What we learned, Monday 6 February
Thanks for reading today, here’s a quick breakdown of the day’s biggest stories:
Senator Lidia Thorpe quits the Greens over her opposition to the Indigenous voice in parliament. The party is now expected to support the policy;
Anthony Albanese confirms alcohol bans will return in the Northern Territory;
Australian and Chinese trade ministers meet for first time in three years;
A push to refer Scott Morrison to a powerful parliamentary committee fails;
A NSW parliamentary probe into the appointment of former deputy premier John Barilaro to a plum overseas posting finds the process that led to his hiring showed “all the trademarks” of a “job for the boys position”.
The Perrottet government will introduce mandatory cashless gaming in all NSW venues by the end of 2028; and
The local share market finishes lower ahead of tomorrow’s Reserve Bank of Australia meeting, where another rate rise is expected.
We will see you here for more news tomorrow!
Updated
Fire at Melbourne temple not suspicious: police
A cause of fire at a Buddhist temple in Melbourne’s south-east is not being treated as suspicious, Victoria police have confirmed.
A police spokesperson said emergency services were called to a building fire in Springvale South on Sunday night.
The fire caused significant damage to the building on Springvale Road when it caught alight about 8pm.
“The cause of the fire is yet to be determined but is not being treated as suspicious,” the spokesperson said.
Updated
Push to refer Scott Morrison to powerful committee fails
AAP have filed a report on the news we brought you earlier on a push to refer the former prime minister to a parliamentary committee.
Morrison will not face further consequences from a powerful parliamentary committee over the secret ministries saga.
In December, Greens leader Adam Bandt called for Morrison to be referred to the privileges committee after he appeared to admit he had misled parliament.
But on the first day of parliament for the year, speaker Milton Dick ruled there was not enough “prima facie evidence” that Mr Morrison had deliberately misled the House.
During the November censure motion about his secret appointments, Mr Morrison claimed the ministry list tabled in parliament referenced that ministers may be sworn to administer additional departments.
“I consider that these decisions, in hindsight, were unnecessary and that insufficient consideration was given to these decisions at the time, including non-disclosure,” Mr Morrison said.
Mr Bandt said relevant ministry lists from that time did not note that the former prime minister had been appointed to additional portfolios.
He called on the speaker to consider whether Mr Morrison’s reliance on the ministry list and his admission of non-disclosure “constitutes a deliberate misleading of the House”.
Mr Dick pointed to the findings of an inquiry on the matter by former high court judge Virginia Bell which said “the lack of disclosure of the appointments to the public was apt to undermine public confidence in government”.
The speaker said this finding was the most concerning but did not think there was enough evidence to constitute a referral to the committee.
Updated
Basketballer Harry Froling released from hospital after alleged attack
The Australian basketballer injured in an alleged one-punch attack has been released from hospital.
Brisbane Bullets forward Harry Froling will miss the rest of the NBL season after an alleged one-punch attack left him unconscious on a Wollongong street last month.
On Monday, Shane Froling retweeted an image of Harry in hospital, accompanied by the message: “As much as we would love to address media and questions we will leave it until police evidence is presented. He is on the mend, thankyou for the care and love sent.”
Harrison Froling is out of hospital and recovering. As much as we would love to address media and questions we will leave it until police evidence is presented. He is on the mend, thankyou for the care and love sent. pic.twitter.com/JNpNmVQZhb
— Shane Froling (@ShaneFroling) February 6, 2023
You can read more about the alleged attack on Froling here:
Updated
Local share market loses ground
The local share market has finished a little lower ahead of the latest Reserve Bank meeting, AAP reports, even as takeover talk sent Australia’s biggest goldminer posting close to double-digit gains.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 on Monday snapped its three-day winning streak, finishing down 19.1 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 7,539. The broader All Ordinaries dropped 25.9 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 7,745.9.
Newcrest Mining gained 9.3 per cent to a seven-month high of $24.53 after the ASX20 component confirmed it had received a tentative takeover offer from New York Stock Exchange-listed Newmont.
The Australian dollar was buying 69.36 US cents, down from 70.66 US cents at Friday’s ASX close.
Updated
Victoria records record-high number of suicides
Victoria has recorded its highest number of annual suicides since the coroner’s court started collecting suicide data in 2000, with mental health workers saying the trend is occurring nationally.
You can read more on that story here:
Updated
Australian PM to welcome Timor-Leste counterpart tomorrow
Anthony Albanese will welcome his counterpart from Timor-Leste to Australia tomorrow.
Albanese said in a statement that Taur Matan Ruak would be in Australia until Thursday on his first visit since being elected in 2018.
The pair will meet in Canberra to discuss opportunities for strengthening economic, security and regional cooperation, and Ruak will also visit Darwin to “reinforce the warm relationship and enduring people-to-people links between the Northern Territory and Timor-Leste”.
Albanese said:
Timor-Leste is one of Australia’s closest neighbours and partners in the region and the prime minister’s visit will provide an opportunity to further strengthen cooperation between our countries. Prime minister Taur Matan Ruak’s visit to Australia reflects the close ties between our people and countries, and the importance my government places on deepening our relationships in south-east Asia and across the Pacific region.
Updated
Thanks as always for your service Amy.
Nino Bucci is going to take you through the rest of the evening – a very big thank you to Murph, Paul Karp, Josh Butler and Daniel Hurst for all their work today. And of course, to Mike Bowers for keeping me updated on all the comings and goings.
Special thank you to our hard working moderation team and the editors for working to keep the blog open, through some prickly subjects.
And of course – to everyone of you who followed along today. We truly appreciate your support and your input. We love hearing from all of you and the below the line community is one of the reasons working on this blog is such a delight for us all. Thank you.
Stay tuned with Nino and check back for updates from the team. Mikey and I will be back early tomorrow morning.
Until then, take care of you Ax
Ahhh I think this answers the question of who Anthony Albanese was waving to in the Speaker’s gallery, following QT
First day of meetings with as many Ministers, Senators and MPs as possible in Canberra, to share our on-the-ground, lived experience and emphatic support for constitutional recognition through #Voice . #auspol #Referendum2023 #QuestionTime pic.twitter.com/WPKEW9uBxT
— Empowered Communities (@EmpComNational) February 6, 2023
Asked about what she would do if the Liberals were given a conscience vote on the voice to parliament, Linda Reynolds tells the ABC:
I don’t know yet because I haven’t seen enough detail to make that assessment. Personally I am in favour of some form of constitutional recognition as I think most Australians are, however without seeing any of the detail, and I do dispute what [Labor MP] Patrick [Gorman] has said, is that while we won’t necessarily have finalised legislation before the referendum we can certainly answer the big questions that will be on people ‘s minds and they have a right to know.
A reminder that Linda Reynolds was a cabinet minister in the previous government and her colleague Ken Wyatt, said he took a detailed proposal to the cabinet on the voice, twice.
Updated
Linda Reynolds also had some thoughts on Lidia Thorpe’s resignation from the Greens:
It’s rather extraordinary to see a parliament where you have a senator who finds the Greens too moderate.
So what does that say about all the Liberals who have quit the party?
China prepared for frank exchange with Australia about trade differences
Returning to the 90-minute virtual meeting between the Australian trade minister, Don Farrell, and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao, this afternoon:
Farrell has accepted an invitation from Wang to fly to Beijing in the near future to continue the talks. We can now bring you some of the both minister’ initial remarks which were open to media.
At the beginning of the meeting, Farrell said trade and investment had always been part of the bedrock of the bilateral relationship between Australia and China. He told Wang the trade blockages in recent years had been “to the detriment of both countries”.
Wang replied that he was “very happy to have this virtual meeting with you” and was “looking forward to meeting with you in person at the earliest time”.
Wang said the two sides needed to “work together to bring more positive factors” into the economic relationship.
“So I would like to work together with you to bring our economic cooperation back to the correct track,” Wang said.
Wang said he was prepared to have a frank exchange with Farrell about their trade differences, but cautioned that “this meeting cannot resolve all of these issues”. Instead, the Chinese commerce minister said the initial emphasis should be on building mutual trust and finding a way to resolve issues.
For more see our updated news wrap:
Updated
Voting for the Greens can sometimes result in ‘more extreme outcomes’: Birmingham
Sorry – I just choked on my fifth cup of coffee there.
Simon Birmingham was just asked about the possibility that the Liberals may see themselves on the same side of the voice decision as Lidia Thorpe (neither have announced their formal position as yet).
Birmingham says:
I doubt position would be the same as Lidia Thorpe, which is to argue for treaty head of the voice, she has been clear about that.
Senator Thorpe’s conduct at times is pushing the boundaries of what is normal and acceptable in terms of the way parliament operates and a reminder that is sometimes folk Greens with the best of intentions, but they can get more extreme outcomes from voting for a party like the Greens that is what has occurred in this case.
Birmingham must have a bit of a short memory, as Cory Bernardi was voted in on the Liberal South Australian ticket for six years in 2016 and then quit not very long after to start his own party because he didn’t think the Liberals were conservative enough.
I mean I know we are quite a few prime ministers on from 2016, but COME ON.
Updated
Shooting down of alleged Chinese spy balloon was ‘valid’: Simon Birmingham
Simon Birmingham is chatting to Greg Jennett on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, where he is asked about the alleged Chinese spy balloon (the Chinese government says it was a weather balloon) shot down over US airspace.
Those matters are clearly at the stage between United States and China, we support the actions the United States has taken, clearly a considered response in regards to a matter that was impacted of territorial sovereignty of the United States, so taking the action they did was valid and I would urge China to cooperate fully with United States, in terms of enquiries and investigations into what was happening there and act in a way that can try to provide greater scope peace and stability rather than potential increased tempo those sorts of actions see.
Updated
NT announces strengthening of alcohol restrictions
In addition to Sarah Collard’s updates below, here is the official announcement from the NT government and commonwealth:
The Northern Territory Government will bring forward legislation next week to strengthen alcohol restrictions so that town camps and communities will revert to dry zones. This new legislation will follow a local decision making process, where Community Alcohol Plans will be developed by the community and then must be approved by the Director of Liquor Licensing. Communities that want to opt-out of a dry-zone will need 60% of the population to vote in support of the Community Alcohol Plan.
Local areas will be able to choose to remain dry, or select tailored restrictions which work for them.
To address the decline in services and investment over the last decade in particular, the Australian Government will invest $250 million in a plan for A Better, Safer Future for Central Australia. This plan will focus on:
Improved community safety and cohesion – through more youth engagement and diversion programs.
Job creation – particularly in the communities that surround Alice Springs – including urgent changes as part of replacing the failed Community Development Program (CDP).
Better services – by improving health services in surrounding communities, there will be less pressure on Alice Springs.
Preventing and addressing the issues caused by Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders – including better responding through the health and justice systems.
Investing in families – including by better supporting elders and parents, boosting domestic violence services.
On country learning – improving school attendance and completion through caring for culture and country.
These actions by the Northern Territory and Australian Governments are based on the recommendations of Central Australian Regional Controller, Dorrelle Anderson.
For too long decisions about Central Australia have been made in Canberra. This time, the Australian Government will take a new approach by listening to communities first.
Updated
Dr Monique Ryan has lined up behind the yes vote on the voice.
The Voice to Parliament is a simple but powerful way for us to recognise the rightful place of indigenous Australians.
— Dr Monique Ryan MP (@Mon4Kooyong) February 6, 2023
I spoke to the importance of a ‘Yes’ vote in Parliament today.#auspol #VoiceToParliament pic.twitter.com/xNy0WpK6SV
Updated
Mehreen Faruqi made an official statement on her colleague’s departure, but she has also tweeted:
Lidia has been such a strong voice for First Nations people in the Parliament and our Party Room. I have a deep admiration for her unwavering commitment to Blak justice. I’m very sad to see her go.
— Mehreen Faruqi (@MehreenFaruqi) February 6, 2023
Mike Bowers has been very busy today – here is some of how he saw the first day back:
Updated
Greens expected to support Indigenous voice after Lidia Thorpe quits party
Josh Butler has filed this report:
The Greens party room is expected to agree to support the Indigenous voice to parliament in a special meeting on Monday night, just hours after Senator Lidia Thorpe quit the party over her concerns regarding the consultation body.
The party will meet to finalise its position, after not reaching a consensus during its party room retreat last week. Guardian Australia has been told by multiple Greens sources that the party is expected to resolve to support the voice.
It all but guarantees the government will have enough votes to pass enabling legislation to set up the referendum.
Updated
No evidence of Morrison ‘deliberately misleading the house’: Speaker
The speaker, Milton Dick, has responded to the Greens’ call to grant precedence to a motion to refer Scott Morrison to the privileges committee over the secret multiple ministries scandal.
In November the House of Representatives censured Morrison but Greens leader Adam Bandt attempted a privileges referral, citing Morrison’s own speech in that debate.
Bandt noted Morrison’s explanation that :
“The ministry list referenced as it does that ministers may be sworn in to administer additional departments...”
And Morrison’s own conclusion that some appointments “were unnecessary and that insufficient consideration was given to these decisions at the time, including non-disclosure”
Bandt said that the ministry lists did not alert the House that Morrison had taken additional portfolios. He asked the speaker to consider whether these facts “constitute a deliberate misleading of the House” and to refer the matter to the privileges committee.
On Monday, the speaker said that the facts raised “significant issues” for parliamentary government, and that although Morrison had apologised for causing offence he did not apologise for taking “redundancy action” for being appointed to administer departments in secret.
Dick noted that the House of Representatives practice book says that any change is notified publicly and announced in the House. He also noted the “concerning” findings of the Bell inquiry that the lack of disclosure was apt to undermine trust in government and democracy.
He said:
Nevertheless, as fundamentally important as these issues are, I see no prima facie case of deliberately misleading the house.
Updated
Australian and Chinese trade ministers meet for first time in three years
Don Farrell issued a statement moments ago:
This afternoon I met with China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao for the first time, by teleconference. This was the first meeting of Australian and Chinese Trade Ministers since 2019.
Our meeting represents another important step in the stabilisation of Australia’s relations with China. This follows Prime Minister Albanese’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the agreement by Foreign Ministers in December 2022 to restart dialogue in a range of areas, including trade and economic issues.
I accepted an invitation from Minister Wang to travel to Beijing in the near future to continue our productive dialogue.
Our discussion covered a range of trade and investment issues, including the need for resumption of unimpeded trade for Australian exporters so that Chinese consumers can continue to benefit from high quality Australian products.
Minister Wang and I agreed to enhance dialogue at all levels, including between officials, as a pathway towards the timely and full resumption of trade.
We agreed to explore further opportunities for cooperation on a wider range of issues, including climate change and support for business delegations to further strengthen links between our countries.
With China’s border now open, Australia looks forward to welcoming Chinese tourists and students back to our shores, as we did with over 1.4 million Chinese visitors in 2019.
Updated
No referral of Scott Morrison to privileges committee
Milton Dick says he sees “no prima facie” evidence that the matter should be sent to the privileges committee.
Nevertheless, as fundamentally important as these matters are for the House and parliament, I see no prima facie evidence to support a matter of deliberately misleading by the member for Cook.
So no, it is not going to the privileges committee.
Updated
Milton Dick is now handing down his decision on whether Scott Morrison should be referred to the privileges committee over his secret ministries.
Adam Bandt had asked whether or not it was a matter for the committee to consider in December last year.
Question time ends.
But we have three more to go! And then next week.
Alcohol restrictions needed as ‘circuit breaker’, NT chief minister says
The NT government will bring forward “urgent” legislation in the next sitting of the territory parliament to allow communities to develop their own Community Alcohol Plans under the measures.
NT chief minister, Natasha Fyles, told reporters that the measures are needed as a “circuit breaker” to address alcohol related harms and that communities will lead the decision making, with the alcohol management plans being developed by the community before it then needs to be approved by the director of liquor licensing.
“That is why we’re creating a circuit breaker and implementing temporary dry zones until communities can develop and vote on the alcohol management plans,” Fyles said.
If communities want to “opt out” of the dry zones, it will need to be supported by at least 60 % of residents, as part of the community alcohol plans, with the NT government saying that local areas will be able to choose to remain alcohol free or for tailored restrictions which suit the community.
Interventionist era bans on alcohol in remote Aboriginal communities came to an end in July, when liquor became legal in some communities for the first time in 15 years, while others were able to buy takeaway alcohol without restrictions.
The NT government said it has also secured a boost in funding from the federal government for the region to address the underlying contributors to crime and antisocial behaviour, with $250m being slated to improve community safety, youth engagement programs and service providers for health and wellbeing.
“This funding will focus on improved community safety and cohesion through more youth engagement and diversion programs, [and] job creation, particularly in the communities that surround Alice Springs, including urgent changes to replacing the failed Community Development Program.”
Fyles also said the funding would mean there is able to be better service provision in remote communities surrounding Alice Springs, alleviating some of the pressure on the town.
Updated
NT alcohol restrictions to be reinstated
Alcohol restrictions will be reinstated in central Australia, as recommended by a much anticipated report by the newly established Central Australian Regional Controller, Dorelle Anderson, a Luritja woman, as the town grapples with a surge in crime and antisocial behaviour.
Aboriginal people living in town camps and remote communities will be prevented from buying takeaway alcohol under reintroduced measures being brought in by the Northern Territory government.
The chief minister said the vast majority of communities are already dry communities, with 88 out of 96 communities in the NT dry.
Updated
Trade minister Don Farrell accepts invitation to visit China
Just interrupting QT with some breaking news:
The trade minister, Don Farrell, has accepted an invitation from his Chinese counterpart to visit China in the near future to continue their talks on the trade disputes. More soon
Updated
While Tony Burke takes a dixer on the new arts and cultural policy, Revive, Jacqui Lambie has welcomed Lidia Thorpe to the crossbench:
Takes guts to join the crossbench.
— Jacqui Lambie (@JacquiLambie) February 6, 2023
But @TammyTyrrell_ and I know it’s the best way to represent your constituents.
No party lines, no talking points.
Every time the cross bench grows, it’s a good thing. Representation gets more representative. Love to see it.
Tanya Plibersek on plastics recycling: ‘We have wasted a decade’
North Sydney independent Kylea Tink asks What’s happening with plastic recycling?
Plibersek responds:
I want to thank the member for North Sydney for her very important question. She is quite right to identify the scale of this problem and the importance of this problem of soft plastics and the failure of those opposite to institute to real change in recycling, particularly for soft plastics.
The report she refers to says 139 million tons of plastics were produced, which in practice means that the plastic in the oceans will weigh more than the fish in the oceans by 2050. In Australia the average Australian [is affected] by micro plastics every week through the food and water they drink.
So it is a shame that we have wasted a decade but this government has committed to a $250 million investment in upgrading recycling infrastructure, including those hard to recycle plastic sacks. We know families around Australia have been doing the right thing and collecting soft plastics and walking to the supermarket – and then, instead of being recycled it is sitting in warehouses, causing environmental problems.
We have established the circular economy advisory group that includes chief scientists, Engineers Australia, Chemistry Australia, the CSIRO, with the minister for energy, we are investing in research grants to support the circular economy. We have joined international efforts to reduce the use of plastics around the world. We have joined the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution and we have signed the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment. We are one of 500 governments and businesses around the world to have signed up.
Those opposite could have done this stuff. In fact, they announce - yes, you announced ambitious targets, you did. You announced very ambitious targets four years ago. An ambitious target of 70 per cent recycling of plastic by 2025. Guess where they got to? 16 per cent, they got to. 16 per cent, you have been out, for four years. I wouldn’t be interjecting if I were you, I would be very careful with that one.
Can I say, Mr Speaker, that this is an exciting area. We have scientists at the University of Technology working on plastics. We have enzyme based recycling at the Australian National University. This means an almost infinite potential to recycle plastics. For every job in landfill, taking stuff to the landfill and dumping it, there are three jobs in recycling, that is what we’re about.
Updated
Albanese confirms Northern Territory alcohol bans
The shadow attorney general Julian Leeser to Anthony Albanese:
My question is to the prime minister. In June 2022 the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation wrote to the government pleading for the government to extend the NT alcohol ban for an additional two years to maintain their dry status and prevent a spike in alcohol-related injury and offending. Why did the prime minister ignore these calls from Indigenous leaders?
Albanese:
I thank the member for his question which goes to a very serious issue of course. Today the cabinet has met and the Northern Territory cabinet met as well, chaired by Natasha Fyles, and she has already made a joint announcement on our behalf after we received the report from Dorelle Anderson.
It is true there was the decision of the former government to stop the Stronger Futures Program in June of last year after it was put in place by the former Labor government in 2012 over a ten-year period, under then minister Macklin.
The Northern Territory government will legislate new alcohol restrictions when they meet next week so that Northern Territory town camps and communities return to an opt-out system.
The dry zones will remain in place until an approved community alcohol management plan is developed and agreed to by the liquor controller in the Northern Territory and then it will need to be put to a local community with a 60 per cent threshold.
But as the member is aware, I’m sure this isn’t just about alcohol.
Indeed, of the 96 remote communities in the Northern Territory, 88 of them are dry.
This is about intergenerational disadvantage.
It is about a lack of employment services, a lack of community services, a lack of educational opportunity. This is intergenerational disadvantage.
The truth is that all governments could have done better - all governments - Labor, Liberal, Northern Territory, here in Canberra could have done better. That’s why we have also announced a Central Australia Plan for a better, safer future for central Australia with $250 million of investment on top of what we announced just a week ago.
That will include improved community safety and cohesion through more youth engagement and diversion programs along with improved CCTV and lighting. We will improve job creation.
It will include on-country learning. Importantly preventing and addressing issues caused by Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.
Better services, investing in families and increased domestic violence services. These policies will be developed and implemented in partnership with the Northern Territory government, with the Northern Territory controller who has been put in place.
They are driven by one goal - real, lasting improvements in people’s lives – but what we know is that it won’t be solved overnight but we do know that you’ll get better outcomes if you involve communities on the ground - on the ground - rather than think that decisions should be best made in Canberra and that is why we’ve structured this. I’m very pleased that the cabinet approved this on the basis on receiving the report from Dorelle Anderson.
That report will now be released publicly for all to be considered now it has been received by the Northern Territory cabinet and the Australian cabinet and I’d invite the opposition to participate constructively in this.
There is nothing to be served by trying to politicise these issues. What we need to do is work together - together is all of us - to achieve better outcomes for the most disadvantaged group in Australian society, First Nations people, that is what my government is committed to doing.
Updated
Adam Bandt gets next crossbench question and it’s on new mines:
My question is to the minister for resources. The UN secretary general, the world scientists and the International Energy Agency all say no new coal and gas projects can proceed if we are to meet climate goals but the Labor government’s first emissions projections name seven new giant gas projects that you will open up before 2030, including Beetaloo, Scarborough, Narrabri … In a time of a climate crisis, why is Labor opening new coal and gas mines under its safeguard mechanism?
Madeleine King
I thank the leader of the Greens for his question. As you know this government is committed to taking action on climate change. We have legislated targets, we have legislated to reach net zero emissions by 2050. The Minister For Climate Change and Energy is working very hard with anyone who wants to consult with us, with the government, on the safeguards mechanism and it will be the safeguards mechanism that is the main - or one of the main ways - by which any emitting industry, whether it is gas, concrete, agricultural industries - that will be the mechanism by which they will have to reduce their emissions.
We have said consistently on this side of the parliament -projects will only go forward if they stack up environmentally, socially and economically, we will not be sponsoring them, they will happen if they are able to happen and if they meet those very tight restrictions. But what we know is this government is committed to net zero emissions by 2050.
We know there is a climate crisis around the world and we will not be adopting Greens-based policies that are economy wrecking. We will continue to make sure this economy keeps working and, to be frank, we all know that parts of this country will continue to need gas for at least the very medium term and that is an important part for minerals processing, for manufacturing industry.
This is just the facts of where we are. That is why making sure it’s a net zero emissions aim is so important and we are committed to this. We have legislated for it. We will make it happen and I do hope that the opposition come along with us to make sure it does happen.
Updated
Bill Shorten takes a dixer on the royal commission into robodebt – I will wait until I get the proper transcription of the answer, given the number of interruptions and the legal issues around some of what (and who) the commission is investigating.
More on talks with Indonesian foreign and defence ministers
Just a little more from Richard Marles’s answer a little earlier in question time – the defence minister alluded to a forthcoming visit to Australia by Indonesia’s foreign affairs and defence ministers, who will come to Canberra for talks with their Australian counterparts. Some more details: The 2+2 meeting will be held in Canberra on Thursday. Then there will be a Bali process ministerial meeting in Adelaide (the Bali process started 20 years ago and focuses on people smuggling, people trafficking and transnational crime).
Updated
Liberal MP for Lindsay, Melissa McIntosh, with question on psychology sessions:
My question is of the prime minister. I recently spoke to a mum from Glenmore Park in my electorate of Lindsay who is scared that her daughter will not be able to access the full 20 Medicare subsidised psychology sessions that were previously available to her before this government halved these sessions on 1 January this year. When will the prime minister listen to parents in western Sydney and restore their children’s full 20 Medicare subsidised psychology sessions?
Anthony Albanese gives it to his health minister, Mark Butler, but starts it all off with:
I do make this point. The ending of the funding was not a decision by this government. You did not put the funding through on a further basis and the government has responded appropriately – and I ask the minister for health to respond.
Butler (who seems very prepared for this question):
I thank the prime minister for the opportunity to say a few words. As the member for Lindsay I am sure knows, the availability of the 10 additional sessions, with a Covid measure introduced at the heart of the lockdowns and decided by the former government, was to expire on the 31 December.
I also say that the decision not to extend the additional sessions was taken after serious consideration and in light of the evaluation of better access that I published in December.
I would just run through a few conclusions about that evaluation. While the evaluation said that it delivered positive outcomes, it also found again that it was a highly inequitable program.
The evaluation said this: “those on lowest incomes are least likely to access services and all of these indications have worsened over time”. It pointed out that poorer Australians in the poorest quintile of the community have more than twice the levels of high or very high mental distress but have the poorest access to this program. It said that locational provider of services was a significant factor contributing to that. It also said that poorer Australians, because of their inequitable access to this program, are far more likely to be medicated.
In response to the question – it found the 10 additional sessions did not make access better, it made access worse. It cut tens and tens and tens of thousands of Australians out of any access to service whatsoever.
The number of new entrants to the program actually reduced [by] tens of thousands. And overwhelmingly, all of the additional services went to the wealthier parts of the community …
. Although there is a need for additional services for complex mental health, this program was not delivering it.
Updated
Albanese questioned on gas prices
Anne Aly answers a dixer on early childhood and then we get David Littleproud, who asks:
“How many gigajoules’ supply of gas was being lost to the domestic market because of Labor’s impacts on the market to put $1 billion in gas investments on hold indefinitely?”
Albanese:
It takes a significant level of courage to come in and ask about a package that they opposed. To ask what impact it has when they sat there and voted against it on multiple occasions, Mr Speaker. They say there is no change in politics, I beg to differ!
In December we put the very simple proposition - that Australian gas companies should be required to sell Australian gas on Australian soil for a reasonable price. For $12 a gigajoule. At a reasonable price going forward. Those opposite think they should be able to sell at unreasonable prices. The fact of the matter is that in 2021, 96% of gas was sold for under [that price] Those opposite say it is a disaster, that gas companies should be able to sell for more than that. We say it is reasonable and we say Australian gas companies should continue to supply gas at reasonable prices and we are confident they will.
Updated
Angus Taylor questions the prime minister on mortgage pressure
“How many Australian households are set to face higher mortgages this year when they move from fixed rate loans to variable rate loans?
Anthony Albanese:
Thanks very much. We very much understand that the pressure, when it comes to increases in interest rates, have an impact on families and households. We understand that, which is why we are undertaking measures to take pressure off cost of living, which is why we introduced cheaper pharmaceuticals, which is why we have introduced fee-free Tafe, which is why we will have cheaper childcare on July 1.
For many Australians who do have fixed rates they will be impacted when those fixed rates end - whenever it is, whenever the particular arrangements that they have with individuals, with their financial institutions is. So we know that this is an issue and that is why we are doing all that we can, just as we did last October, to produce a responsible budget ...
Taylor interjects with a point of order:
“If this were a priority for the prime minister he would know the answer to the …”
Milton Dick says that was not a point of order, but in the meantime the PMO is working overtime to get the PM that number.
The opposition helps by making a bunch of interjections.
Albanese:
As we have said, when those fixed mortgages end, there will be an increased pressure on about 800,000 Australians who will go off fixed rates on to more flexible rates. And that’s why, in particular in the lead-up to the May budget, we will continue to put forward a responsible economic policy – because interest rates, of course, began to increase on your watch.
Updated
Dixer to Jim Chalmers
The member for Hawke, Sam Rae, has followed the age-old adage – the higher the hair, the closer to God – prompting some comments from those who have not been able to achieve even an inch of bouffant goodness in decades, if ever.
It’s a dixer to Jim Chalmers who gives the “very optimistic about Australia’s economic future but there are headwinds to be aware of” answer.
Updated
Dai Le has the first crossbench question
She asks:
“The government said it was committing to providing more social and affordable housing in the longer term. However, families in Fowler in Sydney need immediate solutions to keep a roof over their heads. It has been reported rental assistance needs to increase 50 per cent to keep in line with the rising cost of living which is leading to overcrowding and increased homelessness across western Sydney. When will the government increase rental assistance to help tackle the current cost-of-living crisis?”
Amanda Rishworth takes this one:
Thank you, Mr Speaker and I’d like to thank the member for Fowler for her question and recognise that this is an important issue for her electorate and thank her for her ongoing advocacy on rental affordability.
The government does understand that rental affordability, along with housing affordability, is a challenge for many Australians and that is why something like the commonwealth rent assistance payment is so important to help those on income support. Of course, this payment is indexed twice a year to reflect inflation and is adjusted in both March and September in line with the consumer price index. Of course the next indexation increase will happen on 20 March 2023. Of course the government expects to spend around $5.1 billion in rent assistance to help 1.3 million households pay their rent.
Going to the member’s question about an increase in the commonwealth rent assistance, of course as we enter into the budgetary process there are many competing priorities and we will go through that process through the budgetary process.
The treasurer and I established late last year the expert economic inclusion advisory committee and have asked them to review the adequacy, effectiveness and sustainability of income support payments ahead of every federal budget, and this includes payments like rent assistance.
The committee is meeting regularly and is considering issues and developing advice on income support payments and will provide that advice to government. I think, as noted in the member’s question though, when it comes to rental and housing affordability, unfortunately there is no silver bullet and the Albanese government is already taking action through a range of measures to develop long-term solutions that do go beyond rent assistance.
I would like to recognise my colleague who is leading this charge, the minister for housing and homelessness, for her work in delivering an ambitious agenda and comprehensive housing.
We need to see an increase of supply in this country and that is exactly the work that she is doing in increasing the amount of social and affordable housing through the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. This is one of the many initiatives that we are taking. We take the issue of housing affordability, and particularly rental affordability, seriously and I look forward to continuing to work with the member.
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Richard Marles takes a dixer …
… so he can give an America rah-rah answer, including that Aukus countries remain on track for an announcement in the “very near future” which, as Daniel Hurst says, is understood to mean March.
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Question from Sussan Ley
The next question from Ley actually seems to deliver a little bit of life to Anthony Albanese.
Ley:
Before the election the prime minister promised he would deliver cheaper mortgages. Since the election mortgage repayments have increased by $1,400 a month for a typical Australian family, and every economic decision that the government has taken has pushed interest rates higher than they otherwise would be*. Why do Australian families always have to pay more under Labor?
*not sure what the evidence is for this?
Albanese:
It’s a reality of a world where there is inflation, I think Australians understand that, there is a lot of upward pressure on interest rates at the moment. They are not my words, they are his, the leader of the opposition on 3 May 2022. The words when interest rates began to rise, May 2022. The shadow treasurer had a bit to say as well. He said, “The problems were caused by factors outside of our control. He said this when basic circumstances and what was happening in the Ukraine and Russia were not expected and very hard to predict. “These pressures are driven by extenuating circumstances.”
Now, the deputy leader of the opposition has tried this on a number of times.
And what she attempts to do is to say that a shared equity scheme, where instead of 100% of a mortgage being paid by the mortgage holder less than 100% of the mortgage is paid by the mortgage holder, because it is shared equity is what she is talking about.
Now, she’s a member, she is a member of the New South Wales branch of the Liberal party of course, and this week, the Liberal party in New South Wales, the government of Dominic Perrottet, have announced a shared equity scheme. A shared equity scheme. Joining Victoria, joining Western Australia. I mean, for goodness sake, don’t ask questions here, you should get on the phone to the New South Wales premier and the others you saved for preselection last time around.
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Dixer to the prime minister
Labor MP for Dunkley Peta Murphy is back from her secondment to the UN and asks a dixer question which amounts to How has Labor got on with the job?, which allows Anthony Albanese to give a list of what Labor has achieved since May, and then finish with the QT version of “this government is not here to f**k spiders” (I know I am allowed to swear under the Guardian style guide, but I try to limit actually spelling it out to quotes so no one’s grandma gets too upset).
Albanese:
This is a government with a sense of purpose, not here to occupy the space but to make a difference to people’s lives, and that is exactly what we are doing.
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Question time opens on cost-of-living crisis
Peter Dutton opens with … the $275 power price cut promise. (The more things change, the more they stay exactly the same).
My question is to the prime minister: it’s been 30 days since he first promised the $275 cut to power bills. A promise repeated on 97 occasions. This promise hasn’t been delivered*, instead power bills along with mortgages and grocery costs have all risen sharply, under this Labor government. Why do Australian families have to pay more under Labor?
*Not that anyone seems to care for facts, but the commitment was to cut the average bill by $275 in 2025.
Anthony Albanese (who seems a little tired) starts off by calling the opposition leader “royal commission” so we are off to a great start:
I am pleased the royal commission … the leader of the opposition has raised this issue as a first question. And I’m surprised that he hasn’t yet raised his views that he held previously. We actually committed to, I believe, that we should have a royal commission into electricity companies as well as fuel companies.
He went on to say ‘there is something that stinks about these electricity companies and fuel companies, if we get to the bottom of it I think we can get a better outcome for consumers’.
You would expect given the senior position the leader of the opposition held at that time in 2018, something might have happened.
And in 2019 nothing happened. 2022, 21, 20 nothing happened, they had 22 different policies announced and none of them delivered, just like when the leader of the opposition was out there campaigning for a royal commission into electricity companies as well as fuel companies, nothing happened.
But when it comes to energy, we did have a debate here in December, we bought the parliament back, and we bought the parliament back to have a debate, whether we would take action ...
Peter Dutton interrupts with a point of order, which Milton Dick rules is not a point of order and Albanese continues – but it all seems very low energy and nothing we haven’t heard before.
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Question time begins
The remainder of the condolence motions will be held in the federation chamber.
Question time begins.
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Peter Dutton:
In farewelling Jim, we can say he represented everything about Australia that is good, one of our best Australians, respected by his colleagues in the broader Liberal party family. On behalf of the Coalition I offer my heartfelt condolences to colleagues and party members, to his friends and his family – his wife, Anne, daughters, Sarah, Erin and Felicity, son Michael, and five grandchildren. May he rest in peace.
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Peter Dutton on Jim Molan: ‘Jim considered himself to be an ordinary Australian but he had an extraordinary life’
Dutton:
Jim cherished his roles as a father, as a husband, as a grandfather and brother above all else and today we celebrate him in the round. The family man, the soldier, the diplomat, the adviser, the politician, the author and the commentator.
There was an interplay in all that he was.
Those who knew Jim could see the father’s care in the general, the general’s mind in the writer, the writer’s knowledge in the senator and the senator’s love in the family man. Jim considered himself to be an ordinary Australian but he had an extraordinary life.
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Anthony Albanese: ‘He had, and remains having, my utmost respect’
Today we honour Jim Molan’s contribution to our nation. We give thanks for his life, for all that he gave to Australia, to our region, to the cause of peace and to the democratic ideals to which all of us are pledged.
We offer the condolence of the parliament and the people of Australia to his friends and his colleagues and I offer my condolences to the Liberal party on behalf of the Australian Labor party.
Above all, we give our condolences to his family, who are present in the gallery. To his wife Ann, his children, Sarah, Erin, Felicity and Michael, and his grandchildren Sophie, Emily, Angus, Eliza, Gracie and Andy. Because for every honour and decoration and title and office Jim Molan held and won, he took the greatest pride and the deepest joy in being a husband, a father and a grandfather. How fitting that he passed in the loving embrace of his family and will live on in their hearts. He had, and remains having, my utmost respect.
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Albanese on Jim Molan: ‘we never doubted the strength or the sincerity of his convictions’
But when it came time for retirement, the old soldier didn’t want to fade away. He wanted to continue to serve Australia, to serve democracy and to strengthen it. And so, at age 67 he became a senator for New South Wales - something of an unconventional road yet somehow just right for a politician who was always very much his own man.
As he joked in his first speech, even when in the military the only order he ever obeyed without question was ‘duck’.
In his passionate advocacy for the Defence Force and his deep engagement with national security issues, Jim always spoke with clarity, depth of feeling and the weight that can only come with experience.
Those of us on this side of politics may not have always agreed with his views but we never doubted the strength or the sincerity of his convictions.
I know that during his illness, and after his passing, myself and many of my colleagues have recalled that whatever passionate public disagreements one might have with Jim Molan the private person was always very engaging company and a wonderful source of warmth and humour.
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Condolence motions
There are often questions about why condolence motions in the House of Representatives are held when question time is on, given question time is meant to be reserved for questions.
Question time in the House is held at the pleasure of the government – the prime minister. It’s set down in the standing orders, yes, but the PM gets to decide how long it goes for. And often, condolence motions are held during QT because that is one of the only times the entire chamber is in attendance for a long period of time.
So it is a mark of respect.
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The first question time of the year is about to get under way, but before it does, there will be a condolence motion for NSW Liberal senator, Jim Molan.
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Greens wanted Thorpe to stay
In that press conference, Adam Bandt said he had offered Lidia Thorpe the option of staying with the party, even if she ended up opposing the voice.
In the statement his office sent out, Bandt makes it clear the Greens wanted Thorpe to stay:
Senator Thorpe has made a phenomenal contribution to the Greens and I’m truly sorry to see her leave our party room,” Bandt said.
I’m sad to see her go, as I respect her greatly as a fighter for her people.
I tried hard to get her to stay with the Greens as our First Nations spokesperson, but she has chosen another course to advance the Blak Sovereignty movement.
Senator Thorpe has drawn attention to human rights abuses at Don Dale, fought the deportation of First Nations people, fearlessly challenged the colonial relics of parliamentary process and fiercely pursued Treaty.
The Greens will continue to work closely with Senator Thorpe on a range of issues and I thank her for committing to vote with the Greens on climate.
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Will Thorpe vote with Greens?
Lidia Thorpe gave her commitment to vote with the Greens on the issue of the climate. Does Adam Bandt expect that commitment to go to other areas, given Thorpe was elected as a Greens MP?
Look, I’m not going to go into discussions about the time when Senator Thorpe has been with the Greens. I’ll leave it up to her to speak for herself. She gave that commitment, and I’m grateful for it.
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Does Bandt believe Lidia Thorpe acted with ‘propriety’ during her time with the Greens?
Adam Bandt:
I just made it clear that Senator Thorpe leaves the Greens with our respect and she’s made an enormous contribution to the Greens’ party room during this time. And you’ve heard from Senator Faruqi about that as well. Now, Senator Thorpe is no longer a member of the Greens, and I don’t intend to make any further comment about her time with us.
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Greens leader Adam Bandt ‘truly sorry’ to see Lidia Thorpe resign from party
Bandt:
I’m truly sad to see her leave the Greens. Senator Thorpe leaves the Greens with an enormous amount of respect. She is a fighter for her people. She has helped put treaty [and] raising the age of criminal responsibility on the parliamentary agenda.
I made it clear to Senator Thorpe that she still had a place in the Greens and that I wish she had continued in the Greens, including as the party’s First Nations spokesperson, that she had the right to, of course, under our constitution, vote differently on the question of voice and, if she came to a different position on the question of voice, that I would take over responsibility for being the party spokesperson on voice so that she would be free to speak her mind.
She’s obviously decided to adopt a different course.
I wish she had made a different decision, but I understand the reasons that she has given for that decision.
I thank her for her commitment to continue to vote with the Greens on climate in the Senate. I expect, too, that - and I hope - that given that there is a large area of overlap from a policy perspective, that we’ll continue to work closely during the remainder of this parliamentary term.
Fundamentally, more broadly, in terms of the Senate, the situation remains now still more or less the same in the Senate. The Greens are central in the balance of power in the Senate.
Any time that the opposition doesn’t agree with the government, the government will still need the support of the Greens to get legislation through. There might be instances now where the government has to perhaps secure one additional vote, but that already happens at the moment, as you know.
So, fundamentally, the Greens remain central to balance of power in the Senate.
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Lidia Thorpe, by Mike Bowers
For those who didn’t see the press conference, Mike Bowers was there to capture Lidia Thorpe’s resignation from the Greens:
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Australian trade minister meeting with Chinese counterpart this afternoon - the first time in three years
The move comes as Canberra continues to urge Beijing to remove tariffs and bans on key export sectors. Don Farrell, who is in Canberra for the resumption of parliament, is meeting virtually with the Chinese commerce minister, Wang Wentao.
The meeting has not yet finished. At the height of diplomatic tensions between China and Australia in 2020, Beijing blocked phone calls and meetings between Australian government ministers and their direct counterparts in the wake of the then Morrison government’s early push for a Covid origins inquiry.
The Australian side was expected to use today’s meeting to push for the resumption of unimpeded trade. Canberra doesn’t believe the differences can be solved overnight, but sees the meeting as a step towards the goal. More details later this afternoon …
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Tim Costello urges Labor to ‘step up’ to support NSW gaming reform
Chief advocate of the alliance for gambling reform, Tim Costello, has called on the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to intervene in NSW Labor and encourage opposition leader, Chris Minns, to support gaming reform in the state.
Welcoming the state government’s plan to reform poker machines across the state, Costello said it was time the Labor leaders to “step up” to finish the work the former prime minister, Julia Gillard, tried to start.
He said:
Prime minister Albanese should honour prime minister Gillard’s legacy and have a word to Chris Minns.
Chris Minns has to face this question. Crime commission, police commissioner, charities, churches, health practitioners [are] all saying we need the cashless card and who’s on the other side of the ledger? Chris Minns, Mark Latham, John Barilaro. Is that the company you want to be in? You need to step up and I think Prime Minister Albanese needs to step up.
Costello said he would work with the government to push for a loss limit for gamblers.
Reverend Tim Costello calls on Chris Minns to “step up and make this bipartisan”. He welcomes the reform. pic.twitter.com/XMZFknf8EZ
— Tamsin Rose (@tamsinroses) February 6, 2023
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Helen Haines announces political sponsorship of three prisoners in Iran
Dr Helen Haines has announced she will be undertaking political sponsorship of three prisoners in Iran facing execution in a bid to increase pressure on the Iranian government.
Dr Haines said in a statement the Iranian embassy has been informed of her sponsorship of Kambiz Kharout, Arshia Takdastan and Mehdi Mohmmadifard.
Kambiz Kharout, 20, protested in Zahedan. He was arrested at his place of employment on 1 October 2022 and tortured to force self-incriminating confessions.
Arshia Takdastan, 18, was arrested in Noshahr on 24 September 2022 and forced to confess to leadership of protests.
Mehdi Mohmmadifard, 19, is a hairstylist and tattoo artist, his passion since he was a young teenager. He was violently arrested on 2 October 2022 and tortured to force self-incriminating confessions. He is currently held in the central prison in Noshahr and was sentenced to death in December 2022.
Haines has joined with a worldwide campaign of political sponsorships to try and stop the state deaths:
I abhor the cruel treatment by the Islamic Republic judiciary and security forces of young Iranians peacefully exercising their right to protest,” Dr Haines said.
I urge the Iranian government to place an official moratorium on executions with a view of abolishing the death penalty and releasing those detained.
According to the statements of Amnesty International and other human rights organisations, due process has not been observed in the investigation and trials of these citizens.
I am aware that trials have been conducted in secret, and forced confessions have been obtained using torture. Further, accused people have been denied access to a lawyer and the opportunity to a fair and unbiased hearing or a meaningful appeal process.
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This is the statement Lidia Thorpe read out while resigning from the Greens
— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) February 6, 2023
The Greens have announced a press conference for 1.45pm.
Lidia Thorpe: ‘To my mob I say this, your strength is my strength’
Thorpe shuts down an attempted interruption during her statement and continues:
My focus now is to grow and ... amplify the black sovereign movement in this country!
Something we have never had since this place was established.
There is a Blak sovereign movement out there that no one wants to listen to, so I will be their voice.
I will, I have spent my entire life fighting for justice, to defend our sovereignty, to save black lives, this is my goal.
My strength and convictions come from a lifetime of activism, from my aunties and sisters and from my matriarchs, who continue to say to me every day, keep infiltrating, keep your integrity, and keep the fire burning.
But more importantly, keep our fight alive.
To my mob, I say this, your strength is my strength. Your fight is my fight. Your struggle is my struggle. And I’m ready for what comes next in the fight for a future where all kids can be with their families, and where our people are not killed in custody, where the chains that the system, this system, wraps around our people are lifted.
Thorpe ends her press conference without taking any questions.
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Lidia Thorpe thanks Greens members, supporters and voters, and Adam Bandt and Mehreen Faruqi. She says she will vote with the Greens on climate, but will not comment further on her time in the Greens.
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Lidia Thorpe says she will not be announcing her position on the voice right now
Thorpe:
I am not announcing my final position on the voice today, I want to continue my negotiations with the government. First Nations sovereignty is crucial but so is saving lives today.
They could do that by implementing the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody, and the recommendations from the Bringing them Home report.
Simple.
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Lidia Thorpe continues:
Now, I will be able to speak freely, on all issues, from a sovereign perspective, without being constrained by portfolios and agreed party positions.
Greens MPs, members and supporters have told me they want to support the voice.
This is at odds with the community of activists who are saying treaty before voice.
This is the message delivered on the streets on January 26…this was the movement I was raised in, my elders marched for a treaty.
This is who I am.
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Lidia Thorpe confirms resignation from the Greens
Senator Thorpe has started speaking:
I have told Greens’ Adam Bandt and the Senate president that I am resigning from the Greens to sit on the Senate crossbench.
This country has a strong grassroots black sovereign movement, full of staunch and committed warriors, and I want to represent that movement fully, and this parliament.
It has become clear to me that I can’t do that from within the Greens.
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We are just waiting on senator Lidia Thorpe to step up to the microphone and begin her press conference, where she is expected to announce she will be quitting the Greens.
With Thorpe moving to the crossbench …
Right now, if the Coalition opposes legislation, the government needs the Greens and one other senator to get legislation through.
With Lidia Thorpe moving to the crossbench, that means the government needs the Greens and two crossbenchers – so David Pocock, The Jacqui Lambie Network and Thorpe will be who the government needs to talk to and ensure they can get at least two across the line.
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Victorian Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has announced a media conference for 12.45 (Canberra time) so it looks like that party room meeting has ended.
Lidia Thorpe expected to announce she is quitting the Greens
Our Victorian colleague Benita Kolovos and Paul Karp have filed this story about Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe’s future with the Greens:
Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe is expected to announce she is quitting the Greens and will move to the crossbench.
Several senior Greens sources in Victoria told Guardian Australia that she will make the announcement following a party room meeting on Monday afternoon.
Federal Greens did not respond to requests for comment on Monday morning.
Senator Thorpe has been a vocal opponent of the Voice and has previously threatened to break ranks with her party to oppose the body unless she is satisfied that it “guarantees First Nations sovereignty is not ceded”.
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Condolence motion for Jim Molan
The Senate has been hearing a condolence motion for NSW senator Jim Molan, who died last month at 72. Molan had been diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of prostate cancer in 2021.
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Post-Covid retail spending spree ‘comes to an end’, ABS data shows
The eight consecutive rate rises by the RBA (likely to become nine by tomorrow) have begun to take their toll.
The ABS says that by volume, retail sales shrank 0.2% in the December quarter, reversing much of the 0.3% increase in the previous three months.
It was the first decline since the September quarter of 2021 when about half the economy was in an extended Covid lockdown (ie NSW, Vic and ACT).
“The fall in the December quarter sales volumes suggests that the robust post-lockdown spending that fuelled much of the growth in 2022 has come to an end,” says Ben Dorber, ABS’s head of retail statistics.
Monthly numbers typically bounce around a bit, particularly when “Black Friday” discounts resulted in spending being brought forward into November from December.
Still, those “unbeatable deals” and some relief in terms of food prices increases meant retail prices in December rose 1.1% - the smallest increase for any month last year.
On a quarterly basis, department stores had the largest volume fall (down 2.9%), followed by other retailing (off 2.4%), clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (2.3% lower) and household goods retailing (sagging 2%), the ABS said.
Whether Australia avoids a recession this year (as is still likely) will hinge a lot on how well spending holds up amid soaring debt repayments. The latest numbers suggest the retailing spending arrow will be pointed lower for a while yet.
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Kim Beazley on frontier wars:
For those wanting to know more about Kim Beazley’s comments this morning:
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NSW to ban political donations from pubs and clubs
In case you missed it in there, the NSW government will also be banning political donations from pubs and clubs (which is something NSW Labor had also committed to).
It is unclear at the moment how this would impact donations from Australian Hotels Association – which is the lobby group representing a lot of pubs and clubs.
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Perrottet: ‘This is a balanced approach’
Dominic Perrottet says all the evidence says that this will take five years – hence the 2028 completion date.
The questions are pretty focussed on the gamblers being able to set their own limits aspect though (completely fair enough) and asked about it again, Perrottet says:
There’s a suite of measures. There’s a suite of measures. This is a balanced approach. What we’re seeing, what we’ve seen across our state and what I hear from harm minimisation experts is the biggest issue is being in front of a pokie machine with a different intention than what you walked in with and the ability of people to change their behaviour.
What we’re saying today is set your own limit.
You can’t change it for seven days. The transition taskforce will also report back on mandating breaks in play as well. Which will be implemented from the rollout in 2024.
This is a measured approach that solves the problem. It’s an approach that has come from significant consultation and hard work. And listening to all sides, where we land today solves problem gambling, solves money laundering, protects jobs and industries.
I want pubs and clubs in New South Wales to continue to be the lifeblood of communities. I want them to grow. I want them to flourish. I want them to invest in live music and entertainment. I want them to have the best food and beverage offerings anywhere in the country. That’s what the reform will achieve. And I will stand with them.
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What will stop a gambler from putting a large limit on their gambling?
Perrottet:
This is the strong advice. I have listened. I have listened and consulted extensively. I have consulted with industry, and I particularly want to thank them today, for their engagement. I accept that they will disagree with this decision today. I accept that.
But I say to them today – I will work with you, just like I did as premier and as treasurer during the pandemic, every step of the way, to provide financial support to protect jobs, to protect pubs and to protect clubs. That’s what I’ve done over the last three years, and that’s what I will do over the next four.
In relation to the question in respect to problem gambling, this is the advice that I’ve received from the experts. The harm minimisation experts have told me, the number one thing that you can do is to ensure, when a problem gambler goes into a pub and a club, they have a limit that they have set and they cannot change that for seven days.
That is the advice that I’ve received and that is the violence of the New South Wales government implementing.
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So gamblers can set their own limits?
Perrottet:
Well, this came clearly through harm minimisation experts. Their advice, very clearly, was that the biggest challenge facing problem gamblers is going in, using pokie machines, in a way where they exceed the limit that they believe they were going to have on the way there.
That’s what this fixes.
[That’s] the advice that we’ve received and I want to thank the extensive consultation we’ve had during this process.
Taking that advice, that was the strong recommendation of harm minimisation experts. It’s incredibly important that those pre-commitment levels are put in place, and ultimately, they can’t be changed for seven days.
In addition to that, we’ll also have break in plays, which will be advised to the New South Wales government through the transition team.
These are areas which we believe will make a real difference. We cannot have a situation in New South Wales where families are broken and people are putting their lifesavings down pokie machines.
This reform today will save lives today and so many more in the next generation. That’s what this is all about. We have a situation in New South Wales, if you exclude casinos, [where] 40% of pokie machines in the world are here in our state. This is a mess that Labor created. And this is a mess that we fix today.
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‘Extensive’ support for pubs and clubs …
… means interest-free loans for small and medium sized clubs to help with the transition and a community grants program.
The grants will begin from 2024 and continue annually until 2028.
The rollout of the changes will be completed by 2028 – which is when all pokies in NSW will be cashless, under these reforms.
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Dominic Perrottet: ‘We will introduce mandatory cashless gaming in all venues by December 31, 2028’
Dipping into NSW state politics for a moment, and the NSW premier Dominic Perrottet is speaking on the gambling reforms Tasmin has been reporting on:
Today, the New South Wales government supports all eight recommendations by the New South Wales crime commissioner to eliminate money laundering in pubs and clubs across our state.
We will introduce mandatory cashless gaming in all venues by December 31, 2028, by way of legislation.
We will legislate the strictest privacy protections for player data, with no government or industry access to personalised player data, other than for law enforcement purposes, with strict penalties for misuse.
We will require that all new machines purchased will be cashless, with the rollout beginning early next year.
We will introduce an optional buyback scheme targeted to acquire 2,000 machines from venues over the next five years, and we’ll ban political donations from pubs and clubs in New South Wales.
We will require, as part of harm minimalisation support, players to set their own limits that cannot be increased for seven days.
We’ll mandate breaks in play and the ability for players and families to self-exclude. We will implement a statewide self exclusion register.
We’ll ban credit and automatic top-ups with gaming funds only allowed to flow from a bank account.
We’ll also, in relation to further money laundering, anti-money laundering measures, we will enable player identity verification to a single bank account.
In addition to that, we’ll provide extensive support for pubs and clubs across New South Wales as we move through this.
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Inquiry finds John Barilaro appointment process showed signs of 'job for the boys'
A NSW parliamentary probe into the controversial appointment of former New South Wales deputy premier John Barilaro to a plum overseas trade posting has blasted the process that led to his hiring as showing “all the trademarks” of a “job for the boys position”.
The long-awaited interim report also found Stuart Ayres, who quit cabinet during the saga, “showed poor judgement and was inappropriate” in his dealings with Barilaro in the lead-up to his appointment.
Inquiry chair and Greens MP Cate Faehrmann stated in the report:
“Despite assurances from senior public servants and ministers that the appointment process was conducted by the public service under a merit based process, it is clear that the process was flawed and that the executive was not at arm’s length from the process.”
Ayres quit cabinet after a separate report raised concerns he may have breached the ministerial code of conduct in his dealings with senior public servants over the hiring process. He was later cleared of any wrongdoing over the saga, paving the way for his return to cabinet should the Coalition be returned to government at the March election.
But the Labor and Greens-dominated inquiry - which dominated news in Macquarie Street for months in 2022 - has taken aim at Ayres for his role in the saga, saying he “was not at arm’s length during the recruitment process” and “showed poor judgement and was inappropriate” in his dealings with Barilaro prior to his appointment.
Faehrmann wrote in her forward to the report:
“The committee found that when it comes to the Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner recruitment processes, there was a pattern of ministerial interference and lack of transparency conducted by the government.”
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The fall out from the latest natural disasters across the country continue – in Brisbane, people are still waiting on repairs, or in some cases, for their body corporates to even get repairs moving. And that is in an area used to dealing with floods.
Murray Watt questioned about floods buyback scheme
Nearly a year on from the NSW floods, only about 25 have been assessed as part of the buyback scheme.
Murray Watt spoke to ABC News radio about the hold-up this morning:
Well of course we’d always like those kind of programs to be moving ahead more quickly than they are, and the local community would obviously appreciate that as well. I think, to put it in perspective, as you say, last year was just such a devastating year right across the country and what it actually resulted in was nearly 70 per cent of council areas across the country being disaster declared at some point over the course of the year.
So that has put a strain on state governments, federal governments, local governments and all authorities who are responsible for recovery.
But we’ve been working very closely with the New South Wales government to try to get that program moving as quickly as possible. They obviously – the New South Wales government - obviously made their request of the federal government a few months after the Queensland government did in response to the same floods.
So I guess it’s not surprising that the New South Wales program has not progressed quite as quickly as the Queensland program. But we’re very keen to get it moving as quickly as possible. It’s making a big difference in Queensland already, and I think as it continues to roll out in New South Wales it will really help people move forward.
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Perrottet says he’s ‘committed completely’ to gambling reform
The New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, has expressed his commitment to gambling reform at a Committee for Sydney event on Monday morning.
He said:
That transition will be difficult, but I’ve committed completely with industry that I’ll work very closely to get that done.
A sign of any great society is how it looks after its most vulnerable people.
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Lowering voting age ‘certainly not one of our priorities’: Jane Hume
The shadow special minister of state, Jane Hume, has poured cold water on the Greens’ private member’s bill to lower the voting age to 16.
The Liberal senator told reporters in Canberra:
“I haven’t seen that bill, I haven’t seen the details of that bill. But I think it’s safe to say that is certainly not one of our priorities.”
The independent MP Monique Ryan has also been pushing to lower the voting age.
In November the special minister of state, Don Farrell, told Guardian Australia that Labor had other priorities for reforming electoral law, but he noted it had “never ruled out” lowering the voting age.
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Greens introduce bill to bring to all asylum seekers stranded offshore to Australia
The Greens are motoring through introducing legislation.
Senator Nick McKim has introduced a bill which would ‘compel the government to offer immediate evacuation to Australia to all remaining refugees and people seeking asylum still stranded offshore in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.’
For the bill to have any chance of succeeding, the government would have to support it. Recent history suggests that won’t be happening.
McKim says it is “abhorrent” that about 150 people remain exiled in PNG and Nauru and Australia has a responsibility it has been neglecting for a decade.
“The Bill has been designed specifically to fit within Labor’s policy settings, and avoid the toxic refugee politics of the past two decades,” McKim said.
“But most importantly, it offers a way forward for people seeking asylum who have suffered so much for so long.
“When in Opposition, Labor was happy to support the Medevac amendment moved by the Greens. This Bill gives them the chance to work in the same spirit of cooperation to finish that task.”
McKim says there is no reason for the government to oppose it.
“The legislation does not require the government to settle people permanently in Australia, but to offer to support them in Australia until a durable third-country solution is secured.
“This Bill represents a compassionate and practical solution to the ongoing crisis of offshore detention.”
The Greens say the legislation would require the minister to:
Make an immediate offer of evacuation to all refugees and people seeking asylum still in PNG and Nauru (around 150 people), unless they have had an adverse security assessment made against them by ASIO;
Place all refugees and people seeking asylum who accept the offer in the Australian community, and not into held detention;
Make available to all people evacuated to Australia with any medical assessments and treatments they need;
Allow for all people evacuated to Australia under this legislation to remain in Australia until they are provided with a durable solution to their displacement with a third-country that is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or 1967 Refugee Protocol.
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RBA expected to hike cash rate at Tuesday’s board meeting
You know summer is really over when the RBA board turns up for its first meeting of the year, on the first Tuesday of February (tomorrow).
(Staffers must have a shrine for the wily wonk who made sure January 1992 was the last time board members had to disturb their beach or skiing holidays to turn up during the first month of the year. Even the GFC didn’t disturb their break.)
Your correspondent has been very much off the grid for the past week or so (a shrine of eternal thanks burns for those who stopped the damning of Tassie’s Franklin River four score years ago), and it’s a little surprising to see how little has changed when it comes to interest rate expectations.
Just as I left it, investors very much expect a 25 basis point increase in the RBA’s cash rate to 3.35% tomorrow. (It used to be a two-in-three chance, now it’s a three-in-four one.)
Similarly, a peak rate looms at about 3.6% if those bets are right. And that’s despite the higher-than-tipped annualised CPI for the December quarter coming in at 7.8%. (Market economists had been expecting a 7.5% result).
For all the chatter about what the RBA might do tomorrow, markets have not budged a lot in the past couple of weeks. Investors are still tipping a peak rate at about 3.6% by mid-year, include a 75% tomorrow of a 25bp rise to get us half way (to 3.35%). pic.twitter.com/1DusuQmHVk
— @phannam@mastodon.green (@p_hannam) February 5, 2023
CBA, the biggest issuer of mortgages in Australia, sees a “non-trivial risk”, at 25%, that the RBA will raise the cash rate by a larger 40bp to 3.5% tomorrow.
Slightly at odds with that hawkish take, though, is CBA’s view that a big hike, if it were to occur, would then be followed by a pause.
It would seem more likely that a return to large rises (there were four 50bp hikes in a row between last June and September) would be a sign the RBA has more work to do, rather than taking time off to assess their extra handiwork.
Separately, NAB has put out its quarterly ‘consumer stress’ index for the December quarter. Not too surprisingly, stress is on the rises “but remains comfortably below the survey average”.
“Consumer stress is highest among those aged 30-49 and in the $35-50,000 income group,” NAB says, adding that about four-in-10 consumers “have cut back or stopped buying coffees or lunches, car trips to save petrol and entertainment”.
Still, “if consumers are anxious about an impending economic slowdown, they are not yet revealing it, remaining relatively upbeat about the economy”, NAB’s chief economist Alan Oster says.
We’ll get ABS’s retail sales figures for the December quarter later this morning, so we’ll see if that view translated into spending …or not.
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Stop raising interest rates and tackle inflation at the source: Acoss
The Australian Council of Social Service wants a hold on interest rate rises:
Rather than relying on the blunt tool of interest rate rises, the government should tackle price rises at their source by reducing the cost of essentials such as rents, energy and medicine. ACOSS welcomes the recently announced curbs to gas prices for households and businesses. More must be done.
Acoss is calling on the government to:
Implement better regulation of the private rental market to protect against exorbitant rent increases
Take further action to reduce energy costs by investing to make homes energy efficient for people on low incomes
Take further action to reduce out of pocket costs such as child care and dental health services
Invest in a jobs and training offer for the 500,000 people unemployed long-term to improve their employment prospects and ease labour shortages.
It is not alone. The surging rental market has priced many out of the areas where they work and shows no signs of slowing down. If you have been unlucky enough in the last two years to have to look for a rental, then you know exactly how difficult it is.
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It is fair to say anyone who has ever been within sneezing distance of a truck is against the Grattan Institute’s proposal.
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Halving fuel tax credits would ‘decimate’ trucking industry, ATA says
The trucking industry is furious at a proposal from the Grattan Institute this morning for the Albanese government to halve Australia’s fuel tax credit scheme for heavy vehicles.
A new Grattan report has found that slashing by half the $8bn a year Australia gives as credits to mining trucks, semi-trailers and other heavy vehicles are crucial for budget repair and meeting emissions targets. The report found the fuel tax credit scheme was “a political gift” from which large businesses mostly benefit.
So far the Transport Workers Union has suggested the idea would cause a spike in truck crash deaths, and the National Farmers Federation has called it “economically disastrous”.
Now, the Australian Trucking Association has released its response. It believes the proposal would “decimate” the trucking industry.
ATA chair, David Smith, said “there is no way that any transport business could survive this”.
Diesel is our biggest cost. We’re already fighting ridiculous fuel prices; this would be straw that breaks the camel’s back. Ultimately, our customers would have to pay the extra cost. But on the way through, many trucking businesses would fold. And costs in rural and remote areas would go up even more.”
The effective fuel tax on trucks should be set to recover the cost of the roads we need, and not inflated by extra costs or poor state government spending decisions.
Australia’s fuel tax is 47.7 cents a litre, however vehicles that only drive off-road, including trucks on mine sites and heavy machinery, are not required to pay any fuel tax. Vehicles heavier than 4.5 tonnes such as semi-trailers, buses and B-doubles only have to pay a reduced rate, and receive a partial credit of 20.5 cents. Smaller vehicles pay the full tax, incorporated into the cost of petrol at the bowser.
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Activists pressure lobby group Appea over climate reforms
A small protest has been held outside the Appea (gas and fuel lobby) office in Canberra, asking it to pull its weight on the safeguard mechanism reform.
The protest was attended by people from Peoples Climate Assembly, Australian Parents for Climate Action, Extinction Rebellion, Solutions from Climate Australia, Move Beyond Coal, Australian Conservation Foundation as well as other similar minded groups.
The groups want the government to reform the safeguard mechanism so it actually leads to a reduction in emissions. And they want the fossil fuel industry to stop fighting change.
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ClubsNSW concerned about ‘costs and technical challenges’ of cashless pokies
The New South Wales clubs lobby has expressed concern about the costs, challenges and impacts associated with the state government’s cashless gaming policy.
A spokesperson for ClubsNSW said:
ClubsNSW is concerned about the significant costs and technical challenges associated with the Coalition’s proposal to implement a mandatory cashless gaming system.
We’re particularly concerned about the implications for small, regional clubs and the impact this will have on jobs across the industry.
The body said it was committed to working with the government after the March election to “combat problem gambling and keep criminals out of gaming venues”.
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For those wanting more detail on the NSW plan to tackle gambling harm, Tamsin Rose has you covered:
New Zealand leader to visit Australia tomorrow
Tomorrow is not only interest rates day (where the smart money is on a 9th increase), it is also the day new Aotearoa New Zealand prime minister Chris Hipkin will visit.
It is in and out for Hipkin, who will return home on the same day.
(Side note, if Aotearoa New Zealand officially changes it name, it will sit above Australia in the shipping country list. Which is perhaps reason enough for many in Aotearoa to support it.)
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Taylor takes aim at Chalmers over essay: ‘Priorities are all wrong’
Just to give you some context, Angus Taylor said all of this with a straight face:
Well, 2023 is going to be a tough year for hardworking Australian families. They’re seeing increases in their energy bills. They’re seeing increases in their mortgage payments. In their rents and increases across the board with rising inflation and rising interest rates. A very, very tough time.
And, of course, tomorrow, we’re likely to see more of it with the Reserve Bank expected to raise interest rates again. And this will be more pain for hardworking Australians, eating an even bigger hole into the household budgets.
Over the summer, we saw a government whose priorities are all wrong. A treasurer who spent the summer writing a 6,000 word essay, ideological essay, rather than focusing on cost of living, the real challenges that Australians are facing in their households and their businesses.
We want to see a government that has the right priorities – a focus on making sure that Australians are in a position to manage their household budgets, to reduce interest rates and inflation.
If Taylor thinks it would take all summer to write 6,000 words, then that might explain a few things. Also it is pretty much the same criticism that was made against Kevin Rudd’s 2009 essay (also in The Monthly) on the global financial crisis.
According to some (and a Rhodes scholar no less!) leaders should never write anything, or try to explain their thinking in more words than a 6pm news soundbite. Got it.
Updated
Ahhh, it is beginning to feel a lot like budget.
Expect to see more interest groups call for all sorts of things to be ruled out from here to May.
Transport Workers Union blasts call to halve truck fuel tax credits
The Transport Workers Union has blasted a proposal calling on the Albanese government to halve Australia’s fuel tax credit scheme for heavy vehicles, suggesting the idea would cause a spike in truck crash deaths.
A new report from the Grattan Institute has found that slashing by half the $8bn a year Australia gives as credits to mining trucks, semi-trailers and other heavy vehicles are crucial for budget repair and meeting emissions targets. The report found the fuel tax credit scheme was “a political gift” from which large businesses mostly benefit.
Australia’s fuel tax is 47.7 cents a litre, however vehicles that only drive off-road, including trucks on mine sites and heavy machinery, are not required to pay any fuel tax. Vehicles heavier than 4.5 tonnes such as semi-trailers, buses and B-doubles only have to pay a reduced rate, and receive a partial credit of 20.5 cents. Smaller vehicles pay the full tax, incorporated into the cost of petrol at the bowser.
On Monday morning, the TWU joined the National Farmers Federation in criticising the idea. The TWU said fuel tax credits are a “lifeline for truckies” and called the Grattan Institute’s proposal “shortsighted and dangerous”.
“The fuel tax credit scheme provides relief to operators and drivers on razor-thin margins, while wealthy retailers, manufacturers and oil companies at the top of supply chains squeeze transport contracts to bolster their bottom line,” the TWU statement said.
TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said major retailers factor the credits into the “pricing they impose on transport companies”. Kaine added:
The prospect of tampering with – let alone halving - a fuel cost lifeline for our essential trucking industry in the current climate is as dangerous as it is ludicrous. This move would unfairly target operators and drivers battling razor-thin margins, under pressure to cut corners in safety to stay afloat. It would decimate operators and supply lines with deadly consequences in what is already Australia’s most lethal industry.
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EU and Australia set mid-year deadline for trade deal
The trade minister, Don Farrell, has spoken with his European Union counterpart on the eve of the next round of negotiations for a free trade agreement between Australia and the EU.
It comes as the European Commission sets a deadline of the middle of this year to reach a deal with Australia. The European Commission’s Green Deal Industrial Plan for the Net-Zero Age - released last week, said:
The Commission will also continue to advance the EU’s network of Free Trade Agreements, while making the most of those already in place through effective implementation and enforcement. In particular, the Commission will work to conclude negotiations with Australia by summer 2023.
(Northern summer is the southern winter, so that means the middle of this year.)
The 14th round of negotiations for the free trade agreement between Australian and EU officials begin in Canberra today.
Farrell had a phone call with the European trade commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, last night. Farrell told Guardian Australia:
We had a good discussion, and we are both keen to see real progress during the week.
We both want to see our negotiators roll up their sleeves and do as much as possible to ensure we can finalise a comprehensive and ambitious FTA by mid-year.
It’s not the only trade-related talks happening this week. As previously reported, Farrell is due to meet virtually with China’s commerce ministers this week to try to make progress on resolving trade tensions between the two countries. All eyes will be on this meeting to see whether there is any movement, although it is far from clear that any major breakthrough is in the works at this stage.
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Church service kicks off the parliamentary year – in pictures
Mike Bowers was at the ecumenical service ahead of the first parliament sitting this morning.
Every year, politicians and their families of all faiths are invited to a church in Canberra (it alternates) where the tone for the parliamentary year is supposed to be set.
It has also been the place of awkward handshakes between opposing leaders of political parties, strained smiles between members of the same party (depending on whatever power struggle is going on) and sometimes outright hostility.
It is still relatively early in the new parliament, so there wasn’t a lot of that this morning. Give it another year.
(There is a whole other argument about the separation of church and state and how much religion is already a part of our politics, but that is for another day)
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Plibersek and Joyce debate … beach cabanas
Barnaby Joyce and Tanya Plibersek, who drew the government short straw in having to ‘debate’ Joyce each week on national television, were then asked about the issue on everyone’s lips:
Beach cabanas.
Host: “There have been calls to impose a cabana ban on beaches, after a recent surge in the popularity of the structures. Tanya, would you care to throw some light or shade on this? Would you ban them?”
Plibersek:
Yeah, look, no, I wouldn’t. I think it’s fantastic that people are being sun sensible. We know that Australia’s still got some of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world. You have to be considerate; obviously you have to leave enough room for the people around you also to use the beach, you have to make sure that the life savers can see the water to keep us safe, but as long as you’re sensible about it, I say bring it on. We really need to make sure we’re protecting our own skin, and particularly the skin of our kids.
Host: Are you a cabana man, Barnaby?
Joyce:
Not many of them at Danglemah, I have to say, but anyhow, look, I’ve had melanoma twice, so I’m very, very aware of how important it is that you cover up. That’s why I wear that hat. Might look like a bit of a goose at times, but the point … is to remind people that we’re perfectly designed for the west coast of Ireland, very badly designed for the western plains of Queensland. And cabanas, to be honest, I just think, wear a shirt, wear a hat, and once you’ve had enough sun, get off the beach.
I am probably different to Tanya on this. I just think too, they just become too tight, it’s all over the beach, and it spoils it for other people. I think once you’ve had enough, get out of the sun completely, leave.
Host: OK, you’re anti‑cabanas?
Joyce:
Yeah. That will really affect my vote in New England, won’t it.
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Joyce unleashes on Chinese balloon: ‘We have to become strong’
Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce had very strong feelings about the Chinese spy/weather balloon and made sure to unleash them for the Seven network this morning:
Weather balloon – give me a break. Look, I’ve been saying for so long in politics, right back to 2009 when I came back as deputy prime minister, Australia has to become as strong as possible as quickly as possible, right? We worry about peripheral issues – climate change, constitutional change – but the biggest change our nation will have is if you’re dominated, not so much invaded, but dominated by the Communist party in China. That will be the biggest change in your life.
Now, the purpose of this balloon … it had two purposes. One, to see how it was detected, and the other one is to see how the American people in politics reacted. And for that, it determined the weather of that circumstance very, very well.
Now I don’t know whether Truman or Reagan or Kennedy would have waited till it got off the South Carolina coast after trouncing its way all around the United States before they decided to shoot it down, but we now live in a world where fighter planes go over Taiwan and this – note, it’s a military balloon, let’s just cut through the rhetoric – is making its way across the United States. Australia has to read the tea leaves, we have to read the tea leaves, we have to focus on the main game, we have to become strong, and if we don’t, well, we’re fools.
For the record, American security agencies reported actions had been taken to limit any spy capability of the balloon before it was shot down, and had waited for it to travel over the ocean before carrying out the mission to destroy it, to limit damage to people on the ground. It was later released that these balloons had entered the US airspace under the Trump administration and nothing was done.
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National Farmers’ Federation against cuts to fuel subsidies
We are at the “lobby groups call for government to rule out suggestions from thinktanks” stage of the political cycle.
In this case, the National Farmers’ Federation wants the treasurer to rule out making any changes to the fuel tax credits scheme, after a proposal by the Grattan Institute.
NFF president Fiona Simson said that any cuts to the scheme would be “economically disastrous” and risks “lighting the fuse on a multi-billion dollar tax bomb that would send a cost of living shockwave down the supply chain”.
Simson said:
Farmers are already battling a cost of farming crisis, with fuel, fertiliser and other inputs at historically high levels. We’re seeing this reflected in the food price inflation causing pain for families at the supermarket checkout.
Levelling billions in new taxes on the supply chain is a recipe for further inflation.
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Tamsin will have all the detail for you, so check back here and watch out for her coming story.
Dominic Perrottet will unveil his long-awaited gambling reform plan later this morning. Clubs and pubs will have five years to transition to cashless gaming. #nswpol
— Tamsin Rose (@tamsinroses) February 5, 2023
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Greens MP to introduce bill to lower voting age to 16
The Greens member for Brisbane (and chief agitator of the MPs for Ties coalition) Stephen Bates will introduce a bill into parliament today to lower Australia’s voting age to 16.
It is one of the issues Bates has really seized upon since his election, and an issue the Greens have been pushing for at large for some time.
The rationale is that young people are going to be affected the most by everything that is going on, so they should have a say on who represents them in the parliament.
Bates says:
16 and 17-year-olds are facing a lifetime without affordable or accessible housing, healthcare and education, and they will experience the worst consequences of government inaction on the climate crisis.
Young people have proven that they are engaged by taking to the streets in protest in unprecedented numbers. Right now, they have no other option to make their voices heard.
… Studies and examples from around the world show that lowering the voting age to 16 has improved civic engagement, providing young people with a lifelong drive to participate in democracy.
It’s their future at stake, and they deserve the right to hold their government accountable.
Tabitha Stephenson-Jones, a co-founder of the Make It 16 Australia campaign, was part of Bates’ statement and said:
Young people already know what we want from our leaders, and we know that we can’t help make decisions for our future without being in the room, let alone at the table.
Young people are engaged, enthusiastic and ready to make a difference, the only issue is - politicians are afraid. They’re afraid that once young people get the opportunity to vote, they will actually have to consider us in the choices they make for our communities.
Young people can be the voice for the future, but only if we are invited to the table, and given the opportunity to do so.
When this was an issue of conversation last year, Labor did not rule it out immediately, so you never know.
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And on closing the gap, Anthony Albanese says:
This is a task which we need to, of course, get the detail right and … I’d want to get as much agreement as possible because I want this to be a long-term reform to benefit Indigenous Australians to help closing the gap.
We’ll be talking about closing the gap and the targets and the fact that so many of them have not been met when that is debated in parliament over this sitting. That is why this is a change that’s necessary.
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Albanese says voice to parliament should be ‘above politics’
The traditional first day of parliament secular service has concluded and the doorstops just outside the church have begun.
Anthony Albanese has come out wanting to talk about the voice to parliament:
As premier Perrottet said last Friday, this should be above politics. This is something that is not for any political party, not for government, it’s something that – has arisen from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves.
And we should answer this gracious call and all of the - the polling, of course, polls come and go, what matters is when people cast their vote. But I ask people to think about the generosity of spirit and in the spirit of the service that we have just been to, the call for a Indigenous recognition in our constitution and consultation on matters that affect them will not have an impact on most people’s lives, but it might just make some people’s lives, some of the most disadvantaged people on - in our country, [make] their lives better.
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Frontier wars should be recognised ‘in every museum’, Kim Beazley says
Over on RN Breakfast, Kim Beazley, the chair of the Australian War Memorial council, has reiterated his call (he has been vocal on this for some years) to recognise the frontier wars not just at war memorials but also “in every museum”.
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NSW to make all pokies cashless within five years
New South Wales pubs and clubs will be given five years to introduce cashless gaming systems across all pokies machines, under a plan developed by the state government.
The premier, Dominic Perrottet, secured support for his reform package at a Sunday cabinet meeting after months of public debate and major pushback from some of his coalition colleagues.
An independent taskforce would oversee the transition to universal cashless gaming between 2024 and 2028 and regional pubs and clubs will be provided with assistance to make up for the losses in revenue.
Perrottet will announce the plan late on Monday morning in response to a damning NSW Crime Commission report that found billions of dollars of dirty money was cycling through poker machines across the state. The commission recommended a cashless system.
Sydney MP Alex Greenwich said Labor should support the plan.
He said:
Now is the moment. NSW is going towards cashless gaming to stamp out money laundering and cashless gaming harm. I am looking forward to the full release from the government, and hope the opposition will join this multi-partisan push for reform.
The state opposition has agreed to a trial of cashless systems across a number of venues if re-elected but stopped short of supporting a universal rollout. Five hundred of the state’s 90,000 machines would be included.
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Tony Burke also said he will begin tackling the next part of his IR reforms this week:
So on Wednesday, we’ll go through the most of these are election commitments. And the reason I described them as controversial is that last year with what was happening, a lot of it was new. Some of the loopholes that we’re dealing with some businesses are very interested in using those loopholes. And so they’ll have a strong view about it that we’ve been we’ve been quite transparent things like the gig economy.
Things like same job, same pay pay and abuse of labour hire that we are going to act on it.
Paul Karp will be all over that for you when it happens
Labor senator Pat Dodson said the voice should also be able to talk to the executive (like national cabinet) as well as offer input on legislation.
Tony Burke told RN he would think it would be “extraordinary” if the voice didn’t talk to the executive.
And if we think about it logically, of course, the voice should be allowed to speak. And that means to both the parliament and the executive.
Parliament should be in charge of the details of the voice, Burke says
Tony Burke described the referendum as:
The constitution is where you set down the principles, and then the parliament is where you debate back and forth the detail.
The prime minister on the weekend gave the example of defence.
When we were deciding that we wanted defence as part of the constitution, we didn’t provide the detail of how many ships we would have.
… This is the thing that the parliament should be in charge of.
What we’re asking Australian people is whether or not there should be a voice.
Here is what Anthony Albanese said during the weekend:
The voice won’t administer funding. It will not deliver programs.
It will not have any kind of veto power over decision-making.
And in the course of the year, there will be more information for people to examine.
But the mechanics of the voice won’t be written into the constitution.
That’s not how it works.
For example, the constitution says the commonwealth parliament will have power to make laws for the ‘naval and military defence of the Commonwealth’.
It doesn’t spell-out the size of the ADF, or where it should be based or what sort of defence hardware we should have.
And just as well – that section of the constitution doesn’t even mention the air force, for the very good reason that it became law before the first powered flight.
The authors of Federation understood – as servants of democracy – that it was for government, parliament and the people to deal with the detail and the implementation, through legislation.
The constitution contains the power and then parliament uses its democratic authority to build the institution and renovate it as needed.
At this year’s referendum – Australians will be voting on the principle.
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At the same time, Tony Burke was speaking to Patricia Karvelas on ABC radio RN about the referendum machineries legislation which, has to go through the parliament to enable the voice vote.
Burke:
So the machinery, there’s two different bits that have to go through the parliament. The first is updating the referendum laws themselves. That’s been introduced to the parliament. There’s a committee that’s looking at it now. And so it’s sort of sitting in the House of Representatives issued report in the next couple of weeks and, and then the mission that part of it will go through, then you deal with the second bill a bit later in the year. So in the probably the second quarter of the year. And that’s the bill that has the question, and the specific word for word changes that would go into the constitution, that one has to be passed by an absolute majority of each house of the parliament. And once that’s happened, then the deadlines as to when the vote will happen are all locked in.
On Peter Dutton’s claims due process has not be followed for this referendum, Burke says:
I gotta say, I can’t think of any referendum proposal where there has been more process than this.
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Wong repeatedly avoids question on Indigenous voice to parliament
Asked three times if the voice to parliament should also advise national cabinet, as suggested by Labor senator Pat Dodson, Penny Wong avoids the question.
Q: The big issue, one of the big issues, of course, is going to be the proposed Voice to Parliament referendum. Your colleague, Senator Pat Dodson, Labor’s Envoy for Reconciliation, reckons the Voice - should it happen - should have a role in advising National Cabinet as well as parliament. Is that part of the plan?
Wong:
Let’s go back to first principles. What is the Voice? The Voice is constitutional recognition of our First Nations people to ensure they have a say. I think it’s a pretty good thing for people to have a say in matters that affect them. It’s one of the ways that we can ensure we improve not only our nation, but also the aspirations and opportunities for our First Nations peoples. I was really pleased to see, while I was away, that all First Ministers, Liberal and Labor, have backed in the Voice. It shows what you can do when you take the politics out of it.
Q: OK. I’ll ask you the question again. Is the Voice going to advise National Cabinet as well as parliament?
Wong:
I think the Voice will have a say in matters that affect First Nations people. But I think the point here is - why are some people so concerned about that?
Q: The reason - sorry to interrupt. It’s not part of the language so far. It’s always been that the Voice would advise parliament. National Cabinet is a different body.
Wong:
Well, do you think people having a say is a problem, Michael? (the host)
Host: It’s not for me to answer that question. I’m asking you, Minister.
Wong:
That’s the implication in your question. I mean, we have years of disadvantage, years of... ..so many broken hopes. And we can be so much stronger as a nation. We can become much more unified. And the First Ministers, Premiers and Chief Ministers have demonstrated that. We want to walk down this path together. It’s not about “gotcha” moments. It’s not about tricky questions and answers. It’s about the nation coming together and saying, “Yes, we will take the outstretched hand which is the Uluru Statement from the Heart.” “We will recognise our First Nations people. We will give them a say. And we will work through the detail of that together.” And that’s a good thing.
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Wong on China-US tensions: ‘We can decide to avert conflict’
Asked about these comments from a US general – that his “gut” feeling is that the US and China will fight over the Taiwan Strait in 2025, Penny Wong says:
Look, I gave a speech when I was in Washington at the Carnegie Institute where I talked about guardrails. And I talked about agency. And what I meant by that was this – we can decide what we do. We can decide which path we choose. We can decide to work, to manage competition, and we can decide to avert conflict. Sometimes that is hard. Sometimes you have to work hard to develop that architecture, to develop that relationship, to develop the guardrails, to develop the means of communication between powers, particularly at times of tension.
But it is very important that we do that. It’s very important that the great powers - US and China - do that. And it is very important that the rest of the region and the rest of the world continue to encourage that. That is why we welcome the US being clear, even at this time, that they wish to continue to diplomatically engage, and we would urge China to respond positively.
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Penny Wong says government would ensure ‘sovereignty is protected’ if spy balloon were spotted
So will Australia cancel meetings with Chinese counterparts?
Penny Wong:
We’ve always said we want to stabilise the relationship with China. We’ve said we will cooperate where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in our national interest. That’s the approach we’ve taken from Day 1. When I first met with State Councillor Wang Yi in Bali at the G20, I said it was the first steps of many. I regard the Trade Minister’s virtual meeting that you referenced at the next step. We hope that the trade impediments will be removed. We believe it’s in both countries’ interests for that to occur. We are, however, realistic that this will take many steps in order to stabilise the relationship, and both countries will have to take those steps.
If a Chinese spy balloon floated over Australia, how would the government react?
Wong:
Well, you wouldn’t expect the Minister for Foreign Affairs to respond to hypotheticals, Michael. I’m sure you knew that when you asked the question. I would answer in this way and say the Australian government, the Labor government, will always ensure Australia’s sovereignty is protected. We will always act to protect our sovereignty. And we will always encourage other countries to act in accordance with international law.
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Wong: ‘We want to ensure the region, the world, remains peaceful’
Penny Wong continues:
Look, this is obviously - it has caused Secretary Blinken to cancel his trip to China. We will continue to advocate for the great powers to engage and to ensure there’s guardrails around their relationship. I mean, we don’t want competition escalating. We want to ensure the region, the world, remains peaceful. And part of ensuring that is to have guardrails around competition. Have lines of communication. Have engagement. I was pleased to see that Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, continued to offer that diplomatic engagement, even at this time. And as I said, Australia would encourage China to respond positively.
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Penny Wong asked about Chinese spy balloon
Over on ABC Breakfast, foreign minister Penny Wong is choosing her words very carefully when answering a question about the ‘Chinese spy balloon’ allegedly found in US airspace. (The Chinese government has said the balloon was an errant weather balloon which was blown off course)
We share the US concerns about the infringement of US airspace and the effect on US sovereignty. And I think that the US has acted in a manner that is careful and measured and safe, and made sure that this was brought down over its own territorial waters safely.
Asked if it was a spy device, what that says about China, Wong says:
I’m not going to get into speculation. I’ll go into what United States has said, which is that they consider it an infringement of their sovereignty, and certainly its presence is not consistent with international law, which I think has been acknowledged. The key point you made was in your introduction - where does this now go? We welcome the US indicating, in Secretary Blinken’s comments, that they are open to continued engagement with China, continued diplomatic engagement. We would encourage that to continue. We would encourage China to respond positively. Because it’s very important - particularly at a time like this - that we ensure that competition doesn’t continue to escalate. We all want a region that’s peaceful, stable and prosperous. And that means, amongst other things, the great powers talking to one another.
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Australia moves to single dose for HPV vaccine
From today Australia will move from two doses to a single dose of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, with the nation on track to become the first country in the world to eliminate cervical cancer.
The free catch-up program for young people who have missed vaccination has also been extended from the current 19 years of age to people under 26 years of age.
Young people who are not immunocompromised and have received a single dose before they are 26 years old are now considered to be fully vaccinated and will not need a second dose.
The change is based on the latest international scientific and clinical evidence which shows a single dose gives comparable protection against HPV infection in healthy young people.
The health minister, Mark Butler, said a single dose is considered by the experts to be just as effective in preventing HPV infection:
This will make it easier to protect young people from the range of cancers and diseases caused by HPV and help eliminate cervical cancer in Australia.
If you’re a 20 to 26-year-old and haven’t had a HPV vaccine and you’re now funded to catch up, now is the time to get the jab and protect yourself.
Vaccination levels are on the rise, and as Guardian Australia recently reported health experts believe cervical cancer will be eliminated in just over a decade despite opposition from fringe religious groups and pandemic disruptions.
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Gas industry remains cranky
As parliament grinds back into life, the Albanese government is already deep in budget preparation mode, which means pretty much every interest group in the country lines up to lobby for their preferred outcomes. If you’ve been following the news since late last year, you will already know that gas producers are unhappy that there has been a regulatory intervention to try and achieve energy price relief for households and businesses.
The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (Appea) – the peak national body representing Australia’s oil and gas exploration and production industry – has used its budget submission to remain unhappy. High energy prices are generally blamed on the price shock that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Appea says prices were rising before the conflict because there wasn’t enough exploration for new sources of supply.
The lobby group’s budget submission declares new investment is the key to rebalancing markets and putting sustained, downward pressure on prices.
Cue cranky.
“Yet regulatory interventions announced by the government in December 2022—including a 12-month price cap on the wholesale market and ongoing regulation of prices through a mandatory code of conduct—have had immediate and damaging impacts on the effective operation of the domestic gas market and on prospects for future investment,” the submission says.
“Projects that were set to deliver new gas supply for domestic customers—and deliver hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in local regions—have been put on hold.”
In addition to the observation about regulation, Appea is calling for a national carbon capture and storage roadmap, and to “keep the scope of the proposed Environmental Protection Agency consistent with its pre-election commitments” while streamlining approvals under the EPBC Act.
While the gas industry will always want to expand, there are a couple of important points of context that might be useful.
1. In May 2021, the International Energy Agency said if governments were serious about addressing the climate crisis, there should be no new investments in oil, coal and gas from that time.
2. The head of the United Nations, António Guterres, has said nothing could be more “clear or present than the danger of fossil fuel expansion.”
In case that message wasn’t clear enough, he added:
“We seem trapped in a world where fossil fuel producers and financiers have humanity by the throat. For decades, the fossil fuel industry has invested heavily in pseudoscience and public relations, with a false narrative to minimise their responsibility for climate change and undermine ambitious climate policies”.
Read this piece from our climate editor Adam Morton if you’d like to know more.
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What is coming up in the chambers?
Welcome everyone to the new parliamentary year. My only advice is pack lunch and stay well hydrated.
The voice to parliament has been front-and-centre of the political debate during the summer, and will be very prominent all year, but there are many other things on the go. During this first sitting fortnight for 2023, parliament will consider legislation establishing Labor’s national reconstruction fund, and it will also debate legislation flowing from the Bell inquiry into Scott Morrison’s secret ministries.
That report by the former high court justice Virginia Bell found Scott Morrison’s secret appointment to additional ministries was “apt to undermine public confidence in government” and was “corrosive of trust in government.”
If you watch events closely you’ll remember that in the wake of that report, parliament censured the former prime minister last year.
On Monday, there will be a condolence motion marking the death of the Liberal senator Jim Molan last month, and there will also be a statement in both chambers acknowledging the Set the Standard report – presumably timed to coincide with a significant anniversary.
Twelve months ago, Morrison apologised for the “terrible things” that happened in parliament workplaces and acknowledged a culture of bullying, abuse, harassment “and in some cases even violence” built up over decades.
That apology followed a landmark review by Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, in 2021 into federal parliament’s culture.
The Jenkins review, which recommended a significant overhaul of the workplace culture, found one in three staffers interviewed had been sexually harassed. It’s amazing that that apology feels both like yesterday and a lifetime ago.
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Good morning
Welcome to the first parliament sitting for 2023.
Dust off your listening ears and gird your loins for a return to the battle ground – after, of course, the traditional secular church service where everyone pretends to heed the message of togetherness.
The year has already kicked off when it comes to politics – the Voice, gas, Medicare, doing capitalism different – the summer had something for everyone.
But now it is back to the business of making legislation.
We’ll cover all of that off for you, as Anthony Albanese, Peter Dutton and the rest of the parliament file back into the building ready to begin proceedings at 10am.
So what is the state of play?
Pretty much as we left it in 2022.
There are lots of questions about the Indigenous voice to parliament, which the government is starting to answer, as Katharine Murphy lays out here:
And Jim Chalmers flew a kite out on capitalism based on “values” (via a 6,000 word essay in The Monthly) and has spent the time since fending off attacks that it’s not what Paul Keating would do:
So we start the first sitting week well and truly in the middle of things.
Lucky for me, we have Katharine Murphy, Josh Butler, Paul Karp and Daniel Hurst to lead the way. Mike Bowers is, as always, out and about and putting all my efforts to shame. (You have Amy Remeikis on the blog for most of the day).
We have a long year to get through, so make sure you pace yourself.
Just one coffee so far. (We all know that will change)
But ready?
Let’s get into it.
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