What we learned, Wednesday 19 August
A lot has happened today, but that’s where we’ll leave our live coverage.
Before we go, let’s recap the day’s top headlines:
-
The government’s controversial NDIS bill passed the lower house after it went through the Senate last night with “substantial” amendments.
-
The Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie called the fight to defend his WA seat from a One Nation challenge a “dirty and nasty” one.
-
Liberal senator Paul Scarr joined his colleagues Pat Conaghan and Andrew Wallace to cross the floor of the Senate to vote against Labor’s gambling bill.
-
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party has complied with a request from the Queensland regulator to file three years of overdue financial returns.
-
Wage rates failed to keep up with inflation over the past year, in the latest sign that Australian workers are struggling to deal with high and rising cost of living pressures.
-
The news bargaining incentive passed the lower house, after the government made an amendment this morning to increase the levy on tech companies if they don’t sign the mandatory number of deals with publishers.
-
Australia’s national net debt has doubled over the past decade to $30,000 per person, and is set to climb by a further 50% by the end of the decade, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office.
-
Australian defence force personnel have joined the search for 18-year-old Lily Hooper, who has been missing in Nattai national park in the NSW southern highlands for a week.
-
And for those who missed it, here’s a tl;dr of what happened in question time.
Thanks for sticking around; we’ll see you tomorrow to do it all over again!
Updated
Marcia Langton tells antisemitism royal commission racism needs to be tackled in ‘coordinated way’
Earlier, the royal commission heard evidence from First Nations advocate and senior academic Marcia Langton about racism that she had experienced in her personal and professional life, AAP reports.
The Yiman and Didjara woman and senior academic was a key contributor to the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody from 1989 to 1992, with her team gathering evidence from people living in remote Aboriginal communities.
On Wednesday, Langton told the hearing she was arrested by NT police who were unhappy with her work, alleging police were behind an incident where the door of her Darwin hotel room was kicked in during the night. She told the commission:
The door was broken; it was off its hinges, so it sounded like an explosion, and the [hotel] manager was stumped and obviously frightened.
The matter didn’t go any further.
Segregation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people was normal during Langton’s childhood in south-west Queensland.
She was expelled from a Brisbane high school after objecting to her teacher reciting a “very racist” poem to the class.
That racism towards First Nations people remained part of Queensland’s culture to this day, Langton said.
Aboriginal and Jewish people have a longstanding alliance because both communities experienced genocide, she said, and that bigotry against both groups was informed by “myths and lies”.
As part of a group of other leading social science experts, Langton recommended the government implement a coordinated response to all forms of antisemitism, racism and social division. She said:
At the moment, the approach is split up with all these committees and working groups, and we need to bring it all together and tackle racism and xenophobia in a systematic way, in a coordinated way.
Updated
Jewish-Muslim dialogue stalled after terror attacks, royal commission hears
An interfaith leader says Jewish and Muslim communities have stopped interacting since terror attacks, AAP reports.
Faith Communities Council of Victoria’s Sandy Kouroupidis gave evidence about work the group did to promote harmony between people of different faiths at a royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion.
The 14 December 2025 Bondi massacre, and the 7 October 2023 Nova music festival attack in Israel by Hamas, had a huge impact on Victoria’s Jewish community and its relationships with other religious groups, he said.
Interaction between the Muslim and Jewish communities has stopped altogether, Kouroupidis said. He said.
We have two vice-chairs; one of them is the chair of the Islamic Council of Victoria and the other one is the chair of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria.
It has been very, very challenging to get those two communities in the same room.
Jewish people had stopped attending interfaith events and schools stopped taking part in visits to Muslim and Christian institutes, Kouroupidis said. He said:
A lot of the Jewish schools simply don’t feel safe.
Updated
Tanya Plibersek condemns online misogynistic victim-blaming following AFL sexual assault allegation revelations
The federal social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, has condemned the online misogynistic and victim-blaming commentary after the decision to stand down five Sydney Swans players over a breach of standards linked to an investigation into an allegation of sexual assault.
Following the news, social media platforms were flooded with abuse targeting women who came forward.
Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Plibersek said:
It’s disgusting, and isn’t this just one of the reasons so few women come forward?
One of the reasons people don’t come forward is exactly the sort of social media backlash we’ve seen today, with shocking instances of misogyny and victim-blaming. It is incredibly disappointing and that’s when our institutions need to stand up the most.
No arrests or charges have been laid in connection with the allegation.
Updated
Tanya Plibersek welcomes AFL player bans after links to sexual assault allegation investigation
The federal social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, has welcomed the Sydney Swans’ decision to ban five players for “serious breach” of standards over an incident that has been linked to an allegation of sexual assault.
No arrests or charges have been laid in connection with the allegation.
Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, she called on the AFL to recognise that it “plays an important role in our community” as an organisation that “boys and young men look up to”.
I’m really pleased to hear about some of the measures the club has taken today.
It is important to show that sporting clubs, schools and other institutions take allegations of sexual assault seriously.
It is really important that, in any response, we centre victims and survivors of sexual assault. Hearing the club take strong measures is a really important step forward.
Updated
Financial victims to receive less compensation under Labor reforms, Choice says
Victims of financial institutions’ failures are set to receive smaller payouts under government reforms to a compensation scheme, a consumer group has warned.
The assistant treasurer, Daniel Mulino, outlined the reforms to the compensation scheme of last resort (CSLR) today as part of Labor’s response to the collapses of investment funds Shield and First Guardian.
The CSLR will now only pay out on consumers’ actual losses, rather than expected losses. The scheme is funded by certain types of companies working in lending and financial advice but has grown more expensive. Australians with self-managed super funds could also have to start paying levies to fund the scheme.
The Australian Banking Association welcomed the reform, with its chief executive, Simon Birmingham, urging all politicians to support the reforms to “reduce costs across the financial industry”.
Consumer group Choice says the changes will “water down” the CSLR and Treasury had not explained how badly the reforms could cost victims. Head of policy Morgan Campbell said:
The cost of the CSLR for the financial advice industry is so high because there is so much more misconduct in the sector than anyone thought when the scheme was set up. The financial advice industry should be focused on cleaning itself up, rather than pressing the government to water down the compensation available to victims.
Updated
ADF joins search for missing 18-year-old bushwalker
Australian defence force personnel have joined the search for 18-year-old Lily Hooper, who has been missing in Nattai national park in the southern highlands for a week.
Hooper was last seen leaving a home on Burragorang Road in Oakdale at about 8am last Wednesday to go hiking. Her family reported her missing after she failed to return home by 10pm.
Her car was found near the Bonnum Pic walking trail in the national park at about 11pm that night.
About 200 emergency services and defence personnel are continuing air and land searches across the area, using specialist crews, trail bikes, horses, dogs and helicopters.
Hooper is described as being of Caucasian appearance, about 175 centimetres tall, with a slim build, long blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a shirt and shorts.
Read more:
Updated
Travel subsidies announced for families hit by Victoria Pass closure
The NSW government has extended financial support to Blue Mountains families facing lengthy school commutes, backdating school drive subsidies to the start of the Victoria Pass closure in March.
Eligible students living in Hartley, Little Hartley, Hartley Vale, Kanimbla and Oberon can claim the subsidy. The most recent rate is $0.75 per km for travel by car.
Guardian Australia recently spoke with parents from Little Hartley, including Edwina McCarron, who spends hours each school day driving her two children to access a more direct bus route:
We didn’t move to Hartley with the assumption that it’s an isolated area … we moved 20 minutes from our kids’ school.
The new support also commits to “further improvements to school bus services which have been in place since term 3 commenced”.
A Hartley Families Network survey shows average commute times have surged by two to three hours, with spokesperson Steve McCammon citing a significant impact on family wellbeing. The group is lobbying authorities to allow school buses on to a restricted local-access road, requiring joint approval from Transport NSW, and the Lithgow and Blue Mountains councils.
Read the full story:
Updated
$100m federal funding boost for Blue Mountains highway
The federal government has committed $100m to the Great Western Highway, funding an extra eastbound climbing lane for the link between the Blue Mountains and central west.
The NSW roads minister, Jenny Aitchison, said widening the road will allow motorists “to safely overtake slower-moving vehicles and trucks”.
Victoria Pass has been closed since March, redirecting drivers on to dangerous detours and sometimes adding hours to regular commutes. A replacement structure over the collapsing, 194-year-old Mitchells Causeway is predicted to open between April and June 2026, with the state government having already committed $100m from its 2026-27 budget.
The NSW shadow regional transport minister, Paul Toole, welcomed the federal announcement but said there is a “lack of business support”:
Promises of round-the-clock work mean nothing to these communities, they need and deserve an accurate opening date.
Affected businesses reporting a 40% loss can access grants of up to $25,000. In late June, an additional $20m in financial support was revealed to increase small business grants in some areas to $25,000.
Updated
Thank you all for joining along on the blog with me today!
I’ll leave you with Achol Arok and see you here bright and early tomorrow.
Updated
Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time
-
The veterans’ affairs minister, Matt Keogh, and the housing minister, Clare O’Neil, were firmly in the opposition’s sights today.
-
It got to the point where Angus Taylor asked Anthony Albanese if he would sack Keogh over his handling of veterans after a decision to cap individual funding of allied health services to $5,000.
-
Amanda Rishworth might have been listening too closely to the opposition this week, accidentally saying “labour liar loophole” instead of “labour hire loophole”.
-
O’Neil accused the opposition of more division after a question from an independent on the 5% deposit scheme being used by permanent residents.
-
And two Labor MPs were kicked out today, Dan Repacholi and Libby Coker, for making too much noise on the backbench.
Updated
National debt reaches $30k per person
Australia’s national net debt has doubled over the past decade to $30,000 per person, and is set to climb by a further 50% by the end of the decade, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office.
The independent PBO in its latest national fiscal outlook pulled together the budgets from the federal and state and territory governments to present a complete picture of the nation’s finances.
Despite warning of the rising cost of servicing that debt, the PBO finds that Australia’s “long-term fiscal outlook is sustainable”.
This assessment that we are not headed for fiscal disaster is underpinned by commonwealth and state governments’ forecasts that deficits will narrow and eventually disappear by the end of this decade.
The PBO’s “fiscal sustainability analysis” shows that in 24 out of 27 scenarios national debt as a share of GDP will decline over the next four decades.
This suggests that the national fiscal position is likely to remain sustainable except in the most extreme cases, where state budget balances do not improve while interest rates are high or GDP growth slows markedly.
Of course, this assumes no new policies that would affect government revenue or expenses, in either direction.
Sam Reinhardt, the parliamentary budget officer, in a recent speech noted that while this assumption “is a sensible and transparent way to prepare a budget, it can still lead the published outlook to understate future expenses relative to what is likely to occur in practice”.
Updated
After a final dixer to the small business minister, Anne Aly, the PM calls time on QT.
Before he leaves the chamber, he gives a shoutout to Sydney Morning Herald and the Age writer Tony Wright, who’s “calling it a day” after 50 years in journalism.
Updated
‘Disgraceful reflex for division’: O’Neil takes aim at Coalition on migration
Independent MP Rebekha Sharkie asks the housing minister why Australian citizens are exposed to the risk of loan default from non-citizens accessing the 5% home deposit scheme.
Clare O’Neil says only permanent residents, not temporary visa holders, are eligible for the scheme, who she says are likely to have already lived in Australia for a long time.
These are people who are working as doctors and nurses. They are aged care workers caring for our elderly, carers who are working in disability and other sectors.
She then turns to the opposition, to start taking some jabs, but the Coalition quickly stands up to shut that down.
There’s a bunch of (frankly quite boring) argy bargy over whether O’Neil can use her answer to criticise the opposition. Milton Dick rules she can do a little compare and contrast as long as it’s relevant.
So O’Neil continues:
I was reporting to the parliament that in the sitting break, the leader of the opposition was busted saying behind closed doors Labor has made the 5% deposit program available to anyone the day they arrive in the country. And I want to call that out, Speaker, because it speaks to the disgraceful reflex for division that they bring opposite to the problems in our country.
This is a program our government is incredibly proud of – 260,000 people have the keys to their own home today because of this fantastic support that we are offering. Not only have they focused on division, they do not have a single sensible thing to say about housing.
Updated
‘I have every confidence’: Albanese rejects call to sack Keogh
There’s been a slow crescendo in the questions put to the veterans’ affairs minister, which has now reached its peak with Angus Taylor asking his first question of the day, and putting to the prime minister that he should “sack this incompetent and disrespectful minister”.
Before Anthony Albanese can start speaking, Milton Dick boots out Labor MP Libby Coker for interjecting.
The prime minister says:
I have every confidence in the minister for veterans’ affairs.
Albanese says he considers it “one of the great privileges” as an MP and prime minister to engage with men and women who have served for Australia who “deserve our total respect at all times for what they do”.
He then starts speaking about the system the government inherited, and the actions the former veterans affairs minister under the Coalition had to take, which gets Phil Thompson to stand up and object. But Albanese sits down, indicating he’s done with his answer.
Updated
Allegra Spender asks treasurer to curb ‘red tape impulse’
Independent MP Allegra Spender is up next and asks the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, what more the government will do to cut red tape. She says the budget went some way towards spending constraint but “didn’t curb what the [Productivity Commission] calls Australia’s red tape impulse”.
Chalmers says the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, is the minister in charge of regulation and that the government is doing something about it.
Our expectation here is that the combination of our efforts on regulation will cut compliance costs in our economy by more than $10bn a year, Mr Speaker. Almost a 10th of that is in the financial sector a lone.
Updated
Matt Keogh faces more questions on treatment of veterans
The questions for Matt Keogh continue, with Liberal MP Phil Thompson now asking the minister if he’s calling a former fighter jet pilot, Tim Nelson, a “liar” after he yesterday said he disagreed with Nelson’s characterisation of their meeting.
Keogh offers a pretty short answer:
I meet with many veterans, veteran family members, defence personnel, on a regular basis and respect every position they put to me in what they say and describe, but I also am not in the habit of repeating the content and detail of all of those conversations and meetings … And I provided the answer that I provided yesterday.
Updated
‘I’m sorry he holds that view about me’ Keogh feels the heat on engagement with veterans
Michael McCormack is back at the despatch box and digs in on his criticism of Matt Keogh, asking, “how can the minister continue as minister for veterans’ affairs and defence personnel if he cannot uphold defence values?”
McCormack quotes former Royal Australian Navy diver and Fair Care for Veterans spokesperson John Armfield, who said after a meeting with Keogh: “I enlisted under the navy values of courage, honour, honesty and loyalty, yet you fail to display any of these values, minister.”
Keogh says that he heard Armfield’s evidence to the royal commission into defence and veteran suicides:
[The] navy apologised for some of that conduct to him as well. And very much should have done so. So I can very much understand why he would feel that there has been a breach of faith with him in terms of the upholding of the Australian Defence Force values and his engagement. So I understand that. I am sorry that he holds that view about me.
Updated
Liar, liar, pants on fire: Rishworth fumbles on dixer
Amanda Rishworth has made a little faux pas, as it were, by accidentally including one of the Liberal’s talking points into her own dixer.
This government closed the labour liar loophole which meant many people – I’ll [do] it again. The labour hire loophole. The labour hire loophole.
Cue lots and lots of laughter and one Speaker trying to keep everyone on track.
Updated
Matt Keogh says he’ll soon open up consultation on a discussion paper into the changes to the caps on allied health services for veterans. The changes put a $5,000 cap on services and increase the fees for allied health professionals.
He’s asked by Liberal MP Phil Thompson, a former veteran himself, why he didn’t tell Renee Wilson, the chief executive of the organisation representing Australia’s war widows, that the discussion paper was coming.
Keogh says the government had flagged when it put in the changes to allied health access that it would consult on them.
I haven’t had a direct conversation with her about the discussion paper but we look forward to seeing all of that feedback come in, it’s a part of that process, including from Renee and her organisation and the many other ex-service organisations around the country.
Updated
Labor asked about lack of progress on outdoor mobile coverage
Why is the government going “slo-mo with Uomo”, asks independent MP Helen Haines.
Uomo stands for the universal outdoor mobile obligation, which mandates baseline outdoor mobile coverage around Australia and is particularly important for regional areas. Haines says the bill has been sitting on the notice paper for a year.
The communications minister, Anika Wells, says the government’s been pretty busy with a bunch of other legislation (such as gambling and the news bargaining code) but it will probably come up for debate and a vote soon.
I look forward to Uomo coming back for consideration in detail soon … the default start date is 1 December 2027 so the number one factor in whether any obligation can commence on that date is the development of the direct-to-device market.
Updated
‘Treated with contempt’: Keogh in the spotlight on veterans’ health policy
Matt Keogh, the veterans’ affairs minister, has also faced a tough series of questions from the opposition this week on a decision to cap allied health services for veterans and for initially refusing to meet with a group of veterans who visited parliament this week.
Michael McCormack says that veterans and advocates say Keogh has “treated them with contempt” and asks if he believes he’s “upholding the covenant oath”.
Keogh says it’s clear there have been failings in veterans’ policy for decades, which he’s been working to fix.
He acknowledges that there’s still a way to go.
I think we have been making it better. Is there more work to do? There absolutely is and always will be and that’s what we will keep doing.
Updated
It’s question time!
Melissa McIntosh is first up to the despatch box today and asks Clare O’Neil (who’s borne the brunt of a lot of questions from the opposition so far this week) if she’s “damn proud” of making Australians pay higher rents. On Monday, O’Neil said she was “damn proud” of the government’s housing reforms. McIntosh references reporting that Ray White has warned rents could surge by 30%.
O’Neil can barely keep a straight face as she says, “I’ve said to the parliament before that we should try to speak the truth in this chamber”, but it gets a roar from the opposition benches. O’Neil says:
I’m really worried for the honourable member opposite who has asked me this question for the sheer number of mistruths she was able to pack into one question.
O’Neil says Ray White, like NAB yesterday, has clarified they’re not forecasting a 30% rise in rents.
How incredibly embarrassing for the opposition because this is actually the second day in a row that they have come into this parliament and misquoted a party saying this. So I want to remind the parliament that, when they came into the parliament yesterday, they accused the National Australia Bank of saying the same thing and then the National Australia Bank clarified this was not a forecast.
Updated
Fresh push to crack down on predatory super practices
Bans on cold-calling to sell superannuation products and new financial advice measures will strengthen Australia’s financial advice sector as it comes under attack from bad actors, AAP reports.
Reforms to tackle predatory practices, announced by the assistant treasurer, Daniel Mulino, in a speech to the National Press Club, follow the collapse of two investment funds that wiped out more than $1bn in retirement savings.
The failure of the Shield and First Guardian master funds exposed vulnerabilities across the financial ecosystem, Mulino said on Wednesday.
Access to financial advice has shrunk and bad actors have become more sophisticated, attracted by Australia’s huge pool of retirement savings.
They involved sophisticated and often predatory lead generation practices, advice arrangements that may have failed the best interest duty, and managed investment schemes alleged to have involved mismanagement, conflicted conduct and, potentially, fraud.
In response, Mulino has announced a three-pillared package: strengthening protections across the superannuation, advice and investment ecosystem; improving access to safe financial advice; and making the compensation scheme of last resort more financially sustainable.
It will include a crackdown on lead generators, who used social media, online ads and cold calls to lure people into putting their retirement savings into risky investments such as the Shield and First Guardian schemes.
Updated
Jim Chalmers is asked in a subsequent question by reporter Katina Curtis how much he’s raised from the text blast.
He gives a very short answer, and quickly moves on:
Oh, I don’t know.
‘None of these three parties support superannuation’: Chalmers doubles down on claims
Jim Chalmers has doubled down on a text he sent to supporters last night, claiming Pauline Hanson and Andrew Bragg want to “scrap your super” and asking receivers to donate $41.
The treasurer says he’s “genuinely worried about the future of superannuation in the hands of the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation”.
This morning, Pauline Hanson accused the treasurer of being “full of shit” and wrote on X “One Nation doesn’t support scrapping super, we just think people should be able to use their super when in financial distress instead of losing their home.”
But Chalmers says he’s within his rights to make those claims:
None of these three parties support because none of them really support workers, and this is the biggest threat to compulsory superannuation in the four decades that it has existed.
We are well within our rights to point out to the Australian people and particularly to Australian workers that the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation share a very dangerous and very divisive anti-worker and anti-super ideology.
Updated
‘Inflation challenge persists’, Chalmers says after real wages dip
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and employment minister, Amanda Rishworth, are speaking to the media following the latest wage data which showed real wages were going backwards.
Chalmers says that despite wages going backwards over the year to the June quarter, both Treasury and the RBA are “forecasting annual wage growth to return this financial year”.
We have seen real wage grow in the quarter but not in the year … because this inflation challenge in our economy persists.
Chalmers does have some good news though, with the Moody’s rating agency giving the government a gold star and reaffirming the AAA credit rating. Chalmers says:
This is the second global ratings agency in the last couple of weeks give what is a welcome endorsement of the government’s responsible economic management.
Updated
Advance to appear before parliamentary inquiry this Friday
The rightwing lobby group Advance will appear at a parliamentary inquiry into the 2025 federal election this Friday following members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian church.
While the group’s executive director, Matthew Sheahan, will not be fronting up, Advance’s chair, Vicki Dunne, who served in the ACT Assembly as a Liberal member for 19 years, and its secretary, Mark Spencer, will answer questions about their campaign last election.
Advance mounted attack ads against the Greens and Labor in a number of seats, claiming to have spent $13.8m on the campaign.
An interim report from the inquiry in July made 14 recommendations, including calling for a review of the threshold for entities to be considered significant third parties, and therefore subject to regulation, under federal electoral laws.
It also urged for the introduction of a mandatory code of conduct that would apply to all participants at polling places. The code would be enforced in designated “campaign zones” surrounding booths, where the number of campaigners and signage would be restricted.
Read more:
Australia must do better on productivity: RBA deputy governor
Andrew Hauser, the RBA’s deputy governor, says lifting productivity is “the number one challenge for most of the developed world”.
Hauser, speaking at the Queensland Futures Institute Annual Regions Summit, said our weak productivity performance “gives a speed limit to the economy of about 2% GDP growth a year”.
Now that isn’t a bad number, actually, if you’re from the UK or if you come from Germany. But from Australia’s perspective, that has a must-do-better mark on it in terms of its history. It means our real earnings growth won’t be as high. It means our government receipts won’t be as high. It means our wealth won’t be as strong.
The RBA’s second-top official said that, besides the United States, we aren’t alone in trying to deal with these issues.
In Australia – as is true in Germany and the UK, in Korea and other countries – productivity growth, which had been relatively strong and had been the basis of Australia’s enormously successful growth model over decades, has slowed.
I think that fact that it’s shared with other countries who have very different governmental systems and technology setups and social welfare programs and all the rest of it shows you that although it’s right to focus on local issues and the issues that can be dealt with in the country and locally in the state, there’s probably something bigger going on.
Updated
Environment groups criticise Victorian Coalition plan to scrap transmission line project
The Victorian Coalition’s election pledge to scrap VNI West has been criticised by environment groups.
Joy Toose, Environment Victoria’s climate campaign manager, said the move would expose Victorians to higher power prices and less reliable electricity:
You can have alternative plans, but you can’t have alternative facts. Renewables and the transmission that carries them are the only thing actually bringing bills down, cancelling that to burn more gas is a plan for higher bills and blackouts, dressed up as the opposite.
She said there was “no such thing as cheap new gas any more”. Toose continued:
Jess Wilson needs to explain where this mysterious “new gas” is coming from. Victoria has already used up 90% of its commercially viable gas reserves – what’s left costs up to twice as much to produce … But what we do have are endless reserves of solar and wind.
RE-Alliance – a not-for-profit working with rural and regional Australians on the renewable energy shift – said cancelling VNI West would mean fewer opportunities for communities. Its national director, Andrew Bray, said:
The loudest opponents do not speak for every farmer. Many farmers have actively chosen to host projects so they can diversify their income, strengthen their farm businesses and keep farming through droughts and volatile commodity prices.
Bray said communities deserve better consultation and a role in shaping the developments but failures in this space “will not be fixed by cancelling essential infrastructure and wiping out opportunities for people in the regions”:
They will be fixed by delivering the renewable energy rollout properly, with hosting communities at the table.
Updated
Victorian Liberals pledge to scrap power link to NSW and ‘throw open the doors’ to gas
The Victorian Coalition has pledged, if elected in November, to scrap VNI West, a proposed 240km transmission line linking Victoria to New South Wales.
The project was designed to connect the Victorian and NSW electricity grids and integrate power generated from wind and solar projects in both states. But as we reported earlier this year, backlash to the project has been strong, thanks in part to new laws that will allow the state body overseeing the project to access private land without a landholder’s consent.
In a statement this morning, the opposition leader, Jess Wilson, described VNI West as “unnecessary poles and wires that bulldoze through regional communities”. Instead, the Coalition has said it would “throw open the doors to new conventional gas projects”.
Wilson said:
Regional communities need to know that I have their back, that my Liberal and Nationals team have their back and that we reject Labor’s plans to decimate agriculture and private property rights in this state. A Liberal and Nationals Government will cancel VNI West and take immediate action to secure more gas for our state – meaning lower prices and a secure energy future.
Updated
‘Oh, there’s definitely a difference’: Farley and Hanson’s migration policies differ
David Farley might not understand exactly what net overseas migration is.
For any of you who might be in a similar boat, net overseas migration is the total number of people coming into Australia minus those going out.
Ok, let’s continue.
One Nation says its NOM target is 130,000 per year, but Farley – the One Nation MP who won the seat of Farrer earlier this year, says his position is different to his boss’s.
He tells the Michelle Grattan Podcast:
That’s the net [130,000]. Now on top of that is our PALM (Pacific Australia Labour Mobility) programme, which we use in our meat workers. On top of that is our aged care skilled nurses, our medical skills as well. Now they’re coming in on rotating visas that are there. Now they have the option to apply to become long-term citizens of the country, which is that’s when it refers you back to the net number.on top of
Grattan asks then how many total migrants are coming in according to him. He says, “it’s probably circa another 40,000 a year on top of it.”
So what he’s really saying is that his policy is for net overseas migration to be around 170,000, not 130,000.
Grattan: So do you now have a different position from Pauline Hanson on migration? When we spoke to you during the Farrer campaign, there was a difference.
Farley: Oh, there’s definitely a difference.
Updated
Disability orgs say NDIS ‘reforms’ strip away the right to live with dignity, autonomy and equal participation.
The National Mental Health Consumer Alliance, the national peak body for mental health consumers including people with psychosocial disability, says the passing of the NDIS Reform Bill is a step backwards.
CEO of the Alliance Priscilla Brice said:
That is not reform. It’s a fundamental retreat from the promise of the NDIS: that people with disability are entitled to the supports they need to live with dignity, autonomy and equal participation.
This legislation ignores the original rights-based framework the Scheme was built on and reduces it to a cost-containment mechanism, where human rights are subordinated to economic efficiency.”
The organisation pointed to the independent report by the Grattan Institute, which showed these cuts may help meet short-term fiscal targets, yet they fail to address the real challenges facing the NDIS in the long-term. Brice said:
Reducing SCCP supports will shift costs to more expensive crisis and health systems in the absence of adequate alternative psychosocial supports and put more people at risk.
News bargaining incentive passes lower house
Just a little earlier in the House of Representatives the government passed the news bargaining incentive, after making an amendment this morning to increase the levy on tech giants if they don’t sign the mandatory number of deals with publishers.
Under the incentive, which updates the Morrison-era news media bargaining code, platforms including Google, Meta and TikTok will have to sign deals with at least eight publishers or pay 2.75% of their digital ad revenue to the government (who will then distribute it to news organisations).
Independent MPs including Allegra Spender and Kate Chaney put forward several amendments to the bill but they were rejected by Labor.
Updated
Australian workers’ real wages go backwards
Wage rates failed to keep up with inflation over the past year, in the latest sign that Australian workers are struggling to deal with high and rising cost of living pressures.
The ABS’s wage price index (WPI) climbed by 3.2% in the year to the June quarter, unchanged from the previous quarter but down from the 3.4% this time last year.
This pace of wage growth would normally be considered pretty good – it’s well above the 2.2% annual rate leading into the pandemic (although also below the peak growth rate of 4.3% in 2022).
But after factoring in cost of living – including higher consumer prices and rising interest rates – real wages are now falling again, in annual terms.
Jim Chalmers, the treasurer, in a statement said:
Real wages were up in quarter but down through the year, not because wages have been too low but because inflation is still too high.
Chalmers added that “even with today’s figures annual real wages have grown for eight of the last 11 quarters”.
Public sector wages grew by 3.4% through the year to June, largely reflecting state government pay rises, compared with 3.1% growth in the private sector.
It’s worth noting that the WPI measures change in rates of pay for a given bundle of jobs, so does not include the impact on pay from people changing jobs or working more hours.
Updated
Gambling reforms ‘progress’ but evoke mixed emotions, Peta Murphy’s husband says
Rod Glover, the husband of the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, who chaired the “you win some, you lose more” inquiry, says the legislation is a “breakthrough of sorts” but describes it as far from what Murphy originally recommended.
Writing on LinkedIn, Glover praises the Greens, independents, advocates, experts and those with lived experience for pushing the government and the Coalition to strengthen the original legislation.
He says acknowledging some of the failures of the bill and the process of getting to this point “shouldn’t stop us recognising what has now been achieved, or understanding how it became possible”.
The package is far from everything that is needed, and it has taken too long to get here. That delay has had real human consequences … The final package falls well short of the Murphy Report recommendations, which remain the benchmark for comprehensive reform. The limits of the reforms reflect, in large part, the considerable lobbying power of the gambling industry, major sporting codes and media organisations.
Major policy change is rarely a single act. This package is a big improvement on the status quo – and a demonstration that our democratic system can still find ways to make progress on hard and contested problems.
Updated
‘Fatally flawed’: Scarr rebukes gambling reforms bill
Liberal senator Paul Scarr says the gambling reforms bill being debated in the Senate today is “fatally flawed”.
He’s visibly frustrated and angry at the changes, promising to cross the floor and support amendments from independent MP David Pocock.
Scarr commends the opposition communications minister, Sarah Henderson, for making some changes to the bill, but says he “won’t be part of it”.
I think this is such a serious issue for millions of Australians impacted by gambling harm, and this is such a flawed piece of legislation that I have no choice but to cross the floor.
Scarr, a Queenslander, says the State of Origin (which from the age of six, “wild horses” couldn’t keep him away from watching), starts at 8:05pm, which means there would be no gambling ads during breaks for just 25 minutes of the game.
That’s the loophole … How many kids are going to be watching State of Origin from 8:05 to 8:30 and then go to bed at 8:30, and after 8:30 it becomes open slather?
It’s an absurdity and I won’t be part of it.
Updated
Gambling reforms ‘not going to please everyone’ as Labor and Coalition put positive spin on bill
The Labor and Liberal parties are more positive about the gambling changes, unsurprisingly.
Shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson said the changes struck the right balance between addressing gambling harms while still preserving the “personal choice of people who choose to gamble”.
Henderson called the opt-out register “a very significant initiative”, claiming it was “untenable” that people would be expected to individually opt out of ads on each website, streaming service and social media platform. But she also demanded the government “get it right”, raising concerns about security of data which people provide to the register.
She also accused Labor of “three years of delay, deflection and deception” on gambling, criticising the “greatly flawed bill” Labor initially introduced because it didn’t originally include action on inducements. Henderson said of the register:
This is a huge warning to the gambling companies – every single Australian will have the opportunity to opt out.
Labor senator Michelle Ananda-Rajah conceded the changes were “not going to please everyone” but paid tribute to Peta Murphy, the late Labor MP whose “seminal work kicked off this response”. Ananda-Rajah said:
We didn’t fulfil all of Peta’s requests, but I think we delivered highly significant reforms which will make a tangible difference.
A medical doctor, Ananda-Rajah said she had seen the health effects of gambling, which stretched into mental health, family violence, homelessness and family breakdown.
Everyone is paying for this harm.
Updated
‘What an absolute joke’: Hanson-Young doesn’t mince her words on gambling reform bill
Debate on the gambling reforms continues in the Senate, where a number of emotive contributions are coming from across the aisle. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young accused Labor and the Coalition of having “failed the moral test” on the issue, after failing to legislate a total ban on gambling ads.
She also questioned the national opt-out register, raising doubts about whether it would work. Hanson-Young said:
What an absolute joke … It’s as if people in this place, the prime minister’s office, don’t understand how the internet even works.
How will this opt-out register even work? The government can’t even answer it … It beggars belief the government and opposition can come in here today and think they can sell this rubbish.
Details of the register are scant at this stage, and are being developed as we speak. It could take up to 12 months to implement, Labor sources said.
Hanson-Young was also livid that inducements would only be partially scaled back, not ended altogether.
“If inducements are so harmful, they should be banned,” she said.
We’re going to let the gambling companies decide who is vulnerable to their inducements? [Liberal MP] Andrew Wallace is right, this is putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank.
Updated
‘A victory for vested interests’: Pocock laments passage of gambling reforms in lower house
Independent senator David Pocock has lamented the passage of the government’s gambling reform bill, which passed the lower house last night.
Speaking in the Senate on Wednesday morning, Pocock called it “a very sombre day”.
This is a missed opportunity to change the country for generations of Australians. This is a victory for vested interests over the community and over the people we are here to serve.
Today, those vested interests have won. They managed to get to the prime minister, and it seems like he has single-handedly stopped the Labor party from doing what 80% of Australians wanted it to do and assumed it would do.
Pocock said he would vote against the bill and will propose a number of amendments as it remains debated in the upper house.
Vested interest may have won this battle, but they will not win the war against the Australian people who want our children protected, who want a predatory industry put in its place.
Together with fellow independent members, members of the crossbench, senators from the major parties who disagree with this legislation, we will all keep pushing hard to actually implement the Murphy report in line with what communities want, in line with what the parliament said was necessary.
Updated
‘Men in football need to stand against the darker elements of sporting culture’, Ryan says
Independent MP, Monique Ryan, has also criticised the response surrounding sexual assault allegations linked to several Sydney Swans players.
On Wednesday morning, the club stood down five players for the rest of the season, independent of the ongoing police investigation. No one has been arrested or charged in connection with the allegations.
Ryan on social media said senior AFL figures, current and retired players, commentators and journalists needed to take “responsibility to help create a culture that rejects violence against women in all its forms”.
We can’t allow the media or influential figures to use language that delegitimises victims or encourages people to dismiss or downplay allegations of sexual assault.
Men in football need to stand against the darker elements of sporting culture.
Updated
Thai prime minister looks forward to 75th year of diplomatic relations between Australia and Thailand
The Thai prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, speaks next and says it has been 14 years since the last Thai prime minister visited Australia and he looks forward to the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations next year.
Charnivirakul says the meeting was “productive”, and focused on political and security cooperation, combating transnational crime, people to people links through education and regional cooperation.
[We] recognise the impact of current geopolitical and economic dynamics under the global economy and emphasise the importance of deeper economic engagement to strengthen our shared resilience and prosperity.
The pair don’t take any questions.
Updated
PM celebrates strengthening relationship between Thailand and Australia.
Anthony Albanese and Anutin Charnvirakul are speaking to the media after their meeting following the signing of a new joint statement on combating transnational crime.
Albanese celebrates the relationship between the two nations, which he says is contributing to a peaceful and stable region.
He says the two also discussed the conflict in the Middle East and “agreed to coordinate closer supply chains [to] remain open [and] secure”, and thanked Thailand for providing Australia with jet fuel.
Today we undertake to expand on decades of work between our countries by committing law enforcement agencies to strengthen cooperation and disrupt increasingly sophisticated global criminal networks. This undertaking is reflected in a new joint statement on transnational crime. I am also pleased we agreed to elevate our defence relationship by committing to a biannual defence ministers meeting and an important evolution of our longstanding defence cooperation.
Updated
We don’t want a ‘bidding war’ between big tobacco and organised crime, says Labor minister
The aged care minister, Sam Rae, says reducing the tobacco excise would essentially lead to a bidding war between big tobacco and organised crime.
The government has shut down pressure from groups including One Nation to cut the tobacco excise to combat a soaring black market, and has said the focus should remain on law and order.
On the Today show earlier this morning, Rae said:
We don’t want to get into a bidding war on tobacco prices between big tobacco and organised crime. Now, state governments are working through the law and order issues that are very real here, and of course, the federal government’s supporting that through our Illicit tobacco taskforce. But if we make tobacco dirt cheap, it’s going to be harder for people to quit, and it’s going to be easier for young people to start.
The health minister, Mark Butler, also dismissed the call from One Nation to slash the excise by 75%, calling it a “cheap headline” on ABC News Breakfast earlier. He said:
Governments aren’t usually in the habit of engaging in price competition with organised crimes. That’s a hard line for us to cross. Equally, no one’s really said to me or to the government where the price point is that actually starts to move them out of the market … I think this requires more deep thought than frankly cheap headlines of the type we’ve seen this week. We’re not particularly interested in thought bubbles in an area that is this important.
Updated
In pictures: all smiles from Thai PM and Albanese during Canberra visit
As we brought you a little earlier, the Thai prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, is at Parliament House this morning for a meeting with Anthony Albanese and other senior government ministers.
They’re now seated together and will address the media with a statement shortly. They won’t be taking any questions from journalists.
Updated
‘Extraordinary negligence’: Welfare groups slam controversial decision on mutual obligations
Australia’s peak welfare groups have slammed the government’s decision to turn back on the targeted compliance framework [TCF], which runs the controversial mutual obligation scheme.
The TCF was paused after an investigation revealed it was illegally cancelling jobseekers’ Centrelink payments.
The Antipoverty Centre, ACOSS, Economic Justice Australia and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services are calling on the government to remove the framework immediately, including payment suspensions and financial penalties.
They are also calling on the government to provide full back-pay and compensation to every person affected by unlawful decisions.
The Antipoverty Centre co-coordinator Kristin O’Connell said:
The decision to prioritise turning cancellations back on is extraordinary negligence on behalf of Amanda Rishworth, who is responsible for both the wellbeing of welfare recipients and the lawful administration of welfare compliance rules. She is ignoring every alarm bell that is ringing about the widespread misuse of payment suspension penalties by privatised employment services, which are inflicted millions of times a year.
The bottom line is, we have zero confidence in DEWR’s capability and competence to know whether they are operating this system lawfully, and it will never be possible to fully protect the safety and wellbeing of people in poverty while compulsory activities remain.
Updated
One Nation files three years of overdue financial returns
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party has complied with a request from the Queensland regulator to file three years of overdue financial returns.
The party was sent a demand from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) last month to submit the missing returns by 18 August or face compliance action.
An OFT spokesperson told the Guardian on Wednesday that the returns were filed after business hours on Tuesday, ahead of the midnight deadline. They said:
One Nation Queensland Division Inc has now lodged audited financial statements for the years 2022/2023, 2023/2024 and 2024/2025, as required by the Associations Incorporation Act 1981.
The Office of Fair Trading has notified One Nation Queensland Division Inc that any future failures to lodge annual returns within prescribed time limits may result in enforcement action.
Under the act, members of the management committee of an incorporated association must ensure financial statements are lodged for the association’s last reportable financial year.
Any further breaches could expose Hanson and the New South Wales One Nation senator, Sean Bell, to financial penalties for failing to comply with state legal requirements and could see the party struck off the state register of incorporated associations.
Guardian Australia has previously revealed that the party has repeatedly failed to meet the legal requirements for running an incorporated association in Queensland, including failing to hold annual general meetings on time and filing annual and financial reports late.
Returns filed until 2022, obtained by the Guardian and analysed by a leading accounting expert, revealed more than $1m in missing or worthless assets, which the party has refused to explain.
Updated
Liberal senator Paul Scarr to cross the floor on gambling bill
Paul Scarr will join his colleagues Pat Conaghan and Andrew Wallace and cross the floor of the Senate to vote against Labor’s gambling bill.
Scarr says the reforms don’t do enough to protect children and vulnerable Australians, and that he will support amendments put forward by independent David Pocock, who said today Australians would be “hugely disappointed” by the reforms.
Scarr told reporters as he entered parliament this morning:
This legislation doesn’t go far enough, in terms of protecting our kids from advertising, in terms of protecting people from inducements, and in terms of having strong statutory reviews of the outcomes of these laws.
So I’ll be supporting a range of amendments that are being put forward by Senator David Pocock, and I can’t support the bill in its current form.
Liberal MP Andrew McLachlan has also said he’s considering voting against the bill. McLachlan and Scarr also crossed the floor earlier this year, to vote with Labor to censure Pauline Hanson after her burqa stunt.
Updated
Gambling legislation ‘gets the balance right’, Taylor says
Angus Taylor, donned in Lycra ahead of the pollie pedal*, says the gambling legislation passed in the lower house yesterday has the right balance – despite criticism that the reforms aren’t strong enough.
He told a press conference:
It’ll get the balance right between people having a bet, and they should be able to have a bet, and at the same time making sure there’s protection for the most vulnerable. For kids, for those who have got gambling challenges, and I want to deal with those, and that’s the balance we’ve sought to strike.
Again, the legislation was never about stopping people “having a bet”.
*What’s pollie pedal you ask? It was founded by Taylor and Tony Abbott where pollies, veterans, community leaders and others ride hundreds of kilometres raising funds for Wandering Warriors. Its website says the charity bike ride has raised more than $7.4m for different causes over more than two decades. Last year they rode 831km through Adelaide and parts of regional South Australia.
The Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, who’s with Taylor, says jokingly: “In about a year’s time, hopefully I can look as good in Lycra as you do. And maybe I’ll join you next year.”
Updated
Andrew Bragg weighs in on Chalmers’ text blast
The shadow housing minister, who was named in Jim Chalmers’ text blast, has also taken to social media to criticise the treasurer.
Chalmers sent supporters a text yesterday afternoon claiming Bragg and Pauline Hanson would “scrap your super” and calling for donations of $41.
Bragg wrote on Instagram:
Chalmers has failed as a treasurer. Everyone can feel his economic failure and all he has left is scare campaigns and personal attacks.
Chalmers just wants more of other people’s money and more taxes.
Chalmers earlier this week declared the next election would be a “referendum on super” after Hanson over the weekend said One Nation would allow Australians easier access to their super earlier.
It’s turned into a bit of a political storm. Yesterday Chalmers and other Labor ministers kept claiming the Coalition and One Nation would end the super guarantee, sometimes without prompt … maybe Chalmers think he’s on to a political winner here.
Updated
In pics: Thai PM arrives at Parliament
Thailand’s prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, is in Canberra today to meet with Anthony Albanese, and has received a ceremonial welcome outside Parliament House this morning.
The two will deliver a joint media statement after their meeting a little later.
Plibersek criticises response to sexual assault allegations, calls for accountability
Tanya Plibersek has also raised concerns over the response to sexual assault allegations linked to Sydney Swans players as well as the separate matter of sexual assault charges laid against three boys at the Sydney private school Scots college.
The federal minister for social services wrote on social media that the Swans and Scots college had a chance to “show leadership” without interfering in any investigations but didn’t.
She wrote:
They chose language that was passive and exculpatory … When people in positions of power gloss over allegations of sexual violence, when they’re more focused on their reputations than their responsibilities, it reinforces the culture of disrespect and entitlement that fuels this violence in the first place.
She says schools and sporting clubs are “two of the most important places boys learn their values”, that they need to demonstrate accountability, and condemn sexual violence unequivocally.
Updated
‘Jim Chalmers is full of shit’: Hanson fires up over Chalmers donations text
Pauline Hanson has lambasted the treasurer over a text blast sent to supporters yesterday, seen by Guardian Australia, claiming Hanson and the shadow housing minister, Andrew Bragg, want to “scrap your super”, and asking for donations of $41.
The One Nation leader called out the messages on X:
It’s Pauline Hanson here. Jim Chalmers is full of shit. One Nation doesn’t support scrapping super, we just think people should be able to use their super when in financial distress instead of losing their home. Labor would rather you end up homeless.
One Nation has said it would allow more Australians to access to their super earlier. At the moment, super can only be accessed before retirement “in very limited circumstances, including to pay certain expenses on compassionate grounds, as well as terminal illness, incapacity and severe financial hardship.”
At the National Press Club earlier this month, Bragg called super “one of the biggest policy failures since federation”, but the Coalition has said it’s not scrapping the super guarantee. It’s still considering whether to allow first home buyers to access part of their super to buy a home – a policy it took to the last two elections.
Updated
Swans links to allegations ‘deeply concerning’, Pocock says
David Pocock, a former captain of the Wallabies, says the allegations of sexual assault linked to several Sydney Swans AFL players are “deeply concerning”.
He adds that the response to the allegations, much of which has been centred on the team’s grand final chances, show “how far we have to go as a country”.
Pocock tells ABC News Breakfast:
Clearly there’s been a real breach of team protocol and all the rest and I think, the team should come down on that hard but as to the actual allegations, I think it’s really important that the process plays out and clearly, culturally, as a country, we’ve got a long way to go on this and it’s important that we’re all playing our part.
It shows how far we have to go as a country, if that’s the first reaction rather than looking at the substance of the allegations and what it means for us as a society … It’s going to take all of us to turn this around.
He says everyone should read Night Games by Anna Krien, which “delves into some of the challenges when it comes to culture in professional sport” and gives us an indication of the broader cultural problems across the country.
Updated
Government claiming a victory for doing ‘the bare minimum’ on gambling, Pocock says
Independent senator David Pocock says Australians will be “hugely disappointed” by the gambling reforms passed in the lower house yesterday.
Pocock has been a vocal critic of the legislation which he’s said doesn’t nearly go far enough to combat the harms of online gambling advertising, and it’s fair to say he’s pretty furious about the result.
Pocock says gambling companies are currently regulated out of the Northern Territory, by a body which has no full-time staff. To make matters worse, he says the regulator has not contacted the wagering companies after shocking allegations of gamblers being offered drugs and sex workers were aired at a Senate inquiry.
He told ABC News Breakfast a little earlier that the legislation has “failed on so many levels”.
It’s tragic to [see] vested interests and their capture of the major parties meaning we don’t get evidence-based policy in this country and policy that puts Aussies ahead of the gambling companies … The late Peta Murphy said partial bans on advertising do not work and that’s why they went with a full ad ban. She said inducements should be banned immediately. This legislation essentially legitimises inducements and says let’s just get rid of the worst types of inducements.
The system is so broken and it’s no wonder we’re the biggest losers in the world per capita, and now the government is trying to claim this huge victory for just doing the bare minimum that really doesn’t deal with the issues that we’re facing.
Updated
Mulino ‘confident’ opposition will support news bargaining incentive bill after lifting levy for tech giants
Jumping back to Daniel Mulino on RN Breakfast, the financial services minister says he’s “confident” he can get the opposition on side to vote for the bill.
(There’s so much confidence in the building this morning …)
Mulino says the government will today introduce an amendment to the bill lifting the charge rate from 2.5% to 2.75%. What this means is that tech platforms including Meta, Google and TikTok will now have to make deals with at least eight news media organisations to pay them for their journalism or pay the government 2.75% of their digital advertising revenue which will then be given to news orgs.
It comes after the shadow communications spokesperson, Sarah Henderson, yesterday said that the current bill wouldn’t help enough journalists and could send media companies backwards.
Mulino tells RN the increase of the charge rate is a “good outcome for Australia’s media” and while he says he reckons the Greens and Coalition will support it, he seems more focused on dealing with the latter.
What we have is a very balanced package, a package that is sensible when it comes to the way in which we charge big tech, but also that charges at an appropriate rate for Australia’s media to make sure they get back into the position they are in, in terms of the overall level of deals.
I’m in good discussions with [Henderson] and overall the government is in good discussions with the opposition. I’m confident that we’ll be able to get to a point that the opposition supports this bill.
Updated
‘Putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank’: Wallace says major concerns remain over gambling bill
Liberal MP Andrew Wallace took a stand yesterday and decided – for the first time in his parliamentary career – to cross the floor and vote against the gambling reforms. He, like his Nationals colleague Pat Conaghan, said the changes don’t go far enough.
Wallace is up next in the RN Breakfast hot seat and is asked whether he received much blowback from colleagues after he crossed the floor. He doesn’t specifically say, but says broadly that “clearly it is not a preferred thing for people to cross the floor”.
So what are Wallace’s ongoing concerns with the legislation?
He takes serious issue with the government putting gambling companies in charge to “red-flag” at-risk gamblers.
If you look at the red flagging of problem gamblers as an example, this is effectively putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank. It’s the gambling companies that will determine the red-flagged people, the people who are problem gamblers. These are the same people who are preying upon those same individuals. I do not trust the gambling companies to act with good intent when it comes to this.
They [Sarah Henderson and Angus Taylor] made a bad bill better. But at the end of the day, Sally, I’ve got to look at myself in the mirror and I’ve got to look at my constituents in the face and say that I did what I thought was right.
He also points to the fact that right now, gambling companies can’t advertise on TV five minutes before a sports game, and that’s only increasing to a whopping grand total of … 15 minutes.
Updated
Hastie says fight with One Nation for his seat is already ‘dirty and nasty’
The One Nation threat is particularly close to home for Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie, with the rightwing party challenging for his WA seat.
But he tells RN Breakfast he “loves the pressure”.
Hastie has publicly said he’s had increased security for his home and office after threats to him and his staff, but says this won’t deter him.
I love pressure, Sally. I wouldn’t be in this job if I didn’t. I also love a fight, and I know people like [Hanson’s chief of staff] James Ashby are coming for me. He’s got his orders from above, and I’m going to hold my seat because I believe I’m the best person to deliver for the people of Canning, as I have over the last 11 years. Will it be a tough fight? Absolutely. Is it dirty and nasty? Yes, it is.
Asked whether the Coalition is under more pressure to release policies sooner because of One Nation, Hastie says:
It’s not a thought bubble race on X with Pauline Hanson. We want to make sure that our policies are costed and modelled and are responsible. It’s very easy to get a sugar hit in the headlines, but we’re doing the hard work.
Updated
‘No plans to lift the super guarantee’, says Mulino
Daniel Mulino, the financial services minister, says the government has no plans to lift the super guarantee from 12% to 15%. Currently federal public servants – including politicians – receive 15.4% super on top of their wages.
Labor has for a while now had a commitment in its national platform to “set out a pathway to increasing it to 15%”, but they’ve so far made no plans to do so. Wayne Swan was the last treasurer to raise the super guarantee from 9% to 12% over a few years.
Mulino tells ABC RN Breakfast:
There’s no plans to lift the super guarantee. Getting it to 12% was the work of Labor governments over a very long period of time. And I might say, in the face of opposition, it was fought tooth and nail every step of the way by the opposition.
Mulino is addressing the National Press Club today to announce measures to protect superannuation consumers. Why? He says it came from the collapse of superannuation providers Shield and First Guardian:
The scale of that collapse was shocking. Almost 12,000 Australian individual members of super funds and their families lost large parts, or in some cases, all of their super savings. But what was also increasingly clear was the predatory and inappropriate behaviour which led to those collapses. Lead generators reaching out to these people in unsolicited ways, undertaking highly manipulative interactions to convince them that their super products were not performing well or were inappropriate, and then manipulating them into inappropriate products for them.
Updated
‘Collapsing confidence’ in housing market, Wilson says
Tim Wilson has jumped on that reporting around rent increases and says there has been a collapse in confidence since the budget which is hurting renters.
The shadow treasurer tells News24:
We’ve had, since the budget, collapsing confidence, a lack of will to invest in housing that is going to be available for rentals.
We’re seeing a complete disaster in the housing market, and we know that’s only going to do one thing while the government continues to overshoot its migration target, and that is an increase in rents on Australians struggling to save a first home deposit.
Updated
‘Stop gaslighting Australians’: O’Neil and Cash clash on rent increases
The shadow attorney general, Michaelia Cash, says the housing minister, Clare O’Neil, needs to take some responsibility and “stop gaslighting” the country over rent increases around the country.
There are more reports this morning that real estate agent Ray White has also predicted rents could rise 30%.
O’Neil tells Sunrise the Treasury department forecast rents would increase about $2 a week in response to the budget changes, and then quickly pivots to how bad things have been for renters already.
There is an awful lot that goes into determining rents in Australia, and the thing that Treasury modelled in the context of the budget, what is the isolated effect of what the government actually changed about the housing market. And if I just step back for a second, we’ve got a broken housing system in our country, and it’s the renters of Australia who are bearing the brunt of really 40 years of government’s not doing enough about this problem.
Cash isn’t picking up what O’Neil is putting down:
I think that Clare sadly needs to start taking a bit of responsibility for her housing policy. But also, Clare, stop gaslighting Australians, stop gaslighting the mum and dads who are currently watching this show and feeling the impact of your toxic housing taxes … She can sit on your show and defend her policies, but the evidence on the ground, the evidence from the experts, is that Labor’s toxic housing taxes are smashing the market.
Updated
‘Up to them to explain’: Queensland lags on Thriving Kids
Jenny McAllister, the NDIS minister, is on ABC AM and says – like Butler – that no one will “fall between two stools” due to the NDIS reforms.
But at the same time, she acknowledges that Queensland isn’t progressing with implementing Thriving Kids and that it’s “up to them to explain” why.
Host, Melissa Clarke, asks how the government can say no one will fall through the cracks while acknowledging that Queensland isn’t doing what it has been told to do.
A brief explainer here – Thriving Kids is for children aged eight and under with developmental delays or autism who require low-to-moderate support needs. They’re currently a significant cohort of the NDIS, and the programs which will be jointly funded by the commonwealth and states will help reduce NDIS numbers.
McAllister doesn’t actually say what the government will do to ensure Queensland kids are still adequately supported:
Disability supports have always been a shared responsibility by the states and territories and the commonwealth. Disability ministers are clear about their desire to co-govern the scheme and to co-govern disability supports. That has always been true for disability, for disability policy and program, continues to be the case, and we work with the states and territories to make sure that we have got a strong disability ecosystem that can support all people with disability across the community.
Updated
‘We are pleased’ says Henderson on gambling bill deal
Mark Butler is not the only happy politician this morning, shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson is also giving herself a pat on the back after securing a deal with Labor to tackle gambling advertising.
That doesn’t mean people even in her own tent are pleased, two MPs yesterday made the decision to cross the floor because they believe the bill doesn’t go far enough. One of them, Nationals MP, Pat Conaghan, said the Coalition and government were “weak” for not implementing the recommendations of the 2023 Murphy report.
Henderson tells ABC RN Breakfast that the bill gets the “balance right”.
We made a very significant difference in these amendments, and we think we’ve got the balance right. But of course, we’ve also announced that, there will be, one of the amendments will provide for a statutory review in three years. So if the gambling companies think that they can get away with continuing improper conduct, if the broadcasters don’t comply, if something is not working, the government, and hopefully it will be our government in three years’ time, will be held to account … we mustn’t forget we don’t want to punish the vast majority of Australians who love a bet, who don’t have a gambling problem.
Just a little reminder here for the millionth time – that these laws were never about stopping people being able to gamble, it was about tackling all of the ads and inducements encouraging them to gamble.
Updated
Butler ‘very confident’ Thriving Kids will be rolled out in time for NDIS changes
Mark Butler must be feeling pretty damn good this morning because he’s also “very confident” that Thriving Kids will be up and running in all states and territories by the time the NDIS legislated changes take effect at the beginning of 2028.
Butler says every state and territory bar Queensland have got implementation plans in place and will start ramping up their Thriving Kids services from October this year.
I’m very confident. States recognise the importance of this. They’ve got their implementation plans ready from 1 October. Those services will start to roll out. They’re not new concepts. These are the sorts of services that we had in place for many decades before the NDIS was created.
I’m very confident about it. I made clear to parents that there is no way that any government will let their children, their precious children, slip between two stools, or go without supports.
Updated
Labor ‘very confident’ tax changes won’t lift rent prices by 30%
Mark Butler says the Labor is still confident of Treasury’s forecasts of the rental market, that showed rents would only increase about $2 per week due to the budget changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax.
Yesterday several media outlets reported NAB had warned rents could rise up to 30% (but the PM rejected it and told question time the bank had clarified its position that it didn’t provide rental forecasts). Today, the Australian newspaper is reporting that real estate agent Ray White is backing in that figure.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast this morning, Butler is asked if Treasury got it wrong – nup, says the health minister:
We’re very confident in our forecast. As Jim Chalmers has said, it’s important to give these sorts of changes some time to settle down … But just think about it logically, James [Glenday]. Remember that the 2.5 million private rental properties in the market that are owned by investors, if they were owned already at budget night and were being negatively geared, that can continue.
Updated
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji with you here, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
It has been a big 24 hours for the government, having secured support for its gambling bill and, as Martin brought you a moment ago, passing the NDIS reforms with the Coalition through the Senate.
The health and NDIS minister, Mark Butler is doing the morning media rounds to celebrate – we’ll be following along closely.
Let’s get stuck in!
Updated
Pauline Hanson is targeting superannuation. Should it be easier to access your savings?
The debate over whether people should be allowed easier early access to their super balances to make ends meet continues to rage, with Pauline Hanson accusing Jim Chalmers of being “full of shit”.
She wants to let people take more of their cash and said the treasurer was misrepresenting her as being in favour of scrapping the whole scheme.
Our economics editor Patrick Commins has been looking at whether allowing earlier access would work and if it’s a good idea.
NDIS bill passes Senate after Labor deal with Coalition
The government’s controversial NDIS bill will pass the lower house today after it went through the Senate last night with “substantial” amendments (63 in total) after a deal between Labor and the Coalition. We’ll have the latest reaction soon, but in the meantime you can catch up on how the vote unfolded:
Updated
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.
The government’s controversial NDIS bill will pass the lower house today after it went through the Senate last night. The health minister, Mark Butler, said 63 government amendments across both houses were introduced to win the Coalition’s support for the government’s changes, aimed at reining in spending.
There will doubtless be more to come on this today, so stay tuned.
