What we learned: Wednesday 27 March
That’s where we’ll leave the blog for today, but first a recap of the main events:
Andrew Wilkie said the UK delaying the Assange appeal decision was good news.
The Coalition unexpectedly moved to refer the Labor deportation bill to an inquiry.
Bill Shorten outlined the new NDIS bill prioritising “more dignified” support based on needs.
David Shoebridge was scathing on Labor’s “crayon drawing” deportation bill as the Greens and Coalition pushed for an inquiry.
Inflation remained steady in February.
Evidence suggested vaping may affect eye health, as peak bodies call for more legislation.
Abortion has officially been removed from Western Australia’s criminal code.
The former One Nation candidate backed by conspiracy theorists is set to become Townsville’s mayor.
Andrew Wilkie claimed Labor “prevented” him tabling documents about AFL drug tests.
The Northern Territory chief minister announced there would be a curfew enacted in Alice Springs for young people from tonight.
A Senate panel accused PwC of trying to cover up the tax leaks scandal.
Linda Burney welcomed the Alice Springs curfew as a “circuit breaker”.
Homelessness in WA reached an all-time high.
The Australia news live blog will be back tomorrow. Have a lovely evening.
Updated
Labor toughens penalties for assaulting frontline workers amid ‘a lot of agro’
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has introduced laws that will increase penalties for attacks on frontline services.
Bill Shorten, the government services minister, represents 30,000 people frontline public servants, these are the people that do Medicare, Centrelink and child-support.
Shorten told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing:
What I realised is that of our public servants are carrying a lot of stress, there’s a lot of agro, there’s more increases in assault and violence – not from most people that use the system but from a small group of people.
I think one of the things to improve their safety is to increase the penalties. If you hit a cop – I mean a cop shouldn’t ever be hit, or a judge - but they’ve got very strong protections. In the case of police, they are armed and trained.
Our frontline staff, they don’t have any of that but their work is as important as anyone else’s, so we are increasing the penalties.
I’m not saying that will guarantee that no one will ever get assaulted but it is part of my commitment to these 30,000 people and other public servants, what you do is important and you don’t have to put up threats of abuse.
Updated
Anti-nuke campaigners have ‘constructive’ meeting with Albanese and Wong
Representatives of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican) have been marching the halls of power in Canberra this week. They have been meeting MPs and senators to encourage them to press the government to sign and ratify the relatively new UN treaty aimed at enforcing an outright ban on nuclear weapons.
Anthony Albanese previously championed the idea. The Labor party’s commitment to join the ban treaty was couched in language that also said the government was “taking account” of three factors, including the need to work to achieve universal support. At this point, the US and other nuclear weapons states oppose the treaty.
Melissa Parke, the former Labor MP who is now based in Geneva as Ican executive director, told Guardian Australia today:
We had a constructive meeting with the prime minister and the foreign minister [on Monday]. We handed over a petition that was done on behalf of both Ican and the Australian Conservation Foundation with over 11,000 signatures from Australians calling upon the government to sign the treaty.
The government has said that they stand by the platform commitment, but that they have a lot on their agenda – they’re very busy, and it’s not high on the list of priorities, so we intend to ensure that it is higher on the list of priorities for the government.
Parke said there was “quite a lot of anxiety within the region and among many Australians about Aukus”.
She said:
We consider that Australia signing up to the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons would be a reassurance, both to the region and to fellow Australians, that Aukus is not a precursor to Australia hosting or acquiring nuclear weapons.
Updated
WA homelessness reaches all-time high
Shelter WA has called on the state government to invest its substantial budget surplus and GST windfall into fixing the housing crisis as new data shows Western Australian homelessness hitting an all-time high.
The By-Name List, which tracks homelessness in Perth, Geraldton, Bunbury, Mandurah and Rockingham, counted a record 1,889 people experiencing homelessness in February 2024, up from 1,373 two years ago.
A total of 1,029 were sleeping rough, exceeding last month’s record of 947, up from 655 two years ago.
In Perth, the crisis is so bad that only 39% of the 1,355 people experiencing homelessness, including 689 rough sleepers, have a case manager and only 18 could be permanently housed in February.
Shelter WA’s chief executive, Kath Snell, said:
WA’s housing crisis is breaking all the wrong records, but we have an incredible opportunity to solve it with this budget.
After five years of large surpluses and a GST windfall, the government must centre this year’s budget on housing and homelessness.
With rents soaring, homelessness surging and the housing shortage worsening, Shelter WA’s budget submission, released today, is calling for immediate action to ensure everyone has a safe and affordable place to call home.
Updated
Linda Burney welcomes 'circuit breaker' Alice Springs curfew after unrest
The federal minister for Indigenous affairs, Linda Burney, has welcomed the Northern Territory government’s announcement of a temporary curfew in Alice Springs after violent unrest.
In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, Burney said:
I hope this is a circuit breaker that will improve community safety.
I welcome the announcement by the NT Government of a temporary curfew in Alice Springs.
— Linda Burney MP (@LindaBurneyMP) March 27, 2024
I hope this is a circuit breaker that will improve community safety.
I will continue to work with the NTG, the local community & leadership for a better, safer future for Central Australia.
Updated
Senate panel accuses PwC of trying to cover up tax leaks scandal
A Senate committee has accused consultancy firm PwC of attempting to “cover up” the tax leaks scandal and criticised extensive leadership failures by the firm’s former executives.
An interim report by the Senate standing committee on finance and public administration, titled “the coverup worsens the crime”, has accused the firm of withholding information about the conduct of its international partners - a criticism the firm rejects.
The interim report focuses on the scandal triggered after a former PwC Australia partner shared confidential Treasury information about draft multinational tax laws with colleagues, who then sold the information to US companies.
Labor senator Deborah O’Neill, who is a member of the Senate inquiry, said she was disappointed that “much is still unknown about the actual misconduct by PwC and its partners amidst the efforts by the firm’s domestic and global leadership to minimise their reputational damage”.
She said:
The report highlights both the immense failures of leadership, professionalism and ethics which enabled the tax leaks scandal to occur in the first place, and the gross failures of professional accountability which saw it go unacknowledged and unpunished for so long.
There is no question that PwC has engaged in misconduct by creating and sharing a product that was expressly designed to deny Australians taxation revenue which they were fairly owed.
The reputational and financial damage that the firm has deservedly suffered as a consequence of their misconduct is not easily erased despite the firm’s attempts to cauterise its Australian operations from its global network.
The Australian federal police is still investigating the tax leaks scandal after a referral from the Treasury department. No finding of criminal wrongdoing has been made.
Updated
A big thank you to Amy! And a very good afternoon one and all, still plenty more news coming your way.
Parliament to break until budget week
The parliament is starting to wind down (finally, we can all take a deep breath) and MPs are eyeing the exits.
There is no sitting tomorrow, so that regional and rural MPs have a chance of returning to their electorates in time for Good Friday church services. This was decided last week, despite the dates for Easter being known well in advance (it is very Auspol that MPs suddenly began thinking of their travel issues at the last minute for an event that has been set in stone since, well, the rise of Christianity).
So there won’t be any Politics Live until parliament resumes for the budget week sitting on 7 May.
No doubt we will be talking about all the same things.
Stay tuned to Guardian Australia, though – there are still updates coming here, with Natasha May, and Paul Karp will be watching the home affairs spillover hearings, so he’ll bring you anything from that tonight. And of course the general news blog, Australia Live, will be back from tomorrow morning.
A very big thank you to everyone who followed along this sitting – and in general. The world is pretty overwhelming at the moment, so thank you for continuing to engage in your democracy and for letting us know your thoughts. It matters, and so do you.
Until May, take care of you. Ax
Updated
In the house, independent MP Allegra Spender has tabled a petition started by Mel Arnost on violence against women.
Spender:
Almost 25,000 people have signed this petition – 25,000 people who support Mel’s call for change, 25,000 people who expect action.
I hope the government is listening.
I will be pushing them to respond to Mel and her supporters. Not with an acknowledgement of the petition but a public commitment to back up words and policies with funding and determination.
Violence against women doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It thrives in environments where boys are taught to feel entitled. It thrives in a society that tolerates gender-based inequality.
Ending violence against women and children will take time and energy but is absolutely essential for a fairer, safer, more inclusive society.
Updated
NT chief minister Eva Lawler says:
It wasn’t alcohol but we will make sure that all people in Alice Springs are safe.
We want people in Alice Springs to be able to walk down the street, feel safe, be able to go to the shopping centre, pick up their kids from school and not be concerned about their own safety.
Updated
NT declares Alice Springs youth curfew from tonight
The Northern Territory chief minister, Eva Lawler, has announced there will be a curfew enacted in Alice Springs for young people from tonight.
The curfew will run from 6pm to 6am.
An additional 50 or so police and liquor inspectors will be deployed in the town, following recent unrest.
The NT police commissioner, Michael Murphy, said:
The government’s listened to what I’ve had to say as well and we’re responding to that.
You’ll see a real increase in tempo and visibility engagement to drive down the crimes associated with youth activity.
We saw, you know, really violent behaviour yesterday associated with the death of an 18-year-old male on 20 March. That’s led to family feuds and that’s what erupted in Alice Springs yesterday.
Updated
The Vinnies Canberra/Goulburn 15th CEO Sleepout will take place on 20 June – at Parliament House.
Which means you will see more politicians than usual taking part in the charity event.
The house speaker, Milton Dick, will be one of those participating in the sleepout, which is being held with support from the department of parliamentary services and this year hopes to raise $800,000.
(Still think having CEOs and leaders live on Jobseeker for a few months, without access to their bank accounts, and have them try to secure housing and a job on the payment, might give a better idea of what it’s like to live below the poverty line.)
Updated
Jordon Steele-John accuses Labor of secrecy around NDIS changes
Wrapping up the wide-spanning press conference from the Greens just before question time is Jordon Steele-John’s comments.
This morning, the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, introduced a bill to kickstart reforms to the NDIS scheme following the release of a major report in December.
The changes mark the government’s first legislative response to the review, which recommended the scheme shift its focus to providing supports for functional impairment, rather than a focus on diagnosis.
But Steele-John said he was critical of the way the legislation was developed, referring to reports some disability advocates and groups at the table could only be involved if they signed a strict confidentiality agreement preventing them from consulting with their membership.
This is a piece of legislation that was developed behind closed doors, with disabled people being forced to sign NDAs [non-disclosure agreements] in a completely inappropriate way.
The Western Australian senator said the Greens supported delaying the legislation until an inquiry could be held, adding there was frustration within the community about the political bickering between states, territories and the commonwealth over funding for the scheme.
Steele-John said:
We will not get good results for disabled people if a bunch of non-disabled ministers, federal or state, get together in a room and decide for us what is best for us. We need to have the principle of ‘nothing about us, without us’ genuinely at the heart of this.
Updated
And on the opposition deciding to send the legislation to committee, Clare O’Neil says:
I would just really ask you, do you really think they’re doing this for a public policy reason or do you think they’re doing it for politics?
Because the answer is very obvious to me. The answer is very obvious to me.
The reason might be up for debate, but the result is a win for public policy, surely?
Q: The plaintiffs in the high court both argue there’s no obligation to cooperate with deportations. This bill creates that obligation. Investigation. And yet officials last night were not able to explain the connection between the bill and the ASF 17 case. So, my question is, please, what is the connection? Would this bill have improved the Commonwealth’s prospects? And do you think that the Coalition has imperiled your chances in the case?
Clare O’Neil won’t comment on the high court matters and then says:
What we are talking about is a group of people who have exhausted every legal option.
They have been found not to owe the protection of the Australian people, and yet they will not work with the Australian government to manage their appropriate removal from our country. Now, I’d say to you again, this is one of the most common sense things that I have seen come before the Parliament.
How can we have a situation where we have no legal power to compel people to work with us to remove them from the country when they have no right to be here? Now, I would say to you, if you sat down with any Coalition MP, they’d probably nod their heads and say “that sounds very sensible”.
They did it yesterday. When they voted for it in the House of Representatives. And yet they come into the Senate today and play politics again. And I would just say once more, we have a government here trying to do something in the national interest and an opposition that chooses politics every day of the week and it is destructive and it needs to stop
What is the urgency in passing the bill?
Andrew Giles:
Well, as you just said, the Opposition recognised the urgency of the legislation yesterday in agreeing to the debate management which would have enabled the bill to be enacted today and to come into law tomorrow. This is an area where the opposition have continually pressed us on the need to act urgently to ensure the community is kept safe. They have an opportunity to do that just now to put into the migration act a power that we believe always should have been there.
Ahead of question time there was also a very well-attended press conference that Clare O’Neil and Andrew Giles held on the deportation legislation hold-up.
Q: On March 5, the department started working on this legislation. On March 15, you briefed journalists in terms of the problem here that you’re attempting to solve, why only bring in the opposition at five minutes to midnight, if you were fair dinkum about getting this bill up? Why not include them earlier in terms of discussions about these drastic changes that you’re proposing and trying to rush through parliament?
O’Neil disagreed with the characterisation and then said:
The reason that we need it is because we seek to run an orderly migration system in this country. We have come to office with the migration system in a categorical mess. Don’t take it from me, take it with the numerous eminent Australians who have looked at this system and said that because of 10 years of wilful neglect, we have a migration system which Dr Martin Parkinson said was fundamentally broken.
Now we are attempting to pursue the national interest, to protect the community and to give our government legislative powers that we need to help manage this system.
The opposition is standing in our way and they need to account for that. Now, the question over here is about the timing. I think you need to talk to the opposition about what they would have done had they had more time.
What I have seen with great disappointment is consistency in this debate where the opposition, instead of supporting us, instead of being constructive, instead of working with us on these things, tries to play politics.
And we saw that this week. Don’t forget that the Liberals came into the parliament yesterday, voted for this bill, voted for a debate management solution which helped us debate the bill, and then suddenly had a change of heart overnight.
And there’s only one reason for that, and that is because they are playing politics, and they’re doing [it] with everything.
Updated
Bandt urges PM to publicly release religious discrimination bills
Back to the Greens presser and on religious discrimination, the Greens say they still haven’t seen either of the bills the Albanese government has drafted.
The leader, Adam Bandt, said he thought Labor was not serious about passing the legislation and was walking away from an election promise.
Anthony Albanese told his party room on Tuesday morning the Greens could be an alternative pathway to passing the bills but said it could only choose this option if the minor party was “willing to support” the rights of people to practice their faith.
The Greens were offered a short briefing on Tuesday but Bandt said he still hadn’t seen either of the two bills Labor is holding close to its chest.
Asked whether the leader had been briefed on the bills’ contents, Bandt said:
It’s critical to see these provisions because we know that the words in the law matter ... show us the legislation so that we can cast our eye over it, work out whether it’s doing what the government says because we’ve seen many other examples of the government bringing new legislation that they say does one thing but, in fact, does another.
Bandt reiterated the Greens would work with the government on anti-vilification laws for faith groups but urged Albanese to release the bills publicly.
Updated
Question time ends.
But not without a final swipe from the prime minister:
I asked that further questions be placed on notice, given it is the last before the budget and not a single question from the opposition on the economy.
Not one.
There were also no questions on the legislation the Coalition had enough concerns over that it thwarted the government’s attempts to push it through the parliament in just over 24 hours, despite having passed it in the house.
And that is it for about five weeks. The next question time won’t be until 7 May.
Updated
Greens urge Labor to leverage Assange reprieve
Following the news of Julian Assange’s temporary reprieve last night, the Greens are urging the Albanese government to use the opportunity to save the WikiLeaks founder’s life.
Greens senator David Shoebridge said Australia should leverage its deals with the UK and the US on nuclear submarines and defence arrangements to call off the pursuit.
Assange was granted an appeal hearing in a British court in his fight against being extradited to the US to face espionage charges. In February, Australian federal MPs – including the prime minister and cabinet members – voted overwhelmingly to urge the US and the UK to bring Assange to Australia.
Shoebridge said Assange had been given a lifeline and the government needed to grab it:
It may just be a few short weeks of a break before it returns to court and the US presses on with its extradition ... surely the Australian government can do more than just complain and write a letter? It’s time we put some political and diplomatic assets on the table.
Updated
Albanese finishes with:
The leader of the opposition shows his weakness with his incapacity to stand up on any issue to his backbench. Any whatsoever. And we saw it again today.
A group whose lesson they took from the last election was that they were not rightwing enough and not conservative enough and not reactionary enough, or groups that have gone from reactionaries to nuclear reaction with their one policy that they have come out with, but then they will not come out with any detail.
As I said, I have been a regular visitor to the Northern Territory, I will continue to be a regular visitor to the Northern Territory, just as I suspect this bloke will be a continued regular visitor to Gina Rinehart’s parties.
Updated
Anthony Albanese says:
I have visited Northern Territory, including Alice Springs, more than the three previous Liberal prime ministers combined, in two years. In two years.
And just last week, Mr Speaker, I took the entire cabinet to the Northern Territory and we had ministers in Alice Springs, in Catherine, in remote Northern Territory as well, and I visited a remote community to commit to $4 billion, $4 billion to fix housing in remote communities. Something that was never done by those opposite who, when they were in government, anything 2014 budget, ripped money out of, just like in their last budget in 2022, they left funding going off a cliff, including in Alice Springs, for community organisations, for organisations that look after women’s safety, for organisations that look after children.
All of the funding stopped on June 30 of that year and we had to engage and find money, including $250 million, which we have done with our better, safer future for Central Australia plan.
A bloke who barely leaves his office, who barely leaves his office, does not get out and about ... except for his Wednesday night appearance on Sky News.
Peter Dutton pretends to have a point of order on relevance:
I know the prime minister has a glass jaw. He was there for four hours.
Milton Dick has had enough of these sorts of grandstanding points of order and Dutton receives a formal warning.
Updated
Peter Dutton gets his first question of the session:
Since being elected, he has spent just four hours in Alice Springs. At the moment, local residents, school principals and the men have been pleading full support from new prime minister, yet locals have seen little evidence that $250 million package is making any difference to improve community safety. In fact, the situation has got much worse. Children are committing serious crime, sexual abuse is at a record high, juvenile crime and domestic crime and abuse is at a record high. When does the prime minister intend to visit Alice Springs?
Before we get to the prime minister, the outgoing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, June Oscar AO, was asked about Alice Springs at her national press club address and said:
We will continue to see that disquiet and those types of behaviours in public. If we continue to exclude people and not really see and hear and learn from what are the measures that we, collectively, can be developing and designing that works for these communities.
It can’t happen with someone else’s ideas that sit in Canberra or Perth or Darwin. It has to be the people from the places where these matters are real issues.
Now I understand there is a senior Aboriginal leadership group in the Northern Territory, in Alice Springs, made up of key organisations. I don’t think it can be expected any longer that someone else from outside of Alice Springs comes in to address what is happening there …
Everyone has a right to feel safe here, and so people coming in to contribute to supporting this community should heed the leadership of the people that live in that community. They are the ones that are responsible, responding daily to these matters – not someone in Canberra.
And so I think what would be effective is, you know, the stakeholders and the mayor, working with the organisations in Alice Springs and the leadership in the Northern Territory. And there are some amazing leaders in the Northern Territory.
Updated
Anthony Albanese has set up a dixer just to make jokes about Peter Dutton.
Indeed, a survey of institutional investors with $37 trillion in assets under management found this.
They were asked what their top five responses were to deliver the best long-term benefits for the beneficiaries. Number one, renewable energy, 47%. The second, biodiversity; third, energy storage; fourth, low carbon transport. Fifth, industry materials, including critical minerals.
Nuclear energy was last. Nuclear energy was last.
Perhaps the leader of the opposition has identified this way, because he said everything will be fine, soothing the nerves of his members behind him there.
There are only four outstanding issues: safety, disposal, costs and location. Apart from that, it is full steam ahead.
[There is a joke about who you would rather in your backyard, Peter Dutton or a nuclear reactor.]
One is risky, expensive, divisive and toxic, and the other is a nuclear reactor.
Mr Speaker, the bad news for the Liberal party is you can put both on a corflute, and we certainly intend to do so.
Updated
Sussan Ley time once again:
Can the minister now confirm that she verbally abused the secretary of the Department, causing the secretary to leave her office in tears?
Clare O’Neil:
I say again to the deputy leader, with respect, she has now asked me the same question about five times and I’m going to give you the same answer and the answer is that secretary Foster and I enjoyed a very warm and collaborative relationship.
We have an enormous job to deal with because we are together, managing a department which was left in a catastrophic mass by the Leader of the Opposition. Cyber security, immigration, part of national security that needed to be cleanup effort and we are working on it together and we do that in a warm and collaborative [way]
Sussan Ley is back.
You know what is coming. We all know what is coming. And it is not a question about the legislation the coalition had a lot to say about this morning (albeit having voted for it yesterday in the house)
In 2018, the now minister said that the culture in parliament, quote, ‘feels really toxic for normal people generally but in particular for women. There is a level of aggression, conflict, egocentrism that dominates the culture in Parliament House and I think it’s quite hard to handle.’ That’s the end of the quote. How is this consistent with the minister ‘s verbal abuse of her secretary, causing her to leave her office in tears.
Clare O’Neil:
I don’t know how many times I will have to repeat this to her. I have an incredibly warm and collaborative relationship with the secretary of my department. We are doing very important work together cleaning up the catastrophic mass left in Home Affairs by the leader of the opposition. We work constructively and we are proud of the work we do together.
Updated
Shoebridge says deportation laws probe vital
Continuing with the Greens, David Shoebridge earlier said the inquiry into the deportation bill was necessary after a “master class in incompetence” from the Albanese government and the home affairs department in recent days.
The bill was delayed on Wednesday and sent to an inquiry due to report back in budget week in May after the Greens, the Coalition and the crossbench teamed up against the Labor government on the proposal.
Essentially, the bill gives the minister the power to direct a non-citizen who is due to be deported “to do specified things necessary to facilitate their removal”, or risk a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in prison or up to five years.
Shoebridge said the inquiry will give the parliament a chance to read and hear detailed evidence from “people who actually know their stuff” about the changes.
They couldn’t even identify which asylum seekers, which bridging visa holders that they wanted to direct these powers against. When you can’t even answer that most basic question, how are you going to persuade an even half rational parliament that the matter is urgent?”
Shoebridge also rejected O’Neil’s claims that the Greens were politicising the issue by teaming up with the Coalition against the bill.
Labor can call that politics. We call it doing our job, and putting bad proposals, based on fear, based on division, under the microscope so that we can knock them off.
Updated
Jason Clare takes a dixer to say:
We have a big anniversary coming up because in seven weeks’ time, it will be 10 years since the Liberal party ripped more than $20 billion out of public schools in this country. Remember that cigar-chomping budget? Guess who was on ERC at the time? Old smiley over there, the opposition leader.
(ERC is the expenditure review committee, or the budget slashing committee, depending on your viewpoint.)
Paul Fletcher interjects:
There are standards for how members of parliament are supposed to speak to each other and this member has breached that.
Tony Burke:
This would be the first time ever someone has taken offence to being accused of smiling.
There is much laughter at this, but not from Fletcher, who argues again it is a breach of standing orders.
Milton Dick has to deal with it:
The minister does not have to withdraw anything but I will ask him to temper his language and make sure he is showing respect to all members of parliament, and it is to both sides of the house. Everyone has titles, everyone has earned titles to be here. I ask everyone to show each other respect.
Clare takes a beat and then starts laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.
I assume that is a breach of the standing orders, he says about his own laugh.
Updated
Mark Butler:
I have been engaging very closely, not just with my department but also with state and territory authorities, who have state government responsibility for distributing vaccines under the national immunisation program to access points, which are essentially general practices and pharmacies. We have been working very closely with them, including Australia, where there has been more public attention around this question than in other jurisdictions.
I have not had advice for the last couple of weeks for the latest advice that supply constraints or supply issues were being resolved in all jurisdictions.
We have got hundreds and hundreds of thousands of additional doses coming into Australia over the course of the first half of this year. Many of them landed in February.
I have not had an update to suggest there are additional supply issues for some weeks. I am concerned that the member for Mayo has raised that.
I would be interested in having a discussion with her offline because I am absolutely determined in making sure as many Australians as possible get access to this life-changing vaccine.
Updated
Independent MP Rebekha Sharkie has the next crossbench question and asks Mark Butler:
My constituents tell me there is a 700-patient waitlist for the shingles vaccine at just one clinic on the Mayo South Coast and it’s reported that clinic is limited to receiving just 15 vaccines at a time. As minister, what urgent steps are you taking to ensure that older and vulnerable Australians who need this vaccine are able to access it in a timely manner?
If you need to understand the impact shingles can have on people, read this story from Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson:
Updated
Greens accuse Labor of ‘political spin’ on deportation laws
Shortly before question time, the Greens held a wide-spanning press conference on all the many moving political stories of today. Let me first start with perhaps the most controversial: Labor’s failed attempt earlier today to ram through laws that would imprison non-citizens for up to five years if they refuse to cooperate on their deportation.
The Greens senator David Shoebridge said the suggestion by the home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, that the laws needed to be rushed due to an upcoming high court case were “post-facto political spin”.
The deportation bill was expected to pass the Senate today but was derailed after the Greens and the Coalition teamed up to delay its passage and send it to an inquiry. O’Neil was asked whether the upcoming ASF17 high court case, involving an Iranian asylum seeker, was the reason behind the urgency of the bill. The minister suggested it was one of the reasons.
But Shoebridge later said that was spin, referencing the evidence given by the home affairs department secretary, Stephanie Foster, at a snap inquiry hearing last night.
The Greens senator said the department’s answers “made very few things clear” apart from this point:
Whatever Labor might be trying to spin today, they have the awkward problem of the secretary of home affairs’ evidence last night, which was very clear, this apparently was not legislation designed for the upcoming high court case. I’m willing to accept the evidence of the home affairs secretary under oath rather than Labor’s post-facto political spin when they’ve seen their legislation unravel and they’re seeing their political ploy fail.
Updated
Sussan Ley is back on her feet:
I refer to media reports about interactions between the secretary of the department and the ministers she serves. The Minister for Immigration responded to the reports and issued a clear denial. I ask again, did you verbally abuse the secretary, causing the secretary to leave the office in tears?
Clare O’Neil:
This question has been asked in a number of ways and I have answered in a number of ways, all of which have been accurate. I would say to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition I enjoyed a close and warm relationship with the secretary of my department. She is a public servant of decades of standing serving the government. It is why I supported the decision to appoint her to her position and we continue our warm and collaborative relationship.
Paul Karp says there was also applause from some in the coalition and school students in the public gallery at Madeleine King’s final line there, so there you go.
Adam Bandt asks Madeleine King:
A few months after being appointed, the minister said that carbon dioxide was not noxious and ‘it is the bubbles in the soda water or out of your soda stream, so you know we have to keep it in balance, how we think about carbon dioxide’. Is this reckless, dangerous view the reason the minister is so intent on opening up massive new climate-destroying gas projects, even if it derails the rest of the government’s legislative agenda?
King:
No, carbon dioxide in small amounts, which is in Soda Stream, and in soft drinks, very popular, isn’t noxious. It absolutely is not.
Of course, dangerous amounts of carbon dioxide to our climate is, of course, dangerous. I am not a climate denier.
There are people in this building might be and I think there are fewer and fewer every year. But it isn’t noxious in small amounts, to which are referred to in that interview.
Dangerous amounts of carbon dioxide causes global warming. That is why this government has taken steps immediately upon getting elected to introduce measures – we have passed many bits of legislation, the safeguard mechanism, climate targets, the vehicle emission standards going through the parliament right now. And I would remind the leader of the Greens, the Greens political party, exactly what his party has done in the past.
It is the party, the Greens political party, that came into this parliament and voted against the CPRS many years ago. You might laugh, member for Melbourne. Go right ahead. Through you, Mr Speaker.
But the thing is, the record is here, on Hansard, a history, has been set, and you help set it, and put back this country’s fight to put back climate change by decades.
I said to the leader of the Greens, you get what you deserve. Your party has made this happen, all for your political purposes.
… From the moment we got elected as a party of government – not a party of protest, like the Green political party – to take action to address dangerous climate change.
The leader of the Greens political party comes in here and has a little chitchat about soda streams and bubbles in Coca-Cola and other topics, as if it is the same thing as dangerous climate change caused by carbon dioxide. -
The leader of the Greens has gone too far. You are ridiculous, and just stop it.
There is applause from the Labor benches at this last line, but Milton Dick is not having it.
That behaviour is completely unacceptable. Every member is entitled to ask a question of their choice. They should be respected in their right to do so.
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Dan Tehan gets a turn now. It’s for Andrew Giles.
The minister was not talking to the secretary of the department when 149 former immigration detainees were roaming free and 39 asylum seekers arrived at Beagle Bay in Western Australia.
Why should the Australian people have any confidence that you can keep them safe?
(Tehan originally said “you” instead of “the minister”, plus there was some confusion over whether it was a statement or question, so Tehan asked the question a second time.)
This question assumes that running a department is apparently like a schoolyard scrap? I mean, I know that is how MPs treat a lot of what happens in the chamber, but pretty sure that departments and ministerial offices aren’t the same.
Giles:
Let me make one thing very clear: the allegation that it is based on is simply not true. It is simply not true. I can say further to that that I speak with Ms Foster very regularly, as I did when she was the associate secretary.
She is a highly credentialled public servant who I am privileged to work with together with my friend, the minister for home affairs.
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Sussan Ley is back.
On 12 February the Department of Home Affairs told Senate estimates that criminals, including seven murderers, sex offenders and 72 other violent criminals, have been released from immigration detention.
Seven separate government sources told the Sydney Morning Herald the minister’s office attempted to ensure the department navigate this evidence. So the explosive document will be kept hidden from the Australian public. Is this true, minister?
Sigh. Again, if you serve your time as an Australian citizen you are released back into the community. No matter the crime.
This is the first actual question on this issue, though – not whether someone cried (which yes, people shouldn’t be reduced to tears in their workplace, but there are other issues impacting the public here).
The question, hyperbole aside, is essentially: did you try to cover up the document?
O’Neil:
I’m not sure what the complaint is here because the government was requested information and the information was provided to the opposition and to the public.
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Sussan Ley is back and still trying to get Clare O’Neil to confirm she had a verbal altercation with her department secretary, Stephanie Foster, and that Foster was reduced to tears by the dressing-down.
Were other staff present?
O’Neil:
I think we can agree that agility is not their strong point, as this is the third variation of the same question.
I would say to the parliament, I’m incredibly proud to work with the secretary of my department. We are doing important things on Home Affairs and we have a close, collaborative relationship.
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Andrew Wilkie claims Labor ‘prevented’ him tabling documents about AFL drug tests
Andrew Wilkie has the first crossbench question. He asks Anthony Albanese:
Prime minister, why has your government twice prevented me from tabling these documents which contain evidence of appalling misconduct by AFL executives and some team staff? Why you trying to keep them secret? Or can I walk down and give them to you personally right now?
Albanese:
I note that walking around the chamber is disorderly, but I do note that the member for Clark has always, always had access to me, as other members do.
There is not a member of parliament here, including over there, up there, or behind me, who has asked to see me or made a phone call who has not had a call returned. Not one. Not one.
That is the way that I deal with parliamentarians. I deal with senators the same – with respect.
In general we have an approach that when documents are requested to be tabled, if people want that, the normal process would be to ask, as when I was a member of the opposition and wanted something to be tabled, if I was serious about it getting tabled, I would ask, show to the person who was the person at the despatch box, and receive that.
But I am aware that the member for Clark has made allegations. Those allegations, I’m not aware of whether they are correct or not.
You know, I have a big job. My job is not to, on the job description, isn’t the control of the Australian Football League. But if issues are raised, the Sport Integrity Australia is aware of the issue, and they have begun their assessment, and I’m sure that the member for Clark will forward any documentation to the appropriate body.
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Sussan Ley is back asking:
“Has a minister apologised to the secretary of the department following her verbal altercation?”
(A reminder that there is a very serious bill – which has the ability to impact the lives of hundreds of very vulnerable people, and potentially end the ability of people from applying for a visa from a variety of countries, separating families, giving a minister “God-like” powers etc – in front of the parliament, which the Coalition decided to delay today because of concerns it was being rushed through the parliament. But so far, there have been no questions on it.)
Clare O’Neil starts talking about the portfolio and the work she and Stephanie Foster are doing when Ley raises a point of order on relevance, which is upheld.
O’Neil:
I would say to the deputy leader of the opposition, my secretary and I work closely together. It is why I was supportive of the decision of the prime minister and PM&C to appoint secretary Foster to the role. We have an incredibly important cleanup job to do in the department work, we are doing.
Don’t take it from me, take it from the litany of eminent Australians who have written reports about significant, systemic issues in my department. Or perhaps you should have waited before taking a point of order. We have a significant job to do and I’m here to do it, to serve the national interest, not the political interest of the Liberal party.
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Question time begins
Sussan Ley kicks off the questions with:
Can she confirm that she verbally abused her department secretary, causing the secretary to leave without notice?
Claire O’Neil takes a big breath before answering this one:
The secretary of my department and I have worked together closely, and boy have we got a job to do – because we’re working together to reform a department that was in an absolute mess by the leader of the opposition.
Look at what we have achieved on this together, over the past year that we have been working together: a migration strategy that is fixing the mess left by the leader of the opposition in that system that isn’t working. A big focus on integrity. It addresses some of the issues raised with parliament before. We work together constructively.
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Fairfax Liberal MP Ted O’Brien (known as Fallout Boy among Labor benches) is continuing to morph into Scott Morrison-lite.
O’Brien has just presented his 90-second gripe (on power bills) in a way which looks like he has studied a Morrison best-of and just adopted the cadence and mannerisms.
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Queensland premier swipes at federal Labor over NDIS shift
Steven Miles is suspicious today’s NDIS legislation is an attempt to push the cost of the scheme on to state governments.
The Queensland premier criticised the federal government for introducing the measure without an agreement with the states, which pay part of the bill for the scheme.
There’s been, I think, some flawed communication. There has certainly been a sense from our officials and our ministers that the Australian government isn’t engaging as deeply and as honestly with us. And, of course, that causes suspicion. Our suspicion is that they are trying to push costs down back onto the states.
The states raise far less revenue than the commonwealth because they don’t levy income tax.
Miles said the federal government couldn’t “push and push obligations” back on to the states without also giving them a way to pay for it.
So if we are to shoulder any further burden, then there needs to be some consideration about how we’ll fund that. And that’s a topic I’m absolutely certain the treasurer will have a view on.
State premiers held a snap meeting on Monday to discuss concerns the legislation could include a provision for a state-based disability system for millions of people who need less intensive support than the NDIS is designed to provide.
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Greens senator accuses Labor of ‘siding with big corporations’ on supermarket reform
Before all the chaos erupted in parliament today, we were watching the introduction of the Greens’ private senators bill on supermarket divestiture powers. To take you back to a quieter time, before the bin-fire ignited, Nick McKim started the day by saying the divestiture push was a “fork-in-the-road moment” for Labor (which don’t back giving the ACCC powers to break up big companies).
“Are they going to keep backing the big corporations … or will they stand with millions of Australians struggling to put food on the table?” McKim said, referencing the government.
It’s time for this parliament to pass divestiture laws, to prioritise the needs of Australians over corporate profits.
To refresh you, the Greens proposed divestiture laws (which have long-existed in the UK and the US) in a bid to break up the duopoly market power of the big supermarkets Coles and Woolworths. McKim last week gave examples like forcing the big two to give up their liquor businesses or sell off their home-brand product lines.
McKim today claimed Labor was “siding with big corporations over the interests of everyday Australians” by opposing the changes.
The Nationals back the concept but are working on their own version, with the support of the Liberals. Nats senator Ross Cadell backed the Greens’ version in a speech after McKim, saying there “needs to be” such powers – which he called “the nuclear button when they [big business] go too far”.
Cadell said:
We need transparency on price, margins, historically how they’ve increased over time.
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The last question time until 7 May is about to get under way. I think we all know what the focus is going to be on.
Take this chance to get what you need to get through it. I will be.
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‘I don’t believe in locking children up’, says outgoing Indigenous commissioner
June Oscar is also asked about raising the age of criminal responsibility (it is 10 in some Australian jurisdictions. Not sure if you have met a 10-year-old, or remember being a 10-year-old, but yeah).
Oscar says:
Firstly, can I say that I don’t believe in locking children up. I think that act speaks to our incompetence, our inability to respond in a far more therapeutic, healing and rights-based way.
There’s so many issues that contribute to a child coming into police contact and then into juvenile detention. Many of these children are babies. They’re babies. And I’m sure we’ve all heard – a child is a child for life.
And so when we look at criminal age of responsibility – and yes, the cases for whether it should be 10 years of age, 14 – I just think: children are children.
We should be treating children based on their rights, based on the need for guidance, for support, for love, as we’ve heard in the messaging from the grandmothers who are calling for the closure of Don Dale, from the women who stand outside of those detention centres and argue based on humanity and fair treatment of children. I think that’s a key point that we need to revisit.
Do we want to set an age in a child’s life when they have issues of early life trauma? They are living either with the impact and are anywhere on the spectrum of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder. There are other issues, but there are other ways of responding far more supportively and in a more caring and loving way.
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On independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s push to have the government finally implement the recommendations from reviews into Indigenous deaths in custody and forced family separations, June Oscar says:
Like many in this room, and those listening in, we have asked what has happened to a response to the implementation of the 339 recommendations of the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody report. We still remain convinced that many of those recommendations haven’t been implemented.
So I think senator Thorpe has touched on a very, very important issue for many families across this country, and I pay my respects to those people who have lost people in custody.
It’s a matter for the Australian Human Rights Commission and the incoming social justice commissioner to consider whether or not this important piece of work is carried by the Australian human rights commissioner and the social justice commissioner. That will be a matter for their decision.
Thorpe is in the room for this speech.
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On the calls for federal intervention into Alice Springs, June Oscar says:
We will continue to see that disquiet and those types of behaviours in public. If we continue to exclude people and not really see and hear and learn from what are the measures that we, collectively, can be developing and designing that works for these communities.
It can’t happen with someone else’s ideas that sit in Canberra or Perth or Darwin. It has to be the people from the places where these matters are real issues.
Now I understand there is a senior Aboriginal leadership group in the Northern Territory, in Alice Springs, made up of key organisations. I don’t think it can be expected any longer that someone else from outside of Alice Springs comes in to address what is happening there …
Everyone has a right to feel safe here, and so people coming in to contribute to supporting this community should heed the leadership of the people that live in that community. They are the ones that are responsible, responding daily to these matters – not someone in Canberra.
And so I think what would be effective is, you know, the stakeholders and the mayor, working with the organisations in Alice Springs and the leadership in the Northern Territory. And there are some amazing leaders in the Northern Territory.
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More Indigenous inclusion needed in NT decision-making, June Oscar says
The outgoing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, June Oscar AO, is giving the address at the National Press Club in Canberra today.
She is asked a question by the winner of the Caroline Jones Young Women in Media award winner, Charmayne Allison:
The Northern Territory receives proportionally the largest share of federal funding of any state and territory, but we’re seeing very little change on the ground in Central Australian Indigenous community, which are some of the most disadvantaged in the country, especially when it comes to gender justice. Where do you think we’re going wrong?
Oscar:
Wow, that’s a really important question. But I think a question relevant to this country and not just limited to the Northern Territory. I spoke about the stakeholders that are needing to know each other, see each other and have dialogue with each other. I think it’s fair to say that for far too long, many of those stakeholders haven’t been included in the conversations to make those brave and courageous decisions truthfully.
I understand from my connections in the Northern Territory that there are incredible and amazing Aboriginal leaders in community organisations that have been waiting for a very long time to have the opportunity, to have the dialogue, to recreate and mend and heal the social fabric of the Northern Territory, no matter where you live. But we have to have community leaders and community members involved in those conversations.
Updated
For those who missed it, here is Greens senator David Shoebridge in full flight against the government’s deportation legislation a little earlier in the Senate:
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There has been a bit of a flurry of response to some of the strange Canberra laws in my inbox (and yes, I agree with you!) but it might also be worth pointing out that up until 2021, it was illegal to carry more than 50kg of potatoes in WA. That used to be a national law, but was gradually repealed by the states. WA was the last to repeal the 1946 law in 2021.
(First time potato hoarders could receive a $2,000 fine, while repeat offenders faced a $5,000 fine. But more alarmingly, police could search someone’s car if they suspected they had more than 50kg of potatoes on them.)
And to let that one reader know – Victoria repealed it’s anti witchcraft/fortune telling law in 2005.
Just in case you haven’t refreshed the blog – on that post on Babet’s motion – it was independent senator David Pocock who co-sponsored the excess deaths motion with Babet and Jacqui Lambie, not Greens senator Barbara Pocock.
The Greens voted agains the motion, but with Pocock, Lidia Thorpe, One Nation and the coalition, the motion passed by one – 30 to 31.
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Inquiry into why more Australians are dying than usual secured by UAP senator
In some other news from this day that is just chock full of it, UAP senator Ralph Babet has managed to set up an inquiry into why more Australians are dying than usual.
It’s a strange coming together of the Senate for this one – Babet, known for his support of far-right causes and Donald Trump devotion, had progressive independent senator David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie as co-sponsors of his inquiry motion.
The government did not support the motion but the Coalition and One Nation and Lidia Thorpe did, so it got across the line by one.
Babet said in a statement:
For the past few years Australians have been dying in excess numbers without adequate explanation.
Excess mortality is not just a transitory phenomenon. In 2022 we experienced our highest excess death rate since World War Two. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) provisional mortality statistics released last month confirm that to November 2023 there were 15,114 or 10% more deaths than the baseline average.
It is the fifth time Babet has moved a motion on excess deaths, but that turned out to be the magic number.
The community affairs committee will report back by 31 August.
*An original version of this post named Greens senator Barbara Pocock as the co-sponsor – it was Senator David Pocock who co-sponsored the motion.
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Foreign influence transparency scheme should be amended for more attorney general powers
One more update on the damning report on Australia’s foreign influence transparency scheme:
Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister who introduced the scheme, told a parliamentary committee hearing last year:
It is noteworthy that … according to the transparency register there is apparently no organisation in Australia that has any association with the united front work department of the Communist party of China. I would love to think that was true, but regrettably I can say absolutely that it is not true. If in fact it were true, there would be terrible repercussions in Beijing for those responsible for the united front work department.
The parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security’s report, tabled in parliament today, said the law should be amended to give the attorney general’s department new enforcement options essentially allowing people to be named on the public influence register against their will:
The Committee therefore recommends that the FITS Act be amended to include two new enforcement options in Part 5 of the Act, which would allow the Secretary of the Department to register a person where they are liable to register but have failed to do so; and to place information on the register about any person who the Secretary considers should be registered but has not registered voluntarily, or has otherwise not complied with the Act.
In implementing these options for enforcement of the Act, the Committee strongly urges the Secretary and the administrators of the Scheme to prioritise analysis and monitoring of United Front Work Department activities, in cooperation with National Intelligence Community agencies as appropriate, in order to identify and proactively ensure the registration of UFWD activities and proxies that should be falling within the Scheme
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Former One Nation candidate backed by conspiracy theorists set to be Townsville mayor
Townsville mayor Jenny Hill has conceded defeat to former One Nation candidate Troy Thompson.
Speaking to the Townsville Bulletin, Hill said despite the vote count still ongoing, she wanted to provide “some certainty for the city” as there was “no likelihood” of bridging the gap between herself and Thompson.
Hill had been mayor for 12 years and a councillor for 23 years. As of Wednesday morning, Thompson secured 46.77% of the vote and Hill trailed behind on 43.53%.
Guardian Australia reported this week that Thompson’s campaign was backed by the conspiracy theory group My Place Townsville (MPT). Members of the group claimed to have volunteered for his campaign, staffing polling booths and scrutinising the final vote count.
The campaign was Thompson’s second in the past four years, after being named One Nation’s candidate for the marginal state seat of Thuringowa in 2020.
Two months out from the 2020 election, Thompson claimed he had withdrawn from the race for “personal reasons”. A letter from One Nation to Thompson, tabled in Queensland parliament last week, said he was disendorsed by the party over failing to disclose his legal name and directorship in a company that went insolvent.
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Investigative journalism has done more for foreign influence than government scheme, intelligence committee finds
The intelligence committee’s report - tabled in parliament today - said the foreign influence transparency scheme had “failed to achieve its intended purpose with little of consequence apparent” and “more transparency on foreign influence has been achieved through investigative journalism and parliamentary inquiries than the FITS”.
The committee said the law as it currently stood was “largely ineffective, with such meagre results that it would be difficult to justify the ongoing compliance burden and resources without major reform”.
The committee said that in drawing up reforms, the government should consider “the successful aspects of comparable schemes from other countries that appear more effective in bringing foreign influence to light (including the US and comparable countries) while being mindful of minimising regulatory burden and focusing on the conduct of most concern”.
The bipartisan committee put has put forward 14 recommendations, including to expand the definition of a foreign government-related entity to “recognise a relationship of control through chains of holding and subsidiary companies … no matter how many subsidiaries are involved”.
It said the definition should also reflect “the multiple ways that political party control or influence can be exercised over an entity” by covering entities that are “required by law to assist or facilitate the activities of the branch of the foreign political organisation”.
After the infamous past exchanges between former prime minister Kevin Rudd and the attorney general’s Department over whether he needed to register public interviews with state-owned or funded broadcasters, the committee suggested a carve out for high-profile interviews:
Amending the requirement to register communications activity is sensible as the majority of arguably unnecessary registrations for these cohorts have been in relation to communications activity undertaken where the foreign influence potential is low, or the involvement of the foreign principal has been apparent (such as a former politician appearing on the BBC).
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Andrew Giles and Clare O’Neil have announced a press conference for 12.30, Paul Karp tells me.
You’ll get the reaction to the delay of the deportation bill there, as well as (maybe) what the government plans on doing in the mean time.
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Canberra moves to amend National Capital Plan to ease restrictions on new dwellings and heights
Canberra is a bit of a complicated place – we are talking about the city here, not the parliament – and it makes things like planning a little more difficult than it should be.
Not only does the ACT government own all the land (if you purchase a freestanding home in the ACT, it is leasehold, not freehold) but there is also the added complication of the National Capital Plan which sets out what can happen in areas of Canberra, given the capital’s “national significance”.
So there are no billboards in Canberra. Since the 1970s, building heights were restricted so they couldn’t exceed the war memorial or parliament house (I think there have been some changes there but you’re not getting a sky scraper in Canberra).
For areas within the parliamentary triangle, things get even more complicated. So there has been a lot of back and forth over what to do with the old Australian Forestry school site in the ritzy suburb of Yarralumla (home to a lot of the embassies and also the best kebabs in town).
Kristy McBain thinks she has found the right balance in amending the National Capital Plan to allow for future development in the site to be mixed use, allowing for residential, aged care, social housing, commercial accommodation, community facilities and ancillary commercial uses.
Up to 300 dwellings will be permitted on the site, including buildings of up to three storeys – with 60% of the site to be retained as open space, and 45% of that set aside for deep root planting.
Heritage buildings and structures, including the Australian Forestry school, the former Museum, store, tennis courts, and Forestry House will be retained and adaptively reused.
The majority of the new buildings must be located within the footprints of existing or recently demolished buildings, and the environmental performance of new buildings will be critical, requiring high levels of solar access and natural cross ventilation.
New buildings will also need to sit in the landscape according to its topography within the tree line.
Things like parking and the like will have to be worked out with the ACT government and no doubt there will still be some hiccups along the way, but it looks like something is moving forward in the territory. Huzzah.
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Inquiry into Australia’s foreign influence transparency scheme finds ‘significant flaws’
Australian’s foreign influence transparency scheme has “significant flaws” and needs a major overhaul because “mere tinkering will not be sufficient”, an inquiry has found.
The scheme - which requires certain activities to be listed on a public register - was set up in 2018 as part of a broader effort by the then Turnbull government to crack down on espionage, foreign interference and undisclosed foreign influence.
It aimed to “provide the public with visibility of the nature, level and extent of foreign influence on Australia’s government and politics”. As of last month, there were 127 registrants on the public register, with 560 entries for activities undertaken on behalf of a foreign principal, and no criminal prosecutions have been launched for breaches.
In a report tabled in parliament today, the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security (PJCIS) said:
The Committee notes with concern the very low number of registrations and minimal compliance and enforcement activity that has occurred in the six years since the establishment of the Scheme and the significant flaws in its design and implementation.
Enforcement activity has focused almost exclusively on China with little success, while neglecting any material focus on other countries of significant concern (where there are no or very limited registrations). These include authoritarian nations like Russia and Iran which engage in malevolent foreign influence, as well as nations with which Australia has friendly and positive relations, such as India, which engage in foreign influence operations that should be transparently declared.
More details to come.
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Jacqui Lambie Network senator backs Greens supermarket divestiture bill
In the midst of *everything* this morning (it has been pretty much non-stop since 7am) Jacqui Lambie Network senator Tammy Tyrrell said she would support the Greens supermarket divestiture bill.
The legislation allows the ACCC to apply for a court-ordered divestiture bill, if there is a provable abuse of market power. Think of it as the big stick the Coalition used to want to apply to energy companies, but for the major supermarkets.
Tyrrell says she is in favour of the move:
We’ve all heard the catchphrase ‘down down, prices are down.’ But the only thing going down is trust in the major supermarkets. It’s time for change.
The United States, United Kingdom and European countries all have divestiture powers and the sky hasn’t fallen in. This is a sensible bill and I applaud the Greens for putting it forward.
Tyrrell is one of the members of the inquiry looking into the impact of the supermarket duopoly and said she looks forward to when the supermarkets have to front up to answer questions.
The Nationals have their own ideas of what needs to happen, and so will be putting forward a seperate bill. Bob Katter is also pushing for change, so we are approaching a situation where there is no one bill with support from the majority, but a majority of non-government MPs supporting some sort of action.
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Accessing abortion in Australia no longer a criminal act after WA reform bill
Today marks the commencement of the WA abortion legislation reform bill, which means abortion has officially been removed from that state’s criminal code.
WA was the last state with abortion sitting as a criminal act, so the removal marks a national milestone – from today, accessing abortion health care is no longer a criminal act in Australia.
Executive director of Fair Agenda, Renee Carr said it has been a long time coming:
It’s hard to believe that we’re celebrating the official nationwide decriminalisation of abortion care access for patients in 2024. But unfortunately we can never take our reproductive rights for granted. This milestone has only been possible as the result of decades of advocacy by women, healthcare professionals, community members and advocates around the country, who have bravely and relentlessly spoken out on this issue.
There are however, still barriers to accessing this health care, particularly for people in regional and rural Australia, as well as cost barriers.
Australian Women’s Health Alliance Chair, Bonney Corbin said abortion health care is a “post code lottery” and governments need to do more to make it universally accessible:
Governments should be supporting and training health practitioners who want to provide abortion care. Nurses, midwives, and Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander health workers are highly skilled practitioners; who have untapped potential to provide a wide variety of health services in our communities - including medical abortion care. We saw them supported to fill critical healthcare gaps throughout the covid pandemic. Governments should also be supporting them to provide abortion care throughout Australia.
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Evidence suggests vaping may affect eye health, as peak bodies call for more legislation
The peak body of eye doctors are calling on politicians in Canberra to support the next stage of vaping legislation, citing emerging evidence vaping may also affect eye health.
Last week the health minister introduced a new tranche of vaping legislation to ban the importation, manufacture, supply and commercial possession of disposable single-use and non-therapeutic vapes. Australians will still be able access to therapeutic vapes from a pharmacy with a prescription.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (Ranzco) has joined other peak doctors groups including the Australian Medical Association and the college of general practitioners in calling for elected representatives to support the reforms.
The Nationals, the only party that receives donations from tobacco companies, and Greens politicians have raised concerns about a “prohibition” approach in vaping legislation.
Dr Helene Cass, the chair of Ranzco’s public health committee, today said:
We all know that tobacco use is linked with serious illnesses, including heart disease and many forms of cancer. However, there is also emerging evidence that vaping poses risks to users and may also adversely impact eye health.
Some of the chemicals contained in vaping liquids are known to be highly toxic to the eyes in larger concentrations and it has been shown that e-cigarettes increase oxidative stress on the body. Increased oxidative stress is likely to accelerate ageing processes in the eye such as cataract and age related macular degeneration.”
It is also worth noting that research on the harms of vaping is in its infancy and it is likely that other adverse health impacts will be demonstrated as more research is undertaken.”
Ranzco shares the concerns of minister for health, Mark Butler, that children and young adults are being increasingly drawn to vaping by the aggressive marketing tactics of the tobacco industry.
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Inflation heading in right direction; no reprieve for rent and petrol prices
A little more on last month’s inflation figures –we’ve now been at 3.4% annual inflation for three consecutive months.
Prices for fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood were all down for the month but rent and petrol price increases edged higher.
Even if we cut out volatile items like fresh produce and fuel, inflation fell from 4.1% in January to 3.9% last month.
So inflation is still heading in the right direction, and the market seems to agree - stocks have bumped 0.25% higher and the Australian dollar is slightly weaker.
That suggests markets are expecting the RBA rate cut a little sooner than before.
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New NDIS support definitions to prevent funds being used on prohibited items
(continued from previous post)
It is understood this change will target the growing cost of plan inflation – where participants request more funds for supports than originally budgeted for – which is adding to worries about the NDIS’s ongoing financial sustainability.
A definition on what an NDIS support is will also be inserted to prevent funds from being used on prohibited items or supports. The bill’s explanatory memorandum says holidays, groceries, payment of utility bills, online gambling, perfume, cosmetics, standard household appliances and whitegoods should not be paid for with NDIS plan funding.
In a speech while tabling the bill, Shorten said the scheme has had “life-changing impact” on many Australians but is in “danger of losing its way”.
He said:
While the NDIS has changed hundreds of thousands of lives for the better, it is not working well for everyone. Participants have spoken of how every interaction with the NDIS has become a battle.
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NDIS scheme to focus on how participants receive funding: ‘stated’ or ‘flexible’
Bill Shorten’s proposed changes to the NDIS scheme have now been tabled in Parliament and it focuses on two aspects - clarifying and adjusting how participants receive funding and boosting powers for the scheme’s watchdog.
As we indicated this morning, the way individual plans are budgeted will change. Instead of an itemised budget, the focus will shift to offering participants a total funding amount under the plan for “reasonable and necessary” supports with those arrangements lasting for up to five years.
On those supports, there will be two types offered within the new framework - “stated” and “flexible” supports. Stated supports could include high-cost, one-off items, such as a motorised wheelchair and a text to speech communication device. Flexible supports cover other ongoing costs, such as support workers.
There will also be changes to set expectations with NDIS participants that they can only spend up to the budgeted amount and won’t receive automatic top ups, unless their needs “significantly change” and further funds are necessary as a result of their impairment.
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Inflation steady in February
Inflation was 3.4% in February, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed.
The annual inflation rate has held at 3.4% for three months in a row
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Breakdown on what has unfolded for the deportation bill
So what just happened?
Labor had scheduled the deportation bill for an urgent vote today, which would have limited all debate.
The Coalition, which supported the bill in the house of representatives, decided this morning that they would not support the urgency motion of the bill, and wanted the bill considered by a committee.
The Greens immediately moved a motion to suspend standing orders and change up the government’s schedule, in order to send the legislation to the legal affairs committee for review.
The Coalition and crossbenchers like David Pocock supported this.
The Greens originally wanted the committee to report back in June, but the coalition amended the reporting date to the first sitting day back after the autumn break, which is 7 May.
The Greens agreed with the Coalition amendment, which gave it the numbers (with the same crossbenchers) and the legislation is now being sent to the legal affairs committee, who will review the bill over the next month, and report back on the first day of the budget sitting.
The legislation (and any recommended amendments put forward) can be considered from that day. If it is amended in the Senate, the bill will have to go back to the house for those amendments to be checked off.
So there is a bit of a process to go here, and the government will not be getting the quick fix it wanted ahead of a looming high court decision.
Updated
Nope, the Greens will not oppose Simon Birmingham’s amendment to change the committee reporting date from June to 7 May, which is the first sitting day back.
So that will be the reporting date.
Updated
Greens-coalition and crossbench win suspension of deportation bill
The Greens-coalition and crossbench win the suspension of standing orders, so now David Shoebridge is moving the motion to send the deportation bill to a committee.
There will be some argy bargy on when the reporting date for it should be. Don’t be surprised if you see the government vote against the motion as a whole, but then support the coalition’s amendments to ensure an earlier reporting date than the June one the Greens are putting forward.
Updated
Will the upcoming CPI figures show “Swiftflation”?
While we wait on the senate to finish its divisions, let’s take a look at the coming CPI figures and the big question on all economist lips –will we see a Taylor Swift inflation bump?
A key inflation number for February will land in less than an hour, revealing how much Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour pushed up Australian prices.
Economists are expecting a tiny bump from Swift and other big-name concerts, which sent Australians scrambling for travel and transport last month.
January’s consumer price index rose 3.4%, so we should see a February figure slightly above that - pencil in 3.5%, if the consensus is right.
Housing and rent price rises are also likely to stay high, but (hopefully) haven’t picked up pace since the start of the year.
But for all the hype around “Swiftflation”, price growth is expected to keep slowing, leaving the door open to an interest rate cut this year. Stay tuned for the ABS release in 15 minutes time.
Updated
Reporting date on deportation inquiry likely to be in May
Simon Birmingham continues:
You know, just how bad Labor’s approach to this policy in this bill is, when the coalition and the Greens and the crossbench can all reach the same conclusion.
The vote to suspend standing orders is now being held – David Shoebridge and the Greens will win this, as the coalition and crossbench is in support.
And then we will learn of the reporting date for the inquiry which is to be set up. Shoebridge said June, Michaelia Cash said the coalition will be amending the motion, so you can probably expect that reporting date to be moved forward to the first sitting of parliament in May.
There is no parliament between now and 7 May, but it is plenty of time to keep the issue in the headlines. But the bill will at least have scrutiny. The next issue will be whether the government supports any of the recommendations the committee may put forward – that is, if the committee members even agree on those recommendations.
Updated
Gallagher believes Coalition will ultimately support the deportation bill
Labor’s Katy Gallagher is speaking on the motion and says she believes that the Coalition will ultimately support the bill (as they did in the house) but push it out for a month or so.
(The implication is to keep it on the news)
Our advisors say that it does need to be dealt with, that it should be dealt with in this sitting week. We’ve provided briefings to you. We provided the committee inquiry to you so that you could have that opportunity. I don’t think there was anything that came through the committee process that that indicated any reason to delay this.
If the Senate doesn’t pass it today (which is won’t) then it can’t be dealt with until the next sitting from 7 May, which is budget week and will require a bit of fanangling to get it on the agenda.
Simon Birmingham is next up on the motion and he sends Michaelia Cash into hysterics with this opening remark:
Well there are times of chaos. There are moments of crisis. And then there is the Albanese Labor government’s handling of border protection and migration policies.
And if anything can manage to overwhelm times of chaos or moments of crisis, it’s the hapless way in which the Albanese Labour government handles border protection and handles migration policy.
Updated
Faruqi says rushed deportation bill is one ‘Donald Trump could be proud of’
Michaelia Cash makes her big finish, but doesn’t say what the amendments the coalition will be seeking are. So we will have to wait until they move those amendments seperately.
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi is up next and says:
The ugly truth is that this bill that the Labor Party is ramming through today is a manifestation of the toxic politics of fear and division that has poisoned the national discourse for far too long.
Such is the moral bankruptcy that has seeped into the heart of both the major bodies and their politics, that we are now here pushing through a bill to debate or not even for debate, a bill that probably Donald Trump could be proud of.
And it’s not just being put forward, it’s being rushed through introduced just yesterday in the house with a sham inquiry last night. And here we have it being rammed through the Senate.
The bipartisan agreement on cruelty to refugees has really hit a new low today
Farqui says Labor is attempting to “out Dutton, Dutton”.
This is not just extremely dangerous policy, but it is also extraordinarily, extraordinarily racist.
Updated
Michaelia Cash disagrees with running away from the media despite doing it herself
Michaelia Cash then moves on to footage of home affairs minister Clare O’Neil walking away from journalists (who follow her) as she makes her way through the press gallery after a regularly scheduled segment with the Seven network, and says:
Anyone who has not seen the footage of Minister O’Neil this morning [should see it]
Running away from the press in the press gallery.
All they wanted to ask you was questions in relation to this legislation.
Which reminds me of this moment in “running away from the media” history:
Updated
Cash calls last 24 hours of Albanese government something ‘Seinfeld could not have scripted’
Michaelia Cash is up in the senate now:
Quite frankly, Seinfeld could not have scripted the last 24 hours of the Albanese government.
To say that the last 24 hours has been chaotic is an absolute understatement.
And that is why the coalition is supporting the motion that has been moved by the Australian Greens.
The coalition will be amending the motion though, so once Cash is through her criticism of the Labor party, we will bring you what that amendment is (I imagine it is bringing forward the reporting date).
Updated
Shoebridge scathing on Labor's 'crayon drawing' deportation bill as Greens and Coalition push for inquiry
Greens senator David Shoebridge is being brutal in his description of this bill:
This is a pure political play that is unraveling as we watch.
This is about Labor, trying to outflank the Coalition and move to the right of the Coalition in a bill that they seem to have just made up in some long late night drinking session and then brought to the parliament.
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
This was meant to be a government that’s now run by adults. But this was like some sort of kiddies crayon drawing being brought into parliament and then defended by embarrassed officials and half briefed ministers. That’s what we got last night.
He says he would like to see the bill binned – “the recycling bin, we are Greens” – but at the very least wants the bill referred to the legal affairs committee immediately with a reporting date of June 2024.
Michaelia Cash rises to say she supports the motion, but Labor’s Tim Ayres gets precedent to speak on the motion first, and he is not happy.
What we’re seeing is the most right wing extremist Liberal Party in Australia’s history and his [Greens] outfit down here … [getting] together in their usual student politics exercise of putting their own partisan interest over the national interest.
But Labor doesn’t have the numbers here to stop this.
Updated
‘Not one credible reason’ why government is pushing deportation through, David Shoebridge says
In the senate, David Shoebridge is moving to suspend standing orders to debate a motion to send the deportation bill to committee.
He said the home affairs officials who were answering questions at last night’s hearing about the bill, did not actually have the answers:
You would think that a competent government, who’s seeking to ram legislation through in less than two days, would at least have a credible argument about why it is urgent.
But astoundingly neither the minister or the Secretary or any senior official could come up with a credible reason for why this legislation was being rammed through in less than two days.
When we asked which categories of visa holder this law would apply to [or] what the numbers were … We got confused and bemused looks from home affairs – they had no answer to even the most basic questions about who the bill would apply to.
… Rarely have I seen more collected incompetence than what we saw from Home Affairs and the government last night.
Updated
Sarah Basford Canales will have a post outlining the main points of the NDIS bill once she has had a chance to absorb it fully.
Updated
Greens make moves for an inquiry into deportation legislation
Back to the deportation legislation quagmire, now that the coalition have decided they will not support the bill in the Senate, and instead want to see it put through a full review committee process, the Greens are in the senate moving for an inquiry, now.
The Greens and the coalition have come together to halt the government’s plans a few times this term – the coalition has at times been happy to join with the Greens on holding up the passage of legislation. We saw it with the housing Australia future fund, and now we are seeing it with the deportation legislation.
There is a variety of reasons for this, most of them political. But it does mean this bill will at least be examined now, which is a better position than where we were when parliament rose yesterday.
Updated
More ability for information gathering across NDIS
Bill Shorten:
It is important for the CEO to have the ability to request and receive information on whether participants meet the access criteria including the residence requirements, the disability requirements, or the early intervention requirements.
This will not result in people having to ‘re-prove’ their disability, but will allow the CEO to determine a participant is receiving the most appropriate supports.
The process will take into account difficulties in accessing information.
But participants or their nominee will need to communicate with the Agency in the way that works best for you.
Another change that will be able to happen pretty quickly is with plan management arrangements where there is a risk for that participant, including financial risk.
And I want to make it clear the Agency has responsibilities here too and will be required to be consistent in its operations with the legislation and the rules.
Updated
‘First time parts of the UN convention have been incorporated into NDIS laws’, Shorten says
What does that mean?
Bill Shorten:
Some operational changes to improve things can happen soon after the legislation is signed by the Governor General.
One is the definition of NDIS Supports.
The legislation will link the definition of ‘NDIS supports’ to your rights under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
This is the first time parts of the UN convention have been incorporated into NDIS laws.
Another relates to the provision of information gathering for eligibility reassessment. We will work with the disability community on operating guidance on this matter.
Updated
Autism still recognised as a disability in the NDIS: Shorten
Bill Shorten addresses the subject of autism and its position in the NDIS, which is what is included in the second section of the bill.
Shorten:
I know people can feel anxious when we talk about scheme sustainability.
And some media commentary can still unfairly target people with disability in a way that is stigmatising and deeply unfair.
And to meet some of the rumours head-on:
1. Psychosocial disability is still included in the NDIS
2. Autism is still recognised as a disability.
3. At the same time, we need to have an honest conversation about the Scheme.
It cannot keep growing at the same rate it is now.
It can and will keep growing, just not at the 16% it has in the last few years.
The Disability Reform Ministerial Council is on the record as saying that ‘without timely action to improve outcomes for people with disability, the NDIS is projected to grow to more than one million participants and cost up to $100 billion a year by 2032’.
Costs continue to grow without fairness, rigour and control over this critical investment by the Australian people.
We have to take steps to get it back on track.
Updated
Individuals will be able to ‘exercise true choice and control’ through NDIS bill: Shorten
Bill Shorten’s speech goes on:
We will be clear about what supports can and can’t be funded by the NDIS to help you make informed choices and have confidence you are using your NDIS funds within what is allowed.
How these changes will be implemented will be developed with people with disability and the disability sector – this will take time to get right.
The legislation is the start of delivering our vision – it is not an end in itself.
Until the rules and legislative instruments are made, the current planning rules apply so there is no change.
Flexible budgets and a whole-of-person approach will increase the ability of participants to exercise true choice and control, and to best realise their full social and economic participation in society.
Overall, the changes to budget-setting aim to provide participants greater clarity and transparency, fairer and more consistent decision making, and improved participant satisfaction.
Creating this budget framework aligns with the original intent of the NDIS to support people with permanent and significant disability as part of a larger landscape of supports outside of the NDIS.
We will also make sure we get expert advice on selection and use of any tools, so the process is transparent.
Updated
Shorten outlines new NDIS bill prioritising ‘more dignified’ support based on needs
Bill Shorten is introducing the bill in the house and says:
The bill has two parts.
One section lays the foundations for implementing key Review recommendations, particularly those around planning and budget setting.
I want to go through some of that with you.
Once you are in the scheme, you will get a plan based on your support needs.
What we all want is a more dignified, person-centred process that assesses needs to determine a consistent, accurate and fair budget.
And that the budget can be spent flexibly.
He goes on to explain how that will work:
This starts with a needs assessment that will work on with the disability sector to make sure we get it right.
And I want to be clear. Reasonable and necessary remains the core basis on which your support needs are met through the Scheme.
This bill proposes no changes to this ‘Reasonable and necessary’ core operating principle of the Scheme.
But, your needs assessment will look at your support needs as a whole – and we won’t distinguish between primary and secondary disabilities any longer.
If over time your support needs change, because of a significant change in your function, your information can be updated with a new support needs assessment.
The result will be a budget for disability supports that are fit for you; that reflects the support needs for your disability.
You can spend this budget flexibly in line with your own support needs – because you know them best.
But everyone will need to manage their NDIS budget, just as we do our household budget.
Updated
Bill Shorten is introducing the NDIS legislation into the house now.
We will bring you more when we have had a read of the bill.
Updated
Coalition unexpectedly moves to refer Labor deportation bill to inquiry
The coalition will NOT be passing the deportation bill in the Senate today.
#breaking the Coalition will move to refer the Albanese government's deportation bill "to a proper inquiry" James Paterson & Dan Tehan reveal.
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) March 26, 2024
Bill will NOT pass the Senate this evening as expected.#auspol @AmyRemeikis
Updated
Taylor Swift’s dad won’t face charges after Sydney paparazzi incident
Stepping outside of politics for a moment:
No charges will be filed against Taylor Swift’s father, the police have confirmed, after he was accused of assaulting a paparazzi photographer in Sydney last month.
Photographer Ben McDonald alleged that the superstar’s security guards pushed umbrellas into his face and camera and that he was struck in the face by a man he later identified as Scott Swift.
McDonald told the Daily Mail that the superstar’s security guards were “shoving umbrellas in our faces” and accused Scott Swift of “charging” at him.
A representative for Taylor Swift said at the time that photographers were behaving aggressively.
The spokesperson said:
Two individuals were aggressively pushing their way towards Taylor, grabbing at her security personnel, and threatening to throw a female staff member into the water.
On Tuesday, Australian police issued a statement saying that officers had “conducted an investigation following report of an assault” which resulted in “no further police action”.
Updated
‘These things happen’: Littleproud on more than 100 cattle dying on live export ship
Nationals leader David Littleproud has been asked about the death of at least 100 cattle on a live export ship:
Littleproud told Sky:
I’m getting a briefing from the department today, but as I understand, they believe preliminary investigations is that it could be botulism, which cattle get when they graze and can pick it up from bacteria in the soil. So there’s nothing that we should be concerned about in terms of a foreign disease or anything that isn’t not already experienced in cattle herds. Obviously they’ll do investigations to actually verify that.
But it does show that the protocols that are put in place for our live export industry are world-leading, that we’re able to make sure that when these incidents happen, and they happen rarely but when you are talking about live animals, these things happen. They happen on people’s properties as well. So it’s important to understand that when these things happen, that there are protocols to make sure that we can continue to get comfort around Australian agriculture and our export industry, being the world’s best, and that we learn from it and make sure that we put all the protocols and all the processes in place to alleviate this happening again.
Updated
Coalition’s position on deportation bill to be announced soon
The shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, and shadow immigration minister, Dan Tehan, are going to announce the Coalition’s position on the government’s deportation bill at 10.15am.
The bill:
Gives the immigration minister the power to direct a non-citizen who is due to be deported “to do specified things necessary to facilitate their removal”, or risk a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in prison or up to five years.
Creates a power to designate another country as a “removal concern country”, which will impose a bar on new visa applications from non-citizens outside Australia who are nationals of a country that does not accept removals from Australia.
The crossbench believes that Labor and the Coalition have done a deal to pass the bill, because the government have circulated an hours motion saying that this and a bunch of other bills will be dealt with by the Senate today. We’ll find out shortly what the final call is.
The opposition helped Labor pass the bill in the House of Representatives, despite amendments including Zali Steggall’s bid to add a statutory review and prevent removal orders and mandatory sentencing applying to women escaping domestic violence and facing homelessness. David Pocock will move Senate amendments also.
Updated
Bob Katter lauds pig stunt for impacting supermarket pricing
This morning, Bob Katter says that his pig stunt (he and Andrew Wilkie donned giant inflatable pig costumes and walked around the press gallery pretending to eat money) has had an impact.
Within hours of that stunt, Woolworths announced it was reducing the price on 400 items.
Since then, we’ve heard the Nationals ‘wanting to do something’ about supermarkets, the Greens want divestiture.
Then on Tuesday the prime minister spoke about merger laws and holding the supermarkets to account.
… What started as a stunt, has now become a juggernaut with all of the crossbenchers, the National Party leader, the PM himself, starting to come to the view that divestiture must take place.
Setting up another authority or inquiry, will be an absolute joke.
Updated
Independent MP Bob Katter pokes and prods PM’s supermarket inquiries
Independent MP Bob Katter is taking the prime minister’s answer to his question on notice yesterday as a win.
As a reminder (and because Katter consistently defeats the transcription system and my brain, here is the hansard of the exchange):
Katter:
Prime minister, a farmer ploughs, tills, fights disease, weeds, irrigates, fertilises, harvests, cleans and delivers to stores. Cold and Worthless pay the farmer 49c a potato, put it on a shelf and charge customers $4.50, an 800% mark-up. Their CEOs get $10 million a year; the vanishing check-out chick gets $50,000. In 1990 they had a 50.1% market share; in 2001 they had 70.1, according to ABS and ANOP figures. At two per cent a year, they’re now over 80%. PM, if divestiture, won’t you be like Roosevelt and have your face carved on Mount Remarkable with Tubba Tre, Ralph Honner and Red Ted Theodore?
(Dolly bless the hansard reporters)
Albanese:
When farmers are getting less money for their product, whether it be potatoes, like the one he used, or any other vegetable or product, then you would expect that to translate into cheaper prices at the checkout. The truth is that it hasn’t done so. That is why my government’s determined to hold them to account.
That’s why we’ve got the ACCC conducting an inquiry. They’ll produce an interim report as well as then a final report. The options that are open for them are, of course, we’ve already increased penalties on anticompetitive conduct.
We’ve already banned unfair contract terms. We’ve set up a competition task force in Treasury which is considering Australia’s merger laws.
The government has also charged former competition minister Craig Emerson with reviewing the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct at the moment. That is a voluntary code, and we’re looking at whether mandating is necessary there.
Updated
Socceroos and Matildas star players treated to MP soccer game on Senate oval
Star players from the Socceroos and Matildas have been in parliament this week, pressing the flesh and posing for photos with MPs. The women’s team were a big draw at some events yesterday, while the men’s team - fresh from a 5-0 trouncing of Lebanon last night at Canberra’s cathedral of sport, GIO Stadium - watched from the sidelines at the regular Wednesday morning pre-parliament soccer game on the Senate oval.
The skill level wasn’t quite as high on the slick Parliament House lawns as on the hallowed turf at Bruce, but Socceroos coach Graham Arnold and star player Craig Goodwin were still treated to some superb goalkeeping from Forde MP Bert van Manen, a few nice touches from Macnamara’s Josh Burns, some powerful efforts from the superhuman athletes who staff David Pocock’s office, a couple of customary yellow-card offences from Graham Perrett, and a Liberal MP (who we’ll keep anonymous) missing an absolute sitter on an open goal from right in front.
But it was after the game where the real stuff happened, as Arnold praised his players’ efforts last night, as well as pointing to the Matildas and Socceroos inspiring a new generation of Australian football stars, to ask the federal MPs assembled for a bit more investment in the round ball game.
To a crowd that also included ministers Murray Watt and Matt Keogh, Josh Wilson, Nita Green, Matt Canavan, Keith Wolahan and Aaron Violi, coach Arnold talked about how elite Aussie soccer players were often forced to train on rugby fields - the wrong size and shape for their training needs - and warned that Australian teams might not make future World Cups without adequate investment in young players and facilities.
Arnold warned the MPs that within 10 years, the Socceroos and Matildas might not make the cut, and would drop from their current heights without more help from governments.
Food for thought for MPs on their way back into parliament for the last sitting day before the May budget.
Updated
Catherine King introduces fuel efficiency standards legislation
The fuel efficiency standards legislation has also been introduced by Catherine King, kicking off those negotiations with the Greens.
The coalition said no before even seeing the legislation, and continues to erroneously call it a tax, mostly because of the vibe.
(It’s not a tax, its an incentive to car companies to create vehicles which are more fuel efficient, which will pave the way for cheaper EVs in Australia, and even the car industry has said it is not a tax)
Updated
Causing harm to commonwealth public official can now bring maximum 10 years in prison
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has introduced a bill that will increase the penalties for anyone who “causes harm” or “threatens to cause serious harm” to a commonwealth public official.
However if that public official is a law enforcement officer (so AFP or Border Force) or a judicial officer, then the penalties are even higher.
Under the protecting frontline workers bill, causing harm to a commonwealth official can now bring a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. If that person is a AFP officer, the maximum jail sentence increases to 13 years.
Threatening serious harm to a commonwealth public official would be a crime with a seven year maximum sentence, but you can add two years to that if the person is a law enforcement or judicial official.
The explanatory memorandum says this is necessary “to address the increasing levels of violence and aggression experienced by Commonwealth frontline workers in the course of performing their work and to send a powerful message to the community that this violence and aggression is not acceptable and will be met with serious penalties”.
Updated
NDIS bill: frustration from states and territories over lack of negotiation from government
Bill Shorten will introduce the NDIS bill very shortly.
But outside the parliament, there is an absolute hotbed of frustration amongst the states.
There was an agreement in December 2023 that the states would take on what is called “foundational supports” as the NDIS pivoted away from some diagnosis. What that means is that instead of the NDIS being the only support mechanism for people with a disability, there are other programs, run by the states, which provide support, lightening the load on the NDIS.
The programs are to receive money from the states to provide these foundational supports. But since then, there has been very limited information on what this will all look like.
Now, it seems the federal government will be legislating its NDIS bill and then negotiating with the states later, which has led to a lot of anger and frustration over how the commonwealth is handling it.
There are calls for the federal government to delay its introduction because of these issues, but that doesn’t seem like happening. It’s not clear if the state and territory ministers were involved in the later discussions, or if it were just officials, because every state and territory seems quite taken aback by what’s happening.
The states are saying what the government will be putting up goes “well beyond” what was agreed to in December 2023, and they are not appeased by claims that once legislated, there will be enough time to work out what the states role in all of this will be.
Tldr: The NDIS bill is a bit of a mess, even before its introduced. We can’t tell you more because anyone involved in the discussions have signed NDA’s and can’t talk. But from what we do know, the states seem unclear on what they are supposed to be picking up, as they believed there would be a clear plan on what the role of the foundational supports would be, how they would be established and what numbers (both in terms of people and funding) would be involved.
Updated
Queensland ‘byelection results were bad’ but ‘we’ll work harder’: Steven Miles
Queensland Labor is looking at an election wipe-out come October. Recent state byelections were bad. Baaaaaad, bad with an 18% swing against the government and the loss of a once safe seat.
Asked if he risks becoming the “Kristina Keneally of Queensland Labor”, Steven Miles replies:
Oh, look, I’ve been in this role for three months and in that time I’ve worked as hard as I can to listen and deliver for Queenslanders. You’re right. The byelection results were bad. We were expecting them to be bad but they were even worse than that. What’s important is that we’ve heard that message and we’ll work harder. I’ll work harder.
Queenslanders will make their decision in October based on the choices before them then. I can’t be too focused on that. My job is to focus on delivering for them now.
(Kristina Keneally became premier of the NSW Labor government in its dying days in what is commonly known as a “hospital pass” and governed from 2009 to 2011, when the 16-year incumbent Labor government was wiped out in a landslide. Anna Bligh received one from Peter Beattie in Queensland in 2007, managed to win in 2009 but in 2012, Queensland Labor was reduced to just seven seats in a historic election whitewash).
Updated
Steven Miles says removing detention as last resort has no evidence in stopping crime
The last time youth crime became a hot button political issue in Queensland, the Newman government was elected. The response there was boot camps, tightening bail laws even further, electronic monitoring and removing the concept of detention as a last result.
The debate has hit much the same areas as the Crisafulli opposition looks to take power from the LNP for just the third time since 1989. Removing detention as a last resort is one of the LNP promises. Steven Miles says there is no evidence it actually stops crime.
What they’ve not been able to do is provide any evidence, any expert support, that that change would lead to less offending. I’ve seen evidence and expert advice, that those changes could lead to more offending. If you detain offenders, low-level offenders, you risk criminalising them further. You risk introducing them to gangs, to older kids, to higher levels of violence, and so they will need to explain how they’re going to avoid those risks if, as they say, they’re going to lock kids up as a first resort.
Updated
Extra police to “fly in” to crime “hot spots” under Queensland’s ongoing response to youth crime
Youth crime has been a huge political issue in Queensland (despite experts screaming for people to look at the evidence, it has crossed into the political sphere and is a leading election issue) and the state Labor government have responded by tightening bail laws, and increasing policing.
Premier Steven Miles has announced a new “flying high intensity” police team that will travel to “hot spots” as part of the ongoing response.
He told the ABC:
What we’ve seen is our high intensity-policing has demonstrated some success in turning the corner in 12 of our 14 regions and we want that progress to continue and we’re ramping up with Operation Whisky Legion. This will be extra police available to fly in to regions to identify risks of future crime hot spots, to intervene early, to use intelligence to identify offenders at risk of offending or escalating their offending and intervening with them. So it’s a program that’s worked in recent months and we want to see it greatly expanded.
Updated
Baltimore bridge tragedy a reminder of Tasmania’s 1975 disaster, Wilkie says
Andrew Wilkie agrees that there would be people in Tasmania who have seen the Baltimore bridge tragedy and have flashbacks to the Tasman Bridge disaster of 1975.
Back then, 12 people were killed, including seven on board the Lake Illawarra container ship which collided with the pylons of the Tasman Bridge, which connected the two sides of Hobart. Five people in four cars were also killed. The loss of the bridge had huge social implications to people living on the eastern shore, which was suddenly isolated. What was a three minute trip across the river became a 90-minute drive. Ferry services were set up, but the impacts of being cut off lasted for years.
The new river crossing, the Bowen Bridge, was not completed until 1984.
Wilkies says:
I wasn’t in Hobart at the time. I’ve heard much about it and it rocked the city to its core. It split the city in two and resulted in a fundamental change in direction for the eastern shore to this day. You know, this will have enormous implications for the whole city of Baltimore.
Updated
Wilkie says government ‘scrambling to get’ deportation legislation through ‘is disappointing’
On the issue of the deportation legislation the government is attempting to rush through the parliament (the coalition voted for it in the house and are deciding the senate position this morning) Andrew Wilkie says he is disappointed:
As a matter of principle I oppose all of these legislative moves against people who are almost all fleeing for their lives. We need a new approach to asylum seekers.
We need to start regarding the global displaced persons issue as a humanitarian crisis and not a border security problem. Not something we’re scrambling to beat the High Court at every turn.
I think we should have a more compassionate approach. The way ... the government is scrambling to get around the High Court is disappointing.
Updated
Andrew Wilkie says UK delaying Assange appeal decision is good news
The UK high court have delayed their decision on whether or not Julian Assange can appeal his extradition order to the US by three weeks.
A decision had been expected overnight (UK time) and the further delay has had a mixed response.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who has been one of the earliest supporters of Assange’s case said on balance, he believes the delay to be good news. He told ABC News Breakfast:
The fact that the UK High Court of Justice have delayed their decision about giving Julian the right to appeal in full, to delay by three weeks and insist that the US give assurances that he would enjoy the rights of a US citizen, the right to free speech on the First Amendment, and that he wouldn’t face the death penalty, not just on current charges but on future charges that might be brought against him. That’s good.
But the best news is it gives Julian’s legal team and Julian personally time to cut a deal with the US Department of Justice.
Wilkie said he believes the political attitudes around the case have changed.
I think everyone wants a resolution. It’s a case on whether everyone can agree. There’s a range of views about Julian. Some love him, some hate him, but most people think it’s gone on long enough.
Updated
Minns’ long service leave draft laws to benefit workers with multiple employers
Up to 250,000 community sector workers in New South Wales would be able to accrue long service leave from multiple employers under draft laws released by the Minns government today.
The reforms to leave entitlements would cover workers in disability care, family and domestic violence services, homelessness services and other essential services, after similar changes for the cleaners and bringing NSW into line with the ACT, Victoria and Queensland.
About 75% of the workers who would benefit are women, the government says.
The government is trying to attract and retain workers in a highly-casualised sector, which it says is struggling with stress, burnout and job insecurity.
Under the new laws, community sector workers would be offered paid long service leave after seven years rather than 10 years and their leave would be portable, meaning it could be accrued across different jobs.
Silvana, a domestic violence support worker who asked to be identified by her first name only, welcomed the potential changes.
She said:
I’ve worked in the same domestic violence program for 20 years. I haven’t had access to long service leave because the way the sector is funded means I’ve had to change employers to do the same work.
The work health and safety minister, Sophie Costis, said:
A portable entitlements system aims to reduce the high level of staff turnover among community service workers, provide these essential workers with greater financial security and improve the
level of care provided to clients.
Consultation on the draft legislation will be open until 30 April.
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Bowen backs Chubb review despite critics of the scheme
Bowen says that on coming to office he asked the former chief scientist, Professor Ian Chubb to lead a review on the safeguard scheme.
That review found that carbon credits … was basically sound but needed some reforms, which we have , or we’re in the process of implementing.
In relation to the human induced method, that HAR method that expired last year, but I’d also make this point the clean energy regulator engaged the services of Associate Professor Cris Brack, also for an Australian National University to review the performance of individual projects, passing their first five yearly regeneration check.
He found the projects are demonstrating regeneration and proponents are implementing the project activities.
There’s been other checks in relation to the significant increase in vegetation that we’re looking for and it is found that increasing vegetation exists.
The Chubb review didn’t analyse individual projects. Bowen says it analysed the entire scheme.
On the concerns raised by Andrew Macintosh, an environmental law professor at the Australian National University (ANU), a former head of a carbon credit integrity assurance body and more recently a sharp critic of the management of the scheme. Two years ago he described it as a “sham” and a fraud on taxpayers and the environment, Bowen says he understands Macintosh doesn’t agree with the Chubb review.
I understand Professor Macintosh has a different view. He’s expressed that on multiple media platforms, but Professor Chubb and associate Professor Brack are the people who’ve been commissioned and there is a different result from their work.
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Chris Bowen was also asked about this story from Adam Morton:
Australia’s main carbon offsets method is a failure on a global scale and doing little if anything to help address the climate crisis, according to a major new study.
Research by 11 academics found the most popular technique used to create offsets in Australia, known as ‘human-induced regeneration’ and pledged to regenerate scrubby outback forests, had mostly not improved tree cover as promised between about 2015 and 2022.
The peer-reviewed study, published in the Nature journal Communications Earth & Environment, analysed 182 projects in arid and semi-desert areas and found forest cover had either barely grown or gone backwards in nearly 80%.
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Labor’s deportation bill is ‘a completely botched process’: Dan Tehan
The Coalition is still reserving its position on Labor’s controversial deportation bill.
The shadow immigration minister, Dan Tehan, told Radio National:
We’ll have a further discussion this morning … there were a few things out of the hearing that still have left us with more questions that we would like answered.
And once again, you know, we are seeing a completely botched process by the government. The question was asked last night and very clearly was, what is the rush? What is the need for these laws to be passed through the Senate today? We couldn’t get a clear answer on that.
I mean, it is quite quite extraordinary that you’ve got a major piece of legislation like this. And that we haven’t heard from the minister for immigration or the minister for home Affairs, neither of them have fronted.
Tehan also noted that it is possible parliament could be recalled in the event the commonwealth loses the ASF17 high court decision in relation to immigration detainees who refuse to cooperate with their deportation.
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Bowen disagrees reaction to rushed deportation legislation would be different if it came from opposition
Asked if Labor would have been up in arms over the deportation legislation if the coalition had put it forward while in government (and in this rushed form) Chris Bowen disagrees.
I disagree because there have been instances where the Labor Party has been in opposition and the government of the day has come to us and said, here’s the reason we’re doing this. And here’s the advice we have and here’s the evidence and governments and opposition’s have worked together where appropriate, not not in every instance, obviously where the case hasn’t been made, but where appropriate, and the case has been made to see legislation passed in exactly that form.
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Deportation review ‘further penalises victims of a fast track system’: Australian Human Rights Law Centre
On the deportation review, Chris Bowen is asked about Zoe Daniel’s comment that if the government makes a mistake in these cases, people could be sent back to countries where they risk being murdered.
Does that weigh heavily on Bowen?
Somebody in this circumstance has had an opportunity to make a refugee case to the Department of Immigration to the relevant tribunal, through the courts, and in each instance has been found not to be a refugee and has failed to get a ministerial intervention.
I mean, if there was an opportunity for them to make a case of their refugee status, at one of the multiple points, they appear before the Department of Immigration or tribunal or a court, they would have made that case. We are talking about people very much at the end of the road who have failed to show any evidence that the refugee [protections apply].
The human rights law centre has addressed this and said under the “fast track” process Australia uses, cases are not fully considered. The plaintiff in the case in front of the high court which has sparked this legislation – ASF17 – had their refugee status denied under the fast track process.
The ‘fast track’ process has been subject to extensive international criticism, that have been rightly acknowledged by the Labor government as neither fair, thorough nor robust, resulting in the abolition of the ‘fast track’ review system with effect from 1 July 2024. The Bill further penalises the victims of the ‘fast track’ system, whose claims for protection have never been properly or fairly addresses.
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No EV target for Australia
Chris Bowen reiterates that there is no EV target for Australia:
We don’t have a particular EV target. We have a determination to give Australians more choices. So many Australians come up to me in the street and say, I’d like my next car to be an EV but I’m not really seeing the range of choices that are affordable. And they’re right because there are many more affordable EVs that are available in other countries that aren’t available here because we don’t have efficiency standards.
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Bowen to negotiate with Greens and crossbench on fuel efficiency standards
A tired sounding Chris Bowen is speaking to ABC radio RN Breakfast about the fuel efficiency standard he and Catherine King are putting in front of the parliament.
The coalition has said no (Bridget McKenzie admitted to Josh Butler yesterday she had not read the legislation, but was convinced it was a tax, even though a) it is not a tax under any definition and b) the car industry doesn’t think its a tax) so the government will negotiate with the Greens and crossbench to get it through the senate.
On that, Bowen says:
This is what we’re putting into parliament and this is what we intend to legislate, but the Greens have got a range of issues that they’re talking to the government about at the moment. You know, traditionally as I said before, I have a [good] relationship with the crossbenchers broadly with people of good faith right across the board, where we talk about what we’re trying to achieve and we pass it through the parliament. That’s what I take nothing for granted. I take no individual citizen or member of parliament for granted.
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Birmingham says ceasefire motion ‘failed to articulate … strong stance against Hamas’
Simon Birmingham’s motion did not receive support and the Greens supported the amended motion put forward by Penny Wong, which saw the ceasefire motion pass.
Birmingham made his views clear after the vote:
The Senate today missed an opportunity to maintain a strong and moral stance against Hamas terrorists and their ongoing cause of bloodshed.
Specifically, the Coalition sought to:
incorporate the expectation that any immediate ceasefire incorporates the immediate and unconditional release of hostages;
acknowledges that improving access to humanitarian assistance requires the cooperation of all parties, not just Israel;
state that Hamas must lay down its arms and can have no role in the future governance of Gaza;
reflect the totality of suffering felt by Palestinians in Gaza; and
once again unconditionally condemn the heinous terror attacks of Hamas, while recognising Israel’s inherent right to defend itself.
Birmingham:
In its rush to reflect the UNSC vote the Albanese Government has failed to articulate and stand by the tenets of Australia’s support for Israel and our strong stance against Hamas.
The Coalition is proud to continue to stand resolute in relation to our support for Israel, the removal of Hamas and in pursuit of an outcome that can best support stability and peace in the long term.
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Ceasefire motion: Birmingham pushed for stronger condemnation of October 7 attacks
Simon Birmingham attempted to amend the motion to include a stronger condemnation of October 7 (the Australian parliament has passed motions condemning Hamas and the events of 7 October in the past).
Birmingham:
We acknowledge the government in putting forward a resolution seeking to reflect much of the UN Security Council resolution; however, it is the opposition’s view that that does not say enough. It does not say enough to reflect the totality of the UN Security Council resolution nor does it say enough about the totality of what should be Australia’s clear, unequivocal moral conviction in this conflict.
That is why I present and seek leave to move amendments in this chamber, which would better reflect the UN Security Council resolution—namely, that the call for a ceasefire was for an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, a ceasefire that would secure the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and that that can then lead to a sustainable ceasefire.
We also seek to ensure that it is appropriately reflected that access for humanitarian assistance, which we wish to see flow to those who are suffering immensely in Gaza, requires the cooperation of all parties.
Hamas has been filmed and recorded looting and stealing humanitarian assistance for their own purposes, so to place a moral judgement on one party in this conflict rather than reflecting that all parties must play a role in the provision of humanitarian assistance would be improper. We also seek to give this Senate the opportunity to restate critically the expectation that Hamas must lay down its arms and can have no role in the future governance of Gaza.
These are points that the government has made previously, these are points that Australia should stand by, aBind these are points that the coalition unreservedly stands by. We also, in acknowledging the horrific terrorist attacks of 7 October, believe it is critical that, when discussing these matters, the Senate again reinforces its unconditional condemnation of Hamas for its heinous terrorist attacks and recognises Israel’s inherent right to defend itself.
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‘Not a single country voted against this resolution’: Wong on why Australia Senate should be able to pass ceasefire motion
Penny Wong said if the UN security council could come together to pass a motion, the Australian Senate should be able to.
I know that this motion may not reflect every aspect of all our positions on these issues, but there is enough here to agree on. I ask senators to look for the points that are in front of them. Whether senators consider themselves a friend of Israelis or Palestinians or both, as I do, we should be able to come together in agreeing on the urgency of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. When hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are starving, we should be able to come together to underline the urgency of an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan leading to a sustainable ceasefire as per the UN Security Council resolution; we should be able to come together to demand Hamas comply with the Security Council’s demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages; and we should be able to come together to demand that the Netanyahu government comply with the Security Council’s demand that all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale are removed.
If the divided United Nations Security Council could come together on these issues then we ought to be able to do likewise. If countries as different as Algeria, Ecuador, France, the United Kingdom and others can agree on these points, then we ought to be able to do likewise. Not a single country voted against this resolution, and we should recognise what it means that not one of the permanent five members of the Security Council stood in the way. Right now we are faced with reports from the United Nations that 650,000 Palestinians in Gaza are starving and well over a million are at risk of starvation. Right now more than 1.7 million people in Gaza are internally displaced.
There are, as I have said, increasingly few safe spaces to go. Right now there are more than 130 hostages still being held by the terror group Hamas, and we condemn Hamas’ actions as we have always done.
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Senate passes amended motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza
Yesterday, the Senate passed a motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
There have been several attempts by the Greens to have the parliament make a ceasefire statement and acknowledge the humanitarian crisis created by Israel’s blockade over the last few months but until yesterday, they were unsuccessful.
Yesterday, Penny Wong amended a Greens motion, that said the Senate’s opinion was:
The State of Israel’s non-compliance with the International Court of Justice is evident in the blocking of aid into Gaza and the Australian government must take action to compel the State of Israel to comply with orders of the ICJ and allow aid into all parts of Gaza at the scale needed.
To the Senate’s opinion was:
That the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is catastrophic and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are starving;
that all parties to the conflict in Gaza comply with the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) demand in relation to ceasefire;
that immediate action must be taken by Israel to comply with the UNSC’s demand that all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale are removed;
that Hamas comply with the UNSC’s demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs;
that all parties comply with their obligations under international law, including orders of the International Court of Justice which are binding.
The amended motion passed with the government voting in support, along with the crossbench and Greens.
The Coalition however, did not support the motion.
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You can read more about the NDIS legislation with Sarah Basford Canales report, here:
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‘Too early’ for shutdown of 3G networks
The 3G network shutdown is looming, however at this point, there is a better than ever chance it will be delayed. Communications minister Michelle Rowland is waiting to find out what the telcos plan on doing for people whose handsets automatically revert to the 3G network to call 000 and has warned them she will delay the shutdown. The shutdown is staggered across the telcos this year, with the last one scheduled for September this year.
Yesterday, a One Nation motion calling for an inquiry into the shutdown got up in the senate. Senator Malcolm Roberts wants the telcos to delay the shutdown until the inquiry has completed and handed down its report.
Australians across the country are still relying on the 3G network in life-or-death situations and it is too early to have this essential service turned off.
I’m calling on Telstra, Optus and TPG to stop their 3G shutdown until this inquiry hands down its findings at the earliest.
Vital medical alarms, farm infrastructure, small business EFTPOS machines and regional Australians are completely reliant on the 3G network.
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NDIS legislation will bring ‘new era of reforms’, Shorten says
On the NDIS legislation, Bill Shorten says the bill will meet the government’s commitment to legislate in the first half of 2024.
Shorten describes the bill as ushering “in a new era of NDIS reforms that ensure the Scheme can continue to provide life-changing outcomes for future generation of Australians with disability and to make sure every dollar in the Scheme gets to the participants for whom the Scheme was designed”.
The legislation is based on recommendations in the NDIS review and will also increase the powers of the NDIS quality and safeguards commission to better protect participants.
Shorten says:
Review recommendations will take years to implement. Today is the next step in the journey. For the past three months, I have travelled around Australia talking to people with disability and the sector. In just over 12 weeks, I hosted a national tour of 8 townhalls, where thousands of Australians heard, discussed and asked questions about the Review’s proposed reforms and what needs to happen next.
There will be a significant piece of work to collaborate with people with disability the reforms and we are seeking the lived experience of the disability community as we continue to strengthen the Scheme together.
We have released this bill to be transparent.
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Good morning
Welcome to the final sitting day before the autumn break. Once today ends, parliament will rise and not sit again until budget week, beginning 7 May.
So you can expect today to be a bit of a nightmare. The deportation bill Andrew Giles introduced yesterday is expected to pass the senate today. The coalition has been complaining about the lack of warning over the legislation, but supporting it at the same time. Apparently, the legislation is both rushed, but also understood widely enough to be passed a little over 24 hours after it was first seen.
Human rights, refugee and legal groups are not so sure – they issued urgent warnings the bill goes too far and will have unintended circumstances. But the coalition is on board (mostly, because as Paul Karp has pointed out a few times, the bill is something it could have put forward) and so it will pass the bill, while continuing to complain about how quick the whole process has been.
The process could be slowed down by the coalition siding with the crossbench and sending it to a senate committee, but that doesn’t look like happening.
Today we will also see the NDIS legislation which has been so secretive, anyone who has seen it has apparently had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
We’ll cover it all, with Karen Middleton, Paul Karp, Daniel Hurst, Sarah Basford Canales and Josh Butler at your service. You have Amy Remeikis on the blog.
Fourth coffee is on – ready?
Let’s get into it.
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Black summer bushfires coronial inquiry to deliver report today
A coronial report will shed light on how 25 people lost their lives in the 2019-20 black summer bushfires, and how some of the deadly blazes were sparked, Australian Associated Press reports.
The 700-page report, due to be delivered on Wednesday, is more than two years in the making and has examined 44 fires, including 12 that led to deaths.
The court said at the start of the inquiry its purpose was not to blame or place liability for the fires on any persons or organisations.
New South Wales state coroner Teresa O’Sullivan said at the time:
The purpose is to inquire into relevant events and gather information about what happened.
Hearings across the state heard a range of causes for the blazes, including power lines, lightning strikes and out-of-control backburning.
The black summer fires burned through more than 5.5 million hectares in NSW alone.
The inquest also heard only 10 out of 130 fire investigators were available at any one time during the 2019-20 season.
A separate independent inquiry, commissioned by the Berejiklian government, recommended landowners be obliged to conduct more hazard-reduction burns on their properties and take an active role in bushfire preparation.
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Payments for mandatory placements for social work trainees would cost $91m a year, report finds
Providing a stipend for mandatory tertiary placements in the social work sector would cost the government more than $91m per year, a report into placement poverty has found.
The Per Capita report, commissioned by the Australian Council of Heads of Social Work Education (ACHSWE) and released today, analysed a range of options to compensate students for unpaid labour.
It found the cost for a government funded stipend at the minimum wage ($23.23 per hour) for a standard placement of 500 hours would be $91m for up to 7,000 students.
Tens of thousands of students undertaking unpaid placements per year in courses such as nursing, social work and teaching are required to complete hundreds of hours of unpaid placements to complete their degrees.
The Australian Universities Accord recommended the federal government work with universities, unions and other stakeholders to introduce financial support for unpaid work placements due to their punishing financial burden.
Per Capita’s executive director, Emma Dawson, said there’s was “mounting pressure” on the federal government to front the bill.
Regardless of the federal government’s decision, the payment must be the commonwealth’s responsibility, inclusive of all students and equivalent to the minimum wage.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling politics coverage. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be bringing you the best of the overnight stories before the inestimable Amy Remeikis comes along to guide you through the day.
The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, will introduce a bill this morning to forge ahead with an overhaul of the scheme – including plans to curb the amount participants can claim in budget top-ups – amid a looming fight with state and territory leaders over who should pay for disability services. It is part of the government’s first tranche of reforms to return the scheme to its original intent of supporting Australians with permanent disability and tackle issues with its ballooning costs.
A controversial government payment system wrongly diverted $700,000 in welfare money from vulnerable Australians to energy company AGL and helped prop up a Christian rehabilitation centre using gay conversion practices and exorcisms, Guardian Australia can reveal. An investigation into Centrepay, which allows businesses access to a person’s welfare payments before they are deposited into their bank accounts, has found disturbing examples of misuse of a system that consumer advocates claim has become “a vehicle for financial abuse” and one Labor senator describes as “rife with exploitation”.
Julian Assange was handed a reprieve overnight in his fight against extradition to the US after two UK high court judges ruled the WikiLeaks founder could take his case to an appeal hearing. If he had lost, Assange could have been extradited to the US to face espionage charges within days.
A coronial inquiry into News South Wales’ 2019-2020 black summer bushfires is due to deliver its report today, on the causes of the 44 fires, including 12 that led to deaths.
And with a push on to compensate university students for the months of unpaid placements they must work while training for their degrees, a new report has put a dollar figure on how much it would cost to support them with a stipend. More on that soon.
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