What happened today, 23 February 2021
With that, I will leave you for the day. Here’s a recap of today’s news:
- The Morrison government has announced a permanent increase in jobseeker payments of $50 per fortnight – just $3.57 per day – when the coronavirus supplement expires at the end of March. The rise has been labelled a “heartless betrayal of millions of people” by welfare advocates, and criticised by business leaders and unions. Meanwhile, a new hotline for employers to dob in unemployed Australians who refuse job offers has also been denounced as “dangerous” and out of touch with small business owners.
- Outspoken Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly has resigned from the Liberal party to sit on the crossbench, leaving the Morrison government with just a one-seat majority in the House of Representatives. The MP told colleagues he would quit the Liberal party, but support the government on confidence and supply. Meanwhile Scott Morrison demanded Kelly remove a senior aide who is currently the subject of an apprehended violence order and allegations of inappropriate behaviour by young interns.
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Facebook will restore news to Australian pages in the next few days after the government agreed to change its landmark media bargaining code that would force the social network and Google to pay for displaying news content. The government announced on Tuesday a compromise had been reached at the 11th hour as the legislation was being debated in the Senate. Following the announcement, Seven West Media announced it had struck a deal to provide news to Facebook.
- A manager at food delivery company Hungry Panda has told a parliamentary inquiry she did not know they had a legal obligation to report the death of one of their riders to the New South Wales workplace regulator.
Have a great evening, we’ll be back tomorrow.
The industrial relations omnibus bill has passed the House of Representatives 64 votes to 61.
Independent MPs Bob Katter, Helen Haines, Andrew Wilkie and Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie voted with Labor and the Greens against it.
This morning we noted Sharkie’s speech calling on Christian Porter to break up the bill – so the individual measures can be judged on their merits, an approach Porter has so far eschewed.
Whether that is sustainable will depend on deals with the Senate crossbench. Porter needs three of the five crossbench votes, but senators might be pulling in different directions.
Malcolm Roberts is seeking changes to unfair dismissal laws; Centre Alliance has concerns about flexibilities to change duties and location of work; Jacqui Lambie has expressed concerns about casualisation. Rex Patrick also wants the bill to be split.
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil, said:
The bill fails to address the systemic issue of insecure work in Australia. In fact, the bill will make it easier for employers to casualise permanent jobs. It makes permanent changes to bargaining, making it harder for workers to win pay rises.
The bill will also strip overtime and certainty from part-time workers the majority of whom are women, enabling employers to flex hours of work up or down with no penalties – effectively creating another class of casual workers.
Insecure work is going to hold the economy back in its recovery and this Bill will make it worse. We should be rebuilding the economy with stronger rights for working people – not hard wiring insecurity and uncertainty into our workplace laws.
Updated
A wildlife expert has dismissed claims of a sighting of the extinct Tasmanian tiger, declaring the animals photographed were most likely pademelons.
Devotees of the extinct Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, were abuzz this week with the potential new discovery that, if confirmed would have brought the animal back from the dead.
The Thylacine Awareness Group of Australia, an amateur not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the elusive creature, claimed it had photographic evidence of three thylacines living happily in north-east Tasmania.
In a video posted to YouTube, the group’s president, Neil Waters, said a camera trap had captured photos of a family of three thylacines, including a baby, which was “proof of breeding”.
But Nick Mooney, honorary curator of vertebrate zoology at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery reviewed and assessed the material provided by Waters.
In a statement, TMAG said Mooney had “concluded that based on the physical characteristics shown in the photos provided, the animals are very unlikely to be thylacines, and most likely Tasmanian pademelons”.
My colleague Naaman Zhou has this report:
Updated
Media outlet Seven West Media has announced it has struck a deal with Facebook.
It follows news earlier today that Facebook would end its ban on news posts in Australia, after the government announced amendments to the media bargaining code.
Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes AC said:
The establishment of this new partnership with Facebook is a significant move for our business and reflects the value of our original news content across our successful metropolitan and regional broadcast, digital and print properties.
The company has signed a letter of intent to provide news content to Facebook – meaning Seven West Media is simultaneously finalising long-term agreements with Google and Facebook.
Seven West Media owns Channel 7, as well as The West Australian newspaper.
Updated
Reset Australia, an initiative working to counter digital threats to democracy, has criticised the government’s 11th hour amendments to the media bargaining code that were announced today.
The changes mean the government may not apply the code to Facebook if the company can demonstrate it has signed enough deals with media outlets to pay them for content. The government has also agreed that Facebook and other platforms which would be subject to the code would be given a month’s notice to comply.
Chris Cooper, Reset Australia’s executive director, said he is concerned the amendments “undermine” some of the legislation’s “core guiding tenets”.
It is deeply concerning that a couple of powerful foreign corporations can create such a powerful bargaining position with the Australian Government by holding the distribution of Australian news and information to ransom.
The point of the code was not just to force commercial agreements between the platforms and news publishers, but rather to force agreements that are made under the code.
If the platforms and news publishers simply bargain outside the code, the power imbalance will remain and publishers will lack the guarantee the arbitration measures provide under the code.
We are concerned that the Treasurer’s amendment shifts power away from fair and objective rules and toward ministerial discretion.
Allowing the Treasurer to decide whether or not the code should apply to any given platform at any given time creates enormous potential for platforms to use their outsize power and influence to gain favourable decisions.
Ultimately what we need most are compulsory audits of the algorithms these platforms using to ensure they are complying with this Code mitigating the broader harms we know they create.
Updated
The Rationalist Society (a humanist group) has surfaced an interview Liberal MP Kevin Andrews gave to the conservative FamilyVoice Australia group suggesting the religious freedom legislation could be about to make a comeback.
The attorney general Christian Porter produced a second draft of this bill in December 2019 and was preparing to introduce it to parliament in early 2020 before the coronavirus overtook all government business.
The issue was raised at the Coalition party room last week, and Scott Morrison reiterated the Coalition’s commitment to the bill. No precise timeframe was put on it – and the government has missed its own deadlines in the past.
Andrews said:
My understanding is that the attorney now has a bill ready to present to the parliament. And my hope is that this bill will be presented shortly because there’s only most of the year in this parliament to go ...
It’s a compromise in some regards because there are people with various issues and concerns but I think overall It is. If enacted, it would be a huge step in terms of protecting freedom of religion in Australia compared with where we are at the present time.
We contacted Porter to ask if the bill will make a comeback. Porter replied:
The government’s immediate priorities are protecting the health of all Australians and addressing the unprecedented economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
The government will revisit its legislative program as the situation develops, and bring the religious discrimination bill forward at an appropriate time.
Updated
Bringing you up to speed with an important but less prominent development this afternoon:
An attempt in the Senate to overturn the government’s increase in migration-related court fees has failed because the vote was tied 30-all.
The Centre Alliance senator for South Australia, Stirling Griff, had attempted to gather support in the Senate to strike down the regulation that the government had used to increase the fees. But with the Coalition and One Nation voting against Griff’s motion, the attempt narrowly failed (motions to disallow government regulations need a majority to succeed).
The Law Council of Australia has previously been one of the most outspoken critics of the federal government’s increases in federal circuit court fees for migration cases.
In November, the council’s president, Pauline Wright, said the jump from $690 to $3,330 would pose “a severe threat to access to justice for migrants” and was “unconscionable”. Wright described it as “objectionable particularly when many refugee applicants and temporary visa holders receive no government support and, in some cases, have no access to work rights during the appeal process”.
At the time, a spokesperson for the attorney general, Christian Porter, told Guardian Australia all revenue from the change would be directly reinvested in the federal circuit court, and that a full fee exemption would be maintained for applicants experiencing financial hardship.
Just to revisit what Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil said earlier about the hotline the Morrison government has announced for employers to report people who refuse job offers.
O’Neil warned it will give unemployed Australians even less power in a dynamic already skewed against them, especially if an employer treats an applicant poorly during an interview.
O’Neil appeared to suggest it could lead women into accepting jobs they feel unsafe in, referencing the multiple workplace sexual assault allegations that have dominated political discussion over the past week.
Just think about what we’ve all been talking about for the last week and a bit. I mean, imagine a circumstance where someone is treated badly at the interview, where they’re harassed, or perhaps sleazy propositions put to them at the point where they’re going for a job. Then you’re saying that employer can dob in that unemployed woman for the fact that she’s knocked back a job?
This is dangerous territory to give power to employers to further punish people who are simply looking for work.
O’Neil noted there are already “harsh” obligations in place for jobseeker recipients to prove they’re looking for work, or risk losing their payment. She said she wanted the government to reveal what evidence it had relied on to justify the establishment of the hotline.
This is unnecessary and it’s punitive, and it can backfire badly.
Updated
As if there hadn’t been enough Craig Kelly news today.
Speaking to Sky News from his office this afternoon, the former Liberal MP attacked Labor MP Josh Burns, over a speech Burns gave in parliament last night.
Burns, who is Jewish, accused Kelly of making antisemitic comments when he described a man whose controversial coronavirus views he was spruiking as having a “long Jewish beard”.
Kelly lashed out at Burns (while forgetting his name) in an interview with Sky News, saying Burns’ accusation of antisemitism “was an absolute abuse of parliamentary privilege”.
That was an absolute bloody disgrace. And I am absolutely livid about that..I’ve asked my Jewish friends and they said there’s nothing antisemitic about saying someone has a long Jewish beard.
Hitting back, Burns stood by his criticisms of Kelly, telling Sky News later in the afternoon:
You don’t need to describe someone’s beard as being a Jewish beard. I mean, it’s stereotyping. It’s unnecessary, sort of categorising someone based on their religion, and many Jewish people don’t have beards, including myself. And I just say it’s an unnecessary and inappropriate way to describe a situation.
Over the past few months, Mr Kelly has engaged in consistently inappropriate behaviour. The first thing he did was he attacked the Victorian health authorities, and he compared them with Nazi Germany ... it was deeply offensive to families who have suffered in the Holocaust.
I don’t need to go into all of the sort of reasons why it’s absurd and offensive. The other thing he’s been doing has been appearing on podcasts with figures who have been spouting far-right, extremist, antisemitic conspiracy theories, neo-Nazi imagery.
It’s been this sort of consistent pattern of behaviour that sort of culminated last week when he did this interview, and he stereotypically described someone’s Jewish beard. Now, it was sloppy at best and stereotypical at worst.
Updated
Facebook will restore news to Australian pages in the next few days after the government agreed to change its landmark media bargaining code that would force the social network and Google to pay for displaying news content.
Last week, Facebook blocked all news on its platform in Australia, and inadvertently blocked information and government pages, including health and emergency services.
The ban on news created shockwaves, with the action viewed as a direct message to the rest of the world against embarking on similar regulation of the technology giant.
Read more my colleagues Amanda Meade, Josh Taylor and Daniel Hurst:
Joyce is also asked about the changes to the jobseeker payment today. He says:
Everything is going on the credit card. I wanted to see an increase in jobseeker. We’ve got an increase in jobseeker. It’s $9bn over the forward estimates. We’ve now got a record debt, a record deficit, by reason of the support payments that people desired in regards Covid. Now you can’t just keep putting things on the credit card.
I think the saving that could be made is by having proper oversight over people who basically just don’t want to work because, as I said, they are not unemployed if they’re offered a job and don’t do it. They are lazy.
This is the final question of the interview, and when Karvelas says she would have challenged him on using the word “lazy” if she had more time, Joyce says he deliberately waited until the end of the interview to say it, and laughs.
Updated
The Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce says he visited Craig Kelly’s office after he resigned earlier today “as a mate” and “to look after him”.
However, when asked by the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas if he wants Kelly to join the National party, Joyce says he does, but not as a way of helping him gain support for a leadership push against Michael McCormack.
That is not the motivation at all.
Of course any time to make the National party bigger, I’m going to grab it with both hands. That’s what you do. But that’s entirely a question for Craig. Craig may stay as an independent. Craig is his own boss.
My job first and foremost is to give him space and be his mate but if someone wants to join the Nationals, I tell you what, I’m the last person to talk them out of it.
If someone left because a family member died or they got sick and if a by-election was held and we lost, you can find ourselves in opposition. Any insurance you can take out of that, you should accept is not a bad outcome.
Updated
ACTU boss says $50 a fortnight jobseeker rise 'manifestly inadequate'
Michele O’Neil, the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, is scathing about the government’s jobseeker changes announced today.
Speaking to ABC TV, she says the $50 a fortnight increase to the jobseeker unemployment payment is “a manifestly inadequate increase”:
Given we have 6.4% of workers in Australia who are unemployed at the moment, millions of people in a situation where they either don’t have enough work or no work at all, two million people.
This will leave people seeing a cut in terms of what they’re currently getting because it will be $100 a fortnight less than what they’ve been getting (with the coronavirus supplement). If you go back to the beginning of the pandemic, it is $500 less a fortnight.
We’re talking about $44 a day. It is not enough to live with dignity. It is not enough to pay the rent. It’s not enough to properly feed your family. It doesn’t put you in a position where you can look for work and have what you need in your life to be actively looking for work.
I’m thinking of those people in Australia who are out of work, many of whom went through an incredibly difficult time, as we all did, in the last 12 months. They used up their annual leave, long service leave, sick leave. They lost jobs, lost hours. And this is how we’re treating people? A lot doing essential work during the pandemic to keep us safe and keep us fed.
Part of the reason the economic crisis was not as bad as we thought was because we gave money to the people who needed it. This is not the time to rip it away.
O’Neil also says she wants the government to reveal what evidence it is relying on to justify the establishment of a hotline for employers to dob in unemployed Australians who refuse jobs.
Updated
Thanks for taking us through the day so far Amy.
I’m Elias Visontay, and I’ll be taking you through the rest of the day.
If you see anything you think I should be aware of, you can get in touch with me via Twitter @EliasVisontay, via email at elias.visontay@theguardian.com, and Wickr at eliasvisontay.
I’m going to hand over to Elias Visontay for the evening. Thank you to everyone who joined me today.
I know it is frustrating not being able to comment – I miss your comments too – but given the issues we have been covering, legally it is better this way. I know there is a lot of rage and disbelief and anger out there, and I get it, but that also means we have to moderate comments to ensure we are all protected, legally – and that takes a lot of work from our moderating team, who are covering a lot of stories across the site.
But I promise you are not forgotten.
Thank you again for your messages and kind words – and for those who asked me questions, I will get back to you as soon as I can. You can always find me here if you have something pressing to say – it is a little easier to keep track of those messages at the moment, so that’s the place to drop me a line.
I’ll be back tomorrow morning – take care of you.
Updated
Anne Ruston is then asked about the allegations that have been raised by women staffers and says:
It is very concerning to hear the stories that these girls have put forward.
Nobody should feel unsafe in the workplace and nobody should feel unsupported. Clearly, these investigations that are under way at the moment, both the internal investigations in this parliament and the external independent investigations. Hopefully they can come back with findings to make sure that women are safe in this parliament.
Updated
Over on the ABC, Anne Ruston is asked about ‘narcseeker’ – the government program to have employers dob on jobseekers to turn down their jobs:
One of the things I’m sure you would have heard over the last 12 months has been a great concern, that people have been offered jobs and haven’t been taking them.
So what we are seeking to do by having a reporting line is to say to employers, if they are feeling frustrated that they have offered somebody a job and they don’t accept that, if they are capable of undertaking the task at hand or if they simply don’t turn up to work after being offered a job, they have an opportunity to say they were disappointed and allow either the job service provider with which that person resides [or the employment department] to follow up and find out from that person why they refused the job and didn’t turn up to work, because it’s really important that people who are receiving payments have a responsibility to undertake the job searches. We expect them to be looking for work.
How hard will the government try to verify the claims?
Ruston:
Well, clearly there are mutual obligations on both – from the employee or the potential employee, or the job seeker, as well as we have obligations and understandings with the job service providers.
So what we would say to a person who had been identified as potentially having refused a job, we’d go back and have a look if they put that job down as one of the jobs that met their mutual obligations, then we would seek from them as an explanation if the employer had said they’d offered them a job and they hadn’t taken it up, why they hadn’t taken it up.
Updated
Q: Do you think Craig Kelly’s betrayed the Liberal party?
Simon Birmingham:
Well, yes. Look, anybody who is elected on a platform as a representative of one party, goes to their electorate indicating strong support for that party, is a member of that party, is to some degree betraying the party and the voters who supported them when they step away. But I note that Craig has said he will continue to support the government. He was generous in his best wishes for Scott as prime minister and for the government’s continued success. And so, look, we will work with him as an independent, but take him at his word that he will continue to provide all of the certainty and stability of support in the House of Representatives that I would expect.
Updated
Simon Birmingham was on Sydney radio 2GB a short time ago, where he was asked about Craig Kelly:
Well, I was surprised. Craig stood up in a joint party meeting this morning where the Liberal Party and the National Party members and senators come together and informed the meeting. He had not provided any forewarning in that regard. But it was well known to me that the Prime Minister had been working with Craig to try to get him to address a number of issues of concern over recent weeks. And obviously, Craig had formed an opinion that he wasn’t going to comply with all of the prime minister’s wishes. And as a result, he thought that he would better serve as an independent. That’s disappointing that he refused to comply with the prime minister’s wishes.
But I respect the fact that he has indicated he will continue to support the government on budget measures, on supply measures, in relation to confidence motions and indeed around all policies that we took to the last election.
So it shouldn’t change the dynamic or the operation of the parliament terribly much. But it does obviously mean that there will be a new Liberal candidate for Hughes at the next federal election. And I would certainly encourage voters in Hughes to get behind a new Liberal candidate when that time comes.
Here is some more of how Mike Bowers saw the day:
Updated
Scott Morrison talked about the global tech platforms with his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau, in a phone call earlier this afternoon. The two leaders discussed Australia’s push to implement the news media bargaining code as part of the wide-ranging call, according to the readout issued by Morrison’s office.
Other topics included each country’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout along with developments in the Indo-Pacific region.
The readout says:
They also discussed Australia’s and Canada’s strong collaboration as likeminded liberal democracies, including on consular issues and in multilateral organisations. They looked forward to seeing each other at the G7+ Summit in June.
The readout doesn’t mention anything specific about China, beyond talking about regional developments. You might have seen that the Canadian parliament overnight passed a non-binding vote describing China’s treatment of its Uighur minority as a genocide (a motion Trudeau’s governing party did not want to bring to a vote).
Updated
Josh Frydenberg:
There is no doubt that Australia has been a proxy battle for the world. I have no doubt that so many other countries are looking at what is happening here in Australia, because of this innovative code, that the Australian government, the Morrison government is now pursuing, so Facebook and Google have not hidden the fact that they know that the eyes of the world are on Australia, and that is why they have sought to get a code here that is workable.
Clearly, they would have loved to continue to provide their technological services into the Australian market without the code being in place, but as Paul [Fletcher] and I know, we want Australian journalists who generate original content, should be remunerated for that, and that has been the purpose of the code and the commercial deals being struck between the parties has been a priority and the code is being designed to encourage those deals but obviously with a last resort, final offer arbitration model in the event that those deals are not reached.
Josh Frydenberg is using his very serious voice to explain the government will make some “clarifications” to the media bargaining code and Facebook is cool with it, and everything is hunky dory.
Frydenberg:
When it comes to the designation process by the Treasurer of a particular digital platform, a one month waiting period will be put in place.
The Treasurer will also take into account not just the unequal bargaining position between the digital platform and the Australian news media businesses but also the commercial deals that have been put in place and that digital platform’s commitment to supporting public interest journalism in this country.
Also, ahead of the formal arbitration process will be a period of up to two months for a mediation stopping there already is an up to three month period for a negotiation, and if that is not successful, then it moves to an up to two month period for mediation ahead of final offer arbitration.
Absolutely critically, the code maintains its key measures, namely it is a mandatory code. A world leading code. Secondly, it is based on two way value exchange, and third, it involves a final offer arbitration mechanism.
Everyone gets thanked for their constructiveness, including Mark Zuckerberg, bada bing, bada boom the news feed is back (almost).
Updated
Craig Kelly’s new position in the chamber was established very quickly – the attendants moved his place before QT (Mike Bowers, as always, was there).
It remained empty for most of question time
But he came in to make a statement
Peta Murphy did not seem impressed
Updated
Barnaby Joyce who got all the cookies for saying he believed the jobseeker (then Newstart payment) should be increased, when it wasn’t government policy, is now saying ‘yeah, but only when the budget is in surplus’.
Honestly.
This is why politicians should never get cookies or a brass band for changing their view on something (especially when it is something they should be in favour of already because of I don’t know, their humanity) because they will always, always, always change it back when it suits them politically.
Joyce came out with ‘raise the unemployment benefit’ when he first resigned as Nationals leader (following a sexual harassment complaint, which was investigated by the Nationals for eight months before concluding there wasn’t enough evidence on either side. Joyce always denied it).
He is now within spitting distance of the party leadership again and suddenly, we are hearing all about surpluses and not putting too much on the credit card.
Updated
Barnaby Joyce is on Sky News attempting to woo Craig Kelly to join the Nationals (Joyce is not the leader, by the way, he’s a backbencher – but if Kelly shifted to the Nats, Joyce would have the last number he needs to become leader).
Joyce says you have more room to speak your mind in the Nats.
Updated
This is awful news and our thoughts are with Catryna Bilyk and her loved ones.
From Anthony Albanese’s office:
Senator Catryna Bilyk has recently been diagnosed with a slow growing meningioma, the progress of which is being monitored by her treating medical professionals.
For the immediate future she will be taking a leave of absence from the Parliament while undergoing non-invasive medical treatment.
Senator Bilyk continues to serve her constituents and encourages any Tasmanian in need of assistance on Federal matters to contact her office.
She has been treated successfully for two brain tumours in 2008, so she looks forward to returning to full duties and attending Parliament when her health allows.
Senator Bilyk reminds anyone who wishes to support brain cancer or brain tumour patients to donate to Cure Brain Cancer Foundation by visiting their website or calling (02) 8973 1400.
The LNP senator James McGrath seems to be taking Craig Kelly’s defection to the crossbench well.
Just saying... pic.twitter.com/jhjq2cSZlm
— Senator James McGrath (@SenatorMcGrath) February 23, 2021
Updated
Given Scott Morrison quoted Louise Milligan’s piece in the House, here is her response:
Prime Minister has just quoted me in parliament to prove Labor also has issues re toxic behaviour. True, but of dozens & dozens of calls we made to staff & politicians from all sides, vast majority of allegations, volunteered, not sought, were about Liberal & Nationals. #auspol
— Louise Milligan (@Milliganreports) February 23, 2021
And for those still wondering.
The Member for Hughes has informed the House that he is moving to the crossbench as an Independent.
— Australian House of Representatives (@AboutTheHouse) February 23, 2021
The Coalition Government now comprises 76 Members – that is, a majority of the 151 Members in the House.
Updated
Facebook also says everything is cool now:
We’re pleased that we’ve been able to reach an agreement with the Australian government and appreciate the constructive discussions we’ve had with Treasurer Frydenberg and Minister Fletcher over the past week.
We have consistently supported a framework that would encourage innovation and collaboration between online platforms and publishers.
After further discussions, we are satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognise the value our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them.
As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days.
Craig Kelly then announced his resignation from the government to the chamber.
He has also resigned from all parliamentary committees, including the joint committee on law enforcement and that he had to resign because he was committed to:
Ensuring that my constituents and all Australians were not being denied access to medical treatments, if their doctors believe those treatments could save their life. Therefore I see if I am content to continue to act in line with my conscience, and my principles, an oath I took a becoming a member of this parliament and continue to speak fearlessly and faithfully representing my constituents I have no alternative other than to take the action that I have.
Updated
Scott Morrison calls time on questions, and then updates the House with a partial answer to a question Adam Bandt asked yesterday, about whether the staffer alleged to have raped Brittany Higgins was issued a lobbyist pass.
Morrison says he was not.
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
My question as to the prime minister and I refer to his previous answers. What does it say about his government and his own office that no one thought the prime minister, if he is to be believed, would want to know about the reported sexual assault of a Liberal staffer 50 metres from his own office, and that in spite of repeated requests from a News Limited journalist, about the office manager for the member for years, no one advised him of that either.
Morrison:
As usual, the leader of the opposition makes a range of assertions, and every time he gets up I’m not going to...
I think Australians see through those things, Mr Speaker.
On the matter is that the member has raised, whether it was on the very difficult issue that Parliament has been dealing with, and the multiparty approach we are looking to have at that inquiry put in place, I have answered these questions, openly and honestly, in this place, each and every day, about when this matter was raised with me, when it was raised with the office.
Australians know that, that I have been very open about these matters, and when they were brought to the attention of my office, and I have been very open about my displeasure about over the course of that weekend, over the Saturday and Sunday that I was not advised until the Monday.
I have made it very clear to my office that I was totally, that is an unsatisfactory response from my office.
I have been open and clean about that matter. I believe there is an issue to address air, regarding the culture of the workplace of this Parliament.
I believe that is true. I also believe that one of the most important things we have to address is why, whichever side of politics a staff member works on, why they may feel inhibited about raising that matter with the police.
That is the matter that we have to come to terms with.
And how we deal with the privacy of staff members in those situations, and when people have sought to provide that support, where they sought to provide that support based on the advice they receive, clearly that has not enabled or those matters to be raised in a complaint to be lodged, but I do know this, that the appropriate place, the appropriate place for matters of sexual assault or anything else to be dealt with is by the police, and in the courts.
They are the proper places where investigations should be undertaken and that is the process that I support.
Updated
Sharon Claydon to Scott Morrison:
My question is to the prime minister. Can the prime minister confirm a week after announcing his response in Question Time to the reported sexual assault of Brittany Higgins, he has abandoned one of his four reviews and will no longer review the culture inside the Liberal government, which was to have been conduct by the member for Curtin.
Morrison:
I can’t confirm that because that is not what happened, I asked the Member for Curtin to engage with our party room on the process, to look at these matters and issues within our party room, I remember on the same day saying perhaps the Labor Party would like to do the same thing in theirs.
I also said, Mr Speaker that I would listen to the member for Curtin, the Member Curtin has recommended to me, that this process will be best conduct by engaging the broader cross-party process which is now under way and being pulled together and I welcome that, in the leadership of our coalition, has welcomed that, and I hope to soon be in a position with the Minister for Finance, after he has concluded his consultations with all parties can deal with it.
Because, Mr Speaker, in this place if we are seriously going to address this issue, the assertion made that this is a matter that only rests with the Coalition side of politics*, is a false one.
I note the report on the ABC today, by Louise Milligan. And I note this because it is a thing we all have to deal with. And Louise Milligan... She says “the handful of Labor women who are also alleging privately to me that they have been victimised are also staying schtum. Their reasons include that they don’t want to damage their side’s chances at the next election”.
We need to deal with these issues seriously. And I believe the leader of the opposition believes in this.
I believe the cross-party process is accepted by the government is the best way to do it and I suggest we can get on with that job and that’s what I’m looking forward to announce soon, once the Minister for Finance has received all the advice and consultations he is having the parties across this place.
*No one has made this assertion
Updated
Defence minister Linda Reynolds appears to have tripped herself up on the Brittany Higgins case.
As we reported earlier, Reynolds told the Senate not long ago that she had met with the AFP twice, once with Higgins and her chief of staff on 1 April, and a second time on 4 April.
Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong says she is advised Higgins has never been in a meeting with the minister and the AFP at the same time.
Reynolds takes the question on notice and says she will need to double check her records and recollection.
I will check what I said yesterday and what I said today against my recollections and I will come back at the first opportunity to clarify.
Wong gives Reynolds a chance to stand by the answer she gave “10 minutes ago”.
Reynolds says she will “go back and I will check my recollection and my records”.
Clear as mud.
Updated
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
My question as to the prime minister regarding his earlier answer about the member of Hughes, is the prime minister aware that after the police sought an AVO on the 8 July and the 16 September, it was reported in his local paper, and a news reporter sought a written response from his office not once but three times, 3 August last year, 4 August last year.
Morrison:
I’m happy to check those dates that the member refers to.
Here it is in the Daily Telegraph on July 9 after it had top billing on both the Daily Telegraph and @stgeorgeshire websites on July 8.
— Eliza Barr (@ElizaJBarr) February 23, 2021
Isn’t anyone at the PMO reading the news, then? Or their emails? pic.twitter.com/WoBAt4Ypkz
Updated
The Senate has just heard that the alleged rapist of Brittany Higgins was not issued with a sponsored pass to re-enter parliament house after his termination from Linda Reynolds office in March 2019.
There has been some speculation that the alleged perpetrator may have been allowed back into the building in association with his jobs post-politics. Greens senator Larissa Waters has been asking the government for clarity on the issue. Senator Simon Birmingham says he has checked with the Senate president and no such sponsored pass was issued to the man.
But he says he cannot guarantee that the alleged perpetrator was not temporarily signed in at some other point to enter the parliamentary building. That’s because one-off sign-ins to parliament are manual and handwritten, making it difficult to check the system for individual names.
Facebook will restore Australian news in coming days
From Josh Frydenberg’s office:
The Morrison Government will today introduce further amendments to the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code.
These amendments will provide further clarity to digital platforms and news media businesses about the way the Code is intended to operate and strengthen the framework for ensuring news media businesses are fairly remunerated. These amendments will make it clear that:
• a decision to designate a platform under the Code must take into account whether a digital platform has made a significant contribution to the sustainability of the Australian news industry through reaching commercial agreements with news media businesses;
• a digital platform will be notified of the Government’s intention to designate prior to any final decision – noting that a final decision on whether or not to designate a digital platform would be made no sooner than one month from the date of notification;
• non-differentiation provisions will not be triggered because commercial agreements resulted in different remuneration amounts or commercial outcomes that arose in the course of usual business practices; and
• final offer arbitration is a last resort where commercial deals cannot be reached by requiring mediation, in good faith, to occur prior to arbitration for no longer than two months.
Importantly, the amendments will strengthen the hand of regional and small publishers in obtaining appropriate remuneration for the use of their content by the digital platforms.
The Explanatory Memorandum will confirm that the Code only applies to the extent a digital platform is making covered news content available through those services.
These amendments also add further impetus for parties to engage in commercial negotiations outside the Code – a central feature of the framework that the Government is putting in place to foster more sustainable public interest journalism in Australia.
The Government has been advised by Facebook that it intends to restore Australian news pages in the coming days.
Updated
Linda Reynolds says there were two meetings with AFP
Linda Reynolds is asked about her meetings with the AFP on the Brittany Higgins matter.
Labor accuses her of misleading the Senate in previous answers about the meetings.
Reynolds says she has been clear. She says she had two meetings. The first was on 1 April.
That meeting involved her then chief of staff, Fiona Brown, and Higgins.
During that meeting, Reynolds says, it became clear that the incident was more serious than a security breach.
Higgins then met with the AFP on her own, Reynolds says.
Then, on 4 April, Reynolds met with an AFP assistant commissioner, initially by herself.
Her chief of staff then joined her for the last part of the meeting, Reynolds said.
She has previously said she met with the AFP on that occasion by herself.
Updated
Tanya Plibersek to Scott Morrison:
Can the prime minister confirm that one member of his staff [knew] about the reported sexual assault of Brittany Higgins two years ago, a second member said it would be raised with his chief of staff two years ago, a third member of the staff [knew] the alleged perpetrator had been dismissed two years ago, a fourth member of the staff checked in with Miss Higgins after Four Corners last year, his office dealt with journalists on 12 February and the prime minister still says he had no idea about any thing until the story broke last Monday?
Morrison:
I can confirm to the House that my office became aware of the matter regarding the sexual assault on 12 February 2021.
I can confirm that I did not become aware of the allegation of a sexual assault until 15 February 2021.
I can tell you, at the time of these incidents, several years ago, the issue of sexual assault was not raised with me.
Updated
Just on the ‘issues’ in Craig Kelly’s office (Eliza Barr is a court reporter for News Corp).
I have the names of three individual media advisers I copied into each of these requests.
— Eliza Barr (@ElizaJBarr) February 23, 2021
Someone knew.
Updated
Paul Fletcher is now using the phrase “whinging negativists” because apparently the arts industry did GREAT out of jobkeeper and anyone saying otherwise is just a “whinging negativist”.
Updated
Stuart Robert apparently only takes dixers so he can praise the prime minister.
Today’s offering:
As the prime minister so eloquently said, the comeback in our economy is already under way.
Comeback is apparently now an ‘eloquent’ turn of phrase.
The bar is subterranean.
Updated
Defence minister Linda Reynolds is again being pressed on the Brittany Higgins case in the Senate.
She’s asked whether other ministers knew of the matter. Reynolds continues to bat away the questions:
There are a number of these matters that, after Ms Higgins has gone to the AFP tomorrow, I will discuss with the AFP and I will also discuss with the other enquiries.
She says she had a “discussion” with the special minister of state at the time, but it was about a different staff member.
Labor senator Tim Ayres then asks when Reynolds became aware that her chief of staff had sought advice from the finance department about how to handle a sexual assault. Reynolds answers a different question:
My understanding is that my chief of staff was provided a report of the access to my office, either by the department of finance or by DPS, and my recollection was that it was Wednesday the 27th.
She is then asked about an assertion by Higgins that she was pressured to immediately tell Reynolds’ office whether she was going to police.
Reynolds:
Ms Higgins’ recollections and her story are hers to tell, it is not my place, in this chamber, to speculate further on that.
Updated
The crux of the industrial relations stuff today is that the gig economy has changed how we work and the government is holding on to old definitions and decisions made within existing regulations and Labor doesn’t really have the answer either.
Because we tend to build and pick up the changes quickly, but the system can take years to catch up.
Updated
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
I ask again a very simple question. Does every worker in Australia deserve to be paid no less than the minimum wage?
Christian Porter takes it:
This was actually an issue dealt with at some length by the Fair Work commission, in determining whether or not those people who are not covered by the minimum wage or a relevant award in the gig economy or who are independent contractors, employees, and on the 21 April the Fair Work Commission devised by the Labor party when they were in government and indeed led by a unanimous decision by the president, Ian Ross, that Labor appointed, determined that Uber Eats drivers were not employees.
And the reason they made the determination was a range of factors, by two very critical things, and the first was that Uber Eats exercise no control whatsoever over when or how long a driver performed work and so as a legal matter of right in actuality, it was entirely within the driver’s control as to when they logged on to the app, there was no obligation to accept any particular delivery request.
The second reason why it was determined that person was not an employee was when they were performing work pursuant to a delivery request, the person could accept the work through other competitive food delivery apps or perform other types of passenger or delivery work so as is the case in the platform economy, a person can work across multiple platforms.
Of the opposition would have people believe is that it would somehow be a simple thing to move a group of people that the Fair Work Commission has determined a truly independent contractors, not employees, move them into a system of fixed wages and conditions, and then pretend to people, the price of the service to the end users, the commercial viability of the service, indeed the very existence of the work that provides the income in the first place.
If it is so simple, why would it be necessary to ask and answer questions like this? Does the person worked 10 hours or two hours of 20 hours?
Do they work across one platform are multiple platforms? If they work for two hours across multiple platforms on a minimum wage, who pays that wage?
These are complicated issues that simply don’t lend themselves to some simple formulation.
If you have a situation where one person works across multiple platforms and in fact a recent survey in Victoria found that 35% of people who use the platform economy work across multiple platforms, they sometimes work across four or more platforms.
How would you transmute that person onto a fixed wage arrangement? Is it even possible?
Updated
We are hearing more about the “Australian way” of delivering a public health response.
The only “Australian” thing about it is the constant crowing.
Next will come the dobbing – who did, or didn’t get the vaccine.
There is nothing “Australian” about this, other than the constant need for validation.
Updated
Greens senator Rachel Siewert has just asked social services minister Anne Ruston whether she could live on $44 a day. That is, of course, the newly announced base rate of the jobseeker payment.
Ruston responds:
Living without a job would be extremely difficult, that is why this government has been so incredibly focused on getting the economy to recover so that jobs can be created.
Siewert presses on:
Does the government acknowledge that 1.5m Australians on the jobkeeper and youth allowance payment will be living in poverty from April?
Ruston:
Well what I can say is ... on the 1st of April as an ongoing measure, the commonwealth government will be putting in place over the forward estimates a $9bn increase in payments.
She then repeats the government line that a range of other payments are available to welfare recipients other than jobseeker.
Updated
This was the question and answer regarding Craig Kelly’s staffer:
Q: Prime minister, a senior member in Mr Kelly’s office, a staff member rather, has – is under police investigation amid allegations of inappropriate work conduct. There is actually an AVO taken out against that staff member. Would you expect that that staff member no longer be employed as a member of the government, and did that have any – are you concerned that Mr Kelly chose to keep that staff member onboard while those investigations took place?
Scott Morrison :
I have long expressed to Mr Kelly my concerns about that staff member and he has long understood what my expectations were about how he would deal with that matter.
Scott Morrison is now saying that he was talking about something else.
The leader of the opposition is wilfully conflating two different matters. Mr Speaker, there is the long-held concerns that I have had about the performance of a staff member in the member for Hughes group’s office, and that is based on the fact that my electorate adjoins the member for Hughes, and they relate to performance measures that don’t relate to the more sensitive issues that have come up more recently.
... When it was drawn to my attention, I drew them to the attention of the member for Hughes when we met together several weeks ago, he undertook to take certain actions in relation to that staff member, that was not followed through on, and he took the decision.
Updated
Over in the Senate, defence minister Linda Reynolds is again under pressure over her handling of the alleged rape Brittany Higgins. She has previously cited Higgins’ privacy as a reason not to answer questions about the case.
Higgins has since made it clear she releases the minister from any privacy obligations. Asked whether she’s seen those comments, Reynolds responds:
The answer is of course I have. But as I’ve said on many occasions in this chamber, but Brittany’s story is hers and hers alone to tell publicly. Brittany has said that tomorrow she is speaking with the AFP. I believe ... to the bottom of my heart that these discussions should be had with the AFP.
Updated
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Didn’t the prime minister at a press conference less than one hour ago say I have long expressed my concerns to Mr Kelly about that staff member.
Why didn’t he do something about it given the powerful position that he holds?
Morrison:
The leader of the opposition is wilfully conflating two different matters. Mr Speaker, there is the long held concerns that I have had about the performance of a staff member in the member for Hughes group’s office, and that is based on the fact that my electorate adjoins the member for Hughes, and they relate to performance measures that don’t relate to the more sensitive issues that have come up more recently.
... When it was drawn to my attention, I drew them to the attention of the member for Hughes when we met together several weeks ago, he undertook to take certain actions in relation to that staff member, that was not followed through on, and he took the decision.
I am very, very confused. The question Morrison was asked where he gave the answer about “long-held concerns” was about Anne Davies’s story. Which was about “sensitive issues”.
So I have no idea what the prime minister is referring to when he says “performance measures” not related to the “more sensitive issues that have come up more recently”.
Updated
Meanwhile, the ever hopefully-in-waiting deputy prime minister is being extremely helpful:
Nationals MP @Barnaby_Joyce speaking to #7NEWS on Craig Kelly's defection: "I’d love him to join the Nationals, I think it’s a decision Craig would have to make, but I certainly wouldn’t stand in his way... I’d do what I could to encourage it" More at 6pm #auspol pic.twitter.com/vxP4AwkoZa
— Jennifer Bechwati (@jenbechwati) February 23, 2021
The current deputy prime minister is, as usual, not reading the room, and taking up space.
We do not have time for the McCormackisms today.
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
I refer to his comments today regarding a staff member employed by the member for Hughes who has been the subject of multiple allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women and girls since 2014 the prime minister said today that I have long expressed my concerns to Mr Kelly about that staff member. Given the prime minister’s l;ong knowledge, why did the prime minister do nothing for years?
Morrison:
As you know any employment matters of a member of parliament is a matter ...
The matters that I raised with the member for Hughes – related of course when we met several weeks ago to the various statements he had made concerning the government’s response to the pandemic and health measures put in place.
Over the last few weeks I became aware of some other matters which the Department of Finance ...
... With the Department of Finance, and we have initiated a process that is looking into those precise matters that came to my attention a few weeks ago.
The interjections of the leader of the opposition seem to confuse the fact that I have long held issues regarding a particular staff member and their performance in that office, not related to the issues he is referring to in asking that question.
That is a matter I have raised on numerous occasions, but that reached a more serious point in recent weeks, I raised those matters with the member for Hughes, he undertook to take some certain actions on behalf of those discussions, those actions were not taken, and the member for Hughes has taken his decision today.
Updated
Scott Morrison is taking a dixer on the vaccine and the “Australian way” Australia is addressing it – which is a very normal way of spreading a vaccine to the population, as part of a responsible public health response which practically every country in the world is engaging in.
He mentions Australia’s record compared with OECD countries.
It is amazing how OECD countries can be comparable when it is something the government wants to talk about, but not comparable when it comes to things like paid parental leave and early childhood education (as Josh Frydenberg said last week).
Updated
Question time begins
It’s getting even more nasty in there.
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Can [the prime minister] confirm that the government has lost its majority in the House of Representatives.
What does it say about the prime minister’s judgment that he installed this member against the objection of local Liberal party members in the southern Shire?
Tony Smith:
The last part of the question is probably out of order, but the first part of the question certainly, the statement is in order.
Morrison:
The statement by the member is well known, as is the members of this place by now and the status of the parties in the House is a matter of common knowledge. If the leader of the opposition is feeling so confident about the performance of his opposition, well that perhaps he would like to bring on a motion.
Updated
Rebekha Sharkie wants government benefits to be set by an independent panel:
For a very long time the sector and business groups had been calling for at least a $75-a-week increase. Before Covid-19 hit our shores, the Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss) said $95 a week was the ‘absolute minimum’ people without work needed.
That’s why we need an Independent Social Security Commission whose job it would be to set payments to keep up with the cost of living and changes in Australia’s economic circumstances.
The economy hasn’t bounced back in many sectors. We need more than a token $25-a-week rise, and we need to keep jobkeeper going in vulnerable industries such as tourism, hospitality and travel.
While I am pleased that the government has increased the threshold of monies that can be earned before Centrelink payments are cut, the increase of the base rate to $307 a week for single person remains woefully inadequate.
In my regional electorate you cannot rent a single property, not even a two-bedroom flat, for $280 a week.
To take people back to $307 a week, as winter is approaching, is deeply concerning. Even with rent assistance, we will see more single people and more families relying on charities for emergency assistance to make ends meet.”
Updated
Someone in the Coalition party room is apparently very upset that the unemployment payment is going up at all.
As Daniel Hurst reports:
During the joint party room meeting, one member of the Coalition indicated he couldn’t support changes, apparently on the basis the government needed to pay off debt. That member said businesses were struggling and the government should not be committing $9bn committing to paying more to people on welfare (not my words, the Coalition member’s words).
That $9bn is over the FORWARDS – the next four years.
The government was paying out $6bn A YEAR in franking credits.
That apparently, was fine.
Updated
Craig Kelly resignation letter
You can find it here – it mentions a lot of what Daniel Hurst has just reported.
Craig Kelly's resignation letter https://t.co/Xre4Qarcno
— Tom McIlroy (@TomMcIlroy) February 23, 2021
Updated
Some more details on Craig Kelly announcing his departure to the Coalition joint party room this morning:
It was the first item of general business at the meeting.
Kelly reflected that on the last sitting day of 2018, Scott Morrison had hosted colleagues for Christmas drinks.
The mood had been sombre but the PM gave a rousing speech, Kelly said.
Kelly said he thought at the time this would be one of the important and long-serving prime ministers, if the government was re-elected at the 2019 election.
Kelly riffed on Morrison’s recent analogy to everyone in the team helping the boat to go faster.
Kelly said his (Kelly’s) conduct “has not helped the boat go faster”, but that at all times he had acted on his values and beliefs.
He said therefore that in order to keep acting in accordance with his values and principles, he announced his resignation effective immediately.
Kelly told the room he would support the government on matters supply and confidence – and, also significantly, support all policies that had been taken to the last election.
Kelly concluded by saying: “I don’t want to be that sea anchor holding us back.”
After Kelly left the room, Morrison told the meeting this was the first he heard of the Kelly move.
Updated
Josh Frydenberg told the Coalition party room that the government had never said it could save every job or every business.
“It’s going to be bumpy ahead,” the treasurer warned.
Frydenberg also said the Facebook move last week had been counterproductive. He flagged that some changes and clarifications would be proposed to the news media bargaining code.
He wants the code to be workable.
Michael McCormack told the Coalition party room that last week was a difficult one. He reminded MPs they had to look after staff, each other and be unified. He said the job of a parliamentarian wasn’t easy – but they were there for the right reason, to represent their communities. McCormack also reminded MPs they were in a privileged position.
Updated
Craig Kelly says he would not consider the joining the Nationals, or another party and he plans on running at the next election.
My beliefs are still lined very closely to the Liberal party. Mr Howard, of course, the late prime minister, Robert Menzies, remained my strong heroes. The Forgotten People’s speech is beside my bed. They are principles I don’t change.
Updated
Craig Kelly says he quit government so he could speak more on unproven Covid treatments
Craig Kelly is speaking to the ABC about why he quit the government – he was tired of not being able to speak his mind – and not anything to do with the allegations which have (“long” according to the PM) been raised about his staffer.
Kelly:
The two are not connected. The Ivermectin issue, the issue of speaking out on these Covid treatments is my main reason for making the decision that I have. I want to be able to speak out fearlessly and frankly about those.
As far as my staff member, it’s a matter of an AVO there.
There are no criminal charges against him.
He is entitled to natural justice and the presumption of innocence.
Just as I say we saw many of our - the other issue that has concerned me about the Coalition is the way that some of our military troops were treated with the Brereton report, where they seem to be denied natural justice.
And the thought that a government could take away medals from families that they had – their sons had died in war, I just thought was something that was abhorrent.
We have to protect those principles of natural justice and there must be the presumption of innocence.
Updated
Scott Morrison told the Coalition joint party room the vaccine rollout was important and that “every day from here gets more normal”.
Morrison said the “Australian way” had worked.
He suggested the government needed to show the world it wasn’t just on health response that Australia had done well, citing initiatives like the media bargaining code.
Updated
The government still as a one-seat buffer, as it hold 76 seats of 151 in the House of Representatives including speaker Tony Smith.
Labor is saying the Morrison government “no longer has a majority on the floor of the house” because with Smith in the chair they’re 75/150.
But they’re not in minority.
Updated
Australia’s consumer watchdog expects Covid-19 affected travel issues to dominate its work this year, as tourism providers begin marketing international holidays despite uncertainty around how long travel restrictions will be in place.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will also closely watch how the domestic aviation sector responds to Regional Express’ entry into key routes between capital cities, its chief Rod Sims said, a day after Rex accused Qantas of “predatory behaviour” in announcing its decision to pull out of several regional routes.
Sims said the ACCC received a 500% increase in travel related complaints in 2020, and that his organisations Covid-19 enforcement taskforce “will be actively monitoring forward sales practices by travel businesses due to concerns about misrepresentations in advertising and marketing material, particularly given the huge uncertainty around the imposition and lifting of travel restrictions”
Regarding Rex’s entry into key capital city markets, Sims said: “Competition in the aviation industry remains fragile and the ACCC is focussed on behaviours that adversely affect the competitive process. The ACCC will, for example, be closely monitoring the plans by the regional operator Rex to enter the major domestic routes, including those connecting Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, with a particular focus on Rex’s ability to access slots at Sydney airport”.
However, Sims was tight lipped on developments surrounding the media bargaining code. While he said the ACCC would continue to investigate and monitor digital platforms in 2021, he did not speak about the specific legislation, that the ACCC developed, which has led to recent agreements between media outlets and Google, and which has been linked to Facebook’s decision to ban news for Australian users.
Sims also said the ACCC plans to pursue providers of essential services, including making sure electricity retailers pass on reductions in the cost of wholesale electricity to consumers.
“Consumers saw their electricity prices rise enormously over many years; now they need to see them fall considerably. This is only fair,” Sims said.
Updated
Cassandra Goldie:
The reality is that we are widely known in Australia as already having one of the toughest compliance systems in all of the OECD countries.
The prime minister said this morning at his press conference that what he stood for was about lives and livelihoods, and that he what stood for was about bringing the Australian community together.
But what his announcement has done today has created a culture of something very different. It’s created a culture that says ‘we don’t care whether you’ve got a enough’.
We want to turn people against each other. We want to create a culture of division and mistrust against people.
And we don’t care about whether or not it’s hard for you already to try to get a job.
We’re just going to make it even harder. So again, I want to thank everybody who has been a part of this ongoing campaign.
Today, we begin the next stage of the campaign. I am confident that what we’ve demonstrated to politicians is that when a politician acts with evidence, when it acts with expert advice and that it acts in a spirit of collaboration, we can succeed. And we have the exact opposite of that from the federal government on what it’s announced on jobseeker.
Updated
Australian Council of Social Service CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie is not mincing her words:
I want to be very clear today that the government has missed its opportunity to be a government that stood for human decency.
To be a government that stood for human dignity. To be a government that stood and genuinely had people’s backs.
What we’ve got today represents a heartless betrayal of the millions of people who have been hit by unemployment.
Both those people who were without paid work before this pandemic hit, and so many more who were hit since.
Young people with a disability. Single parents.
People who have got a chronic ill ness. People who lost their late in life and unable to get back into the workforce.
Young people who have never been able to get a job and who are desperate just to get their foot in the door.
We’re talking about students who are trying to get an education behind them as well as to make ends meet.
Instead of following the broad consensus of what everybody said was needed, everybody was saying, we needed a permanent increase and we needed that increase to be adequate.
This government has announced an increase of $3.50 per day. This $3.50 per day is a mean-spirited and complete betrayal of what is needed.
Everybody had said we could never go back to the brutality of the previous Newstart rate.
The previous Newstart rate for jobseeker was just $40 a day. What the government announced today is that the increase will be to $44 per day. It represents a government who is unable to understand what it’s like not to have a lot of money.
It’s a government that shows it lacks humanity, but is completely out of touch of the reality of what it is like if you’re on a low income and you’re desperately trying to get a little bit of work and to make ends meet.
Updated
Scott Morrison on Craig Kelly:
I set out very clear expectations on a range of matters that I expected Craig to follow through on. He’d given me a number of commitments in relation to that.
He no longer felt that he could meet those commitments and, as a result, he’s made his decision today and, by his own explanation, he has said that his actions were slowing the government down and he believed the best way for him to proceed was to remove himself from the party room and provide the otherwise support to the government so it could continue to function as it so successfully has, which he says is something he remains committed to. So I would expect him to conduct himself in that way.
Updated
People turn down jobs for a lot of reasons.
Including that the boss was a bit sketchy.
Will feelings be considered a valid reason? Or will people be forced into taking jobs they are not comfortable with, in order to eat?
This is just awful. An employer reporting line so employers can dob in people who are already heavily monitored with demerit points and the constant threat of payment suspensions.
— Rachel Siewert (@SenatorSiewert) February 23, 2021
What is the Government doing about the #Jobactive system that is fundamentally broken?
The Morrison government is using this as the basis of its decision to increase the base rate of jobseeker by just $50 a fortnight – making the daily rate $43.5 a day – up from just $40 a day before Covid. Which everyone finally admitted was not enough to live on.
It's the biggest jobseeker increase since the 1980s because the last time it was boosted in real terms was 1994, and Howard pegged it to CPI rather than wages later on in the 90s. And it's fallen to historically low levels in that time. #auspol
— Luke Henriques-Gomes (@lukehgomes) February 23, 2021
But this decision by the Howard government, coming on three decades ago, when Australia was a completely different country AND economy (remember the mining boom?) is now being used to justify consigning jobseekers to a living below the poverty line.
Scott Morrison:
41.2% of the national minimum wage, which puts us back in the realm of where we had been previously.
The indexation had been different to other payments and, as a result, it had fallen down to 37.5%.
We had obviously taken advice about the level of the payment and this puts it back, comfortably, within the middle of the range that had previously been in place.
I have no doubt that at whatever rate you set the payment, there will always be suggestions by some that it should be more.
There’ll be some who suggest it should be less.
That’s why a government has to exercise judgment in getting that balance right.
But not just in the setting of the payment but also the conditions that sit around the provisions of that payment and are seeking to support people not to have to rely on that aim and to be able to get them back into work. So they were the matters we considered as a government and took advice.
But ultimately governments make the decisions. Even though it has come at some expense to taxpayers, some $9bn, the final amount will be registered in the budget later this year, taking into account all the updated factors and the updated forecasts you expect in a budget. But what I do know is this, is every person we get back into a job means a lesser cost to the taxpayer. That’s why the mutual obligation is so important.
Updated
Scott Morrison abruptly ends press conference
The press conference ends after Samantha Maiden asks Michaelia Cash this question:
Senator Cash, could I ask a question in relation to Brittany Higgins?
In October 2019 the defence minister, Linda Reynolds, alerted your chief of staff to an incident that happened in her office.
He then spoke to you where you were very supportive of Brittany, you hugged her and told her you would look after her.
If you maintain you didn’t know it was a sexual assault, what did you think she was talking about?
Cash:
Well, that is exactly what the defence minister said to my chief of staff. There was merely a media inquiry.
I then spoke to my chief of staff and Brittany together.
Brittany was actually concerned about the media inquiry and that she was a media adviser and she was going to have people inquiring about her. She was very concerned that she was going to become a story.
It was actually about her job and nothing more.
Maiden: You didn’t... [know]
Cash: I have absolutely not and I have made my position very clear in the Senate.
Scott Morrison:
I’m sorry, I have an international call I have to make. Thanks, everyone.
Updated
Scott Morrison is asked whether allegations made against Craig Kelly’s staffer - as first reported by Anne Davies - played any role in Kelly’s decision to quit the party.
Morrison:
I have long expressed to Mr Kelly my concerns about that staff member and he has long understood what my expectations were about how he would deal with that matter.
As Anne reported in that story, the allegations against Craig Kelly’s staffer were raised multiple times - including when he faced pre-selection challenges in 2016 and 2018.
Kelly’s preselection was saved by Malcolm Turnbull in 2016.
He was saved by Scott Morrison in 2018.
Morrison, who now says he has “long expressed” his concerns to Kelly about his staffer.
If you missed the story, head here
Scott Morrison addresses Craig Kelly’s move to the crossbench.
Samantha Maiden from News.com reported Barnaby Joyce was seen in Kelly’s office.
Is Morrison worried Kelly will join the Nats (and therefore give Joyce the last number he needs to take back the leadership, is the subtext).
No, I don’t, but that’s really a matter for others.
Updated
Michaelia Cash on the new mutual obligations:
In the first instance there will be a require for job seekers to attend face-to-face appointments with their providers.
They currently do not have to do that, as a result of Covid-19.
We’re also going to increase the number of job searches a job seeker does per month. As a result of Covid, they were reduced to eight.
We will progressively move that to 15 job searches a month and then, as of 1 July, 20 job searches a month, which is what it was before the pandemic hit.
We will also, after six months of being on welfare, require people to enter into an intensive training stage.
In other words, we’re going to give them the best chance they can to do a short course to enhance their skills or to do some work experience.
If they then do remain on welfare, that will give them an even better chance of getting a job. So this will now occur at six months.
You often hear, though, employers saying, “Joe applied for a job. He was qualified for the job”, or she, “and they said no.”
What we will be doing for employers is introducing an employer reporting line. So that if someone does apply for a job, they’re offered the job and they’re qualified for the job but they say no, the employer will now be able to contact my department and report that person as failing to accept suitable employment.
This will then mean that my department can follow up with that person or, alternatively, Jobactive can follow up with that person to ascertain exactly why they said no to a suitable job.
In the event that they do not have a valid reason, they will be breached for that.
We will at the same time be increasing the number of audits of our job providers. We need to ensure our job providers are following up on our job seekers and ensure they are doing the right thing.
Remember, this is all about getting people off welfare and into work. We currently undertake around 4% of the case load by way of audit.
We will be increasing that to 10% of the case load.
We will also require all job seekers in stream to a digital to now prior to getting their welfare payment to fill out their career profile.
Currently, they don’t have to do that. That type of information is instrumental in ensuring that we can properly match you, your skills and your career profile to a job in demand.
Updated
Mutual obligations – the requirements the government puts on you to get your pittance are also increasing.
These are linked to your payments.
And employers can now nark on job seekers who turn down work.
Updated
We have now moved to how it’s the biggest increase since the 80s. Which it is – and which is a national disgrace.
But Scott Morrison compares the increase to the Howard years – which ended nearly 14 years ago.
He is not measuring it against real time cost of living increases – but the cost of living (based on the minimum wage) 14 years ago.
Morrison:
That put it is jobseeker at 41.2% of the national minimum wage, which is commensurate with what it was during the Howard government.
It is true that it is the single largest increase in the jobseeker payment since the mid-80s, year-on-year, that is true.
But I think the more relevant feature to focus on is its percentage of the minimum wage.
It brings up from 37.5% to 41.2%.
Social security payments, welfare support, where people need something, is something we strongly believe in.
At a cost of $9bn over the forward estimates including the costs till the end of this year, that is a contract with Australians taxpayers. Australian taxpayers believe in this system – I believe in this system – and they know it is important for many people who really need it.
Particularly those people who may have never needed this payment and may go on to it in the months ahead, as they did in the course of last year, and what’s important is the mutual obligation we have to one to another on how our social safety net works.
Every person we get in a job, they’re better off and the country is better off. That remains our objective. If you’re on jobseeker, we’ll work night and day to get you off and back into a job.
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Scott Morrison has mentioned the other payments people on jobseeker receive, as a way of claiming that the “re-basing” of the unemployment payment isn’t the only thing which counts.
On average, those “extra” payments work out to an extra $1 a day.
Data from Senate estimates has shown 51.9% received Newstart, plus "other supplements". The average value of those other supplements was $14.60 a fortnight, or about $1 extra a day.) https://t.co/Jk3i0o4Ul2 pic.twitter.com/plXs41jZ05
— Luke Henriques-Gomes (@lukehgomes) February 9, 2021
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Jobseeker to increase by $50 a fortnight
Scott Morrison confirms hundreds of thousands of Australians will be condemned to poverty because of an arbitrary date he himself, as the leader of the government, set.
Sunday was a change day. Sunday was a day that Australia confidently moved into the next phase of how we fight this pandemic and we battle to secure the livelihoods and lives of Australians.
And so, as we come into that next chapter, and by the end of next month we will be well into that, as tens of thousands, if not greater, will have been vaccinated by that point, and the national cabinet will have met again, that we believed it was important that we show faith once again in our social safety net.
What I mean by that is we are now confident that at the end of next month that our social safety net can once again be able to provide the support it needs to Australians as we come out of the Covid-19 recession, for that social safety net to be there for them if they find themselves without work.
But we’ve also formed the view that that base level of support that exists within our social safety net needs to be adjusted for the long term.
And that will lead to an increase of $50 per fortnight in that base payment.
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Scott Morrison: 'We're a pretty focused bunch'
Scott Morrison has begun his press conference, just moments after one of his backbenchers has quit, with “we’re a pretty focused bunch”.
I want to assure all Australians that I can tell you, nothing will distract me or my government from my pledge to them to save lives and save livelihoods. I pledged when I became prime minister that I would keep our economy strong. I said I would keep Australians safe. And I said I would keep Australians together. If there’s one thing that Australians have learnt about me and my government is we’re a pretty focused bunch.
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Paul Karp has just reminded me one of those seats the government won was the Speaker’s.
As the Speaker, Tony Smith has a casting vote, but practice says he sides with the status quo. Craig Kelly has guaranteed supply, so the government shouldn’t have a problem – but there will most likely be some negotiating in its future.
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In the Labor caucus, Anthony Albanese was running a touch late because he got his vaccination this morning.
In his report, Albanese said the prime minister’s claim that his office didn’t know about the Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape “lacks credibility” and that after the sports rorts investigation he had “no confidence” in Phil Gaetjens to run an impartial inquiry.
Albanese also put on record that as late as Friday and Saturday the plan for vaccinations was for him, Scott Morrison and Adam Bandt to get it together.
“There is nothing this bloke won’t micromanage,” he said, in a dig at Morrison for getting it first.
Asked about Julian Assange, Albanese said that he didn’t have much sympathy for his actions but he can’t see what point is served by keeping him incarcerated.
On legislation, most measures were uncontroversial except:
- Treasury measures number 1 – Labor will support rules allowing electronic meetings and minutes, but oppose attempts to weaken continuous disclosure obligations; if it doesn’t get its way on splitting the bill, it will oppose it.
- The Your Future Your Super bill will be opposed, pending a Senate inquiry
There was a fair bit of discussion about jobseeker, but as the government hadn’t formally announced the $50 per fortnight increase Labor’s Linda Burney said they would need to study the detail, such as changes to mutual obligations. Still, Labor does not intend to stand in the way of an increase.
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For those asking, the Coalition still have a two-seat majority.
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Craig Kelly moving to the crossbench is one of the rare cases of someone (in modern history) following through on one of those threats.
George Christensen (who now holds one of the safest LNP seats in the country) has threatened in the past but never moved. Llew O’Brien quit the LNP party room but still sat with the Nationals, and Kevin Hogan moved to the crossbench but still went to the Nationals’ party room meeting (the Clayton’s crossbench, if you will).
Updated
Also, apologies for the slight delay in the Craig Kelly news – my computer has a lovely habit of disconnecting from the CMS just as I need to post something urgently.
Updated
Scott Morrison has called a press conference for 12.15pm.
It’ll be about jobseeker. And everything else.
Updated
Meanwhile, the Labor caucus meeting was much calmer:
Anthony Albanese told caucus that on Fri/Sat the plan was for Morrison, Albo and Bandt to get the vaccine together, and this was in line with medical advice.
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) February 23, 2021
"There is nothing this bloke won't micromanage", he said, in reference to PM getting jab first on Sunday.#auspol
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What does being on the crossbench mean? Well, for starters, there are no restraints on Craig Kelly saying whatever he wants, because he is no longer representing the party.
The government can also, if it needs to (if say, a couple of other rabble- rousers decide to make some crossing the floor noise) negotiate with him to pass legislation in the House.
It also means he’ll be isolated – he no longer has a party room to sit in, or the resources of the Liberal party behind him for campaigns.
He’s obviously decided it’s a gamble worth taking, given his preselection issues.
Updated
That first story was broken by Rob Harris at the SMH.
As we have reported, Craig Kelly has struggled with government “censures” such as they have been in the last year in particular.
He was on the path to actually losing preselection this time round – and one of the reasons the government was keeping him on side was to keep him in the tent. Obviously, that hasn’t worked and here we are.
Katharine Murphy is all over it and we will have more for you in a moment.
Updated
The government still has a majority of two
Updated
Craig Kelly moving to the crossbench
New: Craig Kelly has told colleagues he's going to the cross bench. Will support the government on confidence and supply, per party room sources #auspol @AmyRemeikis
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) February 23, 2021
Also
That ~$4/day is the biggest JobSeeker raise since the 80s is the biggest indictment on both major parties #80aDay https://t.co/2w0W0MXTJh
— AUWU #80aDay (@AusUnemployment) February 23, 2021
Anthony Albanese spoke to Adelaide radio 5AA this morning where he was asked about the jobseeker rate:
Well, we’ll examine the detail. People, no doubt, will continue to struggle. The age pension, of course, is also an issue as well, some people have called for jobseeker to be higher than that, and I don’t think that would be appropriate. Look, we’ll examine the full detail. I don’t think there’s actually been an announcement, it’s more a leak. We’ll examine what is actually happening. This is a government with a record of cuts to the pension, the government that introduced robodebt, the government that hasn’t looked after people and has left people behind. So we’ll examine the detail and respond accordingly.
Updated
In case you missed this news overnight, Jean-Sébastien Jacques, who agreed to step down as chief executive of Rio Tinto over the destruction of Juukan Gorge, got a 20% pay rise last year.
This is despite a cut to his short-term bonus, to the tune of almost $5m, as part of the company’s mea culpa for the disaster.
His long-term bonuses, and those of former corporate affairs boss Simone Niven and iron ore CEO Chris Salisbury, who also stepped down, remained intact.
According to Jillian Ambrose, the Guardian’s UK-based energy correspondent, Jacques was paid £7.2m for last year, and will get an additional £519,000 for the final five months on his unworked notice period this year, plus £215,000 for unused leave. Salisbury and Niven got “termination benefits” of $1.3m and $1m respectively.
The large payout is due to the growth in the company’s share price, which has more than tripled since Jacques took over in 2016.
What is 46,000 years of priceless heritage and irreparable damage done to the company’s relationship with traditional owners next to that, eh?
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New South Wales has now gone 37 days with no community transmission of Covid.
Four people in hotel quarantine have tested positive for the virus.
Updated
Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Dr Cassandra Goldie will respond to the jobseeker announcement at 12.30 (AEDT).
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Last night the Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie gave her assessment of the industrial relations omnibus bill in the lower house, finding it a mix of “good and bad elements”.
Sharkie appears not to be persuaded by unions on one important provision, a reduction in the backpay available for misclassified casuals, but shares their concerns about another, that allows part-time workers to pick up extra hours at ordinary time rates.
On casuals’ entitlements, Sharkie said:
Unions have raised concerns that the introduction of a definition of ‘casual employment’ will deny employees the right to recover entitlements if, during their employment period, the employee was not casual. I don’t believe this to be technically true. The bill in this instance takes a common-sense approach, I believe, requiring employees to be entitled to receive in total an amount not less than the casual loading amount. This set-off provision ensures employees receive their legal entitlement and protects employers from paying entitlements twice.
However, she did signal there may be “amendments with respect to how we create casual employment”.
On part-time flexibility, Sharkie said:
I can understand that some unions are worried this has the potential to expect too much flexibility from their employees. They could have 16 hours one week and 32 hours the next. But, of course, when they go to get a bank loan it’s only ever the 16 hours that’s recognised. As I mentioned, there are union negotiated enterprise agreements, especially in the retail sector, that provide part-time employees that work additional hours without a range. Without a range, as in some agreements, this section simply encourages, I believe, employers to treat part-time workers like casual workers without the casual loading.
Sharkie called on the government to “pull apart the bill”, echoing a similar call from former party mate senator Rex Patrick.
Sharkie will not support the bill in its current form. While the government doesn’t need her vote in the Senate, they do want Centre Alliance’s Stirling Griff’s vote in the Senate to win three of the five crossbench.
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GetUp have also responded to the news jobseeker will only increase by $50 a fortnight.
Paul Oosting:
This isn’t a raise in the jobseeker rate – it’s a half-arsed PR exercise that will entrench poverty and disadvantage for more than 1.2 million Australians who depend on jobseeker to survive. The Morrison government has thrown people on jobseeker some crumbs and called it a raise. What it really is is an insult.
Instead of a jobseeker rate that would give people the means to live a decent and dignified life, Morrison has signalled to 1.2 million Australians that his government doesn’t care about their basic welfare or survival.
The fact that the government is planning to tighten mutual obligation requirements is a sick joke. There are roughly 2.3 million people applying for jobs, and only 250,000 jobs available – punishing people for being out of work is cruelty for cruelty’s sake.
Any half-decent government would scrap the whole rotten mutual obligations system all together. Instead, the Morrison government is doubling down on an industry that profits off unemployed peoples’ suffering.
If the Morrison government thinks that this joke of a rate raise will make this issue go away, they’ve got another thing coming. Parliament must act to raise the jobseeker rate to $80 a day, in line with Australia’s current poverty line. Anything less is a despicable sham.
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There is (rightly) going to be a lot of discussion about the jobseeker payment in the next few weeks.
Just a small reminder that it is not just about the dollar amount per day – and what people could buy with it. That is obviously important, but we are talking about people who are forced to make decisions about how many times a day they can afford to eat.
People for whom looking for work costs money they don’t have – internet access, public transport to libraries for internet access or just temperature control, keeping clothes laundered or hair washed – all of these little things we can take for granted is something someone living under the poverty line has to think about. Add in the mutual obligations and you’re forcing people to constantly put their own needs to the side. And by their own needs, I mean medical treatment. Toothpaste. Being able to sleep in instead of waking up three hours earlier because the bus/train/walk commute is going mean a 30-minute car trip takes 2.5 hours.
We put a lot of stock in image, people looking neat and tidy. That takes money.
Same with people on time. Same with how we communicate, or stay on top of life admin. It all costs money.
The same people who have finally admitted they couldn’t live on $40 a day are saying $43.50 a day is fine.
There is a whole stigma which comes with being unemployed in this country, and not a lot of thought about what it feels like to make the choice between eating and making to an interview for a job you know you won’t be getting.
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Tom McIlroy from the Fin reported this yesterday – it should be raised in question time today
An absolute disgrace. Bruce Billson was unanimously censured by the Parliament for hiding the fact he was being paid for a lobbying job while still a Liberal MP, and Scott Morrison still handed him a lucrative taxpayer funded job? Utterly shameless. https://t.co/hE05sQnBeN
— Mark Dreyfus (@markdreyfusQCMP) February 22, 2021
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Facebook finds somewhere (else) to be
This morning, before MPs headed off to their party rooms, a group of parliamentarians gathered in the Mural Hall for an event associated with one of the parliamentary friendship groups.
This morning saw the launch of Parliamentary Friends of Making Social Media Safe. This group is headed by Anne Webster – the Nationals MP, who endured a terrible time on Facebook.
Anne’s is quite an amazing story and she narrates it for me here.
The co-chair is the Labor MP Sharon Claydon.
Facebook was expected to be in attendance at the modest soiree, but senior executives suddenly found themselves with somewhere (anywhere) else to be, given the rolling dispute between the platform and the Morrison government over the digital media code may have increased the awkwardness quotient.
The group was addressed by the British Tory MP Damien Collins – who has spearheaded committee work in the United Kingdom on the platforms and misinformation. Collins (appearing by videolink) was full of praise for Australia’s digital media code.
“Australia is a great democracy ... and the world is watching, and I hope you will prevail in this struggle with Facebook,” the MP proclaimed.
Collins also expressed the view that governments had a legitimate right to regulate the business models of the platforms. He said the “engagement” model led platforms to recommend content to their users that was causing harm.
The questions the British MP got from the floor were interesting.
The Nationals MPs David Gillespie wondered whether social platforms should demand proof of identity from users.
The Liberal Julian Leeser drew Collins out about regulating the algorithm.
Collins insisted this was the key to avoiding the “how dare you regulate free speech” trap – regulate the business model instead.
Collins said legislators were not looking at a content problem, they were looking at a business model problem, where the whole system encouraged inflammatory material to be put before users.
A very interesting session.
Updated
Greg Hunt says the second Pfizer vaccine delivery has arrived in Australia.
It’s the first of two over the course of the next week which between them should deliver 280,000 doses this week; 166,000 doses have arrived; next week it will be approximately 120,000 doses.
We’ll average our provision across the two and that should be the equivalent of 140,000 doses arriving per week or thereabouts.
What that means is we’ll make 80,000 doses available over the coming week – 50,000 to the states; 30,000 to aged care through the Commonwealth, and we’ll do the same in week three of the program.
It’s important that we have consistency, we’re always provisioning for the second doses which is the recommendation of our medical advisors and making sure that we have contingency if, at any stage, there were an issue with the supply chain. But I have to say, the consistency of supply has been strong and heartening.
Updated
AAP has taken a look at Australian consumer confidence in the wake of the vaccine roll out:
Australians are hardly punching the air that the coronavirus vaccine has arrived to lead the country out of the dark days of 2020.
New confidence figures suggest consumers have also ignored the latest upbeat jobs numbers and a string of results that point to a strengthening in the economic recovery from last year’s recession.
The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index – a pointer to future household spending – fell 0.6 per cent, its third consecutive decline.
The confidence gauge’s sub-indices proved a mixed bag, with perceptions among respondents views on their current and future financial conditions declining.
The only bright spot was views on general economic conditions in the next five years, rising 1.6 per cent.
ANZ head of Australian economics David Plank said the last fall in the index came despite the easing of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in Victoria.
He was also surprised that that the “time to buy a major household item” component dropped by 3.9 per cent – its largest drop since August last year – coming at a time when the housing market is strengthening.
“We would expect the two to go hand-in-hand, so the relative softness of this aspect of sentiment may not endure,” Mr Plank said releasing the report on Tuesday.
However, Wednesday’s release of key wage growth figures for the December quarter may give reason to be gloomy.
Economists expect these will show wages grew at a meagre 0.3 per cent in the quarter to a limp annual rate of 1.1 per cent.
The only upside to these Scrooge-like conditions is that annual inflation is crawling along at 0.9 per cent.
Updated
The United States has recorded half a million covid deaths.
Those are the official numbers. They don’t take into consideration people who have died at home, without a diagnosis.
Dawn services and marches can occur as usual in Queensland this Anzac Day, Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced.
Updated
We are still waiting to find out what the new mutual obligations for that will be as well.
Updated
Jobseeker increase confirmed as $50 a fortnight
Luke Henriques-Gomes’ story this morning on the permanent increase to the jobseeker payment being just $50 a fortnight is now confirmed.
That’s only an extra $3.50 a day. It’s barely a bus-fare (one zone).
Updated
Andrew Leigh was on Sydney radio 2SM this morning, pointing out one of the reasons to increase jobseeker to a liveable wage is because it is good for the economy as a whole.
I do think it’s important that we recognise that this is money which supports some of the most vulnerable in the community and therefore flows right back into retail sales. People at the top of the distribution save about a quarter of their income, those at the bottom of the distribution spend it all.
So if you want to ensure that the economy is humming, then putting money into the pockets of the lowest income earners is an important way of doing that.
That was exactly the rationale the government used when it doubled the payment during the height of the pandemic. When you have no money, you tend to spend what you have – because you are so far behind already, you don’t have the luxury of savings. The government used that to keep the economy going during the Covid emergency. It’s only people who have enough to live on who can afford to put money aside.
Updated
Daniel Andrews, (who is also answering questions on the Victorian royal commission into Crown casino) says he won’t be getting the vaccine just yet, as he wants more frontline health workers to go first.
You’ll be seeing more of these in the next couple of days.
Got my jab today after being asked by the health authorities, and I hope you do too.
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) February 22, 2021
I’ve spent the last couple of years taking our kids to get their needles, so it’s only fair I do mine too!
Thanks to Felicity & the team at ACT Health for making the whole thing quick & easy. pic.twitter.com/SQqDl7e3Lf
Labor’s Peta Murphy also received her first vaccination – Murphy has breast cancer and wanted to do it to prove it is safe for people with underlying health conditions.
She told Sky News:
I’m just as I said, volunteering to put myself forward to do all that I can to get that public health message out. And as I said, I’m part of this particularly, to assure people with underlying health conditions, because I have one I have, as most people know, I have metastatic breast cancer. And essentially, I want to say, look, I’m not asking you to do anything that I’m not prepared to do. I’ve spoken to my GP, I’ve spoken to my specialists, and it is absolutely safe. And that public health message is just so important.
Updated
The Labor leader was also asked about the reported increase to Jobseeker – just $50 a fortnight, or an extra $3 a day on the pre-Covid rate.
Anthony Albanese says Labor will “look at it” once it is announced:
I said very clearly that $40 a day wasn’t enough to live on.
It’s one of first announcements I made as Labor leader back in 2019. We’ve campaigned strongly for that. The government resisted this.
But when Covid came along, and more people went onto Newstart, they conceded that, indeed, it was necessary to increase.
Now, having conceded that, it’s important there be a permanent increase and that that be done as a matter of urgency, just to provide certainty for people as well. I don’t quite understand why this government has held back on this announcement.
I look forward to it being announced today and then Labor will obviously respond after we’ve given it proper consideration.
Updated
Labor to release new code of conduct on Friday
Anthony Albanese, fresh from receiving his first vaccine shot, was asked if he was aware of issues within the Labor party, says there is a new code of conduct coming this week:
Have I been aware about the treatment of women in the Labor party?
Of course there have been circumstances whereby, in all political parties, like all society, there have been issues of inappropriate treatment.
Yes, some of those have been documented, but I haven’t been aware of anything like these circumstances.
We have procedures in place, and have had so since 2018.
The Labor party has considered and established a committee, chaired by Sharon Clayton, the chair of our caucus, made up of senior women in the Labor party who have adopted a four-part code of conduct, sexual harassment policy, updated – as I asked to happen.
That goes to the national executive this Friday for adoption.
It’s a live plan in which … which applies not just in terms of the parliamentary party but applies across the board to anywhere the Labor Party is involved, be it a campaign, be it a function, anywhere whatsoever.
We’ll release that publicly after it’s adopted, when it will be considered, this Friday.
Updated
It’s been a busy day in Victoria
Premier confirms 580 vaccines have been administered in Victoria. #springst
— Kieran Rooney (@KieranRooneyCM) February 22, 2021
The Senate began debating the news media bargaining code late on Monday afternoon as senators expected more amendments to be made in the wake of Facebook pulling news from its feed in Australia.
It is unclear what changes will be made as a result of negotiations between Facebook and the federal government on the code, which would require the digital platforms to negotiate with news media companies for payments.
The legislation will pass the Senate in whatever form it takes, with the Coalition, Labor, and the Greens all supporting the legislation. Labor and the Greens will be moving amendments to the bill, as will independent senator Rex Patrick.
As such, debate on the bill on Monday was largely in support, save for some reservations from Labor around how designations for platforms the code applies to will be made by the minister, as well as criticism of the government’s handling of it, which led to Facebook pulling news.
The Greens also argued News Corp and Facebook should ultimately be paying their fair share of tax in Australia, in addition to supporting the code.
The two senators who expressed the most opposition to the code were One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts, and independent senator Jacqui Lambie, who said Labor and the Greens should be embarrassed for supporting the legislation.
“It is a shakedown. This is a bipartisan shakedown delivered by a consensus of absolute stupidity here this evening. Journalism is important enough to deserve better than the poorly researched, poorly understood justifications being thrown around by a political class that’s desperate to be noticed by the people it’s clambering up to serve.”
Lambie said the “shareholders of News Corp and Nine will be delighted that their dividend is about to be fattened up on the back of shareholders in Facebook and Google” and indicated taxing was the best way to put money into journalism directly, but argued the money shouldn’t go to media companies, but journalism itself.
“If we want more money for journalism, let’s tax companies making heaps of money and put that money into supporting journalism—put it directly into journalism. If we want Google and Facebook to pay more tax, let’s make them pay more tax.”
Debate on the legislation will continue on Tuesday.
Updated
Scott Morrison would not commit to releasing the report his departmental secretary has been instructed to complete, on who knew what and when, within the prime minister’s office, in regards to Brittany Higgins’s story.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is the leader of this country. His actions, or inactions, shape the culture of not just Parliament House, but the country. And there is a serious problem with the culture here if women are not safe. #auspol @TheTodayShow pic.twitter.com/ZgZ3w3YieA
— Malarndirri McCarthy (@Malarndirri19) February 22, 2021
Rudd denies Gordon Brown's claim he had to be physically restrained in Copenhagen talks
Kevin Rudd has denied former UK prime minister Gordon Brown’s account of a 2009 climate summit, which he wrote as part of a review of Bill Gate’s new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.
Brown wrote Rudd had to be restrained from getting physical with a Chinese negotiator:
I look back on the Copenhagen climate change summit in 2009, when the UK and Europe’s enthusiasm for a deal failed to overcome both the reluctance of the US to make legally binding commitments, and the deep suspicion of China, India and the emerging economies of any obligations that they believed might threaten their development. So determined were they to avoid binding commitments that they rejected Europe’s offer to unilaterally bind itself to a 50% cut in its emissions. So bitter were the divisions that the Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, who bravely stood out for an ambitious deal, had to be physically restrained from punching the Chinese negotiator.
(The climate summit failed)
Rudd has told the Sydney Morning Herald it never happened and it was part of an “urban myth”.
“It didn’t happen,” Rudd told the SMH.
“I’ve always made a point of leaving the shirt-fronting to Tony Abbott.”
Rudd said he was “vigorously prosecuting Australia’s climate interests at a time when China was aggressively resisting” and makes “no apologies for doing so”.
Updated
No new locally acquired coronavirus cases in Vic
Victoria has recorded another zero day.
Yesterday there were no new cases reported. 17,270 test results were received. Thanks to those who got tested, #EveryTestHelps.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) February 22, 2021
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/mE8vqWOkfV
Updated
Australian National University modelling puts the poverty line at $816 a fortnight.
The government’s proposed $50 a fortnight increase to the unemployment payment from 31 March would take the jobseeker payment to $610 a fortnight, which is well below the poverty line.
The Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union has been running a campaign to have the Jobseeker payment increased to $80 a day – which, when you consider public transport costs, living expenses, utilities and all those other things, is still not much.
No one chooses poverty. No one enjoys being unemployed. Our economic system actually has unemployment built into it – “full employment” actually means 4% to 5% of people are still unemployed. That’s hundreds of thousands of people without a job built into our economic system.
Updated
Good morning
Welcome back to Politics Live.
It’s Tuesday, which means it is party room meeting day, so there is a little bit of legislation to get through.
First off – the bad news. The government is looking at increasing the unemployment payment by just $50 a fortnight when the Covid supplement ends on 31 March. Anyone who has had to live on the jobseeker payment (and let’s just get it straight, it is not a choice, poverty is never a choice) knows the sheer terror of trying to make a budget work. The pandemic made it a little easier – people had the space to buy new shoes, get urgent car repairs, buy fresh produce and work to get a job they were right for, instead of trudging to interview after interview to meet a mutual obligation requirement which wasn’t going to lead anywhere.
But as Luke Henriques-Gomes reports, looks like we are about to put people right back there.
The same Nationals that insist on holding on to the past for energy use are attempting to flex their muscle on other issues they don’t have any actual idea on, as Paul Karp reports:
George Christensen’s proposal to require doctors to provide assistance to foetuses with signs of life during an abortion has been labelled “nonsensical” by a leading abortion care expert.
Catriona Melville, the deputy medical director of Marie Stopes Australia, said the Nationals MP had proposed “policy for a circumstance that by the nature of the procedure wouldn’t occur”.
Christensen says he will introduce a private member’s bill to overturn clinical guidelines in Queensland that state “if [during an abortion] a live birth occurs … do not provide life-sustaining treatment” and similar rules in other states.
And Peter Dutton wants the power to cancel visas using ‘secret’ evidence.
All round just great areas.
Meanwhile, Brittany Higgins’s bravery means the government can’t escape answering questions over the culture, or the handling of her case, with Katharine Murphy confirming a second staffer in the prime minister’s office was aware of at least some details:
Guardian Australia has now confirmed a second staffer currently employed in the prime minister’s office knew details about the termination of Higgins’ former colleague because that senior staffer was employed formerly as an adviser to Alex Hawke when Hawke was special minister of state.
In response to questions from Guardian Australia, a spokesperson for Morrison said: “Due to a previous role, the adviser was aware of the termination of the staffer involved in the security breach in Linda Reynolds’ office in March 2019.”
The government still won’t say whether the staffer who is alleged to have raped Brittany Higgins received a termination payout.
In other news, the vaccine roll out continues – this morning, Anthony Albanese will receive the vaccine in Canberra.
There was some kerfuffle over whether Albanese and the prime minister were both meant to receive the vaccine together, which obviously went out the window when Scott Morrison received his on Sunday. Never let a health message get in the way of politics, I suppose.
We’ll cover all of that and more as the day rolls on. Just a reminder that we are pre-moderating comments to protect both you and us given the legalities around some of what we are covering. If you need to reach me, you can find me here – with the amount of messages I am receiving lately, it is the easiest place for me to catch them.
You have the usual crew – Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp, Daniel Hurst and of course, Mike Bowers, to take you through the day. And you’ll have me, Amy Remeikis all day on the blog.
I’m just going to get my fourth coffee and we’ll get into it.
Ready?
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