The day that was, Monday 14 February
That is where we will leave the live blog for Monday. Thanks for following along.
Here’s some of what you might have missed today:
- The federal government will not try to pass controversial voter ID laws before the federal election but may seek to pass it if it is returned to government.
- Independent MP Zali Steggall has defended a $100,000 donation from a coal investor saying most people have through superannuation.
- The federal parliament marked the anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations.
- A 41-year-old man died in a helicopter crash in northern Tasmania, after crashing in a paddock while fighting a nearby fire.
- There were 19,680 new Covid-19 cases reported including: 6,184 in NSW, 7,104 in Victoria, 3,750 in Queensland, 1,027 in South Australia, 375 in the ACT, 408 in Tasmania, 757 in the Northern Territory and 75 in Western Australia.
- There were 25 Covid-19 related deaths reported including: 14 in NSW, two in Victoria, six in Queensland, and three in South Australia.
We will be back again tomorrow with all the latest from the House and Senate estimates.
Updated
Morrison received Vivienne Thom report into Alan Tudge assault allegations on 28 January
A report into allegations against education minister Alan Tudge was given to Scott Morrison on 28 January, more than two weeks ago, but the government can’t confirm whether the matter will be dealt with before the coming election.
Tudge stood aside from the ministry in December, following allegations from former staffer Rachelle Miller – with whom Tudge had a consensual relationship – that he had been emotionally and on one occasion physically abusive. Tudge denied the claims, but Morrison announced former bureaucrat Vivienne Thom would carry out an investigation into the allegations.
Miller was critical of the process for not allowing investigation of conduct which might constitute criminal conduct. She declined to participate, claiming a “rush to judgment” and a “political fix” in a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald two weeks ago.
Stephanie Foster, deputy secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, told a Senate estimates hearing on Monday evening that the report was complete, and had been given to the department on 28 January. It was then sent to the prime minister’s office on 28 January.
Foster said she understood Morrison had been briefed on the contents of the report, and that he “has had the report available to him”.
A spokesman for Morrison’s office told Guardian Australia that the matter is still in progress.
Foster said the next steps were for those who participated in the investigation to have the opportunity to request parts of their testimony be kept confidential from any public release of the report, and that she would consider such requests.
Finance minister Simon Birmingham, representing the prime minister in the hearing, said the report would eventually go to Tudge and Miller, but he could not confirm when. Birmingham said he did not believe Tudge had received any information on the report’s findings.
Labor senator Katy Gallagher noted that Tudge has stood aside since early December, with Stuart Robert acting as education minister, and asked whether the matter would be finalised before the federal election. Tudge has already said he plans to contest his seat of Aston.
Birmingham responded “I’m sure that’s the hope” but said he wouldn’t “pre-empt” the next steps or timing.
Updated
Oh I should add, they took on notice questions about the procedure for searching phones, and how often it’s done. Those are questions the department wouldn’t provide a response to me on.
Australian Border Force officials in Senate estimates have defended powers they have to examine people’s phones going through customs on entry into Australia, in response to this story I wrote last month.
The home affairs secretary, Mike Pezzullo, said the powers under the Customs Act to ask people to hand over their phones and passcodes don’t allow officers to just go through people’s phones looking for anything:
You can’t just, to coin a phrase, surf the phone looking for any matter, it has to be related to matters that are within the jurisdiction of the Border Force.
Importantly, he clarified people are not obligated to hand over their passcodes:
The compulsion to hand over a passcode is not in the act, it’s a request, expedite the process by which a seized phone can be examined.
Border Force commissioner Michael Outram said there were “a lot of people” who bring into Australia prohibited materials such as child abuse material on their phones.
Not suggesting this person for me had that sort of material on their phone, but there are other things they may search for as well but they won’t be on some, some surfing exercise just to look for, you know, satisfying for fun.
He says who is picked to be searched can be based on intelligence, and defended the fact that warrants were not required for searches.
This is a global, sort of customs issues is there’s an entitlement for customs services, to search passengers goods and bags for things that either dutiable or that may be may contain prohibited imports ... So an international airport doesn’t operate exactly in law the same as somebody in the street. I accept that.
Updated
Pilot dies in helicopter crash in Tasmania
Sad news out of Tasmania, the 41-year-old man in the helicopter crash has died, police have confirmed:
Following next of kin notifications to family, police can now confirm a 41 year old Northern Tasmanian man has died following a helicopter crash near Pipers Brook this afternoon.
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
The scheduled 5.45pm press conference has been postponed with no time yet set.
Updated
AAP has some of the contents of LNP MP Andrew Laming’s valedictory speech.
Laming has represented the Queensland electorate of Bowman – made up of parts of Brisbane and North Stradbroke Island – since 2004.
In his valedictory speech, Laming detailed some of his proudest moments in parliament – and some self-confessed failures.
He recounted his challenge against then prime minister John Howard for Liberal party leadership in 2007 as “messy”.
“I was tired of what was happening between Howard and [Peter] Costello and decided I would announce my leadership bid for the following day at party room,” he said
“I thought I’d run those lines past a group of staffers ... it was only later I was told one of the staffers in the group was John Howard’s son.”
He called the Queensland LNP team a “rag tag band who do great stuff” in Canberra and said he had been an activist from the backbench.
“It is now this side of politics that is potentially the most progressive in reforming, rebuilding and re-imagining social policy,” he said.
Updated
Victoria police have fined five state Coalition MPs for not wearing masks at parliament last week, including leader Matthew Guy.
Five Coalition MPs fined for not wearing masks at parliament last week. Statement from opposition leader Matthew Guy: pic.twitter.com/BH70JmlIAc
— Benita Kolovos (@benitakolovos) February 14, 2022
Updated
An update on the helicopter crash in northern Tasmania.
Tasmania police say a man has been critically injured following the crash near Pipers Brook just after 3pm this afternoon.
The pilot was the sole occupant, and was critically injured in the crash in the paddock. The man is believed to have been fighting bushfires in the Lebrina area.
TFS acting deputy chief Jeff Harper said that it was a tragic incident and our hearts go out to the man’s family and loved ones at this difficult time”
Our thoughts are also with our people and others who have been working very closely with the man involved to help fight the Lebrina fires.
We will be working with Police, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and other authorities so that this incident is fully investigated.
It is a very tragic situation, especially because it has involved someone who was working hard to fight the Lebrina fires to help our community safe.
Understandably this is a very distressing incident for everyone involved and we will be ensuring our people have access to all available support.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will be advised and will undertake an investigation.
Updated
Parts of western and southern #NSW is currently in a low intensity heatwave, with daytime temperatures reaching 40C and overnight temperatures in the mid-20s. Beat the Heat this summer: https://t.co/oHq1GI87zW
— Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales (@BOM_NSW) February 14, 2022
Forecasts: https://t.co/SPHgGeisGZ pic.twitter.com/9cydamzOEb
Just circling back on the financial settlement over sexual harassment claims against former high court justice Dyson Heydon, Labor’s shadow minister for women, Tanya Plibersek and shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus have called on the government to explain why the settlement is being kept secret.
They welcomed the settlement, and the way the chief justice Susan Kiefel dealt with the allegations but said taxpayers deserve to know how much the settlement has cost.
They said:
Australian taxpayers who are paying for this settlement, have every right to know precisely how much Justice Dyson Heydon’s appalling behaviour has cost them. The only basis for such confidentiality would be a specific request from the victims.
The Dyson Heydon case also highlights the need to fully implement all 55 recommendations of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner’s groundbreaking Respect@Work Report to help keep Australians safe from sexual harassment at work.
In April last year Scott Morrison promised he would adopt every recommendation in the Respect@Work Report.
As always with Mr Morrison it’s all announcement and no delivery and to date he has failed to deliver the legislative changes proposed by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner.
An Albanese Labor Government will fully implement all 55 recommendations of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner’s Report to help keep Australians safe from sexual harassment at work.
Updated
Per Capita research fellow Osmond Chiu has written that the amping up of the political rhetoric around China in the lead-up to the federal election could not only cause issues for the government electorally, but have longer term implications for the country:
He said:
There is a much larger, more important, and longer-term danger from the tactics. If the government is understood to be weaponising national security intelligence about foreign interference for domestic political gain, like the boy who cried wolf, it will have a hard time getting people to trust in such claims in the future, when national security may actually be at stake. Voters may suspect any given allegation has been driven by political motives. The opaqueness of the allegations, based on leaks from anonymous sources, including those to which the government may imply it has special access, already make it difficult for journalists or opposition politicians, much less citizens, to verify details.
Updated
Last year the TGA changed the rules for GPs prescribing ivermectin to treat Covid-19, banning it from being used for anything other than approved conditions. Here is government MP Russell Broadbent saying he used the unproven treatment when he got Covid.
Federal Liberal MP Russell Broadbent just made a statement to the House before #qt saying he was unvaccinated, got Covid-19 recently, took ivermectin and had a bit of a rough time. Wanted to talk about "choice and freedom." There you go #auspol
— Karen Barlow (@KJBar) February 14, 2022
The ABC reports he hasn’t responded to questions on how he obtained the ivermectin.
Updated
The Australian federal police have moved protesters who were camping out of the Exhibition Park in Canberra, with three arrested.
Police said the operation was generally peaceful but a man and a woman were charged with trespass and a second man was charged with trespass and resisting a territory official.
No vehicles were towed and no camping equipment was seized.
The EPIC site will now be available for the Canberra Show and other events.
The AFP said the campers who are trying to find alternative camping sites must only camp in designated sites otherwise it is an offence and they can be moved on.
The AFP also said “low level protest activity” may occur around parliament this week.
Updated
Here’s some more on today’s 62 cases in Western Australia, via AAP.
The tally includes a person in a southwest regional area who was infectious while in the community.
Thirteen travel-related cases were also recorded, taking the number of active cases to 509 with no one currently in hospital.
But WA Health noted on Monday that testing numbers remained low with just 4351 people receiving PCR tests in the reporting period.
Premier Mark McGowan acknowledged over the weekend that state-run PCR clinics were well below capacity.
“The chances are that there are cases out there we don’t know about – probably in large numbers – but we are encouraging people to get tested,” McGowan said.
The Australian Medical Association WA president, Mark Duncan-Smith, has speculated the number of cases in the WA community could be up to five times higher than the reported figures.
The premier said PCR testing remained WA’s preferred method for now despite the state continuing to add to its stockpile of rapid antigen tests.
Updated
Helicopter incident in northern Tasmania
Tasmania police have released this statement about reports of a helicopter crash in northern Tasmania:
Police and emergency services are responding to a report of a helicopter incident in northern Tasmania.
Initial reports suggest a helicopter has crashed in a paddock while responding to a bushfire near Lebrina in north-east Tasmania.
Details of injuries are not able to be confirmed at this stage.
More information will be released when available.
Updated
New Zealand announces 981 Covid cases
New Zealand has announced 981 cases of Covid-19 today, continuing a run of record-breaking rises in infections.
The latest additions mean there are 4,960 active cases recorded across the country – but experts say the true number is likely much higher given the lag in test results and the fact testing is only advised for those with symptoms or who have been a direct contact of a case.
Prof Michael Baker, an epidemiologist, told RNZ that actual case numbers could be around five to 10 times higher than those recorded.
“Most people with the infection, particularly when they’re highly vaccinated, will have very few symptoms, and many will have no symptoms at all – but they can still transmit the virus,” he said. “For every case that’s recorded we might have another five people out there who have very mild symptoms that are not being tested.”
The numbers also reflected the situation of a week ago – actual daily infections would be several multiples higher, he said.
The government also announced travellers coming to New Zealand from Australia will have to self-isolate for just seven days, down from 10, under new guidelines announced by the New Zealand government. The border opens to New Zealanders coming from Australia on 27 February.
Updated
Tehan is asked whether the potential for conflict could lead to a rise in petrol prices in Australia.
He says:
It could depend on the type of action that occurs – I mean, I must say again, we hope it won’t occur – but if it does, depending on the type of action that occurred, I think that would depend on the type of magnitude we would see.
On whether the Australian LNG industry could see this as a sale opportunity, he says:
There potentially is, and I’m sure they’re looking at those others opportunities, but the Australian government is mindful that we have to ensure that we have plenty of supplies here, and that our industry can continue to operate and have a price which means that the gas is affordable here.
Updated
The trade minister, Dan Tehan, is on ABC News’ Afternoon Briefing and is asked about whether people should be alarmed about the situation in Ukraine.
He says:
The signals are pointing to the fact that there might be something that’s going to occur in the next few days, so that’s why the Australian government is acting.
He says the intelligence is based on what other countries are doing:
[It is based on] assessments that we get from either our own agency or from foreign governments, and then just watching what other governments are doing.
So for instance, I think we’ve seen what the US is doing, we’ve seen what other like-minded countries [are doing], whether it be the UK or European countries. We’re obviously taking action ourselves in moving ... embassy personnel from Kyiv. All these things point to the fact that there is a deep concern about what might occur.
Updated
The head of the home affairs department says the prime minister’s WeChat troubles look to be a case of terms and conditions, but couldn’t completely rule out foreign interference, AAP reports.
Scott Morrison was denied access to his WeChat account last year and was unable to regain control despite numerous attempts to contact parent company Tencent, in a move labelled as foreign interference by his own MPs.
But department secretary Mike Pezzullo told a Senate estimates hearing the case appeared to be a prima facie terms and conditions matter instead of foreign interference.
“I couldn’t rule it out completely but on the surface it appears to be a terms and conditions issue,” he said.
“But sometimes things can be manipulated in a way that can be opaque and nefarious.”
Pezzullo said any matter involving the prime minister should be treated with caution.
“I would take a very sceptical and cautious view until I got to the bottom of who the actor is, who was behind that transfer, who impelled it,” he said.
“Until I got to the bottom of that I wouldn’t be drawing conclusions either way.”
Pezzullo said he didn’t have any personal concerns with politicians using WeChat, with it not constituting a “vector” of foreign interference.
But the secretary noted the platform formed part of a larger question about how social media interacted with electoral integrity.
Deputy secretary Andrew Kefford said the onus remained on all people, not just politicians, to ensure they understand the rules and conditions of platforms they sign up to and use.
Kefford reiterated that Tencent was dealing with the matter as a potential breach of its terms and conditions.
“The advice we’ve had from the company most recently is that it’s being dealt with as a transfer of ownership under the platform’s rules,” he said.
“Generally speaking we have found Tencent to be keen to assist to the extent it can to ensure the election is not compromised by foreign interference.”
Updated
Still plenty more to come, but I’m going to leave you now in the capable hands of Josh Taylor. See you tomorrow!
Police have confirmed that human remains found last year are those of missing campers Carol Clay and Russell Hill, the ABC is reporting.
A $70m contract for a western Sydney business powering the city’s shift to electric buses will begin a “manufacturing renaissance” in NSW, according to the premier.
AAP reports that Dominic Perrottet says the contract for Custom Denning to deliver a further 79 electric buses from its St Marys factory will create 40 apprenticeships, as local manufacturing becomes a “substantial focus” of the government:
This is all about creating local jobs for local people to help our local communities thrive.
Custom Denning’s electric bus was approved by the Transport for NSW procurement panel last year and more than 20 had previously been ordered after trials by bus operators around Sydney.
The new buses are slated to deliver services in Sydney’s inner west.
Committee for Sydney resilience director, Sam Kernaghan, said the contracts for electric buses were “a big step in the right direction”:
We encouraged the government to use its procurement power to help local industry help the state reach its net zero targets, and that’s exactly what’s happening here.
The government plans to transition about 8,000 diesel and gas buses to electric by the end of the decade.
The NSW transport minister, David Elliott, said the electric shift was part of “the next industrial revolution” that will “see cities evolve as much cleaner destinations”.
The Unions NSW secretary, Mark Morey, said the announcement wouldn’t “make up for a decade of neglecting local manufacturing jobs and industry”.
The government should commit to building the remaining 7,900 buses it will need before 2030 in NSW as well, he said.
Updated
Adam Morton reports:
The Morrison government is spending more than $31m on an advertising campaign claiming Australia is ‘making positive energy’ under its leadership and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Updated
The attorney general, Michaelia Cash, has announced that three former high court judges’ associates who made sexual harassment claims against former high court justice Dyson Heydon have had those claims resolved.
“We have listened to them and we apologise,” Cash says.
Updated
Embattled Liberal MP Andrew Laming is giving his valedictory speech.
Updated
The health minister, Greg Hunt, has quite the filing system.
Updated
Our official* response to what Scott Morrison said today:
— First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria (@firstpeoplesvic) February 14, 2022
*polite pic.twitter.com/DRsrdGvcV1
Back in Senate estimates, some strange scenes as Labor’s Katy Gallagher asks about those leaked text messages between Scott Morrison and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, back in November.
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, as well as the finance minister, Simon Birmingham, are up before the finance and public administration committee. Gallagher is asking Birmingham, representing the PM, about how those texts ended up in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
You might remember it came in the wake of the Aukus agreement and French fury over Australia scrapping the Naval Group’s contract to make our submarines, and then Macron’s famous “I don’t think, I know” line when asked at the G20 if he thought Morrison had lied to him.
Gallagher asked a line of questions about how the texts were leaked, and who knew. Birmingham initially claimed he had answered those questions previously in Senate estimates, and simply referred Labor senators to the Hansard.
But Labor senator Tim Ayres pointed out that the leaked texts were reported on 1 November – after the last round of Senate estimates ended in late October.
After an awkward pause, Birmingham apologised, saying he thought he had answered questions on the texts in estimates previously, but admitted he may have been thinking of answers he gave in the Senate’s question time in November.
Pressed for more answers by Gallagher, Birmingham responded:
I don’t have an answer for particular newspapers and their publications.
Gallagher:
How did that happen? Who leaked it?
Birmingham:
I don’t know in terms of newspaper sources.
Gallagher went on to ask:
How would a private text message from the prime minister, the leader of our country, received from the leader of the French, come to appear word for word in a News Corp paper? If it wasn’t authorised by the prime minister himself?
Birmingham and officials of the PM’s department later said that there was no investigation into how the messages leaked.
Gallagher responded:
So the whole of the APS [Australian Public Service] isn’t worried about this at all?
... In that case, you all must know it’s from the prime minister and his office, otherwise you’d imagine every security agency across the APS would come crashing down, wanting to examine how the PM’s private communications ends up in a newspaper.
Updated
And ... back to questions. Labor asks if the prime minister regrets spending money to support Clive Palmer’s lawsuit against Western Australia.
“After further discussions... I took the decision to withdraw from that case,” Morrison says.
Updated
WA records 62 new local Covid cases
Western Australia has recorded 75 new Covid cases, 62 of them local. WA Health says no one is in hospital.
Updated
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese seeks leave to move a motion that the house notes the story I linked below on rapid antigen tests, what the prime minister knew and when, and an entire litany of other failures he is claiming are the PM’s fault during the pandemic. He’s trying to suspend standing orders to debate the motion.
Now there’s a division over whether Albanese should no longer be heard.
And the ayes have it.
(Labor’s Clare O’Neil had another go. Another division. We can probably move on to other matters now.)
Updated
Short and sharp response on the PM’s speech today “sorry is not the hardest word to say, the hardest is I forgive you”.
— Sarah Collard (@Sarah_Collard_) February 14, 2022
“Get in the bin.” pic.twitter.com/vQcRIjA0Qg
Can the PM confirm he didn’t order enough rapid tests or vaccines, didn’t hold a hose during the bushfires, and so on, asks Albanese.
Morrison is reeling off a list of the federal government’s achievements, from electricity bills to job creation. Let me know if you want the full list.
Updated
Updated
Labor’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, raises a point of order. And that point of order is “irony”, he says.
(Irony is not recognised as a valid point of order.)
Updated
Further to the below about rapid antigen tests, News.com.au reports today that Morrison had been briefed on the potential for rapid testing .
Updated
The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, asks why the government did not order enough rapid antigen tests. They weren’t even approved at the time, Scott Morrison said:
At no point [before Omicron] had any health advisory body, any chief health medical officer, any health department, not the prime minister and cabinet department or any department, had a recommendation that the government should be engaged in rapid antigen testing. In fact, they were not even approved by the TGA until November of last year.
Then he mostly spoke about vaccinations, so Labor’s Tony Burke calls another point of order.
Updated
Frydenberg has turned another Dixer into an attack on Labor. Albanese says, pointing at Peter Dutton:
This can’t be in order for him [Frydenberg] to just go on for three minutes, not in his portfolio, with a character attack on myself and the leader of the house. If you don’t think of me, think of Peter!
(I’m not sure why Dutton is invoked.)
“I thought he was going to table another set of finger paintings,” Frydenberg responds.
Updated
Labor’s Brendan O’Connor asks:
Has the prime minister asked the Australian federal police to investigate the source of the major cabinet leak designed to undermine the prime minister?
Morrison says he’s “mistaken”.
Updated
Leave has not been granted for Albanese to table a hand-written essay from his first year studying economics. Dutton complains, saying it’s a two-pager with pictures drawn in crayon.
Oh dear. Frydenberg is attempting to conflate the Greens and Labor, and has even dragged the idea of “death duties” out of its grave.
(The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, talked about an inheritance tax 30 years ago, and they’re trying to jolt it back to life.)
Updated
Independent MP Helen Haines wants a new hospital for Albury-Wodonga (she represents the electorate of Indi). She asks if the federal government is funding regional hospitals.
The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, says the feds will considering helping, but that state governments have a role to play (in terms of infrastructure).
Updated
The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, says:
It has been widely reported that last week a number of the prime minister’s colleagues blocked an anti-corruption commission with retrospective powers. Why are the prime minister’s colleagues concerned about an anti-corruption commission with the power to investigate corrupt acts committed before it was established?
Fletcher is up again (I forgot to say earlier, he’s representing the attorney general Michaelia Cash in the house). He says the question is misconceived and that the integrity legislation has hundreds of pages. Hundreds! He says:
We have a detailed model. We have committed ... $150 million in funding and it is clear the commonwealth commission will be able to investigate past conduct and matters prior to its commencement.
Updated
A federal integrity commission would “become a reality” if Labor supported his legislation, Morrison says. The government proposal has been criticised as being too weak.
Scott Morrison is in full flight on Russia’s coercion and “threats of violence” against Ukraine in response to a Dorothy Dixer. He also calls on China to denounce Russia. Normally we’re not that interested in Dixers, but that was pretty hairy-chested, and interesting that he dragged China into it.
Updated
The urban infrastructure minister, Paul Fletcher, says it is “quite curious to be on the receiving end of lectures about probity and public policy from the member for Ballarat”, but that he won’t comment on cabinet discussions.
Updated
Labor’s Catherine King kicks off with a question about a cabinet leak about a federal integrity commission discussion, and the price paid for a piece of land. Aaaaaand, the to-and-fro over points of order begins again.
Updated
Albanese asks if Dutton can withdraw, the speaker says it’s too late – the request should have been made at the time.
Question time begins
And that’s question time off and running (you can be the judge about whether Beahan was successful in lifting the standards).
Speaker Andrew Wallace is talking about last week’s brouhaha, in which the defence minister, Peter Dutton, was making unfounded comments about the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, and his relationship with China. Belatedly, the speaker says the comments were out of order.
Updated
The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, says Beahan exuded geniality, and is talking about a tragic event where a younger Beahan survived a car crash but his girlfriend did not.
He wanted to get things done in the Senate, Albanese says, even though he didn’t initially like the idea of being there – and, as Senate president, he tried to lift the standard of question time.
Updated
Scott Morrison is now paying tribute to Michael Beahan, a WA Labor senator who died earlier this year.
He’s referring to a speech Beahan once made about the importance of being civil to those you disagree with, and his advocacy for having more Indigenous art in the parliament.
Updated
In just a minute ...
At 2pm, the Prime Minister will move a condolence motion for the Hon Michael Eamon Beahan AM. After the motion is supported by the Leader of the Opposition and other Members, Question Time will begin. Follow along at: https://t.co/8DB1X3AQDV. #QT
— Australian House of Representatives (@AboutTheHouse) February 14, 2022
Updated
Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to political reporter Amy Remeikis about how this tumultuous year inspired her book On Reckoning:
The “Jacqui Lambie of the left”. Intriguing. Paul Karp on the candidate challenging the health minister, Greg Hunt:
Updated
Here’s Tess McClure on the prime minister’s ukulele rendition:
Updated
ACT records 375 Covid cases
There have been 375 new Covid cases and no deaths recorded in the ACT. Fifty-one people are in hospital, with four in intensive care and two on ventilators.
ACT COVID-19 update (14 Feb 2022)
— ACT Health (@ACTHealth) February 14, 2022
💉 COVID-19 vaccinations
Aged 5-11 years (1 dose): 75.9%
Aged 12+ (2 doses) 98.6%
Aged 18+ (3 doses): 60.6%
New cases today: 375 (187 PCR and 188 RAT)
Active cases: 2,453 (1,252 PCR and 1,201 RAT)
Total cases: 41,728 (30,868 PCR and 10,860 RAT) pic.twitter.com/OawbWxKZxF
Updated
Coalition won't pursue voter ID laws before election but may if it wins – Birmingham
The Coalition won’t pursue voter ID laws again before this election but could try again if it is returned to office later this year, finance minister Simon Birmingham said.
Appearing before a Senate estimates committee on Monday, Birmingham was asked by Greens senator Larissa Waters about the government’s controversial push last year to require voters to provide identification at the ballot box.
The Coalition decided to scrap the push, following a fierce backlash from Labor, the Greens and civil society groups. With just two Senate sitting days between now and the next election, due before the end of May, it was unlikely that the bill would come back up for consideration again anyway.
But while Birmingham confirmed it wouldn’t be tried again in this term of parliament, he said:
If after the election, there were an opportunity to look at those sorts of reforms, which have been recommended by multiple reports of the joint standing committee on electoral matters, then I’m sure we would do so.
Liberal senator James McGrath, chair of that electoral matters committee, introduced a private senator’s bill on voter ID last week. Birmingham said any senator was entitled to introduce private bills, but that the government wouldn’t be calling it on for debate in this parliament.
Birmingham said it was “not the government’s intention to pursue that matter before this election”, adding: “Disappointingly, we would say.”
Waters, asking if the government might revisit the proposal if the Coalition won the election, added: “Hopefully you won’t be in a position to do so.”
Liberal senator James Paterson jumped in to make a dig about a “Labor-Greens alliance”.
A smiling Birmingham called it an “astute observation”, saying: “Voter identification can be done in a way that does not disenfranchise.”
Updated
Burney speaks about the potential for future failure, and points to the low vaccination rates in Indigenous communities, and how much it worries her:
Every day I hold my breath and hope because that failure could mean me, and for far too many that carry our culture and language. Our elders are our libraries. They are our internet and they cannot be replaced.
She says former prime minister John Howard didn’t see the apology as a moment for change, and until the government changed, “we had to hold our breath and wait”.
And so Kevin Rudd apologised for the hurt our country did to us, our families, and tribal nations.
She ends her speech (and all speeches in the House on the anniversary) by looking forward as to the next steps for reconciliation, including a voice to parliament.
Now is the moment straight on the time. It’s here to give First Nations people our voice in the decisions made about us ... A Labor government will not force this country to hold his breath again. We will move on a referendum to get the voice established in the constitution ...
These steps in your statement are fundamental, necessary and urgent. But they are not magical. They do not arrive out of the blue. They are not a storm to be weathered. They are the next steps in our reconciliation journey, a journey over a century-long, a journey Aboriginal people started on decades before we were counted as citizens ... It is up to us as a parliament, as a people, to resolutely take the next steps and lay down our own marker. We can do this.
Updated
Labor MP and Indigenous Australian Linda Burney is now speaking. She is emotional as she says the apology was a “cultural moment shared by the country”, but noted it would be two more years after the speech before a First Nations person would be in parliament to mark it.
We should never leave it unstated just how long the reconciliation journey has been in our country. The apology was not the work of one person only, was not the sentence that ends the story. It was a way marker and a century of work – a marker that shows how far we have come, but showed us what we can achieve and how much further we have to travel.
Updated
Wyatt says survivors of the stolen generations are still disconnected from their families:
Culture interrupted, and families disrupted.
Wyatt has announced survivors from the NT and the ACT will get free financial and legal advice while they are applying for redress through the national scheme.
Updated
“We cannot give back lost childhoods,” Wyatt says.
Here are some photos from Mike Bowers as people arrived:
Updated
The minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, has greeted the other Indigenous MPs, saying their numbers are small “but growing”.
It was “profound” to hear the government announce the wrongs against his people, he says. “Together, we said sorry, and we are still sorry.”
Updated
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese is now speaking on the Stolen Generations, and has again committed to adopting the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Updated
Morrison said:
Our journey ... continues. If the apology itself was a milestone in that journey, each anniversary has been a yardstick of how we have travelled since.
But because of a “misguided faith” in “telling over listening”, the government came up with a new national plan.
He is talking about redress schemes, and a new national cultural precinct planned for Canberra, Ngurra.
“It will tell stories long after all of us who are here have departed,” he said. It would tell those stories in truth, honesty, love, patriotism and pride, he said.
Updated
PM marks anniversary of stolen generations apology
Parliament is marking the anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations today.
Scott Morrison is making a ministerial statement.
The prime minister has apologised for brutality, for “lives damaged and destroyed”. “We are sorry,” he said, but:
“Sorry is not the hardest word to say. The hardest is ‘I forgive you’.”
Updated
Hm.
Dragon has released a statement throwing shade at @ScottMorrisonMP for butchering their song on #60minutes last night pic.twitter.com/loEmVsB8Xe
— Jim Malo (@thejimmalo) February 14, 2022
New guidelines here – hopefully will help families see their loved ones:
[NEWS] New visitation guidelines for aged care residents.
— Australian Government Department of Health (@healthgovau) February 14, 2022
Senior Australians in residential aged care will have greater access to visitors and reduced lockdowns under new visitation guidelines response to the pandemic.
Read more at: https://t.co/VbisX85ykW pic.twitter.com/uMoh1thNxs
Updated
This morning, home affairs officials have confirmed that the department paid $15,981 to an unnamed first assistant secretary in the department for a property listed on AirBnb used to house a ministerial delegation from September to November.
Chief operating officer Justine Saunders said the department contacted owners of suitable properties through AirBnB “without knowing who the owners of the properties were”.
Saunders said:
One of those properties was a home affairs officer. The home affairs officer, upon receipt of a request from it, was only referred to a government agency seeking to rent the premises, identified that perhaps it could be particularly related to this initiative that home affairs was now responsible for. And as a result, he reached out to a senior officer of the department to seek advice in regards to a conflict of interest.
The department secretary, Michael Pezzullo, said he inquired into it but was satisfied that “proper conduct was engaged in” because the officer self-identified to the department that his property was being rented and offered to remove the property from the pool.
According to Saunders there were “actually no other properties available” and property was required at short notice.
Labor’s Raff Ciccone said it was “mind-blowing” that only one property fit the bill.
Pezzullo said hotels and student accommodation were deemed not suitable, so the department needed a freestanding house at short notice.
Pezzullo said that if the officer had attempted to disguise the transaction, or not drawn it to the department’s attention, or not offered to opt out, he “might have a similarly jaundiced view” of it, but “those conditions are not apparent”.
Updated
Remember Australia's pavilion at #COP26 in Glasgow? It cost about $1.07m, #estimates hearshttps://t.co/DvI2qnqENW
— Adam Morton (@adamlmorton) February 14, 2022
Calls for budget to invest in social security, green energy transition and housing program
The Australian Council of Social Services (Acoss) has called on the government to address the climate crisis in its next budget as a matter of urgency. Acoss wants the government to forego tax cuts for the wealthy and invest instead in social security, a green energy transition, and a housing program.
The calls form part of the peak body’s submission to the federal treasury ahead of the federal budget – and, of course, the election.
The submission calls for increases in all income support payments to at least the level of the pension ($69 a day); investment in energy efficiency improvements for 1.8m low-income homes to the tune of $5,000 per dwelling; emergency energy debt relief of $1,000 a household; the establishment of an Energy Transition Authority to manage “fair and inclusive transition for fossil fuel dependent workers and communities”; and a $7bn, 20,000-dwelling social housing package to be rolled out over the next 3 years.
Acoss chief executive Cassandra Goldie said raising the base rate of welfare payments and a focus on employment ought to be “a high priority” for the country, and pointed again to the experience of doubled jobseeker payments during Covid lockdowns as evidence of what investment in social security can do.
She said:
I can’t tell you, the number of times people have come to us … to say that it was profoundly different, that period when the unemployment payment was more adequate, and the way that changed lives. But what we also showed is that we actually had the real life experiment of what it means for the economy when you properly prioritise putting resources into the hands of people who will actually spend it.
The reallocation of resources away from fossil fuel subsidies, on which Australia spends more than $10bn annually, to climate crisis solutions would both address existing and prospective inequity, and contribute to warding off the catastrophic triggers of inequity in the form of climate-related disasters, the submission argues.
And it’s not just extreme weather events – renters and people on low incomes are also unable to access large swathes of the renewable energy market as consumers, making a market-based response to climate crisis wholly inadequate.
Without appropriate and adequate social security, transition from fossil fuels economy to a green economy would exacerbate inequalities as industries shut down. But this also provides economic opportunities, and transition could be managed in conjunction with appropriate investment in social services.
Goldie said:
We’ve always known that the effects of climate change would hit people on low incomes both hardest and longest and that’s exactly what’s happening…
This is not about a trade off between strengthening the economy and the social services and safety net. We’ve actually demonstrated just how powerful it is both socially and economically, for us to be investing more [in the latter].
Updated
National Covid update
Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 25 deaths from Covid-19:
ACT
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 375
- In hospital: 51 (with four people in ICU)
NSW
- Deaths: 14
- Cases: 6,184
- In hospital: 1,649 (with 100 people in ICU)
Queensland
- Deaths: 6
- Cases: 3,750
- In hospital: 514
South Australia
- Deaths: 3
- Cases: 1,027
- In hospital: 214 (with 18 people in ICU)
Tasmania
- Cases: 408
- In hospital: 12 (with one person in ICU)
Victoria
- Deaths: 2
- Cases: 7,104
- In hospital: 465 (with 66 people in ICU)
Western Australia
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 75 (62 local, 13 ‘other’)
- In hospital: 0
Updated
A pandemic plan written two years before Covid hit should have been shown to the minister, the home affairs department says.
In estimates, secretary Mike Pezzullo said he and then minister Peter Dutton knew there were stress tests being done to see how the department would handle a crisis, but hadn’t seen a submission.
AAP reports the Australian National Audit Office revealed a submission on that testing had been written but it wasn’t sent up the chain.
Pezzullo said:
We did our job on the substance, we didn’t do our job on the paperwork.
Updated
Six Covid deaths in Queensland as 3,750 cases recorded
Six people have died with coronavirus in Queensland. The state recorded 3,750 new cases, and 514 people have been hospitalised.
Updated
Tasmania reports 408 Covid cases
Tasmania has recorded 408 new Covid cases, with 12 in hospital and one in intensive care.
Updated
Trade minister Dan Tehan warns Russia faces strong economic sanctions if it invades Ukraine. “We’ll have to play our part in that regard,” he says, according to AAP.
Earlier, treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the situation had reached a “dangerous juncture”.
Australia’s diplomatic staff have been evacuated from Kyiv and are in a temporary office in Lviv, closer to the Polish border, as the situation deteriorates.
The Guardian team is closely watching Senate estimates – Adam Morton is watching the environment department:
Officials project the Beetaloo gas basin in the NT (being developed, as yet undeveloped) will result in 4.9m tonnes of CO2 being emitted in Aus between 2025 and 2030.
— Adam Morton (@adamlmorton) February 13, 2022
(This doesn't count emissions from the gas being used O/S).#estimates
Updated
60 Minutes interview with PM 574,000 viewers metro last night. A lot less than last week’s Cleo special (750,000) - and sizeable drop from MAFS 961,000.
— Colin Vickery (@Colvick) February 13, 2022
Crown Resorts agrees to $9bn takeover by Blackstone
Crown Resorts paused trading this morning to announce it has agreed to a $9b takeover by Blackstone. Blackstone will acquire all of Crown’s shares for $13.10 each.
Crown chairman Ziggy Switkowski said that despite some uncertainty, the board believed the deal was “an attractive outcome for shareholders”.
More to come, but you can read Ben Butler’s piece here as background to the takeover bid:
Updated
Thousands of nurses in New South Wales will strike this week, AAP reports. The protest is part of an ongoing dispute over staff levels and pay.
The aged care workforce and pay are sure to be hot topics in Canberra this week as well.
Haven’t heard much from the protesters this morning (they were moved on over the weekend but vowed to return). But if you missed it, have a gander at Van Badham’s piece. It’s vaguely (read: specifically) terrifying:
Updated
Good morning. The House resumes at 10am today. This morning's private Members' business is scheduled to include the introduction of six bills and the moving of two motions. You can find the full program at: https://t.co/pWJxbQVHJK. pic.twitter.com/6Kuayty9PQ
— Australian House of Representatives (@AboutTheHouse) February 13, 2022
Environment #estimates told the Morrison government has spent more than $31m on the "making positive energy" advertising campaign arguing it is reducing emissions.
— Adam Morton (@adamlmorton) February 13, 2022
Here's @readfearn's look at the campaign last year.https://t.co/cz2Bb8Rd9f
Victoria reports two Covid deaths
Two deaths in Victoria over the past 24 hours, and 7,104 new Covid cases. Sixty-six people in intensive care, 18 on ventilators.
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) February 13, 2022
Our thoughts are with those in hospital, and the families of people who have lost their lives.
More data soon: https://t.co/OCCFTAtS1P…#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/jsoTorsoAj
Updated
NSW records 14 Covid deaths
In New South Wales, 14 people have died with Covid. 1,649 were hospitalised, and 100 are in intensive care:
NSW COVID-19 update – Monday 14 February 2022
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) February 13, 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 4pm yesterday:
- 95.6% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
- 94.2% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine pic.twitter.com/uGKo5jl0eg
Updated
Good morning all. It's an #estimates day today! https://t.co/e13twjjtwo
— Australian Senate (@AuSenate) February 13, 2022
Four committee hearings will get underway at 9am
Live: https://t.co/9Lgw5iXAcZ
Michael McGowan has taken a look at the weekend’s byelections:
“It is potentially going to be a real problem in a few years’ time.” Calla Wahlquist has written about living with cancer during the pandemic:
Updated
Politicians respond to Morrison 60 Minutes interview
Prime minister Scott Morrison’s 60 Minutes interview is hot on everyone’s lips this morning, with a fair bit of shade at the ukulele bit – I’ve heard half a dozen Labor doorstops or interviews this morning, and they’ve all had a go at the PM’s shaky rendition of April Sun In Cuba. Opposition leader Anthony Albanese told AM radio:
This government doesn’t have an agenda for parliament this week. I don’t know what we are dealing with this week. That’s why you have a prime minister who is engaged in pretending he’s a fighter pilot, or hair shampoo-er, or a racing car driver, or a ukulele player.
Morrison’s wife, Jenny, said she was “disappointed” at the reception former Australian of the Year Grace Tame gave them when she visited the Lodge last month.
Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce said he was at dinner last night and didn’t watch the interview but had seen some clips, and defended Jenny Morrison’s comments on Sunrise:
Jenny can say it but we can’t, but I agree with Jenny ... if you’re going to see the prime minister, you respect the office, if nothing else. You can still have your strong political opinions and [you’re] entitled to voice them, but I don’t think people roll with the theatrics.
Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon, appearing alongside Joyce, accused the PM of “desperation” in moving to “roll the family out” for the soft profile, but said he had no criticism for Jenny.
"Jenny can say it, but we can't"
— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) February 13, 2022
Deputy Prime Minister @Barnaby_Joyce says he "agrees" with Prime Minister Scott Morrison's wife's comments about former Australian of the Year, Grace Tame. pic.twitter.com/i5y6v5DMQ7
Liberal MP Tim Wilson told Sky News that Jenny Morrison had “the right to reflect on the manners of others” who are invited to visit their home.
Labor shadow minister Pat Conroy went on a tear at a doorstop, calling the Coalition “the dodgiest government in history”, claiming Australians “don’t want a prime minister who is interested in making curries and playing ukulele”.
But when we asked what he thought of the 60 Minutes interview, Conroy admitted he didn’t watch it, claiming he was “very happy watching something on another station”.
Earlier treasurer Josh Frydenberg, appearing on Radio National, admitted some of the results in the NSW byelections were “disappointing” for the Liberals.
When asked if the dramas around the Coalition at the national level had seeped through to the state election, Frydenberg conceded there had been “a difficult few months federally”, but sought to distance the Morrison government from the result.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Monday that the $1,080 low- and middle-income tax offset (LMITO) may not be extended this year, with fears over inflation. It was due to finish this year, but its possible extension for another year had been seen as a potential pre-election “sweetener”.
Frydenberg told RN that the government hadn’t yet made a decision on LMITO for the March budget, but declined to comment further on budget speculation.
Updated
Speaking of Boothby (held by retiring MP Nicolle Flint), independent candidate Jo Dyer writes this morning:
As disillusionment with the Morrison government grows in Coalition-held seats across the country, a new generation of independents is emerging.
Prime minister Scott Morrison was in South Australia yesterday, shoring up support in the marginal seat of Boothby.
Footage from a press conference shows him accidentally referring to Adelaide as a “shitty city”, but the official transcript this morning (on the announcement of the next leg of a transport corridor) reads:
This brings to completion the full financial commitment of the commonwealth government to this shcity [sic] city shaping. Got to be careful with that, this city shaping, I’m sure that’ll get a run.
Updated
More from that Frydenberg interview earlier:
"I'm hoping to win the election and I'm hoping to see Scott Morrison continue as Prime Minister... I've made no secret that [being PM] would be something I put my hand up for at the right time, but we're not looking at that time right now."
— RN Breakfast (@RNBreakfast) February 13, 2022
- @JoshFrydenberg, Treasurer
NSW treasurer Matt Kean is talking about the weekend’s byelection results. He says:
This wasn’t a referendum on the government ... these were four byelections that had unique issues in each of the seats.
He does concede that there are “huge threats” from independent candidates.
And he thinks the federal government should abandon its religious anti-discrimination legislation.
Updated
Calls for the Morrison government to make rapid antigen tests free for everyone have not subsided, Elias Visontay reports:
Frydenberg asked about possible axing of low-income tax offset
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is certainly doing the rounds this morning.
He’s on ABC television, where he’s again asked about the possible axing of the low-income tax offset. He’s asked if he realises it’s effectively a tax increase. He doesn’t “accept that characterisation”. He said:
The low- and middle-income tax off-set is not a permanent feature of the tax system. We’ve introduced it due to the particular economic circumstances of the time.
Updated
Here are the details on that ANU survey I mentioned earlier. Paul Karp writes:
The ANU’s Centre for Social Research and Methods found 34.5% of adult Australians had confidence or were “very confident” in the federal government, down from a peak of 60.6% in May 2020.
The result is only slightly higher than the low of 27.3% recorded during the 2019-20 bushfires.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has been on ABC radio this morning. Host Sabra Lane asked him about reports he was “a bit vanilla” (as far as I know, this is unrelated to the bread and milk questions that came up last week).
Albanese says he’s “very confident that our positive messages that we will put forward of a better future” and frustration at the current government will be voters’ focus.
He also has a push back at government attempts to portray him as a friend of China (Asio chief Mike Burgess will be up in Senate estimates this week, which will be interesting).
Updated
Did you watch the 60 Minutes episode on the Morrison family last night? Katharine Murphy did.
The teasers released last week sparked ridicule, but I’m sure a decent-sized audience would have tuned in to watch Karl Stefanovic chum up to the prime minister. Katharine Murphy isn’t convinced the show will solve prime minister Scott Morrison’s problems:
If you missed it over the weekend, there’s speculation beer taxes will be cut. Some have pointed out that’s quite blokey, as far more men enjoy beer than women. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg declines to blow the froth off that one.
Frydenberg says the Morrison government is getting the “big things” right. He points to the low unemployment rate and high vaccination rate as proof. He says there was “an understanding” the government would have more support on the floor of the house for the religious discrimination vote.
(That’s in the context of five Liberal MPs crossing the floor.)
On the NSW byelections, he says the situation “could be very different” by the time we get to the federal election. He cites international tensions, such as a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Straight to the national security button.)
On that tax offset mentioned below, he refuses to pre-empt the budget. But he does say that the situation has changed, that the government has brought forward other tax reform.
“We haven’t made a decision,” he says. Young women (24 and under) have been paying less tax, he says.
Updated
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is talking up tax cuts for women this morning, but there are also reports the government will axe a low-income tax offset for those who earn less than $126,000. (Those at the lower end save $1,080 on their tax bills.)
He’s on the ABC’s Radio National also talking about those weekend byelections and the latest Newspoll.
Updated
Good morning
What will be revealed in Senate estimates this week? Will Canberra see its own version of the Capitol invasion? Is Russia about to invade Ukraine? What do the NSW byelections mean for the federal election?
Will ukuleles, curries and his wife Jenny ensure prime minister Scott Morrison’s second coming?
So many questions as parliament resumes this week, just the second week for 2022 and the last before the pre-election budget.
And while there’s sure to be more talk about the religious discrimination bill, which floundered so spectacularly last week, the Senate isn’t sitting so it’s not going anywhere for now.
The results of the New South Wales weekend byelection are still being counted and will be seen either as a reflection of the federal government’s actions or an indication of the trouble stirring for all incumbent governments.
Today’s Newspoll shows very little shift for either major party, despite the Coalition’s turbulent week last week. But the Coalition was already in pretty poor shape, with a primary vote of 34%, and a two-party-preferred of 45% to Labor’s 55%.
The news for the government in the latest Australian National University survey is less reassuring – only about one in three Australians have confidence in the Morrison government.
That’s the lowest approval since the bushfires a year ago.
More scenes from the “freedom” motley crew over the weekend. Morrison said he “understood” the protestors in Canberra, who continue to camp out and threaten chaos, while there are various reports of illnesses spreading through the group.
And shortly we’ll hear from treasurer Josh Frydenberg – newspapers this morning are reporting that the federal government might axe the low-income tax offset as it tries to claw back budget deficits.
Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Josh Butler, Daniel Hurst and Paul Karp will be your guides this week. Mike Bowers will be out there, snapping all the action.
Updated
