What we learned: Wednesday 21 August
This is where we’ll wrap up the blog for today – but first, a quick recap:
Indigenous affairs minister Linda Burney has said “community-led truth” is key to reconciliation in her valedictory speech to parliament.
Bill Shorten announced the government has agreed to amendments on the NDIS bill.
Anthony Albanese has said “nastiness is not a strength” as questions about Palestinian visas continued from the Coalition during question time today.
Independent MPs are suggesting term limits on federal politicians to curb the normalisation of disrespectful parliamentary behaviour, urging political leaders to follow the advice of the Stop It At The Start advertising campaign and “stop it at the top”.
The domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner, Micaela Cronin, has called for governments to make DFV an “election issue” during a press club speech she gave gefore the tabling of her inaugural report on the issue.
Every day in Australia, on average, one child has a hospital stay related to domestic or family violence.
Mark Dreyfus’s deepfake porn legislation – which criminalises the non-consensual creating and sharing of it- passed the Senate with no amendments.
90% of the 120 frontline housing organisations surveyed for the Everybody’s Home People’s Commission report ranked stress or mental-ill health as one of the biggest impacts of the housing crisis, the second was homelessness.
Almost a third of all flights in Australia during July were cancelled or delayed.
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‘Unfair’: Victoria’s court interpreters speak up as hours slashed
Language interpreters claim their profession is being undervalued by Victoria’s court system as their hours and pay have been slashed to save costs, AAP reports.
Those facing court from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds or who are deaf are at risk of not getting access to justice following cuts by Court Services Victoria, interpreters say.
Spanish interpreter Blossom Ah Ket told AAP on Wednesday:
We haven’t seen a pay rise in six years, so if anything we needed a pay rise and we’ve got a pay cut.
Interpreters are sick and tired of feeling disrespected and not valued for the essential and critical work we do in the justice system.
These pay cuts, as well as affecting us personally, will result in worse conditions and worse results for the people we serve.
Most court interpreters are employed as contractors or on a casual basis by language providers such as LanguageLoop. Those those who provide services to the state government had their minimum pay rates increased in 2018.
The workforce, much of which is made up of migrants, refugees and women, has not received a pay rise since then.
AAP has contacted Courts Services Victoria for comment.
CBA to pilot AI to distract scammers
AI technology that uses convincing conversational bots to bait scammers will be used in a CommBank pilot.
Scammers will waste their time talking to bots like Malcolm, a confused elderly man. And Apate’s technology, Apate.ai, will not only distract the scammer, but collect and share intelligence on them.
Apate is a “spin out” from Macquarie University, which has now announced a pilot program using the AI to “deploy a disruptive anti-scam technology comprised of realistic multilingual bots designed to keep scammers on long fake calls to divert them away from the many victims who lose money to global cybercriminals every day”.
The uni will work with CommBank to share intelligence, to detect and disrupt scams.
Apate.ai chief executive officer and the uni’s cybersecurity hub director, professor Dali Kaafa, said:
Our mission is to disrupt scammers’ business models globally. This proactive approach against scam calls will make it much harder for fraudsters to reach actual victims. Apate.ai’s technology is about staying ahead of the scammers.
The bank will be able to get real-time alerts before the scammers contact its customers, who can then be notified.
You can read all about the technology here:
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Indigenous voice referendum can still be a ‘catalyst for progress’: Linda Burney
Burney has said the referendum on the voice to parliament didn’t achieve the outcomes “many of us wanted” but that she believes it can and will be a “catalyst for progress”.
She goes on to say that “community-led truth” would help build the shared narrative that Australia is lacking, adding “there is nothing to fear or lose from the truth”.
Burne continued:
I believe it can and will be a catalyst for progress and positive change in our nation, that in the years that come it will be looked on more kindly by history; because constitutional recognition has been championed for decades by many of you here and the government and parliament finally had the courage to put the question to the people, because of the role it played in inspiring a new generation of young Indigenous leaders to emerge and also some of you here and push the change for a better future, because it showed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote communities overwhelmingly wanted the voice to be heard, and 6.3 million Australians said yes.
It highlighted how far we’ve come and how far we still must go to be a truly reconciled country.
Progress doesn’t always move in a straight line. The road is rocky. There are obstacles in the path. We have our stumbles and our setbacks, but our overall direction is towards progress and, with each passing generation, we bend the moral arc of the universe closer to justice.
Burney then said she thinks “Australia sometimes struggles with our identity because we never came to terms with our own story, never embraced the breadth and depth of it, certainly not its truth”/
She said:
The generosity we pride ourselves on is rarely extended to the people in this nation who have occupied these lands for countless generations. Why? Part of the answer is that we don’t have a shared narrative.
You take the whole, not just the bits that suit you. I believe that community-led truth … can help with that there is nothing to fear or lose from the truth.
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Burney has said celebrated the achievements in Indigenous affairs – including justice reinvestment, improvements to remote housing and drinking water, and rolling out dialysis units and building the health workforce.
She said the steps forward were a “team effort”:
These steps forward are a team effort. Ministers stepping up, ministers taking responsibility for delivering for Indigenous people in their portfolio. The whole Labor cabinet doing its bit. This is a profound and incredibly important improvement because when I arrived in this place in 2016 it felt like issues affecting affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had been pushed into a silo to be dealt with only by the Indigenous affairs minister who, quite frankly, will never have their hands on the levers of employment, health, education and other portfolios where the big changes will be made.
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Linda Burney gives valedictory speech to parliament
Former minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney is delivering her valedictory speech to the House of Representatives.
She has reflected on her time in parliament, “walking a path never before been walked by someone like me” as the first Indigenous woman elected to the House of Representatives:
As I stand here today, I am deeply reflective and immensely grateful for the journey I have shared with you all in this parliament.
When I first entered this House, I knew I was walking a path that had never before been walked by someone like me, the first Indigenous woman elected to the House of Representatives.
A path paved with hope, with responsibility and a deep commitment to representing not just my own community of Barton but all Australians, including, of course, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
I am humbled by the trust and the ownership shown by First Nations Australians, many of whom are still paying a heavy price for dispossession and exclusion from our nation’s foundation and too often, exclusion from the institutions which exist to serve us all.
Burney announced she would be retiring last month and stepped away from the frontbench:
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Thanks Amy! And good afternoon everyone.
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I am going to hand you over to Jordyn Beazley while I complete another task.
We’ll be back with politics live from early tomorrow morning – which will be the last day of this sitting. Huzzah.
Hope you have a lovely evening – and please, take care of you.
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Sussan Ley accuses Zali Steggall of ‘unprofessional’ attack on Dutton
Asked about the complaints some of the teal independents have raised about standards in the House during debates and question time (which has been backed by the Speaker, Milton Dick, who said in the House last week he noticed an increase in noise from the Coalition benches when one of them stood up to make a contribution), Sussan Ley says:
The teals need to understand that standards apply to them, that they cannot just say whatever they want and that, if they’re talking about behaviour in the chamber, the need to consider their own behaviour.
Recently, [Zali Steggall], made some personal and particularly nasty attacks on our leader, Peter Dutton. There were unprofessional, they were not responsible and they were repeated inside and outside the chamber.
Imagine if somebody walked into the ABC studio and said to you, or David Speers, you’re a racist and then repeated [it] over and over again, would that be acceptable? Would that be professional? So, I’m waiting to see what the independent teals are going to do to address their fellow member because no one called her out on that.
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Sussan Ley is speaking to the ABC about the government independent parliamentary standards commission legislation and says while the Coalition will work with Labor, it won’t be rushed by Labor’s “timeline”:
We will take that through our shadow and a party room processes and our backbench committees and we will consult.
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Full Story podcast – Why Dutton wants to close the door to Gazan refugees
The Coalition might be running out of steam in their attack lines over Palestinian visas if today’s QT was anything to go by, but it doesn’t seem like it will drop it anytime soon.
That is partly because the clock is ticking on the first visitor visas running out – they only last for a year. The government has to come up with a fix, as people cannot return to Gaza.
Karen Middleton and Mostafa Rachwani talk through some of the issue in the latest Guardian Full Story podcast:
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Transport data shows 30.9% of all flights in Australia cancelled or delayed in July
The Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie, who has the shadow portfolio looking after aviation, has some cheery news about flight delays and cancellations based on the latest data (from the month of July):
30.9% of all flights were cancelled or delayed in July (compared to 25.2% in June).
Total cancelled and delayed flights increased by 34.6% since June (15,323 flights in July, compared to 11,384 in June).
For flights between Melbourne and Sydney, 8.8% of all flights were cancelled in July.
10.7% of Qantas flights were cancelled.
8.1% of Virgin Flights were cancelled.
7.6% of Jetstar flights were cancelled.
In the month that Rex Airlines entered voluntary administration, Australia’s airlines delivered their worst on-time performance since March as 30% of flights across the country were cancelled or delayed, according to data released by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics.
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That exchange over visa approvals continued:
James Paterson: Sure, and this is no fault of the people applying for the visas, but most people who apply for visas are not applying from war zones, and they’re not applying from jurisdictions that are controlled by terrorist organisations. You would think that that would necessitate greater scrutiny.
Michael Willard:
I’m very confident that, if someone wasn’t meeting all of the criteria for the grant of a visa, then the visa would not be granted.
Paterson: How can you know, if you’re taking only an hour or less to consider it?
Willard:
Because it’s the application of all of the information we hold to the individual’s particular circumstances, which might be such that we already know this person or we hold overwhelming information that makes us confident that the person meets the criteria.
Paterson: Just finally on this matter, was anything about the process expedited or modified in any way to facilitate applications?
Willard:
No. The assessment of the individual applications against the criteria was complete and was a standard assessment. What we have been doing is taking a similar approach to what we’ve taken in previous situations where there’s been unrest or war zones – and this goes back to Afghanistan, but also Ukraine and Sudan. It is that we do apply priority processing to people who have strong Australian connections who are seeking to travel.
Paterson: What about any flexibility about identity verification or documents that they have provided?
Willard:
No flexibility – if we’re not satisfied of identity, we won’t be granting the visa.
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What’s the source of the Coalition’s ‘one hour’ visa turnaround claim?
We have reported on this a few times, but for the people up the back, this is the exchange the Coalition appear to be relying on for much of their attack lines on this issue.
It is from February. Not a big deal was made then, but for *reasons* the Coalition is now speaking about this six months later – and almost four months after the last Palestinian from Gaza was able to enter Australia before Israel shut the Rafah border.
There’s been some controversy about this in the media, and the minister for foreign affairs, among others, has reassured the public that no processes were expedited, no corners were cut – all the usual processes were followed.
But there was also a media report by the ABC on 9 December, entitled “Australians turn to WhatsApp group for help to get family members out of Gaza”, in which some individuals claimed their visitor visas for relatives were approved within one hour.
Does that sound right to you? Is it possible that a visitor visa was approved in a single hour?
Michael Willard, a deputy director in the immigration department answered:
It is possible. I’d make this point in terms of the way we assess a visitor visa: we draw on a vast range of information that we hold, and we apply that information to the circumstances presented in a visitor visa application. There could be circumstances where someone, for example, has a strong travel record, is well known to us and has a routine that we’re familiar with, where the visitor visa could be granted in that time frame.
Paterson:
Sure. But how could you possibly do all the necessary security and other checks in just an hour for an applicant? That’s lightning-speed approval.
Willard:
When we apply that vast range of information to consideration of visitor visas, if you look globally, a very large number of our visitor visas would be done inside an hour. The assessment is essentially looking at all the information we hold and applying it in a number of ways to the application in front of us.
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What did we learn from question time?
It appears the Coalition is running out of steam on the issue it’s created around security for Palestinian visas, but it remains determined to continue pushing it.
Peter Dutton did not ask a question today. The opposition leader was largely silent. It has been some time since Dutton did not ask any questions.
The Coalition is also trying to present its theories and attack lines as fact. There is no evidence for the claim that Palestinian visas were approved “in an average of 24 hours” and in some cases “an hour”.
That original claim appears to come from a story about a group chat where these claims were made. James Paterson asked about them in Senate estimates in February and an immigration official answered in the broad – not in the specific context of visas for Palestinians.
Anthony Albanese and Labor now seem just as determined to turn the attack back on the opposition and Peter Dutton specifically, seeking to define him as ‘divisive’. Labor is attempting to set up a contest between what it is focusing on – cost of living – compared to what the Coalition is focused on – an issue around visas it has created itself.
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NIB and St Vincent’s private hospital network reach new funding agreement
St Vincent’s private hospital network has reached a new funding agreement with NIB, meaning the private health fund customers no longer face the threat of higher out-of-pocket healthcare costs which have loomed since negotiations between the parties broke down.
In July, Australia’s largest not-for-profit health and aged care services provider St Vincent’s gave notice to NIB that it intended to end its funding agreement after a notice period which ended on 3 October.
St Vincent’s, which operates 10 private hospitals in NSW, Victoria and Queensland, said NIB had failed to put a fair offer on the table that recognised the rising costs of providing private hospital care.
While it was the first time in St Vincent’s 167-year history it had given notice to a private health fund that it intended to end an agreement, Ben Harris, the director of policy and research at Private Healthcare Australia predicted that a resolution would be reached, just as similar scenarios between other private providers and insurers had played out in the past, because it’s in both parties’ best interests to do so.
St Vincent’s CEO, Chris Blake, said he welcomed the new funding deal which appropriately recognises the rising costs of providing private hospital care.
While the details of the new agreement are commercial-in-confidence, Blake said the deal would allow St Vincent’s to cover its costs when providing care to NIB members in its private hospitals.
Times have never been harder for private hospital providers in Australia. As a not-for-profit social enterprise, St Vincent’s needs to be able to cover its costs.”
I’m very glad both parties have been able to use the notice period to dig a little deeper and reach a fair and mutually satisfactory agreement.”
For private health care to operate effectively, health funds and hospitals need to work together, for the benefit of members and patients”.
Health service contracting group Honeysuckle Health, acting on behalf of NIB, confirmed St Vincent’s remains in contract with NIB, ensuring NIB members can continue to limit their out-of-pocket costs for treatment at St Vincent’s facilities.
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Milton Dick agrees to review standards and behaviour as question time ends
Anthony Albanese ends question time (a little earlier than usual) and Allegra Spender asks Milton Dick to make a statement on the standard of conduct in the house.
In this parliament we have a behaviour code soon to be legislated, that requires parliamentarians to, and I quote, ‘treat all those with whom they come into contact in the course of their parliamentary duties and activities with dignity, courtesy, fairness and respect’.
The conduct that is demonstrated in this chamber, particularly during question time, is unlike any workplace I’ve ever been in, and I think we would have a hard time convincing the public, including those perhaps in the gallery today, that we comply with this code.
I would like to ask the speaker to review the behaviour, language and standards in recent weeks and make any necessary statements relating to them.
Dick says he will.
I agree with her. We must find ways to better engage in debate that maintains respectful behaviour and in particular, upholding the standing orders. I shall reflect on standards and behaviour in recent times and report back to the member.
And we are all set free. Until tomorrow.
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Communications minister says 3G switchover to be delayed to 28 October
There is about to be a mass advertising campaign reminding people to check if their tech is on 3G.
Michelle Rowland said:
There’s a subset of handsets which use 4G for voice and data, but are configured by the manufacturer to use 3G for calls to triple zero. Now, this category of handset is of concern, because it won’t be apparent to end users that they can’t call 000, and they’d only discover this during an emergency when they’re actually trying to make the call.
So following interrogation by my department earlier this year, industry figures showed that up to 740,000 devices in this category may be impacted.
On receiving the advice as to the scale, I immediately stood up. An industry working group overseen by my department that enabled fortnightly updates on device numbers and progress on community and customer outreach efforts.
The cooperation by the working group enables me now, Mr Speaker, to advise the House that the number of devices in this high risk category has reduced from 740,000 to around 73,000. Now, that’s a significant reduction, but both government and industry believe there is more to be done.
To that end, the government welcomes the announcement by Telstra and Optus that they will delay their respective 3G network switchovers until 28 October.
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‘We will respect every one of you’: PM to western Sydney electorates
Anthony Albanese continues:
Well, I say this to those opposite. You can continue to sledge people in western Sydney.
What I’ll continue to do as prime minister is represent the entire nation here, including the good people of Western Sydney.
They know that we take the same advice from the same security agencies as the previous government did.
We’ve rejected more than 7000 visa applications.
The member for Groom might not know because he just asked the question he was given, so I don’t blame him, that the Rafah border crossing is controlled by the Israeli and Egyptian authorities, and it has been closed since May.
… I say this to the good, good people of Watson, Blaxland and McMahon that we will respect every one of you, regardless of who you are, regardless of your faith, regardless of your ethnicity.
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Anthony Albanese:
There were more people [who] came from Syria under visitor visas from when they were in government, when Isis was in charge of large amounts of Syria, than the 1,300 people who have come from the occupied Palestinian territories.
And can I note this as well? There have been 5,491 visitor visas granted from Israel as well. And let me say this. Those people are welcome here. They are welcome here.
But we see what is going on here. It is so obvious. And the member … is certainly very conscious of it, which is why, you know, it’s a shocker when no one on the frontbench will ask it.
That’s right, that’s right. Goes up the back, goes up the back in order to sledge a whole group of people who live in western Sydney.
That’s right, that’s right!
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In one of the earlier questions in parliament this afternoon, Dan Tehan alleged that the government was “cutting corners on security assessments to bring in 1,300 people from the terrorist-controlled Gaza war zone”.
In light of this claim, it might be worth re-upping this exchange with Asio chief Mike Burgess in a podcast interview with Guardian Australia in March:
Guardian Australia:
I’m raising the following question, only because it’s been raised by a major political party in Australia, not because I want to cast aspersions on an entire community. The Coalition has raised security concerns about the approval of visas for hundreds of Palestinians fleeing the conflict. And the Liberal senator James Paterson said in November that he’s “not reflecting on Asio … but I really hope pressure hasn’t been put on them or the Department of Home Affairs to cut corners, or do this more quickly than they already would”. What role does Asio have in the security checks for those visas? And can you give that reassurance?
Burgess:
There’s many elements to that question, so let me break that down for you. Asio has a role in the visa process. I won’t explain that fully because we don’t want people to game that process, but I can assure you Asio is involved. Home Affairs has the lead and Home Affairs knows what it’s doing when it comes to these processes. If there was pressure put on my organisation, I have an obligation under Australian law to protect my organisation from politicisation or anything that’s inappropriate, and I would take action if that happened. I haven’t needed to do that. I’m confident we’re doing our job well and where we see problems we deal with them effectively. Of course, we’re not all seeing and all knowing and information available to everyone including Home Affairs is not 100%, but I’m confident the process is where it needs to be. But we keep an open mind to that. And we remain vigilant.
Guardian Australia:
So if there was any doubt, you wouldn’t sign off on a particular individual?
Burgess:
Well, our role – obviously, if we have grounds to say that we are going to impact that individual, we have to have the evidence and that’s subject to a rigorous assessment. It can’t just be I feel there’s it’s a bit of doubt, so we’ll do it. We don’t work that way.
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Coalition MP labels Palestinian visas a ‘visa for votes’ scheme targeted at western Sydney
LNP MP Garth Hamilton has been handed a question from the tactics team which he appears to be reading for the first time, given how he delivers it.
Prime minister, why is Australia handing out tourist visas to Gazans from the terrorist-controlled war zone in an average of 24 hours, and in some cases, as quickly as one hour, while bypassing all the usual checks, including those the former Coalition government used in Syria?
Will the prime minister admit that the government’s visa for votes scheme was only done to shore up votes in the seats of Watson, McMahon and Blaxton?
There is no proven suggestion of an “average” of 24 hours for approvals. The “one hour” reference appears to have come from reports on a group chat, which were raised in Senate estimates in February. It was not confirmed, but the immigration official said it was “feasible” a visitor visa could be approved so quickly, if someone had an established relationship with Australia (for example was a regular visitor, meaning that authorities already had a lot of your information).
The head of Asio, Mike Burgess, said security checks were done – not just with his agency, but through the usual processes, set up under Home Affairs. Visas are also constantly crosschecked, which is how some ended up cancelled after they were granted (it is not a set and forget process).
No one has been able to leave Gaza (except in the rare cases of medical evacuation) since Israel officially seized the Rafah border in May. As for “shoring up votes”, the Labor MPs are under extreme pressure because what communities have seen as a lack of action.
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Greens senator questions Labor on funding to end gendered violence
In the Senate, the Greens senator Larissa Waters asks when the government will commit more funding to services for women facing violence, saying they need $1bn extra each year to meet the demand and noting that at least 45 women have been murdered this year by current or former partners. Her question follows the lunchtime address to the National Press Club from the domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner Micaela Cronin, in which she warned the services needed more support.
Representing the social services minister, Senator Jenny McAllister says “too many women are killed by their current or former intimate partner” and that the statistics confirm it is a crisis.
It’s a pretty stark reminder of the human cost of this violence.
McAllister outlines what the government has done under the national plan to end gender-based violence.
We have been focused on supporting economic security so women don’t have to choose between property and violence. We’ve been investing in housing, so women know they have a place to go. We have been strengthening the legal system’s response to gendered violence.
She says the government is also sharpening the focus on prevention.
So we can end gendered violence in a generation.
Waters urges the government to develop an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander violence prevention framework for men and boys, given the prevalence of violence perpetrated against Indigenous women.
McAllister says the government is committed to collaborating with Indigenous women to improve the situation.
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Paul Fletcher raises a point of order at the end of that answer about the imputation and asks that the prime minister withdraws it.
There are a lot of heckles from both sides of the chamber.
“Someone call the wam-bulance” can be heard coming from the Labor frontbench. Along with “it’s the truth”.
Milton Dick rules that no one was named, so no one was maligned.
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Coalition ‘maligning a whole group of people’ who are ‘suffering enormously’: PM
Anthony Albanese continues:
Because, there was a time when the Liberal party would have seen that people, whether they were fleeing Ukraine, Israel, Syria, Vietnam, Gaza at the moment, would have had some understanding, some understanding that this was the worst time, the worst time to try to just malign a whole group of people who are suffering enormously.
Something that we see on our TV screens every night. You know, this morning, you turn on the radio, the latest hit was a school in Gaza with real people devastated and losing their life.
We have faith in our security processes, we have faith in our intelligence agencies.
They work, our security and law enforcement agencies do their job on an ongoing basis.
We have faith in them.
The opposition apparently don’t, even though they’re the same security agencies and indeed, the same personnel [as when they were in power].
We talk about character. When it comes to targeting groups, whether it is Lebanese, people in the south Pacific, Chinese, the entire continent of Africa – they’re all fair game.
If you’re an au pair from Europe and someone can pick up the phone – no problem, you’re in.
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Albanese: Liberal party founder Menzies ‘wouldn’t recognise this mob today’
Anthony Albanese answers the Tehan question by quoting the founder of the modern Liberal party:
Let me begin by quoting a character, Robert Menzies. This is what he had to say;
‘It is a good thing that Australia should have earned a reputation for a sensitive understanding for the problems of people in other lands. We should not come to be regarded as a people detached from the miseries of the world. I know that we will not come to be so regarded for, for I believe that there are no people anywhere with warmer hearts and more generous impulses.’
That was the founder of the Liberal party. He wouldn’t recognise this mob today.
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Tehan made to withdraw imputations in question on national security
Dan Tehan is now back.
It seems he has also had enough.
Will the prime minister concede that in cutting corners on security assessments to bring in 1,300 people from the terrorist-controlled Gaza war zone on tourist visas, he has made Australia less safe? Will the prime minister admit that this visa for votes scheme was only done to shore up votes in the seats of Watson, McMahon and Blaxland? Doesn’t this go to his true character?
He is made to withdraw the imputations in the question.
There has been no suggestions that corners were cut on security assessments. The Asio boss Mike Burgess said that security procedures were carried out.
It is not unusual to bring people who need a quick visa stream – because of things like war – into Australia through visitor visas. Kate Lyons has done an explainer on that here.
If any Palestinian was to apply for a humanitarian visa, they would still have to go through the rigorous humanitarian visa process. The 1,300 or so people who are in Australia from Gaza have strong family connections and security agencies have information on who people are staying with.
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‘Nastiness is not strength’: PM erupts in question time as Palestinian visas questions continue
Anthony Albanese on Peter Dutton:
And, I would think that people will be having a look at this bloke, who, ever since he walked into the parliament, as a new member, has always looked to divide.
Has always looked to bring Australians apart, not to bring Australians together.
Even when he has left his parliament, as he did during the [national] apology, it was all about divisions and then he apologised for it.
He said that Lebanese migration was a mistake under the Fraser government. And then, he said he apologised for it, it’s just he apologised to [ABC journalist] Annabel Crabb, not to anyone in the Lebanese community.
He has not apologised to Africans in Melbourne, [when he] said people can’t get out.
He continually, he continually looks to pretend, to pretend he’s so strong – but nastiness is not strength.
Nastiness is not strength.
And punching down on vulnerable people is not strength. That is what it is. It shows Australia who he is every day.
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PM returns accusations of ‘political expediency’
After a back and forth on points of orders and relevance, Anthony Albanese returns to the floor and takes aim at the Coalition and Peter Dutton specifically:
I’m speaking about the political expediency of those opposite. They’re not concerned about cost-of-living pressures. They’re not concerned about jobs. Not concerned about wages.
Not concerned about our economy. [They’re] not concerned about social policy. Not concerned about the environment or tackling climate change, or any of the issues that Australians are talking about in their households.
[They’re] more concerned about the Middle East than middle Australia.
It exposes their political expediency, because they don’t have an agenda. They’re yet to come up with a single costed policy.
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LNP continues question time attacks over Palestinian visas
The LNP’s Angie Bell asks another question about how Palestinian visas were approved. The question doesn’t matter as much – it is pretty much the same as we have been hearing all week – but it is obvious that Albanese has had enough.
Bell ends her question with:
Was this decision based on security advice, or political expediency?
Anthony Albanese:
All visitor visa applications, and this goes to a previous question as well, are decided with the involvement of departmental staff, none are fully automated, we have dealt with this process. As people would be aware, and I’m sure the member is aware, the Rafah border crossing is closed. Those opposite said nothing about these issues when the visas were actually being introduced.
Now, they’ve not been – they’ve not been delivered because people can’t get out of the Rafah crossing. And those know that.
But, you know, that’s not the real point of this question, is it? It’s not to get an answer. It’s not to get information. It’s to sow doubt and to stoke division, and to create fear.
And everyone knows it.
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LNP MP Llew O’Brien (who appears to have healed from his latest motorcycle crash – good to see) asks Anthony Albanese:
Prime minister, of the reported 43 tourist visas your government granted, and then cancelled, to those from the terrorist-controlled Gaza war zone since October 7, 20 have been reinstated on appeal. Did ministerial intervention occur to support any of these 20 cases?
Albanese:
The member is asking me a question about ministerial intervention. There certainly has not been prime ministerial intervention.
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Labor has delivered ‘most significant’ online gambling harm reduction in last decade: PM
Anthony Albanese:
I thank the member for Goldstein for her question and for sharing the very personal story of one of her constituents. That personal story indicates the fact that this is not something which is new.
If someone with a 12-year-old daughter is speaking about her life experience when she was a child, then one would assume that is decades ago. And indeed, that goes towards the fact that gambling has been an issue in our society, I suspect, since man and woman walked and had a bet on who could ride a horse the fastest, or who could run from rock to rock, literally, probably, before there were buildings.
This has been around for a long period of time. And in the last two years …
(There are a few raised eyebrows at this analogy as more than a few people seem to wonder where the PM is going with this.)
Albanese:
In the last two years we have done more to tackle gambling harm than in the entire period before then, from when this woman was a young child watching her father waste away the assets in that family. More in two years. We have delivered the most significant online wagering harm reduction initiatives of the last decade, including mandatory customer ID verification, banning the use of credit cards for online wagering, forcing online wagering companies to send their customers monthly activity statements.
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Zoe Daniel questions PM on partial gambling ad bans
The independent MP for Goldstein asks Anthony Albanese:
This week, a mum in my electorate emailed me. “I’m the daughter of a gambler. I grew up walking on egg shells. One minute he was full of love and joy, the next uncertainty and despair.”
Her father gambled away the family’s live savings and then took away his own life. With a 12-year-old son, she says of gambling ads on TV: “it terrifies me”. Prime minister, how would you justify only a partial gambling ad ban to this mother, who fears for her child?
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They’re into it in Senate question time, and Western Australian Liberal senator Slade Brockman has kicked off, asking about the shortage of saline affecting agriculture as well as the health sector.
Malarndirri McCarthy, representing the agriculture minister, is answering. In a slightly non-sequitur answer, she says:
We all love beef.
We all like to eat sheep … It is important. It’s good food.
Turns out, she is referring to a spray Brockman had in the final few seconds before question time began, during which he condemned Anthony Albanese’s attitude to agriculture.
McCarthy goes on to talk about what the government has done for medical manufacturing and the supply chain.
In a supplementary question, Brockman returns to his pre-QT theme, accusing the government of having “contempt” for the ag sector.
McCarthy fires back:
We won’t be lectured on this side about the importance of supply chains.
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Government grilled over Gaza visas
Sussan Ley has the next non-government question and Anthony Albanese and the tactics team have obviously decided they have had enough of the visa questions, given this answer.
Ley: Of the almost 3,000 visas approved for people from the terrorist-controlled Gaza war zone, how many were approved by an automated process? And did not involve a referral to Asio?
Albanese:
I thank the member for her question, which goes to automated processes.
I am reminded – I’m reminded of who is obsessed by automotive processes. When they took the humans out of human services. With catastrophic consequences for Australians. And that’s why they’re not concerned about the impact that they had in government, on robodebt, on real Australians.
We’ve continue to be focused on the needs of Australians. We’ll continue to be focused on the issues that are of concern to them. We have – I have answered many questions about these issues, they’re obsessed by it, what we’re focused on is the same issues that Australians are interested in.
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Question time begins
Dan Tehan opens up the questions with a query over a Seven network report from its Canberra political editor Mark Riley.
The 43 tourist visas the government granted and cancelled to those from the terrorist-controlled war zone in Gaza, 20 have been restated on appeal. Can the prime minister confirm this is accurate?
Anthony Albanese:
I’m asked about Mark Riley’s reports. His reports are always worth watching. He has reported on Channel Seven that Hamas didn’t take over the occupied Palestinian authorities in the Gaza Strip since October 7. They were actually there before hand.
When those opposite were in government they granted 1,000 – 1,000 – visitor visas from people from the occupied Palestinian territories.
I can certainly confirm of the visitor visas that have been granted since October 7, the only cancellations have been offshore.
Just some context in regards to the question; the last election held in Gaza was in 2006. Hamas won 44% of the vote, and the more moderate Fatah won 41%. Half the population of Gaza is under the age of 18 and was unable to vote in the 2006 election.
There were visas cancelled – and reinstated – as reported by the Guardian earlier this year. Visas were cancelled for a variety of reasons, including that authorities were investigating how someone may have left Gaza.
You can read more about that, here:
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WA delegation arrives in Canberra ahead of nature law reform debate
A delegation of Western Australians from across the farming, tourism, wine-making and wildlife care and community groups have arrived in Canberra to meet with politicians ahead of the federal nature law reform debate.
The group want commitments of strong federal laws, after concerns were raised WA’s own state laws were being watered down.
Rhiannon Hardwick, the Nature Program Manager at the Conservation Council of WA, said while WA was known for its mining interests, they didn’t speak for the whole state:
We’ve come all the way to Canberra to show the federal government that voters in WA want stronger laws that protect nature and the places we love.
We’re here to give voice to the overwhelming majority of West Australians who want nature protected.
The loudest voices from WA are often the mega-rich fossil fuel interests but they don’t represent our communities.
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Michaelia Cash lashes PM for joke about beef exports
The National Press Club address finishes.
We now have just over 20 minutes until the third question time of the week.
Liberal senator Michaelia Cash has got in ahead of question time to lash the prime minister for a joke he made at a rural women awards dinner last night:
In his speech Albanese raised the dinner he had with Indonesian president-elect Prabowo Subianto, telling the room: “When we had dinner – beautiful Australian beef, not the live export, we made sure it was dead.”
Cash is apparently outraged by the joke.
This prime minister pretends he supports Western Australia but is happy to make our farmers the butt of his jokes,’’ Senator Cash said.
What a disgrace – he’s moved to shut down a WA industry and then jokes about it.
The live beef export industry should now be on notice that Mr Albanese is likely to do the same to them as he has done to the live sheep industry.”
The government has ruled out making changes to the live cattle industry.
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DV commissioner discusses language used around domestic violence
Returning to the Micaela Cronin’s point about language when speaking about domestic, family and sexual violence, what does she think is best practice?
It is a tricky one, isn’t it?
I was having a conversation with someone the other day about what we have learned, in terms of the way we talk about suicide and what we have learned about the importance of both having the conversation but being aware that it can be risky and dangerous for communities as well.
We have the same issue when we talk about domestic family and sexual violence. We know there are risks of backlash, there are risks of copycat. We know where there have been some really graphic, traumatic instances occur, that actually it has caused ripple effects for other women, women who call up services saying “I have just had threatened to me, I am going to do the same thing to you.”
We need to be very mindful in the way we talk about, I think domestic family and sexual violence.
We need to be talking about it in a way that holds the people who use violence accountable but respectful of – and absolutely respectful of the women and not labelling them in terms of what’s happened to them and there are some very good guidelines that exist about that, that we need to be ensuring that media and anybody who has leadership around communicating about it is well educated in.
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NDIS reform deal ‘a devastating blow’ to disability community, says Lidia Thorpe
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe is not a fan of the deal which has been done on the NDIS legislation:
It’s a devastating blow to the community that undermines decades of progress on the rights of people with disabilities and will result in lives lost.
The First Nations Disability Network has outlined serious concerns about this legislation. But again it appears Labor are ignoring First Peoples, preferring to listen to the Coalition instead.
None of these decisions should be made by people who do not have disabilities.
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Micaela Cronin says she wants ‘all leaders to step up and do better':
I want this to be election issue, I want this to be something that parties are recognising the need to be put in their best foot forward and committing to what we will see in future terms and I think we are seeing that, I think that as I said before, the national plan is a good foundation but will need to be thinking about how do we build on that going forward.
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The domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner Micaela Cronin says she is aware work is under way by the government to audit government payment systems to examine how they can contribute to harm in this space.
I’m aware that that work is under way and we will be keeping an eye on that.
Updated
Micaela Cronin says there is not one area that she thinks there needs to be material change, because the response needs a holistic response.
Cronin says community legal centres do an “extraordinary job” and there needs to be a “much better understanding of the demand”.
I do think that responses for men is critical and we need that not to be at the expense of response services, who are taking calls every day. I think the community legal services do an extraordinary job on the ground of wrapping whatever needs to be done around their services and they’re often not funded to do that, so I think taking a comprehensive view of what are the points in the service system that we need to be really looking at that uplift and across the country, is something that all governments need to be urgently paying attention to.
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‘Systems are weaponised to harm people,’ says DV commissioner
Micaela Cronin said addressing family, domestic and sexual violence, governments need to start thinking about systems:
One of the things I want to call out in terms of thinking about our systems is that we know that systems are weaponised. Systems are weaponised to harm people.
And all of our systems can be weaponised.
We know child support security payments are weaponised.
We know the family court is weaponised.
The child protection system is weaponised against women and children.
Cronin said the business sector had looked at changes in its sphere and the need to speed change up.
Government needs to do the same.
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‘We have seen an 11% increase in sexual violence in the last year’: Micaela Cronin
Micaela Cronin says:
The last financial year, 43 women were murdered in intimate partner violence, but the numbers are much larger than that if you start to include people, women, children and children who die as a result of family domestic and sexual violence.
We have seen an 11% increase in sexual violence in the last year.
First Nations women are 33 times more likely to be hospitalised, six times more likely to die.
And 60% of LGBTQIA+ people will have experience [of] family domestic and intimate partner violence.
That’s what many people will be facing today and always and it’s not something that many people want to look in the face all the time.
It is something that advocates are courageously and bravely bringing to our attention so that we can do something about this.
Updated
‘We need to be talking with and about men more’
Cronin continues:
Last thing I want to say about language is when we talk about – it’s not a great phrase to trip off the tongue but domestic, family and sexual violence.
We are not talking as much about sexual violence and we rarely use the word “incest”.
We need to talk more about sexual violence.
Cronin says the national plan to end violence against women uses the word ‘men’ 129 times, but women is used 543 times.
Four times more than we talk about men. We need to be talking with and about men more.
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We need to use ‘less passive language’ when we talk about DV, commissioner says
Micaela Cronin makes the point that Australia needs to do better in the way it speaks about violence.
The way we use language is important. We have come a long way from talking about violence, domestic violence, and equating it with a black eye.
We are much more sophisticated in understanding that it is now about patterns of behaviour and talk about coercive control and the need to talk about social and systemic entrapment.
So language is important.
We often talk about violence, but when we say that it’s important to recognise that it is broader than physical violence. We also offer quite passive language. We talk about violence against women, rather than men’s violence.
We use language that doesn’t make it as visible as it needs to be, that it’s predominantly men who perpetrate violence and it is predominantly against women. We talk about missing and lost women and children rather than women who have been actively disappeared and murdered. We need to be stronger and clearer and use less passive language.
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Domestic violence commissioner addresses National Press Club
The domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner, Micaela Cronin, is delivering the press club speech ahead of the tabling of her inaugural report on the issue.
We will bring you the main parts of the speech and then the bits you need to know from the question and answer.
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Linda Burney to deliver valedictory speech this afternoon
Former minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney, will deliver her valedictory speech to the House of Representatives just after 4pm today.
Burney announced she would be retiring last month and stepped away from the front bench.
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Deepfake pornography bill passes Senate
Mark Dreyfus’s deepfake porn legislation (which criminalises the non-consensual creating and sharing of it) has passed the Senate with no amendments.
In a statement Dreyfus said:
This insidious behaviour can be a method of degrading, humiliating and dehumanising victims. Such acts are overwhelmingly targeted towards women and girls, perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes and contributing to gender-based violence.
This Bill strengthens existing Commonwealth Criminal Code offences and introduces a new aggravated criminal offence to target those who use technologies to artificially generate or alter sexually explicit material (such as deepfakes) for the purposes of non-consensual sharing online.
These offences are now subject to serious criminal penalties of up to six years imprisonment for sharing of non-consensual deepfake sexually explicit material. Where the person also created the deepfake that is shared without consent, there is an aggravated offence which carries a higher penalty of seven years’ imprisonment.
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Shorten on NDIS: ‘Telling the truth about the scheme seems to upset people’
And despite having a waste ticker and a truck with the waste ticker he drove around parliament (much like I-told-you-so(s) Shorten is hard pressed to walk past a stunt), Bill Shorten said “it is hard to estimate the amount of waste in the scheme”.
Shorten:
Telling the truth about the scheme seems to upset people. On one hand if we say it is changing peoples lives, some people will say some should not be getting it.
On the other hand, when you say there is some waste in the scheme, other people will say you are trashing people with disability. The truth is in between.
The truth is the NDIS is a great scheme. Australia as a country is investing more per capita on profoundly and severely impaired Australians than any other nation on the planet. That is something we should all be proud of. But we can make the scheme better.
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Shorten apologises for period products being labelled ‘lifestyle’ products in draft NDIS plan
Going through the press conference Bill Shorten just held, he also included an apology for period products being labelled as “lifestyle” products under the draft NDIS plan.
First of all, an apology. This is about putting out a list which by the way the government has done before. No good deed goes unpunished.
(That is a reference to this government being the first to put out a list).
He says the amendments will clear it up, and that period products designed for people with a disability will be accessible under the scheme.
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Private market ‘has not and will not’ solve housing crisis, leader of inquiry says
We have been going through the Everybody’s Home People’s Commission report into the housing crisis and it makes for sober (but sadly unsurprising) reading.
The report included new data from a survey of more than 120 frontline organisations ranking the top impacts of the housing crisis on clients:
• Nine in 10 (90%) ranked stress or mental-ill health as one of the biggest impacts
• Three in four (75%) nominated homelessness
• Three in five (57%) said forgoing meals, medication or other essential services
• Two in five (39%) said disconnection from family or community
• One in three (32%) said inability to leave an unsafe home environment.
Prof Nicole Gurran from the University of Sydney’s School of Architecture, Design and Planning led the inquiry with former Labor senator Doug Cameron.
Gurran said systemic failures led us here:
An over-reliance on the private market has not and will not deliver the magnitude of affordable, secure housing that Australia needs.
Instead, national leadership is needed to restore investment to social housing, fix the unfair and inefficient tax settings that fuel demand without delivering new supply, and ensure adequate rental subsidies and protections so that tenants in the private sector can access secure and decent homes.
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AAP reports Australia has sanctioned 20 Somali members of designated terrorist organisation Al Shabaab.
The sanctions largely target senior leaders.
From the AAP report:
They stem from a United Nations Security Council resolution and subsequent committee targeting Al Shabaab urging members to put in place an arms embargo, travel bans and asset freezes.
It also prohibited the import of charcoal from Somalia.
The Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group was blamed by the Somali government for killing dozens of civilians and injuring hundreds more during an explosion at a beach restaurant in the capital Mogadishu in early August.
Militants from the group also captured a UN helicopter carrying out a medical evacuation that made an emergency landing in central Somalia in January.
American forces killed leader senior leader Maalim Ayman in an operation with the Somali army in December 2023.
He was responsible for planning terrorist attacks in Somalia and nearby countries, a Somalian minister said at the time when confirming the operation.
Bill Shorten has never found an ‘I told you so’ he’s been able to walk past. He tells the journalists gathered at the press conference:
Some of you have been writing that the states are not going to work with us. well, you’re going to need a new [headline] because we are getting on with it.
Shorten said that cuts to growth (what the government would have spent) should not be confused with cuts to the NDIS.
If people think we are spending less than we thought we spend, it’s a cut.
The scheme has increased [in terms of] the number of people on the scheme from last year and in outlay of what we have spent. But generally, we are seeing a moderating. Lower than forecast growth in terms of outlays. And we will see what this produces next week in the NDIA statement.
(The agency is due to hand down its latest financial statement next week)
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NDIS bill about making sure the scheme is sustainable, Shorten says
Bill Shorten:
There is not [just] one day where this scheme gets better but the passing of this legislation is basically the construction of the scaffolding which will allow us to co-design unique assessment tools … It will allow us to resolve our consultation with people with disability about a list of what you can spend money on and what you cannot spend money on.
This will always be a work in progress but as we have seen, we are committed to making sure the scheme is here for the future. It is going at an unsustainable rate.
Where I hope to get to at the end of the week is people get a clear steer of how we make sure there is not automatic top up, plans being exhausted early, how can we make sure what we can spend money on and not.
Updated
Bill Shorten is hoping that the NDIS legislation will go through the Senate fast enough on Thursday that it can return to the house for the amendments to be ticked off, meaning the NDIS legislation would be passed by the end of the parliamentary session.
Updated
All of this means that a deal has been done on the NDIS.
In the Senate Labor and the Coalition have voted for a closure motion ensuring the NDIS bill will receive a final vote on Thursday.
The motion, by finance minister Katy Gallagher, said:
That on Thursday, 22 August 2024:
1 the questions on all remaining stages of the following bills be put at the conclusion of formal motions:
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024,
Criminal Code Amendment (Deepfake Sexual Material) Bill 2024,
Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Declared Areas) Bill 2024,
Telecommunications Amendment (SMS Sender ID Register) Bill 2024, and
Customs Amendment (Strengthening and Modernising Licensing and Other Measures) Bill 2024Customs Licensing Charges Amendment Bill 2024;
These bills will be voted on from 1:30pm Thursday.
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States and Canberra ‘getting their act together’ on NDIS, Shorten says
Bill Shorten said the government is responding to the concerns raised by the Council for the Australian Federation – also known as Caf.
I just say to people with disability and participants – the message is that the states and the federal government are getting their act together and people with disability and participants are not a political football.
The different levels of government can come together to sort out issues in the best interests of their people as this has been accomplished. So the amendments presented last night reflect the arrangements which are being negotiated.
The states are anxious that somehow a whole group of people on the NDIS would end up just being the responsibility of the state. That was never the intent and they are satisfied that is not the intent. The federal government wanted to make sure the states played their part. And we are satisfied the undertakings from the states in the proposals also do that.
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Shorten reveals deal reached to pass NDIS reforms
Bill Shorten is announcing the government has agreed to amendments on the NDIS bill.
Specifically, there has been an agreement to introduce faster timeframes for approving NDIS rules, and the dispute resolution approach to escalate issues to first ministers. And a move from unanimous to majority first minister support for new rules for any impacts for people with disability and governments.
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Party leaders should set example and not heckle in parliament, Steggall says
(continued from previous post)
Steggall said Peter Dutton’s behaviour in the House of Representatives encouraged his colleagues to emulate it. She said:
He’s the first to turn around in those situations and yell out and heckle and the MPs under him – the Coalition MPs – take their cue from his leadership and that is unacceptable.
And this is not conduct that is just of the opposition. We have also seen Labor MPs, I think, condoned by the prime minister, heckle other members of the crossbench because they do not agree with their ideology or position. That is also unacceptable.
Spender also said the party leaders should do better.
I note in the draft code of conduct for parliamentarians, it says, you know, ‘parliamentarians must treat all those with whom they come into contact in the course of their parliamentary duties and activities with dignity, courtesy, fairness and respect’.
And I think we are a long way from that.
Tink urged people to insist on better standards and to examine the legislation the government had produced after cross-parliament consultation in response to former sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins’ report on behaviour in parliamentary workplaces.
“It’s not good enough to have something that’s there in the name only,” Tink said.
It’s really important that this legislation is widely canvassed across the community, because this is the voters opportunity to have a direct say on how they want to see their parliamentarians behave. And if parliamentarians behave against those wishes, what are the consequences of those actions? Because at the moment, that level of transparency and accountability isn’t easily accessible by Australians.
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Sophie Scamps says she warns visiting schoolchildren not to model behaviour on what they see in parliament
Independent MPs are suggesting term limits on federal politicians to curb the normalisation of disrespectful parliamentary behaviour, urging political leaders to follow the advice of the Stop It At The Start advertising campaign and “stop it at the top”.
The New South Wales independents Kylea Tink, Allegra Spender, Sophie Scamps and Zali Steggall have expressed their dismay at the behaviour standards in parliament, noting new legislation the government is introducing to establish financial penalties for parliamentarians’ bad behaviour does not cover behaviour in the chambers themselves.
This idea that robust debate excuses the behaviour in the chamber is absolute rubbish, and it’s the excuse that’s been used for far too long by far too many MPs that have been in this place for too long to justify poor conduct,” Steggall said at a joint news conference with the other MPs. “... I think the US system has its failings, but maybe the idea that there are limits on terms, at the very least, is interesting. I think it allows turnover of ideas.”
Scamps said she regularly warns schoolchildren visiting Parliament House that the behaviour they will see in the chamber is not an example of how they should treat others. She said:
Not only do we need a Stop It At The Start campaign, we need a ‘stop it at the top’ campaign.
It’s the leaders that need to be role modelling the correct behaviour, and it starts with respect.
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Shorten to give NDIS update
Bill Shorten has announced he will be delivering an update on the NDIS legislation at 11.15am.
There has been growing unease and hostility within the community over the changes to the NDIS the legislation sets out. Shorten had hoped to have the legislation through the parliament by now, but is yet to find the numbers for it in the senate.
Updated
The house has returned to the future made in Australia legislation debate, while the senate looks like it is going through the final motions of the deepfake bill.
That one will make it an offence to share deepfake porn without consent.
One child goes to hospital each day because of domestic violence, report says
Every day in Australia, on average, one child has a hospital stay related to domestic or family violence.
New data, published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on Wednesday, describes how fractures of the head are significantly more common among children attending hospital for reasons related to domestic and family violence than among children staying in hospital due to other reasons, such as falls or accidents.
Between 2010 and 2021 there were 5,024 young people aged under 18 who had at least one family or domestic violence related hospital stay.
Half (54%) were female, one-third (33%) were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people, and over one-third (37%) had their first family or domestic violence related stay before the age of five.
Parents were the most common perpetrator recorded.
Most commonly, the first family or domestic violence hospital stay occurred as a baby (before age one).
In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 and Lifeline on 13 11 14.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or family violence, call 1800-RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800RESPECT.org.au.
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Ian Leavers appointed as Queensland's cross-border commissioner
The head of the Queensland Police Union has been appointed as the state’s first cross-border commissioner.
Ian Leavers had been general president and CEO of the union since 2009 and a police officer since 1989.
Legislation creating the position of cross-border commissioner is expected to pass parliament today.
Premier Steven Miles announced this morning that the government will appoint Leavers to the role, which focuses on issues on the Queensland-New South Wales border. Miles said in parliament:
His experience on the frontline, and his collaboration with emergency services, local, state and federal governments make him an ideal candidate for this role.
I trust that Mr Leavers will help to break down barriers on the border and support our unique townships now and into the future.
The Cross Border Commissioner will have a focus on improving the experience and livability of our cross-border communities.
The Queensland police service’s First Nations advisory group called for Leavers to resign last year after an op-ed he penned last year which they criticised as “racist”.
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The division on the Greens motion calling for sanctions against Israel was completed, with a motion to adjourn the debate winning 83 to 6.
If you want to see how the MPs voted (and who voted, because not everyone came into the chamber for it) you can see the record, here.
Updated
More MPs sign letter to PM pushing for total ban on gambling ads
Paul Karp reported on the letter that independent MPs Rebekha Sharkie and Andrew Wilkie had sent to the prime minister over the proposed gambling ad cap yesterday.
More MPs are starting to sign on to it. The text of the letter reads:
We are writing to ask the Government to legislate a blanket ban on advertisements for online gambling.
While we are aware that no final decisions have been made, the reform package currently being discussed with stakeholders seems designed to prioritise broadcast media sustainability over public health concerns.
The evidence presented during the Standing Committee on Social and Policy Affairs’ inquiry shows that partial bans don’t work. We are not aware of any contrary evidence that has emerged in the past 14 months while the government has been considering its response to the committee’s report.
Australia has a proud history of prioritising public health in advertising regulation, with the banning of tobacco advertising serving as a useful precedent.
We recognise that broadcast media face financial challenges and we would welcome a broader discussion about how to ensure ongoing media diversity in Australia. But falling short of a blanket ban on online gambling ads because of the potential impact on broadcast media sustainability commits us to a trade-off that Australians are unlikely to support.
We ask that you proceed with the recommended blanket ban on ads for online gambling and deal with the important question of broadcast media separately and transparently.
Updated
The house is almost empty, but a division is called after Wallace’s speech.
No government MPs spoke on it, before the Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite moved that the debate be adjourned.
Updated
Coalition’s Andrew Wallace: ‘Where were the Greens on October 7?’
The Coalition’s Andrew Wallace says the party stands “strongly” against the motion, asking: “Where were the Greens on October 7?”
Where were the Greens when 1,200 innocent Israelis were killed? Now, where were those Greens? Have the Greens, any members of the Greens, been to Israel? Have they been to see the sights of the atrocities? Have they bothered to watch the 43 minute video? Have they bothered to do that? You don’t have to go to Israel. Have you seen it? Have you seen the 43 minute video? Because if you haven’t, I encourage you to do it.
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Greens call for sanctions against Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu
This is what the Greens are asking the house to do:
Sanction the State of Israel and members of the extremist Netanyahu Government, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich; and
b. End two way arms trade with the State of Israel including the F35 parts manufactured in Australia and used in the State of Israel’s fighter jets.
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Bandt says ‘people want action’ not ‘hand-wringing words’ on Gaza
The Greens leader Adam Bandt is seconding the motion on Gaza:
Action, action. That’s what people want from their government when we witness a genocide and starvation and destruction of people’s lives and the re-emergence of polio and a court saying that the state of Israel is committing the crime of apartheid.
People want their own government to take action. Enough of the hand-wringing words. Enough of the pleas and the supposed red lines that the extremist government of Benjamin Netanyahu then crosses every time without consequences.
People want action.
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Chandler-Mather seethes over Gaza: ‘How many times do we have to follow slavishly into a war backed by the US?'
The Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has moved to suspend standing orders in the house to debate Australia’s reaction to Gaza.
Chandler-Mather:
When will this country learn, and this government learn, whether it be Labor or Liberal – by the way, the Liberal party never reckoned, never reckoned with their disastrous invasion of Iraq. What is it, Iraq, Afghanistan?
How many times do we have to follow slavishly into a war backed by the United States? And look at the consequences, the millions dead, and the reality is that it makes the world less safe.
The US invasion of Afghanistan was apparently to get rid of the Taliban, and what do we end up with? After 20 years and hundreds of billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of deaths and the Taliban, they’re still there!
And what happened when Australia backed the invasion of Iraq which some estimates said led to a million dead, a million dead – what did we end up with? ISIS. Good on you guys. You worked it out. It worked out real well. Great stuff.
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‘It’s a debacle, quite frankly’: Sussan Ley on NSW Liberal party blunder
Sussan Ley was asked about the firestorm around the New South Wales Liberal president Don Harwin after the NSW branch failed to nominate candidates (and incumbents) at the upcoming NSW local elections.
The party had been considering legal action against the electoral commission but announced yesterday it would not be moving forward with any action.
Asked if Harwin should go, Ley said:
Everything that I am doing, and representing, in this area, as someone who sits on both the NSW state executive and the cederal Executive, is about winning the next federal election. That is my total focus.
The party and its organisation will go through processes. I’m devastated for the candidates who missed out because their nominations weren’t lodged, and for the people in those local government areas who can’t vote for a Liberal.
And it’s a debacle, quite frankly. But my focus 100% is on what we need to do to win the next election, and what we need to do in New South Wales to win the next election.
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Social housing is the only solution to housing crisis, report says
The national campaign focused on addressing the nation’s housing crisis, Everybody’s Home, has released it’s final People’s Commission report.
The report, which takes in the experience of more than 1,500 submissions and 100 organisations, details some of the issues with the housing crisis and how it is having wider ramifications.
As AAP reports:
The Australian government must invest in social housing if it wants to solve the housing crisis, an advocacy group says.
To solve the crisis, the report recommends the government create 750,000 social homes within two decades, abolish investor tax concessions and deliver housing justice for Indigenous peoples.
The report’s commissioner and former Labor senator Doug Cameron urged housing minister Clare O’Neil and the Albanese government to take the findings seriously.
“I applaud the fact that the new housing minister expresses enthusiasm to tackle the housing crisis,” he said in a statement.
“However, it’s troubling that failed ‘market solutions’ continue to take precedence over increased funding for social housing.”
Other recommendations include investing in crisis housing services and raising the rate of working age payments and formally recognising housing as a human right.
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The debate moves to the federation chamber.
We will hear more on that issue later today when domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner Micaela Cronin tables her inaugural report on the national plan to end violence against women and children.
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Sussan Ley:
We have seen strides that have taken us forward and promoted gender equality and respect for relationships in closing the gender pay gap.
These initiatives are at risk.
We risk a regression as social media influencers peddle misogyny for likes and promote gender stereotyping for followers.
We risk a regression as social media companies profit off algorithms that are conditioning our kids with toxic views, we risk a regression as violent pornography and concerning practices like choking are normalised and damaging the brains of our next generation.
We risk a regression as the stress of economic strain is generating new cycles of domestic violence, and new forms of abuse. And we know that the economic pain will continue with difficult days to continue.
‘These women had dreams’: Sussan Ley vows to work with Labor on stopping violence against women
The domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner Micaela Cronin will address the National Press Club on this issue later today.
Justine Elliot’s statement was delivered ahead of that address.
The deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley says she will be there and stands ready to work with the government on addressing the issue.
Elliot, and Ley, have both made a point of reading the names of the women who have been killed by violence aloud in the parliament.
Ley:
These women had dreams. They had hopes and aspirations for their lives. They had friends. They were sisters and mothers. They were loved by so many in our communities who we have watched. These are devastating statistics, and each one was a life lost, leaving a hole in the lives of their families, their friends, their communities and our nation.
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Elliot says attitudes on gender-based violence are improving but we ‘have to do more’
Justine Elliot continues:
I’ve heard of the countless ways in which perpetrators inflict their violence on women they say they love.
With many perpetrators, their violence may not be physical, but it is planned, orchestrated and in every sense, malicious.
The problem of violence against women and children is complex.
And in a year where too many women have been killed by violent men, it’s difficult to reconcile that there has been progress towards ending this national crisis.
But when we look at the long-term picture, we can see significant improvements in community attitudes that reject and challenge this violence. More men and women stand with us today than ever before.
I am proud to be part of a government that is taking action on this issue.
The Albanese Labor government is absolutely committed to achieving our shared vision of ending violence against women and children in one generation.
We’re taking action today, here and now.
All of us have to do more – all of us must do better.
Together we can, we must and we will.
The time is now.
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‘For too many women, home is the most dangerous place’
The assistant minister for the prevention of family violence, Justine Elliot is making a ‘statement on a significant matter’ in the house.
It is on gender-based violence.
Elliot:
Growing up, so many young girls and women have always had to think and act differently.
It may mean walking on the other side of the street, so you avoid walking past someone bigger than you.
If you’re on the bus, it may mean turning the volume down on your music so you can hear behind you.
You may decide to leave work before it gets dark or catch a taxi or ride-share – making sure you let someone know – just in case.
And when you get home, you look behind you before opening the door, which you then promptly lock.
For some women, Mr Speaker, once they get home and lock the door, they still aren’t safe.
For too many women, home is the most dangerous place.
You see Mr Speaker; the life of a woman is different.
We’ve had to see, think and act differently throughout our entire lives - out of fear of violence.
Fear of violence should not be a normal nor accepted part of womanhood.
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The parliament will sit from 9am this morning.
We’ll take you into the house shortly after the prayers for the opening gambit.
When will the Coalition reveal cost of nuclear plan? ‘In good time’
Late yesterday, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor spoke to 2GB, where he was asked about the Coalition’s nuclear plan (remember that?).
Q: So when will we know how much your plan will cost?
Taylor:
Well, I’ve already answered that question – in good time.
Q: In good time’s not an answer though, Angus!
Taylor:
Well, it is. It’ll be before the election, I can assure you of that.
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Labor says 150 ‘ghost’ training providers shut down
The minister for skills and training, Andrew Giles says 150 “ghost” colleges have been shut down.
A ghost college is a registered training provider who has failed to show proof of delivering training for at least a year.
An additional 140 vocational training providers have been given warnings – they must resume “quality training” by the end of the year or will face de-registration.
Giles:
We’ve weeded out and shut down over 150 dormant operators, and 140 more have been given a yellow card.
Under our government, there is no place for anyone who seeks to undermine the sector and exploit students.
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National Farmers’ Federation says farmer confidence has fallen in ‘concerning’ survey
The National Farmers’ Federation is holding its leaders’ summit in Canberra today, where it will release the findings from a survey of 1,000 farmers across the nation. The survey looks at confidence, mood – basically the vibe around issues and policies over the last year.
In some forward sizzle, the NFF says this year’s results are “concerning” with farmer confidence in the Albanese government’s falling 39% compared to the same time last year.
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Coalition to introduce bill to ban Cbus Super from receiving money from housing fund
The Coalition will be introducing a private members’ bill today to ban the union-linked Cbus Super Fund from receiving any funds from the housing Australia future fund (Haff).
The Liberal senator Andrew Bragg said the bill would stop the Haff from “making any payments to Cbus or housing related entities financed by Cbus” for the time the CFMEU remains under administration.
The Coalition reaffirms our strong opposition to Labor’s Haff. However, we believe taxpayer funds should not be exposed to criminal elements.
If Labor is serious about stamping out corruption and protecting taxpayer funds, they will support our Bill.
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A little later this morning, the independent MP Kylea Tink will host a press conference with Zoe Daniel, Zali Steggall and Sophie Scamps to talk about the “increasingly condescending, aggressive, and often misogynistic conduct by Coalition members during parliamentary sittings”.
That follows this story from Sarah Basford Canales:
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‘I want to look at it closely’: Sussan Ley on MP code of conduct legislation
The Liberal party’s deputy leader Sussan Ley was asked about the new IPSC legislation this morning and said she was yet to see it:
I’ve been part of the parliamentary leadership taskforce that has been tasked with implementing recommendations from the Jenkins Review. It’s been important work.
We’ve established the parliamentary workplace support scheme. I want to give a shout out to that scheme. It’s operating in the building right now for everyone in the building 24/7, and it’s a place you can go for help now. That’s incredibly important, and it’s been incredibly well done as a result of cross-party work.
I haven’t seen this legislation. I want to look at it closely. I know that my party room will do the same thing. So we will examine it, and we will see what our response is at that time.
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Larissa Waters welcomes MP standards commission
The Greens’ spokesperson for women, Larissa Waters, has welcomed the introduction of a long-awaited workplace behaviour enforcement body.
This morning, Katy Gallagher unveiled the proposed model for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission.
Waters said it had been “a long time coming” to stop Parliament House from being a “national shame”.
She continued:
Both houses of parliament have now endorsed codes of conduct for behaviour, but without an independent body to investigate breaches, those codes have been unenforceable.
I am pleased there will now finally be a process to hold MPs accountable for bad behaviour, who have been unsanctionable for far too long.
This workplace needs to set the standard rather than be a national shame. We hope that having the codes of conduct enforceable through the IPSC will discourage misconduct, and keep staff and everyone in parliamentary workplaces safe.
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On the issue of the government’s proposed gambling ads cap (rather than a blanket ban), Katy Gallagher says:
Michelle Rowland’s leading that work, working with stakeholders. She’s done a huge amount of work to already impose new rules and regulations around gambling and advertising, and support for gamblers, I should say, through BetStop. So there’s more work to be done. We’re mindful of everyone’s views as we undertake the final decisions around this.
There’s no shortage of opinions on right across the board, and we’ll make the decision based on the work that Michelle Rowland has done, and also evidence based and how to protect children. That’s front of our minds as we’re finalising our decisions.
Gallagher said Labor has its processes for considering conscience votes.
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Labor hopes to have MP standards commission up and running in October
Katy Gallagher says there is no deal done to pass the legislation as yet, but she does not anticipate too much trouble, given the process to get to this point:
We’ve worked very closely with the opposition, as we have with other members of parliament.
We’ve addressed concerns where they have arisen, and we’ve been, you know, obviously the shaping of the legislation has been informed by those consultations, but they need to take it through their processes.
We’re introducing it today, and then we’ll have some time when the parliament’s not sitting to continue to talk with people, but hopefully we’ll be able to pass this legislation in September, and have it operational in October.
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Katy Gallagher said she believes the privileges committees (each chamber has its own) is the right place for the reports from the standards commission:
These committees are often members of very senior members of respected political parties. They deal with difficult matters all the time, and they haven’t traditionally operated in a partisan way at all.
So we believe the privileges committee is the right place for such a senior body to consider a report from the IPSC, and then they will have to make a decision on that and report to the parliament.
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Misbehaving MPs face fines under new standards commission, Gallagher says
The minister for women, Katy Gallagher is speaking to ABC radio RN Breakfast about the IPSC (the Independent Parliamentary Standards Committee). The legislation for the new body will be introduced today.
Gallagher says:
The way it would work is that we have a body called the parliamentary workplace support service. If someone has a complaint, they work in this building, they can or or in other commonwealth parliamentary workplaces, I should say, because they are around the country, they can make a complaint.
If that goes to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission, they can review that complaint, investigate that complaint, if it’s about a member of parliament and it’s a serious complaint that would warrant sanctions of that order … like suspension or a fine or losing your spot on a committee [it would report to the privileges committee] and they would be the ones that would consider appropriate sanctions.
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Thorpe, Pocock and Daniel back funding campaign for community legal centres
Independent senators Lidia Thorpe, David Pocock and the independent MP Zoe Daniel are supporting the campaign that community legal centres have launched for adequate funding.
Representatives from more than 160 community legal centres are launching the national campaign, calling for their services to be funded. At the moment, about 1,000 people a day are turned away.
The three demands are:
Immediate funding injection of $35m to address the workforce crisis, as recommended by the Independent Review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership
Additional $135m each year to sustainably address overall community demand
Additional $95m each year to fully meet domestic and family violence demand
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Sharkie on code of conduct for MPs: ‘We need to be our best selves’
But Rebekha Sharkie does think that a code of conduct for MPs is long overdue.
The government will introduce legislation today which includes penalties for MPs and parliament house staff who have been found to have committed wrong doing (just like any other workplace).
Sharkie:
It absolutely is. Many would remember Cathy McGowan taking a code of conduct to the parliament and I supported her many years ago when she was the member for Indi with this. And she said at the time we need to be our best selves.
Look, I think it’s a great idea. Obviously I want to see the legislation and make sure that it’s not going to be used politicised and used as a weapon but I think most places of work have a code of conduct that all employees adhere to. I don’t think the parliament should be any different.
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The ABC raises this story from Sarah Basford Canales and asks Rebekha Sharkie whether she has experienced anything like what some of her crossbench colleagues have described.
Sharkie says no:
I don’t feel that I’m affected by that at all. I have a good relationship with, I think, most members across the parliament and when I ask a question it’s pretty quiet in the chamber. I wouldn’t say it always is. But it’s not always quiet in the chamber for any person asking a question.
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Gambling ads ‘an issue of morality’: Sharkie
As Paul Karp reported yesterday, the independent MP Rebekha Sharkie is one of the MPs pushing for the major parties to be allowed a conscience vote on the forthcoming Labor gambling legislation.
Why?
She told the ABC this morning:
The Murphy report called for a full ban. That’s the expectation of many members of parliament, both the opposition and government said and the crossbench, but many have said to me that they’re wrestling with their conscience on the idea that there would only be a partial ban and many people see this issue closely tied to their faith, an issue of morality.
So it would appear to me and also to Andrew Wilkie that, you know, a straightforward position would be to allow a conscience vote and in my time in the Parliament, we’ve had four conscience votes. I think it would naturally fit for the parameters an issue that sits within their soul.
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Australian Medical Association urges full ban on gambling ads
The Australian Medical Association has joined the increasingly loud voices urging the government to follow through with a full ban on gambling ads.
The AMA president, Prof Steve Robson, said reports of a partial ban, with caps, was “extremely disappointing”.
Anything less than a comprehensive ban on online gambling advertising will do nothing to protect Australians falling into the grips of gambling addiction,” Robson said.
If you give these betting companies any kind of wriggle room with advertisements, they will exploit it. We saw this with the vaping industry, and similar scenes are now playing out with gambling.
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Good morning
A very big thank you to Martin for starting us off today on this busy morning.
You have Amy Remeikis with you now for most of the day.
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Why Dutton wants to close the door to Gazan refugees – Full Story podcast
Just three days after Asio chief Mike Burgess asked politicians to watch their words about the Middle East, Peter Dutton escalated his rhetoric against Palestinians fleeing Gaza.
Political editor Karen Middleton and community affairs reporter Mostafa Rachwani tell Tamsin Rose about the political calculations behind the opposition leader’s latest line of attack.
You can listen here:
What are the facts about the Gaza refugees?
The opposition has ratcheted up its criticism of the government’s approach to Palestinians seeking to come to Australia from the Gaza war zone.
Yesterday, Coalition senator James Paterson said the Albanese government had to “urgently explain” its position. He claimed allies including Five Eyes members the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand had taken “a much more cautious approach”, accepting “only a fraction” of Australia’s intake.
But what are the facts about the Gaza refugees? Kate Lyons has prepreared this explainer to get to the bottom of it.
Green light for 'biggest ever renewable project'
The Albanese government has given the green light to the first stages of “Australia’s biggest renewable energy project ever” – Sun Cable’s Australia-Asia Power Link in the Northern Territory outback.
Announced more than six years ago, Sun Cable’s $30bn-plus development is one of the world’s most ambitious renewable energy proposals. The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said the government had approved the construction of 4-gigawatts of solar farm on a former pastoral station between Elliot and Tennant Creek, an 800km transmission line to Darwin and an underwater cable to the edge of Australia’s commonwealth waters.
She said the approved project would enable a green manufacturing sector, produce electricity for the NT capital and allow potential export to Singapore via what the company says would be 4,300km of subsea cables.
In a statement late on Tuesday, Plibersek said the approval comes with strict conditions to protect nature, including avoiding the greater bilby and critical habitat for wildlife.
This massive project is a generation-defining piece of infrastructure. It will be the largest solar precinct in the world, and heralds Australia as the world leader in green energy.
Sun Cable Australia’s managing director, Cameron Garnsworthy, said it was a “landmark moment in the project’s journey”. He said the company aimed to make a final investment decision by 2027.
SunCable went into voluntary administration in early 2023 after the billionaire investors Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest fell out over its direction. A consortium led by Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures and including Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners eventually took on the company’s assets.
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How the Independent Parliamentary Standards Body will work
In documents seen by Guardian Australia, complaints made to the new body will be assessed by a single commissioner to determine whether an investigation should commence.
For politicians, three commissioners would then decide on whether the breach occurred and could impose mandatory training, a behaviour agreement or other sanctions, such as fines.
Serious misconduct could be referred to the privileges committee for further consideration.
For staffers accused of misconduct, a single commissioner would investigate the matter and make a recommendation to their boss.
The body will be given information-gathering powers and those found to have breached the codes will have the option of an internal review.
The IPSC will not be able to investigate anonymous complaints.
The investigative body will also be able to consider allegations made against others working in Parliament House, including privately employed staff, such as journalists and contractors.
If misconduct is found to have occurred, the body could make recommendations to their employer or to the presiding officers to remove or restrict their access to Parliament House.
We’ll update you further once we learn more.
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Labor to release model for body to enforce parliamentary behaviour standards and codes
The Albanese government will today release its long-awaited model for a body with the power to sanction misbehaving federal politicians.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Body (IPSC) will enforce behaviour standards and codes applying to all federal politicians and staffers, adopted by parliament in February 2023 following the recommendations in the landmark Set the Standard report.
The body, however, will not be able to investigate any comments made under parliamentary privilege meaning any wars of words between politicians in the chamber, such as those during question time, would most likely be exempt.
The bill itself will amend the interim Parliamentary Workplace Support Service, a HR-like body for staffers and politicians made permanent last year.
A cross-parliamentary group, known as the Parliamentary Leadership Taskforce, has been negotiating the details of the body since early 2022. The federal government had envisioned the standards body’s doors would be opened by 1 October 2024 after a number of delays but it will still need to pass both houses and avoid being referred to a committee for further inquiry.
The behaviour and standards codes the IPSC will be tasked with enforcing include a commitment to treating all with “integrity, dignity, safety and mutual respect” and a total ban on bullying and harassment, sexual harassment and assault, and discrimination in all forms.
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Greens demand coalmine ban in FMIA negotiations
The Greens have urged the Albanese government to negotiate in “good faith” over its $22.7bn ambitions to make Australia a renewable energy superpower.
Labor’s policy, known as Future Made in Australia (FMIA), is the county’s answer to the US’s inflation reduction act, with most of funding offered as subsidies to renewable industry to power the transition to net zero emissions by 2050.
The Greens, who are in the balance of power in the Senate, have the following demands:
No new coal and gas mines as part of FMIA funding.
Redirect $1.5bn for the Middle Arm project to clean energy.
Guarantees on public ownership and investment on any returns.
Domestic critical minerals reserves and processing requirements.
Prioritising First Nations economic justice and sovereignty in project and funding
The Greens’ leader, Adam Bandt, said:
Public ownership and reservation of critical resources will help avoid the mistakes of the previous mining and gas booms.
We are ready to negotiate with the government in good faith over these bills, but Labor needs to be ready to shift as well. Labor must drop its insistence on opening more coal and gas mines and letting big corporations export our wealth and jobs overseas while leaving Australia to face claims of shortages.”
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer and these are some of the top stories this morning.
Teal MPs have called time on poor question time behaviour, claiming performances by the opposition during recent sitting weeks have been “condescending”, “aggressive” and “often misogynistic”. Data shows Coalition MPs are far and away more likely to be ejected from the chamber. It follows Peter Dutton’s challenge to the government’s visa approval process and some incendiary scenes in parliament, but what are the facts about Gaza refugees?
The NSW Liberals have decided not to take legal action against the state’s electoral commission over the party’s council election bungle, but the party could face a legal battle with candidates furious at being unable to run. The NSW Liberal party has been in crisis mode since it failed to submit nomination forms for one-in-three endorsed candidates for upcoming local government elections. It sought legal counsel about a possible lawsuit against the electoral commission but have thought better of it.
And we also have news that the Albanese government has given the green light to the first stages of “Australia’s biggest renewable energy project ever” – Sun Cable’s Australia-Asia Power Link in the Northern Territory outback. Full post coming up.
