End-of-day summary
And, breathe. That’s all for today, so here is a summary of everything that’s gone down today:
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Western Australia recorded no new Covid cases overnight, with premier Mark McGowan also locking down fly in, fly out mine workers.
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Scott Morrison announced that the government aims to have Australians vaccinated by October. The prime minister gave his first major address of the year, also refusing to condemn Craig Kelly for sharing misinformation.
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Media companies pleaded guilty to contempt regarding the George Pell case as other charges were dropped. In return, the prosecution will withdraw other charges against individuals and their employers.
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Collingwood president Eddie McGuire says “we’re not a racist club” after a report finds “structural racism” at Collingwood.
- Foreign affairs minister Marise Payne issued Australia’s official response to the political situation in Myanmaar, saying the government is “deeply concerned” and calling on the military to “respect the rule of law”.
Finally, in light of changing border rules with Western Australia, if you intend to travel interstate this week, please take a quick look at the list of WA hotspots and state-by-state restrictions.
Updated
Queensland’s checkpoints along the NSW border have been taken down in record time, as the state once again opens its borders.
It took less than 24 hours for the checkpoints to be taken down, with Queensland open to all of NSW from early this morning, after a six-week lockout.
Chief superintendent Mark Wheeler welcomed the move and hoped it would relieve some staffing pressure at Gold Coast police stations.
There is a sense of relief again, certainly a sense of happiness about it. No doubt there will be many people from the greater Sydney area who can be reunited with families.
A lot of people would not have been able to spend Christmas and New Year together, so hopefully they can make up for some of that now.
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An interesting discussion out of South Australia now, where the chief public health officer has floated the idea of keeping QR check-ins after the pandemic.
Dr Nicola Spurrier told the Sunday Mail that she would like to see QR codes maintained as a safety net for any future pandemic.
You can imagine if and when Covid resolves, it would be hard to convince people to have the energy to keep scanning in, but certainly it is a total game-changer for our contact tracers.
However, the idea hasn’t been met with much enthusiasm, with Liberal senator for South Australia Alex Antic telling the ABC the idea was “a thought bubble” that needed to be “nipped in the bud early”.
I think we have to be very careful and very considered about rolling them back as soon as we can … when the time is safe and it’s reasonable to do so.
Earlier this year, police commissioner Grant Stevens also reassured the public that they would not remain in place beyond their original purpose.
Updated
And now we need to discuss how to deal with glasses fog, especially in the wake of mandatory mask rules.
As a fellow glasses-wearer, I have always found it difficult to deal with this. My dodgy solution was to bend the mask at the nose and put my glasses on top, but it means I always look like I’m judging something.
But Elias Visontay dug into the issue, and has presented his guide to anti-fog solutions:
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The head of the Australian Medical Association in Western Australia has called on the state government to expand its testing capacity to ensure it gets on top of any potential outbreak.
Dr Andrew Miller welcomed the state’s announcement of no new cases today, but said people needed to be tested more efficiently and beyond 10pm.
It was a disappointment to us that testing did not continue through the night – we think that would have been a good option for a lot of people to avoid the heat today.
But hopefully the government can improve its surge capacity because we really need to get our numbers quite high in order to be sure that these zero results that we’re getting are a true representation of risk in the community.
Miller said the yesterdays testing numbers of 3,000 were “a great start” but that the next five days would give authorities a clear sense of what they were dealing with.
We’re hoping for donut days throughout the week – all zeros – and then perhaps that will be enough that we’ll know by then if we’re looking at a cluster or clusters that could require a longer period of time. Because we know that each cluster generates about three weeks’ worth of cases before it is able to shut down.
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Australian house prices continue rise
House prices have continued to increase across the country, apparently driven by first-home buyers.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has said new owner-occupier home loan commitments surged 8.7% in December, 38.9% higher than a year earlier.
AAP has the story:
Home loans continue to grow at a record pace, driven by enthusiastic demand from first-time buyers even as housing prices hit new highs in the first weeks of 2021.
The risk of an overheating housing market may raise concerns for the Reserve Bank down the track. But economists do not expect it will be making any short-term changes to monetary policy when its board meets for the first this year on Tuesday.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the value of new owner-occupier home loan commitments surged 8.7% to $19.9 billion in December, 38.9% higher than a year earlier.
The number of owner-occupier first-home buyer loans rose 9.3%, a 56.6% rise since December 2019.
The ABS head of finance and wealth, Amanda Seneviratne, said:
Federal and state government measures, such as homebuilder, and historically low interest rates are supporting ongoing growth in housing loan commitments.
Demand for mortgages from first-home buyers is now at its highest level since June 2009, when similar rapid growth was triggered by the temporary tripling of a first-home owner grant to help combat the global financial crisis.
Separate figures show house prices across the nation rose by a further 0.9% in January and now stand 0.7% above the previous September 2017 peak.
Regional property values grew at twice the pace of capital city housing markets, with the divergence more notable in Sydney and Melbourne, which are suffering from the lack of overseas migration.
CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said:
Better housing affordability, an opportunity for a lifestyle upgrade and lower density housing options are other factors that might be contributing to this trend, along with the newfound popularity of remote working arrangements.
New job advertising figures suggest further employment gains in the first half of 2021 are likely.
The ANZ jobs ads series rose 2.3% in January, the eighth consecutive monthly increase, and are now at their highest level since April 2019.
At the same time, manufacturers have used the usually quiet year-end holiday period to make up for the business lost over 2020 during the recession.
The Australian Industry Group performance of manufacturing index increased by 3.2 points over the past two months to 55.3 points, indicating the sector is expanding.
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The federal opposition has flagged it may challenge the categorisation of gig workers as independent contractors.
Opposition industrial relations spokesman Tony Burke told Sky News earlier today that gig economy staff were being paid below minimum wage.
Right now we have third-world working conditions in a first-world country – that can’t be allowed to go on.
Someone driving their own heavy vehicle, they’ve got a mortgage over it, they employ someone to do the bookkeeping – there is no doubt that they’re an independent contractor.
I just don’t accept for a minute that the visa worker with a second-hand bike, racing and running traffic lights trying to make ends meet, has that sort of strength, that sort of independence.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese is expected to unveil new industrial relations policies in a major speech next week.
Updated
Perth blaze threatens lives and homes
An emergency warning has been issued for an out-of-control and unpredictable fire in north-east Perth.
01:19 PM -Bushfire EMERGENCY WARNING for parts of WOOROLOO in SHIRE OF MUNDARING: https://t.co/ZSEIQCTb4B
— DFES (@dfes_wa) February 1, 2021
The alert is for parts of Wooroloo in the shire of Mundarig, and the fire is heading in a north-easterly direction, towards Toodyay Road.
The blaze has already set some buildings alight, with authorities saying there is an imminent threat to lives and homes.
For people east of Bailup Road, it’s too late to leave. For people West of Bailup Road, if you are not prepared or you plan to leave, leave now if the way is clear by travelling north along Bailup Road or Mayo Road.
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Good evening, everyone, and a quick thanks to Amy for expertly guiding us through the day’s news.
I’ll be with you through the evening, and there is still much to get through, so let’s dive in.
Updated
The party leaders are at the traditional Last Post ceremony ahead of the parliamentary sitting.
Tomorrow, they will head to Church for the traditional service before parliament.
Then parliament will sit – until Thursday.
In the meantime, Mostafa Rachwani will take you through the evening. I will be back tomorrow morning for all your parliamentary needs. Let me know if there is anything you want to know ahead of the parliamentary year – you can find me here or here. I’ll do my best to answer your questions.
Until then – take care of you.
Updated
An ASX-listed mining company that is pursuing projects in Myanmar has gone into a trading halt after its shares fell nearly 18% on news of the country’s army seizing control and detaining key ruling party leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar Metals, a Perth-based company, wrote to the ASX on Monday to request an immediate trading halt “pending an announcement regarding the political situation in Myanmar”.
When approached by Guardian Australia for comment, the company responded with the following statement:
Myanmar Metals Limited is closely monitoring the unfolding events in Myanmar and hopes for a quick and peaceful resolution. Our priority is the safety of our people in Myanmar. We intend to provide an update to our shareholders once we have enough information to do so.
The developments come just days after Myanmar Metals announced the start of drilling as part of the Bawdwin joint venture exploration project, in which it has a 51% interest.
Figures published by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade indicate Australian goods exports to Myanmar were worth $162m in 2018, led by wheat and medical products. The same year, Australia imported $42m in goods from Myanmar, including travel goods and bags, seafood and clothing.
Earlier today, the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, described the military’s attempt to seize control as “rather disturbing developments”. The foreign minister, Marise Payne, also expressed deep concern and called on the army to respect the rule of law and release detained civilian leaders.
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Labor’s Jenny McAllister is asked the same question about Craig Kelly and his vaccine conspiracy theories and misinformation:
It’s baffling to me that the prime minister won’t make it clear he disapproves of Craig Kelly’s behaviour.
Mr Kelly is afforded a privileged position as a preselected member of the Liberal party, as a member of the Australian parliament.
I don’t think it should be beyond Mr Morrison to say very clearly what Mr Kelly is saying is wrong and dangerous and people in the community should not listen to him.
Generalised warnings, pointing people to websites is not enough. Mr Kelly is a member of Mr Morrison’s party room. Surely Mr Morrison can find it within himself to have an opinion about the wrong and dangerous ideas espoused by Mr Kelly.
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Dr Katie Allen pivots from “we all need to be on the same page” when it comes to vaccines, to “debate is fine”.
Allen:
I don’t know the detail – I don’t follow him [Craig Kelly] on Facebook.
What I do is speak to my colleagues about what think is the right evidence-based expert-informed approach and I’ve been very clear with that, speaking to my colleagues inside the tent, and I will continue to do that.
The most important thing is that the Australian people understand, trust, and respect the government’s information that is on the website, the authorised websites, the authorised information, and obviously people can have differences of opinions about things.
I would say that as a doctor, I dealt with lots of people who come to me and say, ‘I don’t believe X, Y, and Z’. It’s not my job to say you are not right. My job was to point them in the direction, the right direction for them to make the decision that was right for them.
And I continue to do that. I mean, the point about debate is that we need to have a respectful debate and there are people in the community, let’s put aside federal members of parliament, there will be members of the community who have different opinions.
I would say very clearly that vaccines are the way to go with regards to this pandemic globally. And that, as a government, we are partnering with people to provide clear, concise and effective information, in a calm and considered way.
There will be always be people in the community, concerned rightly or wrongly, about different aspects of government recommendations. It’s important we continue to have the conversation, have the debate, and partner with people to make sure they can make the decisions that are right for them.
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Liberal MP Katie Allen, who was a doctor before entering parliament, is asked by Patricia Karvelas on the ABC whether MPs like Craig Kelly should “zip it”, given the misinformation he peddles on his social media.
It goes as well as you can expect.
Allen:
The most important thing is health advice from the government websites and not from Facebook is the place to go. And I think it’s really important that there’s a lot of information out there, and we want to direct people to the right information. As a doctor, I say don’t get your information from Facebook, you try to get it from the authorised websites. That’s what I stick with.
PK: OK. But you have got MPs in your own government providing the wrong advice. What is your message to them?
Allen:
My message is, please, we need to be all on the same page with regards to particularly this vaccine rollout. We want Australians to know they’re in safe and certain hands. And that we are partnering with the Australian people with information as it comes to light, so they can balance the risks for themselves and make the decisions that are right for them.
PK: OK. So does that – does that mean those MPs, I’m talking about Craig Kelly here, specifically, they should maybe zip it?
Allen:
It’s up to individual constituents to make decisions.
PK: But that’s in the next election. This is a vaccine rollout. Should he be – should he be silent instead of giving misinformation about these issues?
Allen:
Well, I don’t follow individual MPs’ Facebooks.
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For those following along with the Victorian Labor audit:
Vic Labor’s audit has wrapped up. Jenny Macklin says more than 1800 non-genuine members have been kicked out and “referred two of what we believe to be the most serious cases to the Party’s internal Disputes Tribunal for alleged breach of branch stacking rules” @abcmelbourne
— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) February 1, 2021
Paul Fletcher says there are other search engines which would be happy to fill Google’s gap, if the tech giant decides to pull out:
This is a potential commercial opportunity for other providers of search.
While Google has a very high market share in search in Australia, there are other providers.
If Google were to exit, if they were to make that decision, I emphasise it’s not something the government is calling for or encouraging, it’s something they have put on the table, if that were to happen, then there are other providers in the market and we could expect this would be an attractive commercial opportunity for other players to expand their presence here, to develop their product here.
But look, we’ve got a long way to go. We’ve got a thorough process to continue to work through, we’ve got - we need to wait and see what recommendations the Senate committee makes after it completes its inquiry, and then of course we need to take the legislation through the House of Representatives and the Senate so this is a continuing process.
For those in WA:
Inbox: The Morrison Government will lift mutual obligation requirements for job seekers in the Perth Metropolitan, Peel and South West regions from today 1 February 2021 to Tuesday 9 February 2021.
— Luke Henriques-Gomes (@lukehgomes) February 1, 2021
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Paul Fletcher is the guest on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, where he is talking about Google’s threats to pull its search out of Australia if the media code goes ahead:
Well, we know that big tech companies do make these threats from time to time. They don’t always follow through.
What we have been doing consistently is working through a structured public policy process, based upon the digital platforms inquiry conducted by the ACCC over about 18 months – very evidence-based – and we have worked through the development of the code, several drafts, introduced into the parliament in December last year.
Of course we have a Senate inquiry going on, with the hearing today, in fact – that’s the second day of hearings – so we’ve gone through a thorough and careful process. What Google and Facebook say they intend to do is really a matter for them.
We made it clear we very much prefer them to stay in Australia, they’re an important significant part of the ecosystem, but ultimately these are business decisions. We’ll make a public policy decision on the merits, based on the market power and the competition issues.
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Mike Bowers has been out and about today – he just got back to the office, so here is some of how he saw the day.
When the moon hits your eye...
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Mark McGowan says he thinks it is a “reasonable” precaution for teachers to prepare learn-at-home lessons.
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Back to Mark McGowan, the WA premier is giving out the timeline for the security guard who was infected:
The earliest he could have become infectious was the 25th. He developed some symptoms on the 28th and phoned in sick. The next day, he went on the 29th to the GP clinic to get himself analysed.
The following day after that, the 30th, he was tested at a clinic and obviously we got the results late, midnight on the 30th.
As to what he was advised when he called in sick, I don’t know.
All we would say about that is sometimes the symptoms are not what you might think. Someone might have diarrhoea and be positive when you think the symptoms might be respiratory. Sometimes you might feel unwell, you might have a headache and think it relates to something else when it is actually Covid.
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Eddie McGuire says Collingwood club wants to fight racism
Eddie McGuire opens a press conference to address the report into a culture of systemic racism at the club by saying today is “an historic and proud day for Collingwood”.
He says:
We have decided as a club that this fight against racism and discrimination is where we want to be.
We make mistakes, we learn, we strive to be better. We’ll continue to do our best to be a leading light in our community.
To recap, an independent report conducted by a distinguished professor, Yuwaalaraay woman Larissa Behrendt, found Collingwood has a problem with structural racism that its senior leadership must address and it should publicly make amends to those who have paid a “very high public price” for speaking out about it.
McGuire, as president of the club, has come under pressure to stand down from his role, but it doesn’t look like today is the day for that to happen.
The presser is ongoing.
More to come.
Updated
Mark McGowan also confirms that authorities are still working out which person in hotel quarantine the security guard contracted Covid from. They aren’t sure it is the more contagious UK strain, but are still warning it is a strong possibility. They are acting as if he does have the more contagious strain.
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Mark McGowan is asked to respond to Peter Dutton’s criticism of the WA lockdown.
I had not thought about Peter Dutton in this context. I know the prime minister and the federal health minister agree with what we have done, and they said that publicly. So the prime minister is on the same page with us and I appreciate his support.
In relation to Mr Dutton, I want to make this point: he is the minister for home affairs. They have the responsibility for quarantine under the constitution. But he does not want to do that.
So, therefore, it has fallen to the states to perform the role that Mr Dutton should be performing under the constitution. So he should not be criticising when we are doing the task he should be performing.
Under the constitution, section 15 quarantine, it is the responsibility of the commonwealth. Defence bases, Christmas Island, sometimes very remote places, and they are not doing it and refused to do it, so therefore the state is doing it. So I urge Mr Dutton not to be a critic.
Updated
We knew this already, but it has now been confirmed - daily tests for hotel quarantine workers in Perth only started on January 29.
Before that, it was once a week. So it is a six day window that authorities are dealing with.
Police commissioner Chris Dawson says he does not want to see the security guard being treated like a criminal:
We have had him voluntary come forward and yes, we have questions on the timings of all that so he’s cooperating and police are trained to investigate and we do this daily. This will complement the work being done and we do not want to discourage other people from coming forward for testing.
It is really important for public confidence that we know. The premise behind this [investigation] is to establish what has caused the infection to occur, can we strengthen [quarantine] it further? It is not for the purposes of finding guilt.
Updated
The G2G pass is being reinstated in WA for domestic travel. The QR codes linked to it should be up and running soon. You can find the application and the information, when its all ready, here.
Updated
Masks are required everywhere, including in offices.
The WA police commissioner, Chris Dawson, says:
The rule is, if you’re outside your own home, the only time that you can’t, or are permitted to be about in the community, is if you are the sole occupant driving a vehicle or if you are exercising and swimming at the time. If you are exercising without swimming, if you are walking, jogging, you must wear a mask.
Children under the age of 12 do not have to wear a mask at any time.
What we would complement the public health advice with is if you want to act responsibly as a parent and your children are able to wear a mask, it’s a good example. And while they don’t need to, if you’re able to and the children are willing, wearing a mask is a good thing.
If you go to work, you must wear a mask at your workplace. That is important in terms of limiting the spread, even in your own office. The way police are approaching this is that we understand that not everyone in the community has yet gotten a mask right now.
There is a large supply of masks available. It’s a big adjustment, we understand, for the West Australian community but we are confident. And I’ve been out in the community, late last night and early this morning, and I’ve seen all people wearing masks and we thank you all for that.
Updated
The Western Australian government is also locking down fly in, fly out mine workers.
Mark McGowan:
If you must work, and you cannot do it from home, you may leave home, but it has to be for an essential purpose.
We have communicated with all companies that no one should be leaving Perth, Peel or the south-west regions to fly to a mine site this week, with some limited exemptions, especially for specialists required to keep [the mine] operating.
We are asking everyone to do the right thing here.
Updated
During the WA lockdown, you will also have to scan in while picking up food to take-away.
Basically, if you head out, you have to scan in where you go.
Updated
Mark McGowan moves on to movement within WA:
In terms of travel around the state, as you know the Perth metropolitan area, the Peel region, and the south-west region are now in lockdown. Anyone in these regions should not leave during the lockdown period.
People can enter Perth, Peel or the south-west only to access or deliver essential health and emergency services, and other essential requirements, [then] to return to their home.
WA police have established seven checkpoints in the Perth area, and another eight in the regions.
Residents currently in Perth, Peel and the south-west are required to remain until the end of the restriction period, unless you meet an exceptional circumstance. Police will ask you to simply justify why you need to be out and about during the lockdown.
If you need to travel between regions, please ensure you have a supporting evidence, such as a letter from your employer, or evidence or a medical employment. For the purposes of this lockdown, like we did early last year, Perth and Peel are treated as one region.
People who need to travel for one of the four reasons can do so between both and Peel. A G2G pass system for these regions is in development and expected to be rolled out later today. This will be like when we had regional travel restrictions.
We have been here before, we know what is required and are getting it done. I also want to clarify a few things from overnight. Overall the message from everyone is to stay home.
Updated
The list of locations visited by a confirmed case in WA can be found at the Healthy WA website, here.
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As Perth festival anxiously awaits an update from premier Mark McGowan on the five-day lockdown due to Covid-19, the event’s spin-off festival, Fringe World, has already moved to cancel dozens of shows over the next week.
The major festival is due to open on Friday, but Fringe World has been running since 15 January and was not scheduled to close until 14 February.
The scale of Fringe World is enormous: hundreds of shows staged across more than 150 venues.
Last year’s festival recorded an audience of more than 800,000.
In December the event became mired in controversy after it emerged that artists and promoters were being asked to sign contracts agreeing not to protest against or make disparaging comments about the event’s sponsor, fossil fuel giant Woodside.
A statement issued on Monday by the fringe festival’s organiser, Artrage, said ticket holders for events over the next five days would receive full refunds. It was hopeful shows would resume on Friday.
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Western Australia records no new Covid cases
The WA premier, Mark McGowan, is holding his press conference:
Overnight Western Australia has recorded no further local cases of Covid-19. To repeat, no new local cases of Covid, and no new overseas cases in hotel quarantine.
Yesterday, 3171 tests were conducted at a public Covid clinics.
A majority of these tests were done in the afternoon and evening, and normally we would only have about 500 tests on a Sunday.
So that increased number is welcome. We need to get more tests done and I will talk about that shortly. There has been extensive testing of the close contacts of the contacts of the positive case and that will continue.
Those contacts have tested negative. Of those, 11 high risk contacts have been moved into high hotel quarantine as extra precaution. In total to date we have identified 66 close contacts, all of which have been tested, or will be today, will in quarantine.
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Jim Chalmers and Mark Butler are holding their press conference, in response to Scott Morrison’s speech.
Chalmers:
If this government wasted less money on those rorts, they would have more money to help people in this country who are still struggling ... Today at the press club he had the opportunity to set out what he would do for those 2 million Australians who cannot find a job or who cannot find enough hours to support their loved ones, all of those millions of Australians who cannot get ahead because wages were stagnant before and they are especially stagnant now, this was his opportunity today and he missed.
He also had an opportunity today to say something meaningful about cleaner energy and about net zero emissions by 2050. He missed the opportunity today to commit to net zero commissions by 2050, he missed the opportunity to say unequivocally that we will provide the jobs and opportunities which will flow from that commitment.
He missed an opportunity to join with 120 countries, all of the states ... the business communities, the unions and organisations and others, who have all made a commitment to net zero emmissions – because they understand something the prime minister does not: net zero emissions is all about jobs and opportunities for Australians.
For as long as this prime minister continues to play party room POS politics over cleaner and cheaper energy, Australia will be denied those opportunities and increasingly isolated in the international community.
Updated
Media companies to plead guilty to breaching George Pell suppression order
Media companies will plead guilty to breaching a suppression order in relation to 2018 reporting on the trial verdict of George Pell, with other charges against the companies, and all charges against individual reporters and editors, to be dismissed.
The supreme court has just heard that the Victorian director of public prosecutions will withdraw the vast majority of charges against 27 companies and individuals. Charges of sub judice contempt have also been dismissed against all the media companies.
It is a significant development in the trial, which is continuing this afternoon. The trial had been set to run for another fortnight.
The guilty plea from media companies including News Corp and Nine Entertainment relate to publications in some of Australia’s most prominent newspapers and websites, including the Daily Telegraph, the Herald Sun, the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.
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Sarah Hanson-Young has laid out the Greens’ demands for support for the government’s proposed media code:
The Greens will be seeking amendments to the bill that:
- Require news organisations to spend the revenue from the code on resourcing public interest journalism
- Require the 12-month review of the code to report on the impact that the code is having on small, independent and start-up publications
In addition to these amendments, the Greens are calling on the government to commit to establishing a permanent public interest news gathering trust, a proposal put forward in the recent media reform green paper.
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Christian Porter has responded to the donations disclosures by pointing out how much Labor receives from the union movement, drawing these conclusions:
The latest figures put beyond any that doubt who calls the shots of Anthony Albanese and the Labor party.
Political donation data released by the Electoral Commission shows that in 2019-20, unions provided almost $5m to Labor.
Attorney general and minister for industrial relations Christian Porter said:
At a time when Australians most need cooperation rather than partisan politics, not even a global pandemic has slowed down or caused any rethink at all to the massive amounts of money the union movement has funnelled to its mates in the Labor party.
Surely that money would have been better spent with a focus on the real and immediate needs of workers during the last year.
At a time when union members are most in need of practical assistance, the unions still seem to be focused on business as usual – transmitting of huge amounts of membership fees to Labor politicians. That there are better ways to spend money for workers benefit during a pandemic is evidenced by the fact that at the same time millions in membership fees goes direct to Labor and political campaigning, the ACTU continues to ask government for funding to support awareness campaigns for workers. How does that work?
It’s some galaxy brain stuff, when you consider how much the private sector has donated to Porter’s own side of politics.
Because the counter-factual to this argument can only be that if unions are calling the shots for the Labor party, because of their donations, which could have been better spent on workers, then the private sector companies – such as Anthony Pratt’s Pratt Holdings, which donated $1.55m to the Coalition – have to be privy to the same arguments, right?
Updated
Jim Chalmers and Mark Butler will be responding to Scott Morrison’s speech in just a moment.
Scott Morrison is then asked to comment on the situation in Myanmar:
These are rather disturbing developments. I am aware of those troubling reports and the foreign minister has been following them closely and Marise [Payne] has already issued a statement on this matter.
The details are very limited because of communications, and it is still relatively early in Myanmar.
We have been a longstanding supporter of Myanmar’s democratic transition, including the election in November. I was the first minister of our government when we were first elected in 2013 to visit Myanmar when I was the then minister for immigration.
I am somewhat aware of the significant challenges that country has faced over many years, as it seeks to take their path forward. Clearly, there are very significant hurdles for them still to overcome and the tensions are still very present.
We have joined in a statement last Friday opposing any efforts to alter the election outcome and urging the military and all parties to adhere to democratic norms. We have done that with Canada, the United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and EU countries as well.
We all hope for Myanmar, we all hope for what I know the Myanmar people want to achieve. I found them the most beautiful of people when I was there, so peaceful in nature but having suffered such terrible violence over the course of their nation’s history. I hope.
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Patting ourselves on the back for being a “successful multicultural nation” does not do anything to solve the very real and alive problems in our society right now.
Absolutely nothing. It’s a platitude that is designed to make those who might be feeling guilty feel better about not doing anything.
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Scott Morrison is asked to comment on the Collingwood report.
We get the usual “we have things to do, but we’re pretty great at this” response.
And then we get a mention of the “chains on ships” again.
Morrison:
I’ll give you a personal view. This is an issue that has vexed, you know, countries like ours and the United States, Canada, New Zealand for centuries, and we are each struggling to find peace for our nations along this journey.
We’ve had significant challenges in this country, but I believe we’re working to overcome them.
The Closing the Gap initiative that was set up by prime minister Rudd, a very noble and an outstanding initiative, and one which I supported and our party room supported at the time, but we had to get beyond what was a very noble intent and actually get a much more cooperative set of targets that actually got us to the end of the journey.
Reconciliation will be achieved in this country when young Indigenous boys and girls in this country can grow up with the same opportunities as every other Australian. That’s my goal, and I’m very committed to it.
But when we spoke about Australia Day this year, we talked about, of course, our 60,000 years of Indigenous heritage, we talked about our chains in ships including my great, great grandfather, and then we talked about the waves to come.
I believe – no, I know that Australia is the most successful multicultural country on the planet. When I speak to other leaders, they ask me about how we achieve this.
That doesn’t mean we have our challenges or our issues, but it does mean that we’re very conscious of the great benefits of the cohesion of our society, and where there are problems, we try and deal with them, we try and deal with them. And so I think that is the noble spirit of Australians. And I would encourage us to continue on that path.
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Question: My question is, if science sets the debate for the pandemic, why doesn’t it set the pace for climate change, given they both represent existential threats to community?
Scott Morrison:
I have the text here. I’m pretty sure I said science here.
... I said science and technology. And that’s true. So I’m not sure the point you’re seeking to make. If you go back across the energy history of the world, often will find that the big transformational developments that have happened in economies have happened because of the changes in technology borne by science.
Shale oil, for example, in the United States - completely changed not only the price of energy, which drove a manufacturing revolution in the United States, but for the first time, I think, since Nixon first called for it, the US had energy independence and that had a profound impact on their global outlook.
That happened because of science and technology, and research, and major advances, and it changed the world. And if we go back across all of this, whether it’s electric vehicles, or whatever it happens to be - batteries, the work we’re doing on hydrogen, I mean is going to change the world - then it comes from science and technology.
The science I’m talking about is the science that fixes things, that gives you solutions, that actually creates a path. I’m simply saying that if - I thought, Special Envoy Kerry was making this point the other day. He said the US could reduce their emissions to zero tomorrow and it wouldn’t solve the problem. Why?
Because all the emissions increases are happening in developing countries. Now, they’re not going to switch off their economies. They’re not going to do it! I tell you why they will do it, in terms of making a change - if there’s commercial technology that enables them to do it.
And that’s why we want to partner with them, we want to partner with India on these issues, with Indonesia, with Vietnam. We have to focus on the how now. That’s what we need to do get emissions done and that’s what’s going to change things. That’s what we’re doing. That’s the action we’re taking. It’s science-led all the way.
Question: Science does deliver the technology, prime minister, but the point is that science also tells us what we should be trying to achieve. Isn’t it better to have opinion galvanised by looking at what the science says about what we need to do?
Morrison:
Well, as I outlined, we’re seeking to get to net zero. We’d preferably like to see it happen by 2050, as I said. It could happen sooner with significant technological change. But if there isn’t the technological change, then, it’s just a bit of paper.
So we all know where we need to go. Now is the time to focus on how we’re going to get there. So if we can produce hydrogen, as Angus tells me, at $2 a kilo, then, we can get there.
If we can’t, it’s going to be very hard. And so, they’re the targets I’m interested in, achieving those, because I know they’ll achieve the bigger target, which is where we’re seeking to head. If we do that, I don’t have to put, and will not put, that tax burden on Australians, particularly regional Australians, that some seem to want us to do.
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We’ll hear from Mark McGowan very soon.
WA premier Mark McGowan and health minister Roger Cook will give a press conference at 11.30am local time @AmyRemeikis
— Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) February 1, 2021
that's 2.30pm for those watching on the east coast
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Question: Prime minister, what concrete action will you take to ensure those companies that took tens of millions of dollars from taxpayers or jobkeeper and funnelled it through to executives through bonuses and dividends are going to pay it back?
Scott Morrison:
I’m not in the politics of envy*. I’ll leave that to my opponents.
We put in place a scheme with jobkeeper that gave this country certainty at the most profoundly challenging period it’s faced since the second world war. When you go through a crisis and you’re 10 months down the track, sometimes you forget what it was like 10 months ago. Josh and I don’t. And neither does my cabinet.
We were staring into the abyss. And some countries have gone into that abyss. We have not. And the way that was achieved was providing the certainty that those businesses that were facing that environment had the certainty of that support, and we legislated it. Six months, it’s in.
You can bank on that. You can put your plans to work on that. You can employ your people and keep them in jobs. Jobkeeper saved 700,000 jobs.
I’d say that’s pretty significant and I say that made a big change. Now, the law is the law. The law that we put in place and passed through the parliament ensured that those funds were provided into the corporate
Now, if there are some companies that feel that they want to hand that back, great! Good for them. But let’s not lose sight in some sort of envy narrative that that program did not change the course of the nation.
*Compare and contrast this answer with robodebt
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Question: In your speech you said in the year ahead was the vaccine rollout and the stewardship of the economy to get people back on their feet. To purists listening in, there is a lack of bold reform or ideas proposals. You’re not talking about large-scale economic reform or anything like that. Is it your view that people just aren’t up for that at the moment given what they’ve been through the last year, and, in that context, where is your thinking on superannuation and having a crack at that?
Scott Morrison:
Well, you’re talking to someone who has had pretty heavy involvement in superannuation over the last five years and what we’ve been taking through parliament. I’m aware of this narrative.
I’ve just outlined to you $29bn in investment, including Snowy, major infrastructure projects, Sydney West Airport, the Inland Rail. A $5bn-plus digital transformation strategy.
I note we’ve taken modest reforms to the parliament and they’re not easy to get through the parliament. I’m not one to pursue things for the sake of vanity. I like to get things done and not waste time on things that don’t get done because that doesn’t help anybody. The changes help people.
The workforce challenges I really think are being under-appreciated in this economy. When I read those articles, what I hear is: “You want me to put on a carbon tax and you want me to put up the GST.”
Apparently they are the holy grails of economic reform in this country. I’m not putting on a carbon tax and I’m not putting up the GST. They’re just tax increases. That’s all they are.*
Investing in skills, transformationally changing the way that we train our young people based on the skills they’ll need in the future, rather than the rear-vision mirror, where we used to throw money around and hope it found its way to someone somewhere, these are visions we need going forward.
We are abolishing an entire schedule of personal income tax – an entire schedule.
So, look, we’re doing the things that are needed to grow the economy. And to grow the economy this year in particular, the health strategy around the vaccine is obviously fundamental, but the economic recovery plan that we’re pursuing is strong, it’s consistent, it’s getting done and it’s getting results.
*Morrison has a massive smile as he says this. You can almost hear the social media clips being rushed out by Liberal HQ as we speak.
Updated
The Spectator Index has reported the Myanmar military has assumed control of the nation and declared a state of emergency for a year.
Back on the refusal to censure Craig Kelly, and why the prime minister doesn’t get a cookie for saying “he’s not a doctor, but he does a great job in his electorate” – it’s because his message extends well beyond his electorate and that of actual experts.
here's the Australian Government's Department of Health Facebook page vs Craig Kelly's number of interactions over the last 6 months. pic.twitter.com/1rzatuJTZ8
— CAMERONWILSON (@cameronwilson) February 1, 2021
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Question: I’ve noticed in your speech that you ever-so-slightly hardened your language of climate change, net zero by 2050, that you would like to see it preferably by 2050 when it comes to Australia. Given the solution has to be technology- and science-based, do you think that in the next months you will be so assured that you can achieve it by 2050 that you might harden that even further towards a commitment by the time Australia goes to the Glasgow Climate Change talks?
Scott Morrison:
Well, what I can say is what I said to the Australian people at the last election ... When I can tell you how we get there, that’s when I’ll tell when we’re going to get there.
I gave them that commitment at the last election and I’m going to stick to that.
When we know that, I’m potentially at a position to say more. But that position has not arrived, and I’m not aware of it arriving, frankly, in too many other places. We make these commitments when we don’t know how we get there.
If you don’t get there by technology, if that’s not used, then the only way to get there is by a tax*.
So my commitment to Australians is I will not tax our way to net zero by 2050 is a very, very important one and I will hold my faith with the Australian people on those issues. So we will see how the technology develops.
We will see the great work that Alan Finkel and Angus Taylor is doing ... but we won’t be having higher electricity prices or tax.
The person I have running our energy and emissions reduction hasn’t spent a lifetime coming up with new taxes. He’s spent a lifetime coming up with new technologies.
*This is not a binary choice. It is not just technology or tax. No one is floating a tax. Regardless, there is a cost to technology as well. This is not a zero sum game.
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What are factors the government is considering as part of its decision on how much to permanently raise the unemployment benefit?
All of them.
But you won’t hear what it has decided anytime soon, despite the clock ticking down to when it is scrapped entirely.
Morrison:
The labour market is very sensitive to all these issues and the settings that sit under the unemployment benefit. It is true we’ve maintained it at a much higher level through the Covid supplement, but at some time these arrangements will adjust.
We haven’t made any agreement yet, but we will look at the need to have people in jobs because you will always get paid more in jobs than you will on a benefit. At least, that’s how it should be.
Updated
The first question is on why Scott Morrison allows Craig Kelly to air his conspiracy theories without censure from the government.
He does not censure Kelly, even now.
Well, we’ve been very clear to point out where you get your information from. You don’t get it from Facebook.
You get it from official government websites, and that’s what I encourage everyone to do. That’s what we’re doing.
And that’s what we’re investing in.
Don’t go to Facebook to find out about the vaccine. Go to official government websites.
You want to understand about vaccines, go and talk to Brendan Murphy over there, that’s what I do.
He is asked explicitly about Kelly.
Morrison:
He’s not my doctor and he’s not your. But he’s does a great job in Hughes.
Updated
Scott Morrison has left about 20 minutes for questions, if it runs by the normal time for a press club address.
He finishes his speech with this:
Despite one of the toughest years in our nation’s history, Australia stands strong at the start of 2021. There is still, though, much to do. But we know our comeback is underway.
The actions we take this year will continue to recover what has been lost and enable us to build again for the future. In 2021, I’m supremely confident and optimistic that we will continue as a people to make our own Australian way through the challenges ahead, and that Australians will once again emerge stronger, safer and together on the other side.
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There isn’t a lot of new announcements in this speech - so far, it has mostly been a repeat of the “this is what we’re doing” lines from last year.
But this is interesting.
Scott Morrison:
For millennia, Indigenous Australians have lived the principles of caring for country. I believe those principles must underpin how our government exercises environmental stewardship.
In addition to carrying on the work in relation to emissions reduction, climate resilience, implementing our export ban on waste, plastic, and funding for new and upgraded recycling facilities around the country to build a world-class waste management sector*, this year we will turn the spotlight on agriculture and the environment – soils, water, our oceans.
Australia’s soils are estimated to store some 3.5% of the total stocks of global soil organic carbon against our 5.2% of global land area.
Poor soil management have and continues to result in the loss of soil organic carbon. Now, that’s what makes the national soil strategy so important.
The strategy will be delivered as part of the 2021-22 budget the treasurer will hand down later this year. It will include practical actions and focus on a national monitoring program to assess the conditions of Australian soils, research and development, and to assist with implementation, capacity-building and extension. It will be a fitting legacy, I believe, to the great work and advocacy of our former governor general and national soils advocate, the late Major General Michael Jeffrey.
It is one pillar of our Ag 2030 plan.
The importance of investing in the health of our soil, water and landscapes was born out by the recent independent review of our national environmental legislation and by the findings of the bushfires royal commission.
While we have always contended with extreme weather, our new normal is increasing and more severe droughts, floods, fires and storms. So we are continue to harness the natural resourcefulness and innovation of Australians to ensure we adapt and build resilience to these strategies.
*We had to revamp our recycling and waste management centres, as Pacific nations stopped taking our garbage.
Updated
The camera panned to Dan Tehan as Scott Morrison says this – he apparently found it hilarious:
Getting to net zero, whether here or anywhere else, should be about technology – not taxes and high prices.
In Australia, we’re not waiting on this. We’re getting on with it.
Emissions fell by 3% in the year to June ’20. To they lowest level since 1998. Meaning, we are now nearly 17% below 2005 levels. These are the facts. Now, this compares to reductions of approximately 9% on average across the OECD, 1 % in New Zealand and less than 1% in Canada. So we’re not waiting.
Part of the reason our emissions dropped is because we changed the way we measure emissions.
For the latest on where Australia is heading, there is, as always, the indomitable Adam Morton:
Updated
The prime minister moves onto climate.
He once again says the government won’t tax its way into emissions reduction.
This being a new year, I once again remind you that no one is saying we tax our way into emissions reductions.
We have moved on from that. The world has moved on from that. It’s too late now – we are all looking at different ways of getting there, and no one in Australia is saying taxes.
It is a straw-man argument you are going to hear over and over and over again this year – but at this point it’s completely moot. No one is saying taxes.
Updated
As reported, there are no plans to continue jobkeeper and the jobseeker Covid supplement.
Scott Morrison:
We know our jobkeeper and many household supports have helped to boost families and businesses balance their balance sheets by more than 2.5 billion.
This has been a game-changer like no other we have seen in this country, JobKeeper, for millions of Australians.
It saved not just livelihoods - it saved lives.
There is now a large sum of money available to be spent across the economy and that’s what’s going to help create jobs and help maintain the momentum of our economic recovery, and that is where it needs to be right now, those funds - in Australians’ public.
Indeed, in 2021, the government will continue putting more money back into Australians’ pockets, keeping more of what they earned to support their families and businesses, the low- and middle-income tax offset, the tax cut from 26 to 25% for small and medium-size businesses, creating jobs and our loss carry-back providing a much-needed cash flow boost for those businesses who continue to do it stuff.
Updated
Government aims to have Australians vaccinated by October
Scott Morrison has laid out a bit more detail about the vaccination strategy:
Our aim is to, overall, give Australians the opportunity to be vaccinated by October of this year, commencing in just a few weeks’ time.
Now, our guidance, I stress, is that first vaccinations remain on track to be in Australia, ready for shipping and distribution to priority groups in late February.
However, the priority will be on the situation of Australians overseas, which will we will continue to monitor and update the Australian people accordingly.
This initiative is backed by $1.9bn for the vaccine rollout, on top of the more than $4.4bn allocated for vaccine purchases, medical support and support for our partner countries. It’s a big job.
This brings the Australian government’s total support for Covid-19 vaccines and treatments to $6.3bn.
Updated
Scott Morrison:
There are five priorities, areas, that I want to speak about today in relation to 2021.
The first of those: suppress the virus and deliver the vaccine.
Secondly, cement our economic recovery to create jobs and more jobs.
Three, to continue to guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on.
Fourthly, to protect and secure Australians’ interests in a challenging world.
And finally, to care for our country.
Updated
Back to Scott Morrison’s speech, we get a rundown of how well Australia has done during the pandemic.
Also, BREAKING: the Australian prime minister loves Australia and doesn’t think you would ever want to be anywhere else.
So groundbreaking stuff, so far
Updated
Marise Payne responds to Myanmar political situation
I guess we should be thankful Michael McCormack is not acting prime minister today, given his response to the US insurrection.
The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, has issued Australia’s official response:
The Australian government is deeply concerned at reports the Myanmar military is once again seeking to seize control of Myanmar and has detained state counsellor daw Aung San Suu Kyi and president U Win Myint.
Australia is a long-standing supporter of Myanmar and its democratic transition. We call on the military to respect the rule of law, to resolve disputes through lawful mechanisms and to release immediately all civilian leaders and others who have been detained unlawfully.
We strongly support the peaceful reconvening of the national sssembly, consistent with the results of the November 2020 general election.
Updated
Scott Morrison addresses press club
The prime minister is on his feet and behind the lectern for his first major speech of 2021.
Updated
And Queensland is remaining shut to the WA hotspots.
So that is pretty much everyone, except NSW.
ACT chief health officer Kerryn Coleman has just announced that no one from the three affected regions in Western Australia will be allowed to enter the territory without an exemption.
Those already in the ACT who have spent time in great Perth area, Peel or the south-west region since 25 January must isolate immediately and get tested for Covid-19. Even if they receive a negative result, they must remain isolation until Friday 9pm, when the lockdown in Perth is slated to end.
The same rules will apply to ACT residents wishing to return home from the lockdown regions.
A flight full of politicians from WA arrived in Canberra yesterday ahead of parliament sitting this week. While their staff must continue to isolate, politicians are being asked to fill out an application as an essential worker, which would allow them to attend parliament and conduct essential work, but must quarantine at all other times.
Coleman said:
Like we have said before, this is not the start to 2021 that we had hoped for, but the realities of Covid-19 is that we need to continue responding to the challenges as they present. The situation will evolve over the next couple of days, so bear with us.
Updated
Scott Morrison will be addressing the press club in about half an hour.
We’ll bring you the highlights from the speech, as well as most of the Q and A.
If you want to see it live, it will be shown on the ABC (as usual).
Updated
You will not be surprised to learn that Peter Dutton did not get the lockdown unity message from Western Australia.
The WA Liberals are in lockstep with the decision to lock down for five days:
Genuinely shocked by the abuse RE our decision to support the lockdown.
— Zak Kirkup MP (@zrfk) January 31, 2021
This isn’t up for debate.
The medical advice is that we need to go into lockdown to save lives.
I will never apologise for protecting the health & safety of West Aussies. pic.twitter.com/1wSgLQQXyR
This morning on Sky News, Dutton was singing from the old songbook:
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton on WA's elimination strategy: "It might be a great political slogan, it's not a realistic approach to this virus. You will send businesses broke, the surge in domestic violence when people are in lockdown for long period."
— Trudy McIntosh (@TrudyMcIntosh) January 31, 2021
Updated
Christian Porter is allowed to leave quarantine for parliament and a ceremony at the high court:
Attorney General Christian Porter has been given an exemption to leave self-isolation to attend Parliament and a ceremony at the High Court this morning @abcnews pic.twitter.com/wAlzqGWxPe
— Jade Macmillan (@JadeMacmillan1) February 1, 2021
The Northern Territory is also closing its borders to the WA red zones, and anyone in the NT who has been in those areas – Perth, the Peel region and the south-west – will have to go into quarantine.
But if you are from Sydney you are once again welcome into the territory.
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Not sure how much this will help, given Mark McGowan’s popularity in WA – but the WA Liberals have seemingly learnt from the Victorian and Queensland experience and aren’t throwing all of their toys out of the cot at the five-day lockdown:
Genuinely shocked by the abuse RE our decision to support the lockdown.
— Zak Kirkup MP (@zrfk) January 31, 2021
This isn’t up for debate.
The medical advice is that we need to go into lockdown to save lives.
I will never apologise for protecting the health & safety of West Aussies. pic.twitter.com/1wSgLQQXyR
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The ABS have released the latest lending indicators – and it turns out we are buying homes.
I don’t know who the “we’ are – certainly not me, but there has been a 31.2% increase in loans since December 2019.
This is despite house prices in most major metro markets continuing to rise.
From the ABS:
The total value of new loan commitments for housing rose 8.6 per cent to $26 billion in December 2020, seasonally adjusted, a 31.2 per cent increase on December 2019.
The value of new owner occupier home loan commitments rose 8.7 per cent to $19.9 billion in December 2020, 38.9 per cent higher than December 2019.
ABS head of Finance and Wealth, Amanda Seneviratne, said: “Loan commitments for existing dwellings accounted for 53 per cent of December’s rise in owner occupier housing loan commitments, while construction of new dwellings accounted for 32 per cent.”
“The value of construction loan commitments grew 17.1 per cent in December, more than doubling since the June implementation of the HomeBuilder grant.
“Federal and state government measures, such as HomeBuilder, and historically low interest rates are supporting ongoing growth in housing loan commitments”, Ms Seneviratne said.
Updated
The 2019-20 AEC disclosures reveal that Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy Pty Ltd donated $5.9m to his United Australia party, on top of $83.3m given by his company in the previous financial year.
Anthony Pratt’s Pratt Holdings gave $1.55m in donations to the Coalition, with $1.3m to the Liberals and $250,000 to the Nationals.
Woodside Energy Ltd donated a total of $335,400, including $137,500 to Labor and $197,750 to the Coalition.
The Minerals Council of Australia paid a total of $145,700, including $27,500 for membership of the Liberals’ Australian Business Network, $22,000 for the Nationals policy forum and two payments totalling $55,000 for the Federal Labor Business forum.
The Australian Hotels Association NSW donated $232,000, including $186,000 to Labor and $46,000 to the Coalition.
Other significant corporate donations included:
- Macquarie Group donated $250,000 including $138,000 to the Coalition and $112,000 to Labor
- ANZ donated $200,000, split evenly between Labor and the Liberals
- Wesfarmers donated $221,100, with $110,000 to both the Liberal and Labor parties
- Tobacco giant Philip Morris donated $55,000 to the National party
Updated
NSW reports no new local Covid cases
There have been no locally acquired cases reported in NSW overnight after just 6,023 tests.
There were six Covid cases acquired overseas.
Anyone entering NSW must complete an interstate traveller declaration confirming whether they attended any of the venues of concern identified by WA Health. Anyone who attended those venues must get tested and isolate for 14 days.
Arrivals who have been in any of the named local government areas in the Perth, Peel and south-west regions since Monday 25 January must get a Covid-19 test within 48 hours of arriving, and stay at home for five days, until 9pm on Friday 5 February. If they do not get tested they are required to remain at home for a total of 14 days.
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And you may be surprised to learn that Gladys Berejiklian has no advice for Mark McGowan over what he should do.
Surprised, because the NSW premier had a LOT of advice for her Queensland counterpart before Queensland’s election. Which Annastacia Palaszczuk won, with an increased majority.
Now, there is no advice:
I would not presume to have any advice for any of our colleagues apart from saying that please judge New South Wales on our record of how we manage things here – it is not for me to suggest what other premiers should do, that is a matter for them. All of us have to be considerate of what is happening in WA at the moment. Our thoughts are with everyone in WA at the moment.
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NSW will not close borders to WA
Gladys Berejiklian says there will be extra screening for WA travellers – but the state’s borders will remain open:
I have confidence that they would do all the due diligence as we have done in the past, when New Zealand or Brisbane went through this, we make sure we had those procedures in place, the key is to make sure we act quickly and to provide as much information as possible, but also to make a proportional response. We don’t know of any community transmission within WA apart from the security guard, so we are acting according to that risk.
Updated
Democracy was reintroduced to Myanmar in 2015 when Aung San Suu Kyi won in a landslide – but the Myanmar constitution sets out a military presence in the parliament – it controls 25% of seats. That makes for an uncomfortable political marriage.
You can read more about Suu Kyi’s arrest this morning, ahead of the Myanmar parliament resuming after the November election, here:
Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s president and other senior ruling party figures have been detained by the military in an early morning raid, a party spokesman said on Monday.
Spokesman Myo Nyunt told Reuters that Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other leaders had been “taken” early in the morning. “I want to tell our people not to respond rashly and I want them to act according to the law,” he said, adding he also expected to be detained.
The move comes after the country’s powerful military raised the spectre of staging a coup as it ramped up demands for an investigation into alleged voter fraud during last year’s election, which was swept by Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling party.
The National League for Democracy won November’s poll in a landslide, but has been much criticised by rights groups for its disenfranchisement of voters in conflict-wracked regions.
Updated
The Centre for Public Integrity has crunched the AEC donation returns, and found just five donors were responsible for 46% of all donations in 2019-20.
You won’t be surprised to see who tops the list. Or at least, you shouldn’t be:
Biggest donors
1. Mineralogy $5,910,341
2. Pratt Holdings $1,550,000
3. Woodside Energy $335,415
4. Macquarie Group $251,230
5. Australian Hotel Association $232,301
Top five total donations $8,279,287
Total donations 2019-20 $18,020,970
Percentage of total donations for 2019-20 45.94%
Updated
Tasmania declares parts of WA 'high-risk' Covid areas
The Tasmanian premier, Peter Gutwein, has joined the premiers declaring Perth and WA’s Peel and south-west regions high-risk areas – meaning that the Tasmanian border is closed to anyone from those areas:
Anyone attending to travel to Tasmania who has been in these high risk areas in the 14 days prior to arrival will not be permitted to enter Tasmania unless approved by the Deputy State Controller and they will be required to quarantine.
We will be looking at our exemption process. The key message is that these areas have been designated high risk and people will not be permitted to enter.
Tasmanians coming home will still be allowed to but they will need to quarantine when they arrive here in suitable premises, should they have them.
For the 108 people arriving in Hobart airport late yesterday afternoon, each person has been contacted and asked to self-isolate and will be further contacted by public health today to determine their circumstances and any requirements for further self-isolating and testing, noting some people may have travelled who haven’t travelled through these regions or haven’t travelled through those premises but on an individual basis, public health will work with them.
Returning Tasmanian residents will still be permitted to enter the State and isolate at home provided they have a suitable premises.
Non-Tasmanian residents who enter the state without approval will be required to go into government designated quarantine at their own expense or may be directed to leave the State.
Updated
Eddie McGuire announced he would be stepping down as club president at the end of the 2021 AFL season, well ahead of the public release of the report into Collingwood’s handling of racism within the club. The timing of his announcement – mid-December – would have been around when the club’s board received the report.
Still, I doubt Lidia Thorpe and the Greens will be the only ones calling for his resignation today. Once again, you can’t seperate politics from sport – because people don’t leave their biases and attitudes at the locker room door. Change needs to come from the top – and that includes from our politicians.
Updated
Greens call for Eddie McGuire to resign
The Greens’ Lidia Thorpe has responded to the Collingwood racism report. The Victorian senator wants Eddie McGuire to go:
Eddie’s got to go. Collingwood has been rightly singled out for its appalling structural racism. As one person we spoke to said, “If you look at every high-profile incident of racism in the game, Collingwood is there somewhere.” And it’s just not good enough.
As the head of the club, Eddie not only oversaw these issues – he’s been part of the problem. We won’t forget how he treated Adam Goodes. We won’t forget how he treated Heritier Lumumba. Heritier Lumumba was right to call out these issues, and he paid a huge price for it. Today, he’s been vindicated.
If we want to stamp out the rot of racism in this country, then it’s going to take real leadership from all corners of our society, including sport. The club has a long way to go to restore the community’s faith in their leadership. As a start, the board should grow a spine and get Eddie to resign.
Updated
Switching to international news for a moment – Reuters and the ABC are reporting that Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been detained by the military, along with other figures from her government.
Myanmar held democratic elections in November. We’ll have more soon.
Updated
Christian Porter phoned in to Sydney radio 2GB where he spoke about whether or not he and the other WA MP’s would have to spend the parliament sitting in isolation:
That’s quite possible. I think ACT are making a decision this morning. So we’ll sort of await further instructions, they may be granting exemptions for Parliament House, I don’t know. But yeah, WA is into five days lock down and we were on a plane last night, and I think they had a good debate as to whether or not to turn the plane around, actually, but that didn’t happen and we landed. So the rules are the rules and we’ll abide by them. But I hope everyone in West Australia gets through it. It’s something the rest of the country has obviously endured and have been affected by. So it’s just one of those things that we have to sort of go through as we rollout the vaccine.
While speaking to the ABC’s Fran Kelly on RN Breakfast this morning, Anthony Albanese also addressed the leadership rumbles within caucus:
The caucus has learned its lesson. We know what occurs when we’re focused on ourselves. And I’m just focused on making sure that we have the best platform, the best menu if you like, that we will be taking to the Australian people at the next election, very much along the themes, as you say, Fran, no one left behind, no one held back. But making sure that Australians understand that we are on their side.
Whereas the Coalition government that’s more and more focused on itself, more and more focused on looking after their mates, more and more thinking that taxpayers’ money is their own money. That’s why we haven’t seen a national integrity commission, in spite of the fact that the government said in 2018 that they would deliver it.
Where is it, Fran? Why isn’t it in place to hold the government to account? Because one of the things that we’re seeing across politics, across the parties, is a lack of faith in integrity in our politics. And I think that’s tragic. I think most people enter politics for all the right reasons. I certainly did. I entered politics to make a difference to people’s lives, particularly the vulnerable, the sort of people who I grew up with, the family I grew up in with a single mum, and I’m determined to make a difference.
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And just in case you can’t be bothered clicking on links, the good people at About the House have tweeted out the climate change bill hearing program for you:
From 11am, the Standing Committee on the Environment and Energy is holding public hearings for its inquiry into climate change bills. The Bills seek to alter Aus' current climate change management and establish a new Climate Change Commission. Watch 👉 https://t.co/8DB1X3Ss2v pic.twitter.com/umSKc45orz
— Australian House of Representatives (@AboutTheHouse) January 31, 2021
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Scott Morrison will be making his case around lunchtime.
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And just in case it wasn’t obvious, Anthony Albanese finished that question with:
This is a government that is prepared to attack working people and vulnerable Australians at every opportunity. And in today’s speech at the National Press Club, the prime minister has to explain how getting rid of the better-off-overall test from industrial relations will help working people and will help the economy. I will give the prime minister the big hint, better-off-overall test, it’s a test to see whether workers are better off by an agreement that he wants to abolish as a part of the legislation that he introduced at the end of last year.
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The Labor leader continued on that theme (and what he hopes will be the theme of the first half of the parliamentary year) in response to a question about Scott Morrison’s coming press club speech today, and whether it is the right time to stop government stimulus:
Anthony Albanese:
I will tell you what it’s time for. It’s time for the government to stop sports rorts.
It’s time for the government to stop spending taxpayers’ money on the Liberal and National parties. It’s time for the government to stop spending a billion dollars on party political advertising, funding the Liberal party pollsters to do research that we don’t get to see even though taxpayers have paid for it.
And it’s also time to stop the waste in the rollout of some of the government programs.
Take jobkeeper, what we know is that a whole lot of companies received jobkeeper who actually not only didn’t get a downturn in their revenues, they actually got an increase in their profits and paid big bonuses to executives. And you know what they get from this government?
They get a polite, ‘Oh, you might like to pay it back.’ Compare that with what happened to those Australians who are vulnerable, who got affected by robodebt, $1.2bn that the government has had to pay back, who got threatening letters in the mail for debts that they didn’t owe because the government alleged that what happened to their incomes didn’t reflect what they said would happen to their incomes when they put that into Centrelink.
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Anthony Albanese stopped by the parliament doors this morning – for those who don’t follow along regularly, that’s where the MPs go when they have something to say, ahead of a sitting. There are plenty of ways to get into parliament without seeing journalists (there are areas we are not allowed to stop MPs) so, if they go past the doors, it is on purpose.
Here’s why Albanese stopped by this morning:
I’m looking forward to holding the government to account, but also, to continue the rollout of a Labor agenda, the alternative that will be put to the Australian people, whenever the election is held, whether it’s 2022 when it is due, or if the prime minister decides he doesn’t have confidence in his own capacity to actually last a three-year term, then sometime later this year.
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It’s day two of the committee hearings into the Climate Change (National Framework for Adaptation and Mitigation) Bill 2020 and Climate Change (National Framework for Adaptation and Mitigation) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2020.
Lot’s of climate heavy hitters on today’s list – you’ll find that here.
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Victoria records no new Covid cases
Victoria Health has reported no locally acquired cases of Covid in the last 24 hours.
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It being 2021 (allegedly) the Coalition is back on the “debt and deficit” train! CHOO CHOO!
As Katharine Murphy and Daniel Hurst report before the PM’s speech to the press club today:
But while trying to persuade Australians to spend and invest, Morrison will also set the scene for the withdrawal of the popular pandemic payments that have provided support to the economy during the public health crisis.
Morrison will say the government needs to exercise “the fiscal discipline necessary to ensure that we do not overburden future generations and continue to spend taxpayers’ money wisely” adding: “We are not running a blank-cheque budget.”
He will say the government crafted the fiscal response to the crisis with guardrails, including emergency measures that would be temporary “and accompanied by a clear fiscal exit strategy”.
“You can’t run the Australian economy on taxpayers’ money forever.”
Just a reminder: the economy was in trouble before the pandemic. The Coalition has been in power since 2013.
I was also reminded at the weekend that in 2009 Eric Abetz, the then Liberal shadow minister for science, attempted to send this message into space, as part of a Science Week stunt, which was predicted to hit a potentially inhabitable planet by 2029:
The Coalition dreams that by the time you receive this message in 2029 Australia will be free of Labor debt. Sadly we’re not holding our breath.
From memory, the message didn’t get past the moderators. Lucky – as it’s more than a little out of date and we’re years off 2029.
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This was announced last year – but it is now official.
Welcome to the Department of Health. As of 1 February 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services will be separated into two new departments:
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) January 31, 2021
▪ The Department of Health (DH)
▪ The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) pic.twitter.com/HIMcDwAVGg
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Emirates appears to have backflipped on its decision to suspend all outbound flights from the United Kingdom three days after throwing the plans of thousands of Australians stranded in Europe into chaos.
On Friday Emirates suspended all outbound flights from the UK after a British government announcement it was closing its border to passenger flights from the United Arab Emirates in an attempt to stop new Covid-19 strains entering the country.
We very much welcome the decision by @emirates to resume their outbound services from the United Kingdom.
— George Brandis (@AusHCUK) January 31, 2021
Grateful to all involved.
If you were impacted by the suspension, Emirates are rebooking - but if urgent, please reach out to us. https://t.co/27NFWHPmE5
But on Monday morning, Australia’s high commissioner to the UK, George Brandis, praised the airline on Twitter following an announcement it was resuming its outbound flights.
Of the 39,000 Australians registered with Dfat as wanting to return from overseas but being unable to do so, 5,800 are now in the UK.
Guardian Australia has sought clarification from Emirates.
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It being February, there are two things you need to know:
- Don’t, under any circumstances, unless explicitly told, buy heart-shaped jewellery. I am yet to meet someone who wants that. They’ll wear it because they love you, but save everyone the pain and give the hearts a wide berth.
- The RBA is meeting for the first time in 2021 (it doesn’t meet in January). Unemployment, government bonds and the better-than-feared but still-not-great economy and what to do about it given interest rates are at 0.1%, are all on the agenda.
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This was one of the issues Scott Ryan, the Senate president, raised last year, after parliament was shut down during the height of the pandemic in Australia: can health advice override the responsibilities of the parliament, ie showing up for work.
MPs, of course, are representatives of their electorates. So stopping MPs from sitting in parliament denies those electorates of their representation (is the constitutional argument).
There are virtual options – but they take days to set up. Security protocols means it isn’t as simple as logging into Zoom. And while there are the capabilities for MPs to set up virtual attendances from their electoral offices, the WA MPs are in Canberra hotels, which are not set up for off-site parliament attendances.
But then, it is also the responsibility of authorities to protect communities.
That’s just some of the questions being worked out by ACT authorities with the parliament today.
"There are some questions about whether ACT Health is allowed to prevent politicians from going to work," Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith tells @abccanberra.
— Anna Vidot (@AnnaVidot) January 31, 2021
Gotta love a town with unique constitutional questions posed by public health requirements! #auspol
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ACT Health has announced it will be in contact with passengers on flights from Western Australia with more information about their quarantine requirements today.
The WA government has put Perth, the Peel region and the south-west region into a five-day lockdown after a security guard at one of the quarantine hotels tested positive for Covid, possibly one of the new more contagious strains.
The man’s three housemates have been put into isolation but have so far tested negative. He also worked as a rideshare driver (insecure work has been a recurring theme of this pandemic, unsurprisingly) but authorities don’t believe he was contagious during his last shifts at his second job.
You an read the full story here:
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Scott Morrison and co once again tried to tell us that sports and politics don’t mix over the summer – which is complete bupkis, because everything is political and, if it’s not, you’re just not paying attention (or haven’t had to).
As Lorena Allam and Mike Hytner report, AFL Club Collingwood is the latest sporting club being forced to grapple with how it has dealt and is dealing with racism:
Collingwood has a problem with structural racism that its senior leadership must address and it should publicly make amends to those who have paid a “very high public price” for speaking out about it, an independent investigation has found.
The report does not rule out financial compensation. It said making amends could include “reparations, compensation, public apology, and commitments to reform”.
The report, called Do Better, was commissioned by the board last year. Produced by the University of Technology Sydney’s distinguished professor, the Yuwaalaraay woman Larissa Behrendt, it recommended sweeping changes to how Collingwood deals with the “toxic environment” of racism in its ranks.
“What is clear is that racism at the club has resulted in profound and enduring harm to First Nations and African players. The racism affected them, their communities, and set dangerous norms for the public,” the report said.
Longtime readers of this blog would know I am a Collingwood supporter. The findings of this report have been a massive blindspot for the club and we all need to demand they do better. Cultural change starts at the top – but it is something we are all responsible for. Politicians will be asked about this today. It’s not something they can shy away from either.
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Fresh from a Labor frontbench reshuffle, Anthony Albanese is also hoping to hit reset.
Last year Labor took a mostly backseat role, with the focus on consensus policy during the pandemic. That hasn’t left a lot of time for alternative policy development, or sell. Joel Fitzgibbon has done his best to derail any climate conversations, creating discontent in the caucus room, and, with an election possibly as close as August, Labor party MPs have been getting antsy.
So we had a reshuffle, which moved Mark Butler out of climate and into health and ageing, and Chris Bowen into the hot seat. Will that help any policy discussions move forward? Who knows.
But Albanese, who has started the week with an interview on RN Breakfast, said he is ready for the fight, and that Labor will soon start unveiling its policy platform.
Albanese was lucky to escape without serious injury after his car was hit head on by a 4WD over the summer. He says that has changed his outlook on a few things.
"When you have an experience like a head-on crash with a Range Rover, you realise that you have to make every day count," @AlboMP on his recent car accident.
— RN Breakfast (@RNBreakfast) January 31, 2021
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Good morning and welcome to the first Politics Live blog of 2021.
Or, the first Politics Live blog of the never-ending 2020 – whatever feels more true to you.
It’s a dreary morning in Canberra this morning, and not just because the MPs are back for the first time since December.
Parliament won’t sit until tomorrow so today is all about agenda setting, with all sides of politics hoping to start as they mean to go on.
Scott Morrison will address the National Press Club today – he’s laying out a speech, which, from the extracts which seem to have been released, is all about explaining why the jobseeker supplement (such as it is now) and jobkeeper have to end in March. It is now time, apparently, for the economy to stand on its own two feet.
If you listen really hard, you may be able to hear “early election is on the cards”, but we’ll see.
Meanwhile, while the Western Australian MPs are in Canberra, they are not allowed *in* Canberra, after large parts of WA were placed in lockdown late yesterday afternoon.
For those playing at home, that includes the attorney general, Christian Porter, who is also the leader of government business in the house. That could pose a slight issue, given that you know, one would hope there are plans for government business in the house this week. At this stage, it’s a moving feast, so we’ll keep you updated on what the plans for the WA MPs are.
And in case you missed it, despite Josh Frydenberg, Greg Hunt and Michael Sukkar throwing their weight behind him, Kevin Andrews lost his preselection battle for Menzies. He’s been the member there for three or so decades, and hoped to go around for another term, so it is not an insignificant defeat. Not just for Andrews, but also the Victorian Liberal federal hierarchy, who didn’t get their way.
Followers of auspol won’t be surprised to hear that Craig Kelly – who has had his preselection saved by interventions from three different federal leaders: Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison over the past three elections – is once again facing a preselection threat which could bring about the end of his federal political career. Kelly has continued to derail the government advice during the pandemic, while spruiking unproven and in some cases dismissed treatments, which at least has been something different from the “climate change doesn’t even go here” train he was previously riding.
We will bring you all of that, as well as anything else happening today, with the Guardian Canberra team of Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Daniel Hurst all bright-eyed and bushy tailed and ready to bring you up to date.
You have Amy Remeikis on the blog – you’ll find me here during parliament sitting weeks (either at my desk, or rocking under it) and I’m thrilled to be back.
I hope you’re ready.
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