What happened today, Thursday 18 March 2021
And so we shall leave it there for today. Here’s what went down today:
- The NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller has stood by his idea to use an app to help deal with sexual assault, saying it would be used to keep matters out of the justice system.
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Unemployment figures released today showed a drop to 5.8%, but underemployment jumped to 8.5%.
- A cut down version of the government’s industrial relations bill passed the Senate today, much slimmed down by opposition from the crossbench.
- Michael Sukkar’s media adviser resigned today, after a Tasmanian MP used parliamentary privilege to accuse him of once calling her a “meth head cunt”.
- NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian raised concerns today that the vaccination rollout was “not going to meet the target.”
- Labor MP Ed Husic lashed the government today on their failings to take seriously the threat of rightwing extremism.
- The Victorian government will consider raising raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, with new legislation put forward by the Victorian Greens.
- The Australian National University’s neuroscience research department will be shut down to save the university money, with six senior staff and their laboratory teams to be lost.
Updated
The senate report into the sports rort scandal has found that all the projects recommended by Sport Australia but rejected by then-minister Bridget McKenzie, should be funded.
The Senate Inquiry into the $100m Community Sports Infrastructure Grant program released its report today, calling for clubs that missed out because of McKenzie’s ministerial intervention, to belatedly receive the funding.
The committee found that there was “overwhelming evidence” the government used the program to gain political advantage – although Coalition senators disagreed.
You can read more on the report from Paul Karp here:
Flood watches have been issued for parts of northern NSW, all the way down to the Illawarra, as rain continues to lash the state.
More than 200mm has been recorded in parts of the state, as a coastal trough continues to deepen and intensify on the north coast, moving down to the Hunter and Sydney metropolitan areas.
But the bulk of the rain is actually still to come, with showers expected to intensify in Sydney on Saturday, which could trigger minor flooding in the Hawkesbury, Nepean and Georges River catchments.
⚠️Updated #Flood Watch issued for #MidNorthCoast, #Hunter and #Sydney. Minor to moderate and major flooding along parts of the Mid North Coast from Thursday is possible. See https://t.co/ll4gFNeEX3 for details and updates; follow advice from @NSWSES. #NSWFloods pic.twitter.com/HiVO3SMRCB
— Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales (@BOM_NSW) March 18, 2021
Road Weather Alerts have been issued for all suburbs in Sydney, with reduced visibility and flash flooding leaving road conditions dangerous. Please stay safe out there!
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Ed Husic says Coalition government failing to take rightwing extremist threat seriously
The Labor MP Ed Husic has accused the government of failing to take seriously the threat of rightwing extremism.
He has given a rousing speech to federal parliament saying Asio’s decision to change language about violent extremism followed “hectoring” from government senators who had taken exception to the term.
Husic has taken aim at the government, not at the Asio director general, Mike Burgess, who unveiled the new umbrella categories of “ideologically motivated violent extremism” and “religiously motivated violent extremism”.
It’s worth quoting from Husic’s speech at length:
When I first heard that I thought it was smart. I have enormous respect for the director general, and I have enormous gratitude for the work of Asio. But I can’t help but shake what I and other Muslims have had to live through. We abhorred what was being done by terrorists, and the murderous acts that were being done. We did call it out. We were then told by conservatives that we had to do it louder, stronger, and more regularly. I had former speaker [Bronwyn] Bishop on TV question me publicly and say she wanted to know if I had been strong enough on the issue of ‘Muslim terrorism’ ... But now when conservatives are being asked to confront an errant, ugly streak within conservatism, this is now likened to being tarred by the same brush, or, as the minister has said, ‘silly, stupid or petty’. Now the power to name is a significant power indeed and conservatives have never shirked to use that power. In any other circumstance I’d have no problem embracing the director general’s recommendation, but I look at our journey and I can’t help but think an agency that has lifted its concern level about this threat, that has dedicated 40% of its resources and effort to this issue, has now had to redefine the name of the threat just to get the government to take this issue seriously. And it begs a deeper, more serious question: Does the Coalition only take certain national security threats seriously if it’s politically convenient or comfortable to do so? I state again: I don’t care if they’re Islamist or white supremacist. If they are a threat to Australians, they are a threat to be taken seriously. And I would say to the minister and others that if we can be told to denounce Islamic violence or quit, then maybe they should denounce rightwing extremism and do the same thing if they can’t, just like the member for Canning [Andrew Hastie] recommended.”
Updated
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was also on Afternoon Briefing today, and was quizzed about whether or not the government’s workplace agenda was dead heading into a potential election this year:
The prime minister made it very clear in the press conference today, he’s passionate about creating jobs but our political opponents are not because this was a job-creating set of reforms.
That obviously was not enough, with host Patricia Karvelas saying it doesn’t look like the government was willing to fight for it:
We fought pretty hard.
I am fighting on a number of fronts but obviously this was one front that we didn’t get everything we wanted but there are other reforms I have before the Senate in my own portfolio which I am hopeful of getting through and I am engaged in discussions with crossbenchers.
Updated
And we begin with Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman, who is on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, and has been asked about the proposal from Russell Broadbent to convene a summit of women’s organisations and mandate a requirement for gender impact statements on policy and legislation.
Zimmerman said it was an “attractive proposal” at “face value”:
I haven’t seen what he’s proposing but at face value, it is an attractive proposal. We have impact statements when legislation and some other policy measures are being taken on a whole range of areas, human rights for example. I think it is worthwhile looking at whether we look at the impact of major policy decisions and legislation through that important prism as well.
Zimmerman was also quizzed about the Morrison staffer who’s resigned in light of being accused of using a slur against the leader of the Tasmanian Greens in 2019:
I think from what I have read in the reports, it was pretty extreme and vile language and he was asked to resign. I do think that that was an appropriate course of action.
Updated
Good evening everyone, and a quick thanks to Amy for another stellar day guiding us through another difficult day.
But, there is still much to get through, so let’s get stuck in.
The Senate still has some work to get through, with only a few hours left to pass legislation before it rises – and with estimates next week, it won’t sit again until May 11.
But I am going to hand you over to Mostafa Rachwani for the evening, as I go and scream into the abyss.
Thank you to everyone who followed along with me today – there is no sitting tomorrow, so I won’t be on the blog – but we will have a Guardian blog for daily news, so make sure you tune in! I’ll be back on Monday morning for more parliament (and estimates) so let’s see if we can break more coffee-drinking records.
I know it has been another rough week. To those who have struggled – we hear you. We are thinking of you. And we, like you, hope it gets better.
Until Monday – please, take extra care of you.
Updated
A “big day” for Australia – after almost three decades, people on unemployment payments will be asked to live on $44 a day, instead of $40.
Let off the confetti canons.*
*This is sarcasm.
From Anne Ruston on the bill passing: "This is a big day for Australia." pic.twitter.com/0ZmBS9CwFf
— Luke Henriques-Gomes (@lukehgomes) March 18, 2021
Updated
Also in the Senate:
Literally every single senator, Labor, Greens, every crossbencher and every government senator, just voted to call on the Prime Minister to establish a Royal Commission into veteran suicide.
— Jacqui Lambie (@JacquiLambie) March 18, 2021
The PM & the House of Reps will have to vote on the same thing next week. #vetsweforget pic.twitter.com/phQd2hCi4R
Four Corners has announced its episode for Monday. Here is the release:
On Monday Four Corners investigates how and why Brittany Higgins’ story was kept quiet for almost two years.
“It gives me the sense that there is a machine that takes care of these things.” – former senior public servant
The program examines the key questions of who knew what, and when, and whether there’s been a coverup.
“I’m really one of the only people that knows what happened and nobody has asked me anything.” – public servant
New revelations call into question statements that have been put on the public record.
“The truth does have to come out.” – public servant
With multiple inquiries under way and the government under pressure, those who have worked in the corridors of power say it is time to overturn “politics as usual”.
“I think that people in that building are hyped up on power. There’s no checks and balances and they can get away with it. It’s a place built on secrets and lies essentially.” – former coalition staffer
Updated
It does not bode well for the Centre Alliance “alliance” if its two remaining MPs can’t come to an agreement of whether or not there was an agreement.
Updated
Centre Alliance senator, Stirling Griff, has disputed MP Rebekha Sharkie’s version of events on the IR bill. Griff told Guardian Australia that “no agreement was breached”.
He noted that Centre Alliance “provides a conscience vote” to its members on every vote – so Sharkie is “entitled to a different view” but he is allowed to vote against her wishes.
The compromise reached on casuals was “discussed with her or her office”, Griff claimed. “I’ve been cooperating with her since 2016. I don’t have a conflict with her.”
Explaining his vote, Griff said that without a solution to “double-dipping” many businesses would’ve been sent broke by backpay claims.
Griff is very critical of One Nation – who he said “did the government’s bidding” by allowing wage theft to be taken out of the bill.
Updated
Mike Bowers spent a good chunk of the day watching the to-ing and fro-ing of the IR bill in the Senate – from his lens to you.
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Thérèse Rein: Women have power. We don't have to take this any more.
Thérèse Rein is asked what she thinks about what is happening right now:
I think we have a perfect storm, don’t we, of reporting of this kind of incident and it completely jags into women’s experience in the general community, hence the rage and the frustration and the outrage and the pain that we saw expressed through people marching on Monday; ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more’ is what I heard and what I personally feel.
I find it - I find myself incredulous that the issues that I and my friends were facing when we left university in the early 80s and entered the workplace, that those issues remain exactly the same now. It’s not better.
Lucy Turnbull:
That is a great disappointment.
Rein:
A huge disappointment. People are fed up with it. Women are fed up with it. As Lucy says, we hold up half the sky, women, we hold half the votes. We control most of the domestic purchasing. Some of us run companies and control other purchasing as well and increasing numbers. We have power, we have economic power, we have voting power. We don’t have to take this any more.
Updated
Lucy Turnbull is asked about Russell Broadbent’s speech today (which has been covered by Murph) where he said the Morrison government should ‘listen and learn’ to what was happening, suggesting a women’s summit be held:
I think it’s a good idea but don’t use that as a way of stalling on the implementations of the recommendations of respective work.
Don’t use that as an opportunity to stall on genuine action now.
It’s a good idea to have a summit and it’s a really good idea for this budget to look through its implications through, if you like, feminist eyes, which I don’t think has often been done in the past.
I think it would be good if this budget was assessed in terms of its impact on women, which is when we come into greater participation of women in the work force via affordable child care, etc.
There’s a whole lens through which we need to look through everything the government does and that is what impact does what the government’s doing or not doing have on 51% of the population?
We’re not a minority, not that minorities are bad but we’re 51% of the Australian people and whatever policies or new ideas they have has to be looked at through that lens. I think I was really disappointed when there was a suggestion that women could whip out $10,000 from their super to recover from domestic violence.
I think that’s punishing women twice. We have to look at this really sensibly and not just come up with kneejerk, this sounds good kind of ideas. We have to be sensible, practical and bipartisan about this.
Updated
Lucy Turnbull and Thérèse Rein are both on Afternoon Briefing speaking about why they signed a bipartisan letter from women in and around politics, asking for airtight protections for women giving evidence in the Kate Jenkins’ inquiry into the culture of parliament house.
Turnbull:
Because the things that we’ve heard from Brittany Higgins’ experience and from her mouth, so eloquently has she said that there is a systemic problem in parliament, in Parliament House, which is supposed to be – represent the leadership of the nation and set the tone for values and systems beliefs across the country.
There is a problem because it’s a very blokey place and so the idea is that Kate Jenkins’ review hears from as many people as possible so she can get to the bottom of the nature and extent of the problem and how to address and find solutions and the way to do – to encourage people to come forward is to do it on the basis that they will not – their identities will not be disclosed because some of them may not want to disclose their identities to keep their own ordeals and experiences, even traumas confidential.
We have to give them that right to confidentiality, otherwise it will deter people from coming out. It is very troubling, even if the term were for 20 years, those people may be on the cusp of becoming prime minister of Australia, either complainant or perpetrator, who is – an alleged perpetrator who might be cleared, we have to clean the whole thing up so it can’t come back to haunt them later on.
Rein:
In the first case, I think that it is critically important that the nation’s parliament be as safe and comfortable a workplace for women as for men. It is known that a pathway into learning about being an elected representative is to be a staffer.
If women are in a position where they are sexually harassed and feel afraid, then they’re not going to be able to be at their best and they’re not going to stay. We want equal representation for women at all levels of government in Australia.
For Kate Jenkins to be able to do her review, she needs frank and fearless information about what’s been happening and the scale of what has been happening so that she can make recommendations about what new systems and processes need to be put in place so that people can feel safe and confident and comfortable. I think that’s really important
Updated
West Australian premier Mark McGowan has appointed himself treasurer in his new cabinet, despite the luxury of having the broadest talent pool of any leader in the state’s history.
The former treasurer, Ben Wyatt, retired from politics at this month’s election to spend more time with his family. He and McGowan had been a double-act for the better part of a decade.
A real Hawke/Keating affair, although Wyatt got his leadership aspirations out of his system in 2011, before McGowan took the helm.
The health minister, Roger Cook, and transport minister, Rita Saffioti, had been reckoned by political watchers in Perth to be frontrunners for the position but both have retained their old portfolios in the reshuffle announced today.
Stephen Dawson has been swapped out of environment and been given Wyatt’s other portfolio of Aboriginal affairs, meaning he will be responsible for shepherding the new Aboriginal heritage laws brokered by the Yamatji man through three years of negotiations into the parliament.
Wyatt and Dawson worked together on the world heritage campaign for Murujuga. Environment and climate change has gone to Amber-Jade Sanderson, a former parliamentary secretary to McGowan.
And Paul Papalia has picked up the police portfolio, with the former police minister, Michelle Roberts, named parliament’s first female speaker.
Updated
Berejiklian raises concerns about vaccine rollout: 'We are not going to meet the target'
Greg Hunt said he hadn’t seen these comments, so just for him: Gladys Berejiklian has concerns with the vaccination program rollouts, and what it could mean for NSW meeting its October vaccination deadline (via AAP):
Almost 400,000 Australians have visited a website to check their eligibility for the AstraZeneca vaccine, but thousands were unable to access the site while GPs have been inundated with calls from anxious patients trying to book appointments.
“What is occurring now isn’t surprising to me or the NSW government,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“We put our views forward some time ago on what we think should happen ... we need to be able to step up ... and be involved in the process,” she said.
NSW Health has already vaccinated almost 45,000 people.
“If we’re serious about vaccinating 6 million NSW people by the end of October, we need to have everybody on board,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“All the GPs, pharmacists, and also all of the hundreds of NSW Health hubs as well, otherwise we’re not going to reach the target.”
Updated
Action on Andrew Hudgson should have been taken sooner, Jacqui Lambie says
Daniel McCulloch from AAP has put together what everyone has been saying today about Michael Sukkar’s recently resigned staffer, Andrew Hudgson:
Scott Morrison has suggested a Liberal staffer sacked for verbally abusing a female political opponent used vile language on other occasions.
Federal government adviser Andrew Hudgson lost his job after being accused of yelling a horrendous slur at Tasmanian Greens leader Cassy O’Connor in 2019, while he was working for the premier.
The Department of Premier and Cabinet investigated the incident and could not substantiate the claim.
Mr Hudgson was subsequently moved to the office of federal frontbencher Michael Sukkar.
Ms O’Connor raised the incident under parliamentary privilege in the Tasmanian parliament on Wednesday night.
Mr Hudgson was then asked to resign.
The prime minister was asked why Mr Hudgson lost his job, while Defence Minister Linda Reynolds remained in cabinet, despite making a similarly vile slur against alleged rape survivor Brittany Higgins.
Mr Morrison was asked how he chose what language constituted a sackable offence.
“The particularly vile language that was expressed by that staffer - not on one occasion, is my understanding - this only very recently came to our attention,” he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
“We dealt with this over the last couple of days, as I think you’d expect us to.”
Liberal minister Jane Hume said the staffer’s resignation demonstrated the power of the past week in federal parliament, which has been dominated by questions around sexual harassment and abuse in politics.
“So many women have found their voices and have the courage to stand up and say this behaviour is not okay,” she told ABC radio.
“That’s a good thing, that’s a change that we needed to have.”
Mr Hudgson has been employed by various state and federal Liberals over many years.
Tasmanian independent senator Jacqui Lambie said while an in-house state government investigation cleared Mr Hudgson of any wrongdoing, that was not good enough.
“If you think by moving these people around this sort of behaviour is not going to catch up with them, especially now, I think would be terribly, terribly wrong,” she told Sky News.
“It’s been called out a few years ago and he should have been moved on then, action should have been taken early on, not him just moved on and moved up through the federal Liberal Party.”
His resignation comes during a time of intense scrutiny on workplace cultures in federal parliament.
Updated
Mike Bowers was in question time today, here is his take.
Updated
Linda Burney explains why Labor has voted to support the jobseeker bill:
This bill needs to pass tonight. If it doesn’t, 1.3 million Australians on JobSeeker will be pushed on to the old JobSeeker rate. Labor will not be party to cruel stunts or games of chicken with people’s lives.
— Linda Burney MP (@LindaBurneyMP) March 18, 2021
Here is what Ged Kearney said before question time:
Three years ago almost to the day I won a hard-fought by-election.
The battle brought out some very undesirable tactics from supporters - I admit on both sides. A number of rallies were held during the election.
Placards with my face, in fact corflutes of mine, that had been stolen for the purpose were defaced, painted over.
Markings drawn across my face, pig faces and the like were added, witch-like additions made, horrible slogans plastered on them.
These were carried through the streets at various rallies, chants about me were called.
Words calling me a baby killer, sprawled across the shopfront.
One poster attached to a pole outside the front door said, “open season on politicians” with a picture implying I was fair game to be shot.
This issue is an incredibly important conversation.
It is one of unquestioning solidarity and sisterhood from me and my Labor sisters to all women across the political divide.
In fact for all women in all workplaces who deserve to be safe.
Nurses should not be abused at work.
Shop assistants deserve respect.
Hospitality workers should not be groped.
So many of us have experienced the sexualised the comments, the insults, the obsession with our bodies and our private lives and expectation of sexual favours.
The collective feminist tradition of the Labor party is what gives the women in it the strength to push through this bigoted hateful nonsense, improve the conversations and impose better standards.
We need to fight together alongside each other against woman hating everywhere.
If this is happening to one, it is happening to us all.
Updated
ANU's neuroscience research department to be shut down
I’ve just spoken with the head of the Australian National University’s neuroscience research, Prof Greg Stuart.
The department received the shock news on Wednesday that it was to be shut down to save the university money.
Six senior staff and their laboratory teams will be lost.
Stuart said staff and students have been left in shock.
He is head of the Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, which is named after the ANU’s first Nobel prize winner, neurophysiologist Sir John Eccles.
The department is relatively small and only costs the university roughly $1m, he said. That was far outweighed by the revenue it provides through undergraduate and postgraduate courses and research grants.
Stuart said the value the department brought to the university could not be quantified.
“To some extent, you can’t even put a number on it, because we’re talking about the loss of expertise, the loss of prestige, the loss of reputation, and a legacy which, once it’s gone, it’s gone,” he told the Guardian.
He met with the vice chancellor Brian Schmidt on Wednesday and said the university was attempting to find other solutions.
The university has been under significant financial pressure due to Covid-19, last year’s damaging hailstorm in Canberra, and last season’s bushfires.
It told staff that while neuroscience research at the university was of high quality, it was “not at a scale that enables it to be competitive with larger and more comprehensive centres of brain research elsewhere”.
Updated
Question time comes to an end.
As does my patience with this week.
Jim Chalmers to Scott Morrison:
Can the prime minister confirm that if he had not given jobkeeper funds to businesses that didn’t need it, he would be able to continue supporting hundreds of thousands of workers who still need help? Why does his government subsidise the strong but sacrifice the weak?
Morrison:
Mr Speaker, much to the chagrin of the deputy shadow treasurer, Mr Speaker, I can confirm that 88,700 new jobs were created in February, Mr Speaker. I can confirm today, Mr Speaker, that as a result of the policies that this government put in place that gave a lifeline to Australians, in their greatest hour of need, Mr Speaker, over the course of this year, the million people, Mr Speaker, who lost their jobs, they’re getting their jobs back under the policies of this government, Mr Speaker.
I know on this side of the House, we know how to put policies in place that get people back into work. 1.5 million people came back to work during the course of our government prior to the pandemic, Mr Speaker.
And, Mr Speaker, when 1 million people were forced out of work because of the pandemic, this government showed up, we didn’t take an each-way bet on the measures, Mr Speaker, our government was all in for jobs.
We remain all in for jobs for the Australian people, Mr Speaker. While the Labor party continues, day after day, Mr Speaker, to undermine and whittle and gnaw away at the edges of every single positive measure this government seeks to put in place. It’s a year ago today, it’s a year ago today that the biosecurity act measures were put in place by the governor-general in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic.
And a year later, a year later - there are more jobs today in the Australian economy than there were, Mr Speaker, when we went into this pandemic.
Now, that is a ringing endorsement of the Coalition’s economic policies, of the Coalition’s precise and timely action that has seen this Australian economy through its worst period since the great depression.
We got no support from those opposite, Mr Speaker.
All we got from those opposite was an each-way bet, Mr Speaker.
On one hand they support it, on the other hand, they undermine it. All over the shop. We couldn’t rely on Labor’s support, Mr Speaker. The public can’t support - can’t rely on Labor’s support, Mr Speaker.
The government has been delivering and had the back of Australians all through this crisis. Thank goodness they didn’t have to rely on Labor, because they’re completely unreliable.
Updated
Scott Morrison now needs a lozenge.
There’s a lot of emotion in the chamber today.
Perhaps men are just too emotional to be leaders.
Andrew Leigh to Scott Morrison (but Josh Frydenberg takes it)
My question is to the prime minister: How much of the taxpayer money used to fund jobkeeper has been spent on executive bonuses?
Frydenberg:
Well, Mr Speaker, what has the member for Fenner got against profitable companies, Mr Speaker? What has he got against jobkeeper?
Now, decisions ... decisions by businesses about decisions by businesses about remuneration are matters for them. But this side of the parliament supported the jobkeeper payment because it was an economic lifeline ... for Australians.
And those on the opposite side purported to support the jobkeeper payment. And we know that from the RBA it helped support and save more than 700,000 jobs. Now, Mr Speaker, we know that jobkeeper has been an economic lifeline. We know it’s coming to an end. And we know those opposite always want to take an each-way bet.
I’m not sure defending multimillion dollar companies using taxpayer funds for bonuses is the smartest strategy – and history shows it didn’t play out too well when it came to defending the banks before the banking royal commission. Also, it’s amazing how renumeration matters are a matter for businesses, when they are using taxpayer funds, but for some reason, we need to police people on what they can spend their welfare on, through the cashless debit card.
Seems totally fair.
Updated
The government is working very, very hard on the “each way bet” line for Labor – Josh Frydenberg has now adopted it.
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Also in the Senate
This is the problem with people getting overexcited about motions saying "jobseeker should be higher" (which Labor supported) - you have to look at how the parties vote on the actual bills that change the law. Labor opposed bigger increase all week.https://t.co/jCDUrwkcj6
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) March 18, 2021
Rebekha Sharkie: 'I cannot support a package that doesn’t include wage theft provisions for workers'
Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie has revealed she did NOT support the position her party-mate senator Stirling Griff took on the IR bill.
She said:
“My colleague and I had agreed that we would only support two parts of the omnibus bill and only if both the business community and the unions were in agreement,” Rebekha said.
“Those parts related to the definition of casual workers and harsher penalties for wage theft.
“We supported the amendments proposed and agreed upon by the ACTU and Council of Small Business Organisations Australia.
“Those amendments did not pass and consequently Stirling voted in a manner that I do not support.
“I simply cannot support any IR reform that is not supported by both Cosboa and the unions.
“I cannot support a package that doesn’t include wage theft provisions for workers.
“Where this landed is totally unacceptable. The government’s decision not to support an agreement by Cosboa and the unions was completely wrong so I categorically will not be supporting an amended bill in my chamber.”
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Mark Dreyfus to Scott Morrison:
The prime minister has said that the attorney general would not perform certain functions of his office. If the prime minister intends to allow the attorney general to resume his duties without an independent inquiry into sexual assault allegations, will the attorney general retain responsibility for defamation law reform?
Morrison:
I said in the House yesterday and I will repeat again today, we have sought advice from the solicitor general involving these matters. And I will await the advice from the solicitor general and that will inform our decision about how we’ll be able to address the issues the member has just raised.
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Patrick Gorman to Scott Morrison:
Yesterday the prime minister confirmed he had sought the advice of the solicitor general about the attorney general’s portfolio responsibilities. Why is it that the prime minister doesn’t ask the solicitor general about an independent investigation into the allegations of serious sexual assault but does ask the solicitor general about how the attorney general can keep his job?
Morrison:
Well, thank you, Mr Speaker. They’re two separate matters. The second matter relates to the conduct of business by the attorney general when he returns to his duties at the end of this month and given the fact he’s bringing forward a defamation action, indeed, against the ABC, Mr Speaker, which is also a government agency, it is important to understand where possible conflicts may arise and so we have sought legal advice to that end, Mr Speaker.
On the other matter, Mr Speaker, it is not in contemplation for the government to enter into such an extrajudicial inquiry and nor have I received advice from my department, that’s something I would need to seek advice from the solicitor general on in relation to that matter.
They’re two separate issues, Mr Speaker. We believe in the rule of law in this country and that’s how we’re dealing with that matter, Mr Speaker.
And I have already, during the course of this week, indicated that if that had been our practice, Mr Speaker, that wouldn’t be the first extrajudicial inquiry we would have got involved in, we would have done one on a Labor member, Mr Speaker, long before this*.
We didn’t think that was the right response on that occasion either, Mr Speaker.
*Again, the difference between the police investigation into Bill Shorten, who is the member Scott Morrison is referring to here, and Christian Porter, is that there *was* a police investigation into Shorten. It went for 10 months, and Shorten was interviewed and a brief was prepared for the Victorian DPP, which said there was not enough evidence to bring the matter to prosecution. The complainant’s case can be re-opened at any time, if there is new evidence. In Porter’s case, NSW police closed the matter without investigating, when the complainant died. There was no investigation. The “rule of law” didn’t get off the ground.
Updated
Cut down IR bill passes Senate
The industrial relations omnibus bill - much slimmed down, now only relating to casual employment - has now passed the Senate by 35 votes to 33.
In the flurry of amendments, some of the crossbench compromises appear to have been abandoned or failed:
- Centre Alliance did not win its bid to restrict reductions in liability for misclassified casuals to future cases only; and
- One Nation appears to have abandoned its amendment halving the wait time for casual conversion from 12 months to 6.
Under the slimmed-down bill, employers will benefit from a new definition of casual employment and reduced liability for misclassifying casuals, while casual employees gain a stronger right to request permanent work.
Updated
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Thirty days ago the prime minister told this house, he asked his former chief of staff, one of the few people he has ever shown empathy for, to review what his office knew about the reported sexual assault of Brittany Higgins metres from where he works. Why is this report about the prime minister’s staff taking so long, and will the prime minister release this report when it is received?
Tony Smith makes Albanese take out the bit about “empathy”. He does.
Peter Dutton then jumps up as (acting) leader of the House:
Clearly the first part of that is out of order, because it is not within the prime minister’s responsibility to comment on behalf of the head of his department ...
Labor is in absolute uproar that the prime minister is not responsible for the head of his department.
Tony Burke:
In terms of administration, if there is any part of the administration of government that the prime minister should have a level of responsibility for, it is the head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. We have previously had questions about all parts of the bureaucracy. If the head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is out of order, then there’s actually not much you’re allowed to ask about.
Tony Smith allows the question.
Morrison:
I indicated to the House before and I indicated again today, the work is being done by the secretary of my department. It’s been done at arm’s length from me, I have no involvement in that process, nor should I.
The secretary should conduct his inquiries as he sees fit and without any interference or involvement from me as prime minister.
That would be highly inappropriate. Now, he’s not provided me with a further update about when I may expect that report. But I have no doubt the opposition can ask questions of him in Senate estimates next week, which is the appropriate place where the matters can be raised with the secretary of my department.
Yet again, Mr Speaker, we see in the rather personal sledging way in the leader of the opposition asking this question.
He wishes to get into this, he wishes to get into this, whether it’s on myself, Mr Speaker, on indeed trying to undermine the credibility of the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. He’s undertaken personal attackers on this, which is his form, Mr Speaker.
It’s his form, Mr Speaker.
Because, Mr Speaker, on our side of the house, we’ll take a different approach. We’ll appoint people as secretaries of the departments, Mr Speaker, because of their credibility for those jobs. So whether it’s secretary Pezzullo, Mr Speaker, or former secretary - who once sat in Kim Beazley’s office, fine public servants, fine secretaries, secretary Kennedy, Mr Speaker, who worked indeed for the last Labor government, Mr Speaker, a fine public servant, doing a fine job, Mr Speaker. Now, we’ll put people in those jobs, Mr Speaker, because they have the credibility and the experience ... and the professional expertise to do those jobs.
In the last 12 months, Mr Speaker, our public servants have done an extraordinary job in supporting our government, whether it’s been through the border Force and the work done by secretary Pezzullo, Mr Speaker, or secretary Kennedy and the amazing job that he has done to support the treasurer and I, in putting together jobkeeper, and secretary Gaetjens, who led the public service through one of the most important times in the commonwealth’s history.
If the leader of the opposition wants to get himself into a character assessment, and a character ... if the leader of the opposition wants to get into a character assessment contest with the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Mr Speaker, he – he won’t come up very well on that one, Mr Speaker.
And he’s saying he wants to be in a character assessment test with me, Mr Speaker. I’m happy to accept that challenge, Mr Speaker.
I’m happy to have my character as an individual in this place, Mr Speaker, and in my personal conduct, matched against this leader of the opposition Any. Day. Of. The. Week.
That last sentence is delivered with emphatic full stops and Morrison is so cranky, he spins away from the opposition benches as soon as he sits down.
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Sadly, Josh Frydenberg is still suffering from the dreaded LinkedIn virus. He might also need a lozenge. Or at least help with understanding that microphones amplify sounds, and therefore, you don’t have to yell into them, because they already increase the volume for you.
We remain ever hopeful that one day, we’ll get there.
Tanya Plibersek to Scott Morrison:
Has the prime minister as chief of staff and principal private secretary been interviewed by his former chief of staff Mr Gaetjens about their knowledge of the reported sexual assault of Brittany Higgins?
Morrison:
Those inquiries are being made by the secretary of my department, the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Mr President, those matters are a matter for the secretary.
I don’t involve myself in the investigations or inquiries ... that the secretary is making independently of me or my office, Mr Speaker.
That is something that is a matter for him and, in fact, Mr Speaker, if I was involved in that process, that would be highly inappropriate. Highly inappropriate, Mr Speaker.
But I note, Mr Speaker, the way that the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is referred to in this place as if there is no secretary of a department, Mr Speaker, who has ever worked on any other side of politics. I would invite the leader of the opposition and the members opposite to accord our department’s secretaries the respect to which they are entitled to.
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Michael Sukkar gives us the spectacular line:
The funding has not been cut. The funding ceases
in answer to a question, and really, it’s the laugh we all needed.
Or it would be, if we weren’t talking about homelessness and if the minister speaking on it didn’t twist himself into knots trying to address a very serious issue of funding - and why it never seems to be a priority.
Catherine King to Scott Morrison:
On Monday Brittany Higgins stood out the front of this parliament and she said, “I watched as the prime minister of Australia publicly apologised to me through the media while privately his media team actively undermined and discredited my loved ones.” How can the prime minister hear a serious allegation from Brittany Higgins about appalling actions by his own staff and refuse to even check if it is true?
Morrison:
I already have addressed this matter, Mr Speaker.
Here is what Morrison said on Monday, the one time he (passively) engaged with the question:
I’ve no knowledge of that and I would never instruct that. I would never instruct such a thing. I would never do that. The apology that I offered in this place to Brittany Higgins was sincere and was genuine, and I’m happy to restate it.
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I don’t know what has happened in the last few minutes. I’m too busy trying to find a will to continue after being forced to sit through the fourth Michael McCormack dixer this week. Each has been worse than the last, which, coincidentally appears to be the same thing you can say about the rankings of deputy prime ministers
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Catherine King:
Given it has been 72 hours since Brittany Higgins told the women’s March 4 Justice the Prime Minister’s Office had sought to undermine her loved ones. I ask has the prime minister asked his staff if this is true? If not, why not?
Scott Morrison for the third time this week:
I have nothing further to add to the answer I provided yesterday and I refer the minister to the answer.
If you can’t go back that far, Morrison on Monday denied asking his staff to background, but did not say whether or not he checked if they did.
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For a sanity break, and a palette cleanser from Mr ‘I got here on ‘merit’ dontchaknow, here is Russell Broadbent, who does actually manage to think through an issue before opening his mouth. Must be why he’s on the backbench.
As Murph reports:
The veteran Victorian Liberal Russell Broadbent has written to Scott Morrison urging him to convene a summit of women’s peak organisations and mandate a requirement for gender impact statements on all policy and legislation in the wake of Monday’s March 4 Justice.
Broadbent has also implored his parliamentary colleagues to “be quiet, listen and learn” and to be “responsible and accountable” to tens of thousands of Australian women who protested against gender-based violence and harassment on Monday.
The government MP’s pointed intervention follows sustained criticism of the prime minister for choosing not to attend Canberra’s March 4 Justice rally. Morrison has also been criticised for not reading a statement sent to him by friends of the now deceased woman who alleged the attorney general Christian Porter raped her when they were both teenagers in 1988 – an allegation Porter categorically denies.
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The current deputy prime minister is going through his acronym bit again and managing to suck what little motivation I have for not only question time, but life.
Like mould on stale bread, he just won’t stop.
The RAI, headed up by Liz Ritchie has identified 64,000 jobs in regional Australia right now – and they are good jobs, good-paying jobs – not just in agriculture and resources and those sectors that are so important and vibrant to regional Australia, but indeed in law firms, in accountancy practices, in health, hospitality.
So many areas of endeavour in regional Australia that are crying out for people to come to those regions and take those jobs to have a better lifestyle. Have a family home where they can live like a king or a queen. Have a big backyard. Have a swimming pool. Have a three-car lock-up garage. There are opportunities in regional Australia like never before.
There is no region in this hemisphere far enough to escape his mediocrity.
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Nicolle Flint gets the first dixer, and the prime minister starts his answer with:
I thank the Member for Boothby for her question and can I thank her for her courage that has been on display in this chamber each and every day, Mr President, and certainly in these most recent days, but none greater than the courage she showed at the last election.
When she went to that election and she faced that torrent, Mr President, she did so for many reasons and one of the reasons was, she believes in Australians getting jobs.
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Question time begins
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Does the prime minister now admit that his industrial relations changes fails to meet the basic tests of providing secure jobs and decent pay. Is this is why he had to cut his own bill in the Senate today?
Morrison:
No. The bill that we introduced, including the measures he just referred to, were going to be voted against by the Labor party. They opposed the whole bill. They were imposing interesting tougher penalties to defer the matter under payments to employees.
They told us very clearly that they did not want to support these measures. Now they say they do want to support these measures. Do you know that sounds like? That sounds like an each way bet. That sounds like another each way back from the Labor party. They want to oppose it, they don’t want to supporter, they want to oppose it, Mr Speaker. It is a game of tennis. What is his next move?
Albanese:
Each way is putting up legislation and then moving amendments to get your own legislation. That is what he just said!
Peter Dutton:
That is an abuse of the standing orders, there is no point of order at all. All there is a guy trying to show up to his union bosses who are in the House.
Tony Smith:
Whenever anyone rises on a point of order, I’m directing this your way, leader of the opposition, when someone arises on a point of order they need to state the point of order. I won’t put up with frivolous points of order. I also won’t put up with people complaining about frivolous points of order by making them themselves. I hope that is clear. I think we just let the prime minister answer the question. The prime minister.
Morrison:
The government sought to put measures into this parliament that would create more jobs. That is what we sought to do. The Labor party opposed all of those measures, all those measures, including those they now pretend to support. You can’t have an each way bet on this.
That is what this leader of the Labor party is famous for. We will pursue measures through the parliament, Mr Speaker.
And on a day when Australians learned that there are more jobs now in the Australian economy than there were before the pandemic, we’re not going to give up on continuing to create even more jobs.
Even if the Labor party is not as passionate about creating jobs as the Coalition government is. Even though it was this government that saw 1.5m jobs created because of the policies put in place but as government, and those jobs and more have returned. There’s more to do and we will stand up for jobs each and every day. The leader of the Labor party and the Labor party have demonstrated they are against job creation by opposing policies that support job creation.
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Before question time, we heard a lot from women MPs detailing the abuse they have suffered, during election campaigns, and during the course of doing their jobs.
Politicians receive a lot of abuse. Women politicians receive an extra layer of vitriol. Add in being a person of colour, or a religion which is not the dominant one in Australia, and you have abuse you couldn’t even imagine.
It all needs to stop.
Mark Butler responded to Greg Hunt’s “please have patience” calls by saying the government had botched the roll out:
With a vaccine rollout strategy already so far behind schedule, the last thing we needed was the chaos and the dysfunction we saw yesterday with the release of the national booking system.
We have seen reports all through the last 24 hours of GP practices being announced a newspaper without knowing, practices being announced as vaccine locations in a newspaper, but not included on the Department of Health website.
Patients by their thousands reporting to electorate offices and media outlets about trying to build a vaccination, not being able to get through, being told the books are closed from the practices they have contacted and even when they are on the books of a particular practice, been told to ring back as much as one month later. So the last thing we needed was fuel on the fire of this chaos.
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Change the Record is also on board with the legislation the Victorian parliament is being asked to consider, which would raise the age of criminal responsibility.
Co-chair Cheryl Axleby said:
The evidence is clear. The earlier a child has contact with the criminal justice system, the more likely they are to reoffend. That’s why it’s in the child’s and the community’s interest for the Victorian Government to invest in therapeutic and culturally safe pathways to divert young people away from the criminal justice system, and invest in programs that support families, engage kids with school and work, and keep young people connected to culture and country.
There is so much work to do to end the discrimination and injustice faced by our people. Repealing the public drunkenness laws, lead by the courageous Day family, was one important step forward. Raising the age of criminal responsibility and keeping our children out of police and prison cells would be another step in the right direction.”
There have been 19 cases of anaphylaxis after people received the vaccine, Greg Hunt says, which is in line with global expectations (and the people who had reactions have a history of allergic reactions).
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Labor to endorse Marion Scrymgour as preselected candidate for Lingiari
Anthony Albanese has announced Marion Scrymgour will be endorsed as the preselected ALP candidate for Lingiari after Warren Snowden announced he would not be recontesting the next electio.
Albanese:
Marion Scrymgour is an inspirational woman and will be an exceptional candidate for Lingiari in the Northern territory.
I welcome and celebrate her preselection as Labor’s candidate following the retirement of the current member, my good mate Warren Snowdon. Marion was preselected with overwhelming support in a rank and file ballot of the Northern Territory Australian Labor party.
Scrygmour was the Labor party deputy chief minister of the Northern Territory from November 2007 until February 2009, and was the highest-ranked Indigenous woman in government in Australia’s history, as well as being the first Indigenous woman to be elected to the NT parliament.
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Greg Hunt is holding a press conference with deputy chief medical officer, professor Michael Kidd, about the roll out of the 1b vaccination plan - and again, asks for patience.
There have been issues: as Elias Visontay and Chris Knaus have reported, the industry was expecting the rollout from Monday. Instead, it was announced by the government through select media on Wednesday. Clinics seemed to be taken by surprise, and there has been enough frustration that everyone from the government, to the royal college of GPs have had to ask for calm.
Hunt:
This is a marathon, not a sprint. I am very pleased that we have had high public interest, which has always been the case with every phase of the pandemic.
When something is announced, there is very high public interest and that [is normal] but as we set out today, bookings have been occurring around the country with numerous examples of bookings that are in place and as these vaccines arrive, the practices are feeling more comfortable so expect practices to have the vaccines, as was always the case, by the middle of the weekend.
It looks like we will be ahead of schedule with a delivery with the vast majority, if not all, receiving them today and tomorrow.
Updated
Calla Wahlquist wrote a post on this a little earlier - the Victorian parliament will be asked to consider raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14,
Save the Children’s Matt Gardiner says its something the federal government needs to address. The deadline to provide a formal response to the human rights council after it was recently lashed for making children criminally responsible at age 10, is due 12 April.
Gardiner:
Save the Children strongly supports raising the criminal age of responsibility from 10 to 14 and we encourage all sides to move on this in unity.
No 10-year-old should ever end up behind bars.
In January, 31 countries across the globe recommended Australian governments to finally raise the age at the UN Human Rights Council.
The clear message was that we need to be supporting children – we should not be criminalising and jailing them. This bill would give effect to those recommendations.
We know that the younger a child is when they are first sentenced, the more likely they are to reoffend, including as an adult, and the severity of their offending is also likely to increase.
The simple but important step of raising the age would go a long way to breaking the cycle of disadvantage.”
The age of criminal responsibility across the world:
* Australia - 10
* Canada, the Netherlands, Scotland - 12
* Germany, Italy, Spain - 14
* Denmark, Greece, Norway, Sweden - 15
* Portugal - 16
* Brazil, Uruguay - 18
Updated
And the wage theft provisions are out of the IR bill.
(To be fair, Labor was voting against the entire package already)
They did it. Pauline Hanson, the Liberals and the Nats all vote together to delete every penalty for wage theft. They just let employers who deliberately underpay off the hook. Thanks to them there are no federal penalties for wage theft.#auspol
— Tony Burke (@Tony_Burke) March 18, 2021
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Q: Treasurer, we have heard about the 50,000-plus regional vacancies for a long time and it has been repeated again today. What practically can you do about this? Your scheme to relocate people has not been successful. Do you need to look at new visa arrangements for people already here or what other initiatives have you in mind to attack this?
Josh Frydenberg:
There are definitely labour force issues and workforce issues around the country. The fact that the jobseeker payment is tapering down and that we have moved to a $50-a-fortnight permanent increase - it was higher as an elevated level, Michelle, obviously during the pandemic.
Now we also have put in increased mutual obligations and I think the combination of that, together with the end of jobkeeper, will see more labour mobility across the economy.
With respect to visas and the prime minister referenced this in the context of his AFR business speech recently. We are going to be looking to obviously at first opportunity bring the skills into the country that we can and there is a great opportunity for Australia to do that.
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Q: How important are the elements of the IR bill which have been dropped? Is it so important that you need to take it back to parliament and fight for it again and is it so important that you would take it to the next election?
Scott Morrison:
Well, look, it is still being dealt with in the Senate now. I think we will just wait to see the outcome of that process. I always have gone into this process on these changes, on the basis that I thought they could play an important role in assisting the recovery in Australia.
I believe they would and I do believe we do need them now, but there are many in the Senate, and the Labor party in particular who don’t share my and the treasurer’s passion for creating jobs, so they are working against the government as we are seeking to create jobs.
I am a practical person, too.
That means if this Senate is saying they don’t wish to support those measures, then we will have to consider that in terms of how we go forward because I will send them other things to approve. I will send them other job-making initiatives they can support.
If those don’t want to support these job-making initiatives, that is on them. If they don’t want to create jobs as much as the government does, then they need to answer to that.
Q: Has Christian Porter as industrial relations minister, has he done enough to explain to the crossbench why these IR changes are important?
Morrison:
Christian Porter was working on these matters in countless hours of consultations with employers and unions.
You know, as I said back at the Press Club last year, we will give that a go. We will bring everybody together.
We will get them around the table. We will seek to come up with a sensible package of changes in this area and that is what we did in good faith.
I think it demonstrates that still in this country, even when you do that, even when you engage in good faith, the obstruction that we are seeing in the Senate and from the Labor party seeks to overcome that good faith.
I think that reflects badly on those who haven’t sought to support that process. We have engaged in this in good faith. We have put forward sensible, modest measures that we think can make a real difference.
Now, the crossbench and the Senate and others, if they want to reject that and the Labor party in particular, well that is a matter for them, but it won’t defer us from seeking to create more jobs.
This government has a strong record of job creation and achieve it because we work in partnership with businesses, with employees right across the country because they are the heroes of these job numbers.
It is people who have gone out to get those jobs and it is the Australians in businesses who have created those jobs that has produced this incredibly encouraging result for Australia at this difficult time.
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You can always tell when Scott Morrison is about to leave a press conference - his body language is that obvious.
He is asked about the issues with the vaccination program so far and launches into a monologue of how well it is going, but the fidgeting starts, which is how you know he is about to leave.
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Issue of 'vile language' expressed by staffer has been dealt with, Morrison says
Scott Morrison is asked about Michael Sukkar’s staffer, Andrew Hudgson, losing his job after calling the Tasmanian Greens leader, Cassy O’Connor a horrendous slur, while he was working for the Tasmanian premier in February 2019.
The Department of Premier and Cabinet investigated the incident and could not substantiate the claims, and Hudgson subsequently moved to Sukkar’s office.
O’Connor raised the issue under parliamentary privilege in the Tasmanian parliament on Wednesday night.
Hudgson resigned overnight.
Morrison is asked how he lost his job, but Linda Reynolds, who was forced to apologise and retract a slur she called her former staffer Brittany Higgins on the same day Higgins went public with her rape allegations, remains in the cabinet.
How does Morrison decide what language is a fireable response and what is not?
The particularly vile language that was expressed by that staffer, not on one occasion it is my understanding – and this only recently came to our attention – we dealt with this over the past few days as I expect you would, as I expect you would expect us to.
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We get another ‘move to the regions if you want work’ moment.
Scott Morrison:
If these programs go beyond what have been their effective period can start to hold the economy back. It can create problems in the mobility of the labour force.
We have got tens of thousands of jobs in the latest job vacancy data coming through.
They are continuing to rise.
As the deputy prime minister will tell you if you give him half a second, more than 50,000 jobs in regional jobs are out there. There are jobs out there being created every day and we will keep creating those jobs and that is what people can look forward to going forward that in the position where they may be in a business if they don’t find themselves in the same job at the conclusion of jobkeeper then this economy is creating jobs for them to move into.
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Scott Morrison on the Ownership Matters survey showing how many profitable companies received jobkeeper and whether they should return the taxpayer funds they received:
I have always said that is a matter for those companies and many have and I commend them for doing so. Let’s not forget what jobkeeper was doing. I mean, I would rather have profitable companies than non-profitable companies. A profitable company is putting people in work.
A profitable company is putting investment into the economy. Those resources find their way into the economy.
That is what jobkeeper was doing. It is the single largest economic policy that any government in our history has ever put into the system and it has saved Australian jobs. It has saved the Australian economy.
I am absolutely certain that jobkeeper has saved livelihoods in this country and so it has been a tremendously successful program, but even tremendously successful programs must gear into the next phase and that is where we are heading now.
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“Our plan is working, Treasurer,” Scott Morrison says, in a grab just for the cameras.
“We need to stick to the plan. Treasurer.”
Josh Frydenberg uses his calm and considered serious voice to talk about how great things are and how wonderful the government response has been. This is different to his calm, but understanding voice, which is deployed when the numbers are bad. The difference is how long of a pause he leaves between each word.
Scott Morrison press conference
The drop in unemployment – down to 5.8% in today’s labour force figures, means we’re hearing about the “comeback” again – the market research term the government has been using non-stop since about November.
Morrison:
It has been an extraordinary year in Australia’s fightback in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
While it has been an absolutely terrible year, a year of uncertainty, of hardship, of terrible loss here in Australia, but frankly all around the world and in so many parts of the world that loss still runs on, it accelerates, it devastates.
But while all of that is true in Australia we have seen one of the most remarkable performances of Australians in our Australian economy that we have seen. In less than 12 months from when the recession began, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, there are now more jobs in the Australian economy than there were before the pandemic.
That is something that is truly remarkable and is a great credit to every Australian who hung in there, every Australian business who kept people in jobs, everyone who played a role in ensuring that we did everything that we possibly could to see that Australia continues to come through this Covid-19 pandemic and recession in the best way that we possibly can.
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Greg Hunt has reserved the Blue Room for 1.20 for his press conference.
The government has ended the debate on what is left on its IR legislation. Paul Karp is in the chamber for the division votes.
Updated
We are still waiting for the prime minister to step out into the PM’s courtyard for his press conference.
It looks like it is about to absolutely bucket down with rain here in Capital Hill, so this should be fun.
In case it needs to be stated: you can consent to one thing without consenting to all things.
You can withdraw consent at any time – any time – you want.
You can be abused when you are unable to consent.
You can be coerced into something you don’t want to do.
You can be made to feel that saying yes, or at least not saying no, is the only way you will make it out safely.
Fight, flight, freeze and fawn are all legitimate fear responses, and if you’re having a fear response, you’re in a situation where you don’t feel safe – you’ve had your control taken from you.
An app is not going to address this issue.
What it will do though, is give those few cases which do go through the justice system an even harder time of being successfully prosecuted.
You don’t need an app.
You need to address why so many people feel entitled to railroad over it.
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Here is NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller not backing down on his ridiculous idea of an app for consent. I am not even going to pretend that this is something worth examining. Anyone who has an inkling of how power works knows this is not a good idea.
I think it starts the debate. People have mixed emotions on how the about would work. For mine, the app keeps people out of the justice system. It is not about how it would work in the justice system.
We know the journey in the justice system is such a difficult one for victims and they are challenged heavily - and that could be right, they are sometimes cross-examined by the actual potential offender - and we know it is a traumatic event and we have to explain that to victims before they go on the journey.
We know the percentage of success we are having with these cases is so low as well, but can technology bring people together and find love? Clearly, it is. Is it perhaps an avenue in terms of trying to bring clarity and some respect to women?
Q: How would the app work in terms of consent and can you see the argument where it could be construed that you have consent...
Look, again for mine, I would hope that the app stops matters going into the justice system ...
If you have a 2% rate of the prosecutions that are only 10% of the matters, then we are failing both ways, right. There are potentially young men being brought to justice over issues of consent. It is such a vexed issue.
The app in a sense, I am hoping technology, whether it is an app or something else, will save matters going into the justice system because there is clarity that this is just dinner or just a date. If you do too much, which we have all done and people out there do take drugs and you are unconscious, that is not consent.
Mick Mick Fuller stands by sexual assault app, saying it could 'keep people out of justice system'
The New South Wales police commissioner Mick Fuller has stood by his idea to use an app to help deal with sexual assault, but clarified that he believes it could be used to keep matters out of the justice system rather than an evidence tool.
Despite Fuller’s plan, first floated in an opinion piece in today’s Daily Telegraph, being widely panned, he stood by the idea at press conference held in Sydney just after midday, saying the justice system had been “overwhelmed” by the issue of consent.
While much of the criticism has centred on the fact that consent is fluid and, as the shadow minister for women and education Tanya Plibersek said this morning “can be withdrawn at any time”.
But Fuller said he wanted to use technology “to try and keep people out of the justice system”, saying the app could be used, for example, by people going out on dates to say “this is just dinner”.
He also said a large number of cases of reported sexual assault involved severe intoxication, and said he did not think someone could give consent on an app if they were in that situation.
“I think it would be pretty hard to make someone make a statement on an app in that case,” he said.
But while defending the idea of a consent app Fuller also conceded it may not be a solution.
“Technology doesn’t fix everything but again it plays such a big role ... I’m just suggesting is it part of the solution? Well, maybe it’s not [but] if we don’t do something more and more women are going to come forward seeking justice for sexual violence,” he said.
“This is one of those issues we need to face and we have to have the conversation about consent, we need our kids to have a better understanding and we need our juries to have a better understanding.
“I think [the app] starts the debate and people have mixed emotions about how the app would work but for mine the app keeps people out of the justice system.”
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The Coalition amendments cut out wage theft provisions from its IR bill. Labor, the Greens, Rex Patrick, Jacqui Lambie and Stirling Griff are not happy that section has been removed.
The Coalition seems to think it has the numbers to pass changes to casual employment with Griff and One Nation.
The acting industrial relations minister, Michaelia Cash, said this section will provide “greater certainty to those in casual employment and offer a pathway to permanent employment”.
Cash praised amendments proposed by Griff for small claims courts to deal with disputes when employers refuse to convert casual workers to permanent work.
The bill is now going to a vote at the second reading stage. There will follow a series of votes on amendments.
I see two possible outcomes from here:
- One Nation agrees to the removal of the wage theft chapter – in which case the Senate will pass just the changes on casuals, which will then sail through the lower house; or
- One Nation will join Labor and the crossbench and dig in insisting on the wage theft chapter. This could see a standoff between the Senate version (with wage theft and casuals) and the house version.
Given the success of the hours motion, and Cash’s praise of the crossbench for negotiation, the former seems more likely.
Griff told Guardian Australia that Centre Alliance will support casuals changes even if wage theft is removed. “I have not given up on One Nation supporting [wage theft provisions].”
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The Australian is reporting airlines will receive a jobkeeper extension.
Robyn Ironside reports:
More than 8,000 airline employees unable to work because of international border closures have won a seven-month extension of jobkeeper.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce provided details of the $500 a week “direct support payment” to employees at a town-hall meeting in Sydney on Thursday.
He described the allowance as the “centrepiece” of the federal government’s $1.2bn aviation support package designed to help airlines survive until the Covid vaccine rollout is complete.
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Scott Morrison will hold a press conference at 12.45pm.
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The government heavy committee which was reporting on Australia’s skilled migration program has tabled its interim report – and well, it’s a lot.
Labor and the Greens have issued dissenting reports.
Among the issues, the government MPs on the committee want to increase the number of jobs on the skilled migrants list:
The committee recommends that the Department of Home Affairs conduct an urgent review of the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, with a view to expanding the number of occupations to better reflect the urgent skills shortages in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic recovery. The department should give particular consideration to civil engineers, electrical engineers, motor xiii mechanics, cooks, carpenters, electricians and other roles in the hospitality, health, trades, agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
And:
The committee recommends the government reserve places on flights and in quarantine for skilled migrants.
Given the thousands of Australians who are still trying to make it home and are waiting for months for a flight and quarantine spot, I’m not sure that reserving places for skilled migrants is going to be an easy sell.
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The government leader in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, has just moved a motion to clear the deck for the Senate to deal with the industrial relations omnibus bill, before moving on to the jobseeker bill.
The motion gives precedence to the industrial relations bill debate, with a final vote at 1pm.
Then at 1:45pm, a list of other bills will be voted on including:
- Strengthening Income Support Bill 2021
- Industry Innovation and Science Australia Bill 2021
- Regulatory Powers (Standardisation Reform) Bill 2020
- Special Recreational Vessels Amendment Bill 2021
- Biosecurity Amendment (Clarifying Conditionally Non-prohibited Goods) Bill 2021
- Work Health and Safety Amendment (Norfolk Island) Bill 2021
- Several industrial chemicals bills; and
- Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Early Childhood Education and Care Coronavirus Response and Other Measures) Bill 2021
The closure motion was successful by 33 votes to 31, and we’re expecting the hours motion to pass on the same margin.
Labor’s Penny Wong said the government was “in crisis” – and had moved to guillotine debate on the IR bill because it hadn’t managed to do a deal with the crossbench. She said the government is “trying to ram through” the IR bill and jobseeker legislation.
“You’re trying to salvage pride by passing a bill you’ve had to gut because you haven’t got the numbers,” she said.
Greens senator Larissa Waters said the hour motion means no further amendments can be made to the IR bill, and senators can’t speak about the sports rorts report.
Updated
There are absolute scenes in the Senate at the moment – the government is attempting to guillotine the IR debate, and things are not going well.
Updated
The ACTU is now calling for the whole IR bill to be opposed
This IR Omnibus Bill must be opposed in response to the vicious move by the Government to remove workers protection against wage theft.
— Michele O'Neil (@MicheleONeilAU) March 18, 2021
Christian Porter has used the wage theft inclusion in the IR bill as one of his key attacks against Labor for not supporting it. Here is just a taste of what Porter has previously said on it (February 16):
Why would members opposite not support a new small-claims stream for the recovery of wage underpayments?
Why would they not support that? Why would they not support proper civil penalties for wage underpayments? Why would they not support the first-ever criminal offence for wage theft?
No one here can find a single valid reason for why you wouldn’t support the first-ever criminal penalty for wage theft, why you wouldn’t support civil penalties to stamp out underpayment or why you wouldn’t do something as practical and pragmatic as having a small-claims stream for wage underpayment.
Yet members opposite now say they’ll oppose all of those things but are without a reason for opposing them – other than the fact that, as part of their political strategy, they are willing to have those workers end up as, in their own words, ‘collateral damage’.
Updated
The ACTU secretary, Sally McManus, said:
After nine months of intensive discussions, unions, employers and the Morrison government agreed on new laws aimed at stopping wage theft, the government is now walking away from this agreement.
This is shameful and vindictive reaction to not getting widespread support for other changes that would reduce workers’ rights.
We have given the government a path forward with stronger laws on wage theft and better rights for casuals. If they will not give their support to these proposals, we call on the crossbench to oppose the bill.”
Updated
Unemployment drops to 5.8%, but underemployment jumps to 8.5%
These are very interesting figures from the ABS in the February labour force.
Unemployment dropped from 6.3% to 5.8% but the number of people who wanted more work and couldn’t get it, increased from 8.1% to 8.5%.
This is all before jobkeeper runs out as well.
From the ABS
Seasonally adjusted estimates for February 2021:
- Unemployment rate decreased to 5.8%.
- Participation rate remained at 66.1%.
- Employment increased to 13,006,900.
- Employment to population ratio increased to 62.3%.
- Underemployment rate increased to 8.5%.
- Monthly hours worked increased by 102m hours.
Updated
Government waving white flag on IR bill, but dropping wage theft
The government has just lodged amendments on its industrial relations bill which knock out large slabs of its own reforms - on awards, bargaining, greenfields agreements and wage theft.
This follows Centre Alliance vowing to block three sections of the bill and offering only to pass changes on casuals and wage theft.
The fact the government has lodged amendments to implement the deal on casuals, while cutting out the other contentious sections of the bill, indicates they are waving the white flag and are planning to pass a much slimmed-down version with Centre Alliance and One Nation.
So, after months of roundtables on five areas, we may see a bill pass with changes in only one area – creating a definition of casuals, a limited pathway to permanent work, and reducing the liability for future backpay claims of misclassified casuals.
Centre Alliance Stirling Griff is not happy though: he just noted in Senate debate the government amendments remove the sections on wage theft.
Updated
Victorian Greens in push to raise age of criminal responsibility
The Victorian parliament will be asked to consider raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, with new legislation put forward by the Victorian Greens.
Australian governments have been under pressure to increase the age of criminal responsibility to 14, in line with a recommendation from the United Nations committee on the rights of the child. The council of attorneys general last year deferred a decision on whether to commit to raising the age until at least 2021. One month after the deferral the Australian Capital Territory became the first jurisdiction to commit to the change.
The Northern Territory has previously pledged to raise the age from 10 to 12, in line with a recommendation from the 2017 royal commission into the protection and detention of children.The Victorian Greens are calling for Victoria to follow the ACT. Health and justice spokesman Dr Tim Read said:
The medical evidence is clear: children’s brains are still developing at this age, giving us an opportunity to redirect a criminal trajectory for everyone’s benefit.
Children need to be kept out of the criminal justice system for as long as possible, for their own good and for ours.
Our bill would stop pushing kids as young as ten through the school-to-prison pipeline, ensuring they receive treatment and support instead.”
The push is supported by the Greens senator for Victoria, Lidia Thorpe, who said raising the age should be considered part of the bedrock work that needs to be done before the state can begin negotiating a treaty with First Nations people.
Criminalising children creates a vicious cycle of disadvantage and only deepens the racial injustice in this country.
It doesn’t need to be like this. If we’re serious about establishing a Treaty in Victoria and other states, then you can’t keep locking up our children and call this good faith.”
Updated
While Centre Alliance has offered the government a way forward on the industrial relations bill, the wheeling and dealing may not be done yet.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions and Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia have released details of an agreement they have reached on casuals provisions.
It shares one element with Stirling Griff’s amendments, clarification that future backpay claims by misclassified casuals can be reduced by the amount of casual loading already paid.
But in other respects, the ACTU and Cosboa want to go further:
- They want “fair” casual conversion – meaning an ability to enforce the right if employers refuse.
- They want the definition of casual to reflect the common law, that considers not just whether the employer and employee describe the job as casual, but whether that worker goes on to perform regular, ongoing work.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus told reporters in Canberra this was a “whole package” and warned the crossbench not to pick “bits and pieces”. For example, it’s not fair to reduce future backpay claims without ensuring people doing permanent jobs are not misclassified as casuals in the first place.
McManus welcomed the fact Centre Alliance is opposing changes to awards, bargaining and greenfields agreements, noting that the union movement had never agreed to those parts of the IR omnibus bill.
Cosboa chief executive, Peter Strong, said small business “wants change” so the government should pass casuals changes even without other sections on bargaining and award changes. An all or nothing approach is “crazy”, he said.
We’re still waiting to hear from the government on what they think of Centre Alliance’s plan to block three-fifths of the omnibus bill. Will it be all or nothing, or incremental change on casuals and wage theft?
Updated
The Liberal MP Nicolle Flint has just made a contribution in the federation chamber highlighting the abuse she has suffered while in public life.
Flint (who has copped a lot of inexcusable sexist abuse) has been very active this week. The contribution today referenced a batch of emails she’d received in recent days containing yet more profanity laden abuse. Flint was also critical of comments made online by the journalist Paul Bongiorno and referenced a retort from her Liberal colleague Hollie Hughes: “We believe all women except conservative women.”
This has been the theme of the MP’s interventions since the mass rally outside Parliament House on Monday. Flint (who confirmed recently she won’t re-contest the next election) has been critical this week that progressive women have not come to her aid.
Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong said this in response to the Liberal MP’s line of argument yesterday:
I want to say first, every woman has a right to be safe. Every woman.
Nicolle Flint has a right to be safe. You have a right to be safe. All of us have a right to be safe. Brittany Higgins had a right to be safe. We all have a right to be safe. What Ms Flint reports as having happened to her is utterly unacceptable. It is unacceptable.
It is also unfair of her to seek to tie me and Tanya Plibersek to it.
Updated
Morning all, overnight I reported it was likely that the government and Labor would reach agreement on some rapid fire legislation to ensure that submissions staff make to the looming Jenkins review (the review triggered by Brittany Higgins examining parliamentary culture) can’t be accessed under freedom of information or released under the Archives Act.
I’m hearing agreement on that is close now. We will keep you posted.
A bipartisan group of staff (over 90 people, including Higgins) raised their concerns with Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese over the past 24 hours. A number of political aides want to make submissions, but some will only do so on the basis they can express their experiences in private.
Updated
The Mick Fuller consent app idea may not be the solution he thinks it is, but Tony Burke says at least ideas are now being thought about:
We asked Shadow IR Minister Tony Burke about the proposed "consent app". He believes technology isn't the answer but at least there are people having conversations and trying to come up with a solution. @10NewsFirst #auspol pic.twitter.com/qI6quXXj8n
— Tegan George (@tegangeorge) March 17, 2021
While the government is reviewing the measure to add domestic and family violence to the hardship exemptions to access superannuation early, after concerns it would disadvantage victims further and lead to the potential for further abuse, other issues are still being ignored
Jason Clare spoke about a woman in his electorate who was trying to change at least one of them:
Amani Haydar lives in my electorate. Six years ago her mum was murdered by her father. She was stabbed 30 times in front of Amani’s younger sister. At the time, Amani was five months pregnant. With her father in prison and her mum in a grave, Amani left work and went back home to look after what was left of the family, her younger sisters. Later that year, Amani gave birth to a beautiful, healthy young baby girl. When she later applied for paid parental leave, she got rejected by Centrelink. Why? Why would that be the case? It was because she hadn’t worked the required 100 days under the work test to get paid parental leave; she’d only worked 95 days. So, to get paid parental leave under the work test, you have to work 100 days while you’re pregnant. The only two exemptions to that are if you have a pregnancy related illness or if you have a premature birth. There is no exemption for domestic violence—but there should be. Amani eventually did get paid parental leave after she contacted me and I lobbied on her behalf—she also contacted the then Minister for Social Services, Christian Porter—and she’s grateful for that. I’m grateful for that. But the law is still the same. It hasn’t changed.
I spoke in this place almost three years ago urging the government to act and to change the law so that there is an exemption to the work test for women experiencing domestic violence. That hasn’t happened yet. Earlier this year I wrote again to the new Minister for Social Services, Anne Ruston, urging her to act, asking her to make this change to the law. I haven’t heard anything back—not yet—but I’m hopeful. So I use this opportunity to beg the government to please act here. This is a real and simple change to the law that can help women who are pregnant experiencing domestic violence—people like Amani. Please, please make this simple change to the law. Please act.
Qld records no new local Covid cases
Queensland has recorded no new locally acquired cases of covid.
There have been 55 cases diagnosed in hotel quarantine in the last two weeks though.
Thursday 18 March – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) March 17, 2021
• 0 new locally acquired
• 8 overseas acquired
• 48 active cases
• 1,402 total cases
• 2,067,609 tests conducted
Sadly, six Queenslanders with COVID-19 have died. 1,330 patients have recovered.#covid19 pic.twitter.com/DMBLfacCQK
Updated
The Senate committee report into sports rorts is expected to be tabled later today – don’t expect it this morning.
Updated
Greg Hunt denies vaccine booking website launch changed
Greg Hunt has hit back at claims that medical industry sources made in the Guardian this morning that they were told the government website being used to coordinate Covid vaccination appointments wasn’t going to launch until next week – despite the health minister insisting during Wednesday’s troubled launch “today was always the day”.
In an interview on ABC radio, Hunt also dodged a question about whether GPs deserved an apology after they were inundated with calls from people trying to book vaccine appointments after the national booking website, intended to facilitate online bookings, instead instructed eligible vaccine recipients to call clinics with limited doses.
Asked about the allegations the online appointment booking platforms were told the system wouldn’t launch until next week, and that individual clinics were also not aware the website would launch yesterday, Hunt said “with great respect, I disagree on both fronts”.
Asked what went wrong with yesterday’s national booking website launch, Hunt said:
“I respectfully disagree with the categorisation. I think what we should be thankful for is that the public is engaged in the vaccination program.”
Asked if clinics deserve an apology, Hunt said:
“I think they deserve our thanks. That on day one, there was always going to be an initial surge and initial demand. And every clinic that was listed had actually placed their orders and I want to thank them for that, thank the public for being aware there.”
You can read more about issues with the national booking website here:
Updated
For full diligence, I have just received a message from the senior media adviser to Mathias Cormann when he was finance minister about the earlier post on the superannuation guarantee and wage growth.
Your characterisation of Mr Cormann’s comments are inaccurate and misleading. Mr Cormann has never said that ‘low wage growth was a deliberate economic design feature’. Mr Cormann was referring the flexibility in the labour market.
Here is what Mathias Cormann said in that interview during the last election campaign, when he was asked about wage growth.
Cormann:
If I may, this is actually an important point, this is an incredibly important point. The whole reason why it would be important to have flexibility in the labour market, the whole point, it is important to ensure that wages can adjust in the context of economic conditions is to avoid massive spikes in unemployment, which are incredibly disruptive.
That is a deliberate design feature of our economic architecture.
If what Bill Shorten is saying is that he wants to mandate, through a government mandate, a particular wage level then he will force more Australians onto unemployment queues. He will harm many families around Australia who will find it hard to pay their mortgage and pay for their cost of living expenses
So for clarification, that flexibility, which is a deliberate design feature of our economic architecture, has overseen historic lows in wage growth.
Updated
Sally McManus is pleased with Rex Patrick for his opposition to the IR bill. Stirling Griff is the swing vote in this one.
Thank you @Senator_Patrick for standing up for working people and refusing to support all the bad elements of the IR Omnibus Bill that would hurt workers and small business. If ppl can’t spend, local businesses suffer. This Bill is bad for the country
— Sally McManus (@sallymcmanus) March 17, 2021
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has questioned Asio’s decision to rename far-right extremism as “ideological extremism”. Islamic extremism will be referred to as “religious extremism”. Asio has reported far-right extremism is on the rise in Australia, and last night, announced the terminology change.
Faruqi:
To counter the far-right, we have to name the far-right.
The people who benefit most from a failure to name far-right extremists are far-right extremists themselves.
Asio backing away from calling a spade a spade will harm our efforts to confront the existential threat of far-right violence.
Make no mistake. This shift has occurred following complaints to Asio by rightwing government MPs.
There is no ideological equivalence here. Asio itself has said, just weeks ago, that rightwing extremism is on the rise while leftwing extremism is “not currently prominent”.
Asio were happy to label extremists “Islamic” when it suited the Liberals’ desire to demonise a whole community, but now the group in question is predominantly young white men, it’s suddenly out of the question.
Updated
Yesterday in question time, Scott Morrison said the government was reviewing the measure which would include family and domestic violence as one of the hardship exemptions allowing for the withdrawal of superannuation early.
It was announced two years ago by Kelly O’Dwyer as part of a range of measures under consideration, and was met with concern then. Now that its part of draft legislation, those concerns are growing louder. Why? Well, there is no way to stop someone from being forced to withdraw money and give it to their abuser. Beyond that, the majority of family and domestic violence victims are women, who are already at a disadvantage financially when they retire – this risks increasing that disadvantage.
Jane Hume was asked about it this morning on ABC News Breakfast:
Well, this is a policy that’s been around for a number of years. It was actually proposed by Hesta, the super fund that has around 80% of its members are female.
That was proposed in about 2017 and backed by the industry at the time.
It was announced in the first inaugural Women’s Economic Security Statement in 2018. But it’s actually much harder to do than anticipated.
While it would be a terrific opportunity to be able to help women that are fleeing a violent relationship by allowing them to access a small amount of their savings and there’s – you know, we allow people to access their super savings on compassionate grounds all the time, making sure that the safeguards are there to make sure the sharemarket can’t be abused is not an easy task.
Not sure “terrific opportunity” is the right language to use in this instance.
Updated
An architect of the national disability insurance scheme has called on the government to end its controversial “independent assessments” plan, arguing the agency’s decision to push ahead despite widespread opposition is “disturbing”.
Prof Bruce Bonyhady, the inaugural chair of the national disability insurance scheme from 2013 to 2016, said in a submission to the NDIA’s consultation process:
Unfortunately, it is clear that the announcement of the introduction of [independent assessments] has created enormous fear, stress and concern amongst NDIS participants, their families and carers.
It is therefore disturbing that the NDIA intends to replace the current planning process with an almost total reliance on independent assessments.
It puts people in boxes before they have had a chance to outline what they would like to achieve or the ways in which they hope their lives change.
The comments from Bonyhady, now head of the Melbourne Disability Institute at the University of Melbourne, were revealed by the ABC on Thursday morning.
They follow a push from more than 20 disability groups to see the government scrap the assessments, which will be carried out by private contractors from the middle of the year.
Currently participants and applicants provided medical reports and evidence from their doctors and specialists.
Guardian Australia reported on Wednesday that the Commonwealth Ombudsman has cautioned the NDIA about the challenges of rolling out the assessments in a “relatively short time frame”.
The NDIS minister, Stuart Robert, who has repeatedly insisted the change will make the scheme fairer, told the ABC in statement:
The government acknowledges there is an inordinate amount of fear and stress amongst NDIS participants, largely due to the spread of misinformation about the reforms.
Updated
The Christian Porter defamation action against the ABC has some new deadlines laid out:
BY CONSENT, THE COURT ORDERS THAT:
1. The Applicant provide further and better particulars of identification, republication and/or aggravated damages on or before 23 March 2021.
2. The Respondents file and serve their defence on or before 4 May 2021.
3. The Applicant file and serve his Reply on or before 11 May 2021.
4. The matter be listed for Case Management at 9.30am on 14 May 2021.
5. Liberty to restore on 24 hours’ notice.
Date that entry is stamped: 17 March 2021
The first case management hearing in the Christian Porter v ABC defamation case is May 14 https://t.co/OPHhaPl8On
— Michaela Whitbourn (@MWhitbourn) March 17, 2021
As jobkeeper comes to an end on 31 March, advice firm Ownership Matters has taken a look at some of the companies that reported profits while claiming the wage subsidies.
As Paul Karp reports:
Thirty-four of Australia’s largest companies claimed jobkeeper wage subsidies in the second half of 2020 despite actually improving their earnings on pre-pandemic levels, pocketing a total of $284m.
The conclusion of the new analysis of ASX300 companies’ financial reports by advice firm Ownership Matters is set to add pressure to growing calls for profitable companies to repay jobkeeper.
The ASX 300 companies were responsible for claiming just 3% of the $83bn of wage subsidies on offer in 2020, suggesting large public companies are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to companies banking subsidies.
Updated
NSW police commissioner proposes consent app
The NSW police commissioner has proposed a consent app in a Daily Tele oped, which is an absolutely terrible idea, and yet here we are.
As AAP reports:
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller says an app could be used by couples to establish and record their mutual consent before engaging in sex.
The technology could help people navigate the way forward as the country confronts an increasing number of sexual assaults even though reporting and conviction rates remain low.
“The conversation around sex and consent seems to be anchored to the 50s and clearly it isn’t working,” Mr Fuller wrote in an opinion piece published by Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.
Consent apps could normalise conversations around consent and formalise the habit of actively seeking consent.
“There is no implied consent. It needs to be positive consent. How do we do that in this day and age? One option is with technology,” Mr Fuller said.
“People say ‘how unromantic is that’. But think of how many people are looking for friendship and love online - it’s not as though technology and dating are foreign to us.”
He conceded an app could provide challenges, such as if someone withdrew consent after agreeing.
Denmark has already introduced a consent app and expanded the definition of rape to include sex without explicit consent.
Earlier this week, the NSW Greens introduced a bill to strengthen the state’s sexual consent laws with “enthusiastic consent” a key principle of the bill.
The NSW Law Reform Commission made 44 recommendations to reform consent law in a 250-page report tabled to parliament last November.
The report’s recommendations include that consent to sexual activity should not be presumed and that a person should not be seen to have consented because they did not resist physically or verbally.
Updated
Senator Stirling Griff has issued a statement confirming that Centre Alliance only supports changes to casuals provisions (with amendment) and wage theft – and will not support the rest of the IR omnibus bill.
Griff said:
We need to deal with wage theft as a priority to protect workers from unscrupulous employers who seek to rip them off.
We are also acutely aware that small businesses have a massive potential backpay liability hanging over their heads due to the uncertainty surrounding how casuals are defined, which creates very real anxiety about their viability.
This issue needs to be addressed urgently as it is causing significant confusion and stress among businesses who employ casuals, in particular small businesses.
Explaining opposition to the rest of the bill, Griff said:
This is a complex and contentious bill, and we recognise that attempting detailed amendments to the remaining parts of the bill runs the risk of unintended consequences for employees and employers.
Updated
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has had to release a media statement, asking people not to take out their frustrations at not being able to get a vaccine appointment on receptionists and administrative staff in GP clinics.
From the statement:
Yesterday, the Government released details of the first 1104 GP clinics that will commence delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccinations from Monday under phase 1b. It led to a significant number of phone calls to GP clinics across Australia due in part to the Health Department’s online booking system only providing phone numbers for bookings rather than linking directly to existing practice booking systems where available.
RACGP President Dr Karen Price called for calm.
“...Yesterday was a very difficult day for many GPs, nurses, receptionists and administrative staff in clinics across the country. I want them to know that the RACGP is fighting for them and not to be discouraged because you are performing a vital job.
I am immensely proud of all the GP clinics participating in this pivotal phase of the vaccine roll-out, which is protecting some of the most vulnerable people in our community.
For time being I advise patients to hold off contacting GP clinics until general practice can achieve greater certainty on how many AstraZeneca vaccines will be delivered and when. Many practices will already be going through their patient records to identify who is eligible and will reach out to their usual patients to organise an appointment.
Updated
Guardian Australia understands that Centre Alliance has put a new position to the government on the industrial relations omnibus bill.
Centre Alliance – whose senator Stirling Griff holds the casting vote after a One Nation deal with the Coalition – now supports:
- Changes to casual employment including the new definition of casual and the ability to count the casual loading towards the compensation bill for a misclassified casual; and
- The enforcement chapter that increases penalties and criminalises wage theft
Centre Alliance has asked for minor modifications on casuals: halving the wait time for casual conversion from 12 to 6 months; and applying the small claims court process to hear disputes about conversion. It also wants all changes to be prospective – so existing claims before the court about misclassified casuals will not be affected.
Centre Alliance opposes:
- Changes to modern awards including part-time workers picking up extra hours at ordinary time rates; and extending the power of employers to change workers’ duties and location of work
- Changes to the bargaining process including the 21-day time limit for the Fair Work Commission to approve pay deals
- Project-life pay deals for new work sites
If the government agrees to this deal it could legislate the enforcement chapter and the casuals chapter of the bill.
However, this will likely cause consternation among employers, who would only gain clarity of the definition of causals, and lower liability in future cases brought by misclassified casuals.
Unions will be pleased with this new position – it knocks out the changes to enterprise bargaining that unions warned would railroad workers into poor deals, and lock them into low pay for up to eight years on new work sites.
Updated
The current deputy prime minister likes to talk a lot about the Coalition’s plan to get people moving to the regions for work.
So we looked into how that plan was going.
In terms of the relocation allowance (which keeps getting reannounced) just 3,000 people have used it to move for work since it was legislated in 2014. Of those, just over 2,100 moved to a region.
Just 3,000 Australians have accessed a federal grant to help them move for permanent work in the nearly seven years since the Coalition created the scheme.
New figures released to Guardian Australia show one-third of those recipients relocated to cities, despite the government’s repeated public calls for jobseekers to consider moving to fill labour shortages in regional areas.
The lacklustre take-up rates have prompted Labor to accuse the Coalition of failing to have a plan for jobs in regional Australia, even after the government made several recent tweaks to the rules of the scheme in a bid to expand access over the past few months.
Updated
As he and his colleagues walked across the lawns not far from us, Mr Hudgson called me a ‘meth head c.u.n.t’. Imagine hating women so much, you’d say that audibly about a woman you don’t know, who also happens to be an elected representative. I was doing an interview at the time and didn’t hear the insult, but Alice did. I believed her, without question, because in the decade I’ve worked with Alice, she has always been honest with me. Alice is steadfast and true. Others who were with Mr Hudgson at the time heard it too. We know this. We’ve had it confirmed. Alice made detailed notes of her recollections, then reported this incident to the then premier’s office. Later that afternoon, Mr Hodgman’s then chief of staff told Alice he’d asked Mr Hudgson if the allegation was true, and he denied it. He said, ‘Well, you can see how it’s a tough position – you’re saying one thing, and he’s saying it didn’t happen.’ A male Liberal staffer was believed over a female Greens’ staffer.
Updated
Jane Hume is asked about the superannuation guarantee, and whether the government plans on going ahead with it, while speaking to ABC News Breakfast this morning and says:
It’s already been legislated. The superannuation guarantee increase will increase by 0.5% in the middle of this year, but, you know, don’t for a second think that doesn’t come with a trade-off.
Money doesn’t grow on trees and there is a good chance that if there is an additional cost to employers when they pay that extra 0.5% that it will come at the expense of potential wage rises in the future.
Everything this government is doing is about increasing the number of jobs and increasing wages. So this – while it’s already been legislated has been legislated for some time, it comes at a cost.
Wage growth is currently at a historic low – in the last 12 months it has grown by just 1.4%. Mathias Cormann admitted during the last election campaign that low wage growth was a deliberate economic design feature.
.@David_Speers: Do you agree flexibility in wages and keeping wages at a modest level is a deliberate feature of our economic architecture? @lindareynoldswa: No absolutely not. For Bill Shorten to even suggest that...
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) March 10, 2019
DS: I'm quoting Mathias Cormann.https://t.co/aYBwbeRGPk pic.twitter.com/SSKF51zw06
Updated
Scott Morrison is waiting on advice from the solicitor general on what duties Christian Porter can perform in his portfolio when he returns to work on 31 March, given his defamation action against the ABC. As Paul Karp reports:
After conceding on Tuesday that Porter would have to delegate duties relating to the federal court and the ABC, the prime minister revealed in question time on Wednesday he had asked the second law officer which other duties the first law officer should not perform when he returns on 31 March.
Labor, the Greens and legal academics continued to raise concerns about whether Porter could be responsible for the Sex Discrimination Act, consent laws, the national integrity commission and defamation law reform.
Updated
Good morning
We have made it to the last joint sitting day until 11 May. Legislation that doesn’t get through the Senate today will just sit there until the budget is handed down. Simon Birmingham is about to have a very, very busy day.
Meanwhile, the Senate committee which was examining the sports rorts affair is set to hand down its report into the matter today. It feels like a lifetime ago but it’s only been a year – the committee was set up in February 2020.
We’ll bring you that when it is tabled.
Looking for a bit of a distraction, the government dropped its “we’re starting the 1b vaccination program, book in with your GP now” announcement to select media outlets on Wednesday – but it came as a bit of a surprise to several GPs.
Elias Visontay reported on the messy rollout yesterday. He and Chris Knaus spoke to industry insiders who said the Wednesday announcement had caught them by surprise – they were expecting the rollout to begin on Monday:
The Morrison government has been accused of rushing the launch of its national booking system without informing key platforms. Critics say the poor planning has wreaked havoc on GP clinic phone lines and forced doctors to refuse appointments to Australians who were told they were eligible.
And Australia’s security agency will no longer use the terms Islamic or rightwing extremism, Daniel Hurst reports:
Australian spy agency Asio is overhauling the language it uses to talk about terrorism, dumping terms like rightwing extremism and Islamic extremism, arguing such labels are “no longer fit for purpose”.
Mike Burgess, the director general of security, announced the changes as he revealed the average age of “ideological extremists” investigated by Asio was 25 and they were overwhelmingly male. He said a terrorist attack by such individuals in Australia “remains plausible”.
The new umbrella categories to be used by Asio from Wednesday will be “ideologically motivated violent extremism” and “religiously motivated violent extremism”. The shift follows repeated warnings by security agencies that the extreme rightwing threat in Australia is on the rise.
Islamic leaders have long been calling for a change to how extremist attacks are labelled. With rightwing extremism on the rise in Australia, we now have umbrella terms to describe terror attacks. *thinking face emoji*
We’ll bring you all of the day’s political news as it rolls on past us. You have Mike Bowers and his cameras in the halls, and Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Daniel Hurst with all the details. You’ve got me, Amy Remeikis, on the blog for most of the day. The rest of the Guardian is keeping a close eye on what is happening outside of these walls.
This week has been a very long decade. Longer still for a lot of people who have watched politics struggle to deal with a very human issue. For many, that has compounded the hurt. Just know that it’s not going away and it’s not being forgotten.
And again, we really hope to have you commenting back soon. We’re playing it very safe, because comments on the website and our social media pages have been judged by the courts as publishing. With some of the legal issues we are covering lately, it’s safer for you, and for us, to have comments switched off. Pre-moderating the comments on the blog is a huge undertaking and takes so much time, it doesn’t allow for a conversation to flow. We want to see you back below the line as soon as we can though.
I’m going to grab my third coffee – and then let’s get into it.
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