What happened today, Thursday 12 November
Parliament has finished for the sitting, so we are going to wind down the blog for the evening. Here are the day’s key events:
- The government announced the creation of a special investigator’s office to deal with allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan. A report into the alleged crimes will be released next week.
- Scott Morrison officially congratulated the US president-elect Joe Biden.
- The Chinese embassy has told the Morrison government to “stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs”, arguing the qualification of members of the region’s parliament is “purely an internal affair of China”.
- NSW and Victoria recorded another day of no new local Covid-19 cases.
- The NSW upper house passed a motion calling for the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, to be referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption over her relationship with Daryl Maguire.
And you are up to date. See you again tomorrow.
Updated
Via AAP:
Investigations are continuing into a Covid-19 case in South Australia to determine if the infection in the aged care worker, who recently returned from Victoria, will derail plans to ease border rules.
The woman, in her 20s, flew into Adelaide on Monday on a Jetstar flight and is in hotel quarantine.
Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said the woman previously tested positive for coronavirus in Victoria in August but had been cleared.
Further tests are underway to determine if her case is an old infection and she is still shedding deadly virus, or if it is a rare case of reinfection.
Out of an abundance of caution the case was being considered infectious, Professor Spurrier said.
Premier Steven Marshall said SA would be guided by health advice as to whether the case would delay plans to lift the harder border closure with Victoria.
Updated
The Royal Australian College of Physicians is urging the the government not to rush changes to environmental law and for reforms to adequately consider and protect the health of Australians.
An RACP spokesperson and public health physician, Associate Prof Linda Selvey, said:
This year’s extreme weather demonstrates the undeniable impact climate change is having on the environment, its ecosystems and ultimately on human health.
The last Australian bushfire season was a horrific example of where climate change and its impact on the environment has had significant short-term and long-term impacts on human health.
The RACP has written to the chair of the EPBC Act review, Graeme Samuel, to ask that the review properly consider the link between the environment and health.
Samuel handed his final report to the government last week.
A referral of the government’s bill to a committee for inquiry passed the Senate today but has been labelled a “bogus inquiry” by Labor and the Greens because it will run for only two weeks – in time for the Senate to vote on the government’s proposed changes to environmental laws in the next sitting.
Updated
The sitting is winding down - but Lisa Cox will take you through the evening, because there is always something going on.
Thank you to everyone who joined me. I’m off - but will be back tomorrow, when national cabinet will sit. Borders will no doubt be on the agenda, because they always are, along with what to do with the thousands of stranded Australians overseas - which is also always on the agenda.
I’ll see you all tomorrow. Until then, take care of you.
Updated
Meanwhile, Paul Murray is quoted in Sky News’s newsletter saying the path to victory for Trump “while narrow, has not yet closed”.
The prime minister felt comfortable enough with the results to contact Joe Biden and congratulate him on his win, but obviously Murray, who managed the incredible exclusive with Trump on what he ordered from the White House kitchens, is the expert you would want to listen to on this stuff.
Updated
Victoria’s DHHS has released a statement on Kym Peake’s resignation:
Professor Euan Wallace AM has been appointed as the secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), commencing in the role from Tuesday November 17.
Prof Wallace brings significant experience across public administration, healthcare governance and clinical improvement.
Most recently Prof Wallace has been serving as deputy secretary at DHHS, jointly responsible for case management, contact tracing and outbreak management. He has performed these duties on secondment from his role as CEO of Safer Care Victoria.
He is an academic obstetrician and gynecologist by training. He has more than a decade of experience in healthcare governance and clinical improvement and is also a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Monash University.
Prof Wallace is a widely respected leader in the health sector and is well placed to lead the department through its next phase of pandemic response and recovery.
Kym Peake, who has served in the role for the last five years, has decided to step down from the position to pursue other opportunities.
Ms Peake has led significant reform that has touched the lives of many Victorians including the relief and recovery from recent bushfires, the establishment of the mental health royal commission, and the delivery of many of the recommendations from the family violence royal commission.
We thank Ms Peake for her dedicated service to Victoria and for her tireless commitment throughout the pandemic and her time with DHHS. We wish her well for the future.
Updated
Chinese embassy tells Australia to 'stop interfering' on Hong Kong
The Chinese embassy has told the Morrison government to “stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs”, arguing the qualification of members of the region’s parliament is “purely an internal affair of China”.
The comments come after the foreign minister, Marise Payne, raised alarm that Beijing’s “disqualification of duly elected legislative council lawmakers seriously undermines Hong Kong’s democratic processes and institutions”. Four lawmakers were disqualified yesterday straight after the new measure came into effect, prompting the entire pro-democracy caucus to announce their resignation.
In a statement emailed to Guardian Australia and other media this afternoon, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy said:
We strongly deplore Australian foreign minister’s statement on Hong Kong on 12 November 2020.
The spokesperson said the decision on the qualifications of members of Hong Kong’s legislative council (LegCo) was “a necessary step to uphold and improve the ‘one country, two systems’, implement the basic law and the Hong Kong national security law and maintain the rule of law and constitutional order”.
Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, and the qualification of HKSAR LegCo members is purely an internal affair of China. No other country has the right to make irresponsible remarks or intervene in the matter. We urge the Australian side to abide by international law and basic norms of international relations, and stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs.
Updated
The secretary of Victoria Health has resigned.
That follows the resignation of Jenny Mikakos as health minister in September.
DHHS sec Kym Peake has resigned. @abcmelbourne #springst
— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) November 12, 2020
Updated
Zali Steggall’s climate bill has taken another step – it is off to a parliamentary inquiry. From her statement:
On Monday, Zali Steggall MP introduced the private member’s bills into parliament, calling for sensible bipartisan legislation to lower Australia’s emissions and legislate net zero by 2050.
Recognising the importance of a bipartisan approach to long-term climate policy, Ms Steggall requested that the two bills – climate change (national framework for adaptation and mitigation) bill 2020 and climate change (national framework for adaptation and mitigation – consequential and transitional provisions) bill 2020 – be referred to committee.
The House standing committee on environment and energy announced today that it will conduct an inquiry into the bill and will be accepting public submissions until November 27.
Updated
The roll call of organisations committed to having net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 continues to expand, with AustralianSuper – the country’s biggest fund – having set that target for its investment portfolio.
Andrew Gray, its director for ESG and stewardship, said it was in members’ best interests that the fund head in this direction.
This is in line with global market expectations and consistent with our goal of maximising members’ long-term investment returns.
Institutional investors and banks are increasingly, though not uniformly, backing the mid-century goal amid concerns that fossil fuel investments will lose value as governments and companies take steps to cut emissions.
AustralianSuper manages more than $180bn in savings on behalf of more than 2.2m members.
It has promised to invest $1bn in renewable energy by the end of next year and says it has been monitoring the carbon intensity of its investments since 2013.
More than 70 countries have set a 2050 net zero target. Once Joe Biden becomes US president it will include all members of the G7. China says it plans to reach that goal before 2060. Countries are expected to explain how they will get there in long-term strategies due before next year’s Glasgow climate summit.
In Australia, the 2050 target is backed by all states, federal Labor, the Australian Industry Group, the Business Council of Australia, the National Farmers’ Federation, the ACTU and the Australian Council of Social Service, but has been resisted by the Morrison government.
Updated
Reaction is rolling in to the government’s announcement of new structures to deal with the fallout from next week’s report into alleged war crimes by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.
Labor has offered its support to the proposed new office of the special \investigator, saying it’s important that Brereton inquiry “is treated with the seriousness it warrants”.
The defence spokesperson, Richard Marles, and the shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, also backed the establishment of an expert panel to oversee implementation of cultural and organisation reforms across the ADF.
We must have confidence in the behaviour, standing and culture within the ranks of those who wear our nation’s uniform.
Senator Jordon Steele-John, the Greens’ spokesperson for peace and disarmament, called for the Brereton inquiry report to “be made public in full and not redacted to within an inch of being read by the public in any meaningful way” because “Australians deserve to know the truth”.
This is clearly not just a couple of isolated incidents within a single SAS unit by a couple of rogue soldiers; these alleged incidents are the symptom of a much deeper cultural problem within the SAS.
Updated
After rejecting a senate inquiry into a bill to change Australia’s environment laws three times, the government has today agreed for the bill to be put to a committee after all in an inquiry that will last just two weeks.
The Labor referral to committee passed this morning but the push for a full inquiry into the legislation that would report back in the new year was rejected.
Instead, the committee will hold a single hearing on 23 November and will report back on 27 November. Anyone who wants to make a submission has to do so by Wednesday. Labor and the Greens have called it a “bogus inquiry” and “a sham”.
Labor’s environment spokeswoman Terri Butler said:
They have rehashed Tony Abbott’s failed extreme environment bill from 2014, they rammed the bill through the lower house, gagged debate, then let the bill wallow in the senate for months without action
Now, after running away from scrutiny of this bill in the senate, previously rejecting an inquiry three times, they have supported a bogus inquiry that will have a solitary day of hearings.
The Greens environment spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young, called it “a sham inquiry”.
The Greens moved multiple times weeks ago for an inquiry and the government refused.
If anyone considers the senate’s job of examining this bill to be done in this way they’re a fool.
Any inquiry should be given the proper time and attention it deserves for legislation that has enormous consequences for our environment and the future of our wildlife.
The government has been under pressure over its bill, which will clear the way for the transfer of federal environmental approval powers to the states and territories.
Labor, the Greens and crossbench have raised concerns about the bill, which was drafted before the government received an interim report from a statutory review of Australia’s environmental laws, was put to the parliament in advance of the yet-to-be-released final report, and contains no reference to national environmental standards that were recommended by the review.
The interim report of the review found Australia’s environment is in unsustainable decline.
Updated
And then we get to trade.
Patricia Karvelas:
What representations have you made about an Indian ship carrying Australian coal that’s stranded off the coast of China?
Simon Birmingham:
This is a deeply troubling report, and our government has made representations through our embassy and to Chinese officials about this ship. It is deeply troubling, particularly because it goes beyond the mere question of trade, and involves the question, of course, of individual whose have found themselves at sea for a prolonged period of time.
And we would urge Chinese authorities together with the shipping company and the company who’s product is onboard to work together to find a resolution to this issue. We know that in relation to the coal trade into China, that it goes through great peaks and troughs, and there’s been a significant trough in the last month or so.
So, it’s not an usual thing to see that downturn. But this ship has been there for a considerable period of time, and those onboard it deserve to have this issue resolved between those parties.
PK: What have you been able to find out about the reasons for China’s decision to ban Victorian timber?
Birmingham:
Well, those reasons, China has given technical reasons, and whilst we respect the different technical considerations that come about, in terms of ensuring the safety and integrity of product going into a market and we do that when importing natural products into Australia.
There are standards and checks that have to be put in place.
However, I note there has been a consistent theme of these sorts of technical issues in relation to what we would usually consider to be safe and reliable Australian product.
And that is a very concerning, troubling aspect in relation to what seems to be a recurring targeting of some Australian industries, and we urge China to give clarity around the type of practices that are being applied here, because this type of disruption and uncertainty is hurting not only Australian businesses, but those Chinese businesses who rely upon Australian product.
PK: But if they think it’s not good enough – the heart of my question is you, as the government, as the responsible minister, are you prepared to change legislation to better protect these staff?
Birmingham:
I will encourage people to sit down, understand what actually happens at present in terms of the independent and thorough way in which complaints can be investigated. If colleagues want to talk to me after that, then I’m always happy to have a discussion – happy to have a discussion.
PK: Should the code of conduct, introduced by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, be extended to all MPs and expanded to cover bullying?
Birmingham:
Well, bullying is not acceptable. Bullying is not acceptable. Lit’s be very clear there. And the code of conduct in terms of the expectations that are placed on ministers makes that clear.
PK: From the actual document, right, from the department’s own policy guide on bullying and harassment, where a complaint is substantiated. Finance has no capacity to take disciplinary action against either a Parliamentarian or an Act employee. So, they can’t do anything. You have to change the rules, don’t you?
Birmingham:
Well, the Department of Finance does undertake interventions where the complainant wishes. They have the capacity at the complainant’s agreement to work through issues with a member of Senate and their office and try to find resolution in relation to how these types of issues can most appropriately be handled to the satisfaction of parties who may be facing any issues.
PK: But with respect, I just read to you the rules. The rules show they have no capacity to take disciplinary action. That’s an issue, isn’t it?
Birmingham:
Patricia, I think you would appreciate that a circumstance where a Member of Parliament, elected by the people in their electorate, sits in this Parliament, is a separate question in a sense to other matters that may come in here. There are, of course, if legal offences have taken place, or the like, then there are procedures that Members of Parliament are held to the same account in relation to anyone else.
PK: Do you consider the Parliament a high-risk workplace?
Birmingham:
Look, the Parliament is a high pressure workplace. I certainly acknowledge that. That Parliament meets for long hours, has serious and significant issues to deal with.
During the course of the today the Senate is debates matters that relate to the effective operation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, debating matters in relation to how we enhance recycling, on top of the ongoing work around responding to the pandemic and the economic support that needs to be in place for all Australians. So, the Parliament is a high-pressure workplace. How that pressure translates into risks, look, I think that’s a judgement that some will debate. I have to say that I’ve always found the officers that I have worked in, whether many, many years ago as a staffer, or through the last few years as a senator and a minister, have been functioning officers, with a good team environment.
Updated
Patricia Karvelas:
What redress is available to former Liberal staffer Rachelle Miller if the Department of Finance substantiated her workplace bullying claim?
Simon Birmingham:
Well, the Department of Finance will talk through what options may or may not be available to any individual, and whilst she has chosen to make public her complaint, these matters are handled completely independent of me as the minister or any member of the government.
The Department of Finance has an established bullying and harassment code. Any member of the Parliament staff can make a complaint through that process, knowing I won’t be informed of it, or involved in it, or any other member of the government in that regard.
And that, indeed, it will only ever be discussed with their employing member of Parliament, with their consent, and that they have a full thorough investigatory process has is there. In terms of options for recourse, that depends very much on the type of circumstances at the end. But the Department of Finance do discuss those sorts of options with an individual.
PK:
OK. But, of course, she has put it on the record. It has very much become a public issue, as you know. Do you believe the MOPS Act – the Act that governs how staffing operates – provides adequate industrial protections for political staffers?
Birmingham:
Well, the Act operates in conjunction with these types of policies, work mace harassment and bullying policies being in place that are not unlike the type of standards that are expected elsewhere across the workforce.
The Act provides for counselling services, mentoring services, including intervention and discussion with employing members or senators where that’s appropriate.
PK:
Do you think the Act should be looked at or reviewed? That’s really at the heart of what I’m asking. Do you think it’s time to look at better protections and support for political staffers?
Birmingham:
Look, I’ve extended to all members and senators who may have an interest in terms of how these practices work and, indeed, the offer goes to staff as well, the opportunity to talk to the Department of Finance about the way in which they conduct these investigations, the way in which they assess matters, and the type of recourse that is available.
Certainly if out of those discussions people come forward with particular suggestions, well, I’ll listen and work through any of those. It’s important to me and to the government that there is an appropriate standard in place. It also has to be a standard that ensures fair process for all parties involved. And I think that is always an important consideration into these matters as well.
PK:
OK. So, just to be crystal clear about what you’re saying you’re prepared to do. You’re saying you’re taking feedback about how that works, the Act, and you’re opening to making changes to better protect staff?
Birmingham:
Look, I’m not say are about to be any changes. We have thorough, independent process in place already. For those who have sought to question that process this week, I have been clear that if they wish, they should sit down, talk to the Department of Finance. It’s not me as the finance minister who conducts those investigations.
Updated
Simon Birmingham is speaking to Patricia Karvelas on the ABC
He appears to have taken the Tory power stance and modified it for sitting – he is leaning, with an elbow on the bench, looking like he is about to let you know why you won’t be getting the promotion, this time around.
Updated
It is all going very well.
This is a 100% lie from the Murdoch media’s Credlin. She accuses me of “data harvesting” from the petition. The truth: we chose the parliament’s own petition site which prevents any form of data harvesting. I await her apology on air. pic.twitter.com/j8aGg2lP7y
— Kevin Rudd (@MrKRudd) November 12, 2020
Updated
The shadow social services minister, Linda Burney, has responded to the fact Coalition’s coronavirus supplement bill reimposes the liquid assets waiting period for jobseeker.
She said:
With 1.8 million Australians expected to be on unemployment support by the end of the year, Labor remains firmly of the position that now is not the time to re-introduce the liquid assets waiting period.
The government still refuses to rule out its plans currently before the parliament to double this waiting period, which would force Australians to wait up to six months and eat their savings before accessing support.
Updated
Each jurisdiction has their own business and employment incentive plan – the NT has launched its “Small Business Jobmaker Booster” of $100 per week for employees aged 30-35, and $200 a week for those aged over 35.
So no matter your age, there is an incentive to hire someone.
Updated
Anthony Albanese has released a statement on Labor’s bonk ban.
It is not overly clear if relationships between staffers and the MPs are prohibited, or just frowned upon:
More needs to be done to change the culture in Parliament House. Culture sits above policies and procedures and must change.
There is a cultural problem with sexual harassment and bullying in the workplace that is Parliament House.
We need to listen to the women who work here. We need to hear and act on their concerns and what they want done to ensure this is a safe and respectful workplace. A workplace that values their skills and contribution.
All workplaces across Australia, including the Parliament need to be safe and respectful places.
Since 2018, Labor has had a clear sexual harassment and bullying policy which has the following principle:
Sexual harassment, bullying and other types of inappropriate behaviour are prohibited and will not be tolerated.
This week all Labor staff were reminded of this ongoing commitment and the support available to them. We will continue to monitor our policies and procedures to ensure they are appropriate.
I made it clear last night that Labor supports the principle of the Ministerial Code of Conduct introduced by Malcolm Turnbull relating to Ministers and their staff, consistent with our statement in March 2018.
To make things abundantly clear relationships between Members, Senators and their own staff are not appropriate.
We will work with anyone in this building who wants to make this a safer and more respectful workplace.
New Zealand has a mystery Covid case:
The department of health has asked all New Zealanders who live or work in Auckland central city to stay home tomorrow after further details emerged of the mystery case of Covid-19, whose point of infection is as yet unknown.
The student, a young woman, began displaying symptoms on Monday and continued going to work at her customer-facing job in the central city, despite being tested for Covid-19 and being told to stay home. The woman’s manager told her to come to work, and wear a mask instead – ignoring health advice.
The woman lived alone in a large block of apartments, and all residents there are being asked to stay home until they have all been tested. The woman also took a number of Ubers to her job in the central city, and frequently bought food and takeaways from the CBD while she was symptomatic.
More information will emerge tomorrow on whether Auckland will need to move up alert levels.
Updated
Meanwhile.
In January, the Human Rights Commission presented a report to the Attorney-General, Christian Porter, with 55 recommendations about how to protect Australians from sexual harassment at work.
— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) November 12, 2020
Why hasn’t the Attorney-General responded yet?https://t.co/uXxZYDTtfX
Updated
How Mike Bowers saw the final question time (for two weeks).
Updated
There has been quite a bit of support offered in the parliamentary chamber this week.
And that is not counting the many, many ‘she’ll be right, hang in there’ pats on the shoulders given throughout the week.
Consumer groups have cautiously welcomed Morrison government legislation introduced to parliament today to bolster protections against companies that use high-pressure tactics to sell bad financial products such as useless insurance.
But they point out that treasurer Josh Frydenberg has already broken his pledge to implement the banking royal commission’s 76 recommendations by ditching responsible lending laws that Kenneth Hayne should be kept.
And just this morning the prudential regulator, Apra, bowed to banking industry pressure and watered down proposed rules to rein in excessive executive bonuses.
In a joint statement, the Consumer Action Law Centre, Financial Counselling Australia, the Financial Rights Legal Centre and Choice said it was a case of “one step forward, two steps back”.
“This is just the next step in a long process,” Choice chief executive Alan Kirkland said.
There are still some critical reforms to come in further legislation next year.
In this context, it is astonishing that the Government is proposing to axe safe lending laws.
Meanwhile, the banks reckon they’re keen to crack on with bringing in the Hayne reforms.
The Australian Banking Association said it had implemented five of the eight RC recommendations aimed at the industry, “with progress being made implementing the remaining three”.
Updated
Ed Husic is leading his MPI by talking about the amount of love he has received from the government since ascending to the shadow cabinet.
There has been a lot of attention.
And Husic has been loving it.
And Scott Morrison may be the first foreign leader to travel to Japan to meet prime minister Yoshihide Suga, but he won’t be the first foreign leader to meet him – Suga travelled to Vietnam and Indonesia in October.
Updated
Daniel Hurst has written up a story on the special investigator to look into allegations of Australian forces involvement in war crimes in Afghanistan.
Updated
Ed Husic is about to give his first matter of public importance as a shadow minister under the Anthony Albanese led opposition.
And Kate Thwaites and Matt Keogh are given leave – both are about to welcome new babies into the family.
Updated
Question time ends.
I understand the reasoning behind the ‘come back’ theme the government, particularly Scott Morrison is pushing.
And there has been a small rebound - and confidence is up. All good things.
But things are about to get much harder.
As Josh Frydenberg said a little earlier:
I can confirm that the unemployment ticked up to 6.9% and that it is expected, by Treasury, and indeed the Reserve Bank to actually increase unemployment between now and the end of the year up to around 8% but by mid-next year 7.25%.
Kate Thwaites to Scott Morrison:
My question is to the prime minister: 48-year-old Nicole lost her job in March and is looking for a full-time position. She says that job ads which express a preference for younger workers eligible for the hiring credit are absolutely discriminatory. They may as well write, “If you’re over this age, please don’t even read the advert.” What does the prime minister say to Nicole?
Morrison:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the member for her question.
And whether it’s in the member’s electorate or anywhere else around this country, what Australians can take great heart from is that the time of our greatest need in generations, that the government, working together with the Reserve Bank, has invested more than half a trillion dollars to ensure that Australia comes through the Covid-19 recession, Mr Speaker, frankly almost better than any other developed economy in the world today.
This has been a response of unprecedented scale, of unprecedented expanse, to deal with the many challenges that exist in bringing Australia through the Covid-19 recession.
Now whether that was the immediate need for a lifeline of support through jobkeeper and jobseeker and the measures that went to apprentices as well to keep apprentices in work or through, Mr Speaker, to the longer term initiatives that involved our advanced manufacturing sector. And everything in between, bringing forward investment decisions and bringing forward hiring decisions and delivering the tax relief that enables Australians to bring forward those decisions as well.
That is an economic recovery plan that is working in this country and is reflected in the rebound in confidence that we have seen.
A comeback in confidence that has been matched by a comeback in job, a comeback in investment and a comeback in the ability of Australians all around this country to plan for their future with confidence and as we come in to this Christmas period, and as we meet as a National Cabinet also tomorrow and we continue the process of reopening this country safely and ensuring that it can remain safely open, the rest of the world looks at Australia and says: “How have they done it? We would like to be able to achieve the same.”
That is the message I had from president-elect Biden this morning when I spoke to him. That is the message I get from leaders all around the world. Earlier this week I had a discussion with the prime minister of Israel and the prime minister of Denmark and the prime minister of Norway, the prime minister of Greece and the prime minister of Austria and they have looked at Australia and they have seen what we’ve been able to achieve.
Now that does not lessen at all the significant blow that Australians have suffered during the course of this Covid-19 recession but Australians have known, and will always know, that my government has their back and this leader of the opposition is watching his.
Updated
Mike Freelander to Sussan Ley:
In June 2019, the minister announced protecting native species was an immediate priority. Why is it then that almost 18 months later 170 out of 171 outstanding threatened species recovery plans, including for the koala, are still overdue? Why does the government never deliver on its announcements?
Ley:
Can I thank the member for Macarthur for his question and thank him for his interest in threatened species, because it’s an interest that the government shares and is committed to addressing.
And I know members opposite raised the issue of recovery plans, and they’re an important part of the conservation approach we take to threatened species generally. Because 95% of all listed species have conservation advices.
But I also want to make this point, Mr Speaker, is that what the Labor Party focuses on is a document, a name, a plan.
Ley is pulled up on relevance.
Ley:
Threatened species recovery plans are part of the work of my department. They are on the way and they are ongoing. What I focus on is the outcomes when it comes to the conservation of species, when it comes to protecting their habitat against bushfires, against drought, against climate change, against the most awful thing, which is pest and weeds and invasive species.
And if you look at our work post-bushfires, you will see how our expert panel, our Threatened Species Scientific Committee, our National Threatened Species Commissioner, are all addressing this very important work.
Updated
Labor’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Penny Wong, has spoken out about the “alarming pattern of suppressing opposition voices” in Hong Kong. In a statement, Wong said the Labor party was “deeply concerned by the continuing erosion of Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy as guaranteed in the Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration, to which China is committed”.
The statement follows Being’s imposition yesterday of a new law that allows the disqualification of “unpatriotic” opposition members from Hong Kong’s Legislative Council.
Immediately after the disqualifying legislation was announced by Chinese state media, the Hong Kong government released a statement disqualifying four pro-democracy legislators. That prompted the entire pro-democracy caucus to announce their resignation, as my colleagues reported yesterday.
Wong said the preservation of the one country, two systems arrangement was “vital for Hong Kong’s stability”.
The Chinese government’s decision to expel four elected members of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council represents a further weakening of Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms. This undermining of Hong Kong’s principal forum for political participation follows an alarming pattern of suppressing opposition voices.
Wong’s comments follow critical statements from the foreign minister, Marise Payne, and the Greens senator Janet Rice.
Updated
Just as a reminder, here is the story Paul Karp did on what Treasury said about job ads which target hires based on the hiring credit – they can do it.
Updated
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
The prime minister has now had over a month to adopt Labor’s cheaper childcare policy that we announced on 8 October. Why is the prime minister sticking with his broken childcare system, which holds parents back from taking on a fourth or a fifth day of work in the middle of a recession?
Morrison:
Well, thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the member for his question, and the minister may wish to add to this.
Mr Speaker, the policy that the government put in place, which addressed the many difficulties that the policy previously was finding, and as was highlighted by the Productivity Commission that did its report on this topic, and we subsequently adopted, meant that the employment participation rate amongst women in this country increased to record levels, the gender pay gap fell to record lows, Mr Speaker.
The out-of-pocket expenses for child care, Mr Speaker, actually fell by 3.2%. Now, Mr Speaker, we continue to support the policy that is sustainable, and it has been getting those results, Mr Speaker.
But the member makes reference to his own policy. I would happily stand corrected. But it has been a month and I’m still not aware of any of the detailed costing that related to the policy that the member referred to from the opposite, Mr Speaker, of the Parliamentary Budget Office and the detail that sat behind that. Mr Speaker, that is not on their website. It’s not there, Mr Speaker. It hasn’t been released.
The detailed assumptions of the Budget Office, the Parliamentary Budget Office, Mr Speaker ... they can protest it exists, but it simply doesn’t, Mr Speaker. So, Mr Speaker, if they are going to come up with a policy, they need to be transparent about what it costs, Mr Speaker, and the assumptions that sit beneath that. But, Mr Speaker, the Australian people know that when it comes to matters of policy and how you pay for it, they elected a government that knows how to do that, and they rejected an opposition who doesn’t.
Updated
Angus Taylor takes a question on ‘alternative approaches’ (eye twitch) on energy policy, which he then turns into an attack on Labor, including what he heard happened in the shadow cabinet meeting, which dissolved into a shouting match between Joel Fitzgibbon and members of the shadow cabinet, including Anthony Albanese and Mark Dreyfus
Tony Smith tells him it’s not the place for political attacks and he must stick to policy – that he can’t go into shadow cabinet happenings he may have heard occurred. Taylor then tries to move on to something he heard on Sydney radio 2GB and Smith sits him down.
Updated
Peter Dutton:
I want to praise the work of the Australian Federal Police in Operation Arkstone that many Australians would have read about in the papers of the course of the last couple of days. 14 men have been arrested on 828 charges of child exploitation.
The Australian centre for child exploitation based in Brisbane along with the Australian Federal Police and New South Wales and Queensland Police Services as well as WA Police worked with US Homeland Security to identify these vile individuals and to stop them from causing further harm.
The operation has now identified 46 Australian victims of child sexual abuse including 16 from a childcare centre.
Homeland Security partnered with the Australian Federal Police during search warrant activity and that intelligence that led to the outcomes that we have seen.
I want to thank very much the United States government and the United Kingdom Government as well for the work that they have done with us on making this area of investigation an area of priority for us.
It is the reality that our children are being targeted not just by offenders who would be Australian based but offenders offshore and similarly Australian-based men seeking to target children in other parts of the world including South East Asia.
Our work with the Biden administration will continue because it is such an important area of ... mutual assistance that we provide to each other and the work that homeland security does with my Department of Home Affairs really is world leading and the centre in Brisbane has given us international credibility to work with partners in our own region, to work with partners across Europe and we have many people who are locate flood the Brisbane office who are working with NGOs, including people, for example, like Bruce and Denise Morcombe so we can leverage off those relationships to protect more children.
There has been a massive spike in activity during Covid in the grooming and targeting and the fact we have been able to say these children from further violation is something our country should be very proud.
Anthony Albanese:
Labor joins with the government in thanking our authorities as well as the authorities in the United Kingdom and the United States for this absolutely critical work to keep children safe.
This abhorrent practice, which is hard to understand why it exists, exists far too much and the fact that there’s been a rise is, as the minister has said, during Covid has had devastating effects. I think this would be a really tough area to work in and we need to look after our people in those authorities who undertake that work because of mental health issues and others that would occur because I can’t imagine working in that area. I thank the minister for his answer.
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It took my mum close to 10 years to find a job. She reskilled, twice.
Why wasn’t she hired? It’s because she was an older worker. Why hire a 50-something child care worker, when you can hire a teenager.
She became ill and can’t work. So this won’t impact her. But it will hit some of those just like her.
It might seem like I have a lot of these stories. And I do. Why? Because I don’t come from wealth. Nothing approaching it. I’ve never had a parental safety net. Neither did my parents. Like most things, wealth is generational and there was nothing to pass on.
So yes, I have these stories – and so do millions of other Australians. And when I raise issues with government policy, it is because I have seen the consequences and the flip side of those policies, in a way that many in the chamber haven’t.
And I say that, knowing that I was still one of the lucky ones – I’m white to start with, and that alone can give you a head start. These policies matter – to people with lives vastly different and similar to our own.
And concerns deserve to be heard.
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We come back to another of those questions.
Tony Burke to Christian Porter:
Can the minister confirm that there is no protection against employers excluding workers over the age of 35 from even being able to apply for a job?
Porter:
With respect, the question doesn’t make any sense.
There is a provision in the age discrimination Act which allows for the existence of Commonwealth programs that target people by a cohort of disadvantage, including age.
What has Labor got against – what has Labor got against a policy designed to help the people most in need with the highest rates of unemployment which are young Australians?
What has Labor got against that policy? What is the problem that they have. As the Treasurer noted it is young Australians who have suffered most in terms of unemployment during the Covid recession.
It is young Australians who are going to have the longest scarring effect to their employment and their wage-earning capacity and there is enormous effort by this government through the hiring credit and other matters to try and bring those young Australians back into employment as quickly as possible.
And precisely those types of provisions in the age discrimination act that have been there since 2004 allow for Commonwealth programs of this type. There have been many Commonwealth programs that have specifically tried to target people at the greatest disadvantage which right here and now are young Australians. So the point is that that is precisely what we are doing is trying to help those people who have the greatest disadvantage.
I will say now, as I have said again as a message to the House, as a message to employers, not withstanding that we are trying to help those people who are suffering the greatest dissed advantage in earns of unemployment you cannot upper the Fair Work Act favour those people against existing employees by adverse action against those existing employees.
In addition to which there are a whole range of protections that the Treasurer has clearly outlined that means that you cannot do what it is that the opposition are suggesting quite falsely to people who listen to this and take cues from it that they can do, they can’t. It is designed to help young people not disadvantage anyone else.
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Tony Burke to Christian Porter:
My question is to the minister for industrial relations. Yesterday in this House the minister said that job ads state a preference for workers who are under 35 and eligible for the hiring credit should not exist under the Fair Work Act. I have here 16 jobs advertised online, all of which prefer or require applicants to be eligible for the hiring credit. What action has the minister taken since Labor raised this action yesterday?
Porter:
The question yesterday was with respect to someone in diamond creek who was a single mother in her 40s so said she had never been unemployed until now. She found a job ad which stated that candidates under 30 were preferred so the employer could receive the hiring credit. Now it would not be an exception, and you could not advertise for people preferred over existing employees if that person...
Well, you could not. There are existing exemptions to the age discrimination act but you cannot advertise saying that you prefer someone in a way in which would displace an existing person who was – on their age was not inside the hiring credit. That would be quite wrong.
There are exemptions to the discrimination legislation, which have long been there, which do allow and do permit prospective employers to target employees who fit within a Commonwealth employment program so that is an exemption but you cannot advertise for someone to receive the hiring credit in a way that would displace an existing employee.
Burke tries to table the 16 ads and is denied.
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Joanne Ryan to Scott Morrison, but Josh Frydenberg takes it:
Will the prime minister guarantee workers over 35 looking for a job that they won’t be turned away in favour of a young worker with a hiring credit?
Frydenberg:
The many measures in this Budget are designed to create jobs right across the economy for people of all ages and the tax cuts that have been legislated for 11.5 million Australians, the two, $250 payments that are coming to pensioners and carers and others an income support, the expansion of the instant asset write-off to businesses with a turnover of up to $5bn.
The measure that is designed to support skilling and training like through the jobtrainer program that are open to people of all ages.
That is designed to create economic activity. The question was going to the heart of what passed the parliament last night which was the jobmaker hiring credit.
Also I have told the House before, we have focused on getting younger people into work because they have been heavily hit and today the unemployment rate for those aged 15-34 is 10.2% but those who are aged 35-44 the unemployment rate the 4.7%. In terms of people aged 15-34 from March to September there has been a 6.1% decrease in the number of jobs or 307,000 people.
In contrast, over the same time the decline in jobs for those aged 35 and over has been 1.4% or 109,000 people.
So the reality is that people of all ages have lost jobs and businesses have closed, some to not reopen but we, the Morrison government, are doing everything we can to help get people into a job regardless of their age.
Again:
In its job search report of Aug this year, the ABS found in 2019 that 600k people had difficulty finding a job. One of the largest "difficulties" was age - pre-virus, about 38k said they were considered "too old" by employer for a job. 9k were "too young"..
— Shane Wright (@swrighteconomy) November 11, 2020
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Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
My question is to the prime minister, I ask will the prime minister guarantee that no worker will be sacked or have their hours cut for cheaper workers with a hiring credit?
Morrison:
The protections were set out there and the protections that sit underneath the bill. That is why they are in place to achieve the outcomes that the leader of the opposition has set out. I will ask the minister for industrial relations to add further to the answer.
Christian Porter gets this one:
It is a very important question and what this chamber and the dispatch box should be used for is to send the wrong message to any employer or business that they might be able to do something which at law they clearly should not be doing.
The general protection provisions in the Fair Work Act, which include all casuals, which include all casuals, include general protections against adverse action such as dismissal, such as a reduction in their hours on the basis of a protected attribute, such as age and an employer who contravenes the general protections could face significant civil penalties of up to $13,320 for an individual and $66,000 for a body corporate and they might also be required to pay compensation.
Why would Labor be using this dispatch box to suggest to employers that they could do something that they clearly cannot and should not do and for which there are very serious penalties if they ever were to do it.
As if any employer was ever going to say they were sacking you to get the hiring credit. Honestly.
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Michael McCormack also took a question in there, but I had to go chase my eyeballs down the hallway, they had rolled so far, so I missed it.
Scott Morrison gets a question from Richard Marles:
Can the prime minister confirm that last night the government did a deal with One Nation to allow workers to be sacked or have their hours cut for cheaper workers with a hiring credit?
Morrison:
What I can confirm last night is the government implemented its plan to get Australians back into work.
As part of a comprehensive set of measures that were outlined by the Treasurer in this year’s budget, a Covid-19 recession recovery plan set out in our budget building on the record - the record - investments that we have made as a government on behalf of the Australian people to ensure that this nation stands amongst a group of nations, small in number, that have been able to address not just the health impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic but the severe blow of the Covid-19 recession that follows and that has been through the unprecedented investment in measure, whether it be jobkeeper or jobseeker, the jobtrainer fund, the cash flow boost and the jobmaker hiring credit to get Australians back into work.
We will remain committed to putting these measures in place. We have the protections in place to ensure, Mr Speaker, the integrity of these measures support Australians right across the community and, Mr Speaker, we will get on with that job despite the opposition we get from those opposite, despite the undermining we get from those opposite, pretending it is some sort of bipartisanship in a pandemic when on every occasion they take the opportunity to undermine and seek to circumvent the record levels of support that our government is putting in place.
Australians know that this government has their back and they know that Labor has turned their back on them.
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The government dixer theme today is on how great the government response has been to Covid. It has been a theme all week. When the pressure is on, it seeks to remind you of successes.
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Question time begins
And it is Jim Chalmers with today’s first question.
Were jobs lost in every single state and territory in the first full fortnight after he cut jobkeeper?
Josh Frydenberg:
I can confirm that 446,000 jobs have been created over the last four months. And the unemployment rate today is 6.9% and what we have done is we have put in place $507bn of economic support.
Tony Burke jumps in on relevance and Tony Smith says he was allowing a preamble, but he needs to address the question.
Frydenberg:
I can confirm that the unemployment ticked up to 6.9% and that it is expected, by Treasury, and indeed the Reserve Bank to actually increase unemployment between now and the end of the year up to around 8% but by mid-next year 7.25%.
He goes back to talking about jobkeeper’s successes – but the answer is yes, jobs were lost in the fortnight the government cut the jobkeeper rate.
Updated
Meanwhile, while Australia is focused on a Covid vaccine, Save the Children want to remind you that children in war and conflict zones are facing health challenges from a lack of access to childhood vaccines we take for granted.
Save the Children’s new report Not Immune: Children in Conflict by Melbourne-based Rachel Coghlan from the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership at Deakin University found two thirds of the world’s unimmunised children are living in countries engulfed by conflict and each year millions more miss out on vital vaccinations.
Paul Ronalds, Save the Children CEO:
While resources are being redirected to fight Covid-19, we cannot allow other horrific diseases to re-emerge and spread across vulnerable populations, and in particular, among children.
We’re proud to see Australia pledge new funding to roll out a future Covid-19 vaccine in the Pacific and South East Asia, as well as make significant contributions to Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, and Covax, the global facility for the equitable distribution of eventual Covid-19 vaccines. However, funding alone is not enough.
Just months ago, the UN Secretary General appealed for a global ceasefire to limit the spread of Covid-19 and allow aid – and immunisations – to reach the most vulnerable populations. The call was endorsed by 180 governments, yet the fighting continues.
We cannot accept this. World leaders including Australia need to keep pushing for a global ceasefire. While war itself generates catastrophic health problems, health is a critical mechanism to help facilitate peace.
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Question time is about to begin.
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Given how much national pride is wrapped up in the ADF, there is going to be a very bumpy road ahead.
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The press conference ends.
Is it fair the prime minister can travel, when there are still thousands of Australians stranded overseas?
Scott Morrison:
First of all, I will be one of tens of thousands of Australians over the course of this pandemic who have left Australia, there are many tens of thousands of Australians who have had to travel overseas including the minister for defence, and the minister for foreign affairs, regarding their business activities, many others on compassionate reasons and those figures will be well known to you.
And for many months now I have engaged in telephone diplomacy on a large number of matters. And we will be doing so again this weekend.
At the Asean meetings and East Asia Summit, and I am looking forward to participating in those and engaging with my colleagues in the region there.
To be the first national leader, I think, to engage in Japan, with the new prime minister, and to have the opportunity to do that is significant for Australia, because Japan is a very special relationship with Australia.
It’s not just an economic one. It’s not just a trade one. It’s not just a cultural and social one, importantly, it a strategic one that we form together with the United States and India, a very important quad relationship.
We play a very important role together in the southwest Pacific. And when it comes to the Covid-19 assistance which has become provided, issues around vaccine development in south-east Asia, work that has been done.
Japan and Australia are very important to gather in providing, I think, a like-minded alignment on these strategic issues within our region.
So the opportunity to go there and include some very important arrangements in this space is in Australia’s national interest.
While I am there I have the opportunity to discuss economic issues as well. And importantly, given I will be going, as you rightly say, 14 days’ isolation which I will do here at the Lodge.
Updated
Donald Trump not conceding 'not a matter for Australia'
Q: Are you concerned about the transition of power from Donald Trump to a Biden presidency … and are you, following up on [another] question, are you surprised he has not conceded yet?
Morrison:
In answer to your first question, no, I am not concerned. This is not the first transition, it happens from time to time and those procedures are well-established and the president-elect and I discussed that this morning.
And we both have due respect that and there are matters still afoot that we are working with the current administration on and we will continue to do that.
That is quite regular.
In relation to the other matter, it is not a matter for Australia. It is not a matter for me to pick up the phone, as others were suggesting I do. Here, that is what they suggested I do, that is not a matter for me, that is a matter for the president, and we will work through patiently with the issues we have in Australia’s national interests.
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Q: Joe Biden, did he mention reaching net zero emissions by 2050?
Scott Morrison:
We did not discuss that but I raised with the president-elect the similarity between the president-elect’s comments and policies regarding emissions reduction technologies that we needed to achieve that, and we look forward to working on those issues. But the specific matter specific matter you raise was not addressed in that call.
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Will those soldiers found guilty of committing crimes be stripped of their medals and commendations?
Linda Reynolds:
Following recommendations in the inspector general’s report, the CDF is considering all of those options.
There are many options and recommendations for action.
It would be my expectation the [special investigator] would consider each and every one of those recommendations, which may well include what you just said, but again, I will wait until the CDF has finished his deliberations and there will be many other issues that emerge that the CDF will have to consider and possibly how and when he refers these matters to the special investigator.
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Back to the issue at hand.
Q: You obviously were not prime minister and the minister wasn’t minister when there were these deployments, but if you had a chance to reflect on lessons that your predecessors, as by minister and ministers may have had, did we ask too much of our SAS and commandos in Afghanistan? The tempo of operations, were our political leaders in the past making a mistake in … contributing to this sort of culture that developed and things like that?
Scott Morrison:
The span of your question, I think, goes in part to some of the issues that will be covered in the report.
From a political point of view, because the matters contained in the report were never raised, is my advice, with government, with ministers at the political level.
That is my understanding of it. It has certainly been the case, save for what has been initiated in my time as both a cabinet minister and indeed as prime minister.
But I would say this: anyone we ask to put on a uniform, we are always asking a tremendous amount of them.
And particularly those who serve in the most dangerous of situations, and that of course goes to our special operations. And whether that is those that are based over there as part of the SAS or the two commandos, not far from my electorate, we ask an extraordinary amount of them and we always do.
That is why I stand in awe of those who choose to put on a uniform, they do that knowing they will be asked to put themselves in very difficult situations, and that is why their service is so extraordinary.
Updated
The US readout of the phone call, again some extra detail.
Scott Morrison said using technologies to reduce emissions. Joe Biden says “confronting climate change”.
Readout from @JoeBiden side of his chat with @ScottMorrisonMP
— Jacob Greber (@jacobgreber) November 12, 2020
Note he's looking forward to working with ScoMo on "confronting climate change" and "strengthening democracy" pic.twitter.com/SLvCnqL1HG
Which is similar in theme to the difference in these two phone call briefs:
#UK / #Australia read-outs, after @BorisJohnson and @ScottMorrisonMP spoke last night #auspol @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/mKaXd3MVmB
— Brett Mason (@BrettMasonNews) October 27, 2020
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Asked if he is surprised Donald Trump has not conceded the US election as yet, Scott Morrison says:
“I won’t go into those issues.”
Updated
Scott Morrison:
But I would add this: this is what I am also very keen to stress, there is some disturbing conduct here, but we cannot then take that and apply it to everyone who has pulled on a uniform and if we did this, that would be grossly unjust, grossly unjust. I know that wouldn’t be the view of people here or in government or anywhere else. With all share a deep respect for our defence forces, but we also share a deep respect for justice. It is about managing those two issues to the highest standards I think we place on them in Australia.
Scott Morrison says there are cultural issues which also need to be addressed:
It is not just the specific conduct of individuals that relevant to acts that are [presented] in this report.
It is the environment, it is the context, it is the rules, it the culture and the command that sat around those things and if we want to deal with the truth of this, we have to deal with the truth of that.
I know there would be some concern in the veterans’ community and I know there would be some concern within those serving members of the ADF that this process may only just focus on those specifically involved.
I want to assure them that both the CDF, the minister and myself are very, very keen to ensure, to really understand and learn from this, then those matters … need to be understood and they need to be addressed.
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Linda Reynolds also takes that one:
I share the prime minister’s confidence in the CDF and defence’s senior leadership, but one of the reasons why I did recommend and we are now establishing the oversight panel is to ensure that any matters that relate to culture and any matters that might be found in a report or, as I have said, emerge during the course of the implementation are considered, not only by the CDF, but also considered externally. So that is exactly the purpose, so that we have accountability and transparency that sits out of the ADF chain of command and outside of government.
Updated
Q: Are there any concerns within government that any of the evidence that has been made may not be admissible given the nature with it was compelled from witnesses? Are you confident that the current chief of defence and current chief of army have declared any potential conflict of interests given their time that is covered in this report?
Scott Morrison:
The short answers to both requests are yes and yes … There is evidence that is contained in the report that obviously has been gathered under different circumstances and those are the very reasons why a special investigator working under the AFP’s powers must be appointed to resolve those issues and that is why it is not a simple task of just taking this report and then dropping it down to the DPP.
That is not possible. That is what I mean when I refer to the very complex issues that have to be addressed here by the special investigator and indeed the director general to make sure the entire operation runs.
Updated
Q: The process will be Australian justice. Does this mitigate against the possibility that some of our soldiers could be called before the International Criminal Court?
Scott Morrison:
We believe so, yes. That is the important advice we have taken on this. We need to deal with this as Australians, [through] our laws, through our own justice processes and we will and I think that will say a lot about Australia.
Of course this report will be difficult news and all of our partners must be assured and those around the world who rightly hold the Australian defence force in high regard, I believe by the process we are outlining to you today shows why that is the case, that in Australia with deal with this tough and with deal with it honestly, but in accordance through the rule of law and by following the justice practices and principles that makes Australia what it is.
The special investigator will consider whether there is a statue of limitations on any of the allegations.
Why the wait on responding to the report?
Scott Morrison:
As would occur in any such report, it would in ordinary practice be handed on to the AFP to prepare a brief of evidence to make available to the DPP.
Now, in this case, this is no normal set of circumstances and the expertise scale of this that is necessary to properly fulfil that function that the AFP would normally provide here does not exist.
And, as the minister for home affairs has submitted … this process would significantly overwhelm the AFP and their many other very important works that they have to do.
So it is necessary to build that capability. It sits under the AFP as commission and continues that process.
So I wouldn’t want there to be a perception – I know you are not suggesting this – that this is something new investigation.
The report does not provide a brief of evidence. That was not necessarily its purpose and so this is the next step.
It will go for an indeterminate amount of time. The [main] task will be to triage the many issues that are raised in the report.
The minister and I have are not privy to the unredacted information [in] this report when it comes to the names of these individuals.
That is important for the separation of our roles for the integrity of that process.
The short answer is, it is an indeterminate period of time and it will takes a long as it takes to progress through what will be very complicated legal issues and so we must prepare ourselves for what will continue to be a long and arduous journey.
Updated
Dr Vivienne Thom will be very busy – as well as investigating the $118,000 tax advice bill relating to Asic chair James Shipton (he has stepped aside while the investigation continues), and the payment of $30m for land valued at $3m for the western Sydney airport, she has been appointed to head up the defence oversight committee as well.
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Defence minister Linda Reynolds then speaks:
It has been widely known that over the past four years the inspector general of the Australian defence force has been inquiring into the conduct of Australia as special operations task group in Afghanistan.
In particular, rumours and allegations relating to possible breaches of the law of arm conflict over the period 2005 to 2016.
As the prime minister has said, in 2016, these matters were referred to the inspector general of the ADF by the now CDF General Angus Campbell. The Afghanistan inquiry was conducted at arm’s length from both the ADF chain of command and from governments.
This was to ensure the independence and the integrity of the process. The inquiry was also conducted if private as it involved matters both of operational security and of potential harm to the reputations of individuals.
They have completed the Afghanistan inquiry. The inquiry report was delivered to the chief of defence force last Friday.
General Campbell has provided me with an initial briefing on the report.
He’s also advised me that he is now considering the very detailed findings the many recommendations contained in the report.
Can I just say this, the CDF must have the time, the necessary time, to give if report his serious consideration. Once he has gone through this process, he’s indicated that his intention to speak publicly on the report.
I believe we must provide the CDF with this opportunity.
Therefore, at this stage, I will not be making any point on the substance of the inquiry report itself.
Updated
There is another oversight committee which will also be established.
Scott Morrison:
But there is another task beyond the justice task – and I will ask the minister to speak to that in just a moment – the government will also establish a separate and independent oversight panel, comprising eminent Australians whose expertise and experience will provide oversight and advice relating to the defence response to the inquiry relating to cultural organisational and leadership chain.
The oversight panel will report directly to the minister for defence on the implementation of the inquiry’s recommendations and their consideration of any wider implications and actions in response to the inquiry.
I thank the minister for her recommendation of the establishment of this oversight panel which will enable her also to ensure that the matters that require to be addressed within the ADF are in fact being done so and while at the same time from serving the integrity of the justice process that we have set in place and keeps government ministers directly at arm’s length from both of those processes.
Updated
The government doesn’t need legislation to establish the special investigator, so work will begin on that immediately.
Updated
Special investigator office created to deal with war crime allegations
Scott Morrison won’t be detailing the government response to the report into Australia defence personnell’s alleged involvement in war crimes, but he has announced a new special investigator which will deal with the allegations.
Morrison:
Given the likely allegations of serious and possibly criminal misconduct, the matters raised in the inquiry must be assessed, investigated and where allegations are substantiated, prosecuted in court.
To undertake this role, the government is establishing the office of the special investigator.
The office of the special investigator will address the criminal matters made in the inspector general’s report and investigate those allegations, gather evidence and, where appropriate, refer briefs to the commonwealth director of public prosecutions for consideration.
There is a significant number of incidents or issues to be investigated further and that investigation will be inherently complex.
The investigation will require cooperation with international agencies and the evaluation of large amounts of material.
The special investigator will be an eminent person with experience with the justice system and international law.
The office will be established within the Department of Home Affairs and staffed with experienced investigators, legal counsel and other support personnel.
It will include investigators from the Australian federal police and state and territory police forces with the required experience and skills.
It will leverage the Australian federal police investigative capability and powers.
The office of the special investigator is expected to be fully stood up next year, if not sooner. The office of the special investigator will remain in place for as long as is necessary to resolve matters arising for the inspector general’s inquiry.
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Scott Morrison:
This will be difficult and hard news for Australians, I can assure you, I can assure you, to hear.
Covering conducting over the course of what has been three governments, over more than a decade.
Our responsibility is to ensure now that we deal with this in a way that accords with our Australian standards of justice, that respects the rule of law, that provides the relevant checks and balances through this process, that upholds our values and standards and the respect that we have for our defence forces that they have earned and deserve, that will protect the vulnerable – whether serving currently or who are in our veterans’ community – who have no part in this, who have no involvement here, and who must be assured by all of us as Australians by ensuring the integrity and robustness of a response and a process that is consistent with the values that they hold and [that] cause them to choose to pull on that uniform.
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The report into those alleged war crimes will be released next week.
Updated
Scott Morrison then moves on to the war crimes investigation which has been ongoing:
Our defence forces have a proud history, one we remembered again yesterday. Our serving men and women are deserving of the respect and admiration in which they are held by the Australian people, and not just here, but our allies and partners around the world.
They have earned it.
They have demonstrated it. I can say this because serving men and women in our defence forces, both past and present, share the expectations and aspirations of the Australian people for our defence forces and how they engage in their conduct.
That means when you have such standards and respect such standards that from time to time this requires us to deal with independence and brutal truths where expectations and standards may not have been met. Now, this has been the case regarding some very serious issues that were raised regarding conduct by some members of Australia’s special operations task force in Afghanistan.
It is our Australian way to deal with these issues with a deep respect for justice and the rule of law, but also one that seeks to illuminate the truth, but also seeks to understand it because that is what must drive our response.
To ensure that, indeed, justice is truly served, but also in understanding and illuminating the conduct of those who may have acted in ways that do not accord with the high standards expected of our ADF and those expectations, as I say, are also held by the serving machine and women of our ADF and their veterans’ community.
That is past and present.
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Which means, the prime minister is also going into quarantine when he returns – and will conduct his parliamentary duties from quarantine.
Scott Morrison:
I will go into isolation for 14 days, as well as those who are accompanying me. And what will be a first, I anticipate, for the Australian parliament, joining Question Time by video link. So that will be a first and I can only look forward to that, as I am sure all of you will also.
Updated
Scott Morrison is also off to Japan next week, where he will be the first foreign leader to meet with Japan’s new leader, Yoshihide Suga. He’ll stop off at Papua New Guinea on the way back home.
That means Michael McCormack will be acting prime minister.
Ugh.
US elections though, are a matter for the US.
Scott Morrison:
Of course we respect the transition process that is under way, at least informally.
When that formally commences, that is of course a matter for the US administration.
We will continue to work closely with the US administration though protocols in the months ahead because there remain many issues on hand that we are dealing with with the United States administration.
We also discussed the many global challenges, of course. Whether they be Covid-19, which is very much clearly top of his agenda in addressing the situation there, as well of course of the economic impacts of that.
The president-elect was very interested in Australia’s success here and what Australia could contribute from our lessons and our learnings the way that we have managed the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic dimensions of that as well.
With discussed, as I already indicated, security and the environmental challenges that Australia the US can work together on, particularly in the areas of emissions reducing technologies.
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Scott Morrison press conference
Scott Morrison opens his press conference by speaking about his chat with the US president-elect, Joe Biden
I had a call with President-elect Biden this morning, and we both made clear our [commitment] to strengthening our alliance, which will celebrate 70 years next year.
This is a relationship that he understands very deeply, based on his broad experience over a long period of time, in the United States, and his engagement of course as vice president and his many other roles.
And I was also having the opportunity to personally extend that opportunity to extend the 70th anniversary of the Anzus relationship.
This is a relationship that, as I said on the weekend, has been spirited by many prime ministers, by many presidents, from many perspectives, but also remained very clear and very true and was evidenced in the discussion we had today, that it is one that is bigger than both of us and importance to all of us, not just here in Australia and in the United States, but in our own region and more broadly, around the rest of the world, and we understand those responsibilities.
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Also happening around now:
BREAKING @AlboMP has convened a 12:30 shadow cabinet to clean up this mess. Labor has no new bonk ban - despite media reports - and his office said last night he didn’t plan to have one. Well, it looks like it could be about to get one @newscomauHQ https://t.co/96uuNnjR61
— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) November 12, 2020
Updated
The Greens foreign affairs spokes person, Janet Rice has responded to the latest in the Hong Kong situation:
The Chinese government’s new law and the ousting of these legislators is an assault on democracy and makes a mockery of the principle of ‘One Country, Two Systems’.
This law is a transparent attempt by the Chinese government to repress opposition lawmakers and undermine Hong Kong’s democracy and autonomy. It is a slap in the face to the millions of people who are part of the growing pro-democracy movement.
Carrie Lam has done a huge disservice to the people of Hong Kong in allowing Beijing free rein to control political dissent and quash the free exchange of ideas in the legislature.
The Greens call on the authorities to allow the four ousted LegCo members to challenge their disqualification in court.
The Greens offer solidarity with Hong Kong’s now-former pro-democracy legislators and with the people of Hong Kong in their ongoing fight against the erosion of their rights by Beijing.
Updated
The PM’s presser has moved to the Blue Room.
Because - rain
Scott Morrison will hold a press conference at 12.20.
It’s in the prime minister’s courtyard, but looks like rain is coming, so we’ll see.
Meanwhile, in Naidoc week, the government has introduced legislation to move 25,000 people onto the cashless debit card - permanently.
We have still not seen the @UniofAdelaide Review into the Cashless Debit Card. The Minister for Social Services Anne Ruston told Senate Estimates 2 weeks ago she had still not seen the review. She introduced this Bill to make it permanent, with no evidence to support it. #auspol
— malarndirri mccarthy (@Malarndirri19) November 12, 2020
Symbols are important.
People say it's symbolism but guess what? So is the beautiful poppy I wore above my heart yesterday for Remembrance Day. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can have symbols and we can have systemic change. #closethgap #flythflag @AuSenate https://t.co/NvbLX6PNCv
— malarndirri mccarthy (@Malarndirri19) November 12, 2020
Scott Morrison will be holding a press conference today.
In the federation chamber, consideration in detail is happening - basically, ministers get asked questions, they don’t answer, about what is happening in their portfolio.
Today it was Alan Tudge’s turn.
Anne Aly had QUESTIONS.
Including on the proposed changes to the citizenship test:
Does the Minister condone the comments made by Senator Abetz in a Senate inquiry, in which he asked three witnesses of Australian-Asian heritage to denounce the PRC under the guise of Australian values?
What does the Minister mean by ‘Australian values’?
Can the Minister provide a checklist of what it means to be Australian that can be quantifiably verified through robust research methodologies?
Does the Minister consider that members of the government uphold these set values?
That led to questions on Eric Abetz’s recent conduct in a senate estimates hearing:
Does the Minister consider that Senator Abetz should offer an apology to the three witnesses he confronted?
The Australian people deserve to know what this government means when they say “Australian values”. They deserve to know at what point their Australian-ness is considered enough.
Is that when they’ve been here 50 years? Is it when they’ve been born here?
Is it when they’ve lived here all their lives and never gone overseas to another country?
Again, these questions rarely get answered.
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Richard Marles on the need for Labor’s caucus to take a walk around the block before jumping at shadows around climate policy:
We have a difficult process to work through in relation to our policies in respect of climate change and energy. I’d be the first to say that. We are a party, which is deeply committed to action on climate change. We have been that for decades now. Anyone who went to the memorial for Bob Hawke, saw Bob Hawke talking about this issue back in 1990. It is part of our DNA. But at the same time, what was clear out of the 2019 election is that we do need to lift our eyes, in who we talk to, in the breadth of people we’re speaking to. And that includes those who work in industries such as the coal industry and the gas industry. Now, I think that’s what Joel has been talking about for some time. There’s a process we need to go through. And along the way, it’s going to be bumpy, we make no bones about that. But I think we can see a settled position and we will get there. And we will, we will absolutely get there. And I’d much prefer that; a situation where we’re working through our policies, than what we see on the other side. The government are up to their 22nd energy policy as the government and can’t land a thing.
Updated
NSW reports no new locally transmitted cases of Covid
NSW has reported no new cases of Covid in the last 24 hours.
Five travellers in hotel quarantine were diagnosed with the virus.
There were 23,236 tests reported to 8pm last night, compared with 20,586 in the previous 24 hours.
NSW Health is treating 71 Covid-19 cases, none of whom are in intensive care.
Fragments of the virus that causes COVID-19 have been detected at sewage pumping stations serving nearly 25,000 people in Bowral and Moss Vale.
There have been recent cases of Covid-19 diagnosed in Moss Vale, but there has not been a case reported recently in Bowral.
More than 18,500 western Sydney residents were also alerted last night to the presence of the virus in sewage at two local sewage pumping stations.
Affected suburbs include North Kellyville, Rouse Hill, Box Hill, The Ponds, Kellyville Ridge, Parklea, Quakers Hill and Acacia Gardens.
Updated
Energy Minister Angus Taylor declared #watergate over, after the Australian National Audit Office reported earlier this year on the government’s $80m purchase of water entitlements from Eastern Australian Agriculture in 2017.
Just to recap: EAA was a company which had been cofounded by the minister before he entered parliament. The water purchase, conducted without tender, has been contentious.
The auditor-general’s found that the price paid was equal to or less than the maximum referred to in the valuation obtained by the government, once market movements are taken into account.
The government declared there was nothing to see even though the audit was scathing of the processes and lack of transparency.
But there may be another chapter to play out.
Independent senator, Rex Patrick has taken issue with the audit findings and referred to a parliamentary committee that oversees the auditor general.
He’s also written to the auditor general querying his methodology.
The government paid $2,745 a megalitre for EAA’s water. The valuation, by Colliers, put the value range at $1,100 to $2,300, with a single point at $1500.
Patrick says the relevant figure is the single point, and even when the valuer’s estimates of the likely appreciation in water rights of between 10% to 30% are taken into account, the figure doesn’t make sense.
Talk about tenacious.
Updated
Scott Morrison calls Joe Biden to congratulate him
Scott Morrison has officially congratulated US president-elect Joe Biden
Donald Trump is yet to concede.
I’ve just spoken to President-elect @JoeBiden to congratulate him on his election. There are no greater friends and no greater allies than Australia and the US. pic.twitter.com/eZm7I4p7Ih
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) November 12, 2020
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Over in the House, Linda Burney is speaking against the government plan to have the cashless welfare card made permanent in the Northern Territory, as well as the trial sites in the East Kimberley, Ceduna, Goldfields, Bundaberg and Hervey Bay.
The cashless welfare card, which restricts what people can buy – with trial sites targeted at areas with prominent Indigenous populations – was a suggestion from mining magnate Andrew Forrest to Tony Abbott in a 2014 report.
The card means people are limited in what stores they can purchase from, creating monopolies, and also restricts a person’s ability to buy second hand. There has not been overwhelming evidence the cards have positive impacts on communities.
"It's a slap in the face during #NAIDOCWeek2020... It makes a mockery of the Government's #ClosingTheGap partnership," said @LindaBurneyMP on the Cashless Debit Card.
— Change the Record (@Change_Record) November 12, 2020
We welcome the opposition to this punitive and racist scheme: https://t.co/PRCSvagwYV pic.twitter.com/Jk5FQAPszg
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Marise Payne accuses China of undermining democracy in Hong Kong
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, has accused the Chinese government of seriously undermining Hong Kong’s democratic processes and institutions.
The statement follows Being’s imposition yesterday of a new law that allows the disqualification of “unpatriotic” opposition members.
Immediately after the disqualifying legislation was announced by Chinese state media, the Hong Kong government released a statement disqualifying four pro-democracy legislators. That prompted the entire pro-democracy caucus to announce their resignation, as my colleagues reported yesterday.
Given the increasing tensions in the relationship between China and Australia, every word of Payne’s statement will have been chosen carefully (it stresses that Australia is one of many in the international community raising concerns about these issues). Here is the statement in full:
Beijing’s disqualification of duly elected Legislative Council lawmakers seriously undermines Hong Kong’s democratic processes and institutions, as well as the high degree of autonomy set out in the Basic Law and Sino-British Joint Declaration.
The disqualifications follow the arrests of current and former pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong over an incident in the Legislative Council in May this year.
Australia calls on authorities to allow the Legislative Council to fulfil its role as the primary forum for popular political expression in Hong Kong, and to remain a key pillar of the rule of law and the “One Country, Two Systems” framework.
This is critical to maintaining international confidence in Hong Kong.
Australia and the international community will continue to monitor developments closely and maintain a consistent focus on human rights and the principles of freedom, transparency, autonomy and the rule of law.
You can read more on this issue here:
Updated
Paul Karp reported on Richard Marle’s response to Joel Fitzgibbon’s call for Mark Butler to be stripped of the climate change portfolio.
Here is how it played out
“I support @Mark_Butler_MP in this role” @RichardMarlesMP "I don’t think it is the place of others in the party to be calling on members of the frontbench to resign" #auspol @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/hes8xkA3zp
— Brett Mason (@BrettMasonNews) November 11, 2020
Out of all that, the one thing Peter Dutton actually knows about, is unsuccessful leadership challenges.
Peter Dutton was on 2GB Radio praising Joel Fitzgibbon for blowing the whistle on “what will inevitably be a carbon tax that Labor will have to apply to meet their 2050 target”.
Dutton:
They can’t tell you what it looks like, they can’t tell you what taxes they’ll put in place but I promise they’re working on how they can tax, because they love to spend.
I mean, where do you start with this? Let’s start with the fact the cost of inaction on climate is greater than the cost of reducing emissions – Deloitte estimates the cost over 50 years is $3.4tn and 880,000 jobs.
Then there’s the fact that paying companies to reduce or capture emissions as part of the $2.55bn carbon emissions reduction fund also puts a cost on emissions.
And what’s the logic – that somehow the government’s technology roadmap and can get us to net zero by 2050 but Labor will need to tax? It’s inconsistent.
Dutton says the Coalition plan is to use technology to solve the climate problem:
You can go for technology or tax … When you think of what will happen in the next 30 years, think of where we were 30 years ago – nobody imagined tap and go, or internet banking, and the technologies in motor vehicles and the capacity to store energy in batteries, lithium batteries … Was incomprehensible 30 years ago.”
Tap and go! Quite a bow to draw. Anyway, all this shows how much fun the Coalition is having at Labor’s expense after Fitzgibbon went to the backbench.
Dutton:
Joel is a really nice guy, but Joel is a stalking horse. There’s going to be a leadership challenge within the Labor party soon. And Joel probably I think is doing the advance work for someone else. So he’s the stalking horse – we’ve just got to identify who is the jockey.
Updated
Unsurprisingly, the ACTU is not happy with the government refusing to back in amendments to the Jobmaker legislation, which last night, got through the Senate un-amended, after One Nation flipped on its vote (a One Nation specialty)
To be precise, the Senate did not insist on the amendments it originally made - after the government rejected them in the House.
Michele O’Neil said that’s bad news for workers aged over 35
The decision to reject these amendments is indefensible. This decision by the Government will directly lead to a higher rate of insecure work.
The Morrison Government’s response to this crisis has been to pump billions of tax payer dollars into businesses, often without adequate safeguards and protections for workers.
By opposing these amendments the Government has made it clear that the aspects of the bill which will risk the jobs, hours and pay of working people are not bugs but features. This legislation is designed to allow businesses to bring in more insecure workers.
The fair work protections the government says exists to protect workers in situations like this do not apply to those in casual employment.
The NSW Greens have just moved to abolish the Lord’s Prayer at the start of the day in the NSW Legislative Council, and have instead proposed “a moment of reflection”.
Abigail Boyd, a Green, says the Lord’s Prayer is inappropriate in a secular institution, and that the parliament should be encouraging diversity and inclusions.
Labor, the Coalition, One Nation and others are expected to oppose it, dooming it to failure.
But get ready for more outrage against the Greens in the tabloid media.
Updated
This morning Alan Tudge has introduced the Coalition’s bill to extend the coronavirus supplement to 31 March, at the reduced rate of $150 per fortnight.
After that, the provisions allowing the supplement will be automatically repealed.
That underscores Scott Morrison’s claim that the coronavirus supplement is “temporary” – although no decision has been taken about what happens beyond March, meaning the jobseeker rate could still be lifted permanently.
The bill also extends “temporary Covid-19 exemptions from the ordinary waiting period, newly arrived resident’s waiting period and seasonal work preclusion”.
But the bill does have a few hidden nasties. From 19 December, it permanently removes Covid-19 exemptions to the liquid assets test waiting period and the assets test.
That would mean that singles with $5,500 of liquid assets and couples with $11,000 would have to wait up to 13 weeks to get jobseeker.
The explanatory memorandum explains the change, that reimposing the liquid assets test “is consistent with human rights as the economy is beginning to recover and the measure ensures that income support will continue to be targeted to those most in need of assistance”.
Updated
Back on Labor, Joel Fitzgibbon, who is now on the Labor backbench and is free to say whatever he wants, spoke to Laura Jayes on Sky News this morning, and said he believed Labor’s climate change shadow minister, Mark Butler, should be moved on from the portfolio.
“He has been in that portfolio for seven years, we’ve lost two elections, we’ve had two climate change and energy policies that have not been embraced by the Australian people – in fact they’ve been rejected – and we need an advocate now that the community and industry can trust,” Fitzgibbon said.
“Mark can go to another senior portfolio, he’s a very smart guy, there are plenty of things he could do, but we need a new advocate bringing a fresh face and a fresh approach.”
Fitzgibbon was in a regional portfolio every time Labor lost an election as well. Just for context.
Full interview here... https://t.co/e9gzdrBJn4
— Laura Jayes (@ljayes) November 11, 2020
Michael McCormack looks at things, iPad edition.
Updated
Nick McKim says to “describe this as a stunt, to describe this as virtual signalling, just goes to show how out of touch you are” in response to Simon Birmingham, Katy Gallagher and Anne Ruston’s allegations.
But with neither Labor or the government supporting the motion, it will go nowhere.
Updated
Anne Ruston is upset that Larissa Waters told Katy Gallagher this morning about the motion to suspend standing orders, and not her.
She says she has treated Waters with respect and would have thought a heads up could have been on the cards.
She then says that she gave Jacqui Lambie permission to make a short statement for Remembrance Day yesterday, and she didn’t.
This is moments after Lambie was brought to tears speaking on Remembrance Day, and those who come home broken after serving their country and the impacts on their loved ones.
Ruston says she has always treated Lambie with respect and thinks she deserves some in return.
It appears to be a common theme.
Joel Fitzgibbon says Mark Butler should leave climate portfolio
Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon has been out exercising his newfound freedom as a backbencher by suggesting that shadow climate change minister Mark Butler should move on from his portfolio.
Fitzgibbon told Sky News:
Mark can go to another senior portfolio. He’s a very smart guy. There are plenty of things he could do but we need a new advocate bringing a fresh face and a fresh approach.
The Labor deputy leader, Richard Marles, has backed Butler to stay.
Marles told reporters in Canberra:
Joel Fitzgibbon has been an ornament to our party and he is a very important voice and will continue to be a voice going forward. No, I don’t agree with Joel’s call in relation to Mark Butler. Mark Butler has been doing a fine job in his role as shadow climate minister. But we are going to work through this issue and, yeah, there are going to be bumps along the way but we’re not going to shy away from that. We will land a settled position here and we’ll do one that puts us in a much better position to contest the next election than we did the last. And that, at the end of the day, will be a credit to Anthony Albanese, who has lead us through the most difficult period I can remember.
Updated
“We are not going to be distracted in this place by insider tactics,” Simon Birmingham says, adding the government has legislation it needs to deal with, including the NDIS.
Labor’s Katy Gallagher says Labor wasn’t given enough time to look at the motion, and accuses the Greens of much the same thing as the government.
“This has really disappointed me,” Gallagher says.
She accuses the Greens of a “political stunt” and that there are “many other ways” to deal with the actual issues raised by Larissa Waters.
“To manufacture and create some kind of stunt ... to manufacture a way for the Greens to politically grandstand” and smash up the major parties, is not how Gallagher thinks the issue should be dealt with.
“We shouldn’t just sweep it under the carpet and pretend there is nothing going on,” Gallagher says, adding that she would welcome a conversation with Waters on what can be done
But Labor will not be supporting the motion either.
Jacqui Lambie rises to speak on the motion to suspend standing orders – she will support it, but uses her time to return to the issue that she was unable to speak on this morning.
Updated
Larissa Waters moves to suspend Senate standing orders over parliamentary standards
The Greens senator is moving to suspend standing orders to have the Greens bill on an integrity commission debated. Larissa Waters links it to the revelations of the Four Corners episode and says there need to be stronger processes in place to protect people who have workplace complaints in parliament, saying the parliament is not a safe work environment.
Simon Birmingham accuses the Greens of “political opportunism” and says there are processes in place, which are dealing with the complaints.
Again, those processes are bupkis.
Updated
Over in the Senate, Jacqui Lambie is having a go at the Senate for not moving a motion acknowledging Remembrance Day.
Lambie couldn’t move a motion because a few months ago Labor and the government limited the number of motions crossbenchers could move – which meant Lambie didn’t have the space.
She said Labor moved a motion congratulating itself (the Queensland election), the government moved a motion condemning Labor (resources), the Greens “moved the same motion they move every day” (climate change) and One Nation moved a motion “no one outside of the dark corners of Sky After Dark” would understand (I don’t even know) and she couldn’t move a motion, despite having the mother of a veteran who is fighting for veterans’ mental health and support, in her office.
She runs out of time and isn’t granted more to continue speaking.
Updated
The bells have rung and the parliament sitting has begun.
Victoria records 13th day of zero cases and zero deaths
There we go.
No idea what my tired brain did this morning - but in the end, it was the same result - Victoria has just three active cases across the state. More than 20,000 tests found no new cases. We are almost through an entire cycle of covid, so this is wonderful news.
Yesterday there were 0 new cases and 0 lives lost. There were 20,819 tests received – thank you, Victoria #EveryTestHelps. There are 3 active cases, 1 with unknown source. #StaySafeStayOpen https://t.co/pcll7ySEgz #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/Mnr3DhYGAW
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) November 11, 2020
Australia is once again making international headlines.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia came under fire this week for abruptly interrupting a female senior minister who was asked what it’s like to be a woman in Parliament. https://t.co/SpJYhPyP1J
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 11, 2020
So it is lucky 13 for Victoria after all, in terms of case numbers
Health minister @MartinFoleyMP says there are three active cases. NO new cases today (13 days). 20k tests in the last 24 hours. @7NewsMelbourne pic.twitter.com/6PwWGe6dlr
— Sharnelle Vella (@SharnelleVella) November 11, 2020
From Friday – tomorrow – which I just realised is also Friday the 13th, travellers entering Tasmania from Victoria will be classified as coming from a ‘medium risk’ area, which means they can quarantine at a private residence.
Updated
Daniel Hurst has looked at the latest national security bill the government wants passed:
Labor is fighting to prevent the removal of a safeguard requiring the spy agency Asio to get a judge’s approval when subjecting a person to compulsory questioning, as part of an expansion of powers pushed by the Morrison government.
While parliament’s bipartisan intelligence committee is yet to report on the government’s bill, Guardian Australia has learned that opposition members are pushing back at a change that leaves it up to the attorney general alone to approve intrusive questioning.
Asio can now use compulsory questioning powers to gather terrorism-related intelligence, but the draft legislation would expand the scope to cover the broader categories of espionage, foreign interference and politically motivated violence.
The bill would enable the attorney general to approve questioning warrants directly without the involvement of a judge – an easing of the hurdles the agency now faces – and this approval could be given orally in an emergency situation.
Updated
Just squaring all the circles: I’ve corrected the post on the Victorian Health numbers for today. When I looked at the website this morning, I thought I saw the numbers for the 11th, but as alerted by a reader, they are only there for the 10th.
Apologies – I am very tired, but that is no excuse.
Updated
Things are in no way sorted with China and our trade.
#BreakingNews China has suspended all exports of logs from Victoria - following the detection of live Ips grandicollis (bark beetle) in 12 consignments of logs exported this year. Ips grandicollis is an actionable quarantine pest in China. @abcnews @VAFIonline @TimberTownsVic
— Kellie Lazzaro (@kellazzaro) November 11, 2020
Updated
The Victorian Health website doesn’t look like it has updated for today
* I was just alerted to the website by a reader who couldn’t find the last 24 hours. It may have been my tired eyes, but I thought I saw the numbers for the 11th. My apologies. I will check
Updated
Here is just one of the reasons the complaints process for MPs’ staff needs to change.
From the department's own policy guide on bullying and harassment: "Where a complaint is substantiated, Finance has no capacity to take disciplinary action against either a Parliamentarian or a MOP(S) Act employee." https://t.co/9UpdvJtVmr
— Tom McIlroy (@TomMcIlroy) November 11, 2020
Updated
I imagine there will be a recount or two in these final seats.
Final three seats decided for Qld election. Labor won Nicklin by 79 votes and Bundaberg by 11. The LNP won Currumbin by 310 votes. #qldvotes #qldpol
— Antony Green (@AntonyGreenABC) November 11, 2020
Updated
Josh Frydenberg was pretty happy with these numbers yesterday.
As AAP reports:
Strong consumer and business confidence readings this week suggest the economy will be accelerating out of the worst recession since Great Depression at a fair clip. It’s been an impressive roll call.
The ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index has now risen for 10 weeks in a row, recovering to its pre-pandemic level in March.
The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index has soared to a seven-year high with encouraging signs for retailers heading into their peak Christmas period.
The mood of business is also on the up with the National Australia Bank business confidence index jumping to its highest level since mid-2019.
NAB is predicting the September quarter national accounts due in early December will show the economy expanding by three per cent after the steep seven per cent contraction in June quarter.
But its chief economist Alan Oster warns the outlook will remain “bumpy” with future quarters not so clear.
“We have still got the issue about what is going to happen as some of things like JobKeeper, etcetera fade way and also as unemployment goes up,” he said in a NAB podcast giving an update on its economic forecasts.
Like Treasury and the Reserve Bank, NAB is expecting the jobless rate to peak at eight per cent, although not until next year.
Treasury and the RBA expect unemployment to peak in December.
Updated
The ABC has more on the complaint Rachelle Miller has lodged against Michaelia Cash, whose office she worked in after her relationship with Alan Tudge ended. Cash has rejected the claims.
From the ABC report:
After the May 2018 budget, when many ministers travel the country to sell the political message, Ms Miller was told she would not be travelling with the minister because Senator Cash did not think her attendance necessary.
“I felt like I had been set up to fail, there was no way that I could manage it from the Canberra office,” Ms Miller’s complaint reads.
“During this time the Minister was also posting text messages on the office WhatsApp group that I felt were attacking and demeaning towards myself.”
In June 2018, Ms Miller was told the office was to be restructured and that her role would be made redundant.
Updated
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is having a sale on its very in-demand (I’m sure) State of Origin merchandise.
It’s Pauline Hanson v Mark Latham in the PHON SOOO and I don’t know much, but I do know this – if you walk into someone’s house and they have one of these products, walk back out.
(Fun fact, the Queenslander merchandise was for the 2020 state election in Queensland, where One Nation saw its vote plummet.)
Updated
While focus has been on Labor’s energy policy, given Joel Fitzgibbon’s move to the Labor backbench this week, don’t forget there are still big issues in the government party room too.
Very keen insight. https://t.co/eo8bsoLAFE
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) November 11, 2020
Updated
Last night One Nation flipped its position and supported the government to scrap amendments made by non-government members of the Senate to ensure that workers over 35 could not be sacked by employers wanting to take advantage of the hiring credit for younger workers.
Paul Karp reports on what happened, here:
Mike Bowers was in the chamber – here’s how it went down, visually.
Updated
Good morning
We have made it to the final sitting day for this week, which is an accomplishment in itself, so congratulations.
We start today with the issue that has hung over the parliament all week, since the airing of the Four Corners episode.
The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age report that Rachelle Miller, a press sec who had an affair with minister Alan Tudge, has lodged a complaint against Michaelia Cash, accusing the minister of running a “fake redundancy process” to get rid of her, once rumours of the (then ended) affair took hold. The paper reports that Cash has rejected the claims.
You can read the whole story, here.
Miller who spoke publicly about her experience with Tudge on Monday’s Four Corner’s program, has made a separate complaint about her treatment after her affair, alleging her career was blocked.
Overnight the executive producer of Four Corners tweeted that another woman who was interviewed by the program, Kathleen Foley, who spoke about her experiences of Christian Porter during university, had been voted off the Victorian Bar Council. The council said it had nothing to do with her appearance on the program a few days earlier.
Kathleen Foley, the courageous barrister and reformer who appeared on #4Corners this week and described AG Christian Porter as a ‘misogynist’, was tonight voted off the Victorian Bar Council. @VictorianBar says it had nothing to do with her appearance on #4Corners pic.twitter.com/KzxVWn21tu
— Sally Neighbour (@neighbour_s) November 11, 2020
Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese said the Labor party he led would back the “bonk ban” put in place by Malcolm Turnbull after Barnaby Joyce’s relationship with a member of his staff.
As Katharine Murphy and Michael McGowan reported last night:
The federal Labor leader told the ABC on Wednesday night the opposition had convened an all-staff meeting on Tuesday in the wake of a Four Corners program that aired allegations of inappropriate conduct by two government ministers.
“We had a meeting yesterday of all staff to remind them of what [our] procedures are,” Albanese said on Wednesday. “We think that all workplaces should be safe workplaces for women and we also, importantly, understand that we are in a particular leadership position.”
The Labor party itself is understood to be coming up with a new complaints process, which would also apply outside Canberra.
One of the issues for MPs’ staff, highlighted by Miller and taken up by Larissa Waters, is the complaints process offers little protection or anonymity. Waters is pushing to change that.
Albanese has also backed Gladys Berejiklian in her call to change the national anthem lyrics from “young and free” to “one and free”.
Berejiklian has said she feels for Indigenous Australians who say the national anthem doesn’t reflect them and their history.
Albanese told ABC TV on Wednesday night he supported the move too.
“I think this is a really practical suggestion by the NSW premier,” the Labor leader said. “It does jar. We are a country that should be proud of the fact we have the oldest continuous civilisation on the planet right here with First Nations people.”
And the federal integrity commission that Porter is in charge of delivering is not exactly winning support in the parliament or elsewhere, as Christopher Knaus reports:
We’ll cover all of that and more as the day rolls on. You have Amy Remeikis, Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy, Daniel Hurst and Paul Karp at your service, as well as the everyone in the Guardian brains trust.
It’s going to be a four-coffee day. I can feel it.
Ready?
Updated
