Star pleads guilty to new charges of breaching Queensland casino law – as it happened

My colleague Daniel Hurst has this analysis of the political reflections today marking the 20th anniversary of the Iraq war. Or rather, the lack thereof for the most part.

The federal government should be using some of the $10bn allocated in the budget to cybersecurity defences to combat people using AI to bypass biometric securities including voice authentication, Greens senator David Shoebridge has said.

Charities urge government to increase foreign aid for hunger by $110m

A $110m increase in foreign aid to global hunger hotspots from the Australian government could help avoid a catastrophe, aid organisations said.

AAP reports a group including Oxfam, Unicef and Caritas Australia have asked the Australian government to invest in a $110m famine relief package for countries in Africa and the Middle East.

“When children starve to death it is an unspeakable tragedy,” Lulu Mitshabu, Caritas Australia program coordinator for Africa, said.

“We urge the government to give what it can to save lives.”

The move would be supported by a growing majority of Australians, according to a poll conducted by YouGov.

The poll of 1,055 voters found 60% supported overseas aid, compared to 52% in 2019.

The group, called the Help Fight Famine Coalition, called out Australia’s relatively low contribution to foreign aid.

They said that Australia contributes only 0.2% of its gross national income to foreign aid, as opposed to the OECD average of 0.32%.

They also asked for a further $200m investment into developing strategies for food security to prevent hunger crises from emerging.

“The world is getting hotter, conflicts are erupting, new and unknown diseases are emerging. But food is essential,” Lyn Morgain, chief executive at Oxfam Australia, said

“Across the world more people than ever go to bed hungry and wake up unsure how they’ll sustain themselves or their family,” she said.

“Through science, co-operation and investment no one needs to go hungry.”

You can read my colleague, Christopher Knaus’s report about Rex Patrick’s FOI fight here.

Delays in FOI requests a ‘failure’ of democracy, former senator says

Lengthy delays in Australia’s freedom of information processes are shielding the government from scrutiny, the former senator Rex Patrick says.

AAP reports Patrick, a self-proclaimed “transparency warrior”, wants the federal court to review how long it takes the Australian Information Commissioner to make decisions and outline what is an “unreasonable delay”.

There is currently no legal obligation for the commissioner to reach a decision within a specific period of time.

The former independent senator’s barrister Tiphanie Acreman said Patrick had more than 20 FOI applications under review, with some “in the queue for as long as three years”.

“A system that tolerates these lengthy delays undermines the object of the FOI Act,” Acreman told the hearing in Melbourne on Monday.

Speaking outside court before the hearing, Patrick described the FOI system as broken.

“There’s something like 1,500 FOI requests that have not been reviewed over the last four or five years – this is a failure in terms of democracy. We have to do something to fix it,” Patrick told reporters.

“Delay is the enemy of FOI, and the Information Commissioner is aiding and abetting that enemy.”

Acreman highlighted communications between her client and the office of the information commissioner where they sought an extension of time to provide an update numerous times.

In one email, the commissioner’s office cited changes in staff, unexpected periods of leave and competing priorities as a cause for the delays.

Issues within the office of the Information Commissioner were highlighted earlier in March, when the commissioner, Leo Hardiman KC, quit less than a year into a five-year appointment.

He said his powers weren’t enough to overhaul a chronically delayed system. Hardiman said he would continue to focus on the implementation and bedding down of these changes until his resignation takes effect on 19 May.

The Centre for Public Integrity in September said FOI requests responded to outside the statutory 30-day period had increased from 11.5% in 2011-12 to 22.5% in 2021-22.

Requests over 90 days late have increased more than 10-fold, now making up one in every eight requests.

The matter before Justice Michael Wheelahan is expected to continue on Tuesday.

The South Sydney rugby league great John Sattler has died at the age of 80.

Sattler, who played 197 times for the club and captained the team to four premiership victories from 1967 to 1971, had suffered from dementia in recent years.

Latitude Financial fears cyber-attack could worsen

Latitude Financial fears the cyber attack on its system could be worse than first thought and is not taking on new customers, AAP reports.

Some 330,000 customer records and identity documents were stolen last week.

In an announcement to the ASX on Monday, the financial services company warned it was bracing for the full scale of the attack to widen.

“We are likely to uncover more stolen information affecting both current and past Latitude customers and applicants,” it said.

It is not taking on new customers including through retailers it has agreements with such as David Jones, JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys and Harvey Norman.

All its platforms remain offline but the company is working to restore them in coming days.

Latitude said about 96% of the personal information stolen was driver licences or driver licence numbers, with the rest being passport and Medicare details.

It promised to work with authorities to replace identification documents if necessary, at no cost to customers.

It’s believed the hack originated from a major vendor and criminals accessed an employee’s login credentials, before stealing customer information from two service providers.

The company urged customers to remain vigilant about their online safety and said it would never contact anyone requesting their password.

It said its insurance covers cyber security risks but is still working out the total cost of the attack, which is now under investigation by the Australian federal police.

The Coalition is pushing for an inquiry into the last round of mobile blackspot funding, after 74% of the spots were in Labor-held electorates.

The Greens teamed up with Labor and shot down the inquiry in the Senate.

The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, told ABC moments before that the last round of funding was the government honouring election commitments. The latest round of funding has just opened for applications, and Rowland said that those applications will be assessed by the department against department guidelines.

She said:

It will all be subject to the guidelines which are publicly available. The department will do those assessments and they will take into account various issues including the number of people, the number of organisations, the number of councils, the number of carriers who favour a particular location, who are able to come together and partner for these improvements.

Let’s be very clear this is what this is all about in the end. It’s about getting those improvements made and the more cooperation and feedback we get at this pre-application stage the better.

Jonathon Duniam, the shadow environment minister, has weighed in on Labor’s failure to produce its safeguards modelling.

He said:

It’s clear that Chris Bowen is desperately trying to block Australians from seeing the modelling on their safeguard mechanism legislation. Labor’s ongoing refusal to release the modelling strongly suggests that they know that this Bill will cause substantial further pain for businesses and households across the country ... When the Coalition was in government, we publicly released our equivalent modelling. Labor should do the same, so that all interested Australians can see this information ... for themselves.

Chris Bowen pushed to release safeguard modelling details

Guardian Australia understands that both the Coalition and the Greens have lodged separate motions noting that the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, has failed to comply with a Senate order for production of documents for the government’s safeguards modelling.

Last parliamentary sitting week, the Coalition and Greens combined to reject the government’s public interest immunity claim over the modelling.

Whether this procedural bunfight has any implication for the substance of negotiation is unclear.

The Greens motion only states that “further consideration of the Safeguard Mechanism (Crediting) Amendment Bill 2022 be deferred until the Senate resolves that the bill be brought on for consideration” – so the Senate could always agree to debate the bill despite the failure to produce modelling.

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

This policy should be about making pollution from coal and gas go down, not letting it increase. If the government is confident their plan will cut pollution from coal and gas they should release the evidence.

Anika Wells on Saudi Arabian sponsorship of Women’s World Cup

Switching to her sports minister portfolio, Anika Wells says she raised concerns about the potential for Visit Saudi Arabia to sponsor Australia and New Zealand’s Women’s World Cup later this year, working with her New Zealand counterpart.

She said there was never a formal agreement with Fifa for sponsorship, and now there won’t be.

My concern if that happened, that would be a real missed opportunity for our tourism and trade organisations here and New Zealand’s, not to have those opportunities to promote Australia and New Zealand as co-hosts.

She said aside from the human rights concerns players had been raising, she was more concerned about Australia missing the opportunity to promote its own tourism if another country’s tourism body was given sponsorship of the cup.

It was more a case of Sam Kerr scores a goal on home soil, we want the billboard to have a kangaroo swimming through the Great Barrier Reef saying, ‘Come get more of this’, not a sign saying to visit a different country. I’m glad that Fifa landed in a way to allow Australia to do that.

Government to fall short of aged care nursing target

The minister for aged care, Anika Wells, tells ABC’s afternoon briefing that the government will likely not reach the target of access to 24/7 nursing in every aged care facility by 1 July as the government had targeted.

She says over 80% of facilities are now meeting the requirement but some in regional and remote locations will not get there.

She said:

About another 9% are nearly there or steadily working towards making it. We acknowledge there’s probably about 5% of facilities, particularly in our rural and remote areas, who will not be able to get there.

We’re working closely with them to make sure they get the exemptions and support, as do their residents, that they need.

She says facilities that do not meet the target will not get the extra payment, which will act as a “carrot” for the centres, but Wells acknowledges that the industry is still short thousands of workers.

Wells said:

The workforce shortages we will not be able to stop overnight, in the same way any issue that has come up across decades. I’m working closely with a number of ministers across every portfolio. We’re looking at how to address the care economy and mow to fix the workforce shortages in the care economy.

I point you to the pilot that’s running successfully, I work closely with the immigration and home affairs ministers about what we can do in their patches. Obviously 180,000 fee-free Tafe place also help us to train up people. We’re pulling every lever.

Josh Taylor is going to take you through the afternoon – I will be back early tomorrow morning to take you through the second of these eight sittings days. Tuesday is party room meeting day, which means we should get some decisions on legislation, as well as a lot more rah-rah over the Aukus deal.

And we will learn some more about the safeguard mechanism. Thank you to everyone who followed along with me today – stay tuned with Josh, and take care of you.

The embargo on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “synthesis” report lifts will be lifting soon, which puts the safeguard mechanism debate into context.

That’s all going to be discussed tomorrow, along with the criticisms the government’s bill won’t do enough to address the issue, while the government maintains it is a start.

It’s a stalemate with some high stakes – we will bring you everything you need to know, tomorrow.

NSW doctors push for bipartisan support on early childhood education

Meanwhile, in other policy news, AAP reports on a push to have early childhood education embraced by both sides of politics in NSW:

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians is calling on both sides of NSW politics to commit to early childhood education for three-year-olds.

The College’s president, Dr Jacqueline Small, said the issue of early education should be a major topic for both sides of politics in the lead up to the state election this weekend.

“We know access to quality early learning has lasting impacts on children, and universal access is an important step to foster a more equitable society,” Small said.

Research has shown nearly a quarter of children in Australia are arriving at kindergarten without the necessary foundational skills.

Small said the issue was pressing in the wake of the pandemic, with many children missing out on vital socialisation and learning skills.

“The early years are really critical periods ... soon after birth and in the first few years. So it’s important kids are exposed to learning and new environments,” she said.

In an election statement, the RACP is calling on the incoming government to prioritise early childhood education through a program dubbed the Kids COVID Catch Up Campaign.

Small said it will focus on some of the bad habits picked up during lockdowns, including growing social media use and an increase in childhood obesity rates.

She said countries in Europe and parts of the US were offering two free years of pre-kindergarten, with promising results.

Sydney independent MP on the safeguard mechanism

The North Sydney independent Kylea Tink has some thoughts on how to improve the safeguard mechanism:

Disallow fossil fuel projects from accessing the Powering the Regions Fund

The $1.9bn Powering the Regions Fund in part, supports the decarbonisation of heavy polluters.

My community wants to ensure expenditure of this fund is directed to critical future industries and is not used to support fossil fuel projects.

I have asked for the Bill to be amended to specify the Safeguard Transformation Stream, within the Powering the Regions Fund, is not available to new fossil fuel projects, or the expansion of existing licenses.

Australian Carbon Credit Units

The people of North Sydney are deeply concerned about the apparent loophole in this Bill which will allow polluters to avoid genuine emissions reduction by either pursuing genuine emissions abatement on site or by purchasing unlimited carbon credits (ACCUs) to offset their emissions.

For this legislation to deliver true reduction in gross emissions, it is imperative there is a clear hierarchy for emissions reduction efforts with true, on-site reduction and then true on-site abatement prioritised over all other options.

When carbon credit units are needed, they must be top-notch. I have asked the Government to commit, in full, to the immediate implementation of the Chubb Review recommendations.

Reduce threshold to increase effectiveness

The Government must clearly articulate its plan for Australia to achieve net-zero by 2050.

The North Sydney community wants the Government to use the Safeguard Mechanism to legislate a progressive reduction in the emissions threshold - by three quarters – from the current 100,000 tCO2e to 25,000tCO2e emissions.

This ratcheting down over time would provide industry with a clear trajectory to net zero in 2050.

The Bill should also incentivise an ‘opt in’ scheme through which a broader section of industry can reduce their direct emissions and generate credits which would then be available to trade within the Safeguard Mechanism Scheme.

This would have the dual benefit of increasing participation in the scheme and increasing credit supply for hard-to-abate sectors.

And now Anthony Albanese is ending question time.

The chamber moves back into its normal business.

And another energy prices jab

The Liberal MP for Casey, Aaron Violi, has the next version of this question.

Sadly, he does not seemed to have rehearsed this delivery as much as he has previous questions and so we are robbed of ‘why is everything more expensive under Labor: a one man show’ and instead are treated to someone reading something out loud for the first time and realising they probably should have practiced because its a bit more wordy than they originally thought. (I am a harsh critic, but you can’t be overly dramatic in delivery one week and then barely show up the next. CONSISTENCY PEOPLE.)

Anthony Albanese gives the same answer he has all question time.

“It’s called inflation, look it up.” (paraphrasing, obviously, but that’s the tone)

Albanese does not end question time though, because apparently it is absolutely vital we hear this dixer from Andrew Giles on international students and visas. (Spoiler, it should be and has been, a press release.)

Energy prices again

There is another of those questions, this time from Christopher Pyne’s former campaign manager, James Stevens (who took his seat when Pyne retired), and Chris Bowen takes it and gives a version of the same answer we have heard since parliament resumed:

The honourable member asked me about the default market offer and energy prices, Mr Speaker. And I’m more than happy to talk about default market offers because not only did the former minister keep it secret, it gets worse.

After he kept the last one secret he was asked on 29 April last year on the Deb Knight radio show about rising power prices which he knew but had not disclosed to the Australian people.

He called that fake news, he called price rises fake news and he misled the Australian people and denied they were happening. That’s what the former minister did. The former minister and all his colleagues, especially those in South Australia, voted for energy price rises, which would have been $530 higher if it wasn’t for the intervention of this government. On the circumstances we found those product rises occurring, making them in public and making the transfer, Mr Speaker, in dealing with it. To hide them not to disclose to the Australian people and faced with a vote, to vote for higher price rises.

The problem with all these questions on energy prices from the opposition is that they voted against the little bit of relief that the government put forward (and there is more coming after May when the states direct relief starts to flow through).

So it is an easy question to bat away. There are usually long-term consequences to short-term political tactics.

More energy bills banter

Liberal MP Alex Hawke is next with a question for the PM:

My question is to the prime minister and as the prime minister would know because his across these details, under the default market offer New South Wales, energy prices are set to rise by a whopping $564 on an average bill in his home state of New South Wales so I ask the prime minister, why did the prime minister break his promise that energy prices would fall by $275 and why do Australian families always pay more under Labor?

Anthony Albanese:

I thank the member for his question. It goes to what is going on in energy New South Wales. Well, I tell you what, I welcome to talk to not just my energy minister but i’ve had a chat with the energy minister in New South Wales as well and we came to a common position about what was required to go forward, not just with the energy minister but the energy shadow minister as well.

That’s if the leader of the opposition got through border control, got through border control and into New South Wales, he could ask them a question.

But I’d say to the member for Mitchell has such good relationships with the Liberal party of New South Wales, if he wants something passed on, just ask me and I will get him the answer

Cost of living question from Adam Bandt

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has a question for the treasurer (I am paraphrasing):

My question is to the treasurer. In a cost of living crisis, why can Labor’s budget fund more than half a trillion dollars for stage-three tax cuts for [high income earners] and nuclear submarines but not fund putting dental into Medicare, doubling rent assistance or raising income support above the poverty line?

Jim Chalmers:

I think it is tremendously important that when it comes to the submarine and the Aukus deal more broadly, that every cent of it over the forward estimates has been offset and that, I think, is a tribute to the work of the defence minister and the cabinet and others working with the bureaucracy to make sure that we can make this game changing investment in our national security and national economy without adding any extra dollars to the deficit.

For the forward deficit in the coming four years, I think that is really important.

Obviously, when it comes to the broader priority of the government, we are making big investments in healthcare, making big investments in skills, we have continued, including today, to make sure that when inflation is high as it is right now, that there is the indexation of payments and all the rest of that as well.

I’m not pretending, Mr Speaker, this isn’t a big investment when it comes to the Aukus deal, it is but an important investment as well and it’s a fraction of what we spend in some of the other areas

… You will see in the May budget, not only have we offset the cost of the Aukus deal but there will be new investments in some of these sorts of areas that the honourable member identified.

Labor’s election policies improve budget by $1.4bn, report finds

The New South Wales Parliamentary Budget Office has released its assessment of the impacts on the budget of the election promises of the Coalition and Labor.

There are hundreds of pages to sift through (614pp for Labor’s costings alone) but the key takeaway seems to be that Labor’s policies improve the budget by $1.4bn over the four years to 2025-26, compared with the Coalition’s increase of $97.2m.

That’s made up by Labor cutting expenses by $1.2bn over the four years versus a $500m reduction for the Coalition.

On the revenue side, the impact of the costed policies on the general government sector revenue is an increase for Labor of $226m over those four years. By contrast, the Coalition’s policies cut revenue $403m.

A similar tale exists for the capital spending side, with Labor’s policies cutting expenditures by $675m over the four years compared with the Coalition spending $3bn more.

The effect of the above will also mean Labor would need to borrow less over the four years than the Coalition (although the PBO report seems to imply the alternative – they are checking if they’ve made a boo-boo).

More on energy bills

LNP MP Scott Buchholz has a question for Anthony Albanese:

Under the full market offer, energy prices are to rise by $383 for south-east Queenslanders, why did the prime minister break his promise that energy prices would fall by $275? Why do Australians always pay more under Labor?

Albanese:

I say to the member for Wright, why did you vote against $1bn of energy price relief?

Why did he do that? Why did he do that is beyond my comprehension. It’s also beyond my comprehension why he is determined to vote against the safeguard mechanism that was the former government’s own mechanism. Put forward [by them]

How can they even vote against their own policy even if they are so determined to vote no?

But the Energy Regulator made it clear, her position that the market offer will be much lower to quote her, much, much lower than it would otherwise have been had the intervention not occurred. We do have an inflationary issue globally. It’s a global issue, it’s due to supply chains, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it’s all in the aftermath of the global pandemic. But what the secretary of treasury had to say in evidence before senate estimates is that the energy price relief package will make a material difference to reducing cost of living pressures, that’s right, that’s all they have to say. Philip Lowe, the RBA governor, similarly referred to in his address to the Financial Review business Summit on the 8 March, again, also referred to what was happening with high inflation, he said there is that of the high inflation that we are currently experiencing is one of the legacies of the pandemic and of rushes in vision of Ukraine. The pandemic interrupted the supply side of the global economy and pushed up cost some prices. But on top of this, the monetary and fiscal policy response to the pandemic has also pushed up costs and prices. There, he was referring to the last budget, the last budget of the former government in March where the considerable money was pumped into the economy and all ended as soon as people voted in May that considerable increase also had an impact as well, not according to me, according to the RBA governor.

Aukus will be great for skills and training. More rah-rah

Andrew Wilkie mentions the war

Andrew Wilkie has the next crossbench question:

It’s 20 years since the invasion of Iraq on the basis [of the disgraceful lie] that Saddam Hussein possessed an immense arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and was cooperating with al-Qaida.

Will you help prevent such unconscionable disasters in future by bringing Australia into line with other countries where declaring war is the prerogative of the parliament, not the prime minister?

Anthony Albanese:

I thank the member for his question and for his consistent advocacy on national security issues and of course, he had a career as well in the intelligence community. Decisions about war and deployment of Australian forces are among the most serious any government can make.

I would make clear my own view that parliamentarians should be given a chance to express their views following a cabinet decision to go to war. We have referred the issue to an inquiry now being conducted by the joint standing committee on foreign affairs, defence and trade.

As the member says, there are different forms of determination around different parliaments around the world.

There were two days of parliamentary debate that Bob Hawke allowed after his cabinet decided to join the first Gulf war. He is right to say that 20 years on from the Iraq war, we can all reflect on the many tragedies of that conflict and its ongoing effects.

Our thoughts are with the people of Iraq as well as the Iraqi community here in Australia, some of whom led that conflict. Our thoughts are also with the men and women of the Australian Defence Force. They obey appropriately their instructions of the government of the day and even though Labor opposed that intervention, Simon Crean I think courageously went and visited, farewelled the troops to make it very clear that he opposed the government decision but he supported them, as we must always do in this parliament. I want to conclude by saying that I acknowledge the brave contribution and sacrifices that were made by the ADF and civilian personnel who conducted or supported operations in Iraq.

We do remember as well those Australian service personnel who died, and their families, and we all share our deepest sympathies with them and will still be feeling their loss.

Peter Dutton associates the opposition with the prime minister’s words about the troops, particularly those who were injured or killed.

Aukus is good for regional Australia. Rah-Rah Aukus.

Moving on

Another question on rising energy bills

The member for Flinders, Zoe McKenzie, who has been earmarked as a rising star within the Liberal party room wants to know:

Some 500,000 Victorian families and businesses will see electricity bills rise from July, yearly household bills will rise from $1,400 to over $1,800 and yearly small-business bills will jump from $5,600 to over $7,300 a year. Why did the prime minister break his promise that energy prices would fall by $275 and why do Australian families always pay more under Labor?

Anthony Albanese:

I thank the member for her question and I do note that the energy regulator, Claire Savage, has actually released the information.

A year ago, there was an increase as scheduled as well but what happened was there was a special regulation introduced by the then minister for energy to stop them being transparency to stop the information out there.

That occurred.

I’m asked with an interjection of why that would occur – it occurred because an election was coming up, and those opposite who were then the government chose to hide from the Australian people what was occurring and that’s very different from the approach of this government which is to be transparent, which is to acknowledge the issues that supply chains and issues relating to the Russian invasion of Ukraine have had. And the shadow finance minister acknowledged that on the 8 March, acknowledged that but those opposite then coming here and then pretending, then pretend they didn’t know anything about that.

Here is what Claire Savage, the chair of the Australian energy later had to say on the 15 March. ‘We have seen unprecedented volatility in our wholesale electricity markets over the last couple of years, we’ve had very high: gas prices as a result of the war in Ukraine and the recovery from the pandemic. We’ve also seen a number of outages in particularly old coal plants and we know that related to some of the natural disasters as well that were occurring.’

The fact is, the proposed increase to the default market offer is much, much lower than it otherwise would have been because of the government intervention and here is what the Australian energy later had to say. Forward contract prices for 2023-24 of fallen substantially since governments began discussing possible interventions in gas and coal markets in October 2022.

They are the facts of the matter of what has occurred. The fact also that when that intervention did occur, to put a price on gas, and the New South Wales Liberal government intervened to put a price on coal and the Queensland government regulated to put a price on coal, and what we had was that we voted for that, they voted against that. And then when we had $1.5bn of energy price relief, they were for higher prices.

The rah-rah Aukus dixers are now reaching (paraphrased), “why are defence personnel so important to defence levels?” and this is why dixers should be banned.

Anthony Albanese finishes his answer early and then Angus Taylor yells out something, and Albanese responds and then they are both asked to withdraw in varying degrees of dramatic “how dare you” tones.

Angus Taylor asks about inflation

Angus Taylor has a question for Anthony Albanese and Labor can’t even be bothered with the performative groaning.

Can the prime minister confirmed that this year, more than half of mortgage holders in every state will move from a fixed rate to a variable rate with Victoria hit the hardest at 61%. Doesn’t this mean families will be hit with significantly higher repayments as the result of nine consecutive rate rises on this government watch?

Albanese:

I thank the shadow treasurer for his erasure of history there and the fact that the interest rates started increasing while they were in [government]

The member for Hume has asked this question.

This is what the shadow finance minister had to say not a long time ago, in fact, last week. Last week. ‘We know the pressures of the international situation supply chains are putting on inflation and subsequently interest rates so in the other place, they’ve actually got an economic spokesperson who understands supply change apparently have an impact and understand the international situation but of course, of course, that’s consistent with what the leader of the opposition said in May but it’s a reality of the world, nobody wants to see interest rates, but it’s a reality of the world where there is inflation.’

And then, and then the shadow minister himself and the shadow treasurer said last September, was very clear that the word has changed to medically even in last few months. We’ve seen a rapid shift to an inflationary environment, interest rates are bucking decades of downward trend, that’s what he had to say and he was right then, he is wrong now.

More rah-rah Aukus, this time from the treasurer, Jim Chalmers:

Now of the $9bn we will invest in this program, about $6bn will be invested in industry and the Australian workforce, this is a big investment and we’ve been upfront with the Australian people about the substantial pressures on the budget. It’s one of the fastest growing areas of spending in the budget along with the NDIS, aged care, healthcare and the cost of servicing of debt as well. And that’s important that we have offset over the forward estimates, every cent of this new-game changing investment in our national security. This is a vital investment, to keep Australia safe, to broaden our industrial base and distracting our economy at the same time and it shows that we will always do what is in the best interest of Australians, their economy and the national security.

And from the defence industry minister, Pat Conroy:

We will be developing some of the most advanced manufacturing in the world and as the treasurer said, as a byproduct, will be 20,000 jobs, 20,000 well-paid secure jobs, including 8,500 jobs building and sustaining the submarines themselves.

Within that forward, 4,500 jobs at building the shipyard, twice the amount that would have been building the attack class, previously. And this jobs figure doesn’t even include the supply chain jobs that will inevitably come.

My message to the Australian people in Australian industry is this work starts right now. It starts right now, $6bn has been allocated over the next four years to invest in industry and workforce, for the infrastructure upgrade to full skill development and partnerships including skills academy in Adelaide, training hundreds of apprentices each and every year and capacity building of supply so that our Aussie companies can get a good shot of the work, not just for Australia but for the United States and United Kingdom.

Work on the submarine construction yard starts right now. Training starts right now and hundreds of Australian workers will be going overseas to work in the UK and US shipyards developing skills and experience that will make a great contribution for our project.

The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has a question for Chris Bowen:

Has the government received modelling to identify the impacts energy supply from this and other deferred projects on household and business gas prices?

Bowen:

The member will be aware that just last week, the Australian Energy Market Operator released the document on supply and gas opportunities, which outlines the very task which has been inherited by this government, Mr Speaker, the very task and we have been dealing with including through the energy minister’s counsel and significant reforms that have been agreed unanimously between me and the state and territory ministers, Mr Speaker, to give them more power to ensure that underutilised storage capacity is better managed and to ensure that they have the access to all the information they require.

How is they did not have negotiated through the energy minister’s counsel and how is it being implemented and the honourable member refers to, I think he said, legislation, he may not recall, Mr Speaker, that the gas cap that was legislated with no support from those opposite is not tied to new supplies. A small fact which escaped the honourable member when he was working on the question in his office, working on it for hours, maybe he remembers that it didn’t suit his argument and perhaps it was ... (there are a lot of interjections)

He came in here and voted for those higher prices, this side of the house voted for lower prices, Mr Speaker.

Crossbench asks about bushfire support in NSW

The independent MP for Calare, former Nationals MP Andrew Gee, has the first crossbench question:

In the recent bushfires around the Hill End area of New South Wales, homes and livelihoods have been destroyed. When will badly needed support be announced including fodder transport subsidies and the $75,000 special disaster grants? Bathurst RSL club has donated $19,000 but almost half is going to transport costs. Farmers need those special disaster grants on the double to help rebuild their lives and properties.

(Isn’t it amazing how when a MP goes to the crossbench they can suddenly ask actual questions about their electorates?)

Anthony Albanese:

I think the member for Calare for his question and I note that he went back to his local community during the last sitting week to assist in fighting the fires and to give his community support that they needed at that time. That was an absolutely correct priority.

The biggest fire, Alpha Road fire, burned more than 18,000 hectares and I can inform the member that disaster recovery funding assistance declaration was made just this morning, just this morning. What that does is that activates category and B assistance under the DVR FA and the support the member is referring to, primary producers grants and freight and transport subsidies would be activated by a request from the premier which he would make because of the New South Wales election being close, he would need to make in conjunction with the leader of the opposition in New South Wales which we have not yet received that request.

[When we] receive a request, we will prioritise it to ensure people get the support they need as soon as possible. As the member knows, when there was flooding in his community, I travelled to the community and spent time with the member, with the premier, Dominic Perrottet, and the state member as well, the member for Orange, and we provided significant support there and when further representation was made by the member, we also have a specific funding, we also gave additional support there.

Can I say, Mr Speaker, as of this morning, there are still 34 bush and grass fires going across New South Wales with two of those fires are yet to be contained.

More than 500 personnel are currently undertaking firefighting efforts across New South Wales and there are 21 aircraft deployed across the state. Across New South Wales, these fires are having a devastating impact, they come off the back of his well, the Sydney flooding events that has occurred, disaster recovery assistance is being made available when the request is made, that provides for frayed subsidies for primary producers and provides for concessional up to $130,000.

I thank the member for the work that he has done represent in his local community and I said to the member that if he keeps in touch as well with my office, we will do what needs to be done to defend the community along with the minister Senator Watt.

Richard Marles on submarines

The government dixers have been different versions of “rah-rah Aukus”.

Here is what Richard Marles, the deputy prime minister and defence minister just had to say:

While Australia needs to operate long-range submarines can be seen from the most cursory glance at our geography, we have long trading routes which connect us to the world and that trade has grown.

In 1990, trade represented about 30% of our GDP. By 2020, it was 45% of our GDP and just one practical example of what that means is that in the 1990s we had eight oil refineries producing most of our petrol onshore, today, with only two oil refineries, we import most of our petrol from overseas and indeed import most of it from just one country.

And so Australia has always needed a long-range submarine capability and the Collins class has been and continues to be a highly effective capability but even as we seek to evolve it and extend its life, the fact that every few days it is required to surface in order to recharge its batteries is an act which, in the 2030s, will become increasingly detectable and that means the capability will be increasingly diminished.

… Now obviously this capability has the capacity to operate during a conflict but it’s true intent is to provide for the peace and the stability of our region because the defence of Australia doesn’t really mean that much without the collective security of our region and the maintenance of the rules-based order upon which we increasingly depend.

Over the last few months, particularly over the last few weeks, we’ve been engaged in an intensive effort in explaining our strategic intent to our neighbours in the Pacific and in south-east Asia and since our announcement on Monday, I think there reaction demonstrates the genuine appreciation they have the transparency that we have shown but also an understanding of why Australia is making the decision that we are.

Because at the end of the day, Australia’s future nuclear-powered submarines represent our contribution to the peace and stability of our region and of the world.

Sussan Ley to Anthony Albanese:

Tomorrow marks 10 months since the 2022 election. Can the prime minister identify a single Australian who is paying less on their electricity bill now than they were 10 months ago, a single mortgage holder seen the interest rate go down in the past 10 months or a single person whose grocery bill is lower today than it was 10 months ago. Why do Australian families always pay more under Labor?

Albanese:

I thank the member for her question and I can confirm that tomorrow does represent 10 months since the election. I remember it well. In that 10 months, what we’ve been doing is economic reform, social reform, environmental and making sure that we fulfil our first responsibility as a government, to make Australians safer by looking after our national security. I can can that not only have we been dealing with domestic issues such as ensuring that people have access to cheaper pharmaceuticals from January 1, cheaper childcare from July 1, 180,000 Australians are benefiting from the free Tafe, that we’ve introduced, while addressing the skills shortages, we’ve also been making sure that the mistakes ...

Ley has a point of order, although Milton Dick has already said the answer is in order.

On relevance, Mr Speaker, as you’ve just said. The question was about mortgage prices, grocery prices and lower electricity prices and the prime minister has not mentioned either of those once.

The answer is still in order.

Albanese:

Thanks very much, Mr Speaker and it has been a good 10 months, it has been a good 10 months. Because what we’ve been doing is going through, fulfilling the commitments that we made at the election.

As you go along the front row here, making sure we have a national anticorruption commission this year after the legislation being passed, promised by those opposite way back in 2018, but not passed, legislation not even being introduced into this parliament.

We had the robodebt royal commission, the robodebt royal commission exposing the tragic consequences of what happened with a scheme that was illegal … will not occur on our watch.

We got significant reform right across the board and I thank the deputy leader of the opposition for her question. We haven’t been able to get up all of the things that she would like and was advocating such as, I notice just before, a 90-second statement about live sheep exports. I was expecting something maybe from the deputy leader of the opposition to show how principled her stance was. We will continue to implement a Labor agenda, continue to take the government forward, to take the government forward, unlike those opposite you just say what they are against and haven’t come up with a single constructive idea in the last 10 months.

If you are thinking that things seem a little slower than usual today, you would be right. That is because of all the negotiations happening behind closed doors.

The government is working to try and get its safeguards legislation through the parliament. That means speaking with the Greens and David Pocock as much as possible.

You’ll hear from both sides when they feel like they need to push the behind closed doors negotiations along a little bit – think of it as a nudge from public discourse.

It is almost time for question time.

Woo hoo

Nasa chiefs in Australia

The head of Nasa, Bill Nelson, and the deputy administrator, Pamela Melroy, are visiting Australia this week, which is the first visit from a sitting administrator since 2014.

So of course we have announcements:

To mark the visit, minister [Ed] Husic announced grants for two successful Australian consortiums under the government’s Moon to Mars Trailblazer initiative.

The Arose consortium and the EPE and Lunar Outpost Oceania consortium will each receive $4m to design early-stage prototypes of a semi-autonomous rover, as part of stage one of the Trailblazer program.

To the moon! [And then to Mars]

Daniel Hurst has asked secretary Richard Spencer:

You mentioned the various conflicts since the Second World War that Australia and the US have stood side-by-side at. In your view, what lessons can be learned from the Iraq war 20 years ago? There’s a lot of reflections given it’s the 20th anniversary. What at its core went wrong there with that decision? And should it give Australia pause for thought about signing on to US strategy?

Spencer:

So if I was to say as Richard Spencer what I think the problems were – is something I referred to earlier: exploration and discussion and agreement on the second, third and fourth order of effects. Do we have the plan all the way down to the fourth order of effect? What we have learned from this – and this is why I, personally, would like to have more voices at the table asking those exact questions. We have been by your side for every single one of the conflicts, some of them haven’t turned out that well. And we thought about second or third order of effects? That’s where the responsibility actually on that party at the table to map that out.

Q: So do you think in Washington Australian foreign minister Penny Wong’s approach about encouraging guardrails to responsibly manage competition, it’s something the president has talked about, but is that a contribution that is welcomed in Washington in your view?

I think it’s welcomed. I think we [should] have the discussion, most definitely.

I can guarantee that these children would have been better behaved than what we see in the chamber during question time.

The former US Navy secretary Richard Spencer is also the global chair of Bondi Partners, which provides strategic advice (strategic shorthand for advising on defence/security/global situations).

Joe Hockey is the founding partner and president.

Just squaring some circles there.

NSW opposition pledges 3.5% pay rise for essential workers

Back on the NSW election campaign trail, the NSW opposition leader, Chris Minns, has promised essential workers that they will get a wage increase over 3.5% under a Labor government, but can’t say by how much.

Under the current system, essential workers will see a 3% wage increase last financial year and a 3.5% increase this financial year.

Minns and NSW Labor have proposed to abolish the wage cap on the public sector, but at a press conference this morning, refused to give specifics beyond guaranteeing wages would increase beyond 3.5%.

Pushed on when the increase would come and what it would look like, the Labor leader was unclear:

Well, we have to do that and sit around the negotiating table.

I can guarantee that, as a result of the fact that we know that there’s budget savings and productivity gains with our strict economic rules in place, essential workers will be better off under Labor.

The former secretary of the US Navy Richard Spencer is speaking at the Press Club today.

The former US ambassador Joe Hockey is in the audience, as is the Liberal senator and security hawk James Paterson.

Daniel Hurst tells me the Lithuanian ambassador, Darius Degutis, is there, as is the Peruvian ambassador.

Many farmers ‘looking to becoming climate neutral’, Haines says

Indi independent Helen Haines wants the government to fund 200 agricultural extensions officers to “provide context-specific, trusted and neutral educational outreach services and advice on the technology, products and practices that will help farmers lower their emissions”.

Further to the motion Haines moved earlier in the house, the cross bench MP says the government needs to bring farmers with them on the move to lower emissions and that includes explaining how to translate the policy into farms in clear, concise and actionable advice.

Agricultural extension officers have historically played a role in translating science into practice for Australia’s agricultural sector at points of significant change, upheaval and opportunity and this is one of those moments,” Dr Haines said.

The policy has been costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office at $33m a year over four years.

Many farmers I speak to across Indi tell me they want to play a part in reducing our national emissions and are looking to becoming climate neutral themselves.

They talk to me about the challenges in navigating carbon measurement, auditing and certification and they express genuine concern about the integrity of carbon credits.

There is also great concern within the farming community about how they will be affected by the government’s Safeguard Mechanism, with too much reliance on the agricultural sector to offset emissions in other sectors.

My plan is a way to start providing answers, action and a way forward for farmers and for government to truly support them.

NSW Labor pushes to prevent future Sydney Water sale

The NSW opposition leader, Chris Minns, has begun the last week of his state election campaign by again claiming the premier, Dominic Perrottet, plans to privatise Sydney Water.

The premier has said repeatedly he has “no plans” to privatise Sydney Water, and the treasurer, Matt Kean, last week accused Labor of running a scare campaign and said there would be no privatisation of the utility.

But NSW Labor has pointed to a series of documents that they say show the sale of the asset was being considered.

Minns told reporters Labor would push to put Sydney Water in the constitution to prevent it from ever being privatised.

“You can’t trust the Liberal party when it comes to privatisation. $90 billion worth of assets have been sold. They said exactly the same thing, at almost exactly the same period before the 2019 election.”

“My challenge to the Premier is put your money where your mouth is support Labor’s plan to put Sydney Water in the constitution. He could do a backdoor sale, a fire sale if you like, without the consent of parliament. Putting it in the constitution stops this government and future governments from making a terrible mistake.”

Government on minimum wage rising with inflation

Remember at the last election campaign when Anthony Albanese answered “absolutely” to a question on whether he wanted to see the minimum wage raise inline with inflation (which was then 5.1%).

The government language hasn’t been quite so strong when it comes to the Fair Work Commission considerations this time around. This is partly because Labor is now the government and the FWC is independent. And it is also partly because with inflation, all of these things have become a lot more tricky.

How tricky? Where here is the whole transcript between Patricia Karvelas and Katy Gallagher this morning, where the finance minister talked around the fact that she was not saying anything:

PK: Now back home, there’s reporting the major unions will make submissions to the Fair Work Commission to increase the minimum wage and award wages by more than 7% to match inflation. Last year, you supported a 5% minimum wage increase to match inflation – should it be bumped up again?

KG: We’ll be making a submission to the annual wage review in the next few weeks, I think it’s required but …

PK: Do you think 7% seems reasonable?

KG: Well, I’ll leave that for the unions. We, last year, didn’t put a pay figure on it. I think we made the argument that, particularly low-paid workers, you know, we wouldn’t want to see them go backwards, but we left it to the Commission.

PK: So, let me put this to you. Do you still not, is that your position, that you don’t want to see them go backwards?

KG: We would want to make, I think for, particularly for low-income workers, we want to make sure that, you know, they are getting sustainable and affordable pay rises. And you’ll see our submission provided through that wage case in the next couple of weeks.

PK: So, I’m gonna ask it again, politely. Will you put in a submission that says that they shouldn’t go backwards?

KG: Well, we’re currently finalising that submission, Patricia so …

PK: So you’re not wedded to that language?

KG: Well, no, I think we’ve made it clear since coming into government that we want to see wages moving, we have been particularly concerned about the lowest paid. And, of course, with the cost of living pressures that are on people now, that has an impact. What their wage increase has, has an impact on their living standards. So you will see a submission from us that goes through the detail about you know, what we see as the government as important, and then the Fair Work Commission makes the decision. But we didn’t put a figure on it last year. I don’t expect we will put a figure on it this year.

PK: No, but you did talk about not going backwards, and that means keeping up with inflation. So that’s my key question. Do you think you should keep up with inflation for this lowest for these lowest-paid workers?

KG: We want to see low-income workers get a good pay rise, you’ll see our submission. The submission hasn’t been finalised, PK. I think it’s fair that we are able to finalise that submission through our processes, and then …

PK: It does seem like a different, with respect, minister, it sounds like a different position to the one that was taken during the election campaign, where the prime minister use that word, ‘absolutely’, about them not going backwards.

KG: Well, we will finalise our submission. I mean, in a unusual or difficult position where that submission hasn’t been finalised. We support wage increases, particularly for low-income workers. You’ve seen that since the beginning of this government, you won’t see that change. We will continue to argue for that. But the final, the submission needs to be finalised and go through our processes.

Government moves to categorise IRGC as terrorists

Over in the house, Karen Andrews is moving a motion calling on the government to formally categorise the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) as an organisation involved in, supporting and facilitating terrorism.

In my former role as minister for home affairs, I oversaw the listing of the entirety of Hamas, the Base, and Hezbollah as terrorist organisations. It’s a powerful signal to those who threaten our way of life.

Like many others, I’ve been alarmed at how the threat from the IRGC has escalated over the past nine months, especially since the civil unrest following the death of Jina Amini in September.

… In the interest of Iranian-Australians and their families, as well as national security, the Coalition is urging the government to find a solution to more properly sanction and condemn the IRGC.

As a nation we need to send a message that Australia will never tolerate the kinds of human rights abuses and acts of terror we have seen in Iran recently.

Opposition responds to Iran sanctions

Simon Birmingham has responded to Penny Wong’s announcement of further sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for human rights abuses in Iran. He thinks it is good, but wasn’t fast enough:

This slow response is disappointing with further sanctions on officials responsible for violence and human rights abuses recommended by the Senate Foreign Affairs References Committee more than seven weeks ago.

The Coalition has been calling for this action for months, including a letter to Prime Minister Albanese in November 2022 for which we are yet to receive a response. At every step the Albanese Government has been slow to act, leading to frustration and concern in Australia’s Iranian community.

While several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have been sanctioned today, the Government is yet to respond to recommendations of the Committee and the calls of the Coalition for action to be taken to allow the IRGC to be listed as a terrorist organisation.

Minister Wong and the Albanese Government should take the recommendations of the Committee seriously and provide a comprehensive response to all of them as quickly as possible.
The Coalition continues to offer bipartisan support for any action by Australia and strengthen the condemnation of the continued abuses of human rights being carried out by the Iranian regime.

Australia must stand consistent with likeminded nations and take the actions that others should look to follow.

The Coalition commends the bravery of those in Iran, in particular Iranian women and girls fighting for basic human rights and continues to call on the Albanese Government to do all it can to support them.

Coalition pushes to stall Referendum Act update

The Coalition has suggested the Labor government should delay consideration of the Referendum Machinery Act changes, claiming the updates shouldn’t go forward because there isn’t enough support from the opposition on the changes for future referenda.

As we noted earlier, the machinery updates (the rules governing referenda) is first up in the Senate today, with the Coalition at this stage planning to vote against it. The shadow special minister of state, Jane Hume, this morning moved the opposition’s amendments to the bill, which call for (as expected) official campaign organisations to be set up, and for those groups to get public funding.

Hume stressed that the funding, which the Coalition hasn’t put a suggested dollar figure to, would be for funding to “operate and administer” the campaigns, not to “advertise and campaign”. This is the distinction drawn by the shadow frontbencher Simon Birmingham a few weeks ago too – but as we’ve reported before, the no campaign for the voice referendum says they don’t necessarily need money for administration expenses.

Hume said the opposition’s changes were not necessarily about the voice referendum, but on the principle for future votes. She also suggested that the government should consider delaying this bill, until there could be greater agreement reached by the major parties (though we doubt the government will take up this idea).

The Labor senator Pat Dodson, special envoy on reconciliation and the Uluru statement, said the government had “extended the hand of bipartisanship” to the opposition on this bill, and again urged the Coalition to support them.

This battle is still going on:

Haines: ‘Let’s not set our farmers up for failure’ on emissions reduction

Helen Haines:

When we are debating the safeguard mechanism bill this week, I call on my fellow members to think practically about how offsetting will work. To think practically about how it will impact our agricultural sector. A sector that feeds and clothes us, and cares for of our beautiful natural landscapes. Agriculture is a foundational industry that enriches our nation.

Let’s not set our farmers up for failure. Let’s listen to their calls for support to navigate the risks and opportunities in the carbon market. The government has made some long overdue first steps. Let’s scale it up and deliver a robust, trusted network of extension officers to see it through.

Haines says that farmers she has spoken to in her electorate have concerns about the carbon credits, want to act on climate change and is calling for the government to respond.

Helen Haines moves motion on sustainability in agriculture

Indi independent MP Dr Helen Haines is moving this motion in the house, asking that the chamber:

1. Recognises that the Australian Government has set a target of net-zero emissions by 2050.

2. Recognises that Australia’s agriculture sector currently generates 16% of Australia’s national emissions.

3. Notes that climate change represents a serious and present threat to the Australian agricultural sector’s continued productivity and profitability, including on the international market.

4. Recognises that the Government is continuing to support a carbon market through the use of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), including under the Safeguard Mechanism (Crediting) Bill 2022.

5. Recognises that the Government is encouraging farmer participation in new markets including:

1. the ACCU market, via programs such as the Carbon Farming Outreach Program;

2. the biodiversity credit market through the proposed Nature Repair Market Bill.

6. Recognises that Australia’s agriculture sector may need to retain their own credits for carbon insetting, in order to comply with international trade requirements that will require farmers to address their own emissions.

7. Notes that agricultural extension officers (AEOs) have historically played an important role in translating science into practice for Australia’s agricultural sector.

8. Calls on the Government to do more to encourage farmers to deploy low-emissions technologies and practices, and participate in carbon and biodiversity markets, by:

(a) providing ongoing and increased investment in agricultural and climate science research and development, including in accurate measurement of soil carbon and nutritional additives to reduce methane emissions in livestock;

(b) funding a network of 200 AEOs through providers such as Natural Resource Management or Landcare organisations. These AEOs would provide context-specific, trusted and neutral educational outreach services and advice on the technology, products and practices that will help farmers lower their emissions, improve remnant vegetation and subsequently participate in new carbon and biodiversity markets;

(c) allowing farmers to certify their products as net-zero through a dedicated Carbon Neutral Certification standard for farms through the ClimateActive initiative. This would help farmers access price premiums for their products and protect their access to overseas markets.

Senate vote to bring on debate about Iraq war fails

As expected, the Senate has voted down the Greens’ attempt to suspend standing orders to bring on a debate about the Iraq war.

Just 12 senators voted to suspend standing orders, including the Greens and the independent senator David Pocock. The 23 senators who voted against suspending proceedings included Labor and Coalition senators together with Jacqui Lambie and Malcolm Roberts.

Peter Whish-Wilson says Liberal party and Australian involvement in Iraq war ‘made the world a less safe place’

The Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson has described the Iraq war as being based on “a manufactured deceit of the highest order”. In a very strongly worded contribution to debate on suspending standing orders, Whish-Wilson told the Senate:

Today is a very sombre today and a very important day for reflection. And it seems that 20 years [on] following this illegal war of aggression which our country participated in very little we’ve learned very little based on today’s debate.

And it’s very sad and very frustrating to see the Liberal party continue to wipe clean the blood they so very clearly have on their hands – they’ve never shown any remorse for the invasion of Iraq and Australia’s participation in that …

We were led to a war by a small group of powerful people who were totally unaccountable to the millions who marched around the globe in the biggest protests in our history at the time to oppose this war. We were ignored – but we were right. Looking back on history, the Liberal party can come up in here today and say whatever they want [but] you have made the world a less safe place …

The Liberal party, along with the UK government, the United States and the coalition of the willing gave birth to Isis, to more global terrorism, and you come in here today and you talk about stability.

We have to know we’ve learned something from this war – this illegal and immoral war – if we are going to have any confidence in the safety of our children in this country. Are we part of an alliance that is going to lead us into another war with no scrutiny from the media or from parliaments because of the cosy relationship you have with each other around national security. Are we going to be hoodwinked?

Pesutto says moving to expel Deeming ‘a necessary decision’

The Victorian opposition leader, John Pesutto, says he’s confident he’ll have the numbers to expel Deeming from the Liberal party room:

I would consider it a great failure of leadership if I didn’t take this action … Politics carries with it great responsibilities, and those responsibilities often involve tough decisions. But this is the right decision. It’s a necessary decision. And it will tell Victorians that we are serious about being viable opposition and serious about forming government.

Greens attempt to open debate on Australian involvement in Iraq war

The Greens have sought to suspend standing orders in the Senate to bring on debate about the Iraq war. Senator Jordon Steele-John wants to move a motion to say the Senate recognises that “in 2003, Australia was a part of a United States-led coalition which illegally invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq – with catastrophic consequences for Iraq and the broader region”.

The motion, if passed, would also urge “the Australian Parliament and government to learn the lessons of the past and to never again be dragged into another country’s unjust war of aggression” and call for “the withdrawal of ADF personnel still deployed to Iraq today under Operation Okra and Operation Accordion”.

The government said it would not support the suspension of standing orders, saying there were other opportunities to debate the matter. Murray Watt, for the government, said the Greens were not alone in opposing the Iraq war at the time; Watt pointed to Labor’s position elaborated by then leader Simon Crean in 2003. Watt also said the government’s decision to enter into the Aukus arrangement was a sovereign decision and added that any decision to deploy those submarine capabilities in future would also be a sovereign decision for Australia.

The Coalition’s Simon Birmingham said there were lessons learned but he also said Saddam Hussein had been a brutal dictator. Birmingham said the Iraqi people did now have “more say over their future”.

Victorian Liberal leader speaks to reporters over move to expel Moira Deeming from party

The Victorian opposition leader, John Pesutto, is holding a press conference after he announced last night he will move to expel MP Moira Deeming from the parliamentary Liberal party due to her involvement in an anti-trans protest attended by a neo-Nazi group.

I have not taken this decision lightly but the events which were brought to my attention over the weekend, not far from where we stand, there was a protest which attracted Nazis on the steps of this magnificent parliament. It will never be acceptable in Victoria for Nazis to get a platform …

Indigenous voice referendum timeline dependent on passage of two bills in next fortnight

There’s lots of focus on the government’s climate safeguard and housing bills this week, but this sitting fortnight is a crucial one for the Indigenous voice referendum, with Labor needing to pass two separate bills to keep its preferred timeline on track.

Let’s break it down. First, there’s the referendum (machinery provisions) amendment bill, which basically sets the rules for the referendum – things like polling places, donation disclosures and pre-polls. That’s gone through the lower house and is in the Senate, where the Coalition is currently planning to oppose it unless the government legislates for millions in public funding for the Yes and No campaigns.

Labor and the Liberals are in negotiations there, which the special minister of state, Don Farrell, was tight-lipped about in an interview on Sunday, only saying he wanted the opposition to give some “goodwill” to the changes. The crossbench has a bunch of amendments already proposed. The bill is listed first up in the Senate today, and Farrell says he is hopeful it will pass by Tuesday.

Then, separately, the government is currently planning to introduce a constitutional amendment bill into the parliament next week. This bill is the main game for the referendum, which will outline the proposed question to go on the ballot paper, and the exact wording of the proposed constitutional amendment. As we reported last week, this is contingent on final advice from the government’s referendum working group arriving and then being considered by the cabinet, likely next week.

The government wants to introduce the amendment bill next week so they can send it off to a parliamentary inquiry, which will run for a few months, in anticipation of voting on the bill in June. That timeline is important because the government has pegged the October-December window as their preferred timing for the referendum.

Quirks in the referendum legislation compel the government to hold the vote between three and six months after passing an amendment bill; so, counting backwards, the government would need to pass the bill in June to have a vote in October.

So basically the government wants a lot of the referendum legislation dealt with in this fortnight. Keep all this in mind as the next two weeks unfold.

Greens and Labor may find compromises on safeguard mechanism

As the negotiations for the safeguard legislation reach the sticky end, you will hear a lot from Labor MPs not directly involved with the negotiations talking about 2019 and the CPRS.

It’s an old fight and a very, very well trodden path from Labor. The Greens aren’t happy with this legislation – the party doesn’t think it goes far enough and points to business being in favour of it as one of the “doesn’t that make you think why?” questions that need to be raised about the legislation.

But the Greens have also given every indication the party room is not willing to completely blow it all up. So stay tuned – negotiations are ongoing and while the government isn’t moving on no new coal or gas, that doesn’t mean there isn’t wriggle room elsewhere in the legislation.

Impact of rate hikes tempered by savings buffers and fixed-rate loans, RBA assistant governor says

AAP has reported on the RBA’s latest thinking:

The large cohort of mortgage holders with fixed-rate loans, plus the significant savings buffers built up during the pandemic, will likely delay the full impact of aggressive interest rate hikes.

Reserve Bank of Australia assistant governor for financial markets Christopher Kent said these two features of the modern borrowing landscape have made it more difficult to gauge how quickly and how hard interest rates are biting.

This is complicating the matter of lifting interest rates to temper economic activity and slow inflation.

The RBA has already lifted interest rates 10 times from historic lows of 0.1% to 3.6% in a bid to push inflation back within its 2%-3% target range.

Kent said while the high proportion of fixed rate loans and sizeable buffers held by many borrowers would most likely drag out the time it would usually take for higher interest rates to weigh on household spending, other channels of monetary policy were behaving as normal.

“For example, the sharp reduction in demand for new housing loans is in line with historical experience given the sharp rise in interest rates and the decline in turnover and prices in housing markets; the demand for new construction has also fallen noticeably,” he said.

“Higher interest rates are making it more attractive to save and more costly for firms to invest; they have also contributed to lower asset prices and so lower wealth, which will impinge on households’ willingness to spend,” he added.

He said all these other challenges were helping to slow growth in aggregate demand and bring down inflation.

Parliament to sit from 10am today

The parliament will sit from 10am and then it is going to be go-go-go given the amount of work the government wants to get through in this fortnight.

It’s going to be one of those sittings where nothing happens and then everything does.

Perrottet refuses to commit to debt ceiling in lead-up to Saturday poll

The New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, has started the final week of the campaign by refusing to say how much debt his government will take on if it is re-elected on Saturday.

Perrottet is embarking on his first regional trip of the campaign on Monday, but began with a stop in Sydney’s inner west to announce an increase of the speed limit of the Westconnex motorway.

Trailing in the polls in the final week before the election, the Coalition is keen to highlight the success of the road, one of a series of infrastructure projects which Labor opposed before construction but which has proved popular since being built.

This is all at risk under Labor … You and your family will be worse off under Labor in NSW because they can’t manage money.”

But ahead of the release of the Parliamentary Budget Office costings on Monday, Perrottet refused to say how much debt the Coalition would take on.

Debt has become a key issue in the election, with the Labor leader, Chris Minns, repeatedly saying the government’s decision to rule out any future privatisations in the next term will see deficits continue to rise. Labor has committed to keeping the state’s gross debt below $187bn.

Perrottet refused to commit to a debt ceiling on Monday, while also saying that, though he wouldn’t privatise further assets if re-elected, he still believed in asset recycling.

He said:

I always look at the situation that is in front of us in every budget. We made decisions in relation to the investments going forward in a financially sustainable way in a financially sustainable way.

Central banks join forces in coordinated liquidity push

Six of the world’s biggest central banks – but not the Reserve Bank of Australia – have acted to shore up financial stability in global markets, according to the US Federal Reserve.

The boosting of liquidity through standing US dollar liquidity swaps will last from today and run until at least the end of April.

Maturity operations that usually run for seven days will be shortened to daily. Such measures are typically rolled out when there is a sudden jump in demand for US dollars, Bloomberg reported.

The central banks include the Bank of Canada, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank. (We’ve asked the RBA if they have plans to join in.)

The actions follow the managed takeover of Credit Suisse by Swiss rival investment bank UBS for $US3bn ($A4.5bn). Credit Suisse was one of the world’s ten largest banks.

The RBA may not have been involved in the coordinated liquidity push, but we do have their first comments on the state of Australia’s banks in the wake of the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank earlier this month that triggered a surge of financial market volatility.

Australia’s banks are “unquestionably strong” amid “strained” conditions in global financial markets, says Christopher Kent, an assistant governor of the RBA.

Kent told the KangaNews DCM Summit in Sydney on Monday that “volatility in Australian financial markets has picked up but markets are still functioning”.

“[M]ost importantly, Australian banks are unquestionably strong – the banks’ capital and liquidity positions are well above [the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s] regulatory requirements,” he said. “Even if markets remain strained for a time, Australian banks’ issuance [of bonds] will continue to benefit from the strength of their balance sheets.”

Kent also said higher interest rates were also likely to have a “somewhat elongated” lag in influencing the behaviour of borrowers, compared with past events.

On the one hand, a higher proportion had taken out fixed-rate loans than usual during the Covid pandemic period of low interest rates. Many savers had also built up sizeable buffers.

“This means that it’s likely to take longer than usual to see the full effect of higher interest rates on household cashflows and household spending,” Kent said.

More to follow.

Joyce: ‘It’s going to be really, really difficult’ to outlaw Nazi salute

Victoria is moving to ban the Nazi salute – but what about doing it at a federal level?

Labor MP Josh Burns has been working on it, which Tanya Plibersek raises when asked about it during her weekly endurance test “debating” Barnaby Joyce on Sunrise.

Plibersek on the federal government moving on the ban:

Well, in the first instance you’d want the states engaged. And I’m very pleased that Premier Daniel Andrews has begun this conversation. This is a disgusting ideology responsible for the deaths of millions of people and it has no place in Australia.

It doesn’t matter what your religion, your sex, your gender, your ethnicity, whatever your background – you deserve to feel safe and respected in Australia, and people turning up in black clothes, balaclavas, giving the Nazi salute is completely unacceptable in modern‑day Australia. I can’t even believe in 2023 we still have to say this is unacceptable in Australia.

Host: Yes, so why don’t we outlaw it? We’ve outlawed the symbols, Barnaby, why don’t we take the next step and outlaw this gesture? Are we behind on this?

Barnaby Joyce:

Well, it’s disgusting, isn’t it? And, obviously, from a family that served in the military to fight the fascists and to fight Nazism, it’s especially offensive, as millions died, [were] put into gas chambers, family members.

But I think we’ve also got to understand this is not – it’s a great idea and we should be doing it – but remember, there are people in the union marches, too, who have used it. There are people who have referred to Morrison and Howard who’ve used it.

It’s going to be – it’s a thing that needs to be done, but it’s going to be really, really difficult, because there are a lot of people who are going to – and the police also have to also go into these areas, some of them incredibly hostile, and try and grab these people. Imagine trying to do it in the middle of those idiots or the middle of a union march where they’re protesting against the Liberal party or the National party? What are you going to do?

Q: Yeah, Tanya, do you do this on a federal level? Are you guys going to step in now?

Plibersek:

Oh, look, Josh Burns, my colleague from Melbourne, has already suggested this and, of course, that’s something we would need to discuss.

… I think it’s a disgusting thing in modern‑day Australia that anybody should be giving a Nazi symbol like that and, of course, I support anything we can do to make people feel safer in Australia, to protect them from this sort of harassment and intimidation.

Given the state of the budget, this isn’t too far from reality:

2023:

Arthur Sinodinos has finished up as US ambassador.

Kevin Rudd will be stepping into the role.

Penny Wong won’t be in the parliament this week:

If you haven’t already, get your booster.

The government is still finding the numbers on this bill though:

Half of all school principals at risk of serious mental health issues

One in two principals risk serious mental health concerns amid escalating threats, violence and staff shortages in the sector, new research shows.

ACU’s annual Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey 2022, released today, found 47.8% of school leaders had triggered “red flag” alerts, which occur when principals are at risk of self-harm, occupational health problems or serious impact on their quality of life including burnout and stress. The emails alert principals to contact employee support services.

It was an 18.7 percentage point jump on the alerts compared with the previous year.

The risk was highest among special school principals, with 56.3% triggering red flag emails in 2022. Public schools followed at 51.8%, compared with 35.3% at Catholic schools and 27.7% of independent school counterparts. The percentages were higher for female principals across all sectors.

Aggressive behaviours, cyberbullying and threats towards principals have also dramatically increased in the past year. Forty-four per cent of principals have been subjected to physical violence – the highest figure recorded since the survey began in 2011.

ACU investigator and former principal Dr Paul Kidson said school leaders were now 11 times more at risk of experiencing physical violence in their workplace than the general population.

Our research shows abuse and intimidation towards principals and the associated health risks suffered by school leaders continues to grow and it must stop. Such a significant shift in red flag warnings in a short space of time suggests the situation is more serious than first thought. For the past 12 years we have looked at trends and this year they are stark – the scale and the rate has intensified, and we are seeing a severe escalation in stress levels.

Principals in the ACT triggered the most alerts at 58.5% followed by the Northern Territory (57.4), New South Wales (55.7) and Western Australia (52.2).

Previous research from the ACU found heavy workloads and teacher shortages were driving principals to resignation and early retirement. The number wanting to quit or retire early has tripled in one year.

Co-lead investigator Prof Herb Marsh said the sector was at a “tipping point”.

There is an urgency in our call for action as the time to redress these concerns diminishes. We may see a mass exodus from the profession, and the implication for Australian education would be devastating.”

The report made 15 recommendations including introducing wellbeing policies within performance frameworks and for the government to fast-track the elimination of “low-value tasks” as suggested by the Productivity Commission.

Crossbencher Sophie Scamps moves amendments to safeguard mechanism

The government’s safeguards mechanism legislation will pass the house with no issue (the government has the numbers there) but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of people who want to speak to the bill and/or make changes to it. Including the crossbench. Dr Sophie Scamps is out early this morning with the amendments she would like to see:

My amendments will require all new, expanded, or extended fossil fuel facilities to have net zero carbon emissions at commencement, and for the life of the facility. In this scenario:

• A new gas project would be required to enter the safeguard mechanism at net zero, and stay there for its operational life.

• A coalmine seeking to expand the area of its mining operations would need to ensure the expanded area operates carbon neutrally and remain that way for its operational life.

• A company seeking to extend the life of a coal seam gas project would need to ensure the project is net zero from the day of the project’s extension and stay there for its operational life.

In addition, I am also moving amendments that seek to guarantee the integrity of climate and carbon market related bodies such as the Climate Change Authority and the Clean Energy Regulator, by guaranteeing the independence of appointments to those bodies.

Aukus deal does not mean Australia must follow US into war: Simon Crean

So is the former Labor leader concerned with the Aukus deal?

He tells Patricia Karvelas he isn’t. Asked if he thinks the agreement would make it harder for Australia to say no to following the US into war, Crean says:

I don’t believe that it does. As I say, I think it comes back to the strength of leadership. The test of a partnership, the test of an alliance is not just following blindly. It is challenging, challenging within it brings you to the party to the table as an equal partner.

And that’s how we should exercise our position known on the best evidence.

This week is the 20th anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq.

Simon Crean, the Labor leader at the time, was against Australia joining from the beginning and he played a high political price, but history judged him correctly.

Government examining welfare and jobseeker payment rates, Gallagher says

Katy Gallagher says the government is “looking at payments” when she is asked about Sam Mostyn’s request that single parents remain on the single parent payment when their child turns eight (under changes made by the Gillard government, parents are moved on to the jobseeker payment, with mutual obligations when their child turns eight).

It seems to be the one part of the interview where Gallagher moves out of the holding pattern. She doesn’t say yes, but she does make a point that payments are being examined by the government ahead of the budget.

That’s also because of the economics inclusion committee that David Pocock won as a concession as part of previous negotiations – it is going to give recommendations on Australia’s welfare payments and where they should be.

The government doesn’t have to accept the recommendations, which is one of the biggest criticisms of the committee (I think everyone knows the payments need to be increased) but it will draw more of a spotlight on just how far behind social security payments like jobseeker are from a livable allowance.

Finance minister won’t confirm government’s stance on minimum wage increase in FWC submission

There is then a back-and-forth over whether the government supports the union position on raising the minimum wage now that the Fair Work Commission is looking at it again, so workers don’t go backwards given inflation.

At the election, Anthony Albanese “absolutely” supported a cost-of-living increase to the minimum wage.

Almost a year on, Katy Gallagher is not as absolute.

We support wage increases, particularly for low-income workers. You’ve seen that since the beginning of this government. You won’t see that change. We will continue to argue for that. But the final submission needs to be finalised, and go through our processes.

As for a figure? She will leave that to the unions. The government won’t be putting a number on it (although they didn’t put a number on it officially last time either, at least in the submission).

Greens and Labor to find compromise on safeguards mechanism

The Greens want no new coal or gas projects in order to pass the safeguards mechanism. The government is not prepared to go that far. And so, what will the government compromise on?

Speaking to ABC radio RN Breakfast, the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, doesn’t say – but she does say that both parties want to see action. And so the thought is the Greens will compromise on no coal and gas and the government gives elsewhere.

We want this legislation through, it’s critical to meeting our 43% reductions target. It’s the policy that exists now. It’s about making that more effective. And the Greens obviously want, you know, some other additional commitments. And we’ll we’ll work through that over the fortnight.