut down its 3G network last year. Optus is set to shut down its 3G network in September, and Telstra has delayed its 3G shutdown from June to the end of August.
Updated
Officials have not been asked for advice on cutting ties with ICC, committee hears
(Continued from last post)
The Greens senator David Shoebridge asked, during the Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee hearing, whether the attorney general’s department had provided advice on how Australia’s obligation to cooperate fully with the international criminal court applied in the event an arrest warrant was issued. He wanted to know if Australia would be obliged to cooperate in the enforcement of such a warrant.
A deputy secretary of the attorney general’s department, Simon Newnham, told the committee that “any requests for assistance are considered on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the content of the request and our international and domestic legal obligations”.
Shoebridge asked how Australia’s cooperation obligations “would play out in circumstance where an arrest warrant is issued by the ICC and the subject of the arrest warrant is in Australian jurisdiction”.
Another deputy secretary, Sarah Chidgey, said there were “procedural arrangements” under Australia’s International Criminal Court Act 2002.
She said, broadly speaking, officials would provide advice to the attorney general for him to “consider requests”.
Pressed on whether, ultimately, the attorney general had discretion, Chidgey said:
The act provides for a discretion.
(But officials have not provided advice to the government on what may inform that discretion, because as it stands the ICC has not issued a request on which to act.)
Shoebridge asked about calls by the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, for Australia to consider cutting ties with the ICC if arrest warrants for Israeli leaders were issued.
The departmental secretary, Katherine Jones, replied:
I’m not aware of the statement that’s been made about cutting ties, but that is not something that we have considered or been asked to provide any policy or advice on.
Updated
Government has discretion over whether to act on ICC arrest warrants, attorney general's department tells estimates
Officials from the attorney general’s department have refused to speculate on how Australia would act if the international criminal court issues an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister - but have suggested there is discretion available to the government.
The Greens senator David Shoebridge asked a series of questions about the matter at the Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee this morning.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, last week announced he had applied for warrants for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”. They deny the allegations, arguing the application for arrest warrants amounts to an attempt to deny Israel’s right to self-defence.
Khan simultaneously sought warrants for the arrest of three Hamas leaders over the 7 October attacks and the cruel treatment of hostages.
The application now goes to an ICC pre-trial chamber to be decided by a panel of three judges. The options include for the arrest warrants to be approved in whole or in part or rejected.
The deputy secretary of the attorney general’s department, Simon Newnham, told the Senate committee it “would not be helpful to speculate on possible future requests”. He added:
I would note that as a state party Australia has a general obligation to cooperate fully with the court and prosecutions. I would also note that it is a matter for the ICC itself as to whether to issue warrants. At the moment they are just applications.
(Continued in next post)
Updated
Seems LNP MP Scott Buchholz isn’t a fan of paperwork – he is acting speaker of the house at the moment, and was shuffling some papers while the government business order of the day was read out, but forgot to turn off his microphone.
“Fuck me,” he said, shaking his head, as he went through the papers.
At first I thought it was just the universe speaking (I have the house playing in a background browser) but on review, no, it was absolutely the acting speaker.
We’ve all been there.
Updated
Officials from the attorney general’s department have just suggested in Senate estimates that there is discretion available to the government as to whether to act on arrest warrants issued by the international criminal court.
More details soon.
Updated
In the finance estimates committee, where the minister for women, Katy Gallagher, and the Office for Women in the PM’s department are appearing, discussion has moved to the Albanese government’s introduction of gender-responsive budgeting, which requires that all submissions going to cabinet include an assessment on their impact on gender equality.
Shadow minister Jane Hume starts out asking for details of any submissions that suggested their content would have a negative impact.
Gallagher says she isn’t going to talk about the detail of cabinet submissions. Hume acknowledges this and pivots to ask for the number of submissions in the budget context that had raised the possibility that their contents might undermine gender equality.
“To be honest, I can’t think of one what would have,” Gallagher says. “...I don’t know that it would be that easy because we don’t collate them.”
She explains that each department does this assessment on its own cabinet submissions, not the Office for Women, and the office doesn’t record those numbers.
Gallagher:
We’re trying to make it a part of normal departmental work in preparing advice to government.
Gallagher adds that she can’t recall any that warned of a negative impact and says it’s likely departments would revise their submissions before sending them to cabinet if they were assessed that way.
I’m not sure that would make it to the next level... that’s the whole point.
Hume then asks whether any submissions were sent back for further work on the basis of their impact on gender equality.
Again, Gallagher says she’s pretty sure the answer is no, and explains that it’s only the second year of this process so it’s still being developed:
I think what I would be watching and guarding against is tick-and-flick exercises.”
Gallagher is reluctant to provide information that reveals content or how many submissions are considered because that is cabinet information.
Hume presses the point:
I think asking for the proportion doesn’t give away any confidential cabinet information.”
Hume insists on obtaining this information, and asks the officials to take this on notice.
Updated
Attorney general’s department grilled on direction 99 in estimates
Dipping into estimates for a moment – the attorney general’s department said they didn’t have a role in preparing ministerial direction 99, and only found out about the issue via media reporting earlier this week.
The department is first up before the legal and constitutional affairs committee at Senate estimates this morning. Michaelia Cash, the opposition’s shadow AG, opened the batting by asking about the controversial immigration direction 99, which the government says is being rewritten after its impact on allowing serious foreign-born criminals to retain Australian visas.
Cash has been asking the AG’s department about whether the implications of direction 99 had come to the department’s attention before it became the big political story of the week. The department’s secretary indicated that it hadn’t.
Cash has been asking about the department’s involvement, if any, in the issue. The committee chair, Labor senator Nita Green, pulled up Cash’s line of questioning, saying they wouldn’t “jump around the program to suit your needs and your political agenda”.
Cash pushed back on this, noting the AG was responsible for the administrative appeals tribunal, and asking if that had raised flags inside the AG’s office or department.
If there’s a problem with the AAT and it is absolutely now the government is saying there’s a problem with the AAT, then it is squarely the attorney general’s responsibility,” she said.
Assistant minister Anthony Chisholm, representing the AG at the hearing, pushed back himself, asking if Cash - the former attorney general - would take responsibility for all the decisions made by the AAT when she was in office. He noted the AAT was a body independent of government.
Updated
Robodebt and aged care crisis ‘may have been avoided’ with a human rights act: Kylea Tink
Kylea Tink is in the chamber speaking on the human rights committee report which has recommended a human rights act for Australia (the coalition members of the committee dissented).
Tink says:
Many of the abuses and injustices of the past may have been avoided if our federal government had been forced to consider human rights before rolling out schemes like robodebt or in regulating industries like aged care. Numerous royal commissions have shown us what happens when we fail to properly consider the impact of government action on the rights of vulnerable people.
Updated
NSW warns of 'triple threat' of winter illnesses
The NSW health minister, Ryan Park, is warning of a “triple threat of flu, covid and RSV” this winter, which has already resulted in a surge of emergency department presentations.
Park:
I want to reiterate to the community to stay up to date with your vaccinations, in particular the over 65s – it really is the simplest and yet most effective way to protect yourselves and the community.
If you are unwell, please stay home, but if you do need to go out, please mask up.
Updated
Government questioned over delays to streaming content quota legislation
The Albanese government has said it still plans to introduce a scheme to force online streaming companies to have a percentage of Australian content by 1 July, despite legislation for the scheme not yet being introduced into parliament, just over a month before the due date.
As part of the Revive national cultural policy released in January last year, the government committed to introducing requirements for Australian screen content on streaming platforms to commence no later than 1 July 2024.
Facing questions from Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young in estimates on Thursday, the minister representing the communications minister, Carol Brown, could not give timing on when legislation would be introduced but said the government remained committed to the 1 July start date.
Hanson-Young questioned why there had been a long delay, suggesting that pressure from US-based streamers might have caused the delay.
She said:
You’ve broken your own timeframe, you’ve already broken the promise. It’s just how how badly the broken promise is going to be.
And what I’m trying to work out is why? Because it just doesn’t make sense, unless you are kowtowing to the US companies and the US administration, and if you are I think that is extraordinary, because what else is going on here?
For some US company to dictate to Australians that we can’t, we shouldn’t be protecting our own stories, is outrageous.
Hanson-Young has sought information on how many times the minister had met with streamers such as Netflix.
Updated
Coalition rejects ‘flawed proposal’ for human rights act
Liberal MP Henry Pike is now speaking in the lower house confirming the coalition members of the committee dissented from the recommendation for a human rights act.
Pike said they “reject this flawed proposal” as “unnecessary and dangerous”.
He claimed that advocates had failed to show insufficient protection of human rights under the status quo (which I’m sure would be news to people that received unlawful robodebts or were held in unlawful indefinite immigration detention).
Pike said the act would compromise the ability to “keep our citizens safe and borders secure”, citing cases in the UK where the act provided a roadblock to deportation of non-citizens.
Pike warned the human rights act would put “excessive restrictions” on the freedoms of religion and expression.
Pike said it amounts to a “surrender” of the parliament’s responsibility to defend human rights to an “unelected and unaccountable judiciary”.
Updated
Independent MP ‘disappointed’ human rights act recommendation was not unanimous
The independent North Sydney MP, Kylea Tink, who also sat on the human rights committee, says for too long Australian has been “layering bad law over the top of bad law, rather than fixing our foundations with a fundamental human rights act”.
The result has been an unnecessarily complex and piecemeal approach to protecting basic rights.
The committee received overwhelming support for a human rights act, with the vast majority of submissions in favour. There is also strong public support, with 75 per cent of Australians supporting the establishment of a human rights act.
She said given that support, it is “disappointing this was not a unanimous report, as I don’t believe the evidence received by the commission supported the dissenting opinion”.
We cannot let dissent distract us from doing what must be done to finally bring Australia in line with other liberal democracies.
We now need our government to step up and deliver the human rights protections everyone deserves. This is an exciting opportunity for Australia, and one that we should grasp with gusto.
Updated
Human rights act would be a ‘starting point’ to country ‘changing course’, Lidia Thorpe says
Independent Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe has welcomed the recommendations of the human rights committee. Thorpe sat on the committee and made additional comments that the proposed framework should closely align with international law.
Thorpe said:
First Peoples were the first defenders of human rights on this continent in the face of brutal colonisation, and First Peoples across the world today continue to fight for basic human rights.
It’s critical to remember that this government both regularly breaches human rights and tasks itself with upholding and implementing those same rights. That irony isn’t lost on me.
The evidence of this government’s human rights violations is clear. Just look at the child removal system, the prison system, the ongoing destruction of Country, or the government policies that have left people trapped in poverty without access to safe housing, enough food, or even safe drinking water.
This country clearly has a long way to go. A human rights act would be a starting point to begin correcting these wrongs and changing course.
So I urge all sides of parliament to come together to back this important step.
Updated
Parliamentary report recommends new commonwealth human rights act
The chair of parliament’s human rights committee, Josh Burns, is tabling a report recommending the creation of a federal human rights act.
Burns appeared to invoke the legacy of robodebt, by observing that “numerous royal commissions have shown us what happens when officials, both elected and unelected, fail to properly consider the effect of government actions on the rights of people”.
The report’s key recommendations include incorporating human rights considerations into policymaking and the operations of the Australian public service, and establishing consistent and transparent monitoring of Australia’s adherence to human rights obligations.
In a statement, Burns said:
At the core of every decision our government and future governments make must be the promotion and protection of rights for every Australian and those in our care. A human rights act will ensure that.
I am proud of this report because the way we ensure a fairer and more equitable Australia, far beyond my time in politics, is by enshrining human rights protections into law.”
Human rights are more than a talking point. They encompass the right for every Australian to have a safe and secure home, an adequate standard of living, a healthy environment, and the freedom to be who they are – regardless of race, religion, sexuality, gender, or ethnicity.
Australia remains one of the few liberal democracies without a bill of rights or a human rights act. It’s time we start the conversation about what needs to be done so we can get there.
Updated
What is direction 99 and why is it in the headlines?
You are going to be hearing a lot more about direction 99 today (and the coming week of house sitting).
Paul Karp has prepared an explainer, which goes through the whole shemozzle:
Updated
Gallagher questioned at estimates over UN statement on status of women and girls
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is back before estimates this morning, discussing policies for women.
The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, has been asking Katy Gallagher about Australia’s statement to the UN commission on the status of women and girls and why it didn’t mention the behaviour of certain regimes, including Iran and Russia.
Gallagher has responded that Australia was given 5 minutes at the commission’s recent session to make a national statement on what was being done in Australia on gender equality, but that Australian officials were involved in a number of forums where matters relating to conflicts around the world were discussed.
Hume asks whether there were any talking points prepared on those regimes, and she particularly highlighted the alleged use of rape as a weapon in the Ukraine war, the alleged use of sexual violence by Hamas in the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7 and allegations of the use of rape, sexual violence and forced fertility treatment against Uyghurs and other minorities in China.
Gallagher has undertaken to check:
But the notion of conflict and conflict around the world – and the gendered impact of conflict – was a matter that was discussed at that meeting.
A departmental official undertakes to check what was covered in the talking points that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had prepared.
“I was well briefed,” Gallagher adds.
After checking, the official then confirms talking points were prepared on the treatment of women in Afghanistan but not on the other specific issues that Hume has raised.
Updated
Labor commits $107m to help WA live sheep export workers transition out of industry
The government has committed $107m to help people who are still in the live sheep export trade (by sea) transition by 1 May 2028.
The industry only exists in WA, with all other jurisdictions moving to either export by air, or through domestic slaughtering and export.
The bill just introduced in the house will:
prohibit absolutely the export from Australia of live sheep by sea on and after 1 May 2028;
ensure that offences and civil penalties apply to a failure to comply with the prohibition on the export of live sheep by sea;
allow the export of live sheep by air to continue;
allow the export of all other livestock, by sea or by air, to continue (including the export of live cattle); and
provide authority for commonwealth spending to assist individuals, businesses and communities in relation to preparing for, or adapting or responding to the phasing out of the export of live sheep by sea, including sheep producers and sheep supply chain businesses.
Farming groups are not happy and say they will make it an election issue in WA.
Updated
Greens to introduce amendment to keep sport on free-to-air TV
The Greens will introduce an amendment to the prominence and anti-siphoning bill (which takes in subscription sports broadcasts) to ensure sport remains on free-to-air television.
It is one of the big battles happening behind the scenes at the moment – with fears that if Australia doesn’t get on top of it, then free-to-air sport (or at least the major games) will be a thing of the past.
Sarah Hanson-Young says reports from the United States that sport lovers are being forced to spend up to $2000 a season to watch football should be a warning of what could happen if the Australian laws aren’t set in stone now.
“Australians shouldn’t need a credit card or a paid subscription to watch the footy, cricket, tennis, the Matildas or the Olympics,” she said.
The Greens will move an amendment to Labor’s subscription sports scheme to keep sport free everywhere because, as it stands, the government’s scheme will lock sport behind paywalls, whether it’s Foxtel & Kayo, or even Netflix and Amazon.
It shouldn’t matter if people watch significant sporting events on an old-school TV aerial plugged into the wall, or alternatively stream on their phones, tablets or the computer via apps – it should be free for all.
Updated
Greg Jericho has explained the “sticky” inflation situation Australia (and others) are in at the moment, and why it needs further examination.
Updated
The house sitting has begun, with the legislation which will set the timer on what is left on the live sheep export industry to be introduced.
China lifts more sanctions on Australian beef exports
Speaking of agriculture, Murray Watt had some good news this morning, with China lifting (most of) its sanctions on Australian beef exports.
Watt told the ABC:
The details are still emerging but we found out last night that China has lifted, with immediate effect, the bans that it had on five different beef processing sheds in Australia or beef processing operations. We had already seen a couple of other processing operations have their trade bans lifted but now there’s another five. That is fantastic news for the cattle producers, for the meat processing industry and for the workers in those industries. And, of course, for Australian exports.
Sanctions remain on two abattoirs and rock lobster.
Updated
Senate estimates hearings coming up today
Estimates is about to kick off for the third day this week (hearings will continue tomorrow, even when the house is not sitting, and of course, into next week).
Environment and communications will be switching into communications, with the ABC on the agenda.
Finance and public administration will look at some of the budget numbers.
Legal and constitutional affairs will continue with the attorney general’s department where the new Administrative Review Tribunal (which is replacing the Administrative Appeals Tribunal) will be examined.
Rural and regional affairs and transport is all about the agriculture department today, so live sheep exports will absolutely be coming up there.
Updated
‘I wouldn’t be surprised’ if Giles replaced in ‘quiet reshuffle’, James Paterson says
The coalition will continue to target Andrew Giles and his ministerial position, with James Paterson kicking things off on Sky News:
This is the heart of the dilemma facing the prime minister right now. If he sacks Andrew Giles for something he told Andrew Giles to do, what does that say about him as prime minister, including his judgement of appointing Andrew Giles to this portfolio in the first place? And that’s probably why it won’t happen today, despite the fact it should happen today.
The last thing the prime minister wants to admit in the middle of a sitting fortnight is that not only his minister got it wrong, but he got it wrong. So what I wouldn’t be surprised to happen is that if quietly in the upcoming winter recess of the parliament, when the attention of the media is elsewhere and people are away from this place, that there’s a quiet reshuffle done, and Andrew Giles is moved aside – maybe the home affairs minister as well.
I think Murray Watt was doing an audition for the home affairs ministry role on your program this morning and in Senate estimates this week. There’s no doubt that Labor colleagues here in Canberra know this is terminal and something has to change.
Updated
Students call on University of Queensland to financially divest from Israel
A formal meeting of hundreds of students voted last night to call on the University of Queensland to “financially divest from Israel”.
Organisers claim more than 1000 students turned up to the meeting last night, which was open to all students. The UQ centre venue, which seats 500, was full to capacity, with hundreds of additional students watching from two overflow rooms, outside and online.
They debated three questions, put by the campus Students for Palestine group:
Should UQ sever ties with companies that supply the IDF?
Should UQ shut down the Boeing Centre?
Should UQ financially divest from Israel?
All three were passed near-unanimously. Just one attendee spoke against the motions.
The formal student union process has been employed just three times since the 1970s.
The university evacuated the campus Great Court on Wednesday afternoon after an anonymous bomb threat was phoned in. A spokesperson for the police said their investigations are continuing. The area has hosted a pro-Palestine encampment since last month.
Updated
When Labor came to power, it switched things up by replacing ministerial direction 90 that Alex Hawke had put in place, with ministerial direction 99, signed by Andrew Giles, which made ties to the community a primary factor. Review tribunals are also told to consider community safety and family safety as part of the decision making process, but in reviewing some visa cancellations, the administrative appeals tribunal has placed ties to the community above community/family safety.
Giles has said he will revise the direction to make community/family safety a primary consideration.
A quick history of ministerial direction 99
Given that ministerial direction 99 will dominate today’s news cycle as well, let’s do a quick rewind and explain what we are actually talking about.
Under the coalition government, relations with New Zealand became strained over the coalition’s policy of deporting people who had been born in NZ, but had spent most of their lives in Australia, if they committed a crime or fell foul of the migration act.
This meant that New Zealand was suddenly responsible for people with no connection to their country of birth. It was raised multiple times and sometimes quite publicly – Jacinda Ardern called Scott Morrison to task over it while standing next to him at a press conference after a bilateral meeting.
Updated
New direction 99 will put community safety as highest priority, Watt says
The agriculture minister, Murray Watt, was also asked about direction 99 while speaking to Sky News this morning:
I certainly accept that the AAT did not interpret this direction in the way that the government intended, and never interpreted in a way in line with community expectations. And that’s why we’ve now taken that firm action within a couple of days of this issue being raised. So the new direction that will now exist will put community safety as the highest priority for the AAT to consider.
When the changes were made to the direction by Minister Giles it was never intended that community safety or the seriousness of the offending would be relegated below other priorities. But unfortunately, the way the AAT has interpreted this has not given sufficient weight to community safety, and now we’re fixing it.
Updated
Dutton ‘has booted more people’ from Australia than any other minister, Tehan boasts
Dan Tehan is asked about the 102 convicted sex offenders who were released back into the Australian community while Peter Dutton was immigration minister. This came up in estimates yesterday and was reported in the SMH.
Tehan says it is a distraction:
We know none of the details around that. We’ve asked for the details. The journalists have been given information which is half the information to try and divert attention away from the catastrophic failure of the current immigration minister to keep the Australian community safe now.
Peter Dutton’s record – over 6000 people deported, a focus on making sure that those who had committed crimes against women and children, domestic violence, sexual offences, were booted from this country.
No other minister in the history of the commonwealth has booted more people from this country.
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Opposition has not yet seen reviewed ministerial direction 99, Tehan says
The shadow immigration minister, Dan Tehan, is now being interviewed by ABC radio RN Breakfast and he says the opposition has not yet seen the reviewed ministerial direction 99 which is under the spotlight.
Tehan:
The minister for immigration, Andrew Giles, was asked in the parliament yesterday on numerous occasions as to when this new directive would come into force.
He couldn’t answer that. We found out through Senate estimates that he had sort of emergency meetings with his department over the last couple of days to put this directive in place, even though he was warned months before he signed that directive in 2023 on 23 January that it could impact up to 2800 cases.
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The departmental secretary, Stephanie Foster, told Senate estimates the department had failed to keep Andrew Giles updated, despite there being a protocol in place the minister be advised of any serious cases of visa reinstatement through the tribunal.
Giles says he is dealing with the issues that are most pressing now – reviewing the decisions, and cancelling visas where necessary (he said earlier that seven visas had been cancelled and he was looking at another one now, with about 30 cases under review).
I also have put in place a mechanism to ensure that I will be notified within 24 hours of any such AAT decision.
Then we need to get to the bottom of what happened, I’m determined to do so.
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Andrew Giles was asked why he wasn’t told about what was happening with his directive in the tribunals – why there weren’t meetings to receive updates.
He said there were meetings with his department which were taking place “pretty regularly”.
What has been unacceptable is the fact that these AAT decisions to set aside cancellations that were made under section 99 that were made by this government by my department – we were not advised, I was not told that these cancellations had been overturned by the tribunal.
That’s the issue that I’m deeply concerned about. And that’s what I’m focusing on fixing now.
Both by bringing up all of these submissions for cancellation and by ensuring the future revocation decisions by the tribunal are advised to me within 24 hours.
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Giles vows to ‘get to the bottom’ of visa reinstatements
Andrew Giles says since becoming aware that the AAT tribunals had reinstated visas for people who had committed violent crimes, or have been alleged to have committed violent crimes, he has cancelled seven visas and is reviewing an eighth.
There are around 30 that I’ve called up as a matter of absolute urgency and they are dealt with through the day and night.
He said that he would be “getting to the bottom” of what happened at the AAT, and why ministerial directive 99 was used the way it was and why he was alerted to the decisions being made.
I’m gonna get to the bottom of this – a protocol that I put in place was not adhered to, that is entirely unsatisfactory. As I said, I’m now focused on dealing with the urgent issue which is the cancellation consideration, I put in place a new protocol and I want to get to the bottom of what happened and why.
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The immigration minister, Andrew Giles, is speaking to ABC radio AM as the ministerial directive 99 fallout continues.
Asked why he still has a job, Giles says:
Well, because there’s so much work to do to clean up the mess to rebuild a migration system that was left in tatters under the leadership of Peter Dutton that was left when he was the minister responsible.
For more on how we got here, read Paul Karp’s analysis:
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Good morning
Hello and welcome to the last house sitting day for the week. We also have estimates for an added bonus (which will also continue tomorrow).
Thank you to Martin for getting us all up to date this morning – you now have Amy Remeikis for most of the parliament day.
It’s a four coffee morning – and we are on number two with three brewing away over here. It’s also cupcake for breakfast time. Whatever gets you through.
Ready? Let’s get into it.
BHP's $75bn takeover deal collapses
Mining giant BHP has given up on its attempts to buy rival miner Anglo American for $75bn in what would have been the biggest takeover deal in Australian history.
The announcement came in the early hours, about 45 minutes before a deadline set by London-listed Anglo for BHP to either put up a firm offer or walk away.
Anglo had earlier rejected BHP’s request for more time to hammer out an agreement. BHP has pursued the deal because its thinks Anglo’s assets – especially in copper – can help it become a stronger player across the whole commodities sector.
BHP’s chief executive, Mike Henry, said:
While we believed that our proposal for Anglo American was a compelling opportunity to effectively grow the pie of value for both sets of shareholders, we were unable to reach agreement with Anglo American on our specific views in respect of South African regulatory risk and cost and, despite seeking to engage constructively and numerous requests, we were not able to access from Anglo American key information required to formulate measures to address the excess risk they perceive.
The company said in a statement to the London market that it was “disappointed” the board of Anglo American had decided not to continue discussions to resolve concerns regarding the implementation of its revised proposal.
It said:
BHP had been engaging with Anglo American on these topics since the submission of its revised proposal on 20 May and believes that there was a viable pathway available to resolve Anglo American’s concerns.
In particular, Anglo American’s assertion that value risk under our proposal would be exclusively for the account of Anglo American shareholders is not accurate.
Anglo dismissed BHP’s proposal as “highly complex” – as it involved Anglo spinning off its South Africa-based Anglo American Platinum and Kumba Iron Ore operations.
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Report due on whether parliament should legislate Australia’s first federal human rights act
The parliamentary joint committee on human rights is reporting back today on whether parliament should legislate Australia’s first federal human rights act.
In March 2023 the Australian Human Rights Commission released a model for the act, suggesting it could provide safeguards to prevent programs that breach human rights such as robodebt.
That report also proposes additional rights to claim compensation in court for some infringements, including wrongful conviction and unjust detention, although courts could not strike down laws merely for breaching the act.
In the context of a breakdown in relations between Labor and the Coalition on religious discrimination and hate speech, and debates about liability after the robodebt scandal and compensation for people unlawfully detained in immigration detention, this will be an interesting report.
The chair of the committee, Labor MP Josh Burns, said it had received 300 submissions and more than 4,000 letters, with more than 80% in favour of a human rights act, the vast majority of which wanting the AHRC model.
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Half of year 6 and year 10 students falling behind in science, report claims
Almost half of year six and 10 students are falling behind in science, rising to six in 10 Indigenous students, a new report by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority shows.
The National Assessment Program Science Literary Report surveyed students’ general science literacy skills and knowledge across a sample of schools in 2023.
It found there had been little national improvement in outcomes since the tests began in the early 2000s, while significant gaps among disadvantaged cohorts had also remained stubbornly high.
Some 57% of year 6 students attained the proficient standard in 2023, compared with 58% when the last test was completed in 2018. Some 54% of year 10 students reached the standard, compared with 50% the previous round.
Among Indigenous students, 34% in year 6 and just 28% in year 10 attained the proficient standard.There were also significant differences between students with parents from the highest and the lowest occupational and educational groups.
Acara’s acting boss, Stephen Gniel, said science was “one of the cornerstones” of 21st century society.
It’s critical we are arming Australian students with the science literacy necessary not only to be able to participate as active citizens in our ever-advancing technological society but also to help overcome its challenges, minimise its risks and contribute to its development.
Engagement with science inside and outside the classroom also had a link to outcomes. Less than half of students surveyed said they had “in-depth discussions about science ideas” in their lessons, while in year 6, just two in 10 (22%) students learnt science more than once a week.
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More than half of Australia’s gas exports found to attract zero royalty payments
More than half of the nation’s gas exports attract zero royalty payments, Australia Institute research has found, effectively giving away a public resource to multinational corporations for free.
The Australia’s Great Gas Giveaway report, released today, found 56% of gas exported from Australia was given to corporations royalty free, including 76% of gas exported from Western Australia.
About 80% of Australia’s gas is exported as liquefied natural gas (LNG), predominantly extracted from fields in commonwealth waters. But the report found the federal government has failed to levy royalties on gas feeding six of seven offshore LNG export terminals operating in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Multinational companies have made $149 billion exporting royalty free gas in the past four years, the report shows, while at least $13.3bn could have been raised in government revenue if royalties had been charged.
Mark Ogge, principal adviser at the Australia Institute, said many Australians would be “shocked” to realise a large portion of the nation’s gas was given away.
If you engaged an agent to sell your house for the best price but instead they gave it to their mate for free, you would be angry. This is exactly what Australian governments from both political parties have been doing with our gas resources for decades.
Australians have missed out on better healthcare, education and public housing because the gas industry hasn’t been paying for the gas it exports.
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Ukraine president urges Albanese to attend peace summit
The Ukrainian president and European Union ambassadors have privately urged the Australian government to send a high-level minister to a peace summit in Switzerland to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Australian Associated Press reports.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, spoke to Anthony Albanese yesterday evening and they discussed the peace summit to be held next month.
The president wrote on X:
I informed the prime minister about Russia’s ongoing efforts to expand the war and our pressing defence needs to counter the aggressor.
We also discussed the upcoming peace summit and the need to encourage as many nations from around the globe as possible to attend it. I highly appreciate Australia’s willingness to be present at the summit.
I spoke with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese @AlboMP to express my gratitude for Australia’s unwavering support for Ukraine.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 29, 2024
I informed the Prime Minister about Russia’s ongoing efforts to expand the war and our pressing defense needs to counter the aggressor.
We also discussed…
Ambassadors from the EU and member states issued a separate call to Australia’s foreign affairs department on Tuesday, a European official confirmed.
Albanese is yet to decide on attending the mid-June summit, his department’s deputy secretary, Graham Fletcher, told a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, urged Albanese or a high-level minister to attend the summit.
“Australia has a voice of reason in the international community that goes back in history,” he told AAP.
“The Australian voice needs to be present in a definitive way at the summit for peace in Switzerland, which is best achieved by a cabinet minister who is a member of the National Security Committee.”
Members of the Group of Seven and Group of 20 forums, the EU and United Nations have been invited.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer and I’m going to flag some of the top stories this morning before Amy Remeikis takes the reins.
The Albanese government has thrown its support behind the international criminal court after the Guardian’s revelations about a nearly decade-long secret Israeli “war” against the organisation. As foreign affairs minister Penny Wong reiterated Australian support for the ICC, independent senator David Pocock said the international community must support the court’s work “without fear or favour” after the Guardian’s reporting about Israel’s secret operations. The Greens denounced reported threats to the court’s previous prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, as “deeply concerning”.
The Ukrainian president and European Union ambassadors have urged the Australian government to send a high-level minister to a peace summit in Switzerland next month to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, spoke to Anthony Albanese yesterday evening and they discussed the peace summit. More coming up.
The government and the opposition have both promised cuts to migration in response, at least partially, to Australia’s housing crisis. But how much does immigration actually contribute to the cost of housing and rent? Our data experts Nick Evershed and Josh Nicholas dig into the figures and, with the help of some excellent charts, tease out that the truth is as usual somewhat more complicated.
And, coming up, a new report from the Australia Institute estimates that no royalty was paid on more than half of Australia’s gas exports.
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