‘Not in the interests of justice’: Justice Sweeney on fourth Hayne trial
Three separate criminal trials were told the woman, who cannot be identified, changed her mind about having sex with Hayne after realising he had a taxi waiting outside.
He was sentenced to four years and nine months in jail, but had already served some of that time before his earlier successful appeal.
The state’s highest court quashed Hayne’s convictions, ruling the trial judge erred by not allowing further cross-examination of the complainant over her communications with third parties regarding the night of the alleged sexual assault.
The appeal court ruled the judge did not properly direct the jury regarding allegations from Hayne’s lawyers the complainant had lied about the contact, exacerbating the earlier error in not allowing her to respond to questions about it.
Justice Stephen Rothman said in the court’s published reasons there was good reason for no fourth trial, noting it was unlikely to occur before Hayne’s three-year non-parole period expired in May 2025.
Justice Deborah Sweeney was of a similar view given the matter’s history. She said:
To put (Hayne) on trial for a fourth time would not be in the interests of justice.
Hayne’s quashed convictions followed a hung jury in his first trial in 2020 and a previous appeal overturning guilty verdicts from his second trial in 2021.
Upon his release from jail, Hayne’s lawyer Lauren MacDougall said he was “really, really looking forward to getting home to his family”.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
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Jarryd Hayne to avoid fourth trial after rape acquittal
Former NRL star Jarryd Hayne will not face a fourth trial over allegations he raped a woman, after having his convictions quashed for a second time, AAP reports.
Hayne had been behind bars for more than a year since a jury found him guilty in April 2023 of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent.
The 36-year-old walked free from jail on June 12 after successfully appealing the convictions in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal.
The Office of The Director of Public Prosecutions confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that Hayne would not face trial for a fourth time. The statement said:
Having carefully considered the many competing factors that inform the assessment of the public interest in this case, the ODPP has determined not to proceed to a fourth trial against Mr Hayne.
The decision was made in accordance with the Prosecution Guidelines.
As the reasons for the decision are legally privileged, they will not be disclosed and the ODPP will not comment further.
Hayne was accused of raping a woman with his hands and mouth at her Newcastle home on the night of the 2018 NRL Grand Final.
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What we learned; Tuesday 25 June
That’s where we will leave the blog for this evening, but first let’s recap the big headlines:
Health experts decried the watering down of the vaping bill due to amendments from the Greens. Veteran anti-tobacco campaigner Simon Chapman called the changes “hugely disappointing” saying the “Greens have flushed the prescription-only access component of the reforms down the public health toilet”.
The Aukus pact is “already on trial” and its defenders cannot afford to assume it will survive changes in government in the three countries over three decades, a federal government backbencher and former military officer has warned.
Adam Bandt defended the vape deal with Labor saying prohibition doesn’t work.
Reports emerged Julian Assange was to be released under a new plea deal.
The Greens opposed the raising of the new governor general’s salary.
The electoral commissioner warned AI could “turbocharge” spread of conspiracies.
The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, warned social media is degrading Australia’s democracy, adding platforms are putting profit before harmony.
Labor worked to amend the Greens’ Palestine motion to get wording whole government can support. The Greens said they will not support Labor amendments to the Palestine motion.
In question time the PM, Anthony Albanese, said “we want [Assange] brought home”.
A draft report found a Queensland coal plant blew up because battery wasn’t plugged in.
The Pharmaceutical Society said vaping amendments were not a health model.
Labor senator Fatima Payman crossed the floor to support Greens’ Palestine motion.
The Greens motion on Palestinian statehood was voted down.
Amy will be back with you bright and early tomorrow morning.
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Peak Jewish labels Payman’s crossing of Senate floor ‘astonishing’
The peak Jewish body in Australia is one of the first to respond to this afternoon’s antics in the Senate.
To recap if you’re just tuning in now, the Greens moved a motion to recognise Palestinian statehood in the upper house. Labor tried to amend it by adding extra words while the opposition tried to amend Labor’s changes by adding five preconditions.
In the end, those amendments all failed and the Greens’ original motion, to “recognise the State of Palestine”, was put to a vote. It did not have the numbers but Labor senator Fatima Payman, who has been increasingly vocal on the situation in Gaza, notably crossed the floor against her own party to vote with the Greens.
Alex Ryvchin, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s chief executive, said the move was “astonishing”.
Ryvchin has previously spoken out against Payman in the past. On Tuesday, he said:
The Greens can’t be allowed to set the agenda on Israel and Australian foreign policy. They have brought antisemitism into the mainstream and have legitimised violent protests. This is what Senator Payman has now attached herself to, and she must be held accountable.
Payman has previously rejected claims made by Ryvchin that using the chant, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is antisemitic.
Payman in May told Guardian Australia:
The slogan of the dispossessed, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ is not a call for the annihilation of Jews. Rather, it asserts a desire for Palestinians to live in their homeland as free and equal citizens, neither dominating others nor being dominated over.
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PM’s office says there is no definitive sanction for Labor MPs who cross floor
An Albanese government spokesperson has said there is no definitive rulebook on what happens to Labor MPs who cross the floor after the first-time senator Fatima Payman voted against the government to recognise Palestinian statehood.
A government spokesperson told Guardian Australia there was “no mandated sanction in these circumstances” referring to Payman’s decision on Tuesday afternoon.
Labor has a formal pledge requiring members to abide by caucus decisions and has previously expelled MPs who cross the floor, a 2020 parliamentary research paper said.
Former Tasmanian MP, Harry Quick, crossed the floor in 2005, voting against an anti-terrorism bill.
Prior to that, two Labor MPs who had crossed the floor - Senator George Georges in 1986 and Graeme Campbell MP in 1988 - were both suspended from the party for their actions
The government spokesperson said:
The senator says she maintains strong Labor values and intends to continue representing the Western Australians who elected her as a Labor senator.
There is no mandated sanction in these circumstances and previous caucus members have crossed the floor without facing expulsion.
As reflected in our amendment, the government supports the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a peace process towards a two-state solution.
The statement did not rule out any other consequences.
This post was updated on 25 June to reflect that the most recent Labor MP to cross the floor was Harry Quick in 2005.
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Continuing with that Payman presser, the first-time Western Australian senator was asked whether she expected to be expelled from the Labor party after crossing the floor.
Labor has a formal pledge requiring members to abide by caucus decisions and has previously expelled MPs who crossed the floor, a 2020 parliamentary research paper said.
Payman said it was the “prerogative” of her party but added she would like to continue serving as a Labor senator.
“I believe that I have upheld the party ethos and called for what the party’s platform has stipulated.”
Payman added she had been told in “various” ways she risked expulsion by joining the Greens in the vote but not directly. The 29-year-old senator also said she did not inform the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the foreign minister, Penny Wong, about her decision ahead of time.
Speaking about what her colleagues felt about her decision to speak out in the last few months, Payman said it has been mixed.
“There’s been many comrades who feel the same way but don’t agree with the methods I’ve gone about conveying my message to … standing up for Palestinians.”
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‘I am proud of what I did today,’ Labor’s Payman says after crossing floor
Fatima Payman, shortly after crossing the floor on a Greens motion to recognise Palestinian statehood, told reporters she cross the floor “for humanity”, adding she was “bitterly disappointed” her colleagues did not feel the same.
I am proud of what I did today and I’m bitterly disappointed that my colleagues do not feel the same way. We saw the watering down of the motion, through the amendment, distracting us from what is a prerequisite and essential to the same very peace process to recognise the state of Palestine. Australia has long stood for a two-state solution. My own party, the Australian Labor party’s policy platform, recognises both Israel and Palestine. We cannot believe in two-state solutions and only recognise one.
She continued:
I was not elected as a token representative of diversity, I was elected to serve the people of Western Australia and uphold the values instilled in me by my late father. Today I have made a decision that would make him proud and make everyone proud to err on the side of humanity.
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Independent MP Ryan disappointed vaping legislation watered down
The independent MP and doctor Monique Ryan says it is “disappointing” the vaping legislation was watered down after the government reached a deal with the Greens no longer requiring a prescription from a doctor to buy a vape.
Ryan told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing:
I’m glad that we’re going to get the vaping regulation up because I think it’s important. Vaping is a scourge and it is endangering the health and the mental wellbeing of young Australians. We need to put some regulation around it.
Having said that, it is disappointing the vaping regulation has been watered down in the way that it has and it reflects a few failures.
The first is the government has not made it possible for Australians to see a GP quickly and easily whenever they need to and for many Australians seeing a GP evolves out-of-pocket cost that they can’t come up with in a cost-of-living crisis.
The second thing is that the Nationals are very protective of the vaping industry and they have worked assiduously to block this legislation they haven’t wanted to get up. They want our kids to have ongoing access to vapes and I would draw a relationship between that and the fact that the Nationals are among the very few political parties in this country which continues to take money from the tobacco lobby.
Anthony Tassone of the Pharmacy Guild said neither pharmacists, consumers, nor patients asked for the current model.
The only group of people we understand have asked for this are the Greens.
Updated
Greens motion on Palestinian statehood voted down
And as expected, the Greens’ motion on Palestinian statehood has been voted down.
While the Labor senator Fatima Payman crossed the floor to vote with the Greens, it was not enough to pass the motion to “recognise the State of Palestine”.
In the end, the Greens senators voted for the motion, along with senators David Pocock, Lidia Thorpe and Payman.
Outside the Senate, Payman said it was the “most difficult decision” she has had to make.
She said:
What you just witnessed was the first Labor member to cross the floor in almost 30 years. My decision to cross the floor was the most difficult decision I have had to make and although … each step I took across the Senate floor felt like a mile, I know I did not walk these steps by myself, and I know I did not walk them alone. I’ve walked with the West Australians who have stopped me in the streets and told me not to give up. I’ve walked with the rank and file Labor party members who told me we must do more. I’ve worked with the core values of the Labor party – equality, justice, fairness and advocacy for the voiceless and the oppressed.
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Fatima Payman crossing the floor through the lens of Mike Bowers:
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Labor senator crosses floor to support Greens’ Palestine motion
The Senate is now voting on whether Australia should recognise Palestinian statehood and the Labor senator Fatima Payman has crossed the floor to vote against her own party.
The Greens motion, moved by Nick McKim, says: “The need for the Senate to recognise the State of Palestine.”
Labor and the opposition senators are voting against the motion but Payman stands up from the adviser’s benches and sits with the Greens, Lidia Thorpe and David Pocock.
It will be voted down on the numbers but Payman’s decision to vote against party lines is a bold one.
Updated
So for anyone watching the Senate right now, here’s a quick rundown of what’s happening.
The Greens put forward a motion to recognise Palestinian statehood.
The Albanese government amended the motion to add “as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace”.
The opposition added another amendment to Labor’s proposed changes, adding five preconditions to supporting the vote.
First up, Labor and the Coalition banded together to force it to a suspension of the standing orders so that Labor could vote on it.
Then Labor, the Greens and some crossbenchers voted together against the opposition’s amendment.
Now it looks like the Greens and the opposition are voting together against Labor’s amendment.
If that last point happens, it means the Greens’ original motion will get put to a vote.
It says: “The need for the Senate to recognise the State of Palestine.”
Essentially, that means senators will be directly voting on whether Palestinian statehood should be recognised.
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Thorpe says ‘shame on you all’ as Senate votes on Labor amendment to Greens’ Palestine motion
The Senate’s division bells are ringing after the Albanese government moved to suspend the standing orders in order to pass its amendment to the Greens’ motion to recognise Palestine as a state.
Labor and the Coalition are voting in favour of suspending the standing orders while Greens senators and the independent senator Lidia Thorpe are voting against it.
Senators David Pocock, Jacqui Lambie and Ralph Babet have joined the major parties.
The Labor senator Fatima Payman has entered the Senate chamber but is sitting on a bench for staffers and advisers. It appears she is abstaining from the vote.
Thorpe loudly chants “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” while counting the votes takes place.
“All complicit in genocide, everyone one of you,” Thorpe says, pointing to the major party senators sitting to pass the motion to suspend standing orders.
“Shame on you all, have a good night’s sleep,” Thorpe adds.
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New governor general’s $200,000 pay rise is fair, republic minister says
Matt Thistlethwaite, the assistant minister for the republic, says the governor general’s $200,000 pay rise is fair, bringing it in line with the chief justice.
The government wants to pass legislation to increase the pay for incoming governor general Sam Mostyn to about $700,000 a year – about a 40% increase.
Asked about the potential raise on ABC’s Background Briefing, Thistlewaite said:
It is a pretty important job. It’s the representative of the head of state, with a significant role under our constitution. From what I understand, the pay is pegged to and related to what the chief justice of the high court receives. They are both pretty important roles.
The second point to make is previous governors general have had military careers and have been able to access military pensions. The new governor general, Samantha Mostyn, won’t be able to do that, so there is an element of that in it as well. We think it’s pretty fair.
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‘There must be appropriate security guarantees,’ Liberal Senate leader says during Palestine debate
After the Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi finishes her speech on the motion for Palestinian statehood, the Liberal Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, steps up to speak.
As reported earlier, Birmingham is moving to amend Labor’s amendment to include another five “preconditions” that centre on Palestinian statehood only being recognised after the Palestinian Authority achieves reforms and agrees on Israel’s right to exist.
Birmingham says:
There must be agreement and a resolution on the status, including orders and rights of return. And there must be appropriate security guarantees between the two to ensure peace and security within recognised borders.
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‘You should feel embarrassed,’ Greens senator tells Labor as she introduces Palestine motion
The Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi is on her feet now to introduce the Greens motion to recognise Palestinian statehood.
The NSW senator says it is “shameful” and “embarrassing” that the Labor government has not supported its previous motion to suspend the standing orders in order to debate recognising Palestinian statehood.
You should feel embarrassed that it has come to this. You refuse – you voted against a similar Greens motion in the house … The Greens are the only party here with a conscience, the only party that gives a damn about Palestinian [rights] and we will do all we can to drag the Albanese government kicking and screaming to take real action at the heart of recognising Palestinian statehood.
Faruqi says Labor members have cemented themselves as “an enemy” of Palestinians and “a traitor” of their own party.
They really are trying to water down a very simple straightforward motion to recognise Palestine as a state, ducking and weaving … trying to move amendments, rather than take a principal position – a position that is actually in their policy platform. You are playing political games while there is a genocide happening.
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Pharmaceutical Society says vaping amendments not a health model
The peak national organisation for pharmacists, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, says it cannot support amendments to the vaping reforms bill, which if passed would see pharmacists issuing vapes without requiring a prescription.
The PSA national president, Associate Prof Fei Sim, said:
Vaping is a public health crisis … PSA continues to strongly support the government’s intent to limit the supply of vaping and removing vapes from retail settings.
However, the amendment proposed undermines the role of pharmacists as health care professionals. The amendment – if it was to pass the Senate in its current form - asks pharmacists to prescribe unapproved, unregulated, untested vaping products to the public.
This would not represent a health model.
She said the PSA “cannot and do not support positioning pharmacists as retailers rather than health professionals”.
It echoes comments from the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, a lobby group which represents pharmacy owners, made earlier on Tuesday that pharmacies do not want to sell vapes outside of the prescription model, and that they were not consulted.
Updated
Greens will soon try to move Senate motion on Palestinian statehood
Over in the Senate, the Greens will soon attempt to move an urgency motion on recognition of Palestinian statehood.
The motion, to be moved by the Greens senator Nick McKim, says:
The need for the Senate to recognise the State of Palestine.
But as we reported earlier in the blog, the Albanese government has amended the wording of the motion to add “as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace” to McKim’s wording.
It’s understood the Greens will vote against the government wording.
To make things more complicated, the Coalition will attempt to further amend the federal government’s wording to include five “preconditions”.
The amendment, to be moved by the Liberal Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, will call to include:
recognition by Palestinian representatives and the Palestinian Authority of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state;
that there is no role for Hamas in a future Palestinian state;
reform of the Palestinian Authority is achieved, including major security and governance reforms;
agreed processes to resolve final status issues including agreed state borders and rights of return; and
appropriate security guarantees between parties to ensure peace and security within recognised borders.
Senators are now starting to filter in.
Updated
Brady Heywood has yet to complete its final report on the Queensland coal plant.
The forensic engineer Sean Brady has blamed CS Energy for a “failure to implement effective process safety practices” as part of the switchover.
His preliminary report blames four causes: a lack of DC redundancy, the battery charger, the automatic changeover switch and the loss of AC. It also notes the company was under pressure to save money and there were “likely competing tensions between cost reduction and process safety”.
It concludes:
The planning, execution, and decision-making around the switching sequence did not consider the risks associated with bringing the battery charger into service, without DC system redundancy and with the unit online. Nor was there any requirement in CS Energy’s processes to do so.
Updated
There should have been several backup systems – but all of them failed. It could have had a backup battery, but CS Energy had known since 2010 its coupling would not allow two batteries to be connected at once, the draft report found.
There is a switch on the DC system which automatically reroutes DC supply from another part of the plant, which is called the “automatic changeover switch”. But it had been damaged in a previous incident and did not work.
An emergency diesel generator which can restore AC supply could not do so – because DC supply is required to reconfigure switches on the AC system.
The plant’s systems were dark – including the unit’s cooling and lubrication systems – but the turbine continued to spin at 3,000 rpm using power it drew from the grid.
The unit overheated, and parts of the turbine melted and deformed, and the rotor shaft wobbled out of alignment. The shaft tore itself into pieces, splitting in nine places. Thirty-four minutes after the initial incident it caused what is referred to in the report as a “turbine missile event”.
A two-tonne piece of shaft was thrown 5 metres across the floor and a 300kg gear was fired through the turbine hall roof. Other equipment was thrown across the turbine hall, wrecking the unit.
It remains out of service.
The plant was still connected to the grid for about 40 seconds after exploding. An electrical fault in the wrecked generator caused an arc, drawing a huge amount of power from the grid, which was detected by its substation, which disconnected both from the grid. About half a million homes lost power as a result of grid disruption.
Nobody was injured or killed in the incident.
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Queensland coal plant blew up because battery wasn’t plugged in, draft report says
Part of Queensland’s Callide coal power station blew up due to “deficient” processes at operator CS Energy, which “actively removed redundancy” and left it without power, according to a draft engineering report.
Three parts of the report – authored by engineering consultancy Brady Heywood – were released on Tuesday, after sections were read into the record in a court case on Monday.
The incident happened on the afternoon of 25 May 2021 while a new battery charger was being installed, and was caused by the loss of both direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) power. Operator CS Energy chose to do the installation while the turbine was in operation and spinning.
After its alternative source of power was switched off to switch on the new battery charger, the device failed to provide energy rapidly enough – because it was not designed to do so instantaneously, the report says. That caused a rapid collapse in voltage.
This led to a loss of AC power because a safety system responded as if there had been a failure in that part of the system.
Without AC power the DC battery charger shut down. Both AC and DC power was now off. Lights went out across the plant, including the control room.
The report says this entire process took less than two seconds.
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CS Energy could become fully state-owned under Queensland Labor plans
The Queensland government will appoint special advisers to the board of CS Energy and conduct a review into the generation businesses it owns, it announced today.
The premier, Steven Miles, said Labor would also aim to take the company completely into state hands. It’s now half-owned by a private joint venture partner.
The review could lead to a restructure of other government-owned corporations CleanCo and Stanwell. Miles said:
These GOCs were created when we primarily generated our electricity using coal, so they are structured for the energy system of the past, we want to make sure our GOCs are structured for the energy system of the future, one that we believe should be primarily powered by renewable energy, and pumped hydro storage.
Despite pressure from the opposition to sack him, the premier backed the energy minister, Mick de Brenni, as “the minister best placed to implement these strong reforms”. The LNP has attacked the minister after the release of a damning report into the 2021 explosion at a Callide power plant unit.
The review – which will be led by Treasury – will report back in advance of the 2025 state budget.
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Thanks Amy for steering the good ship blog on what has been a very big day for news. Still plenty more coming your way!
The team are continuing to cover off the day’s events and I will leave you in the very capable hands of Natasha May to take you through that.
Thank you to everyone who followed along on a very big news day – tomorrow looks set to be just as big, so I’ll be caffeinated and ready bright and early to guide you through it – so until then, take care of you.
Dieticians call for national nutrition standards in early childhood centres
The peak body for dieticians is pushing for nationally consistent nutrition standards in early childhood education centres, after national data released this month revealed that 96% of Australian children aren’t eating enough fruit and vegetables.
Dietitians Australia is calling on the government to prioritise stricter guidelines for managing allergies, stronger nutrition requirements, and more supportive eating spaces.
The Dietitians Australia president, Tara Diversi, said the changes should be part of the government’s upcoming Early Years Strategy, which she hoped would “start a national conversation on nutrition … and ensure the best possible outcomes when it comes to our children’s growth and development”.
She said early childhood centres provide a “major opportunity” to improve the diets of young children, as children “start developing their eating habits and cultivating their relationship with food” in preschool.
There were no nationally consistent nutrition guidelines, nor a requirement for early childhood centres to engage a practising dietician.
Diversi said engaging a dietician would also allow for children with disabilities, who struggle to access dieticians through the healthcare system, to receive nutritional support:
Now is the time to be having a national conversation about nutrition and how critical it is to ensure the best possible outcomes when it comes to our children’s growth and development.
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Binskin reappointed as Civil Aviation Safety Authority chair
The retired Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin has been reappointed by the government as chair of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Casa) board for three years.
Catherine King says Binskin “brings considerable experience in the fields of aviation, corporate governance, program management, international relations and defence”.
During his time already served as Casa board chair, ACM Binskin has focused on implementing the statement of expectations issued last year, revamping the board for better performance and improving Casa’s technical capability.
These skills and his leadership experience will continue to be valuable in his reappointment as chair of the Casa board.
You may recognise Binskin’s name as head of a government investigation into the killing of Australian Zomi Frankcom and her colleagues in a World Central Kitchen convoy in Gaza.
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Greens will not support Labor amendments to Palestine motion
The Greens will not be supporting Labor’s amendments to the motion Mehreen Faruqi plans to move to have the Senate recognise Palestine as a state.
Labor wants to add “as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace”.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, says:
The Greens intend to vote for the original motion that will recognise the State of Palestine immediately. Labor wants to water down this simple motion so it no longer immediately recognises Palestine, a cowardly delay tactic to avoid doing what they promised at the election.
Labor must put pressure on the extremist Netanyahu government to stop this genocidal invasion, and that can start today by joining the majority of countries in the world that recognise the State of Palestine.
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Here is how Mike Bowers saw QT:
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Assange deal ‘an enormously heartening development’, Wilson says
The Labor MP Josh Wilson has released a statement on Julian Assange, as co-chair of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Group:
This is an enormously heartening development, and we recognise the next few steps are crucial and delicate.
We know it will be welcomed by the hundreds of thousands of Australians who have spoken-up and spoken-out from a position of principled concern for Julian Assange.
Over the last two years the Australian government has been a clear and steady advocate for Julian Assange, with this effort led by Prime Minister Albanese.
The cross-party group of Australian MPs has worked resolutely to raise the issue at home and abroad, culminating in the successful Parliamentary motion earlier this year that called for an end to a matter that has dragged on too long.
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Question time, mercifully, comes to an end.
Independent MP asks why government is ‘dragging its feet’ on whistleblower reform
Helen Haines asks Mark Dreyfus:
Last week, Richard Boyle lost his appeal to seek immunity under the Public Interest Disclosure Act, despite the judge acknowledging that Mr Boyle is a whistleblower. Last election, you promised to fix whistleblower protection laws. But two years on, we have not seen a draft bill. Why is the government dragging its feet on whistleblower reform?
Dreyfus:
The government is committed to strong, effective and accessible protections for whistleblowers.
And in June last year, the government passed priority amendments to the Public Interest Disclosure Act, which ensured immediate improvements to the public sector.
A whistleblower protection scheme was in place before the commencement of the National Anti-Corruption Commission on 1 of July last year.
The reforms implemented 21 of the 33 recommendations from the 2016 review of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 that was conducted by the eminent former public servant Mr Philip Moss.
And I’d note just in passing that those opposite while in government did nothing about that 2016 review of the Public Interest Disclosure Act. The reforms that we passed last year in June were the first significant public sector whistleblower reforms since the Public Interest Disclosure Act was first enacted in 2013 by the Labor government, then in power.
We are now progressing a second, broader stage of reforms, which includes the release of a consultation paper and public consultation on additional supports for public sector whistleblowers, which might include a whistleblower protection authority, and submissions received as part of that consultation process are now being used to inform the government’s next steps for reform. I will not be commenting on matters that remain before Australian courts.
Updated
For those who missed it, here is the answer Anthony Albanese gave in response to the Julian Assange question Monique Ryan asked.
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Liberal MP asks about Lucas Heights nuclear waste
Michael Sukkar is booted from question time.
It is also a day ending in “y”.
The Liberal MP Jenny Ware asks:
The opening clear research reactor in my electorate of Hughes helps create life-saving nuclear medicine, supporting half a million medical procedures a year to treat conditions including breast cancer and lymphoma. When will the government tell the Australian people where the waste from this facility will ultimately be stored?
This is part of the same argument that the Coalition have been doing with the submarines – conflating the idea that medical waste is the same as waste from nuclear reactors used for powering communities.
Anthony Albanese:
To be fair to the member for Hughes, she hasn’t been here for the entire time in which this has been a debate and has not been landed by this parliament. What this does is point towards the difficulty when it comes to a small amount of medical base waste, a small amount, a tiny amount compared with the extraordinary amounts of waste that are created by a major nuclear reactor, let alone seven of them.
And I note, the leader of the opposition spoke about real estate values in Lucas Heights.
Well, I say to the member for Hughes, when you do a direct mail, do one to Lucas Heights, because it will be really easy to do one to Lucas Heights because there are zero addresses with Lucas Heights as a residential address, zero, zero. So the leader of the opposition said in a moment of truth, in a moment of truth, he said that real estate values hadn’t gone down because it was close to there.
He’s right because there are zero addresses.
The medical reactor there plays an important role, just as people getting an X-ray, people engaged in that sort of activity. It’s important for healthcare. We don’t come at this ideologically. What we say, what we say is the economics should drive what happens with energy in this country.
And the economics tell you that the cheapest form of new energy is renewables, is renewables. And they also tell you that the most expensive form of new energy is nuclear reactors.
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Wong recognises PM and parliamentarians who advocated for Assange release
In Senate question time, Penny Wong has delivered a statement on the release of Julian Assange today.
As reported by our international colleagues, Assange was freed from a south London prison and is expected to plead guilty to a single US felony charge. He will be allowed to return to Australia a free man.
The announcement spells the end of a years-long saga for the WikiLeaks founder, which began in 2012 when he entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London after being granted asylum.
Wong said:
The prime minister and I have been very clear – Mr Assange’s case has dragged on for too long. Over the last two years, the Albanese government has advocated for him to come home. That advocacy has been led by the prime minister. And the prime minister has been very clear about the priority here he … gives to the Assange case … the prime minister has led these efforts and has personally raised this – Mr Assange’s case – at the most senior levels, including with President [Joe] Biden and Prime Minister [Rishi] Sunak … I know that there are many around the world and in Australia who have passionately advocated for Mr Assange and I recognise those parliamentarians who have been part of that advocacy … we have consistently stated that there is nothing to be served by the ongoing incarceration of Mr Julian Assange.
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Independent MP asks about unspent growing regions funding
The Mayo MP, Rebekha Sharkie, gets the next non-government question:
Round one of the 300m growing regions fund was underspent by 93m despite receiving 311 suitable applications, representing $1.4bn in worthy projects.
Why did the minister select just 40 of the 311 suitable applications, and will the minister carry over the unspent funds to round two? And if not, why not?
Catherine King answers (eventually):
Of course, not all eligible projects were recommended for funding by my department. If you are suggesting that I should have funded not recommended projects, then I’d suggest that is not in the spirit of integrity or transparency.
I look forward to the opening round two of the growing regions program shortly. There will be some changes to the guidelines following the very helpful feedback from the audit office and the multiparty panel.
It is my intention that this round will include the unallocated funding from round one, making even more money available for important community infrastructure projects across regional Australia.
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‘You do not have a plan for anything in between now and the 2040s,’ PM says
The LNP MP for Flynn, Col Boyce, asks:
Former Australian Workers’ Union secretary Dean Walton said, “If Australia wants to accelerate along the path to becoming a zero-carbon economy, it is a golden opportunity to create the capacity to build small modular reactors capable of powering energy-hungry manufacturing.” Does the prime minister support the union movement’s call to lift the nuclear energy moratorium?
Anthony Albanese:
I thank the member for his question about a business leader. A business leader who he says speaks on behalf of the entire trade union movement. I’ll give you the big tip here. The union movement campaign will be very strong against your nuclear-powered plan.
Because what they know, because what they know is that your plan will destroy jobs. Your plan will lead to higher power prices.
Your plan will undermine manufacturing in this country.
Because you do not have a plan for anything in between now and the 2040s. What we have is a shortage right now.
Eight power stations have shut down since we came into office. All on your watch.
Twenty-four separate announcements of power station closures on their watch. What they used to do, what they used to do was respond to that by handing around across their frontbench a lump of coal and think that that was funny. I’ll give you another big tip – don’t try that with uranium.
Because what you’ve done, what you did, was make a joke of it. You pretended that coal was the future for 10 years. For 10 years, while you did nothing. While power stations closed and energy supply went backwards. You refused to support alternative plans. You spoke about a gas-led recovery and then nothing happened. You now say you’re going to have a nuclear recovery. This is the same mob that replaced fibre in the NBN with copper.
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While we suffer through some government dixers, here is what Mike Bowers saw ahead of question time:
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Renewables are the ‘best and cheapest’ energy for Australia, Wong says
Back again at Senate question time, the government Senate leader, Penny Wong, says that renewables are the “best and cheapest” way to secure Australia’s future.
Meanwhile, what we have is Peter Dutton who refuses to tell Australians how much it will cost … won’t tell Australians how he’s actually going to power [ the country].
Wong’s statement is in response to a question by the Labor senator Louise Pratt, which notes the former NSW Liberal treasurer Matt Kean’s comments that nuclear energy will “take far too long and is far too expensive”.
Wong says Kean “was right” in making these comments, to which a Liberal senator remarks “which time?”, alluding to Kean’s changing attitudes towards nuclear, which he has previously supported.
The Tasmanian Liberal senator Jonathon Duniam interjects, asking: What’s your 2035 target?
Kean was appointed chair of the Climate Change Authority on Monday. The body is responsible for providing advice to the government on emissions reduction targets and will offer advice about Australia’s 2035 target early next year.
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The LNP MP for Moncrieff, Angie Bell, gets the next question.
The UK Labour party is calling for making Britain a new energy superpower. Why is the Albanese Labor government risking the lights going out in Australia, instead of using nuclear energy, which is proven around the world to deliver cleaner, cheaper, more consistent energy?
This is a different version of the Ley question on the US policy.
Albanese treats it the same.
I’m asked about Britain. I notice there weren’t interjections about the sun shining in Britain.
I notice that. Because those opposite seem to think that every country is the same. The UK began its nuclear program in the 1940s. They have decades – decades – of work on a nuclear industry.
As the International Energy Agency says, for a range of countries nuclear will play an important role in. For Australia it does not make sense. It does not make economic sense.
When it comes to Britain, the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant was initially due to be operational in 2017. It was supposed to cost $35bn. Now, it will open some time after 2031 – more than a decade late – and it will cost about $90bn. $90bn. For one, for one reactor in the UK. One.
And that’s why – that’s why, when I’m asked about other jurisdictions – let’s talk about some jurisdictions closer to home.
The New South Wales opposition leader: “We can’t wait for nuclear.” Victorian opposition leader: “There are prohibitions in place, so I’m not racing along the nuclear path.” Victorian Nats leader: “You wouldn’t be surprised that our view is exactly the same as John Pezzullo.” Queensland LNP leader: “I’ve been very consistent with it. Nuclear is not a part of planning in Queensland.”
Bell tries to make a point of order that the prime minister isn’t being relevant, but not even her heart seems to be in it, and she is moving to sit down almost before Milton Dick tells her to.
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PM rejects international comparisons on nuclear power
Sussan Ley gets a question. Lucky us.
President Biden has declared nuclear power America’s biggest source of clean energy. Last week, US Congress overwhelmingly backed a bill to cut red tape and accelerate the construction of nuclear power plants across the country. Why is the Albanese government risking the lights going out in Australia in instead of using nuclear which is proven around the world to deliver cheaper, cleaner and more consistent energy?
Albanese:
She asks about international experience as if all nations are the same. Here in Australia we have different comparative advantages, and that is why every single analysis has shown that the cheapest form of new energy here in Australia is renewables.
That is why those opposite have had to go, when it comes to nuclear, and say forget about our support for private enterprise, forget our support for markets, we will have a command economy system, we will nationalise the energy system. Why are they saying that?
Not a single bank, not a single financial institution will finance a nuclear reactor in Australia.
(Albanese goes through the 22 energy plans of the previous Coalition government.)
I am asked about international advantages, and the leader of the opposition has enthusiastically promoted US-based company NuScale’s small reactors technology, but last November this poster child of the opposition collapsed because of rising costs, taking with it $600m American taxpayer money.
In a speech to the Institute of Public Affairs in July last year, the leader of the opposition told his audience as part of a nuclear renaissance, France will shortly commence testing on a nuclear power plant. The leader of the opposition forgot to mention that the plant is now more than a decade overdue, with the final cost $22.3bn being more than 40 times the original estimates, 43 times, and that is if it actually starts this year.
He runs out of time.
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Tyrrell to vote against vaping bill, citing family members’ experience
The Tasmanian independent senator Tammy Tyrrell has announced she will be voting against the vaping bill when it hits the Senate tomorrow.
But the government doesn’t need her vote in this, so it more of a statement on principle.
I’ve always supported vapes being legislated like smokes. I’ve had family members who were heavy smokers use vapes to quit smoking for good. I saw how it led to healthier and happier lives for them. Adults should have the right to make their own decisions – even if they make that decision knowing something is bad for them.
… It’s not right to me that someone can get a pack of smokes from the supermarket or the corner shop right now, but not a vape. I can’t sit here and say, “This worked well for my family members, but I’ll support something that could stop someone else from accessing that help.”
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The lesser-known, lesser-watched Senate question time is under way and so far the opposition’s energy policy and Labor’s response has dominated discussions.
Coalition senators have asked whether the Aukus deal is safe, given the Albanese government’s reaction so far to the opposition’s proposal to introduce nuclear power to Australia before 2050.
The government Senate leader, Penny Wong, says the trilateral deal with the US and the UK is unrelated to the Coalition’s bid for power plants.
The Liberal senator David Fawcett “thanks” Labor for its confirmation before asking whether Wong, or the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will now direct Labor members to cease their “reckless” memes against the opposition’s nuclear plan, including three-eyed cartoons.
Wong basically dismisses the question while the opposition benches heckle as is typical of most question times in the upper house.
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Albanese on Assange: 'We want him brought home'
The Kooyong MP, Monique Ryan, who was a member of the cross-parliament delegation who went to Washington to lobby on behalf of Julian Assange, asks Anthony Albanese:
It has been reported today that Julian Assange has left the UK and is on a route to United States territory. There are reports that after 14 years his legal proceedings may soon be resolved. Is Julian Assange finally coming home?
Albanese thanks Ryan, as well as Andrew Wilkie and others who have been lobbying for Assange and says:
The government is certainly aware that Julian Assange has legal proceedings scheduled in the US, while we welcome the development we recognise these proceedings are crucial and delicate. Given these proceedings are ongoing it is not appropriate to provide further details or comment.
I will say the Australian government has continued to provide consular assistance to Julian Assange through the UK high commissioner, Stephen Smith, who travelled with Julian Assange when he left the UK, and US ambassador Kevin Rudd, who is also providing important assistance. I have been very clear, as both the Labor leader in opposition but also as prime minister, that regardless of the views that people have about Julian Assange and his activities, the case has dragged on for too long, there is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia.
We have engaged and advocated Australia’s interest using all appropriate channels to support a positive outcome and I have done that since very early on in my prime ministership. I will have more to say when these legal proceedings have concluded, which I hope will be very soon and I will report as appropriate at that time.
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Ted O’Brien stands up with a point of order, but before he gets to it he is warned by Milton Dick that he has the matter of public importance debate after QT and so doesn’t want to be thrown out and therefore miss it. Bowen is told to return to the question.
Chris Bowen:
The member for Fairfax underlines his misunderstanding that any investment in distribution is required, whether the power comes from renewables or coal or gas or nuclear. It’s the same. It’s the same regardless of where the generation comes from. You still need telegraph poles. You still need wires.
And the other interesting thing is that the member for Fairfax is now approvingly quoting Aemo, who he and the leader of the opposition had been bagging for months for daring to point out that renewables, firm renewables are the cheapest form of energy. Aemo will be releasing an updated ISP tomorrow. I look forward to the member for Fairfax criticising Aemo when they make similar points tomorrow.
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Chris Bowen answers the question:
If I remember correctly, it was about the costs, whether the $121bn involves distribution.
That was the question asked by the member for Fairfax.
That was a very interesting. Because I have heard the leader of the opposition confuse “transmission” and “distribution” in the past.
I thought, “Well, he’s the leader. He’s got to be across a lot of the portfolios, not across the detail.” We’ve just learned he’s been ill-advised by his minister. Transmission is about the big interconnectors, the big interstate connections. Distribution is poles and wires and telegraph poles in suburbs, Mr Speaker. Regardless of how the energy is generated, you still need telegraph poles.
And you still need wires in the street, Mr Speaker. Unless this is a secret part of the plan we haven’t been told about yet, Mr Speaker – if it’s nuclear, if it’s nuclear, you don’t need telegraph poles.
That’s what the member for Fairfax is putting up. Apparently they’re not going to need to invest at all in poles and wires in the streets. We’re not going to need any new telegraph poles in any suburbs, Mr Speaker. Because it all comes from nuclear all of a sudden. They don’t need it in France, apparently. There’s no telegraph poles. This is news. This is news. This is the new golden age where we don’t need any telegraph poles, we don’t need any wires. I mean, the former member for Warringah, Tony Abbott, said he was going to put them underground in his electorate. But this is one better – now we don’t need them at all!
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Zali Steggall stands up in support of Spender’s point:
The standing orders are very clear that, in relation to those statements of facts, unless they can be authenticated – since this statement of renewables-only plan has been repeated on a number of occasions, surely it’s now not difficult for the shadow minister to provide the authentication of that statement.
Sussan Ley then stands up to argue on behalf of Ted O’Brien:
The statement made was a fact.
There are gaffaws which can be heard in Cairns.
Allegra Spender makes one more point:
I note in the opposition’s budget reply on this speech – I read the opposition’s budget reply on this speech, and which uses the term “renewables-only” on the website of the leader of the opposition, but uses in quotation marks.
So I am seeking clarification about – is this a statement of fact in relation to renewables-only, or is it not?
Because there are concerningly different interpretations in relation to that.
Milton Dick makes his ruling:
I appreciate the concern by members of the crossbench raising this matter. It would be untenable for the speaker to simply start deciding or ruling in or out what I believe is a statement of fact. I have to rely on the authenticity of all members, including members of the crossbench, with their questions to understand the position that I’m in to enable question time to effectively operate. So we’re going to move on. I appreciate the member’s statement, but we’re going to move on.
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Ted O’Brien is back. “Nuclear Ted”, as he is being called by some on both sides of the aisle, asks:
“My question goes to the prime minister: The government has quoted Aemo to say its renewables-only energy policy would cost $121bn. Can the prime minister confirm that, according to Aemo, this value does not include a single cent of the cost for the required upgrades to Australia’s distribution network?
Allegra Spender has a point of order:
Thank you. Speaker, I’m seeking direction from the chair regarding standing order 100(d)(i) which states that questions cannot contain statements of facts unless they can be authenticated.
I know the shadow minister has asked for clarification about the renewables-only plan of the government. I’d like to understand if that is, indeed, a renewables-only plan of the government.
Milton Dick says he can’t be responsible for policing whether statements are misleading or not and he gives the members the benefit of the doubt that they are making truthful statements.
Tony Burke says there have been occasions where a member has been asked to provide evidence to authenticate the statement. Peter Dutton says there is no precedent for that:
Just some vague recollection of something that might have happened just around the time of federation. But no detail. No page of practice. I mean, nothing at all. So I wouldn’t take that red herring, Mr Speaker. The fact is, this government – the wheels are falling off this government …
He is made to sit down.
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Albanese criticises lack of detail in Coalition’s nuclear plan
Anthony Albanese seems pretty happy to have this question first off the bat. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the Labor tactics committee pretty much planned for it.
Albanese:
Aemo produces an integrated systems plan. And they produce it every year.
And, indeed, here it is. (He gets the plan – which is an entire shelf of paper.)
Here it is. This – this is called detail.
And they have it on this side. On this side, there’s graphs. There’s details. There’s costs. And on that side, there’s yours. (It is a piece of paper that seems to be blank.)
One side is us. The other side is yours. On the one side of all of ours – well, the first thing we did was read it in the lead-up to the election campaign when we said what the basis of our plan was, was the integrated systems plan.
And what’s extraordinary is that the entire time that they were in office, they ignored the integrated systems plans that were brought down by the Australian Energy Market Operator. They had 22 different policies and didn’t land a single one. A single one. Nothing.
What we have done is move forward in a practical way. The shadow minister just used that. The member for Deakin. I’d concentrate on door-knocking if I were you, mate.
(Albanese is told not to use props.)
The fact is … not because it would help you, by the way. Not because it would help you.
Michael Sukkar is warned by the speaker – Paul Karp hears Sukkar call Albanese “Mr Detail” and asking “what’s the cash rate” after the PM’s sledge about door-knocking. Some others in the Coalition are calling Albo “man-child” in reference to Peter Dutton’s jibe about him being childish.
Albanese:
Here’s the plan. What you have is THAT. What you have is THAT – a blank page, no costings. You can’t say how many gigawatts. You can’t say how many reactors will be there. You can’t say what you’ll do with the six of the seven owners of the land who’ve said no to it. At least people like the member for Wannon have been smart enough to say, “We don’t want it anywhere near me.”
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Question time begins
The shadow energy minister, Ted O’Brien, starts things off with:
The government has quoted Aemo to say its renewables-only energy policy would cost $121bn. Can the prime minister confirm that, according to Aemo, this value does not include a single cent of the cost for any projects that are commissioned, committed or anticipated, including Snowy Hydro 2.0, the central-west Arana transmission link, or the copper string transmission project?
The actual answer from Chris Bowen when asked about the cost on ABC’s 7.30 last night was:
$121bn is the cost of non-customer-owned generation transmission and storage, as is outlined in great detail in the last version of the Integrated Systems Plan that will be updated later this week. But that’s the figure.
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Peter Dutton also speaks on indulgence in support of the work of the Morcombes:
For the Morcombes now, wherever they go around Australia, they’re recognised identities.
People stop them, talk to them, and so the continuing anguish in a sense that they feel but that they guard from the community is something that we all acknowledge today as well.
But in their son’s honour, they have not given any time for rest. When you speak to them, it’s quite astounding how they go from school to school and tell the story over and over and over and over again.
And they do it because they honour the legacy of their son. And so too do their other two boys.
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PM welcomes Denise and Bruce Morcombe to Parliament House
Anthony Albanese starts QT with a statement on indulgence for Denise and Bruce Morcombe, who are special guests in the chamber today.
I can inform Denise and Bruce that, this afternoon, I will take a proposal for a one-off $2m payment to the foundation to our budget process. I’ve discussed this with the leader of the opposition and I thank him as well for reaching across the aisle.
We’ve had a couple of constructive discussions prior to question time today. This isn’t a partisan issue. This is an issue in which we all join together in this chamber.
I hope that this relatively small amount of funding will enable you to really get on your feet and to achieve what you want to, particularly with the 20th anniversary – something that I think is deserving of this parliament’s support.
The government is grateful for the work of the Daniel Morcombe Foundation’s current One Talk At A Time campaign, aimed at preventing child sexual abuse. Your foundation inspires, educates, and helps make Australia a better and safer place.
Above all, your work represents a lasting expression of profound love for your son. Thank you for being here today. And thank you for what you do.
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Strap in – question time is about to begin.
(Continued from previous post)
Felicity McNeill of patient and disability advocacy group Better Access Australia is concerned making vapes available in pharmacies without a prescription will send “a message to our kids that these unregulated and unproven products are safe healthcare treatments”.
“Community pharmacy is the first point of primary care for all Australians, and the Albanese government wants to devalue this essential healthcare service by legitimising the supply of an unproven and unregulated nicotine product,” she said.
“Sending a message to our kids that these unregulated and unproven products are safe healthcare treatments, and to break the trusted relationship with their local pharmacy as the supply point … it is disastrous and deceptive policy.”
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Veteran anti-tobacco campaigner calls vaping changes ‘hugely disappointing’
More on the news yesterday that Labor and the Greens had struck a deal to amend vape legislation, so that vapes can be sold by pharmacists without a prescription.
Prior to the deal being struck, leading tobacco control experts wrote about why the prescription model was the best way forward, and this original legislation was endorsed by all of the state and territory health ministers.
A Senate committee also examined the proposed prescription model, hearing from experts and going through almost 300 submissions before recommending in May the legislation be passed. Despite this, amendments have been made following pressure from the Greens to now allow access to vapes as a medical product without a prescription.
Prof Simon Chapman, who led campaigns in the 1970s and onwards to expose the harm caused by tobacco and other harmful products, described the amendments as “… hugely disappointing bad news” and wants to know why the Greens rejected evidence from so many health experts.
Chapman said:
The Greens have flushed the prescription-only access component of the reforms down the public health toilet.
Stand by for armies of 18+ entrepreneurs hovering outside pharmacies and buying vapes for kids for a fee. If your child is vaping after these reforms, thank the Greens who feel they knew better than every significant health and medical body in the country.
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PM hints planning for next election can now begin in earnest
In a second address to the weekly Labor caucus meeting – one given after the cameras had left the room for his initial pep talk – the prime minister told his colleagues that once the parliamentary winter break began after the current sitting fortnight concludes, they should be well and truly “out campaigning” ahead of the next election.
Anthony Albanese said there would be an ALP national executive meeting on Friday in the wake of the release of the new draft electoral boundaries for New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, suggesting planning for the election could now begin in earnest.
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Labor works to amend Greens’ Palestine motion to get wording whole government can support
As we have reported, the government is trying to amend an upcoming Greens motion on recognising a Palestinian state in a bid to get wording the whole government can support and avoid a politically damaging split on the floor of the Senate.
In the weekly Labor caucus meeting, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, announced that the government would seek to add extra words to the Greens’ proposed Senate motion.
Currently, the motion calls for the Senate to “recognise the state of Palestine”.
Wong will seek to add the words “as part of a peace process with support for the two-state solution and a just and enduring peace”.
She told colleagues she was writing to party leaders to seek their support.
The extra wording would potentially see all government senators voting in support of the motion. Without that, it’s likely they would vote against it.
There has been speculation that the Western Australian Labor senator Fatima Payman may be prepared to cross the floor and support the motion in its original form without her colleagues – a move that could see her party membership suspended.
The frontbencher Anne Aly spoke in the party room about the conference she attended in Jordan on humanitarian aid to Gaza and said Australia’s aid commitment had been upped to a total of $72.5m.
Aly and the immigration minister, Andrew Giles, also highlighted the recent attack on the electorate office of the Victorian MP Josh Burns, who is Jewish.
Giles said there had been a dramatic increase in antisemitism in Australia and that he was working closely with affected communities. He said Islamophobia was also a very serious challenge and the government would be doing more on both.
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Kearney says recognising a Palestinian state ‘couldn’t be more important for an enduring peace’
The Labor MP for Cooper, Ged Kearney, has released a statement on the recognition of a Palestinian state:
Recognition of a Palestinian state couldn’t be more important for an enduring peace.
This is a long-held view of mine, and I join with Palestinians worldwide and my local community in calling for Palestinian statehood as a part of a two-state solution.
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Further to Josh’s post on Mark Butler’s press conference, the health minister also had a bit to say about the Coalition’s promised $250m spend to help the Australian Border Force keep a handle on black market vapes and tobacco (the government is spending $25m):
This is the same Coalition that did nothing for nine years. This is the same Coalition who when Greg Hunt – to his credit – tried to put in place an import control on vapes, was rolled by his own party room within a matter of days and had to repeal that regulation. That is why we are in the position we are in today. The best time to be doing these reforms was five years ago, and they didn’t. They decided not to do it, in spite of Greg Hunt, I think, having good intentions in this respect. So forgive me if I don’t take advice from the Coalition about how to deal with tobacco control and vaping control. This is a party led by a man who, when we proposed plain packaging laws 10 years ago, said it was “a bridge too far”. Now he has the opportunity to do something meaningful and lasting for the health of young Australians, he again is going to back Big Tobacco. So I’m not going to take advice from the Coalition.
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Coalition vaping policy akin to ‘raising the white flag’ on getting kids off vapes, Butler says
The health minister, Mark Butler, has taken a swipe at the Coalition’s alternate vaping policy, claiming their plan for a tax-and-regulate model available at convenience stores would be akin to “raising the white flag” on getting kids off the products.
As we brought you before, the Coalition has adopted a plan championed by the Nationals to regulate vapes like cigarettes – meaning they would be put in plain packaging and available at locations potentially including petrol stations and tobacconists. The shadow health minister, Anne Ruston, also did not rule out maintaining some flavours of vapes, saying adults should be able to make their own choices.
Butler gave his own press conference a little earlier, shortly after the Coalition’s surprise announcement (we weren’t expecting this today). The minister sang the praises of the government’s plan, which will pass the Senate this week after winning Greens support, with amendments to make therapeutic vapes available over the counter at pharmacies.
He said 2.5m vapes had been seized at Australia’s border since tougher enforcement measures came in. He also pushed back on criticisms from the Pharmacy Guild, which said chemists do not want to sell vapes and claim they were blindsided by the change yesterday.
Butler said:
Pharmacies have been selling vapes for some considerable time and it was always proposed that they will continue to sell vapes under the reform the government has put together.
This is, I think, a sensible balance between access and serious reform to return this product to its original intention, which was a therapeutic good.
Butler said pharmacies would not be forced to stock vapes, but said he believed individual pharmacists would get behind it.
Asked about the Coalition’s plan to sell vapes like cigarettes, Butler said the idea was “considered and it was rejected” by the government.
I’m not willing to raise the white flag on a product that has been deliberately targeted at recruiting young kids to nicotine addiction. And the only thing you know from a Dutton government, if one were to be elected, is the vapes would stay. Vapes would continue to be the public health and behavioural scourge that they are for parents and school communities right now.
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Dutton tells party room Coalition nuclear plan gives communities ‘hope’
Also in the Coalition party room meeting, Peter Dutton talked up his nuclear energy policy, praising his shadow energy minister, Ted O’Brien, and declaring the public debate about the future energy mix that the policy has generated was “the right discussion for us to have at this time”.
Dutton said the policy had been developed “for the right reasons” and that coal-fired power stations were more likely to have their lives extended under the Labor government’s energy policy than under the Coalition’s alternative, because Labor was relying on the production of green hydrogen which, unlike nuclear power, was unproven and untested.
We can say to communities hand on heart that this gives them hope.
There’s only so many cafes and museums that communities can open without an industry behind them to support them. They need a replacement industry. This is a multi-generational opportunity for these communities.
David Littleproud said in crafting the policy, the Coalition parties had stood up for their values and principles.
This is a better way for our energy future and it’s a better way for regional Australia.
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O’Neil criticises ‘menacing’, ‘violent’ pro-Palestine protests at MPs’ offices
Continuing with Clare O’Neil’s speech at the Australian National University on election integrity and social cohesion, she has turned her sights to recent pro-Palestine protests at MPs’ offices.
The home affairs minister said staff should not be left “shaking with fear” by protesters who “jam open” office doors and scream at them.
O’Neil said:
These are not democratic ways of expressing belief, painting bright red symbols of terrorism, leaving childlike fake bodies outside the offices of elected representatives. These are not properly peaceful protests. They are menacing, they are violent, and they are unacceptable.
The issue spilled over into parliament earlier this month after the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, used a question time question to denounce the protests and accused the Greens of playing a role in their organisation.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, told a pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne shortly after he knew their protests were peaceful but added there was “no place for violence in our politics, against people, politicians, their staff or their offices, and everyone has the right to feel safe”:
I know that is not what you’re about, but I’m just making this clear for the Labor and Liberal politicians and those in the media who are now attacking your peaceful protests and deliberately trying to discredit you and stop you from speaking out.
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Coalition to back $200,000 pay rise for new governor general
The Coalition has decided not to make trouble for the government over the proposed $200,000 salary increase for the incoming governor general, Sam Mostyn, with its party room deciding at its weekly meeting today to vote in favour of the legislation needed to make the change.
It was noted in the joint-parties meeting this morning that the government really needs to get this legislation through parliament pronto, because it has to have it pass both houses and receive royal assent – incidentally by the governor general Mostyn will replace – all in time to get the five-year pay rise in place for next Monday, when Mostyn starts in the job.
But the Liberals and Nationals have opted not to stand in the way, meaning despite the Greens’ opposition, Mostyn’s pay rise is now guaranteed.
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Canavan still pushing for Coalition to ditch net zero by 2050 target
Guardian Australia understands the Nationals senator Matt Canavan advocated for ditching the emissions reduction target of net zero by 2050 in the Coalition party room.
The Coalition opposes Labor’s 2030 target of a 43% reduction of carbon emissions on 2005 levels, but says that it still supports net zero by 2050.
Not Canavan, who last week appeared on Sky News from Yeppoon by a digital sign declaring that “net zero puts prices up”, in apparent contradiction of Coalition policy.
The thrust of Canavan’s contribution on Tuesday was that in his view net zero is unachievable, undesirable, costly and unpopular. His evidence for this is that Peter Dutton’s popularity increased after opposing the 2030 target.
All of this is unhelpful to Dutton, who started the meeting by saying the Coalition was proposing nuclear power for the “right reasons” to reduce emissions.
Party sources claimed there was no debate or response to the contribution because the party’s policy is clear.
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Social media platforms put profit above social harmony, O’Neil says
The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, has warned social media is degrading Australia’s democracy, adding platforms are putting profit before harmony.
The Labor frontbencher is giving an address at the Australian National University on Tuesday on election integrity. O’Neil said the spread of mis- and disinformation on social media, which in some cases has used artificial intelligence, was just the “tip of the iceberg”.
O’Neil said:
Social media is degrading our democracy and dividing us at the very time when we need to be united. And it’s no chance that the recent rise that we have seen as well in populism is correlated with the introduction of social media. What’s really worrying me about this problem is that what we’re seeing now, I think, is the tip of the iceberg.
The Victorian MP then turned her sights to the companies behind the platforms, accusing them of putting profits before social cohesion.
There are products and platforms developed and operated by private companies that have in essence sacrificed the health of our democracy at the offer of profit, or impeding our access to the truth by polluting our society with harmful content, by assisting foreign nations to interfere in our precious democracy, and by weaponising our basic instincts.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has made no secret of his frustration with global social media companies. Earlier this month he labelled social media a “scourge” and vowed to strengthen bans on young people accessing the sites.
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Electoral commissioner warns AI could ‘turbocharge’ spread of conspiracies
The Australian electoral commissioner, Tom Rogers, has warned the spread of “unhinged” conspiracies on social media could be “turbocharged” by artificial intelligence at the next federal election, presenting a major challenge for Australia.
At an event at the Australian National University on Tuesday, Rogers noted the rise of AI was a concern for the AEC but said government taskforces were on the case and leading the charge globally.
He said:
We know more can be done and all the electoral administrators in this room look forward to working with legislators to make that occur as we move forward.
The home affairs minister,Clare O’Neil, is due to deliver her speech on social media and social cohesion shortly.
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Greens to oppose raising new governor general's salary
There we go – the Greens will be opposing the legislation to lift the governor generals’ salary.
Whilst the Greens strongly believe we should be a republic, if we must have a GG, Sam Mostyn is an inspired choice.
— Larissa Waters (@larissawaters) June 25, 2024
However, we will oppose the GG payrise Bill and move amendments in the Senate for wage increases for all low paid workers. And for Australia to be a Republic!
Updated
The Senate is voting on a government guillotine motion moved by the finance minister, Katy Gallagher.
The motion requires appropriations bills to be voted on at 6pm tonight, and then tomorrow at noon the vaping reforms and the governor general’s pay increase.
The Coalition leader in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, gave a brief speech warning that this had cut into time when senators had wanted to give speeches.
The Greens voted with Labor, and the guillotine passed 31 to 29.
Updated
Wong seeks support to amend Greens motion on recognition of Palestine
Penny Wong has written to the Senate leaders of the political parties and independent senators, asking for their support in amending the Greens’ motion on recognition of Palestinian statehood.
If the government’s amendment is successful, the Greens’ motion will be amended to add the words in bold:
That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:
The need for the Senate to recognise the State of Palestine as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace.
Wong wrote in her letter:
The Australian Government is working with the international community to create momentum for a lasting peace in the form of a two-state solution – a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel. We know that is the only way to break the cycle of violence.
This momentum is what we saw in the recent vote at the United Nations General Assembly, where 143 countries including Australia expressed our aspiration for Palestinian membership of the United Nations.
Australia and a number of other countries including Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada have shifted our position, so that recognition of a Palestinian state is no longer seen as being the end point of negotiations.
Australia is firmly part of the international effort to see recognition of a state of Palestine as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace.
It is widely recognised that major security and governance reforms are needed. At my direction, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is examining ways Australia can support reform of the Palestinian Authority so that it can deliver on the needs of the Palestinian people.
The Government’s amendment to this motion reflects the work Australia is contributing in the international community.
Updated
Greens to move motion in Senate to recognise state of Palestine
The Greens have announced they will move a motion in the Senate asking for the Senate to recognise the state of Palestine.
Australia’s official position is that it recognises the occupied territories of Palestine, but not Palestine as an independent state.
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, is seeking to amend Mehreen Faruqi’s motion to change it from the Senate recognises the state of Palestine to:
The need for the Senate to recognise the State of Palestine as a part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace.
Updated
John Pesutto says Victorian opposition will not back pill testing
The Victorian opposition leader, John Pesutto, says the Coalition will not support the government’s plan to introduce drug testing services. He says:
As leader of the opposition, as alternative premier, and also as a father, I can’t support Jacinta Allan’s announcement today on pill testing and neither can my colleagues. We think strongly that this gives a green light to pill testing, this gives a green light to the taking [of] the pills, and it also, unfortunately, lays out a welcome mat for those who will deal in pills and other drugs, who will see this as an invitation to only expand their activities.
Updated
Would Barnaby Joyce go in to bat for Australians who might not have the profile of Julian Assange, but found themselves in similar circumstances?
Joyce:
Maybe not me. I have been blessed in the political career I have had but I would hope that others would do the same. We all have so much fuel in the tank and I am sure there are other people coming through who will do the same thing.
It is up to you, the Australian people, you pre-select them and send them down here.
Pick the right ones and they do the right job.
Joyce says his position on Assange relates to common law that ‘underpins the freedoms of all Australians’
Barnaby Joyce, who was part of the delegation to lobby US law makers over Julian Assange, has spoken to the ABC about the moment his thinking changed over the Assange case:
I have managed to get myself in some awful problems over my political career but I was also a supporter of David Hicks.
Why? I thought what he did was contemptible but habeas corpus is an issue that should be there for all Australians and I think in this building, you have to … understand what underpins the freedoms of all Australians and to make a judgment on their character is something you can certainly do, but you also have to see it through the prism of what the law is and how common law has evolved over centuries and it a pretty marvellous thing.
Some countries don’t have it. We do and we should protect it.
Updated
Disagreement surfacing over governor general’s pay
Back to the governor general’s pay – don’t expect this issue to just disappear.
The legislation has to make it through the parliament and we are starting to see the first flashes of discontent filter through:
The Gov wants to increase the Governor-General's salary from $495k to $709k. Can't believe I have to say this (in a cost-of-living crisis) but a $200k pay rise for the GG is not a good look.
— Larissa Waters (@larissawaters) June 25, 2024
Until all low paid workers (mostly women!) get a 43% pay rise, the GG shouldn't either. pic.twitter.com/RjEl9waMPW
Updated
Julian Assange’s mother, Christine Assange, said in a statement:
I am grateful that my son’s ordeal is finally coming to an end.
This shows the importance and power of quiet diplomacy.
Many have used my son’s situation to push their own agendas, so I am grateful to those unseen, hard-working people who put Julian’s welfare first.
The past 14 years has obviously taken a toll on me as a mother, so I wish to thank you in advance for respecting my privacy.
Governor general’s salary increase follows convention, says assistant minister to PM
The assistant minister to the prime minister, Patrick Gorman, has had a little bit of cleanup to do after introducing the legislation that will set the incoming governor-general’s salary for the next five years.
The bill was introduced with very little fanfare – and no one else in the parliament spoke on it. But with the news that Sam Mostyn as governor general would receive a 43% increase on what was paid to David Hurley as governor general, things became a little messy.
The increase is because Hurley receives a pension for his ADF service, which boosted his pay. Mostyn does not have a pension, so the salary was increased in line with what the chief justice receives.
But given the cost-of-living crisis, the news, however normal in terms of how these things are done, has not gone over well with the public.
Gorman told ABC radio Canberra:
I understand that people have a lot of different views and one of the things I love about Australia is that when there’s anything in front of the parliament, in a democracy like ours, everyone can have a view. And I actually quite welcome that.
But what’s important for the considerations that I made in putting this together along with others, is that it’s important that we follow convention.
And the convention has been for many decades to use this model of setting the salary. And I wouldn’t have felt comfortable explaining to any of your listeners why we would have broken from that convention. I think when you’re talking about the King’s representative in Australia, and I know people have lots of different views about the Monarchy and our relationship with the crown.
This is the system of government we have, it’s been in our constitution for 123 years, it’s important that I fulfil my obligations as a member of parliament.
… But I also respect that we’ve got obligations, and those obligations have sat upon parliamentarians for 123 years, part of our constitution section three, and we’ve got to do our job.
Updated
Coalition would treat vapes like cigarettes, shadow ministers say
The Coalition wants to tax and regulate vapes in the same way as cigarettes, announcing a vastly different scheme for vaping to the government plan which will pass the Senate this week.
The shadow health minister, Anne Ruston, and the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, announced the unexpected shift this morning, just moments before the health minister, Mark Butler, is to confirm the government’s amended plans at his own press conference.
Asked at their own presser, Ruston didn’t rule out keeping some flavouring for vapes, beyond the government’s scheme which would be restricted to mint and menthol. The Liberals plan would include plain packaging, and selling vapes in the same way as cigarettes. Ruston said adults should be able to make their own choices about what they access.
Ruston said there would be a strict licence scheme, and didn’t rule out allowing vapes to be sold at, for instance, petrol stations and convenience stores. Vapes would be restricted to a certain nicotine and ingredients contents.
The Coalition also wants much more money for enforcement of hidden market activities, pledging $250m to stamp out illegal imports.
This funding will be used to stand up an illegal tobacco and vaping taskforce led by the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Border Force to tackle illegal vapes from the border to the shopfront. This will provide desperately needed Commonwealth leadership to crack down on organised criminal activity and protect Australian children.
The shadow ministers also took aim at the government’s plan to sell therapeutic vapes at pharmacies – strongly opposed by the Pharmacy Guild.
[The government’s] deal seeks to have vapes sold by completely unwilling pharmacists. We know pharmacists want to use their valuable time to provide primary care advice to the community, not become ‘tobacconists and garbologists’.
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Coalition says Labor’s vaping deal will drive people to ‘black market’
The Coalition didn’t come to the negotiating table on vaping, which is what sent Labor to the Greens, where a deal was made.
But it seems now the deal has been done, the Coalition have some things to say on vaping. Anne Ruston and James Paterson have released a joint statement:
The mess Labor has made on vaping will only drive more Australians to the black market.
If elected, a Coalition Government will pursue a strictly-regulated retail model for vaping products under the TGA to put a stop to dodgy retailers selling vapes to Australian children with impunity through the rampant black market.
This model will include a licencing scheme, prevention campaigns and strong enforcement efforts, as part of a sensible approach to keep money out of the hands of criminals while stopping the sale of vapes to children.
Our regulated approach will also address the dangerous and unknown chemicals contained in illegal vapes, by placing strict requirements on safety and quality.
Updated
Greens party room meets to discuss upcoming bills
The Greens party room has met to discuss their deal with Labor on vaping, the welcome news of Julian Assange’s release and their upcoming motion on recognition of Palestine.
Between 5pm and 5:30pm the Greens will move that “in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency: the need for the Senate to recognise the State of Palestine”. There will be a vote on this procedural motion.
The Greens are very concerned about amendments to the NDIS bill, which they say justifies a second inquiry because the first didn’t consider them. They don’t support the bill as it stands.
Apparently there are 20 bills that Labor wants to pass this fortnight. We didn’t get a breakdown of the Greens position on everything but they are applying pressure on prominence and anti-siphoning legislation because they want more sport to be on free to air TV. They will seek to amend appropriations bills to remove fossil fuel subsidies.
The Greens will oppose the pay increase for the governor general, but they suspect this will pass with bipartisan support.
Updated
For those looking for the Australian reaction to the Julian Assange plea deal reports, Daniel Hurst has you covered:
The Greens have announced they will be moving a motion in the Senate today:
The wording of the motion is as follows:
The need for the Senate to recognise the State of Palestine.
The motion will be voted on later this afternoon. The deputy leader of the Australian Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, will introduce the motion.
Updated
Queensland’s first festival pill-testing service finds ‘Canberra ketamine’ sold as MDMA
As Victoria announces its pill testing clinic, Queensland has given an update on its own drug testing, reporting dangerous “cathinones” and a synthetic drug dubbed “Canberra ketamine” has shown up in the first month of results.
CheQpoint opened in April and in its first month of operation, 37 people attended the service at Bowen Hills, Brisbane, bringing in 80 substances for testing.
Two samples contained potentially dangerous cathinones, a class of stimulant drug that has been found in drugs meant to be either MDMA or cocaine. The service also picked up “tuci” – a combination of ketamine and MDMA, which is sold as 2C-B.
One substance sold as methamphetamine proved to be epsom salts.
One in five people who presented at the clinic either handed over their substances for destruction or threw it out at home.
CheQpoint is open from 12.30pm until 6pm on Fridays. It is operated by QuIHN, QuIVAA, and The Loop Australia and is funded by Queensland Health.
Queensland conducted drug testing for the first time at the Rabbits Eat Lettuce festival, in April.
Updated
Julian Assange’s plea deal: what we know so far
Just a quick recap on what we know about the reported deal Julian Assange has made with the US.
The reported deal is that Assange would plead guilty to violating US espionage laws and be sentenced to 62 months in prison.
It’s reported that the time Assange spent in the UK’s Belmarsh prison would count towards that 62 months, meaning Assange would be considered to have served that 62 month sentence and be free to return to Australia.
US media reports say that Assange will make an appearance at a US District court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific, where he will formally plead guilty and be sentenced.
So while there is video of him getting on a plane, he is not headed to Australia just yet. He’ll face the US court and then once all is formalised, all going to (reported) plan, he’ll then be able to make arrangements to return to Australia.
Updated
Denise and Bruce Morcombe to be recognised for child safety work at Parliament House
Child safety advocates Denise and Bruce Morcombe are at Parliament House today, where they are being recognised for their work with the Daniel Morcombe Foundation.
The Sunshine Coast couple established the foundation after their son Daniel was abducted while waiting for a bus in December 2003. His remains were found in 2011 and his murderer sentenced to life in prison in 2013.
In the almost two decades since officially setting up the foundation in Daniel’s honour, the Morcombes have crisscrossed Australia speaking to students about safety, and worked with police and governments to improve laws and safety measures, while also directly supporting young victims of crime.
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Greens senator says Unesco’s decision on Great Barrier Reef a ‘triumph of spin over science’
Back to the domestic politics of the day, and while the Labor government is celebrating the decision not to place the Great Barrier Reef on the Unesco “in danger” list, Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson said it was a “triumph of spin over science”.
Successive governments have lobbied hard and splashed cash on the Great Barrier Reef to buy political cover instead of treating the root cause of this magnificent ecosystem’s decline; which is rising emissions from burning fossil fuels.
The Albanese government has previously claimed it’s ‘on track’ to have national climate targets in line with keeping global heating to 1.5C, but we know this is completely disingenuous.
No amount of conservation efforts to protect the Great Barrier Reef will shield it from the impacts of new coal and gas projects.
The world will continue to watch the plight of the Great Barrier Reef moving forward, and as a custodian of this great natural wonder the Albanese government should remember this next time it inevitably looks to approve another fossil fuel project.
Updated
Growing consensus in parliament that it was time to end Assange prosecution
There had been growing consensus within the Australian parliament that it was time to bring the prosecution against Julian Assange to an end and allow him home.
Under Anthony Albanese, the Labor opposition began calling for an end to the prosecution in 2020. Albanese said he raised the matter directly with the US president, Joe Biden, during his state visit in October 2023. In February of this year, the Labor government, including Albanese, supported a motion put forward by the independent MP Andrew Wilkie urging the UK and US to allow Assange to return home to Australia. The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said he also raised the matter with his US counterpart during a meeting in January this year.
Updated
Andrew Wilkie has announced the press conference of the co-convenors and the members of the Bring Julian Assange Home parliamentary group which was announced for 11.30am has been cancelled.
No reason was given.
Updated
WikiLeaks has published a video of Julian Assange boarding a flight.
The US reports on the plea deal indicated that Assange would appear at the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific, to formally plead guilty to violating US law. Under the reported deal, Assange would be sentenced to 62 months in prison, but with credit for time served in the UK, which would enable him to return to Australia.
Julian Assange boards flight at London Stansted Airport at 5PM (BST) Monday June 24th. This is for everyone who worked for his freedom: thank you.#FreedJulianAssange pic.twitter.com/Pqp5pBAhSQ
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 25, 2024
Updated
Julian Assange’s wife, Stella Assange, has confirmed that her husband is free:
JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE pic.twitter.com/z63hI2WnuV
— Free Assange - #FreeAssange (@FreeAssangeNews) June 24, 2024
Updated
While we wait on official confirmation of the US plea deal with Julian Assange, Australian politicians have reacted to the media reports a deal has been made:
The shadow foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, said:
We have consistently said that the US and UK justice systems should be respected. We welcome the fact that Mr Assange’s decision to plead guilty will bring this long running saga to an end.
Updated
WikiLeaks account tweets ‘Julian Assange is free’
The WikiLeaks X account has tweeted that “Julian Assange is free”.
Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there.
He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stanstead airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.
This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organisers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations. This created the space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalised.
We will provide more information as soon as possible.
It still has not been officially confirmed.
Updated
There was a cross-parliament delegation of MPs who travelled to Washington to lobby for Julian Assange’s release last year, as Daniel Hurst covered at the time:
That group will hold a press conference at 11.30am to discuss the reports of a US plea deal that could see Assange free to return to Australia.
Updated
‘No one should judge Julian for accepting a deal to get the hell out of there’: Labor MP
Returning to the (still unconfirmed) reports of a plea deal for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the Labor MP Julian Hill told Guardian Australia:
No one should judge Julian for accepting a deal to get the hell out of there and come home. His health is fragile.
Whatever you think of Assange, he is an Australian and enough is enough.
The prime minister deserves enormous personal credit for his judgment and determination, never giving up in pursuing resolution of this case.
Let’s hope for the best now.
Updated
Tickets reportedly ‘sold out’ for lunch featuring Tucker Carlson hosted by Clive Palmer
It is also “Tucker Carlson hosted by Clive Palmer” day in Canberra.
The $190-a-head public lunch event at the Hyatt Hotel has allegedly “sold out” according to the ticket site, however there is a chance for parliamentarians to see Carlson for free (if they don’t get enough on his private channel) with UAP senator Ralph Babet hosting an event in the parliament today for MPs and their senior staffers (if there is room).
It doesn’t seem as if the “freedom conference” has been going all that well, at least according to reports on ticket sales.
But we mustn’t dwell. No, not today. We can’t. Not on Tucker Carlson day! (For those who haven’t watched the mid-90s classic film Empire Records on a loop, this will make no sense to you. But those who know, know.)
Updated
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, was also asked about the four deaths in Broadmeadows overnight. She said:
I’ve seen the media reports and my thoughts are with the family members who are clearly distressed at what is such a tragic incident. I will leave it to Victoria police to comment further on this matter. But if anyone does have information that could assist Victoria police, they should be contacting Crimestoppers with that information.
Updated
Pill testing trial will cost ‘fairly modest’ $4m: Ingrid Stitt
Back to the Victorian pill testing announcement, and the mental health minister, Ingrid Stitt, has talked through the changes to the law that will be introduced to parliament later this year to allow the service to operate:
The legislative changes that we’ll introduce into the parliament later this year, we’ll set up a licensing scheme which will indemnify the operators and the users of the service. I think it’s very important from the outset to not present this as giving people the green light. No drug use is safe. What this is about is reducing the risk and giving people the information that they need to give them the ability to make an informed decision about whether they go ahead and take that drug or not.
She says the government will foot the bill, not festivalgoers, and will be a “fairly modest cost” of around $4m.
Decisions about future funding will be obviously made at that point in time. But I think that the really important message here is what price do we put on the safety of people? What price do we put on a life?
Updated
Amid reports Julian Assange could be about to be freed as part of a plea deal, the Australian government has reiterated its view that the case “has dragged on for too long”.
Asked for comment on the reports, an Australian government spokesperson did not confirm or deny the plea deal but said:
We are aware Australian citizen Mr Julian Assange has legal proceedings scheduled in the United States.
Given those proceedings are ongoing, it is not appropriate to provide further comment.
The Australian Government continues to provide consular assistance to Mr Assange.
Prime Minister Albanese has been clear - Mr Assange’s case has dragged on for too long and there is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration.
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) President Dr Nicole Higgins has welcomed news of a deal on the vaping legislation, which will make it more difficult for people, particularly children, to access vapes.
Higgins said it was an important first step.
We support the crackdown on vaping. This is about saving our children’s lungs and future health, and stopping younger generations getting hooked on nicotine.
These reforms are an important step to stop younger people easily accessing vapes from retailers and getting hooked, as well as cracking down on advertising and attractive packaging and flavours.
Importantly, under the proposed changes, people will need to have a conversation with their pharmacist about their options for smoking cessation whenever they purchase a vape.
While we don’t know the long-term health impacts of vaping yet, the emerging evidence is scary. We know vapes contain chemicals that cause serious respiratory issues and lung damage. And they have been marketed to children, who have a lot of trouble quitting due to the severe withdrawal symptoms many people experience, such as anxiety, trouble eating and sleeping.”
Evidence shows pill testing reduces harm: Jacinta Allan
Jacinta Allan says Victoria has seen a rise in drug-related emergency department admissions and 46 overdose deaths in 2022 involving synthetic drugs. She says in the first three months of this year paramedics responded to more drug overdoses than all of 2023.
The global drug market is ramping up the production of illicit deadly synthetic substances with increased potency like fentanyl. So how do we confront this? We can put our heads in the sand like politicians have done for decades. Or we can change behaviour. We can engage young people in honest, open conversations to work to change behaviour. And the evidence is all the people who use pill testing are more likely to take actions that reduce harm.
Ingrid Stitt said over 1,000 new drugs had been detected in the past decades.
She says the government will introduce legislation to the law to allow the trial to operate and ensure no one operating or using the service is breaking the law and possession and supply of drugs will not be decriminalised outside the service.
The government have already ruled out locating the drug checking service at the new community health hub at the CBD, and the safe injecting room in North Richmond.
Updated
Both mobile and fixed pill testing to be trialled in Victoria: premier
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, and the mental health minister, Ingrid Stitt, are holding a press conference in Melbourne to announce a trial of pill testing this summer.
Allan last night took to Instagram to announce the trial, which she said was a “simple and commonsense way to save lives”.
Today they’re announcing more details, including that the trial will run 18 months and include both mobile and fixed sites to test illicit drugs.
A permanent fixed site will also open from 2025, located in the inner Melbourne area “close to nightlife and transport”. It will be able to test the makeup of most pills, capsules, powders, crystals and liquids and identify harmful chemicals that can lead to death.
She says:
I want to be really clear here. This doesn’t make drugs legal and it doesn’t make drugs safe … we’re doing this because all the evidence says it works. The evidence tells us it changes behaviour.
Updated
Further to the Reuters report, NPR is reporting that part of the deal Julian Assange’s legal team has struck with the US will see him plead guilty to violating the US espionage act, and be sentenced to 62 months in prison, but with “credit for time served in British prison, meaning he would be free to return to Australia, where he was born”.
The network reports court documents were filed Monday evening US time in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific Ocean.
Updated
Julian Assange to be released under new plea deal
Reuters is reporting Julian Assange is set to be released under a new plea deal:
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is expected to plead guilty this week to violating U.S. espionage law, in a deal that could end his imprisonment in Britain and allow him to return home to Australia.
U.S. prosecutors filed criminal paperwork against Assange, 52, that is typically a preliminary step before a plea deal. It outlines a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents, according to filings in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
We’ll have more for you on that very soon.
Updated
And there we go – right on cue.
Anthony Albanese has invited the cameras in to capture his address to the Labor caucus at the beginning of the caucus meeting.
The leaders do this from time to time – when they want key messages out there. It’s usually a set piece speech and the caucus knows to ham it up with the “hear hears!”
All party leaders do this when want a particular message out there.
Updated
Just following on from our previous post on the news media bargaining code and Meta, the Treasury assistant secretary Tony McDonald said the department had also sought legal advice on alternatives to designating Meta under the code to force negotiations for news payments.
This includes how potential “must carry” rules might apply to Meta to force the platform to carry news on Instagram and Facebook, and whether there could be “taxation options”.
But he said he could not say more at this stage of the process.
Birmingham weighs in on Matt Kean’s appointment to Climate Change Authority
The Liberal senator Simon Birmingham spoke to Sky News and addressed some of his colleague’s criticism of their former NSW Liberal colleague Matt Kean, after his appointment to the Climate Change Authority.
Birmingham, who is more moderate in his views than many in his party room, wasn’t willing to criticise Kean directly:
I think what matters here are not the personalities, but the policies. And the reality is that Labor’s policies are not working. Australians are paying far higher electricity bills than Labor had promised them. They’re paying a price for that.
Labor’s targets in terms of the rollout of renewables are not hitting the rate that Labor had promised, and that means we’re at real risk of not meeting our emissions reduction targets. What you’re seeing from Peter Dutton and the Coalition is a clear long-term vision, a willingness to take some of the difficult decisions in relation to opening up the discussion about nuclear energy.
But in doing so, providing a more concrete and firm pathway for how net zero can genuinely be achieved by 2050, and doing so in a way that has a focus on the reliability of our energy, on how industry can continue to play a big role in this country, and, of course, on how we can have stability in prices for Australians.
Updated
Local government minister says Coalition must consult regional communities on nuclear
You know how we were just talking about messages?
Here is what the local government minister, Kristy McBain, had to say this morning:
Peter Dutton and David Littleproud are treating regional people like mugs.
We have had an absolute gutful of this.
Standing in the middle of Sydney to announce seven locations for nuclear reactors, not having a single word of consultation with any regional communities is an absolute farce.
If they’re serious about changing the energy mix in this country, they should go out and consult regional people.
Hearing Peter Dutton in an interview last week say frankly, we’ll tell regional people about the benefits of nuclear, is an absolute joke.
Updated
It’s Tuesday which means it is party room meeting day.
The parliament session won’t get under way until midday and you won’t see too much of the MPs (apart from the messages they all want out) until later today as they all attend their party rooms to hear the messages from the leadership, discuss legislation direction (or voting direction) and ask questions.
You’ll hear a bit more of the leaders’ rah-rah to the troops this week than usual, I suspect, as both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton continue to battle it out over climate politics.
Updated
Government preparing for possibility of Meta pulling news from Australia
The treasury department is exploring what options the government might have in the event that Meta pulls news from Australia if it is designated under the news media code in an attempt to force the Facebook and Instagram parent company to pay for news, parliament has heard.
The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, tasked the department to assess whether Meta should be designated under the code after the company announced in March it would not enter into new deals with news publishers.
Speaking at the parliamentary committee on social media and Australian society, Tony McDonald, the assistant secretary in the competition and consumer branch of the department, revealed it was providing advice on whether Meta and other platforms generally might pull news in Australia from their services as Meta has done in Canada.
McDonald said:
I think the experience we’re seeing internationally with digital platforms is that a static target won’t work because they will react and they’ll respond. And the challenge for sovereign governments is to work out how to react and respond in relation to that.
He said he wasn’t suggesting Meta would pull news, but it was something the department had explored.
What might you be able to do to encourage them to continue to encourage or force them continue to carry us in those circumstances? There’s a number of legal as well as policy issues that are associated with that. So as you would expect, we’ve been seeking legal advice on a number of questions as well.
One of the issues being considered is whether parliament’s laws can apply to a global tech company like Meta, which may not be considered to be operating in Australia under the law.
He said he could not yet talk specifics about how the government might make it work, and confirmed the department was assessing both Facebook and Instagram under the code.
Updated
For those who may not remember, it is not the first time there has been the prospect of the Great Barrier Reef being placed on the “in danger” list by the UN’s environment body.
In 2021, the Coalition’s Sussan Ley embarked on a whirlwind lobbying mission to stop Unesco from listing the reef as “in danger” and won the necessary committee votes needed to head off the vote:
Updated
A little earlier this morning, Martin pointed you to this story from Graham Readfearn:
Tanya Plibersek and the Labor senator for north Queensland, Nita Green, will be talking about the report in just a moment.
Updated
Bowen: ‘$600 billion for 3%’ of energy from nuclear is ‘terrible equation’
Back to the issue dominating parliament this week – energy.
Chris Bowen spoke to ABC 7.30 last night, where he was asked the same question Peter Dutton put to Anthony Albanese in question time yesterday – how much is the total cost of the government’s energy plan?
Bowen:
$121 billion is the cost of non-customer-owned generation transmission and storage, as is outlined in great detail in the last version of the Integrated Systems Plan that will be updated later this week. But that’s the figure.
Why didn’t the prime minister just say that?
Well, because the prime minister was pointing out that Mr Dutton has got a hide asking about that when he announced a major shift in Australia’s energy mix with absolutely no costings, no details and no respect to the Australian people in relation to their right for details.
Now, they have been unable to answer basic questions about how many gigawatts of nuclear power will generate at what expense. Now experts have said $600 billion to generate nuclear power, which would be about the equivalent of 3% of our total generation mix. $600 billion for 3%. I mean, what a terrible equation.
Now if Mr Dutton has a different set of figures, he should release them urgently.
Updated
The health minister, Mark Butler, has called a press conference in the Blue Room for 11.30am, where he will formally announce the deal the government has struck with the Greens over the vaping legislation.
Josh Butler broke the story here:
And Paul Karp has looked at how it all went down, here:
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‘We’ll give him a chance’, says Bandt of Matt Kean’s appointment to Climate Change Authority
Does Adam Bandt think former NSW Liberal treasurer Matt Kean is the right person to head up the Climate Change Authority, as Chris Bowen believes?
Bandt:
It should be a science based appointment, not a political appointment.
We know Labor and Liberal, both back more coal and gas. Under Matt Kean’s time in New South Wales they backed the fast tracking of gas.
I’m concerned that that the Climate Change Authority might be moving away from giving frank and fearless science based advice, but we’ll watch it closely.
I think we’ll give him a chance, but it’s got to be a science based target.
Labor and Liberal both seem to think you can make climate targets by opening new coal and gas. I hope that’s not the advice that comes from the new Climate Change Authority.
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Savings made in NDIS reform should be reinvested into disability system: Bandt
Adam Bandt made the point that the government had not moved to tax multinationals and is brought back to the NDIS. He says it is related:
You raised the question about savings and I’m saying if the question is about how do we raise money to fund the services Australians need there are places to look other than cutting services to disabled people. That’s my first point.
Second point, with respect to what you just said about within the system – the government went to the election promising that changes to the NDIS would be co-designed with disabled people. They said that. Now if there are changes to be made with the system, then we say any savings should be reinvested back into the system. And that’s not what the government is doing.
So if the government wanted to have a discussion about how we’re not cutting spending to the NDIS funding, we’re looking at how to change the system, then involve disabled people in the conversation but that’s not what they’re doing.
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Bandt: ‘Appalling’ for Labor to ‘boast’ about budget surplus brought about by cuts to NDIS
The Greens leader also defended the potential delay to the government’s NDIS bill.
The Liberals have moved an amendment to the government bill in the Senate which would delay a vote on it until at least August, arguing that there needs to be more consultation and co-design with disabled people. The government has argued a delay will cost $15m a day in overspend on the NDIS as it attempts to curb growth in the scheme and also what Bill Shorten has previously referred to as the NDIS “tax” some suppliers apply to services and products available on the scheme to boost their own revenues.
Shorten was furious on ABC radio AM a little earlier this morning, arguing that the delay was only a political move and would not actually achieve anything the previous consultation had not already.
The Greens have not yet announced their position on the Liberal amendment which would delay the NDIS bill vote, but Adam Bandt says it is “appalling” Labor has a budget surplus “off the back of cuts to services to disabled people”.
The NDIS has been life changing for disabled people around the country. If there are changes that need to be made, those changes should be co-designed with disabled people and the savings reinvested, and instead what Labor is attempting to do is take money out of the system at the same time as they boast about reaching a budget surplus.
The state premiers are saying well, no, hang on. You can’t go ahead with this because implicit in the federal government’s argument is that states will somehow pick up the slack for services to be provided to people with disabilities and they’re saying, well, look, we just haven’t got the money to do it.
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‘We think it strikes the right balance’
Adam Bandt said the changes would still protect children:
Future vape purchases will have to be done through a chemist, and there’ll be a restriction on the flavours that are available …
We think that strikes the right balance, ensuring that we don’t criminalise it and don’t have a prohibition model but that also we tackle the public health issue, especially for children …
I think it’s a gives it a very good shot because, you know, some of the flavours that have been marketed at kids, you know, unicorn, bubble gum and so on, they’ll no longer be available.
The only way that you’re going to be able to get them is through a chemist and for children under 18, if there are children under 18, who’ve perhaps become addicted to [vapes] who now want to get off them, they would need a prescription so there’ll be a prescription model for under-18s.
So we think it goes a very, very long way to removing the ready availability for children and also the marketing to children, that will be a thing of the past.
Updated
‘Prohibition doesn't work’, says Bandt in defence of vape deal with Labor
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, is next on ABC radio RN Breakfast and he is asked why the Greens made amendments to Labor’s vaping legislation. The legislation has moved from needing a prescription to get a vape, to vaping products being available behind the pharmacist counter (in the same way cold and flu medication is) after negotiations with the Greens.
Bandt says the changes make sense:
We had two main motivations driving us. One was that prohibition doesn’t work.
I mean, history is replete with examples of politicians telling adults not to use certain drugs only to find that that doesn’t actually fix the problem.
The second motivation for us is that we said there is a real public health problem and especially amongst children, the kind of flavoured types that children have been using limit deliberately marketed to children and for us is something that we really wanted to tackle but we wanted to make sure that it was treated as a health issue and kept out of the criminal justice system.
And so the changes that we’ve secured mean now you, the adult vape user, and children as well won’t be criminalised for their vape usage and can walk down the street with a Rock Princess or a Lush Ice and know that it’s not a crime.
Updated
Gas prices likely to increase
But Madeleine King acknowledged that gas prices will probably increase because of the increase of demand – but says the cap on prices the government put in place last year remains in place.
It could go up but it is limited and importantly limited to make sure there is affordable gas for households and manufacturing.
So yes, prices will most likely increase in the peak heating time of winter, but there is a limit to the increase.
Updated
Gas supply is there, King says
Resources minister Madeleine King is trying to allay fears that there will be a shortage issue of gas this winter.
King tells ABC radio RN Breakfast that yes, the Australian Energy Market Operator has warned of potential gas shortages for the east coast, but that is its job. She says the supply is there:
There will of course be these periods of high demand as it does get colder. And we know places like the ACT and Victoria do rely heavily on gas to heat their housing at the moment.
So that there is a strong demand for that gas. And that’s exactly why we have backup storage systems …
We have secured gas to make sure it falls into the system. At the moment there is a bit of a pipeline constraint. I won’t deny that of course …
It’s just that it’s [the gas pipeline] full because everyone wants gas really quickly. And that is the thing about gas. It’s so flexible. You can turn it on and off.
So recently, the pipeline was not full. People want to get to it for their heating, it becomes full very quickly and it is a gas pipeline that has a limited amount of gas that can literally go through it – like your garden hose, you know, so there is the constraint.
Updated
Liberals ‘don’t have a plan to rescue the scheme’, Shorten says
The $15m-a-day reference Bill Shorten has made there is what is estimated to be the overspend by NDIS providers.
The Liberals have accused the government of botching the consultation process. The Greens have previously wanted more consultation but are yet to say which way they will vote on the Liberal amendment put forward yesterday afternoon.
Shorten:
I’ve got a responsibility to all those hundreds of thousands of people on the scheme, the hundreds of thousands of people who work in the sector, and their families and the people who love them to make sure this scheme is there for the future.
And the reality is the people saying delay and vote no, they don’t have a plan to rescue the scheme. And they’re the ones who are going to scream the loudest if this scheme goes belly up, because people just gave up on the program of trying to restrain the growth rate.
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‘It’s just a lazy delay’
Bill Shorten says a further delay of the Senate vote on the NDIS bill won’t actually lead to any changes:
There’s no good reason on God’s green earth to have another eight weeks of review, which isn’t actually eight weeks.
There won’t be a whole lot of new submissions come in, there won’t be some brand new arguments not considered.
The truth of the matter is that this is going to cost a billion dollars to taxpayers – about $15m a day …
The Liberals are disingenuously saying they want more time for consultation. They haven’t come to any of our public meetings. They haven’t made submissions into the review. They’ve already had one Senate investigation where they said the bill could be passed and they did not ask for any amendments.
This is not about some ticking issue where the next eight weeks is going to change anything. It’s just a lazy delay.
Updated
Bill Shorten furious at NDIS reform delay
NDIS minister Bill Shorten is speaking to ABC radio AM host Sabra Lane about a Senate amendment put forward by the Liberals yesterday which could delay the vote to overhaul the NDIS until at least August.
Shorten is furious. The Greens and Liberals want further review of the changes, but the minister says that wouldn’t achieve anything that they don’t already know from the existing inquiries:
I’m horrified after 12 months of reviewing the NDIS and then another six months of discussing the review including [in] the last three a Senate committee having public hearings calling for submissions.
The opposition has used words never ever said before by them.
They want to have another eight weeks on top of 12 weeks so they can do co-design. Let’s talk about remarkable.
Updated
Good morning
Thank you to Martin for starting us off this morning and bringing us to speed. You now have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the parliament day. It’s easily a three-coffee morning.
Ready? Let’s get into it.
Updated
‘Teaching toolbox’ launched
The education minister, Jason Clare, will launch new Stem primary school resources at Hughes primary in Canberra today in an attempt to help teachers improve their mathematics and science skills.
The digital “teaching toolbox” resources, developed by the Australian Academy of Science, were funded to build both student proficiency and the professional learning of teachers.
The academy’s secretary for education and public awareness, Prof Lyn Beazley, said teachers were often time poor and faced “many competing demands”, pointing to internal research which found that teacher professional learning programs were disconnected from the realities of the classroom:
This can lead to teachers preparing for what their students need to know, rather than designing how students will best learn.
Existing resources for primary school teachers aren’t always meeting their needs and can mean that teachers don’t have the opportunity to fully develop their own expertise. This is where the Academy’s new resources are different.
Updated
Victorians facing mounting energy debts
The Consumer Action Law Centre report also reveals that the number of Victorians with old energy debt from previous retailers has doubled since last year and that some retailers are pressuring customers into unaffordable payment plans using the threat of disconnection.
Chief executive Stephanie Tonkin:
We know that industry is being provided government funds to relieve energy debt, yet despite these schemes debt is growing for too many Victorians.
Retailers need to come to the table to make sure they’re meeting their obligations to assist Victorians struggling with their energy bills, which is why we’re recommending a cross-sector initiative to help those who need it most.
This is one of the key takeaways of this report and we are bringing all the evidence and recommendations to the energy industry and Victorian Government.
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‘People shouldn’t have to choose between putting food on the table and keeping their lights on’
More Victorians are struggling to pay their energy debts, a new report from Consumer Action Law Centre has shown.
In 2023, 7,087 people from across Victoria called Consumer Action’s financial counsellors on the National Debt Helpline and 849 callers (or 12% of all) presented with energy bills as one of their top three financial difficulty areas, compared with 10.5% in the previous year.
Chief executive Stephanie Tonkin said:
Average energy debt of callers has increased to $2,626, with the highest debt recorded at $34,102. As the cost-of-living crisis deepens, we are seeing the highest number of large energy debts in the six years since we first began publishing this report.
What is clear is that low-income households are being priced out of an essential service, necessitating structural reforms that support all Victorians to access affordable energy.
People shouldn’t have to choose between putting food on the table and keeping their lights on, or racking up debt they may never pay off. Access to this essential service must be protected regardless of income.
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Aukus pact 'already on trial', Labor MP says
The Aukus pact is “already on trial” and its defenders cannot afford to assume it will survive changes in government in the three countries over three decades, a federal government backbencher and former military officer has warned.
Luke Gosling sets out the case for Australia’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines with the help of the US and the UK in a Lowy Institute paper to be released today.
But he has also conceded that “long-term political support cannot be taken for granted” and says supporters must continue to build the case “if the fissures in today’s public opinion are to be arrested”.
The paper mentions China more than 20 times, including looking at its military buildup, but Gosling accuses Aukus critics of taking “the bait of foreign propagandists when they assume that it [the Aukus pact] targets one specific country”.
The MP insists nuclear-powered submarines are “a country-agnostic capability that can respond along a broad spectrum of contingencies ranging from great-power war to insidious grey-zone threats”. He says Australia “has no fixed enemies, only permanent interests”.
The Australian government plans to acquire eight nuclear-powered submarines, starting with the purchase of at least three Virginia-class boats from the US in the 2030s before Adelaide-built SSN-Aukus boats enter into service from the 2040s.
Gosling calls for future Australian governments to consider building more nuclear-powered submarines from the 2050s, even after Australia has eight.
Updated
More reaction to the vaping decision
The chief executive of the Public Health Association of Australia, Terry Slevin, said the PHAA supported the government legislation as originally put forward, “and that remains our strongly preferred model”.
But he said there had “been a wide diversity of views, and we know very well the industry has very aggressively lobbied on this”. Regardless, he thinks that if the amendments pass it will still be “a substantial step forward” for vaping reform:
Someone I spoke to earlier talked about the days when we were trying to get smoke-free zones in restaurants and pubs and clubs.
We got restaurants first, and we got pubs and clubs some years later, because tobacco control has always been a long, slow road.
There’s never been any perfect tobacco legislation passed. We make progress. We take steps forward. We argue for the best possible policy. We take wins when we can get them.
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Health experts decry watering down of vaping bill
On Monday the government announced it had reached an agreement with the Greens to significantly water down vaping legislation. The original legislation would have only allowed people to buy vaping products from a pharmacy if they had a prescription from their doctor or another authorised health professional.
But to secure support from the Greens in the Senate, the government has agreed to a number of amendments, the key one being to allow people to buy vapes at pharmacies without a prescription.
It is a significant step-back, given that the original bill and prescription-only model was backed by peak medical bodies, health organisations and tobacco control experts. The original legislation also had strong public support.
University of Sydney public health expert Associate Prof Becky Freeman said she wants to know what will be done to ensure pharmacists will be truly independent from the vaping and tobacco industries if the amendments pass:
That means we need measures to ensure that there is no advertising of these products allowed to pharmacists, that there’s no wining and dining of pharmacists to try and get certain vape products into pharmacies, and we need to ensure that vapes remain a therapeutic product and not a consumer good that’s just available to anyone going to a pharmacy.
She added that, if the amendments pass, vapers would not have to see a doctor for a prescription, so important opportunities for conversations about quitting vaping and health monitoring will be lost.
Welcome
Morning and welcome to today’s live news coverage from Canberra I’m Martin Farrer and here are some of the big stories as we start the day, before Amy Remeikis takes over.
A timely reminder that Australia needs to get its act together on climate and energy comes today with Unesco warning the government it must set more ambitious emissions targets or the Great Barrier Reef could be placed on the “in danger” list of world heritage sites. The report, published in Paris late last night, says Australia should be asked to submit a progress report by February. After that, the committee “could consider the inclusion of the property on the list of world heritage in danger” at its 2026 meeting.
Experts have been lining up to criticise the Albanese government’s decision to water down the legislation that was originally billed as a crackdown on vaping. Public health specialists say an opportunity has been missed and it looks as though the government will cop a lot of flak for the backtracking today. But with a deadline of the start of July to fix a vaping policy bearing down on them, Labor has ignored the pleas of doctors and watered down its plans to win the support of the Greens. More analysis and news coming up.
It’s not surprising that the cold weather in eastern Australia has led to a spike in demand for gas. But the supply of gas is coming under strain and the problem will worsen without the urgent addition of more backup resources. Unusually calm weather has hampered renewable supply as well, according to Rick Wilkinson, the chief executive of consultants EnergyQuest, and Victoria will “need a backup” to handle peak winter gas demand from 2026.
And a Labor MP has written a paper warning that Aukus supporters must continue to build the case for nuclear submarines to counter “fissures” in public opinion. More on that, too, in a tick.
