What we learned today, Wednesday 13 September
Here’s a wrap of today’s main stories:
Qantas has lost a high court challenge over sacked workers, with the Transport Workers Union saying the entire board of the company should be spilled in the wake of the decision.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has accused the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, of being the “chief propagandist” of the no campaign amid heated debate on the Indigenous voice to parliament.
In further rancour relating to the voice, the academic Marcia Langton says she was “lied about” in comments about the referendum, and asked Dutton to remove a social media post that misquoted her criticism of the no campaign.
The former minister Stuart Robert was referred to the national anti-corruption commission over the Synergy 360 controversy by a parliamentary committee.
Crossbench MPs and senators stepped up calls for the government to release a declassified version of a secret intelligence report into the national security risks posed by the climate crisis.
We will see you back here again tomorrow.
Updated
Third teen charged for alleged armed robbery of school student
A third teenager has been charged in relation to an alleged armed robbery in Melbourne last week, police have confirmed.
A 14-year-old student from Glen Eira college was forced into a car and left seriously injured in Glen Huntly during the alleged robbery.
Victoria police said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon that detectives had charged a 14-year-old Langwarrin girl with multiple offences, including conduct endangering serious injury, recklessly causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence, dangerous driving, armed robbery, robbery, theft of motor vehicle and possessing proceeds of crime.
“She has been bailed to appear at a children’s court at a later date. The investigation remains ongoing,” police said.
Police said in the statement that the boy remained in a serious condition in hospital.
Updated
AOC takes aim at Australian property developer after unemployment comment
A multimillionaire Australian property developer who suggested the country increase the unemployment rate by 40% to 50% to create more productive workers has drawn a fierce reaction from the US democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“Reminder that major CEOs have skyrocketed their own pay so much that the ratio of CEO-to-worker pay is now at some of the highest levels *ever* recorded,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter/X, after a video of Tim Gurner’s comments circulated online.
Reminder that major CEOs have skyrocketed their own pay so much that the ratio of CEO-to-worker pay is now at some of the highest levels *ever* recorded. https://t.co/MCvsICsZce
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 12, 2023
You can read more on that story here:
Updated
Australian government pledges aid to Morocco after earthquake
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, confirms the government will send $1m in aid to Morocco following an earthquake on Saturday.
Australia will provide $1 million in humanitarian assistance to deliver crucial services and supplies to those most in need following the devastating earthquakes in Morocco.
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) September 13, 2023
We extend our deepest sympathies to all who have lost loved ones and all affected by this tragedy.
Updated
As Amy mentioned below, Michael Long will arrive at federal parliament tomorrow after walking from Melbourne.
Very special to walk w Michael Long in Canberra today on @TheLongWalkOz - 20 years after first walking from Melbourne, Michael is again talking about love, decency & respect for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people. We should all listen. #ulurustatement #yes23au @essendonfc pic.twitter.com/B3kYYozrpU
— sam mostyn (@sammostyn) September 13, 2023
Ukrainian ambassador pays tribute to Marise Payne
According to the Senate’s order of business, Senator Marise Payne should be giving her valedictory speech about now.
She dropped in on the Ukrainian ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko yesterday, and he had a few nice things to say:
I was really pleased to get an opportunity to see Senator @MarisePayne yesterday ahead of her Valedictory Speech today in the Parliament marking her exit from the political life after 26 years of public service in the Senate.
— Vasyl Myroshnychenko (@AmbVasyl) September 13, 2023
As a war time Ambassador, I could not have imagined… pic.twitter.com/mj9F2P3LqE
Updated
Family of man killed by workmate at Kellerberrin releases statement
The family of a man who police say was killed by a workmate in Western Australia have released a statement.
Terry Czernowski was shot dead last Thursday at Kellerberrin, in WA’s wheat belt.
Police say his colleague, Lachlan Bowles, killed Czernowski before shooting at another person in a car. He was tracked to nearby farmland but died later that afternoon from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
The family’s statement, released by WA police, said:
On behalf of the Czernowski, Sparrow and extended families, we wish to pass on our heartfelt thanks to the WA Police Force for their efforts and continuing investigations into Terry’s tragic passing.
The family would like to sincerely thank those who have called, sent flowers and passed on their sympathies.
This horrible tragedy has had a huge impact on Terry’s family and friends, which only time will heal.
There has been a lot of speculation about what transpired on that fateful day, which we may never know the outcome.
We would appreciate the media respecting our privacy by allowing us time to grieve and come to terms with this indescribable crime.
Terry’s family would like to thank all the agencies involved for their efforts and ongoing support to provide closure to this tragedy.
In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and ChildLine on 0800 1111. In the US, Mental Health America is available on 800-273-8255
Updated
Another hard day’s work in the blog mines, thank you Amy Remeikis.
Nino Bucci has entered the arena to take over the blog for the evening – but we will be back with politics live from early tomorrow morning.
Thank you so much for joining us and following along. We have another long day ahead of us before a month’s break – which means it is the last sitting day before the referendum is held on 14 October.
We hope to see you then – Michael Long, who started his walk from Wurundjeri Country (Melbourne) to Ngunnawal-Ngambri Country (Canberra) in August will arrive at parliament tomorrow morning. We’ll be there to cover it, and everything else – but until then – take care of you.
Updated
‘I don’t use the word racism lightly’: Dai Le
The Independent Fowler MP Dai Le is asked about racism while she is speaking to the ABC – and whether she thinks a line has been crossed in the referendum debate.
Le:
I think people often, as for me, somebody who is a migrant and refugee, I don’t take things to heart.
I don’t take offence to any name-calling or any kind of, you know, sometimes you kind of take a step back.
But I don’t take a personal offence to that.
So I think when we talk about racism, it has to be really offensive and really impacts you emotionally. But that is my judgement, what is personally offensive to me might be for you but not for me.
… I don’t use the word racism lightly and I think I will be cautious when I call it out, if I think the person deserves it. But I think that we need to really be mindful with our language and how we use that language to describe someone who might have a different opinion to ours. It doesn’t mean they are racist.
Updated
‘It is simply an advisory body’
Malarndirri McCarthy is asked whether she would agree with “or see merit in the substance of the broader point that Prof Langton made in Banbury, that no case arguments are, well, to put it mildly, substantially wrong, if not wildly misleading?”
McCarthy:
What I would say is this.
There has been many comments throughout this whole year of this debate. I mean, we could go to Gary Johns and what he said, comments that were never rejected by the opposition, and never rejected by Peter Dutton.
What I’ve always cautioned throughout this campaign, even prior to it, as you well know, is respectful debate. Where we are now is a critical time.
There has been selective reporting, in terms of commentary, and as I said from the outset, I’m sure Prof Langton will deal with those in her own way, in terms of the commentary, but I just want to go to the broader issue here, which is that we have only one more day of parliament. We are no doubt going to see more things happen, one more day before the referendum, and I would urge Australians to look beyond the conversations here in the parliament, and into your heart.
Q: So is this an exaggeration, do you think, of the arguments we are seeing magnified on the floor of the parliament?
McCarthy:
Absolutely it is. I reflect back on when it Uluru was handed back to the Anangu people. People said then that the sky would cave in, that if you were to ask traditional owners to look after its country, and they had looked after it for thousands of years.
We are seeing much similar direction of debate on identity and you know, focus on people’s language and use of words, which are important in this, but I have to say that for the tens of thousands of volunteers that are out there doorknocking, talking to Australians, reminding them that this is simply an advisory body. It is simply an advisory body that we are asking Australians to consider, and the sky won’t fall in.
Updated
‘Professor Langton is an outstanding Australian’: Malarndirri McCarthy
The Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy is speaking to the ABC and she is asked about Prof Marcia Langton and says:
I would certainly say Professor Langton is an outstanding Australian, and I have mentioned that before.
In fact it was her report that has really led us to where we are as well in terms of the Uluru statement from the heart when the Coalition [prompted] both Prof Langton and Tom Calma to conduct their report in regards to the voice.
But I would say this that it has been a very long journey, and no doubt, whether it is Prof Langton or others, many people on all sides of this debate can reconsider all sorts of commentary, but I do know that Prof Langton has come out and said that her comments were misquoted, certainly in terms of the context in which she was speaking, and I’m sure she will be able to speak for herself further, in terms of where this goes forward.
But I do remind your viewers that this is actually not about one or two people, this is about all people across Australia, and I want us to really get back to that.
Updated
Coalition says high court’s Qantas ruling sends ‘clear message’ to board
I missed this a little earlier, but Michaelia Cash and Bridget McKenzie have responded to the Qantas high court decision:
The Coalition notes the unanimous decision of the high court in the Qantas case and believes it sends a clear message to the company’s board and management.
Shadow attorney general Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash said:
Today’s decision demonstrates a strong need for Qantas management to refocus on what should be its core objective of providing a high-quality service and to deliver for its employees, its customers and the Australian public.
Qantas should spend less time focusing its efforts on getting the Albanese Government to block its competitors and helping them run joint political campaigns. Their focus should be squarely on running a high-quality airline
… We note that Qantas has accepted the decision and has expressed regret about the impact their outsourcing decision had had on employees. It will now be a matter for the courts to deal with penalties and possible compensation.
McKenzie laid the blame at Alan Joyce’s (now departed) speech:
Qantas’s behaviour as a leading corporate and one of Australia’s most important companies is regrettable and reprehensible.
The workers at Qantas do an amazing job getting us into the sky and to our destination safely.
Today’s high court ruling that Qantas breached protections in the Fair Work Act comes on top of allegations the company sold ghost flights and attempted to poach people’s Covid flight credits, while agreeing to a generous payout to its former CEO.
Updated
Queensland media to be able to name accused sex offenders from October
The media will be able to name accused sex offenders in Queensland from early October under new laws passed on Wednesday.
The new laws were a recommendation of the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce and bring Queensland in line with most other states and territories.
The changes will mean that accused sex offenders’ identities will be treated the same as defendants accused of other serious crimes.
Guardian Australia understands the laws will take effect from 3 October after a media guide is distributed and the governor-general provides assent.
Reflecting on the laws, the attorney general, Yvette D’Ath, said “rape myths have no place in our society”.
“Part of the basis of this protection for accused rapists is that women maliciously make up complaints to damage reputations,” she told parliament on Tuesday.
The shadow attorney general, Tim Nicholls, said there does not seem to have been any “significant negative consequences” in jurisdictions where the accused can be named at an early stage.
Indeed, when we think of other serious offences such as murder and manslaughter where the accused is named almost immediately, along with similar serious offences, the logic of retaining the restriction seems even less tenable.
Updated
How Mike Bowers saw QT
TFW (that feeling when) you bowl up a dixer, just to take aim at the opposition:
TFW you realise there is another question time tomorrow:
TFW you get to make a point of order as a statement:
Updated
NSW defends decision to stop logging in just 5% of ‘koala hubs’
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has defended his government’s decision to stop logging in just 5% of its promised great koala national park on the state’s mid-north coast.
The Greens and community groups criticised the government’s announcement on Tuesday that it had suspended logging operations only in 106 “koala hubs” – areas of important habitat the NSW environment department identified in 2017 but which no government has acted to protect.
Minns said the government had decided those critically endangered areas needed to be protected immediately, but there was more work to be done in terms of both conservation and supporting workers in the logging industry.
It’s a start that we’ve made to ensure that those critical hubs that have been identified as holding, I think 45% of known koala sightings are protected, while we manage the changes to forestry agreements in the north coast.
There’s communities up there that are dependent on logging, and we need to make sure that any prospective changes in policy take that into consideration, and make sure that there’s funds available for those communities so that they don’t collapse.
Updated
NSW families to receive $500 childcare discount
The families of up to 64,000 children in New South Wales have been promised $500 off their childcare bills after the state budget is handed down on 19 September.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, and education minister, Prue Car, announced the budget sweetener on Wednesday, saying the program would help more women return to work.
Car said the funding would be available for every three-year-old child in a preschool program at a long daycare centre in NSW.
We’ll be working through the details of just how that $500 will be distributed.
This is the first time that three year olds in these settings are actually receiving the relief. So this is actually quite historic.
The government will commit $64m in the budget for the program, initially for two years, and says it will not be means tested.
The budget will also include $20m for a trial to extend the hours of early childhood education and daycare centres, as well as $20m to build new public centres, with a focus on western Sydney and regional NSW.
Updated
Melbourne Uni staff to rally over workloads
University of Melbourne staff are set to rally again on unmanageable workloads as negotiations continue to stall with management on the next enterprise agreement.
Members of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) will gather at the same time as a national symposium on the future human face of higher education, urging the university to return to the table on workloads and casualisation.
The symposium, held at the Melbourne Connect building, will include a welcome address from vice chancellor Duncan Maskell.
Acting branch president Chloe Mackenzie said after a year of negotiations, management had come to the table on pay but “refused to acknowledge” there was a “workload crisis”.
After seven days of strikes late last month, the NTEU walked out on a recent meeting with management when the university failed to offer a proposal on secure work.
In an internal letter, the bargaining team said it had “hoped to commence a series of intensive negotiations to resolve outstanding issues” and was “open to further negotiations”.
Updated
Question time ends
After yesterday, Milton Dick made sure to run a VERY tight ship and shut down any sort of heckling and disorderly conduct before it began.
The MPs responded and mostly kept their mouths shut. Or maybe it’s just Wednesday and they are saving it all for tomorrow. Who knows.
Updated
‘Absolute abuse of standing orders’: Milton Dick stops short of throwing Dutton out
Liberal MP Gavin Pearce asks Linda Burney:
What areas of government policy do not affect Indigenous Australians?
Burney (who has had this question previously):
I have stated repeatedly where I believe the focus of a voice should be. I have consulted with Aboriginal communities, including the communities in Tasmania on what the issues are. People tell me very clearly it is about housing, it is about education, it is about jobs, and it’s also about health.
Peter Dutton stands up on a point of order and says:
The truthful answer is every area of public policy …
He is shut down and Tony Burke looks positively gleeful as he says:
On the scale of the abuse of standing orders, it was pretty high.
He is WILLING Dick to throw Dutton out. Dick looks as if he would prefer to be anywhere else and you can see him doing all the speakers’ maths in his head, coming within a bee’s … foot of invoking 94A. But instead he says:
The leader of the opposition knows that was absolute abuse of the standing orders. The minister is not entitled to give a statement, and simply state his view.
Burney finishes with:
I say to the Member for Braddon, and remind the house, that what we are being asked about on 14 October is the establishment of an advisory body. The establishment of an advisory body.
And that body will give advice to the government and to this parliament. It will make sure that there is a change in the life outcomes for first peoples, and also be a good thing for this country.
Updated
Plibersek accuses Greens of crying ‘crocodile tears’ while opposing renewable energy developments
Tanya Plibersek continues:
They say they want more housing. This is probably the most ironic. They say they want more housing, but they oppose every housing development in their electorates.
Mr Speaker, here’s the thing. We are making the biggest transition in Australian industrial history to get from 30-something per cent renewable energy to 82% renewable energy in our grid. Because it [can’t] happen overnight. We need solar farms and windfarms. We need transmission lines.
They are going to oppose all of those. They will oppose all of those … and at the same time, they are going to cry crocodile tears about the fact that we are not moving to renewables quick enough.
We have a decade to catch up on. A decade of inaction. We could have been moving on renewable energy but the Liberals stand up with the Greens to oppose action on climate change when we were last in government. Yes, we’ve got a big job to catch up on … We are getting on with the job of getting Australia to net zero.
Updated
Plibersek brings up Greens MPs’ share holdings in ‘banks that funded’ coal and gas projects
Greens leader Adam Bandt has a question for Tanya Plibersek:
Will you stop approving new coal and gas projects?
The answer … gets a bit personal, as they tend to do when Labor MPs answer Green MPs’ questions. Last time, Plibersek brought up the Greens voting down the CPRS (NEVER FORGET, apparently).
Plibersek:
No, I will apply Australian law as it exists, and as the Greens political party would well know, because they made an agreement with the climate and energy minister, emissions in Australia are governed predominantly by the safeguard mechanism that you helped design, you negotiated with the climate and energy minister, you sat on the side of the parliament and voted for.
And, Mr Speaker, can I just add the Greens party say they want … no more coal and gas, but until recently, they were happy to own shares in the banks that funded these projects.
(This seems a very long bow to draw, and we are getting dangerous close to the “we live in a society” meme. Are we about to discover that Greens MPs also drive cars? Exist inside buildings that use electricity? Did Adam Bandt come to work today along a road?!)
Bandt has a point of order on relevance and Milton Dick said he can’t dictate a minister’s answer and because she went to the question at the beginning, the floor is Plibersek’s)
Plibersek:
I will just reiterate: there is Greens party political members who are happy to own shares in the big banks that fund these projects. They say they want more renewable energy, but I’ve actually had more communication from the Greens asking me to stop renewable energy projects than I have had support for renewable energy projects.
Updated
Burney says voice will advise ‘on things that directly affect Indigenous people’ in response to Angus Taylor question on treaty
Angus Taylor asks Linda Burney:
Voice architect Professor Megan Davies wrote in the Monthly that treaties are about reparations for past injustices. How can these things be excluded? The voice to parliament is the first step, and treatymaking follows. Will the voice be entitled to provide advice on treaty and reparations?
*Treaty and truth are part of what Indigenous people have called for, but neither are part of this referendum and are separate to the voice.
Burney:
The voice will be involved giving advice on things that directly affect Indigenous people. That has been written, that has been spoken about, and that is what will happen.
I have outlined that the priorities that I have our health, education, jobs and housing. They are the issues that are raised with me repetitively, and the Voice is going to be a representative body that will provide advice on Indigenous Australians, provide advice. Provide advice.
Updated
David Littleproud is thrown out of the chamber under 94A while Tanya Plibersek takes a dixer on the Murray-Darling basin plan.
Transport minister says $4.4bn committed to infrastructure connecting western Sydney airport to rest of city
The independent MP for Fowler, Dai Le, asks Catherine King:
Western Sydney airport is on track to be Australia’s international travelling hub, handling up to 500 million travellers a year. This will bolster the economy and give job opportunities especially for locals. How committed is the government to building the much-needed rail link that would connect the community and those enveloped in the … new airport and CBD of Sydney? Can you guarantee [they] will not be the forgotten people when allocating funding and resources?
King:
I know [Dai Le] is an incredibly passionate advocate alongside many members on this side of the house or western Sydney. An important part not only New South Wales economy for the whole nation’s economy.
Of course being at the western Sydney International airport most recently, it is almost at 50% or 50% complete.
We’re also committing alongside the New South Wales government $4.4bn in infrastructure to make sure that western Sydney international airport is connected, and for the people of that area.
It is an incredibly important project, it is an incredibly important economic development area, not just for New South Wales but for the whole of the country, and I look forward to being there at its opening in 2026.
Updated
Jim Chalmers continues:
We saw misinformation in the way the Leader of the Opposition tried to verbal Linda Burney yesterday in this place.
Minister Burney is a person of authority and character and grace. Who wants nothing more and nothing less for better outcomes for people in this country.
The Leader of the Opposition has taken the weirdest whispers from the furtherest fringes of social media and legitimised them and amplified them here in the People’s House of parliament.
He has seen this from the very beginning, not as a chance for unity but as an excuse to practise the usual nasty and negative angry and dishonest and divisive politics….
Paul Fletcher:
Well, since you reminded the Treasurer of standing order 90, he has spent the next part of his answer continuing to consistently impute proper motives and he should not be doing it. It is an parliamentary as another thing he said that which frankly he should be withdrawing.
Tony Burke:
two things on direct relevance to the question went to the consequences of alternatives which is exactly what the Treasurer is now doing and secondly, it will be extraordinary accusing people of divisiveness, and that, something like that has never been considered, the imputation of a motive.
Dick asks Chalmer to temper his language.
Chalmers:
One of the consequences of the leader the oppositions policies to referendums is that this will drag out for as long as possible so the Leader of the Opposition can trip more poison into the well.
That’s how [he seeks] to divide and diminish this country. And reap a political dividend.
Sussan Ley:
The House needs you to absolutely insist Treasurer withdraw that disgraceful slur.
Chalmers withdraws to assist the house.
Chalmers:
Australia can rise above the anger, the division and the dishonesty which characterises the Leader of the Opposition ‘s approach to this referendum. We can get this done in one referendum. In the process, not leave it to our kids to sort out in some kind of generational [gap]. That’s the opportunity before us. It’s not an opportunity we cannot afford to waste.
Chalmers accuses Dutton of being ‘chief propagandist’ of no campaign
Jim Chalmers is next on the push back against the Peter Dutton dixer train.
He takes this question:
What other benefits of recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through a voice back for both Australian Society and the Australian economy, and what are the consequences of alternative proposals?
(Alternative proposals is a parliamentary way of being able to crap all over your opponents ideas/policies.)
And on those “alternative proposals”, Chalmers says:
[The voice] is not about the lies and the misinformation which we have seen peddled by parts of the no campaign.
The leader of the opposition has not distanced himself from that misinformation was. He has embraced it. He has embraced it. In this campaign of misinformation and mistruths, the opposition leader is the chief propagandist, Mr Speaker. We saw that yesterday.
Paul Fletcher:
Mr Speaker, it’s a similar point of order to the one that was necessary because the answer from the attorney general, you ruled rightly there and the treasurer too should be reminded of standing order 90, and should be counselled against drawing imputation against other members in the House.
Milton Dick:
I listened to both questions and there is a slight difference in this question because it did say to discuss alternative proposals. I’m assuming that’s where the treasurer is headed. I will remind all members of the language they use to show respect for one another in the chamber.
Updated
Labor ‘laser focused’ on voice referendum, Burney says in response to question on treaty
Liberal MP Jenny Ware asks Linda Burney:
The minister told Australians through the website of her agency the National Indigenous Australians Agency that, quote: ‘a Makarrata Commission would be codesigned to work on a national process of treatymaking’.
Can the minister update the house on this government’s plan for treaty making?
*Treaty is a separate process to the voice, and is not part of the referendum or on the agenda.
Burney:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. Can I thank the member for her question. This side of the house is laser focused on one thing, the one thing we have spoken about. That is the referendum on the 14 October.
We are appealing, we are appealing to the Australian people with thousands and thousands and thousands, thousands and thousands of other Australians to recognise Aboriginal people in the constitution.
As I said yesterday, this is good for all of us.
It is also about creating a voice entrained by the constitution. To get better advice so we make sure that what we do in terms of Aboriginal affairs changes the terrible life trajectory that so many people have.
Updated
Mark Dreyfus finishes with:
Mr Speaker, let’s talk about the facts.
The proposed constitutional amendments as the Voice will have the power to make representations on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. That is a fact.
The leader of the opposition ignores this fact and asserts the Voice would influence every area of the public administration and grind the whole of government to a halt. This is wrong and the leader of the opposition must know it is wrong.
The proposed constitutional amendment says parliament have power to determine the powers of the Voice. It is a fact.
The leader of the opposition ignores this fact and asserts the high court would determine its powers, not the parliament.
This is wrong and the leader of the opposition must know that this is wrong. I am confident that the Australians will see it through the opposition leaders tactics. Australians want outcomes. Not arguments.
Australians want the truth and not grubby tactics. The referendum on the 14 October is about three things, recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in our constitution, listening to them, and by listening, achieving better outcomes.
Updated
Dreyfus: ‘No claim is too absurd for this opposition leader’
Mark Dreyfus takes this dixer:
Why is important for the debate on the voice of the referendum be based on the facts?
Just so he can tee off on Peter Dutton again.
Dreyfus:
It is important that Australians make a decision based on the facts. But the No campaign strategy has been to ignore the facts and instead to soak fear and division across our great country.
And don’t take my word for it, we know that these other directions the official no campaign is giving to its volunteers – ‘Ignore the facts and say anything to distract from the actual issue on the ballot paper’.
An opposition leader with an ounce of decency would distance himself from a strategy based on disinformation and deceit. He would.
Not this opposition leader. No claim is too outlandish, no claim is too sinister.
No claim is too absurd for this opposition leader. He will say anything, he will do anything to spread confusion and divide our country.
Paul Fletcher is on his feet:
As you and all members would be fully aware standing order 90 says all imputations of improper motives to a member should be considered highly disorderly. The attorney general has just spent the first part of his answer imputing improper motives to the leader of the opposition. He is in breach of the standing orders and should be drawn back to them.
Tony Burke is ready for this:
To the point of order, there is a difference between imputing motives and describing conduct. The attorney general is describing conduct of the leader of the opposition.
Fletcher has to admit defeat:
Even by the standards of the leader of the house, that is an unusually nonsensical proposition.
Dick tells Dreyfus to be mindful of standing order 90.
Updated
Back-and-forth over points of order as Burney fields another voice question
Nationals MP Dr Anne Webster asks Linda Burney:
My question is to the minister for Indigenous Australians. There are at least 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language groups across our country. With 24 members, how will the voice reconcile different or competing priorities between the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, customs, languages and laws?
Linda Burney:
I want to read to the house the proposed question, and the proposed amendments, because they will answer your question. A proposed law to alter the constitution to recognise the first people of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice.
Do you approve this proposed alteration? The proposed amendments … in recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the first peoples of Australia. One, there should be a body to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
Peter Dutton raises on relevance:
I don’t know whether the minister needs to hear the question again, instead of reading from a script each and every time, could you answer the question asked?!
Tony Burke points out that Burney addressed it at the start and Milton Dick rules Burney is in order. She continues to read the question and Sussan Ley stands up.
Ley can’t use a point of order on relevance because it has been taken, so she “seeks a ruling”.
I seek your ruling that the minister simply citing the words that she has. This is the third answer this Question Time [which] in no way addresses the questions that have been asked is actually within the standing orders.
Burke points out that there is no actual point of order.
Someone has to raise a point of order. Which the deputy leader has refused to do when you requested.
Dick rules there is no point of order. Burney finishes reading the referendum question.
Updated
‘I have faith in the Australian people’, Burney says on voice debate
Linda Burney says:
On October 14, Australians will come together to vote on whether we should recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our constitution.
This is our moment to embrace recognition. Our moment to move Australia forward more united. Our moment to listen to the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
I say once again, there is no room for racism in Australia. The pain of racism is real for those people who have experienced it. It is something that should not be used for political purposes.
It is something that we should all agree is harmful and unacceptable, and it is something that we should all agree it must stop.
I have faith in the Australian people to engage in this debate respectfully. To walk in other people’s shoes, to approach this referendum with empathy and with compassion towards one another.
Updated
Burney continues to field questions on Marcia Langton comments
Nationals MP Mark Coulton asks Linda Burney:
It has been reported that a video has emerged of a member of the minister’s referendum working group, Professor Marcia Langton, stating that social workers are ‘by and large white and racist’ and ‘police are racist and get brownie points for running people up’. Does the minister believed Professor Langton’s comments accord with her request to act respectfully?
The Sky News report that Coulton is referring to quotes Langton as saying these things at a University of Queensland event in July:
The surge of racist nonsense is confined to a minority of Australians. Ordinary Australians are thinking yes, of course I am voting for the voice, and that would be 48-49%.
… Then there is hard no voters and I am hoping they are about 20% and they are the ones spewing racism.
… Both conservative leaders, the Liberal party opposition leader Peter Dutton and the National party leader David Littleproud have committed their parties to advocating a hard no case for the question.
Moreover their arguments are specious … appealing to their racist base with claims that the proposal will racially divide the nation.
On the social work point, this is what Langton is reported as saying:
Families have been broken apart by social workers who are, by and large, white and racist.
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Marles: climate crisis will drive ‘more complex’ strategic landscape
The defence minister, Richard Marles, has acknowledged that climate change will fuel “a more complex and volatile strategic landscape for the world” and a lot of the impacts will fall on “populations around us” (presumably meaning south-east Asia and the Pacific).
Marles was responding to a question from the independent MP Kate Chaney, who, together with other members of the crossbench, have been urging the government to release a declassified version of the Office of National Intelligence’s assessment of the security threats posed by the climate crisis (completed last year).
Chaney wanted to know whether the defence minister agreed “with the internationally accepted findings that the impacts of climate change will drive political instability and fuel regional and international conflict”. She also asked for any “specific policy responses” the government proposed to respond to “risks like food insecurity, mass migration and the destabilisation of markets”.
Marles wasn’t very specific. He thanked Chaney for raising “a critically important issue” and added:
The short answer to your question is I do accept that the pressures of climate change will give rise to a more complex and volatile strategic landscape for the world – but a strategic landscape that we must face as well.
Marles said Australia would “need to be very mindful of the way in which we posture ourselves in respect of that”.
He said ONI was “deeply engaged” in the issue, as was the Department of Defence.
He said the defence strategic review had considered change in terms of the demands placed on the ADF, but he acknowledged there were wider impacts.
This is a really important issue – I very much thank the member for raising it – and we are very keen to engage with not only the crossbench but the entirety of the parliament for the way in which our country can plan for the future.
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Jim Chalmers is the first MP to take a victory lap over the housing Australia future fund being passed by the Senate, with a dixer directed to him by the Labor MP Mary Doyle.
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Some context on PM’s claim that Dutton advised elders to vote yes
For those looking for the context of Anthony Albanese’s claim that Peter Dutton “advised the Leonora elders to vote yes” it looks like you can find it in this story:
[Local elder Geraldine] Hogarth said she had raised the voice with Dutton.
I asked him what he thought about the yes vote. He said: ‘Geraldine, I advise you to go for it, say yes, [because] you might have to wait for the next 100-plus years for another referendum.
That’s why I was shocked to hear that he was against it.
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Burney questioned over Marcia Langton’s ‘racism and stupidity’ comments
Sussan Ley asks Linda Burney:
Yesterday the minister said in this house ‘I call on everyone involved in this referendum to act respectfully’.
Yesterday, government appointee Marcia Langton told David Crowe ‘I said the claims being made by the No case are based in racism and stupidity’.
Does the minister believe Professor Langton’s comments are in accord with her request for everyone involved to act respectfully?
Burney:
Can I thank the member opposite for her question. I want to again say this.
Everyone in this debate should act respectfully and with care for one another. This referendum is a once-in-a-generational opportunity to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our constitution.
If we miss this moment it is gone for ever. Recognition should be an issue that is above politics. There are no second chances here.
The tone of the debate in this parliament matters. There must be a mutual respect here. We must be guided by love and by faith. Love for our fellow Australians and faith in a better future. I do not know how Australians will vote on October 14. None of us do.
But what I do know for certain is this: we are the greatest country in the world and we can be even greater if we embrace recognition, if we pay respect and celebrate the thousands of years of culture and traditions of First Nations people. If we listen through a voice to some of the most disadvantaged communities in our country. We must listen.
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Tony Burke uses a dixer to take a victory lap around the chamber on the Qantas high court decision:
JobKeeper was paid to Qantas, the aviation sector support was provided and then Qantas said the workers, even though they were being paid JobKeeper, would run down their leave and once they leave had been run down and they came to be brought back on shift they were told after being stood down for six months that they were fired.
That is what happened. While they leave was being run down the industrial relations Minister of the day said it was, I quote, ‘a good model’.
The transport minister of the day said that ‘I know the decisions are in the best interest of their company going forward’ and Senator Cash, at the time, said that ‘this is a commercial decision for Qantas and Qantas are entitled to make those decisions’.
Well, you are not entitled to illegally sacked people.
And while that was happening, from opposition, the now transport minister, then our Prime Minister and myself stood shoulder to shoulder with those workers and said that we would fight for them.
From time to time governments make decisions as to whether they will intervene in a High Court case. Those opposite will know this because they did intervene in High Court cases.
They intervened to cut the conditions of enterprise agreements, they intervened in another case to cut the rights of casuals. They intervened to cut the rights of shift workers.
We intervened to protect the rights of those Qantas workers. And we welcome today that justice has been given for those workers after experiencing horrific treatment from a company that those opposite made excuses for.
That those opposite made allowances for and are now in a situation where after we have stood shoulder to shoulder, where those workers now can see some justice.
PM: Dutton says ‘whatever is convenient at the time’
Anthony Albanese continues:
He went on radio, Mr Speaker, and accused the AEC of rigging the referendum, when the same rules have been in place since the Howard government. Exactly the same.
And yesterday, yesterday in a tour de force, he actually tried to verbal the minister for Indigenous affairs on the very same day that it occurred in Hansard.
He goes on, of course – he said that Alan Joyce had had dinner with [me] in the Lodge and Kirribilli when the last time was with [Scott] Morrison.
And this is what he had to say about Qantas: ‘Qantas is an iconic Australian brand. All of us have pride in its success. Alan Joyce is an exceptional CEO. I know Alan Joyce, he is exceptional both professionally and personally.’
This guy says … whatever is convenient at the time. Whatever is convenient at the time and time again.
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Question time begins
Brace yourself.
Peter Dutton:
My question is to the prime minister. Australians are watching the slow-moving train wreck that is the Albanese government.
Energy, grocery prices and mortgages are up because of the incompetent and economy-wrecking decisions made by the prime minister, the treasurer and the energy minister.
The prime minister’s campaign on the voice is a disaster dividing families and our nation. When will the prime minister start to make decisions which will help and not hurt Australians?
Albanese thanks him for his “sledge” and then treats the question as a dixer.
It really was a very wide bow, Mr Speaker, and that gives me the opportunity to give a very wide answer. Because the leader of the opposition has a record of deception as long as your arm.
The speaker has to calm down some of the interjections there. Albanese continues:
He speaks about our energy policy. This is a guy who said that business leaders were complaining to him about our safeguard mechanism when, in fact, the business community including the BCA said their members supported it.
He then went on to talk about energy policies while voting against the $3bn of relief for Australian families.
He claimed he had conversations with Indigenous elders in Leonora to convince him to vote no on the referendum when the same elders say he advised them to vote yes. That is what they had to say.
He told his own party room the official position would be a legislated national voice and then blindsided them by going to a press conference and getting rid of any concept of a national voice.
He solemnly stood up at this dispatch box and said it was a good thing that we were attending the G20 and Asean and participating in international forum and said when the prime minister leaves Australia to represent our nation we are bipartisan. We want the world to know that. And then the next day he mocked it. The next day he opposed it. He accused the AEC of rigging the referendum!
There is a point of order from Paul Fletcher which is not a point of order.
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Labor MP Sam Rae gets the coveted last 90-second statement before QT slot and it’s on … the high court decision on Qantas.
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Coalition senators push for ACCC to monitor airline prices permanently
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie and Liberal senator Dean Smith have introduced a private member’s bill in the senate, that would “restore oversight of the domestic aviation market by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission”.
The ACCC was given powers to monitor airline prices after the pandemic, but it lapsed and the Coalition now say it should be a permanent part of the landscape.
McKenzie said:
After the monitoring ended, I wrote to the treasurer asking him to instruct the ACCC to investigate airline competition and pricing, and provide recommendations to government and industry to improve the competitiveness of airfares and enhance service reliability.
And if he won’t act on this, we will. This is what this bill is all about.
It is also about the Qatar Airways decision and keeping some heat on that.
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The chief of the ADF, Gen Angus Campbell, attended the speech by the defence and veteran suicide royal commissioner, Nick Kaldas, but declined to answer media questions on his way out of the event
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We are now in the downhill slide to QT and chances are, it is going to be worse than yesterday.
Maybe go grab yourself something nice now, to help tide yourself over.
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Legal hurdles mean ‘things don’t move as well as they should’ in inquiries, says defence and veteran suicides commissioner
Daniel Hurst has asked Nick Kaldas at the press club:
Commissioner, the Albanese government recently knocked back a request for another extension of the inquiry’s work. What would you have been able to achieve if the extension had been granted that you can’t achieve with the current deadline? On a related note, you talked about stonewalling when it came to document requests. Who do you hold responsible for that? Is it the secretary of defence? The CDF? Is it at a ministerial level?
Kaldas:
On the question of extension … we felt there were issues we could have looked at in more depth. We also accept it’s important for government to begin to implement major reform and it’s difficult to do that.
It’s not impossible but it is difficult to do that if we exist.
We accept that, we’ve got a plan and we’ll get the job done. In terms of delays and the inability to access documents and so on, I think I’m going to be a little bit controversial here.
We’re not the first royal commission to come up against these – we’ve look at other royal commissions and it’s similar.
There is simply a bureaucracy, if you like, particularly in Canberra but probably in the states as well and frankly there are a lot of legal efforts made, probably with the best intentions, but they are so strictly focused on a strictly legal aspect that things don’t move as well as they should or as quickly as they should and it’s certainly been our experience.
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Editor of the Australian says paper stands by reporting on Marcia Langton
The Australian says it is standing by its reporting of comments from Indigenous academic Marcia Langton, after she claimed she had been “misreported and lied about”.
Langton was scathing of reporting from the Australian of her comments to a referendum event in Western Australia. Guardian Australia approached News Corp, the newspaper’s parent company, for response to Langton’s criticisms.
In a response, News Corp shared a short statement from Kelvin Healey, editor of the Australian, saying only:
The Australian stands by its reporting of Professor Langton’s comments.
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Thorpe expresses ‘profound disappointment’ at housing bill’s lack of targeted measures for Indigenous Australians
The independent senator Lidia Thorpe had attempted to amend the housing Australia future fund bill to include minimum and guaranteed spends on Indigenous housing. It was not supported. Thorpe voted for the legislation but said it could have gone further:
While I welcome the news that the legislation has passed, I am disappointed that the Greens did not advocate for the recommendations of First Nations housing bodies and grassroots organisations.
I want to express my profound disappointment that First Peoples, who are by far the most in need of housing, have been largely ignored and are once again left with next to nothing out of all this.
We are in a housing and homelessness crisis, and First Peoples are the hardest hit by this crisis. Deprived of our land, our lore and our customs, First Peoples are ten times more likely to be homeless on our own land. This legacy of housing poverty and deprivation continues to be a national shame.
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Royal commissioner accuses ADF of ‘too much talk and not enough action’ on veteran suicide
Daniel Hurst has written on the chair of the royal commission into defence and veteran suicide’s speech here:
Nick Kaldas accused government departments of ‘stonewalling’ the royal commission’s work, even though the ‘senseless loss of life’ was a national crisis.
Kaldas said the Australian defence force and the defence department were moving at ‘a snail’s pace’ in investigating and reporting on suicides, and questioned ‘whether they’re just going through the motions’.
He also warned of ‘deep-rooted cultural and systemwide issues within the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ that has left veterans ‘re-traumatised’ and ‘driven to the brink’.
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Senate passes housing bill
The housing Australian future fund legislation has been passed by the Senate. There were some amendments to the original bill so it’s off to the house to have those amendments ticked off before it’s considered officially passed by parliament.
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Chair of defence and veteran suicides inquiry to address NPC today
Nick Kaldas, the chair of the royal commission into defence and veteran suicides is delivering today’s national press club address.
His final report is due June next year, but an interim report was delivered to the government last year with 13 recommendations. The government accepted 11 of them, and is working on the other two.
We will monitor it and bring you parts from the question and answer session
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‘We’ve got to run and get in front of it’: teaching degrees and products to incorporate AI within months
Artificial intelligence will be embedded into teaching degrees and whole-of-system-products will be created “within the next six to twelve months”, the Department of Education says.
Speaking at an inquiry into the use of generative artificial intelligence, Department of Education spokesperson Julie Birmingham said it was “too early” to say the use of artificial intelligence was in all teaching degrees but work had been handed down in the past two months on how to improve initial teacher education.
She said existing teachers would also need to be upskilled, likely via microcredential courses and professional learning.
If it’s not core right now, it will be, certainly, digital technologies has to be part of [content] … we’re all newly coming to this issue … the technology’s developing really quickly and we’re in the space of playing catch up.
Australia [has] actually [been] showcased because we are one of the countries leading the way in terms of thinking about frameworks. Other countries are very interested in what we’re doing.
Birmingham said the creation of national products needed to be “that quick” because technology was moving at such a pace.
Education Services Australia … have been operating in the IT ed-tech space … in technology safety and product standards for all kinds of tech. They have also been talking to vendors about their intentions with AI and their readout is basically 90% of them will be expecting to move AI into their existing ed tech within the next few years … we’ve got to run and get in front of it.
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Digital divide in classrooms could grow with introduction of AI, inquiry finds
The uptake of artificial intelligence in classrooms could exacerbate the digital divide in areas with “technology deserts”, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.
Speaking at an inquiry into the use of generative artificial intelligence, Labor MP Sally Sitou said there had been concerns raised that artificial intelligence could exacerbate the digital divide – both through lack of infrastructure including connectivity and laptops, and teacher training.
Has there been an audit, for example, done of what schools don’t have access to high speed internet [or] teachers trained up in IT? And what is happening to bridge the current digital divide so as we move to the AI space, that divide doesn’t grow?
Department of Education spokesperson Julie Birmingham said the digital divide was a “real issue” throughout the pandemic as schools moved to remote learning.
It’s absolutely true to say that there are parts of Australia where that is going to always be a challenge. In remote communities of Australia, they don’t have the bandwidth to do Naplan online, for example … that’s an example of how we would have to differentiate our practice.
Over time, there’s potential for that digital divide to grow even more. That is going to be a focus for all governments about how to limit that … as technology becomes more sophisticated, the requirement for schools to really step up and help bridge that gap is going to be really significant.”
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Education taskforce developing framework for AI use in schools
A national announcement on the use of artificial technology in schools will be made in “coming weeks”, the Department of Education says, as the education ministers’ taskforce continues its deliberations on a national framework to guide the use of emerging AI.
Speaking at a parliamentary inquiry into the use of generative artificial intelligence, the department spokesperson, Julie Birmingham, said government agencies understood the “imperative” to get across the technology and there was a strong interest in the potential opportunities it offered education – particularly to assist educators streamlining their work in the classroom.
She said early research showed AI could provide intelligent tutoring systems, better personalisation, more targeted learning materials and help educate at-risk students.
The taskforce is doing the work to develop a framework for schooling; then the question will be, how do we operationalise that and support teachers and schools to deal with the challenges?
Birmingham added the taskforce was hearing “loud and clear” from the sector that up-skilling teachers would be crucial to support them in introducing emergent technology into their classrooms.
There’s a question about what can be done at the school level, what can be done at the system level and what can be done nationally … there’s efficiency in doing some professional development nationally, for example, that is available to all teachers in their schools.
We might expect to see some outcomes from the taskforce in that direction. But … understanding the risks I think is key. There’s all levels of capability within the teaching workforce in relation to this technology.
Updated
Well it has been quite the morning, hasn’t it?
In case you missed what happened:
Indigenous professor Marcia Langton told the ABC she was seeking legal advice over the use of a misleading headline published by the Australian (and since changed) which misconstrued comments she made at a voice event.
Langton said she is also exploring the issue of an apology from the media outlet over the original headline and story. She said she was not contacted for comment, or asked for clarification before it ran.
Qantas lost its high court appeal against a federal court ruling that found it illegal sacked 1700 ground handlers during the pandemic.
The TWU has called for the Qantas board to be spilled (essentially, to go/step down)
A parliamentary committee has referred the Synergy360 issue to the national anti-corruption commission
Does the bushfire forecast change if El Niño is declared? Symes says it’s unlikely:
It’s a good question and it’s question I’ve asked. It doesn’t make a lot of difference. That’s the scientific definition or category of a particular weather pattern involving the atmosphere and the sea. But for our intents and purposes, it doesn’t change what we do in Victoria.
Symes says the government will provide another update before the start of summer with the latest data.
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Victoria to launch bushfire awareness campaign
Victorian emergency services commissioner Rick Nugent says he is concerned some Victorians who have made a tree change during the pandemic may be underprepared for bushfires given they’ve experienced mild summers. He says:
People who have moved to regional areas need to … have a plan and to actually sit down with your family and understand what your plan is. The challenge now is sometimes we go through different extreme weather days multiple times over the season and you may have to leave more than once. It’s much better than being caught.
Emergency services minister Jaclyn Symes says the government will be launching an advertising campaign, called How Well Do You Know Fires, to raise awareness among this group. The campaign will also target people in growth corridors, where grassfires are a concern, and holidaymakers.
She says:
Because of the last seasons and the amount of rain … there is a lot of growth out there so grass fires are a real concern in growth areas … They move fast and it can be quite scary.
Symes says the bushfire season is not forecast to be catastrophic, despite what we saw over the northern hemisphere summer.
It is not anticipated to be another Black Saturday. The message is that we have some pockets of rather dry areas … the majority of the state is returning to a normal fire season. Normal fire season means high risk but there is a lot of moisture that’s already in the ground at the moment, which will lead to an unlikely campaign bushfire season, for instance.
That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, at this stage. Normal means you still need to take action you still need to be aware. But I understand people are nervous when you see the images that are coming out of Maui and Greece. I get that.
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Parliamentary gift shop gets a makeover
After its first revamp since 1996 (which happened after it was trashed by protesters who broke through police barricades and into the public space of the parliament), the Parliamentary Gift Shop is officially re-opened and welcoming customers.
Presiding officers Milton Dick (speaker of the house) and Sue Lines (president of the Senate) did a short shift behind the counter.
The store is now, as we understand it, carrying only Australian-made items, but we hope the price points still allow for school students to take back a little something from their visit.
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For those keeping track, after a re-arrangement of business in the Senate yesterday, the housing Australia future fund legislation was brought back on for debate and is expected to pass sometime this afternoon.
The Greens agreed to support the bill after negotiating for another $1bn on top of the $2bn for social and affordable housing (to begin flowing out separate to this fund, immediately).
The party didn’t get any movement on rental caps or freezes but has said it will keep fighting.
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Paul Karp has the Qantas decision covered off:
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Crossbenchers intensify push for release of secret climate crisis report
Crossbench MPs and senators have stepped up their calls for the government to release a declassified version of a secret intelligence report into the national security risks posed by the climate crisis.
As flagged on the blog earlier today, Warringah MP Zali Steggall organised a briefing for fellow crossbenchers conducted by former Australian defence force chief Chris Barrie and former deputy air force chief John Blackburn.
They have just finished a press conference at Parliament House alongside Allegra Spender, Zoe Daniel, David Pocock, Kate Chaney, David Shoebridge and Sophie Scamps.
Steggall told reporters the government “continues to refuse to share its findings”, which meant the Australian people were not fully informed of the geopolitical risks across the region, making it harder to develop a coherent response.
She said it was not satisfactory for the prime minister to say there is already a large amount of information in the public domain about climate security risks.
Barrie added:
We need some leadership from the damn federal government, which is missing in action.
Shoebridge said nuclear-powered submarines would be of no use in responding to climate disasters or increased refugee flows.
Last month Anthony Albanese told parliament the government made “no apologies for not releasing national security advice, which, appropriately, goes to the national security committee”.
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Victorians urged to ready for earlier fire season
Victoria’s emergency services minister, Jaclyn Symes, and the new emergency management commissioner, Rick Nugent, are holding a press conference to urge people to prepare for an earlier start to the fire season for some parts of the state.
Symes says the seasonal bushfire outlook for spring suggests Victorians can expect a drier and warmer spring with a high chance of an earlier start to the fire season in the central, western and northern parts of the state.
She says other parts of the state will return to normal conditions after several wetter-than-average summers:
I do have to stress that normal conditions in our state, in our country, does mean higher risk so I’m taking the opportunity … to get the message out there that now is the time for you to prepare for this season. It is time to mow your lawns. It’s time to clean your gutters. It’s time to take care of your properties. Many people will know the drill but they haven’t had to really be focused on it in the past couple of years. This year is different.
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Court dismisses bid to have Queensland graft watchdog’s report released
A report by Queensland’s corruption watchdog into the state’s former public trustee will not be released to the public, after a milestone decision by the high court.
After an anonymous 2018 allegation of corruption by trustee Peter Carne, the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) completed a report that the high court said was “highly critical of him” – but did not recommend criminal charges.
Carne challenged the CCC’s right to make the document public on the basis that the document is “not a report” for the purposes of the commission’s act.
After losing his original case in Queensland’s supreme court, the state’s court of appeal sided with Carne, stopping the CCC from publishing.
On Wednesday the high court dismissed the CCC’s appeal, with costs awarded to Carne.
The court found the commission could only release a report into an individual, under its act, where it has “decided that prosecution proceedings or disciplinary action should be considered”.
The landmark judgement significantly narrows the ability of Queensland’s premier corruption agency to report on public figures. Former deputy premier Jackie Trad also launched court action to prevent the CCC publishing a report that did not find corrupt conduct on her part.
Carne resigned in 2020.
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Qantas shares hold up
Qantas’s loss in the high court today looks like another devastating blow for the carrier’s image.
However, investors don’t yet take it as bad news. The airline’s shares have been higher most of the morning, and were recently up 0.5%.
That’s not a lot, and could turn negative soon, but for now Qantas is outperforming the top 200 share index, which is down 0.4% for the day.
The lack of a big drop suggests investors were anticipating the high court would stick with its original ruling that Qantas’s outsourcing of about 1,700 ground handler jobs during Covid was unlawful.
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Queensland Greens call for daily updates on detained children
The Queensland Greens have called on the state government to publicly release real-time data about children detained in police watch houses and adult prisons.
On Wednesday the Greens MP for Maiwar, Michael Berkman, asked the government if it would commit to daily reporting of children in these facilities, including details about how long they’ve been detained as well as their age, gender and Indigenous status.
He claimed amendments rushed through parliament last sitting week to legalise the imprisonment of children in police watch houses and adult prisons would result in more children detained.
Youth justice minister Yvette D’Ath did not confirm whether the government would consider the proposal.
She said the watch house amendment came after advice by the solicitor general that indicated the government may have been illegally detaining children in watch houses for three decades.
D’Ath said if a legal challenge was brought, children would have been transported from watch houses to youth detention centres, which are already at capacity, placing staff and young people at risk.
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You can add the Australian Services Union to the group of people thrilled with the outcome of the high court decision on Qantas:
ASU assistant national secretary Emeline Gaske said in a statement:
Today’s unanimous decision by the high court is a win for workers against a company that has a well-known history of trampling over workers’ rights and exploiting loopholes in the laws that are meant to protect workers.
While we wholeheartedly embrace this ruling as a victory for all Qantas Group workers and their right to stand together, it’s vital that the federal government expedite action to close those loops that allow for exploitation in our industrial relations system.
These weaknesses should never be exploited to undermine the hard-earned rights of Australian workers to secure, well-paid jobs.
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Sanctions on Iranian state media ‘do not go far enough’, Coalition says
Simon Birmingham and his assistant shadow minister Claire Chandler have responded to the sanctions Penny Wong announced today against Iranian state TV – they aren’t impressed:
While we appreciate the additional sanctions announced by the government today, they do not go far enough with the foreign minister acknowledging that “women and girls in Iran still face systemic persecution”.
Many Iranian-Australians have taken great personal risk to speak out, protest and urge the government to take stronger action. Iranian-Australian community groups have written to the prime minister and foreign minister on multiple occasions throughout the year urging swift implementation of the committee’s recommendations.
Incredibly, among the recommendations not accepted by the Albanese government include that any Iranian officials in Australia considered to be involved in intimidation, threats or monitoring of Australians be expelled. This comes despite the government acknowledging that Australians are being threatened and harassed on Australian soil.
The Greens and the Coalition want the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) listed as a terrorist group, which the government has so far not done.
This government response and rejection of the majority of the report recommendations will be devastating for many in the Iranian-Australian community who have worked so hard to try and get this Albanese Labor government to take stronger action and hold the regime to account.
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Labor MP and former TWU secretary Tony Sheldon (who is one of only a handful of MPs not to have accepted a Qantas chairman’s lounge invitation) has also responded to the high court decision and said the Coalition also needed to apologise to the workers:
Mr Dutton’s opposition to closing Joyce’s labour hire loophole shows him for what he really is: a hammer that companies like Qantas and BHP will use to smash the Australian middle class.
After three long years and three court decisions, will the Liberals and Nationals finally apologise to the 1,700 people they abandoned to the jackals and wolves at Qantas?
Mr Dutton has stood by Qantas and Mr Joyce at every stage of this trial, while the Labor government intervened in the case to support the workers. It couldn’t be any clearer whose side each party is on.
Sheldon also said board chair Richard Goyder’s position “is utterly untenable” and called on the senate to pass Labor’s labour loophole legislation.
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Maurice Blackburn Lawyers principal Josh Bornstein said the fight against Qantas on behalf of the sacked workers was not over:
Our legal team will now ask the federal court to hear claims for compensation for all adversely impacted workers and then seek a substantial penalty against Qantas.
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You can read more on the referral of the Synergy 360 controversy from Paul Karp here:
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Qantas says it ‘deeply regrets’ impact of outsourcing
Elias Visontay has sent through Qantas response to the high court ruling:
Qantas acknowledges and accepts the high court’s decision to uphold two prior rulings by the federal court regarding the legality of outsourcing the remainder of the airline’s ground handling function in 2020.
The federal court originally found that while there were valid and lawful commercial reasons for the outsourcing, it could not rule out that Qantas also had an unlawful reason – namely, avoiding future industrial action. The high court has now effectively upheld this interpretation.
The decision to outsource the remainder of the airline’s ground handling function was made in August 2020, when borders were closed, lockdowns were in place and no Covid vaccine existed. The likelihood of a years’ long crisis led Qantas to restructure its business to improve its ability to survive and ultimately recover.
As we have said from the beginning, we deeply regret the personal impact the outsourcing decision had on all those affected and we sincerely apologise for that.
A prior decision by the federal court has ruled out reinstatement of workers but it will now consider penalties for the breach and compensation for relevant employees, which will factor in redundancy payments already made by Qantas.
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Synergy 360 controversy referred to national anti-corruption commission
We will come back to the reaction to the Qantas story in just a moment – in the House of Representatives, Labor MP Julian Hill, who is chair of the public accounts and audit joint committee (JCPAA), has handed down the committee’s interim report (and the dissenting report) into the procurement at Services Australia and the NDIA and has referred former minister Stuart Robert to the national anti-corruption commission.
Hill said in the parliament:
The committee, therefore, considers that in light of the serious and systemic nature of the allegations, an agency with compulsory questioning and document-gathering and investigatory powers should take up the matter so that these questions may be properly assessed.
A referral to the national anti-corruption commission, the NACC, by a parliamentary committee should never be made lightly and certainly is not done so here. In these circumstances, however, there appears no other appropriate course of action.
The report recommends that the NACC examine all of the evidence considered by the JCPAA to date to inform its decision whether a fuller investigation of the matter is warranted to establish the substance of these claims.
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One of the workers who was sacked, Dom is speaking on the decision:
Well, what a day! It’s been three years that we’ve gone through this unnecessary dragging through the mud. We loved Qantas.
He says that corporate governance “needs an absolute overhaul”.
I think the gravy train has pulled into the station. It’s time to get off. The corporate governance in this country needs an absolute overhaul and I’m sure that our politicians behind here will make sure that that happens.
Dom then thanks the legal team and the workers involved:
Before I say another word, I would like to thank our legal team who had the faith to keep going, even though it was like the unlosable case, the juggernaut of Qantas is not an easy feat.
Congratulations to them today.
Every one of the thousands of workers that got sacked - we thank you. We were just ordinary people going to work and were nobody special. But today, we feel that we’re special.
He thanks the union as well and their supporters and then turns his attention back to the workers:
All you Qantas workers at home - we beat em! Go and enjoy it.
TWU secretary Michael Kaine is speaking on the Qantas high court decision and repeats his call for the entire Qantas board to be spilled.
There are serious consequences that should flow from this. Richard Goyder and the board should go.
He then turns his attention to the new CEO Vanessa Hudson and says:
You owe these workers and their families a deep and sincere apology. These workers have been put through hell. Their families have been put through hell. Their lives have been dislocated.
Some of them forever. Separations. Loss of property. That’s the consequence of this illegal decision.
You need to apologise to these workers straight away. And not just in words, but in actions. And the action that you can take immediately is to hurry back before the federal court now and do everything you can to expedite compensation for the workers is so that they can get some justice and solace for themselves and their families.
Kaine also calls for reform and for the labour loophole bill to be passed by the parliament as soon as possible.
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Union boss Sally McManus has also responded to the workers’ win in the high court:
The workers win against Qantas in the High Court. We will always have the backs of workers, well done @TWUAus pic.twitter.com/wvZr7ouULX
— Sally McManus (@sallymcmanus) September 13, 2023
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TWU calls for entire Qantas board to go
The Transport Workers Union has responded to the high court decision and says the entire Qantas board should now be spilled.
Richard Goyder and the entire Qantas board must be replaced by new directors including a worker representative, after the high court today unanimously upheld two federal court verdicts that Qantas illegally outsourced 1,700 workers,” the TWU said in a statement.
The union also wants the new CEO, Vanessa Hudson, to publicly apologise to the illegally sacked workers and “commit to a speedy and non-adversarial approach to federal court hearings on compensation and penalties”.
Three unanimous rulings from the federal court and high court found Qantas breached the Fair Work Act. Outsourcing workers prevented them accessing industrial rights to collectively bargain and take protected industrial action.
Qantas faces three further court challenges:
An unprecedented criminal prosecution from the NSW safety regulator for standing down a health and safety representative during the pandemic.
Record penalties of $600m sought by the ACCC for selling cancelled flights.
A class action from angry customers who say they were misled and denied refunds.
TWU national secretary Michael Kaine thanked the workers for their determination:
Qantas workers have made history today. It has been three years and 20 days since Alan Joyce first announced the decision to outsource these workers, and they have not stopped fighting for a moment to ensure justice was served.
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Qantas loses court challenge over sacked workers
Qantas has lost its high court bid to overturn a ruling that it illegally outsourced 1,700 ground handler jobs.
On Wednesday the high court unanimously upheld a full federal court decision exposing the embattled airline to a mammoth compensation bill for laying off staff at 10 airports in November 2020.
In July 2021 the federal court ruled Qantas’s outsourcing of the workers was in part driven by a desire to avoid industrial action, which is a breach of the Fair Work Act.
The decision is a major win for the Transport Workers Union, which was supported in the case by an intervention from workplace relations minister Tony Burke.
Ahead of the high court decision, the TWU national secretary, Michael Kaine, said the outsourcing decision was part of outgoing chief executive Alan Joyce’s “spiteful management style” that had damaged the airline’s reputation.
Qantas has been under scrutiny for failing to refund flight credits accrued during the pandemic and allegedly cancelling flights as part of a strategy to hoard slots at major airports.
In submissions to the high court, the union had warned that overturning the federal court’s decision would create “uncertainty” about accessing workplace rights and water down protections against other forms of discrimination, such as sacking workers before they accrue parental leave.
Qantas had claimed the outsourcing was a necessary financial measure that could save it $100m annually and reduce future spending on ground handling equipment such as tugs and baggage loaders.
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Paul Karp is going through the judgment and will have more for you very soon (these things take a little bit to read through).
But a Qantas loss in the high court means the court agrees with the federal court ruling that the 1,700 workers sacked by the carrier were sacked illegally.
We will have the detail of that very soon.
Updated
Qantas have lost their case with the high court.
More soon.
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“Zombie” rugby players will visit Parliament House a little bit later – as part of a protest against the Australian Rugby’s sponsorship by gas company Santos.
The Wallabies are playing in the World Cup, but the Santos sponsorship is not new – the company extended its major sponsorship with the code in 2021.
The zombie players (through a translator we are told) want the government to ban fossil fuel sponsorships and advertisements, in the same way that alcohol and tobacco can’t advertise, and for the same reasons.
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We are standing by for the high court decision on whether Qantas sacking 1,700 workers was illegal or not.
Paul Karp has you covered there. The judgment will be handed down around 10am.
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In case you missed it, Daniel Hurst has written on the sanctions Australia will impose on Iranian state media:
Rise in NSW invasive bacterial infections prompts warning
New South Wales is seeing increasing cases of rare but severe invasive bacterial infections in the state, which can lead to death or permanent disability, the state health department is warning.
Dr Trevor Chan, the clinical director for the department, said spring was usually a peak time for meningococcal disease in NSW, and this year cases of invasive group A streptococcus (iGAS) were also steadily increasing.
So far this year, NSW has recorded 28 cases of meningococcal disease and 544 cases of iGAS have been notified to the end of August.
Chan has urged people in NSW to pay close attention to symptoms, as rapid intervention can be life saving:
In the early stages, invasive bacterial infections can appear similar to more common viral illnesses. Occasionally they can occur at the same time, or follow a viral infection.
Rapid intervention and treatment for invasive bacterial infections are available and can be life saving.
We urge people to pay close attention to symptoms, trust their instincts and seek urgent medical care if symptoms worsen or if they or the people they care for are getting worse.
Bacterial infections like meningococcal and iGAS can lead to sepsis, a life-threatening condition. Intervention and treatment for invasive bacterial infections are available and can be life saving.
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Inside the federal tobacco bill
The landmark Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) Bill being introduced today contains a lot of evidence-based measures long called for in public health research.
These include improving transparency of tobacco sales volumes, product contents, advertising and promotional activities; capturing vapes in advertising restrictions; updating and improving graphic warnings on packaging; and preventing the use of specified additives in tobacco products like menthols.
Prof Tanya Buchanan, Cancer Council Australia’s CEO, said that despite a nearly 60% decline in smoking rates in the past 30 years, tobacco smoking remained Australia’s leading cause of preventable death and illness, including cancer.
More than 250,000 Australians were predicted to die of smoking-related cancers over the next 20 years, she said.
This is truly unacceptable because smoking-related cancers are entirely preventable. This legislation reflects the latest evidence and is a significant step in reducing smoking rates to less than 5% by 2030.
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Outside of her Sky News interview, Sussan Ley is doubling down on her criticism of Marcia Langton:
She is talking in her own words about racism and stupidity being at the heart of the no campaign and her defence seems to be she is not saying that voters, she is not saying people who vote no are racist or stupid, but she thinks that arguments they use are racist or stupid
I would prefer everyone listening to this actually look at those remarks and feel that level of insult for themselves.
Langton did not say that. She did not say that the arguments that no voters are using are racist or stupid. She said, and it is on the tape so it’s clear, that the no camp was using racism or stupidity as the basis of a lot of what it was putting out to people.
Every time the no cases raises one of their arguments, if you start pulling it apart you get down to base racism. I’m sorry to say it but that’s where it lands, or just sheer stupidity.
The broader context of this, which Langton has explained, is that she was directly answering a question from a woman who thought that voting yes would give Indigenous people compensation. Langton was explaining that you can not get compensation without being legally entitled to it, which has always been and will remain the case. She then went into how what that woman had been told was an example of what the no camp was doing.
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In case you missed it late yesterday, property developer Tim Gurner caused quite a stir on social media following his comments on employees at the AFR Property Summit.
Gurner Group founder Tim Gurner tells the Financial Review Property Summit workers have become "arrogant" since COVID and "We've got to kill that attitude." https://t.co/lcX3CCxGuj pic.twitter.com/f9HK2YZRRE
— Financial Review (@FinancialReview) September 12, 2023
There are predictions unemployment will reach 4.5% in Australia as the impacts of inflation on the economy continue to hit, which is not a number – it’s people.
On the Nine newspapers’ reports of how no campaign volunteers are being trained, which includes using fear over facts, Sussan Ley says:
I’ve seen reports of all sorts of things but I will always call out bad behaviour when I see it. But we do have to come back to the heart of the argument, which is Australians deserve explanations, not insults.
Anthony Albanese comes into the parliament with a lot of confected moral outrage day after day. You hear it and we see it, but what he [doesn’t] come into the parliament with is details.
Now Australians are fair-minded people that want to give this whole thing a fair go, but the prime minister is not getting them a fair go.
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Asked about the comments no campaign spokesperson Gary Johns has made previously, Sussan Ley says:
There is not a comparison here between remarks being said by people who are not associated with a Liberal National party because remember, we’re not running the no campaign, and this is a person who has actually been appointed by the minister to sit on effectively the expert panel, the Referendum Working Group, and has denigrated the no campaign – the heart of the no campaign, in her own words.
Now, I respectfully disagree with Marcia Langton and my issue here is, perhaps not so much to take issue with her, I entirely disagree with what she said. But we sat in the parliament yesterday and we at least expected the minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, to condemn those remarks and she did not. And I asked her how can you reasonably have a person who says these things, believes these things to be true, actually, on your own Referendum Working Group.
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On Sky News, deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley continued to criticise Professor Marcia Langton:
It sounds as though Marcia Langton’s defence of her remarks is that she didn’t call no voters racist or stupid, she just called the arguments racist and stupid, and described them as the arguments at the heart of the no campaign.
Australians deserve explanations, not insults. And this sounds very much like an insult to people who are in all good conscience considering, or have made up their mind, to vote no.
These are good Australians, Australians who all want the best outcomes for Indigenous First Australians and care very much about closing the gap and want to do the right thing.
It’s also quite inappropriate that Professor Langton, as a member of this government’s Referendum Working Group – so a government appointee – has said these things. In the parliament yesterday, neither the minister nor the prime minister was prepared to condemn them. That’s just not good enough. As I said, we need explanations, and we need a respectful debate.
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Marcia Langton says she still has faith that by talking to people, they can get the true message of the voice across:
I’ve been working hard and I know tens of thousands of other campaigners have been working hard to talk to Australians and explain the urgent need for a voice.
And that’s what I’ll be doing for the next month. I’ll be giving people the facts.
And I have faith that they will overwhelmingly support a yes vote, if we can talk to them and explain to them the referendum question, that parliament will design the voice and that our proposal is not racist and will not cause apartheid.
And that all of these claims by the no case are indeed deeply disturbing.
And it’s, I think, the no case has caused severe damage to our social fabric and our democracy by importing overseas tactics – using a call bank that automatically generates numbers and sending these messages out to millions of Australians; it’s deeply damaging to our democracy.
And it will take a long time for Australians to recover from the viciousness of this campaign.
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In response to a question from Patricia Karvelas, Marcia Langton says yes, of course there are people who are campaigning against the voice without basing their arguments in racism:
Well, of course, I mean, you know, I’ve been communicating by emails, one of my friends overseas who’s voting no, he’s a highly experienced lawyer. And he says he’s voting no because he’s not convinced that the model will work. So yet again, I have to explain that the model is to be decided by parliament.
So I’m very surprised that a very experienced lawyer would say that to me in an email, but you can see how clever the tactics of using fear are and how they’re actually working to confuse voters.
So there’s a lot of work to do both with people who have legitimate concerns that need to be addressed and clarified.
And also those people who are simply confused by the very base and, frankly, stupid and racist claims being made by the no campaign to frighten Australians into believing that the referendum will result in damage to the Australian social and democratic fabric.
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But Marcia Langton is not backing down from her statement that the no campaign has racism in it. The campaign and its tactics – not people who are voting no.
Asked about people who take issue with that, Langton says:
Well, you know, you have to explain racism to people. A lot of people don’t understand how what they’re saying is racist.
It is racist to say that if you vote yes, Aborigines will get compensation. And I’ve explained how that is racist – one, nobody, not Aborigines, not anybody, gets compensation unless they’re legally entitled to it.
And the no case is implying that if you vote yes, Aborigines – even if they are [not] legally entitled to compensation – will get compensation and that will somehow be much better for non-Indigenous people.
So it is the no campaign that is promoting division on the basis of race, because they saying these things about Aboriginal people, they’re making untrue statements, derisory and insulting statements about Indigenous people.
Updated
Marcia Langton says again that she does not believe the majority of Australians are racist:
It is my greatest hope that the majority of Australians are not racist. And in fact, you know, having spoken to thousands of people I am absolutely convinced that most Australians are not racist.
After I’ve speak at events, I stay around and and you know, talk to people and let them ask me more questions because we always run out of time for questions and many of them say to me that they are revolted by the racism that they’ve seen towards Indigenous people in the media and, and in other instances.
After asking the media last week to “lift its game”, Marcia Langton asks again for the media to do better:
It’s deeply disappointing to me that I was misreported and lied about by a national masthead, the Australian, and [journalist] Joe Kelly and others have the Australian, and on Sky News and in the Daily Mail and other outlets should ensure that comments, my comments, anybody’s comments, are reported accurately.
And that was clearly not the case yesterday. It’s not good enough and they should do better.
She said she was speaking to a lawyer about next steps, including an apology.
Updated
Langton to seek legal advice on Dutton’s posting of ‘absolutely not true’ headline
Marcia Langton said the headline in the Australian yesterday was not what she said and that the truth matters.
Langton said the Australian had changed its headline “three times I believe” and it had been rewritten “three times” but Peter Dutton still hasn’t removed the original post.
So by the end of the day, yesterday, the article had been rewritten three times, the headline had been changed three times. And today, I will have to go to a lawyer and ask a lawyer to write to Peter Dutton requesting that he remove this post from his Instagram because it is absolutely not true.
I deny it absolutely. And as you say, there is a recording of what I said at the Bunbury meeting. And what I said is very clear.
I was explaining how the no campaign is using fears and lies to frighten no voters into voting no, that the no campaign is claiming that this, our proposition in the referendum, will create apartheid. And so it’s very important to answer people’s questions and explain exactly how this kind of [campaign] works.
Updated
Langton clarifies comments on voice no campaign
Marcia Langton said she did not call no voters racist or stupid and her original comments made that clear.
She said she was responding to a woman who had been told that Indigenous people would receive compensation if the voice was successful and explaining why that was wrong.
I don’t believe that most Australians are racist. And I’m certainly not racist. But what I was saying was that the claims made by the no campaign are based in racism and stupidity and that is a completely different kind of statement altogether.
Updated
At her press club address last week, Professor Marcia Langton called on the media to “lift its game” in how it was covering the voice and said it had a responsibility to call out misinformation.
Professor Marcia Langton has called on the media to "lift their game" and to "not participate in pile-ons on persons who are good and decent people".
— 10 News First (@10NewsFirst) September 6, 2023
Prof. Langton is an advocate for the 'Yes' vote in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum.
She said daily, published… pic.twitter.com/slZ6dX9Xbf
In speaking to Patricia Karvelas, she sounds angry – and devastated –that less than a week later, this has happened and details some of the abuse she has experienced.
Langton says her comments were not about no voters
Professor Marcia Langton said the Australian newspaper did not go to her for comment before it ran its story yesterday, which was based on a talk she gave in WA last week, and a headline and story in the Bunbury Herald, which put a headline on the story which misrepresented her comments.
Josh Butler explains it in this story from last night:
Peter Dutton used the erroneous headline on the Australian article, which has been changed at least once since it first ran, in social media posts, which are still up.
Langton said she was seeking legal advice to have them taken down and makes clear her comments were not about voters:
I was explaining how the no campaign is using fear and lies to frighten voters into voting no, explaining exactly how this deceitfulness works.
… I was very careful to explain how the inherent racism of the claim worked, to a woman who was considering voting no. I think it was important to explain to her how she was being duped. I have great regard for the right to vote, and I believe people deserve the right information.
Updated
Key event
Prof Marcia Langton calls out no campaign misinformation
Professor Marcia Langton has spoken to ABC Radio RN Breakfast and called out, in very plain language, the “misreporting” around her comments in WA yesterday.
We will bring you some of those quotes very soon – just going through the transcription.
But Langton is not holding back. At all.
Updated
Over on ABC TV News Breakfast, health minister Mark Butler (after speaking again about the new vaping regulations) is asked about the voice and what Professor Marcia Langton said in WA.
Butler says:
I think there’s been a bit of misrepresentation about the target of Professor Lagton’s report … She was referencing some of the appalling material being put into letter boxes, put on social media.
Frankly, on the front of the channel Nine newspapers yesterday, the strategy of those no campaigners was laid out. They said expressly, when talking to volunteers, use fear over fact. They said don’t identify yourself as no campaigners. They encouraged the volunteers to start raising red herrings like compensation, reparations, the same old chestnuts we’ve heard for decades, whenever there’s a proposition around reconciliation put to the Australian people or parliament.
Updated
Jacqui Lambie says she and people “like Dave” [David Pocock] have a responsibility to consult and listen widely on the IR elements of the bill and they can’t do it properly within the government’s original time frame.
She said she won’t be pushed around.
Well, I’m just going to let people out there know, in the next four weeks, why he won’t split these out of the bill.
And he’s using these as bargaining chips, these four things, because these are hardy stuff.
And he’s going to say, [using the voice you use to imitate someone who is annoying you] ‘Well, why you don’t put the rest of the bill through? And if you’re gonna argue about the bill, you’re holding all this stuff up.’
We play this game all the time and, seriously, I’m really sick of it.
Updated
In terms of “making things difficult” for Tony Burke and the government, Jacqui Lambie says:
It’s making people, the public aware out there that he’s playing games with people’s lives out there, and that’s exactly what he’s doing by chucking this in the mix with the industrial relations laws.
That’s what he’s doing. I find it really, I just find it absolutely disgusting.
Updated
Lambie takes government to task over omnibus bill
Independent Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie is speaking to ABC radio RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas about the government’s IR omnibus bill.
There are a lot of things wrapped up into the bill. The crossbench, including Lambie and David Pocock, want the bill to be split to allow the urgent parts of the bill to be removed, while the rest of the bill (the labour hire loopholes) can be dealt with later.
The crossbench and the Coalition voted together in the Senate to have the bill sent to a committee with a reporting date of February next year, which means the bill won’t come into effect until July 2024 or so (by the time it moves through all the debate stages).
Lambie told reporters she wants to see the ban on discriminating against domestic violence victims, workers comp for PTSD in first responders, small business insolvency, and silicosis measures removed.
So far the government hasn’t budged, with Burke basically saying – well, you voted for it to return from committee in February, so that’s when it returns.
Lambie says that isn’t good enough and she is not falling for the government’s tricks.
This is going to make things very difficult I, would suspect, but you know… we’re gonna be running a campaign against the minister on this over the next month or so well, to make him think about this twice.
But, you know, when you are putting things in an industrial relations bill that has PTSD, domestic violence, you know, solvency payments for people … in small businesses that either have to reduce their size or go under … we already know, PK – I’ve been up here long enough to know why you’ve put those in that bill.
That is to bend back around with us if we have problems with that bill and tell us, and tell the people out there that we are holding it up, we are holding up anything to help frontline workers with their PTSD … [and against] domestic violence.
… We are looking at a bill with 500 pages for the explanatory memorandum of what the bill is about, and nearly 200 pages of legislation to go through – and he wants to chuck [all this] other stuff in here?
This is really disgusting, I think this is a really low ebb. It’s making me really angry that he has left these four things in here to basically use as a bargaining chip.
Updated
Australia needs to ‘catch up’ on vaping laws – Butler
Mark Butler said vapes had slipped through Australia’s regulations because there hadn’t been any updates to include them:
The fact that there’s really been no additional reforms over the past decade means that Australia is now lagging the world leaders, who are countries like Canada and New Zealand, who have introduced a range of the reforms that I’m introducing into the parliament today.
We need to catch up, we need to reflect, you know, what is international best practice here to stamp out these new marketing tactics.
We’ve got new brand names, we’ve got new additives and flavours being put into cigarettes like menthol capsules that that give you a burst of minty freshness partway through your cigarette with a label of Fresh Bursts.
You’ve got different shapes and sizes of the so-called Vogue cigarettes that are long and slim and bright, and deliberately designed to look good on an Instagram and deliberately designed to appeal to younger smokers. These are things we need to stamp out.
Updated
Health minister Mark Butler is looking to bring vaping under control in Australia, with new laws to bring vapes, or e-cigarettes, under Australia’s tobacco laws.
Butler said Australia had fought the tobacco industry in the past and won, and would do it again with vaping:
We can’t forget the fight against traditional cigarettes or what young people call analogs now, but the so-called digital durries – the vapes – are the new frontier to stop a new generation of nicotine addicts being recruited by this industry.
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Rally to demand better care for people in chronic pain
A rally will be held outside parliament this morning, calling for $70m in increased funding to improve healthcare for people suffering from chronic pain. It’s most likely to be a woman in her peak working years who is suffering from chronic and debilitating pain because of a range of conditions – but finding proper and affordable healthcare can be a challenge.
Painaustralia CEO Giulia Jones said the group was seeking 10 allied health visits subsidised per year, as well as 10 psychology appointments per year via doubling of funding for GP management.
Jones said it was another issue women were fighting, often without acknowledgment:
These women are not recognised, they are invisible, and we are here to see them acknowledged, respected and seen by the whole nation, and the politicians of Australia. Women are sick of being ignored by the health system that is meant to be there to support them.
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All eyes will be on the high court from about 10am, when it hands down its decision on whether Qantas illegally sacked its ground staff three years ago. The TWU brought the case and Qantas has appealed it all the way to the high court.
You can read some of the previous reporting here:
Updated
ACT independent senator David Pocock will launch the Australia Institute’s Climate of the Nation report today.
Adam Morton has taken a look at the report – you probably won’t be surprised to learn that voters believe the Albanese government isn’t doing enough to address the climate crisis:
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Women’s safety in spotlight at parliamentary forum
A cross-parliamentary group is hosting a women’s safety round table this morning “to address the systemic issues at the heart of domestic violence and coercive control”.
On average, one woman a week is killed in Australia. But despite promises of “never again” so far, we haven’t seen change.
The co-chairs of Parliamentary Friends of Ending Violence Against Women and Children and of Women and Work, Kylea Tink, Larissa Waters, Alicia Payne, Bridget Archer and Louise Miller-Frost, are hosting about 50 or so advocates, experts and researchers to try to find where the gaps are in the response.
Among the attendees are:
The Hon Justine Elliot MP, assistant minister for social services, assistant minister for the prevention of family violence
Commissioner Anna Cody, Australian sex discrimination dommissioner
Commissioner Micaela Cronin, Australian domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner
Commissioner Hannah Tonkin, NSW women’s safety commissioner
Sam Mostyn AO, chair of the women’s economic equality taskforce, businesswoman and sustainability adviser
Anne Summers AO, professor, activist, domestic and family violence researcher, best-selling author and journalist
Hayley Foster, director of family violence and Indigenous programs at the federal circuit and family court of Australia
Updated
Tighter cigarette restrictions planned
New laws to ban menthol cigarettes and introduce warnings on individual cigarettes will be introduced to parliament today, as part of the federal government’s crackdown on nicotine products.
Vaping products will also be brought under the proposed extended advertising restrictions, which will update the “smoking kills” graphic warnings on packaging, standardise the size of tobacco packets and require health liftouts in cigarette packs and tobacco pouches.
Health minister Mark Butler said the legislation, if passed, will come into effect from 1 April next year but industry will be given until April 2025 to comply with the new standards.
Butler said:
Australia has been a leader in public health measures to discourage smoking, but after a decade of inaction, the gains of Labor’s world leading plain packaging laws have been squandered.
Since the inception of plain packaging, big tobacco has become increasingly creative and cunning with their marketing tactics.
This legislation will allow Australia to reclaim its position as a world leader on tobacco control.
It follows Butler’s announcement last November proposing tougher reforms against vaping, including a blanket ban on their importation and measures to prevent advertising to children on social media.
Updated
NSW opposition’s move on corruption watchdog fails
A bid by the New South Wales opposition to strip the state’s corruption watchdog of powers to use illegally obtained recordings as part of its investigations has failed.
The powers were granted by the Labor government to the Independent Commission Against Corruption last month following a request from chief commissioner, John Hatzistergos, relating to a probe into Sydney developer and fugitive Jean Nassif, his company Toplace and branch stacking.
The opposition leader, Mark Speakman, described the move as an “over-the-top power grab” and attempted to block it by supporting a disallowance motion from Liberal Democrats member John Ruddick. The motion was voted down on Tuesday night.
The opposition’s attorney general spokesperson, Alister Henskens, warned it could lead to “digital vigilante-ism”.
Previous reporting:
Updated
Good morning
Thank you to Martin for starting us off this morning – you have Amy Remeikis with you now for most of the day, to help guide you through the Wednesday parliamentary sitting day.
Katharine Murphy, Josh Butler, Daniel Hurst, Sarah Basford Canales and Paul Karp will give you all the details you need to know as the day (and week) unfolds, so I hope you join us as we try and make sense of it all.
Mike Bowers is back with us too (huzzah!)
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
Still on those former defence force leaders:
John Blackburn, a former deputy chief of the Royal Australian Air Force, said the assessment should be released “so that the public and all members of parliament can be clear-eyed on the security threats that climate change poses”. He said:
Parliamentarians, including those who serve on foreign affairs, defence and climate committees, have not been briefed on what intelligence services told the government were the big regional climate threats. Behind closed doors, most are saying that this is making it difficult for them to do their jobs.
Barrie said the climate risk assessment should trigger a new strategy that includes “recognition that climate change is the greatest security threat facing all nations”. The group also proposes establishing an Office of Climate Threat Intelligence within ONI, with an annual, de-classified briefing to Parliament.
The independent MP Zali Steggall will host the group for a climate and security briefing for MPs and senators at parliament this week. Steggall said:
The government’s refusal to share its climate risk assessment is a disservice to the Australian people, who deserve to know about the risks posed by worsening climate change and the strategies that will be required to prepare and protect our country as these risks escalate.
Government must be on 'full alert' on climate change, former military brass warn
A group of former Australian defence force leaders will be at Parliament House today to urge the government to be on “full alert” over the worsening climate crisis.
The Australian Security Leaders Climate Group, whose members include former ADF chief Chris Barrie, says the government should “urgently develop a national strategy to specifically address the security risks to Australians posed by the climate crisis”.
Barrie said:
Climate change now poses the greatest threat to our security and the government should be engaging the electorate to build understanding of climate risks and how to respond. Instead, the government has a strategy of non-engagement when it comes to the most significant threat to our future. That is a fatal mistake.
The group continues to criticise the government for refusing calls to make public a declassified version of the climate-security risk assessment that was completed by the Office of National Intelligence (ONI) in 2022. The government says it is standard practice not to release intelligence assessments, although it does explicitly acknowledge the climate crisis as a national security threat.
Kerrynne Liddle objects to Gary Johns' comments
No campaigner and Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle has responded to controversial comments from no campaigner Gary Johns, who last month claimed some people in Indigenous communities lived in a “stupor” and recommended they “learn English”.
“I don’t agree with some of those comments,” she says. “That’s not the way I’ve conducted discussion on voice”
Speaking on the Full Story podcast, the senator declined to comment on whether John’s should step down from the no campaign.
She also called for greater respect from both campaigns.
“As an Indigenous person, that’s been one of the things I’ve been really disappointed about is the divisive nature in which this has been taken to the Australian people. You know, I hear comparisons of the 1967 referendum, which was truly about unity. This referendum, though, I think will go down as the voice of division.”
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling politics coverage. I’m Martin Farrer with some overnight talking points before my colleague Amy Remeikis takes over.
The Greens say they will use their balance of power in parliament to target Labor’s “Help to Buy” housing scheme legislation to push for a cap and freeze on rents. The scheme would help 10,000 prospective buyers a year by taking equity in the homes, but the Greens want concessions for tenants in much the same way they leveraged support for the recent housing bill.
Anthony Albanese is also coming under pressure for a perceived lack of action on climate change with a new poll today showing that a majority of Labor voters think his government is not doing enough to prepare for the impacts of the climate crisis. But the long-running Climate of the Nation survey has some contradictory findings, with fewer voters now thinking climate change is to blame for extreme weather events. It comes as former Australian military top brass will warn ministers today about the growing security risk to Australia posed by climate change. More on these stories coming up.
Prominent Indigenous leader Marcia Langton has strongly denied claims from the Coalition and no campaign that she criticised voters opposing the voice to parliament, reportedly alleging a “deliberate tactic” had been used to denigrate her. She told Nine newspapers she had been misquoted on comments she made specifically about the no campaign – not its supporters.
Meanwhile, our latest voice AMA podcast features a discussion between no campaigner Kerrynne Liddle and yes supporter Tanya Hosch about alleged “dirty tactics”. In it, Liddle said she disagreed with comments from fellow no campaigner Gary Johns, who last month claimed some people in Indigenous communities lived in a “stupor” and recommended they “learn English”.
