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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Luke Henriques-Gomes (now) and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Twitter flags tweet about ADF – as it happened

Summary

We’re going to wrap things up there.

Today’s main events:

  • Scott Morrison condemned the Chinese government over an official’s ‘repugnant’ tweet about Australian war crimes
  • Twitter declined to remove the image, despite an Australian request
  • Victoria recorded one death from Covid-19, as it unveiled a new hotel quarantine scheme
  • International students returned to Darwin
  • Worksafe in NZ filed 13 charges over the White Island tragedy
  • The disability royal commission sharply criticised the government’s initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic
  • The government announced a further aged care funding boost in response to the that royal commission’s Covid-19 special report
  • The Greens introduced a bill, in both chambers, to make parliament responsible for sending troops into war, not the government.

Updated

Here is the response Labor’s aged care spokeswoman Julie Collins:

The Morrison government’s response to the Aged Care Royal Commission’s special report on Covid-19 is too little, too late.

Nothing will bring back the 685 older Australians who have tragically died in aged care homes from Covid-19 and today’s response isn’t enough to stop this happening again.

The Royal Commission’s special report confirmed the Morrison government had no plan for Covid-19 in aged care and called for immediate action.

But today’s response makes it clear the Morrison government has failed and is yet to fully implement all of the recommendations of the Aged Care Royal Commission’s special report.

Updated

Aged care to get $132.2m funding boost

The federal government says it will invest a further $132.2m into the aged care sector, as it agrees to all six royal commission recommendations into the Covid-19 response.

A joint statement from the health minister, Greg Hunt, and the aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, said the funding would include:

  • $63.3m for a range of Medical Benefits Schedule (MBS) measures including mental and allied health support, and additional allied health group services.
  • $57.8m to support the costs of engaging infection prevention leads in facilities.
  • A further $11.1m toward a Serious Incident Response Scheme.

Updated

Hua Chunying said the Australian government should “offer an official apology to the Afghan people”.

The Australian government should bring the culprits to justice and offer an official apology to the Afghan people and make the solemn pledge that they will never repeat such crimes. They said that the Chinese government should feel ashamed. It is Australian soldiers who committed such cruel crimes. Shouldn’t the Australian government feel ashamed? Shouldn’t they feel ashamed for their soldiers killing innocent Afghan civilians?

Updated

Chinese foreign ministry: Australia should apologise to the Afghan people

Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry official, is speaking in Beijing.

She is defending the tweet from ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, which infuriated Scott Morrison today. Morrison said the Chinese Communist Party should be appalled over the fake tweet and that Twitter should take it down.

According to a live translation of her comments broadcast by the ABC, Hua Chunying said:

Some Australian soldiers committed serious crimes in Afghanistan. That has been reported by Australian media and has been confirmed by a report of the Australian defence department. The defence chief, General Campbell, talked about the report at a special briefing. The details are appalling and shocking including men and boys who were shot dead all with their throats slit while blindfolded.

There are stories about two 14-year-old boys whose throats were slit and their bodies were thrown into a recruit and recruits were told to kill prisoners in a practise known as blooding. These cruel crimes have been condemned by the international community.

The Australian side is reacted so strongly to my colleague’s Twitter, does that mean that they think the cold blood murder of Afghan innocent civilians is justified while other people’s condemnation of such crimes are not justified? Afghan lives matter.

It should be noted the details of the Brereton report are allegations.

Updated

A Wollongong jury has been discharged after it was unable to reach a verdict in the trial of NRL forward Jack de Belin and his friend Callan Sinclair.

You can read more below.

Tasmania’s political donation laws are the weakest in the nation and its government lacks transparency, a thinktank says.

The Australia Institute has called for a suite of reforms to ensure better governance and “help restore trust” in the state’s politicians.

Tasmania doesn’t have state-specific political donation laws and there is no obligation to report donations under $13,500.

A separate University of Tasmania study found since 2009 less than 20% of $25m donated to state political parties has been disclosed.

The Australia Institute report has recommended donations more than $1,000 be disclosed within a week outside election periods and within a day during campaigning.

It also wants a ban on foreign and anonymous donations, reports AAP.

Updated

The ASX200 has had its best month on record, with gains of 9.96% coming amid optimism for a coronavirus vaccine and US election results.

The record, set after trade closed on Monday, topped the 8.78% of April when investors began adjusting to the impacts of the coronavirus in Australia.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark index was setup in 2000.

Meanwhile in Monday trade, the ASX200 closed lower by 83.3 points, or 1.26%, to 6517.8.

The All Ordinaries closed lower by 74.7 points, or 1.1 %, to 6742.1.

Utilities, consumer discretionaries and materials were the most depleted sectors.

The Aussie dollar was buying 73.88 US cents at 16.21 AEDT, up from 73.75 US cents at Friday’s close.

Updated

This is from AAP:

A light plane pilot in Tasmania has walked away virtually unscathed after being forced to crash-land in a small paddock following engine failure.

The 68-year-old man, who has been flying for 10 years, undertook the emergency manoeuvre at Stanley in the northwest about 9am on Monday.

“The pilot did his best to actually avoid cattle in some nearby paddocks, he’s done a remarkable job,” Tasmania police acting inspector Stewart Williams said.

The pilot was able to get out of the plane and call emergency services, and was taken to hospital for treatment for possible back injuries.

Only the front of the Jabiru aircraft was damaged in the landing when it clipped rocks.

The incident will be investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

Insp Williams said weather didn’t play a part in the crash but something caused the plane to lose power.

“(There is) certainly a fair bit of skill involved in bringing the plane down when you’ve got no engine to support the aircraft,” he said.

Updated

The disability royal commission released a special report into the government’s response to Covid-19 today.

It is sharply critical of the government’s failure to consult with people with disabilities at the start of the pandemic.

Thanks Amy.

Hello everyone, Luke Henriques-Gomes here. I’ll be with you all into the evening. If you want to get in touch, send me an email luke.henriques-gomes@theguardian.com

The parliament is starting to wind down, as it settles into the evening session, so I shall hand over the blog to Luke Henriques-Gomes for the afternoon.

A massive thank you to everyone for following along with me today – and for all the messages. As always, you can find me here and here, for between blog shift updates (and cat content).

One day down, seven to go. Have a wonderful night and I’ll be back early tomorrow morning – take care of you.

Updated

Jacinda Ardern has been asked why New Zealand, which has taken positions contrary to China’s wishes on issues like Hong Kong, wasn’t experiencing the same difficulties as Australia, with its relationship:

AAP reports:

Asked why New Zealand wasn’t getting similar treatment China, Ms Ardern suggested consistency and predictability was key.

“We signal we have these concerns, and in a very predictable way we will use different forums, whether it’s ministerial statements, whether it’s bilateral,” she said.

“New Zealand is pretty predictable in these areas and that’s the course of action that we take with any country where we have concerns.”

Once again – apparently, no one is responsible for robodebt.

No one.

Despite ALL the warnings. And the outcome.

No one.

Updated

It’s situation normal in the Senate.

Updated

Elaine Pearson, the director of Human Rights Watch in Australia, told Guardian Australia the tweet is “breathtakingly, gobsmackingly hypocritical”.

Obviously war crimes are a very serious matter, but the Australian government has taken steps to make that public and hold perpetrators to account.

Meanwhile you have the Chinese government engaged in widespread, systematic human rights violations that have been repeatedly raised by UN experts, from dismantling democracy in Hong Kong, to arbitrarily detaining one million of its citizens in Xinjiang. What steps is the Chinese government taking?

Pearson said if China “wants to play the game of calling out human rights concerns publicly”, it needs to accept that foreign governments are “quite rightly raising their own concerns with China”.

So much for China’s [position of] not interfering in the affairs of other countries. China has proven it is perfectly capable of calling out abuses in other countries, so it also needs to accept criticism of its deplorable abuses of human rights in China,” she said.


Man lying on ground with hands handcuffed as legs in khaki pants and combat boots stand by
Hong Kong police made the first arrests under Beijing’s new national security law on July 1 as the city greeted the anniversary of its handover to China with protesters fleeing water cannon. Photograph: Dale de la Rey/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

The editor-in-chief of the Global Times – one of the most hawkish of Chinese state media – has responded to Scott Morrison’s demand the foreign ministry official Zhao Liljian’s tweet be taken down.

Updated

Scott Morrison comes out of quarantine on Thursday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on audio video link during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on audio video link during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

AAP has a story on New Zealand media attempting to move forward from its racist past reporting.

It’s worth the read:

New Zealand media company Stuff has issued a groundbreaking apology to the country’s Māori people for its history of racist reporting.

The organisation, which includes New Zealand’s biggest news website and daily newspapers in Wellington and Christchurch, tasked 20 journalists with investigating its own journalism.

After several months, Stuff found its outlets had “been racist, contributed to stigma, marginalisation and stereotypes against Māori”.

On the front page of its newspapers and on its website is a banner headline: “No matou te he” or “We are sorry”.

“Our monocultural lens means we haven’t always fairly represented tangata whenua (people of the land),” the editorial reads.

“We apologise to Māori.”

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern welcomed the initiative, saying “good on them”.

“It’s only a healthy thing for – be it government or be it the fourth estate – to constantly look at our role and place [on] some of the debates around social cohesion,” she said.

Stuff’s investigation began in June, following a management buyout from previous Australian owners Nine, which inherited the Kiwi company when it merged with Fairfax Media in 2018.

Project lead Carmen Parahi said the company “wanted and needed to be pushed harder to be better, to be more representative of all people in New Zealand”.

“Our experience of the settler media is it supports settler interests. And that would be the same in Australia.

“I would challenge Australian media to do better for indigenous peoples.”

Editorial director Mark Stevens noted the historical nature of some of the reporting, including references to an “inferior race” back in the 1800s.

The investigation found Stuff’s reporting marginalised Māori to the present day.

“Our language often split New Zealand into two – Kiwis and Māori. Two separate groups, us and them,” Stevens said.

“Take the Foreshore and Seabed Act debate … ‘Debate over Māori customary rights to the foreshore and seabed is making New Zealanders nervous’.”

Chief executive Sinead Boucher said it was imperative the company reckoned with its history in order “to be a trusted partner for tangata whenua (people of the land) for generations to come”.

Updated

Twitter flags Chinese foreign ministry tweet criticising Australian defence force

Twitter hasn’t taken the Tweet down, as demanded by Scott Morrison, but it has censored it.

The image defaults to hidden with the message:

“The following media includes potentially sensitive content.”

(On some desktops.)

Updated

And yet, no one is responsible. Governance in Australia is so, so broken

For posterity’s sake, here is the PMO transcript of Scott Morrison’s statement on the Chinese foreign ministry tweet today:

The post made today, the repugnant post made today, of an image, a falsified image, of an Australian soldier threatening a young child with a knife. A post made on an official Chinese government Twitter account, posted by the director deputy general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr Lijian Zhao, is truly repugnant. It is deeply offensive to every Australian, every Australian who has served in that uniform, every Australian who serves in that uniform today, everyone who has pulled on that uniform and served with Australians overseas from whatever nation, that they have done that. It is utterly outrageous and it cannot be justified on any basis whatsoever.

The Chinese government should be totally ashamed of this post. It diminishes them in the world’s eyes. I want to make a couple of points about this. Australia is seeking an apology from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from the Chinese Government, for this outrageous post. We are also seeking its removal immediately and have also contacted Twitter to take it down immediately. It is a false image and a terrible slur on our great defence forces and the men and women who have served in that uniform for over 100 years.

There are undoubtedly tensions that exist between China and Australia. But this is not how you deal with them. Australia has patiently sought to seek to address the tensions that exist in our relationship in a mature way, in a responsible way, by seeking engagement at both leader and ministerial level to ensure that we can openly discuss what are clear sources of tension in this relationship. Points that Australia feels strongly about, in terms of our own sovereignty and our own independence. The way to deal with those is by engaging directly in discussion and dialogue between ministers and leaders.

And despite this terribly offensive post today, I would ask again and call on China to re-engage in that dialogue. This is how countries must deal with each other to ensure that we can deal with any issues in our relationship, consistent with our national interests and respect for each other’s sovereignty, not engaging in this sort of deplorable behaviour.

I would hope that this rather awful event hopefully may lead to the type of reset where this dialogue can be restarted, without condition. That we can sit down and start talking sensibly about these issues because this type of behaviour is not on.

Now, it’s not just about Australia, countries around the world are watching this, they are seeing how Australia is seeking to resolve these issues and they are seeing these responses. This impacts not just on the relationship here, but with so many other sovereign nations not only in our own region, but likeminded countries around the world, who have expressed similar sentiments to Australia about many issues. And so it is important that these things end and the dialogue starts.

Finally and most importantly, I am extremely proud of all Australians who pull a uniform on for Australia. I am proud of their service. I am proud of their dedication. I am proud of their loyalty to this country and it’s values.

And those values determine how we deal with difficult issues as a country and difficult issues as those that have arisen in the Inspector General’s report on the ADF. It is a fact that Australia’s transparent and honest way of dealing with this issue is a credit to this nation. And it is a credit to all those who serve this nation in uniform. Where there are alleged events that have taken place that require action, well we have set up the honest and transparent processes for that to take place. That is what a free, democratic, liberal country does. Few countries around the world, I suppose, would have dealt with this in the way that we have. I would hope there’d be many. But in a liberal democracy, this is how you deal with issues such as this. You don’t engage in disinformation and the ugliness that we’ve seen in this post on the Chinese government Twitter account today.

So I am proud of their service. The alleged actions of a few do not, do not define the tremendous service of the great many, and the processes we’ve set up will uphold that principle. They will uphold the principle of innocent until proven guilty. There will be a fairness in the way that this is addressed. Because those, those are the values that our Defence Force men and women have fought to uphold.

So today is not a day for Australia in any way, to feel wrongly about how we conduct ourselves. Even with this difficult information to deal with, we are dealing with it in the right way. The only thing that has brought shame today, is this appalling post by the Chinese government.

Updated

Rex Patrick has entered the chat:

Question time ends and the House moves back to debating the bill which will pull the federal court and family court under one umbrella.

Updated

David Littleproud takes a dixer, instead of a question, on the bushfire response, and give much the same answer as when he was being questioned by Labor, but without the “let’s not politicise this” tone.

The numbers in the Nationals party room are small, but fluid. It’s not that Michael McCormack has overwhelming support (I mean, he is Michael McCormack – what is there actually to support?) but that there is no consensus candidate to pick up from him.

Littleproud is trying very, very hard now to be that candidate.

Updated

Doesn’t look like the Chinese government is having second thoughts about its public statement:

Back to the divisions, Bill Shorten seconded the motion and manages to get out that the government “has blood on its hands” before Christian Porter shuts it down.

Christian Porter goes on to gag Tony Burke, and now the house is voting to close the question – gag the debate – and that will be the end of it.

Updated

While we wait for the division to come to its inevitable conclusion (government gags debate) here is some of what Mike Bowers has seen in the chamber:

Members of the Australian Defence forces watch question time from the speakers gallery and receive applause from the floor in the house of representatives chamber of parliament house
Members of the Australian defence forces watch question time from the speakers gallery and receive applause from the floor in the house of representatives chamber of Parliament House. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Always watching.

The minister for NDIS Stuart Robert during question time in the house of representatives chamber of parliament house in Canberra this afternoon.
The minister for NDIS Stuart Robert during question time in the House of Representatives chamber of Parliament House in Canberra this afternoon. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Awkward when the camera doesn’t move with you
Awkward when the camera doesn’t move with you. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese talks to Bill Shorten during QT
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese talks to Bill Shorten during QT. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Anthony Albanese:

I move so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent the leader of the opposition from moving the following motion immediately.

The house notes that,

(a) as minister for social services, the prime minister was personally responsible for the design of the illegal robodebt scheme.

(b), as treasurer, the prime minister continued his illegal robodebt scheme announcing it would save the budget $2bn.

(c) after deposing Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister continued his robodebt scheme for years, despite knowing it was illegal.

(d) the prime minister announced his robodebt scheme would save the budget $2bn but it has in fact cost taxpayers at least $1.2bn.

(e) the prime minister’s illegal robodebt scheme harmed thousands of Australians and led to the suicide and self-harm of vulnerable people.

(f) no one in this 8-year-old Liberal national government is willing to take responsibility for the prime minister’s illegal robodebt scheme.

Secondly, therefore condemns the prime minister for designing and maintaining the illegal robodebt scheme which led to the suicide and self-harm of vulnerable people.

This was illegal, it was cruel, it was harmful and it came to cost the budget of some $1.2bn.

He is cut off and the House divides.

Updated

Labor moves to suspend standing orders, to move a motion acknowledging Scott Morrison’s involvement in robodebt, across a variety of portfolios.

It will fail, as the numbers are just not there

Updated

Anthony Albanese to Stuart Robert:

My question is to the minister for government services. Has the minister asked his department for a report on how many Australians have taken their own life as a result of the government’s illegal robodebt scheme? Why did the government persist with the prime minister’s robodebt scheme when it knew it was illegal and was driving people to self-harm and suicide?

Robert:

The government certainly rejects the premise of the leader of the opposition’s question. (Note – Coalition members have been happy to blame self-harm on state lockdowns.)

As I said in the first answer, this government did not invent income averaging.(Note - income averaging was not the problem – how it was done was the problem. No humans. Reversed onus of proof) It did not. As I tabled in the house, the process of income averaging has gone back at least 26 years, substantially.

I also pointed out, reading the member for McMahon’s press statement from 2010, that those opposite went forward on 3.8m compliance-type reviews and raised $2.2bn. (Note – humans were still involved in the debt raising.) The collection of debts is an ongoing process. In terms of customers that we are refunding to, it is important the house understands there are about 3,300 deceased customers whose estates are entitled to a refund under the program and from August this year, the agency has been working with the estates of those customers to process refunds, a process that has been overseen by appropriately trained staff.

Conflating that with issues of harm and with suicide, I suggest is not something that we should be walking into quickly, it is something we should be treating with care and respect right across the house. (Note – I refer you to Josh Frydenberg’s speech during the commending Victoria motion, which was very well received by the Coalition, and absolutely conflated those issues.)

• Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78; Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636

Updated

Everyone is outraged over the tweet.

Meanwhile, the special investigator’s investigation into the Bereton report allegations continues. That would be the 33 “unlawful killings” the report alleged Australian special forces were involved in.

And then there is this.

Updated

Bill Shorten to Stuart Robert:

I refer to the tragic death of 22-year-old Jarrad Madgwick who took his own life following a dispute with Centrelink over a robodebt. I ask the following on behalf of his mother, Kath, does the minister still refuse to acknowledge robodebt contributed to suicides like Jarrad’s? And will he arrange for the prime minister to meet with Jarrad’s mother Kath and myself and the leader of the opposition to apologise to her?

Robert:

I thank the member for his question.

I again caution the house that these matters are delicate when it comes to issues of self-harm and suicide. Whilst I have enormous sympathy for Mrs Madgwick as a grieving mother in this respect, the department will collect, in terms of debt recovery, almost $5bn from over a million Australians over the coming 12-18 months.

There are many reasons why the department collects debts – many, many reasons why. It is a very complex matter in terms of where it sits and we should respect that.

Updated

I will point out that Josh Frydenberg, in a motion which was meant to be thanking Victorians for the sacrifices they made during the most recent hard lock down, linked a suicide his friend had told him about, to the lockdown.

With no evidence or warning.

• Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78; Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636

I thought Bill Shorten would already have the answer – and yes, he does.

Bill Shorten to Stuart Robert:

Can the minister confirm that the government received 14 official reports of robodebt victims threatening self-harm on the following dates – in 2017, 7 January, 13 July, 1, 8, 28 and 30 August; 6, 23 and 26 of October and 6 November, in 2018, 7 August, 24 September, 6 November and 11 December?

Robert:

As I said to the member, I will get the data to him because I don’t have the data on hand.

Can I make the point that our agency deals with many of these issues on a daily basis.

Last week I was in Toowoomba visiting the Toowoomba service centre and my entrance was delayed because of a domestic violence incident inside just on that day.

We actually have a system built just to record instances that my agency deals with, of self-harm, of challenges of violent behaviour, to the point now at the entrance to all Services Australia shop fronts, we now have security guards because we take the duty of care both to the citizens of Australia and to our staff quite seriously.

These are complex areas, they are complex matters. We deal with complex situations across all of our 327 service centres. I will certainly get the data for the member that he has requested but it is important that the house understands the challenges that Services Australia staff deal with which is why I started the very first question from the leader of the opposition to thank the hard working men and women of Services Australia because they deal with difficult circumstances every day.

Centrelink sign

Updated

Bill Shorten to Stuart Robert:

My question is to the minister for government services. How many reports did the government receive of victims of the illegal robodebt scheme threatening self-harm between January 2017-December 2018?

Robert:

Thanks, Mr Speaker. Notwithstanding I will get the data to minister, I don’t have it on hand. I would caution us all in the house that suicide, mental health issues and self-harm issues are important, they are significant issues.

My department takes advice obviously from national suicide prevention advisor and the suicide prevention task force and mind frames guidelines about how we communicate about these issues. I will get the information to the member in that respect.

(Spoiler – Shorter is going to already have the answer.)

Updated

The chamber gives a round of applause to members of the ADF who are in the public gallery.

Michael McCormack’s microphone, in a desperate attempt to save itself, cuts out as he doesn’t answer Helen Haines’s question about additional funding for inland rail.

I have never related to a microphone more.

Just breaking in to question time for a moment to let you know that Queensland will be keeping its border closed to South Australians for at least another week.

Over in the Senate, Penny Wong has also commented on the Chinese foreign ministry’s tweet:

Can I make clear on behalf of the opposition, we condemn the action by the Chinese government in the strongest terms.

It is gratuitous, inflammatory and it is deeply offensive. This is not the behaviour of a responsible, mature international power.

These tactics will be met with unified condemnation in the Australian community. And they will be judged harshly by the international community.

The men and women of the Australian defence force serve with honour. They deserve our respect, and the respect of our allies, friends and partners around the world.

The allegations in the Brereton Report have horrified Australia. What sets us apart is the dignified, transparent and accountable manner of our response.

That is what happens within the Australian democracy.

Updated

Anthony Albanese to Stuart Robert:

My question is to the minister for government services and it relates to his government’s $1.2bn settlement with robodebt victims. Can the minister tell the house who is the Minister for Social Services when robodebt was designed? Further, who was the treasurer who bragged about robodebt and, further, who was the prime minister who agreed to pay $1.2bn to victims of the illegal robodebt scheme?

Who, I know this one!

Scott Morrison. The answer is Scott Morrison.

But Stuart Robert is still Stuart Robert, so here is what we get:

Can I firstly thank the hard working men and women of Services Australia and join the member for Maribyrnong whose motion today thanked them for all the work they have been doing in difficult times.

They have done 42% more lifting in the last 12 months than they normally would. I won’t point the leader of the opposition to Google where he can get all his questions answered but when it comes to issues ...

... When programs of debt recovery started, it’s important to understand this government didn’t invent income averaging. Income averaging has been a program, extant in our system for a long time.

Albanese has a point of order asking about relevance. But it is not answer time, so there is no point of order, despite Robert actually saying he won’t answer the question.

Just for the record, income averaging wasn’t the issue – it was the automatic debt notice, without human checks or balances, where the onus was on the person accused of having a debt to prove they didn’t have a debt, not on the government to prove they didn’t.

The Coalition removed the humans. That’s what caused the problems. That’s what led to the pain and trauma and despair and that’s what led to the $1.2bn class action pay out.

Updated

Just before question time, Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman and Labor’s Peter Khalil popped up on Sky News to discuss the fallout from the Chinese foreign ministry tweet.

Zimmerman said it was “extraordinary” that such a tweet would come from an official foreign ministry spokesperson.

He said Australia wanted a constructive relationship, but Chinese authorities needed to understand Australia would always stand up for values and the relationship needed a reset on that basis. It would “shock the entire international community”, according to Zimmerman, “that a nation like Australia could be treated in this way”.

Khalil said it was a “disgusting tweet” and crossed a line when it came to the norms of international diplomacy.

Khalil questioned the level of accountability that China accepted over issues such as conditions in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, and that Australians should be proud to have a system that held people to account over the issues raised in the Brereton report.

“I think we need to really stand up and say this is unacceptable.”

Updated

The Labor opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, backed Morrison’s stand, arguing the tweet was gratuitous, inflammatory and deeply offensive.

“Australia’s condemnation of this image is above politics,” he said.

Scott Morrison gets his dixer answer, and it ends with the floor being given to Michael McCormack who is WAAAYYYYY too excited to be able to just stand up and be at the despatch box.

It’s like toast just discovered butter.

Michael McCormack seizes the moment.
Michael McCormack seizes the moment. Photograph: Sam Mooy/Getty Images

Updated

Kristy McBain to David Littleproud:

My question is to the minister for emergency management. Why has the prime minister rejected the recommendation of the bushfire royal commission that a sovereign aerial firefighting capability be established?

Littleproud makes a big song and dance about how the government listens to the experts:

That assertion is incorrect. We have not rejected that. We have not rejected that.

It is important to understand that it is the fire commissioners from around this country that determine the make up of the aerial aircraft that we take.

It should be about the fact that we let the professionals – the professionals make that determination.

We talk about a sovereign fleet. Let me just give you a statistic. AFAC, which is the peak council of Australian Fire Commissioners who through NAFSI, their commercial entity that procures those aircraft.

There is 128 of the 158 aircraft that are sitting on tarmacs around the country at the moment that are Australian – that are actually Australian. So already AFAC and NAFSI are working through the fact that there will need to be Australian aircraft on the ground.

We will now work with the states to ensure that we work through that recommendation together because they are the ones with the expertise which determine whether you need a large aerial tanker, whether you need small-winged aircraft, whether you need hopes.

They are the ones that through their jurisdiction will decide exactly the type of aircraft, not politics, but in fact fire commissioners should make that determination because that is the meticulous planning they went through last year and to say that they didn’t is a slur on those fire commissioners and the professionalism in which they have undertaken in being prepared for not last season but this season, that is what we will continue to do to take the advice from the professionals, not from politicians.

Again, this is about – this isn’t about politics and it is disappointing that you will not respect the sovereignty and the expertise of those men and women who are the very best fire commissioners in the world as far as I am concerned.

They proved themselves in last black summer better than anyone in the circumstances that they were there. Not once did the government let them down in terms of having the assets that they require.

In November last year – yes, really in November last year I wrote to AFAC, asked them did they have enough aerial assets. They wrote back and said yes. In December they came back to us and said they required more. The prime minister and I acted swiftly and put an additional $11m million on the table to make sure there large aerial tankers on the ground. That is what we do. We work with the professionals. Don’t use the desperation of politics to actually politicise something that should be above that. This is about understanding professionals, not politics.

Updated

There was an attempt at a dixer with the prime minister, but the audio failed, so it is parked for the moment.

Susan Templeman to David Littleproud (who is still auditioning for Nationals leader)

With reference to last summer’s bushfires the dozens of fires burning across the country right now and the heatwave set to worsen this week, can the minister confirm that over the past year not one cent of the $400m available for bushfire resilience and recovery in the $4bn emergency response fund has been spent? The prime minister says he doesn’t hold a hose but he does hold the taxpayers’ chequebook, why hasn’t he delivered the funding he announced.

Littleproud:

Can I thank the member for her question and acknowledge the fact that she herself has been personally touched by bushfires. The fund, that had bipartisan support through this parliament, in fact, set in place $200m that was available. $150m of that is available to rebuild after catastrophic events. Only as that legislation quite clearly pointed out, as those opposite voted for, once all other programs and funds have been exhausted.

Subsequently, we put in place a $2bn – $2bn – and in fact some of those electorates opposite, Eden-Monaro, over $159m alone has gone into one electorate.

There is an additional $50m set aside for resilience programs.

We have taken the advice from the director-general who is providing me and the government with those programs. That’s taken place. That’s taken place after consultation with communities, not just in the bushfire region but right across the country, because this is for all natural disasters.

It is also important for those opposite and particularly the member who asks the question who would understand quite explicitly the trauma in which these people went through that not everyone head recovered emotionally to the point -- had recovered to the point where they were prepared to have input.

This is about people, not politics. Whatever needs to be spent will be spent. We have made sure that that $2bn, in fact, $1.2bn of that has already gone out. In addition, there was over $250m in additional immediate support to those ...

...This is about making sure we exhaust all those funds but we have no hesitation in spending the last $150m once we get the director general of Emergency Management Australia providing us with that advice.

That is the responsible thing to do. That is, in fact, the legislation that you opposite – those opposite – voted for.

So either you were asleep at the wheel or didn’t read it or you are – you are unfortunately playing politics with the trauma and the lives of those 33 people that lost their lives in last black summer. This place should be above that. That bill was about bipartisanship and a way forward. Unfortunately if you wish to politicise that, that is more a reflection on you than it is on us.

A house destroyed by fire in Cobargo in January 2020.
A house destroyed by fire in Cobargo in January 2020. Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images

Updated

OK. Back again.

The questions are all centred around how prepared Australia is for this bushfire season.

There are some condolence motions to go through first - and there are still some audio issues to work out with the Lodge connection.

So hang tight for a few minutes.

Michael McCormack is at the big table.

Sigh.

The transcription service is still down, so until that it is fixed, it is going to be a bit of a whoosh-whoosh recap of proceedings, I am afraid.

Question time is about to begin – it will be the first time a PM has appeared virtually, from the Lodge.

Updated

The Australian National Audit Office has released a report on defence’s biggest 25 projects.

The report finds that the total budget for the projects in June 2020 was $78.7bn, an increase of $24.2bn compared with when they reached “second pass approval” – although this is not just cost overruns but includes changes in scope.

For example, the joint strike fighter program will cost $14bn more than first thought, but $10.5bn of that is because Australia is purchasing 58 more fighters.

In terms of capability, 19 of the 25 will deliver all their capability requirements. The five projects “experiencing challenges with expected capability delivery” are the Joint Strike Fighter, MRH90 Helicopters, Hawkei, Battlefield Command System and Battlefield Airlifter.

One project office (AWD Ships) reports that it is unable to deliver all of the required capability by [final operational capability].

Fifteen of the 25 projects have experienced delays due to Covid-19, due to supply chain disruption, workforce limitations and contractor delays.

The defence department said the average delay is three-to-six months.
The ANAO found:

“The total schedule slippage for the 25 selected Major Projects, as at 30 June 2020, was 507 months when compared to the initial schedule ... The total slippage of 507 months in 2019–20 is 144 months lower than the total in 2018–19 of 651 months.”

An MRH90 helicopter in Cooma during the black summer bushfires.
An MRH90 helicopter in Cooma during the black summer bushfires. Photograph: Australian Army/Reuters

Updated

In case anyone wondered what a virtual press conference looked like from the inside, Mike Bowers was there

The Prime Minister at a virtual press conference from his isolation at the Lodge to the blue room of Parliament House in Canberra
The Prime Minister at a virtual press conference from his isolation at the Lodge to the blue room of Parliament House in Canberra Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The final report of the royal commission into police informants has been handed down in Victoria.

Commissioner Margaret McMurdo made 111 recommendations, including appointing a special investigator to examine whether crimes have been committed by current and former Victorian police officers or lawyer Nicola Gobbo.

The force’s handling of Gobbo during the gangland war sparked the royal commission, which was announced almost two years ago.

The full report can be found here.

Updated

Question time will be in the next 15 minutes.

Updated

Scott Morrison, before talking about the “tensions” in the Chinese-Australian relationship, opened his press conference with this:

It is utterly outrageous and it cannot be justified on any basis whatsoever.

The Chinese government should be totally ashamed of this post. It does diminishes them in the world’s eye.

... Australia is seeking an apology from the ministry of foreign affairs, from the Chinese government for this outrageous tweet.

We are also seeking its removal immediately and have also contacted Twitter to take it down immediately.

It is a false image, and a terrible slur on our great defence forces and the men and women who’ve served in that uniform for over 100 years.

Updated

Scott Morrison finishes his press conference by saying he believes it is in the mutual interests of both nations to “reset” the relationship, and after this “low point” he hopes it can begin to rebuild.

He ends the press conference to get the technology ready for question time.

Updated

The press conference makes it pretty clear, but diplomacy has its own channels.

Updated

Scott Morrison says he has asked Twitter to take action because the post is an “absolute falsehood, it is an absolutely outrageous and disgusting slur”.

And it wouldn’t be the first time that social media have censured posts. In this case, I would think that – in the interest of decency - they should take it down.

Updated

Asked when he is going to pick up the phone and speak to the Chinese president, Jingping Xi, Scott Morrison says he is “available for that”, hinting that he can’t actually get Xi on the phone.

On a follow-up question, he is asked why he won’t write to Xi directly. Morrison says “you assume there hasn’t been [those interactions]”.

So what you can take from that is – the Chinese government is ignoring the Australian government, all the way up to the top. Xi is not speaking to Morrison, or answering him.

Updated

“The only thing that has brought shame today is this appalling post by the Chinese government,” says Scott Morrison.

Morrison is having audio problems, so there is a delay before we get to the questions.

I’ll bring you that statement when I have a chance to transcribe it – the Tveeder transcription service went down, and it is hard to catch each word (particularly on an issue as important as this, because I know this blog, like all Australian news sites, is not just read by people within Australia).

Updated

Scott Morrison:

In a liberal democracy, this is how you deal with issues such as this [the inquiry and investigation]: you don’t engage disinformation, and the ugliness that we see in this post on the Chinese government Twitter account today.

Updated

Scott Morrison acknowledges that Australia and China have their problems, but says the tweet is too far.

He appears to be reading from a script for this one, and that is unusual for Morrison – he usually goes off the cuff for his press conferences, which shows you just how much diplomacy has to go in to each word on these matters.

Updated

Australia seeks official apology and tweet removal

Scott Morrison is using his strongest language yet in regards to the Chinese foreign affairs ministry’s official tweet.

He says the Australian government has sought an official apology and has also asked Twitter to pull down the tweet.

Updated

Scott Morrison responds to Chinese government 'repugnant' tweet

The prime minister has called the press conference in response to the Chinese government tweet.

Scott Morrison says:

The Chinese government should be totally ashamed of this post.

Updated

Scott Morrison’s press conference is a little late, but he is on his way (virtually).

Updated

Yesterday marked 1,000 days since Nades, Priya and their Australian-born children were taken from their home in western Queensland by Border Force.

Updated

The political responses to the Chinese foreign ministry official’s tweet are starting to roll in.

Updated

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian’s tweet about the Brereton report was accompanied by an inflammatory image that appears to depict an Australian soldier cutting the throat of a civilian holding a sheep, together with the words: “Don’t be afraid, we are coming to bring you peace!”

The digitally altered image also shows a large Australian flag behind the soldier covering what appears to be a number of body shapes.

It’s not the first time this image has been posted online. An image search indicates that someone who describes themselves as a “China affiliated netizen” posted the image on Twitter on 25 November as part of a tweet complaining about Australia’s previous criticism of the Chinese government over human rights.

We have approached the Chinese embassy in Canberra for comment, but the fact Zhao also raised the issue at a regular press conference last week indicates Beijing is seizing on the Afghanistan war crimes report to accuse Australia of double standards on human rights.

Earlier today, the Australian trade minister, Simon Birmingham, brushed off criticism from Russia over the Brereton report by saying that Australia had “shown a degree of accountability and transparency through the review that we’ve undertaken, published and responding to that is sorely lacking in a number of other countries”.

He told ABC News Breakfast:

I think Australia can take pride in the overwhelming work of the vast majority of our servicemen and women. Obviously, these are terrible instances that have occurred, but unlike other countries who may well just sweep these things under the carpet, we undertook a thorough investigation. We’ve been transparent about it and we’re applying remedies to address it and you wouldn’t see that in many other parts of the world.

Updated

Julia Banks, the former Liberal MP (turned independent) for Chisholm, posted this on Friday.

Updated

Scott Morrison will be holding a virtual press conference ahead of his virtual appearance in QT today.

His last virtual press conference was a four-flag affair.

Updated

For those wanting more information on the new Victorian departments, you will find the official release here.

Updated

Qantas to outsource ground handling, targeting 2,000 jobs

The Spirit of Australia is moving ahead with its “restructure” plans.

Ground handling operations staff woke up this morning to find out their jobs were being outsourced.

From Qantas’s release:

Qantas has this morning notified around 2,000 employees that it will move to outsource ground handling operations at 10 airports across Australia as it works to recover from the Covid crisis.

In August, the airline announced its reasons for needing to restructure its ground handling operations, which includes baggage handling and aircraft cleaning, and commenced a review of external bids from specialist ground handlers and in-house bids from employees and their representatives.

The bids were required to meet the following objectives:

  • Reducing the overall cost of ground handling operations (as Qantas anticipated it could save approximately $100 million annually, based on pre-Covid levels of flying, through the use of third-party providers).
  • Avoiding large spending on ground handling equipment such as aircraft tugs and baggage loaders ($80 million over five years).
  • Better matching our ground handling services, and their cost, with fluctuating levels of demand.

The Transport Workers Union submitted a bid on behalf of employees in accordance with terms in the enterprise agreement. Teams from some individual airports submitted local proposals. Unfortunately, none of these bids met the objectives.

Qantas logo
Qantas has told about 2,000 employees it will outsource ground handling operations at 10 airports nationally. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty Images


Updated

After the news that Russia had raised concerns about Australian special forces’ actions in Afghanistan, China too is speaking up over the findings of the Brereton report.

Zhao Lijian, a spokesman with China’s foreign ministry, tweeted that he was “shocked by murder of Afghan civilians & prisoners by Australian soldiers”.

“We strongly condemn such acts, & call for holding them accountable.”

Beijing has repeatedly objected in the past to the Australian government speaking up over the Chinese government’s human rights record, including the mass incarceration of Uighurs in Xinjiang province.

Zhou raised it at a regular press conference in Beijing last Friday, saying:

Australia and some other western countries always portray themselves as human rights defenders and wantonly criticise other countries’ human rights conditions. The facts revealed by this report fully exposed the hypocrisy of the “human rights” and “freedom” these western countries are always chanting.

The latest intervention comes amid worsening trade tensions between China and Australia, with the Morrison government giving the strongest sign yet that it is planning to launch a complaint with the World Trade Organisation over hefty tariffs on Australian barley.

Updated

The Chinese foreign ministry official’s tweet – from his official government account – follows the ABC’s earlier report Russian foreign ministry officials were following a very similar script.

Updated

China condemns 'murder' of Afghans by Australian troops

Lijian Zhao is the deputy director of the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs’ information department.

Updated

Daniel Andrews:

There are no private security engaged, only Victoria police performing those roles as well as ADF, and they will have other functions of a general nature. But Victoria police would be not only leading but they will be the exclusive provider of that – if you like – security work. So it is making sure that only those who are allowed in and out, going in and out of the hotel, making sure the perimeter, any internal boundaries, all those bubble arrangements, as they should be – this is about making sure we have the highest degree of formality and therefore the highest degree of certainty.

And all staff will be either employed by the Victorian government, or exclusively engaged by the Victorian government.

Andrews:

No moonlighting, no second jobs, no subcontracting of a subcontract because there are no subcontracts – it is all direct and obvious and clear and I am very careful to commission now to work so closely with us and engaged to ensure we have police available.

ADF will have more to say about the total number and the sort of duties. We have a final conversation to have to finalise with the federal government and ADF but that is a massive difference – no private security.

Updated

Victoria to rejoin hotel quarantine program

And with those changes, Daniel Andrews also announces a restart to Victoria’s hotel quarantine program – which means more Australians can come home. There will be no security guards involved “at all”, he says.

As a result of the board of inquiry, the Victorian government has set up a dedicated agency and one minister accountable and responsible for this whole program ... Every element will sit within the agency.

Flights will resume from the 7th, with Victoria police to take the lead.

Updated

Daniel Andrews is announcing a change to the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services – it is officially splitting.

From 1 February, the department will include health, mental health and ageing.

There will be a new department – families, fairness and housing – which will cover child protection, disabilities, housing and family safety.

That is in response to the recent issues thrown into the spotlight by the Covid response.

Updated

There is about to be a cabinet reshuffle, so all the government MPs are being a little more sensitive, and bolshy, than usual. It’s like all the worst drama kids are fighting to be the understudy. Great stuff, you love to see it.

We should be put out of our misery with an announcement on the new cabinet soon.

Labor will also do a reshuffle around the same time, so you won’t have a shadow minister for resources and agriculture from western Sydney for long.

Updated

Yesterday Simon Birmingham refused to call – when invited by David Speers – what China was doing “coercion”.

Asked about that today, he said:

It’s not my job to escalate things, it’s my job to try to help Australian industry through these challenging times. What we want are solutions, not name calling, not anything else. We want outcomes that enable Australian businesses and their Chinese counterparts to be able to get on with business-to-business relationships with trade that they have built over many years.

Let’s be really clear in understanding that it’s not just Australian businesses suffering right now. Their Chinese customers are facing disruption; the businesses they work with in China are facing disruption. There are costs to all parties, and ultimately this is bad for the global economy.

China behaving in a way that results in greater risk, greater uncertainty for international businesses, does dampen global confidence – and that’s bad for everybody.

Updated

Jim Chalmers had some thoughts about the economy this morning:

The government will fall all over themselves trying to claim credit for a recovery in the economy, but every serious economist knows when we’ve had a recession as deep and as damaging as Australia has that, of course, the economy will recover.

Josh Frydenberg will pretend that it is his genius that has seen that happen, but most economists know that from such an extraordinarily low base, of course there’s going to be a substantial recovery in quarterly GDP. I don’t think any objective observer of the way that the government has implemented this stimulus would say that they got everything right. They haven’t got everything wrong, but they haven’t got everything righ either.

We called for wage subsidies and we were pleased when the government had a change of heart and brought them in, but that doesn’t mean that they’ve been perfectly implemented. Too many people were excluded. Too many people in the unemployment queues were deliberately excluded from jobkeeper by the government. What that has meant is that unemployment queues were longer than they need to be and we’ll have a problem with unemployment and underemployment longer than we would like to.

Updated

I really miss living near a beach.

Updated

NSW records no new Covid cases for 23rd day in a row

New South Wales is just five days off the clinical definition of Covid elimination, recording no new locally acquired cases for the 23rd day in a row.

The Queensland border opens to both greater Sydney and Victoria tomorrow.

Updated

He’s a businessman from Bunbury – and that is the extent of my knowledge on the Coalition’s newest senator.

Updated

Amid increasing trade tensions with China and huge disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Morrison government has named a new head of Austrade.

Xavier Simonet, who is the group chief executive and managing director of Kathmandu Holdings, will be charged with helping Australian businesses navigate “this significant period of economic and trade uncertainty”, the government said in a statement.

Readers may recall that earlier this month, on the eve of the potential new Chinese government trade bans, Austrade officials held a phone hook-up with farming and business representatives and urged them to expand into other markets because the rocky relationship between the two countries was not likely to improve in the near future.

Austrade, which is short for the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, is the key agency for promoting Australian trade, investment and education to the world, and developing tourism policy, the trade minister, Simon Birmingham, said.

Birmingham said Simonet, a former chief executive of Radley London and former international director of Seafolly Group, would become chief executive of Austrade at a time when the commission “had a critical role to play in helping Australian businesses to maintain global supply chains, export to more markets, help our tourism and education sectors to recover while also attracting game-changing investment”. Birmingham said:

Mr Simonet will bring extensive business acumen and broad experience in international business development having previously worked across Europe, the US and the Asia Pacific …

Born and raised in France, Mr Simonet and his family have chosen to make Australia their home, where he has worked for iconic Aussie brands like Seafolly and Rip Curl. He brings a passion for Australia found in many a convert alongside an international perspective that will help to identify the right opportunities and messages to boost Australian sales around the world.

Austrade’s acting chief executive, Tim Beresford, will be Simonet’s deputy.

Updated

Also, turns out the Lodge wasn’t listed as a commonwealth parliamentary office, or an electorate office, so a little bit of admin had to be taken care of this morning to allow Scott Morrison to appear during question time, via video link.

Christian Porter as the House of Representatives resumes sitting
Christian Porter (right) as the House of Representatives resumes sitting. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

And Barnaby Joyce seems quite pleased with himself this morning.

Barnaby Joyce as the House of Representatives resumes sitting
Barnaby Joyce in the house. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

The crossbench held a press conference this morning, asking the government to restore the auditor general’s funding.

Don’t hold your breath.

Larissa Waters, Helen Haines, Rex Patrick, Zali Steggall and Jacqui Lambie walk to a press conference in Parliament House this morning.
Crossbench senators and House of Representatives MPs on their way to a press conference in Parliament House this morning. From left: Larissa Waters, Helen Haines, Rex Patrick, Zali Steggall and Jacqui Lambie. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Also:

Updated

Shares in wine producer Treasury Wine Estates, which gets 30% of its earnings from China, have tumbed 9.75% after trade resumed this morning.

The fall comes on top of a drop of more than 11% on Friday, after Chinese authorities slapped big tariffs on Australian wine, which they say a preliminary investigation has found has been dumped in China.

Shares that were worth more than $17.50 in January are now changing hands at $8.33.

International students return to Darwin

International students are returning to Darwin today, as part of a pilot program. They are subject to strict quarantine protocols, which has, of course, given rise to the “what about all the Australians stranded overseas” questions.

Simon Birmingham was asked about that this morning: He said:

Well, from the federal government’s prospective, Australians do take priority. Other pilots that other states have tried to get off the ground haven’t gone ahead because we have said very clearly that returning Australians must take priority.

We’ve managed to grow the capacity in hotel quarantine for those returning Australians. Our opening of hundreds of places at Howard Springs in the Northern Territory has achieved that. And we have seen other states lift their numbers to around 5,600 that we are able to take at present, and that will grow when Victoria comes online next week to about 6,700 places in hotel quarantine for us to be able to safely transition those returning Australians.

Updated

WorkSafe New Zealand lays charges over Whakaari/White Island disaster

For the lives who were impacted by this, this is another step closer to answers.

Updated

Treasury Wine Estates, the producer of the famed Penfolds Grange brand, says demand for its wine in China will be “extremely limited” due to swingeing tariffs slapped on Australian wine by Chinese authorities on Friday.

The company gets 30% of its earnings from sales to China, it told the ASX this morning.

It said its wine, which also includes brands such as Rawsons Retreat and Pepperjack, would be subject to a tariff of 169.3% under provisional rules introduced by the Chinese ministry of commerce.

Mofcom can keep the tariff in place until the end of August next year while it continues an investigation into whether Australian wine is being dumped in China.

The company says that in response it will reallocate the quarter of Penfolds-branded wine production currently going to China to other territories, cut costs and reduce the amount of wine it produces.

It said it was “comfortable” with the amount of wine it was holding and had $1.5bn in liquidity on hand to see it through the crisis.

Chief executive Tim Ford said:

We are extremely disappointed to find our business, our partners’ businesses and the Australian wine industry in this position

We will continue to engage with Mofcom as the investigation proceeds to ensure our position is understood. We call for strong leadership from governments to find a pathway forward.

Shares in the company fell 11% on Friday before trade was halted. The stock should come out of a trading halt today and is likely to fall again.

Bottle of Penfolds Grange
Treasury Wine Estates is ‘extremely disappointed’. Photograph: Bloomberg/via Getty Images

Updated

Murray Watt, a Labor senator from Queensland, was asked this morning whether Anthony Albanese was the right person to lead the Labor party. He said:

I absolutely think Anthony Albanese is the right person to take us to the election. I’m looking forward to having him back in Queensland later in this week. Obviously, it’s been a bit difficult to travel around if you’re from Sydney this year, and I think he’ll get a really good reception when he goes to Queensland this week.

The message that Anthony Albanese has had particularly resonates in Queensland, where we’ve been saying that Labor is for traditional industries as well as new industries. That’s not a message that neither of our political opponents is taking forward. They say you can only have the old industries or the new industries, and that just damages Queensland. So Anthony Albanese and Labor is standing up for all of them.

Updated

As someone who had a family member nearly go bankrupt in their early 20s because a bank gave them a home loan when they had a casual job they had worked for six months (I am not taking away their own responsibility there – it was a stupid decision, yet they were young and getting married and following all the steps and someone needed to step in and say “no”), responsible lending laws are not actually terrible.

Updated

The government is also trying to relax responsible lending laws, claiming it has gone too far in the other direction, from the “you get a loan and you get a loan and you get a loan, and everyone gets a loan” days of the not too recent past.

Labor’s Stephen Jones thinks that is a terrible idea:

It’s time for the prime minister and it’s time for the treasurer to announce today that they won’t be going ahead with their responsible lending law backflip. The backbench don’t support it. The crossbench don’t support it. It probably won’t get through the parliament. But if it does it do untold damage to the economy and our households.

You know, these laws were put in place after the GFC after we sawfarmers, after we saw households, being sold loans that they couldn’t afford and they didn’t understand. We don’t want to return to the bad old practices.

Time for the treasurer to do the right thing: get off the island. He’s Robinson Crusoe on this one. Dump his plan to axe the responsible lending laws and get on with the proposals of the royal commission. Get on with implementing the royal commission bill. Bring it into parliament today. It’s unacceptable that you haven’t even put it on the agenda for the week. That shows that the government that voted against the royal commission 27 times hasn’t changed its spots. Still opposed to it, still won’t implement it.

Updated

Apparently the replicant tests are starting early.

Updated

Just on that, the royal commission and the productivity commission have found retail funds were more responsible for averse outcomes than industry super.

Industry super funds have outperformed retail funds for the last 13 years, and as of the last APRA figures, industry funds held more financial power.

After the banking royal commission, $11bn was withdrawn from retail funds and put into industry superannuation funds.

You could argue that advertisements let people know about the differences between the funds – helping them choose what is best for them. Which, after the government banned automatic enrolment in funds, is more crucial than ever.

Updated

Liberal senator Andrew Bragg is on a mission and the online newspaper the New Daily is in his sights.

The New Daily was established by three super funds and is now owned entirely by Industry Super Holdings. Under the government’s (latest) proposed changes, super funds would have to prove any action/spending was in the best financial interests of its members. Under that test, advertising, a lot of lobbying, and publications like the New Daily would be out. (They could put it in a trust before these laws come in – if the crossbench supports them – which would protect it, so nothing is definite.)

Bragg:

Australia’s richest vested interests, the superannuation funds have established a newspaper with at least $12m of workers’ money.

This newspaper, the New Daily, is now being used to attack critics of superannuation and political opponents.

This week, the commercial deal between the New Daily and the ABC will be known to the Senate following my questions to Mr David Anderson last month at Senate estimates.

I hope this deal will not cause any perception of conflict in the ABC’s coverage of our plan to reform super.

This is truly a remarkable development in the history of Australian media. A media company is now wasting workers’ compulsory savings on political attacks.

The complacency and largesse is there for people to see. Super seems to think it is a state within a state.

It shows the contempt that the super funds have for the “sole purpose test” which requires a fiduciary style duty by super trustees to safeguard members’ savings.

The New Daily entity is on very shaky legal ground. The prudential regulator APRA confirmed to me at Senate estimates that some funds treated it as an expense, others as an investment.

There is no better example for why changes to strengthen the fiduciary duty in super are necessary.

Last week, draft legislation was released which will stop this sort of waste.

APRA will have to improve its performance as a regulator. Failing to bring a single action to enforce the sole purpose test in the 30 years of compulsory super is a shocking indictment on APRA.

Our reforms are designed to improve the whole system’s performance. The Hayne royal commission showed the retail funds regularly preferred shareholder interests ahead of members. During the Covid crisis, industry funds have wasted money on television advertising with Mr Greg Combet’s
face on it.

Both should be breaches of the law. These are powerful vested interests who control 10% of workers’ money.

I urge people to look at the motives of anyone defending the super status quo. Even the scheme’s father, Paul Keating, accepts superannuation can be improved.

Andrew Bragg
Andrew Bragg: ‘Super seems to think it is a state within a state.’ Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Greenpeace has responded to Angus Taylor’s “WE DID IT” announcement regarding the latest greenhouse gas emissions:

Greenpeace Australia Pacific head of research and investigations, Dr Nikola Casule:

This is Angus Taylor’s Stephen Bradbury moment. It took a global pandemic, dodgy accounting and relying on other parties’ policies to achieve this.

As the world’s largest coal exporter, Australia has shipped climate change all over the world but has refused to do its fair share to help reduce emissions.

Under the Morrison government, Australia is the only country in the world using dodgy Kyoto carryover credits to meet obligations under the Paris agreement. Australia is seeking to undermine global climate action before it can even come into effect.

But as more states and businesses switch to renewables and set net-zero emissions targets by 2050, the Morrison government is increasingly isolated, not only from other Coalition governments but globally as well.

Scott Morrison needs to get on with it, commit to net-zero emissions and 100% renewables and stop living in the past. Events and technology have overtaken the Morrison government and it needs to catch up.

Updated

Victoria's Covid death toll rises to 820 after patient cleared of virus dies from complications

Victoria has added a death to its Covid total, after a patient, who had been cleared of Covid, died from complications related to the virus. That brings Victoria’s toll to 820 people.

Updated

There are less Australians on jobkeeper (as of October) according to the ATO.

Josh Frydenberg is very happy. A reminder though: there is more pain coming. March, when the subsidies expire, is going to be rough for a lot of people.

Updated

Asked about just speaking to his counterparts in China, Simon Birmingham says:

Well, I can pick up the phone, but they’re not choosing to do so.

He continues:

If you’re calling and no one is answering and there is no dialogue. I make the point there because it is an important one for everyone to understand.

Australia’s position on the China relationship hasn’t changed. We remain a country that wants a prosperous China and wants to engage with China.

We remain a country willing to have discussions and dialogue with China. Yes, we stand firm in terms of our values and the protection of national security and our critical infrastructure and so on, but we haven’t changed and China however is a country now that we see on the world stage taking a tone and a stance that is more challenging, not just with Australia, but it is an engagement with others and unfortunately they are unwilling to have that dialogue, but we believe that the best way to resolve these sorts of things is through dialogue and it is why our consistent approach is we’re up for that and we urge them to come to the table.

Yesterday, on Insiders, Simon Birmingham said Australia was getting ready to take the Chinese government to the World Trade Organisation, over the barley tariff dispute.

Today, he told ABC News Breakfast it was a decision still under review:

A final decision has not yet been made, but it is certainly our instinct that we ought to use all avenues available to defend the integrity of Australian producers.

We know that our grain growers like our winemakers aren’t government subsidised.

They don’t dump their product on global markets below value and that Australia is a country who has been a member of the WT0 since 1948 and when you believe in a rules-based system and you think the rules are broken, you ought to bring in the independent umpire to help resolve those issues.

Now, in doing so, we’d love to resolve it in a manner faster than the WTO offers. One of our WTO issues was against Canada.

Although we launched that and got the process underway, we withdrew that case underway because we resolved it through dialogue between the parties and that remains our preference with China and with any other party including India who we have a WTO dispute with at present to come to the table and resolve the issues where we can.

Minister Simon Birmingham.
Minister Simon Birmingham. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Remember how the government’s CovidSafe app was going to be “like sunscreen” and then it didn’t really work?

The government repeatedly said there was no problem – but contact tracers never really relied on it.

Well, now it is getting an update.

The CovidSafe App will incorporate a new Bluetooth protocol called ‘Herald’ that will offer unparalleled app-level Bluetooth performance and contribute to better identification of potential close contacts. The update will improve our contact-tracing capability, integrated with state and territory health authorities.

The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has been working with Apple and Google on incorporating the new protocol in the CovidSafe App and performing extensive testing across all scenarios for both Android and iOS devices. The protocol provides for excellent performance of all encounter logging under all phone conditions and will continue to work on more than 96% of Apple and Android phones.

The DTA has also been working with the Australian Cyber Security Centre to ensure the security of the new code meets the same stringent requirements as the previous versions of the CovidSafe App.

Updated

Here is the Angus Taylor release on the latest greenhouse gases (it’s amazing how quickly the report came come out when its good news)

In 2019-20, emissions in the National Electricity Market (Australia’s largest electricity grid) fell 5.3 per cent, to a new record low. Australia has invested $30 billion in renewable energy since 2017 and continues to deploy new solar and wind ten times faster than the global average. Recent advice from the Clean Energy Regulator is that this trend is expected to continue in coming years.

Emissions from cropping and grazing have fallen by 69 per cent over the last three decades, from around 300 million tonnes per year in 1990 to around 92 million tonnes today. Changes in land management practices over the last decade have contributed to Australia’s forest cover increasing faster than any other OECD country over that period, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.

In the year to June 2020, emissions were 513.4 million tonnes, 3.0 per cent or 16 million tonnes lower than in 2018-19. This is the lowest level since 1998.

Emissions are now 25 per cent lower than forecast when the Coalition came into government in 2013.

Australia’s emissions are 16.6 per cent below the level of emissions in 2005 (the baseline year for the Paris Agreement).

While the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns have had an impact on the transport sector (reducing liquid fuel consumption by 17 per cent in the June quarter 2019), this has been partially offset by the resilience of Australia’s export and industrial sectors.

39.3 per cent of Australia’s total emissions are generated by the production of exports for overseas markets. The value of Australia’s overseas exports has increased by $80 billion since September 2013, reflecting the Government’s good economic management.

Despite upward pressure from exports and industry, emissions per capita and the emissions intensity of the economy continue to fall and are at their lowest levels in three decades.

There is a lot in there, so I would urge you to read this piece from Katharine Murphy and Adam Morton detailing where Australia actually is in terms of climate.

The Greens are introducing a bill, in both chambers, to make parliament responsible for sending troops into war, not the government.

The defence amendment (parliamentary approval of overseas service) bill would mean members of the defence force may not serve beyond the territorial limits of Australia except when agreed to by a majority of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

A 2010 study by the Parliamentary Library found that nine of 13 European countries had similar powers to limit the military power of the executive branch of government, including Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. The United States’ Congress has final say on deployment of the USAF.

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, says the Australian people should have the say about sending our defence forces into combat:

The more the truth is revealed about what war actually involves, the more the public needs a say about whether to go to war in the first place,” said Mr Bandt.

We need open, honest and transparent debate about sending troops to war and keeping them there.

By requiring the approval of parliament not just to go to war but to stay there, governments will be less likely to wage wars for their own narrow political purposes.

Australia must join other advanced nations like the United States, Germany and Sweden that protect against unilateral decisions by the government.

Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt.
Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

The ABC reports Russia – yes, that Russia – finds the Bereton report into alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan “truly shocking” and says it undermines Australia’s international standing.

The Chinese foreign ministry made similar comments very recently.

ABC defence reporter, Andrew Greene, reported the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova told a press conference last week that “the circumstances make us truly doubt the genuine capacity of Australian authorities to actually hold accountable all the servicemen who are guilty of such crime”.

Zakharova also said Australia’s credibility on the world stage had also been destroyed by the report.

“It makes us reassess the true meaning of the official line pronounced by Canberra to protect the rules-based world order,” the ABC reported Zakharova as saying.

Updated

Good morning

Welcome to the first day of the second last week of parliament for 2020.

Guys – we have almost made it.

It’s only been two weeks since parliament last sat, but it feels like a lifetime: Scott Morrison has been to Japan and back in that time. Which means he is now in quarantine, at The Lodge (with a small staff, including his personal photographer) and question time this week is going to look a little different. He’ll be zooming in. So at least we’ll mostly be spared the usual dramatics. (Although Michael McCormack will probably see it as his role to step up and fill the gap, and honestly, after the year we have had, no one has capacity for that.)

It’s also time for the latest quarterly update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, and Angus Taylor says Australia has beaten its 2020 target by 459 million tonnes.

And there only needed to be a worldwide pandemic to do it.

Huzzah.

Turns out that when you shut down most of the travel industry, as well as lock down communities for long stretches of time, greenhouse gases fall.

Taylor, of course, is claiming credit, saying it was all about Australia “meeting and beating” its targets.

He says it is because of structural declines in the electricity and agriculture sectors. And part of it is – with industry, and the states, leading the way.

I have to say, weather may not be climate, but after the heatwave the east coast experienced this weekend – and seeing bushfires start up again – hearing the federal government talk about its climate policy and how amazing it is, is going to be quite jarring this week.

Meanwhile, in case you missed it, this also happened:

In terms of legislation, the government is trying to make the cashless welfare card permanent in some sites, as well as introduce it to the Northern Territory – despite most of the independent evidence pointing to it not having positive impacts.

We’ll bring you all that, and more, as politics live enters its eighth-last day for 2020. (And don’t worry, looking at the rest of the world, I am very aware of how lucky I am to be back blogging about the ridiculousness of Australian politics, rather than the number of my fellow countrymen and women dying.)

You have Amy Remeikis back with you, with Mike Bowers and his camera wandering the hallways, and Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Daniel Hurst as your Canberra team. As always, you will have everyone in the Guardian brains trust at your service.

Ready?

Updated

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