What we learned today, Monday 19 June
With that, we’ll wrap up our live coverage of the day’s news.
Here’s a summary of the main news developments:
A bill to alter the constitution and enable the Indigenous voice passed federal parliament today.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese said “parliaments pass laws, but it is people who make history”, encouraging people to vote yes during Australia’s first referendum in 24 years.
No date has been announced yet, however the vote must occur no sooner than two months and no later than six months from now.
Usually during the third reading of a bill there aren’t any more speeches, but there was further commentary today. Senator Malarndirri McCarthy told the ABC this is a “momentous time” and that every senator had a chance to be involved, no matter their stance.
During her speech shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash said the majority of the coalition will vote to pass the bill because of people’s “right to have a say on this issue”, but disagree with the voice itself.
Meanwhile Senator Lidia Thorpe wore a shirt with the word “Gammin” on it and said “Gammin as we know, is fake. A joke and that’s what I think”, confirming she will vote no.
Ultimately the voice referendum bill passed in the Senate with 52 votes to 19.
The $10bn Housing Australia future fund has been postponed in parliament until October after the Greens, who wanted further progress on a rent freeze, teamed up with the Coalition.
Labor’s Dan Farrell warned that the government would regard the delay as “failure to pass” the bill and this could be the first step towards a double dissolution election.
Updated
Victorian government support for Hunter Valley bus crash victims
Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has announced the government will be providing up to $580,000 to the family members of Darcy Bulman, who was killed in the Hunter Valley bus crash, as well as to those from the state who were injured.
In a statement on Monday evening, Andrews announced the funds will provide immediate relief and support for immediate family members of Bulman, who lived in the Melbourne suburb of Warrandyte.
Primary victims who were injured, including up to eight players of the Warrandyte Cricket Club and their partners as well as related victims will also receive funding support. Their family members will also be offered up to $5,000 to assist with costs like loss of income and travel expenses.
He said the government, together with Manningham City Council, will also help victims apply for the icare- NSW’s equivalent to the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) - and will “be there to help in the event of any shortfalls in the NSW schemes”.
Counselling and support for the Warrandyte Cricket Club and its extended community will also be provided.
Andrews said:
This should have been such a special and joyous day — the beginning of a new chapter in a young couple’s life and all of the people they love coming together to celebrate —to have that ending in such tragic circumstances, it’s heartbreaking.
We said we would stand with families from our state who are caught up in this horror crash– and that is exactly what this support package will do.
Updated
Climate activists target ports on anniversary of raid
Climate activists are warning the public to expect more disruptions after simultaneous protests at ports in Newcastle, Brisbane and Melbourne on the anniversary of a high-profile raid, AAP reports.
Three people have been charged over their involvement in the Monday protests, which were live-streamed to social media.
Zelda Grimshaw from Blockade Australia said people should “stay tuned” for further protests from the group:
You cannot decapitate the climate movement – you cut off one head and three will come back.
Monday’s protests were aimed at disrupting ports which are seen as key to the country’s economic functioning, Grimshaw said.
A 22-year-old woman in Newcastle was charged with causing an obstruction to a railway locomotive and entering enclosed lands, giving rise to serious risk to safety.
In Melbourne, a 51-year-old man was charged with intentionally obstructing police and conduct endangering serious injury, among other charges. He is due to appear in Melbourne magistrates’ court on Monday evening.
And in Brisbane, a 23-year-old woman was charged with unregulated high-risk activities, trespass, committing public nuisance and several other charges relating to blocking traffic. She will face court next month.
Governments in Victoria, NSW, Tasmania and South Australia have recently moved to clamp down on climate protesters, passing legislation to steeply increase jail time and fines for disrupting major roads and facilities.
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New South Wales must do its part to curb inflation and help the Reserve Bank “slay the inflation dragon”, the state’s new treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, says.
Ahead of Tuesday’s statement on the NSW budget, Mookhey also said the Minns Labor government would place a major investment fund set up by its Coalition predecessors under review and halt further cash injections into it.
Read more:
Elderly man’s death in Perth’s south deemed suspicious
A young, tall man is being sought by police after a suspicious death in Perth’s south more than two weeks ago, AAP reports.
Paramedics found a 70-year-old man’s body at a home in Warnbro on June 1, a Western Australian police spokeswoman said on Monday.
His death was referred to the Major Crime Division detectives after a post-mortem examination found injuries indicating suspicious circumstances.
Police are appealing for information from anyone who spotted a tall male aged in his early 20s wearing dark clothing near Okehampton Road and Parkland Drive in Warnbro.
Updated
In case you missed it earlier today, here are some words from Aunty Pat Anderson and minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, after the voice referendum bill passed in parliament:
Updated
You can catch up on today’s biggest headlines so far with this wrap from my colleague Antoun Issa:
Updated
Push to cut big money influence on federal elections
Spending caps, real-time disclosure requirements, and a lower donation threshold are among recommended reforms to reduce the election influence of donors with deep pockets.
The reforms are part of a push to increase transparency in federal elections and level the playing field, so the biggest spenders do not have an unfair advantage.
Election spending reached a record $440m in 2022 and the top five individual donors contributed 70% of all donations, analysis by the Centre for Public Integrity found.
A joint parliamentary committee has been investigating potential reforms to funding, donations and transparency, with its interim report making 15 recommendations.
The committee chair, Kate Thwaites, said Australia’s democracy and electoral system was only as robust as the institutions and frameworks that supported them:
The evidence we have heard has allowed the committee to develop clear goals for reform, to increase transparency in election donations and curb the potentially corrupting influence of big money.
Recommendations included lowering the donation disclosure threshold from $15,200 to $1000 and introducing real-time disclosure requirements. Political parties are currently required to disclose donations annually.
The committee also recommended introducing donation and spending caps for federal elections.
– AAP
Updated
‘We are betting as well’, says McCarthy as she reveals Labor currently has ‘no idea’ on referendum dates
McCarthy is asked about possible dates for the referendum.
Greg Jennett (host):
… 21 October, 28 October or November. We’ve got it down to three weekends?
McCarthy:
Can I share something with you, Greg, it is a secret: we are betting as well on the Labor side as to what the dates are, we have no idea.
Jennett:
That one is firmly with the prime minister?
McCarthy:
Absolutely.
Updated
‘We are going to hear some things that we don’t want to hear’, says Malarndirri McCarthy on voice debate
The assistant minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, is speaking on the ABC about the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum bill passing today.
She said it was “unusual” for the third reading speech to have commentary, but acknowledges this is a “momentous time” and that every senator had a chance to be involved, no matter their stance.
I did appreciate the fact that we had the outcome that we did on the floor of the Senate for the passage of the bill but I am mindful that when I say sacred, this is not the end with the legislation going through, the sacred journey is for all Australians as we walk towards the referendum.
Now that the voice debate is moving out of Canberra and into the public sphere, McCarthy said while there will be misinformation, she is hopeful the country will come together:
I have a great deal of love for the process that we are going through and I am very conscious that as imperfect as we are, we are going to hear some things that we don’t want to hear and we will hear things that are not correct and they do need to be called out.
I am also incredibly hopeful in that space of that love and the willingness that we want to see and I have heard on the ground as I have travelled across the country for a better country, a better people and an opportunity now for all of us to make sure that that’s what happens on the other side of the referendum.
Updated
More than $600,000 raised for victims of Hunter Valley bus crash
A fundraiser for victims of the Hunter Valley bus crash has raised more than $600,000 as of Monday.
Ten people were killed in the crash, Australia’s deadliest bus crash in decades.
A meeting was held on Monday to determine how to distribute the money raised in a fund jointly established by Rotary Australia and the NSW government.
David Pearson, the national chairman of Rotary, said people who were directly involved in the crash and their immediate family would benefit from the fund.
A community committee that will distribute the fund will “have regard to the degree of impact”, including considering whether they have short or long term injuries.
The committee will give careful consideration to a proportional distribution.
“Very clear criteria for distribution” will be established and agreed upon by the committee before any significant distributions are made, Pearson said. He hopes this will be in place and initial distributions can begin before the end of the week.
Pearson understands other lines of assistance, including community insurance, will be funding the funerals taking place this week.
The president of the Singleton Roosters, Dylan Hixon, released a statement on Monday on behalf of the local club which found itself at the centre of the tragedy:
Our community has experienced unfathomable heartache, distress, and sadness, after a number of people closely connected to the club were on board and either injured or killed.
Our first priority and focus is on supporting the families, friends and those from our wider club community who have been affected by this unspeakable tragedy.
In a statement on behalf of newlywed’s Mitchell Gaffney and Madeleine Edsell, the family thanked the community for its support and asked for privacy:
While we appreciate the outpouring of love and support from the community, we ask that the media respect our privacy while we grieve.
Our primary focus at this time is processing this tragedy, and supporting our family and friends, which is why we’d like to formally decline any requests for media interviews.
Updated
Greens ‘holding the country to ransom’ over housing bill, says Tammy Tyrrell
Tasmanian senator Tammy Tyrrell of the Jacqui Lambie Network is speaking on the ABC about the housing bill being delayed.
She argues that the longer the bill is delayed, the longer its going to take to get houses built and that the issue will compound:
Even though there [are] programs ready to go in every state and territory – 700 in Tasmania – if we don’t get the kick-off from this legislation, they can’t start. The Greens are really holding the country to ransom when it comes to these 1,200 homes that each state and territory could get happening right now.
Tyrrell is asked whether the country could gain more benefits by taking the legislation to national cabinet first:
I know people that are sleeping in their cars and couch surfing, and they don’t want to wait a day longer … Something is always better than nothing.
I have never said that the extras that the Greens want wouldn’t be nice, but my line in the sand was to get houses for people as soon as possible. At the moment they are delaying that. I think that is unfair.
I don’t think the people of Australia, if they were honest and put their two cents worth out there and contacted their Greens members, that they would be saying anything different to what I am saying.
Updated
Independent senator David Pocock has said it is “disappointing” the housing Australia future fund bill has been delayed.
In a series of tweets, he said:
Disappointing to see the housing legislation that’s been debated since February be kicked down the road to October by the Coalition & the Greens.
It’s not perfect but it’s so much better than it was thanks to advocacy by a whole range of [people], from stakeholders to the [cross bench].
The need for more social & affordable housing is huge & growing.
— David Pocock (@DavidPocock) June 19, 2023
Every day we delay another 300 ppl’s request for emergency or longer term accommodation get knocked back.
Updated
Don Farrell warns delaying housing bill could lead to double dissolution election
The Labor senator Don Farrell is speaking on the ABC about the housing Australia future fund bill being delayed; it has been postponed in parliament until October, after the Greens, who wanted further progress on a rent freeze, teamed up with the Coalition.
During debate, Farrell warned that the government would regard the delay as “failure to pass” the bill and this could be the first step towards a double dissolution election.
Speaking on the need to raise this possibility, Farrell said:
It was necessary to spell it out, because we want the Greens to come to their senses, realise … what they have done by joining forces with the Coalition …
Remember, what the Coalition wants is nothing spent in the area of housing. They had nine years to do something about the issue of housing, housing affordability, rents and homelessness, and they did nothing. We have got a $10 billion proposal here. The Greens say they’re concerned about this issue but the way they are acting is essentially to stop progress on this issue.
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Referendum bill’s passing will make way for ‘certainty of information’, says Kirstie Parker
Uluru dialogue member Kirstie Parker just spoke on the ABC about the milestone in parliament today, with the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum bill passing:
There is never enough time to have all the conversations that you want to have, but today, this was a very important milestone so Australians can now be assured that we are heading to a referendum.
It will be held in the next six months. We have an idea of the question that people will be asked in the referendum and also what the constitutional amendment will be. That is the sort of certainty of information that a lot of Australians have been hoping for and asking for. Now we can certainly focus on the meat of the proposal.
Updated
Man allegedly shot by police north of Brisbane
A man has been transported to hospital after allegedly being shot by police north of Brisbane today. According to a statement from Queensland police, officers were at the scene of an incident at Bray Park earlier today.
About 12.30pm, police were called to a residence due to an alleged domestic incident between a man and a woman. A man sustained gunshot wounds after allegedly being shot by police and has been transported to hospital.
Ethical Standards Command will begin investigations into the matter as well as oversight from the Crime and Corruption Commission.
Updated
Snow and frost expected this week, BoM says
The Bureau of Meteorology has released a weather outlook for the week ahead, with cold conditions – including snow – expected for parts of the country.
Weather Update: Snow, frost and rain this week- 19 June 2023
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) June 19, 2023
Video current: 1:00pm AEST 19 June 2023.
For the latest forecasts and warnings go to our website: https://t.co/4W35o8iFmh pic.twitter.com/GPnUqjQ6Uw
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Many thanks to Amy for taking us through the day! I’ll be with you for the remainder of the evening.
Well. That has been A day.
Again.
There are three more days of this sitting (which includes the mid-winter ball) and then the parliament won’t sit again until 31 July.
So there is a reason this week is going to be a bit full on – everyone needs to get their agendas out and lines up before the spotlight moves on. While politics continues (of course it does) the temperature is always turned down when parliament isn’t sitting.
We will continue to bring you everything you need to know – Emily Wind is going to take you through the rest of the afternoon but I will be back very early tomorrow morning. Until then – please take care of you Ax
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People make history
Labor senator Pat Dodson is on leave but has tweeted on today’s passage of the referendum legislation:
As @AlboMP said, Parliament passes laws but people make history.
— Patrick Dodson (@SenatorDodson) June 19, 2023
The Referendum for a Voice is now with the Australian people.
I have great faith that we will come together to vote Yes for better a future.#yes23 #ulurustatement #auspol pic.twitter.com/oOlkroAtXS
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Interim report into the 2022 election tabled
The chair of the joint standing committee on electoral matters, Kate Thwaites, has tabled its interim report into the 2022 election.
The main recommendations are:
A threshold of $1,000 for disclosure of donations
Real time donation disclosure
Donation and spending caps
-
Legislation for truth in political advertising, and that the Australian electoral commission administer these measures.
Thwaites said that voters had to be “confident that our political system and our politicians are accessible to all and not just to those capable of making very large donations”. She said:
Across the western world, we see the potential for a drift from democracy when people feel like their political system isn’t working for them and believe that their system has been captured by vested interests.”
Updated
We have another answer for reader question time:
Angela wanted to know from Adam Bandt:
Realistically it is impossible to consider an electric car in the inner city because we have no garages and there is no way to charge one - no fast stations, no kerbside power, etc. Are there any steps being considered in this direction in your electorate?
Bandt said:
Thanks for writing and highlighting this important and frustrating issue.
You’re spot on that we urgently need investment in lots of fast charging stations in high density areas, so people without garages can use chargers like we’ve always used petrol stations.
At the federal election, the Greens put forward a plan for $2b of fast charging infrastructure which would roll out publicly-owned fast charging stations across the country that allow drivers to get 80% charge in less than 30 minutes.
In exchange for Greens’ support on the climate legislation, the government agreed to a household electrification package, and this is one of the buckets of money that we will fight to be used on public fast chargers, but this is an ongoing battle that we’re fighting nationally in conjunction with the advocacy of state and territory Greens.
I’d add that for most people the cost of an EV is still too high, and this is largely due to the federal government’s failure to set high emissions standards like the EU and the USA, meaning Australia has become a dumping ground for petrol clunkers because the financial incentives don’t exist for manufacturers to sell EVs here cheaply.
This is something we have been able to get action on - we negotiated on the EVs Bill to limit handouts and tax breaks for petrol and hybrid cars, and ensured the government fleet is fully electric. This will have the impact of bringing more fully electric vehicles into the country and beginning to bring prices down.
There’s more work to do, of course, but the Greens will continue to pull every lever we can to make sure EVs become accessible and affordable, in addition to fighting for expanded cheaper and cleaner public transport, which is a topic for another day!
Updated
Question time, thankfully ends.
We have also had a “fog of speakers” suggested.
So far, an order of speakers and a scold of speakers are taking your fancy (I have some latitude but I can’t publish your NSFW suggestions)
Warren Entsch is now giving his statement in response to Mark Butler’s dixer.
I gotta say to you that the the comments that were made by the health minister, I would have thought, quite frankly, I thought he was a half-decent person.
Nevertheless, he is making accusations in relation to implying some sort of quid pro quo arrangement in relation to a very fine gentleman who happened to have made a donation to… (there are interjections)
Let’s get there.
He also I might add, made a donation of $650,000 to Queensland Health to help them prepare for Covid because the then [Queensland Minister [Miles] had failed to do it.
He made another $80,000 from other recruitment there and even $6,000 for donation to feed the Queensland Health stop.
Now he was approached by a representative from the Torres Strait health to see whether or not he would also be interested in making a donation of an MRI machine to Tara State Hospital, Thursday Island Hospital.
That is the reason why he approached me and wanted to know about protocols in travelling up to the Torres Strait, because he was invited up to actually consider making a donation like $700,000 he’d done at hand.
He made clear to me that he was interested and he was wanting to get the I think it was the Moderna. I rang the hospital. I rang the hospital and asked him if it was available. He said they said yes. and I said what is the protocols? They said if you present we’ve got plenty of it. In fact, we’ve got quite a bit that’s going out of date.
Entsch goes to go on but is told that it is not the place for this sort of more full statement and there are “other avenues” for it.
He finishes with:
No wonder this place is looking as bad as it is.
(And then it seems his microphone is switched off)
Updated
Sussan Ley:
With the greatest respect to the minister articulating the challenge this country faces and closing the gap, with greatest respect, the question was straightforward, millions of Australians would like answer it. Can the minister please answer the question? Can you please bring the minister to order?
Milton Dick asks Linda Burney to be relevant and she answers:
I believe my answer is very relevant. By writing yes we can help change this. The voice is a practical change that will help local and regional committees across Australia.
It will, I’ll be supporting the yes case.
Because it is a safe constitutional change and it will make a meaningful difference to the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians over the months ahead I am looking forward to being part of a movement of Australians from all political backgrounds and playing a part in a campaign.
Thank you Member for Berowra for providing me with your press release. It was very much appreciated.
(That is the Liberal MP, Julian Leeser)
Updated
Coalition ask about scope of voice and public policy
Sussan Ley to Linda Burney:
My question again is for the minister for Indigenous Australians and I refer to her previous response. What areas of public policy will not be within the scope of the voice?
Burney:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. The question, I think, is repetitious.
Burney reads out something she said was handed to her earlier today:
Today is an historic day with the constitutional alteration of field passing the parliament. Later this year Australians will be able to vote at a referendum and complete our constitution. A successful yes vote will recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in the constitution and create a voice to help close the gap.
Despite being one of the most successful nations in the world, on too many measures are Indigenous brothers and sisters are not sharing the same outcomes as other Australians. The life expectancy of an Aboriginal Australians is eight years below that of other Australians.
The unemployment rate for Indigenous Australians is estimated to be about nine times higher than fellow Australians. 1-in-5 initially assessed households are living in accommodation that does not make an acceptable standard.
The suicide rate for Indigenous Australians is almost 2.5 times that of other Australians. Young Indigenous males are more likely to end up in jail and then attending university. By writing yes we can help change this. The Voice is a practical change that will help local, regional communities across Australia.
(Ley interjects on relevance)
Updated
Milton Dick warns against the use of ‘noalition’.
There is a lot of no-alitions going on.
Anthony Albanese continues and gets a bit more personal:
The fact is that those opposite have prioritised protesting, they have prioritised building up a profile, they have prioritised politics rather than prioritising building public housing which is why they voted against in the Senate to block the bill by deferring it.
And I say this:
At least those opposite in the Liberal party don’t pretend.
They would have the guts to vote against public housing. I say to the Greens in deferring this legislation are yet again, they should have had the guts, as I said to the leader of the Greens this morning, at least have the guts to go against it.
To say that you are against 30,000 additional social housing units including housing for women and children escaping domestic violence, including housing for veterans, including housing for those in edginess communities, there are a range of things open to the government to do on policy wise that we don’t need a set which has decided to block everything.
We will take up those options.
We certainly did on Saturday and announcing $2bn of public going forward. In return for that of course the states and territories have agreed on planning, they want new zoning, and I say this, the challenges I bet you that opposites oppose every new zoning because they’ve never seen a medium density development they supported.
In my area of the Inner West council they voted against every affordable housing development has occurred.
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Greens ‘irrelevant’ to housing debate: PM
Anthony Albanese:
It is a pity that the Greens political party have chosen to make themselves irrelevant to the debate.
Because by refusing to participate just like the Coalition do on these issues, they can take no responsibility for anything that this government does.
Because we will not be held back by a no-alition of the Coalition and the Greens say no to public housing. What if it is like with states and territories on the issue of housing supply because yes, I understand that renters are doing it tough.
Yes, I want to do things about that. Yes, that’s why we have a renters rights agreement, we working with states and territories through.
What we are not doing is destroying supply while we do it.
Because the key to fixing housing is supply. If we did what those opposite want us to do, there will be less supply of housing going forward. And that is what they don’t seem to comprehend.
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Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather asks Anthony Albanese:
Millions of renters are in crisis and many are one rent increase away from eviction.
The Greens have asked for months to make immediate investment from the budget in public housing and work with the states and territories to impose national limits on rent increases and until this weekend you have refused.
Now that you have caved in and put $2bn on the table to get the Labor premiers to shift on housing, or you now show leadership and work with national cabinet and make unlimited rent increases illegal?
Labor goes OFF at this question and there are a lot of interjections from when Chandler-Mather said “caved” and Milton Dick has to call for order a few times.
MCM has to ask the question again, with Dick warning any further interjections will lead to people being booted from the chamber.
Bronwyn Bishop, who is one of the former speakers in the parliament, today is probably ITCHING to throw some people out. You can feel the vibes from the press gallery.
MCM gets up to reask his question, but not before he quips “if only you showed that much passion for renters” but Dick tells him to zip it and ask the question (in speaker speak)
Updated
Coalition attacks on Gallagher continue in Senate
Over in Senate question time, the Coalition has continued its week-long attacks on Katy Gallagher over her knowledge of Brittany Higgins’s allegations – where the finance minister is patiently explaining yet again that she told the Coalition two years ago that she knew about the claims a few days before they were made public.
Gallagher is now pushing back on the claims.
Nearly every Coalition question in Senate QT last week was on this topic, even after Gallagher gave a detailed explanation and timeline to the chamber first-thing last week. The trend continued on Monday, with the LNP senator Susan McDonald asking Gallagher if she had misled the Senate.
Gallagher again denied this, saying she’d been “upfront and clear” about her knowledge. She pointed back to that now-infamous Senate estimates committee hearing in 2021, when she responded “noone had any knowledge” – which she has since said, many times, was a reference to claims Labor knew about Higgins’ allegations weeks earlier (Gallagher says she was told 4 days before the stories broke).
Gallagher said she had a private meeting at that time with the Liberal senators Linda Reynolds and Anne Ruston, when the meeting took a short break to chat offline, where she claims she told the senators that she did know about the allegations earlier:
I did tell Senator Reynolds at the time, in that private meeting, and perhaps all this could have been avoided if that meeting wasn’t private. But it was private.
It was held outside the Senate estimates room, but I did say to Senator Reynolds and Senator Ruston at the time that I had been aware of the allegations in the days leading up to them becoming public.
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Members told to stop interjecting during voice questions
Paul Fletcher:
I think all fair-minded Australians agreed with the point about the work we collectively have to do on the closing the gap targets. The question goes to the voice, which policies do not directly affect First Nations people?
Tony Burke:
On two points of order. One on the relevance rule, what matters is whether or not it is relevant to the terms of the question, that is what standing orders say and I put that it is. Secondly, and I didn’t want to interrupt while the minister was speaking, but I get that when a minister and some of us do it on deliberately inflaming the place, people interject back.
The constant interjections from the member from New England in particular (there are more interjections)
… They are always disorderly but it is also the case ….(more interjections)
It is what you are doing now.
I know you get angry a lot but it is what you are doing now.
When a minister, when an answer is being given in the tone and which the minister for Indigenous affairs is giving the answer, the interjections that are coming from those opposite simply should not be there.
Linda Burney continues but the main part of the answer is:
This country does not want to see further disadvantage and the voice is about practical outcomes, it is about recognition and those two things is what you need to understand.
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‘It is not okay’, Linda Burney tell QT
Paul Fletcher , member for Bradfield, asks:
The voice will concern itself with issues that directly affect First Nations people. Which policies do not directly affect First Nations people?
Linda Burney responds:
We should all reflect that just on Monday the Productivity commission brought down a report on the Closing the gap targets.
And they told a terrible story. We are elected into this place to represent everyone. And to do that is also to understand these statistics. The life expectancy gap is not on track. It is not okay that my life expectancy is eight years shorter than the deputy. It’s not okay. It is not okay that for those of you who have children, who are doing year 12, that those - those outcomes will not be as good for First Nations students.
It is not okay that babies are born at unhealthy birth weights. That is not okay.
The fact that I visited a community last week where they were 30 people living in a two-bedroom unit is not acceptable. This is why the voice is important. This is why it will make a practical difference on the ground.
Fletcher gets up to interject and Tanya Plibersek calls out:
What does Linda Burney know about this, why don’t you go ahead and correct her?”
Plibersek was warned.
Updated
The independent MP for Fowler Dai Le asks Jim Chalmers:
I understand the government is optimistic Australia will not fall into a recession. In Fowler, charities are seeing unprecedented number of middle income families needing help. Small businesses are not seeing the same level of customers. More people are working a second job. We’re yet to feel the impact of the 12 interest rate hikes. How confident should the Australian public be we’re not heading towards a recession, if we’re not already in one.
Chalmers:
It is not currently the expectation of the treasury, or the Reserve Bank, or a number of other credible institutions and forecasters that Australia will go down that path.
But what we’ve tried to do, what we’ve tried to do on this side of the House, Mr Speaker, is to be up-front about the challenges that we do confront in our country.
We see it in the budget before that and after that, we do expect the Australian economy to slow considerably.
This is the inevitable consequence of the interest rate rises that began before the election and continued after, and also the substantial slowdown in the global economy.
So I say to your constituents and I say to communities right around Australia, that what we’re trying to do, and what we are doing in our first two budgets is to try and provide help where we can, to get your constituents and communities around Australia through a difficult and challenging period in the global and domestic economies, provide some help where we can, and also lay the foundations for future growth at the same time.
Labor tactics committee has a plan
Labor MP Mary Doyle gets to ask the treasurer a question just so Jim Chalmers can say that Doyle has now asked him three times as many questions as Angus Taylor, the shadow treasurer (in the post budget period).
Which of course she has –because that has been the set up by the Labor tactics committee. Doyle didn’t just wake up and go “gee, I wonder how the Albanese Labor government’s housing policies helping lay the foundations for a stronger economy after a wasted decade, and what is standing in the way?” and then wander into parliament to ask it. It was set out by a tactics committee so Chalmers can point out that the newest member of the house has asked more questions of the treasurer than the shadow treasurer has since the budget was handed down.
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Coalition 'throwing red herrings' in Indigenous voice debate: Linda Burney
Sussan Ley asks Linda Burney:
Minister, what areas of public policy won’t be within the scope of the Voice?
Burney shows a rare flash of anger as she stands up.
Burney:
Can I thank the member opposite for her question. And say that if she listened more carefully to the debate, she wouldn’t have to ask that question.
In relation to the role of the Voice, we have been extraordinarily clear. And we have listened to the aspirations of First Nations Australians through an engagement group, through a working group, through many discussions on the ground in local communities, as well as the expert legal group.
I have spoken at length with my colleagues, and spoken at length with many people in this house.
The answer to the question is that it is - it is stated time and time again, that the Voice will concern itself with the issues that directly affect First Nations people.
And what I find absolutely appalling by that question - what I find...
Peter Dutton was interjecting ‘what does it exclude?’.
Burney:
You’re throwing red herrings at 3.45am – there was a question in the Senate, about how the voice will affect the link road in Melbourne? And that came from Senator Cash. I don’t think the Voice will have time to worry about the link Road in Melbourne.
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Voice debate needs to be above politics
Anthony Albanese goes through what the voice is, and then moves to the debate:
I make this point - that I’m hopeful … we can have a respectful debate going forward. A respectful debate going forward.
Clause three makes it very clear there’s no right of veto. That this parliament will be prime.
The principles that have put forward as well are one, the voice will give independent advice to the parliament and government.
Two, the voice will be chosen by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people based on the wishes of local communities. Not appointed by the government.
Three, it will be representative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities with a gender balance and include youth.
Four, it will be empowering, community-led, inclusive and community-informed. It will be accountable and transparent. It’s work alongside traditional structures.
The voice won’t have a program delivery function and, the voice will not have a veto power. Mr Speaker, the fact that the legislation, the legislation if the referendum is successful will come before this parliament, this parliament, will determine the structure, the composition, the powers and the procedures going forward.
And I think, Mr speaker, I hope that there can be a respectful debate on this issue. And I hope that people avoid misinformation. This needs to be above politics as usual, Mr speaker.
It needs to be above politics as usual.
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Peter Dutton’s question
Peter Dutton:
Prime Minister, why are Australians being asked to make the biggest change to Australia’s constitution in decades, creating a permanent new body, without any details how it would operate? Why is the Prime Minister refusing to provide these details to the Australian people before the referendum?
Anthony Albanese:
The referendum is very clear. It’s about two things. It’s about recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the constitution.
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Warren Entsch wants to respond
Immediately after that answer Warren Entsch stands up and says that he would like an opportunity to “respond to that nonsense”.
He is told the time for that is after question time.
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Did anyone get preferential access to Covid-19 vaccines?
The health minister Mark Butler takes this dixer:
Why is it important for the government to protect the health of vulnerable Australians against the risk of Covid-19 infection? Is the minister aware of any instances of people receiving preferential access to vaccines, which may have posed a risk to public health?
Butler:
Right through this dreadful pandemic, both Australian governments, frankly, have been particularly focused on protecting those Australians who are most at risk of severe death, severe disease or death.
My predecessors worked particularly hard at protecting First Nations communities during this pandemic, working hand in hand with those communities and organisations like NACCHO, I pay credit to Greg [Hunt] and Ken [Wyatt] for that work.
I was more critical about the former government’s slowness in securing vaccine deals in the first year or two, that meant Australia was desperately short of Pfizer doses in the middle of part of 2021, just as the Delta wave was building. Indeed of July that year, the Atagi advice was that Pfizer not be administered to people over the age of 50.
This background highlights why there’s so much concern at reports over the weekend that the member for Leichhardt arranged for a local property developer, aged in his 60s, to travel to Thursday Island, to receive a Pfizer dose in that very month of July.
Concern that was clearly understood across the nation, this man was not eligible on Atagi advice for the Pfizer vaccine.
Concern that he was taking a dose that was intended to protect the vulnerable members of that community on Thursday Island, and concern that unnecessary travel to First Nations communities exposed those communities to a risk of infection.
A risk that had been clearly identified and articulated by Greg Hunt and Ken Wyatt to their credit.
Now, the member for Leichhardt’s own colleagues have reported on a large donation of $304,000 from this property developer, $4,000 for just one dinner attended by just five people, some dinner it must have been, Mr Speaker.
The member for Leichhardt’s constituents will draw their own conclusions about this story.
The member has questions to answer, at a time when his own government was so concerned about protecting vulnerable communities, and other Australians were expected to queue patiently for short dose vaccines, and not to charter a private plane to travel to Thursday Island to access one of theirs.
I notice an hour or two before Question Time the Queensland government has announced this matter has been referred to the Queensland crime and corruption commission for that state for inquiry.
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We have now had the suggestion of a “babble” of speakers.
A blog watcher sitting on the floor of the house has suggested an “interjection” of speakers.
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PM asked if pharmacy dispensing changes are hitting the sector ‘like a wrecking ball’
Former Nationals leader Michael McCormack asks Anthony Albanese:
“Prime Minister, your own local pharmacist, Adele Tahan, who vaccinated you against COVID-19, who you mentioned in the parliament just a few short weeks ago, has described the dispensing changes as hitting the pharmacy sector “like a wrecking ball.” Prime Minister, is she right?”
(Tahan is also one of the Pharmacy Guild members who came to the parliament earlier in the month to sit in the gallery as the Coalition began their campaign opposing the decision to allow people with chronic illnesses who are prescribed 300 listed medicines to get two months worth of medication with one script, which will cut the amount of dispensing fees pharmacists receive, but save people who take that medication a lot of money).
Albanese says:
Adele Tahan is a very good pharmacist in my electorate. Her pharmacy is at Rozelle, I regularly either get the flu vaccination either there in Rozelle, or at my local pharmacy in Marrickville. We have a campaign by the pharmacy guild of which Adele is the vice-president ... And like any union, they’re entitled to advocate for their members.
There are a lot of interjections at Albanese calling the Pharmacy Guild “a union” which is the same response you get when you call the Business Council a “union” – but it’s a fact. They do the same things unions do. And people sign up to them and pay them fees to advocate on their behalf. Like … a union.
Abanese continues:
Like any other union, sometimes they don’t get it right. Because they’re advocating... ..they’re advocating for their members, and we’re in constructive discussions with them. I want to see pharmacies thrive.
But I tell you who else I care about, besides the person who is the pharmacist, I care about the person who goes into the pharmacy. I care about the six million Australians who will benefit, who will benefit from cheaper medicines. That’s what I care about.
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What should it be?
A blog watcher says there doesn’t appear to be a collective noun for a group of speakers as yet, at least according to this list, so now is your chance to have one stick.
What should it be?
A) Noise of speakers
B) Scold of speakers
C) Order of speakers
D) Gaggle of speakers
E) Standing of speakers
F) other
Updated
Order, gaggle or standing of speakers
Back to the collective noun for a group of speakers, we have also had an “order” of speakers, a “gaggle” of speakers and a “standing” of speakers suggested.
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‘We’ll do it as soon as we can’
Anthony Albanese:
Behaviour that would not be accepted in workplaces across the country should certainly not be accepted here in this parliament. To help drive culture change, we expect to have a key stone reform of the Jenkins report, an independent statutory HR agency, up and running from October this year.
With co-operation from across the parliament we’re also working to establish the independent parliamentary standards commission, and to implement recommendations of the review of the members of parliament staff act as quickly as possible.
I say to the member - with regards to timing - we’ll do it as soon as we can. But we want to make sure we get it right, and we have the full input many people across the parliament and ownership of people across the parliament.
These reforms do require that co-operation and we continue to work through the parliamentary leadership taskforce to secure this co-operation.
We’re also prioritising close consultation with staff as we implement these reforms.
We know that staff can be vulnerable in these workplaces and it’s critical that we make sure that these reforms work in the interests of our staff. The government is committed to progressing these essential reforms and to getting them right.
I look forward to working with the member for north Sydney and other members and senators to make sure we do just that.
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Will the PM expedite parliamentary code of conduct, Albanese is asked
Kylea Tink, the independent MP for North Sydney:
Shocking allegations in 2019 led to the set the standard report on the development of the first ever code of conduct for parliamentarians. In February, you led the chamber’s endorsement of the behaviours, standard, and codes for all Commonwealth workplaces. But the behaviours of the past week show we have a long way to go. Will the Prime Minister commit to expediting the due date for the full implementation and enforcement of the behaviour, standards and codes?
Anthony Albanese:
The government is committed to implementing all 28 recommendations from Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins’s review into Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces. Parliament House will never be a typical workplace, but it must be a safe workplace, a respectful workplace, a workplace that lives up to the ideals that our democracy is built on, equality, fairness, decency and respect for all.
It must also be a workplace worthy of the nation and the people we are called here to serve.
Early this year the parliament endorsed new draft codes of conduct. This was a historic moment and we’re working through the parliament to establish the enforcement of the codes as a priority.
All parliamentarians and staff should be complying with the codes of conduct and the new behaviour standards for everyone who works in parliament.
(continued in next post)
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Fancy leaf lettuce farm features in QT
Terry Young gets the next non-government question (there is a byelection in Queensland, so the Queenslanders are getting their moment in the sun) and he wants to know:
Fancy leaf is a lettuce farm in my electorate. Their power bills have more than doubled since the same time last year, the price of the stock they buy has increased dramatically, and they’re now paying a fuel surcharge to receive that stock. These costs need to be passed onto consumers who are already struggling. When will the Prime Minister take responsibility for making things worse for middle Australia?
Have to say, I don’t think of lettuce when I think of “fancy” leaf, so for a moment I was a little taken aback.
Anthony Albanese gives the usual answer – you voted against the energy relief, you have stood in the way of anything we have tried to do to help, we are getting on with the job, we are doing our bit to get inflation down.
I am paraphrasing because at this point in the debate, we all know what the question and answer is and every minute of our life is precious and we have no more time to spend on this than we have to.
Updated
Right, I think I have a handle on the tech gremlins which are making my life even more difficult today, so let’s get back to QT (the source of most of the difficulties in general).
Updated
First question: Inflation
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor opens the oppositions questions and it is on…inflation.
Why won’t the government admit it has made things worse for middle Australia ( you get the gist).
Anthony Albanese responds with the same answer he has given for weeks.
Over in the senate and the Coalition is still pursuing whether or not Katy Gallagher misled parliament.
It is going to be that sort of week.
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Question time begins
There are a whole heap of former speakers in the house. I am not sure what the collective noun for a group of speakers is – a noise of speakers? A scold of speakers?
Whatever it is, Milton Dick welcomes them.
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PwC caught up in cyber attack but says its IT network was not compromised
Embattled consultancy firm PwC has been one of the many companies caught up in the cyber attack on third party file-transfer platform MoveIt.
The attack, attributed to Russian cyber gang CI0pand reported earlier this month has caught up potentially hundreds of companies and government agencies across the globe, including the US Energy Department, Shell, and John Hopkins University.
A spokesperson for PwC has determined that the firm was caught up in the breach, but said the platform had only been used for a “limited number of client engagements.”
The spokesperson said:
“As soon as we learned of this incident we stopped using the platform and started our own investigation.
Our investigation has shown that PwC’s own IT network has not been compromised and that MoveIt’s vulnerability had a limited impact on PwC. We have reached out to the small number of clients whose files were impacted to discuss the incident.”
Companies use MoveIt to transfer sensitive files out of the organisation to customers.
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Motion to revoke David Van’s $6000 role
Included on the Senate orders of business today is a motion to revoke Victorian senator David Van as temporary chair of committees in the senate.
It’s one of the weird roles in this place, but essentially is a back up to the Senate president and deputy president to oversee Senate proceedings.
Van was appointed to that role in August of last year and received a 3% salary top up for it (about $6,000)
The Senate can appoint and revoke roles at its pleasure.
Updated
Next up is question time
It has been a very busy session so far and we are now in the downhill slide to question time, so take a moment to get a cup of tea (or something stronger) to get through it.
And very big apologies –you may have noticed I wrote Aunty Pat Turner instead of Aunty Pat Anderson a little bit below – the mistake was entirely mine and I apologise.
Updated
Dorinda Cox says passage of the referendum legislation is a historical moment
The Greens are now holding their press conference acknowledging the passage of the referendum legislation through the parliament.
WA senator Dorinda Cox has brought members of her family along for the occasion and says:
These are my children who are here as part of the next generation who we will be, as Adam [Bandt] has already said, we passed in the Senate today, a historical moment and what I am calling a decade of change.
I also want to introduce my mum Margaret who is part of the previous generation, the Stolen Generation in fact.
This is an important juncture for us in order to trigger the referendum later on this year and pass constitutional recognition for first peoples in this country. It is not only important for us as the Australian Greens but important for me and my family and that is why they joined me today.
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Voice referendum now in the hands of yes and no campaigns
And that is it – the referendum is now in the hands of the yes and no campaigns, before ultimately being decided by the people.
We will learn of a date, the pamphlets will be sent out, the campaigns will run and then we vote.
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Hanson comments ‘not worthy’ of prime ministerial response
Anthony Albanese was asked about some of Pauline Hanson’s inflammatory comments in the debate and said:
I didn’t see what Senator Hanson said, but I’m sure it’s consistent with things that she said in the past, they don’t intend to respond to them, because I don’t think that they are worthy of a prime ministerial response.
I will say this.
I will call for a respectful debate across the board, no matter what way people are voting, to try to, for the advocates, to do their best to stick to the facts, to not say things that they know are not true, that they know are not true.
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Will the voice have power?
Aunty Pat Anderson tackled the question of whether or not the voice will have power and said:
Yes, it has to have some power and you will give us the power when you vote yes, we have the mandate of the Australian people.
And then we can talk as equals, more equal with the parliament and the executive of the day.
Although the word advisory is used it as a very powerful word in this context, that is why we went for an instrument in the constitution because we have tried everything else.
Set up committees, done this and that and nothing has worked.
Me and Linda, the minister, we have worked a generation of us inside and outside trying to get that advances, but only through our own activism, nothing has been given to us.
That is a falsehood that black fellas get everything because we do not. There has been advances and achievements but through our advocacy and we are coming to you again as we have done all of the generations before us, and we get questions like that. But we will answer any question but let us get some principles on the table here.
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Albanese ‘confident’ of ‘positive result’
Anthony Albanese is asked about the prospect of the referendum’s success and says:
I have faith in the Australian people and I have faith that we will put our case and I will ask people to comment as well I have always had faith in the Australian people, you cannot predetermine these things.
And it is difficult to win a referendum.
We knew that at the beginning. We knew that. We know that is the case. We expect continued misinformation, but we will run a positive campaign about why this makes a different and say to Australians, as I think my friend Mark Dreyfus here just said, where is the downside here? What are people risking here? Compared with how things have been working up to now? From my perspective, this is all upside.
And that is why I am very confident, that, a positive campaign will produce a positive result, and will produce something that we can be proud of, and we go back to all the other advances that have been made, and my time here.
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Vote about ‘who we are as a nation’, says PM
Anthony Albanese said the campaign will be difficult, but he believes it will prevail.
We know getting constitutional change in Australia is a difficult thing to do. It is a difficult thing to do.
We know that from history.
They also said you could not win a by-election, that was held by the opposition if you were the government.
We did that just a little while ago.
What we are doing here, is something that frankly is more important. More important than any by-election that has ever been held.
This is about who we are as a nation and whether we will move forward, more reconciled, the campaign is being led by the people in this room, and others, the thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people, who were part of this process leading up to 2017.
That is as it should be, this is something that has not arisen in Canberra.
This is a Voice to Canberra, from every region, from remote communities, from every corner of this land, under the southern sky, as the Uluru Statement says.
Updated
October likely for referendum
There is no date set for the referendum as yet – it can be held anytime between 2 months and 30 days and six months.
Anthony Albanese said he has always been transparent it will be in the last quarter of the year.
(October is looking most likely.)
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‘We want to make that change’
Uncle Rodney Dillon then says:
The things that have happened to our people in the past are no joy, there is no joy in the prison system, very little joy in the education system, the housing system, all the systems that have been broken down and is not working, this will play a role in giving advice on making those better.
This is an important role that this is going to play for this country. I see the social determinants on the other end that are so wrong and I can see that this can be so right for this country.
The reason I support this, and this government, and the opposition as well, to work together, to make change … for our people. Because it has not been like that.
We have been in a war zone for a long time.
I think this makes the change… It puts our hand out and it goes to everyone to make change in this country, and I just see that as an important role.
Having those outcomes and the advice this group will give our country is going to be so important.
And all it is as advice at this stage, it is important for us to take notice this is advice to make change, to make it better for our people. Because it has not been getting better. And we want to make that change.
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‘It is important, this is a milestone’
Aunty Pat Anderson takes the podium:
Parliament has done its job as it is supposed to do, it has taken us a long time to get to this position, much longer than the 12 years… We have been calling for recognition, respect, acknowledge and since the first.
From 1840, we were calling people in NSW to petition the king, and we have also we would go to a higher authority for someone to hear us and do something to help us.
Today, parliament did its job and now as it says in the Uluru Statement, the question is said, the amendment is said and we can go out and talk to the Australian people… The Australian public, the Australian people will decide what sort of a country we are, what do we stand for, what are our values, who are we?
That is what we will vote on soon.
In this referendum. It is big, it is important, this is a milestone, and who we are, as a nation today. And I believe despite everything that has happened to me and my family and everybody and every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person in the country, there is a fundamental belief you will all do the right thing at the right time, thank you.
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‘No harm’ from voice, ‘only good’, says Mark Dreyfus
Attorney general Mark Dreyfus:
The Australian people can be confident that we got this right and that this is constitutionally sound. No harm can come from this referendum, only good. The parliament has done its job and now it is up to the Australian people to take the opportunity offered by the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017, an opportunity for our nation to do better, to come together and to walk towards a better future.
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Linda Burney pays tribute to Pat Dodson
Linda Burney steps up to the podium:
The person who is physically not here today, but I can assure you that he is here in spirit is, of course, our beloved Patrick Dodson. I wanted to particularly say that - and he’ll be watching, so, hi, Pat - we have done it.
Burney continues:
Today – the political debate ends.
Today – we can start a national conversation at the community level about what a voice is, why it’s needed, and how it will make a practical difference.
And to those Australians who want to know more, I say this: The idea of constitutional recognition through a voice began with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The Uluru Statement from the Heart is a generous invitation to all Australians to walk a path to a better future.
The Uluru Statement was a culmination of more than 12 regional dialogues, 1,200 Indigenous elders and leaders from across Australia, listening to advice from the ground in communities.
Now, politicians may not like everything that the Voice has to say, but that’s how a good democracy should function.
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PM repeats solicitor general’s view voice ‘enhances’ political system
Anthony Albanese:
This change isn’t about detracting from the 122 years of our democracy. As the solicitor general in his written advice says clearly – it enhances that system.
This has been the culmination of years of discussion, consultation and patient hard work by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves.
And what shines so brightly at the very core of its gracious request is the desire to bring us all closer together as a people reconciled. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lift our great nation even higher.
Recognition of this continent’s First People in our nation’s constitution, listening to their voices on issues that impact them, making concrete practical change that makes a difference to people’s lives, people making themselves heard across our great nation. In the regions and beyond in the remotest corners of our vast and beautiful continent, that we share with the oldest continuous culture on earth.
All those voices rising across Australia like the head waters of 1,000 creeks and rivers joining in to a mighty current - a chance to walk together as one to a better future.
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‘A chance to make our nation even greater’
Anthony Albanese on the referendum:
I say to my fellow Australians – parliaments pass laws, but it is people who make history. This is your time, your chance, your opportunity to be a part of making history. It will be a moment of national unity, a chance to make our nation even greater.
A gracious chapter in the great story of Australia.
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How does the double dissolution trigger work?
Earlier, the Labor deputy Senate leader Don Farrell noted the government would regard delaying the housing Australia future fund bill to October as a failure to pass it. Ominously, he noted that senators understood what that means.
Section 57 of the constitution sets out the procedure for a double dissolution election:
The House of Representatives passes a bill and sends it to the Senate.
The Senate rejects the bill, or fails to pass it, or passes it with amendments to which the House will not agree.
After three months the House of Representatives passes the bill a second time and sends it to the Senate again.
The Senate again rejects the bill, or fails to pass it, or passes it with amendments to which the House will not agree.
The Prime Minister may now advise the Governor-General to dissolve both Houses, this is a matter for determination by the Prime Minister.
If the Prime Minister takes that step, both Houses are dissolved simultaneously and elections are held for both Houses
So, Farrell was effectively putting the Senate on notice that delaying the bill to October would be regarded as the first failure to pass the bill.
Of course, the government is not required to do anything with a double dissolution trigger. But it would give the government the option of going to an early election in 2024 some time, for example. Or it could just be a threat to grease the wheels for the bill to pass, which it failed to do today.
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Albanese press conference begins
Anthony Albanese is holding a press conference in the wake of the referendum legislation passing the parliament.
He is joined by the referendum working group, members of the yes campaign and attorney general Mark Dreyfus.
There are going to be a lot of speakers here, so we will cover what we can. There will be a story coming very soon as well.
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Lambie senator ‘angry’ at housing bill delay
Jacqui Lambie network senator Tammy Tyrrell is not happy with the delay in the housing future fund vote:
I’m angry and disappointed at the decision of the Senate today to defer the vote on the housing Australia future fund to October.
Every day that we delay passing this legislation, the housing list in Tasmania continues to grow. More people find themselves in need of emergency housing.
I negotiated to deliver 1,200 homes over the next five years for Tasmania. Tasmanian Greens senators Nick McKim and Peter Whish-Wilson have chosen to delay these homes. It’s on them to explain to Tasmanians why they don’t think we deserve these houses and deserve them now.”
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Australian military action in Timor-Leste ‘left deep scars’, inquiry hears
Australian Defence Force members operating in Timor-Leste will be subject to local laws, the defence department has told an inquiry that has heard about Timorese civilians being injured and killed by Australian weapons and vehicles.
A parliamentary inquiry into the defence cooperation between Australia and Timor-Leste and the status of visiting forces heard from the department of defence and the department of foreign affairs and trade on Monday morning about a new treaty.
The Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis, La’o Hamutuk/Walking Together, said in its submission that the “troublesome history of Australian military activities has left deep scars”. It said that from 2008 to 2010 alone, Australian soldiers in Timor-Leste as part of the international stabilisation force [ISF] had been in nine vehicle crashes in which civilians were injured, including a 2009 crash that severely injured two brothers and was kept secret. Its submission said victims were “confused” with “mixed messages” on compensation:
Unfortunately, this has been the pattern for nearly all Timorese people injured or killed by Australian weapons or vehicles.
The committee chair, Labor MP Josh Wilson, asked the defence department whether Australia had taken appropriate responsibility for accidents.
Air Commodore Patrick Keane, the director general of the department’s legal services, said the “default position” was that visiting members and civilian workers were subject to the laws of the country they were visiting, and that there would be mechanisms in place by which anyone affected by the ADF in Timor-Leste could be dealt with:
They’re subject to local law and would be subject to any issues in relation to civil claims like the ones raised in the submissions.
The ISF withdrew from Timor-Leste in 2013 but the ADF maintains a presence in the country, working with the local force.
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‘You own more property than most people ever will’
Renters advocacy group Better Renting says the latest ATO taxation statistics show that 51.1% of all rental properties are owned by people who own multiple properties – at least 2.6% properties, on top of their main residence.
Better Renting Executive Director Joel Dignam says the data shows the reality of housing investment:
If you are lucky enough to own a rental property, consider stopping to smell the roses. You own more property than most people ever will.But if you rent, it’s more likely than not that your landlord owns, on average, 2.6 investment properties - in addition to their own home. These people are unusually wealthy and the data show that, while renters were tightening their purse strings during Covid, landlords were making bigger profits than ever.
We estimate that in 2020-21 taxpayers subsidised landlord losses to the tune of over $2 billion. It is unclear why our government continues to give tax handouts to wealthy investors, while refusing to contemplate action to help reduce the burden that runaway rent increases are placing on the roughly one in three Australians who rent their homes.”
I think most of us struggle to understand just how well off landlords actually are. If you’re a home-owner struggling with mortgage repayments, you have much more in common with the renter next door than someone who owns their own home plus two others.”
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Coalition calls for more support for Ukraine
Meanwhile, the government will also face pressure to do more for Ukraine, with the opposition moving an urgency motion “calling on the Albanese Labor government to deliver a further package of assistance to Ukraine”.
That doesn’t mean that the government will send a package – just that (if passed) the Senate thinks it should happen).
Simon Birmingham:
We urge all parties to support this motion to maintain Australia’s strong and bipartisan support for Ukraine against Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion.
For months now need has been mounting for this Labor government to deliver a further package of military, humanitarian and energy assistance to Ukraine.
It is embarrassing to see Ukraine resorting to public campaigns for Australia to do more, and concerning to have members of the Australian Ukrainian community express their disappointment at the lack of recent action.
The Coalition calls on all parties to support this motion to ensure Australia continues to provide support for a friend and country in need, and Australia continues to defend democracy and the international rules-based order.
Most importantly, we urge the Albanese government to act, swiftly and comprehensively, by delivering a further package of support that restores Australia’s standing as a leading non-NATO contributor to Ukraine.
Updated
Greens leader Adam Bandt said his party is willing to go to the line to fight to have renters rights considered during the housing crisis:
Unlimited rent increases should be illegal.
The pressure is now on the Prime Minister and the Labor Premiers to act on a rent freeze and limit rent increases.
This is a test for Labor. It’s wall-to-wall Labor across the mainland, so rent rises are their responsibility.
For months we have been calling for two things: real money on housing now, not after the next election, and action to limit soaring rents. For months Labor has said this was impossible. Over the weekend, Labor found an extra $2b to start going out the door in two weeks’ time, but they still won’t act on rents.
We shouldn’t have to fight this hard to get Labor to limit rent increases during this rental and housing crisis.
The Greens want a two year rental freeze and then caps on raises there after. The government says it has advice it wouldn’t do it and that it is not the domain of the Commonwealth. The Greens say if it worked for the energy intervention, it would work for this.
The debate will now continue for the next few months – but the legislation won’t pass this sitting, unless there is enough movement for the Greens to support it suddenly being brought back to the senate
Now for the next phase of the yes campaign
Key campaigners for the Indigenous voice have welcomed the passage of the constitutional alteration bill, and seem itching to move the yes campaign into its next phase:
The Uluru Dialogue said it was now “an opportunity to write a new respectful and more inclusive chapter” in Australia’s history.
This is the recognition we’ve been fighting for and what the vast majority of First Nations People support. The significance of this moment cannot be overstated,” said leader Professor Megan Davis.
In 2017 we issued the Uluru Statement from the Heart to the Australian people inviting them to walk with us. In 2023, we are asking them to hear us. We are confident that the Australian people are ready to change history.”
Co-chair Pat Anderson said:
We now have more clarity on the plan ahead and trust the Australian people will seek and receive the information they need to make an informed decision and, ultimately, vote yes.
Dean Parkin, campaign director for the Yes23 organisation, was buoyed by the campaign “now being turned over to the Australian people.”
The legal and parliamentary scrutiny has been necessary, however, it’s now where it belongs, with the people of Australia,” he said.
This marks a new phase in the campaign where the focus turns to having conversations in the community with everyday Australians about why a successful referendum will help deliver practical outcomes on the ground and move Australia forward.”
Parkin noted there had been over 500 organisations publicly backing the yes vote including multicultural and faith groups, businesses, land councils, unions, advocacy groups, sporting clubs and universities.
This referendum is about uniting and bringing all Australians together, and that’s where our efforts will be focused over the coming months,” he said.
We’re expecting a press conference from Linda Burney and Mark Dreyfus shortly at Parliament House.
Updated
Vote on housing bill delayed to October
The Greens have won their bid to have the Haff moved to October.
So the Housing Australia Future Fund is officially parked for at least another four months.
Which the government consider to be the bill failing in the Senate, for the first time.
Updated
Vote goes against Labor
Ayes: 23
Noes: 37.
So Don Farrell lost his motion to amend the motion.
The senate is now dividing to Sarah Hanson-Young’s original motion to delay debate until 16 October.
Updated
Farrell warning on double dissolution trigger
The Senate is now dividing on Don Farrell’s amendment to Sarah Hanson-Young’s motion.
He wants to change October 16 to “the next sitting day”.
If the Senate rejects his amendment, then the government will consider the bill to have failed in the Senate for the first time.
If a bill fails to pass the parliament twice, then that could trigger a double dissolution election.
The government is in ultimate control of whether to pull that trigger or not, but Farrell has shot a warning out.
Updated
Labor warns delay on housing bill would be first double dissolution trigger
So what Don Farrell is asking the Senate to consider is that the government considers delaying the vote until October, a failure of the Senate to pass the bill meaning – the first trigger for a double dissolution election.
(There are other steps, obviously. But it is a warning)
Farrell says the govt will regard the October delay as "failing to pass the bill" - ie, the first step to a DOUBLE DISSOLUTION if a bill fails to pass twice. #auspol
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) June 19, 2023
Updated
Don Farrell says if the senate delays the vote until October, it will consider it as the “senate failing to pass the bill”.
He is urging the senate to consider that.
Updated
Minister says the Greens and Coalition are an ‘axis of evil’ in housing fund debate
The Senate has voted to suspend standing orders.
36 ayes
26 noes
Now Sarah Hanson-Young will move the motion to move the bill debate to 16 October.
Trade and tourism minister Don Farrell is moving a motion to amend the Greens motion to change 16 October to “next sitting day” which is tomorrow.
The “respectful” debate starts off with Farrell referring to the Greens and the Coalition as the “axis of evil” so it’s getting off to a great start.
Updated
Senate divides on housing future fund debate
The Senate chamber is dividing on the Greens motion to delay debate for the housing bill until October.
The Coalition are in support.
So it looks like having the numbers and the Haff will be parked for another four months.
Updated
Housing debate gets personal in the Senate
Back in the Senate, Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi tells Labor to “not get angry” that their community campaign to do something for renters is working.
Labor senator Tim Ayres says the consequences of the Greens and Coalition voting to delay the bill will mean “30,000 less homes”.
He refers to the Greens as “Trotskyites student politicians” and the Coalition as the “hard right”
So, yup. Things are getting personal.
Updated
Voting yes to the voice will help close the gap
Liberal MP Julian Leeser has welcomed the passage of the referendum legislation through the Senate:
Today is an historic day with the constitutional alteration passing the parliament.
Later this year, Australians will be able to vote at a referendum and complete our constitution.
A successful yes vote will recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in the constitution and create a voice to help close the gap.
Despite being one of the most successful nations in the world, on too many measures, our Indigenous brothers and sisters are not sharing the same outcomes as other Australians:
· The life expectancy of an Indigenous Australian is eight years below that of other Australians.
· The unemployment rate for Indigenous Australians is estimated to be about nine times higher than their fellow Australians.
· One in five Indigenous households are living in accommodation that does not meet an acceptable standard.
· The suicide rate for Indigenous Australians is almost two and half times that of other Australians, and
· Young Indigenous males are more likely to end up in jail, than attending a university.
By writing yes we can help change this.
Updated
New CSIRO chief revealed
Prof Doug Hilton has been named the new chief executive of the CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency.
Hilton, a molecular and cellular biologist, will commence at the CSIRO on 29 September. He is currently the director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne.
Hilton will replace Dr Larry Marshall, who will step down on 30 June after eight years in the top joband the agency’s longest serving chief executive in the last five decades.
Ed Husic, the minister for industry and science, said in a statement:
Prof Hilton brings decades of experience to this role, which will no doubt prove invaluable to helping address some of Australia’s greatest scientific challenges.
Professor Hilton’s research into blood cell production and communication has helped Australians live longer, healthier lives.
Kathryn Fagg, chair of the CSIRO board, said:
Beyond research, Doug has emphasised the importance of strong institutional cultures, and furthered diversity in science. A member of the Champion of Change Coalition and a board member of Australians Investing in Women, he has led initiatives to boost gender equality and diversity, and address better representation of women in senior roles in the Australian medical research sector.
Updated
The debate to change the housing legislation debate is continuing, so we will come back to that when it goes to a vote.
Labor calls Greens and Coalition the ‘anti housing coalition’
Labor senator Anthony Chisholm is accusing the Greens and Coalition of being the “anti housing coalition” and takes aim at the Greens for “a new low” in “partnering up with the coalition who did nothing for 10 years”.
Chisholm said this delay – four months – if it goes through, would only hold up housing solutions even longer.
Updated
Liberal senator accuses government of throwing billions around
Anne Ruston, who one moment ago was saying the government could just spend the money on housing now if it was really serious about housing, has just accused the government of “throwing a couple of billion dollars around” on the weekend (the $2bn social housing acceleration fund) without consultation.
Updated
Where’s the guarantee the money will go into housing, Liberal senator asks
The Liberal senator Anne Ruston says the government is “absolutely hellbent” on putting through a bill without a guarantee that any money will be going into housing:
If you were really deadly serious, you could spend this money today.
The government has said the $500m from the dividends from the fund will be a “floor, not a ceiling”.
The Coalition was originally against the bill because it said it would be inflationary. It is now against the bill because it says it won’t deliver enough housing.
Updated
The Labor senator Don Farrell says the Greens can “vote today” to improve housing supply.
It is the same debate – this time over whether or not the bill should be voted on this week.
Updated
Greens will reveal housing future fund decision at noon
The Greens party room met on Monday morning, but party spokespeople would not comment on the motion circulated in Sarah Hanson-Young’s name before a scheduled press conference at noon.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, and housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, will reveal the party’s decision at that press conference.
The bill sets up a $10bn future fund to invest and pay out earnings of at least $500m a year to invest in social and affordable housing.
Chandler-Mather has spent months attacking the future fund model as a form of “gambling”, forcing concessions from the government including guaranteeing the $500m annual disbursement as a minimum not maximum, and the $2bn of direct investment.
Updated
Renters need to hear government cares about them
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says while the Greens welcome the $2bn social housing acceleration fund, there is still no commitment to help renters.
She says that “we need a prime minister for all Australians” whether you own a home, are in social housing or rent.
Hanson-Young said that renters “desperately need to hear that this government cares about them” but that all they have heard so far is that it “is too difficult”.
Updated
Government wants housing fund debate tomorrow
In the midst of all of that, the government will seek to amend the Greens motion to delay the housing Australia future fund vote from 16 October to tomorrow (the next sitting day).
Updated
Lidia Thorpe interjection
As the Senate president Sue Lines announced the vote, Lidia Thorpe interjected with something (the microphones did not pick it up) and her voice could be heard protesting above the applause.
Senate watchers tell me Thorpe said:
Another day in the colony.
Updated
Voice referendum bill passes parliament
The chamber has divided.
The yes vote wins (as expected and there is a lot of applause. A standing ovation from the gallery.
Yes: 52
Noes: 19
Updated
Senate division begins
The Senate chamber is now dividing on the bill.
It will pass and with the absolute majority needed for bills which pertain to constitutional changes.
(An absolute majority means half of the Senate, plus one. So at least 39. That is opposed to a simple majority which is just a majority of people in the chamber.)
Updated
Onus to tell the truth
Senator Murray Watt, as the minister representing Mark Dreyfus in the senate, is now wrapping up the debate, where he answers what was raised by opponents.
He says while he respects people’s right to vote no and oppose the voice, he thinks there is an onus on people to “tell the truth”.
Updated
Malarndirri McCarthy urges respect on all sides of the debate
McCarthy also pays tribute to the work of senator Pat Dodson, who is on leave receiving medical treatment.
She finishes her speech saying:
I am concerned, a little bit, when I hear about some of the commentary that goes on and I still urge all Australians to dig deep, to listen to the better side of yourself throughout this debate, and to keep it at a level that is respectful.
I am mindful when we reflect on the marriage equality debate and the hurt, the deep hurt, that impacted a lot of those families throughout that whole debate, and I ask all Australians to ensure that we keep our discussions and debate at considerations as we walk this journey, this very sacred journey of our country, with the utmost respect for one another.
That means all sides - all of us on the yes side, I urge you to be mindful of the commentary and the conversations that we have with the broader Australian public.
All those on the no side, I ask you to do the same.
It is only then can we find the better part of ourselves as a country, president, the better part of ourselves as Australians, as all Australians, but this is a critical moment in our country’s history. It is the right thing to do. It is the right thing to do, president.
And it is time now to put this question to the Australian people.
Updated
Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy says she is incredibly proud
I stand here not only as a Senator for the Northern Territory, but also as a First Nations woman from Borroloola in the Gulf of Carpentaria and say how incredibly proud I am, president, to be able to stand and speak for the voice and the importance of being able to go to a referendum and Say yes for our country.
Yes for a better future.
Yes for First Nations people to be able to make decisions in terms of advising the parliament and the executive, as to decisions made about them so they can have input into that.
It is a very simple request, president, to be recognised in the Australian constitution and, yes, there are many schools of thoughts in terms of that constitution, but in terms of the symbolic nature of being able to be included in that constitution means a great deal to many First Nations people.
In fact, this whole debate, we have seen with research polling across the country that majority of First Nations people want this to happen.
Updated
Greens move to have housing Australia future fund debate postponed
Just breaking into the voice third reading debate for a moment – we have seen a Greens motion asking for the housing Australia future fund legislation debate to be put off until 16 October.
That doesn’t mean that it will be. The Greens are seeing if there is support in the senate to put the legislation debate off until after the winter break to “allow time for national cabinet to progress reforms to strengthen renters’ rights as advised by the prime ministers’ press release of 28 April 2023”.
Updated
The rest of what Pauline Hanson is saying is conspiracy rubbish which you’d expect that guy your weird aunt is marrying to post on facebook, instead of being said in the senate, but here we are.
In case it needs to be explicitly stated, the voice to parliament will not create “a black state” in Australia.
OK, Pauline Hanson is now essentially outlining the song plot line to “what about me” but in her own very unique way.
The word ‘racist’ means nothing these days.
I mean … it does. It means “racist”.
Updated
Senator Pauline Hanson is now giving her view.
You already know what it is.
Lidia Thorpe to vote no
Lidia Thorpe finishes with:
The prime minister of this country – a Labor prime minister has not even got the courage to come out and say that he wants a treaty.
He is going straight for constitutional recognition to put us in there nice good little Aborigines with the parliament supremacy over us at all times.
Well, well done. Well done. On the assimilation agenda. Which has the Greens backing. Which is why I left.
This is a point in this country where the final nail in the coffin and I’ll be voting no to this disastrous idea of giving us no power.
Thorpe said if the bill gave any power she would have considered it, but can not support it.
I can’t support something that is just going to be considered as not very important in this place. We know how we operate in this place. It’s hard enough to find time for a meeting. Who’s going to have time to listen to the voice opinion.
You don’t have to turn up to get the advice. It’s just advice and as a previous advisor to ministerial groups and women’s ministerial advisory bodies I have done all of that. You’re just a token advisor so happy assimilation day everybody.
Updated
Thorpe calls for Indigenous Senate seats
Lidia Thorpe says if the parliament was serious about recognition, Indigenous people would have Senate seats, like in New Zealand and a treaty.
There is not one law in this country that has ever, ever, ever been good for us. Not one. And now we’re meant to accept a powerless voice. It is truly assimilating our people. So we speak nicely as your little Indigenous Australians.
It’s what you want us to be right? You don’t want us to speak our language. You don’t want us to practice our culture. Only when you go to some festival and feel good about it.
The only time you want to look at our culture when it suits you. When you want to hang a painting in your Senate office doesn’t back up what you’re actually doing.
Updated
‘I’m ashamed we’re not standing here for a treaty’
Lidia Thorpe:
Well, I’m ashamed.
I’m ashamed that we’re not standing here for a treaty or for some truth to happen in this country. And that we follow a conservative regime.
John Howard’s regime.
Labor! His position and the king’s position is to wipe us out.
We’re a problem. We’re certainly a problem to this law, which is a problem that needs to be fixed all the time. And use it just tinkering around the edges.
You won’t implement the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.
You’ve had ample time to do that in the last 32 years. You’ve had ample time to implement the recommendations to the stolen generations.
Like you are completely gammin. Fake. You’re not genuine.
You wave your flag around and deadly black earrings and feel real good about it. We’re hearing all these beautiful, heartfelt stories about how this is going to fix our lives. It’s going to solve everything.
We can’t even do anything until after this referendum.
Updated
'Gammin': Voice is 'powerless', says Lidia Thorpe
Lidia Thorpe goes on to reference her shirt, which says “Gammin” and is asked to cover it up by Sue Lines. Thorpe does up her blazer as she speaks:
Gammin as we know, is fake. A joke and that’s what I think.
A powerless voices to this place. We have fought over 200 years against colonisation.
The constitution is an illegal document. It’s illegal.
The occupation in this country is illegal.
You following the king. The king. We’re all bound by the king.
Now poor black fellas are begging for a seat at the table and all we get is become advisors. No power.
Updated
‘I don’t need anyone’s white guilt’
Lidia Thorpe:
I‘m here for five more years. I don’t need no one’s vote.
I don’t need anyone’s white guilt.
And that’s what this is about. It’s appeasing the white guilt in this country by giving giving the poor little black fellas a powerless advisory body…
They decide what it is.
Updated
Lidia Thorpe says she will ‘rattle the cages’
Independent senator Thorpe opens with:
Well happy assimilation day.
Sovereignty has never been ceded.
But for the first time in this country’s history, people are starting to talk about sovereignty and what that actually means. To recognise First Peoples’ sovereignty in this country will dissolve this colonial, violent institution that we’re all in right now.
That’s why you want don’t want to acknowledge sovereignty in the racist Australian constitution. That’s why the Greens voted that down on the hypocrisy of climate.
…Yes, I’m here to infiltrate it. To rattle the cages to destroy the white supremacy that is represented in this place.
Senate president Sue Lines asks Thorpe to make her comments through the chair.
Updated
Pocock says voice claims already ‘bordering on misinformation’
Independent ACT senator David Pocock gives a speech to “correct” some of what has been on the record:
We’ve heard much about the need to have a respectful conversation for it to be grounded in fact, and there was just a few things that are being said this morning that already bordering on misinformation, if not well into that territory.
Senator Cash asserted that Australians have an equal say in this debate, we’d like to point out that Australians who live in the territories only count for half their income for the total national vote. Look at that.
The territories votes.
The other assertion was that this is adding race to the constitution. Race is already in the constitution. This is about ensuring that First Nations people, Australia’s first peoples, have a say on issues that affect them. And after 10 years, where we’ve seen things not improve, it makes no sense to hear arguments to say well, we shouldn’t change anything.
Yes, if it isn’t broken, don’t think so. But if it’s broken, it requires to fix it. And this is an opportunity to fix it.
He goes on to say this is not “Labor’s voice” or the “Canberra voice” and says he will vote yes. There is applause from the gallery and president Sue Lines says no more applause.
Updated
Australians being divided, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price tells Senate
Country Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has given a speech. Nampijinpa Price will be voting no and has been one of the leaders of the no campaign:
The goodwill of many non Indigenous Australians is being exploited by those who seek to profit in money, clout or power off the real problems being faced by marginalised Australians.
This is a dangerous and costly proposal. It is legally risky and full of unknowns. It is exploitative. It is emotionally manipulative. But worst of all, from the day Mr Albanese put his word into the Australian people, the process of division was begun.
We are being divided.
We will be further divided throughout this campaign.
And if the yes vote is successful. We will be divided, forever.
I want to see Australia move forward as one not too divided. That’s why I will be voting no.
Again, there are no further rights being given to Indigenous people by the voice. It is one of the key criticisms of the voice from the sovereignty movement.
Updated
There are multiple definitions of “gammin” which is Aboriginal-English slang, but essentially it boils down to meaning “fake” or “joker”.
The Senate president Sue Lines has asked for senator Lidia Thorpe to put a jacket on as “slogans are not allowed” in the chamber.
Updated
Voice architects in Senate to see bill pass
The public viewing chambers in the Senate are filled with Indigenous leaders, architects of the voice and Yes campaigners, including Tom Calma, Megan Davis, Pat Anderson and Thomas Mayo.
Greens’ First Nations spokesperson Dorinda Cox called Monday’s passage of the bill “a historic day”. Independent senator Lidia Thorpe entered the chamber wearing a t-shirt reading “gammin”, a reference to her opposition to the voice.
Indigenous Australians minister Linda Burney, attorney general Mark Dreyfus and energy minister Chris Bowen, all members of the lower house, are sitting in the chamber to watch the vote officially pass. They’re alongside Indigenous MPs Marion Scrymgour and Gordon Reid.
Updated
Voice ‘first important step’ towards Uluru statement, says Dorinda Cox
Greens senator Dorinda Cox is now also speaking on the third reading.
The Greens are in support of the referendum, so Cox’s speech is in favour of the yes campaign:
Our sovereignty has in fact never been ceded. My sovereignty is my birthright to care for this country, to protect this country and to be a knowledge holder and to pass those traditional knowledges on to the next generation.
These chains of the constitution does not impact our sovereignty, my sovereignty. I would not be standing…
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe interjects and Cox asks if Thorpe would like to finish her speech. (Thorpe has interjected a few times in Cox’s speech. The senate president Sue Lines warns Thorpe and Cox continues).
Cox:
… We had discussions with the referendum working group, the attorney general, Minister for Indigenous Affairs who joins us here today and many others and I want to thank them for their respect of our concerns and for taking the time to hear us and address these concerns.
Ceding our sovereignty is something that I and I assume all First Nations people in this place would not want to do.
The Australian Greens remain committed to the full implementation of the Uluru statement from the heart, truth, treaty and voice. The referendum is the first important step. And I continue to push the government for the establishment of the Makarrata commission to oversee that truth telling and treaty making my message to all Australians is on referendum die, I will in fact be voting yes to unite Australia and bringing us together for what I see to be a decade challenge.
Updated
Cash claims voice opens up ‘legal can of worms’
Michaelia Cash is using this opportunity to re-litigate issues which have already been settled:
Ultimately, despite what the government says it is the high court of Australia, who will determine what the right to make representations actually means a vital question that we did pursue the committee stage, and there is still no adequate answers to that.
What we do we know is that legal experts don’t agree. And the legal experts cannot be sure how any high court will interpret such a constitutional change.
Again, what are we doing here?
We are opening up a legal can of worms. The proposed model, as we know it is not just to the parliament, it’s to all areas of executive government.
It gives an unlimited scope … or, in the words of a constitutional law professor, from submarines to parking tickets. And what does then that mean for the Australian people and for the government that they know, will there is a considerable risk of delay to government decision making.
Again, this is not correct. Most legal opinion is that people may try to challenge the voice in the high court, but that doesn’t mean the high court will pick up the challenges. Because the parliament remains the decision maker. What the parliament decides, it can also un-decide. It remains in control of its own destiny.
The parliament decides whether or not to take on the recommendations from the voice. The voice can not overrule the parliament.
This has been an argument from the Coalition since it openly decided to not support the voice, but it hasn’t been backed up by the facts.
Updated
Michaelia Cash condemns voice bill
As telegraphed, shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash has decided to take up the opportunity for a rare third reading speech.
Cash says the majority of the coalition “will vote to pass this bill because we believe them in the people of this nation and their right to have a say on this issue”.
But she says they do not agree with the voice which she says will “destroy one of our most fundamental values, equality of citizenship”.
That is not true. There is no additional benefits of citizenship Indigenous people will receive if the voice passes the referendum.
There are already committees which examine bills and give recommendations, which the parliament can accept or not accept. That is standard.
Updated
The bells have just finished ringing – the parliament session has begun and all eyes are on the senate, where the third reading of the referendum legislation will be held.
Josh Butler and I will keep you up to date on that.
Climate protests at major coal ports
There are climate protests occurring at some of Australia’s major coal port terminals, as AAP reports:
A climate protester has suspended herself from a rail bridge at the Newcastle coal ports, blocking trains, as coordinated protests were mounted at ports in Melbourne and Brisbane.
The woman is livestreaming her solitary protest online and police are on site.
She said on Monday morning as she swung several hundred metres above the ground from the Kooragang rail bridge that the action was in response to Australia’s lack of action on climate change.
In Brisbane a Blockade Australia protestor caused major disruption on the Port of Brisbane Motorway at Lytton on Monday morning, sitting atop a bamboo pole.
Blockade Australia said in a statement the protests were part of a “coordinated mobilisation in response to Australia’s facilitation of the climate and ecological crisis, and its active blocking of impactful action towards a safe climate”.
NSW premier Chris Minns told 2GB while people have the right to demonstrate, protests in precarious sites put emergency service personnel at risk:
Emergency service workers, particularly the police, are put in extreme danger as a result of having to go and remove people from dangerous situations.
It’s one of the reasons we supported the previous government’s protest laws which are going to remain in place.
Updated
Rare 'third reading' speeches to mark passage of voice referendum bill
Usually in the third reading of a bill there aren’t any more speeches – that is what the second reading is for. So the minister does the third reading of the bill, the chamber divides and votes and its done.
But this time around, for the referendum legislation, it looks like the shadow attorney general Michaelia Cash will seek the call to make a rare third reading speech.
Which Malarndirri McCarthy will respond to. And THEN the Senate will divide for the final vote.
There has to be an absolute majority for the bill to pass because it is dealing with altering the constitution – that will happen, so most Coalition senators will vote for the bill, even though they oppose the referendum. Some will have to vote no so they can meet the requirements to have input into the no pamphlet which will be mailed out along with the yes pamphlet to every voter.
Updated
Universities to take Australia-Indie relationship to ‘next level’
University ties between India and Australia are continuing to tighten with the chief executive of Universities Australia to deliver a keynote address alongside Indian education minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Pune.
Catriona Jackson’s visit to the the 2023 Universities 20 Conference in India coincides with the G20 Education Working Group and education ministers meeting, attended by university leaders from all G20 countries.
Jackson will use her speech to outline how universities can take Australia and India’s relationship “to the next level”, following a prime ministerial delegation to India in March:
We are entering a golden era in our relationship with India and education is key to maximising the opportunities before us. India is aiming to educate 500 million people by 2035. Australia’s universities are here to help India realise its ... ambition – for our mutual benefit.”
The prime minister last month signed a sweeping new migration and mobility partnership allowing Indian students to arrive without caps on five-year student visas, extended working provisions and three-month visitor visa allowances.
It comes amid rising concern over fraudulent visas allowing students to switch from public universities to private providers or ‘ghost collages’ after arriving in Australia.
Updated
‘Are you not going to accept his vote, Barnaby?’
Barnaby Joyce then tries to make something out of what Tanya Plibersek said. But then he Barnaby Joyces it.
Joyce:
Well, look, I agree with everything Tanya said in the second part there. This building should be a safe place to work, without a shadow of a doubt, and – but I didn’t quite get the part where they’re going to fight for his vote, that one was a little bit confusing. So, you know, you can’t sort of have two positions, one being the high‑ground, but anyway, you know, that’s something for the Labor Party…
Plibersek:
Are you not going to accept his vote, Barnaby?
Joyce:
That’s something for the Labor Party…
Plibersek:
Are you not going to accept his vote?
Joyce:
That’s something for the Labor Party to explain at the time. No, I ‑ it’s…
Plibersek:
Well, are you going to accept his vote, Barnaby?
Joyce:
It’s an unfortunate circumstances, I look forward to, you know, the…
Plibersek:
So, you’re not going to accept his vote?
Joyce:
… I’ll leave it up to the Senate ‑ I’ll leave it up to the Senate as to what their views are in regards his vote, the Senate leadership, and I’ll leave it up to the leadership of our party to determine exactly where that resides, and also the negotiations that may or may not happen between senators and the leadership of the government; that’s something for the government to decide as to how deep those negotiations go. There will be questions for you in the future.
(Again, it is not the government or the opposition who decides whether or not a vote is accepted or not. Every elected MP has the right to vote and there is no mechanism to not accept it. It gets recorded as yes or no and that’s it.)
Updated
Will the government accept David Van’s vote?
Over on the Seven Network and Tanya Plibersek continued her sisyphean task of “debating” Barnaby Joyce.
First up was the question of whether or not the government would accept the vote of David Van. Peter Dutton expelled Van from the Liberal party room after former senator Amanda Stoker raised allegations of “inappropriate touching” against him, following a statement Lidia Thorpe gave to the senate. Van has denied all the allegations against him. He quit the Liberal party on Saturday and said he was “deeply distressed and hurt that I have not been afforded procedural fairness in relation to these claims”.
Van will now sit on the crossbench as an independent senator (where Thorpe also sits). There is always the question of whether or not a government will ‘accept’ the vote of an MP but it is a ridiculous premise because it is not for governments or oppositions to decide. An MP represents an electorate – in this case the state of Victoria – and governments can’t not accept his vote. Van will vote as he pleases on legislation in the senate and that will be recorded on the hansard. Governments can choose who they negotiate on bills with, but that is a completely different question.
Plibersek says:
We’ll have to of course, he’ll have to vote yes or no on legislation, and of course we’d prefer him to vote yes for government legislation than to vote no. But once again, I think we’re kind of missing the point here. We’re all talking about whether David Van is going to resign or stay in the Parliament, and really, once again, the point here is that we need to make sure that every workplace is safe, that every workplace has processes in place if people want to make complaints about safety at their workplace, sexual harassment, or even sexual assault, that they’ve got somewhere to go for it to be properly dealt with and properly investigated.
To reiterate – Van has denied all allegations against him.
Updated
Voice vote tops parliamentary agenda
The parliament will sit at 10am today. The Senate will immediately get about the business of passing the referendum legislation.
Josh Butler will be in the chamber for that moment and will keep you updated on that. There are a lot of voice supporters in town for the moment – expect there to be some emotion when the final vote goes through.
And then – it up to the campaigns.
Updated
Chalmers to herald record job growth
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will no doubt take a dixer on this today – the Albanese government has “had the strongest job growth in the first year of any new government on record”.
Between May 2022 and May 2023, more than 465,000 jobs were created.
Chalmers’ office says this is “more than six times the number of new jobs created in the first year of the Abbott and Howard governments”.
Which it is, but also – these are largely inherited conditions. The government has done more to support wage growth and the like, but the pandemic, closed borders, and a very tight labour market were part of the package.
(So I can see why he wants to take the W, just keep in mind the context.)
Among the records:
The number of Australians with a job is now more than 14 million for the very first time.
Australia’s participation rate is 66.9% – the highest on record, primarily driven by record high participation for women (62.7%).
The share of women in work is at a record high – with the employment to population ration for women at 60.5%.
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Victorian Liberals name byelection candidate
There is the Fadden byelection coming up, but there is also a state byelection in Victoria, as AAP reports:
A beaten Victorian election candidate has received a second chance as the Liberals’ pick for a crucial state by-election in Melbourne’s north-east.
Nicole Ta-Ei Werner, who failed to regain the marginal seat of Box Hill for the Liberals in November, won preselection for the Warrandyte byelection in a vote of more than 100 party members at a Chirnside Park golf club on Sunday.
The charity manager and former pastor beat out 22-year-old law student Antonietta Di Cosmo and Institute of Public Affairs senior fellow John Roskam in the final two rounds of voting.
If successful, Ms Werner would become the 10th woman in the state Liberals’ 30-member party room following outspoken MP Moira Deeming’s expulsion after she participated in an anti-trans rights rally attended by neo-Nazis.
The upcoming by-election was triggered by long-serving Warrandyte MP Ryan Smith’s sudden decision to quit politics early next month.
Held by the Liberals on a 4.2% margin, it could prove a hurdle for opposition leader John Pesutto amid mounting internal divisions.
Labor is yet to announce whether it will contest the poll, which is expected to be held some time in August or September.
It will be the first Victorian state by-election in more than five years, and Labor hasn’t won one since taking the seat of Benalla from the Nationals in 2000.
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Littleproud opposes Hanson’s referendum pamphlet messages
Back to the political positions on the voice and Nationals leader David Littleproud was asked about the no pamphlet which will be sent to voters, along with the yes pamphlet, and what he would like to see in there.
The pamphlet is written by politicians who support either side. It is not fact checked –the MPs can choose what goes in there.
When it comes to the ‘no’ side, there has already been some inflammatory claims made by politicians, which are not correct, including Peter Dutton’s claim that the voice would “re-racialise” Australia.
Littleproud said he would not support that language in the pamphlet.
No. I’ve made that very clear, I don’t support those sort of words. I’m not prepared to put my weight behind those words,” he said.
Littleproud is also against Pauline Hanson’s wishes to include that the the voice is a “smokescreen” to establish an “Aboriginal state within the nation” (I hope it does not have to be said, but just in case – that claim is absolute bollocks).
There will be about 30 politicians having input on the no pamphlet and Littleproud said the majority of those will be the ones who set the tone (the majority is the Coalition) but he doesn’t support Hanson’s claim either:
I’m not the final arbiter of this, but I don’t support those set of words – I’ll make that very clear... I don’t think that would advance a mature discussion.
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‘Everyone is absolutely shocked at the allegations,’ Burney says
Asked about independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s comments last week that her allegations against David Van (which he denies) were not taken seriously until a white woman (Amanda Stoker) “stood up and said, ‘Yeah, this happened to me too’” (which Van says he has no recollection of), Linda Burney turns to the parliament at large.
The question was did Burney think Thorpe was right and Burney says:
I think everyone is absolutely shocked at the allegations that were made last week. And you know, workplaces should be a safe, safe place. I think there has been some very good work done. Particularly with the leadership of Katy Gallagher and the Kate Jenkins report.
The Labor caucus is now 50% women and no one should have to feel unsafe in the workplace. No. It is unacceptable. And it is something that obviously has shocked this parliament.
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Campaigning to begin in earnest
“I’m feeling quite emotional,” Linda Burney says.
Once the referendum legislation passes about 10am AEST, the yes (and no) campaigns will begin in earnest.
Burney:
Then we will see the campaigns get into full swing. Remember we have several months out from the the actual referendum and why this is so, so important is that it is about recognition, something that you and I can both share of 65,000 years of history and culture and puts in place a permanent voice that will be able to advise government on issues that affect Aboriginal people.
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Voice will have ‘enormous moral authority’, Burney says
The minister for Indigenous Australians is now speaking to ABC radio RN Breakfast.
Linda Burney is being pushed on what power the voice would have:
The power very much lays within lays within the principles.
It has an enormous moral authority to start with. And that’s very, very important.
But think about the principles that have been articulated that the voice will be will be built around and it will be independent and will give independent advice not just to the parliament, but also to the government.
It will be chosen by local people.
It will be accountable, it will be balanced.
It will be community-led, and importantly, it will be accountable and work along existing traditional structures and organisations that are in place now.
So in that sense, it brings about an enormous change in the sense of the parliament will have a permanent body protected by the constitution, that it can get advice from on the streets as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
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‘We continue to repeat the mistakes of the past,’ Littleproud says
Nationals leader David Littleproud is speaking to ABC radio RN Breakfast about the Nationals’ objection to the voice. Littleproud says it is local bodies that are needed, not a national voice. (Local bodies would feed into the voice, which has been outlined several times). Littleproud says this is the only way to actually start closing the gap.
Asked by Hamish Macdonald why the Coalition didn’t do this in the 10 years it was in power, Littleproud says:
Well, we failed. You got to be, Hamish … I’m not afraid to put my hand up and say that governments of all persuasions of the past have failed on this and this is where we continue to repeat the mistakes of the past.
This is about making sure the empowerment of local communities at a local level about getting bureaucrats out of Canberra and putting them around town halls and campfires and listening to those elders.
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Junk food advertising targeted
Independent MP Dr Sophie Scamps will introduce a private member’s bill to ban junk food advertising.
Scamps says:
The Healthy Kids Advertising Bill 2023 (the Bill) aims to protect children from junk food marketing by removing ads from TV and radio between the hours of 6am and 930pm. The Bill would also place an outright ban on junk food marketing on social media and other online environments. Under the regulations, substantial fines would be imposed on broadcasters, internet service providers, and food companies that fail to adhere to the guidelines.
That comes after Scamps’ crossbench colleague Zoe Daniel introduced a private member’s bill to ban gambling advertising.
Scamps:
Approximately 40 countries around the world, including the UK, Ireland, Chile, Norway, Mexico, Thailand, and South Korea, already have or are planning to regulate junk food advertising. I want to see Australia join this list.
And she thinks she might have some government support for the bill:
I’ve been heartened by conversations I’ve had with members of the Albanese government as well as public comments made by the Communications Minister and believe there is genuine political will to address this issue. Protecting our children from obesity and a potential future of chronic disease is something all sides of politics can get behind.
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Brunei’s leader visits
Anthony Albanese will meet the Sultan of Brunei, His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkia this evening.
Climate change, “strategic defence collaboration” and food security for the region are on the agenda, which means Aukus will be too.
The sultan’s visit will continue until Wednesday.
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Good morning
Welcome to the final sitting before the winter break. It being the last four days the government can pass anything for more than a month puts a sense of urgency over the proceedings as all the parties strive to make their final points ahead of some time off.
The politics won’t stop of course – it never does – but it will slow with most MPs planning on taking a week or two of leave over the parliamentary break. Anthony Albanese will head to Lithuania (labas!) next month for the Nato summit and when it comes to defence and foreign policy, the Coalition is back to being in lockstep, so you won’t find too many differences there.
Which means this week is it for the political parties to set out their agendas and points of differences while voters are (mostly) still paying attention.
After leading an abhorrent week last week, which sent the parliament backwards in how it addresses allegations of sexual harassment and assault, the Coalition is looking to reset (again) as it deals with the fallout of the allegations against David Van.
Van has vehemently denied the allegations raised against him and quit the Liberal party, saying he is devastated action was taken without allowing him due process.
Peter Dutton had expelled Van from the party room and the Victorian Liberals had withdrawn organisational support in the wake of allegations being raised against the senator.
Van will be absent from the parliament this week, with a spokesperson confirming yesterday he had requested leave.
Moving to policy and the referendum legislation will pass the Senate today with the third reading debate scheduled. That comes after the Senate sat until four in the morning on Thursday to get through the speeches. The referendum campaigns will begin in earnest from next week with the bill’s passage through the parliament and the referendum itself is thought to be planned for sometime in October.
Meanwhile the other big fight remains the housing Australia future fund, with the Greens making a final push to have the government do something for renters to secure their crucial support. The housing peaks have thanked the crossbench for making changes to the bill so far and for securing more help to address the housing crisis but they have come together to ask for the bill to now be passed.
The government announced a further $2bn to accelerate social housing, with the money to begin flowing in the next fortnight. That can be used to refurbish vacant housing stock as well as expand existing projects to try to get more houses made available faster.
The Greens still want a rent freeze but that’s one area the government has not budged on. It’ll all play out this week.
You’ll have Paul Karp and Josh Butler in Canberra with Amy Remeikis on the blog. It’s a two-coffee morning so far. That will change. Probably very soon.
Ready? Let’s get into it.
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