What we learned today, Tuesday 20 June
With that, we’ll wrap up our live coverage of the day’s news.
Here’s a summary of the main news developments:
In the Senate, Jacqui Lambie claimed there was a “culture of cover-up” at the highest levels of the Australian defence force and said she had referred senior commanders to the international criminal court.
During a Labor caucus meeting this morning, PM Anthony Albanese took aim at the Greens and Coalition for blocking the $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund bill, accusing them of a “juvenile student politics approach”.
The Greens’ Mehreen Faruqi said the delay was “not about playing political games” but about ensuring those living rough could “be assured a roof over their head”.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has refused to apologise to Liberal MP Cindy McLeish for calling her a “halfwit grub” in state parliament, arguing he was defending a female colleague at the time.
The Reserve Bank of Australia says its decision to increase the official interest rate in June rather than pause was “finely balanced” and further increases would hinge on how developments at home and abroad affected the inflation outlook.
Updated
On housing, Albanese was asked whether bringing almost 400,000 migrants into Australia last year is making the housing crisis worse.
The prime minister said:
Let’s be clear about what happened last year. Whereas what normally happens is people leave the country and people come back to the country. What happened post-pandemic, of course, was that instead of students who finish their degree – for example, leaving, and the same number coming, just people came; no one was leaving because they weren’t here beforehand.
And indeed, the population that will be reached in 2025 was expected to be the population under the former government projections already in 2022. So this is a product, really, of what has happened with the opening up of our borders. And when you close your borders completely, as we did, you’ve got to expect a short-term bounceback.
We have a migration strategy. We expect that by targeting migration to Australia’s need, the numbers in future will actually be lower than what was projected.
To read more on this, we brought you this last week:
Updated
Albanese clarifies that the Indigenous voice doesn’t have veto power and would be an advisory group:
Hamish Macdonald:
If the voice disagrees with the government of the day on something, who has primacy there?
Albanese:
The government, absolutely. There is no right of veto of this. Parliament structure remains in place, it is not affected by any of this, and that’s been made very clear – all this is is an advisory group.
Updated
Albanese is asked if the Indigenous voice to parliament debate is confusing for those who don’t actively consume the news.
He says:
People will focus over the coming months on this, but it’s up to us to put forward the very clear arguments.
This isn’t something that’s come from Canberra. This has come from Indigenous people themselves … they decided that they wanted constitutional recognition that’s been spoken about since last century, but not advanced - they want to constitutional recognition but they wanted it in a form where they got listened to … about the matters that affect them.
This won’t impact most Australians that directly that their lives at all, but it just might make a difference for the most disadvantaged group in Australian society.
Updated
PM says it ‘hasn’t been parliament’s finest weeks’
Anthony Albanese is appearing on The Project tonight to speak on a range of issues, including the Indigenous voice to parliament and housing.
When asked about the conduct in parliament during the past few weeks, the prime minister said:
Certainly it hasn’t been parliaments finest weeks. And certainly when it comes to senator [David] Van, I wasn’t aware he was here in the first place and I would be comfortable if he never returned.
Updated
Lambie says Marles misunderstood her on ICC
Jacqui Lambie has released a statement saying that deputy PM Richard Marles has “missed the point” around her claims made in the Senate today that she’s asked for the international criminal court (ICC) to investigate senior Australian defence force commanders over their accountability for alleged war crimes.
Earlier, Marles said the government was committed to implementing the Brereton report’s recommendations “fully and thoroughly”.
Lambie said in a statement:
Unfortunately, one of the recommendations of the Brereton report is to grant senior command ‘blanket exemption’ from command responsibility and not investigate them.
Subsequently, because [the chief of the defence force] undertook referrals arising from the Brereton recommendations, no higher commanders will be investigated.
The deputy prime minister has granted these officers another free pass when it come to this matter.
This is entirely inconsistent with the intent of the ICC. The deputy prime minister appears happy to ignore this.
By filing of this matter with the ICC, I have ensured that current and former senior commanders of the ADF will finally be investigated.
Guardian Australia has contacted Marles’s office for further response to Lambie’s additional statement.
Updated
Cost clarity call as power link probe goes underground
Environmental concerns and the bushfire risk posed by a critical link in the national electricity network will be aired in a new inquiry, AAP reports.
The $3.3bn HumeLink is expected to become a crucial component in the national electricity market by allowing Sydney to draw more energy from southern NSW.
But local communities are worried the overhead 500-kilovolt transmission line will significantly increase the risk of deadly blazes in areas still recovering from the Black Summer bushfires while also cutting through prime farmland.
A parliamentary inquiry will now examine the feasibility of putting major transmission lines underground after a request from the NSW energy minister, Penny Sharpe.
Independent MP Joe McGirr, whose Wagga Wagga electorate will host HumeLink, said that after years of discussion, the facts needed to be laid out on the table.
If undergrounding is better for the environment – it reduces the fire risk, it’s better for farmland – then we ought to know how much better, and are people prepared to pay a bit extra on their power bills to get that solution?
Overwhelmingly, people are undergrounding in Europe and California.
NSW is due to decommission three coal-fired power stations in the next decade, including Eraring in 2025.
The loss of coal-fired power stations from the national grid made it essential HumeLink was completed by 2026, network operator Transgrid has said. But it has suggested a subterranean HumeLink would cost $11.5bn – more than three times the price tag for an overland network.
Opponents from the group Stop, Rethink HumeLink say the figure is vastly exaggerated.
Updated
Nostalgia alert … Nestlé to stop making Fantales chocolates
In sad news this evening, Nestlé has confirmed that Fantales – the iconic chocolate covered caramels famed for movie star stories on the wrappers – will cease production next month.
The decision follows declining sales and the need for significant upgrades to continue to make Fantales at Nestlé’s Melbourne confectionery factory.
Nestlé’s confectionery and snacks general manager, Andrew Lawrey, said:
We know our decision to stop making Fantales will be sad news for many people.
Many of us grew up with Fantales and have fond memories of them. Despite the sense of nostalgia Fantales evoke, unfortunately people simply aren’t buying them as often as they used to.
In addition, our Fantales equipment needs significant investment. It’s become increasingly difficult to get the parts we need to maintain it, and with declining sales, replacing it isn’t viable.
The last production of Fantales will be in mid-July, with Fantales available for sale while stocks last.
All staff from the Fantales production line will move to other roles within the factory.
Updated
Catch up on today’s biggest headlines so far with this wrap from my colleague Antoun Issa:
Updated
Where’s Scott?
The former British prime minister Boris Johnson has shared this photo from the opening of the International Democrat Union conference in London.
Take a look to the left in the photo and you’ll see who my eagle-eyed colleague Amy Remeikis spotted – former prime minister Scott Morrison.
Fantastic energy in the room for the opening reception at the 40th @IDUAlliance conference.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) June 20, 2023
Let’s back democracy against autocracy everywhere we find it. pic.twitter.com/cAgsWRreWl
Updated
Mehreen Faruqi says housing fund standoff ‘not about playing political games’
The Afternoon Briefing host Greg Jennett asked Mehreen Faruqi whether the debate over the housing fund bill is an isolated dispute with the Albanese government around housing, or whether it marks the beginning of the fracturing of progressive politics in the Senate.
Jennett:
… Which has provided I think a fair amount of stability since the Albanese government was formed. The Greens, David Pocock and occasionally others, it has all been harmonious. Is all of that under threat now?
Faruqi:
What this is about solely is about those people who are crying out for support and help. That’s what this is about. This is not about playing political games, as Minister Jackson was talking about.
This is really about making sure that people who are in a rental crisis, who can’t afford a roof over their head, who are sleeping in cars, sleeping in caravans, who might be on the streets, actually can be assured a roof over their head. That’s what this is about, and nothing more.
Updated
Faruqi is asked why not lock in the Haff deal now as it is on offer federally, and leave it to the states to control rental lease legislation:
We were being told by some people that we should agree to the Haff bill six months ago, and if we had agreed to that and we hadn’t put pressure on the Labor government, this $2bn – which Labor kept saying they didn’t have – would not have materialised.
And this $2bn is a one-off. We think there should be a yearly spend of $2.5bn on social and affordable housing.
She continues:
We want [the federal government] to do a similar thing that they have done on the $2bn for building more homes, to do a similar thing and incentivise states and territories.
Literally on the mainland it is wall-to-wall Labor ministers, so they can negotiate, come October, or even before that, they can sit down with the national cabinet and make sure that we do get a freeze on rent increases, we do get a cap on rents, and so that the renters who are really suffering, and many people are just one rent increase away from eviction.
Updated
The Greens deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, is speaking on the ABC. She is asked about comments from the NSW housing minister, Rose Jackson, that Max Chandler-Mather and the Greens have not made a serious attempt to speak with the states on housing.
Faruqi says:
The Greens are very proud that they have put pressure on the Labor government and have campaigned with the community for months for a good result, because over the weekend, Labor committed $2bn right now to build community and affordable housing.
With the Haff bill nothing would happen until 2024 and we will probably see the first homes built in 2025. So this money is four times the money than what the Haff bill would do, so I hope state ministers across the board are happy with that.
Our housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, together with our state housing spokesperson, wrote to Minister Collins at the federal level and to all state housing ministers, and did ask them to do rent freezes, to cap rents, and to look at ending no-grounds evictions. They haven’t got a response on that.
Updated
In case you missed it earlier, the independent senator Lidia Thorpe brought a dozen members of the Blak sovereignty movement to parliament to speak on their reservations and opposition to the Indigenous voice.
You can watch what they said below:
Updated
Nampijinpa Price downplays the need for more senators for the NT and ACT
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was also asked for her thoughts on adding more senators for the territories.
Yesterday, the joint standing committee on electoral matters tabled an interim report with a range of recommendations. The independent senator David Pocock recommended greater representation for the territories:
Increase the baseline level of representation for the ACT and NT in the Senate to as close to half the representation of States as possible. Given the current number of Senators in each State, this would see the ACT and the NT each have 6 Senators. Terms should increase to six years and commence on 1 July following the election in line with the states.
States have 12 senators on 6-yr terms
— David Pocock (@DavidPocock) June 20, 2023
Territories have 2 on 3-yr terms.
The Senate is about jurisdictions having an even say regardless of population.
I believe there is a strong argument the Territories should have 1/3 to 1/2 the number of senators as states.
When asked about this in relation to the NT specifically, Price said:
Look, I don’t think it is necessary for a place like the Northern Territory. I think we are overgoverned as it is. I think Australians wouldn’t like to see more of a representation of people within parliament as it is.
Senator Pocock has a lot of issues belonging to a territory that I know that he highlights, but in the Northern Territory obviously our population doesn’t speak to providing the opportunity for more representation, I don’t think.
Updated
Nampijinpa Price doubts politicians will be less vocal on voice debate
The shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, was just on the ABC speaking about the Indigenous voice to parliament.
She was asked about commentary that the voice debate will now take a step away from politicians and instead move to grassroots campaigners:
I don’t think that’s going to be the case on either side of the debate, I think everyone’s got a stake in this.
She is also asked if she will play a role herself, leading the argument from the front?
Absolutely. I have been very vocal about this prior to being appointed to this position. My concerns with the voice campaign, with the proposal, with the lack of detail, the lack of transparency around it, and obviously the minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, herself, will no doubt be out there campaigning for the yes side as well.
Updated
Government getting legal advice on housing bill, Albanese says
Anthony Albanese has revealed the government is getting solicitor general’s advice about reintroducing the Housing Australia Future Fund bill, a move that may accelerate its use as a double-dissolution trigger.
Albanese told ABC Brisbane:
We think this is good policy. It will result in 30,000 additional … affordable or social housing units built over the next five years.
And it is quite remarkable that people who say they support increased levels of investment in social housing are blocking this measure, both the Greens party and the Liberal and National parties in the Senate.
It comes on top of other policies that we’ve had on the weekend. Of course, we’re announced additional $2bn direct funding for social housing – $398m of that will go to the Queensland government.
[Conditions] were agreed by all state and territory governments. It must be additional to existing funding arrangements which are there, that is, it’s got to add to public housing stock. It can be either new builds or it can be renovating houses that currently are unoccupied because of issues of downgrading that they’re just not up to scratch. It can be for spot purchases as well.
It’s all got to be spent within the next two years and it’s providing as well on the work that the national cabinet’s already been doing on improving planning laws, to improve housing supply. We know that a lack of supply is the big issue that needs to be dealt with, but we’re getting advice at the moment from the solicitor general about a reintroduction of the bill on the Housing Australia Future Fund because we think that is also a good policy and very necessary.
Updated
NSW housing minister wants talks with federal Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather
The NSW housing minister, Rose Jackson, tells the ABC she hopes to sit down and talk with the Greens’ Max Chandler-Mather on housing:
I invite Mr Chandler-Mather to contact me.
We talk a lot with the state Greens here in New South Wales and we do not always agree, this is not pretending there is some kumbaya moment where are all politicians are going to hold hands.
… With the Greens in the state parliament that kind of cooperation – not always agreement – but dialogue is really open, and yet from the federal Greens we don’t see any of that despite the fact that the states are explicitly responsible for rental regulation. To me, as someone who is directly involved in this work day in and out, they’ve made no effort to seriously engage with us.
… A big point I’ll be making is OK, let’s agree where we can, disagree when we can on rental reform, but that does not need to stop us getting the plans and the processes in place to deliver social and affordable housing. It is really frustrating when there’s negotiations that hold up things that could be happening right now, just because of political posturing and I do get frustrated.
Updated
Marles to take advice Lambie's claims in Senate of alleged war crimes
Defence minister Richard Marles says he’s taking advice on the claims made by Jacqui Lambie in the Senate earlier today that she’s asked for the international criminal court (ICC) to investigate senior Australian Defence Force commanders over their accountability for alleged war crimes.
Marles said he would meet with Senator Lambie tomorrow about her concerns, praising her “significant” advocacy for the veterans community. The minister again reiterated that the allegations of war crimes raised in the Brereton report were “appalling” and committed to implementing its recommendations in full.
Marles said this afternoon:
Under the Albanese government, Australia is holding itself to account.
He said that included ensuring accountability of senior military figures. Marles said he’d take advice on whether the ICC would take up the case, but that the government was committed to implementing the report’s recommendations “fully and thoroughly”.
Updated
NSW minister ‘so angry’ at Liberals and Greens for blocking housing future fund debate
NSW housing minister Rose Jackson is speaking on the ABC on the delay of the Haff bill yesterday. Earlier, she released a video on Twitter on the issue, talking particularly about the Greens’ Max Chandler-Mather:
I’m actually so angry at the Libs and the Greens for teaming up to block the Housing Australia Future Fund.
— Rose Jackson (@RoseBJackson) June 20, 2023
This isn't political games. This is real homes delayed in NSW for people who desperately need them. pic.twitter.com/U7A7FXIm1J
This is what she said of the video:
I’m annoyed because it does have real consequences for us in New South Wales. We been having weekly meetings with our senior officials, preparing our bids for the first round of the Haff.
No-one here in NSW is pretending legislation will solve all the problems we have, we know that we need to do more than that, but we have been putting a lot of effort into preparing our bids to get access to that funding, that desperately needed funding.
…I get pretty agitated [and] annoyed. We are really desperate in New South Wales, we have a lot of work to do and the shenanigans in Canberra to me are a distraction and they do have real consequences.
Updated
Calls for Daniel Andrews to apologise for ‘half-wit grub’ remark
Deputy leader of the Liberal party Sussan Ley has called on Victorian premier Daniel Andrews to apologise for comments he made in parliament today.
Earlier, Liberal MP Cindy McLeish asked Andrews to apologise after he called her a “half-wit grub” in parliament.
Andrews immediately withdrew the comment, however in a ministerial statement said he wouldn’t apologise:
I will not be apologising for doing that ... I defended the member for Northcote, and I always will from your attacks.
On social media this afternoon, Ley said:
Can you imagine if a CEO of any company called a senior woman a ‘half-wit grub’?
This is unacceptable behaviour in any workplace.
Daniel Andrews must apologise, and he should reflect on whether it is time to move on from politics.
Can you imagine if a CEO of any company called a senior woman a “half-wit grub”?
— Sussan Ley (@sussanley) June 20, 2023
This is unacceptable behaviour in any workplace.
Daniel Andrews must apologise, and he should reflect on whether it is time to move on from politics.https://t.co/iYaKErBE6U
Bus crash victims honoured in state parliament
The victims of the NSW wedding bus crash have been formally honoured in parliament as a relief fund passes $600,000 and the parents of the groom call for stronger seatbelt laws, AAP reports.
Premier Chris Minns moved for the upper house to extend its deepest sympathies to the families, friends and loved ones of those killed or injured in what he described as “a profoundly tragic event”.
He told the house on Tuesday:
The psychological scars of this event are significant.
The tight-knit communities of Singleton, Cessnock and the surrounding towns are hurting even as they rally together, and we want to acknowledge their pain and honour their resilience today.
Young paramedics who had been in the job for less than 12 months were among the first to arrive at the scene. Minns said:
As is often the case with emergency service workers in regional NSW, more often than not you may well know someone who is in a crash or on the site of an accident.
Minns said the government will listen to NSW Police and take on their findings, including any changes that could prevent a similar tragedy from happening again.
The pledge comes after the father of the groom called for stronger seatbelt laws on Monday.
Thanks to Amy for taking us through the day! I’ll be with you for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening.
Thanks for joining me
I am going to hand you over to Emily Wind ahead of Richard Marles’ presser – we will bring you that as soon as we can.
Thank you to everyone who joined me today – keep checking back for updates and I will be with you early tomorrow morning for the second last day of the sitting.
As always – take care of you Ax
Updated
SA to get new court to hear cases involving Indigenous children
The South Australian government has announced a new justice initiative, as AAP reports:
A special court to hear cases involving Aboriginal children and a series of diversion and assistance programs are among a suite of measures to reduce the level of Indigenous incarceration in South Australia.
The state government will establish an Aboriginal justice agreement to develop a collaborative approach to improve justice outcomes.
It will also build a new community corrections centre at Port Augusta with culturally appropriate rehabilitation and reintegration spaces, develop a program to ensure Indigenous offenders are ready to return to the workforce upon their release, and establish a drug and alcohol treatment facility.
In a two-year trial, a Youth Aboriginal community court in Adelaide will aim to address escalation points in the offending of young people and implement protective strategies to divert them away from a life of crime.
Children aged between 10 and 13 and charged with minor offences will be specifically directed away from custody through a program of assistance, including short-term accommodation where no other suitable bail option has been identified.
The government has allocated $25 million over four years to cover the initiatives.
Updated
Two Gallagher questions
For those asking, we checked and there were two questions to Katy Gallagher over whether or not she misled parliament in the senate today. (Not counting supplementaries)
Updated
I forgot this was on this morning.
Mostly because I don’t care.
Beautiful Canberra winters morning for the annual parliamentary State of Origin touch footy game. pic.twitter.com/JYVAVf3naC
— David Pocock (@DavidPocock) June 20, 2023
Native title claim headed to high court
The attorney-general Mark Dreyfus has released a statement:
Today the commonwealth filed a special leave application in the high court in relation to a decision of the full court of the federal court in a native title compensation claim brought by the Gumatj clan in the Northern Territory (Yunupingu on behalf of the Gumatj Clan or Estate Group v Commonwealth of Australia [2023] FCAFC 75).
I recognise the significant contribution that Yunupingu has made to First Nations land rights in Australia. Initiating this landmark case was one of many actions he took to build a better future for his people.
This case raises important legal issues including very significant constitutional issues that go beyond the native title context.
The application of these constitutional issues in the context of native title compensation is new and the federal court decision on 22 May 2023 represents the first time these issues have been judicially determined in that context.
In my view it is appropriate that these critical issues be settled by the highcourt so that parties to this and future matters have clarity and certainty about the law in this area.
Updated
Snap press conference
Deputy prime minister Richard Marles has called a snap press conference for 3.50pm.
It’s in the house of reps courtyard, for building dwelling blog watchers.
Updated
What else can the voice do? Stay tuned
Andrew Giles gets a dixer on World Refugee Day and then question time ends.
Two. More. To. Go.
How low can we go? Will we ever find out if the voice will be able to re-write season three of Ted Lasso? Will the voice be able to bring back the Pollywaffle? Or more importantly, the original Milo chocolate bar?
Stay tuned tomorrow to find out what else the Coalition doesn’t understand about the voice.
Updated
Who will make up the voice body and who will appoint them?
LNP MP Llew O’Brien gets a question for Linda Burney:
How many people will make up the voice body, who will appoint them and how long will they be appointed for?
Linda Burney:
Can I thank you for that question. Can I repeat, in the second reading speech, of the attorney-general, he made it very clear that parliament subject to this constitution have the power to make laws in respect to magistrate leading to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.
Updated
Rookie error
Tony Burke takes a dixer on industrial relations and same work, same pay, which is one of his most favourite topics, because no one in the parliament knows more about it than he does.
He mentions a misleading ad and reads from a paper and then Dan Tehan makes a rookie error by asking Burke to table the document he was reading from (this is a trick to point out that the minister was reading from a prepared answer and the opposition tries to get them to table it to try and embarrass them and the minister usually says it is confidential and it is not tabled and omg no one cares about these parliament parlour tricks)
But Burke is THRILLED to table the document.
I would love to. I will table that and also table the script of the other ad which is also wrong. Which says- it means by law, more employers will have to pay employees with little experience. They are both wrong and they are both tabled.
Updated
What is the future of the Bathurst motor races?
Back to the non-government questions and Andrew Gee wants to know from Catherine King about the future of Bathurst.
(the motor race, not the town, although they are sort of linked.
Gee:
Bathurst is home of motor racing in Australia. Every year the great race borrower draws hundreds of thousands of race-goers and a global viewing audience. Your department has pulled $12.5 million in grant funding for a second racetrack and won’t allow an extension of the completion date or upgrades to the existing circuit. Will you agree to meet with me and the nayor of Bathurst to review this outrageous decision.
King:
Thank you very much and I thank the member for his question, I know he is very very passionate advocate for his community but of course, the Mount Panorama, and the Bathurst 1000, my brother goes every year … he has been going for a long time and I know, just how important it is.
I am absolutely happy to meet with you, in fact, I spoke to one of the counsellors at the recent Australian council of local government from the Bathurst council about this very issue.
I am happy to meet with a member about it.
The facts of the members of this, the grant was announced almost three years ago, now. There has been significant problems with planning approvals for the second racetrack, and the council has informed us that it is unable to meet the deadline to build this racetrack by 2026. That is how long they have to actually get this done.
The grant has been concluded because it not be delivered in the time required. What I do encourage is that the member and the council to do is to put in an expression of interest to the growing regions mind, a $300 million fund that opens on 5 July and I certainly welcome. I am sure an application, if a ghost application, from the Bathurst council for the project. I understand the council was seeking to move the funds to another project still at Mt Panorama, I understand, but the guidelines of the government of the community development grants would not have allowed that to happen.
Updated
More questions – will the voice have power over our space program?
We get another dixer, which gives us all a chance to ponder – will the voice have power over Australia’s space program?
After all, Indigenous Australians live under the sky. Will the voice have input into how much coffee I drink a day? Will the voice have influence over the Aria charts? I mean these questions we are hearing today really make you think.
Updated
Will RBA pause rate rises next month?
The Reserve Bank’s minutes have kicked up a bit of dust today, and not just because they provided a hint it might be inclined to pause in rate rises next month. (See our report here).
A bit of attention has focused on the RBA (belatedly) giving attention to companies as a cause for the high inflation. As the bank board noted, some firms were indexing prices to past inflation, thereby contributing to the ongoing inflation problem.
That comment hadn’t appeared in previous minutes - and was seized upon by groups including the Australia Institute as proof the RBA was finally admitting to a profit-price-spiral, and not the wages one it has been fixated about.
There’s definitely a lively debate about the extent companies exploit the cover of rising prices to tack on their own increases. (The New Yorker has a compelling piece on one US-based academic, Isabella Weber, who caused a stir by calling for price controls to limit impacts.)
Expect more on this issue to come. It’s worth noting, though, the RBA in same paragraph it cited the price indexing by companies also said a similar practice may be taking place for workers.
Photograph: Rick Rycroft/AP
“[RBA board members] discussed the possibility of implicit indexation of wages to past high inflation and the potential for this to become widespread,” the minutes notes.
So it was the two combined - wages and company prices - that were creating “an increased risk that high inflation would be persistent, which would make it more difficult to keep the economy on the narrow path”.
We’re not sure from the minutes what relative weight the board gave to these two “developments”, but it’s worth trying to understand the bank’s thinking, and what it might do next.
The dollar, meanwhile, has drifted even lower, losing about half a US cent after the RBA minutes’ release. Rate cuts in China may also be contributing to that slide as investors start fretting more about the economic health of Australia’s largest customer.
Updated
This is about doing things differently
Barnaby Joyce has a point of order on relevance:
The question, that was no reflection on the minister, we hold the minister in high regard … these questions are going to the workings of people who were on her working group and how this voice will work and I asked the minister to be relevant.
Paul Karp, who earlier heard Michael Sukkar yell out “sack him” in regards to Thomas Mayo, says Sukkar can be heard saying “it’s about him, not about you”.
Tony Burke steps up to say, given the question was borderline, the precedent is to allow a bit more room in the answer.
Burney returns to the question:
To finish my answer, can I just say this? If anyone wants to have a discussion with me about this issue, I have been available. There is no way I can see where you have not conducted myself appropriately and respectfully. And at the end of the day, at the end of the day, this is about doing things differently so that we can move the dial on a national shame in this country.
Updated
‘I have conducted myself with integrity’: Linda Burney on voice debate
We are still going back and forth over whether or not the question is in order and if it is, whether it is Linda Burney’s responsibility.
In the end, Milton Dick says it is borderline and allows Burney to answer it.
Burney:
What we have in this nation is a group of people that are poorer, sicker, more incarcerated and die earlier than anyone else.
The voice and referendum is about doing things differently to change those things.
It is not about individual statements of people that are involved in this.
I am not responsible for what other people say.
I will tell you what I am responsible for it. I am responsible for what I say and what I do.
And in every step of the way, and every step of the way, I have conducted myself with integrity.
I have conducted myself properly. And I have conducted myself with honesty.
I have embraced every single person in this parliament if they wish to participate.
The working group has provided advice on a number of occasions, including to the leader of the opposition and the then shadow minister for Aboriginal affairs on two occasions.
Do not use the ridiculous underhand notions that you are using because...
(There are a lot of interjections here and Dick has to restore order after doing some 94A action).
Updated
And so it goes on
Nationals MP Kevin Hogan asks Linda Burney:
Yes 23 director Thomas Mayo stated that we need the power of the constitution behind us so we can organise like we’ve never organised before and that we need to keep going to maintain this momentum until we change the system and until we tear down the institutions. Does the minister agree with those statements?
Tony Burke is on his feet:
This question was framed quite differently than the previous one. This one does not go to the minister ‘s responsibilities at all.
Milton Dick:
I’m going to give you another chance to rephrase the question. I need to be clear that the minister is responsible for the working group, not the attorney-general. She is going to seek advice on that point. If she is not responsible for the working group, the question will have to be redirected.
Peter Dutton is here to help:
It might help you in your ruling to understand as I do the minister for Indigenous Affairs makes the appointment of people including Mr Mayo to the working group. The work is wholly within responsibility of the minister. The minister meets regularly with the working group have provided to support the work group and is funded as I understand by the Minister's department stop the cost of Mr Mayo and the others to travel around the country. On that basis, I put it to you it is within the minister’s possibility.
Updated
Long way from delivering on infrastructure type projects
The crux of Tanya Plibersek’s answer in all of that was:
We’re a long way from delivering on the infrastructure type projects. A long way from delivering on the 450 decalitres because so little was achieved under those opposite. About 80% of all water that has been recovered towards the Murray-Darling Basin Plan [took place when] we were last in government and since we have come back to government. We are working very closely with the Murray-Darling Basin state ministers. I am hopeful we will come to a resolution that delivers the plan in full. It is complex to do that because we story starting from a very poor launchpad left to us by those opposite.
Sussan Ley interjects again and is formally warned.
Updated
‘Cool it’
Sussan Ley continues to interject as Tanya Plibersek gives her answer prompting Milton Dick to tell her to “cool it”.
The chamber very much enjoys this.
Updated
Independent MP for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie has a question for Tanya Plibersek and asks:
Will the Government negotiate the Murray-Darling Basin Plan 2.0 to protect our river and environment?
Paul Karp hears Sussan Ley say “we have a water minister who doesn’t understand water’’ to which Plibersek returns: “Not a lot of irrigators on the Gold Coast”.
Updated
Questions keep coming to Linda Burney
Paul Fletcher jumps into the fray asking Linda Burney:
Does the Minister have confidence in Thomas Mayo on the referendum working group when he referred to the powers that be as murderers and sees the voice is the first step towards reparations in conversation? (this is based on an article in the Australian)
Tony Burke says it is outside of Burney’s responsibilities, Fletcher says it’s not and Dick allows it.
Burney:
I will say three things - the voice is about doing things differently. What we have been doing for many decades, despite the best will in the world, has clearly not worked. That is what I underlined yesterday would like expectancy, educational outcomes, housing, and employment.
I spoke to an Aboriginal elder this morning, and she spoke about the moral authority that this would give her people.
In relation to the issues that the voice is responsible for, I can only make this point. It does not have a capacity to fund anything.
Updated
PM condemns ‘juvenile’ opposition to housing fund as government seeks advice on bill
The Labor caucus met this morning to discuss the Voice constitutional alteration bill, and the stalled Housing Australia Future Fund bill. (The briefing was later in the afternoon, but with all that has been going on, we have only just got to it)
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, accused the Coalition of “opportunism” over the referendum. He said the yes side had “tremendous allies” and the proposition to alter the constitution would make the country better as it was “all upside”.
Albanese talked down “wild claims” made by the no side, including Coalition senators who used a 4:15am sitting Friday evening into Saturday morning to complain about its impact on a Victorian road.
Albanese also took aim at the Greens and Coalition for blocking the $10bn Haff bill. The PM said it would result in less supply, less investment and make the problem worse. He accused them of a “juvenile student politics approach”.
Albanese said that continually deferring a bill is the same as blocking it, and the government is seeking advice on that point.
Updated
‘When they go low, we go higher’
Sussan Ley interjects on relevance and says if Linda Burney can’t answer the question she “should hand it over” but she can’t complete her sentence before the interjections start up.
Milton Dick channels Chandler Bing and rules that Burney could not BE any more relevant and then tells the chamber to stop interjecting.
Burney just has one thing to say (borrowing from Michelle Obama)
I will say this to the parliament – when they go low, we go higher
Updated
The voice will not give advice on parking tickets and other ‘ridiculous ‘matters, parliament told
Milton Dick calls for order, again, gives everyone a warning to settle down and then asks Sussan Ley to repeat her question, which she does.
Linda Burney:
I can only repeat what I have already said and that is the voice will make representations that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
That the voice will not run programs, it will not deliver funding, and it will not deliver the power of veto.
The attorney-general has very clear in his second reading speech about specific matters to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs that treat Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people differently to other people in matters relevant to the Australian community.
I repeat that. It will deal with matters relevant to the Australian community, including general laws and measures that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
I am so pleased that the Member for Farrar has such a thorough idea of what those things are.
I can tell you what the voice will not be giving advice on, it won’t be giving advice on parking tickets, it won’t be giving advice on changing Australia Day, it will not be giving advice on all of the ridiculous things that this side has come up with…
Updated
More tricky voice questions
Sussan Ley is back with what is becoming a one MP show ‘a series of uncomfortable questions’. This round is to Linda Burney:
Will the voice be able to make representations to the chief of the defence force on military acquisitions or the location or operation of military base…
There are a lot of interjections, and Milton Dick calls for order.
Ley:
The prime minister is laughing at me can I repeat the question?
Updated
More questions on housing fund
Amanda Rishworth is the next minister to contribute to the government’s ‘the housing Australia future fund; why the Greens are the worst ever’ series of monologues.
In all of this we still remain unclear on what the government plans to do with its legislation.
Updated
Voice will have no power of veto
Linda Burney goes on to say:
Let me be clear, Mr Speaker. There will be no change to how the parliament operates. The voice will not run programs. The voice will not deliver funding. The voice will not have a power of veto. It will address issues that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people differently.
That’s the Linda Burney version of COME ON. But it won’t be the end of it.
Updated
Voice not required to comment on every wall, policy or program
Back in the federal parliament and Sussan Ley asks Linda Burney:
Which policy area ,portfolio or government department would the voice not deal with?
That follows yesterdays questions along these same lines.
Burney responds in much the same way she did yesterday:
In the second reading speech, the attorney-general said the primary function of the voice will be make provisions to the parliament and government about matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It would include matters specific to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and matters relevant to the Australian community, including general laws or measures which affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people differently to other members of the Australian community.
The voice will not be required to make a representation on every wall, policy or program.
The voice will determine when to make representations by managing its own priorities and allocating its resources in accordance with the priorities of First Nations people. In addition, the provision we are putting to the referendum makes clear that the power of the parliament will not change.
Updated
Andrews won’t apologise
The premier, Daniel Andrews, is now making a ministerial statement. He says he won’t apologise for calling McLeish a half-wit grub in parliament despite withdrawing the comment. He says he was defending Northcote MP, Kat Theophanous, from “attacks” from the opposition:
I will not be apologising for doing that ... I defended the member for Northcote, and I always will from your attacks.
He’s now spruiking the government’s efforts to recruit extra health workers.
Updated
‘Half-wit grub’
First question of Victoria’s question time today is from Liberal MP Cindy McLeish to the minister for women, Natalie Hutchins. McLeish asks:
“Today in Parliament, the premier referred to me as a half-wit grub. Under the Victorian government’s gender equality strategy, all Victorian should be treated with dignity, respect and fairness. Is the premier’s comment appropriate towards a woman in the workplace and in line with this strategy?
Hutchins response:
I stand by the premier in his commitment to gender equality in this state. This premier has done more for the equality of women than any single premier has done in the past. And I know that he has withdrawn his comment but he was also defending the good member for Northcote by an attack by those opposite.
Updated
Housing minister Julie Collins is next up to bat the Greens for pushing the housing Australia future fund to October, so let’s look at what is happening in the Victoria parliament for a moment.
Why doesn’t the government ban political donations from big contractors, PM is asked
Independent MP for Curtin Kate Chaney has one of the crossbench questions and she asks:
There is an unhealthy codependency between government contractors and political parties. On average, Australia’s major parties are pocketing $430,000 a year from donations from the big four consultancy firms. In return, they have handed them contracts worth billions, one point for memorabilia last year alone. Will the government follow other OECD countries and ban political donations from significant government contractors?
Anthony Albanese takes this one (but you know what he is going to say)
(No)
Albanese:
The fact is what we have done as a government is to employ more public servants in order to reduce the reliance on contractors. That is what we have done. We are addressing these issues. Because what we understand is you have to rebuild the Australian public service. We understand that public service is an honourable profession.
Understandably, Chaney has a point of order on relevance, given that her question was about political donations.
But the preamble on government projects means Albanese can pivot the question anyway he wants and he does –continuing to talk about the honourable public service and the move to return capability to it and reduce the use of contractors and consultants.
Updated
Greens care more about retweets than renters, Treasurer says
Jim Chalmers is up next in the “let’s slam the Greens over the Haff” merry go round.
Also Gen X and up seem very angry about TikTok and social media in general.
Chalmers:
What the Greens have shown in the Senate is that they care more about retweets than renters.
They care more about TikTok than housing stock.
When it comes to the crunch, with all of the flurry speeches and the rhetoric in their in this place, when actually came to the crunch, when the Greens had opportunity to work with the Labor government to build more social and affordable homes, or decide with the Coalition which sit opposite, they chose a coalition of cookers.
Updated
More questions on the economy
Michael Sukkar gets the next non government question and asks:
Under this government, the cash rate is has risen 11 times from 0.35% to 4.1%. According to analysis from data, it rises further to 4.6%, repentance on the median price house will consume up to half of a typical family’s before tax income. When will the prime minister come clean about the damage that his government is causing our country?
So that is our new tagline from the ‘compassionate team’ that is the Coalition (that is what Peter Dutton told the party room people needed to see them as)
After a dig at Angus Taylor not having asked the question, Albanese says:
The economic circumstances that we inherited with the largest deficits of the World War II, and $1 trillion of that with little to show for it. Sluggish economic growth, productivity sliding backwards, the highest quarterly rise in inflation this entry was on their watch, 2.1%.Of course, interest rates started rising on their watch, on their watch. What they did when you had the highest inflation growth, of any quarter this entry and interest rates beginning to rise, what their response was to hand out a budget that just splash money everywhere. It made the fiscal situation worse. Indeed, put forward a budget that projected a $78 billion deficit.
What we did was turn that around.”
It goes on, but you know what he says.
Updated
Albanese blasts Greens on housing
Anthony Albanese takes a dixer on the housing Australia future fund just so he can let loose at the Greens (and he does)
Albanese:
This isn’t about renters, it is not about peoples in social housing, it is not about people in affordable housing, it is about them. They want the issue, not the outcome.
They deal in protest, we focus on progress.
They see issues to campaign on, we see challenges to act on.
They want to build their profile, we want to build more homes.
And I say to the Greens political party, there are more people involved in this venue. Understand who you are saying no to.
You are saying no to people who are at risk of homelessness who are veterans, you are saying no to homes for women and children escaping domestic violence, you are saying no to Indigenous Australians in remote communities.
Also, you are saying no to those housing groups who stood up before the Senate yesterday, calling for the act to pass.
The community housing industry association said yes, you said no. National shelter said yes, you said no.
Homelessness in Australia said yes, you said no.
Everybody’s home said yes, you said no.
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait housing association said yes, you said no. The Master builders association said yes, you said no.
It is time, it is time that you put aside this pettiness, put aside the politics and actually voted for more public housing.
Updated
PM won’t be a Qld fan on Wednesday night
Anthony Albanese:
I said to the leader of the opposition, you are the leader, you can get more than one question one day.
Maybe next time divide it up and try not to mix energy policy, first-nations policy, constitutional change and everything else that is included, everything that was included in that.
I am asked by the leader of the ppposition, he is a Queenslander. I am a fan of Queensland, Mr speaker, but I have to say to you, tomorrow night is not one of them. Tomorrow night is not one of them and I hope that NSW goes well.
He then runs through a best of – power prices, the voice and help for pensioners.
Updated
Question time begins
There is no messing about today – we are straight into it.
Peter Dutton asks:
Before the last election the prime minister said ‘I won’t run from responsibility. I would treat every crisis is a chance to blame someone else. I will shell up, step up, I will bring people together’.
Today, the prime minister refuses to take responsibility for surging power prices which will increase again on 1 July, it also refuses to provide basic detail on this definitive changes to our constitution. When will the prime minister come clean with the damage the government is causing our country?”
So, just an easy one then.
Anthony Albanese thanks him for the “wide ranging” question – which means he is going to answer it as he wishes.
Updated
The Greens treasury spokesperson Nick McKim has seized on a line in the RBA minutes which acknowledged that members (of the RBA board) spoke about “some firms were indexing their prices, implicitly or directly, to past inflation”.
McKim said the “RBA has finally admitted that corporations are making inflation worse by pegging price increases to high inflation.”
This follows my questioning of Dr Lowe at Senate Estimates about Telstra’s decision to increase bills in line with CPI.
Twelve interest rate rises in thirteen months have been the wrong response to the problem of corporate profiteering.
The RBA is inflicting needless pain on renters and mortgage holders and is pushing the country towards a recession.
And he also wants the government to step in and stop the interest rate rises:
It is well past time for the Treasurer to step in and put a ceiling on interest rates.”
The government also needs to get on with tax and competition policy reform to rein in corporate profiteering.”
Calls for urgent action on rents
This is what the NSW Housing minister, Rose Jackson, was responding to:
This is why we want to negotiate with Labor on rents.
— Max Chandler-Mather (@MChandlerMather) June 19, 2023
Without constraints on rent increases, the queues for public housing will blow out and our chances of tackling this crisis will drop to zero.
Unlimited rent increases should be illegal. pic.twitter.com/Gmj6kdPkmo
There's no funding from the HAFF to go until 2024-25 so the reality is delaying this bill a little to push for action to tackle rents won’t prevent homes from being built. Agree we need urgent action: stopping unlimited rent increases will save more people from homelessness now.
— Max Chandler-Mather (@MChandlerMather) June 19, 2023
Updated
Question time approaching
It is MP airing of the grievances/stand up time (90-second statements) which means that question time is almost upon us.
It will be the third last question time for almost six weeks. Which means things could go in any direction.
Updated
Anger boils over after housing fund delay
The NSW state Labor housing minister Rose Jackson has let her views on the delay of the Haff bill and “that Max Chandler-Smith guy” (she means Max Chandler-Mather) be known:
I’m actually so angry at the Libs and the Greens for teaming up to block the Housing Australia Future Fund.
— Rose Jackson (@RoseBJackson) June 20, 2023
This isn't political games. This is real homes delayed in NSW for people who desperately need them. pic.twitter.com/U7A7FXIm1J
Updated
NSW cannabis caution scheme in need of reform
In the New South Wales parliament, the state government has been urged to reform its cannabis cautioning scheme after findings that it was indirectly biased against Indigenous Australians.
The scheme is designed to keep individuals out of the justice system for low-level cannabis offences, instead allowing police to use their discretion to issue cautions and direct recipients to treatment and support.
But a report by the state’s crime statistics bureau found cautions were far less likely to be given to Indigenous Australians, who were instead pursued through the courts. The bureau conducted the research following reporting in Guardian Australia.
It found the eligibility criteria for cannabis cautions largely explained why they weren’t being used for Indigenous Australians, creating a “concerning” “indirect bias” against them.
Jeremy Buckingham, an upper house member of the Legalise cannabis party, has just moved a motion calling on the government to reform the scheme and recognise:
...that without addressing factors which cause higher levels of Aboriginal involvement in the criminal justice system or amending the strict eligibility criteria, the cannabis cautioning scheme will likely remain inaccessible to a large proportion of Aboriginal people caught in possession of cannabis in New South Wales.
Updated
Voice described as ‘worthless’ by Blak Sovereign Movement
Returning to Lidia Thorpe’s press conference.
The independent senator brought a dozen members of the Blak Sovereign Movement to parliament house, all of whom expressed deep reservations and strong opposition to the proposed Indigenous voice.
Including elders from across the nation (Tasmania to the Northern Territory, Western Australia to the ACT), some members of the group described the voice as “worthless” and “the voice of no choice”. Several of the attendees were among those who joined Thorpe in walking out of the 2017 First Nations constitutional convention that led to the Uluru statement from the heart.
Michael Anderson, a Euahlayi elder, laid down a bag of beads and a blanket as an “offering”, critical of Indigenous land dispossession.
The land was taken from us for nothing, but we’re not that greedy, so we’re offering a blanket to King Charles and a set of beads to be taken back to England... a gift for the king, we’re taking our land back,” Anderson said.
Some of the Blak Sovereign Movement met inside Colony Headquarters today pic.twitter.com/VoA9dYJnxp
— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) June 20, 2023
Other elders criticised the voice as “beads and blankets”, claiming it would not help Aboriginal communities resolve issues around child separation, imprisonment, suicide and deaths in custody.
This voice isn’t going to help us,” one woman told the press conference.
Fred Hooper, a Murrawarri elder who walked out on the Uluru dialogues, called the voice “meaningless”.
Let them set up a sovereign truth and reconciliation commission right now, put it to parliament right,” he said.
Updated
Maternity leave recommendations should be adopted in full, union says
The government will now consider the recommendations before releasing its response.
The public sector union wants to see the recommendations taken up in full.
Not just because it will aid the public service – but because it will help normalise conditions in the private sector as well.
Melissa Donnelly, CPSU National Secretary said:
We all know that the way Australian families approach caregiving and share parental responsibilities has changed over time, and it is vital that workplace rights and leave provisions keep up with those changes.
These review recommendations would mean commonwealth parental leave provisions are better aligned with the realities of modern Australian families.
By adopting these recommendations, the Albanese government would deliver commonwealth employees better flexibility to balance their work and family lives in a way that works for their own circumstances.”
Updated
Public sector union happy with review of maternity leave act
The public service maternity leave act review has been released and the public sector union is happy to see some of the recommendations from the review including:
18 weeks of paid parental leave available to both parents;
Six weeks additional paid pregnancy leave for the pregnant parent (bringing the total paid leave for a pregnant employee to 24 weeks);
Parental leave entitlements to be extended to adoption, and the ability to cover foster care in enterprise agreements;
Parental leave that can be used flexibly within 24 months including in single days, blocks or to facilitate part-time working arrangement. Parents may take the leave concurrently or at separate times;
Continued access to full parental leave for the pregnant employee in cases of pregnancy loss from 20 weeks’ gestation and one-week paid leave for pregnancy loss where miscarriage occurs between 12 and end of 19 weeks’ gestation in addition to paid leave under the Fair Work Act;
Superannuation to be paid on all forms of parental leave;
Removal of qualifying service period for employees to access paid pregnancy or parental leave.
Updated
Here is some more of the Blak Sovereign Movement press conference Senator Lidia Thorpe hosted today in Parliament House:
Some of the Blak Sovereign Movement met inside Colony Headquarters today pic.twitter.com/VoA9dYJnxp
— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) June 20, 2023
Updated
Dutton tells party room to present as compassionate after 'clear signal' of Van expulsion
Peter Dutton told a Coalition meeting today that his decision to expel David Van from the Liberal party room should send a “clear signal”
Van has denied all allegations against him. He has said he will cooperate with any investigation and is “distressed” he has not been afforded due process.
The Coalition party room met on Tuesday morning, with the party leaders talking up cost-of-living pressures as usual.
Dutton told his troops that cost of living should be the number one issue, claiming Labor’s decisions were driving an economic downturn.
Nationals leader David Littleproud said the opposition should be focusing on holding the government to account and presenting as a credible alternative ahead of the next election (which he expected within 18 months), criticising the decisions Labor was making.
Dutton’s address also urged colleagues to use the coming winter break to talk to their constituents and learn which issues they cared about, saying the opposition needed to present as a compassionate team.
On the Van issue, Dutton said it had been a “very difficult” decision, according to a party spokesperson who briefed media after the meeting.
Dutton said that the circumstances of the allegations against Van had made his position inside the party “untenable”.
Van has denied wrongdoing, but has now quit the Liberal party and will sit on the crossbench, but has taken leave this week from parliament. He was critical of the party in a letter to Victorian president Greg Mirabella over the weekend, claiming he had been denied “procedural fairness”.
Contributions from Coalition members to the meeting included concerns about rising rents, people doing it tough, and the “working poor”. One member was critical of the Housing Australia future fund, Labor’s stalled housing plan, claiming the proposed 30,000 new social homes over five years “wouldn’t make a dent” in the nation’s shortages and issues.
The party spokesperson said the party room was comfortable with Dutton’s decision to expel Van.
Updated
Senator David Van is on leave from parliament this week, but his move to the crossbench has been formalised by the Senate:
New Senate seating plan just dropped
— Leonardo Puglisi (@Leo_Puglisi6) June 20, 2023
David Van will be next to Ralph Babet pic.twitter.com/ewuVHcPFqA
Updated
Most Australians want PwC temporarily banned from getting government work, poll finds
The Australia Institute have done some polling and found attitudes around PwC are not exactly positive.
Four-in-five Australians (79%) want consulting firm PwC temporarily banned from receiving new government work, including nearly half who back a permanent ban, according to new research from the Australia Institute.
Just 2% did not think PwC should be banned from government work, while 19% did not know or were not sure, according to the nationally representative sample of 1002 people between June 6 and 9, 2023.
Of those surveyed, 45% thought the ban should be permanent while the remainder backed PwC being banned for at least some period of time, either less than two years (5%), between two and five years (12%), or between five and 10 years (16%).
Updated
Daniel Andrews calls Liberal MP a ‘halfwit grub’ in Victorian parliament
In the Victorian state parliament, Liberal MP Cindy McLeish has asked premier Daniel Andrews to apologise after he called her a “halfwit grub” in parliament.
Andrews immediately withdrew the comment, made in parliament on Tuesday afternoon.
But McLeish told reporters this was not good enough:
I feel those comments were deeply offensive to me. But I probably wasn’t surprised. Because this is a pattern of behavior we continue to see from the premier.
A woman should not have to put up with that in the workplace.
Opposition leader John Pesutto said the premier has to “change his behavior or leave the parliament”:
The premier needs to apologise to parliament and he needs to apologise to the Victorian people who expect all politicians who are honored with the right to serve in this house to do them the justice they deserve in terms of the very best behaviour.
What we saw from the premier in the chamber just a few moments ago was a grudging withdrawal of his statement. He refused to apologise and he only withdrew when he was pressed to do it. So it wasn’t even a genuine withdrawal. The premier has to change his behaviour or leave the parliament frankly.
Updated
The latest on Labor’s ‘green wall street’
Here’s a bit more context on what Duniam’s statement means.
Labor’s proposed nature repair market, which Tanya Plibersek once likened to a “green wall street”, is in trouble after the Coalition backflipped to oppose it and the Greens labelled the bill likely irreparable.
The final fate of the bill won’t be decided until after a Senate inquiry reports on 1 August, but the Coalition’s backflip signalled in lower house debate last week sets up another Labor-Greens stoush over environmental legislation with underlying antipathy over the scheme of offsets for nature improvements.
In March the Coalition party room resolved to support the bill in principle because it had proposed the same scheme in government, although it decided to seek technical amendments and reserve its final position until after the Senate inquiry.
On 27 May the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, told Guardian’s Australian Politics podcast the bill was “basically verbatim our legislation”, saying he was “proud of the fact that it’s stood the test of time, of a changing government”.
That’s one thing that I’m profoundly proud of, to have a world first that actually is going to improve our biodiversity on our farms around this country and beyond.
But on 13 June, Littleproud said Labor’s bill had “diverged far too far” from the one the Morrison government introduced in February 2022, claiming it no longer is about “rewarding farmers for the stewardship of their land”.
Updated
Shadow minister says Labor’s proposed biodiversity market will ‘lead to considerable confusion’
The shadow environment minister Jonathon Duniam has had some things to say about the nature repair market bill:
In principle, we support the concept of a national biodiversity market. But Labor has gone too far – and injected huge complexity, and a range of risks, into their bills. Their approach will inevitably lead to a range of problems, particularly for farmers and other landholders.
We always had concerns with the legislation, and intended to use the Senate committee process to fully explore these. As time has progressed, we’ve heard more and more stakeholder dissatisfaction with the legislation – and it was therefore appropriate not to support it in the House of Representatives.
In government, our bill for a biodiversity market was deliberately confined to agricultural land. By contrast, Labor’s bills cover all land tenure and water.
That is going to almost inevitably bring more stakeholders, and many different kinds of scenarios, into the marketplace – and lead to considerable confusion.
Updated
Lidia Thorpe says Indigenous voice ‘part of a colonial system that will continue to oppress us’
Senator Lidia Thorpe is holding a press conference with members of the Blak sovereignty movement and has again demanded an audience with the king to discuss sovereignty issues with Australia’s Indigenous people.
Thorpe also expands on why she is opposed to the voice.
This is about asserting our sovereign status in our country and the fact that we don’t accept any colonial mechanism that will continue to control us which is what the voice ultimately is a part of.
It’s part of a colonial system that will continue to oppress us.
It has no power, it will be controlled by the parliament. So we are here to say that we don’t accept that.
That is not good enough.
And that we want to have a conversation with the so-called other sovereign who apparently lives in another country, and apparently he’s named the king.
So we want to have a conversation about sovereignty and what happened way back then, that decimated our people, that decimated our land. And that created stolen wealth for themselves.
Updated
The ICC is a ‘court of last resort’, Lambie tells Senate
Jacqui Lambie tells the Senate:
An enormous amount of work has gone into this. I thank all of them for their contribution especially Dr Glenn Kolomeitz, veteran and lawyer.
The law of command responsibility is a method of criminal liability where commanders have failed to do their duty.
The international criminal court is a court of last resort. It isn’t an easy task to get them to investigate.
They can only do this if the state party, in this case Australia, has failed to investigate the high command for their breach of duty.
Alexander Downer fought hard to get Australia to sign up to the international criminal court.
I’m sure he never considered that we would need the international criminal court because Australia was shielding its own military commanders from their accountability. But that is what has happened.
Australia has in fact set up two systems of criminality, one for Australia’s top military commanders, and another for commanders from the rest of the world.
Updated
Jacqui Lambie tells the Senate:
Evidence from multiple sources independent of the Brereton inquiry, including witness testimony before a civil defamation trial, said and I quote, ‘The leadership knew. This went beyond patrols. This went up the chain’ end quote.
Some of these sources confirmed that the leadership knew for years about the allegations of unlawful behaviour, including an SAS patrol commander.
The incident was reported all the way up the special forces chain of command.
The former patrol commander says he was told by a senior officer that, and I quote, ‘the regiment is bigger than an individual and the integrity of the regiment must come first. He informed me the regiment will handle this internally.’ End quote.
The former SAS patrol commander had one message everyone knew, everyone knew. And still our government is silent.
Worse.
They put the guy who gave the senior commanders a free pass the top job at a national anti-corruption commission.
So this morning, we are taking action.
We have filed with the prosecution with the international criminal court in The Hague, an article 15 communication.
This asks to look at Australia’s high commanders through the lens of command responsibility.
Updated
Lambie tells Senate ‘there will be no more throwing our diggers under the bus’
Here is a bit more from Jacqui Lambie’s Senate speech about the Australian defence force:
Well, today I say enough. Enough is enough. There will be no more marking your own homework.
There will be no more throwing our diggers under the bus.
When the war crimes investigation was formed, Major General B Brereton ruled out investigating senior commanders and the previous government said ‘oh yes sir, no worries’.
And what do you know, this government is following suit.
Let’s be quite clear here. The senior commanders have not been examined through the hardcore legal lens they have put our diggers through. When the chief of defence was asked in estimates if his command accountability review was an investigation he admitted that it was not.
So I guess it was just another marking your own homework exercise.
It seems that those who are most responsible are the least accountable.
Updated
Rounding that out, Labor senator Anthony Chisholm says pretty much the same thing – they want a chance to go through the documents before making a decision.
So the motion is denied, but that doesn’t mean that the Senate is against what Jacqui Lambie wants to do – it just wants a chance to go through the documents before ultimately deciding whether they are in the public interest and can be tabled.
Updated
Liberal senator Simon Birmingham has a similar view to Nick McKim – he wants to have a look at the documents before making any decisions on whether to support the suspension to table the documents.
Birmingham:
I would imagine that that if they are public documents and they serve the case that you are seeking to make Senator Lambie then we would be in a position in the next little while to grant leave, but we do just need long enough to actually have a glance at the documents. So we’d have nothing but respect for the passion and focus that you bring to these issues.
We don’t always agree. But we certainly respect the approach that you bring and the conviction that you have attached to these matters. So we will not be supporting suspension at this time for the reasons that Senator McKim has outlined. But we certainly will give prompt consideration and indicate that we will come back to you and I would anticipate barring any problems with documents we see being in a position to grant that leave.
Updated
The One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has stood in support of senator Jacqui Lambie’s motion to table documents (we have not seen the documents, and it doesn’t seem like many in the Senate have so I can’t tell you what is in them).
The Greens senator Nick McKim says he just received the “hundreds” of pages of documents, but have not had a chance to go through them as yet. So they are not going to support the motion until they see what is in those documents.
McKim:
Even though we can’t support the suspension, right here, and place it on the record that will engage with Senator Lambie. Now that we’ve received those documents will engage with Senator Lambie and work with her on these issues.
Updated
‘I feel embarrassed that Australia is in this situation,’ Lambie tells Senate
Jacqui Lambie continues, telling the Senate:
Quite frankly, I feel embarrassed that Australia is in this situation. So I am helping the government today. I am giving you a second chance to get this right and fix this mess.
She pleaded with the Senate to let her table documents.
It is your turn. You are the government of the day.
I want to see what leadership you have. So with a heavy heart once again, I’m asking you to allow me to table these goddamn documents. Because higher command needs to be held responsible.
Please allow me to table these documents.
Updated
Jacqui Lambie tells Senate she has referred ADF senior commanders to ICC
Jacqui Lambie has told the Senate that the senior brass in the ADF have not been investigated over the alleged war crimes. She tells the Senate:
Let’s be quite clear here. The senior commanders have not been examined through the hardcore legal lens.
Lambie says she wants to see that changed:
This morning we are taking action.
Lambie says she has referred senior commanders to the international criminal court:
We have filed the prosecution with … the international criminal court in The Hague
She is asking them to “look at Australia’s High Command is through the lens of command responsibility”.
Updated
Jacqui Lambie claims in Senate that there is a ‘culture of cover-up’ at highest levels of ADF
Jacqui Lambie is moving to suspend standing orders in the Senate.
She tells the Senate:
Yesterday I called on the government to acknowledge and take responsibility for the shocking lack of accountability at the top of our defence force.
The government didn’t support my call to admit that we have a problem and we have a massive problem, and I have been asking for a meeting with the minister of defence for months to talk about this, like the chief of the defence force and the top brass. The government is no doubt, hoping this will all just go away.
They’re hoping that Australians will forget that when alleged war crimes in Afghanistan were investigated, our senior commanders got a free pass while our diggers were thrown under the bus.
Well, we don’t forget. I won’t forget. Lest we forget.
There is a culture of cover-up at the highest levels of the Australian defence force.
It is the ultimate boys’ club.
Updated
Ok the bells are ringing and there are just a few minutes before the parliament session begins for the day.
Hope you are ready.
The early response to the RBA’s minutes is a small drop in the Aussie dollar’s value against the US variety.
It’s lost about a fifth of a cent to trade recently at just under 68.3 US cents. We’ll have May CPI numbers next week to give us more of a steer for the RBA board meeting on 4 July.
In the meantime, here’s the longer story:
RBA’s June decision to lift cash rate was ‘finely balanced’
The Reserve Bank’s decision to increase the official interest rate in June rather than pause again had been “finely balanced”, and that further increases would hinge on how developments at home and abroad affect the inflation outlook.
This assessment, contained in minutes of the RBA’s 6 June board meeting released just now, may ease some of the expectation that the central bank will hike rates much further in coming months.
At the June meeting, the bank lifted the cash rate 25 basis points to 4.1%, the highest level since 2012. The meeting minutes said:
In taking the decision to increase interest rates again, [board] members acknowledged the considerable uncertainty regarding the outlook for household spending and the financial stresses facing some households.
Members affirmed their determination to return inflation to target and their willingness to do what is necessary to achieve that.
The RBA has hoisted interest rates by four percentage points in 12 moves over the past 13 months when it began its rate rise cycle during the May 2022 federal election. Critics have warned that the lagging effects of increases – banks can take a couple of months to pass changes on to borrowers – mean that the central bank was at risk of hammering demand too hard to knock inflation down to its preferred 2%-3% annual rate, sending the economy into a hard landing.
Since the board meeting, though, the May labour market figures have been released. They showed the jobless rate falling unexpectedly to 3.6% from 3.7% in April, with more than 70,000 extra jobs added, or about four times more than market economists had forecast.
The minutes indicate the RBA’s main concern remains whether inflation will prove too persistent and will not slow to 3% by mid-2025 as it wants. Among the reasons for such stickiness in pricing were “some firms were indexing their prices, implicitly or directly, to past inflation”. There was also the possibility that wage increases were also being indexed to past high inflation and the “potential” was there for such a trend to become widespread.
These developments created an increased risk that high inflation would be persistent, which would make it more difficult to keep the economy on the narrow path” sought by the RBA of cooling inflation without stalling the economy.
The Aussie dollar was recently trading at 68.5 US cents. If it sinks, it may be because investors have pared back some of their expectations of RBA hawkishness. Let’s see.
Updated
AEC asks politicians to submit Indigenous voice pamphlet essays
The Australian Electoral Commission has told politicians to submit their yes and no essays for the Indigenous voice referendum by midnight on 17 July, for inclusion in the official information pamphlet sent out to all homes.
The pamphlet, containing persuasive essays written by politicians supporting or opposing the referendum, will be sent out at least a fortnight before referendum day (which we’re expecting in mid-October). The AEC says the brochure will be about 20 pages long, much shorter than previous referendums - because the last one in 1999 contained essays for two questions, and a full copy of the constitution.
As we reported overnight, the AEC has written to all politicians giving them technical information on how the essays must be submitted. But the AEC and the law are silent on exactly how the essays should be written, meaning it’ll be up to a process between politicians - with Pauline Hanson, Lidia Thorpe and the Coalition to fight to have their voices heard.
“The AEC’s role in this process is effectively to act as a post box – it’s now the job of Members and Senators to draft Yes and No cases for us to distribute to each household,” AEC commissioner Tom Rogers said.
He said the AEC had “no editorial role” in the essays and would produce them verbatim, meaning they won’t check them for fact or misinformation - and also warned politicians to “be precise and careful about their language and grammar”.
Rogers said the AEC would try to get the pamphlets sent out as soon as possible, but noted they’d have to print about 12.5m copies. The pamphlets will be produced in 34 languages, including First Nations languages, and accessible copies will be reproduced via audio files and large print.
Updated
Greens huddle to discuss housing and nature repair market bills
The Greens party room met on Tuesday, discussing the housing Australia future fund bill, the nature repair bill and the joint standing committee on electoral matters report.
On the housing fund, the Greens do not accept that the bill’s delay is the first step in a double dissolution trigger, because the Senate did not fail to pass the bill. They also reject government claims this has resulted in less money for housing, citing the extra $2bn in funding pledged by Labor for social and affordable housing.
On the Jscem report, which recommended spending and donation caps, the Greens are wary of Labor cherrypicking electoral reforms to suit their own partisan advantage. We’ll have to wait to see government legislation first.
The Greens are now in balance of power on the nature repair bill, after the Coalition backflipped on its earlier support for it. The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, explained this in the lower house on 13 June. The bill’s prospects are now extremely dim, because the Greens view it as irreparable.
There are 20 odd bills for the Senate to deal with this week, but late sittings are not expected, just a shortlist to get through and truncated debate.
Updated
Australia pledges $4.5m more for Sudan crisis
The Albanese government has announced another $4.45m for the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, where military factions have been at war for months.
The funds will be used to provide immediate life-saving protection and assistance, including food, water and emergency medical supplies, delivered through the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The government says that it brings Australia’s contribution to Sudan and related support in neighbouring countries to $10.45m.
Updated
Albanese announces funding for positive body image program for kids
The Albanese government has announced $6.2m in funding to the Embrace Collective for their Embrace Kids program, which is designed to help children have healthier body image.
Anthony Albanese announced the funding following a morning tea with Australian of the Year Taryn Brumfitt who leads the initiative along with international body image expert Dr Zali Yager.
Albanese:
Any parent with young children or teenagers knows just how much their kids are bombarded with images and expectations of bodies and the way that can impact how their child feels about themselves.
Teaching kids to celebrate how amazing their bodies are is a powerful way to dispel some of the negative, harmful body image messages out there.
Updated
Pauline Hanson pushes for people to prove they are Indigenous
Yesterday Pauline Hanson continued her campaign to have an inquiry into “Indigenous identity fraud” with a motion in the Senate, which was supported by the Coalition.
Hanson wants people to prove they are Indigenous.
One of her issues seems to be the growing number of Indigenous people being recorded in the census:
If you go back to the 1971 first census, there were just about 116,000 people who claimed to be Aboriginal on that census; by 1996, it was 265,000; and, in 2016, you were looking at around 250,000.
Yet, in the last one, it had increased, from that time, 25.2 per cent, and the rest of the population had increased only eight per cent with immigration. So a lot of people are ticking the box.
This is based on old, inflammatory attitudes that Indigenous people are given a golden ticket in this country – when we know the opposite is true.
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage is personal. There is no requirement to enrol or carry a letter of confirmation as an Indigenous person in this country for a reason. And the reason is because white Australia did almost everything it could to wipe out Indigenous people from colonisation and beyond. Thousands of Indigenous children were stolen from their families and raised white and in many cases it was not until decades later that they, or their children, were able to recognise their Indigenous heritage.
But it is also not true to say that anyone can claim to be Indigenous and then apply for the grants and things Hanson is so worried about.
Government agencies and community organisations usually use a three-part “working definition” for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage. These are:
being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent
identifying as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person
being accepted as such by the community in which you live, or formerly lived.
Updated
Royal Australian College of GPs urges better healthcare for refugees
The Royal Australian College of GPs wants to see better healthcare support provided to refugees in Australia.
20 June is World Refugee Day and the RACGP has released an updated position – Health and wellbeing of people from refugee backgrounds and people seeking asylum must be a priority – which calls for:
equitable access to healthcare, including full access to both federally and state funded health services for all people from a refugee background, including those seeking asylum
support of the UNHCR’s global strategy to end the detention of asylum-seekers and refugees and recognition that immigration detention and prolonged visa uncertainty causes physical and mental harm to people seeking asylum
an evidence based national strategy to improve the delivery of healthcare to refugees and people seeking asylum across Australia.
RACGP president Dr Nicole Higgins said it’s about equitable healthcare:
It’s essential that refugees and people seeking asylum have access to high-quality healthcare. People from refugee backgrounds often have higher rates of long-term physical and mental health issues compared with other migrants, due in large part to hardships experienced during the refugee journey and the stressors of resettlement.
People seeking asylum face additional stressors. There is significant evidence that demonstrates the adverse mental and physical health impacts of immigration detention and prolonged visa uncertainty on people seeking asylum. The RACGP endorses the UNHCR’s global strategy to end the detention of asylum-seekers and refugees and calls for timely permanent settlement solutions for all those seeking asylum.
Updated
ACF wants northern Australia infrastructure bill changed to prevent fossil fuel funding
The Australian Conservation Foundation wants the Albanese government to amend the northern Australia infrastructure bill so it can’t be used to finance fossil fuel projects.
The ACF’s Gavan McFadzean said:
A financially and environmentally responsible government would stop handing out public money to the industries that are most responsible for harming our climate.
Public money should be invested in projects that enable Australian communities to enjoy a safe climate future, not projects that facilitate more climate damage.
Updated
The parties are beginning to finish up from their party room meetings. We will bring you those briefings very soon.
Updated
Guardian readers will know that the transition from fossil fuels to renewables isn’t going very smoothly.
Yes, it’s good to see 3.5m homes with solar panels and news that investments – at least as proposed – for new wind and solar farms are clogging the planning pipelines.
However, the industry has been warning for a while that the pace of actual projects getting financial signoff has been slowing. Major projects, such as Snowy Hydro’s 2.0 venture, are also struggling (as we covered at length here over the weekend).
Add Daniel Westerman, head of the Australian Energy Market Operator, to the growing chorus of concern. This morning, he’s telling an energy conference that there’s an “urgent” need for more investment.
Coal-fired power stations now provide about 60% of the grid’s power, and a third of that capacity is scheduled to exit by 2030. AEMO is modelling an exit rate at twice that as possible. (Some states, such as NSW, have been told to consider what the grid would look like with all coal gone by then in the state.)
Anyway, for more on Westerman’s worries, here’s our article that’s just gone up:
Updated
Reserve Bank minutes from 6 June meeting to be released
Later this morning we’ll get the minutes from the Reserve Bank’s 6 June meeting (two weeks seems a while to type them up).
As always, we’ll be looking to see what’s different from the pared-down version that we got when the RBA lifted the official interest rate for the 12th time in 13 months.
Ahead of the meeting, investors were betting that another 25 basis-point increase at the 4 July board gathering was about a 50:50 chance.
Ahead of the release of RBA minutes later today from the June meeting that hiked the cash rate to 4.1%, investors were viewing odds for another hike in July as about 50:50. By later this year, they are expecting a peak rate of about 4.6% before the cuts slowly arrive next year. pic.twitter.com/A1jGdsWKiU
— @phannam@mastodon.green (@p_hannam) June 19, 2023
We note also this morning that the weekly ANZ/Roy Morgan survey has consumer sentiment sinking again to a fresh three-year low. “Time to buy a major household item” jumped 5.1pts, though, partially offsetting the 7.6pt fall the week before – so it wasn’t all bad news.
Weekly inflation expectations were unchanged at 5.5%, but the rolling four-week measure was slightly higher:
Meanwhile the @ANZ_Research and @RoyMorganAus's weekly survey of consumer confidence sank to a fresh 3-year low. Expectations about inflation also ticked up (not what the RBA wants to see). pic.twitter.com/J9myN4ppmY
— @phannam@mastodon.green (@p_hannam) June 19, 2023
One thing the minutes won’t capture is the jump in the Australian dollar of late, at least against the greenback. This morning, an Aussie dollar was worth US68.5c.
Such levels haven’t been consistently held since February, and might help ease inflation pressures since imports get a bit cheaper – assuming the dollar can hold on to the recent gains. Hints of more RBA rate rises to come will help that.
Updated
The Australian of the year, Taryn Brumfitt is in Canberra today and will have morning tea with the prime minister and a few other members of cabinet.
It is just a picfac though – which is an Australian press term for photos only (no press conference)
The Greens say the government could work with the national cabinet in much the same way as they did for the energy intervention to get rent freezes through.
The government said it had put renters’ rights on the national cabinet agenda in April –so now the Greens want to wait to see what is put forward by national cabinet before it moves on the Haff.
Updated
Collins says government ‘does not have the power’ to implement Greens housing demands
Can the government do anything on rentals?
Julie Collins:
When it comes to rentals, as I said, we’re adding to supply. We’re dealing with commonwealth rent assistance. What the Greens are asking, we’ve been very clear about. The commonwealth government does not have the power to do what they are asking. We’ve also been very clear that all of the experts and all of the evidence says what they want won’t actually work and will increase rents, not decrease rents. And of course, then you’ve got the Liberal party who are trying to conflate where we are, and they would have had more migrants in Australia today than our government does. And we’re getting on with the job. For the first time in more than a decade you’ve got a federal government at the table when it comes to housing, working with other tiers of government, something we didn’t see from the other side.
Updated
Julie Collins unclear on whether Labor will bring back housing future fund legislation
On the Nine network this morning, housing minister Julie Collins was no clearer on whether Labor would seek to bring back the housing future fund legislation in the future.
We’ve compromised all the way along. We’ve added to our policies all the way along. We are focused on delivering homes on the ground. There are homes under construction today because of decisions that we have made as a government. What we have not seen is the same compromise from the Liberal and National party, who said that they supported future funds when they were in government. They now, apparently in opposition, no longer support them. And, of course, the Greens party, who block more houses than they ever actually build, whether it be at local, state or federal government level, they just keep blocking.
Clearly, they don’t want to compromise. What we want to do is get on with the job, and you saw us doing that with our announcement just last weekend. And we’ll continue to get on with the job because, as you say, those Australians that are finding it difficult to get a safe, affordable place to call home are relying on us to get the job done. And that’s what we’ll continue to do each and every day get more houses on the ground. We have a supply issue in Australia.
We need more houses and we will get on with the job of building them.
Updated
Universities Australia praises partnership with India
The Universities Australia chief executive, Catriona Jackson, has told a conference in India the federal government is “urging” Australian universities to continue scaling up surging Indian enrolments as the partnership enters a “golden era”.
Jackson is in India this week to deliver the keynote address at the 2023 Universities20 Conference alongside the Indian education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. She told the conference education and research was “at the heart” of the two nation’s strategic relationship.
Minister Pradhan’s visit to Australia last year clearly reinforced India’s desire for this collaboration. And it has proven to be a pivotal point in the further strengthening of our relationship. I had the privilege of speaking directly with Prime Minister Modi in Sydney … and was very pleased to hear his strong emphasis on education as a fundamental economic and social connector between Australia and India.
Jackson said Australia could “certainly help” India achieve its ambition to educate 500 million students by 2035.
This is Jackson’s second visit to India this year, the first alongside the education minister, Jason Clare, who signed a mutual recognition agreement with his counterpart. A string of universities have jumped at the opportunity for collaboration, with Deakin University and the University of Wollongong announcing they’d be the first institutions to establish campuses in India.
The opportunity for Indian students to attend university in Australia will never not be there. This scale of interest is unprecedented, and we expect that it will keep growing. Our governments are urging us to do this.
Updated
Medibank says it uses MoveIt to share information
Yesterday we brought you the news that embattled consultancy firm PwC had been caught up in the hack of third-party file transfer company MoveIt, and now we can confirm that health insurer Medibank has also been caught up just months after its own cyberattack led to the information of millions of customers being stolen and posted on the dark web.
A spokesperson said:
We were advised by the vendor Ipswitch about some vulnerabilities discovered in MoveIt – a software system we use to share information with external parties – and have promptly applied all the vendor’s recommended security patches.
We continue to investigate and work closely with the vendor, and at this stage we are not aware of any of our customers’ data being compromised.
Medibank systems have not been impacted by the Moveit cyberattack.
Updated
Daniel Andrews says 'everything's on the table' to improve housing affordability
Still on the topic of the Victoria state conference, where Labor members voted for several housing initiatives include a levy on short-stay rentals, Andrews says “everything’s on the table” to improve affordability:
The government is actively considering every element of our housing supply policy settings, planning all the way through to how we better partner with the private sector to get more and more housing built. Zoning and all of those issues are an important part of that. The short-term rental accommodation to Airbnb type issues, that’s also on the table.
He says the government’s housing statement, to be released in the coming months will “represent one of the most profound shake-ups of all the settings that determine how much supply we have”:
Because that’s what determines price, equity and decency, as well as creating a lot of jobs. I think it’ll be one of the biggest shake-ups in that policy area for many, many decades.
Updated
Daniel Andrews says he would not have supported Victorian Labor motion calling on Albanese government to recognise Palestinian state
Daniel Andrews says he wouldn’t have voted for a motion that passed Labor’s state conference at the weekend, which called on the Albanese government to recognise a Palestinian state within the term of this parliament.
He says he’s a supporter of Israel, describing it as the “only place in the region where women are treated equally”:
My position on Israel has been very, very consistent and clear. It’s not always popular but it’s my view and I won’t change.
Andrews also sought to distance himself from his Socialist Left faction, which moved the motion on Sunday:
I haven’t been to a faction meeting in 13 years and I’m quite pleased about that to be honest.
Updated
Victorian premier says Paul Denyer parole application not ‘well handled’
Back to Victoria for a moment and Daniel Andrews admits the parole application for serial killer Paul Denyer “has not been particularly well handled” and says the government is looking at changes to the law, as well as more support for families of victims of crime.
While he said he has confidence in the Adult Parole Board, which last month denied Denyer’s bid for release, he said families should have been supported better through the process:
This is an incredibly difficult time and whilst I don’t want to go into great detail about this particular matter, because it’s not appropriate to speak in detail about what the parole board is done ... We don’t want a situation where families who have been through unimaginable tragedy where there’s really very little prospect of any prospect that the person is going to get out, laying awake at night, thinking that that person is going to be freed. Now that decision is not made until it’s made but you can support people, you can inform people, you can try and be there for people and the system has had 30 years to get ready for this day. Sadly I don’t think those families have been as well supported as they should have been. I’ll take responsibility for that. And we’re going to make sure that that doesn’t happen again. So the system needs to better engage with those families.
Andrews said the government was looking at “further constraining” parole applications for people who have committed multiple murders:
I think we can sensibly further limit the options that they have – not to be applying to the parole board every five minutes and potentially only the one application if you have refused to involve yourself in the rehabilitation programs that we think are central to you demonstrating that you are no longer at ongoing risk to Victorians.
Updated
After the Greens successfully moved to shelve the housing Australia future fund debate in the Senate until 16 October, the government responded that it considered the bill to have failed – the first step in setting up a double dissolution trigger (not a guarantee one would happen – the government would have to pull it).
The housing minister, Julie Collins, was asked about the future of the bill and said:
We’re looking at what we’re doing, what options are available to us. You saw that last weekend when we announced our $2bn Social Housing Accelerator. What we want to do is get on with building homes. That’s what the Australian people expect us to do, and that’s what we’re going to do.
Which doesn’t exactly make anything clearer.
Updated
Victorian premier says he has no plans to make cannabis legal for personal use
Daniel Andrews says he has no plans to make cannabis legal for personal use, despite a coordinated push from Legalise Cannabis MPs in three states launched today:
My position is the law as it stands now.
He says work is ongoing to see if there is a way to allow medicinal cannabis users to safely drive:
It’s very, very difficult to reconcile both of those, so there’s some work going on in that space, which is critically important, but I don’t want barriers to people getting the care and treatment that they need and potentially getting the benefits from. Beyond that, as I said, sorry to disappoint you but I’m not here to make any announcements about drug policy today.
Updated
While we’re on the topic of pandemics, Andrews has denied a report in the Sunday Age that his government is cutting future funding for the local public health units established during Covid-19:
We’re funding them at 60% of their Covid levels. That is a very substantial investment and they’ll do important work not just with infectious diseases but with broader issues of public health, whether that be a Legionnaires outbreak, all the way through to all the way through to potentially more serious matters. So whilst this was stood up as a response to a one in 100 year event, their future is secure. Their funding is ongoing. But of course as with many things, the funding is not at pandemic levels because we are not in a pandemic anymore.
Updated
Prof Margaret Hellard, from the Burnet Institute, says once the project is complete, its researchers will all be under the same roof for the first time:
It will also provide a really important opportunity for clever young scientists who in my view to do what they do best – to be curious, to be innovative, and to be brave in their science. Having buildings like this quality labs and quality spaces both wet and dry labs allows that to happen. It’ll help us quickly respond and fight the next pandemic ... But we can do better and pursue these things. It’ll help us to end HIV, eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat, to stop TB and malaria, and improve maternal and child health, both in our country and globally.
Updated
The minister for medical research, Mary-Anne Thomas, is now telling reporters a bit more about the features of the facility:
Some of the features of this magnificent building include a robotic biobank, which will enable the storage of biomedical samples, the Human Challenge Unit, which is one that I think is particularly exciting, and it’s exactly what it suggests. It’s about ensuring that we try in an ethical and safe way to really speed up that process ... from discovery to research to clinical trials ... and of course, high containment facilities because we’re talking about live viruses here. And hats off to our scientists who work each day to examine, identify, and indeed, to code these viruses that are in our community.
Daniel Andrews says Australian Institute of Infectious Diseases will be complete by 2027
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, is out in Carlton this morning, where the Australian Institute of Infectious Diseases will be built.
The government first announced the facility during the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and has contributed $400m to its construction. About $250m has also been contributed by the University of Melbourne, the Doherty Institute and the Burnet Institute.
Today, they’re showing off renders of what the facility will look like. Andrews says the project will begin construction next year and will be complete by 2027, when it will house 1,000 scientists, students and researchers:
We are fundamentally obliged to make the most of very challenging circumstances we all got through because we had a faith in science, we had a faith in each other and we were compassionate ... We really were so well served by that sense of connection between people that have never met each other, let alone a medical research and a public health community.
That that really is a point of pride for not just our state but our nation and indeed beyond. So it just makes sense to double down and invest and make the most of all of those skills.
Updated
And Josh Butler and Lorena Allam have looked at some of the tensions around who gets to contribute to the “no” pamphlet:
Pauline Hanson and Lidia Thorpe will jockey with Coalition members to have their opinions on the Indigenous voice detailed in a 2,000-word essay from the no campaign, as politicians navigate an obscure process to write a pamphlet which will be sent to all homes for the referendum.
The Australian Electoral Commission is writing to all politicians to give guidance on the essays, but tensions are already emerging as members and senators have to decide among themselves how to navigate competing ideas and write one argument for each side.
Updated
If you haven’t had a moment to read Lisa Cox’s latest investigation, I hope you can make time for it soon:
It is Tuesday, which means it is party room/caucus meeting day. Which means that things won’t kick off in the parliament until midday.
It is the last party room meeting until 31 July, so expect a bit more of a rah-rah than usual from the leaders.
Aunty Pat Anderson says there will be enough detail on voice for public to make up their minds
Aunty Pat Anderson, an Alyawarre woman and co-chair of Uluru Dialogue, was asked on ABC News Breakfast what she would say to people who want more detail on what the voice would look like (the parliament will decide that, if the referendum is successful).
Anderson said:
You know, in this kind of democracy, the one we have here in Australia, we vote on matters of principle. We have never gone to a referenda with all of the details … whatever was being voted upon, we go on matters of principle.
There are nine principles that are out there for everybody to look at, and all of the details of how it’s all going to work will be done after the “yes” vote. However, between now and when we do go to the polls, there will be enough information for the general public to make up their minds. As I said earlier, to make an informed decision.
That’s the task that we all have now. For the general public to inform themselves and for people like myself and everybody that supports us to talk to their members of their family, extended family, talk to their work colleagues, and all of their networks.
So we all got a lot of work to do and a lot of talking to do over this next few months, but I believe there’s time. But we have to, like, start now.
Updated
Kerrynne Liddle says Indigenous voice ‘untested’
Liberal senator and Arrente woman Kerrynne Liddle was asked to explain on ABC radio RN Breakfast why, if she agrees with the need to Close the Gap and for more work to be done improving the lives of Indigenous people, she is against having something like the Indigenous voice enshrined in the constitution.
Liddle said:
I fail to understand why it needs to be in the constitution … If it’s in the constitution, it’s going to be there forever.
What I’m saying here is, this is untested, there is nothing like this anywhere else.
And the proposition here is a no compromise position to put this into the constitution. And what if it doesn’t work? We can’t just simply take it out. We can’t. It’s not such an easy process to just modify. It’s important that we actually had much more detail.
Updated
Albanese says he’d be ‘comfortable’ if David Van never returned to Senate
Anthony Albanese is then asked about the past week of parliament and says:
I’m very concerned that if you are a woman wanting to come forward because of a sexual violence issue then you might be more reluctant. If you look at the coverage that’s occurred. There’s been something like 13% of sexual assaults in Australia reported to police and and that is a terrible figure.
Asked if he understands why women don’t come forward with their allegations, Albanese says:
I think some of the commentary and looking at personal text messages and other stuff that’s going on has been really regrettable … as well as not being legal, some of it as well.
I think that people need to be treated with respect. Every woman should feel safe at work.
And it’s as simple as that.
And our workplace hasn’t been good enough in the past. We know because of the accusation that was made in 2019, about an alleged sexual assault in a minister’s office, but also the revelations that ended up coming out of last week about allegations about the behaviour of one of the Victorian senators.
David Van has denied all the allegations raised against him.
Asked if he was aware of any rumours, Albanese says:
No. I’d never heard of him really. And I’d be very comfortable if he never returned to the Senate.
Van quit the Liberal party on Saturday and has taken leave from parliament this week. In a statement released on Saturday he has said he will cooperate with any investigation and said:
I am utterly shattered by the events of the past days and stunned that my good reputation can be so wantonly savaged without due process or accountability.
Updated
Voice referendum to be held between October and December: PM
On the referendum date, Anthony Albanese says it will be “sometime between October and December”.
It is most likely going to be in October. But away from the AFL grand final Albanese says:
People are a bit distracted on that day. But we will announce it plenty of time in advance.
Updated
Albanese says Indigenous voice a ‘sensible reform’
So far the Anthony Albanese “interview” on FM radio Melbourne KIIS FM is talking about how cold Melbourne is.
(I would like to state for the record that I can not feel my fingers and my cats are doing their best to burrow under my skin it is so cold in Canberra.)
The chat moves on to the referendum. Albanese says:
It’s always easier to get a no vote than it is to get a yes vote in a referendum – history tells us that that is the case. I think it’s something like eight successful out of 48 so that’s not a great strike right?
But this is such a sensible reform. This is about recognising first Australians in our constitution. We should be proud of the fact that we share this continent with the oldest continuous culture on earth. And secondly, it’s about giving them a voice on matters that affect them.
So we know that if you’re a young Indigenous person, you are more likely to go to jail than to university. That’s not good. … I think there’s an eight year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia, there are health gaps, there are infant mortality gaps, their housing gap.
Updated
Monique Ryan says crossbench distressed by 'shameful' behaviour in parliament
Independent Kooyong MP Dr Monique Ryan said the crossbench was distressed by the past week in parliament:
I can speak for other members of the crossbench because we talk to each other after each question time because we found it distressing, and we wanted to stand to our feet and say that we felt it was conduct unbecoming parliament, and I think if we learn nothing from this, we have to decide as a society whether we want our parliament really to be dragging people who have gone through really difficult experiences through that sort of experience again. It wasn’t ideal. It was – I actually felt it was shameful.
Updated
Bridget McKenzie says Gallagher faced ‘legitimate questions’
Bridget McKenzie said there were legitimate questions to ask (in the Senate, the Coalition was still questioning Katy Gallagher yesterday)
I think there were serious questions that needed to be asked in the face of a minister misleading the Senate and we asked questions about who knew what, when, what was done with that information – all very legitimate questions, and this issue, when it was last in parliament was pursued ferociously by the then opposition and I think we were very careful as we could be with our tone, but to also ask legitimate questions of the government and their ministers, not just around who knew what when but also around the swiftness of the compensation payment, why some evidence in that process was explicitly excluded, and that, you know, the substantial nature of it – all legitimate questions and the right thing to do.
The Liberal senators Anne Rushton and Linda Reynolds were told two years ago what Gallagher knew and when – because she told them in a break from the Senate estimates hearing which the Coalition is using as the foundation of the “Gallagher misled parliament” attacks.
McKenzie said the Coalition was “very careful to make sure our tone was correct and that we were actually pursuing the issue, not the person”.
Updated
Asked if she could go back in time, knowing how the week played out, if she would play the week the same way, Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said:
Yeah, absolutely.
Bill Shorten says parliament created a ‘depressing week for Australians’
The NDIS minister Bill Shorten was a guest on Q&A last night, where the panellists were asked about what was seen coming out of the parliament in the last week:
I’m afraid it was worse than shambolic. It was toxic.
It is not how a lot of parliament is, but it certainly is not how it should be, so I suspect 100% of the MPs will probably realise when they got on the plane and left the building that it had been a really depressing week for Australians.
There is a lot of good work going on, but a week like that and some of the actions overshadowed what a lot of us are trying to do every day, which is make Australia a better place and help Australians.
Updated
Anthony Albanese is kicking of his media day with an FM radio show – this time KIIS FM. That’s coming up in the next 30 minutes or so.
Call for Parliament House to ban single-use coffee cups
Hold onto your lattes: a Labor MP has called for Parliament House to ban single-use coffee cups, calling for a major change to the fuel that keeps federal politics running.
We hope you haven’t spit your soy flat white all over your phone or keyboard in shock, but Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale wants to see the heart of our democracy phase out single-use cups and instead transition to keep cups or mugs for all.
Last night, the Parliamentary Friends of Waste and Recycling (yes, it exists) held an event for Plastic Free July. With contributions from environment minister Tanya Plibersek, Labor MP Libby Coker and Liberal Bridget Archer, a bunch of MPs signed a pledge to avoid plastic through next month, and will lobby more of their colleagues to do the same.
Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, Plastic Free July’s founder, said the shift couldn’t just be to recyclable or compostable cups, because there aren’t the facilities to manage them all - instead, she called for a greater uptake of reusable cups.
But Laxale went even further in his idea, saying parliament should wind back single-use cups altogether. Parliament House has two main coffee sellers: the independent Aussies cafe, and venues run by the Department of Parliamentary Services. The first-term MP has done some digging, and says the DPS-run coffee outlets had sold some 280,000 coffees in this financial year – with about 252,000 of those being in single-use cups.
“It’s something I noticed when I became an MP. It’s just a monumental amount, in an environment which a closed-loop system, or just using mugs, would work,” Laxale said.
We’ll be keeping an eye on the bleary-eyed MPs and staffers in coffee queues this week to monitor the takeup of the idea.
Updated
Good morning
A very big thank you to Martin on this chilly Canberra morning – temperatures are currently below zero, which will make for some frosty politicians.
Thank you for joining us on the third last sitting day before the big winter break. You have Paul Karp and Josh Taylor in Canberra and Amy Remeikis on the blog.
It’s a three-coffee morning. And if you have cats, bring them closer. Ready?
Updated
RBA minutes to shed light on next rates call
Mortgage holders will be hoping for signs the Reserve Bank is at the end of its interest rate hiking cycle when the minutes from the last board meeting are released today, AAP reports.
Australia’s central bank opted to hike by 25 basis points at the June meeting, sending the cash rate above 4%. The RBA has lifted the official cash rate 12 times since May last year, choosing to hike at every meeting except April.
The board will next meet on 4 July.
NAB markets economist Taylor Nugent said the June rise was likely a close call and exactly how finely balanced the decision was would be telling.
He hoped the minutes would reveal if the Reserve Bank board was really reacting to the incoming data on a month-by-month basis, or if it had instead lost confidence in returning inflation to target more gradually than some of its international peers.
NAB economists are anticipating two more 0.25 percentage point increases to take the cash rate to 4.6%, with July and August the most likely months.
Two senior RBA officials will also make public appearances on Tuesday.
Deputy governor Michele Bullock is giving a speech about “achieving full employment” at an Ai Group event in Newcastle, and assistant governor Chris Kent is speaking on a panel on the ISDA/AFMA Derivatives Forum in Sydney.
Updated
Labor to announce expansion of humanitarian visa program
The government will today announce it is increasing Australia’s humanitarian visa program, as part of Labor’s election commitment to double the intake over time.
There are currently 17,875 places in the 2022–23 humanitarian program, after the former government slashed the intake to 13,750, despite skyrocketing rates of displacement globally.
The immigration minister, Andrew Giles, who will provide an update on the exact amount they are increasing the intake by later today, said that the government was working on delivering a humanitarian program that takes into account the “entire resettlement journey”.
With more people displaced worldwide than ever before, the Albanese Labor government is stepping up to play its part in the global resettlement effort in a considered and responsible way.
We’re delivering a humanitarian program that considers a refugee’s entire resettlement journey, ensuring refugees can rebuild their lives with certainty and participate fully in Australian society.
The minister will also be providing an update on how many resolution of status visas are being issued to temporary protection visa holders, with the government saying it is on track to convert most of them in 12 months.
Updated
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the day in politics and beyond. I’m Martin Farrer with the best overnight lines before my colleague Amy Remeikis comes along.
Campaigners and lawyers have accused the authorities in Northern Territory of a “tremendous injustice” in allowing the major expansion of the gas industry in the Beetaloo Basin, a large area between Katherine and Tennant Creek that contains vast reserves of shale gas. In our top story this morning, Lisa Cox has been talking to people who feel let down by the Northern Land Council and are now appealing for help from the “whole world”. A former council member, Janet Gregory, says she feels responsible for allowing the fracking agreements to go ahead but is now fully involved in the fight.
The Australian government must reform the immigration system to get more migrants into suitable jobs as 286 occupations face shortages, according to new report from a consortium of migrant advocacy and service groups. Their suggested solutions include reviewing the right to work for people on temporary visas and reforming English language requirements. Also today there’s an announcement due on Australia’s new (higher) humanitarian visa intake.
The Victorian government will consider introducing rent caps and new taxes on owners of Airbnbs and vacant properties to help ease pressure on renters, under a deal struck with the Greens in exchange for their support for the state budget. In an exclusive story, Benita Kolovos says the Greens extracted the concessions, which they hope will begin to curb the rapid rise in rental prices in Melbourne.
And we’re expecting the minutes from the most recent Reserve Bank meeting, to understand better why it put up interest rates yet again, and what the chances are of more pain for mortgage payers to come.
