What we learned, Thursday 15 February
We will wrap up the live blog. Here are the major points from today:
The prime ministers of Australia, Canada and NZ issued a joint statement saying they were ‘gravely concerned’ about Israeli plans for a ground offensive in Rafah.
The unemployment rate ticked up from 3.9% to 4.1% as the treasurer warned the country was entering into a period of economic uncertainty.
A new taskforce has been set up in New South Wales to support the Environment Protection Authority’s criminal investigation into the widespread use of mulch found to be contaminated with asbestos.
Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong announced another $50m in funding for Ukraine.
NSW Health has warned of high-dose MDMA tablets being found containing around twice the average dose of other MDMA tablets found in recent circulation.
The prime minister ruled out a suggestion to random breath-test MPs.
Anthony Albanese announced his engagement to partner Jodie Haydon.
Until tomorrow, have a safe evening.
Updated
‘Amorphous global scam’: Asic aware of HyperVerse complaints in 2020, Senate hears
Australian Securities and Investments Commission deputy chair Sarah Court has told Senate estimates that the corporate regulator was aware of complaints about the HyperVerse crypto scheme as early as 2020, saying it had information about the “scam unfolding” at that time.
HyperVerse, the subject of a Guardian Australia investigation, has been named in US court proceedings as a “pyramid and Ponzi scheme” that allegedly defrauded investors globally of US$1.89bn and which operated from 2020 to 2022. It was allegedly operated by Sam Lee and Ryan Xu, two of the directors of the collapsed Australian crypto company Blockchain Global which owes creditors $58m.
Court confirmed that the corporate regulator referred information relating to HyperVerse to Victoria Police in 2020, however the referral was not acted upon, with Police referring the case back to the regulator in 2022.
“We became aware of complaints about HyperVerse … through 2020 [as] we saw information about this scam unfolding,” Court told Senate estimates.
She said that the Hyper Tech group operated an “amorphous global scam”.
This group that we might broadly call the Hypertech group … we understand was an offshore, crypto, effectively a pyramid scheme, that was set up in 2020 and there’s been losses estimated in very significant amounts globally.
In effect, in our view, that HyperVerse group is a scam.
Court was also asked why Asic had advised liquidators that it did not intend to take action against Xu and Lee after they were referred in the liquidator’s report for alleged potential breaches of the corporations act.
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg asked: “Have you taken action against these directors?”
In response, Court said: “Not yet.” She added that Asic was now assessing a “detailed” report from the liquidator received in October.
Updated
‘Words without actions are meaningless’: Varied reactions to Australia’s joint statement on Rafah
Let’s bring you some reactions after prime minister, Anthony Albanese, joined with his Canadian and New Zealand counterparts to warn Israel against a carrying out a “devastating” and “catastrophic” ground offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza.
The three leaders issued a joint statement saying “there is simply nowhere else for civilians to go”.
The leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt, said it had taken the Labor government too long to start to realise the humanitarian consequences of conducting military operations in densely populated Gaza:
The looming invasion of Rafah is something that the whole international community must stop, but words without actions are meaningless … that’s why Labor should stop backing the invasion [of Gaza] full stop.
The co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin, highlighted other parts of the three prime ministers’ joint statement:
We share the concerns for civilians contained in the statement and echo the call for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages. However, the statement proposes no mechanism to achieve any of this.
It is known that the remaining Hamas battalions are in Rafah, along with the Hamas leaders who orchestrated this war and the 130 hostages held in violation of any norms of international law.
Hamas has rejected any ceasefire proposals that would see it relinquish power or disarm. It steadfastly refuses to surrender or release the hostages. In order to avoid a devastating battle for Rafah, the international community should with one voice call for Hamas to surrender and end this war.
Updated
Federal government pledges $50m for long covid
The federal government is committing $50m to improve primary care for people with long Covid after a parliamentary committee inquiry into the chronic condition.
The government today accepted seven of the nine recommendations from the house standing committee on health, aged care and sport’s inquiry into long Covid and repeated covid infections, and noted the other two recommendations.
The government’s initial response to the committee’s report, which was tabled in parliament in April, included a $50m investment from the medical research future fund for research into long Covid.
It has now committed a further $50m from the fund for better primary care for the condition, including in multidisciplinary team-based healthcare.
The health minister, Mark Butler, said long Covid was an emerging health issue, both in Australia and internationally.
The Albanese government is strengthening Medicare for all Australians, but particularly to provide the kind of multidisciplinary team-based healthcare for people with chronic and complex conditions like long Covid.
Updated
CFA shares photos of Staffordshire Reef Road fire
Thanks to all the crews who have worked hard over the past few days.
— cfa_updates (@CFA_Updates) February 15, 2024
These pics are from the Geelong Group who attended a fire on Staffordshire Reef Road on Tuesday.
They managed to treat 2.5km of the fire edge containing the fire before winds increased later that day. pic.twitter.com/cl6367KZYJ
Updated
Most Victorian homes without power will be reconnected by Saturday: government
The Victorian government says 50,000 of the remaining 55,668 homes without power from the storms earlier this week will be reconnected by 6pm Saturday, with a further 3,000 currently being assessed and likely to be connected early next week.
There are three bushfire advice messages in place across the state, and one for severe weather in East Gippsland.
Meanwhile, there are still 700 active requests for assistance, with the busiest volunteer VICSES units at Monash, Emerald and Greater Dandenong.
Five government schools, one independent, seven Catholic and 24 early learning centres are still without power.
Updated
Death sentence of Australian citizen in China will ‘impact on the relationship’, says Penny Wong
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has spoken about the case of the Australian citizen, Dr Yang Hengjun, who has been detained in China since 2019 and was last week issued with a suspended death sentence. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said last week that Australia had conveyed its “outrage” to the Chinese government.
Wong told Senate estimates today:
It is the case that decisions of this nature will have an impact on the relationship. This decision will inventively reverberate for Australians who feel deeply about this tragic development. I think Senator [Simon] Birmingham said that the sentence can only harm in which the way the Chinese system is viewed … and I think that is unfortunately true.
Wong also weighed in on the Albanese government’s policy to “stabilise” the relationship with China. She said when the government pursued stabilisation, it did not assume that meant there would be no differences or “problematic developments”.
It did mean we would work to have avenues to be able to navigate those issues. I’ve said previously, and we know, we expect [that] China will continue to be China. It will continue to press its interests, as will Australia.
Updated
Bridget Archer reveals reason behind Coalition rejection of Assange motion
Liberal MP Bridget Archer has told the ABC the reason most of her Coalition colleagues voted against a motion calling for Julian Assange to be brought back to Australia is due to the wording it, rather than the intent behind it.
She said the parliamentary friendship group behind the motion had hoped for unanimous support in the parliament.
If you cannot come to terms on particular language that might be used, so be it. I think the outcome is a strong one, and I think it sends a powerful message.
Updated
Assange’s brother still confident Dutton will support solution to bring Wikileaks founder home
The brother of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told the ABC he is not reading opposition leader Peter Dutton and the coalition (minus Bridget Archer) voting against a motion in the House yesterday to bring Assange back home to Australia as a change in position.
Gabriel Shipton said Dutton had said in the past that he would support the government in a solution to bring Assange back home, and he believed Dutton still stood by that statement.
He said the reason for Barnaby Joyce abstaining probably had more to do with it being hard for him to cross the floor when he had a lot of attention on him.
He said the UK high court of justice hearings next week were do or die for Assange, saying if he was extradited to the US, he could die in prison.
Updated
‘Broken Promise’: Opposition tries to rename stage 3 tax cuts bill
Earlier in the day when the stage 3 tax cuts changes legislation went through the House of Representatives, the opposition tried a number of times to rename the bill to add (Broken Promise) or (Not Actually Dealing With the Cost of Living) or (Entrenching Bracket Creep) to the title of the legislation.
The ABC’s Greg Jennett put it to the manager of opposition business, Paul Fletcher, this afternoon that such amendment attempts are a farce.
Fletcher said he rejects that description, saying it is a “core part of the parliamentary process, but we are making a point” about the policy change.
Updated
Tony Burke concerned employers putting non-compete clauses in contracts
The employment and workplace relations minister said it might make sense for CEOs, but for GPs, hairdressers, yoga instructors and other workers it made less sense, particularly for employees on modest wages.
He said:
I am really happy to just put out there on all the evidence I have seen so far and I have only seen the beginnings of it, I am concerned about this. I don’t want people to be in a situation where your existing employer prevents you from getting the next job.
He said the assistant minister for competition, Andrew Leigh, first raised this issue with him and it was being examined as part of the competition taskforce.
Updated
Tony Burke tells ABC inflation not workers fault
The employment and workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, is on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing and has been asked whether it is now time to start “moderating workers’ expectations” given inflation is coming down faster than expected and unemployment is rising.
He says workers cannot be blamed for inflation:
What we must not fall into is the argument somehow inflation is always the workers fault … never international factors, never the profit share a company might take, never what a business might do with their own pricing, always the workers fault.
I think people had enough of that and the last two years, the evidence is now in that that is not what has been happening because we have able to get wages up while inflation is moderating.
Updated
BOM is predicting extreme heatwave conditions for much of WA this weekend and into early next week, including in Perth.
The heat rolls on in #WA with another period of temperatures in the high 30s to low to mid 40s. Severe to locally extreme heatwave conditions are forecast to develop for much of WA this weekend into early next week including #Perth. Details: https://t.co/4W35o8i7wJ pic.twitter.com/QqL0TBHXkZ
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) February 15, 2024
Updated
Queensland pushes to decriminalise sex work
The Queensland government has introduced a bill into parliament to decriminalise sex work.
It comes on the back of a years-long campaign by groups including the DecrimQueensland, the Queensland Council of Unions and Respect Inc. The bill largely shadows 2023 recommendations by the Queensland Law Reform Commission.
“Sex work is decriminalised in New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Victoria and also in New Zealand,” Queensland’s attorney general, Yvette D’Ath, told parliament.
While each of these jurisdictions have taken a slightly varying path towards decriminalisation, the common theme of decriminalisation is that they all recognise and regulate sex work as legitimate work rather than as a crime. The Miles government is proud to introduce a bill to decriminalise the sex work industry, a step towards improving the health safety and rights for sex workers.
Under current law, sex workers are only permitted to work in a handful of strictly regulated brothels. In practice almost the entire industry works in illegal unlicensed businesses or as individuals.
Current laws also make the industry more dangerous, banning safety strategies like working in pairs or even keeping in touch with one another.
The bill will also completely close the state’s Prostitution Licensing Authority.
“The proposed reforms to decriminalise the sex work industry will put in place proper regulation, so the industry doesn’t have to choose between working safely or legally,” D’Ath said.
Updated
Tasmania bushfire downgraded
A bushfire that forced the evacuation of campers and residents on Tasmania’s north-east coast has been downgraded, AAP reports.
The blaze at the Waterhouse Conservation Area near the town of Tomahawk was reported around 4am on Thursday and sparked an emergency warning.
Crews were able to put in containment lines in favourable conditions and expected to control the fire in the afternoon.
Authorities evacuated 16 people and warned people to stay away from the area so emergency services could safely complete their duties.
Tasmania Fire Service’s regional chief Jeff Harper said the cause of the fire remained under investigation.
He said the region was hit by a significant number of lightning strikes on Tuesday.
“The other [possibility] is that someone has had a campfire in breach of the parks and wildlife campfire restrictions in the area,” Harper said.
More than a dozen firefighting vehicles, plus six aircraft and two planes, were used to battle the blaze.
Key event
Cyclone warning issued for Queensland’s Gulf of Carpentaria
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a tropical cyclone warning for the coastal areas of NT and far north Queensland around the Gulf of Carpentaria.
The tropical low is expected to be slow moving and develop on Thursday and Friday with a moderate risk of becoming a tropical cyclone, and on Friday the low is likely to move south west to the Gulf coast and then on Saturday be inland and weakening.
“Even if it doesn’t develop into a tropical cyclone, parts of the Gulf of Carpentaria coast are likely to experience strong to gale force winds and heavy rainfall” BoM said.
The low is expected to move west over central NT and then over northern WA bringing heavy rainfall over the weekend and next week. BoM said there is a chance that the low reaches waters west of the Kimberley by next Wednesday, where there is low risk to strengthen into a tropical cyclone.
Updated
Key event
Double-dose MDMA tablets in circulation
NSW Health has warned of high-dose MDMA tablets being found containing around twice the average dose of other MDMA tablets found in recent circulation.
The tablets are skull-shaped with “MYBRAND” wording and logo printed on them, the samples obtained have been blue or pink-orange in colour.
Dr Darren Roberts, medical director of the NSW Poisons Information Centre, said consuming high doses of MDMA has been linked to cases of serious illness and death in NSW:
MDMA can cause severe agitation, raised body temperature, seizures or fits, irregular heart rhythm and death
Other risks include taking MDMA in combination with other stimulants, such as amphetamines or cocaine.
The amount of MDMA in a tablet or capsule can vary a lot, even within the same batch. The health risks from MDMA are greatly increased if high amounts (including multiple doses) are consumed over a short period.
He said hot environments such as music festivals present an increased risk, and people should take breaks from dancing, seek shade and drink water to reduce the risk of overheating, and seek medical care if feeling unwell.
Updated
I am going to have to hand you over a little earlier than usual today, as I have an appointment. But Josh Taylor will take you through the rest of the day and of course the team will continue to keep you updated.
You’ll be back with the Australia news live blog tomorrow, and next week, but politics live will be back with you after that. Until then, as always – take care of you. It’s important.
Updated
The big story today though, is Australia’s position on Israel’s planned ground assault of Rafah:
PM references ‘thug’ line in Nemesis
Anthony Albanese takes a dixer to go through all the times the opposition were hyperbolic in their response to Labor policy. He goes through his favourites but before calling an end to question time after this line:
This leader of the opposition projects all the time. But Malcolm Turnbull summed it [up in one] syllable and got it right.
(That one syllable is a reference to the ABC’s Nemesis where Turnbull referred to Peter Dutton as a ‘“thug” – I hate that I could decipher that).
Updated
Education ministers to discuss national student ombudsman role
The education minister, Jason Clare, takes a dixer and announces that next week, education ministers will finally meet to discuss a national students ombudsman:
Next week, education ministers will meet to consider the establishment of an independent national student ombudsman, with the powers to investigate complaints made by students and resolve disputes with universities.
I want to thank the people who are fighting for this, who have fought for this for years and years.
People like Sharna Bremner from End Rape on Campus, Camille Scofield and Audrey Mins from the Stop campaign, and Renee Carr from Fair Agenda and many more. The truth is, Mr Speaker, they are the changemakers, and change is coming.
Clare also says that in the coming weeks he will release the University Accords.
Updated
Question on negative gearing and capital gains
The Greens MP for Brisbane, Stephen Bates, asks Julie Collins:
Minister, regarding housing, how are negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts good?
This kicks off a whole other debate: whether the housing minister can be asked about tax policy.
Tony Burke:
… The question doesn’t actually go broadly to housing policy, it’s very specifically on tax policy. Very specifically on tax policy.
Adam Bandt:
If it’s the government contention that negative gearing and capital gains tax discount do not have an impact on housing, then that is an extraordinary admission, that is an extraordinary statement.
Milton Dick sighs loud enough to be heard in Cairns, and says it is up to the minister how she wants to answer the question.
Collins answers it by making “supply” every second word.
Precious minutes of this one precious life drain away for all of us and we all learn nothing,
Updated
‘Liar!’
Angus Taylor yells out “liar” while Tony Burke is taking a dixer and is made to withdraw.
Also, a secret squirrel blog watcher tells us Scott Morrison has left the chamber.
Updated
Question on aged care report
And for the first time all week, we have a question from the opposition which is not directed to Andrew Giles.
Sussan Ley to Anika Wells:
Does the minister rule out any changes to the treatment of the family home in aged care assessments?
Wells:
I thank the deputy leader for her question and for some welcome and newfound interest in the future of aged care and of constructive reform in a sector that, as I have just elaborated for 2 minutes and 59 seconds, was neglected for nine long years under her watch, including, I would note, the deputy leader’s time as minister for health herself, failed to do anything substantive about aged care reform.
Ley has a point of order on relevance, but seems to accuse Wells of something, despite Wells having paused and taken her seat (which is what ministers are supposed to do when someone approaches the despatch box).
Ley is asked to withdraw a comment for the second time, which she does.
Wells continues:
We are not going to rush the release of the report, that the deputy leader refers to. Nor are we gonna pre-empt any decisions of the report until we have taken the time to do this properly. Because it is something that they neglected for nine long years on their watch.
Updated
(Continued from previous post)
Albanese:
Now, people will have a range of views about Mr Assange’s conduct, and you and I might not agree, frankly, on the nature of that conduct.
But regardless of where people stand, this thing cannot just go on and on and on indefinitely.
And the Australian government, in my view, always has a responsibility to make representations to governments, as we have, for Cheng Lei, for example, in China, as we have with the range of people who find themselves in difficulty, with successes, it must be said, also in Vietnam and Myanmar in recent times.
It is important that we have a calibrated and deliberate approach to this engagement.
We are continuing to do that, including the discussions that have taken place over a considerable period of time with Mr Assange’s lawyers.
But it is important, the resolution. I congratulate the member on bringing that resolution before this Parliament, because it’s important to send that message. In the coming days, it will be a critical period as well. I hope this can be resolved.
I hope it can be resolved amicably. It’s not up to Australia to interfere in the legal processes of other countries, but it is appropriate for us to put our very strong view that those countries need to take into account the need for this to be concluded.
Updated
Question on Julian Assange
The independent MP for Clark, Andrew Wilkie asks Anthony Albanese:
Prime minister, a great many Australians would have been thrilled by the House of Representatives, including you and your government, voting yesterday in favour of my motion stressing the importance of bringing the Julian Assange matter to a close so he can come home to his family. Prime minister, what is the significance of this?
Albanese:
I thank the member for Clark for his question. And for his genuine engagement over a considerable period of time on this issue that is of concern to so many Australians.
We supported the motion yesterday because it is the right thing to do.
I have said the same as prime minister and conducted myself as prime minister in the same way I did as leader of the opposition, in making advocacy on behalf of the view that I believe Australians hold across the chamber, including some members of the National party and Liberal party over a period of time, cross-benchers, the minor parties, of course, members of the Australian Labor party.
That would have a range of views about the merits of Mr Assange’s actions. But have come to the common view, a view that has been put also by the leader of the opposition, that enough is enough. And that it was time for this to be brought to a close.
I have, from the very first occasions where I had an opportunity as prime minister, raised this issue at the highest levels – with the United States and with the United Kingdom. With people at the highest levels and throughout the [diplomatic] structures. It has been raised by our diplomats as well, including the ambassador to the United States and the High Commission to the United Kingdom, who has visited Mr Assange in prison as well to check on his welfare.
(continued in next post)
Updated
‘The Star of Lenin, friends, goes to this man’: Ed Husic
Ed Husic was given the job of quips-in-chief through his dixer today (they share it around):
Now, I’m asked about risk. And the biggest risk to our plans is the confusion and chaos of the Liberal and National parties, who wanted to talk about literally anything else other than the cost of living. And when it came to forming a position regarding our tax cuts, they were everywhere and nowhere at once.
We had the deputy leader of the opposition committing to absolutely rolling back our tax cuts before she was rolled back absolutely.
And the member for Hume, boy, you’ve had a good week. The member for Hume, our good friend breathlessly attacking us on Sky News, including a bizarre reference to the PM studying Marxist economics.
The Star of Lenin, friends, goes to this man, who has socialised the means of overreaction.
Meanwhile, on Nemesis ….. Tony Abbott blames Malcolm Turnbull, Malcolm Turnbull blames Scott Morrison. Ah!
Paul Fletcher stands up:
Husic:
The serial censor! I thought you hated cancel culture?
Updated
Question on 18 of the released detainees being charged with crime
The next question to Andrew Giles, who has had every question from the opposition all week, is from Paul Fletcher.
The minister on Tuesday stated that, ‘All individuals in the cohort are being continuously monitored.’ Eighteen criminals have been able to commit crimes serious enough to be arrested and charged by state and territory police while apparently being ‘continuously monitored’. Minister, what were those crimes?
Does Fletcher understand what “continuously monitored” means with law enforcement? Because it doesn’t mean that police follow someone around 24 hours a day, or have a drone tracking them. It means regular check-ins with law enforcement, surprise checks and checks of where they have been, if ankle monitoring is part of the release conditions. This is not a TV show where the dogged cop with a tragic backstory makes it their life’s mission to follow someone around every moment of the day.
And if police have charged 18 of the cohort, then doesn’t it mean they are being monitored?
I can’t today.
Updated
‘We put in place four layers of protection’: Giles on indefinite detainees release
The Nationals MP Kevin Hogan is the next to ask Andrew Giles about the cohort of people who were released by the high court indefinite detention decision:
… There have been 27 reports of further crimes committed by them, according to AFP evidence at Senate estimates. Minister, isn’t this clear proof that the minister’s so-called continuous monitoring is completely ineffective to keep Australians safe? When will the government take action to keep Australians safe, including community detention orders?
A note on that – Australia has one of the highest rates of recidivism in the world. The WORLD. More than 60% of Australia’s prison population has been previously incarcerated. So let’s not pretend that reoffending is a new problem this cohort of people have invented.
Andrew Giles:
We put in place four layers of protection to keep the community safe, including through Operation Aegis, the capacity for state, territory and commonwealth agencies to work together.
We also, as I’ve discussed on many occasions, as one of those levels of protection, put in place a legal regime to enable detention applications.
Those applications, I can assure the house, are under way, noting the concerns that have been expressed, including by the member for Wannon about the high threshold that is required to succeed in such an application.
Updated
Government to release report on naval surface fleet ‘shortly’
There has been a lot of speculation the government will soon announce decisions on the Hunter-class frigate project and the rest of the naval surface fleet (possibly next week).
In his latest dixer, the defence minister, Richard Marles, confirms that the government will release its response to the independent review of the surface fleet “shortly”. He goes on to take aim at the Coalition’s defence record.
Updated
And another …
Aaaaaaand Liberal MP for Lindsay, Melissa McIntosh is the next to get booted under 94a.
Michael Sukkar has just been warned. So he’ll most likely be next.
Updated
Another LNP MP removed from Queensland parliament
The LNP MP for Herbert, Phil Thompson is also booted out under 94a for interjecting during an answer.
Thursday is parliament Friday (because there is no sitting on Friday) and so by this time in the week, the Speaker usually has no patience left. Neither do the MPs, particularly when it is the last day of a two-week sitting, because it’s so close to home time.
So it is like keeping a bunch of emotionally unregulated children inside for the fifth wet lunch in a row and the third playing of Willow is no longer cutting it.
Updated
‘We’re accountable. Every three years, at least’: PM
Anthony Albanese:
I thank the member for Warringah for her question and I recognise that it comes from a place of genuine concern.
And there have been, of course, issues from time to time in the parliament. But one of the things about our jobs is we’re accountable. Every three years, at least, we go to the Australian people and we’re accountable for what we say and what we do and how we act.
And that is a democratic process that is appropriate. I would have thought that we are all responsible adults and we should act appropriately out of respect for the people who vote to put us here. It is a great privilege to be a member of parliament, and many people try, not as many succeed.
I’ve had the privilege of being elected to this parliament 10 times, and every day – every day – I feel grateful and humbled by representing the community where I have lived my whole life, in the inner west of Sydney, and being able to occupy the extraordinary position of being Australia’s 31st prime minister.
I don’t want to see us be in a position where we say that we are unable to act like adults, and to have the suggestion which is made.
So, I understand why she makes it, the member for Warringah, but it is not something that I have supported.
I think that people need to act responsibly at all times, to bear in mind the great privilege and honour that we have, of being in this chamber in the various positions that occur, whether they be on the frontbench of either side, whether they be backbench members or whether they be cross-bench members as well.
Barnaby Joyce was listening on as Albanese spoke.
Updated
Question on random alcohol and drug testing in parliament
Zali Steggall to Anthony Albanese:
My question is to the prime minister: Numerous workplaces in Australia have random alcohol and drug testing to help ensure a safe and respectful working environment. Will you commit to legislating for random alcohol and drug testing of MPs, senators and staff in the federal parliament due to the apparent ongoing issues with too much alcohol consumption?
What. Could. Have. Prompted. That. Question.
Albanese says no.
Updated
MP Aaron Violi thrown out of parliament again
Milton Dick counts how many times the Liberal MP for Casey, Aaron Violi, interjects during a dixer from Jim Chalmers – it turns out it was eight times.
Dick then throws out Violi for the second time this week (I think it was this week, but time has no meaning) because of his ongoing interjections over the last two weeks.
Updated
Peter Dutton to Andrew Giles:
Despite the prime minister’s suggestions earlier that this is not a worthy question, I ask the Minister for Immigration why the family I referred to earlier, the victims of the … Who lost their mother and mother-in-law to a murderer, why hasn’t that family been contacted?
Giles:
I say again that my thoughts are, of course, with all of the victims, all of those affected by the [high court decision].
In terms of that family, I have spoken a little bit about the Victim Link approach, but if the leader of the opposition has the relevant contact details, I will be very pleased to speak with any affected family members immediately after question time.
Updated
Queensland opposition alleges child was sexually abused in watch house
Queensland’s LNP opposition has raised in parliament allegations a child was sexually abused while being detained in one of the state’s watch houses.
The Warrego MP, Ann Leahy, asked the premier during question time:
A whistleblower has provided information that a young girl was sexually assaulted by another detainee in the … watch house. Can the premier confirm this is under investigation and what action has been taken?”
The premier, Steven Miles, replied:
As the member would be aware, that’s not the kind of incident that would be referred to me but I would urge the member to refer it to police because it’s very very serious.
The child safety minister, Charis Mullen, suggested holding a private meeting with the opposition to discuss the issue.
Updated
Andrew Giles:
The government is committed to ensuring that all victims, and their families, are supported, noting, of course, the privacy restrictions and the fact that the vast majority of these victims are, of course, victims of breaches of state and territory laws, not commonwealth laws.
Question time begins in earnest
Peter Dutton in literally the next breath after the jovial wedding congratulations:
My question is to the minister for immigration: Earlier today, I spoke to Andrew, a member of the family whose mother, Svetlana, was brutally murdered by one of the 149 criminals the minister released. He is disgusted that, despite the minister’s undertakings, no one has contacted the family. They fear the murderer turning up at their home. Why hasn’t this family been contacted, as the minister and deputy prime minister promised?
Andrew Giles:
I acknowledge, all members of this place, acknowledge that the decision by the high court to release those individuals …
Dutton uses a point of order to try to pretend that the court ruling that just one person be released and the government took it upon themselves to release another 148 which is completely ridiculous – the way high court rulings work (or all court rulings) is that if a precedent has been set with one case, then it’s set for anyone with similar circumstances. So if the court says “the indefinite detention of this person with these circumstances is unconstitutional” then it is unconstitutional to keep the other people with the same set of circumstances in indefinite detention. To not follow the court’s ruling would leave the government open to being (successfully) sued, with the court ruling the release of the other people anyway.
Updated
‘Whatever it takes to get an invite to the gala wedding’: Dutton on PM’s engagement
Peter Dutton then congratulates Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon on their engagement:
Can I share our congratulations and best wishes to you. We look forward to our version of the royal wedding some time in the future.
Albanese:
Keep checking your mailbox!
Dutton:
I will be there, throwing roses out in front of you, prime minister. Whatever it takes to get an invite to the gala wedding.
And then they get into the questions.
Updated
‘Russia’s invasion was illegal and it was immoral’: Dutton
Peter Dutton also speaks on Ukraine:
When Russian troops poured across Ukraine’s border on 24 February 2022, many in the West finally awoke from the naive dream of the end of history. The cruel reality of a return of history hit home.
Russia’s invasion was illegal and it was immoral.
It was unprovoked, it was unjust, it was unacceptable. It was a reminder that the days of despots are not gone, that the age of autocrats is not behind us.
Putin, of course, expected [it to be] behind us. Putin, of course, expected a quick victory. He thought the people of Ukraine would swiftly surrender and his appetite would only have grown with territorial eating. But Putin miscalculated, he underestimated, he was wrong. The people of Ukraine did not acquiesce, they resisted.
They took arms, they did not cower in fear, they fought back with courage. Amidst the heartache, the horror, and heroism of war, a man has continued to inspire his people and, in turn, imbibe their collective spirit - Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Updated
‘An anniversary we wish did not exist’: PM on Russia-Ukraine war
Before questions start, Anthony Albanese gives a speech about the coming second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Twenty-four February is an anniversary we wish did not exist, but it is one that this chamber should recognise.
Twenty-four February 2022 was the date of Russia’s illegal and immoral, full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
And after 24 February, it’s clear that this illegal war will enter its third year.
I do look forward to the day when this house can celebrate that Ukraine is at peace, the work of recovery and rebuilding is under way, and the process of justice is running its course.
Regrettably, today we instead acknowledge that Vladimir Putin’s invasion is about to enter its third brutal year. Australia strongly supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity – a position which has been taken by every member of this House.
And Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is, of course, a gross violation of international law.
Updated
Government announces further $50m in funding for Ukraine
Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong have announced another $50m in funding for Ukraine:
Ahead of the second anniversary of Russia’s brutal full-scale invasion, the Albanese Government will provide a $50 million grant to the International Fund for Ukraine, directly supporting the procurement of priority military capabilities.
The International Fund for Ukraine is administered by the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence. It uses international partners’ contributions to procure priority military equipment for Ukraine and ensure the continued supply of military support – lethal and non-lethal –through 2024 and beyond.
Australia remains steadfast in our commitment to support Ukraine and the Ukrainians who are defending their people, their territory, and their sovereignty. The contribution announced today will take Australia’s overall support to Ukraine to approximately $960 million, including $780 million in assistance for Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
In addition to Australia’s materiel and financial support, the Australian Defence Force continues to make an important contribution to multinational efforts in support of Ukraine under Operation Kudu. Australian personnel continue to train Ukrainian soldiers as part of an extended and expanded mission in the United Kingdom.
Updated
MPs are starting to file in for the final question time for a week.
Which means we are at the ‘prop’ stage of the 90-second statements. Today it’s Labor MP for Parramatta Andrew Charlton with an old ‘how to vote card’ distributed by the Liberals before the last election.
New taskforce to investigate asbestos mulch in Sydney
A new taskforce has been set up in New South Wales to support the Environment Protection Authority’s criminal investigation into the widespread use of mulch found to be contaminated with asbestos.
The government announced the taskforce shortly after the premier, Chris Minns, flagged that the mulch had potentially been used at hundreds of additional sites across Sydney.
The chair of the NSW Asbestos Coordination Committee, Carolyn Walsh, will lead the taskforce of senior representatives from several state government agencies and local councils.
The environment minister, Penny Sharpe, said the group would coordinate government agencies and assist in prioritising locations considered of highest risk to the public to ensure resources were available to secure and remediate sites.
Sharpe, who is addressing the media now, released a statement a short time ago in which she said:
This is the largest investigation the Environment Protection Authority has undertaken in recent decades.
The complex, criminal investigation involves multiple lines of inquiry.
Our number one priority is to finish contract tracing the supply chain – so that any potential receiver of the mulch is notified. That means we can take immediate action to make the area safe.
The taskforce will meet for the first time tomorrow.
Updated
LNP MP urges government not to sign agreements with global organisations
The LNP MP Terry Young has just used his statement to link Australia Day to freedoms to … not signing binding agreements with global organisations.
Like, for instance, with the UN.
Young:
Although we’re a part of a global community, we must protect Australia’s sovereignty no matter the price.
Organisations such as WHO, the World Health Organization, World Economic Forum, the United Nations and the like may have opinions and suggestions on how countries interact with each other on the global stage.
But deputy speaker that is all they should ever be. Suggestions.
We should never sign binding agreements or treaties with organisations such as these because Australia must always be governed by Australians .
Let us never take for granted the freedoms so many have fought for and the price paid for those freedoms.
Not sure if Young has noticed, but signing these agreements does not actually mean that the UN or other organisations can force Australia to do anything.
Updated
It is 90-second statement time in the house again which means we are hearing all about the tax cut changes from Labor MPs. Which we will also hear about during question time in dixers.
Hundreds of Sydney sites flagged in asbestos mulch fallout
Hundreds of sites across Sydney have been flagged as potentially having mulch contaminated with asbestos, according to the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns.
When asked why the NSW environment watchdog had not shut all parks and other developments where possibly contaminated mulch had been traced to, Minns said the resources needed would be too great.
He said:
I’m sorry to say but the truth of the matter is the number of properties can be very large right across Sydney. Not every place, not every project, park [contact traced] has tested positive to asbestos but to lock every single park up or school or hospital would be beyond our resources right now.
He confirmed hundreds of sites had been flagged by the Environment Protection Authority as part of the investigation so far.
Updated
‘I think you’re missing a teddy bear, Senator Ruston’: Malarndirri McCarthy
Back to Senate estimates for a moment, where the health department was asked this morning about its use of teddy bears to promote the federal government’s urgent care clinics.
The Liberal senator Anne Ruston asked how much the department had spent on teddy bears as part of promoting the clinics.
The department’s first assistant secretary, Rachel Balmanno, said it was around $4,000.
The secretary, Blair Comley, said he was “reluctant” to be drawn into the teddy bear discussion but said promotional campaigns required multiple channels.
The intention of the teddy bears is not that they’re given to children – that’s not the target audience – but they are given to local members et cetera with urgent care clinics.
Comley said the bears were designed to sit in local MP offices to highlight electorate awareness about urgent care clinics and to encourage their use over emergency departments where necessary.
Ruston questioned why constituents needing emergency care would be in their local MP’s office. Comley countered it’s about broader awareness.
The Northern Territory Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy, who is representing the health minister, interrupted Ruston:
I think you’re missing a teddy bear, Senator Ruston.
Ruston responded:
I may be. It may be because I’m missing a teddy bear, you just never know.
Updated
Question time in 45 minutes
It has been a pretty big day so far and we still have question time to go.
That will happen in about 45 minutes or so.
You can pretty much start the clock on the Dunkley byelection now too – the conservative group Advance, which was so effective during the referendum has been running a very effective ground campaign and Labor, even with the tax changes faces an uphill battle to retain it.
That contest is going to start playing out in the parliament in earnest.
Updated
Private $100m program retained just 500 teachers in a decade
Taxpayers have spent more than $100m for a private program that has retained just 500 teachers in more than a decade, Senate estimates has heard.
Data provided on notice shows that of people who began the Teach for Australia program, more than a third are no longer teaching and less than 18% are continuing in the school they started in.
The commonwealth has been the primary funder of the program since 2009, which aims to recruit high-achieving teachers into classrooms where teacher shortages are most acute.
The Greens senator and spokesperson for education, Penny Allman-Payne, said based on the numbers provided, roughly 500 teachers had remained teaching in schools in the entire time period.
You’ve got $100m going to a private company who’ve in return produced around 500 teachers. That’s over $100,000 of government money to get one teacher remaining in a school – is that an extraordinarily poor return on investment?”
In response to her questioning, a department spokesperson said while not all participants remained working as teachers, some had moved into other roles including the education department.
Allman-Payne:
Was that the goal of the program? To get more people working in the education department?”
The program is funded until at least 2026, with an evaluation under way into its success.
Updated
'I can do this all day': Queensland parliament heats up ahead of election later this year
Speaker Curtis Pitt has banished six opposition members from the chamber this morning, amid impassioned debate around youth crime.
The LNP members for Everton, Tim Mander, Mudgeeraba MP Ros Bates, Nanango MP Deb Frecklington, Currumbin MP Laura Gerber, Ninderry MP Dan Purdie and Buderim MP Brent Mickelberg have all been removed from the chamber for an hour for interjections during question time.
Pitt told Gerber, the opposition spokesperson for youth justice:
I can do this all day.
He later said the MPs were removed from the chamber after all being warned about interjecting inappropriately.
Question time started late on Thursday due to a condolence motion for the former Nationals MP Neville Harper, and the volume in the room quickly became a touch louder than normal.
That problem is rapidly resolving itself, with the LNP now left with just 28 of their elected 34 representatives.
Updated
Mehreen Faruqi says Labor must ‘immediately lift the suspension of UNRWA funding’
Daniel Hurst reported on the exchanges between the Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi and Penny Wong in estimates over the suspension of Australia’s additional $6m in humanitarian funding to Unrwa.
Faruqi has made her thoughts clear on Wong’s responses to her questions, in a statement:
Three weeks after suspending UNRWA’s funding the Labor government still does not have a shred of evidence on Israel’s allegations. This smacks of a political decision to cut off life saving aid to Palestinians in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.
It is unbelievable that the Minister thought no evidence or even a call to UNRWA, at the bare minimum, was necessary before jumping to suspend aid funding while Palestinians are being bombed, killed and starved.
Faruqi says Labor must “immediately lift the suspension of UNRWA funding”.
Updated
‘Australia, Canada, and New Zealand remain steadfast in their commitment to a two-state solution’
The statement continues:
An immediate humanitarian ceasefire is urgently needed. Hostages must be released. The need for humanitarian assistance in Gaza has never been greater. Rapid, safe and unimpeded humanitarian relief must be provided to civilians. The International Court of Justice has been clear: Israel must ensure the delivery of basic services and essential humanitarian assistance and must protect civilians. The Court’s decisions on provisional measures are binding.
We are clear that a sustainable ceasefire is necessary to finding a path towards securing lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians. Any ceasefire cannot be one sided. Hamas must lay down its arms and release all hostages immediately. We again unequivocally condemn Hamas for its terror attacks on Israel on October 7.
Ultimately, a negotiated political solution is needed to achieve lasting peace and security. Australia, Canada, and New Zealand remain steadfast in their commitment to a two-state solution, including the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, where Palestinians and Israelis live side by side in peace, security, and dignity.
Updated
PMs of Australia, Canada and NZ ‘gravely concerned’ about Israeli plans in Rafah
Anthony Albanese has issued a statement with his counterparts in Canada and New Zealand on Israeli’s planned ground assault in Rafah.
We are gravely concerned by indications that Israel is planning a ground offensive into Rafah. A military operation into Rafah would be catastrophic. About 1.5 million Palestinians are taking refuge in the area, including many of our citizens and their families. With the humanitarian situation in Gaza already dire, the impacts on Palestinian civilians from an expanded military operation would be devastating. We urge the Israeli government not to go down this path. There is simply nowhere else for civilians to go.
There is growing international consensus. Israel must listen to its friends and it must listen to the international community. The protection of civilians is paramount and a requirement under international humanitarian law. Palestinian civilians cannot be made to pay the price of defeating Hamas.
(continued in next post)
Updated
NSW unemployment rises to national average of 4.1%
New South Wales has long been a national jobs machine but the state that accounts for about a third of the economy is dropping back to the pack.
Its seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.1% last month, matching the national average. Six months ago, NSW boasted a 3.4% jobless rate, compared with 3.7% for Australia overall (and it was at 3.3% last March when the Minns Labor government ended 12 years of Coalition rule).
Among the states and territories, Victoria and the Northern Territory have the lowest unemployment rate at 3.9%, both down from December’s rate. (Six months ago, Victoria’s rate was 3.6% and the NT’s 3.9%.)
The economy in Tasmania will probably feature prominently when voters in that state go to the polls on 23 March. The island state’s jobless rate jumped from 3.6% in December to 4.5% last month.
The change might make for slightly awkward timing for the Liberal premier, Jeremy Rockliff, although the numbers can be volatile. Six months ago, Tassie’s jobless rate was 4.7%.
Queensland, which is also going to the polls later this year, has seen its unemployment rate edge lower. Back in July, for instance, it was 4.5% and as of January it’s eased back to 4.2%.
Updated
There has been a lot of interest in Penny Wong’s comments about Israel’s planned ground assault of Rafah, where 1.5m displaced Gazans have been forced to flee and about Australia’s pause in sending an addition $6m in humanitarian aid to Unrwa.
Here is some of what she said this morning:
‘It’s not a simple exercise’: aged care report remains unseen
Officials from the health department are up today in Senate estimates and we’re getting a non-update on the status of the aged care taskforce report.
The deputy secretary, Michael Lye, said the final report was handed to government just before Christmas and said its release date is a matter for the government.
The matters for consideration with the taskforce were kind of complex in nature so our view is that to properly analyse that and respond, it’s not a simple exercise, it’s not a quick exercise.
The taskforce considered ways to make the aged care sector more sustainable and equitable after the minister, Anika Wells, declared “the baby boomers are coming”.
A Medicare-style levy or ring-fencing super contributions to pay for aged care are some of the proposals put forward.
The Liberal senator Anne Ruston has said she’s been told by those in the sector they feel uncertain about the potential changes they face.
Lye said he held a more optimistic view:
They understand that the taskforce has been an opportunity to deal with a set of structural issues that are very longstanding. And I think they have faith … that there’s a genuine interest in trying to address those remaining structural issues, which are kind of – particularly in residential care – are barriers to viability.
Updated
States must be told federal government won’t allow them to artifially inflation school funding, AEU says
The Australian Education Union (AEU) has weighed in on revelations in Senate estimates today that the federal government may continue to allow states to artifically inflate school funding shares in the next agreement.
Prior to the election, then-shadow education minister Tanya Plibersek said Labor would remove the loophole that permits states and territories to claim non-school expenditures on items like bus passes as part of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS).
AEU president Correna Haythorpe says assistant minister for education Anthony Chisholm’s statements suggesting the 4% inflation of figures was a matter for negotiations with state and territory governments are “concerning” given the party’s “clear position in the past on this issue”.
They also raise real questions about the WA statement of intent on school funding recently announced. The WA government clearly stated that it believes the 4% inflation of the SRS is going to be allowed in the new agreement.
They need to be told that is not the case.”
Updated
‘We enter this period of economic uncertainty from a position of genuine strength’: Chalmers
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has started his victory lap on the stage-three tax cuts passing the house of representatives, but he has also spoken about the unemployment figures, which show an increase from 3.9% to 4.1%.
What we’re seeing in these figures is that the market continues to soften in expected ways. We have seen our labour market has been weakening but it has been weakening from a quite incredibly strong and resilient base.
In the 46 years now since these monthly records were first kept there has only been one calendar year where every month of the calendar year has had unemployment south of 4% and that was the year just finished.
So we enter this period of economic uncertainty from a position of genuine strength and the labour market is a big part of that story.
Updated
‘Pandering’ to cost-of-living concerns poor tax policy, ex Treasury chief says
Former treasury secretary Ken Henry, who was the last person to do a review of the entire Australian tax system (the 2009 Henry review) has spoken to the ABC about the current tax system.
He sounds pretty despairing to be honest.
We’re in a worse position now than we were 15 years ago when we were writing the review,” Dr Henry told the ABC.
It’s an intergenerational tragedy that we have allowed this to happen.”
And on the stage-three tax cut changes?
You do not do tax reform based on pandering to people’s concerns about immediate cost-of-living pressure.
You should be worried about the cost of living pressure in five years, 10 years, 20 years — the poor bastards who are going to have to pick up the bloody cost of all of our stuffing around, and some of those are not yet born.”
Updated
Government’s school education funding mantra
If you feel like hearing the same thing over and over again, tune in to education estimates. The Greens are continuing to question Labor on government school funding - which languishes below 100% for the vast majority of public schools and above it for the majority of privates.
Asked whether it seemed fair that public funding was being distributed to Australia’s wealthiest schools, assistant minister for education, Senator Anthony Chisholm repeats the government is in the process of negotiating the new funding agreement this year.
According to Save our Schools, hundreds of private schools, in places where the median family income is in excess of $209,00, are expected to receive $1.3bn above the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) to 2029 – the level agreed to by governments to provide a baseline education.
Chisholm has now said an iteration of “we’re going through negotiations with the states and territories” about a dozen times.
It is important all schools are funded appropriately - that’s why the next agreement is so important ... some people are making enormous sacrifices [to send their children to private schools] and those schools deserve support as well.”
Updated
What do latest job figures really mean?
The jobs figures need a bit of nuance because recent surveys, including NAB’s this week, point to the labour market remaining tight and job adverts have also been ticking higher.
And as the ABS notes, more people are tending to work less in January than during pre-Covid times, sending the seasonal adjustments a bit awry.
Hours worked in January fell by 49m, for instance, continuing a trend downwards since mid last year.
Since October 2023, the annual growth rate in hours worked has slowed considerably, down to 0.7% in January 2024, and well below the annual employment growth of 2.6%,” ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis says.
The jobs story looks like more people working but hours worked falling. pic.twitter.com/xcZvfqAtL5
— @phannam@mastodon.green (@p_hannam) February 15, 2024
The RBA has also said it expect employers to hold on to their employees if they can, trimming their hours if demand sags. That’s why they’re not expecting the jobless rate to climb above 4.5% even with the economy barely growing (and declining in per capita terms).
The markets viewed today’s figures as being on the weak side, reducing on the margins the chances of another interest rate rise (and making a rate soon a bit more likely).
The Australian dollar was down about 0.1 US cents to 64.9 US cents and the ASX 200 share index extended its gains for the day by about 0.1 percentage points to 0.9%. (Lower interest rates make it less attractive to hold the Aussie dollar while also making it cheaper for firms to borrow, hence those reactions.)
Updated
Queensland anti-corruption body to be reviewed
The Queensland government has commissioned former chief justice Catherine Holmes to conduct a “short, sharp” review into the powers of Queensland’s anti-corruption body.
The High Court last year blocked the Crime and Corruption Commission from releasing reports into former deputy premier Jackie Trad and public trustee Peter Carne. The inquiries made no criminal findings.
In September, CCC chairperson Bruce Barbour urged the government to introduce “urgent” legislation to reverse the decision. The body had long released reports through Queensland parliament, and he said the ban “reduces transparency and is clearly not in the public interest”.
Attorney-general Yvette D’Ath told parliament the government plans to legislate to overturn the High Court decision.
D’Ath told parliament the former jurist’s inquiry will “ensure that any legislative amendments strike the proper balance between the rights of the individual” and the public interest.
The recommendations, due by May, will be considered by cabinet and then “released in full”.
Holmes served as chief justice of the Queensland Supreme Court between 2015 and 2022, the first woman appointed to the position of senior jurist in any Australian state. She later led the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme.
Updated
Status quo failing, two-state solution still needed, Wong says
At Senate estimates, Penny Wong says her recent visit to the Middle East had reinforced her long-held view that a two-state solution is necessary, for both Israelis and Palestinians:
We will not see Israel have the security that it is entitled to, nor the Palestinian people fulfil their aspirations for peace and security, unless there is a two-state solution.
The foreign minister says the US and the UK are both talking about the role recognition of Palestinian statehood might play in a peace process. She says:
Obviously, there are 130-odd countries that already recognise Palestine. Those of us that don’t, I think, were generally seeing recognition as the end of the process. I think what particularly [UK] foreign secretary [David] Cameron is raising is considering what role recognition might play in bringing forward or locking in progress towards a two-state solution ...
I think the comments by [US] secretary [of state Antony] Blinken reference the first point I was making, which is, the importance of an independent state of Palestine for the overall security of the region, particularly Israel. Israel’s goal, legitimate goal, of normalising relations with countries of the region won’t be fully realised without a Palestinian state. We’ve seen that in comments from the Saudis, for example, so that’s the context of the discussion which is really about parties trying to [discern] how it is we can collectively give impetus towards that pathway to peace.
Asked by Labor senator Nita Green what that means for Australia’s position, Wong says:
I’ve always said that when considering the issue of recognition, we would be guided by the principle of advancing the cause of peace and progress towards a two-state solution and that was what I said before this conflict and it is only reaffirmed in my view.
I think the status quo is failing everyone. And as I said, I don’t think there is a lasting peace unless this issue is resolved. This is a discussion about what is the pathway to peace that is viable and ... the question is: how can recognition contribute to achieving real progress. I think it is a discussion we are engaged in in line with the issues that Secretary Blinken and Foreign Secretary Cameron have outlined.
Wong reiterates that Hamas could have “no future role in the governance of Gaza”.
Asked how Australia’s position “sits with recent comments by the Israeli prime minister opposing a two-state solution”, Wong repeatd her belief “that ultimately a two-state solution is the way in which we can see security for Israel, security for the Palestinian people and peace in the region”.
Updated
Economics 101: relatively low unemployment may have encouraged people to join labour force
Just as a refresher, for those wondering how jobs can be added to the economy but unemployment can still increase, remember that the unemployment rate is all about the size of the labour force.
It is calculated by taking Australia’s working age population and then dividing it between those in
the labour force and not in the labour force.
If you are in the labour force, you are either employed, or actively looking for work. So, you are divided into two categories – employed and unemployed.
If you are not in the labour force, it means you are not looking for work. This can include people who have retired, but it can also be people who have given up looking for work.
So you can add jobs to the economy, but people who were not in the labour force may be encouraged to look for work – adding them in the unemployed category. And if the size of the labour force increases because of things like migration, that can also affect the numbers.
Updated
First time in two years Australian unemployment rate above 4%
Economists had expected the economy to have added 25,000 jobs last month and for the jobless rate to edge higher to 4%. Some of the January increase, though, was due to rounding, with the increase about 0.1 percentage points from December, the ABS said.
“This was the first time in two years, since January 2022, that the unemployment rate had been above 4%,” Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, said.
Part of the increase in the jobless rate was because more people started to look for work at the start of the year, although the participation rate remained unchanged from December at 66.8%.
Updated
Australian unemployment rises to 4.1% in January
The unemployment rate jumped to 4.1% in January with the economy barely adding any jobs for the month.
Employers added 11,100 full-time positions and shed 10,600 part-time roles, well short of the 30,000 or more new entrants to the labour market each month.
Updated
There’s nothing like an impending wedding to lighten the mood
Mike Bowers was in the chamber for the final stage-three vote in the house of reps, which looks like it provided an opportunity for Anthony Albanese to show off the engagement photos from last night.
Updated
Some companies are ‘probably’ price gouging, RBA’s Bullock says
The RBA governor Michele Bullock has conceded some companies were likely to be using the cover of inflation to “price gouge” customers.
Bullock tells senate estimates that from an aggregate level, “there’s not evidence of wholesale increasing margins across the board”, particularly once mining companies are excluded from the surveys.
However, she agrees with Greens senator Nick McKim that “yes, absolutely, within that [aggregate] there’s going to be different experiences and I think there are probably examples” where firms have used their market power to push up prices.
I think that’s what people are using to define price gouging,” she says.
Bullock, though, has declined to be drawn on particular sectors where that market power is being flexed. The dominance of the supermarket industry by two big players - Woolworths and Coles - is something for the ACCC to examine, she says.
I wouldn’t like to express a view on that,” Bullock says.
Updated
Labor’s stage-three tax changes pass the house of representatives
The legislation will head off to the senate when it resumes sitting at the end of the month.
There were a few attempts at amendments by the Greens and the Coalition, but all of them failed. As expected though, the legislation sailed through.
Updated
Government grappling with how to resolve Unrwa funding issue
The government appears to be in a holding pattern when it comes to precisely when it can reinstate funding to Unrwa, but Penny Wong says she wants to resolve it “as quickly as possible”.
The foreign minister told the Senate estimates hearing that her “first duty as a minister of the crown is to make a judgment about whether I can continue to fund an organisation when such serious allegations have been not only raised but also countenanced and action taken by the organisation itself”.
Wong says:
I’m a supporter of development assistance, I have argued long and hard for additional aid in the budget, and the government has provided additional development assistance in our budgets. If I am going to continue to do that, including to seek to provide further funding to Unrwa and others in the region, then I have to be able to say to this committee, to the parliament, to the Australian people that I have confidence in the organisations and their processes that we are funding. That is my duty.
Wong tells the Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, who asked about the risk of Unrwa’s operations collapsing by the end of February:
Now, like you, I am worried. I would make the point to you we have already provided our core funding for this financial year. I know other partners are considering their core funding for this financial year. The $6m from Australia is not the critical amount. And many other partners suspended their funding for the same reason.
Wong says she had spoken to UNRWA and partners and “there is a lot of action being taken to try and resolve this matter as quickly as possible”.
Updated
Wong continues to defend government’s position on UNRWA funding
(Continued from last post):
Penny Wong is at pains to say that the $6m in funds to UNRWA that Australia has paused are top-up funds announced in mid-January, and that the $20m in annual core funding had already been distributed for the 2023-24 financial year.
Wong tells the Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi:
It would be nice, at some point, senator, if you could acknowledge that this Labor government has doubled funding to UNRWA. As yet, I have never heard you say that.
Faruqi:
The $20m that you say you have funded UNRAW - if you need my approval to do that or my appreciation to you for doing that, sure, great, but $20m was the funding that the government gave UNRAW in 2014. So [that was what it was] 10 years ago and you brought it back, so in real terms the funding is still less than what it used to be 10 years ago. And basically when people are starving, when there is this genocide that Israel is committing against Palestinians, we need to give more funding, not suspend it, not bring it back to what it was 10 years ago.
Wong:
I would like us, Australia, to be in the position to have the confidence to provide additional funding including through UNRAW, because I have no doubt that the humanitarian need is dire. You have heard me in the Senate, in answer to questions from the Coalition, say that 400,000 people are starving, a million people on the brink of starvation … so this is why we have increased the core funding, this is why I announced the additional funding …
Senator, I hope you would see that we are trying to help. But you ask the question about irresponsibility. I don’t think the person in this position can reasonably say to the Australian people: ‘I have been confronted with or informed of allegations of participation in a heinous terrorist attack including by employees of an organisation and simply continue to fund without gaining insurance’. I don’t think that is responsible. I wish that we were in a different position and I hope that the international community can, through these processes, be given the confidence to continue to support UNRAW. That is my position. I know it is not the Coalition’s position.*
* The Coalition has suggested that funding should be channelled through different agencies.
Updated
Australia has asked Israel to share ‘evidence’ Unrwa staff were involved in 7 October attack
Back in Senate estimates, the Greens’ deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, has been questioning Penny Wong over the freezing of $6m in top-up funding to UNRWA (announced in mid-January) following allegations that as many as 12 staff members may have been involved in the 7 October Hamas-led attack.
Faruqi told the hearing it had been widely reported that a “so-called dossier” prepared by Israel contained no evidence to back up the claims. She asked the foreign minister:
Do you have the dossier - have you seen it?
Wong replied:
No, I do not and I have asked Israel through my officials for the information on which they were relying when that story appeared in the international media and I would hope that the Israeli government would ensure that its friends and partners were provided with that information.
Asked whether that information had been provided to her, Wong said: “Not as yet.”
Faruqi told the committee:
You made a decision on suspending funding without a single piece of evidence of the claims that Israel has made … Don’t you think it is irresponsible for a government to suspend funding for a main UN agency [when] you have yourself said that reports from the UN say that 400,000 Palestinians in Gaza are starving and a million are at risk of starvation. Is it not irresponsible to just suspend funding without even talking to the chief of the agency, without having a shred of evidence?
Is this how you make decisions, without any evidence, without speaking to the people who are being impacted? That is highly irresponsible and reckless, and is this a pattern of how your decisions are made?
Wong says she does not agree “with your multiple characterisations”.
Wong says the head of Unrwa “sacked a number of his staff, he put out a statement which, to my recollection, said serious allegations [were] to be investigated, to be considered by Unrwa, so I would say to you Unrwa itself demonstrated concern about the actions”.
Updated
Network Ten staff await news of job cuts
Not politics, but note worthy: staff at Network Ten will find out today if they have been made redundant, following company-wide cuts of 3% by parent company Paramount Global.
The chief executive officer and president of international markets, Pam Kaufman, has confirmed the cost-cutting will include Australian staff at Ten, which is owned by Paramount ANZ.
Unfortunately, this includes parting ways with some of our respected colleagues across the Australian business, who will be notified by close of business today,” Kaufman said in a memo on Thursday.
These decisions are never easy. I know the changes will be felt across the region, and I encourage you to support one another as we navigate this next phase of our evolution.”
Updated
Albanese government must press on with Indigenous treaty, GetUp says
GetUp has lashed the federal government for effectively walking away from its treaty promise, with the Albanese government pointing to it being something the states are doing.
The organisation’s CEO Larissa Baldwin-Roberts says:
After another year of failed outcomes in the Closing the Gap report, what is clear is that it’s time to do something new and the Albanese government needs to articulate their plan for a federal treaty process.
First Nations affairs have been weaponised in our politics, Labor committed to a truth-telling and treaty process and we will hold the government accountable to their election promise for treaty and truth-telling.
We know 6 million people voted for First Nations justice, for change in the referendum through a yes vote. We won’t walk away from a treaty - something our communities have been fighting for, for decades.”
Updated
Opposition targets federal funding of state education in Senate estimates
Over in education estimates, Greens Senator and spokesperson for schools Penny Allman-Payne is struggling to pin Labor down on school funding - which is on the agenda this year as ministers negotiate the next agreement.
Education experts have blasted a deal reached between the Commonwealth and the Western Australian government to get to 100% of full funding as a “deliberate lie” because it allows state governments to continue to use a depreciation tax – and that allows them to claim about 4% of funding on non-school expenditures, such as transport and capital depreciation.
Asked whether the government will rule out the depreciation tax in the next funding agreement, assistant minister for education, Senator Anthony Chisholm, says the current agreement was put in place by the previous government.
We’re obviously in the process of negotiating new agreements over the course of this year.”
Allman-Payne continues:
You’re not ruling out allowing states to include 4% for things like capital depreciation? Which I would argue as a classroom teacher makes no difference at all to what goes on in my classroom.”
Chisholm repeats: “we’re in the process of negotiating a new agreement,” to which Allman-Payne replies: “I’m going to take that as a ‘no’.”
Chisholm:
Well ... ”
Updated
Like school children out of sight of the teacher …
The MPs are moving around the chamber for a division, which gives the opportunity for a chat and some sledging (mostly) away from the ears of speaker Milton Dick.
Someone is loudly proclaiming that someone should have “at least done your hair” before going on TV this morning, to which someone else answers “Angus [Taylor] should have done it” because this is what passes for humour when no one tells the student politicians they aren’t funny, and they carry that false confidence into parliaments all over Australia.
Updated
2021 promise of no rate rise until 2024 was ‘always caveated’, Bullock says
Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock is before senate estimates this morning, saying, among other things, that she doesn’t think the RBA’s rate rise in November was a mistake. (It would be big news if she did.)
Another issue being probed, by NSW Liberal senator, Andrew Bragg, is the central bank’s “forward guidance”, or projections made during the Covid period and since dropped. Of course, the most notorious guidance was given by Bullock’s predecessor Philip Lowe, in late 2021 that interest rates were unlikely to rise until 2024.
Bullock has come to Lowe’s defence, reminding people that the RBA at the time had qualified the guidance by saying the bank wouldn’t move until inflation was “sustainably” within its target band of 2%-3%.
It was always conditional, it was always caveated,” she said, adding the message was “very, very clear in my view”.
Bullock said if “the media, whoever” did not include Lowe’s (and the RBA’s) caveats, that was “unhelpful”.
Many people who took out big mortgages at the time, and then were hit by the biggest rise in interest rates in about 30 years might query the emphasis put on the caveats at the time.
The RBA being big consumers of the media and monitoring market behaviour had opportunities to intervene to make sure the conditions that might trigger a rate rise were better understood. Perhaps having a revamped media team to help communications might avoid a repeat of messages not cutting through.
Speaking of the economy, Bullock said the bank thinks Australia is relatively well-placed. “We think we’re in a good position to get inflation down in a reasonable amount of time while still keeping employment growing,” she said.
We’ll get ABS figures on the labour market in January at 11.30am aedt, so we’ll get an update on how employment is going. The market expects the economy added a net 25,000 jobs last month, a figure that won’t be enough to stop the jobless rate ticking up to 4%.
We’ll find out soon enough.
‘It’s just appalling’: Shadow education minister fumes about public service dining ‘rorts’
The department of education has provided a dollar figure for the amount spent by public servants to hold meetings in prestigious restaurants. The total was $12,637.31 in a six month period, with an average cost per person of $81.53.
Among the expenditures were $1,840 at Ginger Indian Restaurant in Sydney, $509 at Black Fire Restaurant in Brisbane, $3,000 at Mabu Mabu in Melbourne and $1,543 at Mezzalira Restaurant in Canberra - at an average cost of $171 per head.
Photograph: Nils Jorgensen/REX/Shutterstock
Shadow minister for education Senator Sarah Henderson is outraged.
This is extraordinary ... these are [departmental] meetings … it’s just appalling … these are just restaurant rorts.”
Secretary of the department Tony Cook says the pair are in “furious agreement”.
I agree with you entirely, it should not have happened, we should not have been utilising taxpayers’ money in those sort of expenses.”
Assistant minister for education, Senator Anthony Chisholm weighs in:
It’s not unusual, from time to time, for politicians to have spent money.”
Updated
Peter Dutton has responded to the news of Anthony Albanese’s engagement.
Dutton told 2GB Radio:
Yes of course [I would wish them the best]. I just saw the PM in the chamber and shook his hand. Jodie [Haydon’s] a lovely person. I wish them every happiness. It’s obviously a special relationship that they’ve got. I wish them every success.”
Anthony Albanese is speaking on the stage three tax cut changes during the consideration in detail debate.
He opens with it being “a great day” in reference to his engagement news, but then moves on to “for so many reasons” because “this is the day in which every Australian will get a tax cut”.
Unrwa must demonstrate transparency, accountability, Wong says
(continued from previous post)
Penny Wong went on:
Australia is now working with a number of other major contributors to make clear to Unrwa it needs to demonstrate strong, transparent and accountable leadership for the international community to move forward together.
While this work is being done, Australia and 14 other countries including Canada, Japan, the Netherlands and Sweden are temporarily pausing funding.
For Australia, this means the recently announced $6m in additional funding for Unrwa has been temporarily paused.
I want to emphasise, this does not affect Australia’s annual core funding of $20.6m – core funding that was doubled by this government, and which has already been provided for this financial year.
Since the beginning of this conflict Australia has committed $46.5 m in humanitarian assistance. This full amount will be delivered.
(That means the government is still seeking assurances that would allow the unfreezing of the $6m to Unrwa, but the government won’t cut overall humanitarian funding to the region)
Updated
Unrwa work ‘life-saving’ but allegations regarding Hamas can’t be ignored, Wong says
In addressing the foreign affairs estimates hearing, Penny Wong delivered an opening statement where she spoke about the decision to pause $6m in additional funding to Unrwa:
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is dire and getting worse.
The linchpin of humanitarian support there is Unrwa. It does life-saving work. However, the recent allegations against UNRWA staff are serious and can’t be ignored.
UNRWA’s life-saving work is why Australian governments – of both stripes – have provided funding to UNRWA since 1951.
Right now, nearly 1.7 million Palestinians are sheltering in Unrwa facilities, and thousands of its staff are involved in the humanitarian response in Gaza.
The need for this critical work to continue is why Australia welcomed Unrwa’s swift response to recent allegations, including terminating staff and launching an investigation and a broader independent review.
(continued in next post)
Updated
Vigil to be held in Melbourne on Friday for murdered Manus Island refugee Reza Barati
A vigil will be held tomorrow at the Victorian state library to commemorate ten years since Reza Barati was murdered at the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea.
Barati was 23 when he was beaten to death by guards and other contractors during a violent rampage inside the Australian-run offshore detention centre in February 2014. His assailants attacked him with a length of timber spiked with nails, repeatedly kicked and punched him once he had fallen and dropped a large rock on his head.
The Refugee Action Collective Vic will hold a vigil from 6 to 7pm remembering Barati and other refugees held in Australia’s offshore detention system.
The group is also calling for the 50 people who remain stranded in PNG to be evacuated.
Updated
‘So lucky to have found each other’: PM and partner’s Valentine
As you’re probably now very aware, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, announced his engagement to partner, Jodie Haydon, this morning. We’ve now got some more details on just how it happened.
The two shared a Valentine’s Day dinner on Wednesday night at Italian & Sons in Canberra’s inner north. Later on, after returning to the Lodge, Albanese popped the question to Haydon.
Photograph: Andy Wong/AP
Guardian Australia understands Albanese specially designed the engagement ring.
The newly-engaged couple released this joint statement:
We are thrilled and excited to share this news and look forward to spending the rest of our lives together. We are so lucky to have found each other.
Updated
Be careful whose social media handle you link to
Labor MPs have been congratulating the prime minister and Jodie Haydon on social media. And some, like Justine Elliot, have been congratulating the Italian porn artist who holds the handle @albo. Tricky, that.
LOVE LOVE LOVE! Congratulations @albo and Jodie 💍💍💍 https://t.co/UxPJkkGUNh
— Justine Elliot, your local Labor MP (@JElliotMP) February 14, 2024
Updated
Wedding bells and political firsts for Albanese
For the political buffs out there, or just in case it helps with Wednesday night trivia, Anthony Albanese is Australia’s first divorced prime minister and looks set to become the first person to get married while serving as prime minister as well.
Henry 'The Fonz' Winkler reacts live to the news that PM @albomp is engaged to his partner Jodie Haydon. #RNBreakfast pic.twitter.com/aWSX7rxKWN
— ABC News (@abcnews) February 14, 2024
Updated
‘Far more work to be done’ to clean up rules regulating mulch production, NSW minister says
The New South Wales environment minister, Penny Shape, has acknowledged shortfalls in the system regulating mulch production as Sydney’s asbestos crisis deepens.
Speaking with the ABC, Sharpe says:
It’s been a long time coming in terms of the need to clean it up and there’s been some good work over the last decade or so … but what this has exposed is [that] there’s far more to be done.
She said there was “obviously a gap in the regulation” that would need to be dealt with once the environment watchdog’s investigation was finalised.
The government would look at increased penalties and changes to testing regimes and the way materials are traced through the system.
She said:
It is very concerning that asbestos is turning up in these products. We need to get to the bottom of where it has come from and how it has gotten there. We need to make sure that it doesn’t continue.
Updated
No ‘credible, executable plan’ to protect Rafah civilians has yet emerged, Wong says
Coalition senator Simon Birmingham asks for clarity on what limits the Australian government is seeking, or caveats it has in mind, when it tells Israel regarding Rafah: “do not go down this path”.
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, says Australia is reflecting the concerns of many in the international community. Wong reads out stark and similar quotes from Australia’s closest allies and partners including the US, the UK and Germany.
Birmingham wants to know whether Australia is calling for no military activities in Rafah, or adopting the Joe Biden formulation of urging Israel to not proceed unless credible plans are presented to protect civilians.
Wong says her comments are “consistent with the principles of international law and international humanitarian law”. She says she intends to be “careful” in her language, given her position as foreign minister. Wong says she does not believe the international community has yet seen a credible and executable plan to protect more than one million civilians in Rafah.
Birmingham refers to the recent rescue of two hostages by Israel in Rafah and asks:
How does your statement sit or do you wish to have it viewed in relation to operations or activities to secure the release of hostages who are still held by Hamas?
Wong replies:
We have been calling for the release of hostages since the commencement of this conflict.
The government reiterates that it does not believe there is any place for Hamas in the governance of Gaza after the conflict.
Updated
Unemployment figures for January to be released today
The ABS will send out its report at 11.30 (AEDT).
Most economists expect the unemployment figure to rise, and continue to rise over 2024.
Updated
Public servants should be satisfied with ‘tea and a biscuit’, not fine dining, opposition says
The Department of Education has revised its hospitality policy following revelations public servants were spending taxpayer money to hold meetings in fine dining restaurants, including a bill exceeding $1,200 in Canberra one-hat restaurant Courgette.
The expenditure, first revealed in questions on notice from a budget estimates hearing and later publicised by the Daily Telegraph, totalled $172,691 on events and catering in the first half of last year and $118,404 on accommodation and travel costs.
Shadow minister for education senator Sarah Henderson told senate estimates holding meetings in restaurants was a “complete rort of taxpayers’ money” and meetings should take place with “tea and a biscuit”.
Secretary of the department Tony Cook agreed with Henderson, adding “I think we have let the taxpayers down”.
He said he had spoken with the minister for education, Jason Clare following the publication of the article and the department’s hospitality policy had been revised placing a maximum rate of $77 for expenditures, in line with the Australian Tax Office.
Updated
Penny Wong denounces Israel's planned ground offensive in Rafah
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has strengthened the Australian government’s objections to a potential Israeli ground offensive in Rafah. She has told Senate estimates:
I wish to restate the Australian government’s grave concerns about an impending major Israeli ground offensive in Rafah.
This would bring further devastation to more than a million civilians seeking shelter.
Large scale military operations in densely populated areas risk extensive civilian casualties.
Australia believes this would be unjustifiable.
Our message to Israel is: listen to the world; do not go down this path
Updated
Australia ready to work closely with next Indonesian president, Wong says
Penny Wong opens DFAT Senate estimates:
I wish to congratulate Indonesia on the successful conduct of its election yesterday. The formal count is continuing, but early results indicate that Prabowo Subianto is well ahead. Whoever the Indonesian people have chosen, we look forward to working closely with the next president, when he is inaugurated.
Photograph: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters
Wong also reiterates her statements from last week that “we’re all appalled and outraged by the suspended death sentence” handed to Australian citizen Dr Yang Hengjun.
She says the Australian government has conveyed its objections to the Chinese government at senior levels and will continue with its advocacy.
Updated
Government ad campaign joins ‘long list’ of ways to waste taxpayer money, Angus Taylor says
Angus Taylor is a happy man this morning. He got to speak to Sydney radio 2GB about the $40m Labor will spend advertising the stage-three tax changes.
The tax changes the Coalition is voting for; which they now apparently have a problem with in terms of how they are being funded. Which was not a problem when the tax cuts benefited people earning more than $180,000. But is now a problem, apparently.
Our problem isn’t with delivering lower taxes. We want to deliver lower taxes to Australians. It’s the way it’s being funded. And it’s being funded by Australians. It’ll be 4 million over the coming years who’ve got to pay for Albo’s broken promise. And he knows people hate broken promises. So he’s going to spend $40m trying to explain it to people.
Well, this is now becoming a long list of initiatives they’ve taken that are wasting money, Ben, wasting taxpayers’ money, hard-earned money. And I know how hard small businesses and employees out there are working to earn their income and pay their taxes.
We’ve seen $450m on a failed referendum. We’ve seen $209bn of extra spending. That’s $20,000 for every household since Labor came to power. We’ve seen grants going to the CFMEU, we’re seeing environmental activists getting funded at the EDO. You know, the list goes on.
And frankly, it’s time, in a cost-of-living crisis, that this government started to use taxpayers’ money with far more caution, because it is truly hard earned.
Updated
PM announces engagement
Anthony Albanese has announced his engagement to partner Jodie Haydon.
She said yes ❤️ pic.twitter.com/aU1Mk2WInH
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) February 14, 2024
Updated
Concerns raised about Australia’s Tuvalu climate deal after island nation’s election
Also worth keeping an eye on is this issue Daniel Hurst has covered:
A senior Australian intelligence chief has acknowledged a landmark climate and security deal with Tuvalu may be at risk after the Pacific nation’s election.
Photograph: Sam Pedro/AFP/Getty Images
Andrew Shearer, who leads the government’s Office of National Intelligence (ONI), said his agency was “obviously aware of recent political change and turbulence in Tuvalu”.
But he cautioned that he could not yet predict the fate of the deal because ONI was not part of the negotiations between the two countries.
Updated
Foreign affairs department to appear before estimates
The department of foreign affairs is in front of estimates today where the Unrwa funding suspension will no doubt be examined from all sides of the political divide.
Also on the list of hearings, economics, education and community affairs, which will focus on aged care and the government’s urgent care clinic roll out.
Updated
Husic keen for Unrwa funding to resume as soon as possible
Ed Husic then used what has been the most pointed language to date from an Albanese cabinet minister when it comes to Australia’s suspension of funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa).
Australia has paused an additional contribution of $6m it had committed to Unrwa after Israel made allegations Unrwa staff had been involved in the 7 October Hamas attack. Last week, foreign minister Penny Wong admitted Australia did not have “all the facts” about the allegations.
Asked when Australia would restore the funding, Husic said:
I’m very keen and I think you’ve seen the foreign minister express a keenness, for this to happen as quickly as possible. In terms of Unrwa, they are the principal mechanism by which humanitarian aid is delivered into this part of the world and they have had their funds suspended.
So that means there is no one else that is able credibly, to extend humanitarian assistance in an area, as I’ve said, where there’s no sanitation, food, water medicine, and we need to get that moving as quickly as possible.
Husic stuck to the line and said that he understood “the concerns are legitimate and real that there may have been workers in that agency that assisted Hamas undertake its brutal activities on 7 October. And so that is a very serious allegation” and he would want anyone found to have done that to be held to account.
And as soon as those [investigations] are done the better because we do need to have that humanitarian assistance flowing and … while Israel has been very successful, obviously, in getting countries to take that issue seriously and you’ve seen that defunding occur, I think the Israeli government’s got a responsibility to, in that case, to step in and provide humanitarian assistance or allow that assistance, I should say, to flow in there while these other matters are being resolved.
And I think there is a focus and determination, particularly within our government to get this resolved as quickly as we can, and I’m certainly one of those voices expressing the need for that to occur.
Updated
Israel appears to be ignoring international opinion, Husic says
Does Ed Husic believe Israel is ignoring international opinion and advice from allies such as the US and UK?
Husic:
It appears to be.
I mean, let’s be frank.
I think if you’ve now got a US president that has expressed the view that the action that has been taken is over the top, but that is very serious language for a US president to express.
It’s not my role to interpret the underpinnings or the assumptions driving the expression of that statement, but I think there is a degree of concern that the Israeli government is not listening.
And people are very conscious, as I said, of the statistics that I just mentioned to you before and the fact that you know, 70% of the people who’ve lost their lives, who’ve been killed as a result of this military action in Gaza have been women and children.
People are just very conscious that it cannot continue. We now have 30,000 people who’ve been killed as a result of this military action in Gaza.
Updated
Israel ‘can’t ignore’ US, international opinion about a Rafah offensive, Husic says
Ed Husic says he can’t see a credible way for Israel to plan a ground assault on Rafah while protecting civilians:
It’s hard to see how you can, as I said this is an area the size of Heathrow Airport where 1.5 million people have been crammed in. How do you undertake military exercise in there?
I think about 80% of the Gazan population. 1.7 5 million people. They’ve got nowhere to live. And there are a lot of them that have now moved into Rafah … we can’t look away … your ABC Global Affairs editor has pointed every 15 minutes, a Palestinian child dies.
One in 10 of the children that have died, they didn’t make their first birthday.
These statistics, these are not numbers, yhese are people and these are people whose futures have been ended and there are life and death decisions that are potentially being made by the Israeli government in an area where people are vulnerable and I just cannot see how you do a credible plan to protect civilians undertaking military action in that area where civilians are crammed in in that way.
I think the Israeli government cannot ignore international opinion and particularly from some of its closest allies and friends like the US for instance.
Updated
Israel’s plans for Rafah ground offensive ‘unfathomable’, Ed Husic says
Industry minister Ed Husic has spoken to ABC radio RN Breakfast where he was once again asked about what is happening in Gaza.
Husic spoke very plainly about Israel’s planned ground invasion of Rafah, which is now being referred to as the world’s largest refugee camp, with more than 1.5 million Gazans crammed into a small area against the Egyptian border. Rafah was designated a ‘safe’ zone by Israel, which had told Gazans to move there as it continued its war against Hamas.
Husic:
When you think about what is happening right now, I mean, more broadly, over the last few months, this has been a humanitarian catastrophe, but it’s a particular crisis given you’ve got about 1.5 million people crammed into an area that’s about the size of Heathrow Airport. These are people who have left homes that have been just completely destroyed …
This was set up as a safe zone to create refuge for people and it’s now being potentially targeted for military action.
And there are a lot of women and children that are in that area right now. And the international community has been speaking up and Australia has been a voice saying that you cannot conceivably go in there and conduct military action in that last area where everyone has been told ‘move here, it’ll be safe here’ and now undertake military action … it is heartbreaking to see the humanitarian crisis that’s unfolded there.
No sanitation, no housing, no food, no water, no functioning medical system in there, and the whole notion that you would conduct military action in there with vulnerable people, particularly women and children is unfathomable.
Updated
Government ad campaign won’t let us forget who to thank for our tax cuts
The government will spend $40m on an advertising campaign explaining the stage-three tax changes.
It’s an easy win for the government – dressing it up as ‘education’ and therefore creating a need for the ads – but it’s mostly about making sure every one of those 13m working Australians who will receive a tax cut (the vast majority receiving a lot more than they would have under the Morrison stage-three cuts) know who they can thank.
Former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack (the one who doesn’t currently have a Google maps pointer to a planter box) had a few things to say about that in the parliament late yesterday:
The decision by this government to fund Foodbank to the tune of $14m today and the decision to fund an advertising campaign for its stage-three tax cuts to the tune of $40m says just about everything about this government and its priorities. What a disgrace! How shameful that is! That is $14m for those hardworking charities who do so much, particularly in our regional communities. People are going to Foodbank and people going to St Vincent de Paul and other charitable organisations — people who’ve never had to present themselves before but have to because of the cost-of-living crisis — and here we have a government spending $40m on advertising, on spin doctors, on marketing. What a disgrace! Those Labor members who were in that caucus who made that decision should take a good long hard look at themselves tonight. The public know. They will remember, and they will vote accordingly at the next election.
Updated
Not everyone voted to bring Julian Assange back to Australia
Looking at the Hansard, it seems there were 11 MPs who abstained from voting on the Assange motion:
Bob Katter (QLD, Ind)
Colin Boyce (QLD LNP)
Pat Conaghan (NSW Nat)
Warren Entsch (QLD LNP)
Alex Hawke (NSW Lib)
Luke Howarth (QLD LNP)
Barnaby Joyce (NSW Nat)
Zoe McKenzie (Vic Lib)
Andrew Wilcox (QLD LNP)
Updated
Australian parliament shows ‘unprecedented’ support for Julian Assange
In case you missed it late yesterday afternoon, independent MP Andrew Wilkie had his motion urging the US and UK to allow Julian Assange to return to Australia passed by the house of representatives, with the support of Anthony Albanese and the government.
As Daniel Hurst reports, Peter Dutton’s Coalition largely opposed it:
Australian federal MPs – including the prime minister and cabinet members – have voted overwhelmingly to urge the US and the UK to allow the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to return to Australia.
The independent MP Andrew Wilkie hailed the passage of the motion, 86 votes in favour and 42 against, as “an unprecedented show of political support for Mr Assange by the Australian parliament”.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, joined Coalition colleagues in opposing the motion on Wednesday, although the Tasmanian MP Bridget Archer crossed the floor to back the pro-Assange motion.
The vote coincides with confirmation from the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, that the Assange matter was raised when he met his US counterpart, Merrick Garland, in Washington DC two weeks ago.
Updated
Defence hasn’t detailed what items were covered by recent export permits to Israel
(Continued from last post)
That prompted an exchange in Senate estimates concerning the definition of a weapon.
Greens senator David Shoebridge:
Do you consider parts of an F-35 fighter jet, such as the parts manufactured in Australia and used on Israeli defence force fighter jets to open the bomb bay doors – do you consider those weapons?
Defence official Hugh Jeffrey:
Senator, a pencil is used for writing. It’s not designed in and of itself to be a weapon, but it can be used as a weapon.
Shoebridge wanted to know whether “weapons” would include the supply of component “parts to the F-35 fighter jets that are currently being used to drop bombs on the Palestinian people in Gaza”.
Jeffrey replied:
Senator, there’s a lot in your question. In responding, I don’t know if F-35s are being used in the conflict in Gaza …
Australia is a contributor to the global supply chain on F-35s. If Israel is seeking to purchase that equipment, it would need to go through the same export control process as does every other export that is covered by the [Defence and Strategic Goods List].
Updated
Australia has granted two defence export permits to Israel since 7 October
Australian officials say two defence export permits have been granted to Israel since 7 October, but won’t reveal what items they cover.
In an answer to a Senate estimates question on notice, the Department of Defence said:
Permit approvals should not be confused with weapons sales. Export permits are required for a wide range of goods and technology, many of which are used for legitimate civilian and commercial purposes. This includes where items must return to their original international manufacturer for return and repairs before returning to Australia.
Defence continues to assess export applications to Israel. Every export of controlled goods or technology is considered on its own merits in accordance with Australian export control law.
At an estimates committee hearing yesterday, the Greens’ defence spokesperson, David Shoebridge, asked what those export permits were for.
Hugh Jeffrey, the deputy secretary of the department’s strategy, policy and industry group, said:
Senator, you won’t be surprised [that] I won’t go into the content of individual permit decisions.
Jeffrey said the two permits in question “would have been agreed on the basis that they did not prejudice Australian national interests under the criteria under the legislation”.
Updated
Good morning
Welcome to the last sitting day for a week! A very big thank you to Martin for starting us off this morning. We’ll switch to politics now, but will still update you if anything major happens.
You’ve got Amy Remeikis with you for the final house sitting day and, of course, we have estimates (which will continue tomorrow).
Tony Burke will introduce a bit of a tidy up for the right to disconnect legislation after it included criminal penalties for employees the first time round, which is not the government’s intention.
And of course, there will be more on tax and the continuing targeting of immigration minister Andrew Giles as the opposition desperately tries to reclaim some lost ground over the stage-three tax cut changes.
Ready? It’s a three-coffee day. At least.
Let’s get into it.
Updated
127,000 homes and businesses still without power in Victoria
About 127,000 homes and businesses in Victoria remained disconnected from electricity networks as of last night, down from a peak of 530,000 following damage from storms, strong winds and lightning, reports Australian Associated Press.
Crews have been working through the night to clear debris and repair damaged powerlines to try to reconnect the properties in the state’s east.
But given the extent of the damage, it could take days or more than a week to restore electricity to those impacted, the Australian Energy Market Operator said.
The disaster is one of the largest power outages in Victorian history and could take weeks to fully fix.
Victoria’s State Emergency Service received more than 4000 calls for assistance as of 4pm on Wednesday, with that number expected to climb.
A dairy farmer was killed after being struck by debris while herding cows on a quad bike in Darlimurla in South Gippsland on Tuesday evening.
Five regional hospitals could remain on generator power for at least three days as authorities rush to prioritise fuel and restore energy to those sites.
Families of young children remain in the dark on whether they can send them to school on Thursday after 80 schools and early learning centres were impacted by outages, with the decision coming on Thursday morning.
Almost 500 phone towers and 450 NBN sites were down on Wednesday, leaving a quarter of a million customers without internet access.
Storm damage that collapsed transmission lines caused the Loy Yang A coal-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley to shut down along with several wind farms, which led to the outages.
Key event
Greens call for overhaul of NSW requirements for landscaping mulch
While the scandal over mulch contaminated with asbestos turning up in parks around Sydney continues to grow, our reporters have been looking at what the rules are for suppliers and whether NSW compliance measures are strict enough.
It reveals there are no specific requirements to test mulch for contaminants and the Greens want a root and branch overhaul of the regulations to prevent a repeat.
Here’s the full read:
Updated
Renewables once again attract flak after Victorian blackouts
In the wake of the mass power outages in Victoria this week, some conservative commentators have sought to blame renewables for failing to kick in and provide power when things got tough.
But Graham Readfearn points out in his weekly Temperature Check column today that the outages had nothing to do with the type of power generation and were caused by high winds bringing down the transmission towers.
In fact, it was widely reported that when the storm brought down transmission towers near Geelong, it caused four power units at Loy Yang A power station to trip with a loss of 2.1 gigawatts of electricity. If it hadn’t tripped the station could have suffered permanent damage. That’s just how an electricity system works and has nothing to dow ith renewables, Graham writes.
Andrew Richards, chief executive at the Energy Users Association of Australia, says:
It’s not about wind, solar, coal, gas, nuclear, batteries or any other generation technology. Doesn’t matter what is attached to the system, when the system gets destroyed, what’s generating is irrelevant.
Read Graham’s column here:
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Telcos on notice over scam texts
Five SMS service providers have been slapped on the wrist for allowing scammers to impersonate brands and send millions of texts, and putting public safety at risk, Australian Associated Press reports.
SMS Broadcast, DirectSMS, Esendex Australia, MessageBird and Message4U – better known as Sinch MessageMedia – cumulatively sent 50m texts that were in breach of anti-scam laws.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority found the companies did not undertake appropriate checks necessary to ensure the outgoing texts were not scams.
Two of the telco failures allowed scammers to pose as well-known brands and government services and send more than 1.2m impersonation texts, while Esendex sent at least 99,000 scam texts.
Authority member Samantha Yorke said the telco’s behaviour was unacceptable, especially when Australians lost more than $25m to SMS scammers in 2023. She said:
Scammers will always look for cracks in systems and if even one telco fails to have its compliance in order, it can open the door for scammers to target Australians. The impact on individuals and families can be truly devastating.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to Guardian Australia’s politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ve got the best overnight stories for you before Amy Remeikis takes you through the main action of the day.
The US$1.89bn HyperVerse crypto scandal takes another twist today with our top story revealing that Australia’s corporate watchdog referred the company to Victoria police over concerns about “possible fraud offences” at a related company in 2020. However, nearly two years later, the police passed it back and said the watchdog was “best placed” to investigate. By that time the company was imploding with many Australians out of pocket by thousands of dollars.
Hundreds of thousands of Victorians have spent a second night without power after destructive storms wreaked havoc on the energy grid. The state’s energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, will push for a national approach to weatherproof the electricity grid after the deadly storm caused “one of the largest outage events in the state’s history”. About 127,000 were still without power late yesterday afternoon. She stressed the need to make the country’s electricity grid more resilient given climate change was leading to more extreme weather events and is understood to have met the Australian Energy Regulator, which oversees the transmission network service, yesterday afternoon.
The New South Wales environment watchdog raised concerns about mulch manufactured last year that it could not inspect when they visited the supplier of landscaping products that were since found to contain asbestos. The opposition has called for a central register of all sites being investigated for possible asbestos contamination by the state’s environmental watchdog, including parks and schools. More coming up on this still-growing crisis.
And has your mobile pinged with a suspicious text recently? It might have come via five SMS service providers who have been warned over not checking the bona fides of users before sending 50 million texts that were in breach of anti-scam laws. More on that in a minute.
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