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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Josh Taylor and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Voice referendum question and constitutional amendment could come tomorrow – as it happened

United States Coalition Guardian Australia Labor
Anthony Albanese will meet with the referendum working group for the voice to parliament in Canberra tonight.
Anthony Albanese will meet with the referendum working group for the voice to parliament in Canberra tonight. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

The day that was, Wednesday 22 March

That’s where we will leave the live blog for Wednesday. Here are the major points from today:

  • The Australian government has promised to establish “a new dedicated executive agency responsible for delivering the optimal pathway for Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine program” and promised to consult First Nations communities over the issue of nuclear waste.

  • The government and opposition have struck an agreement whereby the Coalition will support the referendum machinery act changes.

  • The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has announced the parliamentary joint committee on human rights will conduct a review of Australia’s human rights framework, including examining whether Australia needs a Human Rights Act.

  • The voice working group is close to finalising advice to government on the wording of the proposed change to the constitution to be voted on at a referendum later this year. The group is meeting with the PM tonight, ahead of the legislation being introduced into parliament next week.

  • The government could announce the proposed changes and the question as soon as tomorrow.

  • The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has signed a partnership agreement with the visiting prime minister of Samoa, Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa.

  • New Zealand will allow anti-trans agitator Kellie-Jay Keen to visit after her tour of Australia wraps up. Keen is visiting Canberra on Thursday.

Amy Remeikis will be back with you again tomorrow morning bright and early with all the latest on the last sitting day of this week. Until then, have a good evening.

Updated

Referendum question and constitutional amendment could come tomorrow

Confirmation of the Indigenous voice referendum question and constitutional amendment could come as soon as tomorrow, following a meeting of the referendum working group with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, tonight.

Multiple sources have told Guardian Australia that there may be news on the crucial outstanding details, including the question and proposed alteration to the constitution, as early as Friday morning. The shift was first reported by the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas late on Wednesday. There will likely need to be a special meeting of the federal cabinet to tick off on the details, which we’ve been told probably won’t happen tonight.

We have contacted the offices of the PM, attorney general Mark Dreyfus, and Indigenous Australians minister Linda Burney for comment.

We have been told there could be a few minor changes to the details outlined by PM Albanese at the Garma festival last year, but there’s unlikely to be any major surprises in the final draft. Of course, that will then go to a parliamentary committee, which will run for six weeks.

Getting news on the details tomorrow would be a change to the schedule, with government sources saying earlier this week that we likely wouldn’t get those details until mid or next week.

Prof Megan Davis, a key member of the working group and co-chair of the Uluru dialogue, earlier said the government and group were “very close” on the details. Before the meeting, she noted one of the group’s “key principles” was the voice advising parliament as well as government.

If you’ve been following our reporting on the voice, you would remember there has been concern from some conservatives and critics about voice talking to government. The working group has long rubbished those concerns, saying it was critical that the voice could advise government.

Davis stressed it was a key feature before the meeting, hinting that it wasn’t up for alteration. She also noted other key design principles, including that the voice’s membership would be chosen by First Nations people in local communities; that it would be representative, community-led, gender balanced; that it would be accountable and transparent; and that it would have no veto or program delivery function.

Updated

Looks like a rough one across large parts of NSW and the ACT tomorrow.

My colleague Josh Butler is reporting that we could know the wording of the question on the voice to parliament and the proposed change to the constitution as soon as tomorrow.

Updated

Former Greens leader Bob Brown has quit his life membership of the Australian Conservation Foundation in protest after the environment group urged parliament to “strengthen and pass” a signature Albanese government climate policy.

Brown said he had returned his life membership – awarded in the 1980s for his leadership in the campaign to save Tasmania’s Franklin River – over ACF’s position on the safeguard mechanism, an industrial emissions policy that is the subject of negotiations between Labor and the Greens.

And on tomorrow’s bit of the tour.

Here’s First Dog On The Moon’s take on the Hobart anti-trans event and the much larger counter-protest yesterday.

25m-year-old marsupial fossils give insight into descendants

An early relative of the wombat with a powerful bite and a possum with large teeth have been discovered in central Australia, helping to solve an evolutionary puzzle, AAP reports.

The fossils, deposited about 25 million years ago in the late Oligocene, were found by Flinders University paleontologists in 2014, 2020 and 2022 near the small Arrernte township of Pwerte Marnte Marnte in the southern Northern Territory.

They give key insights into the diet and lifestyle of long-extinct marsupials that lived in a once-lush forest landscape dominated by megafauna, including giant flightless birds and crocodiles.

“These curious beasts are members of marsupial lineages that went extinct long ago, leaving no modern descendants,” PhD candidate Arthur Crichton said.

“Learning about these animals helps put the wombat and possum groups that survive today in a broader evolutionary context.”

The newly described possum species, called Chunia pledgei, had teeth with lots of bladed cusps that were positioned side by side.

“We know that these animals had a lemur-like short face, with particularly large forward-facing eyes, but until more complete skeletal material is known their ecology will likely remain mysterious,” Crichton said.

The new species is named after South Australian paleontologist Neville Pledge, who discovered fossils in rocks east of Lake Eyre.

The other new species, called Mukupirna fortidentata, was a larger distant relative of wombats and had jaws and teeth shaped to suggest a powerful bite with large and steeply upturned incisors.

Weighing about 50kg, it was among the largest marsupials of its time.

Updated

Here is Greens senator Nick McKim’s response in parliament earlier regarding anti-trans agitator Kellie-Jay Keen’s comments about his trans stepson.

Four of Australia’s top 12 fertility apps are unnecessarily collecting highly sensitive information and have left the door open to selling the data to other companies, a study has found.

The study, conducted jointly by University of New South Wales law researcher Dr Katharine Kemp and consumer group Choice assessed the privacy policies of the 12 most popular fertility apps in Australia, which help people track menstrual cycles, ovulation, potential fertile windows, and stages of pregnancy.

The review of Australia’s human rights framework and the possibility of a federal Human Rights Act has been welcomed by the Charter of Human Rights campaign – a campaign that is made up of 80 organisations.

Caitlin Reiger, CEO, Human Rights Law Centre said:

A Charter of Human Rights is a missing piece to protecting human rights in Australia. We urge community groups, the legal profession and all who see this as important to a fair and just Australia to engage actively with this inquiry. There is overwhelming evidence of the need for a Charter of Human Rights so that everyone can enjoy equal access to justice, safety, health, education and housing.”

Dr Cassandra Goldie, Australian Council of Social Services (Acoss) CEO said:

Recent events like Robodebt highlight again just how vulnerable we are to government abuses of power without adequate human rights protections in place.

We need a Charter of Rights that provides protections for people against human rights abuses and builds a culture of respect for basic rights for all. It will be vital to include economic and social rights in the Charter.

Sam Klintworth, Amnesty International Australia national director said:

We’re very encouraged by the announcement of a Parliamentary inquiry. Your human rights are important. Every Australian should have the same fundamental human rights in law.

They should be protected and defendable.

One overarching Human Rights Act is simpler and more effective than multiple pieces of legislation attempting to protect individual rights. And it has overwhelming public support as our annual Human Rights Barometer has demonstrated.

A Human Rights Act provides an accountability framework so we can all have a tool in our kit to protect and defend our rights.

Updated

Attorney general announces review into Australia's human rights framework

The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has announced the parliamentary joint committee on human rights will conduct a review of Australia’s human rights framework.

The review will examine, among other things, whether Australia should have a Human Rights Act, and the effectiveness of similar charters/acts in the ACT, Queensland and Victoria.

Dreyfus said it is the first review since the framework was launched. A review should have been done in 2014, he said, but the Coalition government never undertook the review.

He said the committee will report in 2024, but in the meantime the government will be working to introduce legislation to prevent discrimination against people of faith, as well as protecting all students from discrimination on any grounds, and protecting teachers from discrimination at work “while maintaining the right of religious schools to preference people of their faith in the selection of staff”.

Updated

Not going ‘to frack the place’, Daniel Andrews says

Victoria’s premier has launched a broadside at the federal resources minister for suggesting the state should look at lifting moratoria on some of its gas fields, AAP reports.

US energy giant ExxonMobil has warned Victoria’s Gippsland Basin gas fields will fall from 68 wells to 36 by 2024, prompting resources minister Madeleine King to highlight the need to shore up energy supplies.

In response, Victorian premier Daniel Andrews directed King to a report from the state’s chief scientist that found there are no known or probable onshore reserves in the state that can be conventionally extracted.

“If you want us to frack the place, no, that’s not happening. That is not happening and we couldn’t have been clearer,” Andrews told reporters on Wednesday.

“We export 70 per cent of our gas and it’s not for me to give advice to minister King but if I can politely as possible perhaps suggest to her that a national domestic gas reserve would be what we need.”

In 2017, the Victorian government permanently banned fracking and coal seam gas extraction and placed a legislative moratorium on exploration and development of onshore gas reserves.

King said ExxonMobil was right to highlight depleting reserves in the Bass Strait and the Albanese government would work with Victoria to extend permits for other sites in the Otway basin.

“It’s really up to the Victorian government to decide how they will pursue energy security for manufacturing and domestic consumers ... but they’ve clearly got a challenge, as has New South Wales,” she told ABC Radio National.

Updated

The prime minister of Samoa, Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa, has said she is “very much in support” of the Australian government’s intention to recognise First Nations peoples in the constitution.

Speaking after a meeting with Anthony Albanese, Fiamē said the prime minister had briefed the visiting delegation from Samoa on the broad outlines of the attempt to achieve constitutional change.

Samoan prime minister, Fiamē Naomi Mata'afa and Anthony Albanese leave after inspecting the guard of honour during an official welcome ceremony at Parliament House.
Samoan prime minister, Fiamē Naomi Mata'afa, and Anthony Albanese leave after inspecting the guard of honour during an official welcome ceremony at Parliament House. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Fiamē said the delegation had also been briefed by the minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, on the mechanics. Fiamē added:

She did tell us that it’s not an easy task, especially because it has to be done through a referendum. And we understand that. But of course, we are very much in support of the intention of the government to carry that through.

Updated

Samoan PM ‘would have concerns’ if Australia refuses to ban future coal and gas projects

The prime minister of Samoa, Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, was largely diplomatic on the issue of the climate crisis, saying she welcomed the Albanese government’s deeper emission reduction targets, but saying she would be concerned if new coal and gas projects opened up.

She told reporters at Parliament House in Canberra it was “very important for all of us to support Australia’s bid for co-hosting” with the Pacific a UN climate conference because it “avails us the opportunity to profile issues within the region”.

Asked directly whether she would have concerns about the Australian government’s refusal to ban future coal and gas projects, the PM said:

I would have concerns, but I‘m seeing the issue from [the point of view] that this government has set new targets, as opposed to the previous government - you know, a higher target [to cut] emissions. One would assume that in setting those higher targets to lessen emissions, that they have a broad range of actions to take.

Now, you know, I’m sorry, I’m not quite up to date on your particular stance that they’re not banning [coal and gas projects] … rather, I’m looking at it that they have set this target, and would expect that they have a range of ways and means by which Australia would reach [it]. And I would have imagine curbing, capping in those particular industries. But the answer to your question is: yes it would be a concern if that was the case.

Updated

Lidia Thorpe differs from Greens on vote regarding legal advice on voice

Interestingly, also, there was a vote in the Senate for the government to release legal advice about the voice to parliament. It was blocked with Labor, the Greens and David Pocock voting against it, but interestingly, it seems it’s the first time the former Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has voted in difference to her former party.

Updated

Voice working group close to providing advice

Prof Megan Davis from the Indigenous Voice to Parliament working group gave a short statement outside parliament ahead of a meeting with the PM tonight.

She says the group is close to finalising the advice of the working group to government ahead of the constitutional alteration bill being introduced into parliament next week.

She said:

Members of the referendum working group will meet with the prime minister tonight, Minister Burney, Senator Dodson, Senator McCarthy and the attorney general.

We are so close to finalising our advice so that the government can introduce the constitutional alteration bill into parliament next week. So close to doing what grassroots communities across the country have asked for. So close to taking the next historic steps towards a successful yes vote.

We are putting the finishing touches on this historic change.

She said the voice will “hold bureaucracy to account”, not be another layer of bureaucracy, and will make a practical difference on the ground in communities.

Because Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people know and understand the best way to deliver real and practical change in our communities.

Davis said the working group had already agreed to key design principles:

That the voice provides independent advice to the parliament and the government. That it’s chosen by First Nations people based on the wishes of local communities, that it is represent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. That it’s empowering, community-led, inclusive, respectful, culturally informed and gender balanced and includes youth. That the voice is accountable and transparent and it works alongside existing organisations.

The voice will not have a veto and will not have a program delivery function.

Australia, let’s get this done together. Walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.

Updated

Amy signing out

Things are starting to wind down in the chambers, so I am going to hand you over to Josh Taylor to take you through the rest of the day’s news.

We are getting to the pointy end of the government’s negotiations on the safeguard mechanism. There will need to be some movement soon if it is going to meet the 1 July trading deadline (other than next week, there are no more sittings until the budget in May).

Stay tuned for more of the day’s developments and I will be back with you tomorrow just after 7am. And please – take care of you.

Updated

Billy Bragg serenades striking ABC workers

In between gigs at his sold-out concerts at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney UK singer Billy Bragg turned up to support striking workers at the ABC this afternoon.

Bragg was made aware of the strike when he went to the Ultimo headquarters on Tuesday for an interview on the morning show on ABC Sydney Radio with Sarah Macdonald. He saw the posters all over the building and asked when he could come and support the workers.

Members of the Community and Public Sector Union walked off the job for an hour at 7am and 3pm today, briefly disrupting the broadcast of Radio National.

Bragg posed for photos with staff and sang Union Maid by his hero, Woody Guthrie.

Updated

Somoan PM comments on Chinese state company winning port contract in Solomon Islands

During question time, the prime minister of Samoa, Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, held a solo press conference in the ministerial wing of Parliament House. It spanned a long range of issues including climate, sporting links, strategic competition and the Pacific Islands forum – but let’s begin with her answer to a question about the announcement today that a Chinese state company had won a contract to upgrade an international port in Honiara, the capital of Solomon Islands:

This is not a new issue that’s just emerging. And the Australian government has also conveyed their views and had their discussions with … Solomon Islands. I also understand that they also have an agreement with Australia with regards to not only development issues, but also security issues.

I think, at the outset, we’ve all recognised the sovereign rights of countries to make decisions. And this is a commercial port, although I think the fears are that it might morph into something else. What do they call it – dual purpose or something? Well, I suppose we have to address that if and when it might happen.

At the same time too, you know, let’s be quite clear, other countries also have military or naval stations within the region as well.

Updated

Roberts: as soon as I received legal advice I closed down robodebt

Stuart Robert has a second personal explanation:

The prime minister said that once I’d been informed that robodebt was unlawful, we continued to raise debts. That is incorrect.

I’d been sworn in as a minister for something like 39 days – I’d asked for legal advice, noting there had none being given.

As soon as that legal advice was given to me, within two hours I walked into the prime minister’s office and closed down [robodebt]. Of apparently the 1m records that had been provided to the royal commission, you will not find a single document that shows that any legal advice was provided to me to the contrary.

Updated

Robert: debt notice which Shorten referred to was not robodebt and was raised lawfully

Stuart Robert is now asking to make two personal explanations:

The member for government services said today that no one responded to Mrs Madgwick’s correspondence. As I told the House on the first of December 2020, Mrs Madgwick’s son’s debt was lawfully raised. It was not a robodebt.

It was not part of the robodebt cohort. I also made the point at the time … probably not dissimilar now, a million Australians owed $5bn.

The Department gets one escalation of serious harm every single day. Notwithstanding that, the Department contacted Mrs Madgwick.

I went and personally reviewed the correspondence and phone calls between my department and every call to her son and reviewed the text to ensure my department was acting appropriately.

A deputy secretary for my department went and visited Mrs Madgwick in her lounge room to talk her through the lawful basis of which the debt was raised.

Updated

There are a lot of people with questions for the speaker/claims of being misrepresented today.

Paul Fletcher is up first with a question – he wants to know whether Mark Dreyfus can be made to apologise and withdraw the comments he made yesterday about the Coalition and the Nazis who attended the anti-trans rights agitator’s rally in Melbourne.

Tony Burke is on his feet saying that parliament is a “robust” place of debate at times, and mentions when Peter Dutton claimed Labor was backing “pedophiles over Australian kids” and that Albanese had sanctioned abuse of a woman by a bikie member.

Burke said those comments were not true, but they weren’t made to be withdrawn, as it was part of the debate: “My point, that I am asking you to take into account, is there has been for a long time a gap between things being said, which have been allowed to be said within the parliament, and have not been viewed as unparliamentary”

(Unparliamentary being the standard to withdraw a comment.)

Milton Dick says there was no request for withdrawal at the time and he gave Dutton time to give a personal explanation addressing the comments at the end of question time. He says he reviewed the hansard and there was no unparliamentary terms, but he acknowledges that the topic will draw more emotion than most.

Almost half of the Coalition’s side of the chamber left after hearing Dick’s ruling. They are not happy.

Updated

So another question time ends

The Coalition focussed on the cost of living, while the government used its dixers to try and gather some support for its safeguard mechanism legislation and housing fund.

It’s basically using question time as a soapbox.

Updated

Tanya Plibersek is giving a dixer on recycling. The Liberal MP Tony Pasin yells out “you would have been a great education minister”.

So that is where the standard of heckles stands at the moment.

We are pretty close to the earth’s core. This is why people thought Aaron Sorkin shows were clever.

Updated

Morrison leaves chamber after Shorten speaks on robodebt

Paul Karp says Scott Morrison has left the chamber.

He heard Stuart Robert say “absolute rubbish,” as Bill Shorten finished his answer on robodebt.

In response to an [unheard] Labor sledge, he responded:

I will, don’t you worry. I won’t be lectured by that man.

Updated

Shorten repeats emotive evidence from the robodebt inquiry

Bill Shorten has taken two questions on the robodebt royal commission. We will wait until we have time to go through the transcript and make sure it is correct.

However, in his second answer, Shorten spoke about parents whose children had died by suicide after receiving robodebt notices:

Kath describes Jarrod and perhaps we cannot bring him back, but we can listen to the mother’s evidence.

‘He was a polite boy, had really good manners, but he also, if [he] applied himself to something, he would do well at it. He was captain of the school at his primary school, he was very good at swimming and rugby. The best thing about him is he was very unique in his way that he showed our closeness.

‘We were so very close. He displayed his love to me quite openly.’

After his death, Kath wrote to various politicians, including the then prime minister, the member for Cook and then minister for government services [and] the member for Fadden. She says she’s never heard back from them. Not even a sorry for your loss, she said.

Paul Karp reports Labor MP Tania Lawrence yelled across the chamber “how do you sleep at night”.

Stuart Robert is on his phone, head down. Morrison also had his head down.

Updated

Zoe Daniel asks if Australia will sign treaty on nuclear weapons

The independent MP Zoe Daniel has the next crossbench question and it is to the prime minister:

In your speech you spoke to Australia’s proud leadership in non-proliferation. Constituents tell me they fear a nuclear arms race because of Aukus. Does the government plan to merely make safe dies or now join the treaty on the progression of nuclear weapons in line with emotion use successfully proposed at the Labor national conference in 2018 seconded by the now Defence Minister and reaffirmed in 2021.

Albanese (after running through the history of Labor’s support for non-proliferation):

On the issue of nuclear propulsion for submarines, it is important to draw the distinction, they are nuclear, they have nuclear propulsion and will not have nuclear weapons. We are not acquiring nuclear weapons.

Daniel:

The question was does the government plan to sign the treaty?

Albanese:

We have said publicly that myself, and the defence minister and the foreign minister spoke to more than 60 world leaders and briefed them.

We also did was we had the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency secretary general in close liaison with us, the political leadership of this country as well as our defence leadership, to make sure that everything we were doing was completely in compliance with our commitments on the treaty of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

But also, that everything that we have done is completely in accord with the Treaty of Rarotonga.

Which is very important with our Pacific Islanders friends. We made sure that we got that right. On the issue of the treaty for the provision of nuclear weapons, Australia certainly has a view, very clearly that the world without nuclear weapons would be a very good thing. We don’t acquire them ourselves, we wish that they weren’t there.

We will do is we will work systematically and methodically through the issues and in accordance with the commitments that were made in the national platform.

Updated

Meanwhile in the Senate, Nick McKim was not holding back

Updated

Albanese says Coalition love scare campaigns ‘but there is nothing so scary as their lack of ambition for Australia’

The Liberal MP for Flinders, Zoe McKenzie, asks the PM a variety of questions, which include ‘why does consumer confidence always collapse when Labor is in government and why do families always pay more?”

Which brings a few exasperated lols from the Labor side of the chamber.

Anthony Albanese responds (in part):

What we are doing is a range of things that will assist Australians and that’s what the National Reconstruction Fund is about – new industries and new jobs. Those opposite just say no to that.

We just heard from the housing minister about the measures that are there in the housing Australian future fund and the specific measures that are there from the veterans’ affairs minister to help our veterans. But they say no to that as well.

They had the opportunity to vote with the government on energy price relief and they voted against that as well last December.

On every measure, on every measure, those opposite, those opposite just say no to any measure that is put forward that is going to make a positive difference.

They come in here, the talk the economy down, they talk Australia down – remember when our industrial relations legislation was being debated, they said that would be the end, we would all have general strikes by now. Where are they? Where are they? They just run a scare campaign, they just run a scare campaign but there is nothing so scary as their lack of ambition for Australia.

Updated

Monique Ryan presses Labor on ‘flaw’ in safeguard mechanism

Monique Ryan has one of the crossbench questions today:

Under your safeguard mechanism, big emitters can buy as many offsets as they want, there is no ceiling to the offsets that they can buy. The cost of the offsets will be less than 0.1% of the profits, giving polluters no reason to cut the remissions. Will you concede that there is a flaw in your lack of ceilings?

(Adam Bandt also used the term “flaw” when speaking about the safeguard bill on ABC radio this morning)

Chris Bowen:

I thank the member for the question and her engagement with her colleagues in this issue and further engagement to come this afternoon, Mr Speaker, but I do not accept the premise of the honourable members question, I do not.

It is the case the government is allowing access to offsets to safeguard because of the reform, absolutely we are and as we should.

Because this is an ambitious plan, Mr Speaker, and when you’re engaging in an ambitious plan, you need to give the industry the flexibility to implement that plan. Implement that plan.

Now, I would invite the honourable member and I say with all due respect, the honour member if the people are going to argue on the cap on the use of carbon credits, the need to explain how hard sectors will achieve the targets.

How they will cement and achieve its targets? With a technology that is currently emerging and it’s not yet available without access to Accu (Australian carbon credit units) and carbon credits?

When you’re applying this reform to 215 of the country’s biggest emitters, with the goods of technology available to them, it is absolutely vital to give them access to the carbon credits, what this framework does is provide the incentive to firms to invest in abatement as it emerges.

There are some sectors with good technology available to them today. There are other sectors where it will be available in the next couple years and other sectors I will be hard to abate for some time to come, our regime implements that and I say to the honourable members and all senators, amendments and suggestions and improvements are fine.

The most important thing is that the package passes the parliament, Mr Speaker, because then we have the framework in place not only for today but for years to come.

Independent MP Monique Ryan in the chamber during QT.
Independent MP Monique Ryan in the chamber during QT. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

We are back to the ‘out of touch prime minister’ questions

This time from LNP backbencher, Phil Thompson.

An elderly gentleman on a fixed income in my electorate has contacted me about the impact of the government’s cost of living crisis. He told me that he is having to choose between cooking his dinner and turning on his air-conditioning. Because of the spiralling power price increases. Can the prime minister inform him when he will receive the promised $275 cut to his power bill, why is the prime minister so out of touch and why do Australian families always pay more under Labor?

Anthony Albanese points out that Thompson, along with the rest of the Coalition, voted against the power intervention and the $1.5bn in bill relief which will be rolled out by the states after the budget.

Updated

Local council funding in focus

There is now a back and forth with Kristy McBain, the minister for local government, over a question from Darren Chester.

Chester said:

I refer to the minister for transport’s admission yesterday that the growing regions program funding guidelines have not been finalised 10 months since the federal action. Does the minister for local government agree that Labor’s failure to deliver this program in a timely manner means local councils will be forced to build less with the funding when it’s finally provided?

There is a move for Labor to give the question to someone else and Paul Fletcher points out that the question addressed McBain’s portfolio. So she has to answer it.

McBain goes through issues with the previous government’s grants process before Peter Dutton has a point of order:

Thank you for allowing this minister to speak, it is a great insight.

He then asks about relevance. Dick says she is allowed a preamble, but hints to McBain to get on with it.

McBain:

It is incredibly important that we engage local councils and what we have done for the first time ever is actually invited local government associations, we invited local councils to have input into the guidelines.

Because we take seriously collaboration with our Local Government Act. This is a program that was announced in October, because those opposite rorted building better regions so much that the whole program became tainted. We have announced $1bn over three years into specific programs, we consulted with local government on we are working with them because they are a trusted delivery partner of our federal government.

Updated

Milton Dick is about to give a warning to the entire chamber.

He is not in a mood to be messed with today. And it is only Wednesday. Usually he only gets to this point on a Thursday afternoon.

Albanese ‘out of touch’ emerges as Coalition focus point

Angus Taylor asks:

Research shows the Victorians with a mortgage have seen on average monthly repayments rise by $1,083 [per] month. On Monday, when the prime minister was asked, if you could identify a single Australian paying less on their interest rates, he said, it’s been a pretty good 10 months. Why is the prime minister so out of touch and why do Australian families always pay more under Labor?

So there is a bit of a theme emerging here.

Anthony Albanese gives the same answer – inflation. Inflation which was happening before Labor won government. You get the drift.

Updated

China firm wins major Solomon Islands port contract

The Solomon Islands has awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara in a project funded by the Asian Development Bank, an official of the island nation said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

The China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) was the only company to submit a bid in the competitive tender, Mike Qaqara of the infrastructure development ministry told Reuters.

“This will be upgrading the old international port in Honiara and two domestic wharves in the provinces,” Qaqara said.

The ADB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deal comes after the Solomons Islands last year signed a controversial security pact with China, sparking huge concern in the US and Australia.

Manasseh Sogavare, the prime minister of Solomon Islands, has previously said there would never be a Chinese military base in his country, saying that any such deal with Beijing would undermine regional security, make Solomon Islands an “enemy” and “put our country and our people as targets for potential military strikes”.

The US has sought to increase its presence in the Pacific in the wake of the pact, announcing it would open two new embassies in the region – in Tonga and Kiribati – as well as announcing in February that it would reopen its embassy in Honiara, which closed nearly three decades ago.

And Sogavare has reportedly had a very busy week with visits from the Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, officials from the China International Development Agency, and Kurt Campbell, the Biden administration’s high powered Indo-Pacific coordinator. Not all in the same room of course.

Updated

Ley accuses Albanese of being ‘out of touch’ on living costs

Sussan Ley asks Anthony Albanese:

Beyond Blue have reported more people seeking help due to the cost of living prices with people lodging from one challenge to the next. When asked on Monday whether he could identify a single Australian hang less on their power bills, grocery bills or interest rate, the prime minister arrogantly asserted ‘It’s been a pretty good 10-months’. Why is the prime ministers so out of touch and why do Australian families always pay more under Labor?

Albanese responds by speaking about robodebt:

Not only did the robodebt scandal impose those sorts of conditions on vulnerable people in attacking not just the standard of living but whether they had any money at all to survive, we know that the former Member for Aston had this to say. ‘We will find you, track you down and you will have to repay those debts and you may end up in prison’.

What impact do you think that had on people’s mental health?

Updated

Emissions targets won’t be met if safeguard mechanism bill fails, Bowen says

The dixers are about the safeguard mechanism.

Which shows negotiations are getting to the pointy end and things aren’t necessarily going the government’s way just yet.

Here is Chris Bowen:

I am asked by the honourable member what the consequences would be of not passing it. Well you know the Coalition is against it, they’re against everything. The member for Bass has described her own party’s position as going nowhere, and of course she is correct. But what can’t go nowhere is climate policy in this country.

Over the next fortnight, the consequences of the safeguard reforms not passing are very real. Very real for our region, very real for the Pacific because our targets of 43% (emissions reduction by 2030) which were legislated by this parliament last year, will not be met without … the safeguard mechanism.

That is a bit of emotional labour being laid out there.

Chris Bowen speaks during QT today.
Chris Bowen speaks during QT today. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

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Albanese rebuffs Dutton’s attack on power prices

Peter Dutton asks Anthony Albanese why he made his promise to lower power prices (by 2025), and if the war in Ukraine was a problem why did he keep making the promise after Russia’s illegal invasion.

Dutton’s office have the numbers on how often Albanese made that promise after Russia’s invasion, and I pity that staffer who had to go through all those transcripts.

Albanese, though, seems not in the mood for these sorts of questions.

Those opposite like to talk about the cost of living and energy prices as if nothing, nothing happened on their watch.

But the truth is that inflation, which is feeding into higher prices, had occurred before the change of government. Indeed, inflation had taken off before Labor took office.

The CPI jumped 2.1% in the March 2022 quarter. The highest increase, the largest quarterly rise in the century. It occurred on their watch.

What they also know is energy prices are going up because the default market offer had already been handed to the government and they chose to keep it secret.

They not only chose to keep it secret, they chose to introduce a special regulation to keep it secret. Before the election. They are the circumstances which we inherited when we came to office. Since then, what we have been doing is taking action to lower prices. The action that we have taken, the action we are taken such as energy price relief plan of $1.5bn, those opposite voted against.

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Question time begins

Before question time, both the prime minister and opposition leader welcomed the prime minister of Samoa Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa

It’s a rare show of bipartisanship and then makes the performance of question time even worst.

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Iranian political dissident released from detention by Australia after UN condemnation

Earlier this month, the Guardian reported on the case of “Mr A”, an Iranian dissident held indefinitely in immigration detention.

Mr A’s case had been put before the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which condemned his indefinite detention as arbitrary and unlawful.

The 42-year-old was a member of Iran’s Ahwazi Arab community, and had suffered serious persecution before fleeing Iran.

Several of his family members in Ahvaz, in south-western Iran, have recently been shot and killed by security forces during the uprising against the Iranian government.

This week, Mr A was released from immigration detention, after a ministerial intervention, to live in the Australian community.

His lawyer, Alison Battisson, director principal of Human Rights 4 All, told the Guardian: “Mr A, an Iranian political activist, has gained his liberty, after a total of eight years in detention. At HR4A we are thrilled that the Minister has finally seen sense.”

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China firm wins major Solomon Islands port contract

Reuters is reporting the China Civil Engineering Construction Company won a tender to redevelop the international port in the Solomon Islands capital of Honiara, an official from the island nation said on Wednesday.

More to come.

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Record number of postal vote applications for NSW election

The NSW electoral commission is reporting it has received a record number of postal vote applications before the state poll this weekend.

So far 540,208 applications have been received. That’s up 117% from the 2019 election.

Postal votes need to be returned by 6pm on 6 April to be counted.

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We are on the downhill slide towards question time – so prepare yourself.

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Hastie urges MPs to maintain ‘very tight weave’ with US as Aukus ‘depends on it’

The shadow defence minister, Andrew Hastie, gave a response to Richard Marles’s Aukus statement, laying out the Coalition’s support but also a few questions on how the government planned on paying for it.

Hastie also laid out how central the US was to the process and urged his colleagues to maintain their relationships with the US Congress:

We also have the challenge of working alongside two other countries, the US and the UK, both robust democracies with their own domestic political issues to deal with.

The United States is critical to Aukus and the delivery of our submarines.

Everyone in this House will need to work on our relationship with the US Congress – everyone.

And everyone at every opportunity, each one of us, when you have the opportunity to speak to a US congressman or senator, you need to be closing on AUKUS with our American colleagues, because our Virginia class submarines are still pending congressional approval.

We need to maintain a very, very tight weave with our American friends.

Our strategic adversaries know this and will seek to undermine this goodwill and this relationship.

We will need to act in the national interest and we will need to maintain good relations with the US-regardless of political affiliation. This project depends upon it.

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‘We want the technology to work for us, not the other way around’: Husic on AI

Ed Husic continues riffing on AI:

We want the technology to work for us - not the other way around. I think it’s been one of the things that’s held back technology in terms of this country. Because we haven’t... it’s not just policymakers.

It’s been business as well, thinking through when you invest in technology, what are the impacts on your firm, your employee, on customers.

The other case study, obviously, that people think about a lot, is Robodebt and the way that that was done.

Now, the technology performed in the way that the technology was designed.

What let people down was the processes of Government not thinking through the consequences of the use of that technology. Not providing for example the feedback loops that would allow people that were experiencing huge stress getting these debt notices, how did you give them a sense of calm about it and be able to contact someone to be able to deal with that.

So it’s technology and processes. It’s people and the tools that need to be worked out.

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Albanese government considering policy responses to AI, Husic says

To the serious nub of the question, Ed Husic says yes, the government is looking at it:

We were looking at how generative AI might be used in journalism and other work, and some of the uses that you outlined. So, I quietly, about a month ago, asked the National Science and Technology Council to consider this. To consider the pathways that got us to this point. How the technology will evolve. The sort of generative AI. Some of which has been captured around ChatGPT, and to think through what the implications are and how governments should respond, and that work is being done.

We’re expecting that report shortly to help inform policy work, and to do that. Now, obviously, parliament has its own power to determine what inquiries it does in either the House or the Senate. But we are certainly thinking through that.

Last week, we launched work that’s being done by the National AI Centre in bringing together industry around responsible use of AI, so the responsible AI network, or RAIN, as it is called, has been brought together.

So you’ve got CSIRO, you’ve got academics, you’ve got industry, thinking around some of the issues you’ve highlighted in your question as well to take that to the next level, too. So there’s a number of things that are occurring.

Not the least of which is getting our prime ministers, national science and technology council, to give us some of the best advice that we can get in terms of where this is going and how governments should be thinking about policy response.

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AI could ‘potentially do the work of journalists’, Husic says

Does science minister Ed Husic support an inquiry into AI?

He tells Paul Karp:

I’ve been watching in terms of artificial intelligence developments for some time as a parliamentarian. In fact, five years ago, or just over five years ago, I was urging governments to think about the ethical implications of the use of artificial intelligence and urging that that we 1) think about that. And that 2) we also invest where we get the ethical frameworks right. Artificial intelligence will play an important role in getting things done.

A number of us for some time pointed to generative AI being able to, in time, do a lot more of the work that we thought wouldn’t be possible to do. We were pointing for example, Chris Bowen and myself, for a number of years about how artificial intelligence would potentially do the work of journalists.

We weren’t cheering that on. We were just saying … I’m reading the room. I’m reading the room. I wasn’t encouraging that!

Karp:

Not Guardian journalists.

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Ed Husic: ‘I have enormous regard for what Paul Keating has done’

At the press club, industry minister Ed Husic is asked about Paul Keating’s criticism of the Aukus deal and says:

We had this issue that we needed to confront, which is we had an ageing fleet that needed to be replaced. An assessment was made about what we actually required that would meet the longer term interests of the nation and respond to defence capability needs. There were some gaps as well that had to be attended to.

So you’ve got a government that’s thinking that through carefully, and as I said earlier, considering as well that the threshold issue for any government is the security of the nation, so attending to that responsibly very, very critical for us.

We think we’ve done it.

Obviously, we’ve all seen some of the reaction from people. I have enormous regard for what Paul Keating has done. He’s dedicated the bulk of his time, particularly as a prime minister, thinking about security from within our region, within Asia, and building agreements and understandings with our neighbours, either economic or defence.

I mean, it was a pretty big deal, the one that he made, the security arrangements with Indonesia, that people didn’t think would be able to occur.

But that, I think, that agreement had a fundamental role in reshaping the thinking of Indonesia and how we looked at them. And we opened up a much better dialogue with that nation and it transformed it.

So I respect … what he has done and had to say in times past, and I don’t think that we’re that brittle or soft as a nation that we can’t in a [robust] democracy listen to different views.

Updated

Continued from previous post:

Today’s agreement commits Australia and Samoa to “regular bilateral discussions on security issues encompassing all elements of the Boe Declaration on Regional Security” (that declaration first and foremost places climate as the top security threat to the region).

The countries will also “deepen information sharing and training cooperation, through a number of mechanisms, including the Pacific Police Development Program, the Pacific Transnational Crime Coordination Centre, and the Pacific Fusion Centre to enhance Samoa’s border management and maritime surveillance capacity to respond to threats such as illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, illicit drugs, cyber security and transnational crime”.

The countries will also continue existing partnerships in policing, maritime and border security. They also vowed to work together on cyber security - “a challenge for the region”. They add:

We commit to work together to champion a safe, secure and prosperous region enabled by a secure cyberspace and critical technology, including through continued capacity building and cooperation.

The other pillars of the agreement are economic growth and partnerships, human and socio-economic development, and people-to-people linkages.

Australia and Samoa sign partnership arrangement, vowing to work together and 'respect each other'

As Amy mentioned earlier, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has signed a partnership agreement with the visiting prime minister of Samoa, Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa.

Let’s bring you some more detail on that agreement, tited Ole fala folasia i lo ta va (‘’the map that guides us’).

The two countries first set out some principles for how they should engage with each other, including to “respect each other as individual sovereign states”. There is also a pledge to “engage with trust, and invest time in understanding each other’s challenges, needs and priorities”.

Samoa's prime minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa and Anthony Albanese sign a bilateral partnership arrangement in Canberra today.
Samoa's prime minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa and Anthony Albanese sign a bilateral partnership arrangement in Canberra today. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/EPA

The document also includes a promise to respect the centrality of the regional body known as the Pacific Islands Forum. Australia and Samoa say they will “encourage members to speak with one voice for the Pacific in the global context”.

The first “pillar” of the agreement is to “strengthen cooperation on climate and disaster resilience across our partnership”, including a commitment to “implementing our ambitious 2030 targets and driving our transitions to net zero”. The document adds:

Samoa and Australia will work together to enhance our capacity to respond to humanitarian and natural disasters, pandemics and global crises affecting the region and strive to be the first regional responders in times of need.

The second pillar is security cooperation, with promises of “working together, with the Pacific family and regional partners, to ensure a peaceful, prosperous and resilient Pacific region”. They back “a Pacific-family-first approach to peace and security” (this framing is not new, but happens to implicitly exclude China, which is trying to deepen security cooperation with Pacific islands countries including Solomon Islands).

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The only possible response to this criticism:

MPs during sitting weeks, outside of ‘work’ hours are often grabbed for interviews while still in their workout clothes. It’s a normal part of working in a building which is self-contained.

Ed Husic is at the National Press Club today, speaking on the importance of science to Australia.

But you can almost guarantee that the questions will all be about the safeguard mechanism.

Updated

Bridget Archer says Coalition ‘going nowhere’ on safeguard mechanism but she still can’t vote for bill

Liberal MP Bridget Archer is on her feet in the house saying that while she won’t vote against the government’s safeguard mechanism bill, in the form it is in, she cannot vote for it either.

She thinks the bill can be improved. But she has also criticised the Coalition’s approach to the bill, which she called “an approach going nowhere”.

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Submarines will make Australia a ‘more difficult and costly target for anyone who wishes us harm’

Richard Marles notes the government wanted to build confidence and trust by talking to partners in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond in the lead up to the announcement.

He says “engaging in a transparent and open way with our partners in the region is central to our approach to Aukus” and the announcement “did not come as a surprise to them”.

Marles once again pledges to “extend the life of the Collins class [diesel-electric] submarines from 2026 so that they remain an effective capability until they are withdrawn from service” (although the government has kept open the option that not all six of these Collins class subs get extended).

Marles says that “as we look ahead to the 2030s and beyond, the reality is that diesel-electric submarines will be increasingly detectable as they surface to recharge their batteries” and that will “diminish their capability”.

Pushing back implicitly at claims made by Paul Keating and others (without naming them), Marles says:

By the 2030s and 2040s, the only capable long-range submarine able to effectively operate in our ocean environment will be nuclear-powered submarines.

Marles says the submarines will “make Australia a more difficult and costly target for anyone who wishes us harm”. He reiterates his view that Australia is “facing the most complex strategic circumstances since the second world war” and that the national interest and national security “extends beyond our shoreline” (this pushes back at the Keating argument that China doesn’t pose a direct military threat to the Australian mainland).

Marles says Australia is an island trading nation that is highly dependent on global trade, partly due to the fact the Hawke-Keating government opened up the Australian economy in the early 1990s, and that means it is increasingly important to maintain access to trading lines:

In the 1990s, we had eight oil refineries which were producing most of our liquid fuels on shore.

Today, we have two. Most of our liquid fuels we import, indeed, most of what we use, we import from one country: Singapore.

One doesn’t have to think hard to see what the impact would be if just this one trade route was disrupted by an adversary.

Marles says the defence of Australia “doesn’t mean much without the security of our region and a settled global rules-based order”. He argues at the heart of Australia’s strategic intent behind acquiring a nuclear-powered submarine capability is “to make our contribution to the collective security of our region”. This sits alongside diplomatic efforts to promote “positive incentives for peaceful engagement in the region”.

Any adversary who wishes us harm by disrupting our connection with the world will be given pause for thought.

But at the end of the day the true purpose of our nuclear-powered submarines will be to significantly enhance Australia’s contribution to the stability, the security and, the peace of our region.

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New Zealand allows anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen to visit

On social media this week, some New Zealanders have urged the country’s immigration agency to revoke Kellie-Jay Keen’s permission to travel here for rallies in Auckland and Wellington this weekend, citing the fallout from her Melbourne event.

The agency has just confirmed that Keen, an anti-trans activist from the UK, will be allowed to enter the country because she meets all the legal and regulatory criteria to do so, prompting this response from Michael Wood, New Zealand’s immigration minister:

Like many New Zealanders I would prefer it if Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull never set foot in New Zealand. I find many of her views repugnant, and am concerned by the way in which she courts some of the most vile people and groups around including white supremacists.

Wood said he had been “advised” that Keen’s case did not warrant ministerial intervention.

He added:

I condemn her inflammatory, vile and incorrect worldviews, and will always stand alongside those New Zealanders who use their own right to free speech against those who wish to take society backwards.

Kellie-Jay Keen on the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne.
Kellie-Jay Keen on the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne. Photograph: James Ross/EPA

Updated

Should international students who study offshore at Australian universities get working visas?

The University of Canberra has told an inquiry allowing international students who complete degrees offshore with Australian universities to receive working visas could address ongoing skills shortages.

Speaking at a trade subcommittee into international education, deputy vice chancellor of the University of Canberra Geoffery Crisp said expanding work rights to international student graduates was the right move as universities expanded their transnational relationships.

Earlier this month, Deakin University became the first tertiary institution in the world to announce the establishment of a campus in India, following a call from the Indian government for foreign institutions to expand their relationships with the rapidly evolving education sector.

Crisp:

What incentives do we provide for students who study an Australian degree offshore about whether they can come to this country? Can they work here if they’ve done their degree completely in their home country but it’s an Australian degree? Think about the benefits this might bring us … we should see international education as a longterm investment.

He said on the reverse, visa application delays were having a “significant impact” on the amount of international students coming to Australia.

Labor MP Julian Hill said he was “deeply, deeply sceptical” about extending post study work rights for offshore students, which had the capacity to become a “giant rort”.

He said students eligible for visas post study “in most incidents” had already lived or worked in the community and made a “vastly more significant economic contribution” to offshore students.

That’s just a fact. It could very quickly scale up to be a giant rort.The prospect of a few years working in Australia for what is a relatively cost effective investment in a home country when you’re talking about … South Asia … I don’t think it’d take long before we saw hundreds of thousands of students lining up for a work visa rort.

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Marles promises new Aukus agency and First Nations consultation on nuclear waste site

The Australian government has promised to establish “a new dedicated executive agency responsible for delivering the optimal pathway for Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine program”. Richard Marles has also promised to consult First Nations communities over the issue of nuclear waste.

The defence minister tells parliament:

As we become ‘sovereign ready’ to operate nuclear-powered submarines it will be essential that we also become responsible nuclear stewards. This will mean developing the full suite of skills, facilities and institutions along with an appropriate regulatory and legislative architecture to be nuclear stewards.

Marles says the dedicated executive agency will be responsible for delivering the entire nuclear enterprise. He says the government will also establish an independent regulator, responsible for regulating the nuclear-powered submarine enterprise.

He says legislation will be required to underpin the nuclear enterprise and its regulation.

Markes reiterates that Australia “does not want to, and will not, acquire nuclear weapons”.

He says the government is working with the International Atomic Energy Agency “to place the bar at its highest when one country shares nuclear naval propulsion technology with another”:

As part of satisfying our obligations, Australia has committed to manage all radioactive waste generated through the acquisition and operation of our nuclear-powered submarines.

This is a complex task, but we have time to get it right.

To be clear, we will not have to dispose of the first reactor from our nuclear-powered submarines until the 2050s.

Within the next 12 months, we will set out the process by which we will identify potential locations on the current or future Defence estate for storage and disposal of this waste.

I want to assure the Parliament that there will be appropriate public consultation, particularly with First Nations communities to respect and protect cultural heritage.

This will not be a matter of set and forget. We will continue talking to the Australian people about why we are undertaking this transformational endeavour.

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Albanese and Samoan PM acknowledge ‘urgent need’ to address ‘existential threat of climate change’

The joint statement between Anthony Albanese and the prime minister of Samoa, Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa has been released:

The Prime Ministers’ bilateral talks reflected the longstanding relationship between Australia and Samoa, underpinned by mutual respect and trust. The Prime Ministers affirmed their strong partnership and commitment to work together on shared challenges and priorities to support a stable, prosperous and resilient Pacific region. Prime Minister Albanese also acknowledged Prime Minister Fiamē’s historic achievement in being elected Samoa’s first female Prime Minister, and her contribution to gender equality in Samoa and the region.

Prime Minister Albanese recognised Prime Minister Fiamē’s regional leadership and expressed his appreciation for her significant contribution to Pacific unity. Amidst an increasingly complex regional outlook, the Prime Ministers acknowledged the centrality of the Pacific Islands Forum in driving collective responses to shared regional challenges such as climate change, economic recovery from COVID-19 and regional security. The leaders welcomed Kiribati’s return to the Forum. They also underlined their commitment to continue to work together to contribute to a stable, prosperous and resilient Blue Pacific, based on the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, regionalism and a Pacific family-first approach to peace and security.

The Prime Ministers acknowledged the urgent need to accelerate international action to address the existential threat of climate change. Their discussions reinforced their commitment to work together to advance real and significant climate action and drive the transition to net-zero, welcoming Australia’s commitment to place Pacific voices at the centre of international climate discussions. Prime Minister Fiamē expressed support for Australia’s bid to host COP31 in partnership with the Pacific. The Prime Ministers acknowledged their support and co-sponsorship of Vanuatu’s request for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on climate change.

The Prime Ministers discussed how Australia and Samoa could work together to strengthen climate resilience in Samoa and the region, recognising the threat climate change poses to livelihoods, security and wellbeing of Pacific peoples. They reaffirmed Samoa and Australia’s close security partnership, which encompasses cooperation on maritime surveillance and ocean stewardship, policing, cyber and transnational crime.

The Prime Ministers reflected on the impacts on COVID-19 on our economies and how Australia could support Samoa on its journey and reforms towards economic recovery and resilience. They discussed how the Pacific-Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) program could best operate to ensure mutual benefit, including ensuring the program delivers for all Samoans. Prime Minister Albanese welcomed the work underway to refine Samoa’s labour mobility policy settings, and outlined the steps Australia was taking to ensure the scheme provided further opportunities for skills development. The Prime Ministers agreed to reflect these developments in a Memorandum of Understanding that would guide the PALM partnership. The Prime Ministers welcomed continued cooperation on Samoa’s human development priorities, including health, education, social inclusion and tertiary scholarships. They also welcomed progress towards support for Samoa’s infrastructure priorities through the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific.

The Prime Ministers welcomed the strong people-to-people links between Australia and Samoa, with some 98,000 people of Samoan descent living in Australia. They recognised the important unifying role of sports in our relationship – promoting excellence, health, gender equality and social cohesion. They celebrated the achievement of Australia and Samoa’s national teams in reaching the Rugby League World Cup final in November 2022. The Prime Ministers acknowledged the other ways in which people-to-people linkages bring Samoans and Australians together – in faith, business and community. The Prime Ministers discussed Australia’s new Pacific Engagement Visa and its possibilities to further deepen people-to-people, business and educational linkages.

The Prime Ministers expressed their support for the Pacific Islands Forum’s efforts to revitalise the Pacific Leaders’ Gender Equality Declaration to advance gender equality and inclusion in the Blue Pacific.

Formalising this commitment to boost Australia-Samoa links, the Prime Ministers signed a Bilateral Partnership Arrangement, Ole fala folasia i lo ta va (‘’the map that guides us’). The Prime Ministers warmly welcomed the closer cooperation the Partnership Arrangement will engender across the pillars of climate and disaster resilience, security cooperation, economic growth, human and socio-economic development and people-to-people linkages. The Prime Ministers reiterated that the partnership between Australia and Samoa is based on transparency and respect for sovereignty.

The Prime Ministers agreed to continue to work closely together to further strengthen the partnership between Australia and Samoa and cooperation in support of a stable, prosperous and resilient Blue Pacific.

Updated

Marles defends $3bn Aukus bill to boost US and UK industry

Richard Marles has defended plans to spend at least $3bn propping up the industrial base overseas (mostly the US). Guardian Australia revealed this morning that the bill could rise higher than the $3bn initially announced, because that figure is just the first four-year budget period.

Marles says it’s just part of the price we have to pay to get access to Virginia class submarines later:

In the early 2030s, Australia will acquire its first of three Virginia class submarines.

The provision of these submarines is an unprecedented contribution to our defence capability by our US ally.

To facilitate this, and ensure Australia receives Virginia class submarines at the earliest opportunity, Australia will assist the US in improving its sustainment facilities to have more Virginia class submarines come out of maintenance and back into operational service.

We will also help improve the US submarine construction facilities to increase the production rate of new Virginia class submarines.

However, the amount we invest in our own industrial base will far exceed this number, both over the forward estimates and through the life of the program.

Ultimately the early purchase of the Virginia class submarines will ensure that there is no gap in our submarine capability as a result of a lost decade.

As with SSN-AUKUS, once the Virginia class submarines carry an Australian flag they will be sovereign Australian assets operating under the complete control of the Australian Government.

The Optimal Pathway reflects a truly trilateral partnership. It will meet Australia’s long-term defence needs, while creating tens of thousands of jobs and delivering benefits to our national economy for generations to come.

This pathway ensures a methodical, safe and secure transition from Australia’s current diesel-electric Collins class submarines to the Australian-owned Virginia class submarines and finally to SSN-AUKUS – an Australian built nuclear-powered submarine.

Ultimately, this will see the Royal Australian Navy operate a fleet of eight nuclear-powered submarines by the mid-2050s.

For more on the offshore spending, see our story from this morning:

Updated

Marles explains increased visits to Australia from US and UK submarines

Here’s what Marles has to say on the planned rotations of the submarines (TLDR: because each submarine is not there permanently, it doesn’t count as a foreign base):

From this year, Australian military and civilian personnel will begin embedding with the Royal Navy and the US Navy, and within UK and US submarine industrial bases, to accelerate the skills development of our workforce and sailors.

From this year, we will see an increased tempo of visits to Australia from UK and US nuclear-powered submarines.

From 2027, the UK and US will have a rotational presence at HMAS Stirling in Western Australia.

This will ultimately comprise one UK Astute class submarine and up to four US Virginia class submarines, and will be known as Submarine Rotational Force-West.

This rotational presence will be consistent with Australia’s longstanding policy of no foreign bases on Australian soil.

The increased tempo of visits and rotational presence will enable Australia to grow the required submariner cohort to operate our own Virginia class submarines from the early 2030s.

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Australian submarines to roll out of Adelaide every three years from early 2040s, Marles says

Speaking days after some Labor MPs started to ask questions about Aukus, Richard Marles acknowledges the project will be “a complex, multi-decade undertaking. He tells the house:

The parliament can be assured that the Albanese government has adopted a methodical, phased approach that will build our capacity as a nation to safely and securely build, maintain and operate conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines.

Marles says the long-term solution – the SSN-Aukus – will be based on a UK design and “incorporating the very best of Australian, US and UK technology”. The Australian ones will be built by Australian workers in South Australia, he adds.

Marles explains:

SSN-AUKUS will be a common platform operated by both the UK and Australia, with two productions lines – one based at Barrow-in-Furness in the UK, and one based at Osborne in South Australia.

The first submarine will roll off the UK production line in the late 2030s for the Royal Navy. The first Australian submarine will be delivered in the early 2040s from Osborne.

Subsequent Australian submarines will roll off the Osborne production line at a three-yearly drumbeat.

This arrangement will spread the risk over two production lines and improve efficiencies, as we avoid a bespoke design and delivery model.

To reach this goal, we will need to build experience and expertise among Australian service personnel, workers and industry.

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Marles steps up for ministerial statement on Aukus

Richard Marles has stepped up in the House of Representatives to give a ministerial statement on Aukus.

The deputy prime minister is set to run through the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine plans in detail. The point of this speech seems to be to give the parliament the respect of having the details laid out in the chamber (remember the announcement was a press event in San Diego last week).

Marles will also mount a defence of a few elements, including the effect on sovereignty and the spending on the US industrial base. We’ll have more details for you soon.

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Referendum machinery changes make their way through Senate

The amendments to the Referendum Machinery Act are slowly making their way through the Senate, and it appears the deal has indeed been struck between the government and the opposition – with amendments proposed by David Pocock and the Greens so far being not supported in the chamber.

The government has again confirmed there will be no public funding for the yes and no campaigns.

Both government and opposition sources are pointing toward one amendment to the money the commonwealth can spend on the referendum. That amendment points out that restrictions on government spending “does not prevent the Commonwealth from expending money in relation to neutral public civics education and awareness activities.”

The amendment notes that, to avoid doubt, the allowed spending “must not address the arguments for or against a proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution.”

It also allows the government to spend money on meetings of the Constitutional Expert Group, the Referendum Engagement Group or the Referendum Working Group.

BUT those sections will be repealed shortly after the referendum and by the time of the next federal election.

One other interesting bit – the Nationals senator Jacinta Price, a leading voice in the no campaign, told a press conference earlier that she was reserving her right to cross the floor and oppose the machinery changes, even if the Coalition formally resolves to support it. She still wants to see public funding for the campaigns.

The amendments go on. We continue.

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Coalition shares private member’s bill on federal ban on Nazi symbols

The Coalition have shared their private member’s bill, which would insert a prohibition on the public display of Nazi symbols into the commonwealth Criminal Code Act.

The bill would make it an offence if a “person publicly displays a Nazi symbol and the person knows that the symbol is a Nazi symbol”. This is based on the New South Wales Crimes Act.

The proposed penalty is 12 months in prison or $27,500.

There are a few exceptions if the person has a “reasonable excuse” including:

  • the display is for a genuine scientific, educational or artistic purpose; or

  • the display is part of a communication made for the purposes of, or in the course of, a person’s work as a journalist in a professional capacity; or

  • the display is for a purpose that is in the public interest.

“To avoid doubt, the display of a swastika in connection with Buddhism, Hinduism or Jainism does not constitute the display of a Nazi symbol,” it said.

The bill specifies that it is not intended to exclude the law of a state or territory “to the extent that the law is capable of operating concurrently”

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Spike in internet searches for emergency food relief

We reported earlier today unsurprising new research that shows the majority of people living on jobseeker or parenting payment live in poverty.

That’s according to a study from the Australian Council of Social Service and UNSW that looked at ABS data from the months before and at the start of the pandemic.

But with severe cost of living pressures currently hitting households, service providers such as Foodbank suggest demand for their services is higher now than it was during the period covered by the Acoss study.

New data from the not-for-profit organisation, Infoxchange, which connects people to emergency relief services adds to this evidence.

The data, released today, shows a record 128,000 internet searches for hardship services in February. That included 81,550 searches for emergency food relief, which represented more than one-third of all searches, and 26,000 searches for mental health and wellbeing services, which is the second highest number of searches recorded in that category.

Infoxchange said that compared with just less than 45,000 searches for food assistance in February 2022.

The Infoxchange chief executive, David Spriggs, said it showed “the huge rise in cost-of-living pressures and the inability for many people to afford to buy food for themselves and their families”.

He said: “It is incredibly sad to see this record level of service demand with the number of people in need seeking support continuing to increase every month.”

Updated

Australian shares lift after US traders shrug off bank collapses

Australian banks are leading a stock market rally on Wednesday, following a lead from the US where investors brushed aside concerns about the health of the financial sector.

Financial markets have been turbulent ever since California-based Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on 10 March, shortly after it revealed a US$1.8bn loss on its inflation-hit bond portfolio.

This was followed by a cut-price deal by Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, to buy the embattled Credit Suisse with government support.

A series of US government-led measures to guarantee bank deposits and improve liquidity in the global banking system appears to have settled traders who pushed up the value of bank stocks overnight.

In response, Australia’s major banks joined with regional peers to lead the overall market higher in early trading. The four major banks were up about 2% by mid morning.

Energy stocks also rose after a climb in the price of crude oil.

Updated

Diversity of international enrolments could make universities stronger, inquiry told

Capping international enrolments from individual countries could make the university sector less vulnerable and diversify Australia’s relationships, an inquiry has heard.

Speaking at a trade subcommittee into international education, deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra Geoffrey Crisp said a policy to ensure no more than 20% of its cohort came from one international source country enabled the university to emerge from the pandemic better than its rivals.

The university has about 3,500 international students from 100 different nations. It posted a $98.4mn surplus in 2021 while international student fees accounted for about 17% of its revenue – below the sector average of 22%.

Crisp said while the economic benefits of international education were “enormous”, other benefits including soft diplomacy and meeting skills shortages were little discussed.

The pandemic and border closures realised in the worst possible way the risks here in Australia with our international student market … we are heavily reliant on revenue from international students. In the ACT, international education services are the largest export that represented in 2019 $1 bn in revenue. In 2021, that was $570m. Canberra’s overall international student enrolment numbers have recovered to some extent but they’re still not where we’d like it to be.

We had strategies to diversify the international student body and the reality is recovery across some source countries types and disciplines is ongoing. It’s not the same pattern we saw prior to Covid-19.

Crisp agreed the 20% rule was a “risk mitigation” strategy that was continuing to play out as Chinese enrolments declined. China still accounts for the highest international student enrolments – at 47,428 students in the year to November 2022 – but there are 11.3% fewer than the same time 2021.

There’s a significant dependence on Chinese students in many universities … we think it’s important we have diversification of views and approaches. We’re seeing a decrease in the proportion of students coming from mainland China and an increase in students coming from India … at Canberra, we also have significant numbers from Bhutan, Nepal, Vietnam. We have no source country above 20 and 25%.

The university has transnational education partnerships in five nations including China, India, Bhutan, Vietnam and Singapore.

Updated

NT to review bail laws and consider more police presence after shop worker killed

The NT government says it is commencing an immediate review into bail laws and penalties for people charged with weapon offences, and considering increased police presence and arming security guards with capscium spray.

The suite of measures come in response to the alleged stabbing of a 20-year-old bottle shop worker Declan Laverty in the Darwin suburb of Jingili on Sunday evening. NT police have charged a 19-year-old man with murder, aggravated robbery and breach of bail in relation to Laverty’s death. It’s been reported the teenager was on bail for an offence with a “bladed weapon”.

NT chief minister Natasha Fyles said the review as well as increased police presence and additional funding for “crowd controllers” for additional security at takeaway liquor stores will increase public safety.

We are a government that acts and today’s measures, along with an increase of high visibility policing, are just the beginning of multiple initiatives we are looking to implement,” Fyles said in a statement just released.

These initiatives will include measures to deter violent behaviour towards workers and the community to ensure Territorians are safe”.

The government said it will also work with the retail industry to provide work on how to improve safety and security and train and support workers to help deal with “confronting situations”, including de-escalation tactics and refreshing training for the responsible service of alcohol.

Updated

Stephen Jones takes aim at ‘idiots like Mark Latham running around trying to reheat culture wars’

Over on Sky News, Labor’s Stephen Jones was trying to side-step some ‘both sidesism’ questioning from host Peter Stefanovic on a recent protest and said:

When kids who are struggling with their gender, with their identity, hear politicians like us squabbling over this issue, the message they hear is that somehow, we’re not right, we’re not a part of the community, or somehow our identity is controversial.

They don’t need that.

In fact, they should be joining with the rest of the community and saying, ‘for God’s sake, can’t our politicians focus on the issues that are really of great consequence in this country?’

Cost of living, national security, environmental catastrophe, how we have jobs and how we educate our kids. These are the things that matter.

Not idiots like Mark Latham running around trying to reheat culture wars which have a detrimental effect on our kids and, frankly, distract the community from the things that really matter.

And the things that really matter today, are about us ensuring that we can get our safeguards mechanism through the Senate, we can deal with our cost-of-living issues, that we can have a fund set aside to ensure that we’re building more houses to put roofs over people’s heads who don’t currently have a house, that we can deal with our national security challenges. These are the big issues, not clowns running around trying to reoxygenate old culture wars.

Updated

Coalition agrees to support changes to referendum machinery act

The government and opposition have struck an agreement whereby the Coalition will support the referendum machinery act changes, Labor sources say.

We’re going through the particulars now, and there’s a bunch of amendments to deal with, but it looks like there will be bipartisanship on the changes to the rules governing referendums.

The Senate is dealing with these now. We’ll bring you more as it happens – lots of detail to get through.

Updated

The chamber is dividing. There is not as much chatter as there usually is when there is a division. Someone saying “it’s a bit of an emotional debate” was picked up before the microphones were switched off.

The chamber may divide on the motion to suspend standing orders.

If it does, it would show the government on one side and the opposition on the other. Tony Burke is trying to make the point that opposing the motion does not mean the government is divided on the issue:

I would not want anyone, anyone at all, to see the parliament dividing on a vote in a few moments time and see that as evidence of division in the need to oppose the use of these symbols.

These symbols have been used for what has become the symbol of the worst of humanity. And I was stunned to see them appearing in Melbourne. I was horrified to see them appearing in Melbourne. No, no, we all were.

And I think I’ve been including everybody in the way that I’ve dealt with a speech. I think I’ve dealt I’ve been dealing with everybody in the way that I’ve turned to speak and I’ve done it very deliberately.

And so I make no criticism of the leader of the opposition in bringing this resolution forward. No criticism in doing that whatsoever. But I do want to make the point very clearly, I guess two points.

One, no government ever would have been in a circumstance in where something like this was moved and was in a position to vote for it. It’s never happened. It won’t happen.

And secondly … if a division is called no one who takes solace in those symbols, should see a division about procedure on the floor of this parliament as giving them some solace of thinking that they have supporters.

Nobody should think that because we divide on the procedure, that somehow that creates a divide on the repugnant chi of nazism and the symbols that go with it. And so for those reasons, the government will not be supporting the suspension that’s before the house.

Updated

Government will not support motion to debate Nazi salute ban in parliament

Tony Burke is on his feet now, responding for the government.

He mentions the tone of the debate, and credits the opposition leader and Julian Leeser for sticking to the cause.

He says the government is doing work in this area already, but the government won’t be supporting the motion, as no government has ever agreed to a private member’s bill without checking it – going through departmental and cabinet processes.

He mentions the penalties and things and says they are things which need to be checked.

But he says that no one should mistake not moving forward with this debate for the government not acknowledging the issue or standing opposed to the need for action.

They are symbols that are horrific. They are symbols that are horrific and for all the times that people go to a freedom of speech argument.

When it comes to just straight hatred, symbols can be bullets. Words can be bullets, and the horror of that salute is in real terms and an act of violence in itself.

Those are views that are shared around this room.

And so there are particular reasons why no government has ever agreed to a private member’s bill in the form that support here. But as I said, every state parliament now pretty much has been working through and there’s often been a debate before they’ve got there. And often some people have tested the water with freedom of speech arguments before it’s landed.

And I say this as someone who will go through their entire life without being a victim of racial bigotry that surrounded by neighbours where their experience can be utterly, utterly different.

And of all the symbols of bigotry. This one we have a particular need to unanimously oppose and the fact that we will end up dividing on a procedural motion as we’re about to should not be seen to change the unanimity in the need to oppose those symbols.

Updated

Julian Leeser: ‘A Catholic woman saved the Jewish family, my family’

Julian Leeser then tells a personal story of a family friend he knew when he was growing up, a woman named Katie Popp (I am unsure of spelling, so will check this):

When I visited Katie, we would she would make my brother and I tasty German cakes. She was such a part of our family that she sewed our names on our school uniform.

She was so much for another time and place that she made her home here. Like so many Europeans from that time.

I didn’t know it as a boy, but I know now that Katie helped get my family out of Germany in 1936.

Katie was Catholic.

If you want to know why I have such a deep passion to protect the religious freedoms of other Australians such as my Catholic friends. It’s because a Catholic woman saved the Jewish family, my family.

Katie had been the family housekeeper and as Germany went from bad to worse, she took risks to help get my grandmother and her brother to Switzerland and then to England, and finally to Australia in 1936.

I come from a tradition which says whoever saves one life, it is as if they had saved the world.

Leeser says he uses Katie’s example as part of the moral barometer of his life.

He urges the government to support the motion to suspend standing orders to debate and pass the amendment.

Shadow attorney general Julian Leeser.
Shadow attorney general Julian Leeser. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Julian Leeser continues:

Unfortunately, deputy speaker, yesterday the attorney general did something abominable. He attributed antisemitism to someone who is not antisemitic, to our party that is not antisemitic.

That action was a mockery of the seriousness of antisemitism. The attorney general is the first floor officer of the crown and a lawyer of considerable distinction in his own right. He should be an example to so many in the country.

The tragedy is that the attorney general all too often cannot rise above these appalling political misjudgments.

By contrast, today, we approach Labor and the crossbench in a spirit of goodwill and good faith.

I want to recognise the good work of people in this place, such as the member for Wentworth and the member for McNamara, who I work with so closely as co chairs the parliamentary Friends of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Updated

‘Such actions should be a crime’: Julian Leeser on Nazi salute

We know the idea of racial superiority is a myth. But it’s not a myth without consequences. Its consequences are real. Six million Jews were murdered, a figure that represents two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe and millions of innocents, people of faith, homosexuals, political prisoners and people with disabilities.

It was industrial scale murder, the likes of which the world has never seen. Mr Speaker last Saturday, we saw [men] in Melbourne with steroid arms and stunted minds, seeking to mimic and impersonate the evil that the greatest generation fought.

These cowards, many of them were their faces covered by the cloths of shame, celebrated nazism.

… I say not in our country, not in the country that took in more Holocaust survivors per capita than anywhere else on the world. Part of what we saw in Melbourne on Saturday is that as part of a trend across our country, the director general of security has spoken about the growth of grievance motivated violent extremism.

He said as a nation we need to reflect on why some teenagers are hanging Nazi flags and portraits of the Christchurch killer on their bedroom walls, and why others are sharing beheading videos.

And just as importantly, we must reflect on what we can do about it. The director general is right. There must be no place in Australia for Nazi style flags, uniforms, salutes and boycotts.

Because they are the means by which this sickness seeks to perpetuate and promote itself. Such actions should be and must be a crime.

Mr Speaker, I invite the government to put aside any partisan hesitation and support this motion initiated by the leader of the opposition.

Yesterday he said in this place that we would support legislation that makes illegal the display of any aspect of Nazi glorification And the bill that we seek to have debated shows that we are true to our word.

Updated

Coalition wants to amend criminal code to ban Nazi salute

Peter Dutton has moved to suspend standing orders to debate an amendment the Coalition wants to move to the criminal code, to ban the Nazi salute.

The shadow attorney general, Julian Leeser, is seconding the motion to suspend standing orders, having put together the amendment.

Updated

Parliament acknowledges people affected by forced adoption

The parliament opened this morning with an offical acknowledgment of the 10th anniversary of Julia Gillard’s apology to people impacted by forced adoptions.

About 100 of those people were in the House of Representatives gallery to hear the parliament acknowledge their pain, which Amanda Rishworth noted in her speech:

On this 10th anniversary, we restate that we have not forgotten the mothers, adopted people, some fathers, families and communities torn apart by forced adoptions.

We recognise that the pain has not gone away, and will never go away.

We recognise that the search for identities continues and more support is needed.

We need to look at what we can do to better support people impacted.

To do better for everyone who was let down by society and the institutions they should have been able to trust to protect and care for them.

And to make sure Australia never forgets this shameful chapter – and never makes the same mistakes again.

Updated

A blog watcher pointed this little quirk of legislation to me – the King has to sign off on NT chief ministers receiving their “honourable” titles for life.

You can find the King’s permission to have that occur with Michael Gunner, here.

Apparently the federal government has to do this for ACT chief ministers.

Good to know King Charles is keeping busy.

Updated

Queensland commends Victoria but has not committed to banning Nazi salute

The Queensland premier hasn’t committed her state to outright adding the Nazi salute to its banned list, but Annastacia Palaszczuk told the ABC she was watching the what was being done in Victoria “closely”.

Tasmania announced yesterday it would follow Victoria’s lead. Palaszczuk said it hasn’t been an issue in Queensland as yet, but she was following the happenings elsewhere:

It does disturb me and where is this hate coming from? It’s coming from a very dark place and, you know, our multicultural society should be reflective of a modern society and that has really no place. We have not seen those types of rallies to that extent here in Queensland, but it is disturbing to see that those images are happening down in Victoria and I do commend Daniel Andrews for taking action.

(Queensland is a unicameral parliament, which means it only has one chamber and the government can pretty much pass every piece of legislation it puts up – as long as caucus is in agreement.)

Updated

IPCC work important, but government must balance climate action and industry, resources minister says

What about the IPCC report? Doesn’t that give the government pause for thought, or encourage it to go further?

Madeleine King:

The IPCC report is a very important document. It sets out the urgent challenge ahead for both our country and the rest of the world. There’s no doubt about it, and I respect the work that the IPCC has done over many years, and it’s a dreadful shame that this country has not sought to take action before. And the wasted 10 years are very real, and now we have a government that is determined to act and indeed has acted with legislation we’ve brought in on emissions targets. But, ultimately, it’s the elected government of this nation that has to establish the response to dangerous climate change and that’s what we’re doing, and the safeguard mechanism is an important part of it.

As a government, we’ve got to balance many different calls to action with many other demands, and I respect those calls for action. And I know not everyone agrees with us, but I also know we want to get to the same destination, and we have disagreements about the pathway; but we all want to get to net zero emissions by 2050. So those things that a government has to balance include, what you mentioned before, that there needs to be a manufacturing industry that has to continue. There’s a hard‑to‑abate sector which needs to be considered. We need to provide energy security for all Australians, for our manufacturing and very importantly our mineral processing industry, because without critical minerals we won’t have net zero emissions technology. But we also have an international responsibility to provide energy security to the region. And those resources are an important force for regional stability. So, these are all the things a government has to balance as well as the absolutely urgent need to respond to dangerous climate change.

Updated

Resources minister new fossil fuel projects have to go through ‘rigorous approvals processes’

There are 116 new coal and gas projects “in the pipeline” which means areas have been identified for future fossil fuel projects, but they are yet to go through the approvals process (or even in some cases have applied for approval). But this is one of the reasons the Greens, climate action advocates and members of the crossbench are worried about the safeguard legislation, because what is the point if new projects are going to be added while we are supposed to be cutting emissions.

Earlier this morning on ABC radio the resources minister, Madeleine King, tried to make the case that it wasn’t related:

Hang on a second. They’re in a pipeline. They’ve got to go through rigorous approvals processes as well as still some of them have their other internal process. They have state government‑related processes, so for me to speculate on a figure would just be, quite frankly, kind of nonsense. So, there is proper processes. We have an approval process. We intend to implement reform to the safeguard mechanism so that all large emitters will be captured. New projects are new projects. They will have to meet certain guidelines, and I might add that these industries – and I accept, not every one of them – they have net zero emissions goals by 2050 and particularly in relation to gas, and that is their objective as well. And these are the same companies that will help Australia and the rest of the region, I might add, move to a hydrogen‑based economy.

Updated

Corporations shouldn’t be allowed to offset their way out of the climate crisis, Bandt says

Adam Bandt is out and about this morning with the message “we have shifted, it is time for the government to” in regards to the safeguard mechanism.

He says the Greens ask for no new coal or gas projects is not outrageous, given what we know has to happen to ensure emissions go down. He wants to see some movement from the government and told ABC radio RN Breakfast:

There’s a flaw in this [bill] at the moment; the flaw in this legislation is that pollution can actually go up, not down for the reasons that I’ve just said.

And the first reason is that new coal and gas mines are allowed to open. The second is companies don’t actually have to cut their pollution. They just have to buy some tree planting permits on the other side of the country and say that they’re contributing to pollution going down which, as as has been made clear this week from the UN and the IPCC that is not going to tackle the climate crisis.

Now, what we’ve said, what others have said is, well, why not put something in the legislation that actually requires permission to go down so that these corporations can’t offset their way out of the crisis?

Updated

NSW Greens candidate told to ‘smile more’

This may be one of the true uniting moments across politics – the additional hurdles women in politics have to jump through:

Updated

Referendum machinery bill first on agenda today

As Amy has just detailed, the government and opposition are still locked in negotiations on the referendum machinery bill – but Labor sources now expect the bill to pass today, potentially with Coalition support.

The special minister of state, Don Farrell, and his shadow, Jane Hume, were in negotiations late into last night; the government is still sticking firm on its commitment for no public funding for the yes or no side, but the opposition has been subtly changing its ask to request funding for administration costs, not advertising or campaigning.

The machinery bill is the first government business listed for the day. There’s a bunch of amendments still to deal with (and potentially more to come – including a Coalition call for a parliamentary committee to manage the official information pamphlet) but the government is confident the bill will pass today, potentially with bipartisan (and maybe even unanimous) support.

Updated

Majority of people on welfare payments are living in poverty, report finds

I don’t think this report from Luke Henriques-Gomes should come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention:

The majority of people on the jobseeker and parenting payments are living in poverty while about a third of single parents are also below the breadline, according to a new study.

A report from the University of New South Wales and the Australian Council of Social Service, to be released on Wednesday, provides further insight into the demographics of 3 million people, including 761,000 children, previously identified as living in poverty in the 2019-20 financial year.

The Labor government awaits a separate report from the independent economic inclusion advisory committee, which was established to comment on the adequacy of welfare payments before the May budget.

Updated

Samoa PM to meet Albanese today

The parliament has another honourable guest today – the prime minister of Samoa, the Hon Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, will meet with Anthony Albanese today.

Samoan prime minister Fiamē Naomi Mata'afa in Canberra on Monday.
Samoan prime minister Fiamē Naomi Mata'afa in Canberra on Monday. Photograph: Dominic Giannini/AAP

Updated

Parliament will begin sitting from 9am

There are three main pieces of legislation where the negotiations are all happening off-screen – the housing fund, the referendum machineries bill and the safeguard mechanism.

It is why the sitting, so far at least, has had a bit of a strange feeling to it – what is happening in the chambers is less than half the story.

Updated

Ley calls for plan to tackle inflation

Sussan Ley is now also in support of the government acting on welfare payments apparently. But for inflation.

Households on low incomes are just as vulnerable to the cost-of-living pressures that I have outlined. In fact, more so. So it makes it even more important that this government actually has a plan for inflation. So people with low and fixed incomes when they go to the supermarket, can actually manage to get their weekly groceries without breaking down because they can’t get through the checkout.

These are the real-world stories that we’re hearing from across Australia. Of course the government should have the welfare of its most vulnerable people at the centre of how it attacks the problem, that is inflation, the plan that simply doesn’t have.

Updated

‘We’re still asking for more detail’ on voice, Ley says

And has the Liberal party formed a position on the voice itself? Peter Dutton has been leading a soft no campaign while at the same time saying the party is still open to supporting the coming referendum.

Sussan Ley:

We’re still asking for more detail. I’ve just come back from a week in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Can I say that the heartache and the distress of many Indigenous people and Indigenous families was made very clear to me on the ground.

I saw a family living on a slab outside of town camp where they had effectively been for two years so that one of them could access dialysis treatment at a local hospital. Nobody in that conversation raised the voice.

I saw a legal service in Darwin that was really worried that its advocates, who go and sit with women who’ve been victims of family domestic and sexual violence, are not going to receive funding any more. I want to know how the government is going to address these real-world problems.

But as to the voice and the detail, we still haven’t heard enough from the prime minister. What we have heard is confusion – confusion from members of his own executive. On the one hand, saying that the voice would advise the executive of government on the other hand, saying it wouldn’t.

We’ve seen the Greens member Dorinda Cox suggesting – it was a sensible suggestion – that the voice be legislated and then the referendum considered later. That’s also a sensible way of looking at this.

There are so many detailed issues that have yet to be answered and we of course, are going through our normal processes and will continue to do so.

Sussan Ley at a press conference
Sussan Ley at a press conference. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Voice negotiations

The referendum machinery legislation will set up how the voice referendum will run – the machinery surruounding the vote, if you will.

But there hasn’t been bipartisan agreement yet on how that should all work.

So will the Coalition be voting for the legislation?

Sussan Ley told reporters this morning:

We’re negotiating in good faith in the Senate that’s being led by Jane Hume who is doing an outstanding job. What we said to the government in the beginning is what we’re saying to them now and that is that we are not prepared to trash decades of referendum precedent, and not do this in a way that Australians expect us to, in their interests, for their information.

We’re asking for a pamphlet to outline the yes and no case, and we’ve talked about that. We’re asking for equal funding of the yes or no case, not the millions of dollars that may go into a public campaign on either side of this debate, but just the administration funding.

Now those two straightforward requests should be met, and we will of course, be moving amendments in the Senate to give effect to them.

Updated

Lambie voted to repeal carbon price, Bandt points out

During an interview with RN Breakfast yesterday, Jacqui Lambie said if the safeguard mechanism, which she called a good “starting point”, failed to get through it would be the “Greens’ fault” and she wanted to see an end to the climate wars.

Adam Bandt very gently points out that Lambie was elected as part of the Palmer United party, which was created, originally, in opposition to the carbon price and Lambie was part of the Senate group who voted to repeal that legislation – which is one of the reasons Australia has been in climate policy limbo for the last decade.

Bandt:

Fifty-seven per cent of the population does not want to open new coal and gas mines and I think there’s a very clear message coming through there. Secondly, no, I have got a lot of time for Jacqui Lambie, but we had an emissions trading scheme in this country and she was part of a party that voted to repeal it so let’s let’s not get too carried away with the spin here.

We’re in a climate crisis, as the UN secretary general has made clear. The decisions that we make now will reverberate for generations to come and the big decisions that we’ve got to make, do we open new coal and gas mines or not?

And at the moment, as has been made clear, one of the sticking points the government wants to keep opening new coal and gas mines.

Updated

Bandt highlights flaw in safeguards scheme

Greens leader Adam Bandt says there is a flaw in the safeguards scheme – and that is pollution can go up, not down.

Which is a pretty major flaw.

Bandt says the way it stands, companies can increase their emissions, as long as they offset them.

He tells ABC radio RN Breakfast:

Now what we’ve said, what others have said is, well, why not put something in the legislation that actually requires emissions to go down so that these corporations can’t offset their way out of the crisis?

Greens leader Adam Bandt at a press conference at Parliament House on Wednesday.
Greens leader Adam Bandt at a press conference at Parliament House on Wednesday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

ABC strike

If you are an ABC viewer or listener and are wondering if things seem a little disjointed today – it is because the CPSU is on strike.

The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) represents a lot of the back-of-house operators – particularly in radio, which is why I think you are not hearing your usual RN Breakfast.

The MEAA, which includes journalists, is not on strike, which is why you are still seeing a lot of the usual reporters.

Updated

No time to waste on climate, Greens say

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young told ABC News Breakfast that negotiations with the government on the safeguard mechanism are still continuing.

The government’s legislation expands the existing law allowing companies to trade carbon credits with each other. That is the main point of the mechanism. Companies buy carbon credits to offset pollution – it does not force the companies to cut pollution.

Sarah Hanson-Young at Senate estimates
Sarah Hanson-Young at Senate estimates. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Hanson-Young said the Greens want legislation which will reduce pollution:

We’re in negotiations with the government. We’re determined to make sure that whatever passes this parliament is a policy that will reduce pollution and not make climate change worse.

We’ve seen those dire warnings from the UN’s scientists and that significant report yesterday that we are quickly running out of time. We’ve got to stop sleepwalking into the climate crisis and, instead, start sprinting.

We need to double all of our efforts, put our shoulders to the wheel and get this done. That is means not making the problem worse with new coal and gas.

Even the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has singled Australia out on this and we have to stop allowing the expansion of new coal and gas, new fossil fuels. We need to stop funding it with taxpayers’ money, subsidising, and instead put our efforts into the energies, technologies that are going to actually power the green economy into the future. This is about the future of the planet, the future of our kids. And we’ve got no time to waste.

Updated

‘A weather service for water quality’

It’s World Water Day!

Which I didn’t know. And I didn’t get water anything. Awkward.

Minister for water Tanya Plibersek and science minister Ed Husic are using the day to announce a new CSIRO-led water research “mission” to provide “a weather service for water quality”, which should lead to real-time quality data monitoring and forecasting.

The pair are launching it a little later today.

Updated

Climate fight

Chris Bowen is trying to get enough support for the safeguard legislation to pass it in this sitting. There is some time pressure because Labor wants to get it done by 1 July, so that carbon trading infrastructure would be in place.

But the Greens and David Pocock aren’t convinced as yet. So Bowen has a fight on his hands.

Meanwhile, AAP reports that Andrew Forrest – who has made his billions through fossil fuels – doesn’t think it will do enough:

Billionaire Andrew Forrest has spoken out against the federal government’s safeguard mechanism legislation which would allow big polluters to offset their emissions.

The mining magnate and green hydrogen proponent has urged Australia to take bold steps to transform its energy sector after the United Nations warned “warp speed” action was needed to prevent a climate catastrophe.

Forrest says the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reinforce that the world is facing an existential threat.

With the government of prime minister Anthony Albanese seeking to pass changes to the safeguard mechanism, the Fortescue Metals Group chairman questioned why polluting companies would be allowed to buy unlimited carbon credits:

We’re not supporters of changes that enable companies to buy offsets, because this is just an easy means to cover obligations.

I’ve had the major fossil fuels companies of the world try and argue with me that they can go zero net carbon per barrel of oil just by buying offsets. Which is code for ‘we’re not going to change a thing, we’re just going to buy these half-real carbon credits’.”

Updated

Good morning

Happy Wednesday! Hump day in parliament always brings with it an increased frenzy of action and with just six days left of the sitting before the budget, today will be no different.

A very big thank you to Martin for kicking us off. You have Amy Remeikis with you this morning as we navigate Labor’s negotiations across a couple of major bills, plus covering all the other parliamentary shenanigans that pop up.

It’s going to be a four-coffee morning. I can feel it. Ready?

Updated

Poverty snapshot

The Labor government is waiting on a report from the independent economic inclusion advisory committee, which was established to comment on the adequacy of welfare payments before the May budget.

In the meantime a separate report from the University of New South Wales and the Australian Council of Social Service, released today, will provide further insight into the demographics of 3 million people, including 761,000 children, previously identified as living in poverty in the 2019-20 financial year.

It shows the majority of people on the jobseeker and parenting payments are living in poverty while about a third of single parents are also below the breadline.

Read Luke Henriques-Gomes’ full report here:

Updated

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to Guardian Australia’s rolling news coverage of the day in politics and beyond. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be updating you with the main overnight breaking stories before Amy Remeikis takes the controls again.

Anthony Albanese warned the Labor caucus yesterday that very few of the party’s efforts to change the constitution down the years have succeeded. But he will be hoping that late-night talks between all sides in Canberra last night could pave the way for the Coalition to swing behind the referendum bill in a rare outbreak of bipartisanship. We’ll have more on this shortly.

Another thorny policy issue for the prime minister is the Aukus submarine deal and how he is going to square off the growing pushback against the signature – and extremely expensive – defence plan. The latest this morning is that defence industry minister Pat Conroy has told Guardian Australia’s foreign affairs and defence correspondent Daniel Hurst that taxpayers may end up spending more than the $3bn initially announced to boost the submarine industrial capacity of the US and the UK.

With that, let’s get going …

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