What we learned: Thursday 22 August
This is where we’ll wrap up the blog for today – but first, a quick recap:
After nearly 100 amendments, the NDIS bill passed both houses and will become law.
The former senior immigration official Abul Rizvi has accused the Coalition’s home affairs spokesperson, James Paterson, of quoting him “very, very selectively” on visas for Palestinians and said the idea that people coming to Australia from Gaza posed a national security threat was a “complete beat-up”.
Greens and crossbench senators say the proposed Middle Arm industrial hub in Darwin harbour is a risk to the health of people and ecosystems in the Northern Territory, as a committee examining the project failed to agree on recommendations in its final report.
The independent senator Lidia Thorpe has won Senate support to establish a committee to look at the health and environmental impacts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl (Pfas) chemicals, also known as “forever chemicals”.
The addresses of domestic violence victims have been shared with offenders by Queensland police, including a “vulnerable woman” who was then allegedly told to relocate by officers.
The competition watchdog has warned that Australians could face higher airfares on flights between major cities, after Rex’s 737 jet operations were axed as the airline entered administration.
ABC managing director David Anderson has resigned a year into his second five-year term.
Courts across New South Wales will be shut without notice as sheriffs down tools in protest against a work environment they say is increasingly risky.
The trailblazing Queensland feminist Merle Thornton, who famously chained herself to a Brisbane bar in protest of a ban on women, will be commemorated by a statue.
Updated
NSW search suspended for missing father and son after fishing trip
Rescuers have called off the marine search for a missing father and son after they failed to return from a fishing trip.
The search for the 47-year-old man and his 17-year-old son was suspended on Thursday afternoon after extensive efforts across three days, NSW Police said in a statement.
The operation had involved officers attached to Lake Illawarra Police District, Marine Area Command, police divers, the police rescue unit, Marine Rescue, the State Emergency Service and Surf Life Saving NSW.
The pair had left on Monday to fish at Storm Bay near the popular Kiama Blowhole, about 115km south of the city.
Their fishing gear was recovered but there had been no sign or communication from them before the search was suspended about 1.30pm on Thursday.
Updated
Offenders sent DV victim data in police system blunder
The addresses of domestic violence victims have been shared with offenders by Queensland police, including a “vulnerable woman” who was then allegedly told to relocate by officers.
The state government apologised on Thursday after it emerged a woman felt “completely defeated” when her personal information was exposed by the serious data breach.
The premier, Steven Miles, confirmed addresses of victims in at least five matters – including domestic violence cases – had been sent to offenders by police, sparking a review.
A victim said she was told by police to move after her address was shared by the “computer issue”, the opposition revealed on Thursday. Police allegedly later organised for CCTV cameras to be installed at her house.
A letter to the victim from the police minister’s office showed the matter had been referred to the corruption watchdog.
The opposition’s victim support spokesperson, Laura Gerber, claimed the police minister Mark Ryan’s office organised for the CCTV to be set up at the victim’s house.
The Labor government said it first heard about the data breach after a media enquiry in July.
But the LNP opposition accused the government of knowing about it for months. It said the victim who claimed police told her to relocate before installing CCTV had contacted the police minister on multiple occasions between March and May. Her email to the minister said:
I feel completely defeated, broken, scared and worried.
Updated
NDIS bill passes both houses
After nearly 100 amendments, the NDIS bill has passed both houses and will become law.
After passing the Senate earlier today with a number of fresh amendments, the bill was sent back to the House of Representatives for a final tick.
Before it was passed, the independent MP Monique Ryan commended the bill but with reservations. The Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown said it was a “very sad day” for the disability community:
Many people on the NDIS have shared with me already that the government didn’t care about them, and this just rubs salt into those wounds. Labor has sent a very clear message to disabled people – they don’t care about your goals, your aspirations, or your agency.
The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, snapped back at the Greens’ comments.
The NDIS is a great chapter in the history of disability in Australia, but it’s not the book. It’s not the book. We want to write a new chapter about foundational services working with the states. Heaven help us if the Greens were ever in charge of the NDIS, because they are dangerous.
We’ll bring you more shortly.
Updated
Light plane crashes near Sydney school just before pick-up
A light plane has crash-landed in a small park near a primary school shortly before students headed home for the day, AAP reports.
The Piper PA-28 took off from Bankstown airport, in Sydney’s south-west, about 2.20pm on Thursday before crashing into trees next to sporting fields at nearby Bossley park about five minutes later.
A 37-year-old man and a 34-year-old woman were on board but sustained only minor injuries.
A NSW ambulance spokesperson told AAP the pair did not need to go to hospital and refused further treatment from paramedics.
The plane was on a training flight and appeared to suffer engine failure before making the emergency landing, Fire and Rescue NSW said in a statement.
Updated
NSW courts shut down as sheriffs strike for better conditions
Courts across New South Wales will be shut without notice as sheriffs down tools in protest against a work environment they say is increasingly risky.
The state’s 300-plus sheriff officers are demanding a “reclassification” of their roles and a pay rise to reflect the increasingly dangerous nature of their work, according to the Public Service Association, which represents the workers.
Their stop work action has forced the closure of court houses since early July, with more rolling stoppages expected. A statewide strike took place for the first time on Thursday, affecting all local, district and supreme court houses.
Scheduled court hearings have had to be adjourned while a record-breaking number of pending trials await to be heard.
NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures released last week show the state’s remand population is now 5,763, the highest on record. Many of those cases relate to intimate partner and family violence.
Sheriffs oversee court security, enforce writs and serve warrants across more than 170 courthouses and are employed by the state government.
Stewart Little, the general secretary of the PSA, said the introduction of stab vests, ballistic vests, pepper spray and batons for sheriffs were a result of the increasingly dangerous nature of the work. He said:
Within the remand system, they are often very high-needs inmates, high-risk and difficult [inmates].
He said Asio’s raising of the threat level to “probable” had “flow-on consequences for all secure, high-risk locations, including courts”:
It’s certainly the case that it’s been really, really busy for the last six months. What’s brought [industrial action] to a head is there are significant vacancies coupled with an extreme workload because we can’t attract or retain sheriffs.
He did not rule out another statewide stoppage and said he would fight for his members for months, “if that’s what it takes.”
A Department of Communities and Justice spokesperson said the department is “currently in discussions with the PSA and it would be inappropriate to comment on these matters”.
Contingency plans were in place to reduce impacts on courts, they said.
An Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions spokesperson said the office “continues to work with the courts as this matter is resolved”.
Updated
Hello, and thank you to Amy Remeikis for guiding us through another busy week on the politics live blog. I’ll now be with you until this evening.
This is Amy, signing off
And with that, I will pass the blog over to Jordyn Beazley, who will take you through the evening.
The politics live blog will go dark again until 9 September when parliament returns – but you will be kept updated with Emily Wind and the team behind the Australia live general news blog in the mean time.
It is going to be a big couple of weeks between parliament sessions – and there is also the Pacific Island Forum next week, so make sure you check back for coverage of that.
Thank you to everyone who joined with us for the last two weeks – it means so much. Particularly when you have so many things fighting for your attention. You are the reason this little blog keeps ticking over and we are grateful.
Politics live will be back in two weeks, but until then, as always – take care of you.
Updated
Labor and the Coalition have reached in-principle agreement in negotiations on aged care reforms which will involve greater user-pays for aged care residents, particularly with respect to residential accommodation and food.
Guardian Australia has confirmed Labor has offered to drop criminal penalties against aged care directors for breaches of standards and to exempt people on home care waiting lists from the new fee structure.
But we don’t have the full details of the bill, because the government won’t release it until the Coalition has given formal notice of its support.
The aged care minister, Anika Wells, said:
It has been clear all along: there must be bipartisanship. We can’t have this change from government to government. The sector won’t invest if they’re not confident about the rules. The finances and care options of older Australians are just too important.
We’ve had long constructive negotiations with the opposition, but haven’t yet secured a formal agreement to allow us to introduce legislation.”
Earlier on Thursday the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said:
We’ve made it really clear we’ve been working methodically to make sure that we can deliver a higher standard of care and better services in a more sustainable way ... We’ve been engaged I think in meaningful discussions and negotiations across the parliament, and we hope to be able to say more about that soon ...
Spending on aged care will continue to grow even if we are able to implement the sorts of reforms recommended to us by the aged care taskforce.”
Advocates dissapointed in proposed parliamentary standards legislation
Renee Carr, the executive director of advocacy group Fair Agenda, has responded to the tabling of the independent parliamentary standards commission legislation.
Carr says that the group has “major questions about the lack of transparency provided by this reform”. Carr:
If a parliamentarian has engaged in serious misconduct, the detailed report and recommendations of the independent commission appear to only be provided to the members of the privileges committee. This means that a small group of MPs will decide not only what sanctions are voted on by the chamber, but also what information is then made available to the public.
How are the public supposed to have faith that they are making an informed decision at the ballot box, or that parliamentarians are actually being held to account, if their colleagues are the ones determining the flow of information? It doesn’t pass the pub test.
Carr says more needs to be done to strengthen the transparency around the commission, so the public is kept informed of the IPSC’s findings:
Under this reform, it appears that information may never be made public, if the parliamentarians who make up the privileges committee disagree.”
… We’re also disappointed to see the scope of these standards limited only to conduct within the course of a parliamentarian’s role. Given the influence parliamentarians have, and the power they have over our lives, the community should be able to expect a certain standard of conduct and character in all aspects of their public life.
Updated
Greens fire back after Labor says motion on Indigenous women’s deaths was ‘disrespectful’
Greens senator Dorinda Cox has responded to the minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy’s comments on the motion Cox attempted to move in the senate earlier today.
McCarthy said the government had only had the report on Missing and murdered first nations women and children for a week and was considering it in detail. She said she only received notice of Cox’s motion five minutes before it was tabled, and was “disappointed” in how Cox had handled the issue.
She said it was “disrespectful” to suggest the government wasn’t doing anything.
Cox has responded in a statement:
I brought this motion because of the calls and conversations I have had since the missing and murdered first nations final report last week. These are the same conversations that have been had with the relevant ministers, who still turn their backs on the calls for urgent action.
Well, I won’t be silenced and I will keep demanding action from this government.
We should be outraged that our women and children continue to be slaughtered and that our women and children are not safe. Yet this government, who [have] the power today to change this, says it needs “more time” and calls my motion to address this national emergency and implement the Greens recommendations, which are based on lived experience and stakeholders and that will save lives, “disappointing”.
Well, this government’s lack of action is disappointing and shameful. You have been elected to do your job. Do it.
Communities are rallying on the streets, stakeholders and frontline services are exhausted and overwhelmed, and we are relying on victim survivors to count our dead women and demand action – for some whilst trying to stay alive or while seeing their loved ones being terrorised or hurt. This is shameful.
Updated
Here is Anthony Albanese in question time, responding to one of the visa questions:
What did we learn in question time?
Every question from the opposition was again on security arrangements for Palestinian visas, in a rehash of every QT from this week.
But after questions on how many visas Qatar has issued to Palestinians (a December report said 3,000 places in Qatar would be made available) and Abul Rizvi debunking the Coalition’s interpretation of his interview with the Australian newspaper before QT began, there was not much left in the pot.
Not a single question was asked about whether the government had received advice from its department to issue humanitarian visas, which is what the opposition was lining up in its attacks this morning.
Paul Fletcher, who is chief wrangler of the opposition in the House, was also seen dropping off sheets of papers to backbenchers who asked questions (actual paper is how new instructions or questions are usually delivered – they don’t do it in text messages).
Anthony Albanese stuck to his strategy of not engaging in the back-and-forth by sitting down whenever a point of order was raised and the government kept every dixer on what it is was doing either on policy or cost of living relief.
That culminated with Albanese delivering his own dixer answer designed to get the Labor troops “hear, hearing” and present a positive, uplifted “team” (the Coalition’s Nola Marino could be seen pretending to conduct the “hear, hears” as if in front of an choir)
And Peter Dutton stayed fairly quiet. He had just the one question, which was cut off over a debate over imputations in questions and then reworded.
That is the last QT until 9 September when parliament returns. Enjoy that break.
Updated
What did the speaker rule on imputations?
One of the interesting parts of that QT (which is a rare sentence to write) was Milton Dick’s ruling on imputations.
The speaker said he had “spent a bit of time overnight dealing with imputations in questions” because it has been raised so frequently lately. He used practice (which sets the precedents that speakers use in dealing with disputes) and went back to the 2000s and Speaker Neil Andrew.
Andrew outlined “improper motives” in questions and those not allowed, “particularly with personal motives, regardless of where it’s directed to”.
He then went to Speaker Tony Smith, who made rulings in a similar space in 2021 and 2018. Smith said he was “certainly not comfortable with a language that just makes assertions as it did, I’m really not, and those on my left, who within the opposition, would not be comfortable if that sort of language was directed back at them”.
And then he quoted himself from 14 February when he asked a Greens MP to “redirect and rephrase the question” and another occasion when he asked Kate Chaney to also change her question.
So for “consistency” Dick said he would be ruling those parts of the questions (imputations) out.
Updated
Question time ends
As Anthony Albanese lists off all the “numbers” he says the government is proud of, the shadow energy minister, Ted O’Brien, almost gives himself a hernia yelling “You forgot the $275!!!! You forgot the $275!!!!!!”
Question time ends.
(The $275 is in reference to the average the government said people would be saving on their energy bills by 2025.)
Updated
Anthony Albanese takes a dixer so he can end question time on a rallying “rah-rah” on what he says Labor has done in the term.
I think we are safe to say that at the end of this answer, the final question time of the sitting will be done.
Updated
Julian Leeser is back:
Prime Minister, does supporting Hamas pass the character test for an Australian visa?
Anthony Albanese:
Everyone who applies for an Australian visa is subject to the same security standard set by the same agencies and the same personnel as under the former government, and our intelligence agencies make those decisions.
Our intelligence agencies have the confidence of this side of the House, this side of the House, and so does Mike Burgess, who has made it very clear that if you have violent extremism as an ideology, then you certainly have a problem with an Asio assessment.
Asio makes these national security assessments. They’re not made on a partisan basis or a political basis.
Asio do this work and they do it as well on an ongoing basis on an ongoing basis, which is relevant to previous questions that have been asked over the last couple of weeks.
And national security is too important to be used as a political football.
Our national security is something that historically in this place, in this place has been above the sort of game playing and targeting that we’ve seen here.
The targeting of any group based upon hate is a bad thing, whether that’s people of Jewish faith, people of Islamic faith, people of whatever colour or creed. It is a bad thing. And we see the consequences of hate in too many places of the world at the moment. What I want to do in this great multicultural nation is provide …
Dan Tehan goes to raise a point of order and a visibly annoyed Albanese ends his answer.
Updated
Julian Leeser asks PM whether supporting Hamas passes the character test for Australian visa
Julian Leeser asks Anthony Albanese:
Prime Minister, on October 7, Hamas terrorists went into small Israeli farming villages and a music festival where they filmed themselves gleefully murdering children, raping women and mutilating their victims, including after death.
1,300 innocent people were gunned down and murdered for sport, and 251 hostages were forced at gunpoint into Hamas terror tunnels under Gaza. On return, thousands of people were dancing in the streets in celebration. Prime minister, does supporting Hamas pass the character test for an Australian visa?
Albanese:
I thank the member for Berowra for his question, and I know that he, as a proud Jewish Australian, was hurt, as are other members of the Jewish community right around not just Australia, but around the world by the events, the horrific events of October 7.
They shocked also, I think, anyone with any human values at all.
One of the things that I’ve said to people here who I think have been in any way equivocal, unlike the government that has been unequivocal and as has the opposition in their condemnation of what happened in October 7, is that the people who were there at the Nova music festival looked like a whole lot of people who would attend a Splendour in the Grass concert, would attend the sort of events that happen here in Australia where young people celebrate their common humanity, where they engage in fun and where they also tend to be people who are open to ideas and open to collaboration across people of different faiths, etc and one of the things that some of the, Jewish community leaders have said to me in the wake of October 7 is that they are precisely the sort of people who want to see peace and reconciliation with the Palestinians, as well.
They were very close to where the border was. And to have them subjected to the horrific murder, rape and abuse that occurred, the kidnapping of people, is horrific, if it occurred to any human being.
But of course, because of one of the reasons why the world came together in the wake of world war two in the wake of the Holocaust …
(There is a point of order at this part of the question and Albanese sits down, completing his answer.)
Updated
Rebekha Sharkie asks Mark Butler:
According to the National Rural Health Alliance, regional Australians receive $848 less per year in health spend than metropolitan Australians. How will the government urgently address this alarming health care spending inequity?
Butler (the bit that counts):
We’re currently undertaking [a review] about the distribution rules to ensure that all areas have access to doctors, but other health professionals as well.
Updated
‘We want to see an advance in peace and security between Israelis and Palestinians’: PM
The LNP MP Pat Conaghan asks Anthony Albanese:
When the Rafah border crossing reopens, will the thousands of people holding a tourist visa to travel to Australia be eligible to travel immediately?
Visa approvals expire and lapse. That is normal.
Anthony Albanese:
I’m asked about the reopening of the Rafah border crossing by the member for Cowper and he may have information that I don’t have, and that’s possible, Mr Speaker. That is possible.
But I think it’s unlikely, Mr Speaker. I think it’s unlikely. But what I do want to see are borders which are able to be opened because there is a release of hostages from Gaza currently being kept by Hamas. Because there is an end to the death and destruction that we see against too many innocent civilians in Gaza on our TV screens every night.
Because we see want to see an advance in peace and security between Israelis and Palestinians. Because we see in the region, a recognition by Arab states of the state of Israel and the right for it to continue to exist with insecure borders, but also the right of Palestinians, the legitimate aspiration that they have, to live in peace and security behind their borders.
That’s what I hope for. That is something that has been longstanding bipartisan policy in the Australian parliament for a long period of time.
And Australia has a proud history going back to our role in the United Nations, with, importantly, the creation of not one state, but the creation of two states, which was the vision of the United Nations in which Australia played an important leadership role. I believe that Australians, when they look at what is happening in that part of the world are horrified. But particularly for people of Jewish background or descent or faith, people of Islamic background or people with relatives in that region, want to see this happen. And what they don’t want also is conflict because [of that] here.
They want Australia to play a constructive role.
They object to some of the misinformation which is out there about Australia’s role in that conflict which is we are not participants, but we are people who, consistent with the role Australia has historically played, advocates for peace and security and for humanitarian values and for the protection of all innocent life, whether it be Israeli or Palestinian.
Updated
In the Senate, the subject has shifted from agriculture and mining to whaling, with the Greens’ Peter Whish-Wilson asking what the government thinks about Japan slaughtering endangered fin whales for the first time in more than 50 years.
Jenny McAllister, representing the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, reiterates that the government is “deeply disappointed” in Japan’s decision to expand its commercial whaling program.
McAllister says that as of a month ago, Australia had made “strong representations” to Japan eight times about the decision:
We are opposed to all forms of commercial whaling.
She confirms the foreign minister, Penny Wong, had pressed this with the Japanese government on multiple occasions. She says that in June, Australia led a “united representation” with the European Union, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States to express its disappointment to Japan directly.
McAllister says Australia will continue to play “an active and vocal role” in failing of the international moratorium on whaling.
Updated
What has Asio said about whether home affairs has ‘cut corners’ on visa processing?
In parliament, Peter Dutton has repeated the claim that the government was “cutting corners” on security checks, so let’s once again see what Asio said about this.
In March, Guardian Australia asked the Asio boss, Mike Burgess, for a response to Coalition concerns that Asio or the Department of Home Affairs might have been under pressure to “to cut corners, or do this more quickly than they already would”.
Burgess said Asio had a role in the visa process but he would not explain the precise arrangements “because we don’t want people to game that process”. Burgess explicitly said his organisation was not being put under political pressure and “I’m confident the process is where it needs to be”.
Updated
Anthony Albanese continues raising Abul Rizvi’s comments.
[Rizvi] had this to say … Talking about the leader of the opposition: ‘The guy who allowed the biggest labour trafficking scam in Australian history and at the same time made massive cuts to immigration compliance funding. A labour trafficker’s dream.’
And indeed today he has gone on to say [to] shadow minister Senator [James] Paterson: ‘If you read the whole article, I actually said the national security dimension of this is a beat up. The checks these people go through [are] extensive so to suggest that as a national security risk here is a complete beat up. There is no evidence that the government recklessly concluded …’
Albanese runs out of time.
Updated
Anthony Albanese:
[Peter Dutton’s question] is about questions being asked in this parliament over the last two weeks, but in fact the questions didn’t begin over the last two weeks, they began from last Wednesday.
They began from the moment in which our Olympians came home, and the leader of the opposition did an interview on Sky News, in which he declared that no one should be allowed in from Gaza, even though the fact is the border from Gaza had been closed for months, and with no response or no issues raised by those opposite while people were actually coming.
They waited until people weren’t coming in and the border was closed.
So there was the leader of the opposition at the [moment of] the Olympians coming home. Should have been a moment of national unity. He chose division once again. The Australian scarf stayed on, but the mask behind this divisive leader of the opposition came off, and he still going.
On Monday he asked about terrorist visas. On Tuesday, after being called out for being so angry, and for not focusing on the cost of living, he moved that the Treasurer be no longer heard.
And yesterday he gagged himself by not asking a single question in Question Time, but having others ask questions, fed up to them, including like the ones today, which seems to suggest somehow that I’m responsible for who is in Qatar.
I will tell you who is in Qatar who I wouldn’t allow in Qatar, that is the Hamas leadership I would not allow in Australia. That is what I would do.
Updated
Speaker rules against ‘imputations’ in questions as Dutton attempts to corner PM over Gaza visas
Peter Dutton gets up to take a question and there is the sound of “ooohhhhhhhhh” from the Labor benches.
Dutton seems ready to be moving a suspension of standing orders here.
Over the last two weeks, the prime minister has dodged about 30 questions on the government’s handling of people coming from terrorist-controlled Gaza since October 7. It’s now clear that by cutting corners and concocting the visas-for-votes scheme, this government has put domestic political considerations ahead of national security and Australians are now less safe.
Tony Burke jumps up to ask about imputations in the question. There is no evidence that corners were cut, and there has been no event or incident which has led to these questions – this started last week when Peter Dutton answered a question put to him by a Sky News journalist as they waited for the Australian Olympic team to return from Paris.
Dutton said he didn’t think anyone from Gaza should be coming to Australia. No one is – the border has been shut since May. This turned into the opposition claiming that not enough security checks have been carried out. The head of Asio, Mike Burgess, said in an interview on Insiders on Sunday, that security checks were done as usual.
There has been no suggestion that “corners have been cut” other than the opposition presenting it as fact. The opposition also started to present as fact that visas were approved “in an average of 24 hours” which again, there is no evidence for.
Milton Dick rules against imputations.
Dutton asks again:
Over the last two weeks the prime minister has dodged almost 30 questions on the government’s handling of people coming from terrorist-controlled Gaza since October 7. It is now clear that by cutting corners this government has put domestic political considerations ahead of national security and Australians are now less safe. With the prime minister apologise for breaking his promise before the election to keep Australians safe?
Updated
LNP MP asks how many people from Gaza have been accepted by Qatar
The LNP’s Michelle Landry has the next opposition question:
How many people from the Gaza war zone has Qatar accepted?
(We are getting to the bottom of the barrel with these questions now, folks.)
Anthony Albanese:
I did meet with the prime minister of Qatar earlier today. Those opposite regarded that meeting as being not relevant – hence the point of order moved by the member for Wannon. I am responsible for what the Australian government does, not what the Qatari government does, and it would be …
(Peter Dutton interjects)
Albanese:
He’s getting angry again, Mr Speaker. He’s getting angry again. Perhaps if he can inform us about what the prime minister of Qatar said to him. I don’t know. But that’s a matter for him, of whether to disclose or not. It was a good meeting with the prime minister of Qatar. It follows meetings with the prime minister in New Zealand and the president-elect of Indonesia in the last week.
A December 2023 media report said: The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, yesterday announced that Doha will sponsor 3,000 orphans and provide treatment to 1,500 injured Palestinians from the besieged Gaza Strip, Qatar news agency (QNA) reported.
Updated
Dan Tehan asks the next opposition question – so far today is following yesterday with Peter Dutton remaining seen but not heard.
Prime minister, will individuals currently in the terrorist-controlled Gaza war zone who have already been granted a visa by this Government be subject to face-to-face interviews or biometric checks before they arrive in Australia?
Anthony Albanese:
I thank the member for his question and we know that there’s been a change in the position of those opposite who were saying it should be a total ban and now saying a temporary pause, a softening of that. Of course it’s interesting to call for a temporary pause on a border which is closed. The border is closed.
Updated
Treasurer questioned over reviews into public sector board appointments
Independent MP Sophie Scamps asks Jim Chalmers:
Just last week, the government appointed a former Labor premier to the board of Australia Post. She replaces someone who was a former director of the Liberal party, appointed, unsurprisingly, by the previous Coalition government. In February 2023, this government commissioned a review of public sector board appointments to respond to transparency concerns. The report of that review was given to the government in August 2023. Treasurer, 12 months on, why has the report not been released publicly? And when will it be released?
Chalmers speaks of the reviews the government ordered of public sector board appointments, which he says have been delivered to the government and are “under consideration”.
He then brings up Scott Morrison’s multiple ministries before getting to the crux of the question;
As I said earlier, the report is with the government for consideration. When it comes to former premier Palaszczuk, I believe that that’s a very good appointment to the board of Australia Post and I think it is very hard to sustain the argument that former premier Palaszczuk’s eight years as premier of Queensland doesn’t qualify her for that important role and I know that there will always be a range of views about government appointments. Our job, our objective and our record is appointing the best people that we can to these government positions, because we know how important it is that these government boards are guided in the best possible way.
Updated
Senate question time begins with a blast from Michaelia Cash, who wants to know why Anthony Albanese made a joke during a speech at the Agrifutures Rural Women’s Awards on Tuesday night in which he mentioned having dinner with the visiting Indonesian president-elect and noted they ate “beautiful Australian beef” and added, “not the live export, we made sure it was dead”.
Cash says the prime minister’s joke was inappropriate because shutting down the live export industry had caused “untold damage” to farming families in her home state.
Government Senate leader Penny Wong responds:
The prime minister and the government are very proud of Australia’s beef industry and will often feature beef on the menu when we have visiting politicians, visiting leaders and ministers, because using those events to showcase great Australian produce is something I would have thought people would be pleased about.
Wong notes that beef exports hit a record high in 2022-23. She says:
We’re proud of the beef industry!
Updated
We just had a quick search for where the origins of that last question from Melissa McIntosh came from and it appears to be from Sky News’ Sharri Markson, who spoke of “concerns” police in NSW apparently have with the security checks on her show.
No one is named, and it does not appear any evidence was offered. Most of the piece appears to be Markson editorialising, but you can see for yourself here.
Updated
Coalition continues with questions on Palestinian visas
The shadow minister for western Sydney Melissa McIntosh has the next non-government question:
I refer to the government’s issuing of tourist visas to nearly 3,000 people from the terrorist-controlled Gaza war zone, with nearly 1,300 already arrived in Australia. Can the prime minister provide details on any concerns raised by the New South Wales state police or the New South Wales government regarding this matter?
(The last election held in Gaza was in 2006. 44% of voters voted for Hamas, while 41% voted for the moderate Fatah. Almost half of the population in Gaza is under the age of 18 and would not have voted in the 2006 election.)
Anthony Albanese:
I’m asked about New South Wales. And the New South Wales police.
As for the New South Wales police, I haven’t had contact with the New South Wales police on this matter. I can confirm that. As for New South Wales, in the Penrith area, I know that there’s a very happy number 5 on the ticket for Penrith Council.
Updated
Question time begins
Sussan Ley opens up the questions with one to Tony Burke:
Yesterday, the prime minister couldn’t explain if any ministerial intervention had occurred regarding the 20 tourist visas issued to people from the terrorist-controlled Gaza war zone that were cancelled and then reinstated on appeal. Will the minister finally confirm whether representations or ministerial interventions occurred to support any of these 20 cases?
Burke:
All decisions were made by the department.
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Mehreen Faruqi: ‘This place has broken me with its racism’
Before we head into the house chamber, we will take you into the Senate where the Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has delivered a speech which left the chamber completely silent.
Faruqi:
I am a staunch, proud, Muslim woman of colour. I’m not afraid of telling the truth and calling out racism, sexism, and bigotry. Even though I know there will be a price to pay. But some days, some weeks, the price is just too heavy.
This week, this place has broken me. This place has broken me with its racism, this place has broken me with its attacks on Muslims, on Palestinian refugees, on disabled people and on women.
Those who are not piling on hate and racism are standing on the sidelines or gaslighting or worse, trying to shut us up.
That is what you want. You want us to be silenced because you don’t like us holding a mirror to you; you don’t like the truth in the mirror because you can’t handle the truth.
The roots of the racism in this country and the problems in this country sit right here in this parliament.
We see Peter Dutton and his outrageous comments. We see dog whistling on migrants and refugees.
I had to sit here and listen to Senator [Jacqui] Lambie attack and vilify Muslims and she couldn’t even announce my name. We see Senator Penny Wong falsely accusing us of politicising an issue when we actually call out racism and when we call out a genocide in Gaza.
So, I am broken. People tell me to develop a thick skin but I will not do that. I will not do that. You may break me today, but you know what? I will get up, I will dust myself and I will be here tomorrow to say exactly the truth that I have been saying for a long time.
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Further to Amanda’s post on David Anderson, ABC board chair Kim Williams has told staff in a separate email that Anderson has agreed to stay on board until the recruitment process for a new managing editor is completed, which could take until early 2025.
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ABC managing director David Anderson resigns
ABC managing director David Anderson has resigned a year into his second five-year term.
He was appointed for a second term on 1 July 2023, and was supposed to be in the role until July 2028.
In a note to staff Anderson said:
When I was formally appointed Managing Director of the ABC in 2019, I said it is a privilege to be appointed to the role, overseeing one of Australia’s most loved and respected cultural institutions.
Not a day has gone by since when I haven’t reflected on that privilege, and the honour of leading the ABC, advocating for the work we do and most importantly, doing my best to support all of you, the ABC’s greatest asset.
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After a pretty intense morning (complete with too many social media announcements of policy to count, and yet none of them proving politicians have worked out how to walk “naturally” in front of a camera while speaking as yet) things are starting to get a little slower.
It is the pointy end of the day, so we have question time in just over 40 minutes. The government is focused on getting its main bills introduced and the ones it needs passed through the Senate, done, so there should hopefully be a little bit more calm.
Famous last words and all that.
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We brought you some of it a little earlier, but you can read Kate Lyons’ story with Abul Rizvi, in response to James Paterson in its entirety, here:
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Loud boom heard over Perth yesterday may have been caused by Singaporean air force training
Stepping out of politics for a moment to clear up something which left the west quite confused yesterday:
A loud boom heard over Perth yesterday and which reportedly sent shock waves and “rattled windows everywhere from Mandurah to Fremantle to inland at Byford” “could have” come from Singaporean defence aircraft that were training 70km off the coast.
The Singaporean Ministry of Defence released a statement after a “loud noise” being “reported” by the media, saying:
Initial findings indicate that the noise could have come from the training aircraft.
The loud noise was unexpected as the F-15 was far out at sea.
The F-15 aircraft are flying about 70km from the coast at above 24,000 feet over sea in the designated training area.
Four of Singapore’s F-15 aircrafts are training out of Royal Australian air force Base Pearce – located 35km north of Perth – from 13 August to 6 September, the statement said.
The [Republic of Singapore air force] appreciates the continued support of the RAAF and the local community for our training from RAAF Base Pearce.
The [Republic of Singapore air force] apologises for any alarm that the training activity may have caused.
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Environment Centre of the NT labels $1.5bn Middle Arm funding ‘nothing more than a fossil fuel subsidy’
The Environment Centre of the Northern Territory says $1.5bn in commonwealth funding promised to the proposed Middle Arm development on Darwin Harbour was “nothing more than a fossil fuel subsidy to open up the Beetaloo basin” after Greens and cross bench senators recommended the money be redirected to green projects.
The centre’s executive director Kirsty Howey said:
It’s absurdly obvious that the Albanese government needs to jettison the subsidy and direct the money into green industries that will actually benefit the Northern Territory, not send it towards climate collapse.
A Senate committee examining the project has tabled its report but committee members were unable to agree on a unanimous set of recommendations. Government and Coalition senators on the committee made no recommendations and have instead each presented a set of additional comments.
Howey said both the government and opposition “are putting their heads in the sand on this”:
Given the number of issues raised [in the inquiry], the opposition of local people, and the huge amount of taxpayer money that will be spent on it, it’s outrageous that Labor in particular has not seen fit to make a single recommendation.
Djingili elder and Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation chair Samuel Sandy said “the Territory should be frack-free and we back the call that there be no public money for gas processing at Middle Arm”.
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Labor’s NDIS bill ‘a broken promise’ to disabled people, Greens senator says
Greens senator Jordon Steele-John says the Labor NDIS legislation is “a broken promise from a Labor government that many in our community trusted”.
The bill has passed through the Senate. It will return to the house for the amendments agreed upon between Labor and the Coalition to be passed, before going to the governor-general for its royal assent.
Steele-John:
So many disabled people, our allies and our representative organisations asked Minister Shorten for this bill not to proceed. Yet the Labor and Liberal parties did a deal behind closed doors to pass this legislation.
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Queensland LNP MP found in contempt of parliament after taking photo of Steven Miles’s text on Labor MP’s phone
Queensland’s privilege committee has found state LNP MP Michael Crandon in contempt of parliament for spying on another MP’s phone in parliament.
Crandon snapped the pic of the phone of Labor MP Ali King’s phone last October, over her shoulder, in the chamber. It was later used for a parliamentary attack on the premier, Steven Miles.
In a report tabled on Thursday, parliament’s ethics committee found his actions were ‘improper’ and interfered with King’s duties as an MP. As a result, he was found in contempt of parliament.
The committee determined a reasonable person was likely to consider that spying upon the mobile phone of a colleague and then providing a photograph of that phone displaying a private text message to others, falls well below the standard of behaviour in any workplace, let alone the high standard of behaviour expected of a member of Parliament,” it said.
However it recommended no action be taken. Crandon apologised in March.
It found that the ethics rules as written did not explicitly ban his conduct, and that they be changed to protect MP’s privacy.
A second report also tabled on Thursday regarding the covert filming of LNP MP Deb Frecklington recommended prohibiting the filming and photographing of persons carrying out official duties on the parliamentary precinct without prior consent.
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Labor’s proposed multinational tax changes pass House of Representatives
The government proposed changes to multinational tax has passed through the House of Representatives.
The bill sets out to provide a tax “floor” multinationals must meet, to try to counter the use of tax havens to circumvent paying higher taxes.
The Coalition weren’t a fan of the bill in the house, setting it up as another piece of legislation the government will have to build support for in the Senate.
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Labor has voted against Liberal senator Andrew Bragg’s push to have an inquiry into whether union super fund Cbus barred from receiving funds from the housing Australia future fund.
Bragg is not happy.
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Taiwan welcomes Australian Senate’s pushback against ‘disinformation’ from Beijing about claims to island
Taiwan has welcomed Australian MPs calling out misinformation about China’s stance over the self-governed island, AAP reports:
The Australian Senate on Wednesday passed a motion declaring a United Nations resolution from 1971, seized on by Beijing to justify rhetoric over “re-unifying” Taiwan, didn’t establish a claim over the island.
It sought to tackle misinformation about Australia’s position on China’s claim over Taiwan.
While Australia has a one-China policy, which means it recognises the People’s Republic of China in Beijing as the sole legal government, it doesn’t recognise its position on Taiwan.
“China’s efforts to subvert the language of the resolution to make false claims of sovereignty over Taiwan are unacceptable,” Taiwan’s representatives in Australia said, in thanking the Senate.
“We applaud the efforts of our fellow free democracies to push back against such blatant and irresponsible disinformation.”
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Abul Rizvi has also posted to social media:
Without any evidence, Coalition is arguing 3,000 visitor visas for Palestinians were ‘rushed’. 3,000 visitor visas over 9 months with a refusal rate of over 70% is not rushed. Most high risk visitor visas can be processed in a few weeks including an ASIO referral.
— Abul Rizvi (@RizviAbul) August 22, 2024
Senate committee to investigate 'forever chemicals'
The independent senator Lidia Thorpe has won Senate support to establish a committee to look at the health and environmental impacts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl (Pfas) chemicals, also known as “forever chemicals”.
Thorpe said she negotiated support with the Albanese government and will chair an inquiry which “will examine the sources that expose people to these dangerous ‘forever chemicals’; the extent of their presence in the environment, food systems and consumer goods; the health, environmental, social, cultural, and economic impacts of PFAS, and how regulation can be strengthened to protect the population from harm”.
The substances do not break down. They are used in firefighting foams and common consumer products like non-stick pans, food packaging, dental floss, cosmetics and activewear.
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Asked to comment on Abul Rizvi’s criticisms of how James Paterson had categorised his comments, Paterson said:
It’s up to the Albanese government to come clean about Mr Rivzi’s allegations – only they can put it beyond doubt by releasing the advice the department gave them about these visas.
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Former immigration secretary says James Paterson quoted him ‘very, very selectively’ on visas
Abul Rizvi, a former deputy immigration secretary, has responded to Liberal senator James Paterson, who has used some of his quotes from an article in the Australian newspaper today to attack the government over security checks for Palestinian visas.
Rizvi was quoted in the Australian on Thursday saying the government had deviated from past practice by issuing tourist visas, rather than humanitarian visas, to people fleeing Gaza. He was also quoted as saying the decision was likely a political one that probably went against departmental advice.
The shadow home affairs minister jumped on the comments, doing a press conference at parliament house on Thursday, saying the news story contained “very serious allegations”.
Paterson called for the government to release the departmental advice it had received, saying if they didn’t “that’s basically an admission of guilt from the government, it’s an admission that Mr Rizvi is right, they did make a political decision, that they departed from past practice, they ignored departmental advice and that they recklessly issued 3,000 tourist visas to people fleeing a war zone controlled by a terrorist organisation putting our national security at risk”.
On Thursday morning, Rizvi told the Guardian Paterson “seems to be quoting me very, very selectively. He should read the whole article.”
If he read the whole article, I actually said the national security dimension of this is a beat up.
Rizvi said Paterson’s comments about people arriving on tourist visas risking Australia’s national security was “rubbish”.
The checks these people go through are extensive, so to suggest there is a national security risk here is a complete beat up. There is no evidence that the government recklessly issued tourist visas, in fact the refusal rate Australia is applying is substantially higher than the rate the Kiwis are applying.
These people are being checked to an extraordinary degree by three governments.
That means it’s extremely unlikely a Hamas operative would get through.
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Grassroots groups form network to tackle domestic violence amid frustration at ‘slow wheels of government’
A new grassroots network has been formed by specialist domestic, family and sexual violence organisations “fed up with the slow wheels of government that lead to inaction”.
Led by First Nations Advocates Against Family Violence (FNAAFV), which is the only nationally funded peak body set up to address DFSV for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, the 40-strong gathering of Aboriginal Controlled Community Organisations (ACCOs) and allies will convene today for their first meeting.
FNAAFV’s chief executive Kerry Staines:
There are dozens of organisations on the ground that are energised to deliver better outcomes for our mob and who recognise the importance of community led solutions, and as the national peak body for the sector we are committed to bringing us all together to amplify grassroots local voices to a national level.
So far, we have more than 55 registrations from 43 organisations, which coupled with our current members who have almost 300 workers nationally, gives us access to many voices from very remote to urban areas to address this crisis.
Membership to the Community of Practice is free and open indefinitely, so we encourage ACCOs and ally organisations to join the conversation as we push for immediate action to reduce family violence experienced by our communities.
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Government senators say Middle Arm project will help set up economy ‘for a sustainable future’
Lastly on the Middle Arm inquiry report:
Government senators, in their comments, said the Middle Arm project was “an important way of diversifying industry in the Northern Territory and setting up our economy for a sustainable future”.
They reiterated past statements that the government’s investment is for “common use marine infrastructure” that could support a range of users and was not “targeted at one industry over another”:
This may include industries such as renewable energy, green hydrogen, critical minerals processing, and the manufacture and export of lithium batteries—all of which are critical to global decarbonisation and our commitment to net zero.
The government’s equity stake in the project has been scrutinised after documents revealed Middle Arm was seen as a “key enabler” for the export of gas from fracking in the Beetaloo basin despite the industrial hub being described by the NT and federal governments as a sustainable development precinct.
Coalition senators said they remained supportive of the project because it would bring economic development in the territory. They said they did not feel the inquiry canvassed a broad enough range of views and was too focused on liquefied natural gas “at the expense of including other industries”.
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Inquiry hands down report on Middle Arm proposal but committee unable to agree on recommendations
The comments come after a Senate inquiry chaired by Sarah Hanson-Young handed down its report on the controversial Middle Arm development in which the federal government has taken a $1.5b stake. The report has been tabled days before the Northern Territory election and follows a 2023 Guardian Australia investigation.
Unusually for a Senate inquiry, neither of the major parties have made any recommendations.
Hanson-Young, in her chair’s report, said: “It is clear that there are significant concerns relating to the potential climate, human health, environmental, and cultural impacts of the proposed development” but the committee had been unable to reach agreement on a unanimous set of recommendations.
Instead, the report summarises information that was presented to the inquiry, with the Greens, Thorpe and Senator David Pocock each making their own recommendations and the major parties making additional comments.
The Greens recommended the government redirect the $1.5b promised to Middle Arm to clean industries and ensure that fossil-fuel based industries are not directly or indirectly subsidised. They’ve said any support for passage of the government’s Future Made in Australia legislation will be contingent on the government meeting this demand.
They’ve also called for governments to ensure free, prior and informed consent is obtained from Larrakia people for any development at Middle Arm.
Pocock has similarly recommended that any government investment at Middle Arm be structured in a way that “prevents benefit” from flowing to fossil-fuel based industries.
He called for the circumstances in which $1.5b in commonwealth funding was committed to the Middle Arm project to be investigated, including the role of any lobbying firms.
Thorpe said the inquiry had heard clear opposition from Larrakia people to the project and recommended the project not proceed. She said any federal government support for the project “must be contingent upon the Northern Territory government obtaining the free, prior and informed consent of the Larrakia people”.
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Darwin’s Middle Arm hub would harm people and ecosystems, crossbench senators say
Greens and crossbench senators say the proposed Middle Arm industrial hub in Darwin harbour is a risk to the health of people and ecosystems in the Northern Territory, as a committee examining the project failed to agree on recommendations in its final report.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says:
The Middle Arm gas and petrochemical proposal would wreck Darwin Harbour, harm human health and fuel dangerous climate change. We simply can not proceed with massive new gas and fossil fuel projects subsidised by taxpayers.
Senator Lidia Thorpe said it would be “an ecocidal disaster with devastating impacts on sacred Larrakia Country, as well as on the health of people living in and around Darwin” and reiterated her calls for the development to be scrapped:
It’s disappointing that this committee wasn’t able to agree to a single recommendation, despite the alarming evidence we heard about the destruction and pollution this project will create.
The Larrakia people were unanimous in asserting that no free, prior and informed consent has been obtained for the project and that their concerns have been ignored by both the NT and federal Labor governments.
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The latest family law amendment bill has been introduced in the house.
Mark Dreyfus described it as:
This Bill seeks to make the division of property and finances safer, simpler and fairer for separating families, especially where family violence is present. The Bill would:
specify the approach that a court will take when deciding the division of property and finances, making the law clearer for all parties;
ensure the economic impact of family violence is considered where relevant as part of dividing property and finances;
ensure that the care and housing needs of children are considered in financial and property decisions;
ensure financial information is disclosed at the earliest opportunity to promote the early resolution of disputes; and
expand the court’s ability to use less adversarial approaches in all types of proceedings, not just for children’s matters, supporting parties to safely raise family violence risks and ensuring the safe conduct of proceedings.
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Senate debates NDIS bill
The Senate has moved on to debating the NDIS bill – it is at the answering senator questions on the bill stage of the debate.
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Merle Thornton, feminist who chained herself to Brisbane bar in 1965, to be recognised with statue
The trailblazing Queensland feminist Merle Thornton, who famously chained herself to a Brisbane bar in protest of a ban on women, will be commemorated by a statue.
On 31 March 1965, Thornton and another feminist Rosalie Bogner chained themselves to the bar of the Regatta Hotel in protest of a ban on serving women alcohol at pubs.
Some regard the act as among the first acts of second wave feminism in Australia.
The bar is now named for Thornton. She died earlier this month on 16 August.
Steven Miles announced in parliament this morning that the state government will build a statue in her honour near the Regatta. The premier said:
Merle championed the rights of women her whole life, well before that iconic protest at the Regatta that helped lift a ban on women drinking in public bars
She was an author, an activist, a screenwriter, a playwright, a director and so much more. And her work has made an indelible difference on Queensland.
Our state is poorer for Merle’s passing.
In her honour, my government will build a statue in her honour – near the Regatta.
Because if there is any Queensland role model that young women and girls should be able to look up to, it’s Merle. Cheers to her.
In 1966, Thornton led a successful campaign to eliminate the “marriage bar” for state and federal public servants.
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Australians could face higher air fares because of Rex problems and Bonza collapse, ACCC says
The competition watchdog has warned that Australians could face higher airfares on flights between major cities, after Rex’s 737 jet operations were axed as the airline entered administration.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), in its latest quarterly domestic aviation monitoring report released on Thursday, warned that Rex’s exit from major city routes, following so soon after Bonza’s collapse earlier in the year, means that lower air fares that Australians had enjoyed as a result of increased competition challenging the Qantas and Virgin duopoly could now end.
“The ACCC cautions that consumers may miss out on the benefits of a more competitive domestic airline market if Rex is unable to re-commence its services between metropolitan cities,” the ACCC said.
While the airline’s regional services remain in operation as a new buyer is sought, few in the industry expect a resumption of Rex’s jet services on Boeing 737s between major cities including on the lucrative Sydney-Melbourne-Brisbane golden triangle.
The watchdog said:
While Bonza and Rex provided relatively limited capacity on these metropolitan competing routes, the exit of both airlines on these routes may mean that consumers face higher air fares and reduced choice for domestic travel.
ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey said:
Consumers generally enjoy lower air fares where there is more competition on a route. With the suspension of Rex’s services between metropolitan cities, we are closely monitoring air fares and remain vigilant to any increases in prices on routes that Rex is no longer flying on.
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Malarndirri McCarthy says Dorinda Cox’s Senate motion is ‘completely disrespectful’
Malarndirri McCarthy continues:
I’m disappointed, madam deputy president, that this has been put before the Senate in a manner that I find is completely disrespectful to the process that we are trying to do in the right way, and sending a tone throughout this country that this parliament does not care is actually irresponsible and reprehensible. Reprehensible.
So we will not support this motion as it currently stands at this particular point in time, and there is no embarrassment, just deep disappointment.
The Senate goes to divide – it is still largely empty.
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The minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, says that she only received the motion “five minutes ago” and that the government needs time to review the report before making a response.
She says the government is not supporting Dorinda Cox’s motion.
I would just urge the Senate to vote no, to vote no, because we need the time.
(Dorinda Cox begins to interject, saying it is an embarrassment.)
There’s no embarrassment, Senator Cox. No, there is no embarrassment. There is no embarrassment whatsoever.
We want to do this properly, Senator Cox, and we want to make sure that we have the appropriate way of doing it, through the funding that should be provided to our legal services, to our women’s centres, to our families and organisations.
This report, if it took three years to be able to listen to the stories of people, I’m sure, it can take more than a week to have a look at this report and deal with it respectfully and thoroughly.
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‘Six outlets reported about this report and most were the black women in the media’
Dorinda Cox:
Six outlets reported about this report, and most of that were the black women in the media. It is disgraceful. It is absolutely disgraceful. It gets worse.
Victoria this fortnight, they are winding back the commitment that they had about raising the age to criminal responsibility to 14. Well, we’ve got senior police in this country running around saying, well, we should lower the age of criminal responsibility to five. Five years old.
I’m talking about my future grandchildren, my nieces and nephews, that if you can sit in this place and give power to people that think that five year olds are criminally responsible, we have serious, serious problems.
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'Disgraceful': Dorinda Cox blasts MPs over response to murdered Indigenous women inquiry
The Greens senator Dorinda Cox is moving a motion to suspend standing orders to debate the response to the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and children.
Cox is visibly emotional as she discusses the lack of response to the report and that the Greens’ recommendations were not among the final report.
Cox says she was silenced:
They are not even counting the dead black women and children in this country, and it’s bloody disgraceful.
You know what’s worse that the ministers responsible for this area didn’t even put out a press release, didn’t even turn up, and have been radio silent ever since this report came down.
It is disgraceful. The magnitude of this problem is not just about that. It is just the absolute lack of attention to the systemic racism. We have people in this chamber going out and talking about cultural bias.
It is systemic and structural racism that our people are experiencing, and this report details all of those cases. Every person on that committee said how they were affected and how they were moved. Well, guess what? You’ve got the power in this country to make change.
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Senate says no to inquiry into Australia's response to Covid
The Senate voted on the Covid commission of inquiry: it is lost, 10 votes to 26.
In the yes corner was Ralph Babet, David Pocock, Malcolm Roberts and Pauline Hanson, along with Coalition senators Richard Colbeck, Matt O’Sullivan, Ross Cadell, Matt Canavan, Andrew McLachlan and Gerard Rennick.
In the noes were Labor senators. The Greens and most other Liberals abstained.
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Gerard Rennick said he lost his Queensland Senate preselection because of his stance on Covid:
I did, lose my Senate preselection because I withheld my vote from a party because [former health minister] Greg Hunt didn’t take my concern seriously about those vaccine injuries, and I’m happy to lose my position in this party over that, because that’s what representing the Australian people is all about, is putting the people first.
OK, just listen out to that … in future, ‘putting the people first’. And I make no apologies for doing that.
Is Rennick is considering an independent tilt, or establishing a new party with that comment?
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Former Victorian Liberal MP Matt Bach must travel from UK to give evidence at Moira Deeming’s defamation trial
The federal court has ruled that a former Victorian Liberal MP must travel from the UK to Australia to give evidence in a defamation trial brought against the state opposition leader.
Ousted Liberal MP Moira Deeming is suing John Pesutto over a series of media releases, press conferences and radio interviews he gave last year after a Let Women Speak rally during his push to expel her from the parliamentary party. The rally was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis and Deeming claims Pesutto characterised her a Nazi sympathiser or supporter.
Federal court justice David O’Callaghan says the application made by Pesutto’s lawyer for former Liberal MP Matt Bach to testify via video link is dismissed.
In the reasons for the judgment, O’Callaghan acknowledges Bach’s absence from the UK would cause some disruption to his work and family life:
But in the scheme of things, I do not give those matters significant weight-including because Dr Bach must have known in May when he swore his first affidavit that there was a likelihood that he would have to attend the trial in September in person.
Bach was a member of the Liberal leadership team that met with Deeming after she participated in the rally.
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Rennick says Labor increasingly calling anyone who disagrees ‘cookers and conspiracy thoerists’
Gerard Rennick is now responding to Tim Ayres’ allegations of conspiracy theories being supported in the Senate:
The Labor party really needs to have a good look at the way it conducts itself in the chamber and in general, because there has been an uplift in the last few weeks by the Labor party members of calling anyone that disagrees with them cookers and conspiracy theorists.
And you know what?
The general public is waking up to this.
The general public don’t condone this sort of schoolyard bullying, and that’s what it is, and it’s a reflection of the low intelligence of the people that represent the Labor party, who are incapable of actually treating other people with respect, which is extremely important.
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Labor says a 'pandemic of kookiness' has taken over Coalition as Covid inquiry bill debated
Tim Ayres continues:
This is a pandemic of kookiness that has taken over the thinking of Liberals and Nationals, not just in Queensland, but right around the country.
Mr Dutton, if he’s ever to be taken seriously, ever to be taken seriously as the leader of an alternative government, needs to take seriously his responsibility as a political leader, and that is, you don’t back the cranks.
You don’t back the conspiracy theorists.
You draw a line, you draw a line. And this political party should stand condemned for its party discipline, for a focus on the public interest and instead engaging some of the worst and nastiest elements of Australian politics, of Australian politics in their conduct, it makes them utterly unfit, utterly unfit to stand in the mantle of what was a once proud set of conservative parties.
Now it is a conspiracy theorist rump, and Mr Dutton stands condemned for his incapacity to lead.
Sarah Henderson wants that last part withdrawn, but it is ruled not to be an imputation.
Gerard Rennick says it is one of the “most disgusting speeches he has ever heard” if not “probably the most disgusting speech I’ve ever heard in this chamber”.
Rennick:
This is a genuine attempt at dealing and looking at the way the Covid pandemic was handled. And all we’re recommending here today and supporting is that we have a thorough inquiry to look at how the consequences of that pandemic can be dealt with, in particular reports, people have been injured by the vaccine, but ways in which going forward, we can also be better prepared for whatever may happen next.
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Labor senator accuses conservative senators of engaging in the ‘most loopy, far-right extremist views’
Liberal senators Gerard Rennick and Sarah Henderson have both asked for parts of Labor senator Tim Ayres’ speech on conspiracy theorists to be withdrawn.
Ayres:
The problem here is that propagating these extremist views could lead one to think that the propagator of extremist views is indeed an extremist, and accommodating extreme views, accommodating extreme views and conspiracy theories, is a sign of the ill from the political institution that allows it to happen.
It is a sign of their unfitness to govern.
It is a sign that they don’t take the relationship between public policy and their role seriously, and that they engage the most loopy far-right extremist and kooky views in order to suck up to an emerging and stronger group within their political party, and I understand that is uncomfortable.
I understand that people don’t want to hear it because they want the easy ride in politics.
They don’t want to have to call out extremism. They don’t want to have to call out bad behaviour, because it’s so much easier to do the back slapping and the ‘she’ll be right, mate and don’t worry about that’ and to surf in on the support of some of the nastiest, extreme, kooky elements in Australian politics. And the problem is that it then infects other areas of public policy.
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Senate debates bill to establish inquiry into Australia’s response to Covid
The Senate is debating the Matt Canavan, Alex Antic, Ralph Babet, Matt O’Sullivan, Gerard Rennick and Malcolm Roberts co-sponsored private member’s bill which “seeks to establish a commission of inquiry into Australia’s response to Covid-19 pandemic”.
Labor is against this and there is expected to be another split in the Coalition (as there was earlier for one of Babet’s motions which included incorrect information about abortion) when it comes to division.
The Labor senator Tim Ayres says the bill is grist to the mill for far-right conspiracy extremists.
Ayres:
If you can encourage people to believe this set of conspiracy theories, it’s part of the radicalisation pathway that is designed by people who sit at the heart of these and sometimes people don’t know that they’ve been engaged in a radicalisation pathway.
And if you can encourage people to believe this nonsense, to accept the set of premises that underline the sort of swamp of conspiracy theories that this comes from, you can get them to believe anything.
And the radicalisation pathway that is engaged here by these propositions, is a pathway to violence. It is a pathway to social disharmony. It is a deliberate pathway engaged on, sometimes knowingly, sometimes not, because the unwitting dukes of this kind of conspiracy theory often don’t realise that they’re on a conspiracy pathway.
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Parental leave superannuation changes introduced to parliament
The superannuation changes to ensure it is paid as part of paid parental leave have been introduced into the house.
It is not immediate though – subject to the passage of the legislation, eligible parents with babies born or adopted on or after 1 July 2025 will receive an additional payment, based on the superannuation guarantee (12% of their paid parental leave payment), as a contribution to their nominated superannuation fund.
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Dreyfus says opposition 'more concerned with the Middle East than middle Australia'
At a doorstop to announce the domestic violence law reforms he will be introducing today, Mark Dreyfus was asked about the Coalition’s attacks on the security checks for Palestinian visas.
He said:
Let’s be clear about this. No one has left Gaza since May. The border of Gaza is closed, it’s controlled by Egyptian and Israeli authorities. Our government has relied on the advice of security agencies. The arrangements, the vetting, under our government has been exactly the same, conducted by the same security agencies, the same security personnel, as under the former government. And I think that some of the questions that Mr Dutton and the opposition have put forward have been ludicrous. As the prime minister said yesterday, we’ve got here in Mr Dutton and the opposition, an opposition that’s more concerned with the Middle East than with middle Australia.
Q: What’s your response to Abul Rizvi’s comments today? He suggested that the decision to grant visitor visas over an alternative pathway would have likely been against departmental advice.
Dreyfus:
What Mr Rizvi actually said, and I’d invite everyone to look at his story, is that Australia should be a country which shows compassion for people fleeing violence, for people fleeing war zones.
Q: He’s also questioned the choice of visitor visas, so again –
Dreyfus:
I’m not going to engage in speculation, I’m going to point to what Mr Rizvi actually said. And I’d say again, that the arrangements, the security vetting, the security agencies, the personnel in the security agencies that are in use now under our government are the same as were in use under the previous government. Unlike, it appears, Mr Dutton and the opposition, our government has complete confidence in our security agencies. If Mr Dutton and the opposition are doubting our security agencies, let them come out and say so.
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Ahead of her retirement from politics at the next federal election, Linda Burney reflected on decades in public life, including serving in the New South Wales state parliament from 2003 before becoming the first Indigenous woman elected to federal parliament in 2016.
I am humbled by the trust and the ownership of me shown by First Nations Australians, many of whom are still paying a heavy price for dispossession and exclusion from our nation’s foundation and, too often, exclusion from the institutions which exist to serve us all.
Burney paid tribute to her great-aunt, Nina, and great-uncle, Billy, who raised her in the Riverina, in New South Wales.
They were two very old people who sacrificed so much to raise me and instilled in me the values of compassion, integrity, resilience, truth and love.
I never dreamt I could grow up to be a member of parliament, let alone a minister in the federal government. Nina and Billy, I hope I made you proud.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, paid tribute to his friend, whose Sydney electorate of Barton neighbours his own.
I would much rather be on the side of hope than on the side of fear, and Linda Burney has always been on the side of hope … She has engaged with grace, with kindness and, importantly, with remarkable courage. That’s why she leaves this place with the admiration of anyone who has dealt with her and with the respect of everyone.”
The Riverina MP and former Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, also hailed Burney, saying he had nothing but “yindyamarra” for her – “respect” in the Wiradjuri language of the lands on which she was raised, which are in his electorate.
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Linda Burney says progress ‘doesn’t always move in a straight line’
Linda Burney gave her valedictory speech late yesterday afternoon in the House and said Australians struggle with identity because they have not wrestled properly with their nation’s history
I think Australia sometimes struggles with its identity because we never came to terms with our own story, never embraced the breadth and depth of it, and certainly not its truth.
Burney predicted that last year’s voice referendum would prove a catalyst for positive change.
Friends, progress doesn’t always move in a straight line … The road is rocky. There are obstacles in the path. We have our stumbles and our setbacks, but our overall direction is towards progress and, with each passing generation, we bend the moral arc of the universe closer to justice.
Burney called for “community-led truth-telling” to correct the historical record. She said the generosity in which Australians take pride is often not extended to its own First Nations people and that, in embracing history, Australians “must take the whole, not just the bits that suit you”.
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Labor to spend up to $850m to manufacture and service missiles
The official announcement on the strike missiles has landed:
The Albanese government will contribute up to $850m in partnership with Kongsberg Defence Australia to manufacture and service missiles at Williamtown near Newcastle.
The project, which involves construction of a factory in the Newcastle airport precinct, is expected to generate more than 500 jobs in the construction phase and almost $100m in economic benefits to the local area. Once complete, the factory is expected to employ approximately 100 people.
The factory will manufacture and service naval strike missiles (NSM) and joint strike missiles (JSM) to be used by the Australian Defence Force (ADF). It will be one of only two facilities in the world capable of producing NSM and JSM with the other site in Kongsberg, Norway.
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Pat Conroy announces missile factory to be built in Newcastle
The Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery, Pat Conroy, has announced a boost to capabilities for the Australian Defence Force (more weapons).
A new advanced missile factory will be built in Newcastle, by Norwegian defence company Kongsberg.
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Amanda Rishworth to introduce legislation to have super paid on paid parental leave
The parliament will sit at 9am and, shortly after, the social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, will introduce the legislation to have super paid on paid parental leave.
Advocacy group the Parenthood had been calling for the measure for some time and say it could mean up to an additional 30,000 in retirement savings for families.
The government commitment, which would come into place on 1 July 2025, applies to the government-funded paid parental leave scheme, accessed by about 180,000 families each year.
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On the funding for community legal centres, Mark Dreyfus says:
I am working right now on the new five-year agreement that will start on 1 July next year to try and make sure that we have got, as the treasurer said earlier this year, in parliament, a new agreement with increased funding for legal assistance services because they are part of this frontline response.
Another part of the frontline response is what police do.
Another part of the frontline response is what counselling and other assistance services do. We have got to look at it all. It is a whole of government response that is needed and not only in my portfolio but many of my ministerial colleagues and the prime minister himself are working on how we should be responding to this national crisis.
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Dreyfus says next national cabinet will include further measures on domestic, family and sexual violence
Asked about the comments from the domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner Micaela Cronin on the need to do more in identifying men who may carry out acts of violence, Mark Dreyfus says:
She is right. This is a crisis. We have to take it seriously and that is why, for example, the prime minister convened a national cabinet meeting back in May to look at what can be done and we are about to have a second national cabinet meeting in September as a follow-up to that meeting.
In the meantime, as chair of the police minister’s council and as chair of the Standing Council of Attorneys General I was asked by national cabinet to work with state and territory ministers on what other things we can do urgent measures, action now to do something about this crisis of domestic and family violence.
I am confident that at that next national cabinet meeting that’s coming in September, people will see further measures that are able to be attended to.
As to Commissioner Cronin’s point, I think everyone will have seen reporting over the last year or two of the increasing seriousness with which state and territory police take accusations or family and domestic violence. We are seeing arrests and orders being enforced and that is what needs to happen.
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Mark Dreyfus says legislation will help stamp out sharing of sexually explicit deepfakes
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, is speaking with ABC TV Breakfast about the passage of the deepfake legislation that was passed in the Senate yesterday. It criminalises the sharing of it:
The deepfake sexually explicit material that is shared without consent is deeply distressing. Overwhelmingly it affects women and girls. We are determined to do whatever we can to stamp out this practice and that is why we have criminalised it. Sharing of deepfake, sexualised material without consent will now carry criminal penalties, potentially jail up to seven years.
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Albanese attacked over live export joke
We are now on day two of the confected outrage around prime minister Anthony Albanese’s lame joke at a rural women’s awards dinner in Canberra.
Yesterday, Michaelia Cash and other Liberal senators tried to make it a thing in the Senate and today we have the shadow trade minister, Kevin Hogan, deciding to put out a release on it.
It is one of the lead stories on Sky News, so there is an audience there for it, but to step you through what happened:
On Tuesday night, Albanese addressed the rural women’s award’s night dinner in Canberra and opened by speaking about his earlier dinner with the Indonesian presiden-elect, Prabowo Subianto.
Albanese said; “We had dinner, beautiful Australian beef – not the live export, we made sure it was dead.”
This has created two days of “outrage” because the Coalition says it is the Albanese government going after the live beef export industry. During the debate to phase-in an end to the live sheep export industry in Western Australia (the only state which still participated) there were concerns raised that the live cattle export industry would be next.
The minister at the time, Murray Watt, repeatedly ruled that out. There has been no suggestion Labor will move to phase-out live cattle exports.
But here we are.
Hogan:
I have previously said the Albanese government should be ashamed of their decision to ban live sheep exports.
Instead, we have the leader of our country attempting to make a joke about the decision at none other than a night that is to celebrate our agricultural industry. That really takes the cake.
It is nothing short of shameful.
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Social services minister quizzed about community legal centre funding
Over on ABC radio RN Breakfast, the social services minister Amanda Rishworth is asked about one of the solutions which have been raised – funding community legal centres. A new campaign launched by community legal centres points out that more than 1,000 people a day are turned away for help. The campaign calls for immediate funding injections to help their work.
Rishworth says:
Firstly, I would say that the attorney general has been focused very much on this. That’s why there was an over $50m immediate boost in the most recent budget. But these were five-year agreements by the previous government with states and territories.
This is a joint responsibility, and I think it’s important to remind your listeners that states and territories on the national plan all signed up to it.
So I know that the attorney is working very hard about what we do next in terms of that legal partnerships agreement with states and territories, and I know he’ll keep working very hard on that, and we’ve always recognised that where we can invest more, we will look to do that.
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Michaela Cronin said the government had put through some important reforms, but there also needed other areas to pick up that reform:
I think the attorney general has been leading some absolutely groundbreaking and incredibly important reform. I think we’ve got a really significant reform agenda across the country looking at how we address the fact we know the family court has caused significant harm to women and particularly children. The attorney general is leading some very important work.
What I want to see is an emphasis on how we implement those reforms well. So the law changes are absolutely critical. But we need them to be enacted. We need all of the actors in the justice space to be educated and to be moving fast on implementing those changes.
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Asked whether that would mean tracking violent offenders like terrorists, Micaela Cronin says:
Track people like terrorists. We also – I mean, the thing about looking – you need to identify where the flags are. Where the points of contact are.
We know that relationship breakdowns are a key risk time, when women leave violent relationships. They’re at much greater risk of homicide than when they stay, actually.
Given we know that, what are we doing about wrapping support around those families when those separations happen? If men are going to their GPs and saying, ‘I’m feeling really depressed, my relationship is breaking down’, their GPs need to be alerted to thinking about, is there violence in the relationship? Is there a risk? And what can they do to intervene?
So, it’s all – we wouldn’t have previously thought about, you know, Bunnings keeping an eye on the sale of, you know, products that go into making bombs, but we do now. We know there’s points you can keep an eye on for where risk and harm is and intervene.
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Micaela Cronin says Australia should treat ending violence against women as seriously as it treats terrorism
Australia’s domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner, Micaela Cronin, has given her first update on the national plan to end violence against women and children to the government (it will be tabled later today and then released publicly tomorrow – when there is no parliament)
Continuing on from what she said yesterday, Cronin said Australia should treat ending violence as seriously as it treats terrorism. She told the ABC this morning:
We take terrorism around the country – and around the world – very seriously. We put a great deal of targeted resources into thinking about how to prevent terrorist acts.
What we need to do more of is translating those tools to situations where women are being murdered.
When we look at – when we look at the death reviews, processes, when we look at coroner’s inquests about when women have been murdered, when children have been murdered, they are – there’s many intervention points when we could have prevented those deaths. That’s what we’re talking about. What can we do to be keeping eyes on men so we’re preventing homicides, the level of harm that’s occurring.
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Andrew Wilkie, Rebekha Sharkie and church leaders to push for gambling ad conscience vote
Independent MPs Andrew Wilkie and Rebekha Sharkie are not backing away from their campaign to have federal Labor MPs given a conscience vote on the gambling ad reforms.
Labor is yet to introduce its proposed legislation, but reports (and the wind) is pointing to caps, rather than a blanket ban. Wilkie and Sharkie think if that is the case then government MPs should be able to decide to support it or not with a conscience vote.
Later this morning, Wilkie and Sharkie will be joined by “prominent church leaders” to discuss their push.
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Queensland Labor’s longest-serving state MP to retire
Queensland Labor’s longest-serving state MP has announced he will retire at October’s election.
Curtis Pitt is the last survivor of the “Tarago opposition”, the seven ALP MPs elected at the 2012 wipeout election.
The party won government back in 2015, after just one term.
In a Facebook post on Thursday morning, he announced his retirement after 15 years in politics.
It’s not a decision I’ve come to lightly. I’ve always said that the day I wake up and don’t feel I can give it 100 per cent, then it’s time for me to do something else.
When I think back, all of my kids have been born since I’ve been an MP. Having been a member of parliament for five terms, I know that I’ve missed so many important milestones and occasions.
I want the chance to be there for my children during an important phase of their life. I also have parents who have failing health and, just like they’ve been there for me, I want to be there for them.
Pitt has served as treasurer, minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait partnerships, as acting premier and as Speaker of the parliament, a role he has held since 2018.
His successor in Mulgrave will be the first Labor candidate for the seat outside his family since 1989. Pitt inherited the electorate, outside Cairns, from his father, Warren, Pitt.
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Australia makes natural disaster deal with Singapore
The emergency management minister, Jenny McAllister, says Australia has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Singapore Civil Defence Force before the coming summer.
The MOU means that if Australian communities are hit by a natural disaster in what they call the 2024-25 high risk weather season, the SCDF will come and help, if necessary.
Singapore stepped in during the 2022 floods, with two teams who integrated with the NSW SES and NSW fire and rescue.
Australia now has MOUs with Public Safety Canada, New Zealand’s national emergency management agency and the federal emergency management agency in the USA.
In return, we also send teams when our partner countries need it.
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(Continued from previous post)
The bill will ensure that property and financial settlements consider the care and housing needs of children, and that financial information is disclosed at the earliest opportunity to help resolve disputes quickly.
The changes will expand courts’ ability to use alternative, less adversarial approaches in dispute resolution and support parties to safely raise issues around family violence risks.
Dreyfus says they will also deal with post break-up pet ownership and consider issues of violence in those decisions too.
We know that pets are too often used and abused in cycles of family violence.
The bill would also allow the court to consider a range of factors, including family violence, when determining ownership of pets in settlements.”
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Labor moves to change family law to consider economic impact of family violence
The federal government is moving to change family law so that courts can consider the financial impact of domestic and family violence when ruling on property and financial settlements and pet ownership when relationships break down.
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, is set to introduce the next stage of the government’s family law reforms into parliament on Wednesday and is urging the opposition, Greens and others to support the legislation.
In a statement, Dreyfus says the bill will make the division of property and finances “safer, simpler and fairer for separating families, especially where family violence is present”.
The legislation makes a series of changes that Dreyfus says will make the system fairer.
It will regulate the provision of child contact services for situations in which families are unable to safely manage contact arrangements for parents and children.
Dreyfus says the bill will “ensure the economic impact of family violence is considered where relevant as part of dividing property and finances” and will specify the approach a court should take in dividing property and finances.
He has not yet explained how the financial impact of violence would be measured.
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Good morning
Hello and good morning!
Thank you to Martin for starting us off this morning. The faux spring continues in Canberra so it’s a little chilly as the MPs prepare for their final day of sitting – you’ve got Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day to take you through it.
Ready? My third coffee is on the stove so let’s get into it.
The retiring MP Graham Perrett also features in our analysis of political insults inspired by the increased use of the term sook during the current fractious sitting fortnight.
From its old Scots origins meaning “suck”, Tory Shepherd looks at how the word has been used recently and where it sits in the lexicon alongside “snowflake”, “bedwetter” or “old jellyback”.
But, as Perrett says, no one puts too much thought into specific words in the febrile atmosphere of question time. “When you’re in that jungle you just go straight back to grade 5 instincts. It’s tooth and claw on that floor.”
Read Tory’s whole piece here:
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Senate motion pushes back at Chinese claim to Taiwan
The Senate has passed a bipartisan motion pushing back at Beijing’s attempts to claim sovereignty over Taiwan.
According to analysts, the People’s Republic of China is increasingly seeking to restrict Taiwan’s participation in international organisations by pointing to a UN resolution from more than five decades ago.
The resolution in 1971 recognised the representatives of the People’s Republic of China “as the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations”. However, critics of Beijing’s position argue that the resolution was silent on Taiwan’s political status.
Last night the Senate passed an urgency motion proposed jointly by the Liberal senator David Fawcett and the Labor senator Deborah O’Neill stating:
United Nations Resolution 2758 of 25th October 1971 does not establish the People’s Republic of China’s sovereignty over Taiwan and does not determine the future status of Taiwan in the United Nations, nor Taiwanese participation in UN agencies or international organisations.
O’Neill said there was “an ongoing and egregious campaign currently under way from the PRC to reinterpret the resolution and misrepresent what the resolution actually does”. She said Australia had “long supported Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organisations”.
Fawcett said that if Beijing won acceptance in the international community for its expansive interpretation, “then Taiwan’s security and the status quo in the Taiwan Strait are at increased risk”.
Paid parental leave superannuation changes to be introduced to parliament
New mothers and fathers could soon be able to earn superannuation on top of government-funded paid parental leave, AAP reports.
Laws that will allow for parents to get 12% superannuation while using paid parental leave will be introduced to federal parliament on Thursday.
If passed, the scheme will come into effect from July 2025, which is expected to help 180,000 families who use government-funded leave after the birth of a child.
The social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, said the laws would help to achieve gender equity.
“One of the best ways to boost productivity and workforce participation is to provide more choice and more support for families, and more opportunity for women,” she said.
It is estimated women end up with one-third less in their super balance than men by retirement age.
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Lawyers urge Australia to review economic ties with Israel
More than 100 Australian lawyers and legal scholars are calling on Australia to review economic ties with Israel to ensure compliance with a new ruling from the international court of justice (ICJ).
In an advisory opinion published last month, the ICJ said Israel’s continued occupation of territory it seized in 1967, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem, was illegal. The ICJ found that all countries were “under an obligation … not to render aid or assistance in maintaining” the illegal occupation.
Australia has so far imposed sanctions on seven individual settlers and one entity, but this step is “insufficient”, according to a letter signed by more than 100 Australian lawyers and legal scholars.
The open letter says Australia should act on its international legal obligations by imposing “at the very least, a comprehensive arms and energy embargo on Israel that covers the export, import and transfer of weapons, including parts, components and other dual-use items” such as parts for F35 fighter jets.
The letter says the ICJ also pointed to the role of water management, city planning, infrastructure and land policies in furthering Israel’s illegal practices. On that basis, the letter argues:
Australia must urgently suspend all investment, trade and scientific, technical and technological cooperation in these areas and engage in a systematic evaluation of all economic ties with Israel.
Signatories include international law experts Ntina Tzouvala of the Australian National University, Martin Clark of La Trobe and Sara Dehm of the University of Technology Sydney, and the barrister Greg Barns SC.
The Israeli government has dismissed the ICJ ruling as “blatantly one-sided”.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage of the day’s politics and news from around the country. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be bringing you the lowdown on the main overnight stories before Amy Remeikis steps up to the plate.
The attorney general has approved legal assistance for Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten in relation to defamation threats by a business associate of the former Liberal minister Stuart Robert. On 12 August Mark Dreyfus approved assistance “in relation to a defamation claim” made against the prime minister on 23 July and for defamation claims on 23 and 25 July against Shorten, the government services and National Disability Insurance Scheme minister, according to documents tabled to parliament. Guardian Australia understands that both relate to concerns notices sent by lawyers acting for the businessman John Margerison.
After almost two decades as a federal Labor MP, Graham Perrett has decided to retire, setting up a battle in his marginal Queensland seat. The 58-year-old, who is known for his committee work and jovial nature, has spoken to Guardian Australia exclusively about his role as Moreton MP. He says people “shouldn’t underestimate the influence of backbenchers” but it was time to give a younger person the chance to run.
And more than 100 Australian lawyers and legal scholars are calling on Australia to review economic ties with Israel to ensure compliance with a new ruling from the international court of justice (ICJ). More on that coming up soon.
