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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Stephanie Convery and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Labor MP says Coalition partly to blame for telco hack – as it happened

Petrol Paul Karp
Sydneysiders have been warned to brace for heavy rain and thunderstorms.
Sydneysiders have been warned to brace for heavy rain and thunderstorms. Photograph: Richard Milnes/REX/Shutterstock

What we learned today, Wednesday 28 September

Thanks for joining us for this last pre-budget parliamentary sitting week. Here’s a little snippet of what we learned today:

We’ll be keeping you up to date with the live news blog from tomorrow, with Natasha May kicking it off first thing in the AM. Look after yourselves.

Updated

A little update on the dam in South Australia that’s in danger of collapse and threatening homes:

Treasurer paints gloomy picture for October budget

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says people should not expect a surplus in this term of government despite a recent improvement in the budget bottom line, as he warns of deteriorating conditions in the global economy and intensifying spending pressures ahead.

On Wednesday, the government released the final budget outcome figures for 2021-22, which showed a $47.9bn improvement to the cash deficit for the year compared to the March budget, reducing from $79.8bn to $32bn.

The result was due to higher receipts totalling $27.7bn, and lower payments of $20.1bn.

Tax receipts were higher as a result of soaring commodity prices and a strong jobs market, while payments were down because of delays in Covid-19 related spending, reduced demand for some health services, and the impact of supply-chain disruptions on infrastructure spending.

But despite the improvement to the deficit, Chalmers painted a bleak picture for the 25 October budget, saying the government would still be faced with difficult decisions as it dealt with growing pressures both domestically and internationally:

The global economy is deteriorating and there are real fears for a number of other major economies and our major trading partners, and that will have a big impact on the budget.

Read the full story here:

Updated

A map of the lightning in NSW over the last 24 hours. This seems like rather a lot.

Liberal senator Jane Hume delivered an emotional speech to the senate today on voluntary assisted dying laws.

Hume, who said she previously felt assisted dying was morally wrong and voted against legalising it, spoke about how her Catholic father’s death had changed her stance on the issue. Watch an extract here:

Obtaining a new driver’s licence if you’ve been affected by Optus breach

We reached out to Service NSW earlier today to clarify some details about their response to the Optus breach, regarding whether and how they would be issuing new licences or licence numbers.

A spokesperson from Service NSW told my colleague Josh Taylor:

Most customers will not need a new licence or card number.

Those customers who receive notifications from Optus encouraging them to replace their licence can do so immediately.

The replacement licence will include a new card number for customers and can be sent to customers in a matter of weeks with the digital driver licence updated in a matter of hours.

Drivers in NSW get a new card number when they replace their licence, which protects them from unauthorised official document verification checks using the old card’s information, the spokesperson said.

This seems to be different to the getting a new licence number. The spokesperson said:

Only customers who believe they have been the subject of genuine identity theft or fraud should apply for a request for a new driver licence number.

Updated

As we heard earlier, Anthony Albanese has said the government has written to Optus to cover the costs of replacement passports for customers caught up in the telco’s data breach.

The move came after members of the opposition called for the government to cover the cost of new passports.

Here’s a little video recap if you missed it.

Some slightly more detailed storm info.

Severe thunderstorm warning for Sydney and surrounds

It’s about to get wet and nasty in Sydney and surrounding areas. Get home safely, mates, or maybe take shelter til it passes if you can.

Updated

Acknowledgement of country to precede Lord’s Prayer in Senate

The Senate has just agreed to a symbolic change which would see the acknowledgement of country given before the Lord’s Prayer each day to commence sittings of the upper house.

The chamber usually begins with the President reciting the prayer, then the Indigenous acknowledgement. There had been recent calls to cease the recital of the prayer, due to the increasing diversity and secularity of the parliament.

This afternoon, a Senate motion from finance minister Katy Gallagher proposed to keep both symbolic marks but to change the order.

The motion suggested the Senate president begin each sitting day by stating “I acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples who are the traditional custodians of the Canberra area and pay respect to the elders, past and present, of all Australia’s Indigenous peoples.”

The Lord’s Prayer would then be given afterwards.

The motion passed 30-23. The Labor government was supported by the Greens, David Pocock and Tammy Tyrrell. The Coalition, One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts and UAP senator Ralph Babet opposed the motion. The amended order will take effect from the next sitting day.

Updated

Labor MP lays blame for Optus breach at the foot of Morrison government

Labor MP Peter Khalil, the head of the joint intelligence and security committee, is speaking to the ABC about the Optus data breach.

He’s suggesting the blame for the breach – or perhaps more specifically, the context in which the breach could occur – rest partly with the previous government.

The government is also doing everything it can to address what are serious shortcomings in the critical infrastructure laws and the Telecommunications Act, which, basically – there are gaps there, which has enabled this breach as well, in the sense that the previous government did not switch on the cyber security obligations for telecommunications companies. And that is something we are looking at very, very seriously, because it is basically, not only has the door being unlocked if you like, the door has been left wide open, the windows are open and the back door is open…

Optus has a big responsibility resting with it, with respect to this breach. But some of those elements, the regulatory elements, if you like, are all about whether government can provide a potent response to assess vulnerabilities and gaps, to also assist in response. There are reporting obligations as well that go through the Australian cyber security centre … all meant to be there to actually protect what we consider to be critical infrastructure for Australia.

Updated

First Dog on the Moon is here to teach us all about pesticides.

Some climate-related things happening around parliament

The government has released a consultation paper on a national electric vehicle strategy, which has been promised to lift adoption of zero and low-emissions cars. About 2% of new cars sold in Australia last year were EVs, compared with 9% globally.

The paper calls for views on introducing fuel-efficiency standards. It makes the point Australia sits with Russia as one of the only major economies that does not have these standards, which would set an emissions target for manufacturers, measured in grams of CO2 released per kilometre and averaged across all new cars they sell. The target would be gradually reduced to zero.

At a press conference today, climate change minister, Chris Bowen, framed the debate about EVs as being one of choice.

To those who say we shouldn’t be encouraging electric vehicles into Australia, they’re really saying they want electric vehicles to continue to be the preserve of those who are well off. We want those choices available to all. And that’s the discussion we are having with the Australian people.

Separately, the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, announced legislation to “modernise and streamline” laws that manage gases that deplete the ozone layer and synthetic greenhouse gases.

The new legislation builds on laws that were introduced under the Hawke government era to implement the 1987 Montreal Protocol, under which countries successfully agreed to phase down the use of substances that depleted the ozone layer.

One of the big issues since then has been the rise of synthetic greenhouse gases, mainly hydrofluorocarbons, which are used in refrigeration and air conditioning, fire protection, aerosols and insulating foam. A significant issue with these gases is they contribute to the climate crisis – they are highly potent greenhouse gases, with many thousand times the heating potential of carbon dioxide (though they are released in much smaller amounts).

The government plans to tighten regulations that govern the use and importation of these gases. It also said it would offer support to Pacific countries in reducing their use.

You can read the EV consultation paper here. Guardian Australia has previously looked at the issues at play here and here. Submissions will be accepted until the end of October.

Updated

Thank you Amy and good afternoon everyone. I’ll be with you into the early evening.

The last parliament sitting before budget week is almost done and dusted and MPS are starting to eye off the exits.

We will continue to follow what happens as it does – and there is the Australia Live blog which will cover all the news – not just politics – in the meantime.

But for now, Stephanie Convery will take you through the afternoon and I will be back when parliament is.

But until then – take care of you. And always, if you need to, you can reach me here and here in the meantime.

Have fun with Steph x

Drivers facing fuel price jump of up to 24 cents a litre after end of excise cut

Peter Hannam has more on the fuel excise:

Australian motorists are already being slugged by “unacceptably high” fuel prices ahead of the end of the fuel excise cut that will lift bowser costs by as much as 24 cents a litre, the NRMA has said.

The Albanese government has resisted pressure to extend the six-month halving of the fuel excise, which will expire at midnight on Wednesday. The policy, inherited from the Morrison government, cost the budget $3bn.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has warned service stations that it will be watching for outlets that pass on the increase to customers before running down supplies of fuel that was not fully taxed.

Updated

Queensland government pledges to end reliance on coal by 2035

Queensland will end its reliance on coal by 2035, with the state’s eight coal-fired power plants to be turned into renewable energy hubs, the state government has announced.

The coal plants – all publicly owned – will be transformed into renewable energy and storage hubs in what feels like a historic announcement in a state well known for its coal mining.

At a speech in Brisbane, the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, released a new energy plan and said the climate crisis was already hitting Queenslanders hard.

Speaking to the Guardian, the state’s energy minister, Mick de Brenni, said the government had today signed a workforce charter with three unions that represented a “job security guarantee”. He said:

This is an incredibly significant day in our nation’s history. We commence the transition [from coal] in an orderly way so there’s no reliance [on coal] by 2035, reducing those emissions. It’s an historic day.

Updated

Graham Readfearn and Ben Smee have been following the Queensland government’s historic announcement today:

Queensland will end its reliance on coal-fired power by 2035 under a 10-year $62bn energy plan to create a clean “super-grid” of solar, wind and hydroelectric power.

In a historic announcement for a state known for its coal mining, the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said Queensland was facing a “climate emergency” and a bold vision was needed.

Palaszczuk said her government was committing an extra $4bn to transform the state’s energy system and by 2030 there would be at least 2,000 more wind turbines and 35 million more solar panels in the state.

By 2035, there would be eight times more renewable energy generation than today.

Optus asked by federal government to cover cost of new passports for Australians affected by data breach

The federal government has asked Optus to cover the costs of replacement passports for customers caught up in the telco’s data breach, with Anthony Albanese saying “we believe that Optus should pay, not taxpayers”.

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has written to the Optus chief executive, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, asking for the company to cover the costs of passport replacements. In the letter, seen by Guardian Australia, she wrote:

As you will appreciate, this serious incident creates a risk that the personal information of current and former mutual customers of the Australian Passport Office and Optus will be subject to exploitation by criminals.

I therefore seek your earliest confirmation that Optus will cover the passport application fees of any customer affected by this breach whose passport information was disclosed and who choose to replace their currently valid passport.

We’ve contacted Optus for response.

In parliament’s question time today, Albanese flagged further action from the government on data retention and storage, including strengthening privacy laws through a review of the Privacy Act.

We need better national laws after a decade of inaction to manage the immense amount of data collected by companies, about Australians and clear consequences for when they do not manage,” he said.

Albanese said he had had a briefing from the Optus CEO and the Australian Signals Directorate last weekend.

Updated

Independent MP Helen Haines says she will scrutinise integrity commission bill as part of committee

As expected, Helen Haines has been nominated as a member of the committee which will inspect the integrity commission legislation.

She has welcomed the bill and is quite happy with most of it, but said she has concerns over the public hearings threshold:

Under the government’s bill, public hearings will only be held in exceptional circumstances and when in the public interest to do so. It is not clear why the ‘exceptional circumstances’ test has been included and I am concerned it creates an unnecessary extra hurdle when private hearings are already the default.

I will be looking closely at the bill over the coming weeks to ensure each clause is appropriate and serves a strong, independent watchdog with the appropriate safeguards.

Updated

Bob Katter then makes an apology to the house:

I must apologise for my actions yesterday after the order to lock the chamber doors. I also apologise to the security attendant closing the doors, and acknowledge he was doing his job as directed by the Speaker. Thank you for the permission to make a statement.

(The speaker orders the doors to be locked after the division bells stop ringing, and if you are not in the house to vote, then you have missed it. So it sounds like Katter missed a vote and may have had a bit of a reaction to not being allowed in the house.)

“What was that about?” can be heard from someone on the floor.

“I have no idea,” answers another MP, before the house moves on.

Updated

And despite the statements on indulgence chewing up a large part of question time, Anthony Albanese calls an end to questions.

Government writes to Optus asking it to pay for new passports after data breach

Anthony Albanese then takes a dixer on the Optus data breach:

The Optus data breach is a great concern and I acknowledge the stress and worry that this has caused millions of Australians.

When customers hand over their data to commoners in Australia, they expect that it will be kept safe and this kind of data breach should be an absolute wake-up call to corporate Australia.

The government has been working with Optus around the clock to obtain the crucial information and evidence needed to conduct a complex criminal investigation led by the AFP in cooperation with the FBI.

I spoke to the CEO of Optus on Saturday, having gotten a brief from the head of the Australian Signals Directorate on Friday night and I know that other ministers have been working around the clock on this issue.

As the government continues to actively monitor risk for those customers in factor by the breach, our message to Australians is to be vigilant, not divulge data that are known entities and to take advantage of the credit monitoring services.

We know that this [large a] breach have never had happened and the Government expects Optus to do everything within its means to support affected customers.

Clearly, we need better national laws after a decade of inaction to manage the immense amount of data collected by companies, about Australians and clear consequences for when they do not manage.

We are committed personal information and to strengthen privacy laws through the privacy act review.

Now, those opposite want taxpayers to pay for a problem caused by Optus and their own failures and cyber security and privacy regulation, I was surprised to read a media release from their shadow ministers are saying Labor must provide new passports for Optus victims.

Labor, what that means is taxpayers should provide for that and that’s not our approach, we believe that Optus should pay, not taxpayers.

And Senator Penny Wong, the minister of foreign affairs, has written to the CEO of Optus today asking for that.

… It is a big difference between us and those opposite, somehow, attempting to play politics and say that taxpayers should fund this after they sat on a failure to legislate appropriately for nine long years.

We are dealing with this issue, we know that it does need to be dealt with and we know that this has been an absolute priority for Australians.

Updated

Helen Haines asks about the high threshold for public hearings and whether or not, in the circumstances where the threshold is met, that could lead to litigation. Mark Dreyfus (after repeating what he has already said on the reason for the threshold) says:

We have considered the question of whether or not this discretion vested in the commission might give rise to legal proceedings, we are confident that this [won’t] be a matter that is going to be readily litigated.

Updated

Attorney general says relaxed restrictions on class actions will ‘restore access to justice for ordinary Australians’

Julian Leeser to Mark Dreyfus:

Can the attorney general explain for the house the decision he announced on 2 September to relax regulatory restrictions with relation to class actions? Does he expect this will … lead to more opportunities for class actions being funded by litigation funding businesses?

Dreyfus:

I thank the member for Berowra for his question. One of the most extraordinary things about the conduct of the former government during the pandemic was that it found time, extraordinarily, extraordinarily, to try to prevent access to justice for people, ordinary Australians, who are wanting to sue large corporations ... companies with much deeper pockets than them, and in order to get access to justice, we have class actions.

Now, you would think that a government that actually cared about ordinary Australians would not have done what the former government did during the pandemic; would not have found time during the pandemic to engage in the sort of nonsense that the former treasurer, the former member for Kooyong engaged in, which included not just the introduction of a requirement for Australian financial services licenses for litigation but also included an attack on the continuous disclosure regime, which actually supports the raising of capital for all Australian companies.

Now, what an extraordinary thing for a treasure of this country to do. But that is one of the things that the former treasurer engaged in. Another thing is I have mentioned was the introduction of an Australian financial services licence requirement. And the extraordinary thing …

Leeser on a point of order:

Will it lead to more opportunities for class actions being funded?

Dreyfus:

We are very happy to restore access to justice for ordinary Australians.

Updated

Kevin Hogan to Kristy McBain:

My question is to the minister for regional development, local government and territories. Did the minister or her husband receive any dividends from shares they held while the minister was in breach of the prime minister’s ministerial code of conduct?

McBain:

No.

Updated

Chris Bowen says Labor will reject nuclear, ‘the most expensive form of energy’

Chris Bowen takes a dixer just so he can say this:

We will reject the installation of the most expensive form of energy, that is nuclear energy.

I can report to the house the ideas factory over there has been whirling away again, and there has been Liberal and National senators and members promoting nuclear energy again today, but they don’t have much detail. They’ve just got a vibe.

I feel obliged to assist about what nuclear energy would mean in Australia, and I am grateful to the group. Nuclear energy for climate action.

The pro-nuclear group that made us a vision and gave evidence to the Senate enquiry, and they explained what it would look like.

They told the Senate enquiry that in their analysis, we would need 24 gigawatts of nuclear power in Australia. That 300 megawatts a nuclear power plant, that means there is [plenty of] nuclear power plants to come. That is one every second [Coalition] MP.

Put your hand up if you would like one.

There we go.

You get a nuclear power plant, you get a nuclear power plant, and you get a nuclear power plant, there is plenty to go around!

And they also told the Senate where they would go, the Mid North Coast, there would be the big banana and the small nuclear reactor next door, a favourite for the kiddies.

In Bowral, Southern Highlands: clipped hedges, the Bradman Museum and a nuclear reactor for the good people of the Southern Highlands.

They don’t want the detail, they want to have their yellow cake and eat it too.

We’re not going to let them get away with that. And if they want a nuclear policy, they are going to be held accountable for it.

The member for Page gets up to ask a question and is told “you get a nuclear power plant, too” before Milton Dick calls for order.

Updated

The Coalition has form when it comes to future-present tense – never forget Scott Morrison’s “I said we brought the budget back to surplus next year” moment.

PM says Labor plans to deliver cheaper power through growth in renewables

Sussan Ley then seems to ask a question that sounds like she wants Anthony Albanese to apologise for breaking a promise that has a 2025 deadline.

I refer to the still advertised promise on the Labor party’s website which says, we will save households and businesses $275 a year compared to today

When will power bills for families and businesses drop by $275 a year, and if not, why won’t the prime minister finally apologise for breaking this promise, a promise he repeated 97 times before the last election, but not once since?

Albanese has been asked this question repeatedly by the opposition and the answer is the same – as more renewables come on track, and the Powering Australia plan is put into place, then power prices will come down because it is cheaper than fossil fuels. But he doesn’t say the figure $275, which is what Ley really wants.

We move on.

Updated

Bill Shorten says ‘there is no discussion about cutting the funds’ to NDIS

Elizabeth Watson-Brown, the Greens member for Ryan, has the first crossbench question.

My question is to the minister for the NDIS on behalf of the thousands of NDIS participants and their families in Ryan.

Is it the minister’s view that the NDIS is costing too much? Can you confirm that there will be no reduction in funds allocated to the NDIS in October’s budget? And for NDIS funds not spent this year, can you confirm if these funds will be retained within the scheme or will they be removed from the scheme?

(Again, these are never perfect transcriptions.)

Bill Shorten:

Obviously, when the treasurer hands down the October budget, matters about what it will contain will be revealed.

But the principles which I think the members is going to is the security of the interest of the people in the NDIS, will they be improved?

I can assure them that all the members here and the 540,000 people on the scheme and the 270,000 people who work on disability care – and the people who love and care for the participants – that under the Albanese government, the scheme will be positive, the participants will be secure, there will be no - there is no discussion about cutting the funds to the scheme.

There has been a change in government in May and now, the NDIS participants have got a government who won’t introduce independent assessments designed to cut the benefits of people on the scheme.

I’d take the interjection from those offered about bipartisanship, the scheme that makes scheme to be bipartisan but not at the lowest common denominator of the previous government on the scheme.

So, let me reassure the member for Ryan, let me reassure the member for Ryan that NDIS participants are going to benefit from the new Board of Directors and for the first time ever, the scheme is going to have a person with experience as the chairperson with Kurt Fearnley.

We’re also going to reassure participants and the member for Ryan by the appointment of Graeme Innes, former human rights commission, Maryanne Diamond, former president of the world Blind Union and in a demonstration by the bipartisanship, Labor has reappointed the former Liberal member Denis Napthine to the board of the scheme because we just don’t talk about bipartisanship, we deliver bipartisanship.

I’m also pleased to inform the member for Ryan that we have now appointed a new CEO to the scheme, Rebecca Fanning, the first woman in the history of the scheme to be CEO. We look forward to the challenges that we have been confronted with and we look forward to reassuring participants on the scheme that will deliver everything we can to make sure that their experiences are excellent.

But we can say the member for Ryan can take back to her constituents – and we acknowledge the presence of Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John, another supporter of the scheme – that under Labor, participants will be treated fairly, the objectives of the legislation of choice and control will be restored, we will rebuild trust of the scheme and we look forward to working with people of goodwill from across the house to make the NDIS the best scheme in the world for people with disability.

Updated

ABS to evaluate how it gathers data on gender identity

The Australian Bureau of Statistics will evaluate how it frames questions around gender and sexuality after Equality Australia and non-binary parent April Long lodged a formal complaint against the organisation and the assistant treasurer – then minister Michael Sukkar – for unlawful discrimination against LGBTQ+ Australians.

On Tuesday, the ABS said its attempt to gather information on the gender and sex make-up of Australians in the 2021 census failed to provide any useful data as it only gave responders three choices of sex to list: male, female or non-binary. The ABS said:

Results cannot be used as a measure of gender diversity, non-binary genders or trans populations.

Additionally, it cannot be used as a measure for diverse sexualities, nor can it be interpreted as the number of people with variations of sex characteristics.

The organisations noted best practice to collect data on Australia’s gender would be to ask four questions: sex recorded at birth, gender, variations of sex characteristics and sexual orientation.

Ghassan Kassisieh, Equality Australia’s legal director, said changes will be necessary in order to count LGBTIQ+ people properly in future censuses:

The census should count everyone properly. This ABS analysis proves LGBTIQ+ people were never afforded that opportunity.

The 2021 Census could have provided the data needed to ensure services are provided to LGBTIQ+ people where they are most needed. Instead, the Census asked ill-fitting questions which have resulted in junk data that even the ABS can’t use.

If the ABS is correct in sheeting the blame solely to the former Government, then we hope this complaint will help build the case for the newly elected Albanese government and the ABS to right the wrongs of the past and ensure that LGBTIQ+ people are properly counted in the next Census.

In their complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission, Newcastle parent April Long, said they felt left out - after the census asked them where their child’s mother and father were born, despite the fact like many rainbow families, theirs is not made up of a mother and father.

The “non-binary” sex question also meant 43,000 Australians tried to capture their gender, sexual orientation or variations of sex in the poorly worded question, Long said.

While 43,000 LGBTIQ+ people gave it their best shot, like my family, thousands of LGBTIQ+ people and rainbow families were simply ignored by the failure to ask appropriate questions about us and our lives.

Updated

Angus Taylor has microphone turned off after interjection during question on tax

Angus Taylor seems a little cranky today. He may not be enjoying the Labor ribs as much as the Labor backbench.

But Taylor, with his very serious face, on asks Anthony Albanese:

The deputy prime minister, the treasurer and the finance minister have all failed to rule out increases to taxes on franking credits, and superannuation. Given the strength of the economy and the budget confirmed today, will the prime minister rule out increasing taxes on hard-working Australians at a time of acute cost pressures?

Albanese:

I thank the shadow treasurer for his question and I can understand why the treasurer is so happy with life at the moment. So happy. Because they ask questions about taxes ... What were the two highest taxing government in the last 30 years? Because to be fair, it was in the former government of which they were part, they just ran second, second to the Howard government which taxed even more.

But of course, the shadow treasurer has had a bit to say this week. He has had a bit to say this week. Here, he gave a speech yesterday promising a back to basics approach. And boy did he get back to basics. Here he is explaining inflation.

Taylor interjects and Milton Dick has his microphone turned off, given that it is not really a point of order. Taylor does not look happy.

Albanese does, though. He’s obviously tired, and his lines aren’t landing as well as he thinks because they are a bit muddled (a couple of flights overseas in only a couple of weeks will do that to you, to be fair), but he seems to be warming up.

Albanese:

They talk about cost of living, I’m about to quote the shadow treasurer about inflation. Which is to do with cost of living. And here is the shadow treasurer now, I read this overnight, you know, overnight … trying to stay awake, reading the shadow treasurer’s speeches.

Here it is: ‘Growing up on a farm, my dad, a father, explaining greater [economic] terms, inflation is more money but the same number of cows. Inflation is more money but the same number of cows.’

That was his great explanation. But the price of a cow goes up along with the price of everything else. I got it straight away ...

He used to understand cows, but he is better with bull now. Australians know that those opposite left us with $1 trillion of debt, deficits as far as the eye can see …

They never ever produced a surplus. If the shadow treasurer, … if that’s the best that he can do ... then they really are at the bottom of the barrel.

Updated

PM says Coalition ‘left Australia in a position without any economic strategy’ after Dutton’s question on cost of living

Peter Dutton to Anthony Albanese:

Labor left hundreds of billions of dollars of debt, supported every dollar we spent during Covid and proposed $80 billion more in spending. Unemployment has now hit a 50-year low and our economy is stronger than the US and the UK, who look certain to go into recession.

Prime minister, Australians are hurting and cost of living is going up and up under your government. Before the election, you had a plan to help. Now you only have excuses. Prime minister, where is the plan?

Albanese:

I thank the leader of the opposition for his projection, in that question. The fact is that the former government has left Australia with $1 trillion of debt ...

They left Australia in a position without any economic strategy going forward, without having an energy policy, in spite of 22 efforts.

We, on the side, have been very busy implementing our plans. Our plan for cheaper childcare that has been introduced this week.

We will wait and see if they vote for it, we will wait and see if they vote for it, because remember when we announced that in my first budget reply. They opposed removing the cap.

They said that was reckless. But then of course they did it.

But they didn’t go down the track of where they needed to do, because they never understood that women’s workforce participation is something that can benefit the entire economy, something that leads to growth. That boost productivity, just like they didn’t understand the support that we had.

They sort of tried to jump on for the cheaper medicines but didn’t quite get there. We will wait and see. I don’t know if they are supporting our cheaper pharmaceuticals plan. The first reduction in pharmaceuticals since Labor introduced the PBS 75 years ago.

The first ever reduction. Making an enormous difference to families out there. But of course what they say is we forgot to do it in our first year, our second year, our third year, our fourth year, our fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth.

If you had elected us four or five times we would have got around to doing that but we just didn’t.

We, of course, brought together business, unions and civil society groups at the jobs and skills summit again to make sure that we work for our common interests. The leader of the Nats was there.

He wasn’t going to miss out on that opportunity, but of course, the leader of the opposition showed just how irrelevant he was by refusing, refusing to participate. Even though the shadow treasurer, I think, called for an invite, wanted to go, and then boycotted as well.

And remember this, they oppose the increase in the minimum wage. They opposed it and said the sky would fall if the minimum wage went up by $1 an hour. That’s their record.

Updated

Peter Dutton has given his speech on the 20th anniversary of the Bali bombings and the house has had a minute of silence.

So now we are into the questions.

'So many hearts are still tethered to that cruel night': Albanese on 20th anniversary of Bali bombings

The former Strewth editor and author James Jeffrey is Anthony Albanese’s speechwriter.

When you hear Albanese speak, particularly when it relates to history, it is often from Jeffrey’s pen (Albanese does give input, as do all MPs, and he is often known to go off the cuff).

But as more than one Coalition MP has privately lamented, “he’s an unfair advantage”.

Here is some of Albanese’s speech on the 20th anniversary of the 2002 Bali bombings:

Twenty years on, so many hearts are still tethered to that cruel night, every beat tempered by an abiding sorrow.

Grief, of course, is its own creature, that doesn’t travel in straight lines.

Many currents were stopped in the great river of life that night.

And some are still stranded on the bank, unable to walk away.

Grief may soften with time, but it does not fade.

Updated

Anthony Albanese is back in the chamber after returning from his Japan trip.

Before question time, there is a statement on indulgence on the Bali bombings. Parliament won’t be sitting on 12 October, so the deadly 2002 attack and the lives it took and changed forever are being remembered now.

Updated

We are just a few minutes out from question time, so I hope you have something to gird your loins.

It’s the last one before budget week. So let’s goooooo

Philip Lowe earlier this month: ‘conditionality often got lost in the messaging’

For the record, the Reserve Bank governor, Dr Philip Lowe, has addressed the criticisms – that his repeated comment about the bank not raising interest rates until wages started to grow, or at least 2024, meant the interest rate rises from May caught many people unaware – a few times before.

Including before the parliament. Earlier this month, in his address to the economics committee, Lowe said:

I am frequently reminded that many people interpreted our previous communication as a promise, or a commitment, that interest rates wouldn’t rise until 2024. This was despite our statements on interest rates always being conditional on the state of the economy.

This conditionality often got lost in the messaging.

We are currently working through the implications of this for our future approach to forward guidance and communication more generally.

So Lowe’s argument has been the caveats in his messaging were missed.

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For the Matt Canavans and Keith Pitts in the back

Move on national anti-corruption commission

Attorney general Mark Dreyfus has moved a motion to set up the committee to review the national anti-corruption commission bill.

Who will be on it? No names as yet, but this is what the motion asks for:

The committee consist of 12 members:

  • three members of the House of Representatives to be nominated by the government whip or whips

  • two members of the House of Representatives to be nominated by the opposition whip or whips

  • one member of the House of Representatives nominated by any minority group or independent member

  • three senators to be nominated by the leader of the government in the Senate

  • two senators to be nominated by the leader of the opposition in the Senate,

  • and one senator to be nominated by any minority group or independent senator

So six government MPs, four opposition MPs and two independents/minor party MPs (MPs include senators)

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Queensland to end its reliance on coal-fired power by 2035, premier says

Further to Graham’s post:

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at a wind farm in the South Burnett district of Queensland, 26 September, 2022.
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at a windfarm in the South Burnett district of Queensland, 26 September, 2022. Photograph: Russell Freeman/AAP

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Queensland energy plan to include $4bn of new investment in next four years

Queensland’s premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is giving a major speech revealing the government’s new 10-year energy plan which includes $4bn of new investment in the next four years.

She says the world and the state is facing a climate emergency and the plan aims to place Queensland as a world leader on renewables energy and storage.

By 2030, she said there would be 2,000 to 3,000 more wind turbines and 36 million more solar panels.

Climate change is real and its impacts are real and its impacts on Queensland are real. We need to act, and act in a revolutionary way.

Two hydro power plants and a “super grid” linking renewables and batteries would give the state a competitive advantage based on wind and solar.

Electricity sector emissions would be halved by 2030 and cut by 90% by 2036 based on 2005 in targets that would be legislated, she said.

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Jim Chalmers: deteriorating global economy will have ‘big impact’ on budget

Jim Chalmers was also asked about his comments about the need for a “national conversation” about budget reform, with the treasurer sticking to his lines about his current focus being on multinational tax reform.

He says the government’s position on stage three tax cuts “has not changed” but would not be drawn on whether that meant the government still believed the third stage of the tax package was irresponsible and should be considered in the economic and fiscal context of 2024-25.

He also said that despite the budget improvement, people should not expect to see a forecast surplus in the October budget.

“I want to be upfront about that,” Chalmers said.

“The situation is more difficult than that, and I think Australians understand that given the fiscal and budget circumstances that we’ve inherited, it will take much more than one budget to turn that around.”

The treasurer said he was concerned about deteriorating conditions in the global economy, saying it would provide an important backdrop to the budget .

“The global economy is deteriorating and there are real fears for a number of other major economies and our major trading partners, and that will have a big impact on the budget.

“The context for the budget in October will be a deteriorating global economy, intensifying spending pressures and pressures on Australians, which can only be dealt with if we provide that cost of living relief in a way that also provides an economic dividend and that is our strategy,” he said.

Finally, Chalmers was asked about the fate of the image of the former monarch on the $5 note. He said the government was in no rush to make a decision on the new $5 note, saying the government would consult widely on whether to replace Queen Elizabeth II with the new King, or someone else.

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Jim Chalmers ‘relatively confident’ banks protected against cyber attacks

Jim Chalmers also gave an update on the Optus data breach and how it related to financial institutions. He said Treasury had convened a meeting on Monday with the regulators and the banks to look at how affected customers could be protected.

“One of the big focuses of these discussions, and the discussions that are ongoing ... is the safe and secure sharing of data between Optus and regulated financial institutions with the appropriate safeguards to allow those institutions to undertake enhanced monitoring for purposes of best protecting consumers from any bad behaviour following this data breach,” he said.

He said there was a need to overcome the challenge of further sharing the data, and the legal mechanisms needed to ensure information could be transferred securely.

“We’ll do our best to resolve these issues as soon as we can.”

He also said the banks and financial institutions had done a “mountain of work” to protect against cyber attacks, but he was “relatively confident” that they were alive to the risk, but needed to be vigilant.

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Finance minister on underspend revealed in final budget outcome

The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, spoke about the underspend revealed by the final budget outcome, saying much of this was money promised that “didn’t get out the door by our predecessors”.

This was due to delays in the contracting of Covid-19 spending, temporarily lower-than-expected demand for some health and NDIS services, and the impact of supply chain disruptions and capacity constraints on road and rail infrastructure projects and other spending.

Gallagher:

We do expect that many of the underspend and payment delays which are reflected in this document will flow over into ... this year and future years. We are still working through all of the details in the budget around this.

According to the final budget outcome, payments in 2021-22 were $616.3 billion, $20.1 billion lower than estimated at the 2022-23 March budget.

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Voice before republic, Labor says

The government’s focus remains on holding a referendum on the voice to parliament before touching anything to do with a republic.

But the assistant minister for the republic, Matt Thistlethwaite, told Perth radio 6PR there is some work being done:

I’m doing a bit of work at the moment, I’m particularly consulting multicultural communities and young Australians, people that weren’t around in 1999 when we had that intense debate, as you know, around our constitution, and a head of state. There’s plenty of evidence that people in those generations aren’t aware of many of our constitutional arrangements, because we haven’t had that debate. So I’m working on consulting with those groups, education campaigns, working out where we went wrong in ‘99. If we’re successful with the voice, then we’ll start a more detailed discussion with the Australian people talking about how we get to a model that unites Australians rather than divides us, as it did in 1999. And it’s, it’s my hope that we can go to the next election, as the government with a policy and a plan for a second term around having a successful referendum on an Australian republic and taking that to the election and seeking a mandate from the Australian people to deliver that policy. So that’s the plan that we have and how to advance it.

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Greens senator calls on Reserve Bank’s Philip Lowe to defend interest rate rises

Greens senator Nick McKim is pretty confident the Senate is going to support the motion he is putting forward to have the Reserve Bank governor Dr Philip Lowe front Senate estimates:

Independence does not mean a lack of accountability.

There are serious questions for Dr Lowe.

Dr Lowe induced people into taking on massive amounts of debt by saying interest rates wouldn’t go up until wages had increased substantially and this was unlikely to be until 2024.

He needs to explain why interest rates are being jacked up without the preconditions that he set being met.

He also needs to explain how increasing interest rates is going to conquer inflation that is being driven by supply shocks and corporate profiteering.

The consequences of five consecutive rate rises have been stark - renters, mortgage holders and small business owners are all being smashed trying to fix a problem they did not cause.

It’s time for Dr Lowe to face the music.

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Maurice Blackburn ‘investigating potential claim’ against Optus over data breach

Maurice Blackburn has become the second law firm to announce it is investigating whether to launch a class action against Optus on behalf of millions of customers whose private information may have been exposed in Australia’s biggest data breach.

The firm already has an investigation on foot into Optus over an earlier breach in which it provided the names and contact details of 50,000 customers to Sensis.

“People would expect a large telecommunications service provider like Optus to have solid systems for protecting their customers’ personal information,” Maurice Blackburn principal lawyer Vavaa Mawuli said.

“The customers impacted by the latest breach will understandably be feeling let down by Optus and vulnerable as a result of this latest blunder, especially those whose data was compromised back in 2019.

“It is very disappointing that Optus still seems unable to put in place effective safeguards to protect its customers’ information so we are investigating a potential claim against them.”

One of Maurice Blackburn’s chief rivals in the class action space, Slater & Gordon, announced it was investigating a class action lawsuit over the data breach two days ago.

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Jim Chalmers says he’s working on protecting consumers from ‘any bad behaviour following Optus breach’

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says financial authorities are working with Optus to avoid potential fraud or theft perpetrated against customers involved in the telco’s data breach, including the possibility of data being shared with banks to allow enhanced monitoring of accounts.

We’re still waiting for a more formal and comprehensive government response on the data breach. Government sources had indicated on Monday and Tuesday that significant announcements would be made, but no such updates have yet been given. Home affairs minister Clare O’Neil has been criticised by the Coalition opposition for not yet holding a press conference since the Optus data breach was announced last Thursday.

Chalmers told a press conference on Wednesday that he’d been working with the Reserve Bank, financial regulator Apra and the big four banks since Saturday, to respond to financial issues related to the breach.

“If there’s more than can be done by financial institutions to monitor risks and protect consumers, then that should be done,” he said.

The treasurer said he’d met with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) today to discuss the “safe and secure sharing of data between Optus and regulated financial institutions, with the appropriate safeguards, to allow those institutions to undertake enhanced monitoring for the purposes of best protecting consumers from any bad behaviour following this data breach”.

“Financial institutions can play a really important role here using that data, if we can work out the best way to get it to them, to protect their customers at greatest risk,” he said.

Chalmers said discussions were ongoing about which institutions can receive data, under which terms, and necessary safeguards for the data. That process of sharing data with banks has not yet begun, and is in the planning stages.

Chalmers said on Monday the RBA convened the council of financial regulators – Apra, Asic, ACCC, ATO, Treasury – to respond to data issues from the Optus hack, while the Treasury convened a meeting of banks and financial crimes regulators.

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What does Sally McManus believe needs to happen to allow the Fair Work Commission to help resolve bargaining disputes?

McManus:

I think the key thing that needs to change is we need to give the umpire their whistle back, the Fair Work Commission has had their whistle taken off them. It was one of the key things that those blokes in Toorak wanted to do, but it’s just a situation where if you had a Fair Work Commission that had the power to say, ‘Listen, we are owning the document about what is being agreed here. So we spent three hours negotiating, New South Wales government you put your position, the unions have put yours. At the end of this is this agreement.’ At the moment what is happening is people walk out and people aren’t agreed on what was agreed in that room.

Now, the Fair Work Commission, if they own that document and they pulled people up and said, ‘Hang on a minute, that is not what you agreed, what you agreed is here’, and they have the power to keep people to their word, and they could make that happen, whereas at the moment they can’t, that would mean that bargaining was quicker, it would be fairer, and we would all not go through protracted disputes that we currently are.

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Jim Chalmers and Katy Gallagher on final budget outcome

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and finance minister, Katy Gallagher, have held a press conference about the final budget outcome.

The headline figure is an underlying cash deficit of $32.0 billion, which is a reduction in the underlying cash deficit of $47.9 bn compared with that estimated in the 2022-23 March budget. This was a result of higher receipts of $27.7 bn and lower payments of $20.1 bn.

Chalmers said despite the improvement in the tax take, the budget was still in a difficult position, and next month’s budget would require some difficult decisions.

The budget is less than four weeks away now; it will be a pretty solid budget focused on cost of living relief with an economic dividend, investing in people, their skills their energy and their future and starting to deal with this legacy of waste and rorts which has been a hallmark of budgets for too long now.

He said that the budget would deliver on investments, without fuelling inflation and “making the job of the Reserve Bank even harder.”

He also spoke about the end to the fuel excise cut tonight, saying it could not be continued as a permanent measure.

We don’t think it’s responsible to put another $6 billion a year on the national credit card to provide this relief in an ongoing way. We think there are other better ways to provide that cost of living relief. We don’t pretend that this won’t make things more difficult for a lot of Australian motorists. Our responsibility to the Australian people is to manage the budget responsibly. But we can’t afford to find every bit of cost of living relief indefinitely that people would like us to. That’s just the reality of the situation.

He said that people should not expect an immediate increase in the price per litre, saying it depended on how much fuel service stations had under the ground, bought at the cheaper price, and said the ACCC would be monitoring the situation closely.

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McManus: the ‘wage price spiral’ has been completely disproven

Why the trip down memory lane? Well, Sally McManus believes that in coming months, those talking points, which started in 1983 as a campaign to destroy unions, will once again whirr up, as the conversation for IR changes continues.

McManus:

Firstly – the ‘wage price spiral’. This one is straight out of the 1970s. This has been completely disproven but they will still pump this up. It is clear that wage increases have absolutely nothing to do with our current inflation problem. In addition, a repeat of the 1970s is impossible because the economy is totally different, and the wage system of that time has been comprehensively dismantled, impossible to recreate and no one is even proposing its return.

Secondly, the hypothetical scenarios of strikes across small ‘mum and dad’ businesses.

This one is pure fantasy. The facts are that such strikes have never occurred in our history. Even when union membership was at 60% and when days lost to industrial disputes in our country was at its highest - it did not occur. It will not occur now. The truth is the public can see the rising profits of big business, and the increasingly obscene pay packets of CEOs. So, some big business lobby groups have to manufacture ridiculous scenarios regarding threats to small business because they do not want the public looking at them.

Lastly, the use of the term ‘union thug’. 55% of union members in Australia are now women.

The average union member is a 36-year-old nurse and the largest union is her union, the ANMF. Consider the facts and how divorced from reality these claims are. Anyone who wants to understand who the union movement is in 2022 has only to look at the faces of those who have actually been on strike this year – teachers, nurses, aged care and childcare workers. Many are young women of colour. Workers who have been disrespected and under paid.

The facts and the reality are very different.

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Sally McManus continues with that history lesson:

In a speech in 2014, the then employment minister Eric Abetz compared the call to destroy workers’ rights to the moment that Martin Luther pinned his revolutionary leaflet to the door of a church, ushering in, as Mr Abetz told the audience, the ‘30-year war’.

This was not a view that bubbled up organically from the Australian public, from social trends, or even from employers.

Neither was it the natural consequence of globalisation.

This was an idea born in 1983, formed into an organisation in 1986 and pursued by elements of the Liberal party ever since.

Their ‘30 year’ war.

Nick Minchin, giving a speech to this society in 2006, actually said the quiet bit out loud: ‘ … the great majority of the Australian people do not support what we are doing on industrial relations. They violently disagree.’

Their 30-year campaign has seen WorkChoices, many royal commissions, special legislation to target unions and workers, and relentless demonisation.

It has delivered what it was designed to deliver:

• Falling real wages

• Workers not sharing in productivity

• Profound levels of job insecurity

• Growing and glaring income and wealth disparities

• One of the most gender segregated workforces in the OECD, a major part of our shameful gender pay gap.

Campaigns by the union movement to abolish WorkChoices and the introduction of the 2009 Fair Work Act helped to stem the tide but not reverse it.

But the legacy of the attack on unions has become starker in the last decade – 10 years of wage stagnation and now dramatically declining real wages which low unemployment, increased productivity and bumper profits are not shifting.

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Sally McManus on where the ‘union thug’ attitude came from

Let’s head back to 1983, McManus says, and a wee lad named Gerard Henderson.

In that year Gerard Henderson, a staffer to John Howard, wrote an article attacking the system of cooperation between employers and unions and called for the dismantling of bodies that fostered and regulated the different interests of workers and employees.

This call was taken up a few years later and became a campaign proper in a meeting organised by four men in Toorak.

This occurred in February 1986, a meeting which led to the creation of the HR Nicholls Society – those four men in Toorak, they were John Stone, Peter Costello, Barrie Purvis and Ray Evans.

To quote from an article in 2007 by Michael Bachelard in the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald - in Evans’ words, they wanted nothing less than freedom in the labour market, their agenda involved abolishing the commission, the award system and possibly minimum wages.

If there was to be a minimum wage, it would be set very, very low. Anything above it would be agreed by bargaining in an environment very unfriendly to unions.

Individual contracts would be encouraged and would take precedent over collective, negotiated agreements.

The heart of this campaign is a belief that employers should have free rein to decide everything, so workers’ rights and anybody such as the industrial commission that gets in the way must be removed. So, of course, the very existence of unions goes against their idea of absolute employer prerogative.

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More from Sally McManus at the press club

Sally McManus drew a comparison between the Albanese government’s consultation at the jobs and skills summit and that of the Morrison government at the start of the pandemic - particularly through a gendered lens.

McManus said the government did bring unions into the tent at the start of the pandemic. But this had odd results:

I remember how surprised some in the government were at the attitude of union leaders. They were continually confounded about our responses and our commitment to working together for the common good. Some of those in government even assumed we would use the crisis to organise disruption and set up a high-level rapid response group should this occur. This group was a distraction and a waste of time as it had nothing to do. It was clear that they had come to believe their own rhetoric about us, which meant they did not understand us at all – fellow Australians who wanted to serve the common good and work together to save lives, jobs, and to keep people safe. It surprised me how big the gap was between reality and their imaginations.

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ACTU’s Sally McManus is delivering her National Press Club address

She is recounting her experiences during the height of the pandemic:

The new government’s jobs and skills summit was a glimpse of Australia at its best.

Different views and perspectives being brought together to consider what is needed for the greater good. This makes a big change from the previous government.

One of the things I clearly remember about the emergency phase of the pandemic in 2020 and the almost daily meetings with the then-government, was nearly every meeting was almost exclusively with men in suits. I remember asking myself, ‘Where is everyone else?’

And why couldn’t they see that this was a problem? It was just so stark. Nearly all the pandemic leaders and decision-makers on Zoom in the safety of their comfortable homes making decisions for people whose lives were so different from theirs, the essential and frontline workers, people who were stood down, families suddenly without any income, and people risking their own health to go to work.

The government was doing something that had not done before - it was taking advice from the representatives of these workers, it was taking advice from unions. This was a huge difference after decades of marginalising workers’ voices.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus addresses a rally of Childcare educators and workers on 7 September, 2022.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus addresses a rally of Childcare educators and workers on 7 September, 2022. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

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For those looking for the legislation, you can find it here

More concerns about public hearing restrictions in anti-corruption commission legislation

The Australia Institute’s National Integrity Committee of Former Judges have welcomed the fact Australia finally has legislation for a national anti-corruption commission in the parliament.

But they have concerns over the restrictions on public hearings.

The Hon David Harper AM KC, former judge at the Victorian supreme court of appeal, said:

This legislation provides for a commission, independent of government, with broad powers and the ability to receive referrals from the public and hold public hearings. However, we have always emphasised the importance of public hearings and will consider further how the draft legislation deals with these.

The draft legislation released today is a vital step towards improving integrity in the public sector.

So it seems that so far, everyone welcomes it, but there are concerns over the threshold for the public hearings.

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Cross-party senators move to establish inquiry on abortion access in Australia

The Greens are moving to establish a senate inquiry looking at abortion access in Australia today, which is also International Safe Abortion Day. Senator Larissa Waters said there needed to be a forensic look at what access was available in Australia:

Abortion remains expensive and inaccessible for many, especially those who already face massive healthcare barriers, including First Nations people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

In the wake of Roe v Wade, the federal government should look at what it can do to eliminate Australia’s barriers to accessible and affordable abortion.

Access to safe, legal abortion remains a postcode lottery in Australia, with different rules, costs and availability depending on where you live. Some people are having to travel for hours at significant expense to access this basic healthcare service.

In remote and regional areas like Townsville and Mackay, many women are forced to travel long distances, at significant expense, to access sexual and reproductive health services including long-acting contraception, medical and surgical abortions and counselling.

The Greens support calls for national consistency on abortion laws, provided they are best practice, which would be ascertained through the inquiry.

Waters, the independent ACT senator David Pocock and the Liberal MP Bridget Archer joined with the advocacy group Fair Agenda to call for more action to address barriers to abortion access:

Fair Agenda is calling on the Albanese government to lead a national review of sexual and reproductive health care access, to make a plan to address barriers to abortion care in Australia. And for immediate action to improve abortion access nationwide – by putting medical abortion care on Medicare with an appropriate subsidy of $500.

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Labor: Coalition accusation of racism over abolition of cashless debit card is ‘laughable’

The social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, said it was “laughable” that the Coalition had accused Labor of racism over abolishing the cashless debit card, hitting back that the former government’s plans had seen a high proportion of Indigenous people placed on the income management tool.

The government’s bill passed the House of Representatives this morning, formalising the abolition of the cashless debit card. Earlier this week, the Northern Territory’s Coalition senator Jacinta Price accused the government of “racism” due to its plans to keep CDC participants in the NT and Cape York on a different income management program, rather than allowing them to opt-out of income management entirely.

Asked about these comments at a press conference on Wednesday, Rishworth denied the claims.

I find it quite amusing that a government that compulsorily put everyone on a working age payment, I don’t know how they picked the sites, but the sites they picked with the cashless debit card put a significantly higher proportion of Indigenous people on the card.

I think that is quite laughable and really playing politics with this. We need to transition safely off income management, we’re starting with the cashless debit card.

Rishworth said Labor aimed to eventually make all income management voluntary, not compulsory. The government will now undertake an 18-month consultation process on the future of income management.

She said the process would look, community by community, at how voluntary or compulsory measures should be used as well as considering local decision-making by community bodies.

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ABS data shows retail sales rose slightly in August

There are more signs that Australian consumers haven’t lost their spend-thrifty ways, with retail sales for August rising 0.6% for the month, according to the ABS.

While less than half the 1.3% rise in July, the result was better than the meagre 0.2-0.3% increase expected by some of the big banks.

From a year earlier, sales were almost one-fifth higher from that age ago when NSW, Victoria and the ACT (we never forget the ACT) were in lockdown. Memories.

Anyways, retail spending has now risen for eight months in a row, with cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services up 1.3% for the month. (Much of that might have been the higher prices we’re all paying.)

The ABS noted that department store sales were up 2.8% to a record level, with spending on household goods rising 2.6% or the most since March 2022. We also noted yesterday that the weekly ANZ/Roy Morgan survey of consumer sentiment was also showing a perkiness not so diminished by five consecutive interest rate rises by the RBA and a six one expected next Tuesday.

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing recorded its largest fall this year, down 2.3%, the ABS said. Perhaps people saw the La Nina portents and said, “spring and summer: cancelled”.

Anyway, the money market turmoil of early this week seems to have settled a bit, including those interest rate predictions.

However, the Australian dollar has lately started sliding again, and is now not far above 64 US cents, and Australian shares have given up early gains to be down about one-third of 1%. The pound is also not that far off its record lows against the Greenback.

Updated

This seems like a little bit of an own goal request, but go off I guess.

Updated

Final budget outcome released

And because today just doesn’t have enough going on, the final budget outcome has also been released.

The final budget outcome is when Treasury looks at the actual data and corrects the estimates about debt, spending, incomings, that sort of thing.

Here is what the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said in a statement:

The Final Budget Outcome for 2021-22 shows an improved budget position last year off the back of a near-term boost in revenues and delays in payments and projects.

It shows that billions of dollars that were promised by our predecessors were not delivered - much of which will now need to be funded in 2022-23 and beyond.

The budget underlying cash deficit was $32.0bn (1.4% of GDP) in 2021-22.

The improvement is the result of higher-than-expected receipts of around $27.7bn and lower-than-budgeted-for payments of $20.1bn.

Despite this improvement, Australians are still burdened with a multibillion-dollar deficit and a trillion dollars of debt which is getting more and more expensive to service.

There are no guarantees that all of the factors driving the improved outcome will be sustained over the longer term.

More than half of the $27.7bn boost to receipts was due to higher‑than‑expected company taxes – largely the result of commodity prices remaining higher for longer than assumed – and a lower-than-expected take-up of Covid-19 business support, such as temporary full expensing and loss carry back.

Payments were $20.1bn lower than expected largely due to delays in contracting Covid-19 spending, supply chain disruptions and capacity constraints delaying road and rail infrastructure projects, along with lower-than-expected demand for health, NDIS and aged care services.

More than half of these payment delays will spill over to future years.

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Dutton: minister for cybersecurity has been ‘missing in action’ on Optus data breach

Further to Josh’s last post, Peter Dutton has picked up that attack and run with it:

Clare O’Neil has been missing in action on this issue. There are some things I would give the government a tick for since they have been elected. I think this has been a very significant failure and something that affects 10 million Australians in varying ways.

The minister took days before she put a tweet out and found time to go to the football and tweet about all of that. And all the while, people being put in a vulnerable position. I don’t think that is good enough. I think a lot of Australians could have acted sooner had Clare O’Neil got off her hands and acted.

Updated

Coalition demands ‘urgent action’ over Optus data breach

The Coalition is continuing its attack on the government over the Optus data issue, demanding “urgent action” after revelations yesterday that Medicare numbers could be at risk.

Guardian Australia understands there may be some news from the Albanese government later today on the response to the Optus breach, with numerous questions about how the government will respond to the telecommunications company specifically and whether affected passports will be replaced.

The shadow health minister, Anne Ruston, and the shadow cybersecurity minister, James Paterson, claimed the Labor government was “on the backfoot” over the unfolding data breach. In a statement they called on the health minister, Mark Butler, to outline what the health department was doing to respond to Medicare numbers which had been included in the data leak:

While Optus bears significant responsibility for this security failure, this does not exempt the government from its public responsibility.

There are many urgent questions to be answered by the government including how many Medicare numbers have been compromised, if new Medicare numbers will be required for every customer effected, and how long that will take?

Butler earlier today said his department was “working hard to develop strategies for a response to” the Medicare issue. He told ABC Radio National that “looking very closely” at whether new Medicare numbers would need to be issued:

We’ve been working nonstop since the original notification of this breach to develop the best possible response for consumers.

Butler added the government was looking at “the possible need for renewed identification data, identification material like passports”. Paterson yesterday called on the government to waive fees for replacement passports – an issue we understand is under active consideration by the government.

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Petrol prices to rise as fuel excise cut ends tonight

As has been noted widely, the fuel excise “holiday” will end just before midnight tonight, six months after the 22.1 cents a litre excise cut was introduced in a last-gasp effort by the Morrison government to address cost-of-living pressures ahead of the May federal election.

With indexation to account for inflation since (plus GST), the return of the full excise will add about 25c/l to the cost of fuel. Peter Khoury, a chief spokesperson for the NRMA, says service stations have already moved to push fuel prices up in the past week or longer:

The prices in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide today are already way too high.

Average prices are “anywhere between 10 and 12 cents a litre higher than they should be”, he says. “The oil companies have already been on notice.”

Data from the Australian Institute of Petroleum, which provides weekly updates on prices, does seem to show that falling global oil prices have not been reflected in cheaper prices at the local bowser.

As we pointed out in a post earlier this week, the difference between a falling oil price and remarkably sticky retail prices is a fattening wholesale margin. At the end of last week, the margin was the largest in at least two years.

Khoury, meanwhile, said that service stations took about six to seven days in the major cities to pass on the cut in excise back in March and April, with most regional centres taking at least twice as long.

Motorists, the NRMA and other such bodies, and the ACCC will be watching with interest how quickly the servos move this time to adjust prices. What are the odds they’ll be a bit quicker this time around?

Feel free to let us know if you spot some “outliers”.

Updated

Attorney general was warned office of information commissioner unable to meet workload at current funding levels

We’ve been reporting on the significant resourcing constraints facing the freedom of information watchdog, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

The OAIC is responsible for policing the FOI system and holding government to account for its handling of FOI requests. But the office is plagued by delays and requests for reviews of FOI decisions can frequently take more than 12 months.

Now, it’s emerged that the information commissioner, Angelene Falk, wrote to the new attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, when he came into office, warning him that the office was unable to meet its workload.

Falk wrote:

We continue to support integrity, transparency and accountability of government through year-on-year increases to the efficiency with which we acquit our responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act 1982.

However as you will see from the attached information, we are unable to keep up with the incoming work with less funding for this function than we received in 2014-15, owing to the increased volume and complexity of the work.

She included a document showing the proportion of its FOI cases taking 12 months or longer to resolve had shot up from 14% to 52% in the past three years.

The Greens senator David Shoebridge took the government to task over its funding of the OAIC earlier this week, noting the absurdity of spending commonwealth funds to fight a federal court case challenging the office’s delays. That case had cost $301,000 by 1 August. Shoebridge said:

In a recent letter to the attorney general, the information commissioner said her office was underfunded and revealed that in 2020-21, 667 FOI reviews were more than a year old.

Would you agree that any funding for the information commissioner might be better spent not in court arguing against someone suing for unreasonable delays, but rather on staffing the office to respond to this?

The government said it had previously raised concerns about the resourcing of the OAIC. But it also noted that it had inherited a significant level of debt and was seeking to manage the budget responsibly.

Updated

Votes on the repeal of the cashless debit card

Just a little more detail on the cashless debit card repeal: the final vote in the lower house passed 87-50. The Greens and crossbenchers Rebekha Sharkie, Andrew Wilkie, Kate Chaney, Dai Le, Helen Haines, Zoe Daniel, Kylea Tink, Zali Steggall and Sophie Scamps all voted with the government.

The Coalition voted against it. The Liberal MP Bridget Archer, who has spoken against the CDC and abstained from the original vote in the house last month, again did not vote.

Updated

Cashless debit card participants able to opt out from next week

The cashless debit card repeal legislation has passed the House of Representatives a second time, formalising the pending abolition of the income management tool.

The Labor bill passed the Senate late last night, and had to go through the lower house a second time to agree to amendments made last week.

CDC participants in Ceduna, East Kimberley, Goldfields and Bundaberg-Hervey Bay will be able to opt out of the card from October 4, ahead of its formal abolition at the end of the year. Compulsory income management will remain for participants in the Northern Territory and Cape York regions, with the government still under pressure to make the Basics card voluntary.

The social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, said:

We’re delivering certainty and choice for Australians and are a government committed to reducing stigmatisation for the most disadvantaged in our community who have had to endure failed promises relating to the cashless debit card program.

Those wanting to move off the card will be able to do so from next week, either through the Services Australia and MyGov services, by calling a CDC hotline on 1800 252 604, or meeting with Services staff in their communities.

Rishworth also said there would be an evaluation of the new measures, including an enhanced card and social services support for alcohol and drug counselling.

The minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, said the CDC “diminishes people’s self-worth. It was discriminatory and arbitrary”.

Rishworth, Burney and the assistant social services minister, Justine Elliot, will hold a press conference in Parliament shortly.

Updated

Dutton: Liberal party room yet to make final decision on Indigenous voice to parliament

On the voice to parliament, Dutton says the Liberal position will be the party room decision:

There are a range of views. We have had a very sensible and mature approach to this issue. It causes me concern that even the most basic of questions can’t be answered by the government, and I think that has given rise to confusion, even with Indigenous leaders I have spoken to in the last 24 hours who are concerned about what is happening, what is in place and what the next steps will be.

The government, the Labor party committee, the movement is a well-oiled machine. … I think it is frankly quite surprising that the steps haven’t been more defined and the approach more strategic. But that is an issue for them. My party room wants to hear answers to those questions before we make a final decision.

Updated

Dutton questions motivations of Greens and teals regarding private hearings

Q: What if the committee reviewing the bill recommends the threshold for public hearings be lowered?

Peter Dutton:

I make this point: what is the motivation of the Greens and the teals here? If their argument is that the commissioner doesn’t have the capacity or the rigour and his or her process to determine whether, on all the facts available to them, not publicly known, that they should be a public hearing or private hearing: what is their argument against that?

There are some within the Greens and some independents who want to see … the system pulled down. I am not of that view. I am a strong defender of democracy in this country. And a strong believer of the system we have got that means we enjoy one of the best countries in the world today.

I am not going to see that trashed by people who want to see [it] trashed by their own political purposes. That is what I think it has been important for us, to be constructive, to be sensible and pragmatic in our approach to our discussions.

We haven’t been dogmatic, we haven’t been drawing red lines and the rest of it. They will be elements of the bill that we don’t agree with when it passes through parliament.

But its general principle, we agree with, and I want there to be safety and checks and balances in place, because this is something that will survive for generations. That is why I think you should ask the Greens why they don’t trust the commissioner on all the facts known and available to the commissioner to make the decision about whether [a] hearing should be public or private.

Updated

Dutton expects consultation with the Coalition on the Nacc commissioner

Q: Does Dutton believe that the opposition should be consulted over the choice of commissioner?

Peter Dutton:

It’s a courtesy that should be extended, but that’s a question for the prime minister. I haven’t had a discussion with him.

It is an important question because … I don’t want the commissioner to be a branch office of Slater and Gordon. I don’t want it be filled with lawyers who come out of the Fair Work Commission because they see a more interesting area of practice.

… It is an institution that is important. [The] rule of law applies equally to everybody and it’s something we live and die by. I don’t want to set [it up to be] subverted for political purposes.

It would be effectively, in my judgement, an act of corruption if this body was used inappropriately to try and pursue something [political].

That’s why the appointment of the commissioner is incredibly important and I would expect there to be consultation, I expect that person to be a person of considerable standing, and I’m sure the prime minister has that in mind.

Updated

Dutton: ‘I’ve got a good relationship with the prime minister on a number of issues’

Q: On Four Corners you said the the government had conceded your point about show trials and you are confident that you could support their bill. Is that evidence that a deal has already been done, and did you lobby for the exceptional circumstances thresholds for public hearings?

Peter Dutton:

As I said, we have had discussions with the government …in good faith. I’m not going into the detail of what the government said was their position, or what they argued back and forth. We had a sensible discussion with the government and I’ve got a good relationship with the prime minister on a number of issues … and I’m not going into the detail of those discussions.

Updated

Dutton: ‘If people have done something wrong they should be held to account’

Q: So [Dutton] will have no issue if the first people in front of the Nacc are people from his former government?

Peter Dutton:

I’m not concerned. If people have done something wrong, they should be held to account, I don’t care whether they are Liberal, Labor, teal or Green, if they’ve been involved in corrupt conduct, they are rightly captured.

If it’s a show trial and witch hunt, [if] the process is being abused and there are vexatious complaints, I have a problem with that. We have shown in a number of circumstances, in relation to the survey, will have a mature response and a response from the Coalition that is considered and that we have done in relation to this matter.

Updated

Dutton: ‘We need to be realistic about what level of corruption you think there is’

Q: What about the talk of the Coalition’s pork barrelling and the grants programs the auditor general criticised? Is Peter Dutton worried about them?

Dutton defends the programs, talking about election promises and constituents who had issues with cars being parked across driveways and kids on bikes and then says:

Again, there is level of common sense: the modern reality as well is: at a federal level there are no property-developer interactions, if you like, which is the root of the problem, if I might say, generally speaking, at a local government and state government level.

… the decisions around contracting and all of that procurement rests with the department. In most circumstances. We need to be realistic about what level of corruption you think there is, and I know there is a lot of hype from some of the independents etc, but I think just a calm, measured approach to what is a very serious issue is what is required.

Updated

Peter Dutton has minor concerns on retrospective nature of the Nacc

Is Peter Dutton concerned by the retrospective nature of the commission?

That’s the nature of it. The only concern I would have is a general principle … for example: a Hawke government minister made a decision in relation to a particular matter based on the facts and the law of that era or that day that that is judged by different criteria today, so there is a retrospectivity which is in effect based on a different standard, if you like … if a Gillard minister, a Gillard government minister, made a decision in relation to an acquisition, for example, and it was completely lawful at that time, and the commission is now saying that by the 2022 standard or definition it is not lawful, then something needs to be discussed which no doubt can be dealt with during the inquiry.

He doesn’t say “Morrison government”, but it is what he is dancing around.

Updated

Dutton: ‘I support the government in the model they put forward’

Q: So make or break?

Peter Dutton:

I support the government in the model they put forward. As I said, it was one of the first statements I made was, … I am in favour, instinctively, of an integrity commission that … I want to have that balance and I don’t want to become an endless witch-hunt ...

It’s salacious on occasion for the media, but families are destroyed out of this and the families are the ones who I think we should hear from [in] any inquiry. We have supported a sensible discussion so far, we will continue that, we will hear all the evidence that comes before the committee and if people have got compelling cases to make one way or the other, we will consider all of that at the appropriate time.

But from our perspective we support the Icac, we want the processes put in place, so there can be a process of integrity.

Updated

Dutton on public hearings before the anti-corruption comission: ‘I don’t want a show trial’

Q: Are the public hearings being held in “exceptional circumstances” a make or break matter for the Coalition’s support?

Peter Dutton:

[If] the balance is there, there is the ability for public hearing is to take place where it is appropriate to do so. There is the ability for private hearing to take place where there is the ability to do so.

If you look at the comments that have been made by a number of independents and others over a period of time, that’s what they’ve argued for. It is the commissioner who has all of the details of a particular allegation or investigation before him or her, and that person has the ability to decide whether it would be in the best interest for a public hearing or private hearing to be heard.

There will be criteria around otherwise and I believe that that is getting a balance right. I don’t want a show trial. I want people who have committed a crime to go to jail. That’s what I want.

I don’t want a situation where somebody has their reputation trashed, and after a couple of years, [you] don’t even know whether or not the investigation is [still] standing, and we have seen circumstances [where] investigations have come to a conclusion and the person under investigation hasn’t even been advised that they’ve been cleared.

We want some process … natural justice and rules of evidence and other elements that are important, but in relation to the hearings, I think the government has got that right and unless you [have] got another agenda, you have to draw the same conclusion.

Updated

Liberal party room has not yet decided on a position on anti-corruption bill

It didn’t really get a chance to for the climate legislation; that was a captain’s pick. But this time, it seems like Peter Dutton wants to take it through the “normal processes”.

But he is open to it (the bill, that is).

Dutton:

The important thing about the Senate inquiry or the select inquiry is, it’s going to allow people to give evidence about their experience and we want a situation where people who have committed a criminal act are held to account.

I don’t want innocent people being trashed, and I don’t want reputations being trashed, and I don’t want people committing suicide as we have seen in South Australia and elsewhere as a result of false allegations having been levelled against them. So … [we] need to get the balance right here, it’s why the fanatics within the Greens need to be treated with great caution, in relation to this issue and most issues I might say, but that’s the approach we have taken.

It a responsible approach by the Coalition and we’ll get … to work with the government in a constructive way.

Updated

Dutton gives Coalition response to Labor’s anti-corruption legislation

Peter Dutton is giving the Coalition’s response to the national anti-corruption commission legislation being tabled:

There is no place for corrupt behaviour in public life or anywhere around the country.

I made that clear to our party room and we want to make sure that we can support a process that the government puts in place which is sensible at the same time, so the people who have been engaging in corrupt behaviour, if that’s the case, or prospectively will, should know that the Coalition supports a very strong model that will lead them out and will put them before an integrity commission and potentially before the courts and to be convicted by the courts, so if that evidence is provided.

This is a very serious issue.

Updated

Daniel Andrews says state government will pay for driver's licences changes if Optus doesn't

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, says Victorians whose personal details were stolen in the Optus hack will be able to replace their driver’s licence online:

The Department of Transport have made it clear that we will issue licenses to anybody who’s been affected by the Optus hack. We’re also going to seek some compensation from Optus because this is on them.

If Optus don’t cough up, Andrews says the government will foot the bill:

I daresay that they will be unlikely to provide us with the funding to clean up their mess. That’s usually the way private companies operate.

Updated

Marise Payne queries scrutineering process in seat of Gilmore

The Liberal senator Marise Payne has asked about the voting process in Gilmore, raising concerns about various elements of the count that led to Labor holding on to the seat by just 350 votes. Her factional ally, Andrew Constance, had been contesting the seat.

Payne suggested that parties had been unable to scrutineer some prepoll and postal votes that, in the case of Gilmore, had been transferred to Port Kembla for counting:

It’s 220 km from the southernmost point of Glimore. If you have that centre outside of the electorate….it is not possible to move [scrutineers] that distance, to exercise that process that political parties are legitimately entitled to do.

The deputy commissioner, Jeff Pope, said there were outpost centres servicing “multiple divisions” and the returning officer for the seat was located at the relevant centre:

We have many electoral divisions where the votes are being counted outside the physical boundary of the electorate – we try to minimise that where we can.

Updated

AEC: involvement in truth in political advertising regime could jeopardise perceptions of electoral independence

Still on electoral matters: The inquiry has also asked about the AEC’s lack of truth in political advertising powers, with the commissioner making clear its mandate only extended to mis- and disinformation relating to the voting process.

Tom Rogers, the AEC’s commissioner, also said that he did not think the AEC should be involved in any truth in advertising regime, saying he was concerned that this could jeopardise perceptions of its independence:

One person’s fact is another person’s falsehood.

I wish every success to the person who is doing that ... but I prefer that the Australian Electoral Commission is not the organisation involved in that process.

Updated

AEC says indigenous voter enrolment in the NT for 2022 election was 74.1%, up from 2017

The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters is hearing evidence from the Australian Electoral Commission about the running of the 2022 election.

The chair of the committee, Kate Thwaites, has sought an update from the commissioner about indigenous enrolment figures, particularly in the Northern Territory. The AEC’s deputy commissioner, Jeff Pope, said that the overall enrolment rate for the Northern Territory was at 85.6%, while the estimated rate of indigenous enrolment was 74.1%, a significant increase to the 67.1% estimated in 2017.

The AEC said that it was trialling new initiatives to further lift the rate, with an estimated 13,860 indigenous electors who were eligible to be on the roll but were not – something Pope described as “the gap we are trying to close”.

He also said that enrolment rates declined by the “tyranny of distance”, pointing to enrolment rates above 80% for indigenous populations in urban areas of NSW.

It is an engagement and communication challenge.

Updated

Victorian Labor pledges funding for public aged care facilities if it wins re-election

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has officially opened a new 120-bed public aged care facility in Wantirna this morning and announced $170m to upgrade three regional facilities if re-elected in November.

Andrews told reporters 74 residents have already moved into the new Wantirna facility, in Melbourne’s east, which was redeveloped at a cost of $81.6m:

This is, as you can see, a triumph of thoughtful design and the construction quality is second to none. This is all about making sure that those older Victorians who have helped to build our state have the very best care during this latter part of their life ...

It is the highest quality aged care that anyone could ask for, that anyone could get. And no disrespect to other providers, but it is my view and the view of our government that the best aged care is public aged care. We have 5,5000 beds at 170+ locations right across the state. They are owned by everyone and they’re not-for-profit, they’re for patients and residents.

The $170m election pledge includes up to $45m to redevelop the 16-bed facility at Cohuna in northern Victoria, up to $55m to redevelop the 36-bed Numurkah aged care facility and up to $70m to redevelop the 30-bed aged care facility at Maffra in Gippsland.

Giving the looming election, Andrews had a crack at the opposition, who he said privatised aged care facilities when last in office, resulting in the closure of 400 aged care beds across the state:

They were going to get out of the business of aged care and in fact turn it into a business, turn it into a profit centre. And we just don’t think that’s right. So not only did we stop the aged care selloff that the Liberals had planned and had already started, we have upgraded facilities and we’ve built brand new facilities like this one.

Updated

Greens to move for RBA governor to appear at Senate estimates

This looks like coming up this afternoon in the Senate – with the potential of being passed, we hear.

We will keep you updated, but it would be a pretty huge move if the reserve bank’s governor was hauled in front of Senate estimates. Dr Philip Lowe does appear in front of parliamentary committees to answer questions, but estimates is a whole other ballgame.

Updated

More from the crossbench

Paul Karp brought you some of this press conference a little earlier this morning.

If the Coalition support the legislation, then the crossbench and the Greens won’t be needed.

But still, given the issues raised at the election, it would be a foolish government which ignored their constituencies.

Updated

Tasmania teacher protest

Teachers and supporters are protesting for better conditions in schools in Tasmania.

Updated

What’s next on anti-corruption?

So where to now for the integrity bill?

It goes to a parliamentary committee for review. That review is designed to highlight any gaps, issues, or improvements.

The government does not have to accept the recommendations from the committee on changes it thinks the bill needs – and it seems the main sticking point will be the public hearings.

Mark Dreyfus has indicated there is some room to move, but we will have to wait and see how much.

Updated

The key to working out (non-leaked) talking points

Talking points are something all political parties do. They are part of a pack which is sent out to staffers and MPs, usually from the leaders office or tactics team, outlining what the party response is on particular issues.

Sometimes those packs are left out in the open and leaked by political opponents. Often when they are leaked though, the call is coming from inside the house.

But you can usually work out the talking points from listening to the interviews – it is not a coincidence they all say the same thing.

Updated

Greens talking points leaked

Someone has leaked the Greens talking points if they are asked about an Aboriginal elder’s allegations she was verbally abused by Greens First Nations senator, Lidia Thorpe.

Updated

No public integrity hearings unless 'exceptional circumstances'

And on the public hearings?

Well that one is a little more complicated. The default is for hearings to be held in private.

Mark Dreyfus:

The commission will be able to hold public hearings in exceptional circumstances and if satisfied it is in the public interest to do so. The default position is that hearings will be held in private.

The legislation provides guidance to the commission on factors that may be relevant to determining the public interest in holding a public hearing.

These factors include any unfair prejudice to a person’s reputation, privacy, safety or well being if the hearing were to be held in public, and this includes the benefit of making the public aware of corruption.

Updated

Attorney-general gives detail on anti-corruption powers

Mark Dreyfus has given some more detail on the legislation as he introduces it into the parliament – it will have the power to refer matters to the states, for instance.

And on powers?

Dreyfus:

The commission will have a full suite of powers similar to those of a royal commission. It will be able to use its powers to undertake an investigation into a corruption issue if it involves systemic or corrupt conduct. Importantly the commissioner will be able to undertake preliminary inquiries using powers to compel [information].

Updated

National Anti-Corruption Commission legislation introduced

Mark Dreyfus is introducing the national anti-corruption commission legislation into the parliament.

Dreyfus:

Today I bring to the parliament a bill to establish a powerful, transparent and independent national anti-corruption commission. Mr Speaker, the former government promised to establish a Commonwealth integrity commission, it proved to be an empty promise because they never brought a bill before the Parliament.

This government takes its commitment seriously and we are serious about restoring trust and integrity to government.

This legislation delivers the biggest, the single biggest integrity reform this parliament has seen in decades.

Updated

Tributes to Uncle Jack Charles

The house is sitting and it has opened with statements on the passing of Uncle Jack Charles.

Uncle Jack Charles backstage at the Sydney Opera House in 2013.
Uncle Jack Charles backstage at the Sydney Opera House in 2013. Photograph: Jamie James

Linda Burney is giving a speech.

He was just the most warm, wonderful man,” she said.

When he told the story of his life, he opened the window for many Australians to see the enduring pain of the stolen generations.

Burney spoke of the pain Uncle Jack Charles felt at being “whitewashed by the system”, and having to learn of his Indigenous culture himself.

Burney:

He laid out there his personal battles, and used his life as an example to others of what is possible. He was an inspiration not just for First Nations people, but for all people. He was able to harness his own experiences, to be a powerful mentor to others.

Updated

Crossbenchers hold joint anti-corruption press conference

A huge all-in press conference of crossbench MPs and senators has welcomed the introduction of the national anti-corruption commission bill, but warned about the threshold for public hearings being set too high.

Labor’s bill proposes that public hearings would only be available where there are both “exceptional circumstances” and the commission considers them in the public interest.

Senator Jacqui Lambie said:

For me, there’s no public trust in politicians out there and if you want to play this out, it’s going to have to be in the public arena. If they’ve done something wrong, they need to be held accountable ... And therefore [the threshold] is just about going to kill off trust that we’re trying to establish with the Australian people. You have to open this up. Besides that, the attorney-general said all these decisions he was going to leave up to the commission itself, so why are we now starting to dictate who will be behind closed doors and who isn’t? It’s not on.

Greens senator, David Shoebridge, said the exceptional circumstances threshold was “exceptionally unhelpful”.

Independent MP Helen Haines said the crossbench would have five to six weeks to consider these issues through an inquiry into the bill, but rejected the Coalition’s description of “show trials”. Haines warned Labor it would be a “big mistake” if they only dealt with the Coalition, and she was confident they wouldn’t do so.

Liberal MP Bridget Archer said she was heartened to see the Coalition was keeping an open mind and might pass the bill. For her, public hearings are a “hard line”, but she didn’t criticise the threshold.

Updated

Questions about Optus leadership are for ‘another day’, says Karen Andrews

Does Karen Andrews think the Optus CEO, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, should resign?

Andrews:

Look, I think that there needs to be a lot of soul-searching, to put it that way, within Optus. And that is a problem for, to be honest, another day. Because I think that the priority has to be sorting out what they’re going to do with the data that has been compromised, the data that has been stolen, how they going to support their customers. That’s got to be the number one priority of Optus. And I make no excuses for them. There’s conflicting views that are coming out from the government and from Optus. I’m less concerned about that than I am about the people who for years will have to deal with issues of identity theft.

Updated

Shadow home affairs minister caught up in Optus hack

The shadow home affairs minister Karen Andrews is an Optus customer – and she says she has only just been alerted by Optus she was part of the data breach yesterday morning.

And she wasn’t overly impressed by what was in the email:

Oh, look, there was nothing specific to me, and quite frankly, my response to it was to eye-roll, it had very little information in it that was of value. Now, I am in a position where I understand that IDCare is in place. I understand what I need to do, but many people don’t. And so my disappointment is for them, because I’ve already taken the steps that I need, and I’m trying as best to communicate what people need to do. Contact, IDCare, contact various providers, including your financial institutes if you are concerned – that information should have been forthcoming from the federal government on day one, “this is what you need to do”. You know, we heard throughout the election campaign and before that by who is now the prime minister, Mr Albanese, standing up and saying, “we are on your side”. Well, what we know very clearly is that the Labor government is only on your side if they’re heading into an election and they want your vote because they should have been on the side of all Australians now, they should have been providing advice on what people need to do to protect their data. And they’ve failed. Dismally.

Updated

Still no answer on new Medicare and passport documents

There is no straight answer on whether or not you will be able to get a new Medicare number if your data was part of the Optus data breach, but the federal health minister, Mark Butler, has said the government is working on it.

One of the issues is they only just found out that Medicare numbers were part of the breach.

Butler:

We’re particularly concerned that we weren’t notified of the breach of Medicare data until the last 24 hours. Obviously, the breach of Optus data more broadly was known to us or notified to us last week. And we’re particularly concerned that only in the last 24 hours that we learned about the breach of Medicare data.

So, we’re working hard to develop strategies for a response to that, as government has been, for example, for some time in relation to passport numbers, as state governments have been in relation to driver’s licence numbers. This is obviously a deeply concerning breach of the data of almost 10 million Australians, and across the resources of government and the federal police, a range of other agencies, we’ve been working nonstop since the original notification of this breach to develop the best possible response for consumers.


There is also no answer on passports as yet either, but that is also something the government is working on, Butler said:

As Minister Wong said in the parliament yesterday, I think we’re developing the best possible responses as quickly as we can to the breach of all of this data, including the possible need for renewed identification data, identification material like passports and state-level driver’s licences and the like.

Updated

Queensland lifts renewables target to 70% by 2032

Queensland’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has taken to social media this morning to unveil a new renewable electricity target for the state.

The new target is for 70% of Queensland’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2032, compared to the previous target of 50% renewables by 2030.

When announcing plans for the largest publicly-owned wind farm in Australia on Monday, Palaszczuk said renewable projects currently made up about 21% of Queensland’s energy market.

Queensland is expected to release further details of its plans to reduce emissions later today. It’s currently aiming for a reduction of 30% below 2005 levels by 2030, well below targets of 50% in Victoria and New South Wales.

Updated

Anti-corruption presser

The Centre for Public Integrity is holding a press conference today responding to the national anti-corruption commission legislation – former judges the Hon Stephen Charles AO KC, the Hon Michael Barker KC and Geoffrey Watson SC will be in attendance.

We know that so far, there is an issue with the “exceptional circumstances” threshold for public hearings. Once the bill is introduced, we’ll hear if there are any other issues. That’s happening at 1.30pm AEST today.

Updated

Election wash-up

As we reported yesterday, the AEC will be appearing at the electoral matters parliamentary committee hearing this morning.

They’re not in trouble – it is part of the regular post-election check, where the parliamentary committee looks at any issues, and what improvements could be made.

Updated

Nuclear energy motion

In terms of the Senate business, Matt Canavan is still all about nuclear (an energy source his government didn’t make any moves on, because of the cost, the time delay, and the changes in technologies making it increasingly obsolete – especially given how long it takes to get a reactor online).

Updated

Mehreen Faruqi’s human rights complaint against Pauline Hanson

For those who missed it yesterday, Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission over a tweet from Pauline Hanson.

Faruqi had moved a motion to censure Hanson over the abusive tweet – the One Nation leader had said Faruqi could “piss off back to Pakistan” after Faruqi shared her feelings on the effects of British colonisation after the Queen’s death.

The Senate amended the motion to remove the direct mention of Hanson and instead condemned racism as a whole.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson in the Senate yesterday.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson in the Senate yesterday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Hanson, in her speech to the Senate, denied she had been racist, as she didn’t feel superior to any other race. She dared anyone to find anything racist she had said and then finished her speech by offering to take Faruqi to the airport.’

Faruqi said it was beyond time to take a stand.

Updated

More practices will close without government help, says Royal Australian College of GPs

The Royal Australian College of GPs is sounding a very loud alarm about the crisis impacting GPs – if you think it’s hard to get in to see a doctor now, it’s likely to get even harder. And in some areas, particularly regional Australia, impossible.

The college’s president Adj Prof Karen Price says “unless things change, more and more practices will face the impossible decision of hiking fees for patients or closing up shop”.

“Just 13.8% of future doctors are choosing general practice as their career and sourcing and retaining GPs has now become the highest priority challenge reported by practice owners in 2022,” she says.

“The disrespect and disinvestment in general practice has had predictable and shameful effects.

“Government can help secure the future of the GP workforce by immediately boosting investment in general practice care so that it is put on a more sustainable, long-term financial footing. This will help ease the pressure on vulnerable patients, their GPs, and general practice teams. Proper resourcing will help attract more future doctors to the profession and make sure all patients, including those in remote and rural areas, get the care they need when they need it.”

What would help? Lifting some of the administrative burden and doing something about the Medicare rate freeze.

Updated

Evacuation due to failing dam in Echunga, South Australia

Dipping out of politics for a moment for an emergency warning in South Australia:

The State Emergency Service SA has issued a dam failure emergency warning message for Echunga in the Adelaide Hills.
The State Emergency Service SA has issued a dam failure emergency warning message for Echunga in the Adelaide Hills. Photograph: SES

A dam is failing in the Adelaide Hills town of Echunga with locals evacuating under an emergency warning.

The South Australian SES (State Emergency Service) issued a Dam Failure Emergency Warning this morning, with residents told to relocate outside the warning area.

David O’Shannessy, a spokesman for the SA SES told Guardian Australia that the Echunga dam’s wall has been compromised because a combination of conditions from recent wet weather with the dam full and the ground sodden.

O’Shannessy said that there are 60 properties in the warning area, which are a combination of some homes and businesses.

The dam is 10 megalitres, which for context is about the size of 4 Olympic swimming pools.

Updated

Optus data breach replacement documents

Back on the Optus data breach, most of the states are coming to the party and allowing people who have been identified as part of the data breach to get a new licence (and number) without having to wait until they are a victim of fraud.

In NSW you can get a new digital licence pretty much immediately, and a card will follow.

Victoria and Queensland are also allowing the change, as is South Australia.

Western Australia is a little more complicated – you get a licence number for life there, so there isn’t an easy solution as yet. And the ACT hasn’t shifted as yet – you have to prove identity fraud before you can get a new card.

So what about passports? Well that’s a work in progress. It looks like something will be moving there very soon, but the sticking point is the cost, with a push for Optus to pay.

Updated

Passage is not assured

The main sticking point in the integrity commission legislation (which we haven’t seen as yet) is the threshold for public hearings.

The Coalition seem happy where that threshold has landed, which gives the government an option to pass it in the Senate without the Greens and the cross bench.

But the Coalition hasn’t committed to passing it. Which means at the moment it is wide open. Plus, there is still the committee review to come, which could change things again.

So at the moment, everyone is still a player.

Updated

Greens have concerns about anti-corruption public hearings

Over on ABC radio RN, Greens senator David Shoebridge says the Greens have been in good faith negotiations with the government, but they have concerns with the threshold for public hearings.

We had the previous Morison government wanting it all to be in secret, the initial discussions and communication we’d had with the Labour government was that that they weren’t going to go anywhere near that, they were going to adopt a much more discretionary test. But in the last 24 hours, we’ve seen … the Labor government go back towards something much closer to Morrison’s model and that is that is not good for fighting corruption.

One of the best ways of fighting corruption is openness … sunlight is a great disinfectant when it comes to public corruption.

Updated

Sally McManus at press club

Sally McManus will be at the press club today. The union leader has been pushing very hard for wage growth, which has been invigorated by the jobs summit, so expect her to go hard on that.

Updated

Good morning

We’ve made it to the last day of the make-up sitting – after this, the MPs won’t be back in Canberra for a month when they’ll return for the budget.

So it’ll be a big day with lots to get through. After all, budget week makes it hard to get clean air for anything other than the budget, so if you want a song and dance over what you’re doing, you’ve got to get in before or after.

The prime minister is back from Japan, just in time for the government to introduce the national anti-corruption commission legislation. It’ll be the first time a major party has introduced legislation for a federal Icac (the crossbench, especially Helen Haines tried). The Morrison government “tabled” its exposure draft but never actually introduced legislation into the parliament.

After it’s introduced, the bill will go straight to a committee for review, where the high threshold for public hearings is expected to get a workout – so far, from what’s been released, it’s the most controversial part. But we’ll find out more when it’s officially introduced – and Paul Karp will be all over that like me on cake.

Cost of living will also dominate the parliamentary group chat (question time) with the fuel excise pause expiring at 11.59pm. Will there be queues for petrol today? Probably not. Fuel is already expensive. But from tonight it will increase by what the ACCC thinks should be, on average, by 25 cents a litre. Still, it will come as a shock for a lot of people to see petrol jump up overnight and add fuel (if you like) to the fire for the government to do something on the cost of living. We know that the government is planning a “bread and butter” budget (the opposition is repeating the line it’ll be all Australians can afford boom tish – because struggling to make ends meet is apparently pun worthy) so there won’t be a lot of planned relief. But fuel is something everyone can see going up. The excise pause was always due to expire tonight – that’s what the previous government set – and Jim Chalmers has been making the argument that to extend it will cost $6bn. It’s still going to hurt though.

We’ll cover all the day’s events – and reactions – so thank you for joining us . You have Sarah Martin, Paul Karp and Josh Butler on deck, and Mike Bowers is off his project and back where he belongs – walking the hallways and getting into mischief for you. You’ve got Amy Remeikis on the blog for most of the day.

Ready? It’ll be a four-coffee day, minimum, over here, so let’s get into it.

Updated

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