What we learned: Wednesday 3 September
It’s been a big day in Canberra and beyond – here’s what’s been keeping us busy this Wednesday:
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price claimed Labor’s immigration policies were “ultimately about power” and influenced by the voting patterns of immigrant communities – only to walk back the claim shortly afterwards.
Ed Husic delivered a careful but firm rebuke of Anthony Albanese’s remark that “good people” attended Sunday’s anti-immigration rallies. He also took aim at Price’s comments.
Australia could pay up to $2.5bn to Nauru over 30 years as part of its deal to take noncitizens from Australia on a removal pathway, the home affairs department’s immigration head, Clare Sharp, told senators in a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday night. Home affairs officials said Nauru is required to consult with Australia if it plans to change laws that would allow it to send any members of the NZYQ cohort back to their countries of origin.
The Senate debated consequential legislation on aged care, which would ensure the new act comes into effect by 1 November. The government has been under pressure over the delay in delivering an additional 80,000 home care packages as the waitlist for them hits 200,000.
The NSW police minister admitted she may have “had the figure wrong” on antisemitic incidents.
Former human rights commissioner Chris Sidoti urged Australia to respond with action to the international court of justice’s decision last year that a number of Israel’s activities in Gaza and the West Bank amounted to breaches of international law.
Daniel Andrews was photographed with Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping in Beijing. Victorian government minister Vicki Ward said the former premier’s decision to attend the military parade in China was a choice made “in his private capacity”.
The Albanese government gave mining company Glencore the green light to extend its Ulan coalmine near Mudgee in New South Wales, the first coalmining approval since Murray Watt became environment minister.
Finally, question time was lively. Here’s the tl;dr version.
Thanks for joining us. We’ll be back with more breaking political news bright and early tomorrow.
Updated
Nauru would need to consult with Australia if it plans to change laws to allow return of noncitizens to country of origin
Nauru is required to consult with Australia if it plans to change laws that would allow it to send any members of the NZYQ cohort back to their countries of origin, home affairs officials say.
At tonight’s snap two-hour committee hearing, the department said Nauru’s existing laws prevent it from sending any of the noncitizens it receives from Australia back to home countries that might place them at risk – a move known as refoulement.
The Greens senator, David Shoebridge, asked what assurances Australia had should Nauru decide to change its laws during the arrangement. The immigration head, Clare Sharp, said the deal struck between the countries required Nauru to consult with Australia on any changes to laws regarding refoulement that could affect the cohort.
Shoebridge asked whether the memorandum of understanding contained anything more than a requirement to consult.
Sharp said:
No, but the way the payment mechanisms are structured, there is a strong incentive for Nauru to maintain an arrangement that would allow Australia to comply with its international law.
Updated
Nauru arrangement to offload noncitizens could last as long as 30 years
Australia could pay up to $2.5bn to Nauru over 30 years as part of its deal to take noncitizens from Australia on a removal pathway.
In a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday night, the home affairs department’s immigration head, Clare Sharp, told senators the deal included $408m in its first year with $70m a year each year after.
The arrangement could last up to 30 years, meaning the deal would cost Australia $2.508bn over the period.
Sharp said there were additional payments required when Australia applied for each Nauruan visa on behalf of the NZYQ cohort. The fee is about $1,000 per person.
As we reported earlier, most of the funds will be placed in Nauru’s national trust, which is jointly managed with Australia.
Sharp added there were safeguards to claw back the funds in the event that Nauru does not follow through on the deal.
She said:
The terms we’re negotiating include a clawback provision that enable the trust to be dissolved and the funds returned to Australia in the event that the purpose of the head MOU isn’t being achieved …
If there [are] six people on Nauru, the majority of that [yearly] payment goes into a trust and sits in the trust, and should the agreement be frustrated and it never grows and never delivers, the trust could be clawed back.
Updated
Michele Bullock: ‘Too early’ to fully understand what AI means for workforce
Michele Bullock, the Reserve Bank governor, says Australian firms do not expect artificial intelligence to replace workers, at least for “the next few years”.
Bullock said the bank’s business liaison program showed four in 10 firms plan to invest in artificial intelligence in the coming three years, and that businesses “mainly expect these tools to augment labour, automating repetitive tasks and redesigning the composition of roles”.
Australian firms “mainly expect” that artificial intelligence tools will “augment” the work of employees by “automating repetitive tasks and redesigning the composition of roles”.
She said:
While AI may eventually automate even some higher skilled tasks, firms tell us that it is too early to fully understand what this means for their workforce beyond the next few years. Some roles may change and the demand for different or new skills may in turn increase.
The RBA governor said she was by nature an optimist about the potential for transformative technologies like AI to “generate waves of innovation as they become integrated across industries and transform the wider economy”.
“But this transformation is not just about profits – it is part of a much larger societal shift,” she said, continuing:
Technological change has always reshaped the labour market, and AI is no exception. As AI continues to reshape industries and economies, it is not just the tools and processes that are evolving – it is the very nature of work.
While many experts anticipate a net increase in jobs, it is likely to be more nuanced: some roles will be redefined, others might be displaced, and entirely new ones will be created.
Updated
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price quickly walks back immigration claim
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has issued a statement to the media after this afternoon claiming Labor’s immigration policies were “ultimately about power” and being influenced by the voting patterns of immigrant communities.
In the statement, the Liberal senator said:
Australia maintains a longstanding and bipartisan non-discriminatory migration policy. Suggestions otherwise are a mistake.
My remarks were made in a wide-ranging interview on ABC where I sought to highlight issues of uncontrolled mass migration and ruptures to social cohesion.
Updated
Nauru deal: moving quickly through process is in the interest of both parties, parliament hears
We’re getting a drip feed of further details on the arrangement struck between Australia and Nauru to resettle members of the NZYQ cohort in tonight’s parliamentary inquiry.
Home affairs officials have said there is no deadline for Australia to apply for Nauruan visas for the cohort but the immigration head, Clare Sharp, said it was in both countries’ interests to move quickly through the process.
Sharp also said Nauru wouldn’t receive the flow of money until members within the 354-person cohort begin to arrive.
Sharp confirmed Australia would pay Nauru $408m in the first year with $70m in each year thereafter. She added $388m of that first payment would be placed in the nation’s sovereign wealth trust with $20m directly to the government to facilitate the settlements.
Updated
Teenager assisting police after Gold Coast rideshare driver stabbing
A 16-year-old boy is assisting police after a female rideshare driver was repeatedly stabbed and left for dead in a car park.
The woman was rushed to hospital after being discovered semi-conscious in her vehicle by a security guard at a Gold Coast shopping centre early on Wednesday, AAP reports.
The 32-year-old remains in a critical condition at Gold Coast university hospital with stab wounds to her head, neck and back, police said.
After launching a search, police on Wednesday afternoon said a 16-year-old Coomera boy was assisting their investigations.
Police had earlier alleged a male booked a ride with the female Uber driver and they travelled from Hope Island to Coomera before she was discovered about 1.25am.
“Our investigations say that she was there for an hour or two before being discovered by the security guard,” Gold Coast detective inspector Paul Fletcher told reporters.
The suspect had been described as possibly late teens to early 20s with dark hair, and last seen wearing a green T-shirt and grey tracksuit pants.
Updated
Nampijinpa Price claims Labor encouraging migration from 'particular countries' to garner voters
Circling back to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who has claimed Labor’s immigration policies are “ultimately about power” and being influenced by the voting patterns of immigrant communities.
Speaking on the ABC just before, the shadow defence industry minister suggested the government was giving priority to communities that were “more Labor-leaning”.
“Of course there is a focus from this government to be getting [migrants] from particular countries over others … I think Labor would like to be able to ensure they will allow those that would ultimately support their policies, their views and vote for them as well,” she said.
When host Patricia Karvelas pushed Price on who she meant, she responded by claiming there was “concern” over “large numbers” of immigrants from the Indian community, “and we can see that reflected in the way that the community votes for Labor”:
If they’re going to see a reflection that, ‘OK, these individuals are going to vote for us more’ … of course, they’re going to express the view that ‘We’ll get those sorts of individuals into our communities.’”
Ed Husic directly followed Price on Afternoon Briefing, where he suggested the broadcaster’s factchecking team had “so much work to do”.
“We don’t have a preferential system; it’s a nondiscriminatory approach to immigration,” Husic said.
In the wake of the March for Australia rallies on Sunday, federal politicians including Anne Aly and Julian Leeser have expressed concern about racism directed at Australia’s Indian community.
“One of the very clear calls to action [at the rallies] that was listed there was anti-Indian immigration, against people coming from India,” Aly told the ABC on Monday.
Meanwhile, here are some facts when it comes to Australia’s immigration numbers:
Updated
Head of immigration department says Nauru deal does not contain specific figures
Home affairs department officials have revealed there are no specific figures contained within Australia’s $400m deal with Nauru to offload hundreds of non-citizen to the Pacific island nation.
In a snap parliamentary inquiry hearing tonight, the department’s immigration head, Clare Sharp, was asked by Liberal senator Michaelia Cash whether the memorandum of understanding between the two nations specified a figure for resettlement.
Sharp said the deal did not contain a figure, and theoretically, Nauru could decide to take no one.
Sharp said there were 354 “NZYQ-affected” people who were released from indefinite detention following the high court ruling in November 2023.
Updated
ANU seeks to ‘reassure all current students’ after legal threats over music school
The Australian National University has attempted to “reassure” students after it was threatened with legal action over plans to dismantle the School of Music.
On 21 August, current music students sent a joint letter to management warning they may have breached federal legislation mandating that ANU must “promote the highest standards of practice” in the visual and performing arts and not provide misleading or deceptive representations in its promotional materials and public communications.
The students required ANU to provide a written undertaking by 4pm 3 September demonstrating compliance with statutory obligations lest they take further legal action.
In a response published to the university’s website, lead for social impact in the College of Arts and Social Sciences, Prof Bronwyn Parry Dean, wished to “reassure all current students” that ANU’s change proposal remained under review.
Dean said the current proposal would remove 3.5 full-time equivalent positions and create a new School of Creative and Cultural practice in place of the School of Music, which would affect “staffing and structure, but not the content of the Bachelor of Music”.
A second redesign process, emerging from a curriculum review, would amend the Bachelor of Music program as “part of normal curricula renewal to ensure we remain aligned with international best practice, disciplinary shifts, and student demand”, Dean said:
Students will continue to have opportunities to study performance, composition, and musicology in depth … The changes to the curriculum will affect students entering the Bachelor of Music from 2026. Current students will continue in the structure and delivery of the degree in which they enrolled.
While there may be some changes to the range of courses on offer, this is a usual process across the university, as we amend our programs regularly … The university is fully committed to complying with all its legal and statutory obligations.
Read more here:
Updated
Ed Husic: ‘I haven’t seen a good fascist yet’
Ed Husic has delivered a careful but firm rebuke of Anthony Albanese’s remark that “good people” attended Sunday’s anti-immigration rallies.
Speaking on the ABC a short time ago, the Labor MP said he hadn’t “seen a good fascist yet”:
Those rallies were whipped up by far-right extremists and neo-Nazis. A lot of people were warned about that. I am not in the business of doing ‘there are good people on both sides’ argument.
I think a lot of people in the Australian public would have been extremely unsettled by what they had seen. The way in which people had been targeted, the way in which specifically Indian-Australians had been targeted. I don’t think there is any place for that frankly.
The success story of the nation has been over generations, that we have brought people in and that they have been able to chase their dreams and help build the country up to where it is, and we are a lot stronger for it.
… In particular, I haven’t seen a good fascist yet.
Read more here:
Updated
‘We’ve got to reclaim the flag’, says Jacinta Nampijinpa Price
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price wants to “reclaim the flag” and believes it is “disrespectful” of the prime minister to stand in front of three flags, rather than the Australian flag alone, in Parliament House.
“What worries me is the way that our flag has been condemned … For such a long time now, it’s been suggested that if you are proud of your Australian flag, you are somehow racist,” the shadow defence industry minister told the ABC just now.
We’ve got to reclaim the flag. I’m reclaiming the flag from that viewpoint, because ultimately, the flag does represent who we are as a country, and I think it’s utterly disappointing and disrespectful that our prime minister stands before three flags instead of one Australian flag - and that we see that displayed all over parliament, including at the front of Parliament House, where we are here to represent all Australians.
Updated
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says Australia should criminalise desecration of flag
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says Australia should criminalise the destruction or the desecration of the national flag because we are “divided as a nation”.
Speaking on the ABC just now, the shadow minister for defence industry said:
I think it’s necessary because I feel like we’re experiencing a time in our country where we’re actually quite divided as a nation … For respect for those that fought for our freedoms in this country, fought underneath that flag, fought for our freedom, for freedom of expression … free speech, freedom of mateship – all those values that we hold dear.
She said she thinks desecration of the flag is “a deep insult to those individuals” and a “complete disloyalty to our nation at the same time. And we don’t need that. We don’t need any more division than what we’re currently experiencing.”
She said she was deeply concerned by extremism, whether by neo-Nazis or those who make “genocidal remarks like ‘from the river to the sea’, those who carry the Isis flag and support entities such as Hamas”.
It should be noted that the expression ‘from the river to the sea’ is highly contested – here’s a little background info on its origins:
Updated
Thank you, Krishani Dhanji, and good afternoon. Let’s get on with the remainder of the day’s news.
Thank you all for following along on the blog with me today, I’ll leave you now with the wonderful Daisy Dumas.
I’ll see you all here bright and early tomorrow, for the final sitting day of the fortnight!
Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time
It was a pretty lively question time today, and we zoomed through a bunch of issues (I nearly got whiplash after Monday and Tuesday’s question times were almost solely aged care focused).
QT did start on aged care today, with Sam Rae again under the spotlight as he tried to swing the government’s 180 on aged care – and deal with the opposition – as a win.
Anthony Albanese essentially tried to shut down questions on Daniel Andrews attending the military parade in Beijing today.
Albanese was also short with his answers to questions on whether the government is supporting the return, and prepared for the return of the so-called Islamic State brides. The government has said it’s aware of reports on this, but is not providing any support.
Independent Allegra Spender asked Jim Chalmers how exposed the economy is to climate change – which is, he answered, “substantial”.
Updated
Glencore welcomes government approval of mine extension
Glencore has released a short statement about the federal government’s approval of its expansion plans for the Ulan coal mine near Mudgee in New South Wales.
As we reported earlier today, the government has signed off on the proposal, which would expand the mine’s footprint and extract an additional 18.8m tonnes of run of mine coal. The approval extends the life of the mine for another two years from 2033 to 2035.
A Glencore company spokesperson said the project “involves a minor change to the current mine plan to extend the operation for a further two years, providing ongoing employment for the current workforce out to 2035”.
Last year, Ulan Coal directly contributed A$846m to the economy. We’re proud of our longstanding track record in the region and remain committed to supporting its future through local jobs, business partnerships and community investment.
Climate groups and the Greens have criticised the project approval as the government prepares to set Australia’s 2035 climate targets. They said earlier today it highlights flaws in Australia’s environment laws, which do not directly consider a project’s impacts on the climate.
Updated
After a final dixer on housing, the prime minister gives everyone a bit of an early mark, and question time is over for the day.
As MPs start to depart, Anne Webster says she’s been misrepresented.
She says she didn’t organise the protest, but was just standing there with the other protesters.
Updated
Bowen says gas is ‘necessary to underpin our transition to renewables’
“Why is the government supporting more gas projects when we have more than enough already?” asks the independent MP Monique Ryan.
She says just 16% of gas produced in Australia was sold to the domestic market last year, and asks, as the government undertakes a gas market review, why are they considering supporting more gas projects when we have more than enough?
Energy minister Chris Bowen says the review is “very necessary”:
The fundamental principle I don’t accept is a premise to our review, other than the fundamental principle is we do have a plentiful supply of gas in Australia and we need to ensure that apply is available for Australian uses …
We will continue to make the point that gas is necessary to underpin our transition to renewables … for that purpose we are undertaking the review.
Updated
‘I front up when coffins are brought to the front of my office with my name on it’
The Nationals MP Anne Webster asks the PM why he was chased out of Ballarat last week after attending the bush summit where he had said he wouldn’t “BS people”. She asks if he was chased out of the town because the government broke its promise to reduce energy bills by $275.
Just a note here, the Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie was in one of those tractors.
The member [Webster] chose to organise people to come along and yell with loud hailers and to disrupt …
He gets interrupted by shouts from the opposition.
After a bit of back and forth between the Speaker and Webster (who gets shut down when trying to make a point of order), Albanese tries to turn the heat onto the opposition, and says they need to be “responsible”.
I tell you what is dangerous, the encouragement of an event where someone stands on a chair in the second row with a noose around their neck at a time when people are taking their own life is a really serious issue…
I’m always prepared to front up. I front up in seats right across this parliament. I front up outside my electorate office which the demonstrations are a lot more willing than what was there in Ballarat the other day. I front up when coffins are brought to the front of my office with my name on it and front up and address those people and I address them respectfully.
Updated
PM says Labor’s ‘principled position’ on Gaza has resulted in ‘criticism from all sides’
Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown asks the next question for the prime minister:
The international association of genocide scholars this week voted overwhelmingly in favour of a motion stating that Israel’s actions in Gaza fit the definition of genocide under international law, calling on states like Australia to uphold our obligations under the genocide convention. Will your government finally acknowledge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza?
Anthony Albanese says there’s a legal process taking place through the international court of justice (ICJ), and the government will “allow legal processes to take their course”.
He says the government has been consistent in calling out the terrorist attacks on 7 October, in calling for a ceasefire, and for innocent civilians to be protected.
We have continued to take a principled position that has resulted in criticism from all sides of this debate… It’s the right thing to do for the role that we play internationally, it’s the right thing to do to work towards a long term solution where both Israelis and Palestinians can live side-by-side in peaceful security…
What Australians want to see is two things - they want to see the killings stop … whether they be Israelis or Palestinians, and the second thing they want is for the conflict to not be brought here.
Updated
‘I am responsible for the Australian government’: Albanese on Andrews and China parade
Angus Taylor is up again and asks if the prime minister will condemn his “close personal friend” Daniel Andrews, who stood alongside Vladimir Putin at the Chinese Communist Party military parade.
There’s a problem with the question, says Milton Dick, because the question doesn’t actually go to the PM’s responsibilities. Tony Burke makes the same point, that the question has to be something “officially connected” with the PM.
The manager of opposition business, Alex Hawke, says, “the prime minister is officially connected with Australia… that is an official connection. We have invited him to condemn a former premier attending a foreign affairs rally”.
The PM answers, but it’s not exactly what the opposition are looking for.
I am responsible for the Australian government. The Australian government did have a representative there and the Australian government did have a representative 10 years ago. That was a minister in the government. Our government chose that that would not be the case.
Updated
Climate change has ‘a lot of economic consequences', Jim Chalmers says
Climate exposure to Australia’s economy is “substantial”, says Jim Chalmers, in answer to a question from Zali Steggall on the economic risk of climate change.
Steggall says the government still hasn’t released the national risk assessment on climate (which is due to be released later this month).
Chalmers says he’s working closely with the minister in harge of that risk assessment (Josh Wilson) and says climate risk is “front of mind for the government”
I spent a lot of time with the minister on this question… we have worked closely together on it and when we release that important work I welcome the contribution from the member for Warringah. These are important issues and they do have a lot of economic consequences attached to them.
Updated
Taylor asks Albanese about Daniel Andrews
The opposition are changing tack again. Shadow defence minister Angus Taylor asks Albanese about Daniel Andrews attending the military event in Beijing.
He asks if the PM will echo former Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s description of the attendance as a “bridge too far”.
Albanese avoids mentioning Andrews in his answer.
At the 70th anniversary, 10 years ago, the former government sent a Liberal minister Michael Ronaldson to represent the Australian Government. I understand that Australian Embassy officials will formally represent Australia this time.
Updated
Labor asked about ‘Isis brides’ returning to Australia
Back to QT and the opposition tries that question on again, asking if the government is aware of any information on the “Isis brides” returning and if they’re prepared to receive them.
Albanese is not happy with this line of questioning.
He gives an even shorter answer:
I refer to my previous answer.
Updated
Leaving QT for a quick moment for more on NSW antisemitic incidents data
Returning to NSW police minister Yasmin Catley’s admission she may have overstated the number of antisemitic incidents in NSW, the minister’s office has shared a further breakdown of the incidents reported under Operation Shelter, which began on 11 October 2023.
Police have advised that, as of 26 March 2025, 815 incidents had been reported, of which 367 were classified as antisemitic. This is about half of the figure of 700 incidents to which Catley and the NSW premier, Chris Minns, have previously referred.
The Operation Shelter figure provided in estimates today – 663 – appears to refer to alleged criminal offences. The NSW acting police commissioner, Peter Thurtell, suggested 41% of these offences had been reported as antisemitic.
It is not known what proportion of the 254 alleged offences that have resulted in charges relate to antisemitic events. Under Operation Shelter’s definition, “incident” also encompasses events that do not amount to an offence, or fall outside the operation’s scope.
Updated
Seems like we’ve moved on from aged care, Sussan Ley asks the government about reports Labor are helping bring so-called “ISIS brides” to Australia.
We get a very short (both in length and in sentiment) from the prime minister.
Those reports are not accurate.
You can read a bit more of the background here.
Updated
Allegra Spender asks when government will commit to publishing ministerial diaries
The government is under pressure on several pieces of legislation today and independent MP Allegra Spender asks the PM a question on FoI requests.
Her question is about when the government will commit to publishing ministerial diaries and disclosing sponsored parliamentary orange pass holders – as the crossbench has called for.
Anthony Albanese says there was a meeting with MPs including crossbenchers on the FoI changes yesterday and then talks about some of the justifications for the reforms.
Last year public servants spent more than 1 million hours processing FoIs. Not doing policy, not helping people out there with their issues.
He gets interrupted and then Milton Dick boots out Liberal MP Jason Wood, who continues to interject while Dick is speaking (an absolute no-no). Albanese continues:
There are real issues with the current system. One is the anonymous nature of requests, FOI applications.
He doesn’t mention releasing ministerial diaries or the disclosure of sponsored lobbyist passes.
Updated
Sussan Ley questions Sam Rae over aged care priority waitlist
Sussan Ley is back and puts a second question to Sam Rae, pressing him on the latest figures of Australians on the priority waitlist for an aged care package.
She asks how long the government has known this figure – when it was just revealed in the Senate today. That number was increased from 87,000 to 109,000.
Rae says there’s a verification process and that 87,000 figure was to the end of March this year.
There is a process of verification because the government doesn’t want to release incorrect information when it comes to the national priority system.
It’s a short answer, and he sits down as the manager of opposition business, Alex Hawke, gets up and tries to get Rae to “correct his answer” if he’s aware he made an incorrect statement.
The Speaker, Milton Dick, basically bats him away and says that wasn’t a point of order.
Updated
Question time begins
The 11th-hour deal has not saved the aged care minister, Sam Rae, from more questions from the opposition today.
Sussan Ley stands up and asks if Rae is aware that the prime minister negotiated with the opposition without him, and if he can’t be in the room for the big calls, why should elderly Australians trust him?
Rae starts and says the government is “proud” to be delivering these reforms.
That gets a huge groan and some shouts from the opposition. Rae continues:
This is a fantastic outcome for older Australians and their families who have the certainty that more care is on the way.
The new support at home program will help more older Australians to stay at home for longer and with a higher level of care so people can stay close to family and close to community.
He’s trying hard to spin this one as a win for the government.
Updated
Not a deal but a defeat on aged care says opposition leader
The opposition has also called the government’s concession on its aged care bill a “small victory”.
Speaking to reporters following Pocock and Allman-Payne, opposition leader Sussan Ley says the government was dragged to this outcome.
This is not a deal, Prime Minister, this is a defeat because labor has been dragged kicking and screaming to implement what we have spent this week demanding that they do.
Anne Ruston says the win is in conjunction with the Greens and crossbench who pushed the government in the senate this morning, but adds that there’s so much work still to be done.
We’ve stood up for older Australians. We’ve pushed back against the government, and we had forced [them] to go into back flipping and agreeing to our amendments to release these packages.
Pocock and Allman-Payne claim credit for immediate release of 20,000 home care packages
David Pocock and the Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne are taking the win for pressuring the government into agreeing to immediately release 20,000 home care packages.
But they say those extra packages “don’t even touch the sides” of the issue with 200,000 elderly Australians currently on the waitlist.
Allman-Payne told reporters:
It took them [Labor] losing a vote on the floor of the Senate this morning, on Senator Pocock’s motion, to force them to act.
The government essentially cut the crossbench out, by making a deal with the opposition to pass the amendments to their aged care bill, which should go through later this afternoon. Pocock says:
I think over this term we’re going to see more and more of a government that is constantly trying to cut the crossbench out.
Allman-Payne also accused the government of obfuscating the real number of Australians on the priority waitlists, which she says is 20,000 higher than the government had been saying
I think the extent to which Minister Rae and the government have gone to hide the true extent of the aged care wait list has been astounding. We asked a direct question in the Senate this morning of the minister to give us that number, and she wouldn’t give it, and she didn’t give it until, essentially, it was put in front of her and she had to confirm it.
They says it’s just a “small victory” because there’s such a huge problem within the sector.
Updated
Victorian minister refuses to comment on Daniel Andrews’ attendance at Beijing event
Victorian government minister Vicki Ward says former premier Daniel Andrews’ decision to attend a military parade in China is a choice he’s made “in his private capacity”. She told reporters this morning:
He’s going as a private individual and these are choices that he’s made in his private capacity. ... It’s a matter for Daniel Andrews and I’m really not going to comment on choices that he’s made.
Asked by a reporter whether it was appropriate for a former Labor premier of Victoria to attend a “giant military parade of a communist country who’s made threats against Australia and the Pacific”, Ward replied:
It’s important that we always maintain good, healthy relationships with those countries that are in our region, that we as a government look after the interests of this state, whether it is economic or whether it is social, when we are in a moment where social cohesion has never been more important. It is very, very important that we have very careful, considered conversations around our relationships, both within this state but also external to this state.
Updated
The Centre for Public Integrity has criticised the Albanese government’s proposed changes to freedom of information laws as “retrograde” and raised concerns they will further reduce transparency of decision making.
The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, has announced the biggest changes to transparency rules in more than a decade, including new charges for freedom of information requests to government departments and ministers, as well as tougher rules related to cabinet confidentiality.
Anonymous applications will be banned, and new rules designed to deter vexatious and frivolous requests introduced. Rowland has also flagged introducing tougher standards for access to documents containing advice to government and deliberative matters of ministers.
The Centre for Public Integrity said the change “spells trouble for public integrity and our democracy” and compared them to the satirical BBC comedy about the public service, Yes Minister.
The government’s concerns about encouraging frank, fearless and timely advice from public servants are not best addressed by more secrecy. It is a classic Yes Minister move, and it has no place in a modern democracy.
The Albanese Labor Government, returned by the Australian people this year with a thumping majority, has indicated in its first four months that it has little concern or incentive to promote the transparency it talked up in opposition.
High court rules on NZYQ man
The high court has ruled to uphold the Albanese government’s decision to cancel a protection visa for a man within the NZYQ cohort it plans to deport to Nauru.
On Wednesday morning, the court ruled against reinstating the protection visa for an Iraqi man in his 60s, who was of the original three granted a 30-year resettlement visa in Nauru earlier this year.
The Human Rights Law Centre, which represents the man, said further legal challenges were afoot meaning his deportation to the tiny Pacific island could not happen until they were resolved.
One of those challenges sits with the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which issued an urgent interim request to the Australian government last month not to deport him to Nauru until it had resolved the case.
Laura John, an associate legal director at the HRLC, said the elderly man had lived through wars in Iraq and faced homelessness, destitution, and indefinite separation from his wife and children in Australia. John said he also had health complications. She continued:
Like every person, our client has a right to live in safety and dignity. The government has refused at every stage of this process to consider the lifelong consequences of permanently exiling an elderly man to Nauru.
This evening, a Senate committee will examine a home affairs bill proposing to strip natural justice from noncitizens with valid visas in an effort to expedite their deportation to third countries, like Nauru. The bill was introduced shortly before the Albanese government announced a $400m deal with Nauru to resettle about 280 members of the NZYQ cohort that were released from indefinite detention after a high court ruling in November 2023.
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The court should take into account the significant pressure placed by former ABC chair Ita Buttrose on ABC management to sack Antoinette Lattouf and fine the broadcaster up to $350,000, the federal court has heard.
“The imperatives of deterrence call for [an] aggregate deterrent penalty in the range of $300,000-350,000,” Lattouf’s legal team has submitted in documents released by the court.
The ABC’s financial position and resources, as well as those of some of its competitors, indicates that higher penalties are required to achieve specific and general deterrence.
The ABC is asking the court to find it is liable for the much smaller penalty of up to $56,000.
The hearing has adjourned for lunch.
The ABC’s chief people officer Deena Amorelli has been cross-examined about Antoinette Lattouf’s unlawful termination at a federal court hearing into pecuniary penalties.
Justice Darryl Rangiah is hearing submissions from Lattouf and the ABC before he determines the scale of the fine for breaching the Fair Work Act.
Amorelli has told the court she was hired in early 2024 and she was not working at the ABC when Lattouf was sacked, but she did attend the nine-day federal court hearing in February and she has been nominated to represent the ABC.
Rangiah told Lattouf’s barrister Oshie Fagir his cross examination of Amorelli “has so far been a waste of time”.
I am wondering what the relevance of all of this is. I handed down a detailed judgment where I thought I indicated my view as to why the relevant processes under the enterprise agreement had not been followed.
Why does it matter if there was some separate, independent inquiry by the ABC about that issue when it’s largely dealt with?
Amorelli said she was unaware ABC managing director Hugh Marks had recently made comments to journalists about what he believed had gone wrong in the Lattouf case. Marks had not been appointed when Lattouf was terminated.
Last month Marks said the case was not easily resolved because the applicant was by that stage “funded”.
After the judgment was handed down in favour of Lattouf, the ABC released a statement saying: “We extend our sincere apologies to Ms Lattouf and wish her well in her future endeavours”.
Amorelli agreed no-one from the ABC has contacted Lattouf to apologise personally despite acknowledging the “distress occasioned her” in the statement.
The concession will mean there will be an additional cost to the budget, in bring the packages forward from 1 November, Butler says.
They’re asked a few times about the cost component of the deal and Rae initially says that the financial implications will be made clear in the MYEFO (midyear economic and fiscal outlook).
But pressed again, Butler says:
There will be an additional cost to that … I’m trying to be as honest as I can be with people that that this demand trajectory is steep and governments, for years, not the next few years, but for years ahead, are going to have to manage what is going to be for some time a big increase in demand.
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Butler’s been put into quite an awkward position here – the government was basically filibustering in the Senate this morning trying to prolong debate to put pressure on the opposition to cave on their position.
Butler says it’s a “moving feast” – Labor voted against those amendments earlier, before 180-ing now and saying that the amendments will pass with Labor support this afternoon.
The health minister is also trying to cut David Pocock out of the deal, and says that while 20,000 packages that will be immediately released, that’s separate to the amendment that Pocock made, and it’s Anne Ruston’s amendment that was “more comprehensive”.
We’ve been negotiating with the coalition, we’ve been considering our position, and you know, at the end of the day, we have said the bill needs to pass before the end of this week, the bill did not need to pass yesterday. The bill needs to pass before the end of this week. We have been taking a sensible, measured approach to this, negotiating with the coalition
The concession means the government avoids a somewhat embarrassing vote against it in the Senate.
They already lost a vote on David Pocock’s amendment to release the 20,000 home care packages immediately.
Sam Rae has been fielding questions all week on the delays in question time, but now says he’s “very happy that we now have a bipartisan pathway to passing these bills.”
The government has said the delays followed wide consultations to ensure the sector was prepared. Butler is asked what he’d say to that now, and whether the sector’s preparedness has changed.
Butler says staffing is an issue but they have heard the sector has said they can provide those packages (the opposition has said this all week that the sector has told them they are ready for those extra packages).
Providers have said over the last little while, including in the Senate inquiry, very recently, that they are able to provide these packages if we put them into the market. Now, I guess now they have got that opportunity.
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Government to support the Coalition’s amendments on the aged care bill
Chalmers hands over the baton in the blue room to Mark Butler and Sam Rae, who are waiting on the sides. (Some of the economics journos walk out and Butler jokingly calls them out as they leave).
As we’ve brought you, the government is under pressure and on a deadline to get its aged care legislation through the Senate. The main hold-up? The Coalition, Greens and crossbench pushing for home care packages to be immediately released, before the legislation is due to take effect on 1 November.
Butler says there’s been a “good” debate and discussion around those home care packages – and has made an agreement with the Coalition to pass their amendments.
We have to get this legislation through the parliament this week. If we don’t, there is simply no way we can introduce the new aged care system on the first of November.
This means 20,000 additional home care packages will be released between now and 1 November, between November and 31 December there will be another 20,000 packages released, and the remaining 43,000 packages will be released until 30 June 2026.
I think that that reflects an agreed position between the two major parties … I hope now that means we can get this legislation through the Senate.
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Jim Chalmers says economy in an ‘enviable position’ after latest GDP figures
Jim Chalmers says the latest GDP figures are very welcome and shows the Australian economy is gaining momentum.
To recap, the latest national accounts figures showed the economy expanded by a stronger than expected 0.6% in the three months to June, thanks almost entirely to a big jump in consumption. But Australia did recorded its weakest year-on-year growth since the early 1990s, excluding the pandemic, with real GDP in 2024-25 climbing by just 1.3%.
Speaking to reporters in Parliament House, Chalmers says the growth has come from the private sector, as well as an increase in household spending – which he attributes to higher wages and tax cuts.
Our economy is in an enviable position despite all our challenges that we acknowledge and are upfront about, the comparisons with our peers show that we are in an enviable position.
Consumption is growing because real incomes are growing.
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Pocock scores Senate win on aged home care bill
Things have been coming to a bit of a head in the Senate on the government’s aged care bill.
The Coalition, Greens and crossbench are trying to force the government to release home care packages before the legislation comes into effect on 1 November.
They just voted to support David Pocock’s amendment to the bill that would immediately release 20,000 home care packages. There wasn’t a division on it, but Labor recorded its opposition. But that amendment would still have to go through the House to pass – where Labor has a huge majority.
Debate on the bill has been suspended for now – but stay tuned, there’s more drama ahead this afternoon, when the vote on the whole bill with amendments takes place.
Time is running out for the government to get this through the Senate. Because the next time that both the House and Senate sit is at the end of October, if they don’t go through the Senate this week, the government risks not making its already delayed 1 November deadline for the aged care legislation to come into effect.
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Daniel Andrews photographed with Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping in Beijing
We have a class photo from the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war and see if you can spot a familiar Australian face in there.
Spoiler alert, it’s Daniel Andrews.
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Australia records weakest year-on-year growth since the early 1990s
Australia has recorded its weakest year-on-year growth since the early 1990s, excluding the pandemic, with real GDP in 2024-25 climbing by just 1.3% versus the previous financial year.
But the latest national accounts from the Australian Bureau of Statistics also showed the economy expanded by a stronger than expected 0.6% in the three months to June, thanks almost entirely to a big jump in consumption.
Households took more time off in the Easter and Anzac holidays – which were unusually close together – and spent big on travel, eating out and attending events.
Tom Lay, the ABS’s head of national accounts, said the “rebound” in growth in the June quarter followed a subdued, weather-affected start to the year.
End of financial year sales and new product releases contributed to rises in discretionary spending on goods including furnishings and household equipment, motor vehicles and recreation and culture goods.
Real GDP in the June quarter was 1.8% larger than in the same period last year, compared with the annual growth rate of 1.4% in March, the ABS figures showed.
Jim Chalmers said the national accounts “show Australia’s economy is gathering momentum in the face of global economic uncertainty”.
Sean Langcake, head of macroeconomic forecasting for Oxford Economics Australia, said “today’s data are an encouraging confirmation that heightened global uncertainty did not take a heavy toll on the economy” in the three months to June.
Still, he said, the latest quarter “may prove to be a high watermark for growth in 2025”.
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Murray Watt defends approval of Glencore’s Ulan coalmine expansion
A spokesperson for the environment minister, Murray Watt, says the government remains “firmly committed to action on climate change” after a delegate from the minister’s department approved Glencore’s Ulan coalmine expansion near Mudgee in New South Wales:
We have taken strong action in our first term and will continue that work now while also ensuring that there is security of energy supply as we transition to renewables.
The spokesperson said the approval, which allows Glencore to expand the mine’s footprint and extract an additional 18.8 million tonnes of run of mine coal, came with 57 strict conditions to minimise potential impacts on matters protected under Australia’s environmental laws, such as threatened species.
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act has no “climate trigger” for consideration of a project’s impacts on the climate, something conservation and climate groups have long called for.
The decision comes as a community group, the Mudgee and District Environment Group, launched a fresh legal appeal against the NSW government’s approval of the same project, arguing the state’s environmental assessment had been inadequate because it failed to consider the project’s climate impacts.
Bev Smiles from the Mudgee District Environment Group said of the federal approval:
The Albanese government continues to recklessly approve new thermal coal projects when we know they are fuelling climate change and extreme weather that is harming Australians.
It is shameful that Australia’s environmental laws fail to require climate change consideration in decisions around dangerous, polluting coalmines.
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PM has ‘no intention of any referendums this term’
Anthony Albanese has no intention of putting another referendum to the Australian people, even if he supports a four-year-fixed term.
After every election, the joint standing committee on electoral matters does a review of the election and makes recommendations on whether systems or processes can be improved.
Don Farrell, the special minister for state, has the power to say what that committee looks at – and one of those things is a four-year fixed term.
Albanese is well known to want that but says it would be difficult to do.
I support fixed four-year terms – always have. Referendums are pretty hard to carry in this country. And opportunism kicks in and, unless you have bipartisan support, then it’s not going to be supported. Most state and territory governments, of course, have four-year terms. I think most of them have fixed four-year terms with the exception of Tasmania, that seems to have annual elections!
(Sorry, not sorry Tasmania)
Asked whether he would seek bipartisanship with Sussan Ley, Albanese pours cold water on the whole idea.
I have no intention of any referendums this term.
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Senate debates aged care legislation
While the PM speaks, the Senate is debating consequential legislation on aged care, which would ensure the new act comes into effect by 1 November.
The government has been under pressure over the delay in delivering an additional 80,000 home care packages as the waitlist for them hits 200,000.
Mark Butler says the government is committed to passing the bill this week.
I know that put a lot of pressure on the provider sector, on advocacy groups. But there was, frankly, no alternative.
Asked point blank whether the discussions include a willingness to get more of those home care packages rolled out before November, Butler says:
I’m not going to go into the content of those discussions.
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PM declines to give more details on deal with Nauru
Speaking of transparency, Albanese won’t give us any more details on the memorandum of understanding signed between Australia and Nauru – ie the $400m deal to send 280 former detainees to the Pacific nation.
We have arrangements with governments. We have arrangements between governments and those arrangements are ones we enter into across the board.
Albanese has said this week there’s “nothing secret” about this plan.
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Albanese denies FoI changes are breaking his promise for more transparency and accountability
Albanese gets asked about the government’s FoI changes and says he thinks people would find it surprising that you can lodge an FoI request anonymously.
He says he’s surprised that some journalists he spoke to today didn’t know that.
What that means is that there’s no way to determine whether a foreign agent or actor is putting in requests about information that are sensitive, and no way of ascertaining that … And the obvious implications of security, for example, are there for all to see.
The government’s bill will ban any anonymous lodgements of an FoI – but the security concerns don’t answer the pressing question as to why the government should be charging fees for FoIs.
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NSW police minister admits she may have ‘had the figure wrong’ on antisemitic incidents
As we have reported, the NSW police minister, Yasmin Catley, briefed budget estimates in March about the number of antisemitic incidents reported under Operation Shelter in NSW. Here is what she said at the time:
There have been more than 700 antisemitic events and incidents and arrests in this city.
When asked today about the number of incidents which have been explicitly labelled as antisemitic in the state, which police suggested today was closer to 300 since the start of the operation, she said:
I may have had the figure wrong and, if I did, I apologise to the committee, but quite frankly there would be so many more incidents than have been reported and that I know for a fact.
Budget estimates has also heard that two further applications for protests on the Sydney Harbour Bridge have been made since the pro-Palestine march last month. One is under consideration and the other has been withdrawn.
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Albanese says Australia ‘security partner of choice’ when asked if he’s concerned China will attend Pacific forum
Albanese is asked whether he’s concerned China will attend the Pacific Islands Forum next week in the Solomon Islands, due to its embassy based there.
It follows the decision by Solomon Islands to prevent Taiwan’s officials from attending the forum.
Albanese says the government didn’t support a change to prevent Taiwan’s officials attending but said “we recognise the Solomon Islands is a sovereign nation and they’ve made that decision”.
On whether he has concerns about China, Albanese says Australia is the “security partner of choice in the region” and reiterates that the Pacific Islands are a “family”.
We supported the previous arrangements … the Pacific Islands family, and this will be a theme where we look after our own interests and that means Australia, of course, being a security partner of choice in this region.
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PM questioned on Daniel Andrews and Bob Carr’s attendance in Beijing
Back to Anthony Albanese’s press conference, we’re on to questions and he’s being pressed on why Daniel Andrews is the most senior Australian representative to attend the events in Beijing today.
Albanese says there’s a diplomat there but is pushed further by reporters on what he thinks of Andrews and Bob Carr being at an event which includes Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.
Albanese says Abbott government minister Michael Ronaldson was the last representative to go to the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war in 2015.
He’s [Andrews] not meeting them. Like I said, the last time around, 10 years ago, Minister Ronaldson was the government’s representative.
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NSW police minister breaks down antisemitic incidents reported under Operation Shelter
Returning to NSW estimates, the police minister has now provided a breakdown of the number of incidents reported under Operation Shelter, set up to coordinate the police response to pro-Palestinian activities after the Opera House protest on 9 October 2023.
Earlier today, Mark Latham MP challenged Yasmin Catley on the high number of antisemitic incidents she and the NSW premier, Chris Minns, have said were reported under the operation. Catley told budget estimates in March that there had been 700 antisemitic incidents in recent months.
In March, Catley pointed out that the state’s Jewish community had continued to face increased rates of antisemitism.
“There have been more than 700 antisemitic events and incidents and arrests in this city,” she said at the time.
Latham today said police had confirmed at a recent inquiry that only 41% of those incidents had been labelled as antisemitic, 15% as Islamophobic and the rest had been classified as “other”.
Catley took the question on notice but said Operation Shelter had recorded 663 offences with 254 charges having been laid.
The acting NSW police commissioner, Peter Thurtell, confirmed that 41% of all the incidents have been explicitly labelled as antisemitic.
Asked what the “other” classification meant, Thurtell acknowledged the definition was imprecise and up to individual officers.
It could have been like a Nazi symbol scrawled on a toilet wall, and someone might put down ‘other’ as opposed to antisemitic.
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Albanese makes brain cancer research announcement
The government will fund the Richard Scolyer chair in brain cancer research at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, the PM is announcing this morning.
Anthony Albanese is addressing the media at parliament alongside the health minister, Mark Butler, and Prof Scolyer.
You can read about Scolyer’s incredible journey through brain cancer here:
Albanese says the announcement will mean Australia can “continue to stay at the forefront of the fight against cancer. We can continue to train the world’s best research is and we can continue this important work.”
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Victorian Greens hit back at Battin claims
The Victorian Greens have hit back at claims made by Coalition leader, Brad Battin, on ABC Radio Melbourne earlier this morning that some of the party’s beliefs were as extreme as neo-Nazis. They said insinuating the party was supportive of Hamas was offensive and deeply misleading.
The Victorian Greens spokesperson for multiculturalism and anti-racism, Anasina Gray-Barberio, said:
What’s happening is an attack on black and brown people and our multicultural communities, who are in deep distress right now. For the Liberal opposition leader to then use this moment to try and smear us and a movement calling for peace in Gaza by trying to put us on the same page as the very neo-Nazis attacking our communities is the exact kind of divisive rhetoric that emboldens these far-right extremists. Our diversity is our strength and the fact the Liberals would use this moment of pain for our multicultural communities to score cheap political points is disturbing and shows just how out of touch they are.
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Albanese government approves Glencore coalmine extension
The Albanese government has given mining company Glencore the green light to extend its Ulan coalmine near Mudgee in New South Wales, the first coalmining approval since Murray Watt became environment minister.
The project would expand the mine’s footprint and allow the extraction of an additional 18.8 million tonnes of run of mine coal. The approval extends the life of the mine for another two years from 2033 to 2035.
Climate groups and the Greens have criticised the decision, with the Climate Council saying it was “nonsensical” for the government to talk about cutting climate pollution on one hand while approving new fossil fuel projects with the other.
The council’s chief executive, Amanda McKenzie, said if the government wanted its forthcoming 2035 climate targets to be taken seriously, it “must stop approving new and expanded coal and gas projects”:
While coal and gas projects are still being waved through without considering their climate damage, the government can’t credibly claim it’s doing everything possible to fight climate change.
It’s time to stop rubber-stamping pollution and start making decisions that put people’s lives and livelihoods first.
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, said in addition to “wreaking havoc on the climate”, the extension would clear habitat and affect threatened species including the large-eared pied bat:
Labor must stop gaslighting the public – opening new coal and gas is the opposite of climate action.
It locks Australia into providing the world with more coal and gas for decades to come, while putting threatened wildlife like our precious koalas at risk.
Guardian Australia has sought comment from Watt and Glencore.
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NSW police minister challenged on opposition to Harbour Bridge march
The NSW police minister, Yasmin Catley, is fronting budget estimates today, where she has been challenged on her opposition to the pro-Palestine march across Sydney’s Harbour Bridge in August.
Catley has been asked if she told a NSW Labor caucus meeting that an offer by organiser Palestine Action Group’s offer to delay the march to give police more time was not genuine. Catley said she would not comment on things said in caucus.
Asked if a NSW police supreme court challenge to the march, which was ultimately unsuccessful, wasted time and resources, Catley says:
Whilst the march went ahead and was peaceful ... because of the number of participants, there was serious concern for crowd crush. And I am told by those police who were there that we were extremely lucky to avert a serious incident occurring on the bridge in relation to the number of people that were there.
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Brad Battin questioned over whether he sees Greens in the ‘same way’ as neo-Nazis
Jumping back to that interview on ABC radio earlier with the Victorian opposition leader, Brad Battin …
Raf Epstein also pressed Battin on why he bought up the Greens when asked about neo-Nazis. Asked whether he saw the Greens in the “same way”, Battin replied:
The Greens have got an issue. Obviously, they’re an extreme party, and some of the groups they’ve been associated with, and they seem to get left out of the conversation a lot.
Epstein: Are they extreme in the same way neo-Nazis are extreme?
Battin: “No, the Greens aren’t, but some of their beliefs, or the people they support, yes.
Asked what beliefs were as extreme, Battin claimed the Greens’ “discussions around Gaza” and “supporting Hamas”.
We’ve contacted the Victorian Greens for comment.
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Greens co-founder Drew Hutton argues he was denied procedural fairness when membership terminated
A co-founder of the Australian Greens is suing his former party in a bid to reinstate the life membership stripped from him about six weeks ago over what it considers his pursuit of debate harmful to trans people.
Drew Hutton filed an affidavit in the Queensland supreme court on Tuesday arguing that he was denied natural justice and procedural fairness when the 78-year-old retiree had his membership terminated by an assembly of branch delegates on 20 July.
That decision harkened back to comments made below Hutton’s social media posts in June 2022, with the party deeming he had provided a platform for transphobia.
Hutton has argued he is pursuing free speech.
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Rowland introduces bill to charge for FoI requests
In the House, the attorney general, Michelle Rowland, is introducing her controversial bill to put charges on freedom of information requests.
Her justification is that the system needs reform and is being clogged up by “vexatious, abusive and frivolous” requests.
In 2023-24 alone public servants spent more than 1 million hours processing FoI requests.
She says this bill implements recommendations from the 2013 review of the legislation to make the system “more effective”.
Currently most states and territories charge fees for their own freedom of information requests – and charge around $30 to $50. The government has said fees for the federal system would be similarly “modest”, but fees would be exempt for individuals trying to obtain personal information.
The Greens and Coalition have been really critical of the bill, but independent MP Andrew Wilkie said this morning that he’d “meet the government halfway” that reform was necessary, but that should not mean introducing fees.
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Antoinette Lattouf termination case returns for pecuniary hearing
The unlawful termination case brought by Antoinette Lattouf against the ABC returns to court this morning for a pecuniary hearing.
In June the federal court found the ABC breached the Fair Work Act when it terminated the casual broadcaster for reasons including that she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
Today’s hearing before Justice Darryl Rangiah is to determine how big the fine should be for breaching the act.
In his judgment Rangiah upheld Lattouf’s claim that she was unlawfully terminated in December 2023 when her on-air shifts were cut short three days into a five-day stint hosting Sydney Mornings.
He said ABC managers were in a “a state of panic” after an “orchestrated campaign by pro-Israel lobbyists”.
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Vote to set minimum staffing levels for politicians fails
How many staff should politicians be entitled to? That’s the question up for debate in the Senate this morning – you might remember outrage from the Coalition after their staff numbers were cut by the government.
The prime minister has the power to set staffing numbers – which the Coalition has said the government has used as a political weapon against them (and also made the argument that less staff for the opposition or crossbench means less scrutiny on the government, which means less transparency).
The Senate is voting on legislation by the opposition which would put a floor on the minimum number of personal staff (like advisers) that a politician is entitled to.
The Greens – who were also frustrated with the government over their staffing levels – moved an amendment on the Coalition’s bill. That amendment passed with Coalition and crossbench support.
But on the actual vote on the Coalition’s bill to set minimum staffing levels, the Greens sided with the government so the bill failed.
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Brad Battin says Victorian Liberals won’t preference Nazis at next election
Earlier this morning, the Victorian opposition leader, Brad Battin, appeared on ABC Radio Melbourne with host Raf Epstein.
Epstein asked Battin about the Victorian Liberal party’s decision at the 2022 state election to preference all other candidates ahead of Labor, including those with “far right” and neo-Nazi views. Asked whether this was a mistake, Battin replied:
I can’t answer for what happened at the last election ... I wasn’t in a position to make those changes. I don’t support anyone who’s backing Nazis or Nazi organisations as much as the reason I don’t back the Greens, who are out there inciting hate across Victoria and do a preference deal with Labor.
Asked whether he’d put “Nazis ahead of Labor” at the 2026 election, Battin replied:
I’ll be making individual judgments of the election coming up. People can judge me on that. We will not be preferencing anyone who is pro-Nazi here in Victoria.
Epstein: But not preferencing is a bit different. Are you going to put Labor last?
Battin: We will make individual judgments on areas. If there is a person who is pro Nazi and promotes Nazism in Victoria, they will not be getting our preferences.
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Daniel Andrews and Bob Carr criticised for attending ‘parade for dictators’ in Beijing
There’s been some choice criticisms of former Victorian Labor premier Daniel Andrews and former Labor foreign affairs minister Bob Carr this morning, over their travel to Beijing for a military parade, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un will both be attending the event, but Australia’s ambassador to China, Scott Dewar, will reportedly not be there.
The shadow home affairs minister, Andrew Hastie said the decision to attend reflected poorly on the judgment of Andrews and Carr.
This is a parade for dictators. It’s a celebration of the Chinese Communist party … I look forward to seeing them clap like seals as the missiles roll by.
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, was also critical of their decision to attend, telling the Today show this morning:
I think for those two individuals, they need to explain why they are attending a military parade that Vladimir Putin is attending and what that actually tells the world.
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Government not assisting repatriating of ‘Isis brides’, Burke says
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, is “aware” of reports of the return of the so-called “Isis brides” from northern Syria to Australia, but says the government is not providing them assistance”.
It follows reporting in the Australian that more than a dozen women and children and some young men are expected to be evacuated and returned to NSW and Victoria.
A spokesperson for Burke said the government’s ability to provide any consular assistance to any Australian citizen in Syria is “extremely limited”.
The Australian government is not providing assistance to this cohort. Our ability to provide consular assistance to Australians in Syria is extremely limited due to the dangerous security situation.
Our intelligence and security agencies are constantly monitoring threats to our national security.
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Hastie stuck between ‘friends’ and ‘enemies’ on net zero
While the Coalition struggles to form a consistent position on net zero, and both Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan put forward bills across the House and the Senate to repeal the target (which Labor is trying to politically exploit), conservative Liberal MP and frontbencher Andrew Hastie is caught in a bit of a bind.
Having publicly said the net zero target should be scrapped, he was reportedly told by Joyce not to vote for his bill – or risk facing a demotion to the backbench.
On Sky News, Hastie is asked if he’ll vote for Joyce’s bill. He says:
My views are very clear, I think we’re on the road to ruin under Labor’s net zero settings, but I’m not going to get into hypotheticals on a live program where both my friends and my enemies are watching.
Friends and enemies, eh?
Hastie won’t be drawn on whether he’s concerned that he’d get booted to the backbench if he supported a push to repeal the 2050 target, but he does through his leadership team a bone.
We’re [the Coalition] in a deep valley, and we need to find our way out, and that’s why we’re going through a constructive policy process overseen by our leader, Sussan Ley and Dan Tehan.
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Law enforcement ‘overwhelmed’ trying to crack down on AI’s role in spreading child sexual abuse material, says Chaney
The globe is grappling with AI and particularly the harms of AI in generating or spreading material with child sexual abuse.
Yesterday, the government announced it would crack down on undetectable online stalking tools and “nudify” apps, as a roundtable on AI-generated sexual abuse material also took place.
Independent MP Kate Chaney – who also has a private member’s bill to criminalise the possession or downloading of apps that have that material – told RN Breakfast a little earlier that law enforcement agencies are “completely overwhelmed” trying to crack down on this abusive material.
Law enforcement agencies are just completely overwhelmed by the volume and the severity is getting worse as well. You know, these tools can be used to create horrendous situations that you just can’t imagine. And that desensitises offenders, which can then increase the severity of the crimes that are then committed against real children.
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Nauru deal ‘wrong on so many levels’, says Wilkie
Wilkie tells RN Breakfast the legislation that removes the right to natural justice from decisions about deportations to third countries and the $400m deportation deal with Nauru has flown under the radar.
Wilkie says the bill is unjust and illegal under international law.
He also raises serious concerns about the cost of the deal – calling it a “gross misuse of public funds”.
We’re a signatory to the Rome Statute and the Rome Statute makes it quite clear that the forced removal of a category of people to a third country is a crime against humanity.
All we know is that we’re going to gift or pay Nauru $400m to take about 280 people. That’s the upfront payment. And then about $70m a year in ongoing payments. I mean, over a few years, that’s a couple of million dollars per person. And this is an outrageous misuse of money. We can have no confidence that the Nauru government will spend it in the best interest of the Nauru people.
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Wilkie says he’s prepared to meet the government halfway on FoI charges
The FoI framework does need to be modernised and figure out how to deal with the system being clogged up by requests, says independent MP Andrew Wilkie.
The former whistleblower and intelligence analyst tells ABC RN Breakfast he’s “prepared to meet the government halfway” on this issue, and highlights the ability to make anonymous FoI requests as an issue.
He says there are concerns, even among senior members of the government, that foreign governments, nonstate actors or criminals could be putting in FoIs seeking information.
But – and there’s a big but – that doesn’t mean the government should charge for FoIs to combat those concerns.
We have a problem in this country where money buys power, money buys access. You know, we read about people paying to have a dinner with a minister. I mean, this is absurd. So, I, as a matter of principle, am not comfortable at all with the fact that a charge would be applied. I mean, I don’t know what the point of the charge is. Is it to help recoup the cost of satisfying the FoI or is it to set up a barrier almost that it might stop just vexatious or silly FoI requests. But at the end of the day, everyone, no matter what their means are, has a fundamental right to access certain amounts or certain parts of government information.
He also takes a shot at the opposition, saying this “isn’t the time for a partisan response or a leftwing or rightwing response, [we need] to have an intelligent discussion of this issue”.
Updated
Ruston chastises Labor over delay to home care packages
It’s “disgusting” the government hasn’t released one new home care package this financial year, says Anne Ruston.
The Coalition with the crossbench will push amendments on aged care legislation in the Senate – that would immediately release home care packages for 200,000 elderly Australians currently waiting for one.
The shadow health minister tells ABC RN Breakfast the government has been “blaming everyone but themselves” for the delay in the legislation coming into effect, which she says shouldn’t be tied to the home care packages.
The legislation merely puts in place the new framework for how we deliver aged care into the future. There is nothing at all stopping the government from releasing packages right now. The sector is entirely able to do it. The department says they’re more than capable of getting them out the door.
The sector has also told us that they can absorb at least another 20,000 before Christmas and they can absorb the whole 83,000 that have been promised by the end of this financial year.
Updated
Ley accuses government of implementing a ‘truth tax’ on FoIs
Jumping back to Sussan Ley’s interview on Sunrise a little earlier, she accused the government of becoming “very secretive”.
Anthony Albanese said in 2019 that he was going to be transparent, and Ley says this legislation is a “broken promise like no other”.
We’re now seeing the hatches close, the lights go off and secrecy reign in the areas that the public has every right to expect transparency and truth. I’m calling it a truth tax.
To actually allow the government to be interrogated on why it does what it does and the background of the decisions that it makes, and the frank and fearless advice that it receives from its public servants, for example, they’ve they’ve told us things about what they really thought about Labor’s bulk-billing plans, about whether the sector was ready for the changes to the NDIS, and a whole lot more – this should be in the public domain.
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Rowland denies government trying to put more information out of public’s reach
So what about the Albanese government’s promise that it’s open and transparent?
Rowland tells ABC AM the Labor government isn’t one “that has secret ministries”. She also says the bill will clarify the scope of various exemptions that can be used to reject FoI applications.
As we found out through robodebt, which was another example of a lack of transparency which cost people lives under the previous government, just labelling something cabinet in confidence does not make it so and we intend to enshrine that in this law.
Rowland rejects that the government is trying to put more information out of the public’s reach, and says the regime is stuck in the 1980s – at the time it was created.
We’ve had cases where FoI requests have been generated, sometimes around 600 of them in one instance, going to a small agency, which tied up the services of that agency for over two months. Now, you might think that’s not important, but let me tell you what that agency was. That was eSafety. That is an organisation responsible for ensuring the safety, particularly of young people, online getting tied up, doing 600 frivolous FoI requests that they are required by law to deal with.
Asked how the government will get this legislation through the Senate when the Greens are vehemently opposed and the Coalition has heavily criticised it – Rowland says, “politics is the art of the possible”.
Updated
Attorney general defends plan to charge for FoI requests
The government is being forced to justify and defend its announcement that freedom of information requests will be charged. The opposition has already called it a “truth tax” and hammered Labor for talking a big game on transparency.
The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, is on ABC AM, says there’s not a stakeholder who will say that the FoI regime is “working as it should” – because requests can be made anonymously, and she claims there are vexatious or frivolous requests that are trying up “scarce government resources”.
She argues that other states and territories already do it:
I would point out that there is currently a charging regime in the Freedom of Information Act, and every state and territory bar the ACT actually imposes a modest application fee of somewhere between $30 and the mid-50s.
Rowland says 70% of FoI requests are from individuals seeking access to their own personal information, and promises they will be exempt from any charges.
She also says the the legislation will be referred to a Senate committee for “debate and ventilation”.
Updated
Ley: government must do more to ‘de-radicalise’ and ‘de-escalate’ extremist movements
Sussan Ley “felt sick” watching a neo-Nazi confronting Victorian premier Jacinta Allan at a press conference yesterday, she tells Sunrise.
The opposition leader says she’s concerned about an escalation in hatred and intimidation seen by some at the rallies over the weekend.
The government needs to do more to “de-radicalise” and “de-escalate” these extremist movements, she says:
This sickness has to be it has to be removed. We need to de-radicalise de-escalate, work together as a society to tackle something that I’m seeing as a troubling trend, an escalation in political violence.
Anti-immigration sentiment was at the heart of these rallies. Asked whether the opposition attacking the government’s migration program is fuelling the extremists, Ley says the Coalition is pointing out that thee needs to be a “sensible, balanced approach” to migration.
We also know that by bringing in a million migrants over the first two years of this government, with no plan to house them, or to put the infrastructure in place to support them …
I speak to Australians who can’t find homes, who are taking three times as long for their commute to work, who see the pressure on infrastructure all around them every day. And they want to know that we do have balanced migration program. It’s been rushed and chaotic.
What is the balance? Ley says the number should be lower than what the government has announced – which was a permanent migration intake of 185,000 over this financial year.
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Chris Sidoti also suggested there were double standards when it came to governments enforcing domestic law as opposed to international law.
He said:
A sovereign citizen killing cops is no different from the leader of a sovereign state killing kids. The crime is the same. The criminality is the same. What is different is the response.
Sidoti outlined a review of Australia’s engagement with Israel following the ICJ’s ruling could result in trade sanctions with military suppliers within, and to Israel, personal sanctions against military and political members engaging in alleged war crimes and human rights abuses as well as the prosecution of any Australians who served in the Israeli defence force after 7 October 2023 for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
He concluded:
What is the alternative to a functioning international legal system? The only alternative is that might is right. The law of the jungle. The replacement of a rules-based international order with a fools-based international order. International law and the international legal system are the only thing standing between us and the abyss.
Former human rights chief Chris Sidoti urges Australia to take stronger action against Israel
Former human rights commissioner Chris Sidoti has urged Australia to respond with action, not “pious expressions of support”, to the international court of justice’s decision last year that a number of Israel’s activities in Gaza and the West Bank amounted to breaches of international law.
In an event addressing some Labor and crossbench MPs and senators at Parliament House on Tuesday afternoon, Sidoti said Australia should have announced a review of its ties to Israel following the ICJ’s provisional finding in July 2024 to ensure Australia was meeting its international obligations.
The ICJ found multiple breaches of international law by Israel, including activities that amounted to apartheid. It ordered Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories as rapidly as possible and make reparations for “internationally wrongful acts”. The Israeli government derided the findings at the time as a “decision of lies” by The Hague.
Sidoti, who was until recently one of three members of a UN commission of inquiry into human rights in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, said maintaining international rules-based order required third countries, like Australia, to respond to breaches of the law with action, not “pious expressions of support”.
Good morning,
Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
It’s going to be another busy day in parliament today, we’re likely to see more debate on the aged care bill in the Senate – which the government has been feeling the heat on from the opposition and crossbench.
We’ll also likely get more reaction to the rallies over the weekend – after the PM told his partyroom the government needs to give people “space” to avoid going down dangerous rabbit holes, and one MP questioned his claim that “good people” were at that rally. You can read more on that story from my colleagues here.
Let’s get stuck in!
ADF troops join hunt for Dezi Freeman, says Marles
Troops from the Australian defence force have joined the search for Dezi Freeman in Victoria’s north-east a week after the fugitive allegedly shot two police officers, the deputy prime minster, Richard Marles, confirmed.
Speaking to ABC’s 7.30 last night, Marles – who is also the minister for defence – said the ADF had provided a planning specialist and air surveillance assets following a request from Victoria police.
“The Australian defence force will work with the Victorian police as they request our assistance in terms of the particular assets and capabilities that we have to bring Dezi Freeman to justice,” Marles told Sarah Ferguson.
Separately, the deputy PM told the program he “fully expects” the Australian government will meet with US president Donald Trump “in the not-too-distant future”, describing a “sense of optimism” about the alliance.
Marles met with Trump’s right-hand man, US vice-president JD Vance, and US counterpart Pete Hegseth last week to discuss the bilateral economic relationship, critical minerals, national security and Aukus.
US defence officials initially denied the Australian defence minister and US counterpart had met during the last-minute trip to Washington, but later clarified a meeting had indeed taken place.
“Ours is a relationship where we feel a sense of optimism about how we can manage the alliance with the Trump administration and indeed the meetings I had last week only affirmed that,” Marles told 7.30.
AustralianSuper is the country’s largest super fund. It has more than 3.6 million members and $385bn in funds under management.
“I’ve said this behind closed doors and in front of the cameras and I’ll say it again: it would be a disaster for members if governments tried to tell us what to invest in,” Schoder will say in the speech.
“Members carry the investment risk, and it is their money.”
He says governments can build assets, with the plan to sell or lease them later to long-term investors such as super funds. But he warns part of government’s role is to build things that are important for the country but which don’t necessarily make the kind of financial return super funds need.
“We must break the piggy bank mentality,” Schroder says.
“Super is not a trillion-dollar fix-all. It cannot – and should not – be used to solve every complex national problem.”
Hands off the nation's $4.2tn super pool, boss warns governments
The boss of Australia’s biggest superannuation fund says it would be “a disaster” if governments started directing investments from the country’s $4.2tn retirement savings pool.
AustralianSuper chief executive, Paul Schroder, will address the National Press Club in Canberra today, speaking about superannuation’s role in national renewal.
Schroder will say super funds should be involved much earlier in discussions with governments about the assets they build and run, so investment opportunities which meet a national or community need are identified.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has pushed super funds to send capital towards opportunities that are in “the national interest”. He wants backing for “big national priorities” such as housing and infrastructure.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best overnight stories before Krishani Dhanji takes the controls for the bulk of the day.
The boss of Australia’s biggest superannuation fund will warn today that it would be “a disaster” if governments started to try to dictate how the industry invests its $4.2tn retirement savings pool. In a speech to the National Press Club later today, AustralianSuper chief executive, Paul Schroder, will say the super pot is not a “fix-all” for the nation’s problems. More coming up.
The army has joined the search for the Porepunkah shooting suspect, Dezi Freeman, Richard Marles told ABC’s 7.30 last night, providing a planning specialist and air surveillance help following a request from Victoria police. It comes as an expert on the terrain says Freeman could be evading police heat detection devices by hiding in the area’s disused mines. More details shortly.
The former human rights commissioner, Chris Sidoti, has urged Australia to take stronger action against Israel after the ICJ’s ruling last year that it had acted illegally against the Palestinian people. Sidoti told Labor MPs yesterday that the government must do more than offer “pious expressions of support”.
