What we learned; Sunday 24 November
With that we’re wrapping up the blog. Before we go, here are the major stories from Sunday:
Labor has dropped its mis- and disinformation bill and announced it will put gambling ad reform on hold. The shadow communications minister has attacked the government for “craven inaction” on gambling ads.
Rising Tide has continued its protest with hundreds of people paddling out into the Port of Newcastle to block incoming coal ships. NSW police say they have arrested 138 protesters during the action.
Indonesia has agreed to allow the surviving Bali Nine prisoners to return to Australia in a yet to be finalised deal between the two countries. Labor says the convicted drug smugglers would “likely” be required to serve out their sentences in Australia if returned.
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has said a social media ban for under 16s will have no effect and will “drop them in the deep end” when they turn 16;
A Victorian pill-testing trail will begin at Beyond The Valley music festival this summer.
We’ll pick things up again tomorrow.
Updated
Clearance rate ticks up on quieter weekend for auctions
Auction activity has fallen this weekend with 2,577 auctions to be held.
This is a drop on the 2,898 held last week, and a figure lower than the 2,949 auctions that occurred at the same time last year.
Based on results collected so far, CoreLogic’s summary found that the preliminary clearance rate was 65.3% across the country, which is higher than the 64.1% preliminary rate recorded last week but well above the 57.3% actual rate on final numbers.
Across the capital cities:
Sydney: 699 of 984 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 68.4%
Melbourne: 784 of 1,111 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 65.2%
Brisbane: 176 0f 233 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 56.8%
Adelaide: 80 of 143 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 66.3%
Canberra: 55 of 91 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 52.7%
Tasmania: No auctions held.
Perth: Six of 15 auctions held.
Updated
All eyes on CPI data as inflation fight continues
Inflationary pressures in the economy likely stabilised at the lower end of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s target range last month, data due this week could show.
But progress on underlying measures, which strip away volatility and are the focus of the central bank, is tipped to be less subdued and consistent with interest rates staying on hold at the next board meeting in December.
The October consumer price index numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics due on Wednesday will be watched closely.
While not as comprehensive as the quarterly releases, the monthly numbers still provide a steer on the potency of price pressures.
Australians might hear more on the outlook for interest rates on Thursday, when the RBA governor Michele Bullock gives a speech at the annual CEDA Conference in Sydney.
Other data to be released by the ABS includes quarterly updates on construction work, due on Wednesday, and business investment, on Thursday.
- AAP
Updated
‘I don’t look like him at all, I’m just tall’: Jacob Elordi lookalike crowned in Melbourne
“If I saw someone who looked like Jacob Elordi, I wouldn’t be mad,” says Milla, one of the spectators of Saturday’s Jacob Elordi lookalike competition, which is occurring on the lawn of the State Library of Victoria in the middle of a heatwave. The only thing hotter than the weather, apparently, is Australian actor Jacob Elordi.
The dating pool in Melbourne is not that great. I think that he is a very attractive man, and if you look like him, then you are also an attractive man.” Another spectator, fanning themselves furiously as they wait for the contest to start, tells me that while they aren’t a fan of his acting, they like “free events” and want to “see some hot guys”.
Unfortunately, as time passes, it becomes increasingly clear that the couple of dozen attendees might be out of luck: there’s not only a conspicuous absence of anyone who looks like Jacob Elordi, but any men at all to compete for the $50 prize.
Elordi is not the first young handsome white man to have a look alike contest – in fact, in the great Australian tradition of being slightly behind every cultural trend, he joins the tail end of the phenomenon. The somewhat baffling movement, reminiscent of the flashmob debacle from the naughties but hornier and sillier, began in October with a Timothée Chalamet lookalike competition in New York. What started as an event poster affixed to a lone streetlight quickly went viral, with YouTuber Anthony Po eventually incurring a $500 fine for hosting the event, which featured not only more than 300 contestants and an arrest, but Timothée Chalamet himself.
In case you missed it, read Patrick Lenton’s full write up on the Jacob Elordi look-a-like contest in Melbourne yesterday:
Updated
Education minister orders review into school bullying
A review has been ordered into bullying in Australian schools to stamp out the pervasive behaviour and better safeguard students.
The federal education minister, Jason Clare, wrote to state and territory counterparts to push for a united effort to deal with bullying in classrooms and school yards.
He recommended a short expert-led examination of current school procedures and best practice methods to address bullying.
The study will be funded by the Albanese government and report back to education ministers with options on developing a national bullying standard.
In the letter, Clare said the study would:
Inform policies across jurisdictions and sectors to provide children and parents confidence that no matter where their child goes to school, if they’re experiencing bullying, it will be managed in an appropriate way.
It comes after Year 7 student Charlotte O’Brien, 12, took her own life in September after allegedly being bullied at Sydney’s Santa Sabina College.
Clare conceded bullying doesn’t just happen in schools but they were places where authorities could intervene and provide support for students.
Bullying is not on, anywhere, anytime, in any form. Just like we are taking action to help stop bullying on social media, we also can do more where children are face to face.
- AAP
Updated
Meta is ‘reckless’ in ‘need-to-know situations’, Canada warns Australia as it braces for early bushfire season
Twelve months on from Canada’s worst-ever wildfire season unfolding during a news blackout on Facebook, the nation has warned Australia about Meta’s “reckless” behaviour during “need-to-know situations”.
An early start to Australia’s bushfire season is looming for swaths of the country, with large parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory, the south-west of Victoria and south-east corner of South Australia facing higher risk, according to an official assessment in September.
In August 2023, negotiations between the tech company and Canada’s government broke down as Justin Trudeau’s Liberals doggedly pursued news bargaining deal C-18, known as the Online News Act – similar to the one struck in Australia in 2021 following a seven-day news blackout.
The breakdown in negotiations resulted in Meta blocking all news sources on Facebook in Canada “recklessly and dangerously” as all 10 provinces and three territories in the country burned, Canada’s heritage minister, Pascale St-Onge, told Guardian Australia.
Facebook is leaving disinformation and misinformation to spread on their platform, while choosing to block access to reliable, high-quality, independent journalism.
Facebook is just leaving more room for misinformation during need-to-know situations like wildfires, emergencies, local elections and other critical times for people to make decisions on matters that affect them.
For more on this story, read the full report by Guardian Australia’s Tory Shepherd:
Updated
Construction firm involved in sediment breach says it takes environmental responsibilities ‘seriously’
As noted in an earlier post, Adco, a construction firm, is facing the maximum $30,000 fine issued by the NSW EPA after endangering a rare fish.
Adco’s managing director Neil Harding tells Guardian Australia that the firm “takes its environmental responsibilities seriously and responded vigilantly at all times to address identified erosion and sediment issues, in partnership with its specialist consultant and civil works subcontractor”.
The company said it had taken “expert advice” from the outset of the school project to minimise the risk of sediment releases.
However the project “was impacted by the extreme rainfall events in the half of 2024 and other extenuating circumstances”, and the firm had installed additional stormwater filtration treatment works.
“We are now in the process of reviewing the EPA’s determination and will respond in due course,” he said.
Updated
Protest group Rising Tide says it has successfully turned back a coal ship from the Port of Newcastle
Hundreds of people have been taking part in a week-long protest at the Port of Newcastle, one of the biggest coal export ports in the world, to protest Australia’s continued export of fossil fuels and to call for a fossil fuel export tax.
The group says more than 100 protesters have occupied the shipping channel in Newcastle Harbour as a climax to the week-long protest.
The protest coincides with the conclusion of negotiations at the COP meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Police have made over 100 arrests.
Newcastle local and Rising Tide organiser Alexa Stuart said the success came despite attempts by the New South Wales government “to shut down our peaceful blockade”.
We are taking urgent action because the problem is urgent. Right now, Australians are facing increasing floods, bushfires, heatwaves, and rising sea levels are already washing away communities in the Torres Strait.
We have drawn a clear line in the sand here on the shores of Newcastle Harbour. The people are rising, and we won’t stop until the Albanese Government stops approving climate-wrecking coal and gas which threatens our lives and those of future generations.
Naomi Shine, who survived the 2022 Lismore flood, said that experience motivated her to participate.
I’m here to say no to coal. I’m fed up with government inaction. They are totally captured by the fossil fuel industry. Our communities deserve better. The only hope I get is getting together with people to say no to fossil fuels and yes to life.
Updated
Victorian premier says her ‘heart breaks’ for young Victorian women who died in Laos
Allan is also asked about the deaths of two young Victorian women who died while holidaying in Laos from a suspected methanol poisoning.
She says:
My thoughts, sympathies and heart breaks for Holly [Bowles] and Bianca [Jones’] families and friends and loved ones. It is just heartbreaking to see the tragic death of these two beautiful, vibrant young women who were on an adventure of a lifetime.
To have it end in this tragic and terrible way is deeply distressing. It has been distressing for many members of the Victorian community to read and hear the news coming out of Laos and Thailand, and I would fully support whatever steps need to be taken for this to be fully investigated.
Obviously, these are matters that will be led by the Department of Foreign Affairs, and our focus will be on supporting Holly and Bianca’s family, they’ve got a really, really awful time ahead of them as they prepare to say goodbye to their beautiful young women. And so where we can provide support for their family, we stand ready to do so.
Updated
Possibility of Labor candidate at Prahran byelection is up to federal Labor party, Allan says
Jacinta Allan is asked about a byelection in the seat of Prahran, which was sparked yesterday by ex-Greens MP Sam Hibbins, who resigned after an affair with a staffer.
She says:
In terms of the circumstances that have brought us to seeing a byelection in Prahran, that is obviously a question for the Greens political party and their departing member for Prahran. Ultimately, it will be up to the Prahran electorate to determine who represents them – who replaces the outgoing former Greens representative, Sam Hibbins – in that seat.
Asked whether she would like to see Labor run a candidate, she says:
Those decisions are a matter for the Australian Labor party … We have a significant majority already in the Victorian Legislative Assembly.
She goes on to say she is focused on “getting on with the job the Victorian community elected us for”.
When Hibbins resigned on Saturday, he said he had referred “unauthorised access” to his parliament office to police and parliamentary services. He allegedly said “personal items, including family and my children’s baby photos, were vandalised with offensive and threatening graffiti”.
Asked whether this concerned her, Allan said:
I don’t know the circumstances behind those claims that have been made. Obviously, every individual who works in the parliamentary precinct, whether you’re a member of parliament or a member of staff, everyone deserves the right to a safe and respectful workplace.
Everyone deserves that, and we are strengthening that framework; we are soon to appoint … the first of the parliamentary integrity commissioners who will oversee a much strengthened, accountability framework for members of parliament.
Updated
Shadow communications minister denounces PM’s ‘craven inaction’ on gambling ads
David Coleman, who wouldn’t normally get this much time in front of a camera, is using this press conference to flay the Albanese government for their end of year approach.
The end of the year is coming, not with a bang but with a whimper. We have seen today the misinformation bill die its inevitable death. We have seen the prime minister leak to the media his craven inaction on gambling advertising, and we see a whole range of other legislation that is just all over the place. People have to ask the question: what is the point of the Albanese government? What do they stand for?
Coleman repeatedly sought to frame the Albanese government as “weak” and indecisive, in contrast with the “strong” and decisive leadership of Peter Dutton who is “wiling to stand up and take a firm position and say what he would do.”
Updated
PM ‘cowers in the corner’ on issue of gambling, shadow communications minister says
Coleman has also accused Anthony Albanese of being “scared” of confrontation after he abandoned an effort to make changes to the rules that govern gambling advertising.
He is scared of gambling advocates like Tim Costello. He is scared of the AFL, the NRL and the media companies. So what does he do? He cowers in the corner and does nothing, and that is a shocking indictment on the weakness of this prime minister. Most people in Australia accept that there is a need for action on gambling advertising.
Updated
Shadow communications minister says disinformation and misinformation bill ‘should never have been put forward’
The shadow communications minister, David Coleman, has welcomed the withdrawal of the government’s disinformation and misinformation bill, but says it should never have been introduced.
This bill should never have been put forward. The fact the government spent 18 months trying to get this attack on free speech to become the law of Australia is a disgrace so it tells you everything you need to know about the values of this government. This is a bill that united pretty much everyone in Australia in opposition.
Australia has no constitutionally protected right to free speech, but Australians do have an implied right to political communication.
Updated
More than 130 arrested at Rising Tide blockade in Newcastle
New South Wales police say they have arrested over 100 people who have attended a protest organised by Rising Tide in Newcastle.
Police report 138 arrests for refusing to comply with a direction to move away from the channel and say the police operation remains ongoing.
For their own safety and that of the other users of the port, police request that people refrain from entering the harbour with the intention to obstruct other users of the port. We also encourage all participants to follow the directions of police.
Police say they will take a “zero-tolerance approach to actions which threaten public safety and the safe passage of vessels.”
Updated
Allan is asked how police will monitor Beyond the Valley. She says:
I know that the Department of Health and Victoria police have been working very, very closely together to implement this trial. The legislation provides for access to the pill testing service to be provided in a confidential way, in a legal way outside of that service, the responsibilities of Victoria police remain in place, and it remains illegal to be in possession or to take illicit drugs. But this is also something that we know has worked in Queensland ... we know that this can be achieved where you continue to respect the operational decisions of Victoria Police but provide a safe and legal space for this pill testing to be provided.
Pill testing to be offered at 10 music festivals over next two summers
Victorian mental health minister, Ingrid Stitt, says over the course of the 18-month trial, pill testing services will be offered at five festivals this summer and five in 2025-26. She’ll have a list of all festivals this summer “soon”:
Stitt says:
My department’s been working closely with the festival organisations and peaks, and we’ve been trying to make sure that we’ve got a good mix of different sorts of festivals, both regional and metropolitan, bearing in mind that this is a trial, and we want to make sure that we’re broadly testing how this will go in different settings.
Updated
Pill testing chief say teams will be able to identify ‘almost anything’
Cameron Francis, chief executive of The Loop Australia, is talking through how pill testing will work at Beyond The Valley. He says the team will work from 1pm to 7pm each day of the four-day festival using equipment that can “identify and quantify almost anything that comes forward”.
He says:
The equipment we’ll be using down here in Victoria means we can test basically everything. So we’ll be using equipment that can identify and quantify all kinds of substances – pills, powders, liquids.
Two types of equipment will be used – four infrared machines and two GC-MS machines (or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry). Francis says the former is speedy while the latter can detect even small amounts of deadly substances. He says:
The infrared instrument is very quick. It can get us a result in a couple of minutes. It’s not able to quantify though. It can’t tell us purity, and if we get below 5% concentration, we might not be able to detect traces. So because of that, we’re using portable GC-MS on site at the festival. That’s really advanced equipment that is used in sort of military settings. It’s really advanced and it can detect basically anything that we might be trying to find there. So using a combination of equipment means that we’ll be able to detect pretty much anything that comes forward.
He says MDMA purity is the group’s “biggest concern” over the summer.
We know that globally, MDMA purity has increased, and we know that when that purity increases, there’s risks of overdose. So the GC-MS will be focused on our MDMA purity so we can give people that accurate information to try and reduce the risks of overdose.
Updated
More on Beyond The Valley pill testing
In 2019, a 20-year-old man died in hospital days after suffering a suspected drug overdose at the Beyond The Valley festival. While there were fewer events in the following years due to Covid, paramedics responded to more drug overdoses at festivals in the first three months of this year than during all of 2023.
At least one young person died, and eight people were placed in medically induced comas, due to overdoses over the summer.
Victoria’s mental health minister, Ingrid Stitt, says
We’re really delighted that we will be out at Beyond The Valley as the first festival for drug checking. It is a very large festival, and it’s important that during this trial, we actually test how the operation is going in lots of different settings. The four-day festival at Beyond The Valley is a really great example of where we have a very large scale music festival across four days, and we can provide this as an additional service to the already comprehensive first aid and medical infrastructure that is in place at Beyond The Valley, a very experienced music festival in Australia.
Updated
Victorian pill-testing trial to begin at Beyond The Valley music festival this summer
Beyond The Valley music festival will be the first in the state to trial a pill testing service.
The Victorian government has announced Beyond The Valley music festival will be the first in the state to trial a pill testing service.
The premier, Jacinta Allan, says the four-day festival, located in the Golden Plains shire, will be the “largest-ever event” in Australia to provide access to pill testing.
The festival runs from 28 December until 1 January, with about 35,000 expected to attend.
A consortium – made up of the Youth Support and Advocacy Service, The Loop Australia and Harm Reduction Victoria – will provide the service, with support from Melbourne Health, Youth Projects and Metabolomics Australia (part of the University of Melbourne).
Allan says the service will be completely confidential and will use “world-leading technology” to test pills, powders and liquids for the presence of deadly substances.
She says a fixed pill testing site will also be established and open by mid-2025 in inner Melbourne, close to nightlife and public transport.
Pill testing will become permanent in Victoria after the 18-month trial. Nine other festivals will be selected over the coming months for on-site pill testing.
Allan says:
If a young person has a pill in their hand, they’re intending to take it. We know that pill testing saves lives. We know too, and I firmly believe this, that young people deserve to have access to health-focused information to help support them, to help give them the right advice, to help get them to make perhaps a better choice that supports them and their friends. And if young people are looking for this advice, we should provide this advice to them.
This is just a simple and common sense way that we can support young people and we know can help save lives.
Updated
Michaelia Cash says Albanese should ‘stand up and explain’ details of potential Bali Nine deal with Indonesia
The shadow attorney-general, Michaelia Cash, says the Albanese government should explain the status of any deal with Indonesia that could allow the remaining members of the Bali Nine drug smugglers to return to Australia, with senior members of the government staying quiet at this stage.
Speaking to Sky News on Sunday morning, Cash said:
Given it is such a significant decision, I think it’s almost inexplicable that Mr Albanese has not stood up in front of the Australian people and explained exactly what he’s done.
Guardian Australia understands the government is not talking about any potential arrangement that may be in the works, due to the sensitive nature of the issue, despite Reuters reporting an Indonesian minister said a deal was in the works and could include the repatriation of Indonesian prisoners held in Australia.
Ministers Don Farrell and Stephen Jones have declined to weigh in during media appearances over the last 24 hours. Cash said the government should be speaking publicly about the situation.
Given this seems to have escalated over the last 24 hours, it is now for prime minister Albanese to stand up in the front of the Australian people and say, What is the deal? What has he extracted in relation for the deal? What is Australia giving up in relation to the deal? How much is it going to cost the Australian taxpayer?
Will they continue to serve their prison sentences because they have been sentenced to life imprisonment in Indonesia? Will they continue to serve them out in Australia – and if not, why not?
Government sources said such negotiations were often sensitive and delicate. Adding to the tension is the fact Australia doesn’t have a prisoner transfer agreement with Indonesia, which could make any prisoner swap quite legally challenging.
Updated
Bali Nine members would serve out sentences in Australia if they return, trade minister says
The trade minister, Don Farrell, speaking to Sky News on Sunday morning, said the government was in discussion with its Indonesian counterparts to hammer out the detail concerning how the surviving Bali Nine might be returned to Australia.
Farrell said the prisoners will continue to serve their sentences in Australia.
The proposal isn’t, as I understand it, to release these people.
They would continue to serve their sentence, except they’re serving them in Australia.
- AAP
Updated
NSW EPA fines construction firm for possible wipe-out of ancient fish
Back in February, we reported on the bungled construction work at a government high school that may have snuffed out a fish with a 90m-year heritage in the Sydney region.
The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority tells us (exclusively) they have slapped the Forest high school contractor ADCO Constructions with a maximum penalty of $30,000 for discharging sediment-laden water into the local stormwater system that flowed into the Curl Curl Creek.
We’ve asked the EPA if they know what happened to the last remaining climbing galaxias freshwater fish in that creek. Locals, such as Malcolm Fisher, from the Save Manly Dam Catchment Committee, say the Galaxias brevipinnis is cryptic and may have perished.
“Water pollution incidents of this nature have the potential to jeopardise their delicate natural habitat,” said Jason Gordon, the EPA’s executive director of operations.
At the time of the incident, adequate onsite pollution controls were not in place at the construction site, which is unacceptable.
As for the impacts, the agency “has not received any reports” the fish has been harmed, but Fisher (an apt name) says it would be better if the EPA actually studied the damage. Also, that $30,000 fine might be more better spent on helping to rehabilitate the creek and protecting remaining the wildlife rather than bolstering EPA’s coffers.
Michael Regan, the independent state MP for the area, agreed, saying the fine proceeds should be invested back into environmental projects at Manly Dam.
“Manly Dam is a jewel of the northern beaches and I take any threat to the environmental values of the dam extremely seriously,” said Regan, who was formerly the region’s mayor.
As intense rain events become more frequent with climate change, we need to increase sediment run-off protections in our planning system approvals.
Guardian Australia approached ADCO for comment.
Updated
A few high profile figures will be at Sunday’s Rising Tide protests in Newcastle – former Socceroos captain Craig Foster and author Melissa Lukashenko.
The federal Greens leader, Adam Bandt, will also join the protest, alongside federal Greens senator David Shoebridge and NSW legislative council member Sue Higginson.
Updated
Man arrested over alleged Nazi salute in Sydney
A man has been arrested for displaying a Nazi salute after he allegedly attempted to interrupt a protest march in Newtown, Sydney with the gesture and other threats on Saturday.
Police attending the planned rally arrested the 20-year-old man, who was not associated with the event, after he allegedly stepped in front of the march to make the salute and make threats to the participants.
He has been charged with knowingly display by public act Nazi symbol without excuse and make a gesture in a public place that is a Nazi salute.
The man was granted strict conditional bail to appear before Newtown local court on 14 January 2025.
Updated
Melbourne gets a soaking as cool change sweeps south-east
South-eastern Australia is off to a wet start on Sunday with Melbourne being drenched.
The rains follow a cool change moving eastwards across the country, ending the hotter temperatures that stretched from the south-east to the centre of the continent.
The mercury in Melbourne is expected to reach 22C on Sunday, with heavy rain. Hobart was similarly cool but dry with temperatures expected to reach 20C.
Here's today's forecast around Australia.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) November 23, 2024
For the latest forecasts and warnings, visit our website https://t.co/4W35o8i7wJ or the BOM Weather app. pic.twitter.com/hQtzwoxZXj
Meanwhile, hotter temperatures are expected to persist further north towards Sydney and through parts of New South Wales.
🌧️A wet start with scattered showers contracting to eastern and northcentral districts throughout the day.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria (@BOM_Vic) November 23, 2024
☁️Mostly cloudy and humid with temperatures above average, tending hot in the northeast.
⛈️Isolated storms across much of the state.
Forecast: https://t.co/alz1b0nmRi pic.twitter.com/azFAy4WAhn
Good morning #NSW!
— Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales (@BOM_NSW) November 23, 2024
🌡️ Hot temperatures across much of the state with maximum temperatures broadly 6-10°C above average.
⛈️ Showers with possible storms through the west, south. Possible heavy falls in the west, far southwest.
☀️ Fine elsewhere
Details: https://t.co/UqlGxUsuBw pic.twitter.com/0QS8hkx4Dt
The mercury is expected to remain high across much of the rest of the country with Brisbane forecast to hit 28C, Darwin to reach 32C with storms and Perth hitting a toasty 33C.
Updated
Government backs off misinformation and disinformation bill
The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, says the government will not bring its misinformation and disinformation bill to the upper house as “it is clear that there is no pathway to legislate this proposal through the Senate”.
In a statement on Sunday, Rowland said the Coalition had chosen “to place partisanship above any attempt to navigate the public interest” despite having “committed to legislating safeguards when in Government”.
Breaking: communications minister Michelle Rowland says the government "will not proceed with the Misinformation and Disinformation Bill"
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) November 23, 2024
(It was doomed to fail in the Senate with strong opposition to the bill) pic.twitter.com/1uxGhKPJmC
The Government invites all Parliamentarians to work with us on other proposals to strengthen democratic institutions and keep Australians safe online, while safeguarding values like freedom of expression.
It is incumbent on democracies to grapple with these challenges in a way that puts the interests of citizens first.
Rowland said going forward the government will focus on legislating to strengthen existing offences targeting the sharing of non-consensual and sexually explicit deepfakes, truth in advertising for elections reforms, and regulation of artificial intelligence.
Mis and disinformation is an evolving threat and no single action is a perfect solution, but we must continue to improve safeguards to ensure digital platforms offer better protections for Australians.
Updated
Labor declines to confirm reports surviving Bali nine members to return home
The Australian government is staying mum at this stage on reports the remaining members of the Bali Nine will be allowed to return home and leave Indonesian prison. Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong’s offices are not giving comment at this point.
We understand the Albanese government has been advocating for their release for some time, with appeals made to Indonesian presidents Widodo and Subianto, including as recently as last week from Albanese directly. The government is unlikely to make public comment while those conversations continue.
Government minister Stephen Jones said yesterday at a press conference that he was aware of reports but declined to comment.
I can confirm that the Albanese government has been consistently advocating for the cases of the Bali Nine. This included conversations with former President Widodo and President Prabowo on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Peru recently. I don’t intend to comment further on these issues, but I can confirm that the Albanese government has consistently advocated for the cause of these men.
Updated
Labor drops mis- and disinformation bill as gambling ad reform remains on hold
Two bits of news from the communications portfolio this morning. Michelle Rowland says the government will drop entirely its bill on mis- and disinformation, which had attracted no new support in the Senate, and was about to fail (more on that shortly).
The bill will be dropped after Rowland conceded it would not pass.
Separately, the wait for the government’s gambling ad legislation will continue. That reform won’t be seen this week of parliament, Guardian Australia understands, and it’s unclear when it will finally be seen.
The government has been equivocating over how to respond to the report from the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, who had called for a total ban on online gambling ads – but a year and a half on, the government’s response is still in the “to be confirmed” column.
Updated
‘Cruel and heartless’ for Coalition to question bringing Bali Nine members home, Hanson-Young says
Hanson-Young finishes up the interview by reacting to comments from the Coalition questioning the wisdom of the government’s move to secure the return of the Bali Nine to Australia.
I mean – cruel and heartless, frankly. Cruel and heartless. And if you want a glimpse of what a Peter Dutton government will look like, this is it. Don’t be fooled by Dutton in lamb’s clothes.
And that’s a wrap.
Updated
Greens dropping climate trigger demand on nature positive laws about ‘getting some good stuff done’
Asked about the Greens’ change of tack on the introduction of the government’s nature positive laws – where the party has dropped its demand for a climate trigger to be introduced, a proposal that the Labor government has refused – Hanson-Young says the party is aiming to be pragmatic.
You can work with the Greens to get some good stuff done, or you can work with Peter Dutton that will empower him and give him more of a platform. And I think that that is dangerous.
The senator says the Greens want the government to commit to ending native forest logging to secure their support.
We’ve put aside our demands around the climate trigger because it was very clear that the prime minister was not going to budge on that. So you had to win votes in WA. Fight at the election and we’ll come back after the new parliament. But if you want a watchdog in place, give them rules to implement to protect nature.
Hanson-Young says she is concerned that if the government doesn’t come to the table, there is a chance Anthony Albanese may no longer be prime minister after the next election.
Let’s make sure that there are laws in place that actually protect nature before it is gone.
Updated
Hanson-Young: Labor and Coalition ‘squibbing it’ by prioritising social media ban over gambling reform
On news that the government is seeking to abandon the misinformation and disinformation bill – my colleague Josh Butler has more on that shortly – Hanson-Young says she welcomes the decision to withdraw the bill.
The senator says the bill was poorly designed, contained carve-outs for news media and would result in “putting Elon Musk in charge of truth”.
We’ve got to get back to the real problem. And that is how these companies profit off the dangerous posts. You want to stop the dangerous posts spreading like wildfire – hit them where it hurts, and that’s the dollar.
On gambling ads, Hanson-Young says Labor and the Coalition are “squibbing it” by refusing to address “the harm that is done to Australian families every year because of gambling addiction”.
The government and the opposition are ramming through a ban on social media that was introduced on Thursday. We’ve got a joke of a Senate inquiry for three days tomorrow. But they can’t do gambling. I mean, really – talk about priorities.
Updated
‘This is so that the oldies can feel like the prime minister cares about their kids’
Hanson-Young says the urgency behind the social media ban is political.
The prime minister wants to end the year with Peter Dutton to say, look, folks, you won’t have kids sitting on their phones at Christmas. That’s what is going on here.
And I was listening to a very astute, the words of a very astute 15-year-old this morning who said, you know, this is so that the oldies can feel like the prime minister cares about their kids.
Hanson-Young says that those behind the push for the social media ban do care but the policy itself was “fool’s gold”.
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Hanson-Young: Australia should ‘have the guts’ to prohibit tech companies selling personal data to advertisers
Asked about research that suggest social media is having a negative impact on the mental health of teenage that is leading to more hospitalisation, Hanson-Young says it is necessary to “engage with young people, put in place safe places online for them”.
Yes, we have to deal with the mental health issues. Yes, we have to deal with social isolation. Yes, we have to make sure that young people know when something is wrong and raise a hand and say “can someone come and help me”. But you don’t do that by prohibition.
The senator says that dealing with the issue requires “taking away the profitability of the tech companies”. To achieve this, Hanson-Young says she wants to “prohibit the scraping and the collection of the data of all young people that is then sold to advertising” to “stop that dangerous content being rammed down their throats”.
Hanson-Young says what is needed is to impose a duty of care on social media companies to protect kids.
Australia should work out how we make these platforms safer for everybody. Really hit these tech companies where it hurts. That’s their business model. Have the guts to do that. Have the guts to hold them to account.
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Social media ban would ‘drop kids in the deep end’ once they turn 16, Hanson-Young says
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says the government’s social media ban for kids under 16 is a “blunt instrument” that “won’t make being on the internet for kids or young people safe, or anyone, for that matter.”
I’m a mum. I’ve got a teenage daughter. She just graduated this week from year 12. Hi, darling. I know what it’s like to be as a parent, trying to work out where the limits are. How do you educate? How do you put in place some safety mechanisms? How do you have a conversation with your kids about what is going on and are they able to see the red flags?
But just kicking young people off social media until they’re 16 and then dropping them in the deep end with no guardrails, no lifeguards, no skills to deal with it, is really not the answer.
Hanson-Young says “we’ve got to do better at making online safer for everyone” but that “prohibition isn’t going to help that”.
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Indonesia to return surviving Bali Nine prisoners to Australia
Indonesia has agreed to return to Australia the five remaining members of the so-called Bali Nine drug smuggling ring who are currently serving life sentences in the south-east Asian country, an Indonesian minister said on Saturday.
It will also seek the repatriation of Indonesian prisoners held in Australia, the law minister, Supratman Andi Agtas, told Reuters on Saturday.
Anthony Albanese raised the prisoner issue during a meeting with Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto, on the sidelines of the Apec summit in Peru, the assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, said in a press conference on Saturday.
Earlier this week, Indonesia confirmed Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina woman on death row for drug trafficking in a separate case, would be allowed to serve the rest of her sentence in her home country.
She was alone among a group of condemned convicts to receive a last-minute stay of execution in 2015 after Philippine officials asked Indonesia to let her testify against members of a human- and drug-smuggling ring. The rest, including two ringleaders of the Bali Nine, were executed by firing squad.
“This is the president’s discretion, but in principle, the president has agreed on humanitarian grounds,” Supratman said.
France has also requested the repatriation of a prisoner, he said.
Jakarta has no set procedures regarding international prisoner transfer but will work on the matter as soon as possible, Supratman said, stressing that the counterpart country must recognise Indonesia’s judicial process.
This is important to maintain a good relationship with friendly countries. But this is also in our interest because we have prisoners abroad.
– Reuters
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Rising Tide climate protests to continue after three charged
A planned blockade of the world’s biggest coal port is stretching into a third day after multiple people involved in a paddle protest were arrested and removed from their kayaks on Saturday.
Officers told protesters to move away from a shipping channel due to safety concerns after they tried to disrupt coal ships at the Port of Newcastle.
A woman, 26, and two men, 27 and 59, were arrested on Saturday and charged with not complying with a direction by an authorised officer relating to safety.
Several others were “assisted by police when they struggled to return to shore”, police said.
Event organiser Rising Tide claimed a total of nine people were arrested on Saturday.
An 84-year-old great-grandmother, 16-year-old student and a doctor were among those pulled from their kayaks by police after they went out into shipping lanes, the group said.
NSW police said their operation would continue on Sunday and warned they had a “zero-tolerance approach” to actions that threatened the safe passage of vessels, with unlawful activity attracting fines and imprisonment.
- AAP
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The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young will speak to the ABC Insiders host, David Speers, this morning.
Coming up on #ABCInsiders with David Speers:
— ABC News (@abcnews) November 23, 2024
• Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young interviewed🔎
• 📸Jack the Insider
• 🛋️Paul Sakkal, Phil Coorey and Clare Armstrong.
See you at 9am #auspol pic.twitter.com/iNrMaQp3WW
The shadow attorney general, Michaelia Cash, has also appeared on Sky News.
We will bring you all the latest as it happens.
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Good Morning
And welcome to another Sunday Guardian live blog.
The surviving members of the Bali nine will return home to Australia in a deal brokered by Anthony Albanese on the sidelines of Apec, the Indonesian law minister, Supratman Andi Agtas, told Reuters. The five remaining members of the group are currently serving life sentences and will likely be expected to continue to serve a portion of their sentence in Australia.
Three people have been charged in protests at the Port of Newcastle seeking to block the export of coal. Two men and a woman have been granted conditional bail. Thousands are expected to join a flotilla as protests continue on Sunday morning.
I’m Royce Kurmelovs and I’ll be taking the blog through the day.
With that, let’s get started ...
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