What happened on Tuesday 8 February, 2022
With that, we will wrap up our live news coverage of the day.
These were the day’s news developments:
- The Morrison government’s proposed religious discrimination bill dominated discussion on the first federal parliamentary sitting day of the year. Scott Morrison corralled the Coalition party room to support amendments that only partially protect gay students, despite at least six Liberal MPs expressing concern about the religious discrimination bill. Late on Tuesday, Liberal MP Bridget Archer announced she would not support the bill because she is concerned it could result in self harm or even suicide.
- Earlier on Tuesday, the prime minister issued a formal apology to people who have experience sexual harassment, assault or bullying while working at parliament. Morrison directly apologised to former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, who was in the public gallery for the statement.
- Nurses and other workers in aged care descended on Parliament House on Tuesday morning protesting dangerous staff shortages, underpayment, and a lack of personal protective equipment – issues that persist more than two years after the Covid-19 pandemic began and despite numerous inquiries into the aged care sector.
- Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, has welcomed plans to reopen Australia’s border on 21 February but warned travellers may need a third Covid-19 vaccine dose in order to move freely about the state.
- Australian consular officials have been denied access to a dual Australian-Chinese citizen detained in Hong Kong for 11 months for alleged “subversion”.
Thanks for following along, we’ll be back to do it all again tomorrow.
Updated
Labor MP Stephen Jones has just shared a tragic personal story about his nephew taking his own life in debate about the religious discrimination bill.
Jones said:
Last week my family said farewell to my nephew Ollie. He was just 15 when he took his own life. No mother or father should have to endure this sight, no brother should have to clean up afterwards. He was a beautiful, creative, courageous young man. He was loved and accepted by his parents, family by his friends and community. His mum and dad are in anguish – we all are. He was gay, uncertain about his gender and struggled with his mental health. Now, he’s gone and we’re no longer going to be able to love and support him in his journey through life. Love and acceptance of family and friends weren’t enough.”
Jones also shared his son’s gender non-conforming behaviour including a love for women’s clothing, and his fears his son will be attacked for doing so.
Jones said the love of a family is not enough, because at some point they step out into the world, so parliamentarians must think about how they shape the world.
Jones said:
What message do we want parliament to send to these kids? Are they as loved and respected as other kids... Surely we can do better than to say it’s OK if you’re gay as long as you don’t show it.”
Updated
Liberal MP Dave Sharma has told the lower house he supports prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of religion, but has concerns with the bill.
Sharma took aim at Citipointe Christian College. He said:
We should not allow people to be vilified on the basis of attributes of which they have no choice, that are intrinsic to who people are.”
Sharma said that human rights are “equal and indivisible” and argued the government should amend the Sex Discrimination Act to protect both students and teachers, on grounds of both sexual orientation and gender.
“It’s time we cracked on and did it,”he said, without confirming whether he would move an amendment to do so, nor how he intended to vote on the bill.
Sharma said the statements of belief clause “causes me to ask a number of questions” and he is “still reconciling himself to it”.
He said:
All speech should deserve protection, it shouldn’t matter if it is grounded in faith or not. Political speech should enjoy the same protection, artistic speech, ideological speech. It concerns me we have a provision that privilege a certain kind of speech that others lack. As a federalist, [concerned with the] rights of states, I’m also a little uncomfortable overriding state laws ... That’s for the Tasmanian government to fix.”
So - major concerns - position still unclear.
Despite Scott Morrison asking MPs to make clear if they intended to reserve their position on the religious discrimination bill, a group of moderate Liberal MPs insist they are still negotiating with the attorney-general, and are signalling further possible changes.
Dave Sharma told Network 10’s The Project:
I will make my position clear when it comes time to vote on the bill. There are discussions internally and with my colleagues as well. I will continue to make sure I fight for communities, communities of faith but also the LGBTQI and the gay community to make sure their rights are protected in this.”
Asked about why the government would allow discriminatory treatment of gay and trans youth, Sharma said:
I don’t agree with that proposition and I don’t think it would meet community expectations.
I think the vast majority of Australians would agree that children and teachers shouldn’t be discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Updated
Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite told the Parliament that he supported the general concept of protections against religious discrimination, but focused his speech mostly on section 12 of the legislation - which goes to the contentious “statements of belief”.
The proposed bill would make it so that voicing a genuinely-held religious belief “does not constitute discrimination”, as long as the statement isn’t “malicious” or would “threaten, intimidate, harass or vilify a person or group”.
Thistlethwaite voiced five concerns on that section, including claiming it would take Australia “in the wrong direction about workplace culture and creating respectful and inclusive workplaces”. He also claimed it would create “a convoluted system of anti-discrimination law” and “promotes divisive religion”.
Thistlethwaite, who spoke of his lifelong Catholic faith, said “this bill raises serious concerns because it’s been rushed.”
Straight after, Coalition MP George Christensen rose to speak, calling the bill “weak” and “watered-down” - and, in stark contrast to Thistlethwaite, he said the statement of belief protection doesn’t go far enough. Christensen, who briefly considered becoming a priest, said he supports the bill because it will do “a little bit of good, but it won’t do much”.
Christensen claimed Christians had been “drowned out”, complaining about “rampant secularism”. He said he wanted to see more protections for religious people who wanted to voice their own beliefs, citing reports of workers who’d lost their jobs after making religious comments.
Christensen said:
This is something I’m very sad has been watered down this much... it is the hill we should die on,
This is the problem, this bill is religious discrimination. What we wanted was religious liberty.”
Nurses and other workers in aged care descended on Parliament House on Tuesday morning protesting dangerous staff shortages, underpayment and a lack of personal protective equipment – issues that persist more than two years after the Covid-19 pandemic began and despite numerous inquiries into the aged care sector.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation federal secretary, Annie Butler, addressed protesters and said nurses are “fed up with this government for abandoning aged care workers and residents”. She said:
Our aged care workers and nurses are holding the system together as best they can but they have got virtually nothing left. This is a crisis that should never have been allowed to happen and we are saying directly, Mr [Scott] Morrison, you let this happen.
She said the government had allowed a breakdown of privately run nursing homes, having failed to implement recommendations from last year’s aged care royal commission and numerous aged care inquiries that preceded it.
The government’s own royal commission reports – that I can barely lift because of their depth – are all ignored ...
It’s always too little too late.
Read more:
Updated
Liberal MP Bridget Archer in her forceful contribution was most scathing at the government’s decision not to protect trans children.
Archer said:
I’m horrified [the amendment] doesn’t extend to students that identify as transgender. More than horrified, I’m utterly distressed by this exclusion, and I can’t begin to think how kids and parents feel.
After so much progress, how did we get back to a place where we ignore the harm we place on children when we tell them they are ‘other’, ‘less than’ and do not deserve the rights and protections afforded to others? I fear it may risk lives.
Updated
Bridget Archer to withhold support for religious discrimination bill
The MP for the seat of Bass, Bridget Archer, will not support the religious discrimination bill, telling parliament that she is concerned it could result in self harm or even suicide.
She said:
The simple fact is this bill would allow for discrimination to happen.
And while I support the desire to employ religious school leaders or teachers who share that religious ethos, I don’t think that anybody would want to do so if it might cause harm to others.
I’m deeply concerned about the potential far reaching and unintended consequences of this bill.
She said that while she believed that nobody should be discriminated against because of their religion, the bill “goes further and beyond protecting somebody of faith”.
As an elected representative, my job’s to come here and vote on legislation that I believe will best serve my community.
This bill is an overreach and I cannot use the role that I have here to endorse a bill that erodes the rights of so many in my community ... and may cause them harm.
If the government wants to come back with a bill that protects people from religious discrimination without these other consequences then I would be supportive, but in its current form I cannot support this bill.
Updated
Australian consular officials have been denied access to a dual Australian-Chinese citizen detained in Hong Kong for 11 months for alleged “subversion”.
The Australian government – which has had an increasingly strained relationship with Beijing – renewed its concerns about “the erosion of basic freedoms and autonomy in Hong Kong” under the territory’s broadly worded national security law.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has disclosed new details about the case of a dual Australian-Chinese citizen detained in Hong Kong under that law, after officials had previously said the person was “subsequently released”.
The man, born in Hong Kong, was first arrested on 6 January 2021 “for conspiring to subvert state power” and was released on bail the following day, Dfat said in a written response to a parliamentary question.
On 28 February 2021 Hong Kong police advised the individual that he was to be charged for ‘subversion’ and was required to attend West Kowloon magistrates’ court on 1 March 2021, where he was again placed under arrest.
The individual remains in detention.”
Read more:
Australia’s mean temperature last year was 0.56C warmer than the long-term average despite 2021 being the country’s coolest year in a decade.
It was a year of contrasting weather and climate conditions, the Bureau of Meteorology said in its annual climate statement, with long-running heatwaves in northern Australia and widespread flooding in eastern states, in part due to a La Niña event.
In the west, severe tropical cyclone Seroja was the southernmost tropical cyclone to make landfall since the 1950s.
Averaged across the continent, last year was Australia’s 19th warmest year on record.
Mean annual maximum and minimum temperatures were above average for most of northern Australia, Tasmania, and parts of the west coast, but temperatures were cooler than average for parts of inland New South Wales and central Australia.
“Although 2021 was Australia’s coolest year since 2012, temperatures were still much warmer than the historical average,” said climatologist Jonathan Pollock. “In fact, of all the years on record prior to the year 2000, only five were warmer than 2021.”
Read more:
Updated
As the government seems set to leave trans students vulnerable to expulsion from religious schools in its amendments to the religious discrimination bill, it is worth noting that a government senator has made a submission to an inquiry into social media and online safety, in which she rails against the abuse copped online by those who argue for “sex-based rights”.
She singles out the focus on British millionaire author, JK Rowling, who has been subject to criticism after tweets about gender-neutral language erasing the experience of women and the “reality of biological sex”.
Liberal senator Claire Chandler has previously called for discrimination laws to be amended to allow trans people to be excluded from female-only sports, and her submission focused on a search for the Harry Potter author’s name on Twitter for some of the threats Rowling receives.
Despite acknowledging Rowling is from the UK and not Australia, she said it is what she and other “sex-based rights” advocates receive for voicing their opinions online. She said:
The committee could take the view that the threats directed to Rowling are not a matter for this Committee because Rowling is not Australian. Committee members will no doubt also be invited by segments of the political left to find that the abuse of Rowling is justified because Rowling tweets statements which they don’t like, such as pointing out the absurdity of a male rapist being classified by police as a woman.
It would be a major error for the committee to take either of these views. The reach of social media and the internet is global, and so the treatment of Rowling online and on social media sets the standard for how Australian women advocating for women’s sex-based rights can expect to be treated.
Chandler said she had also received abusive anonymous emails entitled “TERFs [trans-exclusionary radical feminists] eat shit and die”.
Chandler doesn’t insist on any sort of crackdown on social media or new watchdogs, but says there should be more “high-quality free debate and expression” where “trolls and death threats are not part of the landscape”, including debate in media, universities and parliament.
This is where at least some within the government are at.
Updated
Police have confirmed they are investigating several Coalition MPs seen not wearing masks inside Victoria’s parliament.
In a statement, Victoria police said:
Victoria Police is currently assessing images circulating on social media of MP’s without a mask on in parliament on 8 February. As the incident is being reviewed by investigators, we will not be providing further comment at this stage.
The MPs, including opposition leader Matthew Guy, were photographed not wearing masks while posing with Essendon legend Kevin Sheedy, who gave a motivational speech to the Liberal party room ahead of the 2022 state election.
Deputy premier James Merlino says school kids more mature about wearing masks than opposition MPs. Follows social media posts of maskless mps in parly, including Matthew Guy and Peter Walsh with Kevin Sheedy. #springst pic.twitter.com/Sm901kyTuo
— josh gordon (@joshgordo) February 8, 2022
In October 2021, Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, was fined $400 for twice not wearing a mask outside parliament.
Masks remain compulsory in Victoria in all indoor settings.
Updated
Coalition party room endorses limited religious bill changes
Scott Morrison has corralled the Coalition party room to support amendments that only partially protect gay students, despite at least six Liberal MPs expressing concern about the religious discrimination bill.
On Tuesday the Morrison government confirmed it proposes to protect gay students from expulsion – but not other forms of discrimination – without protecting trans students at the same time.
The Coalition party room endorsed limited changes to the religious bill and Sex Discrimination Act in an extended meeting after question time.
Guardian Australia understands that MPs who raised concerns with the bill or asked for further changes included Trent Zimmerman, Warren Entsch, Fiona Martin, Andrew Bragg, Julian Simmonds and Katie Allen. MPs Bridget Archer and Andrew Laming have also done so publicly, while Dave Sharma’s position is unclear as he didn’t speak in the meeting.
Zimmerman expressly reserved his right NOT to vote for the bill but one account of the meeting said the others did not - we have contacted them to clarify if this means they will support the bill, although Archer has said publicly she cannot vote for the bill in its current form, so many think the government is already on notice.
Speaking in favour of the bill were: Kevin Andrews, Eric Abetz, Julian Leeser and Matt Sullivan.
Updated
Nationals senator Perrin Davey has played down the significance of the saga surrounding a text message in which the Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce, called the prime minister, Scott Morrison, a hypocrite and a liar.
Appearing on ABC TV, Davey said Joyce had apologised to the prime minister and to the party room:
We move on, because we are actually focused on governing. Text messages, when I was out on the streets in my home community on the weekend, the only people who mention that story to me were saying what is this all about? Text messages? We don’t care, we want to know what your plan is for the future. Are you going to be the better government when I come to the ballot box in May? My answer is yes we will. We are focused on jobs.
Updated
From my colleagues Michael McGowan and Tamsin Rose on the New South Wales reporting team:
A controversial $252m NSW government grant program “lacked integrity” and did not use any consistent guidelines in awarding more than 95% of the money to local councils in Coalition state seats.
A scathing report on the scandal-plagued Stronger Communities Fund, released by NSW auditor general, Margaret Crawford, on Tuesday revealed former premier Gladys Berejiklian and former deputy premier John Barilaro personally chose projects for the fund with “little or no information about the basis” for their selections.
The auditor’s findings also confirmed the government had never published program guidelines and instead favoured local councils that had “worked constructively” with them in the past over council mergers.
On the same day that Crawford’s report was released, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that more than 75% of a separate $100m gambling revenue grant program was given to Coalition-held and battleground seats over a decade.
Responding to the Stronger Communities Fund grants made in 2019, in the lead-up to the state election, the auditor general found a lack of formal systems in place “prevent(ed) accountability and transparency over the government’s approach to selecting councils for funding”.
Read more:
Updated
My head is buzzing, and not in an entirely pleasant way. At this point I am going to hand you over to Elias Visontay, whose brain is likely to be much clearer. See you all tomorrow!
The Coalition party room has reconvened to resume consideration of the religious discrimination bill.
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has made a contribution – echoing concerns he made in additional comments to the Senate inquiry that the bill “departs from orthodox anti-discrimination law by including a ‘statement of belief’ [clause]”.
In that report, Bragg noted problems with the clause including that: it gives preference to religion over other attributes; employers are concerned it licenses discrimination in the workplace; it overrides state laws; and “the question of costs”, as no cost claims in state tribunals could be forced into federal courts by people raising a defence that allegedly discriminatory statements were statements of belief.
Bragg recommended the statement of belief clause be removed in its entirety and the Sex Discrimination Act should be amended to “end discrimination against students and teachers”, noting the “deeply upsetting case studies” of teachers who were sacked for their sexuality.
Liberal MP Julian Leeser has spoken in favour of the bill.
The tone is respectful and the result is likely to be agreement to make limited changes that prevent gay students from expulsion, but do not address the concerns of half a dozen MPs who called for broader protections or changes (Bridget Archer, Trent Zimmerman, Warren Entsch, Fiona Martin, Katie Allen, and Andrew Laming).
Dave Sharma is yet to speak.
Updated
The delegation of protesters has now left Craig Kelly’s office.
The group didn’t get a chance to meet Scott Morrison or Anthony Albanese, as they had hoped to, but claimed to have left a copy of their letter of demands. The list included asking federal politicians to drop all vaccine mandates (note: very few mandates are federal responsibility, most are from state governments) and to pass Kelly’s ‘No Vaccine Passport Bill’, which neither major party supports.
The protesters also demanded politicians “reinstate and compensate” people who’d lost their jobs over refusing to get a vaccine.
Demonstrators have another large protest planned at Parliament House on Saturday, claiming they want “one million Aussies” to arrive. The protests currently number a few thousand people.
Protest leader Graham Hood, who was part of the group visiting Kelly, flagged further big protests at Parliament during budget week in March.
Hood also recommended supporters go home and “regroup” after this weekend.
Canberra residents, who’ve been annoyed by constant road closures and traffic through the protests, will likely celebrate that news.
Updated
About 100 workers at the printing plant of West Australian Newspapers, which publishes the West Australian, have again been locked out of work as part of a long-running stoush with management, unions say.
Management at WAN, which is part of the Kerry Stokes-controlled Seven West Media, previously locked the print workers, who are members of the AMWU, ETU and CFMEU, out of the plant in December.
The long-running industrial barney is over an enterprise agreement to replace the one in force covering printers, which expired two years ago (EAs continue to operate past their expiry date until either replaced or cancelled.)
Unions say the deal proposed by WAN would reduce conditions and take-home pay. WAN has previously said it wants a new deal that provides “sustainable employment conditions”.
Seven West Media has been contacted for comment.
Updated
Some more from Mike Bowers, from the first question time for the year:
Updated
WA records 65 new Covid cases
Western Australia has reported 65 new Covid cases – 13 local and 52 travel related. Some of the new local cases were infectious in the community, and contact tracers are working to identify potential exposure sites.
All new cases are now in quarantine, WA Health says.
Updated
Question time ends
After much argy-bargy, many divisions, ringing of the bells and locking of the doors, and emotions and motions, time has run out in 2022’s first question time.
It got messy, stayed messy, and ended in a bit of a mess. And we’re going to do it all again tomorrow!
Epilogue: Labor’s Chris Bowen has withdrawn an unparliamentary remark (no, I don’t know what it was).
Updated
I’m going to break this up with a peek down the lens of Guardian Australia photographer, Mike Bowers.
Updated
Albanese is now moving to suspend standing orders to bring on a debate about the following:
That the house notes firstly in the third year of the pandemic, aged care remains in crisis, with almost 12,000 aged care residents and workers infected with Covid in more than 1100 facilities as of Friday, and over 600 deaths among aged care residents this year.
Secondly, tens of thousands of aged care residents are still waiting for a booster dose, aged care facilities have been left without rapid antigen tests and PPE. Aged care residents have been left without food, water and medical care because the government’s surge workforce strategy was inaccurate, and despite aged care being in crisis, the minister for aged care services has declared this sector is performing exceptionally well, and therefore calls on the prime minister to immediately sack his minister for aged care services and secondly apologise to aged care residents and their families for his failure to listen and act on countless warnings about the continuing crisis in aged care.
The Leader of the Opposition @AlboMP has moved to suspend standing orders during #QT to enable him to move a motion relating to aged care services. The Leader of the House @PeterDutton_MP has moved 'That the Member be no longer heard'. The House is dividing on the question.
— Australian House of Representatives (@AboutTheHouse) February 8, 2022
Updated
Back in question time, Burke is trying to make a point of order. He says Frydenberg is “completely inventing things that are not true”. The Speaker, Andrew Wallace, says Burke is not an arbiter of the truth.
Dutton chimes in with:
This chamber is a contest of ideas on a test of character, and if he [Albanese] doesn’t want his character tested, he should not be sticking his hand up for the job that he seeks.
Albanese refers to the statement earlier – the apology for the toxic culture in parliament house and calls to lift standards – and asks what that means if people can just get up and “say anything at all”.
Aaaaaaaand then Frydenberg is up again saying Albanese’s supporters were known as the Bolsheviks.
Yeah, it’s messy.
Updated
Craig Kelly signs anti-mandate protesters into Parliament House
Interrupting question time briefly to bring you news of the protestors who are now in Parliament House.
United Australia party leader, Craig Kelly, managed to get several representatives of the anti-mandate protests into Parliament House, signing them into the building under the watchful eye of security and police.
Kelly brought in around 10 protesters at around 1pm on Tuesday afternoon, including anti-lockdown activist Simeon Boikov, who creates YouTube content under the name Aussie Cossack and protest spokesperson Graham Hood. A dozen police and security trailed them back to Kelly’s office, after checking their claims of having exemptions to Parliament’s rules requiring face masks be worn inside.
Protesters claimed they wanted to meet Morrison and Albanese in order to present a list of “grievances” over vaccine mandates. But other parliament rules require visitors to be signed into the building directly by the offices they are visiting, meaning the protesters would not be able to simply drop-in on the PM or Labor leader.
Security and police stood in the halls outside Kelly’s office, ready to direct the protesters back outside Parliament House once their meeting was over. Speaking to media inside Kelly’s office, the protesters denied they were “anti-vaxxers”, instead saying they opposed vaccination mandates.
Hood has told supporters to remain peaceful and not confront police, but several protesters have been arrested and one was allegedly found with a gun in his car last week. At a small protest outside parliament on Monday, one speaker gave a speech saying, “we are coming for you... we are emptying this building,” and warning of a “mess”.
Hood said “98% of the rallies were people just like us”, while other protesters claimed that “there’s crazy people working [in Parliament] too”.
Hood also gave a speech at a rally on Saturday, where he called Parliament House a “satanic” building. He stood by that claim when asked by Guardian Australia, saying he wanted “to take it on” and that the vaccine debate was a “battle between good and evil”.
“I’m a man of faith and all the other stuff that’s causing this doesn’t come from God,” Hood said.
The protest group appears to still be in Kelly’s office.
Updated
Albanese is again asking about aged care. Morrison is making a distinction (again) between those who’ve died “with” Covid and those who’ve died “of” Covid, which is technically correct but also appears to be diminishing the number of deaths in aged care.
And Morrison says that the opposition is trying to pretend there are no pressures on the system.
Updated
The Speaker dismisses Tony Burke, who says the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, is talking “gibberish”. Frydenberg took a Dorothy Dixer and turned it into an attack on the opposition.
The Speaker says Frydenberg’s comments are relevant. There’s a brouhaha. Labor’s Pat Conroy is booted. The government’s leader of the house, Peter Dutton, says the Speaker made “a very good ruling”.
And Frydenberg is off again, claiming Albanese will introduce new taxes and won’t stand up to the unions. Albanese says:
This is embarrassing. This is nothing to do with any policy, this is some rant about some alleged union I worked for or something, I don’t know what it is, an attempted personal character assassination which has nothing to do with the question that was asked.
Updated
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, is trying to get a question past the Speaker on the religious discrimination act. Bandt said the amendments would mean “a school can sack an unmarried teacher if she is pregnant if it is against their beliefs, a doctor can tell their patient their sickness is from God because they are gay and a student can be expelled because they are transgender”.
Morrison is saying, as he did earlier, that the question does not go to his bill (it’s a little tricky, see Paul Karp’s story for the explanation).
Morrison said:
What I am introducing and what I introduced to this dispatch box was a set of positive laws which were about the sexual discrimination act, about positive laws that prevent discrimination against people of religious faith or who have no religious faith. The issues that are contained in that bill did not provide the powers to do the things that you talk about. Those powers exist in the law as it stands today, as was introduced by the Labor Party when they were last in government.
He goes on to say:
If those in this chamber want to speak about multiculturalism and how great a multicultural society it is, then they must acknowledge the role of faith and culture in this country, and if they want to support multiculturalism in this chamber, then I urge them to support the bill.
Updated
Albanese to Morrison again: “Why does the prime minister reject good ideas then take actions that are too little, too late, and after a problem has become a crisis?” (He’s talking about sending in the ADF to support the health system).
Morrison accuses Albanese of politicising the pandemic, then there’s some pandemonium, then Morrison says Albanese has been “snarling and growling” and has been negative during the pandemic. He said:
[We] have come through this pandemic with the constant negativity, snarling and growling ... but the facts are these, on each occasion we have worked to address the situation that we have had before us. On each and every occasion, we have sought to apply the resources, whether they be the defence forces, indeed our own public service offices and those around the country to address the needs that have been required, and particularly in the aged care sector, where defence forces were applied in Victoria during the second wave and are now being used in a similar way with targeted interventions, not with the wholesale replacement of the aged care workforce.
Updated
Labor’s Clare O’Neil has asked why the prime minister has not sacked the aged care services minister (that’s Richard Colbeck) for saying the aged care system was working “exceptionally well”.
Morrison says Australia is not doing as badly as other countries, and points to a bonus payment being made to aged care staff – a payment that has been heavily criticised. Morrison says that payment, along with changes to the close contact rules, are helping the sector deal with the challenges of Omicron.
And he says, again, that it is misleading to pretend the pandemic would have no effect on the vulnerable. (Again, no one has said that).
The health and aged care minister, Greg Hunt, added:
In terms of the specific response to support the aged care sector, which I would hope is the real concern of every person in this house, masks 14.8m units, gloves, 17.5m units, gowns, 25.9m units, all of these are real actions that have been taken to support that sector. In addition to that, the changed [furloughing arrangements] were fundamental in ensuring the continuity of workforce in terms of the definition of close contact but also the capacity and critical sectors such as aged care for asymptomatic close contacts to work.
That has been backed up by 80,000 shifts which have been put in place by the government and in addition the support for workforce retention and now the Australian defence force [which is also supporting the aged care workforce].
Updated
Labor MP Tim Watts was asked to withdraw an unparliamentary comment. Watts said: “I said the prime minister was a fraud and I do not believe that is unparliamentary”.
Updated
Morrison went on to say it would be “naive and misleading and ... false” to pretend the pandemic would not impact the most vulnerable people in the community.
(I am not sure anyone is, in fact, saying that.)
Morrison said:
Our government will continue to do everything we can to support those in residential aged care facilities and those working with them ... we work to try and provide support to those who are most vulnerable.
Updated
Albanese goes into question time with a question on the aged care crisis, and asks whether the prime minister, Scott Morrison, will take responsibility for the deaths.
Morrison said:
The pandemic takes a heavy toll in this country, as it has over the course of this pandemic ... since the beginning of this year, it is true that in aged care facilities, 587 people as of the 7 February have died with Covid. I note also that since the 1 January of this year up until the 28 January, some 4141 people who were in aged care have passed away. Since the onset of Omicron, some 682 people have died in aged care facilities ... and some 9141 people who have been residents in aged care have passed away.
Updated
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, is now adding his congratulations to Queen Elizabeth II on her platinum jubilee. He said she “has been a rare, constant, and enduring, inspiring presence of calm, decency and strength”:
No jubilee, no matter how happy, is without a tinge of sadness. This is her first without Prince Philip. Half of a partnership so close that the tenderness could be glimpsed between the layers of formality and tradition. It is also a celebration of a reign that began with the premature death of her adored father, George VI.
When he died, the young Princess Elizabeth was in Kenya, en route to Australia. The relatively carefree life they had envisioned for themselves in those early years of marriage was over. Princess Elizabeth returned to England as Queen. The responsibilities of the throne on one shoulder, the sudden absence of her father on the other.
She had to find the strength amidst her grief to measure up to the expectations of a nation and the great weight of the institution into which she was born.
He went on to say:
You can be a republican, as I am, and still have the deepest respect for the Queen. She has done her duty with fidelity, integrity, humanity, and as she sometimes let slip with a sly sense of humour.
Updated
Back to Morrison’s tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. He has peppered it with pop culture references, including James Bond and the Crown.
He finished with: “God save the Queen”.
In between, he said:
In past jubilees, silver, diamond, gold, there has been unbridled joy, a celebration of a life of service, a reminder of the ties that bind, an expression of the affectionate history we share. In the midst of these celebrations, we know that our Queen will stand alone, as she did during the service that farewelled her loved husband of some 73 years. On that day, we all truly saw her, stoic and strong, yet human and frail and vulnerable. Dignity in the midst of suffering. Even if it is her own.
In that moment, we realised that ... even monarchs face the frailties of the body and the sunsets that beckoned us all. But still, at 95, Her Majesty continues to serve, and passionately so.
As a constitutional monarch, she lived out her belief that monarchy must be above politics, and the Queen played no role in that [republican referendum] campaign, pledging to respect and accept the result. And after that debate had passed, she said: ‘I shall continue to faithfully serve as Queen of Australia under the constitution to the very best of my ability, as I have tried to do for these past 48 years, as my duty to seek to remain true to the interests of Australia and all Australians as we enter into the 21st century’, and so she has done.
Updated
National Covid-19 update
Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 55 deaths from Covid-19:
ACT
- Deaths: 1
- Cases: 495
- In hospital: 55 (with one person in ICU)
NSW
- Deaths: 18
- Cases: 9,690
- In hospital: 2,068 (with 132 people in ICU)
NT
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 1,092
- In hospital: 178 (with 5 people in ICU)
Queensland
- Deaths: 12
- Cases: 5,178
- In hospital: 700 (with 22 people in ICU)
SA
- Deaths: 4
- Cases: 1,296
- In hospital: 204 (with 15 people in ICU)
Victoria
- Deaths: 20
- Cases: 9,785
- In hospital: 575 (with 72 people in ICU)
WA
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 65 (13 local, 52 travel-related)
- In hospital: 1
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Liberal MP Andrew Laming, has used his 90 second statement before question time to argue that the Morrison government amendments to prohibit expulsion of [same-sex attracted] students “is simply not enough”.
Laming said:
These students are usually not expelled. Too often they’re bullied out by a range of other tactics, that allow the school to say they never expelled them.
Laming said schools are not just about delivering faith, but delivering education, and students who are “there for the right reasons” deserve to complete their education.
Laming wants broader protection of LGBTQ+ students – we will clarify what that means for his vote on the religious discrimination bill.
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We are barrelling towards question time, but first the prime minister, Scott Morrison, is congratulating Queen Elizabeth II on being the Queen for seventy years:
We express our respect to the dedication you have displayed in the service of the commonwealth [and] deep and abiding commitment to Australia and its people.
Princess Elizabeth was on her way to Australia 70 years ago. The world as she knew it changed forever. Her beloved father had died. A young princess in her 20s in the first years of her marriage with two young children became Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in a Commonwealth of Nations that spanned the globe.
The Queen has never celebrated this day, and understandably so. I am sure she would have preferred to enjoy her father’s love, an example for many more years before she was called upon to wear that heavy crown.
A reminder that no matter who we are, events happen in life, events out of our control that require more of us than we think sometimes we may be able. In a moment of immense sadness, and with the tremendous grace and poise and dignity and strength for which she has become known all around the world, and particularly here in Australia, Her Majesty commenced her duties as our Queen.
Her life is one of dedication of duty and devotion, of service over self, of stead and unflinching adherence to the ideals and the responsibility of constitutional monarchy.
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The National Women’s Safety Alliance has responded to today’s statement. Chief executive, Dr Renee Hamilton, said it was “an important step in changing culture and practices” but that gender equality needed to be tackled:
Safety is everyone’s business and the Australian parliament – just like all workplaces – has an obligation to provide a safe work environment. But we cannot make real change in any workplace unless we address the main driver of violence against women: gender inequality.
As the government implements all 28 recommendations, people with lived experience and experts in gender-based violence need to have a seat at the table.
Words are important, especially when they are spoken from Australia’s seat of power. But genuine action based on equality and respect must be what happens next.
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Christian Schools Australia, which is one of the groups that threatened to withdraw support for the religious discrimination bill if it prevented discrimination against LGBTQ+ students, has given its seal of approval to the more limited amendments that prevent expulsion of gay students.
CSA director of public policy, Mark Spencer, said:
As we have made very clear over many years, Christian schools have never expelled students simply on the basis of sexual orientation.
That “simply” should send a shiver down the spine – because one must remember that schools can still discriminate against teachers and students for their views.
For example, they might decide to punish someone who thinks that being a practising gay person and Christian can be compatible.
Spencer said:
We welcome these targeted amendments to address the fears created by activists and once and for all settle that expulsion of students simply on the basis of their sexual orientation is not lawful.
We support the review by the ALRC of the far more complicated issues regarding other protected attributes, including gender identity ...
Supporting gender questioning students is complex and schools need to be able to deal with these issues on a case-by-case basis, balancing the needs of those students with other students, finding ways to support all families within the school community.
The increasing concerns around appropriate treatment regimes, how access to facilities can be managed, and what impacts arise in relation to sporting activities are just some of the practical issues that need consideration.
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Malcolm Turnbull has offered a typically blunt assessment of the Morrison government’s energy policies in a webinar hosted by the Clean Energy Council.
Speaking on a panel after interviews with several federal MPs, the former Liberal prime minister said the government he used to lead had “basically checked out” of leading on energy. He said:
It’s got a bundle of aspirations but no policy on how you’re going to get there.
Turnbull said in reality the government was putting “very little” funding into developing a hydrogen industry, and even less into “green hydrogen” made with renewable energy.
He said the focus on “blue hydrogen” – which is made with gas, with carbon dioxide emissions captured and stored or used, rather than released into the atmosphere – was “essentially a con” and “absolutely terrible from a greenhouse gas point of view” as carbon capture and storage hardly ever worked.
Turnbull is the Australian chairman of the mining billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries, which is heavily backing green hydrogen. The company ran a full-page ad in the Australian Financial Review on Tuesday declaring that, contrary to government claims, only green hydrogen is “clean hydrogen”, and that the emissions from blue hydrogen can be 20% higher than from burning coal or gas for heat.
Turnbull told the forum the future of green hydrogen was likely to be “between gigantic and very gigantic”, particularly in making green steel, aluminium and ammonia.
The Clean Energy Council has released a future roadmap for renewable energy ahead of the election, urging politicians to back steps that could lead to the country meeting all domestic electricity needs using clean energy by 2030.
The group’s chief executive, Kane Thornton, said:
Now is the time to exploit Australia’s natural advantages to bring down the cost of electricity ... and position the country as the innate home of energy-intensive industries in the Asia Pacific.
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In addition to MPs Katie Allen and Fiona Martin, Guardian Australia understands that Trent Zimmerman and Warren Entsch also spoke up against the religious discrimination bill and argued amendments did not go far enough.
Martin, a psychologist with 20 years experience, focused on her concerns for the mental health of young people and the fact kids with gender identity issues such as gender dysphoria, or transgender children are one of the most vulnerable cohorts.
Martin holds the culturally diverse inner-Sydney seat of Reid, where Hinduism is the second largest faith group – and the Hindu Council of Australia has actually warned that minority religions face greater discrimination as a result of the bill.
Martin wants the Sex Discrimination Act amended to protect all kids, including on the grounds of gender identity.
We’re still gathering a full speaker list but gather Liberal Lucy Wicks spoke about her Christian views and how others’ “lifestyle/behaviour” shouldn’t prevent schools setting their own ethos.
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South Australian COVID-19 update 08/02/22. For more information, go to https://t.co/mYnZsG87wo or contact the South Australia COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787. pic.twitter.com/eUKLyezsZo
— SA Health (@SAHealth) February 8, 2022
Coalition party room to meet again after Question Time to consider religious discrimination
The Coalition party room met today, and considered two reports into the religious discrimination bills.
The attorney general, Michaelia Cash, spoke about the government’s proposed response to the inquiries and proposed amendments – but the meeting was interrupted by the apology and acknowledgement of sexual harassment. The meeting will reconvene after question time.
Guardian Australia understands the proposed changes are:
- Fix constitutional problems with the statement of belief and employment practices clauses (but otherwise do not address concerns that they will override state laws).
- Clarify what schools’ written policies need to have before they can discriminate.
- Add a section 38(4) to the Sex Discrimination Act to prevent expulsion of students on the basis of sexuality – but no protection against other forms of discrimination or on the grounds of gender identity.
These changes have not been formally adopted yet as government policy, so Labor can still (rightly) say it hasn’t seen the final bill.
We know Liberal MP Angie Bell came out of the meeting saying she now supports the bill. But MPs Katie Allen and Fiona Martin expressed concerns that the SDA change excludes trans children.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said:
We were very clear that this was a bill that we wanted to see passed, so it will go to the parliament.
In the lower house, second reading speeches on the religious discrimination bill have recommenced, with Labor MP Graham Perrett criticising aspects of the bill including the statement of belief and employment practices, but describing the rest of it as “largely uncontroversial”.
Perrett says changes need to be made to the Sex Discrimination Act, describing it as “utterly repugnant” for schools to be allowed to use contracts to discriminate against LGBTQ+ children.
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Outside parliament house there’s a protest by Hazara Australians calling on the Australian government to bring more people trapped inside Afghanistan to safety.
They are also calling on the federal government to move Afghans already living in Australia from temporary visas to permanent visas, and to allow them to reunite with their families.
Australia is a land of equality and boundless opportunity.
— Sitarah Mohammadi (@sitarah_m) February 8, 2022
We must end the temporary status of refugees who have been living in our communities for many years. They are part of our community. We must extend equal rights to them to live a life of certainty with their families. pic.twitter.com/EdAXMAbtCJ
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Guardian reporter Josh Butler is keeping an eye on Craig Kelly and his visitors ...
UAP MP Craig Kelly has signed several of the anti-vaccine protesters (and their camera teams) into Parliament House. A number of police/security at the door, checking the vaccine/mask exemptions that some of the group are claiming.
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) February 8, 2022
There’s about a dozen police/security tailing the group as they walk to Kelly’s Parliament office. I’d love to show you a pic/video but you can’t take footage in this part of the House
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) February 8, 2022
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Greens Senator @larissawaters now proposing to suspend Senate standing orders to move a motion #auspol pic.twitter.com/rbTuQGewPo
— Political Alert (@political_alert) February 8, 2022
Here is a story from AAP about a dolphin, in case you need it right now:
A dolphin has been rescued after getting stranded in shallow waters in Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay.
Water police were called to Greenwich reserve in Williamstown at about 4pm on Monday by marine animal experts from Melbourne Zoo.
Two inflatable rescue boats carrying four officers were sent out and a sling was made to tow the marooned mammal into deeper water.
Animal experts assessed the dolphin before it was successfully released. Leading senior constable Tony Christensen said:
Our members often see dolphins in the bay during patrols and it’s great to see this one back where it belongs. We hope to cross paths again – but this time well away from shore.
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Please read: Guardian Australia’s medical editor, Melissa Davey, fact checks the federal government’s claims on aged care, including health minister Greg Hunt’s claim that of those who died in aged care from or with Covid, 60% were palliative and “in the absolute last days of their lives”.
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While that apology was happening and survivors looked on as parliament acknowledged their abuse, independent MP Craig Kelly was bringing in visitors from the anti-vaccine mandate protests. (Please enjoy the gritty reality of an ABC back-of-camera shot).
#LATEST Former Liberal MP turned Independent Craig Kelly has successfully signed in some of the anti-vaccine mandate protesters to parliament @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/qn8kUVeCSP
— Anna Henderson (@annajhenderson) February 8, 2022
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Further to the post below on that all-in press conference where a wide range of equality advocates called for the religious discrimination bill to be scrapped.
The chief executive of LGBTQ+ lobby Equality Australia, Anna Brown, said the government amendments are “completely inadequate” because they “fail to protect gay children” from suspension, detention and unfair treatment, and “completely” leave behind the most vulnerable, trans children.
Ian Thorpe said parliament should do everything it can to protect the most marginalised – trans children – and that the bill has “no friends in parliament”.
A spokesperson for the Hindu Council of Australia said the bill allows discrimination in hiring by religious institutions – which is harmful for smaller/newer religious groups in Australia, because they don’t have schools and hospitals of their own, and staff face pressure to convert if they find a job at the institution of another religion.
Olivia Stewart, a transgender student, said she had been “directly discriminated against” by a school, who asked her to leave after warning she would be bullied for her gender identity.
Sean Drummond, a disability advocate, said the bill “pits thoughts and prayers” against rights of groups including people with disability.
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While we’re on the religious discrimination bill – debate has resumed in the parliament. I won’t bring you the blow by blows, but stay tuned for any highlights and Paul Karp will (again) pull it all together for you.
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Liberal MP Angie Bell has revealed she will vote for the religious discrimination bill on the basis that she has secured protections for children with differing sexual orientation (but not trans children). Bell said in a statement:
I will honour my commitment to the prime minister and his election commitment, to support the religious discrimination bill having successfully secured greater protections at the same time, through amendments to the sex discrimination act for children based on their sexual orientation.
I will always advocate for an Australia free from discrimination for all. This bill and the amendments I have successfully advocated for are an important step in the right direction.
On why she is not insisting that gender identity discrimination be removed at the same time, Bell said:
There is still work to be done to see an Australia free from all discrimination, but it is important we make changes to legislation now that will assist in these efforts and not allow this opportunity to be lost.
Transitioning students are at the highest risk of experiencing mental health difficulties and present particular challenges for single sex schools. Those details will be looked at through the ALRC process and reported back 12 months after the passage of the religious discrimination bill.
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Five men speak first on cultural change in Parliament. No structural problems here, my friend
— Sarah Martin (@msmarto) February 8, 2022
The speeches are still going, but Brittany Higgins has left – Rachelle Miller also left the chamber but has come back in.
Updated
The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, has also spoken:
Parliament House should be the safest workplace in the country. Unfortunately, it isn’t. And most certainly in the past, wasn’t. The experiences people shared as part of the Jenkins review are truly disturbing and confronting. [These] experiences have no place in any workplace let alone our parliament.
I thank every individual who participated in the review. Your experiences have been heard and will be acted on. I join both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition in saying sorry and acknowledging that we will do better.
We are a unique position – we can bring about change for the better. There is no easier place to bring about change than the place where we are working ... we are taking merely the first step to fix the culture and the broken system to provide a workplace that is safe.
Together, we are committed to make Parliament House the safest workplace in the country and a reflection to our nation of a model workplace for us all to work in.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, paid tribute to the thousands of women who marched for justice, and pointed out that half the parliamentary staff had experienced bullying, harassment or assault in their time at work.
“The blame is ours. The shame is ours,” he said:
Men have failed. Failed to act with respect, failed to act with basic human decency, failed to listen and failed to make the changes necessary when asked. As men we need to change our behaviours and we are committed to that.
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...
How about some proactive, preventative measures and not just these performative, last-minute bandaid electioneering stunts?
— Grace Tame (@TamePunk) February 8, 2022
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, has also said sorry and highlighted the need for immediate action. He said:
[The Jenkins report] catalogues in personal testimony and shocking statistics our failure to [lead by example]. It is also a demand that we act right now. We owe a debt of gratitude to everyone in this building as well as every former staff member who stepped up to share their experiences of workplace bullying and misconduct, of sexual harassment and most dramatically, of sexual assault. I also knowledge particularly the women who have bravely stood up and called out a culture of mistreatment that brought this issue into the light. I particularly pay tribute to the courage of Brittany Higgins who is with us today.
You have torn through a silence that has acted as the life-support system for the most odious of status quos. To describe your experiences is to relive them. I say to everyone who took part, that took a level of courage that you should never have needed to show. But you did. And we thank you for it.
We also knowledge everyone who has experienced misconduct but could not take part. Indeed, there are many who are not ready to speak and perhaps never will be. But I hope you can take some heart from knowing that this very institution that failed you is at last acknowledging your hurt. Most importantly, we are sorry. We are committing to change.
The Jenkins report, with its piercing honesty about the treatment of women and men both, has exposed a damaged culture but no word any of us says in here is worth a thing if it does not lead to action.
We can make a difference but it would take real and sustained effort to create the lasting cultural change that we need. I believe we can do it. I know that we have to. And how we can start doing that is by working across the parliament to implement every single recommendation of the Jenkins report. That is the absolute minimum we should be doing for the staff who are, in so many ways, the fuel and the engine of parliament ...
No-one deserves to feel unsafe or disrespected any workplace, let alone our national parliament. Let us be the example for Australia that the national parliament ought to be. While the report concerns itself with this place, it is part of something bigger. An overdue national reckoning.
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Morrison goes on to thank commissioner Kate Jenkins and repeats the Speaker’s statement that parliament should have “the high standards of a place where any Australian can aspire to work”.
Morrison said:
[Jenkins] said this is an opportunity for the leaders of our country to transform and commonwealth parliamentary workplaces to become what they already should be. Workplaces where expected standards of behaviour [are modelled], championed and enforced. And where respectable behaviour is rewarded and which any Australian, no matter gender, race, sexual orientation, disability status or age, feel safe and welcome to contribute.
That is our task, she has set it out clearly. We must hold ourselves to the standard, all of us. I hesitate in calling it a new standard, because that [suggests it] should not have been previously. This is a standard that should be outside of time. Because by taking an oath or affirmation that this very table, it means you are a leader. Whatever role in which you serve.
Mr Speaker, we have understood in this place the power of an apology to bring healing and to bring change. I am proud that this is a chamber in which we have done this on so many occasions, but I believe Australia is somewhat unique in this regard.
We ... have sought to silence the valid and just complaints of people because there was fear about electoral consequences. I am sorry. We are sorry. I am sorry to [Brittany] Higgins for the terrible things that took place here. And the place that should have been a place for safety and contribution, turned out to be a nightmare. I am sorry for far more than that. [Higgins] had the courage to speak, and so here we are. We are sorry for all of these things, and in doing so, each of us take on accountability for change. For those of us who have perpetuated the bullying and violence, the light will come to those behaviours. As it must.
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“I am sorry. We are sorry,” Morrison said.
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Prime minister Scott Morrison says he rises to “enthusiastically support” the statement, and to recognise “all of those who are why we are here today in making this acknowledgement”. He said:
I particularly want to acknowledge Brittany Higgins, whose experience, and more importantly courage, is the reason why we are all here today. And I want to thank her for that. I also want to recognise all of those who have contributed to the Jenkins review. Some 1700 individuals contributed. 935 participated in the surveys from right across this building ... those who work and call this place their place of work. 490 interviews were conducted, 11 focus groups were undertaken.
This review speaks of a long-standing culture, generations of culture, in this place and in the building before it, of bullying and harassment that has occurred over this time. A power imbalance over that time that has been exploited. And that exploitation, abuse and harassment has played itself out through terrible traumatic and harrowing experiences. The harassment of staff, particularly female staff, as well as the harassment of female members and senators. Over many decades, the culture [that] perpetuated bullying, abuse, harassment and in some cases even violence became normalised. This has to change, it is changing, and I believe it will change.
Updated
Parliament acknowledges workplace bullying, harassment and sexual assault
Here is the full statement of acknowledgement:
In the final sitting week of 2021 the Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces was published by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins.
Today, on the first sitting day of 2022, we deliver this statement on behalf of the Parliamentary Cross-Party Leadership Taskforce recommended by Commissioner Jenkins and as a reflection of the Parliament. We acknowledge the unacceptable history of workplace bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault in Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces.
This issue is of the greatest importance and the responsibility of all people who work in this place. Any bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault is unacceptable and wrong. We say sorry.
Every workplace should be safe and respectful. This place and its members are committed to bringing about lasting and meaningful change to both culture and practice within our workplaces. We have failed to provide this in the past. We today declare our personal and collective commitment to make the changes required. We will aspire, as we should, to set the standard for the nation.
We thank all of those who participated in the Jenkins Review, acknowledging everyone who came forward to tell us of their experiences. We also acknowledge the many others who could not or did not participate but who may have experienced misconduct. We know that your experiences have had profound and far-reaching impacts on your lives. We have listened and heard you, and we accept your calls for change.
This Parliament should serve as a model workplace for our nation. Only by creating the best workplace will this parliament attract the best people our country has to offer. And only by attracting the best our country has to offer, and listening to the communities we represent, will we deliver the high standards that our country deserves.
Parliamentary workers feel pride in working for their country, and the privilege and honour of making a difference for the Australian people. However, for far too many, it has not been safe or respectful. The Jenkins Review proposes an ambitious program of reform to ensure Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces meet the highest standards. We are fully committed to working across the Parliament to implement all of these recommendations within the timeframes proposed by Commissioner Jenkins.
We have started to act. Last year, we established a new independent complaints process and began providing trauma-informed support for people who have experienced serious incidents working in the Parliament. Members, Senators and staff have undertaken professional workplace training.
Parliamentarians must uphold the highest standards and be accountable for delivering required actions. We know that cultural change has to come from the top – it has to be role modelled and championed by all of us.
While we know we cannot undo the harm that has already been done, we are committed to acknowledging the mistakes of the past and continuing to build safe and respectful workplaces.
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Australian officials have been denied consular access to a dual Australian-Chinese citizen who is being prosecuted in Hong Kong under the sweeping new national security law.
The ABC has reported that the man – first arrested on 6 January last year, released on bail the next day and then re-arrested on 1 March – is accused of “conspiring to subvert state power”. The ABC report says the man has spent the past 11 months in jail and faces a potential jail term ranging from 10 years to life, if convicted of subversion.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said:
The Australian Consulate-General in Hong Kong was notified by Hong Kong authorities of the arrest of a dual Australian-Chinese citizen under its National Security Law in January 2021.
Officials from our Consulate-General have attended the subsequent court hearings. However, we have been denied consular access despite multiple attempts because the individual is deemed to be a Chinese citizen under China’s citizenship laws, which do not recognise dual nationality. We are in regular contact with the individual’s lawyers and will continue to attend future court hearings.
Australia and many other countries have expressed concern about the erosion of basic freedoms and autonomy in Hong Kong and have called on Hong Kong and Chinese authorities to abide by their human rights obligations.
The Hong Kong National Security Law could be interpreted broadly and therefore result in detention that is arbitrary or lacks transparency as well as the removal of basic individual rights.
The man’s case was first mentioned in Australian Senate estimates hearings in October, but there were few details before now.
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Australian Defence Force personnel have been deployed across Australia for Operation Aged Care Assist. 1,700 men and women of the ADF will take up additional duties in aged care facilities to help Australians most in need. pic.twitter.com/vGYnzZvuHs
— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) February 8, 2022
'I'm going to help you guys': Gerard Rennick speaks to anti-vax mandate protest
Coalition senator Gerard Rennick has spoken briefly at a growing anti-vaccine mandate protest outside Parliament House, accepting a letter the group wanted delivered to prime minister Scott Morrison.
“I’m going to help you guys fight to end the mandates ... make sure our children don’t get vaccinated and make sure we restore our civil liberties and end government overreach,” Rennick told protesters, to loud cheers.
One group involved in the protests has asked supporters to sign an open letter which is critical of Covid vaccines, which they claim will be “presented to the prime minister on Tuesday”. The letter claims that protesters “will bring hundreds of thousands sending you into hiding and we will take this country back for the people”.
Labor senator Murray Watt, a long-term critic of his fellow Queenslander Rennick, tweeted that the Coalition MP was “working against Morrison govt policy”.
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Nurses protesting over aged care crisis at Parliament House
Aged care nurses are descending on Parliament House this morning protesting dangerous staff shortages, underpayment, and a lack of personal protective equipment – issues that persist more than two years since the Covid-19 pandemic began and despite numerous inquiries into the aged care sector.
“I’m here because I care, our residents deserve better” @anmf_federal pic.twitter.com/KkjdfRyPCj
— 🧶🧶🧶 unravellednurse 🧶🧶🧶 (@jsam_1967) February 8, 2022
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation’s federal secretary Annie Butler said nurses are “fed up with this government for abandoning aged care workers and residents”:
Every day that Mr [Scott] Morrison fails to act on safe, minimum staffing ratios, fails to deliver a decent, permanent pay rise for underpaid workers and fails to show our aged care workers and residents dignity and respect, is another day that elderly Australians in nursing homes continue to suffer.
A piece published by the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday, led by the University of Wollongong’s Prof Kathy Eagar, calculates that aged care residents comprise 0.74% of the Australian population and 0.59% of Covid-19 cases. Yet they represent 36.87% of all Covid-19 deaths in the pandemic so far.
Eagar and her colleague Anita Westera wrote that ongoing systemic failures in aged care were exacerbated by issues including decisions to end lockdowns and ease restrictions based on vaccination rates rather than whether the aged care sector was prepared; aged care booster programs not being complete before restrictions were eased; poor access to rapid antigen tests; and inadequate personal protective equipment.
Other issues identified by the authors include poor pay for staff, less experienced staff being employed to cut costs, “a long-held agenda within the centre of government to curtail projected costs associated with an ageing population” and the commonwealth’s “hands-off approach to aged care”. They wrote:
The current crisis yet again reflects the reactive and iterative policy making that has characterised aged care in recent decades. And while responsibility for aged care remains centrally controlled at the national level, this is unlikely to change.
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'State-sanctioned discrimination': Ian Thorpe attacks bill
Olympic champion Ian Thorpe is standing up to speak about the religious discrimination legislation on behalf of Equality Australia – he’ll be followed by a range of speakers, who are all calling for the bill to be opposed.
Thorpe, who is a mental health advocate and came out as gay in 2014, said it amounted to “state-sanctioned discrimination” that would “gain rights for one group of people, while excluding another group of people”. He said:
The prime minister promised that there would not be a gay student not allowed in school and now it’s been considered trans is not classified in the category as well ... this is a group of people that we should be protecting.
We want to see (this bill) disappear. It has no friends in parliament, it hasn’t... this is the third time this bill (has come around) and it is something that we would prefer to see squashed.
The delegation includes representatives from the Hindu Council of Australia, the Australian Council of Social Services, and transgender year 12 student Olivia Stewart.
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The Greens say bill is 'throwing trans kids under the bus'
Further to Paul Karp’s reporting on the argy bargy between the Coalition and Labor on the religious discrimination bill today, the Greens have flagged introducing amendments in the House and Senate to update what they claim is an “appalling” proposal.
A Greens spokesperson told a media briefing after their party room meeting that they would introduce more modest amendments in the House. They hoped Liberal moderates may support them, rather than proposing “stronger” amendments in the Senate where the government does not control the majority.
The Greens’ amendments would include removing section 38(3) of the Sex Discrimination Act, which says it is “not unlawful” for religious schools to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. This is central to today’s controversy around transgender students not being protected against expulsion, under the current government proposal.
The Greens are “really disappointed” Labor hasn’t spoken more strongly in opposition to the current bill, the party spokesperson said, and claimed the current proposal was “throwing trans kids under the bus”.
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Getting down to business (part 2):
The first sitting day of 2022 will get underway at midday today. You can find our order of business (the Red) on ParlWork https://t.co/W0mvG4D8zj
— Australian Senate (@AuSenate) February 8, 2022
One of the first items of business on the #Senate's agenda is the swearing in of Senator Mirabella as a senator for Victoria
Getting down to business (part 1):
Good morning! The House resumes for the first sitting of the year at noon. Today will begin with a statement from the Speaker. The first order of the day is the resumption of debate on the Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 and related bills. Full program: https://t.co/pWJxbQVHJK pic.twitter.com/IpEcwEFso8
— Australian House of Representatives (@AboutTheHouse) February 8, 2022
Queensland records 5,178 Covid cases and 12 deaths
Queensland has recorded 5,178 new Covid cases and 12 deaths. About 700 people with the virus are in hospital, and another 22 in intensive care.
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The former Labor leader, Bill Shorten, has responded to reports the government will protect gay students from discrimination but not transgender students, by noting it is a “hypothetical” but that prime minister Scott Morrison promised to protect students from all forms of persecution.
He said:
We’re five minutes to midnight and he [Morrison] is having to be dragged across the concrete by the fingernails.
Shorten said Labor is “against discrimination” and religious freedom is “a core value” but you don’t improve the rights of some while taking away from the rights of others.
As to how Labor will resolve the balance between religion and other rights – there’s still nothing definitive until the Coalition settles its final bill.
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The head of Australia’s Communications and Media Authority, Nerida O’Loughlin, is speaking at the International Institute of Communications Asia Telecommunications & Media Forum 2022 today.
She is on a panel alongside Than Htun Aung, the deputy director general of Myanmar’s Posts and Telecommunications Department. That department, under the control of Myanmar’s illegal military junta, is responsible for widespread surveillance of citizens across the country.
Advocates argue inviting representatives of the junta to speak at international conferences legitimises the Myanmar military regime:
🤯Australia's @acmadotgov chair Nerida O'Loughlin speaking on a panel TODAY on "protecting citizens & consumers" w/ a #Myanmar junta official responsible for surveillance & censorship of media & civil society! Hosted by @The_IIC.#ACMA: Stop reputation laundering for terrorists! pic.twitter.com/KRryfXLQCd
— Justice For Myanmar (@JusticeMyanmar) February 7, 2022
Victoria seeking legal advice on religious discrimination bill, Andrews says
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews was also asked for this thoughts on the federal government’s religious discrimination bill. He said:
I think everybody should be treated fairly, properly and that’s exactly the arrangements that we have in place ... In terms of the interaction between changes at a Victorian level and a commonwealth level, well there’s a few things to be settled there.
Late last year, the Victorian parliament passed laws banning religious schools from sacking or refusing to hire staff based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Andrews confirmed the Victorian government is seeking legal advice on how to defend its laws if the federal bill passes:
We will use any and all legal avenues to defend those who ought to be treated fairly and equally and might not be under any arrangements where a commonwealth act overrode or set aside provisions of a state act that duly passed the parliament.
Andrews said he wanted “every student to be treated equally”. He continued:
I want every Victorian to be confident, safe, respected, included for who they are. And I must say it’s pretty offensive for some in the community to equate sexual orientation or gender identity to a choice not to get vaccinated. That’s the wrong choice. People’s identity is not a matter of choice; who you are is who you are, who you love, is a matter for you. You should be treated fairly and equitably. You should not be discriminated against based on who you are. That’s just my view. It also happens to be the view of the Victorian community.
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Tasmania records 601 Covid cases
Tasmania has had a small increase in new Covid cases, with 601 recorded overnight after a few days in the 400s, AAP reports. Ten people are in hospital, one of them in intensive care.
New reported cases up on yesterday = 601
— COVID Tasmania (@CovidTasmania) February 7, 2022
Hospitalisations steady at 15
ICU steady at 1
No deaths pic.twitter.com/POzlSS6yRB
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Daniel Andrews welcomes border reopening, announces free RATs for kids in childcare
Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, spoke to reporters in Melbourne earlier this morning.
He welcomed the federal government’s decision to reopen the Australian border to tourists and all visa holders, provided they have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine:
Firstly, I think we all were a bit amused at the timeline that had been put forward by the commonwealth government around Easter, I thought that was ... some time off and perhaps we could do better than that. It’s great yesterday that the commonwealth were able to confirm that it will be much sooner than that. That’s good for the economy, for jobs, so that’s something that we fully support.
Andrews said national cabinet is still awaiting advice from Australia’s independent expert group on vaccination, Atagi, on whether it will change the definition of fully vaccinated to mean three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine. He said:
They (Atagi) must be getting very close to making that decision. We’ve got a national cabinet meeting on Thursday, hopefully we can receive it before then or at that meeting.
All the international evidence, all the advice I get from our team is that three doses is what’s required in order to be as safe as it can be.
Andrews said if the definition of fully vaccinated changed for Australians, he expected the same would apply for international arrivals:
That would be consistent with the approach they’ve taken ... Let’s just wait and see what Atagi comes up with. But I think it’s highly likely, the weight of evidence suggests a booster or third dose is not really an optional extra. It’s critically important and it’s not just for now, there’s also for whatever comes at us when the weather turns later in the year.
Andrews announced free rapid antigen tests will be made available for children aged three to five attending early childhood services in the coming weeks. The program, which involves children being tested twice a week, will be “voluntary, but highly recommended”, he said.
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Morrison not committing to watching Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins speech
Quick flashback to prime minister Scott Morrison this morning, when he was asked if he would tune in to hear Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame speak at the National Press Club tomorrow. He said:
Well, it’s going to be a busy week, I don’t get the opportunity to listen to all those speeches, but I’ll certainly ensure that I’m aware of what they have said, and I’m certainly, like the rest of the country, very interested in the contribution that they make and the contribution that they have made.
I think the contribution they have made, as I said, has brought forward some very important issues that we’ve had to deal with and we should deal with and were long overdue, and I’m very pleased that they have been in the actions we’re taking together as a parliament to address those very serious issues.
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They were “communicated in confidence”...
Anti-vaccine mandate protests to return to Parliament House
Anti-vaccine mandate protests will return to Parliament House today, to coincide with politicians returning to Canberra, with huge crowds expected.
Labor’s shadow home affairs minister Kristina Keneally warned that some protesters “seek to do real harm” and that the groups “contain individuals that our national security agencies are worried about”.
“Some of these protesters actually want to undermine and overturn democracy,” Keneally told a press conference. She noted a protester who was arrested last week after police allegedly found a gun in his car:
Not all the people who are here to protest are here to protest peacefully ... There are individuals here who have expressed support for doing physical harm, indeed execution of parliamentary representatives, judges and the like.
Protest leaders told supporters in social media videos to remain “peaceful”. However, at a small protest outside parliament on Monday, one speaker gave a speech saying “we are coming for you ... we are emptying this building” and warning of a “mess”.
Keneally also accused the federal government of “currying favour with extremists”, citing support for the rallies from Coalition MPs George Christensen and Gerard Rennick, and former Liberal Craig Kelly. She called for prime minister Scott Morrison to pull his members into line:
Mr Morrison needs to take seriously the integrity of our parliament, the security of our parliamentarians, and the staff who work here and indeed make clear to members of his government, it is not appropriate for them to be going out and giving support to people who seek to enact violence upon this building.
Kelly told Guardian Australia on Monday that he planned to sign in a small contingent of protesters into parliament today, potentially to hold a press conference and try to meet with Morrison or Labor leader Anthony Albanese. Morrison’s office said the PM had no plans to meet the protesters.
Read more detail on the protests here:
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I’m already terrified of my mortgage. This won’t help:
So ANZ has joined the other three big banks in lifting fixed income lending rates. https://t.co/0XaPSt3pUx has them lined up. Meanwhile, investors are back picking June as the month the RBA will lift the official cash rate to 0.25% p.a. pic.twitter.com/AMP92mcqrV
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) February 7, 2022
To my fellow survivors – those who have spoken out publicly at great personal cost, those who have spoken out anonymously like I have, and those who suffer in silence: never forget that you are strong, resilient and amazing people. Others may call me overly optimistic, but I believe that there is now real momentum for change.
Some context on the latest Covid numbers from Peter Hannam, who reports that hospitalisations are slightly down from yesterday:
(Third time’s a charm): NSW #covid deaths increase by 4 to 18, and hospitalisations are down 1.5% extending a run of recent falls. ICU patients are down 3.6%, extending that recent promising slide too. https://t.co/Khi0nl7tGm
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) February 7, 2022
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Josie Coles credits independent MP Zali Steggall for finding her and others a spot in the gallery:
Not one person in the Government has advocated for us, still haven’t heard anything from them. We are so lucky to have an ally and supporter in @zalisteggall who has fought to secure a number of spots in the gallery for us today for this acknowledgment. https://t.co/5jJLIq9H35
— Josie Coles (@josiemcoles) February 7, 2022
The bin fire of the religious discrimination bill is not as simple as same-sex attracted kids to be protected and trans kids to be forced to wait.
Because the draft amendments Scott Morrison has proposed to the Sex Discrimination Act are so narrow they only prevent same-sex attracted students from expulsion, not from other forms of discrimination.
So Labor and equality advocates are concerned that other forms of punishment of gay, lesbian and bisexual students will still be allowed (short of expulsion), as will pregnancy discrimination.
Labor has been coy about the fact it has seen draft amendments, relying on the fact that attorney general Michaelia Cash has said the bill isn’t final until it’s passed their party room, which explains why shadow attorney general Mark Dreyfus told the Labor caucus it hadn’t seen the final bill.
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There were some reports from Cambodia late last night that the Australian economist Sean Turnell had been released after a year of detention in Myanmar. Those reports credited Cambodia’s leader with securing his release.
Unfortunately that’s not the case at this stage.
A spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement late last night:
The Myanmar authorities have advised DFAT that professor Sean Turnell remains detained. Following the foreign minister’s statement of 6 February marking the one year anniversary of professor Turnell’s detention, the Australian Government repeats its call for professor Turnell’s immediate release, and for his rights and welfare to be upheld.
NSW records 9,690 Covid cases and 18 deaths
New South Wales has recorded 9,690 new Covid cases and 18 deaths.
NSW COVID-19 update – Tuesday 8 February 2022
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) February 7, 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 4pm yesterday:
- 95.5% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
- 94.1% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine pic.twitter.com/becR5mIv38
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Victoria records 9,785 Covid cases and 20 deaths
Victoria has recorded 9,785 new Covid cases and sadly 20 deaths.
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) February 7, 2022
Our thoughts are with those in hospital, and the families of people who have lost their lives.
More data soon: https://t.co/OCCFTAtS1P#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/88tarwQe24
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Labor leader Anthony Albanese was sporting ABC socks at the church service this morning, possibly in response to yesterday’s announcement that the national broadcaster’s funding would be restored.
Barnaby Joyce did not join other leaders in the front row:
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Brittany Higgins is now also expected to be in Parliament House for that statement. It’s still astounding that the women who suffered the worst of parliament’s workplace culture and spoke out about it weren’t invited all along. Another former staffer, Chelsey Potter, says no one from the government has contacted her:
As @rachellejmiller confirms on @RNBreakfast, we will now be attending the acknowledgement today
— Chelsey Potter (@chels_e_potter) February 7, 2022
However, this is only due to women outside of the government who have strongly advocated on our behalf, making this happen
As yet, no one from the government has contacted me at all https://t.co/V0TE356pZH
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Rachelle Miller also talked about the ongoing impact of her experience. She said:
I’ve had days where I’ve driven past (Parliament House) and just burst into tears. The impact is significant on me. But I’m speaking on behalf of a lot of people who for whatever reasons, valid reasons, are not speaking out about their experiences.
I like to feel like I’m speaking on behalf of them as well.
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#BREAKING Former Liberal staffer Rachelle Miller has confirmed to @PatsKarvelas that she is now invited to attend the acknowledgment of bullying and abuse in parliament today. An investigation into her allegation against Alan Tudge is unresolved. He denies wrongdoing @SBSNews
— Anna Henderson (@annajhenderson) February 7, 2022
Once again, Paul Karp has dug through the details to bring them to you. Here’s the latest on protections for transgender students:
Labor leader Anthony Albanese said prime minister Scott Morrison wrote to him proposing a conversation about the religious discrimination laws. “Those discussions have not taken place,” he said.
Albanese said the Coalition is still debating the legislation.
“They’re having a party room (meeting) and they’re in dispute,” he said.
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Now Morrison is asked about whether the bill will protect transgender students. He says the current bill does not endorse the existing law. “That bill does not do the things you’re saying,” he said.
He’s talking about the religious discrimination bill – but according to reporting in the Nine newspapers, it’s a parallel discussion over the sex discrimination laws that would protect students on the basis of their sexuality, but not on the basis of their gender. Morrison said:
You’re referring to an existing law that was introduced by the Labor shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus. He put that in place. This bill does not seek to endorse that arrangement. That’s an existing law. What we’re dealing with here today are not those matters. Those are going through a process with the Australian Law Reform Commission. We’re dealing with discrimination against people for their religious belief and faith. That bill does not do the things you’re saying. There was an existing law introduced by the Labor government in Parliament.
Yes, it’s all a bit of a word salad, served up with some sneaky sauce. But we’ll keep working through it and bring you the latest today.
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Morrison says religious discrimination bill about 'binding Australia together, not forcing it apart'
Prime minister Scott Morrison is speaking now, after this morning’s church service. He starts by speaking about the religious discrimination bill.
Morrison says many people of faith have come to Australia to escape discrimination and he doesn’t want them to be discriminated against here.
For many Australians, their faith and religion is their culture. You can’t separate them. When you listen to their stories, they will tell stories over hundreds of years and even longer, about how they as a people of faith and religion have survived through some of the worst things you can possibly imagine in countries around the world. But they came here to Australia so they could get away from that. And they could start a new life. So they could have their religious faith and they could have their belief and they could have their community and they could have their culture, and they would not be discriminated against. I don’t want them to be discriminated against.
Before the last election I said I wanted there to be laws in place that ensured their freedom from that discrimination. That’s what this is about. There’s many other laws in our parliament, many other laws that deal with many other things. And there’s time and place to deal with those. But on this day, it’s important that we remember that for so many Australians, it doesn’t matter if you’re Hindu, if you’re Sikh, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, if you choose to have no religious faith at all, we sing Australians ‘one and free’ and I hope that means something today as we gather together and seek to put in place the opportunity for those who wish to live their religion and live their faith, binding Australia together, not forcing it apart. This is why I made that pledge before the last election, and that is why I continue to stand very strongly on this point.
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Katharine Murphy has the latest Guardian Essential poll. It includes a “modest rally” for prime minister Scott Morrison:
Peter Dutton says he hasn't ruled out taking legal action against Bob Carr
The defence minister Peter Dutton has told the Today show he is reserving his right to take legal action against former NSW premier Bob Carr, who doubled down on his claims that Dutton was the “mystery minister” who called prime minister Scott Morrison a “psycho”. Dutton said:
It was not me. I mean, every family’s got this crazy uncle that wakes up from the rocking chair and sort of in a startled way shouts out something and I just don’t know what is going on with Bob Carr. Is he the full quid or not? He’s a bizarre guy. He hasn’t produced any evidence. He’s now saying if it’s not me, then the person needs to come forward to prove my innocence. I just find it bizarre. But anyway, I just find it bizarre. But anyway, I think he has discredited himself.
He hasn’t produced any evidence and you can’t just make a claim and then back away from it. But that’s what he’s done. I think it’s embarrassing for him and I think most journalists frankly have treated him as a bit of a joke and this sort of relevance deprivation syndrome cuts in for a lot of former politicians as we’ve discussed on the show before.
Asked if he’d take legal action, Dutton said Carr’s post was still up, it was defamatory, and that he reserves his right.
“Let’s see what happen,” he said. “I think he should take it down and hopefully sooner than later.”
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ABC’s Patricia Karvelas has asked Labor’s Tony Burke about the laws. She asks him if the amendments have more protections for gay students, but not transgender students.
“I’m not sure we have seen the final amendments,” Burke says.
He says they won’t see the final version until the government has had a further meeting.
“The prime minister previously said he would end discrimination for all students and he should be true to his word on that.”
Trans children excluded from protections in religious discrimination bill
Simon Birmingham has confirmed to ABC’s Radio National that under the federal government’s religious discrimination bill, transgender students could still be expelled. As the federal government tries to keep both conservatives and moderates happy, it has made amendments to its original bill to protect people’s sexuality, but not their gender. More to come.
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Don’t let this pass you by today – rogue Nationals MP George Christensen has used $10,000 a month in taxpayers’ money to pay for “e-material”. (And no, he wasn’t promoting the science). Sarah Martin reports:
Hey, just in case you’d forgotten about deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce calling prime minister Scott Morrison a liar and a hypocrite, nationals deputy leader David Littleproud is talking about it on ABC television.
He’s worried that the text saga is distracting from the Nationals’ real message.
He’s trying not to, but he’s still talking about the texts.
Littleproud says the Nationals will be campaigning on the “wombat trail” out in rural and regional Australia, but that Morrison and Joyce will (at some point) be out on the hustings together.
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Paul Karp is keeping a eye on all the religious discrimination argy bargy, here’s the latest:
Before today’s firehose really gets going, here are a couple of pictures Mike Bowers took last night of the Last Post ceremony.
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See change in action. I encourage you to watch the opening of Parliament today for the historic Statement of Acknowledgment to Parliament: @AusHumanRights recommendation 1 of #SettheStandard Join House of Reps here https://t.co/M2zoLejt12 https://t.co/M2zoLejt12
— Kate Jenkins (@Kate_Jenkins_) February 7, 2022
Morning all. When parliament sits at noon, the presiding officers in both chambers will deliver a statement of acknowledgement about deficiencies (to put the problem diplomatically) in the workplace culture at Parliament House.
This implements one of the recommendations of the Jenkins review. (Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins ran an inquiry last year into workplace culture triggered by allegations raised by the former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins.)
Today’s statement is a public apology to people who have endured bullying, harassment or worse while working for the commonwealth. As well as the formal acknowledgment, today’s statement will outline next steps in reform.
After the presiding officers have delivered the statement, party leaders will speak. When I checked in with Higgins yesterday, she had not seen the wording of today’s statement.
As I reported yesterday on the blog, former staffers who have led the push for change are also disappointed that the closure of the building to the public will prevent them attending today’s statement. The government says provision will be made for some visitors.
(Tory here, rudely busting into Murphy’s piece – there is some chatter around this morning that the rude oversight will be rectified. I’ll let you know as soon as I do).
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It’s the first sitting day of 2022, and if sitting day eve was anything to go by, it’ll be firing on a number of fronts.
The religious discrimination bill will be up for debate. At this stage it seems rather unlikely that prime minister Scott Morrison’s hope it will unite the parliament will be fulfilled. He’s off to the traditional parliamentary ecumenical service at 7.30am, so thoughts and prayers are on the way.
There will be a statement of acknowledgement in parliament around midday. It was a recommendation of the Jenkins review that the workplace culture of bullying, sexual assault and harassment in parliamentary workplaces should be publicly acknowledged. That was a recommendation of the Jenkins review, and there is word it will include an apology. It’s likely there were other apologies flying around yesterday amid news that former staffers Rachelle Miller and Brittany Higgins had not been invited – despite being instrumental in the review itself.
That is likely to have been remedied. Shortly I’ll bring you some more info on that statement.
Then there’ll be more talk of tomorrow’s National Press Club appearance by Grace Tame and Higgins, who have become good friends through all of this.
Those text messages from Barnaby Joyce and the mystery minister disparaging the PM are still the topic of talk, as a symptom of internal strife. And there’s some strife without, as those pesky anti-vaccine protestors continue to threaten chaos.
As for legislation for a federal Icac ... wait and see. There have been mixed messages about whether the government will prioritise integrity over other issues.
Mike Bowers will bring you pictorial excellence, while Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Daniel Hurst, Paul Karp and Josh Butler will be playing whack-a-mole with everything that is going on today. Strap in!
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