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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Caitlin Cassidy and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Shorten says senator’s suspension gives all parties time to ‘work out what’s important’ – as it happened

Australia Mark Speakman
Labor senator Fatima Payman
Labor senator Fatima Payman at the swearing-in ceremony of the new governor general, Sam Mostyn, at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA

What we learned today, Tuesday 2 July

With that, we will wrap the blog for the evening. Stay warm and dry out there, I’m off to use my labrador as a hot water bottle.

Here were today’s major developments:

Updated

Farmers vow to keep fighting Labor’s live sheep export ban

Farmers are vowing to continue to fight the Albanese government’s live sheep export ban and accuse Labor of turning its back on Australian agriculture.

Live sheep exports by sea will be banned from May 2028 after legislation passed the Senate on Monday night.

Exporters, farmers and other agricultural suppliers say their businesses will be ruined and regional towns in Western Australia will die because of the ban.

Mark Harvey-Sutton of the Livestock Exporters’ Council has “never seen the sector so united, so mobilised and so furious”.

Last-minute lobbying by Western Australian farmers and exporters was not enough to have the legislation blocked, with the bill passing the Senate with the support of the Greens and some crossbenchers.

Advocates of the live export trade who travelled to Canberra have vowed to target the Albanese government in marginal Labor seats across Australia.

The ban has been welcomed by animal rights groups. Jed Goodfellow from the Australian Alliance for Animals described the phase-out as a pivotal moment in the history of animal welfare.

This legislation has been a long time coming for our members and their 2 million-plus supporters who have been calling for an end to this cruel and unnecessary trade for decades.

– AAP

Updated

Queensland mayor in custody charged with domestic violence offences

A Queensland mayor is in custody after being charged with multiple domestic violence offences.

The Lockhart River Aboriginal shire council mayor, Wayne William Butcher, was arrested following an alleged assault at a Lockhart River property, in the state’s Cape York peninsula, on Friday.

Police said the 53-year-old was taken into custody on Saturday and charged with six domestic violence offences.

The charges include one count of deprivation of liberty, two counts of choking, suffocation or strangulation, one count of assault occasioning bodily harm and two counts of common assault.

Butcher’s matter was in Cairns magistrates court on Monday and he was remanded in custody. He was set to appear in court again on Thursday.

Queensland’s local government department confirmed it was aware of the allegations against Butcher, saying via a spokesperson:

The department is providing support and advice to the council and will make an assessment about next steps in due course.

Butcher has been the Lockhart River mayor since 2012. The remote Aboriginal community has a population of 640 people.

– AAP

Updated

Parliament plans Katter portrait to honour colourful crossbencher

Bob Katter has dressed as a pig to highlight profiteering during the cost-of-living crisis and the Grim Reaper to mark the closure of Australia’s last Holden factory. Now all eyes will be on what he might wear to pose for a portrait.

Parliament’s little known House Memorials Committee convened in person on Tuesday for the first time in nearly half a century to discuss the weighty matter of commissioning a portrait of the colourful crossbencher.

The memorials committee was founded before the first world war and is composed of the prime minister and opposition leader of the day plus the presiding and other officers of the two houses.

In May, the house speaker, Milton Dick, wrote to the prime minister requesting approval to commission a one-off portrait of Katter, the committee said.

“So much has changed over the decades in this parliament – one of the rare constants has been Bob Katter’s presence,” Anthony Albanese said.

It’s hard to imagine this place without him and commissioning his portrait is a way to ensure he will always be a visible and colourful part of Australia’s parliament.

Portraits that have been commissioned by the committee as one-offs include those of Nova Peris, the first female Indigenous parliamentarian, and Linda Burney, the first female Indigenous member of the House of Representatives.

– AAP

Updated

‘Preference whisperer’ has had meeting with Payman

The Labor senator Fatima Payman has had exquisite timing for her interventions into the federal political debate, speaking to ABC’s Insiders the day before Labor’s tax cuts took effect and dragging national political debate off cost-of-living relief and on to the Albanese government’s handling of Israel’s military action in Gaza.

That has led to speculation about whether Payman is receiving advice from outside Labor, including whether she is in touch with emerging Muslim community groups planning on running against Labor MPs at the election.

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that Glenn Druery is advising Payman. Druery is known as the “preference whisperer” for the cottage industry he developed as a clearing house for preference deals, helping elect minor party candidates with tiny vote shares, before Senate voting reform made this much harder to snowball into a win.

Druery told Guardian Australia:

I was invited to attend a meeting by members of the Muslim community to have informal conversations about the next election and to meet with Senator Payman. No contract exists between the Muslim community or senator and me.

Druery said the meeting happened “very recently” and he is having “information conversations only” with Payman.

Updated

Veterans’ affairs minister condemns vandalism of war memorials

Matt Keogh, the minister for veterans’ affairs, has told the House of Representatives the government condemns vandalism of the war memorials:

The government’s position is entirely supportive of the sentiments raised and the position espoused in the substantive motion that the member for Canning [Andrew Hastie] seeks to bring forward today and it’s an important point to make.

That has been made abundantly clear by the answer given by the prime minister in question time yesterday in relation to this issue as well as the speech made before question time today by the member for Spence [Matt Burnell] and a number of speeches that were made by Labor senators in respect of a motion moved by Senator Lambie on Monday.

It’s unfortunate, however, in these circumstances that this motion has been brought on with no notice to the government … but the sentiments are entirely supported.

Keogh said he found it “deeply concerning” that “there was a political party in the Senate that voted against” Lambie’s motion on the matter on Monday (that is a reference to the Greens). He said:

For that reason, and certainly to avoid a repeat of that, I move now that this motion be adjourned.

The house divided on whether to adjourn the debate, because the Coalition opposed putting it off.

The government’s push to adjourn succeeded (74 votes in favour of adjourning and 63 opposing the adjournment).

So to recap: the Coalition wanted to suspend standing orders to bring on a motion condemning vandalism of war memorials, the government said it had already made clear its strong view that such vandalism was unacceptable, and the government succeeded in adjourning the matter. So the Coalition did not get to suspend standing orders to bring on the substantive debate.

Updated

‘I really would welcome her back,’ Labor’s Sitou says of Payman

The Labor MP Sally Sitou also appeared on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing today and was asked about Fatima Payman, and whether her suspension was damaging to the federal government.

Sitou has represented the seat of Reid since the last election, a diverse electorate which covers parts of western Sydney. She said she respected Payman, while adding “as a parliamentarian, we think deeply about how we can achieve outcomes for our community”.

My view is that the best way I can help support my community is to do that through the Labor party. Because the values align with mine and the community’s. And I chose to join that team and abide by the team’s rules.

And if Senator Payman was happy to do that, she would be welcomed back into the party. And I think that she has a bright future ahead of her. She’s passionate and deeply committed to the causes that I’m deeply committed to and I really would welcome her back.

But the broader point here is about what Senator Payman was trying to champion, and that is something that the Labor caucus is trying to champion as well, and that is that we want the conflict in Gaza to end. All Labor caucus members want the conflict to end.

Updated

Storms hit Sydney’s northern beaches with flooding in Avalon

In New South Wales, emergency services have responded to more than 36 incidents as a result of ongoing storms.

Avalon Beach in the northern beaches has been hit with overland and flash flooding.

Updated

Hastie condemns defacing of war memorials and ‘disgraceful’ pro-Palestine slogan

The Coalition’s defence spokesperson, Andrew Hastie, is seeking to suspend standing orders in the House of Representatives in order to move a motion condemning the “defacing [of] any war memorial monument in Australia for any reason at any time”.

His proposed motion “further condemns the defacing of the Australian War Memorial on June 14 and the Korean War, Vietnam War and Army memorials on ANZAC Parade in Canberra on Saturday with language including the violent ‘from the river to the sea’ slogan”.

Addressing parliament, Hastie said:

On the Vietnam and Korean war memorials were written phrases like this – and I quote – ‘they didn’t die so we could fund genocide’, ‘free Gaza’, ‘blood on your hands’, ‘free Palestine’, and the most disgraceful: ‘from the river to the sea’.

Hastie went on to condemn what he labelled as “un-Australian behaviour”.

We’ll let you know the result of this suspension motion shortly.

Updated

OK, political parties have rules. Could caucus solidarity rules, though, be addressed by the party, that would give greater capacity for politicians to act on conscience or free vote?

“We’re in the heat of the kitchen now,” Bill Shorten replies.

I’m not going to make the life of the government any more difficult … they can debate how we do our rules, but organisations need rules. You might not like them, but we have them.

Caucus is of the mind that, you know, take away everything else and the one thing we’ve got is each other … there is a lot of diversity in the caucus … anyway, I hope it works out. I know that Fatima is welcome. I know that people are being very mindful of how she’s going and I also know that we believe that Labor, when it’s united, is at its best.

Updated

Asked how this “purgatory” of Fatima Payman will end, Bill Shorten says the leadership has “been clear”.

We’ve got some rules – when you’re in a team. Some people say, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have rules.’ All political parties have rules.

The Greens know their resolution [to recognise the State of Palestine] can’t get up. Now they’ve planted their flag in the sand and said, ‘This is what we think,’ why do they want to keep putting this resolution up? I know it doesn’t change anything. It’s stirring the pot to be honest and I don’t think it’s constructive.

Pointed to comments made by the convener of the Labor for Palestine group, Anthony D’Adam, that Payman’s position is on the right side of history, Shorten replies: “That’s his opinion.”

I’m not sure everyone does share that opinion … people are dying on all sides of the conflict. And we’ve got the issue of a new senator who is conscientious. But we’ve also got the issue that … we sign a contract before we join as a [Labor] candidate.

Updated

Shorten says Payman’s suspension from caucus gives Labor and senator time to ‘work out what’s important’

The minister for government services and the NDIS, Bill Shorten, is up on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, fresh from question time.

The host, Greg Jennett, introduces him as a “stickler for party cohesion”, take with that what you will.

Why don’t we start with Senator [Fatima] Payman. You’ve described her suspension as a least-worst option. Which implies that it’s still bad. The prime minister told caucus today, though, suspension is actually virtuous, showing restraint and compassion is a strength, not a weakness … so which one is it?

Shorten says there were three options: do nothing, terminate the relationship, or give everyone time out to “work out what’s important”.

I think the prime minister’s handling this just right. I must say about Senator Payman, whilst I don’t know her that well, all my dealings with her in NDIS and Services Australia, she’s been very diligent. She’s young. She’s smart. She’s clearly tough.

All of us as candidates, when we choose to get the privilege to run for the Labor party, we actually sign a document which says we’ll stick together. She’s obviously finding that very difficult on the issue of Palestine. I don’t think anyone in the Labor is critical of her view about Palestine. I mean it’s a traumatic time. People are dying. We all want to see the Israeli tanks out. We want the hostages returned. But we also need to make sure we have processes where the party is cohesive. So I think a bit of time and distance can work these issues through.

Updated

Nicholas Reece sworn in as Melbourne lord mayor

Nicholas Reece, a longstanding councillor of the City of Melbourne, has been sworn in as the 105th lord mayor of the city.

Reece was elected deputy mayor in late 2020 after becoming a councillor in 2016 and replaces Sally Capp, who has held the reins since 2018.

The jack of all trades has worn many hats as a lawyer, journalist, public servant and university leader. Reece will remain in the position until council elections take place in October this year.

Reece said:

All my life I have sought to be actively engaged in public service to help others – and it is the honour of my life to serve the city that I love.

Melbourne is the best and fairest city in the world. It is also the biggest and fastest-growing capital city in Australia. I will be hitting the ground running to deliver the services and infrastructure our community needs and deserves.

I will be a hands-on Lord Mayor. I love fixing things, solving problems, making decisions and making things happen. I will work hard every single day to make life better for the people of Melbourne.

I want to thank outgoing Lord Mayor Sally Capp for her extraordinary energy and drive – together with the Council group, she steered Melbourne through Covid lockdowns to emerge as a stronger and more resilient city.

Updated

Bushwalker rescued after becoming lost near Carrington Falls

Now for a rare slice of good news! A missing bushwalker has been safely rescued after becoming lost in the southern highlands of New South Wales overnight.

About 6.15pm yesterday, emergency services were called to a track at Carrington Falls after reports the 69-year-old man had lost his way.

About 10pm, local police and the national parks and wildlife service found the man in dense bushland. He was suffering from mild hypothermia and a small abrasion to his face.

The group arrived back at the command post about 1.40am today and the man was treated by an ambulance service on the scene.

Chief Insp Brendan Bernie said it was a timely reminder for bushwalkers to be prepared for any conditions when heading out on a hike.

It’s really important you are equipped with safety equipment, wearing suitable clothing and carrying food and water. Conditions can change quickly and in this case the temperature dropped to around 4 degrees and was raining, proving challenging for all those involved.

Updated

ACCC warning ends Google deal with Telstra and Optus

Australia’s two biggest telcos will be restrained from accepting further payments by Google for pre-installing software on their smartphones after a warning from the competition watchdog.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission revealed on Tuesday Google had struck deals with Telstra and Optus, which had been in place since at least 2017.

Under the agreements, the telecommunications firms ensured Google was the default search engine on all Android phones they sold in exchange for a share of Google’s advertising revenue.

The commission warned both companies the deals were potentially anti-competitive and could restrict the use of alternative search services.

But, in a statement, Google said it was “surprised” by the announcement and would continue to work to resolve any issues.

The telco deals were discovered during the watchdog’s investigation into Google’s search services in Australia that stemmed from its digital platform services inquiry.

The ACCC commissioner Liza Carver said Telstra and Optus had both signed court-enforceable undertakings not to sign further contacts with Google over pre-installed or default phone services, or to promote one search service over another.

Previous deals with Telstra and Optus expired on 30 June.

– AAP

Updated

With question time at an end, I have to jump on another project, so I will be sadly leaving you a little earlier than usual today.

But don’t worry – you have the wonderful Caitlin Cassidy who will lead you through the afternoon.

I’ll be back early tomorrow morning – which is also the day of the Midwinter ball, so you know there will be vibes, thoughts and feelings.

Until then – take care of you.

Tony Burke takes a dixer and makes the grave mistake of putting the wrong emphasis on the word Callide when referring to the Callide coalmine.

Queenslanders are very particular. It is CAL-lide, not cal-LIDE.

It throws him, because he stumbles, but carries on.

And with that, QT ends.

Two more to go!

Updated

Ted O’Brien tries very hard to sound serious about power prices and renewables.

Moving on.

Updated

The Labor senator Jenny McAllister said the Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi was “reflecting on the minister and she ought to withdraw it”.

Faruqi confirmed to the Senate president, Sue Lines:

Yes, president, I did say racist dog-whistle of a policy.

Lines reminded senators that they were expected to “clarify without repeating what someone else has found offensive and I would ask you to hold that in your thoughts next time you stand”.

After a back-and-forth about her use of the words “you” and “your” in reference to Murray Watt, Faruqi withdrew that part of the question and rephrased it to refer to the government’s policy. Faruqi told the Senate:

As if the scapegoating wasn’t enough, you have now more than doubled the fees of student visa applications. When will the government stop punching down on international students and start supporting them?

Watt remarked that “you can always rely on the Greens political party to try to bring Australians together”. He said the Greens were “never very far from a wedge motion, never very far from a wedge political statement demanding high standards of everyone else, but going low themselves”.

Watt said the reality was that international education was “a huge Australian asset”, economically, socially and diplomatically, and must be protected. He told the Senate the Albanese government was restoring quality and integrity in international education “after the shonks in the sector were left untouched for the last decade”.

Faruqi then pressed the government to “take real action” on the housing crisis, including capping rents and phasing out unfair tax handouts for property investors.

Watt said the Greens should stop “teaming up with Peter Dutton and the Coalition” to delay or block Labor’s housing legislation.

The government’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, interjected:

Voting with the Coalition over and over again just to make a political point.

Updated

Senate erupts over Greens’ claims student caps ‘a racist dog-whistle’

Over in the Senate, there has been a tense exchange between the Greens and the government over plans to cap international students, with one senator denouncing it as “a racist dog-whistle of a policy”.

The deputy leader of the Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, pressed the government to “dump the destructive international student caps bill” and she contended that the legislation was “a blatant attack on international students”. She told the Senate:

Not since Scott Morrison’s disastrous job-ready graduates package have we seen such strong opposition from the sector.

In reply, Murray Watt, representing the education minister, told the Senate the Greens were responsible for making “constant cries for more housing and then constant votes against the initiatives that we take in this chamber to try to deliver more housing”.

Watt said the Labor government “does recognise that we do need to put some caps and put some limits around the level of migration we are seeing to Australia at the moment, in particular through the international education system”. He continued:

We have seen a massive growth in international education over the last couple of years in Australia and that is putting unsustainable pressure on the amount of migration that we are receiving in this country at a time when people are experiencing cost-of-living pressures and very real housing pressures.

Faruqi seized on that comment. In a follow-up question, Faruqi told the Senate:

Minister, you have just confirmed that your international student caps bill is nothing but a racist dog-whistle of a policy, falsely – and you’ve done it again now – falsely conflating international students and the housing crisis and the cost-of-living crisis. You’re punishing international students for the government’s own failures.

That prompted calls for Faruqi to withdraw the comment. Continued in next blog post.

Updated

PM defends response to housing crisis after another Coalition question

Dan Tehan gets a go at a question:

Does the prime minister agree that his decision to increase migration by a record 547,000 migrants in 2023 has contributed to Labor’s home-grown housing crisis?

Anthony Albanese:

Now what I agree with is that we inherited a system that was broken. We knew it was their system that we inherited, and that’s why three inquiries have indicated that broken system needs repair. And that’s precisely what my government is doing here.

Updated

It is the end of an era – because the job is done.

Independent asks about National Emergency Medal for NSW flood volunteers

The independent MP for Calare, Andrew Gee, asks:

It was recently announced that emergency responders, volunteers and community workers involved in the February-March 2022 floods in northern NSW and Queensland may now rightly be eligible for the National Emergency Medal.

The central western NSW floods of November 2022 saw extraordinary acts of courage and service across our communities, including the biggest helicopter rescue in Australia’s history at Eugowra. Will you support the National Emergency Medal being extended to those who served with such distinction in that emergency?

Anthony Albanese says he is aware of the issue and asks Clare O’Neil, representing the emergency services minister, Murray Watt (who is in the Senate), to answer:

There is a National Emergency Medal Committee, which actually manages this process on behalf of the commonwealth government. It’s not a decision for ministers about who is able to access this.

There’s quite a lengthy criteria that the National Emergency Medal Committee looks at, which includes the scale and community impact of the disaster.

It looks at things like how many casualties were resulted, how much critical infrastructure was destroyed in the disaster. And so I believe they’ve made an initial decision, which does not account for people in the member’s electorate.

And I’d say from their perspective, this doesn’t diminish any of those efforts that were gone to … at the request of the member, the assistant minister to the prime minister has actually taken a very unusual step of writing to the committee and asking them to give a reconsideration of the matters that the member has raised there.

I can see why he’s raised this matter. I can understand him representing his constituents in that way. We will be very pleased to liaise with the committee and come back to the member when we have a response, and I’d say at any time to the local member and anyone who is experiencing natural disaster in this house, the emergency management minister or myself are always available to meet and talk further about these matters.

Updated

Michael Sukkar has been very quiet, which can only mean he has a question.

He asks Anthony Albanese:

Analysis shows due to Labor migration policies of nearly 1 million migrants in the last two years, one new home is to be built every two minutes to accommodate your current immigration intake. Under your government, why has homeownership never been further out of reach for Australians?

Albanese responds with a very long version of “well if you care about building homes so much, stop voting against and delaying our housing policy”. I’ll spare you the long version.

Updated

Greens say Labor ‘isolated’ on supermarkets as Coalition flags support for divestiture powers

Nick McKim is a pretty happy senator this afternoon – because with the Coalition’s announcement it is now for the divestment of supermarkets (something it came to after the Greens suggested it) McKim says the government is now “isolated” in its objection to the idea.

The Coalition’s support for divestiture powers in the supermarket sector makes this a moment of choice for Prime Minister Albanese. He can either keep holding hands with Coles and Woolworths, or he can side with Australian shoppers.

The Greens have long said that a more competitive supermarket sector would mean lower food and grocery prices. It is now only Labor standing in the way.

Cheaper food and genuine accountability for the anti-competitive behaviour of corporate supermarket giants is now within reach.

The Greens are proud to have led this debate, and to have helped highlight the need for divestiture through our recent Senate inquiry.

McKim makes the point that the numbers are now there to pass divesture powers through the Senate. The Coalition isn’t entirely sold on the Greens proposal, which it says goes too far, but there is room for a compromise. Of course, if the government is against it, it would never pass the house, but it does create a bit more political pressure for the government in an area it thought it had put to bed.

Updated

(Continued from previous post)

Anika’s chief executive, Noel Lim, said:

There’s no penalty for a rental provider to make a baseless bond claim, so they’re treating them like free lottery tickets. This is clear exploitation of renters, which is costing them two weeks’ pay on average, and negatively impacting their mental health.

Almost half of Anika Legal’s clients facing a bond dispute had their ability to pay their next bond impacted. Unfair bond claims lead to a cycle of disadvantage that can result in homelessness.

The failings of the bond system are characteristic of the broader tenancy system’s failure to address the power imbalance between rental provider and renter. Until this is meaningfully addressed, the system will not work for renters across a range of tenancy issues.

Updated

Failings in Victoria’s rental bond system allow ‘exploitation of renters’, lawyers say

Renters in Victoria challenging their landlords’ attempts to claim on their rental bond waited an average of 502 days for their case to be heard at tribunal, yet more than a third of landlord claims were found to be baseless, a report by a community legal service has found.

Anika Legal, a free legal service for renters in Victoria, analysed its rental bonds casework load from the 2022 and 2023 calendar years.

While the sample was relatively small – Anika provided legal support to 147 cases out of 443 renters that applied for help – some 82% of finalised matters resulted in the rental provider or landlord receiving far less of the tenants’ bond than the amount they originally claimed.

In 46% of the claims that Anika took through to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Vcat), the landlord received less than $200 of the renter’s bond, and in 39% of cases they received nothing at all.

There was an average difference of $1,688 between the landlord’s original claimed amount and what they were actually entitled to.

Anika’s report said Victoria’s current bond scheme enables landlords and real estate agents to “take advantage of existing power imbalances to pressure renters into relinquishing their entitlement to some or part of the bond”:

In the worst cases, agents may even explicitly use VCAT delays to pressure renters. This has dire social, financial and wellbeing outcomes for renters who are already struggling to navigate the current housing crisis – in particular those who are forced to move frequently.

Updated

Katter asks King about north Queensland infrastructure

Bob Katter, who chalks up half a century in Australian parliaments this year (Queensland and federal) gets a question and delivers it exactly as you would expect from someone who has spent 50 years in parliaments.

For the life of me, I cannot tell you what the question is. There are references to rivers west of Cairns, ports and “one thousand million dollars” which indicates that Katter has not adopted the terminology “billion”. Understandably – it has only been around since the 16th century, which is too modern for a man of Katter’s sensibilities.

Madeleine King seems to know what he is talking about – infrastructure in north-west Cairns – and says the government has chosen the best option available to it. Which is a road, not a port.

Updated

Shorten criticises Coalition delays on NDIS revamp

Bill Shorten has taken a dixer on the NDIS so he can criticise the opposition for delaying his bill to revamp the bill.

The Senate has had 12 weeks to look at this matter. Puzzlingly, the Coalition member for the Senate had got some more questions they wanted answered.

I explained last week how the personal budgets are getting overspent before the expiry of their plans and that is a loophole we need to stop, the automatic top-ups, but there is another change up back to let the house reflect upon. Currently, the act only excludes supports that are supposed to be funded by other service systems but it doesn’t rule out specific services in the primary legislation.

Courts have taken a broad interpretation about what is allowed to be spent on NDIS money. They have been rolling successive governments on NDIS decisions.

There is a new section 10 which will exclude some of the specific decisions which shouldn’t be being funded because they are not true to the purpose of the scheme.

Remember I said the Liberals have made up their mind. I want to put to the house, what is so difficult that will require eight weeks and $1bn?

At the moment, we want to rule out the payment of strata fees, fines, steam rooms, gambling, illegal cannabis, cruises to Japan, taxidermy, weddings, gift cards, the Liberal favourite: sex toys, crystal therapy, cuddle therapy, clairvoyance and tarot cards.

He is made to withdraw that part.

But it gets the chamber all rowdy (it’s giving Glastonbury when a TV is rolled out to watch the football) and Paul Karp hears Peter Dutton yell “who is the architect” at Shorten, which gets Shorten all riled up.

It is all on the head of the opposition, you could not run the NDIS, we are fixing it.

Updated

Bonza creditors vote to liquidate the budget airline

Budget airline Bonza will be officially wound up, after the airline’s creditors voted to liquidate the airline.

In a creditors meeting on Tuesday, Bonza’s employees, customers and trade creditors were eligible to vote on the company’s future. Guardian Australia understands 35 voted in favour of liquidating the airline, while six voted against.

In formally entering liquidation, Bonza employees can now access the government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme to claim money owed to them. Workers are collectively owed an estimated $10.8m for entitlements such as wages, redundancy and pay in lieu of notice, the Transport Workers Union said.

While there were initially hopes Bonza could be rescued, the airline’s collapse appeared all but certain in mid-June when administrators from firm Hall Chadwick terminated all 323 employees of the airline and cancelled all future flights – a decision they said they were left with “no option” but to take due to a lack of a buyer.

Bonza’s employees had been stood down since 30 April, when the airline appointed administrators after its fleet of six Boeing 737 Max-8 aircraft was abruptly repossessed.

It later became clear that Bonza’s local business leaders had been blindsided by a breakdown in the relationship between 777 Partners – the airline’s private equity sole owner – and its financier, the US insurance giant Advantage Capital Holdings, known as A-Cap, which led to a change in the ownership structure of the leased aircraft last month.

Early on in the administration process, the administrators had been confident of finding a buyer for the airline, but those hopes faded in recent weeks. The abrupt repossession of its entire fleet of aircraft left little value in the business beyond its air operator’s licence. Parties who had previously expressed interest and conducted due diligence on the company ultimately opted against lodging a binding offer.

Updated

Greens pressure Labor as Coalition backs supermarket measures

Just before question time the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, responded to the Coalition’s supermarket divestiture announcement.

He said:

It’s clear that Greens pressure is having an effect. The Greens commenced the inquiry into Coles and Woolworths, exposing the price gouging, and now other parties are starting to fall in behind the plan to put pressure on the big supermarkets, to make price gouging illegal and to deliver real penalties if they don’t start cutting their prices for consumers and giving farmers better treatment.

Labor is now looking increasingly isolated as the only party that is backing Coles and Woolworths. The Greens have led the charge … we’re going to keep the pressure up until all the parties are backing the Greens’ push to be able to break up the big supermarkets … People are hurting at the supermarket checkout and Labor needs to shift its position.

Updated

Littleproud grills government over decision to end live sheep trade

David Littleproud asks Anthony Albanese:

In the gallery today are representatives of the farmers, shearers, truck drivers and local communities whose livelihoods rely on the live sheep industry the Labor government are shutting down. Given Labor claims its phase-out of live sheep exports is due to welfare, can the prime minister give an example of one country that has higher standards for live export than Australia?

The Keep the Sheep campaign held a press conference a little earlier today when they said they would be campaigning against the government on this decision.

Albanese:

I met with farmers yesterday afternoon in my office. I listened to what they had to say and I respectfully, of course, indicated a preparedness to continue to work them. They have an industry that is worth $80m. The package that we have on the table is currently worth $107m.

Albanese then goes through the private member’s bill Sussan Ley introduced during the 2018 Coalition government to end the live sheep trade, which was supported by (now Senator) Sarah Henderson.

Ley has since said that she has looked at the research since then and no longer has concerns over the industry.

At the time she said:

I think this trade in sheep is a shame and a stain on our international reputation.

… I have given a commitment at this point in time not to cross the floor and the reasons for that are very simple: I want this to be Liberal party policy. I don’t want to align my views with Labor and give Labor a win on this.

There’s a lot of grandstanding in this building but the hard yards are what happens out of the public eye, so now it’s up to us, my colleagues and I who believe in this, to push for the next step, which is for the bill to be debated.

It should be debated. It’s a really powerful topic for many people and it’s an important topic for Australia. I think it should be debated and everybody vote according to how they feel.

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Catherine King is then asked, as the minister representing the minister for women (Katy Gallagher is in the Senate), what the Albanese government is doing to help women with the cost of living.

Sadly, the answer does not include the girlies getting a little treat.

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Labor continues hard sell on tax cuts as Coalition targets cost of living

The LNP MP Angie Bell asks Anthony Albanese:

Last night young mum Emma Robertson said her family was at breaking point. She knows the tax cuts have come in but do pretty much nothing at all. She continued, it is horrible, I never pictured myself being in the situation ever. But here I am just scraping by. Prime minister, why are Australian families paying the price for Labor economic incompetence?

Albanese:

In her electorate, 88,000 taxpayers will get a tax cut – 88,000. The Member for Moncrieff dismisses that as saying that does not matter. Saying it won’t make a difference. I hope the member for Moncrieff writes to all of her constituents and says, all 88,000 of them, and says the tax cut you just got will make no difference whatsoever to you.

I hope that the member for Moncrieff also says that the wage increase that the member is, as part of the 2.6 million Australians on minimum or award wages who got a wage increase as well as a tax cut, I hope the member for Moncrieff says that that is irrelevant. That doesn’t matter. You don’t deserve it.

Because we know they voted against it and said they would roll it back, and before last Thursday they said they were going to reimpose the tax cuts that were going to benefit the member for Moncrieff and myself and everyone in this chamber at the expense of hard-working people, who are cleaners, aged care workers, people working in supermarkets, were going to simply miss out and get nothing whatsoever.

I find it extraordinary that those opposite dismiss energy price relief, dismiss tax cuts going to every single taxpayer.

They dismiss cheaper childcare, dismiss all those people who have had the benefit of fee-free Tafe, dismiss $300 in energy relief, which in Queensland has added to the $1,000 in energy bill relief from the Queensland state government.

They say none of that matters. Those opposite would do absolutely nothing because they have no positive plans or anything, just 24-hour-a-day negativity.

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Every dixer is also on the cost of living, if that gives you any indication of what the focus groups are telling the major parties at the moment.

As always the economy reigns supreme.

Shadow treasurer questions government about home loan extensions

Angus Taylor gets a question. What. a. day.

My question is to the prime minister. Reports find 40% of mortgage holders have extended their home loans in the last year in order to meet their repayments …

(You know where this is going – it is on Labor and the “failed budgets” etc, etc, etc)

Jim Chalmers takes it:

I didn’t think he would get a question today after he got rolled on the supermarket divestiture [powers] but I welcome the question.

Taylor had been against the divesture powers for the supermarkets. Two Nationals senators – Matt Canavan and Ross Cadell – voted with the Greens on Nick McKim’s divesture powers bill, while the rest of the Nats abstained (so they didn’t vote against it). And lo and behold, a week later, the Coalition supports divesture powers for the supermarkets.

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Independent MP asks minister about visas for people from Gaza

The North Sydney independent MP, Kylea Tink, asks the immigration minister, Andrew Giles:

People within my electorate who have family in Gaza have been advised the quickest way to get them out is to apply for a visitor visa. Yet, according to Senate estimates, over 4,000 people from this area applying for this visa have been declined since 7 October, including most constituents’ family members. Given our country’s actions during recent conflicts, including the wars in Afghanistan and Ukraine, how have we not established a clear pathway to bring people and their families from Gaza into Australia?

Giles:

I thank the member for her question and for her advocacy on this issue with my office and more broadly in the community.

The images every day out of Gaza affect all of us in this place and indeed in the other place and responding to that is a key focus of the Australian government.

With that in mind, I have been consistently engaging with representative bodies of the Palestinian community on this issue and indeed on other related issues. I can advise the member and the house I am continuing to do so.

I can also say all people who arrived in Australia from the occupied Palestinian territories are presently able to access a bridging visa that will grant them work rights and access to Medicare – the same offer for arrivals from Ukraine.

It has been directly communicated to those Palestinian bodies and to many Palestinians as well as to those legal services engaged in supporting many in the community and indeed in other refugee like communities.

It is for all individuals to determine a visa pathway appropriate for their circumstances. And I should say, of course, all people who apply for a visa for whatever time have to meet the requirements of the Migration Act and also, as the member would appreciate, as all members would appreciate, everyone who is seeking to obtain a visa to come to Australia knows that application is to be considered on its individual merits.

The issue of visas is very important, and supports that go with them, but so too is recognising the impact this conflict has more broadly on the community right across Australia.

I am proud of the efforts across the government, led by the prime minister, to support those affected, whether it is the supports delivered by my friend the minister of education in school settings, recognising the particular impact on young people, the work done in the mental health area, work across a whole range of initiatives.

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The LNP MP for Groom, Garth Hamilton, is booted for interjecting.

That is pretty much the only way we hear Hamilton mentioned, so good for him for reminding us of his presence.

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Anthony Albanese:

They have very short memories over there. Last week the leader of the opposition was calling for Labor to take action against Senator Payman.

He was using the full suite of insults. The full suite of insults and his usual plan to show how much stronger he is, all of that language was all there. You had to muscle up, Mr Speaker.

… The fact is that earlier today, the caucus unanimously adopted a position. Senator Payman is more than welcome back to participate in the team if she agrees that she is part of the team.

I had a very simple and constructive discussion with Senator Payman on Sunday. I invited her to the Lodge and had a very civil and constructive discussion with her last week as well.

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Ley asks PM about Payman’s claim of attempts to ‘intimidate her into resigning’

Sussan Ley is up next:

Last night, Senator Fatima Payman released a statement claiming Labor members were “attempting to intimidate her into resigning from the Senate”. On the 7 November 2022 the prime minister said, in this place, “Everyone has the right to a safe and respectful workplace.”

What steps have been taken to investigate these claims of intimidation in Senator Payman’s workplace?

This is what Ley had to say on 26 June on the issue of Payman:

The deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, said Payman had broken “caucus solidarity” in a demonstration of Anthony Albanese’s “weak leadership” since 7 October.

“That’s a green light for any Labor member or senator,” Ley told reporters in Canberra. “That if they feel strongly enough about something, if their conscience dictates to them strongly enough about something, they can cross the floor too.”

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Anthony Albanese takes the “I’ve been asked about [insert topic I want to talk about here]” route:

It goes to the comments of the Reserve Bank governor and fiscal policy in the budget. The budget that has been handed down by the treasurer, not once but twice, that is in the black. Just surpluses, Labor surpluses which arose out of what we had, which was Liberal deficit.

Turning a $78bn deficit into a $22bn surplus and then following it up with another surplus, at the same time as inflation is almost half what it was when we inherited it.

They always miss out the fact that interest rates started rising on their watch after they handed down the highest inflation quarter – the highest inflation quarter was March 2022. March 2022, 2.1%. How do they respond to that in their March budget, handed down by the former member for Kooyong? It was a cash splash, Mr Speaker. A cash splash. That stands in stark contrast, in stark contrast to what we have done.

… That is why the Reserve Bank governor, when asked by a Liberal senator at the budget estimates, had this to say about international experience. It is a very similar experience and she went on to say, fiscal policy has been running a surplus for the past couple of years so I would say that has been helping the inflation situation, if anything.

If it is a choice between the Reserve Bank governor and the shadow treasurer, who got rolled again today on divestments, got rolled again on divestments, then I would pick the Reserve Bank governor.

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Question time begins

OK. We are straight into the questions.

Peter Dutton asks Anthony Albanese:

Two years ago the prime minister promised Australian families cheaper mortgages and that life would be easier, yet the Albanese government has increased spending by $315bn, fuelling Labor’s homegrown inflation crisis. The RBA governor has warned if, and I quote, we are not getting inflation down, we won’t hesitate to move and raise interest rates again. What assurance can the prime minister give Australian families that there won’t be a 13th rate rise under Labor’s watch?

I think you know what the answer is going to be.

Updated

While we are googling past comments, in November 2023, Peter Dutton criticised the prime minister for “flying off overseas when he should be staying in this country” and accused him of “abrogating your responsibilities” by heading to the US for an Apec conference.

The first responsibility for you, prime minister, is to be here and take care of the Australian public,” he said then.

He is now accusing the prime minister of letting down the Australian people by not attending the Nato leaders’ conference in Washington.

Updated

Peter Dutton is addressing the Coalition’s criticism of Anthony Albanese for not attending the Nato leaders’ summit next week (Richard Marles is going).

It might be worth pointing out that the three previous Coalition prime ministers sent ministers in their stead to Nato summits.

In 2014, Tony Abbott sent Julie Bishop to accept the formal invitation to become a Nato enhanced partner.

In 2016, Marise Payne missed the Nato summit and sent an ambassador to a meeting where extending support to Afghanistan was discussed.

In 2018, Malcolm Turnbull sent Payne to represent him.

Scott Morrison did not attend a Nato summit.

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NDIS changes would crack down on ‘trips to Japan’ and ‘cuddles therapists’, Shorten says

Bill Shorten has also called on the Greens and the opposition to support his proposed changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme so he can crack down on participants “taking cruises or trips to Japan” and “cuddles therapists”.

The NDIS minister has been on somewhat of a warpath after the opposition and crossbench created an unholy alliance against his changes, saying there were concerns about the speed of the bill’s consultation process.

Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday, Shorten said the Coalition’s role in delaying the bill would cost the “national credit card” around $1bn.

We want to make sure that people are not buying jewellery and watches. We want to make sure that people aren’t taking cruises or trips to Japan. We want to make sure that we have legal costs not paid for by the NDIS.

We want to make sure that I’ve, you know, trampolines and these are ordinary matters … the problem is, because the legislation isn’t well enough drafted when the operational guidelines are tested in the courts, we lose.

So what we want to do is use section 10 of the draft bill to say this is in and this isn’t, yeah, that provides certainty for participants, means we use evidence-based therapies – like, the Liberals are now fighting to the death to spend an extra billion dollars so people can get cuddles therapy.

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Coalition announces plans for divestiture powers as ‘last resort’ to address supermarket price-gouging

The Coalition has announced another policy – what a day.

It’s an amalgamation of the government’s mandatory code of conduct for the grocery giants and the Greens’ push for divesture powers.

The Coalition is announcing it would “introduce sector-specific divestiture powers as a last resort to manage supermarket behaviour and address supermarket price-gouging”.

A joint statement from Peter Dutton, David Littleproud and the various related portfolio ministers said:

Divestiture powers will address serious allegations of land banking, anti-competitive discounting, and unfairly passing costs onto suppliers.

… The Coalition’s divestiture powers will have appropriate safeguards in place, ensuring divestiture won’t lead to a loss of jobs and services.

The Coalition will also strengthen the Food and Grocery Code by making it mandatory for supermarket chains with annual turnover of more than $5 billion for the current signatories – Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and Metcash. Supermarkets will face infringement notices of up to $2 million for contraventions of the Code.

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Nationals will fight for live sheep export industry, Littleproud says

The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, says his party will fight for the live sheep export industry (which only exists in Western Australia) as he calls animal rights campaigners “morally bankrupt” for valuing the “welfare and life of a sheep in Australia” over life “in another country”.

The WA Nationals do not have federal representation in the parliament and there is no formal coalition of the WA Nats and Liberals.

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Shorten on Payman: ‘We want her … let’s just work this issue through’

The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, has said it’s “OK to sit on the bench” in response to the Labor senator Fatima Payman’s indefinite suspension for voting against the party in a motion on Palestinian statehood.

Labor MPs in caucus on Tuesday endorsed suspending the 29-year-old after she said she would cross the floor again if faced with another Senate motion to recognise the state of Palestine.

Shorten described Payman on Sky News as a “clever, smart and clearly very tough-minded person” but said she had been “benched” for breaking the party’s caucus rules. He said:

If you don’t want to agree with the strategy of the team, then it’s OK to sit on the bench. We want her. Let’s be clear. We want her and let’s just work this issue through.

The broader question you raise about having a binding caucus position, when you sign up, you can have that conversation, but you wouldn’t do it now in the heat of the kitchen. It’s lasted us a long time. If there’s calls for greater flexibility in the future, we need to have that at a considered way.

Shorten also used the appearance to praise Albanese’s handling of the saga.

[I] for one, think that the prime minister has handled it pretty much as best he can here by saying, all right, you feel strongly, we still want you in our party. And Fatima says she still wants to be in our party, but we’ve got to work out what the road rules are. And so, I think, time to think and work through how we do it. That’s just sensible, isn’t it?

Updated

The CFMEU demerger bill is being voted on in the Senate – but first there are the amendments which the opposition have put up to get through.

The legislation would allow the manufacturing division to be able to vote to leave the CFMEU. The mining and energy division had already voted to form its own body.

Updated

Just on that press conference Amy mentioned the Coalition are holding ahead of QT; the Coalition partyroom discussed the grocery code of conduct, a party room spokesperson said earlier, indicating the opposition leader may have more to say on that issue (and a potential Coalition response or alternative idea) later today – so watch this space in a little bit.

Updated

Both the Greens and the Coalition will be holding press conferences ahead of question time, so stay tuned for that.

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Greens push for federal truth-telling and justice commission

The Greens senator Dorinda Cox says Australia’s Indigenous community “want some sense of hope” in the wake of the failed voice referendum last year, as her party launches its own push to set up a federal truth telling and justice commission.

Cox has urged the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to get behind the push at the Garma festival in the Northern Territory next month, suggesting the government has been to slow to act since the referendum went down 60-40 last October.

“We are not buying the lines that ‘we are continuing to consult’,” Cox said, referencing the government’s common refrain when asked about its next steps in Indigenous affairs policy.

The Greens on Sunday outlined plans for a bill to set up a truth and justice commission, which would “be empowered to inquire into particular matters relating to historic and ongoing injustices against First Peoples in Australia and the impacts of these injustices on First Peoples, and make recommendations to parliament”.

On Tuesday, Cox gave a press conference to further discuss the bill, which the Greens hope the government will back. She said:

The government’s focus has been very different from ours. Our policy has been very clear … we wanted to do truth telling, we thought it was really important. We didn’t want to drop the ball on this and we will continue to pursue this.

We already see truth telling and treaty processes happening across the country at state and local levels … we would hope that the government and the prime minister in particular will go to Garma this year and actually announce that they’re supporting this, that they’re actually going to put some money behind it to start the process.

Cox said the Greens wanted to see a wide range of people engaged in the co-design of such a process, “but we also see a sense of urgency”.

I think Aunty Pat Anderson’s comments yesterday also reflect the sentiment in the community, that there is a real sense of pain post-voice referendum and that they want some sense of hope, and that’s what we hope this bill will do today.

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Opposition who dubbed PM ‘Airbus Albo’ now outraged he isn’t travelling

The deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, claims Anthony Albanese declined a trip to Washington because “the Coalition is always in his head”, as the opposition – which has previously criticised his international travel – now mounts outrage because he isn’t travelling.

Both the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, and Ley poked fun at the prime minister’s non-attendance at an upcoming Nato meeting in their regular Coalition partyroom meeting today.

Dutton joked “that could be because of strife in the ranks, it could be because he’s considering an early election, there could be an urgent Rabbitohs commitment”.

According to a partyroom spokesperson, Dutton said:

Whatever it is, it’s becoming easier and he genuinely does not understand what people are going through.

Ley described the PM as “a man without courage or imagination”, and claimed Albanese wasn’t taking the trip because he was worried about Coalition pressure. This is the same opposition who gleefully called him “Airbus Albo” and demanded he spend more time at home.

The Coalition partyroom speeches from the leaders had the flavour of an early election to them. Dutton said there would be “more to say in the coming weeks” from the Coalition on energy, cost of living and social policy.

Dutton told the partyroom:

Colleagues should rest assured that work is well under way.

He told colleagues to “be ready”.

Updated

Patrick Gorman might believe that motions in the Senate don’t shift foreign policy, but a motion in the house, moved by Andrew Wilkie and supported by the Albanese government, calling for an end to Julian Assange’s prosecution, was seen as a pivotal moment, both here in Australia and internationally.

Updated

Labor MP responds to Greens’ threat to campaign in marginal seats

The assistant minister to the prime minister, Patrick Gorman, has responded to the Greens’ threat to campaign in his and other marginal Labor seats calling on MPs to vote for a lower house motion to recognise Palestine.

Gorman told Sky News that door-knocking in his electorate and those of colleagues and “stunts in the Senate” prove the Greens are “more concerned with politics” than people at the heart of the Gaza conflict.

He said:

Motions in the Senate do not shift foreign policy. I don’t know why the Greens can’t bring themselves to say they support a two-state solution. The amendments we put up are sensible, they advocated a two-state solution as part of a just and enduring peace.

Asked if he would hold his seat, Gorman said he never takes the support of the public for granted and no politician should.

But the Greens have always talked a big game in Perth and always come up short.

Updated

Having a look at the Nato conference criticism from the Coalition (Simon Birmingham says Anthony Albanese not attending the Nato leaders’ summit next week would be a “dereliction of duty”), we have done a quick search to see if Coalition leaders always attended Nato.

At the July 2018 Nato leaders’ summit, the then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was represented by the then defence minister Marise Payne.

There was also that time the former Coalition prime minister Scott Morrison warned against “negative globalism”, echoing the former US president Donald Trump (who isn’t a huge fan of Nato).

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Just further to Peter’s posts on the RBA meeting – the constant conversations we are having about inflation and what the RBA might do is partly because we have monthly inflation data now. Previously, it was quarterly. Now the quarterly data includes most of the items in the CPI basket. So the month-to-month numbers don’t take in the whole picture.

Part of the reason for the inclusion of monthly results was so the RBA could have a fuller picture of what was happening. But the RBA only meets every six weeks now.

Every time we get a monthly figure we get two weeks of “will this cause the RBA to raise rates” media conversation, which then adds to the noise of what consumers are dealing with.

There is a conversation going on in the econ world about whether or not the monthly data release is healthy. Always good to keep an eye on these side conversations.

Updated

What are consumers up to? RBA concedes there is a lot it doesn’t know

One other point of note from the RBA minutes, which we highlighted when the cash rate was left on hold on 18 June. That is, the governor, Michele Bullock, conceded there was a lot she didn’t know.

The minutes reinforce that view, detailing some of the challenges in interpreting the data, particularly about what consumers (the greater part of the economy) are doing and why.

Specifically, the level of consumer spending had been revised upwards over the past 18 months with spending on overseas travel contributing “much of the upside surprise”, the RBA’s board minutes stated.

One interpretation was that, on average, households were not being as cautious in their spending as previously thought.

Another was that the fall in the saving rate would leave households even more financially squeezed than previously assessed.

So which was it … were households being less cautious or more squeezed than the RBA models assumed?

[A]ny conclusion could only be tentative, given that estimates of savings are prone to significant revision.

Further, the latest estimates portrayed a different picture than that derived from data on mortgage-holders’ offset accounts, which showed that households were making larger extra payments than prior to the pandemic.

Another “watch this space” area is how the bank will interpret the effect federal and state budgets will have on inflation. Energy rebates, for instance, would lower headline inflation this year but raise it in 2025 (assuming the rebates aren’t renewed), the RBA said.

RBA staff will provide an assessment of the impact of the budgets on the output and inflation outlook ahead of the 5-6 August board meeting. Perhaps they will also do some probing to understand better what consumers are really up to.

Updated

Parliament begins

The last of the party room briefings – the Coalition’s – will be held in the next 10 minutes or so, and we will bring you the updates from that.

The parliament session has begun.

Updated

You can read more about the Liberals and Nationals saving their alliance in NSW here:

Updated

Reserve bank releases notes on latest rates decision

As flagged in our recent post about the Reserve Bank minutes, the board indeed noted “it was difficult either to rule in or rule out future changes in the cash rate target”.

There’s not a lot for the inflation hawks to get too excited by in the minutes, and so the market reaction so far has been muted. (The Australian dollar continues to hover just below 66.5 US cents, and stocks are maintaining their modest 0.1% loss for the day.)

Members agreed that the collective data received since the May meeting had not been sufficient to change their assessment that inflation would return to target by 2026, despite some elevated upside risk around the forecast.

That’s a reminder the board are prepared to be patient about when inflation will finally retreat to 2.5% (the midpoint of their 2%-3% band).

[Board] members also affirmed their assessment that it was still possible to achieve the board’s strategy of returning inflation to target in a reasonable timeframe without moving away significantly from full employment, even though this ‘narrow path’ was becoming narrower.

Still, the board noted in “finalising” its statement, it was important to let everyone know information since the March meeting “had reinforced the need to be vigilant to upside risks to inflation”.

Apart from being “vigilant” about so-called upside risks, the board was particularly watching to ensure inflation expectations “were still anchored”.

Expectations, of course, can be influenced by a lot of things, such as what you see happening to your grocery or electricity bills – and what you hear from the media about inflation picking up in recent months.

On that score, the weekly inflation expectation readings from the ANZ and Roy Morgan aren’t really what the RBA wants to see sustained.

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Victorian acting premier says discovery of synthetic opioid in cocaine proves need for drug checking service

Victoria’s acting premier, Ben Caroll, says the discovery of a synthetic opioid in cocaine proves the need for a drug checking service in the state.

The Department of Health on Tuesday morning issued a public alert about the threat of cocaine containing protonitazene - a synthetic drug 100 times more potent than heroin - that is currently being sold in Melbourne.

The health department said there had been a string of recent incidents in Melbourne where people purchased the powder thinking it was cocaine, resulting in “serious harm”.

“The product appears to produce strong adverse effects such as loss of consciousness, respiratory depression, and life-threatening hypoxia (insufficient oxygen for normal functioning),” the health alert reads.

They said respiratory depression “appears more quickly with novel synthetic opioids (NSOs)“, increasing the risk of life-threatening overdose.

The warning comes a week after the Allan government announced it would introduce drug checking from later this year, following 46 overdose deaths due to NSOs since 2022. Speaking in Footscray on Tuesday, Caroll said the latest incident was “concerning”:

This is one of the reasons that has led us to doing what we need to do in terms of harm minimisation ... as the premier announced just recently we are doing a trial of pill testing and one of the reasons is that, unfortunately, and sadly, drugs are laced with chemicals that young people don’t know they’re laced with. So that is concerning.

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Watts on Liberal criticism over PM’s Nato visit: ‘typical of the opposition’

The assistant minister for foreign affairs, Tim Watts, spoke to Sky News a short while ago, where he defended the government’s decision to send Richard Marles to the Nato conference later this month, rather than Anthony Albanese.

Simon Birmingham has been out and about saying Albanese not going is a “dereliction of duty” at the same time as acknowledging that Albanese has been criticised (mostly by the Coalition) for going overseas too much. Watts:

I did see Simon Birmingham on the TV earlier. He had a lot to say. Frankly it was typical of the opposition under Peter Dutton always wanting to have it both ways.

I was in the parliament last week when Peter Dutton, in front of the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, was criticising the Prime Minister for travelling too much. It’s really typical of this opposition under Peter Dutton, doesn’t stand for anything, wants to have it every way. It’s the kind of opportunism that we can’t afford on the international stage in serious times.

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Telstra and Optus made deal with Google to set it as default search on Android devices

Telstra and Optus accepted a share of advertising revenue from Google in exchange for making Google search the default option on Android devices the two companies sold in the past seven years, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has said.

Since at least 2017, the two companies had agreements in place to limit the ability for rival search engines to be preinstalled and promoted on Android devices in return for a share of the revenue, the ACCC said. The agreements expired on 30 June 2024, and Telstra and Optus have given three-year enforceable undertakings to the ACCC to not enter into new agreements with Google.

The ACCC’s commissioner, Liz Carver, said:

We are grateful for the cooperation of Telstra and Optus in responding to the ACCC’s competition concerns. The undertakings will allow alternative search engines to be able to compete to be a default search engine on the Android devices these companies supply.

We are continuing our investigation into Google’s conduct in entering into such agreements more broadly, as we consider this raises potential competition concerns. Accordingly, no further comment about the investigation will be made at this time.

Carver said such agreements can limit consumer choice and deter innovation.

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Reserve bank minutes on latest meeting to be released today

Expect a renewed bout of interest rate rise speculation later this morning after the Reserve Bank releases the minutes to last month’s two-day board meeting.

Between the central bank’s decision on 18 June to leave its cash rate on hold at 4.35% for a fifth meeting in a row, we had the unexpectedly high May inflation reading of 4%.

Despite the caveats on that number (it’s partial, and compares with a low base a year earlier), some economists and commentators have assumed the RBA must raise the interest rate again after its 5-6 August meeting.

We’ll get a bit more information about the RBA’s thinking shortly when it releases minutes on its June meeting. Expect them not to rule anything in or out, as the now standard mantra goes, and that they’ll be watching the data (especially the June quarter CPI numbers out on 31 July).

For what it’s worth, expectations have subsided a bit about the chance of a rate rise next month. They’re now about one in three, compared with 50:50 in the wake of the May inflation news.

For those holding out for a rate cut, investors don’t price one in fully until December 2025 – a year and a half away – according to the ASX rate tracker updated yesterday.

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There are several fronts Labor MPs are facing criticism on currently:

NSW Nationals accept sacking of MP from Coalition shadow bench

The NSW’s coalition between the Liberals and the Nationals holds – for now.

AAP reports that the Nationals have accepted the sacking of one of their MPs from the Coalition’s shadow front bench:

The Liberal party met on Tuesday morning after their junior coalition partner initially dismissed the removal of upper-house MP Wes Fang from the shadow ministry for publicly lambasting the state’s opposition leader, Mark Speakman.

Fang accused Speakman of “slinking” into his home town of Wagga Wagga and “pretending” to care about the Riverina in a social media post.

The Nationals hit back at the MP’s removal, claiming Liberals did not have the power to sack their members.

But a joint statement from Speakman and NSW Nationals leader Dugald Saunders said both parties had reaffirmed their commitment to the coalition and confirming Fang’s sacking from his posts.

We remain focused on working together to hold the Minns Labor government to account after it handed down the highest-taxing budget in NSW history with no extra cost-of-living relief for families.

Our job and our common objective are to hold this bad government to account and to offer a strong alternative.

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Greens will not put Palestine motion forward today: party room report

Over in the Greens party room there has been a decision that there will be no motion from the Greens on Palestine today, but the party is reserving its right to put one forward on the remaining days of the session, reports our Paul Karp. Members are not yet decided on whether they will.

There will be a doorknocking campaign over the winter break in Peter Khalil, Ged Kearney, Patrick Gorman, Graham Perrett and Justine Elliott’s Labor electorates, saying that if Fatima Payman can cross the floor, so should they.

Paul also reports the Greens are still negotiating with the government on the net zero authority. They want it to cover more parts of the economy, not just power stations but also mining. They also want guaranteed funding to “Dutton-proof” it.

Updated

Labor caucus unanimously endorses Payman's suspension

Federal Labor MPs and senators have endorsed the suspension of ALP senator Fatima Payman from the party’s parliamentary caucus, official sources have said.

Sources said that Anthony Albanese spoke to the Labor caucus meeting this morning about unity and cohesion. Albanese referred to the previous meeting of caucus last week where Penny Wong’s position was agreed to unanimously. Referring to Israel and Palestine, Albanese said there was a need for “a long-term solution in a peace process”.

Albanese told today’s meeting that he had received some criticism for showing restraint in relation to Payman crossing the floor. Sources said Albanese said showing restraint and some compassion was “a strength and not a weakness”

Albanese said he was only the prime minister because he had Labor next to his name. He argued that “this is the most united caucus I have been part of”.

Albanese then put to the meeting the position the leadership group had announced on Sunday, that Payman had placed herself outside the privilege of being in caucus due to her own actions and statements and that she was suspended until she decided to respect the collective obligations.

According to official sources, that position was put and agreed to by caucus. Official sources said this was carried “on the voices” unanimously.

Apparently there was no further discussion of the matter.

Updated

Watt says Labor will not move to ban live cattle exports

Murray Watt says the government will not be moving to ban live cattle exports, which is one of the warnings of the live sheep export sector:

I have repeatedly stated that Labor does not support banning live cattle exports, for example. And that is because sheep are far less hardy species than cattle.

Cattle are much more robust animals that are more up for a journey by sea, and also, most of the journeys that live cattle take are much shorter than what we see from live cattle. Most of our live cattle journeys are to south-east Asia, relatively short journeys, as opposed to sheep being sent very long journeys to the Middle East.

It’s not just me who says that. If you look back at what Sussan Ley, the now deputy Liberal leader, and Sarah Henderson, when she was a lower house member said when this was last debated in this place - they said exactly the same thing. They said that there was a big difference between live cattle exports and live sheep exports.

That’s also the government’s position, and we won’t be phasing out live cattle exports.

Updated

Sector says sheep export ban passing is a ‘day the government will regret’

A “Keep the Sheep” delegation have arrived at parliament house to protest the decision. Mark Harvey-Sutton, the CEO of the Live Exports Council, says the live export community will be “devastated” by the bill’s passage overnight.

If the facts were allowed to be put forward from the sector – who is completely united in their opposition of this – well then the truth about the devastating impact of this policy would have come out.

It’s not good enough a government can simply read from activist talking points. It’s not good enough a government can mock our campaign when all people are doing is fighting for their livelihoods.

At the end of the day, we didn’t want it to come to this. We sought reason. We wanted evidence to be put forward. But now we simply have no choice.

This is a government that is attacking our sector, and our livelihoods, and we have no choice but to take it to their constituencies and explain this is a government that does not support Australian agriculture.

I have never seen the sector so united, so mobilised, and so furious. And we are. And I think what the government will find is that yesterday was the day the government will regret.

Updated

Senate passes live sheep export ban

As we reported yesterday, the Senate was asked to vote on Labor’s bill ending live sheep exports (in a phase-out that will see the industry stopped by mid-2025), which meant Labor had the votes.

It did, and the bill was passed last night. The agriculture minister, Murray Watt, is pretty happy:

I‘m very pleased that last night, the Senate did pass the legislation that the government had introduced to ban live sheep exports by sea from the first of May 2028.

This was obviously an election commitment that our government took, not just to one election, but to two. So, what we’ve done last night is deliver an election commitment that was voted for by the Australian people and is still supported by the majority of Australians, including in Western Australia.

From here, we now want to work very closely with the industry and all in the community who have an interest in this issue to make this transition work. We’ve put $107m of taxpayers’ funds on the table to support a transition package.

I met again yesterday with representatives of sheep farmers and sheep farmers themselves, and again, made the point that we are keen to work with them as closely as possible to make sure that this transition works, and that we welcome their ideas on how that money can be spent to support this transition as well as we possibly can.

(He says “including in WA” there because the industry only exists in WA now, with every other jurisdiction moving on to something else.)

Updated

ANZ breached banking code after charging fees and interest to deceased estates

ANZ charged fees and interest to thousands of deceased estates in a breach of the sector’s own banking code designed to clean up such practices.

ANZ will pay just over $3.25m in remediation costs to 18,852 estates as a result of its charging practices, according to the Banking Code Compliance Committee (BCCC), a watchdog created by the financial sector in the aftermath of a scathing royal commission.

The BCCC chair, Ian Govey, said the bank’s practices represented serious code breaches.

The significance of the deficiencies in ANZ’s compliance frameworks was deeply concerning. Naming a bank is a sanction that we reserve for the most serious and systemic breaches.

The practice of charging fees to dead customer accounts was one of the most scathing findings unveiled by the royal commission that released its final report in early 2019.

The BCCC noted that ANZ has taken actions to address the issue, which includes the use of an automated tool to waive fees after the bank receives notification of a customer’s death.

Updated

Paterson: ‘don’t graffiti the war memorial, I don’t think that’s too much to ask’

The Liberal senator, James Paterson, has spoken to Canberra radio 2CC about the weekend vandalism of Australian war monuments.

I mean, I was genuinely flabbergasted yesterday when Jordan Steele-John, on behalf of the Greens, defended, as you say, desecrating our most sacred places, our war memorials. He made two arguments. He said these places are not politically neutral because they include sponsorship from weapons manufacturers in there. Therefore, basically it’s fair game.

And secondly, he said, well, the diggers fought for free speech, so we can hardly criticise people for exercising free speech.

You know, as I said to him in the chamber, the war memorial is not a blank canvas for your extreme politics. Knock yourself out on Twitter, knock yourself out on Facebook, write your op-eds, go as hard as you like in the chamber, but please just leave the war memorial alone. Don’t graffiti the war memorial, I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

Updated

ACTU criticises Dutton’s nuclear plan as ‘dishonest’

The Australian Council of Trade Unions is in Canberra lobbying for the net zero authority bill to pass the Senate this week. They also commented on the Coalition’s nuclear plan.

ACTU president, Michele O’Neil, said:

It’s actually vicious. It’s a dishonest hoax to hold out to these communities, as Peter Dutton is doing, that somehow there would be a transfer from coal-fired and gas-fired power stations to nuclear. There are slated to be nine closures of these power stations between now and 2030. That is enormous - it’s thousands of jobs. Even in the best case scenario there is no place there would be nuclear in place in that time. So it is dishonest to say to these workers and their communities that it’s an answer in terms of the jobs of the future.”

Updated

Australia National University says it is investing $13m in new childcare facilities

Ahead of David Pocock, Katy Gallagher and Alicia Payne holding a press event with parents and children at ANU’s community-based childcare centres which have been marked for closure, an ANU spokesperson has released a statement.

ANU has a proud history of on-site community-based childcare spanning 40 years.

The university has invested in a number of heritage-listed buildings over many years but following the 2020 hailstorm that devastated so much of Canberra further repairs are not able to be made the university is unable to ensure that the buildings can continue to offer childcare. This includes more than 240 repair jobs costing the University more than $1m in the last year alone, including remediation of lead paint in one of the heritage-listed buildings. These ongoing repairs also cause severe disruption to the provision of high-quality childcare.

ANU faced the tough choice of either closing the facilities for good or finding a new, long term and safe alternate option. The University is investing $8m* in two brand-new, purpose-built facilities, with one already built and the second to be built in the second half of 2024.

ANU is also working proactively with the current not-for-profit providers to move their offerings, including staff, over to the two new facilities, so that they can continue to provide high-quality care on the ANU campus.

*A previous version of this post had the incorrectly supplied figure of $13m. This has been corrected to $8m

Updated

Birmingham on criticising PM whether or not he goes to Nato: ‘suck it up’

The shadow foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, was asked on Sky News if Anthony Albanese was ‘damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t’ with the Nato invitation, because he’d be criticised as ‘Airbus Albo’ by the Coalition.

Birmingham said:

Prime Ministers indeed get criticised. That’s just part of the job, you know, suck it up in that sense because, you know, people will always criticise prime ministers, political office holders, all of us in different ways.

But you’ve got to put the national interest first.

And now if we see Anthony Albanese running around doing electorate visits and essentially campaigning during the Nato leaders’ summit, that will be a demonstration of just how he has got his priorities the wrong way around and he’s putting his political interests ahead of the nation’s interests.

Updated

Gallagher backs party line on Payman

Finance minister and senior Labor senator (also from the left) Katy Gallagher was asked about Fatima Payman’s statement while speaking to ABC radio AM this morning. Gallagher said she didn’t agree with how Payman described her treatment in the statement she released yesterday:

She’s taken some decisions and you know really stood outside the parliamentary Labor party caucus and these matters are really in her hands now. I know from my own dealings with Senator Payman and others that a lot of people have reached out and tried to wrap around support for her and talk with her, so I certainly don’t agree with some of the language she had in her statement yesterday.

Does Gallagher believe too much has been said for Payman to remain in the Labor party?

Gallagher:

Well I don’t think so. I mean, again, the Prime minister made it very clear that when Senator Payman could say that she would stand with her caucus colleagues on positions that had been determined in caucus, she would be welcomed back. That again really is a matter for Senator Payman now.

These are decisions that she has taken knowing quite clearly what the consequences would be. And you know she’s continued to make those decisions. So, I certainly – and I know a lot of my colleagues – would want her to remain with the Labor caucus, but she also has to give a commitment that some of the decisions she’s taken in the last week wouldn’t be repeated.

Updated

Butler says Labor has made stronger position on Palestine than any government previously

Fatima Payman has said she has crossed the floor and spoken up on Palestine, going further than the Labor party position, because Palestinians “don’t have time”.

That is a reference to some of the criticism Payman has received from retired Labor members who said they stuck to the party line on marriage equality (Labor was against marriage equality for close to a decade, before it was passed under the Turnbull Coalition government. Labor MPs, including those in same-sex relationships – Penny Wong, for instance – stuck to the party line.) Butler:

I make the comment that under this government there has been a very strong position in relation to Palestinian recognition or the recognition of a Palestinian state. A stronger position under this prime minister and this foreign minister, Penny Wong, than any Australian government has had before, including any Labor government.

We’ve made very clear our position that we would support the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a peace process leading to a two-state solution, rather than at the end of that peace process.

That is a very significant shift in the position of any Australian government. We’ve also been very loud in our support and call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. So I don’t accept the characterisation that this has not been a government that has been very active on the world stage and here in the Australian community, seeking to do what it can to bring the awful conflict in Israel and Palestine to an end.

Updated

Butler says he has seen no evidence of Labor colleagues ‘intimidating’ Payman

Mark Butler, who sits in the house, says he has not seen any evidence of colleagues intimidating Fatima Payman into leaving the senate.

Payman has said she feels colleagues are trying to intimidate her into leaving the senate and is taking time to consider her future.

Butler:

I’ve seen no evidence of that. Indeed there’s very clear evidence of colleagues reaching out to Senator Payman over the last several days. There’s a photo on the front page of one of the papers this morning with one of the ministers giving a hug on the Senate floor yesterday when we were swearing in a new governor general.

So I don’t accept that characterisation. We’d like to see Senator Payman return to the Labor fold, but in order to do so she’s got to respect other members of the team and commit to accepting collective decisions of that team.

Updated

Marles confirms attendance at Nato summit

Richard Marles’ office has confirmed – he will be off to Washington for the Nato summit from 9-11 July.

As a non-Nato member, Australia shares a commitment to peace and security with Nato partners, including support for Ukraine against Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion.

The deputy prime minister’s attendance at the 75th Nato Summit underscores Australia’s commitment to advocate for our region’s strategic priorities and the upholding of the global rules-based order, while advancing Australia’s security, economic and trade agenda.

Updated

Tasmanian ALP branch passes resolution on Palestinian recognition

Former NSW Labor senator Doug Cameron retired to Tasmania, but remains a member of the Labor party and involved in branch activities.

Updated

Hospital security staff to wear body cameras in NSW

New South Wales hospital security staff will use body-worn cameras as part of a 12-month trial to improve safety for staff and patients across the state.

The trial was announced on Tuesday following an increase in aggressive assaults, according to the state health minister, Ryan Park.

Up to 300 cameras will be used in the trial across nine hospitals, including Westmead hospital and the Royal North Shore hospital.

Park said:

The safety of our healthcare staff and patients is a priority and the NSW government has a zero-tolerance approach to violence and aggression in our public hospitals.

The body-worn camera trial is one of several actions NSW Health has taken to address the recommendations of the [Anderson review of hospital security] and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to continuing to improve security practices to keep staff and patients safe.

The trend in assaults in our hospitals is unacceptable and we are taking action.

Updated

Simon Birmingham continued:

Ultimately, we have a Prime Minister, and we should expect the Prime Minister to do the job as the nation’s leader. Now, if Anthony Albanese has an absolutely compelling reason, let him state it as to why he cannot go. But if this is just because he’d rather be at home campaigning or dealing and responding to the internal chaos in the Labor Party, well, that is not a good enough reason. And the Prime Minister should be undertaking the leadership roles and responsibilities of the nation.

As a reminder, here is what Peter Dutton asked the prime minister on 26 June:

The Prime Minister spent the first 18 months distracted by touring the world and spending $450 million on the divisive Voice referendum instead of focusing on making economic decisions and putting budgets together to help Australian families—not hurt them. Will the Prime Minister take responsibility for the cost-of-living pain that Australian families are feeling today?

Marles to head to Nato commemorations in Washington instead of PM

It is Nato’s (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) 75th anniversary and as part of the commemorations, Anthony Albanese had been set to attend an event in Washington later this month. Australia is not a member of Nato, but has worked in tandem with Nato members as an “enhanced opportunity partner”. Japan, South Korea and New Zealand were also invited as part of the Indo-Pacific representation.

The defence minister, Richard Marles, will attend instead of Albanese. This is not unusual, even for a leaders’ summit.

There is no official reason given as yet, but Albanese has faced a consistent attack from the Coalition that he has spent too much time “jetting around the world” as “Airbus Albo” and not enough time confronting domestic issues.

Just last week, Peter Dutton criticised the prime minister for the time he has spent abroad during a cost of living crisis, only moments after joining with the PM in talking about the importance of fostering relationships with Australia’s Pacific neighbours.

Now, Simon Birmingham is criticising Albanese for NOT going to Washington this month, accusing him of a “dereliction of duty”.

National security is the top responsibility of the government, and the idea that Anthony Albanese would rather be campaigning to shore up Labor marginal seats than sitting down with the Nato leaders to ensure global security and our national security interests are heard, is an appalling representation of his priorities.

He should be reconsidering this position and making sure that he is there, seizing the opportunity to be part of those Nato meetings, historic ones at a big anniversary for Nato, as well as the opportunity to have all of the bilateral discussions that are so very, very critical, particularly with, for example, newly elected leaders that may be there should Keir Starmer and the Labour party win the UK election this week.

Updated

Trade unions call for Greens and crossbenchers to pass net zero bill

The ACTU’s president, Michele O’Neil, and workers from coal and gas communities will be in the parliament today “to call for the Greens and crossbench Senators to support the urgent passing by the Senate of the net zero economy authority bill”.

The Greens and crossbench have concerns the bill doesn’t go far enough in mapping out a pathway to achieving net zero, engage with communities, or contain assurances the minister won’t be able to over ride the spirit of the bill.

The ACTU want the crossbench to pass the bill in the senate so new industries can get underway.

Updated

Age assurance trial to include social media restrictions

The federal government’s $6.5m age assurance trial will include social media restrictions after all, it has been revealed.

The original plan for the trial, announced in May’s budget, was to restrict access to adult sites to over 18s and determine what technology and method would work best. But after recent campaigns to restrict access to social media to people aged 16 and over, the communications department has said it will also examine social media restrictions as part of this trial.

Speaking at a hearing of the joint select committee on social media and Australian society, the department’s acting first assistant secretary for online safety, Bridget Gannon, said:

We want to understand how different technologies work at those younger ages for that social media work. We’ll also be consulting with experts, with children, with parents, to understand their concerns and their interests on this issue, and really pulling it together with some policy advice to the government on possible ways forward.

Gannon said the department had already been speaking to Meta and the other social media platforms about participating, but noted there was no obligation for them to participate in the trial under law. She said, however, it was in their interest as the outcome of the trial would inform how new codes announced on Tuesday would be enforced under the Online Safety Act.

You can read our report on those new codes below.

Updated

Butler reiterates collective decision-making of Labor caucus

Would Mark Butler be upset if Fatima Payman left Labor? Butler:

Of course we would. You know, we’d like Senator Payman to rejoin the Labor team. But obviously to do that, she’s got to respect other members of the team and agree to abide by the decisions we make collectively – particularly when those decisions, in this case, are a decision about the recognition of Palestine that reflects the Labor party platform that was debated openly in the caucus and adopted without dissent, and reflects really a strengthened position around Palestine under this prime minister and under Foreign Minister Wong.

Updated

Butler backs PM on Payman suspension from caucus

We have heard from Bill Shorten from the Labor right faction, about Labor caucus rules, now a senior left faction member has the same message.

Asked about Fatima Payman, Mark Butler told the Nine network:

The prime minister made a very clear, measured and, I think, proportionate response to Senator Payman’s interview on Sunday. And it just reinforces the long-standing principle in Labor that no individual is bigger than the team.

That’s been our guiding principle for more than 100 years. And I think it’s something that people who vote for a Labor party Senate candidate expect at this place.

So it is all about the rules.

Updated

Albanese launches Australian paralympic team

The Australian paralympic team is being launched at an event at Parliament House this morning. Anthony Albanese has welcomed the athletes:

It is an honour to join with all Australians in wishing all of you and every member of our Paralympic team every success in Paris.

Every one of you representing our country at the Paralympics also represent years of dedication and determination. The extraordinary commitment required to reach the absolute pinnacle of your sport and to compete against the best in the world.

So much of that hard work is done on cold mornings like this, days when I’m sure the warmth of the French summer or the glow of the international spotlight seems a world away.

And that’s where the sacrifice and support of your families, your coaches, your training partners and teammates is so important - and why they will feel such deep pride in seeing you on the world stage.

Updated

Shorten says Payman is not seeking to divide party but unity important to the party

Bill Shorten says he is not criticising Fatima Payman and he doesn’t think she is seeking to divide people.

I’m not criticising her view – she’s entitled to it.

The only reason why Labor has been electorally successful is because we’ve learned to stick together through thick and thin. People think everything’s just in history and nothing’s new. But sometimes history has a way of repeating.

The party split over conscription, it split the 1930s, it split in the 1950s and we are not at that zone but the reason why we are not is because we have rules about unity.

Now, Fatima Payman can make a very good contribution to Labor in the future. She’s smart, she’s strong. No one’s gonna push her around. She’s proven she’s tough.

But at the end of the day, she’s not happy with the rules that we have, I think probably the prime minister and Senator Wong had come up with a pretty, you know, least-worse solution where hey, if you’re not happy at the moment, just bench yourself and when you’re ready, come back on.

Updated

Shorten on Middle East: ‘I’m a realist’

Bill Shorten:

I’m a realist. You know, there’s some issues and the Middle East is probably one of them, where people just sometimes can’t get into the middle ground.

We support a two-state solution, but I think it behoves Australians to make sure that arguments overseas don’t become fault lines in this country.

… They have for some people, but can I tell you most people probably think like me, most people think it’s dreadful. Most people would like to see Israeli tanks [out of Gaza], most people would like to see the hostages returned. Most people would like to see them getting on but I tell you what, nearly every Australian does not want a replication of arguments overseas, repeated here.

Updated

Shorten says may be case to look at Labor caucus rules ‘down the track’

Bill Shorten says that there may be a case to revisit the Labor rules ‘down the track’ but now is not the time.

On the prospect of the Muslim and Arab communities banding together to run campaigns against Labor MPs over their response to Gaza, Shorten says

Well, people have said that [and] run against the Labor party in the past. You’d rather you’d rather people vote for you. And I think there’s plenty of issues for Australians and Muslim heritage which don’t go to the conflict. And Palestine, where Labor’s doing great things.

I do have a view, based on 17 years and having been leader of the Labor Party, as a student of the history of this country: a religious-based [party], I think, is not a great idea.

(There is no suggestion it would be a religious-based party.)

Updated

Shorten says he thinks Labor party is trying to give Senator Payman ‘space and time’

Bill Shorten continues:

I see why people feel so strongly. They can feel so strongly about the hostage is not being returned, or the deaths in Gaza. People could feel also very strongly about the near million deaths in Sudan.

I can get these very incredibly strong issues. And if you come from particular communities, they’re even more intense, although that doesn’t need to be the prerequisite.

My proposition is that I think the party is trying to deal with this challenge and respect the individual by saying hey, if you’re not happy with the rules, as you’ve signed up to, you know, take some time out and I think what the party is trying to do is give Fatima some space and time.

Updated

Bill Shorten says he doesn’t believe Albanese asked Payman to quit the Senate

The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, is being asked about his WA colleague Fatima Payman on ABC radio. He is asked about a report (in the Age) that Anthony Albanese asked her to quit the Senate during their Lodge talk on Sunday.

Shorten says he doesn’t believe it and demands to know the host’s source.

Before I deny something, what’s your source?

Told it is a report in the Age and that Payman has said she feels intimidated and that she’s in exile, Shorten says “that’s the report in a story”:

No, I don’t believe that.

… Because I wasn’t there and I don’t believe it. I actually think the prime minister, Senator Wong and the leadership are handling a complicated issue pretty well.

…Senator Payman is smart, she’s young, she’s savvy. She comes from a diverse community who feels the grief and the horror of the deaths in Gaza and feels very strongly but what I also understand is that when you become a Labor candidate, you actually sign a contract. And the contract is that you will be bound by the decisions of the caucus.

Now she can’t do that at the moment.

… I do not for one second think that the Labor party has been anything other than reaching out to her. Now I don’t think she’s been intimidated or exiled. I can’t speak for how she’s feeling that’s up to her, but I can speak towards what I see as the objective conduct of empathetic committed colleagues.

The reality is in as far as I can see it and I can see them at a distance is that people are giving her space. The fact of the matter is, if you can’t agree to the team and the coach’s instructions, then you know she’s on the bench for the time being.

Updated

A day for party room meetings

It’s a Tuesday in a parliament week, which means the session won’t start until midday to account for the party room meetings.

As Sarah reported, it will be Labor’s first meeting since Senator Fatima Payman was suspended. Originally for a week, that has now become indefinite after Payman said she would cross the floor to recognise Palestinian statehood, again.

Payman says she feels like she has been exiled and feels as if some Labor MPs are attempting to intimidate her into quitting the Senate. Payman is considering her future.

There’s an off-the-record briefing after every party room meeting – we’ll let you know what was said, if anything, among the Labor caucus.

Updated

Labor MPs team up with David Pocock to protest ANU childcare closures

The potential closure of childcare centres at ANU have united independent senator David Pocock and Labor MPs Alicia Payne and Katy Gallagher. The three are holding a press conference with parents and their children who would be impacted by the closure of the centres.

Earlier this month, ANU announced it would not renew the leases of the four childcare centres on its campus, effective from January 2025. The university has blamed heritage issues with the buildings and says two centres will open in 2025. But the loss of more community early learning centres has activated the Canberra MPs, who are stepping in to shine more of a spotlight on the decision.

Updated

Good morning

Hello and welcome to your politics live coverage of the last parliament session before the winter break. Thank you to Martin for starting it off this morning – you have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day. Coffee number three is on the boiler. Ready? Let’s get into it.

Updated

Tech Council says 200,000 AI-related jobs could be created over next 6 years

Up to 200,000 artificial intelligence-related jobs could be created in the next six years, according to a new report by the Tech Council of Australia.

The report, released Tuesday morning at Parliament House and supported by Microsoft, LinkedIn and Workday, said generative AI could generate around $115bn for the economy with more than two-thirds of that figure coming from productivity gains.

But the workforce would also have to grow by about 500% until the end of decade to meet rapidly growing demand.

The report said there had already been a rise in Australia’s AI workforce from about 800 workers in 2014 to more than 33,000 in 2023

The council’s chief executive, Damian Kassabgi, said AI was one of the leading tech trends and the workforce will only continue to grow over the years.

“This growth won’t be isolated to the tech sector or tech jobs. In addition to roles that are responsible for developing, designing and maintaining AI systems, we will need people with skills in areas such as human resources, sales and governance to successfully scale these systems and businesses to harness the potential in front of us.”

The report found the demand could be met by a combination of entry-level training, and upskilling and retraining existing workers.

Updated

Labor to hold first caucus since suspension of Fatima Payman

This morning Labor will hold its first full caucus meeting without the Western Australian senator Fatima Payman.

On Sunday Anthony Albanese confirmed he had suspended Payman indefinitely from caucus after an interview with ABC’s Insiders in which the 29-year-old said she would again cross the floor if faced with another Senate motion to recognise the state of Palestine.

Payman released a statement yesterday afternoon saying she had been “exiled” by the party and ostracised by colleagues:

I have lost all contact with my caucus colleagues. I have been removed from caucus meetings, committees, internal group chats, and whips’ bulletins. I have been told to avoid all chamber duties that require a vote including divisions, motions and matters of public interest.

The major parties and the Greens hold their party meetings most Tuesday mornings during parliament’s sitting weeks.

During those meetings, members share messages, voice opinions and vote on final motions.

For Labor, especially while in government, decisions of caucus are final and members are expected to publicly toe the line.

Read more on this story here:

Updated

NSW Coalition in crisis meeting after sacking of Nationals MP Wes Fang

NSW Liberals are heading to a key meeting to sort out the future of their partnership with the National party as experts warn the internal turmoil might put voters offside, Australian Associated Press reports.

After the opposition leader, Mark Speakman, ditched upper house MP Wes Fang from the shadow ministry for publicly lambasting him and claiming Speakman was “pretending” to care about the Riverina, the Nationals hit back by claiming Liberals didn’t have the power to sack their members.

Fang’s shadow portfolios were officially removed from the NSW parliament website on Monday, with the Liberals saying the parliamentary clerk had accepted Speakman’s ability to sack the MP.

An urgently convened party meeting on Tuesday will pave the way forward for the Coalition, with the Liberals understood to be seriously contemplating blowing up the agreement if the Nationals don’t accept the sacking.

Read more:

Updated

Almost a million extra bulk-billed GP visits in May

More than 2m extra bulk billed GP visits have occurred since the government tripled the bulk-billing incentive, new data shows.

The health minister, Mark Butler, has been regularly releasing data on bulk-billing rates which he says continue to improve each month since the introduction of higher incentives for doctors in November.

The latest monthly data for May shows approaching 1m (more than 915,000) additional free visits. The overall bulk billing rate reached 79% – a rise of 3.4% since the higher bulk-billing incentives came into effect.

The government claims that in two years, it has increased Medicare rebates by twice as much as the former government did in its nine years in office.

Butler said:

Doctors’ groups have called our tripling of the bulk billing incentive a “game changer” – and close to one million additional free visits to the GP in May prove that it is one.

After a decade of cuts and neglect to Medicare by the Liberals bulk billing was in freefall.

The pressure on general practice began when Peter Dutton was health minister and he tried to do away with bulk billing by introducing a fee on every single visit to the GP, and then started a six-year freeze on Medicare rebates.

The Albanese government committed to making it easier for people to see a bulk billing doctor – and that is exactly what is happening right around the country, particularly in rural and regional Australia.

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our rolling politics coverage from Canberra and beyond. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be bringing you the best of the overnight stories before Amy Remeikis takes over.

Anthony Albanese’s approval rating has dipped to a new low with our latest survey showing his approval rating at net -9 and nearly half of voters saying he’s not doing a good job. Peter Dutton’s numbers were level but questioning showed voters were concerned about the cost and safety of his nuclear plans. The PM might also be pleased to hear that up to 200,000 artificial intelligence-related jobs could be created in Australia in the next six years. More coming up.

The federal Labor party will this morning hold its first full caucus meeting without Fatima Payman. The Western Australian senator was suspended on Sunday after saying she would again cross the floor if faced with another Senate motion to recognise the state of Palestine. She said yesterday she will reflect on her future while accusing some members of trying to “intimidate” her to quit Senate. More coming up.

The New South Wales Coalition will hold a showdown party meeting this morning after Liberal leader Mark Speakman sacked Nationals MP Wes Fang from the shadow ministry. The Nationals claim Speakman doesn’t have the authority to sack their members and there are some expectations that the Liberals are prepared to ditch their junior partners over the row. More coming up.

Laws outlawing the sale of vapes might have come into force but a team of Guardian Australia reporters were nevertheless able to easily buy them from convenience and tobacco stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide yesterday. Our investigation shows there’s still a long way to go to enforce the ban despite all parties – and especially retailers – knowing that it was coming into force for some time.

And more than 2m extra bulk billed GP visits have occurred since the government tripled the bulk-billing incentive, new data released this morning by the government shows. More on that, too, soon.

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Supermassive black holes have masses of more than a million suns – but their growth has slowed as the universe aged
Supermassive black holes have masses of more than a million suns – but their growth has slowed as the universe aged
Space
Space
Adam Sandler Plays Homer Simpson In Star-Studded Concept Trailer
Ever wondered what a live-action adaptation of The Simpsons would look like? Artificial intelligence can bring this idea to life. The post Adam Sandler Plays Homer Simpson In Star-Studded Concept Trailer first appeared on Bored Panda.
Bored Panda
Bored Panda
Drew Barrymore Says She'll "Practice Physical Distance" on Upcoming Season of Her Talk Show
The actress is famous for being physically affectionate with her guests.
Marie Claire
Marie Claire
Blake Lively Slammed For “Pampered Life” After Painting Pregnant Women As Master Manipulators
Blake Lively faced criticism over a resurfaced 2014 interview that has sparked a fresh wave of controversy on social media. The post Blake Lively Slammed For “Pampered Life” After Painting Pregnant Women As Master Manipulators first appeared on Bored Panda.
Bored Panda
Bored Panda
Martin Short And Meryl Streep Debunk Romance Rumors At Premiere.
Martin Short and Meryl Streep fuel romance rumors at 'Only Murders in the Building' premiere. Despite speculation, they maintain they are close friends.
Top News
Top News
Pigeon-fluencers help the much-hated bird make a surprising comeback
For centuries, having a pigeon as a pet was seen as a status symbol – now a new wave of fans are praising them as loving, smart and ‘sort of chill’
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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