That's it for today, thanks for reading
Here are the main stories on Thursday, 28 July:
- Australia’s inflation rate to peak at 7.75% in December quarter, economic update predicts;
- The Australian National Audit Office releases a blistering report on the Coalition’s handling of the Building Better Regions Fund;
- The Albanese government drops a controversial high court case that sought to restore the commonwealth’s power to deport Aboriginal non-citizens;
- The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, requests a review of the laws that led to the prosecutions of Bernard Collaery and Witness J after a scathing report;
- Monkeypox is declared disease of ‘national significance’ in Australia
- The minister for the NDIS, Bill Shorten, says a royal commission into robodebt is set to start this year;
- Australia records at least 125 Covid deaths; and
- The government introduces paid family and domestic violence leave legislation.
Enjoy the rest of your evening, we’ll see you back here tomorrow morning.
The shadow attorney general, Julian Leeser, has responded to the government’s decision to drop an appeal seeking to restore power to deport Aboriginal non-citizens.
Leeser said:
Attorney general Mark Dreyfus has withdrawn the federal government’s high court appeal in minister for immigration v Montgomery. Mr Dreyfus must explain to the Australian people why he felt the need to intervene when the case had been heard and the high court had reserved its judgement in Montgomery. Does he not trust the high court to interpret the constitution?
After his unprecedented intervention to discontinue the prosecution of Bernard Collaery who was charged with serious national security offences, Mr Dreyfus must explain why he is intervening in yet another case before the courts which could have helped to clarify the operation of Australia’s migration law. Mr Dreyfus has not even been attorney general for 100 days and yet he has interfered in two cases before the courts. How can the first law officer have so little faith in our justice system?
Updated
New infrastructure minister condemns Coalition running of Building Better Regions Fund
Further to the audit office’s blistering report on the Coalition’s handling of the Building Better Regions Fund, new infrastructure minister Catherine King has promised change in how Labor would manage such grants programs.
In a statement, King called the auditor general’s assessment “scathing”, adding:
It confirms what we already suspected: that the former government actively ignored grant guidelines and, in the process, dudded hard working regional Australians.
Over five rounds of the program, 65% of infrastructure grants went to projects that were not assessed as having the most merit. Former Coalition ministers made decisions on the basis of ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ criteria that weren’t fully explained to those applying for grants. They did not keep proper records of decisions.
King claimed the former government had made “decisions to ignore the merit list” of the infrastructure department, which gave major benefits to Nationals-held seats. She said:
Those seats got $104m more – 29% – than if the proper processes had been followed.
King said she was already working on a new strategic regional investment framework, promising decisions which are “evidence-based, coordinated, and transparent” and saying that the government would have “more to say on this in the months ahead”.
Updated
In which Angus Taylor repeatedly calls the new deputy speaker Sharon Claydon “Mr Speaker”:
Angus Taylor gets pulled up by the Deputy Speaker for referring to her as "Mr Speaker", and then immediately calls her Mr Speaker again — four times. 🤦♂️ #auspol #qt pic.twitter.com/0vswezim5B
— Colin Tucker (@colintucker) July 28, 2022
Claydon interjected to say Taylor has called her Mr Speaker on about a dozen occasions. She said:
I was loathe to interrupt you, but you have called me Mr Speaker on at least a dozen occasions. My title is deputy speaker. I don’t need a Mr, a Mrs, a Madam, it’s just deputy speaker.
Taylor agrees that he “will go with deputy speaker”, thanks Claydon, makes a joke about how she would have made a great speaker, and then promptly continues speaking with: “But, Mr Speaker”. He then calls her Mr Speaker three more times.
Once Taylor took his seat, Claydon remarked:
You’re just going to have to dump the Mr Speaker when I’m in the chair, OK?
Updated
Man accused of planning foreign interference to stand trial
This report on the committal hearing of a Chinese community leader is just in from AAP:
A Chinese community leader accused of planning foreign interference has been committed to stand trial in Victoria’s County Court.
Prosecutors allege Di Sanh Duong, 67, made a $37,000 donation to the Royal Melbourne hospital in 2020 as a way to interfere with former federal minister Alan Tudge on behalf of the Chinese Communist party.
His defence argued the donation was merely a way for the Chinese Australian community to show they cared during the COVID-19 pandemic in light of anti-Chinese sentiment.
But Melbourne magistrate Susan Wakeling on Thursday found there was sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial in the County Court.
Duong formally pleaded not guilty to a charge of intentionally engaging in conduct with the intention of preparing for, or planning, foreign interference.
Duong was charged in November 2020 following a joint investigation between the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
The 67-year-old, who was the Liberal candidate for the seat of Richmond in the 1996 Victorian election, is the first person charged under Australia’s foreign interference laws.
Duong resigned from the Liberal Party following the charges.
The 67-year-old’s bail was extended to August 25 when he will appear at the County Court for a directions hearing.
As part of his bail conditions, Duong is not allowed to leave Australia or contact a consulate, embassy, foreign intelligence agency or an elected official.
Updated
Pocock criticises Manly jersey decision
Independent senator David Pocock has criticised the “devastating” decision of seven Manly players to boycott wearing their club’s pride-themed jersey, AAP reports.
The former Wallabies captain acknowledged the Sea Eagles were taking a step forward by wearing the jersey in their NRL match against Sydney Roosters on Thursday night, but said the boycott highlighted how far society still has to move on inclusivity.
“Sport is at its best when it’s challenging society to be more inclusive,” Pocock told the Conversation.
“We’ve seen that through history when sport has been courageous ... we can actually create a space that is more inclusive, that people can come and be who they are regardless of the colour of their skin or their sexuality.
“This is not doing that. [It’s] really disappointing and it’s going to be devastating for a number of probably mostly young people and some older people who are gay, and love their rugby league, to see players take this sort of stand.
“We’re dealing with real people here.”
Pocock, who played for the Wallabies 78 times between 2008 and 2019, said the fact that LGBTQI+ sportsmen remained uncomfortable about addressing their sexuality across Australia’s major football codes showed society had failed those people.
“Statistically you look at all of the contact sport codes in Australia, I don’t know of any openly gay players, but statistically they are there,” he said.
“Clearly we’ve got a long way to go in breaking down those prejudices and the homophobia that is in society.
“It shouldn’t be up to gay players to put themselves out there and try and push for a more inclusive society, it’s on all of us.
“It’s on the sports, it’s on the teams to create environments where people can be themselves.”
Updated
Paid domestic violence leave for casuals 'sets precedent', employer groups warn
Earlier today, the workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, introduced a bill to create 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave, including for 2.6m casuals.
Employer groups have warned the bill goes further than the proposal of the Fair Work Commission to add paid leave to modern awards.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO, Andrew McKellar, told Guardian Australia the inclusion of casuals is “the one aspect I would express caution on”. McKellar said the legislation should “codify what the commission granted”, warning that giving leave rights to casuals was “breaking new ground” and “sets a precedent”.
The Australian Industry Group chief executive, Innes Willox, warned it was a “significant departure” from what FWC had proposed. He noted the commission proposed workers be paid at their base rate of pay – but Labor’s bill pays them according to their normal working pattern (including overtime, shifts penalties etc).
Willox said:
This bill will be much more costly for employers than the approach proposed by the Commission and there are significant questions about how the rate of pay that must be provided to an employee could even be calculated in practice.
The reason this is significant is that shadow workplace relations minister, Michaelia Cash, said she supports the FWC model. The Coalition hasn’t determined its final position, but the fact Labor has departed from the FWC model, and employer opposition gives them a pathway to oppose it.
Still, Labor can pass the bill with the Greens and David Pocock or Jacqui Lambie.
Updated
Scathing audit of $1.15bn regional fund finds grants favoured Coalition seats
The national audit office has published a scathing report on the Coalition’s handling of the $1.15bn Building Better Regions Fund, saying Nationals electorates were awarded far more money than they would have been under a merit-based process while Liberal seats got twice as many grants as Labor seats.
The Australian National Audit Office’s latest report, released Thursday afternoon, said that compared with Labor, Liberal seats “received twice as many grants per electorate” under the regional grants program – between $1.6m and $3.1m more.
Nearly two-thirds of projects funded were not those assessed by the department as the most meritorious, with the audit office saying there were a “number of deficiencies” in the program including not enough transparency over the members of the decision-making panel and the amount of discretion members had to fund programs that didn’t meet funding criteria.
The audit office said:
Funding decisions were not appropriately informed by departmental advice, and the basis for the funding decisions has not been appropriately documented.
As the program has progressed through the first five rounds, there has been an increasing disconnect between the assessment results against the published merit criteria and the applications approved for funding under the infrastructure projects stream.
Infrastructure minister Catherine King has been scathing of the program’s handling by the Coalition for some time, last year referring to it as a “taxpayer fund shamelessly hijacked by [then-infrastructure minister] Barnaby Joyce.”
We’re expecting a statement from King shortly.
Updated
'It should never happen again': report excoriates 'secret' federal criminal prosecution
We just mentioned that attorney general Mark Dreyfus has announced a review of the laws governing the way sensitive national security information is dealt with in Australia.
He did that following a report by the independent watchdog of national security information laws, tabled on Thursday.
The report examined the use of the laws in a case that shocked lawyers and human rights experts in 2019, the prosecution of a former intelligence officer known as Witness J, or Alan Johns.
His prosecution and imprisonment were conducted in near total secrecy.
The fact that he was imprisoned was only revealed publicly almost by accident, through civil proceedings he brought against the Australian Capital Territory jail where he had been detained.
The secrecy was enforced through the National Security Information Act, which has also been used in the cases of Bernard Collaery, Witness K and David McBride.
The Independent National Security Legislation Monitor’s final report made a series of recommendations to overhaul the NSI Act. It found:
Alan Johns shows how s 22 [of the NSI Act] can be used to conduct a federal criminal prosecution in ‘secret’ from start to finish and to maintain this secrecy, seemingly, indefinitely. This should not have happened in Alan Johns and it should never happen again.
The report identified four aspects of the case that were unusual and one which was “unprecedented”. The unprecedented aspect of the case, the report found, was that no sentencing remarks were ever released publicly.
Remarkably, the report found there was nothing stopping the “vast majority” of the sentencing remarks from being published.
In 2019, the then watchdog of national security laws, James Renwick, said the secrecy around the Alan Johns prosecution was unprecedented and ought never be repeated. He said:
As far as we know there has never been another case, at least in peacetime in Australia, where all of it has been conducted in secret. That is something significant and different, and for my part, I would not like to see it repeated.
Renwick initiated the inquiry in 2020.
Updated
Hope you’re all hungry, looks like the audit office may have just cracked open a few more barrels of pork.
the audit office has published a scathing report on Coalition's handling of the Building Better Regions Fund - Nationals electorates awarded far more $ than they would have under a merit-based process, Liberal electorates got twice as many grants as Labor https://t.co/IGWOq7xuAc pic.twitter.com/dfmI259jiM
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) July 28, 2022
There’s been a lot of inflation chatter about today, and this piece sums it all up nicely:
Just a reminder that we have answered plenty of questions about parliament (including some you may have been too embarrassed to ask) right over here:
Dreyfus requests review of laws that led to Collaery, Witness J prosecutions
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has asked the National Security Legislation Monitor to review the National Security Information Act, which has been used in the recent prosecutions of Bernard Collaery and Witness J.
The monitor, Grant Donaldson SC, recently completed a report on the application of the act in the case of Witness J, who also goes by the pseudonym Alan Johns. The report was tabled in parliament on Thursday.
The government is considering its response to the recommendations of that report.
But Dreyfus said in a statement that he would be requesting the entire act be reviewed by Donaldson. He said:
Today I asked the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor (INSLM), Grant Donaldson SC, to conduct a review into the National Security Information (Criminal and Civil Proceedings) Act 2004 (NSI Act).
This reference responds to the INSLM’s report of the NSI’s application in the ‘Alan Johns’ matter, tabled today in Parliament.
The whole of the NSI Act will now be referred to the INSLM for review. This is supported by Mr Donaldson who agrees that a review of the Act is beneficial.
The review will consider how the Commonwealth can better balance the vital importance of open justice with the essential need to protect national security.
I appreciate Mr Donaldson’s valuable work providing independent oversight of Australia’s national security legislation.
The Government is committed to ensuring that the appropriate laws are in place to ensure the proper administration of justice and protect national security information.
Labor drops controversial high court case
The Albanese government is dropping a controversial high court case that sought to restore the commonwealth’s power to deport Aboriginal non-citizens.
The decision by the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, will guarantee that a dozen Aboriginal non-citizens at risk of deportation will be able to stay in Australia. Dreyfus’s decision also quashes the former Coalition government’s attempt to overturn the landmark precedent of Love and Thoms.
In February 2020, the high court ruled that Aboriginal people cannot be aliens, putting them beyond the reach of the immigration minister’s powers to detain and deport non-citizens.
The full story is here:
Updated
There she goes, Amy Remeikis everyone! How does she do it?!
The first week of the first sitting is almost over – but there will be plenty more coming next week.
Nino Bucci is going to guide you through the rest of the afternoon while I work on a quick review of the week (you can catch that tomorrow) so stay tuned – Nino will make sure you don’t miss anything.
Mike Bowers is still out and about and the Guardian team led by Katharine Murphy – Paul Karp, Josh Butler and Tory Shepherd are still all madly beavering away.
I’ll be back on the blog early Monday morning – until then, take care of you.
Updated
Here is a bit more from Mike Bowers:
Dan Tehan is booted from question time.
Linda Burney makes (even more) history.
Peter Dutton confers with the manager of opposition business, Paul Fletcher.
Amanda Rishworth, the minister for social services, takes the despatch box.
Updated
Legislated paid leave welcome but doesn’t solve ‘poverty trap’, advocates say
Anti-Poverty Week’s executive director, Toni Wren, has welcomed the legislation to provide 10 days’ paid leave to domestic violence survivors.
However, she says it doesn’t solve the “poverty trap”.
Poverty is a barrier to women leaving abusive situations, and not all women will be working and therefore able to take advantage of paid leave.
Most of them will rely on the “inadequate income support system”, she said.
Wren called on the federal government to include solutions for women’s poverty and homelessness when it finalises its national plan to prevent violence against women and children 2022-32.
Updated
Moreton Labor MP Graham Perrett was the first person booted from question time under 94A by Labor speaker and fellow Queenslander (and electorate neighbour) Milton Dick.
Mike Bowers was there to catch the auspicious moment.
Updated
For those asking, when Marion Scrymgour asked Linda Burney a question, it was the first time an Indigenous woman had asked a question of another Indigenous woman in the House of Representatives.
Updated
Labor’s Julian Hill calls for Assange extradition to be blocked and charges dropped
Labor MP Julian Hill has reiterated his calls for Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States to be blocked by the United Kingdom, and for his espionage charges to be dropped.
In a video released alongside an Assange rally outside Parliament House on Thursday, Hill, the member for Bruce, noted that the case was tricky, and said the Australian government was constrained from doing more because the Wikileaks founder had not accepted consular assistance.
The independent MPs Andrew Wilkie and Monique Ryan, the Liberal MP Bridget Archer, and Greens senators Jordon Steele-John, David Shoebridge and Peter Whish-Wilson addressed the rally, asking the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to take action. Hill did not attend the rally in-person, but excerpts of an interview he conducted with online outlet Consortium News were played at the event.
Hill said reports of the conditions of Assange’s incarceration and physical health were “horribly concerning”.
He said it was “entirely appropriate” that Australians keep protesting for Assange’s freedom, but also backed Albanese’s stance of “quiet diplomacy” to resolve the matter. Hill said the PM had made clear “internally and externally” his position that the Assange process should come to an end.
Resolving it is not fully in our power.
Updated
Question time ends
And on that note of mostly unity, question time ends.
There is an acknowledgement and a wish of good luck for Australia’s athletes at the Commonwealth Games and the chamber then moves on.
Updated
Which leads to Peter Dutton saying this:
I wanted to join in support of the comments – the opening comments of the minister for defence. Not the flourish at the end, obviously, but this is an issue that’s incredibly important for our country, for our region, it’s important for us to have the strongest possible relationship with our allies, not just the United States and the United Kingdom, but with India, Japan, and others in the region, and we’ll support whatever action the government takes to take the decisions to keep our country safe in a very uncertain world.
Updated
Marles: Albanese government commited to standing up for Australia’s national interests
The defence minister, Richard Marles takes a dixer on national security challenges and says:
Australia is facing the most complex set of strategic circumstances we have since the end of the second world war.
The global rules-based order that Australia helped build from Bretton Woods onwards and the United States has helped to protect is under more pressure and strain now than at any point since the end of the second world war.
The appalling invasion of Ukraine by Russia, a large country seeking to impose itself on a smaller neighbour, through might and power is an example.
The UN convention on the law of the sea, freedom of navigation is also under strain.
As China seeks to shape the world around it, this raises issues for Australia, not least because China is our largest trading partner. And we value a productive relationship with China and we want to see that relationship in the better place.
But while the Australian government has changed our national interests have now and the Albanese government is committed to standing up for Australia’s national interest, particularly when that differs from the actions of other countries, includes China. It’s a time to be working with like minded countries, with our friends.
Which is why it was so important the prime minister attend the meeting of the Quad, even though this occurred immediately after the last election, and indeed the prime minister’s presence there was very profound.
Since then I have visited every member of the Quad, Japan, India and the United States. What is apparent in each of our bilateral relationships with these countries [is] there’s never been a greater degree of strategic purpose.
There’s never been more closeness in our relationship including defence co-operation. So that combined with repairing our relationships with Asean, rebuilding our relationships with the Pacific island countries, makes it clear under this government Australia is back at the table of the international community of nations.
And this stands for stark contrast to the government that was led by those opposite over nine years who did nothing other than shout at the world. Strategic policy, foreign policy, it’s not a fundamentalist space. We will engage with sense and with intelligence and precisely because of that Australians will be safer.
Updated
King: best way to handle foot-and-mouth disease is to help Indonesia get outbreak under control
Independent Helen Haines to Catherine King (in her capacity as minister for transport and regional development, presumably):
Indi is sheep and cattle country. If foot-and-mouth disease hits Australia the cost to our community will be devastating and the people of Indi are worried. Having grown up on a dairy farm and as someone who still runs beef cattle, I feel this fear too. What are the next steps to strengthen Australia’s biosecurity response and when would the government take those steps?
King:
Thanks very much. And I thank the member for Indi for her question.
I know like all of us who represent regional communities in this place we’re extremely concerned about the risk of foot and mouth disease entering this country. It is ... a concern the Australian government is taking very seriously.
It’s why we have put the toughest biosecurity measures the country has ever seen in place. I do thank the member for Indi who attended the backbench briefing provided by senator Watt, the minister yesterday, and for the chief vet. And her staff coming along as well.
It’s an important part ensuring we all do our part in making sure messages are getting out, whether you’re in a regional seat like my own, or you’re in another seat, you have people travelling to Indonesia and Bali, you’re all getting consistent messages out.
The Australian government has put in place these tough biosecurity measures and they include measures in Indonesia which I outlined to the house yesterday, and measures here in country.
But of course we are monitoring the situation closely every single hour, every single day.
We continue to take advice from the biosecurity experts in relation to any further measures that are needed. We do know that we need to continue working very closely with our Indonesian counterparts.
It is in our national interest that Indonesia gets on top of that.
Our embassy in Jakarta is working and engaging with Indonesia at the highest levels and of course we’ve continuing to offer both financial and technical assistance in that. But of course, the very best way – the very best way to ensure that FMD does not come to Australia is to assist Indonesia to get that outbreak under control. And we’re committed to doing everything we can to protect this important Australian industry.
Updated
Royal commission into robodebt imminent, says Bill Shorten
Bill Shorten takes a dixer on the proposed royal commission into robodebt and it includes this on what potential questions could be asked – which gives a hint as to who could be called.
I work with my colleagues, the attorney general and the minister for social services. The terms of reference will likely go to who was responsible for the design, development, and establishment of the scheme.
- What questions were ever asked about its legality?
- What risks were identified?
- Why were the volume of complaints and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal decisions ignored for four and a half years?
This royal commission will start most likely in the last quarter of this year. Hopefully it will be concluded in the first six months of next year.
We’re finalising the personnel.
But let us be very clear to the people of Australia – if we don’t learn from the mistakes which the previous government has never owned up to, then we can make them again. It’s the very least that we owe to the nearly half a million of our fellow Australians who were illegally attacked by their own government.
Updated
Wells: 869 more nurses required to fulfil government commitment to 24/7 nursing in aged care
Sussan Ley to Anika Wells:
My question is to the minister for aged care and sport. I refer the minister to her previous answer and I ask what is the number of additional nurses needed to fulfil the government’s commitment to have 24/7 nursing in aged care?
Wells:
869.
Points to the staffer who tracked down that number in those intervening three minutes.
Updated
Anika Wells did not actually provide a number there though.
Updated
Wells: by 1 July next year 24/7 nurses in aged care will be available
The new member for Hughes, Liberal Jenny Ware to Anika Wells:
My question is to the minister for aged care and sport: How many additional nurses are needed to fulfil the government’s commitment to have 24/7 nursing in aged care by 2023?
Wells:
I thank the member for Hughes for her question and I congratulate her on her first speech in the house yesterday and I welcome her to this place.
With respect to the question of 24/7 nurses I was so pleased to get to be the minister to introduce that in the House yesterday morning.
There were many people from this side of the house yesterday morning witnessing the very first bill through the house in this 47th parliament, to be one to get to the work of reforming aged care, something neglected for nine very long years.
Like the minister for the environment, in just nine weeks in the first 100 days, we’re going to deliver 17 and two, 19 recommendations of the royal commission, compared to only nine in 17 months of the previous government.
Nine in 17 months, compared to 19 in the first 100 days. One of those goes to 24/7 nurses. If that’s the member for Page, are you coming for me on that?
The member for Page, Kevin Hogan:
Relevance. I ask the minister, maybe Google it, it’s a number. The answer to that question is a number.
There is no point of order.
Wells:
We estimate that 80% of the facilities around Australia fulfil or nearly fulfil that requirement. We are focused on the 20% of facilities not fulfilling the 24/7 nursing requirement.
We need to lift up a standard of care across the country that was neglected for nine years during the previous government and I note this newfound interest in 24/7 nurses they could not find within themselves to support in the Senate in the previous government, in the 46th parliament.
This bill that we put through the House yesterday morning would have gone through, but for their inability to support 24/7 nurses.
So now you look to me to ask how I’m going to deliver something that you could not do yourselves. Despite the fact that in the Senate, they had the ability in budget week ... in the dying days of the Morrison government, one of the very last things they could have done was legislate 24/7 nurses for older Australians across the country, but you didn’t.
You didn’t. So now we will.
In the first 100 days we have commenced that legislative process. We’re working with providers to make sure that everyone will have those nurses that come 1 July next year, every single older Australian knows they have access to a nurse when they need it, in their facility, across the country.
We’ll do that in tandem with our friends in the industrial movement helping us move forward, in the providers’ association, working with us to make sure that people in regional and rural areas, people in remote areas, can access nurses, have the support they need to do that.
I’m pleased and proud this side of the House understands the importance of that. I’m heartened by the question. It suggests there may have been a turnaround in your approach, but I note we wouldn’t be in this position if you had done anything in the past nine years to take aged care seriously.
Updated
Mark Butler gets a dixer and Luke Howarth (another Queenslander) gets onto his feet again to make a point of order.
Speaker Milton Dick:
The member for Petrie, you’re continually raising wrong points of order.
Howarth is sat down.
Updated
Albanese: Labor’s powering Australia plan will provide ‘investment certainty’
We go from that historic moment and a call for unity to ... whatever this is.
Ted O’Brien: My question goes to the prime minister: You promised a $275 decrease in household power bills. Will you guarantee to the House that Australian families will see that $275 cut?
Anthony Albanese:
Which goes to the commitment that Labor has through our powering Australia plan. It is indeed ... it is indeed a comprehensive plan that was fully modelled by Reputex. They looked at the full suite of policies we have, including fixing transmission in this country, bringing it through to the 21st century, through our plan to rewire the nation.
That was in my first budget reply and that will be the most significant element in terms of – in terms of the changes that will occur.
It wasn’t just of course something we came up with.
It’s based upon the integrated systems plan of the Australian Energy Market Operator. It’s been out there for such a long period of time, we need to with the rise of renewable energy to make sure we can connect up to the grid so that Australians can benefit from it.
... What we’ve got from those opposite when it comes to energy prices of course, as – it’s about energy prices.
Milton Dick:
Manager of Opposition Business. Remember, I told you, wait till you get the call and then you can start speaking. Order. The member for McEwen.
Rob Mitchell:
It is a very simple question, will you guarantee to the House that Australian families will see the $275 cut.
Milton Dick:
Member for Page, I don’t need any assistance from the cheap seats next to me. The prime minister was asked about a question about his commitment regarding a $275 decrease in household power. He was referring to the policy announcement. I call the prime minister.
Albanese:
Thanks very much, Mr Speaker. I was referring to our powering Australia plan. I can understand how those opposite are confused by this. Because we actually had a plan. Those opposite ... had a pamphlet ... It was their 22nd pamphlet they had. We have a comprehensive plan...
Milton Dick:
The Shadow treasurer will cease interjecting.
Albanese:
... we’ve a comprehensive plan which is backed by the business council of Australia, backed by the Australian Industry Group, backed by the Australian Chamber of Commerce, backed by the Clean Energy Council, backed by the Australian Conservation Foundation, backed by Greenpeace, backed by the Australian Council of Trade Unions. What every single one of those organisations is saying - is that business needs the investment certainty that they haven’t had for a decade. For a decade.
Milton Dick:
The prime minister will just resume his seat. The leader of the opposition, we’ve had one question, one standing order moved about relevance. What’s your point of order.
Dutton:
This is the most tortured answer.
Dick:
The answer is no. Resume your seat.
...The leader of the opposition will resume his seat. The leader of the opposition will cease interjecting. I want to be clear on this point. There’s one point of order made on relevance. I will not tolerate the standing orders being abused.
Albanese:
It’s only day two of question time and it’s the second best day they’ll have.
(Dutton interjects, warning of “hubris”, but Albanese continues)
...Because ... it doesn’t get better. The truth is those opposite sat on the information knowing that energy prices would go up in July, not only did they sit on it, they refused to tell the Australian people. They knew that was baked in to the wholesale prices and they refused to tell them.
Updated
Linda Burney on the Uluru Statement from the Heart: ‘history is calling’
The member for Lingiari, Marion Scrymgour – an Aboriginal woman, whose mother was stolen from the Tiwi Islands and who has connections to Central Australia through her father, a member of the Stolen Generation – has asked the minister for Indigenous Australians, Wiradjuri nation member Linda Burney – who did not meet her father and his side of the family until she was 28 years old – a question in the House of Representatives.
It’s an historic moment.
Scrymgour:
My question is to the minister for indigenous Australians: How is the Australian government delivering the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and in particular, progressing an Indigenous voice to parliament in the constitution?
Burney:
I thank the member for Lingiari for her question and congratulate her on her very powerful speech last night. And I want people in this chamber to note the history is made ... right now with the member for Lingiari asking me this question.
Mr Speaker, history is calling us all. The Australian government is committed – as the prime minister just said – to implementing the Uluru statement in full.
We will hold a referendum to enshrine a First Nations voice in the constitution this term of parliament. The oldest continuous cultures in the world, something that is a gift to all of us.
Despite inhabiting this land for more than 60,000 years we have no place in the founding legal document. It is a glaring omission. This is not a radical proposal. It is fair and it is practical. It is about growing our nation up together.
It’s about unity. It’s about hope. It’s about consulting, as the prime minister has just said, Aboriginal and Torres Strait People about laws and policies that affect us. And it is about delivering practical outcomes.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create lasting change. It is one shot in the locker.
Every Australian will have the chance to answer the Uluru Statement’s patient call, and I invite them to do so. Uluru was five years ago. Since then there’s been consideration by constitutional experts, First Nations leaders, and parliamentary committees.
I believe Australians are ready to take the next step. I want to acknowledge the shadow minister and ... goodwill and involvement in the discussions we’ve had.
I’m encouraged by the in-principle support of all state and territory leaders, including premier Perrottet from New South Wales and premier Rockliff from Tasmania.
I invite all the members of this place to join us on this journey. This is an issue that does not belong to either side of politics. It is about building a better future.
Mr Speaker, history is calling us. Australians believe in decency. And I say to those on the other side, get onto the station, we want you to be on the train with us.
Updated
One of the blog’s readers in the chamber has just told me there has been at least one instance of a Coalition MP heckling Labor hecklers with “take off your mask, we can’t hear you”.
So things are going great.
Steggall: Will Labor invest in conservation of heritage sites around Sydney Harbour?
Zali Steggall to Tanya Plibersek:
Congratulations, and thank you for visiting me with me the Sydney Harbour federation sites in Warringah, iconic places from the North Head sanctuary to Mosman Park, ancestral Indigenous sites and the military map rooms and tunnels where the defence of Sydney was planned.
But these sites need to be valued and they’re falling into disrepair. Will you invest in the conservation of these sites?
Plibersek:
I want to thank the member for Warringah for her question and I want to thank her for going with me and also with the member for North Sydney to see some of these beautiful special places on Sydney Harbour. We are honoured and as is the prime minister, as is the member for Wentworth, honoured ... to represent these areas surrounding our beautiful Sydney harbour here in the national parliament.
Sydney Harbour has deep history. 65,000 years of history. Stories told so well by Aboriginal tour groups like Tribal Warrior that sail around the harbour showing tourists the history of the place.
(Tribal Warrior is the name of a local Redfern tour group, by the way).
As the member for Warringah said, we’ve got military history, convict history, maritime and industrial history and of course the beautiful natural environment, the incredible diversity, biodiversity under the waters of Sydney Harbour, protected and restored so well by the Sydney Institute of Marine Science.
I’m excited, as the member for Warringah is and as I know the member for North Sydney is, about two really exciting masterplans that are being developed at the moment by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, managing the land of Cockatoo Island and the North Head sanctuary.
The member for Warringah is quite right, these areas have been run down in it recent years and neglected by those opposite. I know the prime minister has a special interest in his, because Cockatoo Island is part of his area.
He was profoundly influenced by his mentor and my friend Tom Uren. He was a man who took up the lesson of Neils Nielsen, who thought that every Australian, every Sydneysider, should have access to the properties around our harbour, to the beaches and the foreshore and the built environment and the natural environment.
That’s the principle that we will always use when they’re considering how we best protect, restore, and maintain these precious sites.
Updated
On the the missing 448GL of water promised for South Australia
Earlier, the Mayo MP Rebekha Sharkie - whose electorate covers the mouth of the river Murray, and other areas that depend on environmental flows - asked the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, about the 450 gigalitres of environmental water promised under the Murray Darling Basin Plan (MDBP).
It’s a hot topic at the moment, because those interested in the MDBP are eagerly awaiting the water for the environment special account report. It’s overdue and expected to be tabled next week, and will outline just how tricky it will be to deliver the 450GL.
That water is often referred to as water for South Australia, because it’s critical to the health of that end of the river system. But it’s important to point out that the system works as a whole, and if there isn’t enough environmental water, the whole system suffers – and that includes habitats and species.
Plibersek was emphatic about the federal government’s intention to deliver the 450GL, but she’s also pretty upfront that it’s going to be hard to meet the 2024 deadline.
Earlier today she said all options (including potentially stretching that deadline) were on the table. She told Sky News:
It’s an option that I’m looking at, but I’d prefer to get there in the time and that’s why we’re being very ambitious with the options we’re looking at.
Every option is on the table to get to that target. But can I say in almost a decade, the previous government returned two of those 450GL for environmental uses, for South Australia in particular. So in almost ten years the previous government got two gigalitres out of 450 that they promised. We’ve got a 2024 deadline to get the other 448GL. It’s challenging. I’m not going to pretend it’s not.
The Greens water spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young, said it was a “colossal task” but that rather than delaying the water, it should be bought. She said:
Anything that pushes back SA and the river Murray getting the water that was promised of course is a breach of what was committed to.
Before we jump the shark and start delaying the water for the river and for SA, we need to use the tools that are already in the toolkit, and that’s voluntary buybacks.
Plibersek did say she’d already contracted 2GL, pointing out that she’d done that in two months, and it was as much as the former government had secured in almost a decade.
Updated
A question from Angus Taylor about cost of living
Angus Taylor to Jim Chalmers:
My question is to the treasurer: Today the treasurer told us he painted a picture. How much will painting that picture reduce the prices of the essential goods and services Australians are buying every day?
Chalmers:
Yes, thanks very much, Mr Speaker. Look, I want to begin this answer ... with a bit of advice for the member for Hume. That’s to the member of Hume, when these geniuses write you a question when has something to do with energy prices, you should say no thanks, thanks but no thanks.
Mate, I would be happy if you asked me 11 questions a day about the energy market.
Because every single member of this House knows, and the people of Australia know, that you as the energy minister, the member for Hume as the energy minister is more responsible than anyone for the last decade of policy failures that have driven up the price of energy.
If the member wants to ask about the cost of inflation, he should fess up to the fact he knew before the election that energy prices would go up 20 per cent.
This is the equivalent of the arsonist whinging about the firefighters taking too long. Those asking us about inflation when their record is almost a decade now of making all of the problems in our economy worse rather than better. It takes a lot of nerve to ask a question about the cost of living.
The member for Hume, he wants to talk about his record earlier on today. The member for Hume wrecked the energy market, he rorted the budget, and now he wants to get his hands on the Australian economy.
There is of course a point of order attempt (understandably as this does not address the question) but Chalmers has concluded his answer.
(As a quick reminder, did you know the Coalition delayed news about power price rises until after the election?)
Updated
For those asking about masks, some in the Coalition are wearing them (sort of)
Good (?) to see @M_McCormackMP is periodically taking his mask off to shout interjects at some junctures and then periodically shouting (muffled) from behind the fabric. He’s mixing it up
— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) July 28, 2022
Albanese: government is taking foot-and-mouth disease response ‘very seriously’
Looks like the “more respectful” parliament is already a thing of the past.
David Littleproud to Anthony Albanese:
Given that foot and mouth disease will cost the Australian economy $80 billion and hit everyday family budgets for milk and meat, does the Prime Minister agree with Labor agriculture minister Alannah MacTiernan’s statement that FMD won’t be catastrophic and milk and meat will be cheaper?
(MacTiernan is the WA agriculture minister and her comments, according to the West Australian newspaper were:“it would not be catastrophic” and that “some people might argue it might actually make (animal products) cheaper because there’ll be more of it available domestically”)
Albanese:
I thank the Leader of The Nationals for his question. I congratulate him on his election to high office. It must difficult to follow the member for New England in your position but I wish you well.
I wish you well.
I was aware of FMD and I’m accountable to what happens in this place of course.
I was made aware by a tweet on 9 May, 2022 ... And that tweet said that this morning chief veterinary officer briefed me about foot and mouth disease and its presence in Indonesia.
There it was, May 9, 2022. You would have expected the person who got that information to have acted, to not be ... in a position to then subsequently [do something] ... to what happens down the track. To look back and say ... People didn’t act early. I heard that yesterday. I heard him say people didn’t act earlier.
But the tweet was in fact from David Littleproud, MP ... so, on 9 May ... he was alert to the issue.
There is a point of order from a very angry Nationals MP:
The question went - the point of order is relevance. This question went quite specifically to Alannah MacTiernan’s very irresponsible statements. And the prime minister needs to address the comments she made... .
There is no point of order.
Albanese:
I am indeed taking the issue seriously. And the government is taking the issue seriously. What we won’t take seriously is someone who says, oh, why didn’t you act earlier, when he was the minister who rang the bell and said this is happening on 9 May and then said, oh ... why didn’t you act earlier? ...
They talk about foot and mouth disease... people coming in, where their shoes have been checked off enough, this is the same mob that let the Ruby Princess come in, a bit more noticeable than a pair of shoes was docked at Sydney Harbour, everyone got off and brought Covid here.
That was on your watch after you said you stopped the Ruby Princess coming in. After you said we would stop cruise ships entering Australia, they allowed the Ruby Princess to dock.
The truth is we’re acting with the strongest biosecurity response in Australia’s history and that is why our response is backed by the National Farmers’ Federation, backed by the cattle industry, you don’t have a simple peak agricultural organisation backing ... your rhetoric. Not one ... Unlike the NFF, they recall that he regards himself as a greater representative of the National Farmers’ Federation.
Updated
Dutton attacks Labor over $10m construction union donation
Peter Dutton:
My question is to the prime minister: Since the construction watchdog was last abolished by the prime minister, the militant CFMEU has handed well over $10 million to the prime minister’s party. The watchdog had a 91% success rate in court, prosecuted over 2,500 contraventions, secured over $16m in penalties and recovered wages for 8,000 workers. We understand there’s 10 million workers while your government has taken the side of the corrupt...
(Graham Perrett is booted out under 94A by Milton Dick here and Tony Burke raises a point of order)
Burke:
The issue was raised yesterday about imputations of motive. The section this question is at right now is a direct imputation of motive. It can’t be seen in any other way. I will ask the question to be rephrased or ruled out of order.
Paul Fletcher:
It goes to the factual circumstances. It’s the factual circumstances around the donations that have been made.
Dutton is asked to ask the question again without the imputation.
Dutton:
Since the construction watchdog was abolished by the prime minister, the militant CFMEU has handed over well over $10 million to the prime minister’s party. The watchdog has had a 91% success rate in court, prosecuted over 2,500 contraventions, secured over $16m in penalties and recovered $5m in wages for over 8,000 workers. Prime minister, we understand that the $10 million paid to the Labor party by the CFMEU has resulted in policy change. What else do they get for their $10m–
Dick allows it and says there was a question in there, even though Dutton did not finish.
Anthony Albanese:
... I thank the member for his question. And for his showing the workers of Australia that this remains an anti-union party that is obsessed by attacking the rights of trade unions ... to exist. I say this to the honourable member opposite – if unions did not exist in the construction industry...
Dutton:
The $10m figure is never mentioned by the prime minister. That’s what the CFMEU gave to the Labor party ....
Dick dismisses the point of order.
Albanese:
I’m quite happy to engage in these questions about whether unions should exist in the construction industry. About whether – about whether it is – it is everything to do with it. The truth is those opposite ... do not believe that there should be unions in the construction industry.
And if there weren’t unions in the construction industry, the number of deaths on work sites would increase. The number of injuries on work sites would increase. I have been in this place for 26 years and not once have I heard any coalition member speak about safety on construction sites. Not once. Not once.
Not once I have seen a criticism of employers who, when left undefended, without the protection of unions, often result in activities that leads to tragedies in those workplaces. Not once. Not once. All workers should be subject to the same laws and regulations as others. That is the simple principle that we on this side hold.
The ABCC has not done anything to improve workplace safety. It doesn’t do anything to guard against wage theft, that we will make a crime by the way, that those opposite had the numbers for to create wage theft a crime, and the member’s question went to ... the issue of the retention of wages and paying them back. Well, those opposite actually had legislation before this house that was passed and when it got to the Senate, they redrew the provisions about wage theft being made a crime.
The truth is that good unions and employers work together to share a common interest, which is why we’ll be bringing them together at the jobs and skills summit.
Updated
The next question from Peter Dutton is also on the CFMEU.
This is the second day in a row the opposition has focussed on the Australian Building and Construction Commission and the CFMEU.
This is despite the warning inflation is headed to 7.75% by the end of the year.
Labor MP Graham Perrett first to be thrown out under new speaker
And Labor MP and fellow Queenslander Graham Perrett becomes the first MP to be thrown out under Milton Dick’s speakership. As the speaker says:
He may be my neighbour, but he is having a holiday.
Updated
Plibersek: We have contracted as much water in a month to deliver to South Australia as opposition has in a decade
Rebekha Sharkie has the first crossbench question today and it is to environment and water minister Tanya Plibersek:
My question is to the minister for the Environment and water. I thank the minister for today reaffirming the government’s commitment to deliver the promised 450GL of water to South Australia. Will the minister please detail how the 450GL will be delivered to South Australia by 2024.
Plibersek:
It’s a very important question and this government shares her concerns to ensure the 450GL of additional environmental water that was promised to South Australia in order for South Australia to sign onto the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is in fact delivered.
I support that objective. I know the prime minister supports that objective. I know the members for expense and Boothby, and Makin, and Adelaide, and the minister for health and the minister for social services support that objective.
I know the South Australian government is very committed and I spoke again this week to their deputy premier and minister for water about how we deliver on this plan. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is a good plan. Labor made it, Labor delivered on it, it’s those opposite for almost a decade who have sabotaged the delivery of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. And I would be interested to know whether the members for Grey, and Barker, and Sturt also support the delivery of the 450GL of environmental water for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
I tell you something that makes this a little bit challenging, member for Mayo. What makes it challenging is that in almost a decade those opposite have delivered two out of 450GL of water.
Luke Howarth (the Liberal member for Petrie):
Relevance: the environment minister is not being relevant to the question. The question said nothing about alternative policies and what happened in the past.
Ruling: there is no point of order.
Plibersek:
Well, Mr Speaker ... I will tell you how we’re delivering on it. In fact, in the two months that I have been the environment minister I have already contracted almost two gigalitres of water towards this 450GL target. I have contracted as much in two months as those opposite have delivered in almost a decade.
I will be meeting ... with state environment and water ministers in coming months. I’ll be meeting with the state and ACT water ministers in coming months to make sure we can deliver on this 450GL target.
I’ll be making sure that every state, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, and South Australia, do what they have promised to do which is return this flow to the system. We’ll increase First Nations water ownership and we’ll take climate change into account in future modelling and planning for the system. We’ll make sure that we release the water for the environment special account report. Guess what, another report they had before the election, and didn’t release.
So I can reassure the member for Mayo we’re committed to meeting this target. We’ll work with you to do that.
Updated
Paul Fletcher goes 0-2 for relevance points of order
Anthony Albanese gets a dixer on supply chains and manufacturing and of course points to the previous government’s record (unfavourably) and this upsets Paul Fletcher.
Fletcher has resting displeased face at the best of times, but he seems particularly displeased at the moment.
Fletcher:
The question was about what work is the government doing to bring about that future. It wasn’t an open-ended invitation to criticise the record of the former government.
Again, this is said without a shred of irony.
There is no point of order.
Updated
Liberals: why is the prime minister prioritising what the CFEMU wants over what women on worksites need?
Sussan Ley (shadow business minister and shadow minister for women, among other roles) to Anthony Albanese:
I refer to reports that the construction watchdog investigated Mr Luke Gibson, who allegedly told a female work safety officer to go call the police, off you go, you effing dog. Followed by the C word. By dissolving the construction watchdog, why is the prime minister prioritising what the CFMEU wants over what women on work sites need?
Albanese:
I thank the member for her question. And at a time when we had an inflation figure yesterday of 6.1%, we have serious economic challenges before us, we have an economic statement given by the Treasurer before this parliament today, we’re back here again.
Let me repeat - people, whether they’re employees, or employers, should behave appropriately on every work site and every - every worker - every worker should behave properly. I note yesterday...
Ley:
On relevance. The issue is not whether the behaviour is unacceptable. Of course it is, we all know that. The issue is the priority is getting rid of the construction watchdog, a tough cop on the beat to address the behaviour.
The speaker, Milton Dick rules there is no point of order.
Albanese:
It’s wrong in any workplace.
I have heard people sworn at in this place too. I have heard people behave badly in this workplace too. And it shouldn’t happen. People should behave well in every workplace.
But I’m ... asked about the issue of women in workplaces and ... I’ll tell you what the government is doing. We’re adopting all 55 recommendations of the Jenkins report. All 55. Including the obligation ... on employers - including those in the construction industry - to provide safe workplaces for women.
That is what we’re doing. And by providing those provisions that we will put into law, employers will have an obligation to provide safe workplaces for women and that will affect the behaviour of everyone in those workplaces.
That is what we’re doing. The other thing we’re doing is making gender pay equity an objective of the Fair Work Act, something those opposite would never have done.
And we’ll wait to see whether they support it or not. And today of all days I would have thought, if you’re going to ask a question about domestic violence, which is what the first question was about today, or about the position of women and workplaces, you might have asked a question or indeed endorsed the legislation that was introduced just this morning for 10 days’ paid domestic and family violence leave ...
It took the election of a Labor government to do that.
We think all workplaces should be safe workplaces. We are legislating to do just that.
And the approach of those opposite today says more about them than anything else.
Updated
The treasurer Jim Chalmers gets a dixer on the “growing challenges facing Australia’s economy” and begins pointing the finger at the Coalition.
The Liberals’ Paul Fletcher has a point of order, (and this is said without irony)
We’ve now got the treasurer launching into an attack on this side.
The point of order is relevance. It didn’t contain any reference to alternative approaches. Even when questions relate to alternative approaches, speaker Smith has said there’s a restriction on what the minister at the box can cover. He needs to stick to the question.
Ruling: there is no point of order.
Updated
More on the cashless debit card
Amanda Rishworth (the minister for social services) takes over:
Of course, the leader of the opposition hasn’t quite got his correlation and his causation right. He just said the University of Adelaide report led to a change.
I’m going to quote from the University of Adelaide report.
Peter Dutton:
On relevance, Mr Speaker. I’m not interested in causation. I’m interested in...
Milton Dick:
There’s no point of order. Resume your seat. The minister was referring to the report when you took the point of order. I call the minister.
Rishworth:
... those opposite have insisted the University of Adelaide report in January supported the cashless debit card. What they have failed to point out is that the evidence was inconclusive. The study found any reduction in alcohol and drug use could not be directly attributed to the effect of the card.
They failed to acknowledge that the report found that the cashless debit card introduced widely-felt and costly hurdles in relation to financial planning and money managed. And a large proportion of CDC participants said their quality of life was affected in a negative way.
We have this ANAO (Australia National Audit Office) report that the minister has failed to listen to either. I will go to the conclusion that the most recent ANAO report has said, and that said that it did not demonstrate that the CDC program is meeting its intended objective, need I say more.
Updated
Question time begins
Peter Dutton manages to get “woke” into his first question, if you want to know how the day is going. (He is also continuing to disparage the very communities which punished the Liberal party the hardest during the election, so I guess he isn’t interested in winning those seats back as yet)
Dutton:
Research from the university of Adelaide showed the Cashless Debit Card led to a 23% decrease in gambling and 45% of people believed it had improved their lives. To please a inner city woke audience, you have abolished the card, it will result in high incidences of domestic violence and assault in Indigenous communities. Why make a bad situation worse?
Anthony Albanese:
I thank the leader of the opposition for his question ...
We went to the election with a very clear position of abolishing the cashless debit card and we did so. We did so because of the impact it had on a part of privatising the welfare system ... we had a welfare system that was paid for, paying a private company to engage in activity with for-profit motive, and which was resulting in ... issues being imposed on communities and on individuals, without them having ... any say in that.
One of the things we have done is to make sure we’re about empowering communities, not taking power away from them. That’s an important distinction between our attitude and the attitude of those opposite. Not a patronising position that says we know best, not one that ... extended the cashless debit card into ... communities, not just ... in Indigenous communities, it was imposed on other communities as well, and that is why we went to an election with a very clear position and we stand by that and that’s why we’ll be legislating [to] achieve our objective.
Updated
Petition on improving Workforce Australia and helping welfare recipients attracts 31,000 signatures
The Greens senator Janet Rice has accepted a petition with 31,000 signatures calling for improvements to Workforce Australia and the punitive employment services model put in place by the Morrison government and continued by the Albanese government.
“It’s obscene this government is still forcing people to attend face-to-face activities during this Covid wave. It would cost them nothing to suspend all activity requirements and punishments to keep low-income people safe,” – @JeremyPoxon pic.twitter.com/TxoWSacrIo
— Antipoverty Centre (@antipovertycent) July 28, 2022
Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union spokesperson, Jeremy Poxon, said:
While there are still so many parts of Workforce Australia currently on fire – and so many welfare recipients in a state of panic – it’s disturbing that the new government is continuing to enforce mutual obligations.
Every time a welfare system fails, we know the people in the system are always the ones who suffer. During this period of mass system failure, it’s obscene that this government is still forcing people to attend face-to-face activities during this new Covid wave.
We continue to hear stories of people being forced to travel hundreds of kilometres to attend appointments. We continue to hear stories from immunocompromised people – terrified of contracting Covid – being forced by providers to attend meetings.
It would cost the government nothing to suspend all activity requirements and punishments to keep low-income people safe from Workforce Australia’s many failures. It’s nothing but sheer malice and cruelty that they’re still refusing to do this.
Poxon was backed by Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and welfare recipient Kristin O’Connell:
Unemployed advocates are still being flooded with messages from people in distress, people being bullied, people who feel this system is intended to kill them, people who tell me they are being pushed towards suicide.
Even though “mutual” obligations don’t work and poverty stops people getting a job, they continue to ignore the overwhelming evidence of this.
The government needs to stop seeing unemployed people as a product and serving them up as fodder for their political donors who run these cruel job agencies.
GetUp hosted the petition. The organisation’s director of economic fairness, Rafi Alam, said:
The Morrison government pushed this legislation through with little consultation and rushed its implementation – now we’re seeing the disastrous consequences play out for people in poverty. GetUp’s petition signed by more than 31,000 people shows the community wants to see the end of decades of senseless punishment of unemployed people. We’ve laid out immediate action that needs to be taken and urge the Labor government to get it done.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732.
Updated
A little more from Mike Bowers:
The opposition began filling the chamber after Jim Chalmers started his speech. Coalition MPs were all there in support by the time Angus Taylor started his reply:
Updated
Hi folks, there’s nothing massively new about this exchange between a Sky News host and the environment minister Tanya Plibersek this morning, but it’s just worth noting.
If you’ve been following the discussions about Labor’s climate bill – the one that enshrines the 2030 and 2050 targets – you’ll know there’s some discussion about a “climate trigger”.
This is the short version of that back-and-forth: the Greens want one. Will Labor consider implementing one?
(If you don’t know what a climate trigger is, it’s simple. A climate trigger would force an assessment of the climate impacts of new developments to be required to go through environmental approvals.)
Anyway, Plibersek was asked this morning would she consider inserting a climate trigger in a revamp of environmental law. Would that convince the Greens to vote for the targets bill?
Plibersek:
Well what they’re talking about is changing our environmental laws so that a project can be stopped because it might add to greenhouse gas emissions. And it is important that we update our environmental legislation.
The previous government got a review from Prof Graeme Samuel a couple of years ago that made very clear that our environmental laws are just not fit for purpose. They’re not fit for the needs of business, they are slow, they are cumbersome, they often duplicate what’s happening at a state level, but they’re also not protecting our environment.
The state of the environment report last week showed us that our environment is bad, it’s been getting worse and it’s on track to get even worse still. So we need to upgrade our laws and we’ve got a mapped-out plan to do that.
Sky host: Sure.
Plibersek:
We’ll respond first to Prof Graeme Samuel’s review and then we’ll draft legislation then. The Greens are welcome ... to make submissions on what those laws should look like, but I have to say Prof Samuel didn’t recommend an environmental trigger. He said that the laws that relate to carbon pollution and emissions reductions and climate change, that’s the proper place for making those decisions.
Sky host: Okay, so you’d be inclined to follow him?
Plibersek:
Well, you know, I’m going to take my time and do it properly. The amazing thing about what Prof Samuel came up with is, he got environmental groups on one hand, and business groups on the other hand to agree to the vast bulk of the changes that he was suggesting to our environmental laws. I think that’s a really good starting point.
Updated
Liberals: Labor more intent on making sure ‘union masters’ are paid than dealing with inflation
Bridget McKenzie, who is now the shadow minister for infrastructure, is speaking to the ABC about how the government needs to do all it can to bring down inflation (Labor has been in power a little under 10 weeks).
McKenzie:
The government needs to throw the kitchen sink at this. Australians are struggling each and every day, whether they are at the supermarket, whether [they’re] at the petrol station, or indeed getting quotes on house construction.
With the inflation that is actually going through our economy right now, we know that one of the ways to put downward pressure on inflation is to actually decrease and dampen government spending.
We need to see this government take a serious approach to budget repair, [but] will need to make sure that when they are making those decisions about budget repairs, that they are not also slashing aspects of the budget which lead to increased productivity measures such as ... a lot of measures for rural and regional Australia, telecommunications and the like that are going to increase productivity and therefore benefit the overall economy so those decisions are going to be very tough.
The Labor party, if we can look at their first eight to 10 weeks as a government, it seems [are] more intent [on] mak[ing] sure they paid ... [their] union masters on any given policy agenda item rather than actually doing what they promised [during] the election which was ... dealing with the cost of living pressure on Australians ... so there’s a lot of work to do for Labor between now and the October [budget].
Updated
Politicians from all parties address rally in support of Julian Assange
Politicians across the political spectrum have called on the new Albanese government to do more in pressing for the freedom of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
More than 100 people rallied on the front lawn of federal Parliament House this afternoon, asking the federal government to work against the extradition of Assange to the United States to face espionage charges.
Independent MPs Andrew Wilkie and Monique Ryan, Liberal MP Bridget Archer and Greens Jordon Steele-John, senator David Shoebridge and Peter Whish-Wilson addressed the rally, asking the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to take action.
Wilkie, a long-time supporter of Assange, said there was “absolute urgency” required from the government.
I have a lot of respect for Anthony Albanese, and I’m mindful that he said recently that some things should not be handled with a megaphone. But frankly, we have given this government a fair bit of time now.
Please maintain the rage. Keep the pressure on the new guy.
Archer said it was the “duty” of the government to intervene to help an Australian in trouble overseas.
This is a question of compassion for an Australian citizen who has endured inhumane conditions and suffered significant mental and physical challenges as a result of his ongoing incarceration.
The Labor MP Julian Hill sent a video message to the rally. We’re working to track down that video for you now.
In a statement, Wilkie called for Assange’s extradition to be dropped and for him to return to Australia, with his office saying he will “call again for common sense and media freedom to prevail”.
It has always been a political matter and the Australian Government can’t keep kowtowing to the whims of Washington.
I have no doubt Mr Albanese has enough influence and good relationships to pick up the phone and end this madness. It’s beyond time for the government to say enough is enough and to bring Julian home.
Updated
Question time looms
It is the downhill slide into question time.
The dixers are still terrible, so that hasn’t changed, but Milton Dick looks like he is having the time of his life as Speaker.
No one has been booted out as yet, but you know it is coming.
If you haven’t seen it, here is how Murph saw the first outing.
Updated
Your questions answered: the balance of power
What influence do minor parties actually have?
Sometimes, whether a law is made or changed depends on the vote of a minor party or single independent.
Minor parties, like the Greens, have a smaller team of members elected to parliament than major parties like Labor, or a coalition of parties like the Liberal Nationals. If minor parties don’t form a coalition with another party, they sit with the independents on the crossbench (that’s the curved corner of the Senate and House of Representatives horseshoe).
Even though their numbers are smaller, minor parties can make things a bit complicated for the major ones when they hold the balance of power.
The balance of power
When a major party or coalition has more than half of the seats in the House of Representatives, it holds the absolute majority. But when it doesn’t, minor parties and independents have the power to sway the outcome of an issue when the government and opposition disagree.
This usually unfolds in the Senate – where the final votes on a bill happen before it can be passed as legislation.
Here is what the makeup of our current parliament looks like
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This is what we mean when we talk about the pain going on for some time, courtesy of Grogs:
My quick calculation based on the numbers in @JEChalmers speech is that by June 2023 real wages will be back where they were in June 2009... pic.twitter.com/bYaMpEluug
— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) July 28, 2022
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National Covid summary: 125 deaths reported
Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 125 deaths from Covid-19:
ACT
- Deaths: 1
- Cases: 1,000
- In hospital: 149 (with 2 people in ICU)
NSW
- Deaths: 34
- Cases: 15,704
- In hospital: 2,282 (with 65 people in ICU)
Northern Territory
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 454
- In hospital: 61 (with no people in ICU)
Queensland
- Deaths: 27
- Cases: 7,364
- In hospital: 955 (with 32 people in ICU)
South Australia
- Deaths: 17
- Cases: 3,957
- In hospital: 339 (with 11 people in ICU)
Tasmania
- Deaths: 4
- Cases: 1,175
- In hospital: 176 (with 4 people in ICU)
Victoria
- Deaths: 37
- Cases: 12,154
- In hospital: 852 (with 33 people in ICU)
Western Australia
- Deaths: 5
- Cases: 4,961
- In hospital: 418 (with 16 people in ICU)
Your questions answered: party rooms
What goes on in the party rooms?
While parliament is sitting (like it is right now), every party holds a weekly party meeting in their party room. And no, plus ones are not allowed (the meetings are highly confidential).
At these meetings, parties sort out and plan their teamwork in parliament. They elect party leaders, ministers and whips (team managers). They also agree on party policy and organise steps forward on particular bills.
BUT – and there is always a but – there is a Canberra tradition of a post party room briefing, where a nominated MP reads out the minutes of the meeting, giving a very brief run down of what was discussed, and journalists can ask questions. No names are ever given, and it is usually “a MP asked about XX” with not too much detail, but it’s enough for journalists to then run them down, with their own sources. Not all party room discussions are released this way, but most are. Just another Canberra tradition quirk.
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Australia not expected to go into recession: Chalmers
Earlier this morning Jim Chalmers was asked about whether a recession was a potential outcome of these economic circumstances, and said:
It’s not Treasury’s expectation that we will go into recession in Australia. We have grave fears for the global economy of course, as others do too, but here in Australia our economy is expected to continue to grow but so are our economic challenges in the near term. We’ve got a lot of things going for us in Australia and I am optimistic about the future of our economy and the future of our country. But first we’ve got to brace for some particularly heavy weather in our economy. I’m confident that Australia will weather this storm as they have others in recent times. But we need to be upfront about the nature and scale of these challenges so that we can get through it together.
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Peter Hannam’s initial analysis of treasurer’s economic outlook
Lots to digest from Jim Chalmers economic statement. One word absent from the Treasurer’s speech was “recession”.
The textbook definition is two consecutive quarters of contraction, and there’s no sign of that in the revised forecasts. Phew.
In general, though, the statement was an attempt at setting a baseline – one that will be reinforced with the October budget – for the new government.
The budget we inherited is bursting with waste and rorts, booby-trapped by expiring measures, and burdened by long-term demographic challenges that come with critical and necessary spending,” he said, repeating lines that we’ve heard before.
The updated numbers are interesting but if the success of forecasts in the past couple of years is any guide, we can probably take them with a hefty dosage of salt. By October, there will be new numbers - and higher interest rates - to feed into the models.
The famous $1 trillion debt load will start to cost a lot more to service, an expenditure that will grow faster than the NDIS and other costs. Interestingly, defence was not mentioned but that growth rate will be significant in the future.
One almost guaranteed upside - which will probably show up in the October budget - will come from commodities. The Treasury has to be conservative but the $US55 a tonne for iron ore is about half the current price.
Coking coal used in steelmaking is pencilled in at $US130 a tonne or less than half the current going rate. Thermal coal is estimated at $US60 a tonne compared with the $US300-plus rate globally as Europe in particular scrambles to gear up for less Russian gas (and coal) because of their evil war on Ukraine.
Of course, we need to be weaning ourselves off fossil fuels because of climate chaos even if that’s not an obvious objective of the Albanese government.
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Ministerial statements should look forwards, not backwards: Speaker
Murph has an update for those who are following along with the standing orders:
Interesting micro development after the Chalmers ministerial statement. Paul Fletcher expressed objections on the basis it was a political statement. Milton Dick was asked to rule. The new Speaker made his views known: ministerial statements should look forward, not backwards.
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) July 28, 2022
Part of the content of the Chalmers economic statement was backward looking. There were reflections on the performance of the Morrison government. So there was a partial rebuke for the treasurer.#auspol @AmyRemeikis
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) July 28, 2022
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The treasurer’s key message? Things will get worse before they get better
Our economics correspondent Peter Hannam will be bringing you more on this, but the big message out of the treasurer’s economic statement was that things are going to get even tougher.
And there doesn’t look like there will be any cost of living relief coming. There is an inflationary aspect to that, but on a human level, there is also a lot of pain. Because wages haven’t kept pace with inflation for much of the past 10 years.
So it is not a case of wanting to buy more and being unable to do so for many people – it’s about wanting to buy the same and being unable to do so. The money just does not stretch as far any longer.
And over the few months, it is going to stretch even less.
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Even with inflation coming down, Treasury still expects inflation to sit above 5 % by the middle of next year, which is still high.
Updated
Inflation predicted to peak at 7.75%
But the key takeaway in these numbers is the inflation forecasts, which are nasty.
This is what Jim Chalmers had to say on that:
Forecasts are never perfect, but these better reflect the economic circumstances our new government is now dealing with – compared with what was set out before the election.
In the pre-election forecasts – released a little more than three months ago – inflation was expected to peak at 4 1⁄4 per cent.
It’s already 6.1 per cent through the year to June, and now forecast to peak at 7 3⁄4 per cent in the December quarter this year.
The current expectation is that it will get worse this year, moderate next year, and normalise the year after.
We haven’t reached the peak yet – but we can see it from here.
Treasury expects headline inflation at 5 1⁄2 per cent by the middle of next year, 3 1⁄2 per cent by the end of 2023, and 2 3⁄4 per cent by the middle of 2024 – back inside the RBA’s target range.
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Chalmers: ‘We have it within us to stare down these threats’
And he finishes on a positive note:
We have it within us to stare down these threats, steer our way through this difficult period, and seize the opportunities of this new age.
With an economy and a budget as resilient as the Australian people themselves.
And with optimism and confidence that our best days lie beyond.
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Treasurer hits out at previous government ‘for a wasted decade’
Jim Chalmers upsets the Coalition MPs in the chamber with these lines:
Australians are paying a hefty price for a wasted decade.
They know their new government didn’t make this mess, but we take responsibility for cleaning it up.
In our first few months in government –the scope and scale of the challenges left for us to tackle – some parts known, other parts hidden – have been made clear.
These challenges are confronting for all Australians, but we are not daunted.
Because in these first few months, we have also been comforted, encouraged and energised by the sense of cooperation and common purpose Australians share.
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‘Hard decisions necessary’ to repair budget: Chalmers
On the budget:
A full set of fiscal forecasts will be ready for the October Budget.
But we already know that additional Covid-related expenditure so far costs the Budget an extra $1.6bn this year.
We expect that government payments will be around $30bn higher over the forward estimates than was forecast pre-election, because of inflation and wage expectations and how they flow through.
We know that the debt burden left to us – the highest level as a share of the economy since the aftermath of the second world war, with deficits stretching beyond the decade – is growing heavier because the impact of higher interest rates on repayments.
This is not just Covid debt we are repaying – our predecessors had more than doubled gross debt before the pandemic hit.
And we know that the interest payments on government debt will be the fastest growing area of government spending – faster than the NDIS, aged care and hospital funding.
For these reasons – our government must make the hard decisions necessary for responsible budget repair.
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Unemployment to remain low through 2023 but inflation will hurt real wages: Chalmers
Jim Chalmers moves to wages and employment:
This complex picture is reflected in the updated outlook for unemployment and wages.
The unemployment rate is expected to remain low through the latter half of this year before returning to 3 3⁄4 per cent by June 2023 and 4 per cent by June 2024.
At the same time, the forecast for nominal wages growth is being upgraded – from 3 1⁄4 per cent to 3 3⁄4 per cent – both for this financial year and next financial year.
If this eventuates – and I’m careful, cautious and conscious of the history here – it would be the fastest pace of nominal wages growth in about a decade.
The harsh truth is – households won’t feel the benefits of higher wages while inflation eats up wage increases, and then some.
Real wages growth relies on moderating inflation and getting wages moving again.
Based on current forecasts, real wages are expected to start growing again in 2023-24.
And there is a key difference now.
Australian workers now have a government with an economic plan to boost wages, not deliberately undermine them.
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Having a look at the chamber, and it does not seem like many Coalition MPs are in the house to hear this statement.
Labor’s benches are filled (as you would expect) but the opposition seems to have more than a few empty seats.
GDP revised down this year and next as interest rates hit: Chalmers
Jim Chalmers turns to GDP:
It’s expected that real GDP grew by 3 and 3⁄4 per cent in 2021-22, instead of 4 and 1⁄4 per cent as was estimated pre-election.
The pre-election forecast for GDP growth in 2022-23 was 3 1⁄2 per cent. This has now been revised down to 3 per cent growth.
And growth is expected to slow further in 2023-24, at 2 per cent – down from the 2 1⁄2 per cent previously predicted.
A key part of this weaker growth outlook is due to weaker consumption, reflecting higher inflation and higher interest rates.
While some households have built up savings buffers, others are under much more pressure.
Net exports will also be a bigger-than-expected drag on growth in the near term – as flooding hits commodity exports, and as imports increase with businesses restocking.
Weaker dwelling investment is also part of the story – because of higher interest rates, but also the capacity constraints in construction.
That’s what I mean by a growing economy, but with growing challenges as well.
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Inflation to keep rising to 7.75% before falling next year: Chalmers
Jim Chalmers says he expects inflation to keep rising and peak at 7.75%, but he expects it will improve next year and fall to 3.5% by the end of 2023:
We haven’t reached the peak yet – but we can see it from here.
Treasury expects headline inflation at 5 1⁄2 per cent by the middle of next year, 3 1⁄2 per cent by the end of 2023, and 2 3⁄4 per cent by the middle of 2024 – back inside the RBA’s target range.
Inflation will unwind again, but not in an instant.
Just as the domestic forces contributing to some of the supply side pressures have been building for the best part of a decade, it will take some time for them to dissipate – but they will.
In the meantime, higher interest rates, combined with the global slowdown I’ve described, will impact on Australia’s economic growth.
The national accounts in the March quarter showed that the economy had not been performing as strongly as had been predicted pre-election – we saw 0.8 per cent growth instead of 1.8 per cent growth.
And the headwinds our economy is facing – higher inflation at the top of that list, along with slowing global growth – are now reflected in the revised economic outcomes and forecasts.
This has cut half a percentage point from growth for the last financial year, for this financial year, and for next financial year.
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'The outlook is confronting': Jim Chalmers delivers economic update in parliament
The treasurer is on his feet in the House of Representatives, delivering his long-awaited economic update.
This is the precursor to the budget – which is going to be rough. He says “the outlook is confronting”.
Jim Chalmers:
The Australian economy is growing – but so are the challenges.
Some are home-grown, others come from around the world.
As [RBA] governor [Philip] Lowe and I were reminded at the G20 meeting a fortnight ago – the global picture is complex, and the outlook is confronting.
The world economy is treading a precarious and perilous path.
Higher global inflation. Slower global growth. Ongoing conflict. The impacts of Covid. Clogged supply chains.
All of this affects us, in some form. At the G20 meeting, the IMF flagged they would again be revising down their global growth forecasts.
And this week, they have – significantly downgrading the outlook for global growth in both 2022 and 2023.
These downgrades are broadly in line with Treasury’s updated outlook for the global economy.
The Treasury is forecasting global growth of 3 1⁄4 per cent in each of the next three years, which is half a percentage point weaker in 2022 and 2023 than expected in the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook.
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Col Boyce praises coal in first speech to parliament
The new Liberal-National MP for Flynn, Col Boyce, has delivered his COAL IS GREAT LONG LIVE COAL first speech in the parliament.
He is the one standing up (it can be a little confusing at times telling some of this part of the backbench apart).
Boyce comes from the Queensland parliament, where he also sat in opposition, so he is maybe a little more used to the pace than some of his new colleagues.
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Your questions answered: caretaker mode
What are caretaker conventions?
At every federal election, the House of Representatives and half the Senate are dissolved (because new members of parliament are about to be elected to fill their seats again). This means there is technically no chamber that the government is responsible for between when the election is called and when there is an election result.
In the interim, the government enters caretaker mode, and makes decisions under caretaker conventions. It is basically a support mechanism that makes sure the normal administrative work of government departments can continue.
Conventions are rules that work with (but are much more flexible than) the constitution and other legislation, to underpin how Australia’s government runs.
The caretaker conventions are followed by all levels of governments when there is an election. They include avoiding making major policy decisions, entering major agreements or making major appointments that could drag a new government into a commitment.
But there is room to make major decisions under caretaker mode if urgent. For example, to grant urgent drought relief. The government consults the opposition and, if they agree, the government is good to go.
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Independent MP Kate Chaney gives first speech to parliament
There are a lot of first speeches to get through.
The new, independent, MP for Curtin, Kate Chaney is no stranger to politics. Her uncle, Fred, was a minister in the Fraser government, and her grandfather, Fred Snr was a minister in the Menzies government.
Chaney ran as an independent because she did not think the Liberal party represented her beliefs any longer. And she was one of the many who wanted to see change.
She recounted coming to the federal parliament as a child and seeing a man eating a banana with a knife and fork and how strange a place it seemed.
That’s something we can all relate to, I think.
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Katter calls press conference to discuss ‘persecution of Christianity’ in Australia
Bob Katter is joining the troll train (did he ever leave?), calling a media conference to discuss the “continued persecution of Christianity in Australia”, something which is not happening.
He is late to his press conference. One can only assume he stumbled into another confected culture war on the way to the Mural Hall.
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For those looking at the detail of the CPI increase:
Didn't include this graph in my column, but it shows how the prices of goods and services have gone through the pandemic and in the "recovery" https://t.co/TPhrVdwl20 pic.twitter.com/ZU2YPiLhhE
— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) July 28, 2022
Anthony Albanese parrots a pro-coal talking point
Graham Readfearn has looked at Anthony Albanese’s claim Australia’s coal is high quality and therefore better for the environment compared to coal from other countries.
It’s an old line, used by leaders of all persuasions in Australia. But is it true?
The Albanese government this week put a bill before parliament to legislate its 2030 emissions reductions target of 43% based on 2005 levels. Enshrining the target into law will help “end the climate wars”, Albanese has promised.
But choosing to repeat a pro-coal talking point that’s been fired like a missile during those wars seems at odds with that promise.
“It’s a meme and it’s disappointing and disturbing that the Albanese government has picked this up,” says Bill Hare, chief executive of Climate Analytics.
“It’s an argument that’s been pushed by the coal industry for as long as I can remember. When it comes down to CO2 emissions it has never had much credibility.”
But is there any truth to the claim?
“No. It’s an old myth,” Hare says. “The savings would be very small and if there was data it would be difficult to measure.”
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Monkeypox declared a 'communicable disease incident of national significance'
The chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, has declared that monkeypox is a “communicable disease incident of national significance”.
He says this follows the World Health Organization declaring the global situation regarding monkeypox to be a public health emergency of international concern.
Kelly said:
The latest data from 1 January to 28 July 2022 as reported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) indicates there have been 20,311 MPX cases in 71 countries (including Australia) that have not historically reported MPX. In Australia, there have been 44 cases – the majority of which have been within returned international travellers.
The good news – it’s not as bad as Covid. Kelly said:
It is far less harmful than COVID-19 and there have been no deaths reported during the current outbreak outside of countries where the virus is endemic. MPX is also not transmitted in the same way as COVID-19 – and is far less transmissible.
Kelly gave more details on the response, symptoms and who is affected:
The National Incident Centre has been activated to provide enhanced national coordination to assist states and territories to effectively manage the outbreaks within their jurisdictions.
MPX’s rash and flu-like symptoms are relatively mild, and in most cases, resolve themselves within two to four weeks without the need for specific treatments.
Most cases of MPX in Australia have been among people aged 21 to 40 years. The experience internationally and in Australia to date is most cases have been among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.
Although MPX is not usually considered a sexually transmissible infection, physical contact with an infected person during sexual intercourse carries a significant risk of transmission and intimate physical contact such as hugging, kissing and sexual activities represent a risk of infection, with infectious skin sores being the likely mode of transmission.
The rash usually occurs on the face before spreading to other parts of the body, including the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. However, in this outbreak it is being seen especially on the genital and perianal regions of affected people.
The rash can vary from person to person and take on the appearance of pimples, blisters or sores. The flu-like symptoms often include fever, chills, body aches, headaches, swollen lymph nodes and tiredness.
The National Medical Stockpile has available stock of MPX treatments, such as antivirals, for states and territories to access on request.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has updated clinical guidance on vaccination against monkeypox using the ACAM2000 vaccine to include the use of MVA-BN vaccine to prepare for supplies of the third-generation vaccine being made available in Australia.
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Albanese to appear on the ABC’s Insiders
Capping off a big first week of parliament, the prime minister will appear on Insiders on Sunday.
On #Insiders on Sunday @David_Speers interviews @AlboMP #auspol pic.twitter.com/HZ7VaxKLQu
— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) July 27, 2022
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Your questions answered: the despatch boxes
What are the pretty boxes on the tables in the parliament?
Two ornamental chests of rosewood, decorated with silver swirls and locks, sit on the central table in the House of Representatives – one beside the prime minister, the other by the leader of the opposition.
They are called despatch boxes, and are used to rest speeches and documents when a minister is addressing the House (AKA when they “speak from the despatch box”). The box on the PM’s side of the table also holds documents and religious books for swearing in new members.
They come from British tradition, and are a parliamentary symbol of Australia’s House of Representatives’ link to the British House of Commons (do you see a pattern here?).
Back in the 1600s, despatch boxes were used to transport documents to the House of Commons in the UK.
Two boxes in the House of Commons were destroyed by a bomb during the second world war – the boxes we use in Australia’s parliament are a replica of those. They were gifted by King George V when Australia’s Old Parliament House opened in 1927, with inscriptions from the king inside each lid.
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Further to the point that any wage growth has been wiped out:
Inflation is high, but real wages have been absolutely smashed - gone back a decade.
— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) July 27, 2022
My column
The RBA is increasing interest rates to counter inflation – but it will also slow wages growth https://t.co/cRJsTRLq4q pic.twitter.com/wuoaUZJafI
Jenny Ware vows to help ‘rebuild the Liberal party’ and backs nuclear power
The Liberal MP for Hughes, Jenny Ware, has given her first speech to parliament, promising to help “rebuild the Liberal party” in Hughes, New South Wales and beyond.
Ware said this would include “embracing our females”, saying she did not accept that the Labor party is “the only natural home of Australian women”.
She noted the Liberal party’s founder, Robert Menzies, often spoke about the “need for women in our party and in our parliament”.
Ware noted family and domestic violence was a “leading concern” in her electorate, and suggested the federal government could do more like funding women’s refugees.
Ware also promised to help develop policy “within the Liberal brand of a strong economy and fair society”.
She noted that in Hughes the average house price is $1.5m, calling for an environment that supports “broader housing choices” including for the 30% of people who will always rent, such as more secure tenure and longer term leases.
Ware argued there is a “need to address climate change” and backed nuclear power:
Embracing the transition to clean energy will create 100,000s of new jobs. How do we transition … while still providing affordable and reliable energy to households and businesses? As coal was essential to the industrial revolution in Britain and Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries to propel us into modernity.
We now need to move into the next economy without total reliance on coal. This can only be done with hybrid models of renewable energy and must include nuclear. Hughes has the only nuclear reactor in Australia … I am committed to approaching how we can utilised the technology and innovation developed in ANSTO … to answer our energy questions.
While my 15-year-old self with a bedroom full of Midnight Oil posters and records would be shuddering, the nuclear of 2022 is a very different thing to the nuclear of the past. Going into the future, as we develop an energy policy to provide sufficient baseload power, the research already undertaken … at ANSTO should then become part of our national solution to our current energy crisis.”
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Cute baby in the Senate alert
Stevie is not the first baby in the Senate, or even the first infant – but it will never stop being cute.
Labor’s Nita Green brought in the special guest with her as she carried out her Senate duties this morning:
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Anytime the separation of powers is mentioned, I flashback to this press conference with the shadow attorney general of Queensland in 2016
Your questions answered: the separation of powers
Why does our government have three arms?
In Australia, the power of our government is split into three parts – the parliament, executive and judiciary.
This is called the separation of powers, and is outlined in our constitution. It basically stops one big governing body from getting too powerful.
The separation of powers works like this:
The parliament is where laws can be made and changed. It is made up of the governor general, the Senate and the House of Representatives. This arm is also known as the legislature (because of its power over creation of legislature).
The executive is where the governor general, prime minister and ministers put law into action and enforce them.
And the judiciary is where judgements on law are made, by federal courts like the high court.
The idea is that Australia maintains a responsible government where the party or coalition in charge is held accountable by the parliament and judiciary to not abuse their power.
This principle is pretty ancient. (Literally, it can be dated back to ancient Greece, and was written about in 1748 by French philosopher Montesquieu, whose work is still foundational to the development of democratic countries today.)
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Treasurer to give economic update
At 12.30pm today, Jim Chalmers will deliver his economic statement.
For those asking, it does not materially change anything. But it is a giant flashing neon sign as to what direction the October budget will be heading in.
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Independents Monique Ryan and Allegra Spender embrace
Our photographer Mike Bowers was in the chamber for Dr Monique Ryan’s first speech and caught this moment between her and Allegra Spender:
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Ministers meet First Nations women
Linda Burney and Amanda Rishworth are meeting with First Nations women today to discuss plans to end violence.
From their statement:
Federal Ministers will today meet with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council on family, domestic and sexual violence to discuss the Albanese Labor Government’s commitment to ending violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children.
The meeting will discuss the work of the Advisory Council in leading the development of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan as part of the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-32.
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Victoria reports 37 Covid deaths and NSW records 34
Thirty-four people died of Covid in NSW yesterday and 37 people died in Victoria.
This is a very rough winter for a lot of people – and there are still weeks to go. Health authorities have said they don’t know when the peak of this latest Covid wave will hit.
COVID-19 update – Thursday 28 July 2022
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) July 27, 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 4pm yesterday:
- 96.8% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine*
- 95.3% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine* pic.twitter.com/22JRhzlrrn
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) July 27, 2022
Our thoughts are with those in hospital, and the families of people who have lost their lives.
More data soon: https://t.co/eUcG51fFhA pic.twitter.com/eDV4Il3hFT
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Your questions about Australian parliament answered
You have been asking some really great questions, and Rafqa Touma has done an outstanding job in answering them, so we have collated the main ones and put them in one file for your convenience.
There are a couple more questions Rafqa and I will be answering today – but we will do this again as the parliamentary year goes on.
I hope you have learned some new things (it keeps you young) – until someone asked, I didn’t know that “picfac” was an Australian thing. Thanks to everyone for being so curious.
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‘We can Close the Gap by putting First Nations people in charge of our own communities’
Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has released a statement in response to the report that Australia is still failing to meet three-quarters of its Close the Gap targets:
If the Albanese Government has any backbone, they will implement all of the recommendations from the Bringing them Home report and the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
First Nations people are sick of hearing about the continued failures of Closing the Gap, we demand action from this so-called progressive Government who says that Blak Lives Matter.
We have the solutions. We’ve known how to Close the Gap for over 30 years.
First Nations people are taking their lives because they can’t see a future for themselves in this system. Survivors of the stolen generation are seeing a new generation of our children being stolen. Over 500 people have died in custody since the Royal Commission and no one has been held accountable. It’s devastating.
The Joint Council on Closing the Gap shows us that advisory bodies don’t work. Every year, they tell us how bad we’re doing. The Albanese Government needs to listen to the voices that have already spoken and go back to the incredible work that our old people have done.
Everyone does better when we’re free to make our own choices. We can Close the Gap by putting First Nations people in charge of our own communities through Treaty. The area’s where we’re seeing progress shows us that putting First Nations people in the driver’s seat works.
The area’s where we’re going backwards are areas that successive Governments have chosen to ignore, for over 30 years. They have the solutions and they choose to ignore them. This is your chance to do the right thing, Labor.
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Mike Bowers was in the chamber as Tony Burke introduced the paid domestic and family violence leave legislation:
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Kooyong MP Monique Ryan delivers maiden speech
The independent MP for Kooyong, Monique Ryan, is delivering her first speech.
In it, Ryan is gracious to her predecessor, the former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, describing him as a “well-respected member of this place”.
But she also delivers a sensational backhander about the choice the electors of Kooyong made:
Kooyong has always been a seat held by conservative politicians – since it was formed in 1944, the Liberal party has always held Kooyong. The last time an incumbent lost his seat in Kooyong was 1922. Proof positive, Mr Speaker, that not all once-in-a-century events are bad.
Ryan credits Kooyong’s previous members, including Sir Robert Menzies, Andrew Peacock and Petro Georgiou who she describes as “true liberals; they recognised that open markets are the best way to boost prosperity” and “committed to protecting individuals’ rights”:
I hope to honour that legacy by representing the electorate with dedication, integrity and effect. I am the first woman, and the first independent, to represent this electorate. I will not be the last.
Ryan describes climate change as “the greatest challenge for our generation”:
We have lived through a wasted decade of ineffective action on climate change. As a doctor, researcher and scientist, my job has always been to care for children and to protect their futures. I stood for election for the seat of Kooyong because I felt – and the people of Kooyong felt – that our previous government was not doing that.
In recent years, the effects of the climate emergency have become apparent to us all. Science has shown us that we need increased ambition and urgent action in our rapid transition to a net zero emissions world. We stand on the precipice of a great opportunity: a transformation to a new clean energy economy - an economy which will not need to rely on volatile markets and international security for a secure energy supply. An economy away from polluting fuels and combustion vehicles to quiet electric vehicles and clean air for our children.
Our renewable energy resources are the envy of the world. We can use these natural advantages to bring down the cost of electricity for households: to protect our elderly neighbours from heatwaves; to ensure Australian families don’t have to decide between heating or food; to support our small and large businesses; and, to help position our country as the natural home of energy-intensive industries in the Asia- Pacific.
She also describes Kooyong’s choice at this election in terms that suggested it was an act of solidarity with communities harmed by global heating:
To the rural communities of western NSW and Queensland with farms and towns hit by drought – the people of Kooyong voted for you. To the people of Cobargo and Mallacoota and Kangaroo Island, whose homes burned during that black summer – Kooyong voted for you. To the people of Lismore and Woodburn whose houses have this year been inundated again and again by flood, Kooyong voted for you.
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Jacinta Nampijinpa Price admonishes Albanese over Indigenous voice plans
Country Liberal party senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price delivered her first speech last night.
You can find the whole text here (from page 81).
Price had a lot to say but it is her view on the government’s vow to enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament that has captured the most attention:
This government has yet to demonstrate how this proposed voice will deliver practical outcomes and unite, rather than drive a wedge further between, Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. And, no, prime minister, we don’t need another handout, as you have described the Uluru statement to be.
No, we Indigenous Australians have not come to agreement on this statement, as you have also claimed.
It would be far more dignifying if we were recognised and respected as individuals in our own right who are not simply defined by our racial heritage but by the content of our character.
I am an empowered Warlpiri Celtic Australian woman who did not need and has never needed a paternalistic government to bestow my own empowerment upon me.
We’ve proven for decades now that we do not need a chief protector of Aborigines.
I got here, along with 10 other Indigenous voices, including my colleague the senator for South Australia Kerrynne Liddle, to this 47th parliament of Australia like every other parliamentarian: through hard work and sheer determination. That’s how we got here.
However, you now want to ask the Australian people to disregard our elected voices and vote yes to apply a constitutionally enshrined advisory body without any detail of what that might in fact entail.
Perhaps a word of advice, since that is what you are seeking: listen to everyone, not just those who support your virtue-signalling agenda but also those you contradict.
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Government introduces paid family and domestic violence leave legislation
The workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, has introduced the paid family and domestic violence leave bill.
Burke said leaving a family and domestic violence leave situation is difficult – and the bill aimed to remove one more obstacle to getting help and getting out. The bill will add the entitlement to the national employment standards, meaning it will cover all 11 million employees including 2.6 million casuals.
Burke:
Getting out shouldn’t mean losing pay ... Workers will no longer have to ask, ‘Do I have leave to help me getting out?’ The answer for every employee will be yes.
He said employees would be paid leave not at the base rate of pay, but at the rate they would have earned if they’d gone to work. For casuals this will mean where shifts have been offered and accepted, they will be paid for those. If they weren’t rostered on, it will be unpaid leave:
Family and domestic violence doesn’t pick and choose whether you’re a casual or permanent worker.
The minister also explained that employees claiming the entitlement do not need to live with their alleged abuser to access the leave.
He said the Fair Work Commission’s review of paid family and domestic violence leave had found “no instances” of employees falsely claiming the leave, it’s simply “not an entitlement that employees rort”.
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In case you missed it this morning, here’s Murph’s view on what has happened and what is coming:
A few 'really rough' political months ahead for government - Politics with @murpharoo https://t.co/sl6d9ZiCWt
— RN Breakfast (@RNBreakfast) July 27, 2022
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As part of the change in standing orders, the sittings on Wednesday and Thursday start at 9am instead of 9.30am.
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The day’s schedule is out for the House:
The House resumes at 9am. After a government bill is introduced this morning, debate will resume on the proposed Address in Reply to the Governor-General’s opening speech. At 12.30pm, the Treasurer will make a ministerial statement on the economy. Program: https://t.co/A2KHNZ63jJ pic.twitter.com/kUbgJEI7SZ
— Australian House of Representatives (@AboutTheHouse) July 27, 2022
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Brisbane MP Stephen Bates fights back tears in first speech to parliament
You may have seen this on Guardian Australia’s Instagram but, in case you missed it, here is part of Brisbane Greens MP Stephen Bates’ first speech to parliament.
One of the sometimes-forgotten parts of coming out is that it doesn’t just happen once. You come out again and again and again. And as the new MP shows in this speech, representation matters.
(Side note: I very much appreciated the representation of Brisbane on Stephen’s lapel – it looks as though he is wearing an ibis bird badge with rainbow wings. The ibis is the unofficial national bird of the Greatest Nation on Earth’s capital.)
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Liberal senator pushes for climate policy certainty
On the “debate” on climate within the Liberal party at the moment, Andrew Bragg says:
I mean, the point is I’m a Liberal party senator, I’m wanting to support my party, but I’m also wanting to get the best possible economic outcome for the country.
Now, this has been a wretched issue for more than a decade. I would like to see us get to a much clearer centre point on the issue of emissions and the transition. And I think whatever happens with this bill, the real game is how do we get more stable medium- to long-term settings for our country, so that we can attract this capital because this is a race and unless we have policy certainty, over the long term, we will lose the race.
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Andrew Bragg won’t rule out crossing floor on emissions target
Moderate Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has a different view. He tells Patricia Karvelas that he wants to see what the economic impacts are. But he’s not a hardline no and he’s not ruling out crossing the floor:
I’m certainly not intending to cross the floor. I want to keep my options open. As we undertake this inquiry, which we now have a month or so to do, there are discussions to be had with colleagues. But the key point is this is an economic judgment, not a political judgment for the country. This bill, whatever it happens, won’t be the silver bullet. I mean, the the real game here is the medium- to long-term policy settings for the country, and making sure we can get the capital to fund this transition.
.@ajamesbragg making it clear he wants a Senate inquiry into Labor’s climate bill to shift the Coalition’s starting position to one informed by economics rather than politics @RNBreakfast #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) July 27, 2022
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On ABC radio RN Angus Taylor has joined Peter Dutton and Michaelia Cash in outright refusing to even come to the table in legislating a climate emissions reduction target. No discussion will be entered into.
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Climbers found dead on K2
An Australian and a Canadian climber have been found dead on K2, the world’s second highest mountain in Pakistan.
Mt Everest Today, a blog site that publishes expedition updates, reports that the Australian mountaineer was Matthew Eakin and the Canadian was Richard Cartier.
A Dfat spokesperson has confirmed the deaths, saying:
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian man who died during a climbing expedition in northern Pakistan.
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‘I have laid out a number of elements of what a good plan would look like’
What is Angus Taylor’s and the Coalition’s plan to deal with the economic issues? What would the Coalition have done if it won?
Taylor:
I have laid out a number of elements of what a good plan would look like. Dealing with the short-term supply pressures. Taking pressure off the budget. Releasing some of the longer-term productivity pressures in the economy as well, adding to that.
The Labor party, just in the last day, have [legislation to end] the ABCC. That will raise the cost to construction and one of the things we saw in the figures yesterday was a big escalation in the price of renovating and building a house*.
These are real costs for Australians. Labor is focused on all sorts of other things but not this. This really counts for Australians. They feel it at the checkout, they feel it at the bowser and when they are renovating or building a house.
*Just on that – the ABCC does not have jurisdiction over domestic builds (unless there are more than five on a site – so a housing estate, for instance). Abolishing the ABCC will not impact your renovations.
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Just four of 17 Closing the Gap targets are on track
Sarah Collard has an update on how Australia is meeting the Closing the Gap targets:
The nation is failing to address the systemic disadvantages experienced by First Nations communities, according to the latest Closing the Gap data released by the Productivity Commission on Thursday.
Four of the 17 targets are on track: the birth weights of Indigenous babies, preschool kids attending early childhood education, and youth detention rates are trending in the right direction, while gains are being seen in land and sea rights.
As of 30 June 2021, 89.5% of Indigenous babies were born at a healthy weight compared with 88.8% in 2017 (its baseline year) while 97.6% of preschool-aged children are enrolled in early education compared with 76.7% in 2016, the baseline data year.
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So as we reported yesterday, yes, the cashless debit card is being scrapped. But the BasicsCard, which does much the same thing to communities in the Northern Territory, who are primarily Indigenous, will continue. There is a plan for consultations but no timeline for when that will occur.
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Minister pushed on BasicsCard
Patricia Karvelas pushes Amanda Rishworth on her answers about the BasicsCard, given that it is no different, in principle, to the Indue card, and Rishworth says:
Well, our commitment in the election was to abolish the cashless debit card which we’re doing ...
We never said there would be the end of income management.
We said there would always be a voluntary income management option for individuals that chose it or communities that chose it and I would point to the Cape York [community] who has a structure in place called the family responsibilities commission, who have said that they want still the option to refer people to income management.
So we’re keeping that in the legislation. When it comes to the BasicsCard … we want to consult about how we move forward with that
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Income management continues
Social services minister Amanda Rishworth is speaking to Patricia Karvelas about the BasicsCard – which is income management, that limits spending, which is continuing.
The cashless debit card is ending. But the BasicsCard, which impacts communities in the Northern Territory, is not being scrapped.
Rishworth says there will be consultation about that form of income management and says the Indue card was the first step.
But it is not right to say Labor is ending income management, because the BasicsCard does the same thing and, so far, there is no timeline for when a decision will be made on that.
Rishworth:
We’ve said that we want to work with communities in the Northern Territory, about what the future of that type of income management looks like.
So I would like to have a lot of consultation about that, but our first step is the cashless debit card and we need to meet with people individually – if they don’t contact Services Australia to make sure that transition is smooth so I’m not underestimating the job of transitioning over 17,000 people off that card.
So that is the first order of business and then we will consult around what the future of income management – commonly known as the BasicsCard – is.
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Taylor won’t commit to backing extension of fuel excise cut
Q: Do you support the extension of the temporary fuel excise cut when it expires in September?
Angus Taylor:
We support the government coming up with a plan. They are ultimately in government. I have suggested some of the things that they can do to put together a coherent plan to respond ...
Q: I will ask you the question specifically again: Does the Coalition support the extension of that temporary cut?
Taylor:
We are not the ones in government. Government needs to put together the plan. I have made suggestions about some of the things they can do. We have announced policies that would make a real difference, getting more people into work when we have real supply constraints for our small businesses. That is what we need. That is what will make the real difference.
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Angus Taylor calls for ‘rapid concerted response’ to inflation
Angus Taylor, the shadow treasurer, is also doing the media rounds.
He appeared on ABC News Breakfast, explaining how the inflation is not the fault of the previous government:
What you are missing in that was a $103bn turn-around in the last budget we handed down and, in the May financial statement that came out, the budget deficit came in at almost half of what was expected.
We were tightening the belt and we recognised that you need today avoid fuelling inflation. This is what we need to see from the government.
You can’t choose the context you work with in government. We were dealt with many economic and health curveballs over the last couple of years. What you can do is respond to those circumstances. What we are not seeing from this government is a rapid concerted response to the circumstances.
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Are we approaching peak inflation?
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is doing the media rounds this morning before his economic statement to parliament scheduled for about 12.30pm AEST.
We know much of the outline already, such as the slicing of GDP growth forecasts for the economy compared with the pre-election estimates provided by the Treasury, as we report here:
Economics is featuring prominently this week in part because the first sitting week of the new government is coinciding with the release of the June quarter inflation rate, which yesterday came in at 6.1%.
While the highest since the introduction of the GST at the start of the century, that CPI numbers actually surprised slightly on the soft side, prompting investors to pull back on their more bullish estimates for RBA rate rises to quell the inflation beast.
Investors have pared their enthusiasm for RBA rate rises in the wake of the CPI figures (and a peek at a peak?). Still, they reckon there's a two-in-three chance the RBA will lift the cash rate to 2% (from 1.35%) although most economists tip only a 50bp rise. pic.twitter.com/TbzCehKMeU
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) July 27, 2022
In fact, a few economists think we might be near peak inflation. We wonder here if that might be overly optimistic, given what’s still in the price increase pipeline:
While many will be listening carefully to what Chalmers has to say about the state of the economy – and what if anything the government plans to do in terms of extra support to ease the cost-of-living crunch – the RBA is really the one calling the shots.
Its board meets next Tuesday and it’s just a question of how much the bank will lift its cash rate. And three days later the RBA releases its quarterly statement on monetary policy with its expectations of inflation arguably more telling that what Chalmers might charm us with today.
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‘We can’t flick a switch and make all this inflation disappear’
Jim Chalmers says there are still a couple of shocks coming:
There’s a couple of things that are yet to happen beyond the inflation numbers that we got yesterday.
First of all, there’s the big spike in electricity prices, which was hidden during the election, which came in in July.
We expect that to have a fairly substantial impact on the next inflation numbers that we get but obviously, as well, when the support at the petrol bowser comes off in September, as it’s legislated to do that will have an impact as well.
And so we’ve factored that into our expectations. But there are other big drivers of inflation, obviously – the global scene energy and food security is a big part of that.
But domestically there are factors that we have an influence over not immediately.
We can’t flick a switch and make all this inflation disappear. But we can deal with some of the issues in our supply chains that people understand are pushing up prices.
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Inflation forecast above 7% ‘confronting’
Jim Chalmers spoke to ABC radio RN host Patricia Karvelas this morning in the lead-up to his economic statement, where he said he’ll be talking of inflation in Australia going higher than 7 %.
It is at 6.1% now, so we are not too far off already.
Chalmers:
What I’ll be talking about today is an inflation forecast north of 7% which is confronting and when we got that new number yesterday for the June quarter, it wasn’t especially surprising that number yesterday, but it was still confronting because what it means is, as the street every dollar that Australians earn is not able to be stretched as far as it was before and people understand that.
I mean, people don’t really need you know, people don’t need to be told about you know, they don’t need that, they don’t struggle to understand that we’ve got an inflation problem.
In our economy because they feel it in every aisle of every supermarket. They feel it when the bills arrive.
But what I hope to do today and painting that more accurate picture is to give people a sense that, yes, inflation will peak in our expectation and Treasury’s expectation later this year, and then start to moderate.
But it will moderate inflation will come down again, it is primarily but not exclusively global. It is temporary, but it won’t disappear overnight. And so I want to talk people through our expectations for that as well.
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Sydney commuters warned to expect delays after four-hour train strike
If you are travelling on Sydney public transport this morning, AAP has an update for you:
NSW train services are getting back to normal after a four-hour strike that started at midnight. The stoppage affected Sydney’s rail network as well as intercity and regional services. Some services were replaced by buses and some delays could affect services this morning.
Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland said commuters should not expect a fully operational timetable until 8am.
The strike is the latest chapter in the long-running dispute between the Rail, Tram and Bus Union and the government over a new enterprise agreement, as well as safety modifications to the mothballed Korean-built new intercity fleet. The union and management are scheduled to meet again today.
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US military chief says China’s behaviour in Pacific ‘much more confrontational’
China’s behaviour in the Pacific is “much more confrontational” now than it was, and “seems to imply that they want to bully or dominate”, says General Mark Milley, chair of the US joint chiefs of staff.
Earlier this week Milley said China had become “significantly more and noticeably more aggressive”. He added to those comments in Sydney yesterday, according to the Associated Press, at a conference to discuss the rise of China and the stability of the region:
It’s a big conference to discuss our mutual security interests and discuss national security issues that apply to all of us.
Australia’s defence department did not respond to questions about the conference and its program.
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Good morning
Happy last day of the first week of sittings!
(Kamala to Joe voice: “We did it.”)
Given that we are only half way through the sitting through, there is still a hell of a lot to get through.
Including the treasurer, Jim Chalmers handing down his economic statement. Chalmers has been previewing this for some time, so no one should be surprised.
Here is the main message:
Australia is outperforming much of the world, but that doesn’t make it easier to pay the bills at home.
Our high inflation is primarily but not exclusively global.
It will subside but not overnight.
It’s been turbocharged by a decade of domestic failures on skills, on energy and on supply chains which just aren’t resilient enough.
And the numbers?
This has cut half a percentage point from growth for the last financial year, for this financial year, and for next financial year.
It’s expected that real GDP grew by 3¾ per cent in 2021-22, instead of 4 ¼ per cent as was estimated pre-election.
The pre-election forecast for GDP growth in 2022-23 was 3½ per cent. This has now been revised down to 3 per cent growth.
And growth is expected to slow further in 2023-24, at 2 per cent – down from the 2½ per cent previously predicted.
But you don’t need Treasury boffins to tell you that. You can feel it. You can feel it looking at your bank account, in the decisions you make at the supermarket and whether or not you take the car.
Inflation is going to go up. We know that. Chalmers and the RBA both expect it to start levelling off before too long, which is good news, but the US Federal Reserve has again lifted its rates – in a way not seen since the mid-1990s.
So it is a complicated global economy but the last decade has not left us in a great place to deal with it. With yesterday’s inflation data, the small gains made over the last 10 years in wage growth, have been wiped out. People on fixed incomes, especially those on unemployment payments, are in even more dire straits. And the energy price bill shock won’t filter through until the next quarter – those bills are coming in now, and it’s only going to drive people further into financial distress.
We’ll cover all the news as it happens. Mike Bowers and Katharine Murphy are leading the way, as always, with Paul Karp, Tory Shepherd and Josh Butler finding out what exactly is happening in the building.
You have me, Amy Remeikis, with you for most of the day.
I have had freckles for breakfast, so I am already eating my feelings. Let’s get straight into it.
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