What we learned, Tuesday 15 September
That’s a wrap on our live coverage for today!
Before we go, let’s take a look at the day’s top headlines:
-
Pauline Hanson has offered a qualified apology for her comments about Indigenous Australians and about Anthony Albanese’s mother – both which have been widely condemned.
-
Chris Bowen has watered down any expectations that a renewed rise in oil prices will lead to the reintroduction of the federal government’s fuel excise relief.
-
Clare O’Neil has defended her colleague, the transport minister Catherine King, after it was revealed the latter had accepted a lifetime membership to Qantas’s top-tier membership, the platinum Frequent Flyer rewards.
-
Independent MP and former Winter Olympian Zali Steggall has joined the chorus of criticism against an ad for a US sports wagering company featuring actor Sydney Sweeney.
-
Universities Australia has warned One Nation’s plan to drastically cut down international student numbers will lead to campuses shutting down and domestic students missing out.
-
The National Disability Insurance Agency has announced voluntary redundancies for the first time since its creation in 2013.
-
Queensland’s state government has flagged a new crackdown in the state’s parole system under legislation introduced into state parliament today.
-
“Activists” and “green groups” will be banned from objecting to Queensland mining projects, under new legislation introduced into parliament today.
-
Fugitive property developer Jean Nassif has fronted the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption after an explosive appearance on Monday.
-
The Gold Coast mayor, Tom Tate, swore at an ABC journalist before storming out of a press conference after a series of questions about his trip to Mar-a-Lago to spruik an ultimately doomed $1.5bn plan for a Trump hotel on the Gold Coast.
Thanks for sticking around, we’ll see you tomorrow morning.
Updated
Australian fashion brands Cue and Veronika Maine face collapse
Longtime Australian fashion brands Cue and Veronika Maine are facing collapse after being placed under the control of receivers and managers.
The company’s parent said the decision followed “a difficult period”.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Hilco Capital said:
It is a disappointing outcome, but the only available course of action given the circumstances.
Our intention has always been to fund Cue to restore growth and profitability. This appointment will now provide an opportunity for a new owner to carry the Cue and Veronika Maine brands forward.
I want to acknowledge the efforts of all the staff during a challenging period and thank them for their continuing support of these great Australian fashion brands.
Updated
Human Rights Commission condemns Hanson’s comments about Indigenous Australians
The Australian Human Rights Commission has joined widespread condemnation of Pauline Hanson’s offensive comments about Indigenous Australians.
The commission said the comments contradicted Australia’s shared values of “fairness, dignity and respect” and had “no place in the national conversation”.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, Katie Kiss, said:
Such commentary is a tactic to divide us at a time when we need to come together. In fact, people have come together over the past 24 hours, across the political spectrum, to criticise the senator’s comments.
For that, I am heartened. But the harm caused should not be underestimated.
The race discrimination commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman, added:
Whether our ancestors arrived more than 200 years ago, or we are recent migrants, we all live on lands and waters that were maintained by and hold the cultures of First Peoples. Recognising that gives us strength and brings us together. Denigrating First Peoples does the opposite and lessens all of us.
When public figures use language that dehumanises entire groups of people, it causes real harm. History has shown that when people are portrayed as less deserving of dignity, respect or belonging, discrimination and exclusion are more likely to follow.
Sivaraman said the incident reinforced the commission’s recommendation in the National Anti-Racism Framework for anti-racism training for all parliamentarians.
Updated
Three-year-old girl dies after being hit by car in Sydney’s west
A three-year-old child has died after being hit by a car in Auburn, in Sydney’s west, on Tuesday afternoon.
Emergency services were called to Normanby Road at about 2.05pm following reports that a child had been struck by a vehicle entering a driveway.
Paramedics treated the girl at the scene before taking her to Westmead hospital in a critical condition. She later died from her injuries.
Police said the 27-year-old male driver was not injured but was taken to Auburn hospital for mandatory testing.
An investigation into the circumstances remains under way.
Updated
King accuses Hanson of ‘gaslighting’ Indigenous Australians and prime minister
The resources minister, Madeleine King, has accused the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, of “gaslighting” Indigenous Australians and the prime minister after Hanson offered a qualified apology for comments that have been widely condemned.
Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, King said Hanson’s apology was inadequate. She said:
There is a way of apologising, isn’t there? … ‘Sorry if I caused offence’ is not really an apology.
She says outrageous things about Indigenous Australians, disgusting things, and then walks back into this building and says she did not say it at all. That is gaslighting.
What she said about the prime minister’s much-loved mother is beyond the pale, and a pseudo-apology is just pathetic on her behalf.
Updated
NSW police watchdog delays public examinations into alleged protest brutality investigation
The NSW independent police watchdog, the law enforcement conduct commission (Lecc), has delayed public examinations into its investigation of alleged police brutality, citing “a range of procedural issues”.
In February, the Lecc launched Operation Makalu to investigate allegations arising from violent clashes between police and demonstrators at a protest against the visit of the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog.
The delay comes two weeks after the leak of police body-worn camera footage of the protest, which was shared widely on social media. The footage allegedly shows a male police officer telling colleagues during a 9 February protest at Sydney Town Hall: “I fucking pumped that cunt.”
The commission has not specified when the public examinations will begin.
In a statement, the Lecc said:
The Commission had previously announced that any public examinations would start no earlier than September 2026. A range of procedural issues have now arisen, which the Commission must consider. As a result, public examinations will not be held in September 2026.
The Commission will provide a further update on its investigation as soon as practicable.
Updated
Two WA teens charged after alleged Perth Zoo break-in
Western Australia Police have charged two teenage boys after an alleged break-in at Perth Zoo during which a crocodile was assaulted and property was damaged.
Police allege the boys, aged 16 and 17, entered the zoo at about 7.15pm on Sunday. It remains unclear how they gained entry.
The teenagers allegedly cut the locks on a crocodile enclosure before entering and striking the animal with a metal pole. They are also accused of damaging CCTV equipment inside the enclosure by removing the cameras from the wall.
The incident was reported to authorities the following morning, before police arrested the teenagers at their separate homes.
Both boys have been charged with two counts of criminal damage or destruction of property, one count of trespass and one count of animal cruelty.
State politicians react to Guardian story about man Tasered in homeless clearance
Queensland politicians have reacted to Guardian reporting that a man was Tasered in a homeless clearance earlier in the month.
The man attempted to kill himself after being ordered to leave a park north of Brisbane to make way for a kite festival. He was rushed to hospital, but discharged the next day.
The opposition leader, Steven Miles, said the state government had “washed their hands of responsibility for the homelessness crisis that they’re contributing to”, blaming cuts to the state’s emergency fund for accommodation in hotels and motels. He said.
We’re seeing this situation get even worse. It’s pretty much every park across Moreton Bay, whether that’s Pelican Park in Redcliffe, all the way through to Fernie Grove, there’s more and more people popping up in those parks.
Miles said it wasn’t appropriate for a hospital to discharge a patient back into homelessness.
Greens MP Michael Berkman said the case was “the end result of both major parties treating housing as a profitable commodity rather than a human right”. He said:
Our Government has created this vicious merry-go-round by underfunding housing, healthcare and community services.
If this is how the system treats a homeless man with terminal illness, it makes you wonder how they’re treating other people who we just haven’t heard about.
The minister for correctional services, Laura Gerber, said she wasn’t familiar with the case but said the government prioritised community safety.
Updated
Gold Coast mayor tells journalist to ‘fuck off’ during press conference
Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate has sworn at an ABC journalist before storming out of a press conference.
ABC reporter Liam Walsh asked Tate a series of questions about his trip to Mar-a-Lago to spruik an ultimately doomed $1.5bn plan for a Trump hotel on the Gold Coast.
Tate claimed to have met with the US president at his golf estate at the invitation of the Trump organisation – but no record of the invitation exists, the ABC said.
Walsh asked Tate on Tuesday how much the trip cost. The mayor responded that “it’s private” and denied he got “mate’s rates”.
Then the mayor asked the reporter why he was so aggressive and if he was with the ABC, which the reporter confirmed.
“Fuck off,” Tate said, and walked out of the press conference.
The hotel plan fell over in May, with the developer claiming the Trump brand was too “toxic” to work with.
Updated
Good afternoon!
I’ll be here to guide you through the rest of the afternoon’s news.
Thank you all so much for joining me on the blog today!
I’ll leave you with the fabulous Achol Arok and see you here bright and early tomorrow.
Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time
-
The opposition picked a broad bunch of questions (and was perhaps a bit all over the place) to target Labor with today, from the Whyalla steelworks, to a fundraising dinner attended by Albanese, to green hydrogen, to private health insurance rebates for over-65s.
-
Albanese defended Australia’s democracy and his government’s transparency, in response to a question from Allegra Spender. His answer was essentially: well, at least it’s not as bad as it is overseas.
-
The prime minister also said it was appropriate that a Labor staffer, and ex-Play School host, was stood down after old tweets disparaging Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and others were revealed.
-
The opposition then tried and failed to table photographs of the staffer in question with Albanese.
-
And Jim Chalmers defended Australia’s debt to GDP ratio with a line that boiled down to: well, it’s not as bad as it is overseas (… sound familiar?).
-
Angus Taylor didn’t get a question in today, and no MPs were kicked out despite a somewhat loud and at times rowdy 75 minutes.
Updated
Nassif threatens to pull out from Icac hearings mid-rant
Fugitive property developer Jean Nassif has threatened to withdraw from the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s inquiries as the counsel assisting attempted to interrupt a rant about corrupt politicians.
Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asked him to calm down, but Nassif quickly snapped back.
Dialling into the inquiry from Lebanon, he said:
“I want to prove my point. If you don’t want me to prove myself I’ll withdraw from all this nonsense.”
Showing his handwritten notes to the camera, Nassif said:
I’m taking notes … So stop fucking putting words in my mouth. This is a public hearing, and I know what you’re doing. You want to show the public that I am corrupt. I’m not corrupt.
You guys are not attacking the corrupt officials in the government. You want the country to be ruled by crooks.
Assistant commissioner Fabian Gleeson SC told Nassif to take a breath:
“The purpose of this inquiry is to get to the truth of certain allegations. It’s not for you to attack other people. You can be passionate about that, but this is not the forum for those complaints.”
Updated
‘I am not corrupt’: Jean Nassif declares innocence
Fugitive property developer Jean Nassif is fronting the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption to wrap up his evidence after an explosive appearance on Monday.
Nassif told the commission he offered lobbyists Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis $1m to help fast-track his developments.
As counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC read texts between Greenwood and Ellis about Charles Perrottet not prioritising the developments, Nassif said he did not understand what this had to do with him.
Dialling in from his Beirut bedroom, Nassif said:
This is an issue amongst them and between them. I was not involved at all. I am not involved with paying politicians to get my projects approved.
I employed consultants to solve my problems and unblock the way …
What they did, if they did any corrupt work, I am not involved with it. I was not aware of it … You need to understand. I am not corrupt.
As part of its investigation into allegations against people associated with the NSW Liberals, Icac is examining the allegation that Liberal figures anticipated receiving $2m in prohibited donations from Nassif in exchange for political outcomes, including damage to the career of the NSW Liberal minister David Elliott, and the removal of the building commissioner David Chandler.
Nassif has denied wrongdoing.
Updated
QT ends without question from opposition leader
After a final dixer, the prime minister calls time on QT for the day.
We’re halfway through folks.
Interestingly, Angus Taylor didn’t ask a single question today.
Updated
Australia’s gross debt-to-GDP ratio lower than any major advanced economy, Chalmers says
One Nation MP David Farley is next from the crossbench and asks if the treasurer will accept “commonwealth debt has reached a point beyond which it becomes unsustainable? Yes, or no? If yes – what gross debt-to-GDP ratio or what gross debt level would trigger that concern with you?”
Jim Chalmers says Australia’s debt-to-GDP ratio isn’t that bad compared with other countries, and that much of the debt was accrued during the Coalition government.
We have lower gross debt-to-GDP than any major advanced economy – in fact, much lower. Less than half the US, UK, less than a quarter of Japan. That’s really important because, to go to the core of his question, there are other countries where debt is approaching unsustainable levels, but not in Australia.
Farley tries to make a point of order, saying Chalmers isn’t answering the question about what debt level would cause concern.
Chalmers continues:
If you look at US bond yields, Treasury yields, for 10 years, they’ve breached 5% again today. That is a source of considerable concern for policymakers and decision-makers, governments, and the private sector right around the world. And it reflects a number of things. It reflects the fact that the war in Iran is dragging on longer than anyone would like from an economic point of view.
Updated
Immediate action taken against Labor staffer Muldoon ‘appropriate’, PM says
Anthony Albanese says it is “appropriate” that Labor senator Richard Dowling has stood down ex-Play School host Rhys Muldoon as his staffer.
Tweets by Muldoon about Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Peta Credlin were unearthed today, leading to the “immediate action” – as Albanese put it – taken against him.
Nationals MP Anne Webster asked Albanese when he first became aware of Muldoon’s “vile tweets”.
Albanese won’t give a timeline.
When they became public debate today – I wasn’t aware of those comments until they were raised in the media – and neither was Senator Dowling. The comments are completely unacceptable, and Senator Dowling has taken immediate action – and that’s appropriate.
Liberal frontbencher Aaron Violi tries to table a series of documents including: “the Prime Minister, on election night, with his close personal friend Rhys Muldoon. The Prime Minister being kissed on the cheek by his close political ally Rhys Muldoon. And disgraced Labor adviser Rhys Muldoon with the Prime Minister.”
Milton Dick is absolutely not having that, and warns Violi “don’t take advantage of my goodwill or the House’s goodwill by using props to try and table things.”
Updated
‘I’ll meet with leaders who have never held a press conference’: Albanese defends his government’s transparency
Will the government commit to publishing ministerial diaries, or lists of who ministers have met, so Australians can see who really is in the room, asks Allegra Spender.
She quotes a survey conducted by McKinnon which found “72% of Australians think politicians serve ourselves and vested interests first, before we serve them”.
Albanese says that his diary is regularly published via FOI requests – but what Spender is suggesting is the proactive publishing of all ministerial diaries.
He then defends the current system and says at least Australia is, like, better than other countries.
When I go to the UN next week, I’ll meet with leaders who have never answered a question in parliament. I’ll meet with leaders. I’ll meet with leaders who have never held a press conference and answered questions from journalists. In most parts of the world, leaders do not go through the transparency that we have in this country. So I’m proud of our democracy.
Albanese mentions the national anti-corruption commission which has never held a public hearing and the independent parliamentary standards commission (whose work is also shielded from public scrutiny).
Updated
‘You’re making this up as you go along’: Butler hits back at Coalition over changes to private health insurance rebate
I’m feeling a bit of whiplash today because the opposition has changed tack again and is now asking about reducing the private health insurance rebate for over 65s.
Nationals deputy leader Darren Chester asks why the government is “making life harder for 1.5 million aged pensioners”, based on parliamentary budget office data for independent Monique Ryan showing half of the $3bn saved by the measure will be paid for by pensioners.
Mark Butler says the savings will go directly into aged care where it’s sorely needed.
He adds that the Coalition hasn’t said where that money for aged care beds should come from instead.
The leader of the opposition says, ‘don’t make the cuts’, presumably, he has an alternative way of funding the additional aged care services that older Australians require, or he’s just not going to support them. He’s just not going to support the additional beds or the additional packages that’s going to go into aged care? Are you making this up as you go along? They’re making this up as they go along …
Updated
Government is ‘pro-supply’ amid record number of construction insolvencies, O’Neil says
Nationals MP Jamie Chaffey is next to the mic (curiously Angus Taylor still hasn’t asked a question as yet), and says 1,700 construction businesses have gone bust in the three months since the budget, the highest quarter of construction insolvencies on record. Where will Australians live if the construction industry goes broke, he asks.
The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, says the government is “pro-supply” and has a “pro-supply budget”.
The opposition interrupts but they don’t get very far because Milton Dick says O’Neil is being relevant.
O’Neil says:
I’m actually literally quoting from the federal budget, which is what the question was about. The budget will support up to an additional 30,000 homes over the next decade and more, as the benefit of productivity-enhancing reforms flow through to the housing market.
Updated
Bowen and Tehan accuse each other of ‘hyping’ green hydrogen
Dan Tehan’s brought some receipts to check, asking Chris Bowen about his comments to the ABC last night – “I never quite bought all the hype on green hydrogen” – when on 17 November 2023 the energy minister said “Australia’s hydrogen industry is projected to generate $50bn in additional GDP by 2050, creating tens of thousands of jobs in regional Australia, as Australia transforms to a renewable energy superpower”.
He asks if Bowen’s “wiped” that 2023 statement from his mind.
Bowen says he does remember that quote, and that green hydrogen has been overhyped.
A few years ago, he says, green hydrogen was hypothesised to heat homes and fuel cars.
You know how many hydrogen cars were sold in Australia last year? One vehicle, Mr Speaker. One vehicle. So there was a lot of hype in previous years about green hydrogen.
He then suggests that Tehan himself had flogged Australia’s capacity to export hydrogen during the Morrison government.
It’s also been said – exporting green hydrogen will supply overseas processing, which will put Australia at the forefront of an emerging renewable energy market leading to new jobs and environmental dividends. Well said, Dan. Well said … He was referring to the announcement that the Morrison government is working to continue with international colleagues to establish Australia as a hydrogen export powerhouse.
Updated
Katter explores benefits of east coast gas reservation scheme
Over to the crossbench, Bob Katter asks if a “genuine” east coast gas reservation scheme will bring down gas prices from “around $17 to below $7”, comparable with Western Australian and world prices, and save copper mining operations in Mt Isa – in his electorate.
Best believe the government won’t commit to a number.
The prime minister gives a broad brush statement about how good a reservation scheme on the east coast would be before handing over to the resources minister, Madeleine King.
King says the WA policy was hard to get over the line back in 2008, and that in 2022, federal Labor inherited a “gas policy bin fire”.
She then goes off on a bit of a tangent, talking about Pauline Hanson and One Nation’s support for a gas reservation scheme just a couple of months ago.
The leader of One Nation, Senator Hanson, very much supported a gas reservation policy. Indeed, in March, she introduced legislation for it in the Senate. And in June, unfortunately for households around the country and for industry, she has backtracked on that, and is now not supporting a gas reservation policy. We’ve been very clear on this policy, which is more than can be said of the One Nation party.
Updated
Not question time, but ‘smears’ time: Albanese
Liberal MP Simon Kennedy is next and asks about a report in the Australian that the prime minister attended a fundraiser with a man who was later charged by police with selling banned weapons including swords and knives.
Kennedy asks what Albanese spoke to this man about over dinner.
There’s some argy bargy on the language of the question and even after a minor rephrase, leader of the house Tony Burke and Milton Dick aren’t happy with it, and don’t believe it’s in line with standing orders.
Kennedy gets a third go and asks how the dinner including this man “aligns with your agenda in keeping Australians safe”.
Anthony Albanese criticises the question, and says it “shows the state of the opposition”.
The 600 workers who lost their jobs was worth one question, then we go from questions without notice, to smears without notice.
Angus Taylor tries to make a point of order on relevance but then Albanese sits down, and indicates he’s finished his answer.
There’s a little awkward encounter afterwards. Susan Templeman is already standing up to ask her dixer when the PM sits down, but first-time Labor MP Emma Comer stands up at the same time ready to ask her question.
They look at each other a little awkwardly and Templeman says, “it’s me first.”
Updated
It’s question time!
Liberal MP Tom Venning kicks us off today, and asks why the government has paid millions of dollars for hotels in Fiji for the COP climate agreement, but could only stump up $10m for Whyalla after it closed one of its blast furnaces – resulting in the loss of more than 500 jobs.
Pat Conroy, representing the minister for industry, takes the question and says “we won’t be lectured about support for manufacturers and workers by those over there”.
Just 21 seconds in the opposition intervenes, but their complaint is swiftly dismissed by Milton Dick.
Conroy says the failure of the steelworks are entirely on the shoulders of the company that owned it and its boss, Sanjay Gupta. He says the government allocated $3bn to save the future of steelmaking in South Australia, and there are two bidders currently interested in continuing steelmaking in Whyalla.
The truth is that years of failure to invest in the steelworks by the previous owner have resulted in the blast furnace being beyond repair. Those opposite would ask us to ignore the laws of physics and workplace safety. Let’s be very frank about this. Let me be very frank with the chamber. The Gupta Group had a responsibility to the workers of Whyalla Steelworks, and failed them. This is entirely Gupta’s fault.
We won’t be lectured by those who’ve shut down the South Australian car operations, those who’ve shut down two naval shipyards in this country, those who allowed three oil refineries to be shut down.
Updated
Government shuts down motions on political advertising laws and veterans’ affairs
The House has been busy today with multiple suspensions of standing order motions flying around.
Independent MP Zali Steggall tried to bring on truth in political advertising laws – something she has been pushing for a while. The government in its last term had some draft laws but has basically put them on the backburner. Steggall told the House:
Australians will confront an information environment that is rapidly changing at extraordinary speed, Australia lacks a national truth in pol ad laws to protect voters from misinformation and disinformation during election campaigns but also from deepfake content.
The motion was shut down by the government.
Liberal MP Phil Thompson also didn’t have much luck trying to suspend standing orders to force the government to abandon a $5,000 allied health service cap for veterans. It’s an issue the Coalition have been pushing hard in QT.
The Queensland MP and veteran tells the House of veterans who have contacted him to say they’ll lose access to critical support, and calls the veterans’ affairs minister, Matt Keogh “incompetent”.
It’s not him who carries the coffins. I carry the coffins, veterans around the country will carry the coffins, this is incompetence from a minister who is out of his depth and laziness from a prime minister who should sack him.
Updated
Canavan says Labor won’t cut far enough in migration negotiations
Matt Canavan has said the Coalition is still not willing to make a deal with Labor on migration policy as the government looks for a path to cut back.
The Nationals leader has told reporters in Canberra the talks are ongoing. He said:
We’ll be absolutely constructive. … What’s on the table right now, as I’ve been briefed, haven’t been involved in the direct discussions, but as I’ve been briefed, is the government is still not serious about bringing these numbers down and therefore, it’s not something we can support.
Canavan accused the government of failing to reach a position internally.
I think I’ve counted, in reports now, six cabinet meeting that have dealt with migration policy. Tony Burke’s being rolled six times.
He said the Coalition was committed to maintaining access to working holiday maker visas and did not want to revise the UK or New Zealand free trade deals, which had contributed to the easy access for overseas backpackers.
One Nation is proposing severe cuts to migration, capping international student visa grants in Australia to 115,000 a year and refusing entry to their families. About 680,000 international students studied in Australia between January and May this year.
When asked, Canavan said he had no specific issue with One Nation’s proposal and believed student numbers had to be cut, adding the Coalition would have more to say on the issue.
Updated
Victorian premier announces review of Western Renewables Link
The Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, has issued a statement just hours after fronting the media to confirm a pause of compulsory reacquisitions while the cost of the Western Renewables Link is reviewed.
The Western Renewables Link, a major transmission project managed by AusNet, links Bulgana in western Victoria to Sydenham in Melbourne’s north-west and is due to be completed in 2029. But opposition to the project has been on display for five years near Daylesford in central Victoria, where a farmer sprayed “piss off AusNet” on to a hillside.
In the statement, Carroll said the project was planned “almost 10 years ago and Victorian consumers deserve updated, transparent costings”.
He said an immediate, independent assessment will be complete by the end of the year, and its findings will be made public:
As it moves along this considered process, Minister Jaclyn Symes has spoken with VicGrid and can reassure the community that no compulsory acquisitions will occur during this time.
Carroll also thanked Labor MPs Martha Haylett, Michaela Settle and Steve McGhie for “their advocacy on behalf of locals on this issue” and said they had “made it crystal clear to me that locals want transparency on this project”. Their respective seats of Ripon, Eureka and Melton are under threat from One Nation and the Coalition, who have already committed to reviewing the transmission project.
Updated
Public sector union calls for more detail over NDIA redundancies plan
The Community and Public Sector Union, which represents NDIA staff, has expressed concern about the agency’s voluntary redundancy plan.
The union’s national president, Beth Vincent-Pietsch, says the union is yet to receive details on how many jobs the NIDA would like to see made redundant.
The CPSU remains concerned that the government has not provided enough detail about how many jobs will be cut in the NDIA or where those cuts will fall.
And we are also deeply concerned for the public sector workers left behind, who will face heavier workloads and greater pressure while the agency continues to spend taxpayer money on expensive labour hire firms.
The NDIA has been contacted for comment.
In an email to staff, the NDIA’s chief executive, Graeme Head, said the voluntary redundancies were necessary as its staffing costs were higher than the government’s allocated budget.
He said decisions about redundancies would consider the agency’s “workforce capacity” and its “priority areas”, including service delivery.
Updated
NDIA announces voluntary redundancies for first time since creation
The National Disability Insurance Agency has announced voluntary redundancies for the first time since its creation in 2013.
The job cuts were announced by the NDIA’s chief executive, Graeme Head, on Monday with staff to be provided with more detailed information in group sessions over coming weeks.
In an email to staff, Head did not state how many redundancies would ultimately be approved.
Head said the NDIA’s “staffing level is slightly above the level provided for in the budget”. He also revealed the NDIA has limited recruitment to critical roles since July.
In a first for the NDIA, we are also opening voluntary redundancy expressions of interest for eligible APS employees.
The voluntary redundancy expression of interest process is just one of the ways we can manage our workforce capacity and direct our resources to priority areas, while supporting service delivery (...) and critical reform work.
To save money, the NDIA has also announced a “mobility register”, which allows staff to be moved to other sections of the organisation that may be understaffed.
The expression of interest period for redundancies is open until 16 October. Decisions will be made according to the NDIA’s “business and workforce needs” along with “workforce priorities and organisational capacity”.
The NDIA was contacted for a response, including for detail on how many voluntary redundancies would be accepted.
Updated
‘We never spoke about a gas reservation policy’: Hanson denies Guardian report
Pauline Hanson says her party has “never” spoken about a gas reservation policy, after my colleague Sarah Martin published a story this morning that One Nation quietly dropped the plan.
She tells the press gallery her policy was to adopt a Norwegian-style equity share on gas production.
Unfortunately for Hanson, the internet exists.
Here she is in March introducing a bill for a 15% gas reserve – in a social media post on One Nation’s account.
And even a quick look at One Nation’s own website shows it was once on the table:
One Nation has previously considered an East Coast gas reservation policy. However, through consultation with industry and stakeholders, it became clear that it fell short of our policy objectives.
Hanson tells the press gallery:
We never spoke about a gas reservation policy. We spoke about the government having a, like Norwegian gas over there, that they play a part in the exploration plus the development of the gas. The gas reservation policy that the government is advocating at 20% is not going to work.
But that is still under consultation with these companies to ensure that we utilise our resources to the best of our abilities, without the multinationals taking a lot out of this country, which both political parties have allowed to happen, and we have not had our returns on our resources.
She looks physically uncomfortable as she answers and then shortly after ends the press conference.
Updated
Hanson offers qualified apologies to Albanese and Indigenous Australians
Well about 10 minutes after her interview on News24, Pauline Hanson has done somewhat of an about-turn and offered a qualified apology for her comments about Indigenous Australians and about Anthony Albanese’s mother – both which have been widely condemned.
Speaking to a very large crowd of journalists squeezed into the press gallery corridor, Hanson says her comments were “not distasteful” towards Albanese’s mother but then apologises.
I don’t think my comments were derogatory towards his mother at all. I was referring to housing commission at that time. So if he’s taken offence to it, well, I’m sorry for that.
When asked about her comments on Indigenous Australians, calling them the “most primitive race” she also eventually gives a half-apology.
All I’ve asked is for accountability from our … governments and from our politicians to address these concerns and stop using it as a political football, and I will continue to talk about this.
If I’ve offended people by using that [word], yes, I will apologise for that.
Updated
Tuvalu’s climate minister says ‘pushing people to move is not a solution’ for island nation
Tuvalu’s climate change and environment minister has said migration should not be considered the solution for the low-lying nation as it deals with the effects of global heating.
Speaking at The Australia Institute’s climate integrity summit in Sydney, Dr Maina Talia said the reality of the climate crisis for the small island nation “keeps me awake at night”. He said:
Every time we think of the climate impact in Tuvalu, we are not just simply talking about a climate rescue plan. We are thinking of the … people that [do] not want to leave.
Australia has offered up to 280 visas to Tuvaluans annually under a world first agreement as rising seas threaten the low-lying nation.
In October, world leaders will visit Tuvalu as part of preparatory events leading into Cop31. Talia said addressing Tuvalu’s “economic vulnerability” resulting from the climate crisis needed to be a priority.
It’s scary. Even with this issue of migration attached to the climate change narrative, it’s scary. And it’s blurry because we don’t want to encourage people to move … It’s a matter of choice.
People have the freedom to leave but that should not be the solution for climate change. Pushing people to move is not a solution.
We should not trade life with migration … that’s immoral.
Updated
Hanson complains about ‘dirt’ being dug up on her
Pauline Hanson is not happy about her old comments being resurfaced by the media, and says everyone is trying to drag her party down.
Her comments on Indigenous Australians were from a podcast released in September last year, while comments about Anthony Albanese’s mother from another podcast in February came to light this week – both received wide condemnation.
She claims that no other politicians have been treated the way she has.
Someone’s out there digging up whatever dirt that I said how many years ago … Everything that’s happening, through my office and other staffers [who] have worked in other political parties’ offices, said we’ve never, ever, ever seen anything like this. Of what they’re trying to put on to One Nation, drags down all the time. Wake up to yourselves because the real enemy there is the Albanese, Labor, Greens government.
Updated
‘I’ve always put my foot in my mouth’: Hanson refuses to apologise over comments on Indigenous Australians
Pauline Hanson has refused to apologise for her comments calling Indigenous Australians the “most primitive race”, and has doubled down on the claim.
She concedes she has always “put my foot in my mouth” but then tells News24 that she said in a podcast that Indigenous Australians “were” the most primitive race when Australia was colonised, and backs that comment now.
I’ve always put my foot in my mouth and why I come out and say things. I’m not the most eloquent speaker and how I deliver something, what I say.
Host, Keiran Gilbert asks if Hanson is proud of the thousands of generations of knowledge of Indigenous communities in Australia, the oldest continuous culture on Earth.
She says it’s part of Australia’s heritage but that the “victimisation” needs to stop. She says she’s worried about Indigenous communities living in “third world conditions”.
Eventually she says she “regrets” the comments but still won’t apologise:
Well, then I regret saying that because I don’t want to upset people. That’s not my intentions. That wasn’t my intentions to hurt people. My intentions are keeping people together. I want to address the rape that’s going on. The Indigenous, most people in their prisons, about 37% in their prisons. We’ve got alcohol abuse. We’ve got domestic violence abuse. We’ve got kids in poverty.
Here is more on Hanson’s comments:
Updated
Hanson denies migration plan will send country into recession
Pauline Hanson has pushed back against criticism that One Nation has released a migration policy without costings or detail, and says she doesn’t believe the plan will punt the country into recession.
Speaking to News24 in a live interview – her first time talking about the policy since it was released yesterday – Hanson says she’s “sick of listening” to bureaucrats and big business.
Hanson says Australia is in a per capita recession – which is true – but can’t explain how her plan of removing migrants from the country will fix that. She adds that she doesn’t trust economists.
Do you trust these economists what they come out and say? Because I don’t. I don’t believe they always get it right as well.
By taking the migration figures back to 2017, did the economy crash at that time? No, they didn’t … I’m concerned about the 150,000 plus people that are living homeless in their cars, in tents, couch surfing, and all the rest of it.
Updated
Taylor says One Nation’s comments fail ‘basic test on decency’
Angus Taylor has praised his colleagues, including Andrew Hastie, for holding One Nation to account in recent weeks, saying the Pauline Hanson-led party’s comments “do not meet the basic test on decency”.
In a party room briefing this morning, Taylor mentioned clashes with One Nation by Hastie, Garth Hamilton and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in response to controversial comments.
The test will always be decency, and One Nation’s comments do not meet the basic test on decency.
The deputy opposition leader, Jane Hume, delivered a similar message to colleagues, saying commentary claiming there are no good Muslims, disparaging veterans, attacking people’s families and circumstances, and attacking Indigenous Australians is “unacceptable”.
Hume also appears to have floated a catchy slogan for her Victorian party counterparts. The senator questioned how One Nation could “run a campaign to fire a liar, and then ask Victorians to hire a liar”, referring to the party’s state leader, Warren Pickering.
Updated
Victorian Labor struggling to turn election tide under new premier, new polling shows
Support for Victoria’s Labor government securing a fourth term remains stuck at one in four voters, according to the latest Resolve Political Monitor conducted last week and published by Nine Newspapers on Tuesday.
With Victorians headed to the polls in November, Labor and the Coalition have been duking it out in recent weeks over potholes, road and train upgrades, a secret public transport levy, crime and free dental clinics.
Labor’s primary vote was steady at 25%, the Coalition’s pushed up one point to 27% and One Nation remained at 23%.
With state net debt forecast to hit almost $200bn by 2030, Victorians (72%) more commonly expressed worry about debt levels than residents in other states such as NSW (67%) and Queensland (63%).
Almost half of respondents preferred to pause Suburban Rail Loop East rather than keep tunnelling, while 35% backed Labor’s $230m free dental care plan compared with 43% who reckoned it was not worth the cost and should not proceed.
The poll showed primary support for the Greens was 12%, while independents scooped up 8%.
The Victorian Coalition needs to hold all of its current lower house seats and win at least 16 more to govern alone.
– AAP
Updated
Albanese to head to US to launch’s Australia’s bid for UN security council seat
Anthony Albanese is headed to the US this week, and has told Labor MPs he will launch Australia’s bid for a seat on the United Nations security council in New York.
The prime minister departs Australia on Friday and will take part in the annual UN general assembly, and receive a global citizen award from the Atlantic Council. Other honorees in the awards include Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, the chief executive of Formula One, Stefano Domenicali, and Cynthia Erivo, the Wicked star and Academy Award-nominated actor.
During the visit, Albanese will stop at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino in California to talk about technology and government regulation.
Albanese is expected to catch up with a series of world leaders, including the US president, Donald Trump, and the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham.
Australia is running for one of the two non-permanent seats on the UN security council for the 2029–2030 term. The election is due to take place in June 2028.
Updated
Sydney Sweeney ad for US gambling company ‘pretty disgusting’, Steggall says
Independent MP and former Winter Olympian Zali Steggall has joined the chorus of criticism against an ad for a US sports wagering company featuring actor Sydney Sweeney.
It’s not the first time Sweeney has courted controversy for her appearance in an ad.
Yesterday athletes – particularly female athletes – in Australia and around the world condemned the ad, which features her semi-naked and repeating the word “sport” a bunch.
Steggall tells News24 she thought the ad was pretty disgusting, and rejected assertions from host, Laura Jayes, that it’s “ironic” that Sweeney, a woman, is copping all the flak for it.
I thought it was pretty disgusting. I mean, clearly Sydney Sweeney hasn’t done a real day of hard work in sport in her life, I would argue. And at the end of the day, she’s pushing that old trope to lure men into gambling … it brings women’s sport back to the sexualisation and the objectification, rather than celebrating women who are strong, fierce, brave, powerful, and do amazing things in the sporting arena.
Keep in mind, my understanding is she’s a shareholder and has a proprietary interest in the gambling advertising company that she’s promoting. So not only is she putting her body cheaply on the line, but she is also ultimately luring men into losing vast amounts of money through gambling advertising.
Steggall says women have been battling for decades to get more equality in media attention, respect, and pay conditions in sport, so “every time women’s sport is objectivised and trivialised in this way, it is really frustrating”.
Updated
‘Wilful ignorance’: Jacinta Nampijinpa Price criticises Hanson comments
Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has accused Pauline Hanson of “wilful ignorance” after the One Nation leader labelled Indigenous Australians “the most primitive race on earth,” AAP reports.
The prominent Indigenous conservative rebuked Hanson’s comments, saying making Australia better was about working together rather than tearing people down on the basis of race.
“When you say ‘the most primitive race on earth,’ you are speaking about a race of people,” Price told 2GB radio on Tuesday.
I don’t care what excuses are being made. She did absolutely demonstrate wilful ignorance because there’s a hell of a lot more to Australia’s First People than simply what her remarks suggest.
The One Nation leader made the comments during an interview with the Jamie J podcast in 2025, when she criticised the study of Indigenous history and culture in schools.
Earlier this morning, the minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, said it was notable that she, Price, Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle and independent senator Lidia Thorpe had all spoken out against these comments.
Updated
Queensland to ban ‘green groups’ from objecting to mining projects
“Activists” and “green groups” will be banned from objecting to Queensland mining projects, under new legislation to be introduced into parliament today.
Queensland’s minister for natural resources, Dale Last, announced the move this morning.
He said it will amend the objection process so that “activists, often based thousands of kilometres away in green groups, many funded by foreign overseas entities,” will no longer be eligible to have a say under the act. Last told Queensland parliament:
We made a commitment that we would streamline approvals, restore confidence, and provide certainty – certainty for proponents, communities, local landholders, businesses, and workers. It’s about getting to a yes or a no faster, and we’re doing just that.
The bill will also put a stop to vexatious claims and remove regulatory duplication between mining and environmental legislation, he said.
You only need to look at the debacle of the long-running legal battle that the New Acland coalmine expansion experienced to understand that this process has to change.
The bill has yet to be tabled.
The LNP cancelled a review of the system by the Queensland Law Reform Commission last year. It has also cracked down on the planning approvals system for windfarms.
Updated
Ask us anything!
Do you have a question you’d like to ask political editor Tom McIlroy this week?
Send us a question and get your answer in our brand new newsletter, Politics, really.
Email your question to [email protected], and don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter here.
Trust me, it’s great!
Updated
National framework for defining affordable housing supported by advocates
Advocacy group National Shelter has welcomed a move to establish a nationally consistent definition of “affordable housing”, but says a definition won’t solve the housing crisis.
On Monday, the member for Bradfield, Nicolette Boele, introduced a bill that would tie the definition of affordable housing to what households actually earn, and attach it to commonwealth housing programs and funding agreements.
CEO of National Shelter, Jackson Hills, said the organisation supported the bill:
For too long, affordable housing has been defined differently across programs, jurisdictions, and policy settings. Establishing a consistent framework would strengthen policy development, improve transparency and support more effective measurement of housing outcomes over time.
While a nationally recognised definition is an important foundation, definitions alone will not solve the housing crisis. Affordable rental housing delivered at scale can reduce pressure on overstretched social housing waiting lists by providing viable housing options for low- and moderate-income households.
Over the next two decades, Australia must move beyond definitions and accelerate the policies, programs and investments needed to grow Affordable Rental Housing at scale across the country.
Updated
Queensland to introduce new crackdown on parole
Queensland’s state government has flagged a new crackdown in the state’s parole system.
The legislation is set to be introduced into state parliament today by the minister for corrective services, Laura Gerber.
Gerber said it will expand the type of people who can be covered by the state’s restricted prisoner laws, which permit a person serving a life sentence to be banned from release for a decade.
At the moment the parole board can only issue a ban to a person who murders more than one person, or a child. Gerber told parliament they will now apply to all people sentenced to life, an unlimited number of times.
Under our laws, the rights of victims and community safety will be the paramount consideration for all parole decisions, as it always should have been.
The parole board must be empowered to deliver decisions in line with community expectations that put victims and the safety of Queenslanders first, and that is exactly what these laws will deliver.
The legislation comes on new legislation making it more difficult for some people accused of crimes to get bail.
Updated
Australia rises as US plunges in world democracy report
The rise of independents and teals and an underage social media ban have helped boost Australia’s ranking in one of the world’s leading democracy indexes, AAP reports.
At the same time, the United States’ standing has plummeted, with the Trump-era ransacking of institutions and standards dropping one of democracy’s leading lights to the ranks of also-rans.
The annual Global State of Democracy report, released on Tuesday, rates Australia very well across its assessment matrix.
Sweden-based organisation International IDEA charts nations across four main categories – representation, rights, rule of law, and participation – to assess their democratic health.
Overall, it’s ugly reading – autocracies and repressive forces appear to be winning. For the 11th straight year, the report finds more countries recorded declines rather than improvements.
The most extensive global decline was in freedom of expression, with drops in a quarter of the 173 surveyed countries.
Judicial independence is at a 36-year-low globally, while press freedom and access to justice are at their lowest levels this century.
Updated
In pics: boy meets the PM after walking 500km for rural paediatric care
There are some genuinely inspiring and incredible people that walk through the halls of parliament, and today that’s 12-year-old Dusty Langby with his mum, Sarah, who have just completed a more than 540km walk to Canberra.
They’ve been raising money for charity Little Wings and awareness to deliver paediatric care to bush communities, walking from the town of Warren, north-west of Dubbo in New South Wales to Capital Hill. Little Wings provides free flights and transportation for seriously ill children and their families in regional and remote areas.
Dusty, his mum, and nurses Christine Letton and Nichole Callan (who also made the journey by foot) met with Anthony Albanese in his office.
The government has this morning committed more than $1m to the charity.
In a statement, Albanese said Dusty’s journey has been “extraordinary”:
My government will match every dollar Dusty has raised so his incredible effort can make an even bigger difference. On top of that, my Government will invest another $1 million to keep Little Wings flying and help regional families get their children the care they need. Dusty has shown that you’re never too young to make a difference and we’re proud to back Little Wings and the work they do.
Updated
People over 40 the largest single age group in share house accommodation
Share housing has stopped being a stage people pass through, with people in their early 20s now in the minority, according to research conducted by Homerun, an app that manages share house expenditure.
The study of 3,562 Australians living in or hosting a share house revealed that the largest single age group in Australian share accommodation is people aged 40 and over, who make up 44% of respondents.
Key findings were:
-
17% already own a home and let rooms in it, rising to 26% of the over 40s.
-
35% have shared for five years or more, and 18% for more than 10.
-
69% did not expect, at 20, to still be share housing at their current age.
-
31% never expect to own a home. A further 11% put ownership more than a decade away.
-
75% say the high cost of housing has extended how long they will keep sharing.
Scott Mckeon, founder of Homerun said:
Sharehouses are underrepresented and underserviced. Co-living with people you are not related to comes with its own problems, and very little is built for them.
Running a household is work, and it is harder between independent adults. Splitting the finances, agreeing on what clean means, keeping the shared things stocked, and finding someone new when a housemate moves out.
Updated
Drug dogs on Oxford Street causing risks for LGBTQ+, advocates say
Redfern Legal Centre has condemned repeated raids by NSW police on Oxford Street venues as alleged harassment of the LGBTQ+ community that fails to disrupt drug supply while causing real social harm and health risks.
Over the weekend, police with drug-detection dogs were seen at several venues with people asked to remove clothing and questions about why people were in bathrooms.
RLC’s police accountability practice lead, Rian Terrell, said:
NSW police’s repeated decisions by NSW Police to deploy drug dogs to target patrons of venues on Oxford Street amount to [alleged] targeted harassment of the LGBTQIA+ community.
This is particularly concerning given the police watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, directed NSW Police to reopen a misconduct investigation into its actions targeting Sydney LGBTQIA+ venues just last month.
That NSW Police chose to raid Oxford Street again, when that investigation has not concluded, raises further concerns about NSW Police lack of accountability.
Use of drug dogs, wide scale strip searches and searches do little to disrupt drug supply and deter drug use.
The 2024 NSW Drug Summit made several recommendations, including related to the use of drug dogs, many of which have not been accepted or implemented by the NSW Government.
Updated
‘No plans’ for further fuel excise cut, says Marles
The calls for another cut to the fuel excise are again growing as petrol prices continue growing, but the government is hosing down speculation of price relief.
Labor said the previous cuts to the excise were always designed to be temporary.
The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, told News24 earlier:
We don’t have plans for it. We are watching what’s playing out in the Middle East, clearly … Our focus has been in respect of ensuring fuel supply in Australia, and we’ve been able to do that from the moment that this conflict broke out.
One Nation abandons gas plan in favour of policy benefiting Rinehart
One Nation has come under fire for quietly shelving support for a new domestic gas reservation policy in preference for a policy that favours the party’s billionaire patron, Gina Rinehart.
The Albanese government has announced it will establish a new reservation policy for Australia’s east coast, requiring gas exporters to supply a portion of the gas they produce to the domestic market. The policy is aimed at “modestly” supplying the domestic market to put downward pressure on prices for consumers.
Pauline Hanson moved a Senate motion as recently as March in support of a domestic gas reserve, saying it would “increase the supply of gas and lower the price of electricity directly”.
But the reservation plan has been vehemently opposed by Senex, a $900m company that is 49% owned by Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, and 51% owned by the Korean company Posco.
In June, One Nation abandoned its longstanding support when it unveiled its gas plans after “consultation with industry and stakeholders”, saying the policy risked “killing domestic Australian gas companies”.
Read the full story here:
Updated
‘Up to the Coalition’ to team up with Labor on immigration, Chris Bowen says
Chris Bowen says that Labor is willing to work with the opposition to bring down immigration levels, while adding it was “up to the Coalition” to pass legislation on it.
The energy minister was asked on Monday’s 7.30 program about reports that the prime minister and opposition leader, Angus Taylor, had met last week to discuss a Coalition proposal to link net overseas migration to housing completion.
Immigration has been a hotly contested issue within the Labor party, which culminated late last month when the prime minister announced a backflip on proposed cuts to Australia’s refugee intake.
Bowen said if the Coalition wanted to see immigration settings “brought down and improved, we are happy to work with them”.
We need the legislative pathway through the Senate in particular to get that done … Ultimately, the Coalition has to decide. Do they really just want to talk about immigration or do they want to actually vote for improvements to immigration? … If you want to be a party of government, it does need coming together from time to time to work on difficult issues.
Pressed on whether Labor backed the housing idea, Bowen maintained “what we need to do is get immigration down” after post-Covid peaks and said there was “more work to do”.
Updated
Campuses would shut down under One Nation plan, university peak body warns
Universities Australia warns One Nation’s plan to drastically cut down international students will lead to campuses shutting down, and domestic students missing out.
Pauline Hanson’s plan, released yesterday, suggested cutting the international student intake down to 100,000 visas per year and graduate visas down to 20,000 – a cut of more than 200,000 on current levels.
The Universities Australia boss, Luke Sheehy, accused One Nation of “joining the conga line in this furphy” and blaming international students in the migration debate.
He told ABC News:
If numbers actually materialised as One Nation proposed … you would see university campuses shut down, Australian students unable to get a place at university and thousands of university workers have their jobs put at risk.
Updated
Marles downplays reports of OpenAI ultimatum over copyright
Richard Marles says reporting that OpenAI has issued an ultimatum to Australia – that the government must water down copyright protections or the company will refuse to invest in domestic AI training or renewable energy – is overstated.
Marles says he recently met OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei in San Francisco and the fact that they want copyright protection for creatives watered down is “not news”.
I think that’s overstating, actually, the comments that have been made … It’s not new that there are challenges in respect of copyright, which has been raised by those companies. All of this was articulated by the prime minister in his speech in July.
We do want to see our country take this opportunity. It’s a historic opportunity for our nation, but we need to be doing it in a way which protects rights holders – and that means news organisations, it means creatives. But actually, I think you can do both.
Asked if that language used was “threatening” the government, Marles replies:
Well, I actually don’t think it’s at the level that you’ve described it. I mean, I think the person in question was making the point that copyright is an issue which needs to be looked at in the context of OpenAI doing training in Australia. That’s not news.
Updated
Defence recruitment goes online and reaches a 16-year high in Australia
Recruit smarter, not harder, says the deputy PM and defence minister, Richard Marles, announcing the highest defence recruitment intake in 16 years.
He credits a lot of it to meeting young people where they’re at – which is of course, online.
(I guess the release of Top Gun: Maverick itself in 2022 didn’t do enough to cajole people to join the air force.)
Marles tells News24:
It’s the largest defence force we’ve now operated in a quarter of a century, and recruiting 8,100 people in a year as the largest intake in 16 years. And when we came to government, the defence force was shrinking – in the last year of the Coalition government it actually shrank by 1,400 people. So it is a big turnaround.
We are recruiting much smarter, we are doing our advertisements where young people actually are online – so we’re doing less on TV, but more online, very much targeting young people where they are.
Marles adds that the time it takes to be recruited – between expressing interest and putting on a uniform – is also decreasing, though he says it’s still too long.
Updated
Hanson should apologise for ‘deeply hurtful’ comments, says McCarthy
Malarndirri McCarthy says Pauline Hanson should apologise for resurfaced comments calling First Nations Australians “primitive”.
The minister for Indigenous Australians says the condemnation of Hanson from across the political spectrum – including Indigenous Coalition senators Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Kerrynne Liddle, as well as independent Lidia Thorpe shows the breadth of hurt.
Asked whether the Senate would censure Hanson for the comments (something it has done previously), McCarthy says the One Nation leader should be upfront and apologise.
I want to put it on the record that for the first time you have seen all four Indigenous senators from across the aisles come together united on this, and I think that speaks volumes as to why Senator Hanson should apologise.
Clearly the Senate can act, but I am personally calling out to Senator Hanson saying this is important. What you said is deeply hurtful. It’s completely wrong. We have First Nations people right across Australia who have achieved tremendous skills, who have run for Australia, fought for Australia in the wars, who have excelled in the arts, in the music, in all sorts of spheres …
Those comments were completely baseless. They harm. They dehumanise First Nations people in Australia.
Updated
Whyalla closure ‘nothing to do with energy prices’, says Ayres
The industry minister, Tim Ayres has defended the government’s energy transition, and swatted away criticisms from the opposition that the blast furnace failure at Whyalla is a result of high electricity prices.
He tells ABC’s RN Breakfast:
Yesterday Matt Canavan and Andrew Hastie pointing to energy prices as a problem with the blast furnace, it’s got nothing to do with that, it’s got nothing to do with the regulatory framework. It’s got everything to do with the previous owner who has underinvested in that facility.
Ayres is also asked how much money was spent to fix the blast furnace whose closure was announced yesterday – resulting in the loss of more than 500 jobs. He doesn’t have an answer but says it would be in the “many millions”.
Ayres says it’s hard to separate at this point how much taxpayer money was spent to keep it afloat against the money supporting the rest of the operation.
In terms of fixing the old furnace, it would be many millions of dollars have gone into … I don’t have the number pulled out of the funding for the administration, because of course, the administration supports all of the workers’ wages as well. And it’s pretty hard, I think, today to disaggregate that expenditure.
There have been hundreds of safety and engineering failures as a consequence of the previous owners’ maladministration and underinvestment. It has been all hands to the pump here since February, and in particular over the last six months or so, these efforts around the blast furnace, when everybody knew that there wasn’t a forever future for the blast furnace, this has been a heroic effort.
Updated
Hanson comments about Indigenous Australians ‘appalling’, says Duniam
Jonno Duniam has also been asked to weigh in on resurfaced comments by Pauline Hanson about Indigenous Australians.
Duniam tells RN Breakfast the comments are “appalling”.
What an appalling comment to make, frankly, to lump an entire group of people together and just cast them in that way. I don’t know who in a leadership position in this country thinks that’s okay … But Pauline Hanson, in one fell swoop, has decided to say everyone who is of Indigenous heritage is primitive.
I don’t see how that is a conclusion you can reach. And I think it says more about Pauline than we had previously realised.
Updated
Duniam says One Nation immigration provides no answers and no details
The shadow home affairs minister, Jonno Duniam, says One Nation lobbed its policy out into the public yesterday with no detail and then refused to answer any detailed questions about it – noting Pauline Hanson didn’t even do a press conference for the announcement.
In contrast, he says the Coalition’s migration plan, which is still being worked on in the background, will be properly costed. He says it’s now just “weeks” away.
MPs yesterday said One Nation’s plan for net-negative overseas migration over three years would punt the country into a recession.
Speaking to RN Breakfast a little earlier this morning, Duniam said:
When you don’t have costings, like One Nation don’t, when you don’t have economic modelling about what impacts this will have on our economy, like One Nation don’t, when you can’t tell us exactly what sort of numbers will be delivered out of their policy like One Nation’s doesn’t, then people need to ask questions.
Now, when ours is out, when our policy is out, it will be fully costed. The economic and human impacts will be there for all to see and it will be a robust policy, not just a press release.
Updated
Malinauskas still optimistic about steel making in South Australia
The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, says there is optimism that steel making will continue in his state, after the closure of a major blast furnace at Whyalla was announced yesterday.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast from Whyalla and donned in some hi-vis, Malinauskas says there was disappointment, heartbreak, but also a sense of inevitability when the announcement was made.
He says the plan is to keep all of the remaining workers to continue making steel out of the plant, and that the operation is on track to be sold by the end of the year.
[Whyalla] has the capacity to be a viable operation but it hasn’t been recapitalised. The blast furnace is over 60 years old. It was first built in 1965 and blast furnaces of this age not to be realigned on a frequent basis. This hasn’t been done in 20 years. The fact it’s still going is a miracle.
We need to have the plant recapitalised and that’s exactly the plan we have in conjunction with the federal government … if we lose this capacity behind me, this country doesn’t have structural steel-making capacity and we can’t afford that.
Updated
‘Rotten’: MPs condemn Hanson’s comments on Indigenous Australians
The housing minister says Pauline Hanson punches down on people and her language is rotten and ugly, after comments resurfaced of the One Nation leader saying Indigenous Australians were the “most primitive race”.
Speaking on Sunrise this morning alongside Liberal frontbencher Michaelia Cash, Clare O’Neil warned Hanson was dividing the country.
O’Neil said:
If Pauline Hanson wants to take us down the road of Americanising our politics, so people in a family who disagree on political issues can’t speak to each other any longer, this is the pathway to do it …
We’ve got lots of challenges facing Australia, but we’re not going to solve them by punching down on things that are brilliant about our country. So I think it’s rotten. I think it’s awful. I think it’s ugly.
Cash said she doesn’t agree with Hanson’s comments, but then attacked Labor for not doing more to protect Indigenous children and close the gap, and said the focus should be on action, not Hanson’s comments.
I just don’t agree with those comments. But I actually do agree with Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price when she says that there are serious issues that do need to be discussed. And these comments shouldn’t be a distraction from them. I mean, why aren’t we closing the gap?
Updated
O’Neil defends transport minister’s top-tier Qantas membership
Clare O’Neil has defended her colleague, transport minister Catherine King, after it was revealed the latter had accepted a lifetime membership to Qantas’s top-tier membership, the platinum Frequent Flyer rewards.
The status means free entry to Qantas’s first and business class lounges, access to the airline’s VIP team, upgrade priority, extra Qantas points and more. King listed the status on her register of interests on Monday afternoon.
Quizzed on whether the move passes the pub test, O’Neil said “federal politicians … travel an unbelievable amount”.
Catherine King has probably been away from her family for a third of the last 25 years. And that’s kind of the extent of this. The important thing is … she made a declaration of it, and she’s been transparent about it.
King attracted scrutiny in 2022 over her decision to reject Qatar Airways’ request to bring extra flights into Australia in a move widely seen as benefiting Qantas.
Updated
Barnaby Joyce says One Nation will pursue immigration policy ‘no matter the cost’
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has been unable to confirm how his party’s sweeping new immigration policy would affect the budget or jobs while declaring they would “deal with it no matter the cost”.
The former deputy PM appeared on the ABC’s second National Forum on Monday evening, which focused on immigration and multiculturalism. He faced backlash from panellists, with journalist and political commentator George Megalogenis claiming One Nation’s plan to cut migration in net terms over three years had never happened in Australian public policy and would “tank the economy” on the scale of the “depression of the 1890s”.
Joyce said “the issue of what it’s going to cost … is contentious” and rejected questioning over why One Nation didn’t consult the parliamentary budget office.
“The Australian people are sort of tired of the fact that you have to go to an economist to come up with policy to help us all better understand what it costs to us,” he claimed, adding it “has to be dealt with” and “we will deal with it no matter the cost”.
Asked if he was worried about what the parliamentary budget office might produce, he replied: “No, I’m not really – because they’re not elected, I am.”
Updated
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you. Thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
Migration will dominate parliament again today, after One Nation yesterday announced its policy to cut 750,000 temporary visas over three years – which the major parties said would send the country into a recession.
There’ll also be more reaction to the Whyalla steelworks shutting down a major operation, cutting more than 500 jobs.
It’s going to be a busy one, let’s get stuck in!
Updated
‘Multiculturalism is who we are’: Anne Aly
The multicultural affairs minister, Anne Aly, was also on the ABC’s National Forum panel. She said Labor was committed to bringing immigration numbers down in a “manageable way” while ensuring the system both met the needs of Australia and was “fair for those who come here”.
She pushed back at claims immigrants were harming social cohesion, pointing to an Australia she grew up in where “nobody cared what language your mum spoke”.
That’s the Australia that I know. And I fear that that is the Australia that we’re losing … Every time we talk about immigration, multiculturalism, it comes from a deficit point of view.
Social cohesion becomes the burden of people from different countries who have come here and it is their fault, it is their responsibility to socially cohere. The fact is that multiculturalism is who we are. It is part of our identity. It’s who we are as Australia.
Updated
Andrew Hastie says Pauline Hanson hasn’t ‘had the courage’ to front media
Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie has questioned why Pauline Hanson announced One Nation’s immigration policy via a prerecorded video on social media instead of fronting the media.
Appearing alongside Barnaby Joyce on the ABC’s National Forum, he said he backed parts of One Nation’s immigration plan but was concerned about the lack of detail and Hanson’s silence:
We haven’t seen her at all today. And this is someone who wants to be the prime minister of Australia. And she hasn’t had the courage to front the media today and explain the budgetary, the economic and the human impact of these policy changes that she’s suggesting.
His ongoing battle with One Nation appeared to be tempered, however, with him and Joyce largely exchanging niceties, including Joyce claiming in jest, at one point, that they were “back in bed together”.
Updated
Chris Bowen downplays reintroduction of fuel excise relief amid renewed surge in oil prices
Chris Bowen has watered down any expectations that a renewed rise in oil prices will lead to the reintroduction of the federal government’s fuel excise relief.
He said Labor was continuing to look “very closely” at the spike, which was prompted after a series of drone attacks forced Saudi Arabia to close its east-west crude pipeline. But he said the federal government had been “very clear” that cutting the fuel excise was a temporary measure.
Bowen said:
It’s not the only cost of living measure that we put in place … At the same time, I’m very much focused on ensuring our ongoing fuel supply in this very difficult international circumstance … We’re not going to respond to every daily movement on the world oil price.
Bowen said the situation in the Middle East was “deeply concerning” and confirmed he would be travelling to Saudi Arabia next week to meet with his counterpart, Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud.
He was also asked about the appointment of the former opposition leader Sussan Ley to the board of Snowy Hydro, given the Coalition abandoned its commitment to net zero under her leadership and she had blamed Labor’s renewable energy rollout on high energy prices.
Bowen said when he saw an Australian who was “well credentialled, I don’t care how they vote”, and described her as a person of “talent and ability”.
Updated
Albanese speaks with King Charles
Anthony Albanese spoke to King Charles last night, the prime minister revealed.
Albanese last saw the monarch during a visit to Britain in September last year.
“A privilege to speak with His Majesty King Charles III this evening,” Albanese wrote on social media.
“His affection for the Australian people remains strong. I extended Australia’s best wishes to His Majesty and the Royal Family.”
Updated
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.
Let’s begin.
