What we learned: Thursday, 27 October
With that, we will wrap the blog for the evening. Enjoy your night, we’ll be back first thing tomorrow for all the latest.
Here were the major developments of the day:
Opposition leader Peter Dutton delivered his budget reply speech, calling Labor’s budget a “missed opportunity” while acknowledging with a small olive branch the role of the opposition wasn’t to “oppose everything”.
The family and domestic violence leave bill has passed the parliament. Workers will now be able to access 10 days of paid leave if they are in a family or domestic violence situation.
The Speaker of the house, Milton Dick, ruled that the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was not disrespectful in his answer during question time further to criticisms raised by Michelle Landry and other female Coalition MPs. Landry says Albanese called her after question time to apologise for upsetting her and said his comments were directed at Dutton, not her.
Tony Burke has called on parliament to legislate Labor’s industrial relations bill for “secure jobs and better pay”. The Greens want it to have greater focus on women and casual workers.
The Reserve Bank has reported a huge accounting loss for the 2021-22 year as it adjusted the value of the humongous bond holdings it snapped up during the Covid pandemic.
And the latest people caught up in the Medibank cyber-attack are 4,400 patients in South Australia who had hospital care provided in the home as part of the My Home Hospital program.
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And there we have it. Mike Bowers was there, and captured a moment prior to the speech when former PM Scott Morrison shook hands with Dutton.
As opposition, Coalition ‘will stand against Labor’s broken promises’
He concludes his speech with a shoutout to infrastructure investment, and the Coalition’s $120bn in funding for infrastructure over the next 10 years.
In contrast, this government’s first budget axed $2.8bn of infrastructure projects and further delayed $6.5bn worth of projects. Mr Speaker, we will work to restore that funding in government.
He digs in at Labor for the $2.2bn commitment to a Suburban Rail Loop in Victoria to “Daniel Andrews to help with his re-election”, which he says is a blow to regional Victorians.
We will work with farmers as they face difficult struggles because there was nothing for them in this budget. Labor’s intent to reduce methane emissions by 30% will drive up the cost of meat at the supermarket. It’s not only bad for farmers, but it’s just added to your grocery basket [if you eat meat].
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, Australians will recall that, prior to the election, prime minister Anthony Albanese promised that he would be a leader who wouldn’t run from responsibility. He promised to lead a government that steps up, does its job, and doesn’t always blame someone else. For all their moral posturing and for all their promises, Labor shows, time and again, that their rhetoric in opposition never matches their actions in government. You are never better off when Labor has its hands on the budget. As opposition, we will stand against Labor’s broken promises. We will have a clearly defined, positive and bold plan ahead of the next election to take our country forward. We will support hardworking Australians. We will support all Australians. And we will rebuild a stronger economy for your family and for our country. Thank you very much.
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Dutton also echoes the support in funding for Ukraine – a “devastating reminder” we shouldn’t take for granted peace since world war two.
He says the funding is a “signal of our values” and the Coalition will “stand shoulder to shoulder” to provide more support, including announcements made today.
The threat of conflict as we know in our own region is real. As many military leaders have warned, we have to be realistic about the increasing prospect of conflict.
He says the AUKUS deal will give Australia the “best chance of peace” by collaborating with our “two most important allies”.
I take this opportunity to thank the wonderful members of the ADF, along with first responders, local councillors, community leaders, volunteers, and many more for their efforts in supporting Australians and communities affected by the recent floods. In government, we invested a record amount in our veterans. I thank the government for continuing that investment. The number of veteran suicides in our country remains far, far too high. It is a national tragedy. And the Coalition strongly supports the government’s commitment to expand the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme.
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Coalition supports Labor’s funding to end domestic violence
Dutton praises Labor’s funding in the budget for ending domestic violence.
We are all here in parliament to improve lives of Australians, especially children.
He says his experience as a police officer particularly embedded this view.
I saw the best and worst in society has to offer. I attended countless domestic violence incidents … the Coalition will invest significantly in these family support services and also to protect women and children from sexual assault.
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On to jobs. Dutton says Labor has “no plan” to save predicted job losses in the coming four years.
Across the economy employers are crying out for workers – in June, the Coalition announced a policy to double the age and veteran service pension from $300 to $600 per fortnight … to allow older Australians and veterans to work more if they choose to do so without losing their pension payments … Labor’s policy is about 25% less than the Coalition’s proposal, and right now, we need more incentive in the system to get people more into work.
He says Labor’s budget will “empower unions” and be a “throwback to the 1980s”.
Labor’s changes will impose industry-wide one size fits all conditions … the last time they used strikes to pursue sector wide ultimatums, was in 1982. And in that year, unemployment reached 9.4%, inflation 12.4% and 2m working days were lost in industrial disputation.
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Labor housing promise a ‘Kevin Rudd design’ with no detail
Dutton says the Coalition would help first home buyers to access their super for the “super homebuyer support” plan, announced during the election campaign.
Currently, a superfund can be used to buy residential or commercial rental property, to buy shares or even livestock … except a home to live in … with $100,000 from super, the first home buyers wouldn’t have been able to afford their home. With access to super, they have a home to live in. If the house was sold after a decade, the $100,000 will be worth around $214,000. And if that was reinvested back, as would require, the couple would end up with a balance from that amount in the super when they retire of over $1 million.
Under the Coalition government, we will extend the same option to women … with very few housing options and those who are increasingly left homeless. The Coalition has a strong record when it comes to getting first-time buyers and second parent families into their first homes. We support initiatives to increase the supply of housing but the government initiative has no detail. The Labor government has promised 1m additional homes in five years costing $10bn. Now, does anyone believe that? It’s a Kevin Rudd design.
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Dutton turns to family. He says his teenage boys are in their exams period in Brisbane and his wife is there “making sure they are studying and not watching television”.
But I wanted to mention my parents, they are both unwell, unable to travel down but my dad was a bricklayer, my mum was a secretary … my parents had a very strong work ethic, the taught us to appreciate the value of money. We had a lot of support and love and not much money. It was a time when Labor was residing with high interest rates and unemployment. And it was a terrible time for the building industry. I was encouraged to get a part-time job as many kids in my generation [were] … From grade seven, I worked in a butcher shop after school and on Saturday mornings, scrubbing floors and washing up and serving on the counter. It was tough work but it was character building and gave me an appreciation for many different perspectives. I saved like crazy, one of my proudest achievements was buying my first home. It was nothing flashy and less than $90,000 from memory but it was mine. And today it is much higher.
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Dutton accuses Labor of planning to scrap stage-three tax cuts
Back to tax. Dutton says “cost-of-living relief is interconnected with tax relief”.
In a bit of a Thatcher throwback:
You should keep more of what you own, hard-working Australia should be rewarded and the best reward is lower taxes.
He touts the stage three-tax cuts, which will “lower tax for more than 10 million Australians” and “simplify our tax system”.
Our plan means that the top 5% of income earners will pay 33% more income tax, you can work hard, take an extra shift or get a pay rise … without suddenly being pushed into a high tax bracket. Stage-three tax relief comes into effect on July of 2024 and … after interest rate rises, that’s when our economy will need it most. That’s when Australians especially deserve it.
He says Labor has “laid the groundwork” to break their commitment to the tax cuts.
The budget is intended to soften up Australia, gives the government time, with more excuses by May of next year, to tax more.
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Australia must follow US, UK and others on nuclear energy
Now Dutton turns to nuclear energy.
He says Labor is “misleading Australians” when it says it can “run out billions of dollars worth of transmission wires, cables and towers for renewable energies in just the next few years”.
Regional communities … will be carpeted with up to 28,000km of new high-voltage transmission lines. Almost the entire coastline of mainland Australia or the distance of travelling from Melbourne to Perth four times. Every dollar spent will be paid for by consumers through higher electricity bills.
He says Canada, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK and the US are all investing in “next-generation zero emissions nuclear small modular reactors to shore up energy security” and reach targets.
The imperative to create affordable, reliable and emission free energy by the Coalition is seeking an intelligent conversation on the role of these new-age nuclear technologies.
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Investing in renewables is ‘crucial’ but Labor is phasing out fossil fuels too soon, Dutton says
Dutton says investing in renewable energy and reducing emissions to protect the environment is “crucial” – quite a change of pace from the bring a bit of coal to work days.
“We want a sustainable and sensible pathway to reduce our emissions,” he says, but “the technology does not exist” at the scale currently needed to rely on renewable energy at night or during peak periods.
It is just the scientific reality. [We need to] use coal and gas, hydro, hydrogen, nuclear or battery as the energy source … when renewables are not fitting the system but Labor is going to phase out coal and gas before the new technology is being rolled out.
In this budget the government makes it harder for more gas supply at a time when we need it most. On Tuesday night we saw the government rip up funding for gas exploration and cancel gas infrastructure projects which will eliminate shortfalls and make your bills cheaper. They handed over funding to environmental activists who want to overturn gas project approvals … a push for 82% renewables comes without a plan.
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Dutton continues to languish in the past for awhile. He says Australia “emerged as the envy of most nations” from Covid-19 in terms of its economic position.
When you hear Labor carry on about a wasted decade, it is a distraction from the fact this government has no economic plan. And Labor will continue to misrepresent the truth until the next election to mask their bad decisions, most notably upon energy policy.
He says six months ago the prime minister promised electricity bills would go down under his government, by $275.
In this budget, instead of going down as promised, Labor’s plan was the electricity bills go up by more than 56% over the next two years [this wasn’t their plan as much as modelling].
Not only that, of course, but your gas bill will go up by more than 44%. Pensioners cannot afford that level of increase, and not just pensioners, self-funded retirees, families and small businesses as well, in fact, most Australians. In Europe we are hearing about people having to choose between paying their power bills or putting food on the table. Between heating or eating, this winter. Their electricity and gas bills are spiralling out of control … and despite those warnings and lessons, this government is following in the footsteps.
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Dutton: ‘We did not get everything right … but we kept the nation afloat’
Dutton lays out the Coalition’s priorities and where he says the budget has failed – energy policy, tax relief, housing, job shortages, industrial relations and infrastructure in the regions.
He says the budget shows “yet again” that Labor “cannot manage the economy when it forms government” – a line that has been repeated by the Coalition for decades.
Dutton contends there’s a “historical pattern” of Labor “creating a mess and the Coalition cleaning it up”, pointing to Howard after Keating, Abbott after Rudd/Gillard and the “back in black” 2019 budget … prior to Covid-19, and the biggest economic downturn since the great depression.
It was only due to our economic management over the seven years prior to the pandemic that we were in a strong position to implement a suite of support measures. With 2020 hindsight we did not get everything right and some of the state lockdowns went on for far too long … but under our policies, we kept the nation afloat.
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Dutton says the prime minister has “broken his faith” with the public by admissions in the budget papers that by Christmas, a typical family would be $2,000 worse off.
He admits this is amid war in Ukraine and surging power prices globally.
Under the Labor budget, electricity prices are set to rise by more than 56% and gas prices by more than 44%. And we note that at these difficult times, nations around the world are contending with economic challenges born from the pandemic and amplified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but thanks to the Coalition … the fundamentals of the Australian economy are strong.
Cost of living is going up partly due to global conditions but also due to this Labor government’s decision. The treasurer said this government makes hard decisions for hard times but I say it makes … hard times even harder for all Australians.
Whether you are young, raising a family or retired, whether you’re an employee or running a business, on Tuesday, the treasurer failed to mention in his speech what Labor’s paper revealed, everything is going up except your wages. Cost of living, power prices, taxes, interest rates, unemployment and the deficit are going up or will be going up under the government’s predictions … you have every right to be anxious and disappointed.
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Coalition does not oppose everything in the budget
Dutton says the Coalition doesn’t oppose everything in the budget, nor is that the job of the opposition.
He says the Coalition supports the childcare subsidy, investment into medicine, combatting domestic violence and funding towards flood recover.
We do not disagree with everything in this budget and policy must be judged on its merits – if it is good for you, we will support it … there were several good measures in the budget. The extension of the childcare subsidy to more Australian families, the commitment to reduce the price of medicine. The initiative to combat domestic violence and the funding to help Australians recover from devastating floods.
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Labor budget ‘weakens Australia’s financial position’, Dutton says
Dutton says the budget didn’t address economic challenges Australians are facing to “inspire confidence”.
It is a budget that weakens Australia’s financial position rather than strengthens it and it adds to rather than alleviates cost of living pressures.
Then he’s straight to anecdotes.
“Kel” runs a multigenerational IGA supermarket in Queensland.
He negotiated a commercial and industrial energy contract when the Coalition was in government and power prices were much lower than they are now. Today, his business is threatened as he faces an increase of $160,000 on the power bill from last year alone. The energy costs will go up further.
A friendly reminder the Coalition were in government until the end of May.
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Opposition leader Peter Dutton responds to Labor federal budget
Opposition leader Peter Dutton is up.
He starts his speech praising the nation, calling the budget a “missed opportunity” to help Australians at a time of uncertainty.
We live in the best country in the world but for millions of Australians things are not easy now, [we are] facing increasing financial pressures, mortgage repayments, insurance premiums, visits to the supermarket, filling up at the petrol station. Cost of living is skyrocketing and may soon be out of control yet it can be kept in check. But not while this Labor government makes bad economic decisions.
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A reminder, we will be hearing from the leader of the opposition Peter Dutton at 7.30 tonight as he gives his budget reply. We’ll keep the live blog open for the duration of the speech.
Landry says not the first time Albanese has ‘treated me with disrespect’
Michelle Landry has issued a statement following criticisms regarding the conduct of the prime minister during Question Time today.
Speaker of the house and Labor MP, Milton Dick, has ruled that Anthony Albanese was not disrespectful in an answer to Landry this afternoon, saying he was directly responding to interjections from the leader of the opposition.
Landry sees it differently. She says she was “yelled at and screamed at” across the chamber and felt “intimidated and bullied”.
I respectfully ask the prime minister to publicly apologise to me in the House of Representatives.
Personal Statement from Member for Capricornia Michelle Landry #auspol pic.twitter.com/P6v3c46Vr3
— Political Alert (@political_alert) October 27, 2022
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Albanese speaks to new UK PM
Anthony Albanese has congratulated the UK’s new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, on his new role.
If all goes to plan in UK politics, they will hold their first bilateral meeting next month, at the G20 in India.
Had a warm discussion with @RishiSunak to congratulate him on his elevation to UK Prime Minister. We agreed to hold our first bilateral meeting next month at the G20 in Indonesia. I look forward to working together as we build on the close bonds between our nations.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) October 27, 2022
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Severe weather warning for Victoria’s southern alps
Damaging winds averaging 60 to 70 km/h with peak gusts to 100 km/h are possible over Alpine areas in Mt Baw Baw on Friday afternoon.
⚠️ A SEVERE WEATHER WARNING has been issued for DAMAGING WINDS over southern Alpine areas including #MtBawBaw on Friday afternoon as a cold front sweeps across southern #Victoria. Details: https://t.co/ShqxQ6ZvMn #VicWeather pic.twitter.com/NFMzeIbd8B
— Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria (@BOM_Vic) October 27, 2022
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Speaker rules PM was not disrespectful to Michelle Landry in question time
Further to the criticisms raised by Michelle Landry and other female Coalition MPs, the Speaker of the house, Milton Dick, has now ruled quickly that the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was not disrespectful in his answer during question time earlier.
Dick, also a Labor MP, told the house just before the chamber adjourned for the day:
I have reviewed the footage and I can confirm that the prime minister was answering the question from the member for Capricornia. During the answer, the prime minister was also directly responding to interjections from the leader of the opposition.
In reviewing the footage, I did not see the prime minister show any disrespect to the member for Capricornia. As the footage was not on the member for Capricornia for the entire response, I did not see her leave the chamber. Of the Capricornia that I was able to review, she appeared engaged in the response to the prime minister.
Landry, along with the deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, and other MPs have demanded Albanese apologise. Landry said the PM called her to say he didn’t mean to upset her. We’ve contacted Albanese’s office for response, and his side of the phone call.
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Meanwhile, Canberra’s own David Pocock has been up and about today:
Pleasure meeting with the EU Ambassador-Delegate, His Excellency Mr Gabriele Visentin. Lots of exciting opportunities for more collaboration between Australia and our European counterparts. pic.twitter.com/MUXvx0ybXS
— David Pocock (@DavidPocock) October 27, 2022
Fossil fuels 90% responsible for energy crisis – report
The Climate Council has responded to a new global report which has found fossil fuels are 90% responsible for the energy crisis.
The IEA’s 2022 World Energy Outlook, released today, found gas alone was 50% to blame for energy prices increasing.
Former Origin Energy executive Andrew Stock, now a councillor with the Climate Council, said this week’s federal budget “spelled grim news for Australians already feeling the pinch”:
The IEA report has made it abundantly clear that fossil fuels are the root cause of this problem, particularly gas, which is the most expensive form of power in Australia. This global report points to an obvious, affordable solution - a rapid transition to renewable energy. Which would be a win for households, businesses, jobs and the climate. Solar and wind are the cheapest sources of power globally, and are already outcompeting fossil fuels. The report highlights the forecast increase in total global energy demand to 2030 will be met almost entirely by renewables.
The message for Australia is clear. After a wasted decade, we are now on the right track, but have tremendous ground to make up.
The Climate Council says based on Australia’s high emissions, economic strength and untapped opportunities for renewable energy, it should be aiming to reduce its emissions to 75% below 2005 levels by 2030.
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RBA loses $40bn on domestic bond binge during Covid bailout
As expected the Reserve Bank has reported a huge accounting loss for the 2021-22 year as it adjusted the value of the humongous bond holdings it snapped up during the Covid pandemic.
The purchases of mostly federal (but some state) debt helped lower the borrowing costs for the then Morrison government (which also splurged $300bn-plus to keep the economy afloat).
All up, the RBA more than tripled the size of its balance sheet to about $650bn when its special bond purchasing program stopped. Anyway, with interest rates rising, it had to reflect the lower market value of all that debt. For the domestic bonds alone, the unrealised valuation losses were $40.3bn.
The overall accounting loss for the year was $36.7bn, a record with sunshine second. Equity also dropped to negative $12.4bn.
But as the RBA report said:
This negative equity position does not affect the Bank’s operations or its ability to operate effectively or perform its policy functions. The Board expects that the Bank’s capital will be restored over time due to positive underlying earnings and capital gains when bonds mature.
What’s the take away? Treasury should not expect any dividends from the RBA for a long time.
Also of interest, so to speak: Governor Phil Lowe’s total compensation dropped about 3.6% from the previous year, to a tad under $1.037m, or about $20,000 a week.
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Helen Haines welcomes announcement of single-site hospital for Albury-Wodonga
Member for Indi Helen Haines has welcomed the announcement that Albury Wodonga Health will be redeveloped into an expanded single-site hospital.
If you missed it earlier, the NSW and Victorian premiers fronted the media to announce a joint plan to overhaul Albury base hospital with a $558m redevelopment.
Haines said she had made the case for a new hospital to the prime minister in their first conversation after the election.
Doctors, health professionals, patients and the wider community have been campaigning for a new hospital for years and I have proudly stood beside them … this announcement is reward for our advocacy, the result of constantly fighting for our healthcare to be taken seriously by every level of government.
This re-developed single-site hospital will benefit people all over North Eastern Victoria and Southern NSW – more care will be available close to home without having to travel to Melbourne. We will no longer face situations where some services are offered at one site, and other services on the other side of the border. Patients won’t wait hours to be transferred, or for specialists to travel from one hospital to another. This will lead to better health outcomes and be safer for patients.”
Premiers promise funding for Albury hospital redevelopment, but not a new greenfield hospital. Full story @bordermail pic.twitter.com/mrWMHeW2Bv
— Victoria Ellis (@vge005) October 27, 2022
But Haines argued it still falls short of what many in the community had lobbied for and wasn’t “the end of the fight on our health care”, with more needed to improve funding in regional and rural areas.
She will be appearing in Wodonga tomorrow afternoon to hold a press conference.
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Greens call for Labor to put ‘women and carers first’ in proposed industrial relations bill
The Greens have called for Labor’s proposed changes to industrial law to put “women and carers first” and lift wages of the low paid following workplace relations minister Tony Burke’s introduction of the bill to the house today.
The party is aware its vote will be key to the industrial relations bill passing through the Senate.
Senator Barbara Pocock, Greens spokesperson for employment, said evidence from submissions before the select committee on work and care showed 5 million people were trying to balance work with caring responsibilities.
We need to move from the Hunger Games to roster justice, and decent work. That means adequate notice of shift changes, negotiation, minimum hours. Our major supermarkets can predict the kinds and quantities of apples they will buy tomorrow, but apparently can’t tell their workers what shifts they’re working.
Being unable to plan your life or see your kids is hugely stressful. Many workers withdraw from the labour market because it’s impossible to juggle taking care of the kids and keep working.
Australian workers, especially women, have waited decades for flexibility that actually works for them. They’ve waited for justice in their rosters, rosters and predictability of their working time.
Greens leader Adam Bandt said the party had argued for a long time that industrial relations in Australia was broken.
Pressure on workers has been growing for too long, wages have been too low, and people haven’t been able to bargain for better pay and conditions. Labor needs the support of the Greens to pass this bill.
The Greens want industrial relations laws that work for women, work for carers and lift the wages of the lowest paid. That’s what we’ll be looking for as we work our way through this bill.
Read about the bill here:
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Above-average rainfall forecast for eastern Australia throughout November
The Bureau of Meteorology has released its climate outlook for the November to January period.
Not great, but unsurprising news for some – rainfall is likely to remain above average for most of eastern Australia, particularly in the month of November.
La Niña, a negative Indian Ocean dipole, an expected positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode and warmer waters around Australia are contributing to the wetter conditions.
The BoM:
For the fortnight 31 October to 13 November, above median rainfall is likely for most of eastern Australia. This increases to very likely for north-east and far south-east parts of the mainland. Below median rainfall is likely for large parts of Western Australia extending into the western Northern Territory.
Maximum temperatures are likely to be warmer than median for much of north-west Australia and Tasmania. Below median temperatures are likely for southern Queensland, and most of New South Wales and Victoria.
Minimum temperatures are likely to be warmer than median for much of the northern halves of Queensland and the Northern Territory, and south-eastern Australia.
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Many thanks to Amy Remeikis for keeping us informed on a mammoth day, during a mammoth week.
We’ll be keeping the blog open a little longer tonight to catch the opposition leader’s budget reply speech.
And on that note, I will hand you over to the amazing Caitlin Cassidy who will take you through the evening.
That’s it from me until the house sits again on 7 November – which is also when we will get budget estimates. Huzzah.
In the meantime, thank you for joining me this budget week – you have all helped us get through it. Please – take care of you.
Michelle Landry speaks here:
#BREAKING: Capricornia MP Michelle Landry accuses Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of bullying her during Question Time and is demanding an apology. "I feel that I've been humiliated by him and the Labor party." #Auspol @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/05ZHWocGJL
— Naveen Razik (@naveenjrazik) October 27, 2022
PM 'humiliated' me during question time: Michelle Landry
Michelle Landry says Anthony Albanese called her after question time to apologise for upsetting her and said his comments were directed at Peter Dutton, not her.
Coalition MP Michelle Landry accused PM Anthony Albanese of having “humiliated” and “screamed” at her in Question Time today - more than a dozen female Coalition MPs in attendance say they’re “making a stand” pic.twitter.com/KBxU6fau7X
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) October 27, 2022
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Medibank reveals fresh set of customer data exposed in hack
The latest people caught up in the Medibank cyber-attack are 4,400 patients in South Australia who had hospital care provided in the home as part of the My Home Hospital program.
Medibank reported on Thursday afternoon that it had become clear overnight that the attacker had accessed patient information associated with the program that Medibank runs with Calvary on behalf of Wellbeing SA and the South Australian government.
The insurer says the data accessed includes personal information and some health data. The My Home Hospital program provides services such as doctor visits, X-rays, blood tests, medication and meals in the home.
Medibank said it has begun directly contacting the 4,400 affected patients, and that it had determined the data has been accessed, but did not know whether the data was taken from Medibank systems.
Patients admitted on or after 13 October aren’t affected, Medibank said.
Medibank has established a dedicated phone support service for My Home Hospital patients (My Home Hospital Cyber Response 1800 081 245).
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Josh Butler and Mike Bowers are at Sussan Ley and Michelle Landry’s press conference. We will bring you what they said very soon. (It is not being broadcast.)
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This was the beginning of Anthony Albanese’s answer to Michelle Landry’s question.
You can hear Peter Dutton ask “where’s Yeppen?”
Dutton interjects again "Where's Yeppen?"
— Squizz (@SquizzSTK) October 27, 2022
Albanese is forced to give Spud a geography lesson about his own state.
The LNP MP who asked the question seems to be know it's another case of #SitDownBoofhead#auspol pic.twitter.com/1UGSr7X3W3
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Sussan Ley will hold a press conference in about 15 minutes.
This is the subject line:
The Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the Member for Capricornia and Coalition women will hold a press conference in the Opposition Courtyard of Parliament House in Canberra.
Troubled air traffic management project to face increased scrutiny
A new air traffic management system has been placed on the federal government’s defence project watchlist after delays and cost blowouts.
The troubled project is called the Civil-Military Air Traffic Management System. It will replace the air traffic control systems at 12 Australian Defence Force (ADF) base locations with a new system that also covers non-military air traffic.
Under the plans, Defence and Airservices Australia aim “to harmonise Australia’s civil and military air traffic management systems”. There should be “increased cooperation and collaboration between Airservices and Defence”, according to the project summary.
But the minister for defence industry, Pat Conroy, announced this afternoon that the government had added it to Defence’s Projects of Concern list, a move that triggers increased scrutiny to try to fix problems:
The Civil-Military Air Traffic Management System project has been listed as a Project of Concern because of significant schedule, technical and cost challenges ...
The project has seen a two-year delay to forecast Initial and Final Operational Capability in the past two years.
It is my expectation that this listing brings more high-level attention, resources and energy – from both Defence and our industry partner Thales Australia – to the task of remediating this project.
It is not the first time this project has been listed as a Project of Concern. The Coalition listed it as such in August 2017, but a contract was signed the following year and was moved to the less-serious “Project of Interest” list.
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Michelle Landry leaves the chamber
Michelle Landry left the chamber after Anthony Albanese’s answer to her question.
I wasn’t in the chamber, so only saw the broadcast – and Albanese, when he was all agitated and yelling about the difference between Rockhampton (which Landry had asked about) and Yeppoon (which seemed to come as an interjection from Peter Dutton) didn’t address that part to Landry. But her position in the chamber, just to the side and back of Dutton, may have made it seemed like he was.
The rest of the answer – about how the government would fund the project the Coalition was unable to (eventually it seems, the funding has been delayed) appeared to be addressed to the opposition at large.
But at the same time, parliament seems to be the only place where yelling in the workplace is part of the culture.
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Opposition supports government’s announcement of more assistance for Ukraine
Andrew Hastie has responded to the news Australian troops will be helping to train Ukrainian troops in Europe:
The Coalition welcomes the Government’s announcement of further support to Ukraine, including an additional 30 Bushmasters to bolster efforts on the ground and the deployment of 70 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel to help train Ukrainian reservists in the UK.
For some weeks now, Ukrainian Ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko has been calling for additional assistance from Australia and we are pleased to see those calls being answered.
The ADF is among the most highly regarded armed forces in the world and we expect the 70 personnel being deployed to the UK will serve our country with distinction as they always do.
It is a critical time for the Ukrainian government and people, who have defended their country with lion-hearts. They’ve won significant battlefield victories lately, and they are counting on our support to build on their gains.
This assistance builds on the more than $285 million in military and humanitarian assistance delivered under the former Coalition government – including the original contribution of M113 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), Bushmaster vehicles, M777 towed howitzers and ammunition, as well as anti-armour weapons and other weapons.
Australia staunchly supports Ukraine’s sovereignty as we continue to call on Russia to cease their unprovoked, unjust, and illegal war.
The Opposition supports the Government identifying ongoing assistance to Ukraine and welcomes the opportunity to receive full details about this announcement in the near future.
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Question time chats as captured by Mike Bowers:
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Anthony Albanese was quite shouty today.
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And question time, finally, finally ends.
Sussan Ley wants the Speaker to review “the tone” of Anthony Albanese’s response to the question from Michelle Landry.
Ley says Landry “left the chamber in tears” and wants a review of the footage.
Milton Dick said he will review the footage and report back.
Updated
Question time is still going because this week will never end and we are all living in the worst timeline.
There won’t be the usual rush to the airport after this either, as the budget reply speech means that the MPs have to all hang around.
Updated
Anthony Albanese, from NSW, just out-Queenslanded Queenslander Peter Dutton.
Michelle Landry asked this question (she is the member for Capricornia, in Queensland).
The federal government is intending to delay $800 million of commonwealth funding to construct the Rockhampton Ring Road by at least two years. (The rest of the question is about whether Anthony Albanese is breaking his promise to the people of Capricornia.)
Anthony Albanese starts speaking about Rockhampton flood plains projects and the Yeppen lagoon, and then Peter Dutton interjects with something about Yeppoon, which is most definitely not in Rockhampton.
Albanese:
Yeppoon is a different place! Yeppoon is a different place, and you might want to ask the member for Capricornia, because Yeppoon is on the coast, north of Rockhampton and Yeppen floodplain is to the south. It’s the southern entry of the Bruce Highway into Rockhampton!
Queenslander! It says it all! It says it all!
He goes on with a bit of spring in his step about how Labor will get the project done.
Updated
Angus Taylor ejected from question time as Chris Bowen fields question on energy bills
The member for Longman, Terry Young, has a question for Chris Bowen:
I refer to an answer earlier this week on RGS, a manufacturer of my electorate that uses over 200 megawatt-hours per year [that experienced an] increase of about $40,000 in power bills. The default market offer to which the minister referred in his answer is only available to small businesses that consume 100 mega kilowatt hours. The minister did not answer my question.
I ask again, [on] the prices facing this and many other businesses … what is the government doing about it?
Bowen:
Thank you very much. I thank the honourable member for his question. My concern goes to all businesses in Queensland and across the country. It also goes to all households across Australia and their energy bills, because we want to work and we are working and we will work to ensure that our prices are as well as possible.
…
In the budget we had a choice. We could have penned the pressures on power prices, option A, that the previous government took. We could have hit that, or option B is to be upfront with the Australian people about the pressures.
That’s the option we took. That’s the option we took, we have the option of being honest to the Australian people.
And that is where Angus Taylor gets booted out, given his interjections ramp up.
Bowen:
It’s a sad outcome that the member for Hume has left us. We are concerned and upfront in relation to Queensland small businesses, small or large or medium, we should care about them all. The increase in small-business prices was 12.8%, $705 and I make no apologies appointed out of the house and the Australian people.
Paul Fletcher:
This repeated claim of hiding … the standing orders are very clear. All imputations of improper motives to a member shall be considered highly disorderly. It is clearly what this minister is repeatedly doing, and I ...
Chris Bowen:
Certainly. Thank you, Mr Speaker. The fact is … the previous minister hid the facts and he should be ashamed of himself.
Updated
Angus Taylor has been booted from the chamber under 94A.
“It’s a sad outcome that the member for Hume has left us,” Chris Bowen says.
Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus.
Updated
Amanda Rishworth takes a dixer just to remind everyone the Coalition called mothers “double dippers” on the paid parental leave payment (when they were legally taking what their work offered and topping it up with the government plan, as was intended) on Mothers’ Day.
Good times.
(Also a reminder that paid parental leave and increasing the childcare subsidy doesn’t make it a “family” budget. Your family can look any way you want it to, and it doesn’t have to involve children – and that is before we get to the people who have older children who don’t use the subsidy any longer.)
Updated
The member for Lindsay, Melissa McIntosh, seems to have practised delivering this question a few times.
We love a fresh delivery. Get those toastmaster points!
McIntosh:
In the lead-up to the 2022 election, and since, the government has repeatedly cited modelling forecasting that wholesale and residential electricity prices would decrease by 18% but the government’s budget tells us that Australians can expect increases in electricity, gas prices of 50% and 40% respectively.
Will the prime minister now admit that the modelling Labor stood by was flawed and so too are the government’s energy policies that relied on that modelling?
Anthony Albanese:
I thank the member for Lindsay for her question. Indeed, we did release modelling done by RepuTex in 2021.
After that occurred, of course, there was not modelling but in fact, a factual change that occurred in May 2022 from the Australian Energy Regulator that pointed to a 20% increase in costs of electricity, and that flowed through to wholesale prices. Of course, there are a couple of pressures on energy prices.
One, of course, is the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the second ...
(interjections, etc)
… What I was asked about occurred in 2021. If you go back to when the Russian invasion of Ukraine was, I think you’ll find out, because I remember, because you should recall President Zelensky spoke just before my last budget reply in March of this year to this chamber.
The second pressure, of course, is the failure to invest, the fact that four gigs went out and one gig of energy went in.
… That led to a massive failure to invest. Three years ago, before the 2019 election, of course, there was a promise of a billion dollars towards new generation, a billion dollars. That would have added to 3,800 megawatts of new generation. So that would have meant instead of four out one in, that would have been 4.8 out - in and four in.
(there is about 10 seconds of interjections and calls for order)
… Three years later not a single dollar of that was delivered. Not a dollar, … not any megawatts, they aimed for 3,800, they delivered zero, zero, zero, a big duck egg. Not one watt of new generation as a result of that announcement. Of course that’s before we go to the farcical situation of the Collinsville promise that was never delivered either.
And he’s out of time.
Updated
Catherine King ‘rejects entirely’ idea that Darwin investment for gas-based manufacturing is subsidy for fossil fuels
Dr Monique Ryan has another of the crossbench questions (and this is what Stephen Bates was getting at)
My question is for the minister for infrastructure and regional development. In this week’s budget, your government allocated $1.5 billion for the Middle Arm industrial zone in Darwin Harbour. Middle Arm proposes Perth chemical manufacturing using gas from the Beetaloo Basin. Unless that changes, this is a subsidy for the fossil fuel industries. Will you guarantee the Middle Arm precinct will not produce petrochemicals or gas-based manufacturing?
Catherine King:
Thanks very much to the member for Kooyong for your question. Well, the Australian government invests in projects such as the Middle Arm precinct in an important way of setting up our economy for a sustainable future.
Instead of funding any particular companies or particular industries, we’re actually investing in common use enabling infrastructure. We do that across industrial precincts across the country to give all potential users in the market the opportunity to grow and thrive. This includes those able to process and export green hydrogen and energy transition components made locally.
The government is providing in the budget $1.9 billion in planned equity to support the development of Middle Arm, together with regional logistic hubs in the Northern Territory across those key transport links. That’s what we’re doing.
This investment will enable the precinct to be globally competitive, to be sustainable, with a focus, I recognise that the - I can hear some interjections from the member for New England about that. He likes this - I know he likes this particular project, which I’m very happy about.
(Interjections)
… No, no, I was, I was actually acknowledging that that’s what he was doing. This investment will enable the precinct to be globally competitive and sustainable but it will focus on low emission hydro-carbons, green hydrogen and critical minerals processing. Demand we know ...
Ryan gets up and she is not happy with what she has been hearing:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I was hoping for an answer to my question.
Spicy! But not a point of order. Still, nice to see another new member of the crossbench settling in to the rhythm of the place.
King:
As we know, the demand is growing for clean energy sources and Labor’s investment will help position the Northern Territory and Northern Australia to actually diversify their economy and to create jobs.
This investment is not a subsidy for fossil fuels. I reject that entirely. Rather funding will go towards the infrastructure that will support users to export clean energy, critical to meet our commitment to net zero.
Like green hydrogen and lithium batteries that are critical, critical, to decarbonisation, common user infrastructure at Middle Arm and industrial precincts across the country which the commonwealth regularly invests is included in Infrastructure Australia’s infrastructure priority list of nationally significant proposals and the project is currently at the stage 2 assessment process.
The Middle Arm precinct is undergoing significant environmental assessments under the Northern Territory Environment Protection Act and the federal Environmental protection and biodiversity Act.
These assessments will understand the impact of the proposed construction in the Northern Territory has completed and commenced over 200 investigations including feasibility studies into land and marine development and environmental culture and heritage. This is good for the Territory. It’s good for the nation. And I reject absolutely it being a fossil fuel subsidy.
Updated
David Littleproud is back!
My question is again to the minister for climate change and energy: how many private properties will be impacted from the construction of the 28,000km in new poles and wires under the government’s energy policy.
Chris Bowen:
Again, Mr Speaker, this is the new culture war from the leader of the National party and I wish him well on it.
If this is the hill he chooses to die on, Mr Speaker, that’s a matter for him. Because he’s referring to the green hydrogen superpower option under the ISP which was released while they were in office. Which was released while they were the government, Mr Speaker.
It’s actually a document which had bipartisan support, Mr Speaker.
… He refers to the government’s 28,000km of transmission lines. In fact, we’re implementing – seeking to implement the ISP step change model. He’s talking about something completely fraudulent, Mr Speaker.
And also we are getting on with the job of better consultation because what really matters is route selection. Route selection, there are options to where the routes go.
They can go on public land, they can after appropriate community consultation and appropriate conversation go with private land. So I guess could a nuclear power plant which the leader of the National Parties seems so addicted to.
Updated
It is back to David Littleproud’s poles and wires question – this is something he has been asking about for the last couple of days:
My question is to the minister for climate change and energy: how many private properties will be impacted from the construction of the 28,000km in new polls and wires under government’s energy policy?
Angus Taylor has a lot to say as Chris Bowen comes up to the despatch box. Bowen:
Thanks very much, Mr Speaker. The leader of the National Party refers to the ISP, the integrated systems plan, the 28,000km figure refers to the green jersey superpower scenario. 10,000km is a step change. The Government is getting on with implementing the ISP through the rewiring the nation policy. Just tomorrow, the nation’s Energy Ministers will meet and review progress in reforming the regulatory process of transmission to improve community consultation and compensation - a process started by this Government.
Not started by the previous Government because we want to ensure communities are consulted properly.
Littleproud:
Relevance, Mr Speaker. The question was very tight. It asks for a specific number of properties that will be impacted by the 28,000km of poles and wires.
Milton Dick:
Thank you for that. The minister is in order. He’s been going for 40 ...
There are interjections from Littleproud, and Dick continues:
If you let me finish, leader of the Nationals. He’s been going for 40 seconds. There was a specific question in there regarding a number and I will ask the minister to return when he’s ready to that part of the question and I give him the call.
Bowen:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. And the leader of the National party asked me about the 28,000km which is the green hydrogen superpower scenario and 28,000km under that scenario, which was prepared under the previous Government.
Mr Speaker, as I said, energy ministers tomorrow are reviewing the progress in reforming the RET. We’re hearing from the renewable energy commissioner, a federal government appointee, who has been working with the New South Wales state government and doing excellent work, Mr Speaker, just this week. They announced a new compensation regime for people impacted. Now the leader of the National party is very concerned about social licence. I welcome his interest. I welcome his interest in the social licence ...
The interjections go up to 11 so Dick has to step in again:
You may resume your seat. Order. When the House comes to order, I’ll ask the minister to address that part of the question. He’s still got 1.5 minutes to go. I’m listening ... listening carefully to his answer. He has three minutes to answer the question. There is no time constraint about when he has to answer. I’m listening quite carefully. The Leader of the House.
Tony Burke:
Just to raise a point of order. There’s the normal rule about a point of order on direct relevance only being able to be taken once. The opposition having already raised that have now decided from the interjections to not be shouting at the government but in fact to be shouting at you and about your ruling and I just want to draw your attention to it and in my role as Leader of the House, just...
(There are more interjections)
Burke:
Your can interject on me all you want, but you don’t do it to the Speaker.
Dick:
Order. Members on my left [the opposition] – members on my left will cease interjecting. I’ll ask the minister to return to that part of the question and I told the House I’m listening carefully to the answer. The minister may continue.
Bowen finishes with:
We’ll continue to work with the renewable energy commissioner, with my states and territories colleagues, and continue to oppose your plans to put nuclear reactors right across Australia which doesn’t have community support or licence.
Updated
Opposition’s strategy was to arm Australian defence ‘with press releases’, defence minister says
Richard Marles takes a dixer (a question the government has written itself) on defence procurement, so he can reprosecute some old numbers, but with some new hoo-hah:
In coming to office, the Albanese Labor government has inherited a defence procurement mess. When those opposite were in power, there were 28 different programs that were running a total of 97 years over time. Hunter class frigates four years late - $50 billion over budget. The Spartan battle field aircraft, 4.5 years late, offshore patrol vessels a year late, Cape class patrol vessels another year late, that’s before we even start talking about submarines.
When it came to defence announcements, those opposite were best in class. Vaudeville, Hoopla, we saw Top Gun music, all showtime. It was as if they were trying to tap-dance our adversaries into submission ...
Their strategy was to have Australia walk on to the battlefield armed with press releases. But when it comes to actually delivering capability, getting the hard power equation right, those opposite were the single worst defence procurement government in our nation’s history, and not least because they, themselves, were a picture of chaos.
In nine years we had six, really seven different defence ministers, the last of whom is sitting right there as the leader of the opposition.
All of this at a time when we are facing the most precarious strategic circumstances since the second world war. Under those opposite, Australia’s lost decade could not have come at a more damaging historic moment.
Updated
Big and medium-sized businesses support budget, Albanese says
It’s time for Angus Taylor to ask about the cost of living which is one of the things in question time Jim Chalmers and half of the Labor bench seem to live for.
Taylor:
My question is to the prime minister. The budget confirms that a typical family will be $2,000 worse off by Christmas with inflation, interest rates and unemployment all forecast to go up. Given this increasing pressure on the cost of living, what specific action is the government taking to fast-track new natural gas projects and when can Australians expect to see relief?
Anthony Albanese:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the shadow treasurer for his question. Of course, they had a shadow treasurer even when they had a treasurer. But we have one treasurer and he’s done a fantastic job. And the budget has been well received by people who are economically literate.
… This is what Jennifer Westacott of the Business Council had to say: ‘Amid global economic turmoil, this budget steadies the ship and sets the groundwork for reform to drive economic growth in the May budget. This is a cautious and careful budget that avoids making our inflation problem worse.
‘This is a crucial first step to restoring our budget position and building our national resilience. We welcome investments to boost productivity and participation through skills, education, child care and expanding paid parental leave. We strongly support the Government’s comprehensive skills package and migration announcement.’ …
But the ACCI said this, and Drew Mackellar said this: ‘Tonight’s budget is a responsible one. This budget covers the essential elements of economic management and tackling growing cost pressures.
‘As the budget warns, we cannot afford to be complacent against a global headwinds of severe inflation, climbing interest rates and soaring energy prices. Through the Powering Australia plan and funding for new energy infrastructure, the budget finds significant investment to underpin the transition to a net zero future that supports new opportunity for industry.’
So we have big business supporting the budget. We have medium-sized business supporting the budget.
(There are a bunch of interjections and I miss the middle part of the answer.)
This is what the Master Builders had to say, again, apparently an affiliate of the Labor party: ‘The 2022 housing accord is a welcome signal to the building and construction industry who have been crying out for action to address housing affordability barriers and supply constraints.’
I have got more, Mr Speaker, but I’ll wait for the next question for the further endorsements done by people who used to be their allies, who they now ridicule.
Updated
Anthony Albanese takes a dixer on how Labor supports women.
Moving on.
Not sure if some in the opposition needed a trigger warning, because Greens MP Stephen Bates has one of the crossbench questions and he is still not wearing a tie*.
I’m sure one of the clerks has the smelling salts ready just in case.
Bates:
my question is to the minister for industry, science and resources. Why does the budget contain more than $40 billion in fossil fuel subsidies including $30 million to frack for gas in the Beetaloo Basin and almost $2 billion to fund a gas export terminal in Darwin Harbour when we are in the middle of a climate emergency?
Ed Husic seems happy to get a call up, but he doesn’t have much of an answer for Bates. But he, in what has become his way in his dealings with the crossbench, keeps it very civil and polite.
Thank you very much, Speaker, and thank you to the member for the question. A lot of that is not directed necessarily in my own portfolio and relates to other areas, but we’re happy to take it on notice and we’ll get back to you with some response.
*we approve of the no tie, btw.
Updated
Blame for state of energy markets ‘rests squarely with Vladimir Putin’, treasurer says
Jim Chalmers gets a dixer just to give Peter Dutton a sledge ahead of his budget reply speech:
We’re told today that the leader of the opposition in his speech tonight about the appropriations wants to talk about the [previous] government’s economic record. And this is his opportunity – he takes very seriously his responsibility as the leader of the leftovers, Mr Speaker, and in doing he has a rolled gold opportunity tonight to fess up for the Coalition record on the economy – and let’s consider it for a moment.
Their record on the economy is skills shortages holding the economy back. It’s stagnant wages for a decade. It’s weak productivity and business investment. It’s an aged care crisis, it’s a trillion dollars in debt with nowhere near enough to show for it and it’s this energy policy chaos which is making us more vulnerable to global energy shocks.
Mr Speaker, what we’re seeing in our energy markets right now, the blame for that, rests squarely with Vladimir Putin.
Updated
Albanese: Business and ‘more enlightened members of the Liberal party’ both recognise renewables are cheaper
And after Mark Butler has some fun in a dixer about how terrible he thought his predecessor was, we move to another groundhog day moment when Sussan Ley, who is still trying to work out how she plays her role as shadow minister for government attacks, asks:
My question is to the prime minister. Yesterday, the treasurer finally confirmed that the Labor party misled the Australian people 97 times before the last election on their promise to reduce power bills by $275 when he admitted it wasn’t in the budget after saying it was.
Given the treasurer has now apologised to one Australian over this – Charles Croucher from Nine News – when will the other 26 million Australians get their apology?
And the chamber is in uproar.
Anthony Albanese:
Mr Speaker, I thank the deputy leader for her question. I reject the premise of the question. Because it goes to a failure for those opposite to actually recognise that renewable energy is the cheapest form of new energy.
Yesterday I spoke about the deal that was done with the Tasmanian government and what they have to say, what the Victorian government have to say as well, and I spoke about what the New South Wales premier had to say. But I agree with the statement that the cheapest, most reliable and cleanest energy on the planet are renewables.
I agree with the member for Barker. I agree the cheapest way to deliver electricity today is not coal, it’s not gas, it’s certainly not nuclear; it’s wind, solar, backed up by pumped hydro and batteries. So if you care about cheap energy and reliable energy, then you’re looking at wind, solar and pumped hydro. Now, they’re not my statements, Mr Speaker. They’re the statements of Matt Kean, the New South Wales treasurer, the deputy leader of this deputy leader’s party in New South Wales.
Ley pretends she has a point of order:
A point of order on relevance, Mr Speaker. Why can’t the Prime Minister say $275 ...
Milton Dick is not having it:
Resume your seat. I was pretty clear yesterday about that abuse of standing order. The deputy leader has special privileges which she’s taken advantage of. I just remind all members to state the point of order of relevance. I will take the point but if it continues I will not take them anymore. I give the call to the prime minister.
Albanese:
Thanks. But it’s not just more enlightened members of the Liberal party who recognise that the earth is round and renewables are the cheapest form of new energy. It’s also the business community.
It’s what Jennifer Westacott said … Jennifer said this: ‘You’ll also be paying less for your power because at the moment, building new renewables is cheaper than building new coal and cheaper electricity will continue to drive down energy prices.’ That is what the business community says, and that is what state and territory governments say.
What do those opposite do? They pretend that they didn’t know. They pretend the former energy no-one didn’t know about regulations that he was delivering to hide a determination by the Australian Energy Regulator, until it just happened to be [that they] replaced the 1 May with 25 May. In between 1 May and 25 May? What happened?
What was it that happened on 21 May? [The election, in case you forgot.]
They wanted to avoid the Australian people before they voted, knowing about the hike in energy prices that was occurring on their watch because of their failure to invest in energy.
And he runs out of time.
Updated
Milton Dick gives a general warning to the whole chamber, because he is still trying to pretend he has control over the members.
Peter Dutton asks Anthony Albanese to withdraw the “unparliamentary language” he used against Angus Taylor.
Albanese:
Mr Speaker, it’s one of the nicest things I’ve said about the shadow treasurer.
Updated
Question time begins
Just wanted to give a bit of space between those posts and what is happening in the parliament now.
Peter Dutton opens question time with:
I refer to the economic plan and budget strategy available on the Labor party’s website, page seven of the document outlined a five-point economic plan, the first point is and I quote, ‘to cut power bills by $275 a year by 2025’.
With the budget confirming this promise has been broken, will the prime minister admit the economic plan is in ruins?
The Speaker, Milton Dick, tries to get ahead of the circus:
The leader of the opposition has asked this question and I just said that the prime minister will be heard in silence. I want to be clear today, questions will be heard in silence out of respect of the office of the person asking them but also, answers will be heard in silence. And I give the call to the prime minister.
(But also, lols – this is his circus and these are his monkeys, so good luck trying to wrangle this lot.)
Albanese:
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. And indeed, before the election, there were a range of things said and indeed, when confronted with the fact that when in government, there was a warning of a pending spike in energy prices and that the announcement was delayed until after the election. This is what the former ...
(INTERJECTIONS).
… This is what the shadow treasurer said yesterday, the 26th of October, he said this: that was a report from the Australian Energy Regulator. It puts it out, not me, and I didn’t say it. That’s what he said.
Yesterday, yesterday. Well, that’s interesting, Mr Speaker. Because this is the very document that goes to the increase that has occurred in the default retail price which has fed into energy prices increasing by figures around about 20%. He said he didn’t see it and didn’t know about it.
An interesting statement. Here, of course, is a document, 22-23, the final determination of May 2022 and I tabled the document. I tabled a document from the Australian Energy Regulator. But at the same time, at the same time, here is the change in the law, dated the 31 March, 2022 and like he said, he didn’t see it, didn’t know about it, he puts it out, not me …
Paul Fletcher:
It’s on relevance. He’s had a 2-minute preamble. You should bring him back to the topic of the question, the $275 reduction that was promised.
Albanese:
Point of order, Mr Speaker. The question went to what was said about energy prices before the election in May 2022. My answer has gone to ...
(The opposition benches all interject.)
Albanese:
I was going to what was happening to prices in May 2022, and [that] can’t be more relevant to the question that was asked by the leader of the opposition. So I’d ask you to rule against the point of order.
Dick:
The prime minister is correct when he says that the question was about five points announced before the election. The prime minister is referring to the policy announcement and what was announced, so the prime minister is being directly relevant. And I give the call to the prime minister.
And then it is finally back to the answer.
Albanese:
Thanks very much, Mr Speaker. And here’s the regulation, the change in the law, 31 March 2022, from Angus Taylor, who said he didn’t see it or know anything about it. There’s two simple changes. Item 1, paragraph 17, omit may substitute the first business day of 25 May.
How subtle is that? How subtle is that? They changed the law ... in March, when the regulation – after parliament couldn’t disallow the change in regulation because we were going into caretaker mode and [couldn’t] change it until after the election. What a farce. You have no credibility.
And he has run out of time.
Updated
Ahead of question time, during the 90-second statements, the member for Hasluck, Tania Lawrence spoke about the death of 15-year-old Cassius Turvey.
Linda Burney and Marion Scrymgour were also obviously distressed.
Updated
Peter Dutton calls for royal commission into child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities
Both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are speaking on the anniversary of the national apology to survivors and victims of institutional child sexual abuse.
Dutton says it is time for an inquiry into the sexual abuse of Indigenous and First Nations children.
Dutton:
The national apology came to fruition because of the royal commission, and in the spirit of the fourth anniversary and our enduring commitment to keep children safe, it is time for a new royal commission to examine child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities.
We support immediate action from this government and the Northern Territory government on this incredibly important issue. I thank the prime minister and the minister for their time … [I have] met with the prime minister on two occasions now and it is an issue that we continue to work on together.
The Coalition dedicates ourselves to supporting action taken by the government; there is goodwill on both sides for this national issue that needs addressing now.
Updated
Law enforcement committee issues statement on Lidia Thorpe’s referral to privileges committee
The parliamentary joint law enforcement committee, of which Lidia Thorpe was a member, giving rise to a potential conflict of interest with her relationship with ex bikie Dean Martin, has issued a statement about the controversy.
On Tuesday the Senate referred Thorpe to the privileges committee for investigation, after the Greens senator agreed to refer herself.
In its statement, the law enforcement committee said:
[The committee] has met to consider questions arising from Senator Thorpe’s failure to declare a personal relationship that could potentially be a conflict of interest while she was a member of the committee during the last parliament.
The committee takes the integrity of its proceedings very seriously and [in] its meeting the committee affirmed its commitments to protecting the confidentiality of sensitive and classified material ...
The committee also affirmed that members should declare conflicts of interest that relate to their duties, so that the declared matters can be dealt with appropriately.
The committee noted the referral to privileges, and said it would “cooperate with that inquiry and may provide evidence ... as appropriate”.
Updated
Question time is just a moment away so we are in the chamber for the 90-second statements and Anthony Albanese has just taken one of those slots to pay tribute to outgoing NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard.
Who is from the Liberal party.
Peter Dutton associated himself with the comments.
Updated
Newest inflation data prompts banks to predict higher RBA cash rate hikes
On interest rates, reverberations from Wednesday’s inflation report, banks have shifted their predictions of what the RBA’s peak cash rate will be. The annual CPI came in at 7.3%, or the highest since mid-1990, as we noted here.
Westpac now expects the central bank will return to hiking by 50 basis points when it meets on Melbourne Cup Day, next Tuesday, doubling their forecast.
Anyway, here’s how another half-percentage point rate increase will lift monthly interest repayments, according to RateCity.
Westpac has lifted its tip for how high the RBA will hike its cash rate on 1 Nov. In wake of the higher-than-expected 3Q CPI, they now tip RBA will hike by 50bps to 3.1% and peak at 3.85% (a view ANZ shares). If Westpac's right, here's the extra monthly cost. (Source: @RateCity) pic.twitter.com/4PhxYWXm36
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) October 27, 2022
The CPI result also triggered the banks to predict the RBA will now have to lift its cash rate higher. Here’s how the various outcomes would translate into monthly repayments:
Here's the extra monthly cost on a typical loan, according to the different RBA peak cash rate predicted by the four big banks. (Source: @RateCity ) pic.twitter.com/IJ2FpulJrv
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) October 27, 2022
It’s worth noting the budget calculations on future growth in the economy were modelled on the RBA’s cash rate peaking at 3.35% next year. Perhaps Treasury will look like optimists by next May when the 2023-24 budget is released.
Updated
Senate inquiry into school refusal established
The senate has established an inquiry into school refusal, which is something Sophie Black has been looking into.
This is the motion which established the inquiry – which was moved by Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne.
The national trend of school refusal or “School Can’t” – as distinct from truancy – that is affecting primary and secondary school aged children, who are unable to attend school regularly or on a consistent basis, with specific reference to:
1) the increasing number since the Covid-19 pandemic, of young people and their families who are experiencing school refusal;
2) how school refusal is affecting young people and their families and the impacts it is having on the employment and financial security of parents and carers;
3) the impacts and demands of the increasing case load on service providers and schools to support these students and their families;
4) how relevant state, territory and federal departments are working to monitor and address this growing school refusal challenge; and
5) any other related matters.
School refusal isn’t just a case of kids not wanting to go to school – it is a health issue, impacting their emotional and mental wellbeing and leading to anxiety, physical ailments and more. It has really hit some families very hard, particularly since the pandemic.
Updated
They actually make you identify all these birds before allowing you into the ACT. It’s one of the rules.
LOVE the new addition to the office. I commissioned an @eggpicnic of local Canberra birds, a quoll and a corroboree frog 😍🥰
— David Pocock (@DavidPocock) October 27, 2022
Can you identify all the birds? pic.twitter.com/XOpYbE8Hqm
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Business confidence holds up despite rising costs, NAB says
In light of the budget, discussion about soaring energy prices and the record string of six consecutive RBA rate hikes, it’s worth checking on how the economy is actually faring.
Well, according to NAB’s quarterly survey of small- and mid-sized enterprises, conditions are softening but remain above longer-term averages.
Confidence even edged higher in the September quarter, with the smallest firms more chipper than bigger ones (even with conditions actually deteriorating more for them than for larger companies).
NAB's latest survey of small and medium businesses suggests overall conditions remain strong across all states, despite the rising costs (including for labour, right): pic.twitter.com/9uiDjC4nbx
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) October 27, 2022
“SMEs in transport, accommodation & food, finance, and wholesale all reported strong conditions, while conditions remained fairly robust across the states,” it said.
Alan Oster, NAB’s chief economist, said: “Across all our surveys, firms are reporting capacity utilisation at record levels and SMEs are no exception.
“Clearly, with a very tight labour market and very strong demand, even the smallest firms are operating close to their limits,” he said.
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Government awaiting advice on possible fifth Covid vaccine dose for vulnerable groups
The health minister, Mark Butler, says the government is expecting advice in coming months from immunisation experts on whether Australians should be given the opportunity for a fifth dose of Covid vaccine, but is still urging millions of people who haven’t got a third dose yet to get their booster.
Butler held a short Parliament House press conference to celebrate the passage of Labor’s cheaper medicines bill passing the parliament. He was asked about whether Australians will be given an opportunity for a yearly Covid dose, similar to annual flu jabs.
We've delivered on our commitment to make medicine cheaper for millions of Australians. From January 1 2023, we're bringing the maximum PBS co-payment down from $42.50 to just $30.
— Mark Butler MP (@Mark_Butler_MP) October 26, 2022
Butler didn’t say specifically whether all Australians would be recommended to get an annual dose, but said Atagi – the technical advisory group on immunisation – was considering whether older people and those with immune conditions should be granted a fifth dose, on top of the current four.
Butler said Atagi would give that guidance “in due course”, but that he didn’t expect it in “the near future”, saying it may be into 2023 before that change is considered.
But he also took the opportunity to urge people who hadn’t yet received a third dose – which he said included 5 million eligible people – to get that booster shot.
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There are just under 30 minutes until the last QT of the week.
There is a week break and then budget estimates will be held while the house sits.
November is a little full, actually – three sitting weeks. And the possibility of a fourth being held in the second week of December is a spectre that won’t go away – it is really going to depend on how much legislation gets passed in the Senate in the last two weeks of November.
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Some more background on that space promise:
The Albanese government’s pledge is in line with allies. In April the Biden administration committed “not to conduct destructive, direct-ascent anti-satellite missile testing” and it pointed to such tests being done by China and Russia.
When the then defence minister Peter Dutton announced the launch of the Australian defence force’s new space command in March, he accused some countries – including Russia – of seeing “space as a territory for their taking”.
Dutton cited an anti-satellite missile test in November last year when Russia “destroyed its own redundant Cosmos 1408, which left behind a cloud of more than 1,500 pieces of lethal debris that will take decades to clear”.
The new head of Australia’s space command, Air Vice-Marshal Cath Roberts, said in March:
The activities by China and Russia, which have been fairly well documented in the public domain, scare me. I think our lack of capability at the moment against those threats … that is concerning.
Air Commodore Nicholas Hogan, who joined the space command as the director general of space capability, raised concerns at the time that the lack of established norms or laws in space created a “wild west” scenario.
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Australian government pledges never to conduct ‘direct-ascent anti‑satellite missile testing’
The Australian government has announced a promise “to never conduct destructive, direct-ascent anti‑satellite missile testing”.
It says the pledge is “consistent with our role as a responsible actor in space” and it is calling on all nations “to make this commitment as a transparency and confidence building measure”.
In a statement issued in the last few minutes, three senior ministers - Penny Wong, Richard Marles and Ed Husic – said:
The Australian Government commits to never conduct destructive, direct-ascent anti‑satellite missile testing, consistent with our role as a responsible actor in space.
When carried out, these tests generate large amounts of debris that remain in space for years; threatening satellites and other space objects, and risking the long-term sustainability of human activity in space.The use of these missiles to destroy space objects is reckless, irresponsible and poses threats to space assets of all nations.
Australia joins the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Germany and the Republic of Korea in making this commitment toward a safer, more stable and peaceful space domain.
Marles, the defence minister, said the government was making the pledge to demonstrate “Australia’s commitment to act responsibly to protect our national security interests”.
Wong, the foreign affairs minister, said the global community “must work together to build a common understanding on rules and norms that can guide how states behave in outer space”.
Husic, the minister for industry and science, said:
Space technologies support critical services that improve national wellbeing and economic prosperity. This commitment is a responsible step to help ensure space assets are protected for the benefit of all Australians.
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Queensland police would be immediately dismissed if sentenced to imprisonment under new bill
Queensland’s police minister, Mark Ryan, has introduced a bill to allow “the immediate dismissal” of police officers and recruits who are sentenced to imprisonment for a criminal offence.
The minister said the legislation would change the current situation where a police officer may be imprisoned but not dismissed from the service until all criminal appeals have ended and a police disciplinary investigation is finalised.
“The examples that we have heard during the public hearings of the commission of inquiry are completely unacceptable ... For people who do the wrong thing there is no place for them in the Queensland police service.”
The proposed legislation comes after the state’s police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, conceded the current police disciplinary system is “broken” during an independent commission of inquiry.
The inquiry heard a number of officers who had sexually assaulted junior colleagues had not been dealt with appropriately and instead were subjected to “local managerial resolution” – a remedial conversation with a supervisor.
Ryan said the application of LMRs is governed by QPS policy and had already been addressed by the police commissioner.
However, he said the government will “carefully consider” any recommendations from the commission of inquiry about the police discipline system and “will consult all stakeholders about any need for legislative amendments during this term of government.”
The inquiry will hand its final report to the state government on 14 November.
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Shoot for the moon – worst-case scenario, you land on a piece of SpaceX space junk.
Ambitious job application from the former Member for Dawson pic.twitter.com/3RYC6bHaeB
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) October 27, 2022
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Information of hundreds of thousands of customers exposed in Medlab Pathology cyber-attack
About 223,000 Medlab Pathology customers had their personal information including health records, credit card numbers and Medicare numbers exposed in a cyber-attack in February, the company’s parent company, Australian Clinical Labs, has informed the Australian Stock Exchange.
Medlab says the breach mostly affects people in NSW and Queensland, and the records exposed of most concern are:
17,539 individual medical and health records associated with a pathology test.
28,286 credit card numbers and individual names. Of these cards, 15,724 have expired, but 3,375 of the cards have the CVV code.
128,608 Medicare numbers and names.
Medlab said it became aware of unauthorised third-party access to its system in February, and at the time external forensic specialists did not find evidence that information had been compromised. But in March, the Australian Cyber Security Centre contacted the company and said it had intelligence that Medlab may have been the victim of a ransomware attack.
The company again said it did not believe any data was compromised.
In June, ACSC contacted the company again to say that it believed Medlab data had been posted on the dark web.
Medlab then found and downloaded the data, which the company said was “highly complex and unstructured” and then made attempts to remove it from the dark web permanently.
The company has blamed the complexity and unstructured nature of the data for it taking so long to report publicly.
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NSW farmers and environment groups call for resumption of feral animal culls
There are calls for the NSW government to resume culling of feral pests in the state’s national parks over concerns a five-week suspension has put ecosystems at risk.
The state government put a temporary suspension in place while it reviewed safety practices after concerns were raised about a deer cull earlier this year in the Kosciuszko national park.
That suspension was applied to all culling programs in all parks across the state, prompting concerns from environment groups and the NSW Farmers Association.
The Invasive Species Council has called on the government to lift the suspension because the wet weather could lead to “exploding” numbers of feral animals in national parks.
The council’s advocacy manager, Jack Gough, said:
More feral horses, pigs and deer trashing our parks and adjoining areas will be a disaster for our native wildlife and ecosystems.
He said the ban would also be alarming for farmers concerned about “foot and mouth disease preparedness as feral pigs and deer will be major spreaders of the disease if it reaches our shores”.
Reg Kidd, a member of the NSW Farmers conservation and resource management committee, told The Sydney Morning Herald “we were flabbergasted to learn the government had put a stop to controlling feral animals in national parks”.
He said:
Putting a stop to feral animal control is irresponsible as it will impact the public, nature and private landowners such as farmers.
The government says the suspension has only affected shooting operations. Other invasive species controls such as baiting and trapping have continued.
A spokesperson for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service said the agency will “always prioritise public safety” and the review was to ensure operations were being conducted with the highest safety standards.
They said completion of the review was imminent and feral animal shooting operations were expected to recommence with “even stronger safety protocols” within the next week.
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The women’s budget statement event has been held.
Mike Bowers was there:
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NSW and Victoria announce joint funding for $558m redevelopment of Albury Base hospital
Tamsin Rose and Benita Kolovos report on what is happening on the border of Vic and NSW:
The premiers of New South Wales and Victoria have announced a joint plan to fund a $558m redevelopment of the Albury Base hospital in a bid to improve healthcare for people living in the border region.
The announcement, from two leaders on opposite sides of the political aisle who have developed a strong history of collaboration, comes a month out from the Victorian state election and four months ahead of the NSW state poll.
The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, said the project served as a “great example of cooperation across political lines” to get results for people in the border region.
His Victorian counterpart, Daniel Andrews, added that it was important to ensure community members and healthcare professionals “have the facilities they need”.
Premier Perrottet dismissed suggestions that the announcement was a political stunt ahead the state elections both premiers face.
He said:
Dan and I work closely together. It’s not about politics. It’s about actually getting the job done and working together to achieve great things for our state. The elections are irrelevant. It’s not about that, it’s about our people and being focused on this.
Both states will chip in $225m for the redevelopment, in addition to the $108m already allocated by the NSW and commonwealth governments, with construction to begin next year. It is slated to be completed by 2027.
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Energy ministers prepare to meet in Melbourne
As energy ministers prepare to jet into Melbourne (offsetting the carbon, we trust), the various ministers are honing their pitches. As noted in an earlier post, lowering energy prices will be high on the discussion agenda.
Since the last such gathering in August, we’ve had some big announcements from Queensland and Victoria (as astutely summarised in this article by Graham Readfearn).
Public ownership has certainly loomed larger of late, particularly in Victoria, with its revival of the State Electricity Commission (as we explored here).
Queensland’s energy minister, Mick de Brenni, also laid out here the benefits of controlling most of the electricity generators and the handy use of a levy on windfall coal profits to give rebates to households.
Anyway, de Brenni tells us today that “the best path to secure lower prices is energy independence through more renewable energy”, in comments that probably all of the attending energy ministers will agree on.
However, he couldn’t resist a serve at his Coalition counterparts, saying that policy instability over the past decade has been a big part of our present woes.
Had the previous federal LNP government delivered a cogent policy to encourage renewables, Australia wouldn’t be so exposed to the volatility of global fossil fuel markets.
You could generate more clean energy shuffling your feet down a carpeted hallway than Angus Taylor and the federal LNP delivered in over a decade.
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And the cheaper medicines bill is also getting through the parliament.
Mark Butler will be holding a press conference on that at 12.30
The Senate is pushing through its legislation agenda:
BREAKING: The Greens have just voted to pass a bill to ensure aged care homes are staffed 24/7 with a nurse.
— Janet Rice (@janet_rice) October 27, 2022
Thankyou to @anmf_federal, Older Persons Advocacy Network, @COTAAustralia and all the others who campaigned - without your advocacy, this wouldn't have happened. pic.twitter.com/rXZEiQ4X0f
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And for a temperature check on that, in case you missed it, here is Murph:
Chalmers: electricity market not resilient and robust due to ‘decade of policy failures’
Given electricity prices and the $275 savings by 2025 promise will undoubtably feature in Peter Dutton’s budget reply speech, here is what Jim Chalmers had to say about it this morning on ABC Radio RN:
I think the full impact of the war in Ukraine is starting to be felt when it comes to electricity prices. We didn’t have these forecasts obviously, which are relatively new forecasts for electricity prices. We didn’t have them in May, of course. But I think people do understand around the community that the war in Ukraine is causing havoc. It’s pushing up electricity prices, and our electricity market here is not as resilient and robust as we need it to be because we’ve had a decade of policy failure.
Q: But given the invasion of Ukraine occurred by the May election campaign, shouldn’t Labor have known its modelling was out of date?
Chalmers:
That’s because it goes to the fundamental fact here – which is renewable energy is not just cleaner energy, it’s also cheaper energy – that is the near unanimous view of investors and economists and others. That remains the case. There’s basically three facts here: first of all, renewable energy is cheaper energy. Secondly, the war in Ukraine is causing havoc and pushing up electricity prices. And, thirdly, the fact that our predecessors had more than 20 energy policies and pulled more capacity out of the system than they put in has made us more vulnerable to these global price shocks.
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If you haven’t read this yet, you should:
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Sussan Ley says tax cuts are good and IR reforms are not
Sussan Ley, who as the deputy opposition leader has been handed the mantle of chief government attacker (the leaders like to keep their hands mostly clean from political attacks so voters don’t view them as too negative – this is a cross party tactic), says she thinks the industrial relations system is not broken and the stage-three tax cuts will help workers:
No, the system is not broken and it’s no excuse to introduce pattern bargaining across this country which allows people in businesses in Western Australia who have a completely unrelated set of circumstances in which they operate their business as employees to somehow be included with businesses and workers on the east coast. It actually doesn’t make any sense at all. In fact, it makes the system more inflexible.
What this is, is this government taking industrial relations system back to the 1970s* and not having at its centre productivity in the workplace or a focus on increasing jobs and security for both employees and employers. And you know, what if this government cares about the wages of workers, what it could do is guarantee the stage three tax cuts today, because everyone earning $45,000 or more gets help. The stage three tax cuts will put more money in workers’ pockets** and give them the support that they need when they plan for the future.
*That would actually be impossible, given the low union membership, the Fair Work Commission and the fact that the conditions are completely different. We are not in stagflation, company profits have continued upwards, and work conditions are very, very different.
**If they earn over $180,000.
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Sussan Ley says government’s IR legislation will ‘take us back decades’
The Liberal MP is not a fan of the industrial relations bill:
Let’s look at the detail, but what this is a rushed introduction of legislation that takes us back decades under the cover of the budget this week. That’s what this is. It could not come at a worse time for businesses who are struggling with staff shortages, who are struggling with increasing costs, for manufacturers they’re looking at power prices that are almost unaffordable. This government does not have their back.
This pattern style, industry wide bargaining will increase strike action*. In fact, when asked to guarantee that it wouldn’t this morning on breakfast radio the industrial relations minister couldn’t do that. They also refused to say when it would increase workers’ wages.
What this is, is the Labor party looking after the unions, making sure that they keep their promises to their union mates.
*In terms of strike action, it pays to put the Australian experience in context – strike action is almost non-existent in this country now. It is at historic lows, along with union membership.
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Meanwhile, there is still a major focus on health funding – and what will happen when the 50-50 hospital funding deal expires.
People living in poverty far more vulnerable to domestic violence, research shows
While the 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave (to start from next year) is a good start, it is also worth remembering people living in poverty are particularly vulnerable.
Last week was Anti-Poverty Week. The Anti-Poverty Week website resources include these facts:
New research from the Life Course Centre found young Australian women (aged 21-28 years) in financial hardship are more than 3 times as likely to report being the victim of past-year severe partner abuse: 9.3% compared with 2.9% for those not experiencing financial hardship.
The rates were also around double for any partner abuse or unwanted sexual activity.
Rates of violence are higher for groups that face multiple forms of discrimination, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, women with disability, older women, women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds including women on temporary visas, and those in the LGBTIQA+ community.
Women from refugee backgrounds are particularly at risk of financial abuse and reproductive coercion. …and poverty can deter women from leaving Australian Women Against Violence Alliance have estimated that. on average, it costs $18,000 for a victim/survivor to leave a violent relationship and establish safety.
This includes costs associated with reallocation, safety upgrades and legal and medical costs
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Jury discharged in Bruce Lehrmann trial after ‘material entered jury room that ought not to have’
Breaking into the political news to update you on the Bruce Lehrmann trial.
Chris Knaus reports:
The entire jury in the trial of Bruce Lehrmann has been discharged after a juror was found to have conducted their own research and brought outside material into the jury room.
The ACT supreme court convened on Thursday morning and heard that a juror had conducted research outside the courtroom, contrary to their oath.
Chief justice Lucy McCallum said she had no choice but to discharge one of the 12 jurors. She said that meant she had to discharge them all.
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Paul Karp is looking through the IR legislation and has found where the conflict will be:
This is going to be one of the biggest shit-fights on multi-employer bargaining: the "supported stream" (low paid workers etc) allows unions to apply to add employers "without consent" pic.twitter.com/sbfBTQhFLH
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) October 26, 2022
Power prices on the agenda when ministers meet on Friday
Not the biggest surprise, but energy affordability – along with supply and reliability – will head the agenda for the federal, state and territory ministers when they gather in Melbourne on Friday.
Chris Bowen, the federal minister for climate change and energy, told Guardian Australia that work on the National Energy Transformation Partnership aimed at supporting “the smooth transformation of Australia’s energy sector” will also be on the agenda.
There’s no mention of the provision of rebates for energy as proposed by NSW’s treasurer Matt Kean, who will be only one of two Liberals in the room. (Guy Barnett should be the other. Along with premier of Tasmania, he has a few hats, including water and veteran affairs...so he must be taking part in federal gatherings every other week.)
Bowen’s line is that: “We are now building on this reform program with all jurisdictions to deliver much needed long-term certainty to industry and investors to put downward pressure on prices and ensure reliability of the system.”
That pressure is not yet having the desired effect, it should be said. Anyway, as for the size of the power prices rises in the budget, Bowen makes it clear that the first instalment of those 20% and 30% has already taken effect. (The budget wasn’t clear.)
“The budget shows that treasury has assumed retail electricity prices have already increased by an average of 20% nationally in 2022-23,” he said. “This largely reflects increases that took effect in the September quarter, including the increase to the Default Market Offer that the former government hid before the election.”
If you want to more about that hiding, here’s our story back in May:
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Labor’s industrial relations bill: what is it and why is it being introduced?
The workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, has introduced Labor’s wide-ranging industrial relations bill which improves access to flexible work and removes hurdles to multi-employer bargaining.
Burke told the House of Representatives that Australia’s workplace laws “are not up to date”, warning the opposition that, given the cost of living crisis is the gap between incomes and rising prices, they “can’t claim to care about cost of living if [they] support continued wage stagnation”.
Burke said that adding gender equity as an object of the Fair Work Act would help close the “unacceptable” gender pay gap of 14.1%, while the bill would remove “insurmountable hurdles” to getting equal pay orders, such as childcare workers who lost a case because they couldn’t fulfil the “impossible task” of finding a male comparator group.
Burke said:
These reforms are intended to reverse decades of unfair outcomes for women. It will no longer be necessary to establish sex discrimination to prove work has been undervalued.”
The bill also contains an “express prohibition” against workplace sexual harassment, and bolsters existing anti-discrimination protections.
The Govt's Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022 introduced this morning seeks to add breastfeeding, gender identity & intersex status as protected attributes for purposes of adverse action & unlawful termination. #auslaw 1/https://t.co/N1pUuhic6v
— Alastair Lawrie (@alawriedejesus) October 26, 2022
With curbs on rolling fixed term contracts, the bill will help employees experiencing the “permanent probation period”, he said.
The bill’s most controversial changes are to make multi-employer bargaining significantly easier to access, but Burke presented them as incremental changes to existing streams of bargaining.
Burke said under existing single-interest bargaining, parties need to get his permission to bargain together, a form of red tape that will be removed.
Employers must have clearly identifiable common interests and FWC must be satisfied it is in the public interest,” he said, suggesting the reform will help businesses compete on innovation and service not “who can pay the lowest wage”.
Burke also noted consultation is ongoing and didn’t rule out further amendments to better implement safeguards which include guaranteeing that single-employer agreements are still available, and that multi-employer deals are “not extended to those industries where it is not appropriate or not necessary such as commercial construction”.
Burke said the bill will give the Fair Work Commission power to resolve “intractable disputes through arbitration” where there is “no prospect” of agreement. This will encourage good faith bargaining and quick resolution of disputes.
Agreements signed under the Coalition’s WorkChoices laws will be sunsetted, “businesses need to pay minimum entitlements in awards, to benefit workers and level the playing field”, he said.
Changes to the better off overall test will mean the commission uses “actual workers and patterns of work that are foreseeable” to judge a pay deal, taking a “global rather than line by line” approach. If employers and employees agree a pay deal passes the test, the commission will give “primary consideration” to their view. If circumstances change, a pay deal can be reassessed. “This makes sure that no worker will be worse off,” Burke said.
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And on wages ...
Why do we need changes to the IR system? pic.twitter.com/Im4H4ph7sB
— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) October 26, 2022
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There is an event around the woman’s budget statement a little later this morning.
Anthony Albanese will deliver a speech at about 10.30am.
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Big shake up, small turnout in the House as IR bill is introduced
Mike Bowers was in the chamber to capture the introduction of legislation for the biggest IR shake up in more than a decade – but most of the opposition was not.
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Tony Burke calls on parliament to legislate IR bill for 'secure jobs and better pay'
Tony Burke commends the bill to the house:
This bill delivers on the government’s commitment to ensure a fairer workplace relations system that provides Australians with job security, gender equity and sustainable wage growth.
This bill will not fix every problem in our workplace relations system, but it’s a strong start, and it will provide a strong foundation on which we can continue to build a fairer and more equitable system Australians need, want and deserve.
Now there will be requests for us to move more slowly, to wait extra months to pretend that there is no urgency as this bill proceeds through the House and in the other place.
I asked members and senators to remember how long people have already waited – they have waited a decade, while wages were kept deliberately low.
Waited generations while the gender pay gap refused to close, waited while children became adults, while caring responsibilities collided with rosters, waited in insecure work for the secure job, which still hasn’t arrived.
These Australians have waited long enough. And while waiting, they have turned up every day and done their job.
It’s now time we did ours and legislated for secure jobs and better pay.
I commend the build the house.
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Tony Burke says the IR legislation will abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
This isn’t new – it was one of Labor’s stated aims since it was introduced.
But this line of his speech still gets applause from the government side of the chamber.
This bill will abolish the ABCC and the Registered Organisations Commission.
The Fair Work Ombudsman will have carriage of all industries.
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Family violence leave also applies to casuals, Tony Burke says
Family and domestic violence paid leave should be in place at most workplaces from 1 February next year, for most employees.
Small businesses get an extra six months to adjust to the new workplace entitlement, so it will be August 2023 for those workers.
Tony Burke says it also applies to casuals:
Family and domestic violence leave has to be a universal entitlement.
Women can be victims of domestic violence no matter what job they work, how long they’ve been in that job, what sort of agreement they’re on or how many hours a week they work.
In fact, women who are experiencing family and domestic violence are more likely to be employed in casual and insecure work. We can’t leave them behind.
Violence doesn’t discriminate – and neither should the law.
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Greens welcome domestic violence leave but say more funding needed for women’s safety
The Greens have welcomed the passing of the family and domestic violence paid leave legislation. But Larissa Waters also pointed out last night that there is no new funding for frontline responses in the budget:
Paid Family and Domestic Violence (FDV) leave will help victim-survivors, who are predominantly women, to escape abusive relationships, protect themselves and their children, and rebuild their lives.
But paid FDV leave cannot succeed if advice and support services for victim-survivors and employers don’t have funding to meet demand. The long-awaited National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children has now been released, but without any new funding commitments.
The women’s safety sector has repeatedly called for a $1B per year investment to ensure funding meets demand. And yet the government’s budget response was to re-badge and re-shuffle previous funding commitments, adding only partial indexation and a fraction of the workers needed, with the Labor government instead choosing tax cuts for the rich and subsidies for donor mates.
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You can read more about the flexible work component here:
As usual, Paul Karp has been all over this
What will the industrial relations bill do?
Tony Burke’s office is on it – here is part of the release which lays out what the government says this bill will do:
The Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill will:
- Help close the 14.1 per cent gender pay gap and protect women in the workplace by: putting gender equity at the heart of the Fair Work Commission’s decision-making; boosting the Commission’s gender pay gap expertise; banning pay secrecy clauses; expanding access to flexible work arrangements; and expressly prohibiting sexual harassment in the Fair Work Act.
- Improve job security by placing new limits on rolling fixed term contracts so workers can’t be effectively put on an endless probation period.
- Protect workers by: bolstering their ability to recover unpaid entitlements under the Fair Work small claims system; banning job ads that advertise for below the relevant minimum pay rate; and closing a loophole to protect firefighters in the ACT.
- Return fairness to the workplace by abolishing the politicised, discredited and unnecessary Australian Building and Construction Commission and the Registered Organisations Commission.
-Modernise the bargaining system by expanding access to enterprise bargaining and multi-employer bargaining; reforming the Better Off Overall Test so it’s simple, flexible and fair; making it easier to initiate bargaining; giving the Fair Work Commission new powers to resolve long-running intractable disputes; and terminating WorkChoices-era “zombie” agreements.
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IR bill will improve gender equality and help stop sexual harassment, Burke says
In the chamber, Tony Burke says with this IR bill, all the Respect at Work report legislative recommendations are now before the parliament.
Workers who want to have a discussion about pay equity at work should not be prohibited by their employment contracts when doing so. This bill will prohibit pay secrecy clauses bringing transparency to workplaces critically, this bill protects workers by saying if you want to tell people how much you are paid that is up to you.
Stamping out workplace sexual harassment is central to achieving safe, productive and gender equitable workplaces. Under the previous government’s laws, there was no express prohibition on sexual harassment under the Fair Work Act and stopped sexual harassment orders were only available to some workers. We will fix these issues.
Our changes mean whether you’re a nurse in Tamworth, a plumber in Perth or an office worker in Canberra, you can ask the Fair Work Commission to deal quickly and effectively with your complaint of sexual harassment in the Fair Work Commission. Whether the harassment occurred in the past or is ongoing or both. The new provisions will also allow the Fair Work Ombudsman to investigate and assist with compliance. These changes send a clear message that workplace sexual harassment will not be tolerated.
These reforms fully implement recommendation 28 of the respect at work report, complementing the attorney general’s proposed reforms to the Sex Discrimination Act. This bill means that all legislative changes recommended by respect at work are now before the parliament.
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Burke says IR bill won’t create more industrial action from workers
Tony Burke was pressed this morning on whether multi-employer bargaining would lead to more industrial action.
He was asked by Patricia Karvelas: “The big concern from business groups is that this will lead to a lot more industrial action. Is that ultimately where this will end?”
Burke:
Australia has low rates of industrial action, and that won’t change. That won’t change.
Karvelas: But this opens the door to it changing?
Burke:
Well, no, no, no. Because you can already have industrial action on a single-employer agreement. What we are doing, though – and I think what has really frustrated people – is that when you get this long, protracted industrial action, including in single employer agreements, at the moment those long disputes have no way of being resolved. And we’re introducing, when the commission believes it has become intractable, that you can now have arbitration where they look at – ‘OK, here are the issues that have been agreed. Here are the issues that haven’t been agreed. Let’s sort it out.’ And that way the long, protracted, neverending disputes, which are often the ones in the media, they should become much less common. I’m hoping they become a thing of the past.
Karvelas: Okay, but clearly though you’re saying, you know, we have low industrial action, and that’s right. This allows for industrial action across workplaces, does it not? That is the ultimate consequence of this bill.
Burke:
That’s right, but the rules in being able to do it are no different to what they would be if you were doing a single-employer negotiation.
Karvelas: Sure, but all of a sudden you have a lot more workers striking potentially.
Burke:
Look, there are lots of forms of industrial action and lots of them much more lowkey than that. The big difference here – well, first of all, before any industrial action – even single – at the moment you can go – you go straight to it after you’ve had your vote of workers. There’ll now be compulsory conciliation to try to sort these disputes out. That may of itself across the board put real downward pressure on industrial action because we get issues solved first. And then if they’re continuing arbitration, which has not been there before, becomes available. It’s a much more sensible outcome.
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States welcome crackdown on NDIS fraud
A crucial review of the national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) is expected to make recommendations to the Albanese government well before it hands down its final report next year.
The review, to be led by chair Bruce Bonyhady and experienced public servant Lisa Paul, is shaping up as pivotal to the future of the scheme and the hundreds of thousands of participants who rely on it, following Tuesday’s budget forecasts.
The government also announced a major crackdown on NDIS fraud in the budget, tipped to rake in about $200m, but it has acknowledged the review is looking into reform of the scheme, including to make it more “sustainable”.
The budget forecast the total cost of federal, state and territory funding for the NDIS is expected to increase from $35bn this year to $52bn in 2025-26, an $8.8bn increase compared to the figures in the May budget.
Queensland’s disability services minister, Craig Crawford, told Guardian Australia disability ministers were “all concerned about the fiscal risk in the projected funding for NDIS over coming years”.
“But the cost blowouts need to be managed without stopping new entrants coming onto the scheme that deserve to be there.
“Queensland also welcomes the crackdown on fraud and cowboy operators.”
The NSW disability services minister, Natasha Maclaren-Jones, told Guardian Australia fraud in the scheme was a “significant concern” and the disability ministers agreed “more needs to be done in this space”.
“The NSW Government will continue to work with the Commonwealth and other states and territories to ensure that the NDIS is sustainable and delivers as intended for people with disability.”
A Victorian government spokesperson told Guardian Australia the review was an “important opportunity to examine key issues underlying the scheme to ensure it operates as originally intended”.
Disability groups warned discussion around cost must also consider the social and economic benefits, pointing to a Per Capita report which found every $1 spent on the scheme spurned $2.25 in economic activity.
Ross Joyce, the chief executive of the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations, told Guardian Australia the funds provided to NDIS participants were not “squirrelled away” by people with disability.
“They are putting money back into the economy to pay for the supports they need to live an ordinary life,” he said.
Joyce also argued the NDIS was saving money in other areas such as health and mental health, but those savings were not easily calculated.
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Tony Burke introduces industrial relations bill
The workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, is now introducing the industrial relations bill.
He says Australia’s IR system is no longer working and it is beyond time to change it.
But he says this bill, if passed, won’t be able to solve issues like wage growth overnight.
Australians have asked for change. They’ve asked for less conflict and fairer pay. They’ve asked for a better future for themselves and for their families. It will take time for this bill to result in improvements in workplaces and pay increases in the pockets of Australians. So we cannot waste a moment in passing it.
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Family and domestic violence leave bill passes parliament
The family and domestic violence leave bill is passed on the voices.
Workers will now be able to access 10 days of paid leave if they are in a family or domestic violence situation.
There is applause in the house.
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The plan for parliament today
The parliament is sitting. Tony Burke is up and he is laying out the day’s business.
Peter Dutton gets the budget reply this evening (about 7.30pm).
And it looks like the family and domestic violence leave is one of the first issues of the House (the Senate sat late last night to pass it).
So it is back in the house for the amendments to be passed. (The amendments are agreed to by the government, so this will be quick)
After that, we are going straight into industrial relations.
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Ley says Morrison government handed over ‘strong economy’ and Labor ‘haven’t got a plan’
Sussan Ley was very critical of the government’s budget on Sky News this morning and was asked what she believed the answers were.
She said:
Well, we aren’t the government, we handed the government a strong economy. In fact, Jim Chalmers said, when we handed down our budget ‘what we need is a plan to tackle the sting of inflation’.
So where is his plan? What’s he doing? Where is the reassurance that Australians need that things will start to get better? They will only feel that if they know this government has a plan.
Now, in terms of what to do, Pete, there are many things. We made affordable power prices a priority when we were in government. We understood that that’s the perspective that you have to have when you look at this issue, so that we don’t find that people can’t afford to turn on the coolers, or turn on the heaters, or run their manufacturing equipment in their businesses. Now, that’s not the approach this government has had. They’ve talked to the game on renewables, but they haven’t realised the cost. They haven’t realised, for example, that more supply into the market makes sense. They haven’t got a plan.
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Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi to introduce bill to halt student debt indexation
The Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi will give notice of a private senator’s bill she will introduce today aiming to halt the indexation on student loans and increase the repayment threshold to above the median wage.
Faruqi says it is one way which would help ease the cost of living burden on people with student debt:
Student debt is no small problem. About three million people in Australia have the burden of student debt.
At a time when the cost of living is biting hard, governments can no longer ignore the student debt crisis and its impacts.
Study debts are impacting people’s ability to obtain loans, their mental health, their ability to save up to buy a home or simply afford to live a good life.
Scrapping indexation on HELP debts and raising the minimum repayment threshold will provide much needed money in people’s pockets to make ends meet or pay rent.
Faruqi says higher education should be free and this legislation is one step in that direction and has challenged the Labor government to work with the Greens “to wind back Liberal era policies which have saddled people with more debt that takes longer and longer to pay off”.
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Business Council head says industry-wide bargaining will hurt productivity and wages
And this is what Jennifer Westacott, the head of Business Council, had to say about industrial relations in an interview with Ausbiz yesterday:
What we have said all the time is that we want wages to grow, and we want them to stay growing. Not to have a short-term growth and then have at the expense of potentially higher unemployment.
So that’s the first thing. The second thing is we’ve got to get an IR system that drives productivity. That’s not about working harder for less, it’s about working smarter. It’s about creating the environment where people use new technology, where they innovate, where they share ideas, where they open new markets, where they have more skilled people.
It’s about creating value by doing things differently. That requires a collaborative workplace at an enterprise level. We want to see the enterprise bargaining system revitalised.
What we don’t want to see is more complexity. What we don’t want to see is industry-wide bargaining, which we think will really hurt productivity, and in the long term, hurt wages growth. What we don’t want to see is widespread industrial action.
We hear a lot of the unions saying what we want out of this reform is the capacity for widespread industrial action. The community doesn’t want that and our economy is too fragile, to really take rolling strikes like we had in 1983. So that’s IR.
Then we’ve really got to have a mature conversation about tax reform. We try to do this in this country, every time we do, someone shuts it down, and we never make any progress. The simple reality is we’ve got a spending and a revenue problem. The third thing we have to do, which is not a matter for business, but the matter for government, but it’s hugely important, is control spending in those areas like NDIS. Control spending in health, not by cutting costs, but by getting better outcomes.
That’s going to require investment in technology, workforce, and so on. We’ve got to be willing to tackle red tape and the micro-economic reform that needs to be done, that gets rid of all the friction in the economy. We’ve got to stay on course for the migration targets that we welcome in the budget last night. So, there’s a lot of stuff to do.
To be honest, we can’t wait for the May budget to get on with some of it but get on with it we have to. Because we’re looking around the world and you’ve just been reporting on this. You’ve got the UK in a political and economic crisis. What does that mean? Well, it means tough times for people living in the UK. We don’t want that for Australians.
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Sally McManus says bargaining system needs overhaul to boost wages
It is fair to say that business is not too happy with multi-employer bargaining. Or that they are yet to see the industrial relations bill.
The warnings that people will lose their jobs have already begun. But on the flip side, wages haven’t increased in about a decade, union membership has fallen and the idea we might see the wildcat strikes of the 1970s given the Fair Work hoops seems wildly over inflated.
Here is what Sally McManus has to say about it. She told the ABC:
At the moment we’ve got a situation where the wages are moving for CEOs. They went up 40% this year .
Productivity, labour productivity has gone up 13% and workers have seen less than 1% of that.
Clearly there’s a problem at the moment.
Like when the economy is good, workers don’t get pay rises. When the economy is bad, it’s the same thing.
So, I mean, clearly there’s a big problem in terms of the underlying structure of our bargaining system and that’s what we’ve got to fix.
If we’ve people on a more equal footing you get better outcomes, it’s a pretty straightforward solution to it by doing that.
We like to see more co-operation in the country. We would like to see businesses recognising they can’t have their employees, the workers of this country, the people who spend in small businesses, in a situation where wages have been held down for so long and unfairly.
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Meanwhile, Murph has a reality check on how we ended up where we have with energy prices.
‘May you rest as we rise and continue the fight’: Lidia Thorpe on Cassius Turvey’s death
In the Senate yesterday, Greens senator Lidia Thorpe spoke about the death of 15-year-old Noongar boy Cassius Turvey, who was killed as he walked home from school. A man has been charged, but police investigations are continuing.
Today I rise for a 15-year-old First Nations child, Cassius Turvey. Cassius Turvey was a loved member of the Noongar community who ran his own lawn-mowing business and would let community members decide how much they could pay him.
On 13 October, Cassius was returning home from school when he allegedly was viciously beaten with a pole. He passed away eight days later. When a First Nations child is born, they inherit and learn cultural wisdom, knowledge and strength. Our families gather and we wrap our arms around our babies, knowing that they’re our dreaming children.
Their blood line is their birthright. This is our children’s land. It is their country, and they’re guided by our ancestors.
If only it were a reality that our children could live out their birthright in this country; that they would live a journey of peace, culturally and spiritually safe.
No Aboriginal child should be robbed of their birthright in so-called Australia. Our Dreaming child, Cassius, fell victim to a monster—a monster far greater than those who (allegedly) racially targeted and killed Cassius.
The monster is the unresolved violent legacy of white Australia. To Cassius’s family, friends and community: I’m sorry. To black Australia: I’m sorry. I am sorry that we are here again with yet another justice hashtag for the loss of another black life.
No black child should fear walking home from school and no black mother should wonder if their child will return home. We all must fight for a country where First Nations children like Cassius can live out their birthright. Cassius: may you rest as we rise and continue the fight.
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Rod Sims thinks Labor should threaten gas companies with export limits
No one in the government is saying yet what they will be doing about energy prices, but the former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission head has waded in with some thoughts:
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Firefighters save domesticated camel from NSW flood waters
“Has anyone wrangled a camel before?” a member of the Foxtrot One in-water rescue team asks apprehensively from the boat.
“Ah, it’s domesticated,” another member, Anthony Walgate, reassures him.
Fire and Rescue NSW yesterday afternoon carried out a “humpday” operation to rescue a domesticated camel stranded in floodwaters of the Murray River near Moama.
The emergency authority said:
Gina the domestic camel had wandered off from her small herd on the property towards the river, ignoring repeated attempts by her owner to coax her away from the water’s edge.
The local resident was concerned because camels cannot swim
Wading through the river up to their chests, the specially-trained rescue technicians used hay to lure Gina out of the floodwater and back to dry land.
She was soon returned to the herd unharmed.
For the Fire and Rescue NSW crew, their ‘dromedary’ drama was done and dusted.
These firefighters adding ‘Camel Wrangling’ to their long list of rescue capabilities.
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The defence minister Richard Marles is speaking about Australian troops being sent to help train Ukraine forces. Daniel Hurst has you covered on that.
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Chalmers slip up – after a question he says he misheard – makes headlines
Jim Chalmers is still doing the media rounds and he’s sounding a little tired.
Yesterday he made his first misstep – he misheard a question at the press club about whether Labor stood by its $275 lower power bills election promise and the treasurer said yup, it’s in the budget.
In question time he said he had contacted the journalist who asked it immediately after to say he misheard the question and thought he had been asking something else.
His mistake is the front page of the Daily Telegraph today.
But the focus is what is the government going to do to lower electricity prices. Chalmers said he isn’t going to pre-empt what the government’s consultation brings, but intervention into the market is one of the things under consideration.
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Good morning
Happy budget reply day to those who celebrate.
Peter Dutton will deliver his first budget reply speech at about 7.30pm (the same time the treasurer delivered his on Tuesday) where the opposition will lay out its plan to deal with Australia’s cost of living issues.
Although you’ll probably hear a lot about the government’s lack of a plan, based on the criticisms from the opposition so far.
But before then, the parliament has to get through a busy day of trying to pass as much legislation as possible, given there are only a handful of sitting weeks left until the end of the year. The Senate agreed to sit later last night so there might be a few cranky heads in the red chamber this morning.
The main legislative game today will be the introduction of the government’s industrial relations bill, where a fight is looming over multi-employer bargaining.
It’s a fight Tony Burke seems to be itching to have, and part of a plan to try to lift wages across the country.
The bill is also aiming for more flexible work options for people who might need it.
It’s a pretty big shake up of the industrial system and business is not on board for all of it. Neither is the opposition. Hence the brewing fight.
And of course, there is also energy and what the government is going to do about future price increases. After yesterday’s inflation numbers and treasury’s forecasts, people want answers.
We’ll bring you all of it as it happens. You have Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Paul Karp, Josh Butler and Daniel Hurst leading the way and Mike Bowers taking you into the hallways and chambers.
Amy Remeikis will be on the blog for most of the day. I’ve already had three coffees and don’t know what today will bring. Maybe a cupcake for breakfast. It seems necessary.
Ready? Let’s get into it.
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