What we learned, Thursday 24 July
Parliament was all about the beef today, and a bit about beer. You’ve made it through the first sitting week, and so have we. Here were today’s major updates:
Australia will lift longstanding restrictions on the import of US beef, removing a key reason from the Trump administration to place tariffs on Australian agriculture. The agriculture minister said the department is satisfied the US has strengthened biosecurity measures, adding Australia would “never compromise” on them.
The Coalition is demanding assurances after the deal, with Nationals leader David Littleproud saying he’s “suspicious” about the speed of the decision. Labor has denied it was made to appease Donald Trump, noting it’s the result of a five-year process.
Labor and the Greens condemned One Nation senators for turning their backs on acknowledgments of country in parliament this week. Malarndirri McCarthy called the acts “incredibly childish stunts”.
Richard Marles said Australia is “not making weapons for Israel” after a question from independent MP Helen Haines. “It’s as clear as that”, he said.
RBA governor Michele Bullock said there wouldn’t have been an interest rate cut this month even if the central bank knew the unemployment rate was set to jump.
Barnaby Joyce says he is no chaos agent on net zero, saying he would not challenge Littleproud for the leadership of the Nationals.
The government introduced a proposal to pause the beer tax indexation for two years, a Labor promise from earlier this year. Anthony Albanese has previously called the plan a “win for beer drinkers” and brewers, but a 48-litre keg of mid-strength beer would only see a saving of roughly 18 cents.
See you tomorrow.
Updated
Malarndirri McCarthy criticises One Nation ‘stunts’ in acknowledgment of country debate – video
Federal budget deficit to come in at less than half the forecast level, Chalmers says
The federal deficit for the most recent financial year will be less than half the $27.6bn predicted in the March budget papers, after Jim Chalmers in parliament today said the figure “is now expected to be in the low double digits”.
Major budget upgrades were a feature of Labor’s first term, as high commodity prices, powerful jobs growth and spending restraint delivered back-to-back surpluses in 2022-23 and 2023-24.
The department of finance will release the final budget outcome for 2024-25 in September, and the treasurer in parliamentary question time said “the latest advice” was that “the deficit for the year just finished is much smaller”.
Chalmers went on:
This is another demonstration of our responsible economic management. Inflation is down, real wages are up, unemployment is low, interest rates are coming down.
But we also know there is more work to do because people are still under pressure. The global environment is very uncertain. And we’ve got some big, longstanding structural issues in our economy to deal with as well. We’re upfront about that.
The March budget forecast the deficit to blow out to $42.1bn in 2025-26, but a lower starting point and ongoing high prices for key exports such as iron ore hold out the promise of further improvements in the deficit for this financial year.
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McCarthy says One Nation acknowledgment of country response ‘unacceptable’, ‘rude’ and ‘disrespectful’
Malarndirri McCarthy, the minister for Indigenous Australians, just spoke about the One Nation senators who turned their back to the acknowledgment of country this week in parliament. Earlier today McCarthy criticised the actions as “incredibly childish stunts”. She told Afternoon Briefing of her criticism:
What I was calling on, especially to the new senators and the One Nation team, is remember that you represent millions of Australians and that includes First Nations people and the behaviour in here is unacceptable.
It is rude and disrespectful and that’s not how the Senate works.
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Anne Aly says Australia ‘not averse’ to more sanctions on Israel after receiving Doctors Without Borders petition
Anne Aly, the small business minister, was among a small group of Labor caucus MPs to officially receive a petition from Doctors Without Borders this morning calling for the protection of Palestinians in Gaza. Aly was asked about a tenet of the petition, which calls for the sanctioning of Israel and its leaders. Aly said she was not averse to further sanctions on the country.
We are not averse to sanctioning Israel … We have very clearly said in a letter, I think with 29 other countries, that we are prepared to go further.
Aly stressed the letter signed this week pointed to the power of countries linking together to call for the protection of Palestinians in Gaza.
Sanctions are part of the … tools that we have. They are most effective when they are not done unilaterally, when they’re in consult with and in concert with other countries. That is where I want to see us doing sanctions … We aren’t averse to doing more. We have clearly stated that.
Israel is facing intensifying international condemnation for its killing of starving Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and its attacks on humanitarian efforts.
According to UN officials on Tuesday, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the end of May trying to reach food distributions run by the controversial US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Updated
Greens leader knew Faruqi was going to hold up protest sign during governor general’s speech
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, was asked about her colleague Mehreen Faruqi’s decision to protest during the governor general’s address to parliament by holding a Gaza protest sign reading, in part, “Sanction Israel”. Faruqi was sanctioned for the move by the Senate yesterday.
Waters told Afternoon Briefing today:
I knew Mehreen was going to hold up a piece of paper and she did so quietly, respectfully, and bringing everyone’s attention to the fact that while we were going to be able to have scones outside after that address, children and women and people in Gaza literally are starving to death.
I think it is really disappointing to see that the conduct – the treatment of that conduct is quite different when you look at, say, One Nation turning their backs on the welcome to country this morning.
That move by One Nation has prompted condemnation from Labor and the Greens today.
Updated
Cash responds, tells Wong not to ‘pontificate to us’
While Penny Wong said she didn’t intend to give anyone else leave on the acknowledgment of country matter in the Senate, Michaelia Cash took an issue and was given the chance to respond.
The opposition Senate leader started off calm but it appeared she took issue with Wong’s brief statement after Malarndirri McCarthy, Pauline Hanson and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price had spoken. Cash said:
Their tone respected the chamber. Their words did not seek to diminish anybody else. Their opinions were heartfelt and they were their opinions.
The Western Australian is known for her animated deliveries and today was no different. Cash quickly launched into a defence of Price, accusing Wong of pontificating on the issue. Cash said:
When I first came to this place, it was prayers. It was not a welcome to country. But I can tell you, do not ever demean anybody. Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, her mother’s story, Bess Price, I suggest you all read it. A woman walking through the desert was her mother, who had her baby between her legs under a tree. She picked up that baby, she cut the umbilical cord and she kept walking.
I suggest you read the story of Bess Price before you ever come here and cast aspersions or tell us, Senator Wong, to respect other words. I will stand by and respect Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who, every day, has lived and breathed reconciliation in this country. Her father is white, her mother is black, so please don’t ever come into this place again and pontificate to us like you’ve just done.
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Penny Wong: ‘decency and respect cost us nothing’
Returning to what happened earlier in the Senate after question time – Penny Wong stood up following Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s speech.
Wong started off by addressing Pauline Hanson.
Senator Hanson speaks of division, but it is she who peddles in division. Senator Hanson speaks of respect, but it is she who peddles disrespect.
Wong pointed out the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, had attended a welcome to country ceremony earlier in the week, describing it as a reminder that “parliament doesn’t begin in isolation”.
Wong added:
May it set the tone as we commit – recommit – ourselves to the taking of practical action to improve lives and expand opportunity for Indigenous Australians in every part of our great country. I would hope that would be – that the opposition would reflect on the words of their own leader in relation to welcomes to country.
I would just end on this: decency and respect cost us nothing, but it goes a long way to building a sense of unity. And if you want to see what grace and respect look like, perhaps remember what Senator [Malarndirri] McCarthy said just a few moments ago.
Updated
Shadow trade minister wants review of US beef decision
Kevin Hogan, the shadow minister for trade, said the Coalition has “suspicions” the deal to lift restrictions on imports of US beef was “very rushed” at the end, but just said on Afternoon Briefing he has not yet read the full report.
Hogan spoke on the ABC’s program amid criticism from the opposition, including claims by Nationals leader David Littleproud that it “looks as though it’s been traded away to appease Donald Trump”. The Labor government has denied those claims and stressed it takes biosecurity seriously. Hogan, however, said on Afternoon Briefing:
We have suspicions that this was a very rushed deal at the end. … There’s no evidence, but at the moment there is some suspicions.
Our biosecurity rules as we know are very important. We don’t want to trade them away or compromise in any way. I think it is legitimate for us in the industry to answer a question.
Host Patricia Karvelas asked Hogan if he had read the report. He said he was familiar with the draft, but, “No, I haven’t read it.
Not the one released today, but I’m aware of the issues.
Read more here:
Updated
RBA governor makes rare dig at Trump
Michele Bullock made a rare mention of Donald Trump in her speech in Sydney this afternoon, backing her American central banking counterpart in the face of persistent presidential pressure.
Trump has been heaping pressure on Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, to cut interest rates, calling Powell a “numbskull” and criticising him for a $2.5bn renovation of the Fed’s building.
The US president’s conduct has even attracted questions he could fire the Fed chair, which Trump has said was “highly unlikely, unless he has to leave for fraud,” raising concerns about the US central bank’s ability to make independent policy decisions.
Bullock was speaking at the Australian Business Economists’ lunch for the Anika Foundation and was asked whether Trump’s pressure would have consequences for the Fed’s independence. She said:
Central bank independence is very important. Certainly, what’s going on in the United States is challenging that. …
[But] the Fed is doing what it’s supposed to be doing, which is focusing on the economy … not getting drawn into the debate, and so at this stage, I would say that they’re preserving their independence.
I can’t speak for what goes through Mr Trump’s mind. I’m not sure anyone can.
That line drew laughter from the audience of economists in the room in Sydney.
Bullock has previously avoided mentioning Trump by name or reflecting directly on the president’s decisions in her public remarks, preferring to speak about the administration and its policies in general.
Updated
No rate cut in July even if RBA had known about jobless jump, Michelle Bullock says
The Reserve Bank wouldn’t have cut interest rates this month even if it knew the unemployment rate was going to jump, the RBA governor has said.
The central bank’s policy board left interest rates on hold in early July, citing Australia’s strong jobs market as a factor against a third cut for 2025. June data released just over a week later showed the jobs market was weakening and an extra 33,600 people had become unemployed.
The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, told the Australian Business Economists lunch the board would not have done anything differently and the central bank had expected the jobless rate to pick up over 2025.
The June data’s lift from 4.1% to 4.3% surprised markets and economists and exceeded the RBA’s forecast for a 4.2% rate by June.
Bullock instead framed the lift as being in line with the bank’s forecast over the three months to June while downplaying the importance of slight decimal point increases. She told reporters:
If you go back a year, I think in July [2024] the monthly number popped up from 4.1% … to 4.2% and everyone went [gasps theatrically]. And then it settled around 4.1%, so monthly numbers jump around.
In her speech preceding the comments, Bullock said the RBA still thought the jobs market was a little too strong, which would risk resurgent inflation, but expected it to ease back without much more of a lift in unemployment.
You can read about the whole speech here:
Updated
Chris Bowen to host climate and energy round tables
Chris Bowen says he will host climate and energy round tables to feed into the main economic reform summit in late August.
The climate change and energy minister said he was “confident” the country was on track to achieve the 43% emissions reduction goal by 2030, and that the government was working towards announcing the 2035 target by September.
Bowen, in an interview with The Conversation’s Michelle Grattan, called the shift to green energy “the biggest economic transition our country has undertaken”. He gave an 8 August date, adding:
I’ll be holding two round tables, one on electricity and one on climate adaptation, which is going to be an increasing focus of this government and future governments.
Bowen also slammed calls this week by Nationals MPs Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack to scrap Australia’s net zero targets. He said a net zero target was “a basic bare minimum of action” in order to “avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change”, noting:
To be debating net zero 2050 in Australia this year is like debating whether the sun should come up. It’s the most basic framework.
The minister said a decision on whether Adelaide would host the 2026 UN climate change conference (or Cop) would likely happen in November at the next conference, but that Australia had more votes than the other contender, Turkey.
Updated
Thanks to Krishani for her blog stewardship today! Nick Visser here to take you through Afternoon Briefing, and all things beef.
Thank you for joining me on the blog today, I will leave you with the wonderful Nick Visser for the rest of the day’s news.
TLDR: here’s what happened in question time today
Wrapping up today’s question time:
The opposition started its line of questioning on why the PM hasn’t met with Donald Trump. They then, like yesterday, went on the attack over the government’s super tax bill.
The deputy PM and defence minister, Richard Marles, denied Australia is supplying Israel with weapons, in answer to a question from the independent MP Helen Haines.
The government’s dixers were heavily wage focused, given they introduced legislation to enshrine penalty rates.
And Liberal MP Scott Buchholz was the first member to be booted out of question time in the new parliament.
Updated
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price tells Senate she is ‘sick to death’ of acknowledgments of country
Liberal senator and former shadow Indigenous affairs minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price stands to offer her contribution on the matter.
Price supports Hanson’s statements, adding she’s “sick to death” of the statements.
If you speak up against it, if you mention it, you are painted as a racist, or somebody who is a coconut or somebody who is a traitor. Imagine if we treated every single racial group in this manner in this country.
It’s horrendous, and it begins with the virtue signalling, the politicisation of a group of people in this country because of our racial heritage, and I’m sick to death of it as a woman, as a mother, as soon to be a grandmother, and as an Australian of proud heritage, whether it’s my convict ancestors or it’s my Warlpiri ancestors, I’m proud of it all.
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Question time ends
With a final dixer on cost of living to the PM, question time wraps for the day, and the week.
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PM says $4.8bn deal made to provide infrastructure funding for NSW public schools
The independent MP for Fowler, Dai Le, gets the next crossbench question, and asks why a school like Bonnyrigg public school, in her electorate, was rejected from receiving some infrastructure funding.
Anthony Albanese says public school infrastructure is funded by the state government and the commonwealth recently signed a deal with NSW which will provide an extra $4.8bn for NSW public schools.
The additional $4.8 billion overwhelmingly will go towards disadvantaged communities and toward schools where students may need the additional dollars for additional tutoring, for small class sizes, one-on-one education and small groups. It would also provide for additional resources in terms of teaching.
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Labor and Greens condemn One Nation senators for turning backs on acknowledgments of country
In the Senate, after Malarndirri McCarthy delivers her statement, Pauline Hanson responds, but not before half of the Labor benches vacate the chamber.
Hanson makes a number of claims but her key point is that welcome to country and acknowledge of country statements are divisive – a claim similar to those raised by the no campaign in the lead-up to the referendum on the Indigenous voice to parliament.
Hanson says:
We don’t want this division in our nation. So it’s the steps that I’ve taken to speak up on behalf of those Australian people that don’t want this division. I don’t want to do have to do this -
As the One Nation leader states she doesn’t want to have to “do this”, the Greens senators say in chorus: “Don’t do it then.”
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, stands up to condemn Hanson and her party colleagues for their actions.
Well, it’s a bit rich to get a lecture on First Nations culture from the likes of Senator Hanson and it’s also a bit rich to get a lecture about not wanting division from the likes of One Nation, it is not welcome to countries and acknowledgment of countries that is dividing the nation. It’s racism.
Updated
Assistant treasurer says super tax change will affect just 0.5% of superannuation members
Back to the house, where Ted O’Brien is up and asks the assistant treasurer:
On the 19 May, the assistant treasurer said around 10% of taxpayers will be hit by the Labor unfair super tax.
Can the assistant treasurer confirm to the house that his publicly announced 10% figure will mean at least 1.2 million Australians will be impacted by the Labor super tax?
Daniel Mulino says the policy only applies to 0.5% of superannuation members.
He then launches into an attack on the opposition for not indexing their lowering of the division 293 tax. This is an extra 15¢ in the dollar levied on super contributions of high income earners. In 2019 the opposition lowered the threshold from $300,000 to $250,000 which it didn’t index.
The opposition lodges a point of order, and Milton Dick says Mulino shouldn’t be talking about another policy that he wasn’t specifically asked about, and tells him to be relevant.
Mulino ends his response saying:
The point that I make is that there are a range of thresholds in our tax system, and what we see in our tax system is that the thresholds are reviewed from time to time. And that there was a threshold in a superannuation system that was introduced by those opposite, that was not indexed.
You can read economics editor Patrick Commins’s take on the super tax changes here:
Updated
One Nation members turning backs to acknowledgment of country are ‘incredibly childish’, Indigenous affairs minister says
Heading over to the Senate for a moment, the Indigenous affairs minister, Malarndirri McCarthy, has criticised the “incredibly childish stunts” of One Nation senators who have been turning their back to acknowledgment of country statements this week in parliament.
Following Senate question time on Thursday, McCarthy delivered the statement while the minor party’s four senators watched from the crossbench.
These senators aren’t required to be in the Senate for the acknowledgment of country. In fact, they haven’t been, in the past, but they do now, whether it is for attention or for clickbait, whether it is to court offence, whether it is to stoke division, these senators have made a deliberate decision to disrespect First Nations Australians. You’d think that they would have learned lessons from the election, president. You’d think that they’d have heard the clear message from the Australian people in May. The politics of culture wars were rejected. The politics of disrespect and nastiness were rejected.
McCarthy continued:
I urge all senators to remember who you work beside, who you walk with, and even when we disagree, we have a chamber here where we can discuss in a manner that is far more respectful than we’ve seen In these previous days.
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Independent MP Wilkie asks whether NDIS cuts will jeopardise access to support
The next crossbench question goes to Andrew Wilkie, who asks the NDIS minister about concerns over changes in payments for allied health professionals and cuts to payment rates for travel to regional areas. Wilkie says this could risk the access of support for people in rural and regional communities.
Mark Butler, the minister for health and the national disability insurance scheme, says:
The principal objective is that every participant gets the best possible value for money for their plan …
I stress this was an independent decision of an independent board, but it is one I support.
Butler says that in Tasmania, where Wilkie is from, there are still remote loadings in areas including Swansea and Queenstown that attract a 40% loading, and King Island, which he says attracts a 50% loading.
Updated
Chalmers says Coalition in ‘nuclear meltdown’ over net zero while defending super tax changes
In answering the question, Jim Chalmers takes a swipe at Ted O’Brien, and says the Coalition are in a “nuclear meltdown” over net zero policy.
Continuing along, Chalmers gives some more familiar lines about the government wanting to strengthen superannuation, and make the concessions more sustainable.
He reminds everyone that we’ve been talking about this legislation for more than two years.
The reason these changes are so important is because we need to make sure that the generous concessional treatment for super is sustainable. And that is why we announced this change 2.5 years ago, there’s been election between then and now.
Updated
Chalmers twists the knife after Liberal MP Scott Buchholz booted from question time
We’re back to the superannuation tax … The shadow treasurer, Ted O’Brien, asks Jim Chalmers about reports in the Australian that some Labor MPs “hate the principle” of taxing unrealised gains.
There’s a bit of back and forth on the question and whether an MP can refer to an unknown individual.
But before Chalmers can start again, we get our first eviction from question time!
It’s Liberal MP Scott Buchholz who gets booted by Milton Dick.
Chalmers twists the knife and says “nobody knew he was on the frontbench until you asked him to leave it”.
Updated
Collins warns Littleproud against ‘undermining’ biosecurity after question on US beef imports
David Littleproud has the next opposition question, and asks if the agriculture minister can confirm that Australia’s biosecurity requirements to import US beef will be at least the equivalent of biosecurity requirements in the US to import Australian beef.
Julie Collins says the process has been done in the “usual way” and says the opposition needs to be careful about not “undermining” Australia’s biosecurity system.
That gets a huge and loud reaction from the opposition benches.
Collins says:
I would say to the member opposite that has been done in the usual way, the department has published the review on website today in the usual way, the input details required for importers will be published on the website and provided on Monday in the usual way …
So the member opposite needs to be very careful about trying to undermine Australia’s biosecurity system.
Milton Dick interjects while the shouts continue from the opposition, but when he asks if Collins wants to continue, she sits down.
More detail on the decision to lift the ban here:
Updated
Marles questioned by shadow defence minister about Chinese live-fire exercises
The shadow defence minister, Angus Taylor, is up now, and puts his question to Richard Marles, the defence minister and deputy PM. Taylor asks:
Is the prime minister seriously suggesting because Australia engages with allies in the South China Sea that the Chinese Communist party is free to conduct live-fire exercises without warnings off the south coast of New South Wales?
Marles begins with an attack on Taylor, saying he’s had an “interesting start” in the shadow defence portfolio.
The manager of opposition business, Alex Hawke, stands up on a point of relevance, and Milton Dick tells Marles to be relevant to the question. Marles continues:
[The] implication of the shadow minister’s question today is those opposite don’t support what is understood everywhere as the rights of all nations in respect of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and freedom of navigation.
Updated
Treasurer reveals 2024-25 budget deficit lower than predicted
Back to the house, in a dixer about wages, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has revealed the 2024-25 budget deficit will be lower than expected.
In the pre-election budget, the 2024-25 deficit was forecast as $27.9bn. Chalmers says:
I informed the House that the 24-25 deficit is now expected to be in the low double digits. That is less than half what we expected at budget time and it is around one quarter of what we inherited from those opposite.
Updated
Wong accuses Greens of ‘hypocrisy’ in Senate over standing orders as minor party questions Aukus price
Senate question time is usually a battle between the major parties, but this week has given us a showdown between Labor and the Greens.
It kicks off when Greens senator David Shoebridge asks:
What justification can the government provide as to why we’re giving [US president] Donald Trump $1.6bn for [Aukus] nuclear submarines we may never get, with no strings?
Penny Wong appears to be in a similar mood as yesterday because she criticises the Greens for holding an unsurprising view on Australia’s alliance with the US. The Greens interject as Wong responds, so the foreign affairs minister twists the knife a bit more.
I think that the hypocrisy of the Greens is clearly on display, that they believe the standing orders should be used to protect them, but not anybody else, nor any other standard in the chamber.
There’s a bit more back-and-forth and Wong explains the Aukus pact is in Australia’s interests “in an era that is increasingly complex and contested” when asked whether Albanese’s Australia had shared values with Trump’s America.
The interjections continue as Senate president Sue Lines tries to bring the chamber under control.
Shoebridge’s colleague, Peter Whish-Wilson, chimes in to make another point of order: “It’s obviously easier to uphold standing orders than it is international law in relation to Gaza.”
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Marles says ‘we are not making weapons for Israel’ after Helen Haines raises transparency concerns
The independent MP Helen Haines gets the first crossbench question, and asks about the deterioration of transparency under the Labor government. You can read more on that story here:
Haines asks:
There is lack of transparency around Australian manufacturer weapons, weapons parts, and trade with Israel. This makes it difficult to understand whether Australia is complicit in breaches of international humanitarian law in Palestine. Minister, can you guarantee Australia is not complicit in war crimes in Gaza?
The deputy PM and defence minister, Richard Marles, says he can “absolutely guarantee” the government is not complicit in “the way in which you describe” and says Australia is not making weapons and supplying them to Israel.
We are not making weapons for Israel. It is as clear as that. We have not been doing so since the conflict began on October seven but we’re not doing it for years prior to that.
I want to make the point that to put that misinformation into the public domain does not help one single person in Gaza. It just does not. What it does do is raise tensions in this country which is deeply destabilising for Australia’s social cohesion.
Updated
Anthony Albanese gets the next dixer on protecting wages (again, this relates to the penalty rates legislation introduced today).
He says Australians want to “keep more of what they earn” which almost all government MPs say with him.
Everyone knows the line at this point: it was one heavily used during the last term and the election.
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Albanese defends tariff result with US in response to question about meetings with Trump
Sussan Ley is up for the second opposition question, and again goes to the fact that Albanese hasn’t had a meeting with Donald Trump.
Ley says Albanese has spent “more time making excuses for unacceptable live firing exercises of Australia’s coast than he has spent in person with the US President”.
To that, Albanese looks up to the press gallery benches with a confused expression.
He says:
Members of this parliament have a choice … of whether they will back Australia or seek to undermine Australia.
The Coalition tries to interject, which speaker Milton Dick is absolutely not having today.
He says it’s “a serious question and the prime minister is answering it”.
Albanese continues:
The question [the Coalition] might like to ask themselves is which country has a better arrangement than 10%, which country, because the answer to that – the answer to that is none.
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Rishworth takes dixer on penalty rates legislation
The first dixer is from the new Labor member for Leichhardt, Matt Smith, to Amanda Rishworth, the employment minister, about legislation to protect penalty rates.
No surprise that this is the first dixer, given the legislation was introduced to the house earlier this morning.
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Liberal leader Ley asks why PM has failed to meet with Trump over Aukus
On to questions, and Sussan Ley starts, starting with Aukus and why Anthony Albanese has failed to meet with US president Donald Trump when 30 other world leaders have already done so.
Ley says she served as a cabinet minister when the former Liberal government delivered Aukus, which Albanese takes umbrage with, and says it was him that signed the agreement.
Albanese says he’s had three conversations since Trump took office (you might remember the two were supposed to meet in Canada but Trump left the G7 summit early).
On the tariff situation, Albanese says:
Australia has a lower tariff rate or equal to every other country on earth.
Updated
Peter Nixon passed away aged 97 and his family are in the chamber as the prime minister, opposition leader, Nationals leader and current Gippsland MP pay tribute.
Anthony Albanese says Nixon described himself as a “simple farmer” but that he quickly gained a reputation as a “tough, genuine and hard-working man who kept his feet on the ground”.
Sussan Ley said Nixon was “universally respected” during his time in and out of parliament, describing him a “grazier, parliamentarian, minister, community champion, Aussie rules fanatic, [and] was an exemplar of the body politic that laid the foundations that we have inherited”.
David Littleproud said his loss will be felt across regional Australia and said Nixon represented his region with “humility, passion and purpose”.
Updated
Before the questions begin, there’s a condolence motion for the former Gippsland MP Peter Nixon, a former National Country party MP.
He died in May this year.
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Get excited folks, it’s almost question time (the second and last one for the first sitting week).
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Littleproud says he has not received scientific evidence informing decision to lift US beef ban
David Littleproud says the agriculture department hasn’t been able to provide him the scientific evidence underpinning the decision to lift restrictions on US beef imports.
The Nationals have raised suspicion over the timing of the decision.
The department has been looking at biosecurity settings around US beef imports for 10 years, but the timing of this decision comes soon after the Trump administration criticised Australia for not allowing enough market access for US cattle farmers.
Littleproud says there should be an independent scientific panel review of the department’s decision.
Earlier today I was given a briefing on the changes of protocols with respect to importing US beef. Unfortunately, that has raised more questions than provided answers. It has raised my suspicion about the speed and timing of this decision.
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‘People say they’re from the country, get it right’: Joyce responds to Tehan’s ‘steers fighting’ jibe
Barnaby Joyce can’t seem to get enough of the press gallery this week, returning to Sky News earlier today, talking about bulls and steers.
But that wasn’t in the context of the decision to lift restrictions on beef imports from the US.
Yesterday, Liberal MP Dan Tehan referred to Joyce and Michael McCormack as “two steers fighting in the neighbour’s paddock”.
Joyce replied on air:
The people say they’re from the country, get it right. Steers don’t fight. We castrate them so they don’t, right. Steers have their testicles removed …
Bulls moo. Bulls fight.
And he proceeded to pretend to be a bull (fingers as horns and all).
It was a bit of a dig at Tehan, who is from the country, holds a regional seat and whose father ran a cattle and sheep farm.
All of this stems from an ongoing fight in the nationals partyroom over the future of net zero policy, and the future of David Littleproud’s leadership. Joyce and McCormack have said their push to repeal the climate target isn’t to undermine Littleproud – but that doesn’t stop the speculation.
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Attempt to refer PM’s staffing allocation power to committee shot down in Senate
The opposition and crossbench tried to refer the prime minister’s power to determine staffing allocations to a committee a bit earlier in the Senate, but were voted down by the government and Greens.
The prime minister has the power to determine how many advisory staff political parties get, and was criticised by the opposition last month for reducing their staff allocations after the election.
In 2022 the Albanese government was under fire for cutting the number of crossbencher advisers from four to just one.
Fatima Payman – the Labor turned independent senator – tried to refer the finance committee to investigate whether the PM should keep that power.
Her motion was backed by the opposition and members of the crossbench, but failed 34 votes to 29.
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End of US beef restrictions likely won’t mean an influx of imports
The ban on American beef imports has been lifted after 22 years, but the political and diplomatic implications of the decision far outweigh the practical.
For one, and as has been noted, the US cattle industry is in no position to start sending their produce down under.
American herds are at a multi-decade low, and farmers are slaughtering fewer animals than they were a year ago. That has led to some beef prices in the US hitting record highs in recent months.
No surprise, then, that American beef exports in the first five months of 2025 are down 5% on the same period last year, and down 10% on the year before that – and 20% lower than in 2022.
“Unless US beef prices decline dramatically, we do not expect any large volumes of beef to be sent to Australia in the short to medium term,” says Dennis Voznesenski, an analyst at CBA.
To cover the lack of domestic beef supply, American imports year-to-date to July are up 17% on the same seven months in 2024, at 912,000 tonnes.
Imports from Australia are up 35% at 228,000 tonnes, Voznesenski says.
Once the US cattle herd is rebuilt in coming years, exports could increase.
Even then, Australia has a history of exporting far more to the US than we import.
As Voznesenski notes, in the 20 years to 2003 (when American beef was banned due to a case of mad cow disease), we imported an average of 23 tonnes of US beef a year.
In contrast, our average annual export volume to the US was 230,000 tonnes.
Updated
‘We’re hitting a “grandkid moment”’: Husic says future generations will question inaction over Gaza
The Labor MP Ed Husic says the federal government should be prepared to “ramp up sanctions” on Israel in response to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Husic joined a press conference in Parliament House today – also attended by former Labor senator Fatima Payman, and crossbenchers David Pocock and Kate Chaney – to condemn the lack of aid and food being allowed into Gaza. Pocock said he would present a petition of 65,000 signatures to the Senate, from Médecins Sans Frontières, calling for the Australian government to do more in seeking a resolution to the crisis.
The Albanese government this week joined an international statement warning “the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths”, and expressing horror “that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid. The Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable.”
Husic, who has spoken consistently on Gaza, said the large number of signatures on the petition showed “people in the public domain do not want to be silent themselves and they do not want the parliament to be silent and they want the government to act”:
If this was happening to us, we’d want people in other parts of the world to have a view and take a stand and stop the suffering …
We’re hitting a ‘grandkid moment’. The ones that follow us are going to ask us all – at this point, confronted with one of the biggest moral, humanitarian [issues], and frankly this is a matter of conscience as well – what we did, to speak up and press for action to stop this?
Husic noted the government’s joining of the global joint statement, and added: “we do need to do more … The government should be prepared to work with others to ramp up sanctions in a coordinated way, absolutely.”
Updated
Loophole in app used to access Working with Children checks to be fixed within days, Victoria government says
The Victorian government has admitted to a “loophole” within an app used to access working with children checks and says it will be rectified within days.
The Herald Sun on Thursday reported the Service Victoria in-app QR code reader can be tricked and used to gain access to someone’s WWCC. The report said in theory “a predator could quickly gather validation to prove they can work with children”.
But government minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, says attempting to impersonate someone else to gain employment was an offence. She told reporters this morning:
In order for a working with children’s check to be processed, that working with children’s check must match with the person’s identity, and any attempt to use another person’s card or to defraud the system in any way, is actually an offence that is punishable by up to two years in jail. But being aware of this loophole, we will fix it, and we’ll do that in coming days.
Thomas added the WWCC system was “outdated” and work was already underway to improve it.
Updated
‘Make agriculture great again’: US claims win over beef access
The US administration is claiming the win for the government removing some restrictions on US beef imports into Australia.
Trump has been piling pressure on Australia to drop the restrictions, and open up market access for American farmers.
US secretary of agriculture Brooke L. Rollins issued a statement, titled “Make Agriculture Great Again Trade Wins: President Trump Secures Greater Ag Market Access to Australia for American Beef”.
She said it was “absurd” that the trade barriers had been in place for the last two decades.
American farmers and ranchers produce the safest, healthiest beef in the world. It’s absurd that non-scientific trade barriers prevented our beef from being sold to consumers in Australia for the last 20 years. Gone are the days of putting American farmers on the sidelines.
This is yet another example of the kind of market access the President negotiates to bring America into a new golden age of prosperity, with American agriculture leading the way.
Updated
Bridget McKenzie says CSIRO could carry out review into lifting US beef import ban
Bridget McKenzie has suggested the CSIRO could review the science behind the decision to lift restrictions on imports of US beef.
McKenzie told Sky News the timing is “exquisite” (Littleproud said it was “suspicious” earlier this morning), and said it seemed to be a “quick assessment”.
Assessment of the biosecurity settings have been reviewed for the last ten years, and the government has said this morning that Australia’s biosecurity will not be compromised.
If the protocols and the science around that is rigorous enough, of course, we’re going to support that, but we’re not going to damage our $11bn beef export industry to appease the breakdown in a relationship between the Albanese government [and Trump administration]…
I think the timing is exquisite for the Labor party, and that’s why we’d like to see an independent review.
Updated
ICJ ruling on fossil fuel-related reparations should be ‘turning point’ for Labor, Greens say
The Greens say an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that nations who fail to curb fossil fuels could be ordered to pay reparation should be a “turning point” for the Labor government on climate action.
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, wrote on X that the ICJ ruling makes clear that “every one of Labor’s new coal or gas approvals risks Australia being legally liable for the climate consequences”. She wrote:
This should be a turning point. Fossil fuel profits cannot override a climate safe future.
Our Pacific neighbours led the way at The Hague demanding climate justice and Australia must now follow their lead. Labor should support the Greens climate trigger bill to stop flagrantly breaching international law and bring our Howard-era environmental laws into this century.
For more background on how this case came to the international court, have a read of this story from my colleague Kate Lyons:
Updated
NSW court blocks state’s largest coal expansion after challenge by environment group
Leaving parliament for a moment, the New South Wales court of appeal has overturned the approval of the largest coalmine expansion in the state after a community environment group successfully argued the planning commission failed to consider the impact of all of the project’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The decision is a significant blow for Mach Energy’s Mount Pleasant coalmine expansion in Muswellbrook in the upper Hunter and one that climate groups say could have wider implications for future fossil fuel project proposals in NSW.
The court found the Independent Planning Commission was required and failed to consider the impacts of all carbon pollution associated with the project on the local environment, including from the exported emissions – known as scope three emissions – when the coal is sold and burned overseas. The commission approved the expansion in 2022.
Wendy Wales, the president of the Denman, Aberdeen, Muswellbrook, Scone Healthy Environment Group (Dams Heg) that brought the case, welcomed the court’s decision:
It shouldn’t be up to a small community group like Dams Heg to fight this global battle, but in the absence of meaningful government action to protect us from climate harm arising from coalmines, we felt we had no choice but to stand up for our children and grandchildren, the public interest, the rule of law and nature itself.
The matter will now return to the NSW land and environment court to consider whether conditions can be imposed that would validate the approval or whether the project must return to the planning commission.
The planning commission said it respected the decision of the court of appeal.
Updated
Scott Morrison warns US committee against ‘going to sleep on the threat’ of China – video
Doctors Without Borders delivers petition to parliament calling for greater protection of civilians in Gaza
International aid group Doctors Without Borders delivered a petition signed by more than 63,000 Australians to parliament this morning, calling for more action by the government to “protect civilians in Gaza now”.
The aid organisation said the federal minister Anne Aly and seven other MPs from the Labor caucus accepted the petition, which calls for Australia to lead efforts to protect civilians and “impose all diplomatic tools on the state of Israel and its leaders”. The document also calls for Australia to demand an “immediate end to the siege of Gaza” and for a full ceasefire, as well as for the government to call out “the use of food, water and medicine as weapons of war”.
Jennifer Tierney, executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières Australia, said in a statement:
We’re encouraged to see the voices of over 63,000 Australians being heard by their government. It’s clear we share a deep concern – but we made it clear that concern must now translate into further government action.
Updated
Educator registers are being created as part of childcare safety standards push
The government says work is already underway for a national educators register, but it can’t say exactly when the register will be established.
Jess Walsh, the early childhood education minister, told ABC Melbourne this morning that Victoria has begun work on a state register, and all state and territory ministers will meet to discuss a national register next month.
The government will pass legislation this fortnight to pull childcare subsidy access for centres that consistently fail standards, but has acknowledged it is only one part of fixing safety standards across the industry.
Walsh said a nationwide register will need to be integrated with working with children checks.
That register needs to be integrated with working with children check… And it needs to be integrated with other information that we have about substantiated complaints and conduct against individuals. And that’s what we’re working towards, that register will raise those flags.
Asked when the register will be up and running, Walsh said:
I don’t have an answer to that this morning, we’re [the ministers are] meeting again in a couple of weeks and we’ll announce the plans for the register then.
We had an urgent ministers meeting – an urgent stand-alone meeting of education ministers focused on this issue at the end of June. At that meeting we put this nationwide register right on our agenda. We’re working on it.
Updated
Some photos from Labor’s penalty rates legislation event
The prime minister met with a group of retail workers in parliament this morning as the government introduces legislation to enshrine penalty and overtime rates for workers employed under the award system.
Alongside him was Amanda Rishworth, the employment minister.
He told the group about stacking shelves as a young man and working at the department store Grace Brothers (back when it was called Grace Brothers)!
Updated
So what exactly is Australia doing to allow more US beef imports, and what’s with the timing?
My colleague Tom McIlroy has the answers for you (with all the political reaction to the decision too):
Proposal to pause beer tax indexation introduced
The government will pause indexation of the draught beer excise for two years, introducing the proposal to the House this morning.
It was a Labor promise earlier this year, ahead of the election, to pause the biannual indexation to August 2027.
When announced in February, the prime minister said it was a “win for beer drinkers, brewers and hospitality businesses” – but on a 48-litre keg of mid-strength beer, it would amount to a saving of roughly 18 cents.
Updated
‘There’s nothing suspicious about this’ says trade minister
The trade minister, Don Farrell, has promised Australia’s standards will not be dropping to allow more beef to be imported from the US and has distanced the decision from the Trump administration’s trade tariffs.
Farrell tells Sky News he hasn’t spoken to his US counterpart since the decision was made to remove restrictions, and the timing of the decision isn’t “suspicious”.
If we want to export our beef overseas, then we have to accept that other countries will want to import their beef into Australia. The job of the federal government is to make absolutely certain that there is no biosecurity risk as a result of that, we’ve done that.
We’re not going to allow our biosecurity rules to be impacted by the trade issues.
Farrell says the government will continue to “prosecute the argument” against tariffs on Australians products.
Updated
Young Australians in the Senate
Parliamentarians are just getting younger and younger these days!
If you missed it, last night newly elected Labor senator Corinne Mulholland brought in her (very cute) baby for her maiden speech to the chamber.
Little Augie was with her for much of the speech, giggling and babbling (and trying occasionally to grab her mic), before she handed him over to colleague Jana Stewart.
I am a proud fourth-generation Queenslander. We are battlers, people who work hard, speak straight and don’t ask for more than a fair go. I stand here tonight holding my young son, as you can see, with his bedtime fast approaching. I am praying that Augie and I make it through this speech unscathed, so Godspeed!
Mullholand focused a lot of her maiden speech on getting women with children into work and better access to a safe early education system.
Augie could be seen waving to the other “baby of the Senate” – Charlotte Walker, the youngest-ever senator, who also gave her maiden speech yesterday.
Updated
Collins asserts beef imports decision result of five-year process and ‘based on science’
The agriculture minister, Julie Collins, has sought to distance the government’s decision to ease biosecurity restrictions on US beef imports from wider trade negotiations with US President Donald Trump’s administration.
Collins spoke to the press gallery at Parliament House just before the sitting day commenced, saying the decision had been made after an extensive review by her department and was based on strict scientific criteria.
Asked if the move would help with trade negotiations with the Trump White House, Collins said:
That will be determined but this decision is based on science, and is the culmination of a five-year period.
The expanded access was asked for in 2020 and we’ve been able to import beef in Australia since 2019, so that process now, of the expanded access assessment, has taken around five years, and the process is complete.
My department has been briefing and keeping industry up to date with progress the entire time that this assessment has been occurring, and that assessment is now complete.
Updated
Cattle Australia ‘comfortable’ with decision to open US beef trade
Cattle Australia’s chief executive, Will Evans, says the decision to lift restrictions on US beef imports will not create an “open slather” domestic market, and told RN Breakfast he’s confident the US has implemented robust biosecurity measures.
Evans says the beef trade is still in favour of Australian exporters, and he expects there would be only very low volumes of beef that enter Australia when the restrictions are lifted.
They’ve [the agriculture department] made this assessment themselves. They’ve said, look, we’ve looked at this, we’ve looked at the best science. This is a decision we feel comfortable with.
Updated
Littleproud: ‘I don’t look over my shoulder’
Nationals leader David Littleproud says he’s not looking his shoulder at the possibility of a leadership spill, while debate over net zero escalates in the Coalition partyroom.
Barnaby Joyce has again said today that his private members bill to repeal the net zero by 2050 target is not about challenging Littleproud’s leadership.
Littleproud told RN Breakfast he’s focused on the job, and not himself.
I put my head on a pillow at night thinking about trying to leave a legacy for the people I lead. No matter how long I’m here for, I want to be able to look back and say I did it in a respectful way, and what I’m focused on is delivering outcomes.
Asked whether he supports net zero, Littleproud said he has “real concerns”.
I believe in climate change, and I think we have a responsibility to try and reduce emissions. But unfortunately, what net zero has become is about trying to achieve the impossible rather than doing what’s sensible.
Updated
Littleproud ‘suspicious’ over how quickly biosecurity restrictions over US beef imports were lifted
Nationals leader David Littleproud says he’s “suspicious” about the speed in which the decision has been made to lift restrictions on imports of US beef.
The government has said biosecurity won’t be compromised and that the decision comes after a decade-long review by the agriculture department into US beef.
Littleproud, on RN Breakfast, raised the possibility of an independent panel reviewing the decision by the department.
I want to see the science and it should be predicated on science. I’m suspicious by the speed in which this has been done … It looks as though it’s been traded away to appease Donald Trump, and that’s what we don’t want.
Littleproud says he was made aware of the decision yesterday and has been told he will receive a briefing by the department.
Updated
Nationals and Greens agree government must provide beef biosecurity assurances
Nationals deputy leader Kevin Hogan says assurances haven’t yet been given by the government that biosecurity measures won’t be weakened to allow the US to export more beef to Australia.
Hogan and James Paterson earlier this morning took a bit of a stab at the government, accusing them of leaking the decision to the media, rather than briefing stakeholders about the decision. Hogan tells Sky News:
There hasn’t been a full ban on American beef into Australia for years, there’s been a partial ban in place. The full ban has actually applied to Mexico and Canada … we just don’t want any of the biosecurity measures and protocols to be weakened. We don’t know if they have been yet. We haven’t been given assurances yet that they have been [protected].
Hogan’s on a panel with the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who also says the government has to be “upfront and transparent” about the decision.
Is this going to really be enough to tickle Donald Trump’s tummy? Look, I doubt it. I mean, this is a bloke who … he’s just not a good faith actor when it comes to negotiations.
It’s like playing Russian roulette with Donald Trump these days.
Updated
Joyce triples down on ending ‘bat-poo crazy’ net zero
Barnaby Joyce is tripling down on his campaign to end the net zero by 2050 commitment (it’s probably more than tripling down at this point).
On the Today show a little earlier he said net zero “assuages the ego of the people in that building [parliament]”, while the cost of living and farming worsens.
Joyce introduced a private members bill to end the target on Monday, but has denied the push is also about changing the Nationals’ leadership (as David Littleproud has previously supported the policy). Joyce said:
Sensible people such as Michael McCormack and very, very smart people such as Matt Canavan and a lot of other people on the within the Liberal party, because I talk to them, know this is bat-poo crazy and we’ve got to as a nation if we if we want to prevail, start doing some things to make ourselves strong, not weak.
Updated
Coalition says penalty rates legislation will impact small businesses and does not confirm it will support it
The Coalition won’t say whether it will support the government’s legislation on penalty rates, but has expressed concern over the impact it will have on small businesses.
Tim Wilson told RN Breakfast the party, which received the legislation last night, will go through its internal processes, and said the government is doing a “legislative victory lap after the election”.
One of the most disturbing and distressing things was when we put to the minister what’s the impact going to be on small business, and she couldn’t tell us how many small businesses would be impacted.
Asked about the upcoming productivity roundtable, Wilson also said the government needs to figure out its priorities.
We don’t know any of the principles that the government is outlining for its productivity tax and everything else summit right now, this is a proposal that’s been thrown out there by the prime minister… I just think the government should lay out some principles, make it clear what this actual summit is going to be about.
Updated
‘I really hope the government knows what it’s doing’: Coalition MP on beef imports
The opposition says it’s “cautious” about lifting restrictions on US beef, while the government has said Australia’s biosecurity won’t be “compromised”.
Newly returned Liberal MP Tim Wilson, the shadow industrial relations minister, tells RN Breakfast the government should be making decisions in the national interest.
We’re obviously cautious about lifting any biosecurity measures. Biosecurity shouldn’t be compromised, and I really hope the government knows what it’s doing.
We know that the United States is obviously doing a number of things on the trade front right now, it’s not always in Australia’s national interest… We need to be making decisions in Australia’s national interests and backing our exporters, and so we need to make sure that the biosecurity framework is strong, robust and in Australia’s national interest.
Updated
Penalty rates legislation to be introduced today
Legislation to stop penalty or overtime rates being bargained away for workers employed under the award system will be introduced today, which the government says will be a “safety net” to protect workers’ pay.
The bill is in response to a proposal from the retail employer lobby to the fair work commission, to allow some retail manager to opt out of penalty rates in exchange for a 35% pay rise.
The fair work umpire is still due to make its decision on that proposal, but Amanda Rishworth tells RN Breakfast the government doesn’t want to see penalty rates “eroded”.
There are many award-reliant workers that really rely on penalty rates and overtime when they work weekends and late nights that really make up a large proportion of their take-home pay. We want to put it beyond doubt that penalty rates and overtime in the award can be eroded because we don’t want to see people paid less.
Updated
Rishworth says there is ‘evidence’ of adequate biosecurity controls on US beef
The agriculture department has “evidence” of adequate biosecurity controls on US beef, says Amanda Rishworth.
Doing the media rounds for the government this morning, Rishworth joins RN Breakfast down the press gallery corridor. She says this has been a decade-long process by the department, which has done a “rigorous scientific and risk-based assessment”.
The timing coincides with a strong push from the Trump administration for Australia to drop these restrictions.
The review of the beef, the US beef imports, has been a decade long. So it undergoes rigorous scientific and risk-based assessment by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestries and they have looked at the evidence and they have got enough assurances that control measures will be in place. It is their decision to lift the ban.
Host Sally Sara asks whether the decision is part of a transaction with the US to ease tariff tensions. Rishworth only says that it’s been a decade-long process by the department.
Updated
Paterson has no issue with scheduled $800m payment but says money cannot be only strategy to secure Aukus
It’s “inexplicable” that the prime minister hasn’t yet met with Donald Trump, Paterson says, to smooth over the tariffs issue, and lobby for the Aukus deal.
Yesterday it was revealed the government has sent over another $800m to the US, which Labor says was a “scheduled” payment. Paterson tells Sky News he has “no problem” with the payment, but the government can’t just rely on the money to ensure the deal goes ahead.
I have absolutely no problem with continuing to make the investment in the US submarine industrial base to increase the production of Virginia-class submarines to meet our shared deterrence goals in the Indo Pacific, as long as that is not the government’s only strategy and only plan to secure Aukus…
It is not good enough to hope that Elbridge Colby and the Pentagon will just arrive at the right conclusion.
On a separate issue, Paterson is asked at the end of the interview about the fight within the Coalition over net zero.
He says for the next three years, his party’s position on the issue is largely “academic” and that it will go through a “structured” process.
Updated
Coalition demands biosecurity reassurances after US beef trade deal news
The opposition is a little less welcoming of the decision to lift restrictions on US beef.
James Paterson, the shadow finance minister, tells Sky News the prime minister should stand up and explain exactly how the government has been able to deal with previous biosecurity concerns.
Paterson says the government also needs to reassure farmers there will be no ongoing biosecurity risks.
The prime minister himself has said that we couldn’t relax the restrictions on the importation of US beef because of serious biosecurity concerns. So if the government has found some way of dealing with that issue, protecting our domestic agricultural industry from the introduction of foreign diseases and pests, then they should say so.
He [Albanese] should stand up today and explain to beef farmers in Australia that there is no risk to their biosecurity, that he hasn’t watered it down.
Updated
Labor defends $800m Aukus payment
Labor frontbencher Amanda Rishworth has defended the government handing the US another $800m for the Aukus while they review the submarine deal.
Rishworth tells Sunrise it was part of a “schedule of payments” that was in place when the deal was signed, and the government expects the deal to continue.
She’s asked whether Australia gets the money back if the deal is tanked or the US increases the price of its submarines, but Rishworth won’t answer directly and says the agreement has already been signed.
It’s not surprising that the US is reviewing this, but we expect that this agreement will continue … So this was part of the schedule of payments that was always in place when we signed the deal.
We have signed an arrangement. We’re committed to that arrangement. We intend to see it through.
Updated
Labor childcare bill to pass with Coalition support but opposition flags more to do
The government’s childcare bill will pass this sitting fortnight, says the Coalition, who will support its passage through parliament.
The shadow education minister, Jonno Duniam, told RN Breakfast this morning the Coalition is “satisfied” with the legislation but it “only goes so far” and the next step will be working with states and territories to tighten regulations.
Duniam said he’s also concerned about what happens if a childcare centre isn’t up to scratch but it’s the only one available in a “childcare desert”. He said the Coalition’s been given assurances that those issues can be dealt with.
[If] either a centre is shut and no services are available, or in some cases, when under these arrangements funding would be withdrawn, they might then send a bill for 100% of the cost to the parents, and that, given the cost of these things, would be unacceptable.
So state and territory regulators have got measures in place because they can already shut centres for a range of reasons to work with parents around alternative care provision. Specifically, what that looks like, we are not sure, but they have given us an assurance that there are ways of dealing with this.
Asked about the use of CCTV in centres, Duniam said he was “baffled” it wasn’t already mandatory.
Updated
Australia to lift restrictions on imports of US beef
Australia will lift restrictions on imports of US beef, removing a key reason from the Trump administration to place tariffs on Australian agriculture.
The agriculture minister, Julie Collins, says her department is “satisfied” by strengthened control measures by the US to “manage biosecurity risks”.
The US has had beef access into Australia since 2019 but this will significantly expand access for US farmers to export beef sourced from cattle born in Canada or Mexico which are legally imported and slaughtered in the US.
Collins says Australia will “never compromise on biosecurity”.
The US beef imports review has undergone a rigorous science and risk-based assessment over the past decade.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is satisfied the strengthened control measures put in place by the US effectively manage biosecurity risks.
Australia stands for open and fair trade – our cattle industry has significantly benefited from this.
Updated
Good morning,
Krishani Dhanji with you for the final sitting day of the week. Thank you to Martin Farrer for getting us started this morning.
Childcare and Hecs legislation are still top of the government’s agenda, they will likely be debated more today.
Amanda Rishworth, the employment minister, is doing the media whip around this morning, to talk about legislation to lock in penalty rates for more than 2 million workers which will be introduced today.
We’ll also be keeping a close eye on the Nats and whether they arc up any more on net zero or on the future leadership of their party (read: yesterday Michael McCormack and Barnaby Joyce said repealing the net zero commitment wasn’t about testing leadership, and David Littleproud said he was “relaxed”).
Updated
Joyce denies being agent of chaos on net zero
Barnaby Joyce says he has no intention of challenging David Littleproud’s leadership of the Nationals, despite taking the spotlight vowing to introduce a private member’s bill to ditch net zero.
As well as a press conference Joyce held about the issue, on Wednesday the Australian reported Joyce said he would “happily” back former leader Michael McCormack to return to the role, but wasn’t agitating for a spill.
Appearing on ABC’s 7.30 program, Joyce denied his political career has evolved into his “being an agent of chaos”, insisting it was devoted to advocating for regional Australia as “the powerless against the powerful”.
Asked about The Australian interview, Joyce said:
David’s safe. It’s got nothing to do with David. This is about net zero. This is about trying to help people in regional Australia.
I have no intentions of challenging. It is not about that at all. It is about what is best for this nation.
Although Littleproud had already tasked Senator Matt Canavan with reviewing the national park net zero policy, Joyce said “there’s no there’s no divine law that says you can’t have a review and move the private member’s bill”.
Asked about what happens to the Coalition if the Liberals want to keep net zero but the Nationals want to get rid of it, Joyce said “I don’t know. Give me a crystal ball. I don’t know”.
Updated
Morrison says nations must ‘know what your red lines are’ when dealing with China
Moolenaar asked Morrison what advice he would give to the current leaders of western nations in how to deal with the threat from China.
Morrison replied that countries must “know what you believe in and why your country believes that. And know what your red lines are”.
He said he presented the list of 14 demands to G7 leaders when he was hosting a meeting in 2021. He asked leaders if there was any point on which they would relent. “The answer was none,” Morrison said.
“Know that you believe in and keep investing in those things,” Morrison advised.
Updated
More from Scott Morrison’s appearance in Washington
Morrison warned US lawmakers that western countries were “kidding” themselves if they thought that discussion and engagement with Beijing would change the regime’s “mindset”.
Responding to an invitation by the committee’s chairman, Republican John Moolenaar, to comment on Beijing’s infamous list of 14 complaints about Australia issued to his government, Morrison said the Communist party “fundamentally has a problem with representative democracies”.
“There are some irreconcilable differences between an authoritarian regime in China … and the activities of free and open states.
A free and open Indo-Pacific – that is a threat and a challenge to regime security in China.
And I think we have to be clear-eyed about this and not pretend that somehow it will be resolved through discussion.
Discussion is fine, engagement is good – it’s better than the alternative.
But if we think it that is going to produce change in the mindset of Beijing then we’re frankly kidding ourselves.
He said that the west had to work to avoid conflict and that “that requires deterrence and a wide-eyed appreciation of what the Chinese state is all about”.
He went on:
Even most moderate leaders like Jiang Zemin … still said that the US was looking to destroy their socialist system. They won’t change so we have to deal with that reality.
Updated
Morrison says Australia becoming less willing to resist Chinese pressure
Scott Morrison said the ability of the Australian political system to resist pressure from China was “somewhat in jeopardy” when he appeared at a hearing of the US House of Representatives committee on China in Washington overnight.
The former prime minister warned US lawmakers that it was vital for western nations to “build internal resilience” and resist what he said were attempts to interfere in politics and curb free speech.
Citing polling by the Lowy Institute, the former prime minister told US lawmakers that “for the first time in quite a number of years there is a greater value on the economic partnership with China than concerns about the security threat”.
“That is an objective of the CCP [Chinese communist party],” Morrison told the committee. “That western democracies go to sleep on the threat.”
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog, for another day of the first week of parliament’s new term. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.
Scott Morrison has warned that the ability of the Australian political system to resist pressure from China is “somewhat in jeopardy”. Giving evidence at a hearing of the US House of Representatives committee on China in Washington overnight, the former prime minister said the objective of the Chinese state was to undermine democracies and that the west had to be “clear-eyed” about the threat.
Barnaby Joyce says he has no intention of challenging David Littleproud’s leadership of the Nationals, despite taking the spotlight vowing to introduce a private member’s bill to ditch net zero. Speaking to ABC’s 7.30, he denied his political career has evolved into his “being an agent of chaos”. More coming up.
