What we learned, Monday 7 November
That’s where we’ll leave you this evening. Here’s just some of what we learned:
• Melbourne’s Crown casino was slapped with $120m in fines for breaches of its responsible service of gambling obligations.
• The federal government announced a review into migration, looking at the visa system, how people interact with it, the potential for criminals to take advantage of loopholes to traffic people, and whether it can address Australia’s labour shortages.
• Medibank announced to the ASX a confirmation they will not pay the ransom hackers have demanded not to release information from its data breach. Medibank also confirmed the hackers accessed the name, date of birth, address, phone number and email address for around 9.7m current and former customers.
• Independent senators Jacquie Lambie and David Pocock called for the government to split its industrial relations bill, with the latter arguing it had been very rushed, and that splitting it would see low-paid people get pay rises faster.
• Traditional owners from the Torres Strait built a mock seawall outside Parliament House, in a bid to get Labor to go further on climate action and protect their islands.
• The attorney general’s department told Senate estimates that it did not provide advice to Christian Porter before the then attorney general advised Scott Morrison on the way he could be appointed to multiple ministries.
• Australian Electoral Commission disclosures revealed that Atlassian founder Scott Farquhar was the biggest donor to the six successful teal independent candidates, followed by fellow co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes’ climate campaigning entity, Boundless Earth.
• And the head of the Fair Work Commission, Justice Iain Ross, has announced his retirement, effective 18 November.
Thanks for sticking with us. We’ll be back tomorrow.
Updated
Cost-cutting at the Parliament House cafeteria
Brace yourself for a very Canberra Bubble update, but the Department of Parliamentary Services has confirmed that the decision to cut back the variety of food at the Parliament House staff cafeteria was indeed due to cost-cutting.
If you do not work in this palace of democracy your eyes may glaze over here, but the cafeteria used to switch up its bain-marie buffet menu in the middle of the week, with one set of food for the first few days and an entirely different one for the back end of the week.
Recently the cafeteria upped the price of coffee and also food as inflation pressures came for Canberra too, before APH occupants also noticed the midweek menu change had also fallen by the wayside.
A sometimes frankly baffling combination of buffet items now sticks around for a whole week. Coalition senator James McGrath asked DPS in a Senate estimates hearing this afternoon what happened to the variety?
“I’m asking this on behalf of some of the staff who are in the building full-time,” McGrath asked secretary Rob Stefanic, saying his question went to looking after “the brilliant staff” who work in APH:
I ask this with seriousness ... on behalf of staff and not my stomach.
Stefanic said DPS was looking to improve the level of service for building occupants, with the midweek menu change aiming to give “variety” for staff. But he also noted that costs had to go up:
As part of the cost side we reduced it back to a single menu through the week.
Updated
