What we learned, Wednesday 9 December.
Right, that’s where I’ll leave you. Amy Remeikis will pick things back up tomorrow morning.
Here’s what we learned today:
- Federal parliament’s powerful security committee launched an inquiry into extremist movements and radicalism in Australia after a referral from home affairs minister Peter Dutton. The inquiry’s terms include considering the threat of rightwing extremism. The announcement came a day after the release of the New Zealand royal commission report into the Christchurch massacre, and on the same day police in NSW arrested an 18-year-old who allegedly expressed neo-Nazi and white supremacist views. The teenager is expected to face terrorism-related charges.
- A parliamentary inquiry into the destruction of 46,000-year-old caves in Juukan Gorge delivered a scathing report criticising the actions of Rio Tinto and calling for the Western Australian government to put a stop to the destruction of heritage until new laws are passed.
- The government brought on the cashless welfare card debate for later tonight. Depending on where the numbers land, the debate could go until midnight.
- Trade minister Simon Birmingham accused China of undermining a free trade agreement through a series of sanctions on Australian goods, saying the CCP’s “lack of engagement has prevented use of these structures”.
- The New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian admitted she “can’t promise” more quarantine breaches won’t occur after Victoria’s health and human services department confirmed a US traveller bypassed Sydney quarantine to fly to Melbourne in July.
- Victoria recorded its 40th consecutive day with no new cases of Covid-19.
Updated
McGowan shuns national cabinet meeting to avoid SA premier
Western Australia premier Mark McGowan won’t attend the in-person national cabinet meeting on Friday because he doesn’t want to risk being in the same room as South Australian premier Steven Marshall.
The West Australian newspaper reports McGowan will appear at the meeting via teleconference to avoid being in the same room as Marshall because of the current Covid-19 border restrictions in place between WA and SA.
“While it is safe to travel to Canberra based on our health advice, given the restrictions in place for people who have knowingly mixed with residents of South Australia, it was appropriate that the premier join the meeting from Perth instead,” a spokesman for McGowan told the West Australian.
“The signs are looking good for South Australia, and unless there is a subsequent outbreak, they will move to the ‘low risk’ category from Friday as we have announced.”
South Australia has not recorded a new case of Covid-19 for 11 days.
Updated
The Senate is talking about the release of the Juukan Gorge report now.
Labor senator Pat Dodson, who is on the committee that delivered the report, said the inquiry heard ample evidence of the “hurt, frustration and anger” of First Nations people following the destruction.
On Rio Tinto, Dodson says:
It much saddens me that a company which not that long ago was one of the industry leaders in the way it dealt with First Nations peoples became so cavalier in its pursuit of profits.
Failures such as these that lead to Juukan Gorge [do not] happen out of the blue. It is symptomatic of the don’t care culture that infected Rio Tinto from the top down.
Updated
Juukan Gorge parliamentary committee interim report released
The Juukan Gorge parliamentary committee interim report has just been released.
It recommends Rio Tinto “negotiate a restitution package for the destruction of the Juukan rock shelters” with the PKKP traditional owners.
The forward of the report states: “Never again can we allow the destruction, the devastation and the vandalism of cultural sites as has occurred with the Juukan Gorge – never again!”
Updated
NSW police have given a bit more detail on the Albury man who was arrested today after accessing “extreme rightwing material” online, including how to make bombs.
Police say the 18-year-old is due to be charged with a range of criminal counter-terrorism-related offences and is expected to face Albury local court. Once there, an application will be made to have the matter heard in Sydney.
Police say the investigation began in August 2020 after NSW joint counter-terrorism team investigators “became aware of a number of online posts containing an extreme rightwing ideology that indicated potential criminal activity”.
It will be alleged in court that the man “has regularly used social media forums and communications applications during 2020 to encourage other people to commit violent acts in furtherance of an extreme rightwing ideology”.
Updated
Good afternoon.
The independent senator Rex Patrick is speaking in the Senate.
He seems unhappy with the attorney general, Christian Porter, saying he is “incapable of making proper decisions”.
He’s talking about “a series of decisions made in respect of prosecutions” of Witness K, Bernard Collaery and others.
So nothing on the cashless welfare card right at the minute.
Updated
I am going to hand you over to the wonderful Michael McGowan for the evening.
The cashless welfare card debate will begin from 7.20pm. The Senate can go until midnight, but the government can guillotine the debate at any time if it thinks it has his vote.
Thank you for joining me for my second last blogging shift for the year – one more to go! It has been an absolute whirlwind of a year and it hasn’t really sunk in yet that we are at the end of it. (To be honest, it probably won’t sink in until sometime in 2021.)
I’ll be back early tomorrow morning – take care of you.
Updated
That can go two ways. The government has the votes (which means Rex Patrick is on board) and can guillotine the debate if it wishes and get it passed.
The government is trying to pressure Patrick into making a decision and are prepared to go until midnight to do it.
Updated
Cashless welfare card to be debated in Senate
Simon Birmingham is bringing on the cashless welfare card debate. He has rearranged the Senate business to consider that bill tonight.
The Senate has agreed to a rearrangement of business, 31-29 #auspol pic.twitter.com/GXq7ELEbpT
— Political Alert (@political_alert) December 9, 2020
Updated
Simon Birmingham has just won a motion to suspend standing orders to rearrange government business in the Senate.
Updated
Parliament committee to review Leppington triangle land deal
The Senate has also passed a motion to investigate the Leppington triangle deal.
Here is the motion which just passed:
That the following matter be referred to the finance and public administration references committee for inquiry and report by 30 June 2022:
The planning, construction and management of the western Sydney airport project, with particular reference to:
- probity planning and management, risk assessment frameworks and management
- land acquisition and related leases, including transactions related to the Leppington triangle
- the role and performance of WSA Co Limited
- site preparation, including the realignment of the Northern Road
- environment and heritage management
- community engagement
- transport links and supporting infrastructure
- training and employment
- any related matters.
The Leppington Land deal saw the Morrison Government waste $30m on land near Western Sydney Airport.
— Catherine King MP (@CatherineKingMP) December 9, 2020
The Deputy PM called it "a bargain".
Tonight the Senate voted to establish an inquiry into what went on. pic.twitter.com/XZnU9IvFWT
Updated
Jacqui Lambie has again detailed why she is no longer supporting the cashless debit card roll out. She says it is all stick, and no carrot.
We've been at the cashless debit card for years, but it's still not delivering the results. The Government keeps saying, "give it time, it's getting there." But sooner or later, you've got to call it. pic.twitter.com/4VNTUtcRJY
— Jacqui Lambie (@JacquiLambie) December 9, 2020
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A lot of the work which goes on in the Senate goes unreported, but acknowledging the good work being done outside the chamber deserves its place in the sun:
Shout out to @HandfishProject, @IMASUTAS, @CSIRO and all the scientists and researchers involved in the protection and conservation of the species.
— Peter Whish-Wilson (@SenatorSurfer) December 9, 2020
The third reading vote on the demerger bill is under way in the Senate.
The Greens are opposing the legislation, as there was no consideration in detail debate – both the Coalition and Labor agreed to pass it, so it’s being rushed though.
Updated
The Senate committee that was looking at how the government handled the Covid response will table its interim report today.
Updated
And for the people at the back, the cashless welfare card was the suggestion of Andrew Forrest, who included it in a report to Tony Abbott (who had pledged to be Australia’s “first prime minister for Aboriginal affairs”) in 2014.
There is no evidence the card is beneficial to the communities it is being trialled in.
Updated
Paul Karp has cut through the noise with the IR bill to tell you what really matters:
Including part five of the bill – the better off over all test (Boot).
Christian Porter and Scott Morrison spent a lot of time in question time poo-pooing Labor’s questions on this, and then saying it was flat-out wrong – but it’s not.
The government is saying its legislation builds on the test of exceptional circumstances to change pay deals/enterprise bargaining agreements – but it actually replaces it with a test with a lower bar, meaning workers can be worse off overall under short-term pay deals.
As Paul explains:
What: The bill proposes to allow employers two years to apply for pay deals that do not meet the “better off overall test”, which stipulates deals must improve on minimum conditions in the award.
The Fair Work Commission will approve such agreements if it is “appropriate” in “all the circumstances” – a test that includes consideration of the impact of Covid-19.
If approved by employees and the commission, Porter says the pay deals will be in place for two years. Unions note this is only the nominal expiry date and agreements continue until they are replaced.
The bill aims to speed up agreement approval to 21 days, and eases the better off overall test (Boot) by stipulating the commission should not consider “hypothetical” circumstances in which employees could be disadvantaged. By 1 July 2022 all pre-Fair Work Act agreements will be terminated.
Why: Employers and Porter argue suspending the Boot would help boost jobs in the pandemic recession recovery, and increase the number of workplace pay deals that has been declining for many years.
Reaction: Unions and Labor argue suspending the Boot will result in cuts to take-home pay for one in four workers covered by enterprise agreements – a red line when it comes to supporting the bill.
However, unions have had a win by ensuring that what they term “WorkChoices zombie agreements” – which have a legacy of low rates of pay – are finally killed off.
Updated
Tony Burke was on Patricia Karvelas’s Afternoon Briefing laying out Labor’s problems with the IR bill.
Q: Isn’t it misleading to call this the Morrison pay cut when workers under the legislation actually have to vote to approve any variation of their agreement?
Burke:
We know what happens, particularly in workplaces that are not unionised, where people don’t have that strength of a collective voice, when an agreement is put to them and the boss says unless you vote for this you are going to lose your job. We know what happens on a whole lot of the timeframes that people would normally have to think about this, they have been cut as well.
This is a deliberate strategy about cutting pay, that was what was announced today, and you don’t get an economy moving and the answer in Australia has never been that the path to prosperity is by making workers poorer.
Q: Where is the evidence that this will cut the pay of essential workers as the opposition leader has suggested?
Burke:
At the moment the protection against the pay cut is the Boot test. In any new agreement you have to overall be better off. For two years, they are taking that away, so your hourly award rate, ordinary time, is protected, but that is about it.
All the extra allowances, the extra penalty rates, that’s all up for grabs because the protection that used to be there for all of those gets suspended for two years.
That is approved in section 19 of the bill and I expected in question time today that we would have a serious argument about whether or not that is right for the economy, but bizarrely, Mr Morrison and Mr Porter just denied that they were doing it, on the same day that they had introduced it into parliament.
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The Senate has just passed a motion directing the former sport minister Bridget McKenzie to front a Senate committee investigating the sports rorts imbroglio.
The successful motion “directs senator McKenzie to appear in person before the committee, no later than 12 February 2021, to answer questions”.
Ayes 32; Noes 28.
Senator McKenzie declined our many invitations to appear before the Sports Rorts inquiry. The Senate just voted to force her to appear next Feb.
— Janet Rice (@janet_rice) December 9, 2020
The Australian people deserve to hear the truth. I'm looking forward to questioning Sen. McKenzie at the inquiry next year.#auspol pic.twitter.com/XRA8L75ygW
Updated
How Mike Bowers saw question time:
Merit corner
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The Greens have responded to the security committee investigating extremism in Australia:
It's good there will be an inquiry. But seriously shocking that the Liberals have weakened the focus on far-right extremism one day after the NZ Royal Commission report was released and just as news is breaking of another young Australian man arrested for far-right activity. https://t.co/GSh3aG0AII
— Mehreen Faruqi (@MehreenFaruqi) December 9, 2020
Updated
Let’s remember that the trial communities where the cashless welfare card have been introduced (and the government is attempting to make permanent, as well as introduce to the Northern Territory) have large Indigenous populations.
We are still waiting on the cashless welfare card debate.
But I went back and found Pauline Hanson’s whole quote on how ‘people on welfare have no rights’.
This is the sort of guff that goes unchecked in a lot of people’s homes – and it needs to stop. Hanson is not the problem – she’s a manifestation of it. She’s voted in because people believe this.
What is the problem? What the government’s cash card is ensuring is that this money is spent on food, clothing, essentials that they need, that the rent is paid.
That’s what this card is about. It’s not about talking about personal rights.
When you go into this card you basically lose your rights as well.
If you are on welfare system, you have lost your rights, you have a responsibility to the taxpayer of this nation.
And that’s a big problem – we’ve got third and fourth generation that are on welfare because it becomes a way of life.
Updated
The Transport Workers’ Union is taking legal action against Qantas’s latest round of sackings. AAP has the latest:
A transport union is taking legal action against Qantas in a bid to overturn the airline’s plan to outsource 2,000 workers in what’s being billed as a test case.
Qantas announced plans last month to outsource the positions to cut costs after rejecting an in-house staff bid to save the jobs.
The positions are at 10 airports around the country and impact ground operations workers including ground crew, aircraft cleaners and baggage handlers.
Law firm Maurice Blackburn on Wednesday filed a test case for the Transport Workers’ Union in the federal court against Qantas, seeking to overturn the outsourcing.
Lawyer Josh Bornstein said the airline’s outsourcing plan was unlawful under the Fair Work Act.
He added that the TWU would seek “substantial” financial penalties against Qantas, as well as potentially millions of dollars in compensation for any workers who were sacked and unable to find further employment.
“This legal challenge will put outsourcing on trial,” Bornstein said.
“If Qantas can replace thousands of its employees with cheaper, insecure labour-hire employees then this can happen to any other employee in any Australian workplace.”
Bornstein said the coronavirus pandemic had highlighted the plight of insecure labour-hire and outsourced workers.
However, a Qantas spokesman rejected the claim that outsourcing the work was unlawful.
“We recognise this is a difficult decision, which impacts a lot of our people,” he said.
“But outsourcing this work to specialist ground handlers who already do this work for us in other cities across the country is not unlawful.”
Qantas’s domestic and international chief, Andrew David, said last month the virus had “turned aviation upside down”.
“Airlines around the world are having to make dramatic decisions in order to survive and the damage will take years to repair,” David said at the time.
Qantas employees affected by the outsourcing decision will receive redundancy entitlements and be helped to find new jobs, the airline has promised.
The decision means job losses across the group as a result of the pandemic and associated border closures total around 8,500 of its 29,000 pre-coronavirus workforce.
Updated
Josh Frydenberg has tabled the supporting the Covid recovery legislation – the bill that will remove the responsible lending obligations, which are designed to protect consumers who can’t afford a bank loan from being given one.
Key elements of the legislative reforms include:
- Removing responsible lending obligations from the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009, with the exception of small amount credit contracts (SACCs) and consumer leases where heightened obligations will be introduced.
- Ensuring that authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) will continue to comply with Apra’s lending standards requiring sound credit assessment and approval criteria.
- Adopting key elements of Apra’s ADI lending standards and applying them to non-ADIs.
- Allowing lenders to rely on the information provided by borrowers, replacing the current practice of ‘lender beware’ with a ‘borrower responsibility’ principle.
- Removing the ambiguity regarding the application of consumer lending laws to small business lending.
Updated
Anne Aly says it is vital Australia looks at the impact of rightwing terrorism:
They are very different in the drivers of terrorism, the grievances that they use to radicalise and recruit young people. We know that there are young people who are being radicalised here in Australia to rightwing extremism.
As Kristina [Keneally] mentioned, our security agencies are telling us so. We need to be prepared to meet that threats now and in the future.
Updated
The terms of reference also open the door to potential changes to the federal government’s terrorist organisation listing laws “to ensure they are fit for purpose” (the absence of far-right groups among proscribed groups is an issue that Kristina Keneally has pursued repeatedly since the Christchurch attack).
Kristina Keneally has called a very quick press conference welcoming the security committee inquiry:
I am pleased to say that over the last day I have been able to negotiate with the minister for home affairs, Peter Dutton, to determine the terms of reference for an inquiry into extremism in Australia.
The inquiry will look at rightwing extremism, and the extent to which of our findings will be applicable to other forms of extremism.
We know that in Australia we have been facing the threat of Islamic Jihad extremism for some 20 years.
We have a full suite of counter-terrorism tools and the laws that help our national security agencies meet those threats.
But the emerging threat of rightwing extremism demands that we take seriously the advice of our national security agencies, and that we as a parliament take seriously our ability to keep Australia safe.
That is why Labor moved this referral to the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, to provide an examination of the counter-terrorism tools and laws that we have at our disposal to determine if they are fit for purpose amid the threat of rightwing extremism. This is especially important today as we examine the royal commission report out of New Zealand into the Christchurch shooting, an act of terror conducted by one of our own, inspired by rightwing extremist ideology. It is important that we as Australia take seriously this threat, it is important that we have the tools to keep Australia safe.
Keneally also thanks the crossbench for their support.
I knew when Labor proposed the right-wing extremism inquiry Dutton would "both sides" it. (He put Islamic extremism ahead of right-wing extremism in the terms of reference) pic.twitter.com/0S9LaZLcMI
— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) December 9, 2020
Updated
We have had a look at the letter Peter Dutton has sent to the committee.
You won’t be surprised to learn that he lists Islamic terrorism before rightwing terrorism.
As Daniel Hurst points out: Dutton’s letter requests that the inquiry includes looking at:
The motivations, objectives and capacity for violence of extremist groups including, but not limited to, Islamist and far rightwing extremist groups, and how these have changed during the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Updated
Parliament committee to investigate 'all forms of extremist terrorism' in Australia
Kristina Keneally and Labor have had a small win – with Peter Dutton referring a request for extremist terrorist threats to be investigated by the parliamentary intelligence and security committee. Keneally and Labor wanted rightwing extremist terrorism investigated – Dutton has said ‘all forms’.
From the committee:
The parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security has commenced a review into the extremist movements and radicalism in Australia. The inquiry was referred to the committee by the Hon Peter Dutton MP, minister for home affairs.
A full terms of reference is available online at the committee’s webpage.
The chair, Mr Andrew Hastie MP, said: “The committee will be examining the nature and extent of, and threat posed by, extremist movements and persons holding extremist views in Australia.”
The deputy chair, Mr Anthony Byrne MP, said: “The committee will, as always, conduct this inquiry in a bipartisan manner and with a focus on the security of all Australians.”
Submissions are requested by Friday 12 February 2021. Further information about making a submission to a parliamentary committee inquiry is available here.
Further information about making a submission to a committee inquiry can be found at the following link.
Updated
Question time ends – just one more to go this year.
Updated
Over in the Senate, the government is struggling to answer questions on the cashless debit card:
Malarndirri McCarthy:
My question is to the minister for families and social services, senator Ruston. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Asic, has advised that the Asic Act 2001 prohibits a credit or debit card being sent to another person. I quote Asic’s advice: “A person must not send another person … a credit card or a debit card.”
What does this prohibition mean for the Morrison government’s proposed rollout of the cashless debit card in the Northern Territory?
Anne Ruston:
I thank senator McCarthy for her question. I would like to advise the senator that the premise on which she’s based her question about the cashless debit card being contrary to section 12DL of the Asic Act 2001 is not actually correct. The power is a protection to prevent financial institutions from signing people up to products such as credit cards with pre-approved limits without first obtaining their approval. Just as when social security payments are made by another means, via cheque, it’s clear that directing someone’s social security payment to ...
Penny Wong:
I seek leave to table the letter from Asic, which might assist the minister in answering this question, because it doesn’t appear that her answer is consistent with the advice that’s been received.
(The request is considered.)
Ruston:
To finish off on this particular question: it’s clear that directing someone’s social security payment to the cashless debit card does not fall under the provision which senator McCarthy referred to. That is why, in 2016, Asic provided the government with a no-action letter for the purposes of the cashless debit card trial.
McCarthy:
Given many communities do not have Centrelink services and the nearest towns are hundreds of kilometres away, what will happen to people who don’t have a cashless debit card? Will they simply have no money, no food and no way of getting it?
Ruston:
I thank senator McCarthy for her follow-up question. As senator McCarthy would be well aware, what we are proposing to do with the rollout of the cashless debit card into the Northern Territory and Cape York is – I suppose this is the best description of it – to give the people who are currently on the basics card a technology upgrade. At the moment we believe that there are probably around 16,000 places where the basics card is able to be operated in Australia. The cashless debit card works in nearly 1m outlets and basically is able to be operated in any premise that has an eftpos machine. The inference of your question is completely misplaced in the sense that the only thing this legislation seeks to do is to provide people who are currently on the basics card the added utility and functionality of being able to use a card that is universally recognised.
McCarthy:
I seek leave to table the letter from Asic which refutes all of what the minister is saying.
(Leave is granted.)
McCarthy:
The Coalition government has been proposing the rollout of the cashless debit card across the whole of the Northern Territory for 18 months. How is it that the Morrison government has failed to properly consider that fundamental elements of Mr Morrison’s proposals are prohibited by legislation, according to this letter from Asic?
Ruston:
I would beg to differ with the interpretation that is being made in the question as to what the letter says, according to my advice. However, I have the letter now and I will refer to it in the future. But I want to make it very, very clear that what we are seeking to do with the legislation to which the senator refers is to enable people who are currently on the basics card – and I have to say, it’s a really well named card; it’s pretty basic and it’s also very obvious to people who are on the basics card that that’s what they’re on. The new technology that works in every outlet that has an eftpos machine will be completely and utterly neutral in its appearance. People can use the card without anybody knowing the type of card it is. In fact, we are currently in discussions with the Traditional Credit Union in the Northern Territory to make sure that we can assist those people in the Northern Territory who wish to bank with their own credit union to use as well.
Updated
Christian Porter deflects another question on the IR bill from Anthony Albanese, telling him: “You can’t even mount a fear campaign, your leadership is so weak.”
It’s day one.
Updated
Arrested teen had been accessing 'extreme rightwing material' - police
Police say an 18-year-old arrested today had been accessing “extreme rightwing material” online, including how to make bombs.
The man was arrested after investigations by the NSW joint counter-terrorism team, made up the Australian federal police and NSW police.
Police said the man had been posting extremist content on a variety of social media platforms, but that the arrest had been made on Wednesday because of an “escalation” of his online behaviour, including expressing support for a “mass casualty event” overseas.
The event was “not Christchurch-related but this individual does express support for” the Christchurch shooter, police said.
Asked who the 18-year-old’s posts were aimed at, NSW police said: “Almost anyone who didn’t look like him, but more specifically it’s non-whites, it’s immigrants, it’s people of Jewish and Islamic faith.”
Updated
The government wins the divisions and we move on to a dixer, where Sussan Ley tells us:
Our wildlife is found nowhere else in the world.”
Groundbreaking.
Updated
The divisions are still making their way to their inevitable end.
Analysts at S&P have been holding a webinar about why the ratings agency stripped NSW and Victoria of their AAA status, knocking NSW down one notch and Victoria down two.
They’ve also been talking about Australia’s AAA rating, which treasurer Josh Frydenberg crowed about when it was reaffirmed in October.
The rating is on what ratings agencies call “negative watch”, which is jargon for saying they could push it down.
But S&P analyst Anthony Walker seemed a bit more upbeat on the call, saying S&P’s economic forecasts were more optimistic than Treasury’s.
“That reflects the fact that we believe ... that a vaccine will be available next year,” he said.
“So there is a chance it will get better outcomes if we keep seeing this economic position improve from the sovereign.”
(Sovereign means a country in ratings agency-ese – Australia in this case.)
But he said it would take more time to see if Australia could be revised up to stable.
Updated
Over in the Senate, Lidia Thorpe has shaded Pauline Hanson in the best way I’ve seen since two teens answered Hanson’s “Where is my land?” question:
#WhatsYourNameAgain? pic.twitter.com/UhKPtpdNLs
— Lidia Thorpe (@lidia__thorpe) December 9, 2020
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Anthony Albanese manages to get out:
Mr Speaker, the fact is that the heroes of the pandemic deserve better than this scrooge of a prime minister ...
before the Christian Porter shuts down debate. We go to the divisions – but the government, as always, has the numbers in the House. That is why it is the government.
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Labor moves to suspend standing orders over IR laws
I knew we couldn’t get through the week without this – and here we are at the penultimate day, suspending standing orders.
It’s on the industrial relations laws.
Anthony Albanese:
The House notes:
a) on Monday the prime minister refused to guarantee no worker would be worse off because of his industrial relations changes
b) Today the government has introduced legislation which leaves workers worse off
c) At a time when wages are already at record lows, the prime minister’s changes will mean workers’ take home pay will be cut
d) While claiming the economy is going so well that jobkeeper and jobseeker can be cut, the prime minister is using the pandemic as cover to cut take-home pay
e) it’s not just businesses who had a difficult year, workers have too
f) Nurses, supermarket workers, cleaners, childcare workers, teachers, truck drivers, aged care workers, and all the frontline workers in Australia who have kept the nation running during this pandemic are being given a Christmas gift of a pay cut by this prime minister
g) This is not the first time this government has attacked take-home pay
and Labor therefore condemns the prime minister for using the pandemic to cut the take-home pay of Australian workers.
Updated
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
On Monday in this House the Prime Minister refused to guarantee that no worker would be worse off under this new workplace laws. Why didn’t the Prime Minister just tell the truth and admit he was already planning a cut to take home pay?
Morrison:
It simply wasn’t true. That’s why, Mr Speaker. That wasn’t true, Mr Speaker. You know, I get it - I get it that the Leader of theOpposition is under a lot of pressure. I get it that he’s becoming more desperate by the day.
And this week, Mr Speaker, has just underlined that.
That’s the whole answer.
I am going to go with this being an intentionally bad meme:
When times are good, the Liberals want to cut wages.
— Chris Bowen (@Bowenchris) December 9, 2020
When times are tough, the Liberals want to cut wages.
This has been a tough year for many. What’s Morrison’s answer? New laws introduced today to make it easier to cut Australian wages. pic.twitter.com/gkKyLJatfc
Updated
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
In three months, jobkeeper will be ripped away and jobseeker will be cut to $40 a day. Now the prime minister wants to also cut the take-home pay of working families. Don’t the prime minister’s cuts to jobkeeper, his cuts to jobseeker and his cuts to take home pay punish working families who have already had the toughest of years?
Morrison:
Mr Speaker, once again, in relation to the issues of pay, the member opposite is just not telling the truth, Mr Speaker.
In relation to jobseeker and jobkeeper, we can say that post-September we saw 450,000 businesses, Mr Speaker, 450,000 employing more than 2 million Australians graduate from jobkeeper and at the same time, Mr Speaker, we saw the number in net terms of people on jobseeker decline.
So, Mr Speaker, as we continue to gear the economy back up through this comeback that is under way, the plan that we’ve set out, Mr Speaker, is ensuring that our economy is getting stronger and stronger, and those in jobs are no longer needing the income support from the taxpayer that they needed before.
I take the interjection from the former assistant minister – I should say, the shadow assistant minister, Mr Speaker, in the economic portfolio, talked about unemployment. He would know.
The effective rate of unemployment has almost halved, Mr Speaker, in fact, it has halved, since the peak of the crisis.
From almost 15% – from 14.9% – to 7.94%.
Now I would have thought someone who claims to have great prowess in economics would understand what the effective rate of unemployment meant, Mr Speaker.
The doesn’t suit his argument to know we’ve seen 80% of jobs come back, jobs either lost or reduced to zero hours.
This recovery has a long way to go. And there’s still difficult issues that need to be solved.
And we will engage constructively in delivering practical solutions that delivers a stronger economy which means more jobs, which means better wages, Mr Speaker, that’s what we have been delivering and that’s what we’ll continue to deliver.
But the politics of division, the politics of conflict, which the Labor party, Mr Speaker, feeds off in times of desperation, most significantly, I only wish to quote back at the leader of the opposition what he said back in July of 2019 – people are tired of conflict that passes for politics these days.
He said, ‘They want solutions to their challenges.’ This leader of the opposition has no solutions, Mr Speaker. He just has desperate false measures dressed up as a way to ensure that he can protect himself.
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Jacqui Lambie says she is lobbying Centre Alliance and Rex Patrick.
Rebekha Sharkie, from memory, was against the bill when it was in the House. Which would point to Stirling Griff also being in the no camp.
It’s all down to Patrick.
Updated
Prof Rory Medcalf, the head of the Australian National University’s national security college, said Australia was facing a number of challenges in 2020 including “a China that is turning economic goods into goods of coercion”.
But he said “much of the China trauma our diplomatic and economic relations are going through at present” would be seen, down the track, as part of Australia building up its national resilience.
During an attendance at the National Press Club, Medcalf was asked to elaborate on that , and whether he believed there had been any own goals or unforced errors from the Australian government in managing the relationship.
With Dfat secretary Frances Adamson in the audience, Medcalf answered that big structural issues were at play and any arguments about tone may be on the margins:
“Everyone is a pundit and a commentator on this issue this year.
“We’ve all got our own opinions on whether a minister or the prime minister or an official could have chosen this word or that word slightly differently in a situation.
“I do have a strong view that structurally, if it wasn’t going to happen this year, it was going to happen. And that goes to the nature of the system, the way the current leadership of China has actually changed that system – China has changed profoundly in the last 10 years, or 15 years ago, when I would’ve been considered a dove on China engagement. I still don’t like the term hawk. But China has changed and I think this contradiction was going to affect us sooner or later.
“That’s not nice news to all the producers and all those in our economy who are being deeply affected by this. But I think it’s the reality. I also think that any transition to diversification is going to take time. It took time in the 70s when Britain suddenly let us down in very different circumstances. It will take time, it won’t be perfect.”
Medcalf said there was no easy reset available in the relationship: “If we expect in 2050 the Australian economy to look exactly the same as it does now, then we should simply be focusing on a reset at all costs, but we’ll lose our national identity in the process and I defy any government to make that choice.”
Updated
I can not take Karen Andrews talking about science seriously.
Emma McBride to Scott Morrison – but Christian Porter gets this one.
Can the prime minister confirm the government’s new workplace laws allow the Fair Work Commission to approve agreements that cut existing penalty rates and leave workers worse off under section 19?
Porter:
There’s a provision that Labor put into the Fair Work Act that allows in out of the ordinary circumstances for changes and variations from awards. It’s used very, very infrequently. And we have extended it to apply to Covid – the types of instances where it has been used previously, many of them relate to drought and flood, and they almost exclusively relate to changes in the hours worked and span of hours. The characterisation you put on how we use the section is actually wrong.
OK, yes, but the government is changing that provision, so anyway it was used before no longer counts.
Updated
Ged Kearney to Christian Porter:
Under the government’s legislation, a personal carer in aged care could lose up to $11,000 a year from their take-home pay. Why is the government’s Christmas gift for frontline workers a cut to their take-home pay?
Porter:
The reason why not one of the questioners has been asked to explain how it is they say that take-home pay would be as they say, is because it’s not true. And there is no explanation of that. There’s actually nothing in the bill, nothing in the bill, that anyone here can point to, that does what they say it does, because it doesn’t do that.
Tony Burke interjects with a point of order, but Porter has finished his answer.
Updated
Christian Porter:
As the treasurer just noted, more jobs and more competition is what drives wage growth. One thing that members opposite rarely like to acknowledge is that more people on enterprise agreements means higher wages.
The idea was to move people off awards, on to enterprise agreements, where the wages are higher.
Factcheck:
Less of national income than ever before is going to employees and more than ever before is going to profits pic.twitter.com/RlYdSeMDvN
— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) December 2, 2020
Updated
Brendan O’Connor to Josh Frydenberg:
Wages growth has been stagnant for the eight long years of this Liberal government. Won’t cutting the take-home pay of working families just make things worse?
Frydenberg:
We will reject the false assertion from those opposite, Mr Speaker. But what we do say is that this: the policies on this side of the House are assisting with the comeback of the Australian economy.
And when it comes to wages growth, we’ve seen it at 0.7%. That’s also been the 20-year average that we’ve seen across the economy.
That’s taking into account the time that the Labor party were in government and of course the time the Coalition have been in government.
But the key point to driving wages growth is to get more people in jobs.
When you get more people into jobs, you create more competition in the labour market, and therefore you get higher wages growth.
And our policies, whether it’s our tax cuts, whether it’s our incentives for investment, whether it’s our jobmaker hiring credit, whether it’s our support for apprentices, whether it’s our bringing forward new investments in infrastructure, water infrastructure, transport infrastructure, communications infrastructure – these are the policies that are designed to drive jobs right across the country.
And we saw 178,000 jobs being created last month.
And we’ve seen 80% of the 1.3 million Australians who either lost their jobs or working hours reduced to zero now back at work. The key to driving up wages growth is creating more jobs and that’s what our policies are designed to do.
Updated
Jim Chalmers picks up on that point in his next question to Josh Frydenberg: if the economy is so great, why the need for the IR bill, which can cut workers’ wages?
Frydenberg:
The member for Rankin’s assertion is simply not true. What we have seen across the country, what we have seen across the country, is that jobs are coming back in the face of the most significant economic shock since the Great Depression, and the policies supported by those on this side of the House are not only creating jobs but they are strengthening the Australian economy for the recovery ahead.
He goes on to list the budget measures.
But how can the comeback be on, and the IR bill need to include so many inclusions for suffering businesses over the next two years? The comeback is being used to justify the end of the Covid stimulus measures in March, but the IR bill is being put forward because businesses need help, and workers need jobs.
There are a lot of contradictions in the government message at the moment. How many of them are filtering through to voters, is another question entirely.
Updated
Josh Frydenberg is still on the “economic comeback is on” train.
I understand what the government is trying to do, but I don’t understand why they would go so hard – yes, confidence is critically important in keeping economies on the up, but Treasury, the RBA and economists are all pretty united that next year is going to be pretty terrible.
Which makes this very premature.
Updated
Paul Fletcher is talking about how the media sector is now part of the comeback.
That sound you heard was the bark of laughter from closed newsrooms across the country.
Meanwhile, we had counted her as part of the “no” votes but Jacqui Lambie is officially voting no on the cashless welfare card.
Lambie spent a lot of late last year visiting the communities where the card was being trialled, talking to those affected. Which is why she is voting no.
One way or another, the Cashless Debit Card's going to get voted on this week. When that happens, I'll be opposing it.
— Jacqui Lambie (@JacquiLambie) December 9, 2020
Here's why — pic.twitter.com/Yr0yVx1kDa
Updated
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
The government says the economy is recovering so well that JobKeeper and JobSeeker are being cut, but now says the economy is going so badly that businesses need to cut the take home pay of working families to stay afloat. Which is it, Prime Minister, because it can’t be both.
Morrison:
The only person who has a bet each way on everything is the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Speaker. He’s the only each way in this house, Mr Speaker, and that’s well-known.
Mr Speaker, our policies, Mr Speaker, are designed to put Australians into work and that’s what they’re achieving.
It is regrettable that the Labor Party once again as they did before the last election, Mr Speaker, wants to engage in the politics of division and seek to set one group of people against another.
The claims made by the Leader of the Opposition in his question are false. They’re designed to try and incite division in this country but we’re used to this from the Labor Party.
At the last election they tried to set one group of taxpayers against another. One set of businesses against another. It is always the way of the Labor Party to seek to hold some down in order to advance others. That’s not our view. It has never been our view, Mr Speaker.
The leader of the Labor Party does not know what’s going on in the economy and his question betrays that point.
What is occurring in our economy is that we need to continue to implement our plans, to transition our economy, as we see the recovery increase into the future.
We have provided record income support which those opposite on one hand say they need to taper and on the next hand say they don’t, an each way position from the Leader of the Opposition which he is becoming very well flown for, Mr Speaker, all around the country.
Whether it’s on economics or national security policy, Mr Speaker, this is the leader -- Leader of the Opposition which will have an each way bet on every single issue. What we will do, Mr Speakers get people back into jobs, in successful businesses that can pay them better and better in the years ahead.
Mr Speaker, by having a strong economy. Those opposite may want to engage in the politics of negativity.
My government is focused on the economics of recovery, and a key part of that economic recovery plan is not just skills, it’s not just affordable energy for heavy industries, Mr Speaker, and getting the gas that is needed to fire up the manufacturing sector.
Mr Speaker, it’s not just about building the infrastructure that is necessary to drive our economy forward or the digital transformation plans, the 30,000 additional education places next year in universities, the biggest rollout, Mr Speaker, of communications infrastructure on this government’s watch, Mr Speaker.
The biggest over, the biggest ever, Mr Speaker. That’s what we have achieved and making practical changes for how workers and employers get together and make their way through this crisis is critical to our recovery plan.
The Labor Party, Mr Speaker r stuck in the past on these issues. They don’t understand cooperation in the workplace. All they understand is conflict.
Michael McCormack opens up his dixer answer with this:
Everybody will be in furious agreement with what I have to say ...
Fact check: people would have to be listening to him for that to be true. And that is just in the first instance.
Updated
Tony Burke has another question on that same topic: why, given so many people are suffering, is the government boasting of a “comeback” and trying to take away workers’ rights?
Scott Morrison:
700,000 jobs would have been lost, Mr Speaker, were it not for the proactive work of the plans that this government put in place to see Australians through. And we want to see that continue.
We want to see another 200,000 jobs come back just to get us back to where we started.
We want to see hundreds of thousands more of those jobs come back on top of that and, Mr Speaker, you don’t get there unless you deal with the things that act as a barrier to Australians coming back into work.
Mr Speaker, I believe Australians are better off in jobs. The Labor party wants to stand in the way of Australians getting jobs.
If you’re for workers, Mr Speaker, you should be for jobs. This government is for jobs. Before the pandemic, Mr Speaker, 1.5 million Australians were able to find their way back into work through their efforts and as a result of the supportive policies for our economy that saw that occur.
And we are doing the same thing now as we come through the worst recession that this country has seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Mr Speaker, the conditions that Australians are facing now, the businesses that employ them, which are eight out of 10 Australians, are unknown to the Labor party.
They somehow think, Mr Speaker, that somehow, Mr Speaker, these jobs will create themselves. Mr Speaker, the Labor party does not know how to get Australia out of this great challenge.
But I can assure Australians, Mr Speaker that, we understand – and that is empowering Australians through their skills development; it is about empowering Australian business and workers through lower taxes, Mr Speaker.
It’s about empowering Australians to get more hours so they can earn more.
We want to see Australians earn more and you can only earn more if you’re in a job.
The Labor party may not understand, Mr Speaker, that if the business doesn’t exist no one has a job, Mr Speaker.
They might not understand that, but our championing of an economy that is driven by those who create jobs, we know, is the way to get Australians into jobs. Mr Speaker, these changes are modest. I admit, these changes, Mr Speaker, are pragmatic. These things are practical. Those opposite would like to return to conflict politics, Mr Speaker.
Updated
And it is straight into it and as predicted it is all about industrial relations.
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Teachers, childcare workers, truck drivers and aged care workers amongst others have helped Australia get through the pandemic. Why is the prime minister rewarding their sacrifice and hard work by cutting their take-home pay?
Morrison:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. What the leader of the opposition just said is completely untrue, Mr Speaker. It’s not true. This is a response from the Labor party, which is not surprising but disappointing as usual, Mr Speaker.
It is predictable. Mr Speaker, in the peak of this crisis, we pulled together, employers and employee representatives, from around the country.
... We got them together in good faith, Mr Speaker. Some 150 hours, bringing together and discussions around a whole range of issues, and we said very clearly as a government that having gone through that process, and listened, that the government would eventually bring to this place a full package of job-creating and job-keeping changes, Mr Speaker.
... To ensure that Australia could come out of, could emerge from this Covid-19 recession, Mr Speaker. That process was not one where we sought parties to sign off at the end of a period of discussions but we listened to them and then we have brought forward the changes that the government believes are necessary, Mr Speaker, to keep jobs and to create jobs.
... It is true that the comeback of the Australian economy has begun, Mr Speaker, but the recovery process has a long way to go. And for that recovery process to continue, and whatever sector or industry Australians are from, and the leader of the opposition has mentioned many of them, their jobs do depend on continuing changes being made to ensure that we can keep people in jobs and that we get more people back into jobs. We are seeking to do that in a way which allows those employees and their employers to be able to sit together and make agreements, Mr Speaker, that leaves them in a better position as an organisation, as an enterprise which creates and supports jobs.
... Our changes back the wisdom of people in their workplaces. Our changes, Mr Speaker, back the necessity to get Australians back into work. Mr Speaker, I said of the leader of the opposition some time ago: if you don’t know how Australia went into the Covid-19 recession, then he has no clue on how to come out of it, and what he has portrayed today is that sentiment again, Mr Speaker.
The leader of the Labor party does not understand the nature of the economic challenges faced by Australia, and it is true, Mr Speaker, it is absolutely true, Mr Speaker, that our recovery has begun but it has a long way to go.
And the government has a broad platform of measures as part of our Covid-19 recovery plan that has already seen almost 80% of ...
(He runs out of time.)
Updated
Question time begins
It’s the second last time this year we’ll be put through this, so let’s jump in!
Given the response to the IR bill, I think we can expect that to be a topic in QT today.
Updated
Labor slams industrial relations bill
It is safe to say Labor is not happy with the IR bill.
Here is Tony Burke from a little bit earlier:
It’s difficult to know what the whole working group process was about, and what it was for, if when the legislation was introduced, we find something that wasn’t even discussed.
This is what a pay cut looks like. This pay cut is the government’s Christmas present to workers who got us through the pandemic.
The government has taken the better off overall test and turned it into a test where, under an agreement, every single worker covered can be worse off. That’s what they’ve announced today.
Under agreements under this piece of legislation, instead of workers having to be better off overall, every single worker covered can be worse off. That’s what they’ve offered. That’s their Christmas present.
Labor will be fighting this piece of legislation. Labor will not be supporting a provision that within it is a pay cut for Australians. We set a really simple test. We said the test for whether or not we would support the legislation that they put forward would be whether or not the legislation delivered secure jobs with decent pay. What’s been introduced today fails that.
Updated
Albury man, 18, arrested on terrorism-related offences
An 18-year-old man from Albury is expected to be charged with terrorism-related offences after he was arrested on Wednesday.
The man was arrested after investigations by the NSW joint counter-terrorism team, made up of Australian federal police and NSW police.
Police from both agencies will address the media at 3pm after the arrest earlier today.
Updated
We are just minutes away from the second last question time of the year.
Defence minister Linda Reynolds says the two defence pilots who were forced to eject from their plane on take-off in Brisbane yesterday are well.
The fleet has been grounded while investigations are carried out:
My first thoughts obviously was for the two crew who I’m fortunately happy to report are doing well. But we have grounded the Growler and also the Super Hornet fleet for an abundance of caution while the investigation occurs into the incident yesterday.
Updated
Earlier the Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary, Sally McManus, set out the union movement’s objection to the “extreme” industrial relations bill.
Those are:
- Changes to the better off overall test will result in cuts to take-home pay
- Worsened job security because employers will be able to label people casuals but refuse to go to the Fair Work Commission if they don’t allow them to become permanent workers
- The effect on blue-collar workers who will be prevented from bargaining for an eight-year period if they work on a new worksite.
McManus said the provision that for two years agreements don’t need to meet the better off overall test is exacerbated by procedural changes that will help employers ram through agreements – such as no longer requiring seven days’ notice and a requirement to properly explain the proposed agreement to workers.
Another dispute on the horizon: unions will be prevented from appearing at the Fair Work Commission to try to prevent approval of an agreement, unless they are a party to it. McManus says this is “one less watchdog” to guard against dodgy agreements.
McManus vowed to fight “as hard as we need to” to combat changes the ACTU says are the worst since WorkChoices.
Although Labor and the unions are on a unity ticket on the industrial relations bill, McManus did say the ACTU has a different view of the demerger bill.
The bill is designed to affect just the CFMMEU, is a “big distraction” from the main bill, and the ACTU believes it would be better for the CFMMEU to put its own house in order rather than have it “dealt with this way” (legislation for a demerger).
Updated
On the other side of that debate:
Take the sand out of your ears – and let's hope we can soften your hearts. Because all this legislation does is push people further and further in the ground. Please Senators, vote no to this horrendous legislation. My full speech: https://t.co/MTYbj02hyw
— malarndirri mccarthy (@Malarndirri19) December 9, 2020
It’s been quite the morning, so I have just checked out the Senate’s dynamic red (the online page which updates with the Senate’s live business) and found Rex Patrick has moved an amendment on the cashless welfare card bill.
He wants veterans and aged pensioners excluded:
The Senate calls on the government to provide a commitment that no recipient of the age pension or a veteran or service pension will be placed on the cashless debit card, with the exception of those who volunteer or are referred by the Family Responsibility Commission, child protection workers, social workers or the alcohol mandatory treatment tribunal in the Northern Territory
Which would indicate he is getting closer to supporting the government’s side of the debate – passing the legislation.
Updated
Queensland LNP MP Andrew Wallace was on Sky News this morning, talking about a range of issues, including the cashless welfare card bill the government is trying to get through the senate.
He said he would welcome it in his electorate (the Sunshine Coast) to stop gambling. And then he backtracked a little.
Wallace:
Well, I think that the prime minister or the government is looking to expand these programs where it’s appropriate. There’s no doubt and look, I’m a fierce advocate for anti gambling. I have a real issue with the problems that is caused by gambling in our community. We see tens of billions of dollars wasted in gambling each and every year in Australia. So where we have a situation where people are the recipients of Social Security, where by that the very nature of that, they are doing it tough. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with trying to restrict the amount of money that they may or may not be spending on gambling.
Q: Would you be happy with a form of this in your electorate?
Wallace: Look, I would.
Q: You would?
Wallace: I would. I would support anything which would see less gambling in in Australia across the board. And it’s not just about gambling of course.
Q: Ok, well that’s interesting though, we are big gamblers, in Australia,
Wallace: We are.
Q: So what else should the government be doing then? Because a lot of people just gamble with their own money, is that
Labor MP Peta Murphy: Should stop the early access to super scheme because a lot of that’s been spent by young men on gambling.
Walalce: Before you jumped in there. I was just about to say this is not just about gambling. I mean, what it does restrict is the access to alcohol, the purchase of alcohol, cigarettes and gambling.
The IR bill changes the ‘better off overall test’ by suspending it for two years - as Paul Karp has reported
Christian Porter can’t rule out that under the changes, some workers would be worse off.
The Fair Work Commission deals in evidence. It will be a high bar for any business to cross but if you ever got to the point where the impact of coronavirus, known as COVID, on the enterprise to which the agreement relates, gets to the point. Where it is in the public interest.
In both the employers and employees are agreeing to a change, they both think that changes going to preserve jobs and keep the business going and people won’t be to work, those of the types of circumstances based on evidence that the Fair Work Commission would be considering.
Again, it’s not all dissimilar to the exemption built in by Labor, it is COVID specific, yes, it is time bound, we think it represents commonsense, and there may be a handful of businesses, and particularly distressed areas that do need to agree to changes and we are the employers and employees, even the representatives, unions agree that this is necessary and put that application.
Christian Porter says people need time to 'digest' IR bill
Christian Porter has held his press conference, explaining the IR bill he has introduced into the parliament.
It was drip-fed out all week – now that the whole bill has been released unions and Labor (and the Greens) aren’t happy.
Porter said he thinks people need time to “digest” it.
Updated
Victorian sports minister Martin Pakula has not ruled out an increase to stadium capacity for the Boxing Day Test.
As AAP reports, Pakula said it was on the cards but would depend on the health advice:
There is a possibility. Ultimately, it’ll be in the hands of the chief health officer.
It will come as no surprise to you to know that Cricket Australia would like more if they could get more.
I’m working closely with Cricket Australia and with the MCG – there are conversations happening within the government about it.
But ultimately, the CHO will make a decision about whether there’s any more than 25,000.
General public tickets for the Test against India go on sale on Friday, but CA has already shown this summer it is willing to release more tickets as restrictions ease.
Updated
Matt Canavan, who was a chief of staff to Barnaby Joyce, an economist at the Productivity Commission and an executive at KPMG before entering the Senate, has changed his twitter profile photo to one of his coal-dusted face and high-vis clad torso.
Politicians – they are just like you.
I wonder if Senator Canavan used to arrive at KPMG in high vis? pic.twitter.com/THi1Q3OVsx
— Shaun Crowe (@shauncrowe) December 9, 2020
Canavan brother’s coal company collapses https://t.co/G5CAHsGXtM
— Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) December 8, 2020
Updated
I imagine this also counts for pensioners, and those who lost their job during the pandemic, and politicians who can fly around the country on the taxpayers’ coin for political fundraisers?
(No one receiving benefits under the social security safety net deserves this derision.)
Pauline Hanson tells the Senate the cashless welfare card debate is "not about rights" because people on welfare have "lost their rights". Instead they have a "responsibility" to taxpayers.
— James Elton (@JamesEltonPym) December 9, 2020
Updated
Sally McManus has called the government’s IR bill “the worst since WorkChoices”.
The unions had a seat at the table for the discussions in the lead-up to this bill and feel like their input has been ignored.
The union movement is never going to accept any proposal from this Government that leaves workers worse off.
— Australian Unions (@unionsaustralia) December 9, 2020
We're going to fight this dangerous and extreme omnibus Bill with everything we have.
Stand with us here: https://t.co/i6AJchdF1A
Updated
Labor will respond to industrial relations bill at 12.30
Labor will be holding a press conference in response to Christian Porter. Tony Burke and Anthony Albanese will be up at 12.30.
Updated
The ABC is reporting the ATO is investigating 19 companies for alleged jobkeeper fraud:
The Australian Taxation Office has 19 active criminal investigations into fraud against the $101bn jobkeeper scheme.
It has also issued fines to another 19 applicants to the wage subsidy program who have made false or misleading statements, and is considering penalties for another 24.
Updated
Katharine Murphy has an update on the sports rorts investigations:
Bridget McKenzie has declined to appear before a Senate inquiry into the sports grants imbroglio early next year, telling the committee chair she was unavailable on the dates nominated in February.
In correspondence seen by Guardian Australia, the former sport minister said that in order to appear she would require “the provision of a statement of matters expected to be dealt with during the witness’s appearance” and added the matters would need to go beyond the issues addressed in her written submission.
McKenzie said the request to appear was “unprecedented” and she noted: “There has never been an occasion where the Senate had ordered a senator who was not a minister to appear before a committee.”
Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Updated
The ABC reports defence has grounded Australian war planes after one crashed during take off in Brisbane yesterday:
Defence has grounded 35 Australian war planes after two crew members were forced to eject from a $75m fighter jet during an aborted take-off at an air base in Queensland on Tuesday.
Updated
Jacinda Ardern is addressing the remembrance event. She says New Zealand will always hold close the lives which were lost on their shores:
I want to send a message of support to survivors overseas as well as those who are with us in the room today.
We share in your sorrow ... I will always be connected to you, and that connection has been supported so strongly.
You opened your homes, provided food and shelter for extended families and a number of other visitors [in the weeks following the tragedy].
Many families commented on how important and special that was to them – in fact I would like to conclude my brief remarks with not my words, but the words of a family member:
‘Just under four weeks ago I lost my beautiful family in the White Island volcano disaster.
It has taken me this long to begin to process the events of that day in the days after, such as that of my grief and [loss to my] family.
It has taken me this long to even understand the unbelievable efforts of the many, many people and services that risked their lives to bring the bodies of my family home, and to allow the injured family to get to hospital for care, that they were able to pass away in peace.
My family has visited your beautiful country many times, and if something as devastating as this was going to happen, I’m so grateful it had to happen in New Zealand, where I know their souls will always rest in peace in natural beauty and love’.
Updated
It has been one year since the Whakaari/White Island volcano disaster.
The eruption killed 22, including 17 Australians, and 25 people were seriously injured.
A remembrance event is being held in Whakatāne.
The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, has acknowledged the anniversary:
Australia and New Zealand share the strongest of partnerships, in good times and bad.
I would like to thank the Ngāti Awa, the local Maori community, for hosting a remembrance event in Whakatāne. Together with many others in Australia and New Zealand, my colleagues and I across the Australian government honour the memory of those who were lost in the disaster, and reflect on the resilience of those who survived and of their families.
Australia remains deeply grateful for New Zealand’s assistance to Australians affected by this disaster. In the days after the eruption, I travelled to New Zealand to meet the families of Australian victims, and hear first-hand about the support provided by New Zealand healthcare professionals.
I expressed my sincere gratitude to the hardworking medical personnel at Hutt hospital in Wellington and Middlemore hospital in Auckland. I would also like to acknowledge the Australian police and defence force members, and staff from specialist burns centres at Concord hospital, Royal North Shore hospital and the Alfred hospital for their work and professionalism following the eruption.
I was immensely proud of the interoperability that I saw between the New Zealand and Australian responders. It is a day our two countries will never forget.
Updated
This morning we’ll bring you an explainer on the industrial relations omnibus bill that was just introduced to the lower house.
And Christian Porter has released a letter in which he has asked the Fair Work Commission to review modern awards in distressed industries.
Porter said stakeholders have identified two changes the commission could (and should) make separate to the legislation:
- To simplify pay arrangements by allowing “loaded rates” – for employers to pay employees a higher base rate instead of penalty rates on an opt-in basis so that workers are not financially worse off;
- To streamline classifications so that workers in retail, hospitality, restaurants and registered clubs are not paid many different rates based on their duties.
Porter wants all this to be wrapped up by 31 March 2021 – so merry Christmas to employer and employee representatives who would spend summer writing submissions.
We’ve contacted the Fair Work Commission to see whether president Iain Ross will agree to kick off this process.
Updated
While in the Senate, Mike Bowers also spotted a couple of other photo opportunities:
Updated
Christian Porter has reserved the blue room for his midday press conference.
Updated
Simon Birmingham’s statement to the Senate on ChAfta was one of his last speeches as trade minister.
In the cabinet reshuffle, Birmingham will lose the portfolio (he’s taken on finance and leader of government business in the Senate, so he’s a bit busy). The Nationals are pushing quite hard to have it returned to their side of the party room, but there is as much chance of that as the party finding a leader it can agree on.
Updated
Again, this comes down to Rex Patrick
The Opposition has moved a Senate amendment to the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Continuation of Cashless Welfare) Bill 2020 #auspol pic.twitter.com/q3kjeZg1xT
— Political Alert (@political_alert) December 8, 2020
NSW records no new locally acquired Covid cases – but virus still in sewage
NSW has recorded two new cases of Covid – but both people were part of the hotel quarantine program.
There have been no further cases linked to the woman who works as a cleaner at one of the quarantine hotels – investigations are continuing into how she may have come into contact with the virus.
Meanwhile, fragments of Covid have turned up in Liverpool’s wastewater. As NSW Health reports:
People in south-western Sydney are being urged to come forward for testing if they have any symptoms after fragments of the virus that causes COVID-19 were detected at the Liverpool sewage treatment plant.
The presence of Sars-CoV-2 in sewage may reflect the presence of known cases of Covid-19 diagnosed in recent weeks in the area served by this sewage treatment plant. However, NSW Health is concerned there could be other active cases in the local community in people who have not been tested and who might incorrectly assume their symptoms are just a cold.
The area served by the treatment plant includes the suburbs of Bardia, Hinchinbrook, Hoxton Park, Abbotsbury, Ingleburn, Prestons, Holsworthy, Edmondson Park, Austral, Cecil Park, Cecil Hills, Elizabeth Hills, Bonnyrigg Heights, Edensor Park, Green Valley, Pleasure Point, Casula, Hammondville, Liverpool, Moorebank, Wattle Grove, Miller, Cartwright, Lurnea, Warwick Farm, Chipping Norton, Voyager Point, Macquarie Links, Glenfield, Catherine Field, Gledswood Hills, Varroville, Leppington, West Hoxton, Horningsea Park, Middleton Grange, Len Waters Estate, Carnes Hill, Denham Court.
Updated
The “supporting the economic recovery” bill is also due to be introduced into the House today.
That sounds nice, doesn’t it? Supporting the economic recovery?
I imagine the government went with that, rather than “removing safe lending laws which were shown to be very necessary following the banking royal commission” because it’s not as catchy.
But the laws which put the brakes on banks lending to people who could not afford it are being scrapped in a bid to boost the house market.
Consumer group Choice, and the Australian Council of Social Service, are just two of 125 groups who have spoken out against the change.
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Unions and critics say the bill will leave workers worse off, and gives employers want they want – not necessarily workers.
So expect a bit of a battle with this one.
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The IR bill has been tabled.
The main government selling points can be found in the explanatory notes:
The bill supports the government’s commitment to Australia’s jobs and economic recovery, including by:
- providing certainty to businesses and employees about casual employment;
- giving regular casual employees a statutory pathway to ongoing employment by including a casual conversion entitlement in the National Employment Standards (NES) of the Fair Work Act;
- extending two temporary jobkeeper flexibilities to businesses, in identified industries significantly impacted by the pandemic;
- giving employers confidence to offer part-time employment and additional hours to employees, promoting flexibility and efficiency;
- streamlining and improving the enterprise agreement making and approval process to encourage participation in collective bargaining;
- ensuring industrial instruments do not transfer where an employee transfers between associated entities at the employee’s initiative;
- providing greater certainty for investors, employers and employees by allowing the nominal life of greenfields agreements made in relation to the construction of a major project to be extended;
- strengthening the Fair Work Act compliance and enforcement framework to address wage underpayments, ensure businesses have the confidence to hire and ensure employees receive their correct entitlements; and
- introducing measures to support more efficient Fair Work Commission (FWC) processes.
The bill has been developed with input from a range of stakeholders, including unions and employers to ensure that reforms are appropriately balanced, providing flexibility and certainty for business and important protections for employees.
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The Greens are against the IR bill
Morrison’s vision for workers is clear.
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) December 8, 2020
Gov has, under the cover of a pandemic, moved to entrench high unemployment, job insecurity and lower wages.
Today’s IR omnibus bill contains savage attacks on workers and the Greens will fight these cuts to wages & conditions.
Christian Porter is now introducing the IR bill.
Unlike the demerger bill, which is headed straight to the sSenate, this one is unlikely to pass (if it does get Senate support) until the next sittings in February/March.
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Richard Marles confirmed Labor would support the demerger bill on Sky News this morning:
We may move some amendments in the Senate. But ultimately, what this is about, and certainly the principle which guides us is making sure that union members have the greatest say, in their own organisations and on balance, when looking at this, we think this does provide union members with a greater voice, so we will support it.
Josh Frydenberg has introduced the media bargaining code to the parliament.
Over in the House, the union demerger bill is being pushed through.
Labor has pledged support for the bill, so it faces no opposition. The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, tried to force debate on the bill, so it would receive proper consideration – a move Zali Steggall, Helen Haines and Andrew Wilkie supported.
But the government has the numbers to stop that, even without Labor’s support. The Greens will not support the bill without the debate, “as it affects all unions and all Australian workers” and they say, it shouldn’t be passed without proper consideration.
But with Labor’s support, the bill has the all the support it needs to get through the Senate.
Leader of the House @cporterwa has moved to suspend standing orders to allow the Second Reading debate on the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Withdrawal from Amalgamations) Bill 2020 to occur later today. pic.twitter.com/ggopIXs5f1
— Australian House of Representatives (@AboutTheHouse) December 8, 2020
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Tasmania’s premier, Peter Gutwein, said a woman and her two children, who on a repatriation flight from India, were in a family of four who returned to Australia last Sunday:
The positive results were returned as part of our strict testing protocols. The woman has developed symptoms and the children are asymptomatic.
Because of the age of the children in the health of the mother, the family will be moved by ambulance to the Royal Hobart hospital so a clinical assessment can be undertaken.
This will determine whether they can be moved to the dedicated facility at the hotel. They been cared for in isolation, with infection control measures are in place to protect staff and other patients.
As all international arrivals have been treated as potentially positive cases since arrival, with robust infection prevention and control measures.
No staff involved in the arrival, transportation or quarantine of the family have been isolated. Public health advice is that all interactions are in accordance with interdiction infection.
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Tasmania records three Covid cases
Tasmania has reported three cases of coronavirus – but all are in hotel quarantine.
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Just how big is Australia’s trade reliance with China?
Simon Birmingham:
It is a fact that China is Australia’s largest trading partner, accounting for around 29% of our total two-way trade in 2019-20.
Over the same period, China accounted for around 35% of Australia’s total two-ends services exports.
Australia’s exports to China reflect the complementary effects of our economies and meet many of China’s needs including the resources, energy, food tourism and education services.
This trait has helped to lift hundreds of millions of people in China out of poverty, and indeed, across our region.
The economic growth in China, and the elimination of poverty for many millions of people, is something that we warmly welcome, we wish to see continue, and it underlies the mutual benefit that comes from trade.
Australian businesses have capitalised on his opportunities, and in doing so, they have made their own choices about markers, compliance and risk.
Australia is not unique in terms of having China as its largest trading partner.
At least 60 countries in 2018 counted China as their number one merchandise trading partner.
Australia’s success in growing markets in China has been driven by Australian businesses, but also by fact such as the size of China’s population, its favourable demographics, and its rapid economic development as well as of course, geographical activity.
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Australian government considering 'all dispute settlement' options for China trade
Simon Birmingham is delivering his statement to the Senate on the state of the China-Australia free trade agreement:
Australia remains committed to building of the gains already achieved under Chafta, and we will continue to advocate for its timely and effective implementation, including those implementation consultation mechanisms for the benefit of businesses and consumers in both Australia and China. We continue to work closely with exporters in order to maintain preferential market access to China which has delivered such widespread gains to date, and we continue to raise issues of apparent potential, discriminatory actions targeted against Australia.
The Australian government is considering all dispute settlement options in order to support our exporters and ensure they can compete on fair terms.
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Labor to call for inquiry into rightwing terrorism in Australia
Labor will be moving a motion today calling for a parliamentary inquiry into rightwing terrorism in Australia.
That comes after warnings from Asio and the New Zealand royal commission into the Christchurch terror attack. The terrorist is Australian, and the commission found he had been radicalised online, particularly through Youtube and far-right groups.
The ‘whatabouterism’ has already begun.
@KKeneally keep in mind Tarrant's manifesto as communist, anarchist, libertarian & ecofascist! @ASIO acknowledge need to use careful language. See my op-ed The Left has a Guilty History (27/3/19) https://t.co/sfL2NkPOUf & speech in Senate (27/2/20) https://t.co/TVbsE0Imn0 #auspol
— Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (@Senator_CFW) December 8, 2020
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Christian Porter has said he hopes to have the IR bill passed in the first parliament sittings of next year (which would be February)
But as Paul Karp reports, there is a fight brewing:
Simon Birmingham accuses China of undermining free trade deal
Simon Birmingham has given a statement to senators (at their request) on what is happening with Australia’s trade with China.
As AAP reports:
Trade minister Simon Birmingham has accused China of undermining a free trade agreement through a series of sanctions on Australian goods.
Birmingham said the trade strikes and restrictions on Australian exports violated the 2015 deal.
He said the measures also raised questions about China’s adherence to World Trade Organisation rules.
“The targeted nature of Chinese government measures on Australian goods raises concerns about China’s adherence to the letter and spirit of its ChAFTA and WTO obligations,” Senator Birmingham said.
The minister said China was ignoring measures under the free trade agreement requiring regular meetings and reviews.
“After a reasonable start in bilateral engagement, in recent years the Chinese government’s lack of engagement has prevented use of these structures,” he said in a statement to senators.
He said the government raised China’s treatment of Australian barley, wine, meat, lobsters, timber, coal and cotton at a WTO meeting late last month.
“The Australian government is considering all dispute settlement options in order to support our exporters.”
Senator Birmingham said Australia’s door remained open for ministerial dialogue, adding he had requested meetings at regular intervals, most recently last week.
“Australia remains committed to constructive and workable relations with China,” he said.
Senators will be given an opportunity to respond to his statement on Wednesday.
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Rex Patrick is the swing vote in the cashless welfare card legislation. The government has been lobbying hard to get his vote, but the push is on from groups outside the parliament attempting to convince Patrick to vote no.
today is a big day @Senator_Patrick – pls meet with us, @NATSILS_ and @NTCOSS to discuss the #CashlessDebitCard bill before you vote pic.twitter.com/SG4F4TgiBN
— AUWU (@AusUnemployment) December 8, 2020
The #Senate meets today at 9.30am. The order of business (the Red) is available from ParlWork https://t.co/W0mvG4D8zj pic.twitter.com/zsNyE1cGQE
— Australian Senate (@AuSenate) December 8, 2020
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Kevin Rudd urges government to bring home stranded Aussies
Kevin Rudd, who has not left Australia (or Queensland at that matter) since March, no matter what Scott Morrison says (or Peter Dutton, who at least from the parliamentary video, appeared to be the source of the ‘Rudd received a travel exemption too’ line which ended with Morrison having to apologise for misleading parliament), has never been one for letting things go.
He’s turned that focus on to stranded Australians, telling SBS news that if there was the will there would be the way to bring them home:
Look, if we had 40,000 Tony Abbotts abroad, let me tell you, they would be home by next Tuesday.
If we had 40,000 Alexander Downers abroad, they would be home by next Wednesday.
And as for Mathias Cormann, if there were 40,000 Mathias Cormanns abroad, they would be brought back on royal Australian airforce special flights.
Where there is a will there is a way. 40,000 may sound like a big number – it’s not.
"Where there's a will there's a way" @MrKRudd on @ScottMorrisonMP's promise to get #StrandedAussies home by Christmas "These 40,000 people need help, they're our family" #auspol @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/xhR1zfHmik
— Brett Mason (@BrettMasonNews) December 8, 2020
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Victoria records 40th day of no Covid cases
Victoria has recorded its 40th day of zeroes.
There has been no one diagnosed with Covid since 30 October in Victoria.
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Back in energy land, Angus Taylor will be meeting with NSW energy minister Matt Kean after Coalition backbenchers, for the second week in a row, had a small tantrum in the joint party room over the NSW’s energy policy. Kean has established “renewable energy zones” and passed a law committing NSW to building 12GW of clean energy.
Those same backbenchers want Australia to use the Kyoto carryover credits – which no other country is doing – to meet its Paris commitments.
Morrison has indicated Australia won’t be doing that. But not cheating to meet a target is not considered a “significant” announcement by world leaders – the benchmark for a speaking slot at the coming global climate ambition summit.
As Murph and Adam Morton reported yesterday, Australia doesn’t yet have a confirmed spot. Today Murph reports “there is also speculation the government is working up new commitments to the Pacific to help the region manage climate change that could be outlined later this week”.
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State government are 'weak links' in Australia's national security, warns ANU professor
Foreign powers can see state and territory governments as “weak links” when it comes to protecting Australian sovereignty, according to the Australian National University’s Prof Rory Medcalf.
The head of the ANU’s national security college will use an appearance at the National Press Club today to urge state and territory governments to establish dedicated national security units with the department of the premier or chief minister.
The units would involve a small team of officials with high-level security clearances, allowing them access to classified security information from commonwealth agencies.
According to extracts distributed in advance, Medcalf will say state and territory governments “need to grasp that they are increasingly at the front line of national security”. But, he says, the “unfortunate secret” is that state and territory governments “do not have staff with the security clearances to access the wealth of intelligence and security advice that the Australian government and its allies can provide”.
This means that premiers or chief ministers who wants to get beyond naivety or politicisation in making decisions related to the national interest are not letting themselves get the trusted advice and information they need.
Who in Melbourne was cleared to see what Australian security agencies knew or had assessed about the pros and cons of China’s Belt and Road strategy?
Who in Sydney was cleared to know the role of Ausgrid in supporting defence facilities? Who in Perth – or Melbourne for that matter – has seen intelligence assessments about Beijing’s use of economic coercion and its propaganda playbook for dividing foreign elites?
Who in Adelaide today has a sense of the full espionage effort against our naval shipbuilding program?
Who in Darwin thought twice about the strategic dimension to a certain 99-year-lease?
Who in Brisbane appreciates the vulnerabilities of dissident and minority communities to foreign government intimidation?”
Medcalf will address the National Press Club with Michelle Price, the chief executive of AustCyber, with both speeches expected to discuss Australia’s cybersecurity challenges.
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Meanwhile, Katharine Murphy reports the RBA has entered into a multimillion contract with Trevor St Baker’s power companies:
The Greens have issued a please explain to the Reserve Bank of Australia after it entered a $10.9m contract with Trevor St Baker’s power company to provide electricity services for RBA properties.
The RBA has declined to comment on the decision to engage Sunset Power International Pty Ltd, trading as Delta Electricity, telling Guardian Australia the contract and tender process are both commercial in confidence.
St Baker, the politically connected energy baron, owns the Vales Point coal power plant in New South Wales. His private energy company, ERM Power, donated at least $197,640 to political parties over the decade to 2018 before it was sold to Shell last year – most of it to the Liberal National party in Queensland, but about $80,000 to the Labor party in Queensland and NSW.
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In case you missed it, the Australian newspaper’s Nick Evans reported yesterday a coal company controlled by Matt Canavan’s brother, John, has had receivers called in:
A coal company controlled by the brother of former Federal resources minister Matt Canavan has gone under, after global mining major Glencore called in receivers over a $24m at the Rolleston thermal coal mine in Queensland.
It is understood Glencore is behind the appointment of McGrathNichol on Tuesday as receivers to ICRA Rolleston Pty Ltd, which bought a 12.5 per cent stake in the Rolleston coal mine from Japan’s Itochu in 2018 for an undisclosed sum.
ICRA’s sole director is John Canavan, brother of the former resources minister. The company is ultimately controlled by Winfield Energy, the vehicle for the coal ambitions of Mr Canavan.
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Good morning
And then there were two.
Sitting days that is, as parliament limps to a close for 2020.
But not before there is a rush to the finish line.
Three years after it was first suggested, Josh Frydenberg will introduce the world’s first media bargaining code, in an attempt to have Google and Facebook (it has been limited to those two tech giants for the time being) pay for the news content they use.
The bargaining though, will be up to individual media companies. The government is introducing a framework for the bargaining to take place within. Everything else it is pretty hands-off about.
Christian Porter will also be introducing the IR changes.
Paul Karp has been taking a look at some of the detail:
That bill is shaping up as having a bit of a fight to pass the Senate, so I would expect some amendments to be made to it, before it reaches that stage.
Speaking of the Senate, Labor has plans to move a motion very similar to a Greens one it didn’t support yesterday, asking for clarification over whether or not Scott Morrison will be attending the UK hosted climate ambitions summit on 12 December. Morrison told the parliament last week, in response to a question from Adam Bandt, that he planned on (virtually) attending. Yesterday, Murph and Adam Morton revealed he didn’t actually have a speaking slot as yet. The Greens tried moving a motion on that yesterday, but Labor didn’t support the suspension of standing orders – but yesterday, Labor gave notice it would be moving an almost identical motion on the topic, for today.
Meanwhile, the National Farmers’ Federation has broken its silence on the trade dispute with China. Fiona Simson says the government is right to stand up for Australian values, but is also urging diversification of markets. Without that, production could be cut.
Yesterday ended with the news the biosecurity emergency declaration would be extended until March 2021, which means the international borders stay closed and cruise ships, including those sailing domestically, stay out. The cruise industry had hoped it would have a domestic business open by the end of the year, but that plan has now been scuttled. March is also when the government plans on rolling out the first of the vaccine Australia has secured to the population. And Treasury has made all its estimations on where the economy is headed on the prediction international borders would not open until late next year. The UK began rolling out its vaccine doses yesterday, in a world first using the Pfizer vaccine, but there is still some time to go before immunity reaches levels which means international travel can resume.
And there are still close to 40,000 Australians stranded overseas trying to get home.
We will cover all those issues and more as the day rolls on. You have Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Daniel Hurst with you, as well as Amy Remeikis and the entire Guardian brains trust.
(It’s shaping up as a five-coffee day. And at least 10 cups of tea. Probably too much chocolate as well.)
Ready?
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