Meanwhile, Tony Burke says group who attempted to enter by boat in north Queensland have been removed. Follow today’s news live
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37m ago‘Hugely disappointing’: Monique Ryan says threat looms over house voting rules
1h ago‘We’re the frog in the pot’: independents warn against government proposal to change divisions in the house
2h ago‘There is always more that we can do’: Anne Aly says further gambling reforms a possibility
3h agoGovernment makes concession on controversial aged care assessment tool
3h agoAustralia to give $2m in humanitarian assistance to Venezuela
4h agoProgressive patriotism underpinning defence strategy: Conroy
The independents are arcing up about a proposed reform by the government that divisions should have a minimum of 10 members on either side, and if not, the decision will be declared immediately without completing the count.
For now, Tony Burke, the leader of the house, says Labor will suspend that action and take advice on it.
The independents say the change is in response to more than half a dozen divisions yesterday over their amendments to the NDIS bill – all which were rejected by the government.
The independent MP for Bradfield, Nicolette Boele, says this would be a “step in the wrong direction” if the government went ahead with changing the rules:
Our democracy is increasingly fragile – why has the government looked at that and decided now is the moment to make it harder to see how politicians vote on behalf of their communities? It’s another quiet step away from transparency and accountability. We’re the frog in the pot: it starts with convoluted procedural change – and it ends with less transparency in how our elected MPs vote on behalf of the people they’re here to represent.
Our democracy is increasingly fragile – why has the government looked at that and decided now is the moment to make it harder to see how politicians vote on behalf of their communities? It’s another quiet step away from transparency and accountability.
We’re the frog in the pot: it starts with convoluted procedural change – and it ends with less transparency in how our elected MPs vote on behalf of the people they’re here to represent.
Burke justified the idea in the house but said he’d consult further before putting it to a vote (which Labor would win):
If everybody acted the way we might want to act in a particular moment, the house could itself become unmanageable. I have been asked by some people for further consultation on this. I would make clear to the house that the motion that I put on the notice paper remains the government’s position. No one should pretend that this is a gag or a denial of democratic process or anything like that. The reason for this is we cannot have a situation where any one member of parliament acts like they’re the only person in the room. That’s what we can’t have.
If everybody acted the way we might want to act in a particular moment, the house could itself become unmanageable.
I have been asked by some people for further consultation on this. I would make clear to the house that the motion that I put on the notice paper remains the government’s position.
No one should pretend that this is a gag or a denial of democratic process or anything like that. The reason for this is we cannot have a situation where any one member of parliament acts like they’re the only person in the room. That’s what we can’t have.
The Christian Brothers estimates it owes $774m to abuse survivors that have current or future claims against it.
The New South Wales supreme court is currently considering a bid by the Catholic order to halt all cases against it. The Christian Brothers says it is about to run out of money, and instead wants to create a scheme to sell off its remaining property and divide the proceeds between a range of creditors, including survivors.
The Christian Brothers says it has about 36 properties worth about $216m, though Guardian Australia has identified a range of other properties - land, school buildings and multimillion dollar homes - that have been transferred to a separate entity, Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA), for $1 each.
A spokesperson has previously said the transfers were part of a slow, progressive process of turning over Christian Brothers school land and property to EREA, which was delayed by what the spokesperson describes as the “complexity of transferring individual titles across multiple jurisdictions”.
The court heard on Thursday that the Christian Brothers estimated its liability in relation to current and future abuse claims was $774m. The order’s lawyers said that “the net liability position is significant”.
But the court also heard the scheme would “preserve all rights that may have accrued in relation to transactions, including in respect to EREA”.
The court also heard the scheme proposed by the Christian Brothers would be managed by KPMG.
The hearing continues this morning.
‘If you’re old enough to go to work, you’re old enough to receive superannuation’: Greens push for super reform after Senate defeat
Labor has chosen wealthy corporations over kids, says Greens senator Barbara Pocock, after the government didn’t support the minor party’s move in the Senate to make employers pay superannuation to under 18s.
The current rules state that employers only have to pay under-18s super when they work more than 30 hours a week.
Yesterday the treasurer, Jim Chalmers said the government was consulting with young people and left the door open to legislating the reform, but that the priority right now was the introduction of payday super (making employers pay super at the same time as wages).
Pocock spoke to journalists this morning outside Parliament House and said the Greens would push to fix the issue:
We saw Labor choose to put 12% of the pay of some of Australia’s low lowest-paid young workers straight on to the bottom lines of some of our wealthiest corporations. Labor has knocked back super for under 18 who work 30 hours or less. This is a great thing for Coles, Woolies, Maccas, Hungry Jack’s. It’s a very bad thing if you’re 15,16, or 17 years old, working hard every week but not paid your super. This is incredibly unfair. If you’re old enough to go to work, you’re old enough to get paid, old enough to pay tax, then you’re old enough to receive superannuation.
We saw Labor choose to put 12% of the pay of some of Australia’s low lowest-paid young workers straight on to the bottom lines of some of our wealthiest corporations.
Labor has knocked back super for under 18 who work 30 hours or less. This is a great thing for Coles, Woolies, Maccas, Hungry Jack’s. It’s a very bad thing if you’re 15,16, or 17 years old, working hard every week but not paid your super.
This is incredibly unfair. If you’re old enough to go to work, you’re old enough to get paid, old enough to pay tax, then you’re old enough to receive superannuation.
Labor introduces gambling bill, still waiting for a pathway through parliament
Anika Wells has introduced the government’s gambling reforms to parliament more than three years after a landmark report was handed down, recommending a full ban on online gambling ads.
The government is yet to secure the support of the Coalition or Greens to get it through the Senate – both want to see stronger reforms.
Wells tells the House while introducing the bill that gambling ads have become “inescapable and constant”.
People are seeing too many ads, particularly during children and family programs, and live sport events. The Albanese government wants Aussie kids to be able to participate in sport, whether that’s cheering on their team, knowing the stats of their favourite player, or having a kick down at their local sporting field. And we want them to be able to do this without being bombarded with a gambling promotion.
People are seeing too many ads, particularly during children and family programs, and live sport events.
The Albanese government wants Aussie kids to be able to participate in sport, whether that’s cheering on their team, knowing the stats of their favourite player, or having a kick down at their local sporting field.
And we want them to be able to do this without being bombarded with a gambling promotion.
Bombardment doesn’t mean ban, however the rules will reduce the number of ads on TV. Broadcasters will still be able to play three an hour between 6am and 8:30pm, and there will be a complete ban during sports games within those hours. But most of us know, sports matches often play after 8:30pm.
As we brought you a moment ago, the manager of the house, Tony Burke, delayed a move to force divisions to have a minimum of 10 members on either side, and if not, the decision would be declared immediately without completing the count.
The independent MP Monique Ryan says the threat still looms large for the crossbench, even if the government pauses to consult on the change.
She tells Guardian Australia it’s “hugely disappointing”:
The government [is] threatening to stifle parliamentary debate, after the crossbench moved a number of critical amendments yesterday to improve the NDIS legislation. The crossbench is larger than ever before, and the crossbench is the only effective opposition in the house. The crossbench should be allowed to debate legislation in the detail that legislation deserves.
The government [is] threatening to stifle parliamentary debate, after the crossbench moved a number of critical amendments yesterday to improve the NDIS legislation.
The crossbench is larger than ever before, and the crossbench is the only effective opposition in the house. The crossbench should be allowed to debate legislation in the detail that legislation deserves.
Government loses vote on aged care legislation in the Senate
Even Pauline Hanson and One Nation have sided with David Pocock, the Greens and the Coalition to vote for a bill that would bring back human oversight to the aged care integrated assessment tool.
The government has just lose the vote on the private members’ bill in the Senate – but there’s no way it’ll be supported in the house, so it’ll get stuck somewhere in the parliamentary void.
But amid that political pressure, the government has this morning made some concessions to its tool, and said there would be a human override pathway for older people with “complex circumstances”.
Pocock thanks the shadow health and NDIS minister, Anne Ruston, and the Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne, as well as the journalists who have covered the “real human impact of systems that aren’t delivering for Australians”:
Often we hear about numbers, we hear about big numbers in terms of cost, number of Australians affected etcetera. Those numbers are humans. There’s a welcome announcement from minister [Sam] Rae after the pressure from the Senate, but it’s very unclear exactly what that’s going to deliver. And so I really thank the Senate for debating this important issue, for this bill being brought forward, to stand up for old Australians.
Often we hear about numbers, we hear about big numbers in terms of cost, number of Australians affected etcetera. Those numbers are humans.
There’s a welcome announcement from minister [Sam] Rae after the pressure from the Senate, but it’s very unclear exactly what that’s going to deliver. And so I really thank the Senate for debating this important issue, for this bill being brought forward, to stand up for old Australians.
‘Labor has failed older Australians’: opposition and crossbench pile pressure on government over aged care tool
Over in the Senate this morning, the bill I mentioned earlier being put up by the Coalition, Greens and David Pocock is being debated – which would add a human override function to the aged care integrated assessment tool.
The bill certainly makes the timing of the government’s announcement – that it will make minor changes to the tool and allow human override in “complex circumstances” – interesting. I’ll let you decide if it’s a coincidence.
The bill states that the IAT must operate to “support, not replace, professional judgment of approved needs assessors”, and allows a right to reassessment for all older Australians assessed by the tool since the act’s commencement on 1 November.
The shadow health and NDIS minister, Anne Ruston, tells the Senate:
This bill restores a simple principle, decisions about care should be made by a qualified person, a qualified professional, not a computer algorithm with no human capacity … Minister [Sam] Rae’s rapid view is a damning admission. That the tool is failing, yet he has ruled out reinstating human override while only tinkering around the edges. Labor has failed older Australians on every single turn. Their reckless algorithm’s first approach is driving assessors out of the sector in droves and leaving older Australians worse off than they have previously been.
This bill restores a simple principle, decisions about care should be made by a qualified person, a qualified professional, not a computer algorithm with no human capacity …
Minister [Sam] Rae’s rapid view is a damning admission. That the tool is failing, yet he has ruled out reinstating human override while only tinkering around the edges. Labor has failed older Australians on every single turn.
Their reckless algorithm’s first approach is driving assessors out of the sector in droves and leaving older Australians worse off than they have previously been.
Labor senator Nita Green tells the chamber that while the government “shares the intent of this private senator’s bill”, it won’t support the legislation because they claim the provisions in it will be “counterproductive and may not achieve what they set out to do”.
‘No people-smuggling venture has been successful for more than a decade’: Burke
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, says a group of people who attempted to enter Australia by boat in Weipa in north Queensland have been removed, and the operation has now concluded.
Yesterday the Australian federal police said they charged a Taiwanese national over his alleged role in the “failed people smuggling venture into Australia”.
Police said they arrested the 34-year-old man in a Weipa supermarket car park.
Burke has just released a statement:
The operation in Weipa has now concluded. Every person who attempted to enter Australia without a visa has now been removed. Those who assisted them will face the full force of the law. It remains the case that no people smuggling venture has been successful for more than a decade.
The operation in Weipa has now concluded. Every person who attempted to enter Australia without a visa has now been removed. Those who assisted them will face the full force of the law.
It remains the case that no people smuggling venture has been successful for more than a decade.
The government did not specify where the group has been sent.
Anne Aly – who doesn’t gamble – says it’s Australian to want to have a “flutter” or gamble, it’s a part of the culture, which makes reform difficult.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast earlier, the minister for small business said while she doesn’t believe it’s inevitable the government will have to make some serious adjustments to its reforms to get the Coalition or Greens over the line, there could be more changes to it down the track.
(I’ll also note here that the reforms don’t impact your ability to have a “flutter”, they just restrict companies being able to advertise that to you.)
Asked if she’s comfortable with kids still being able to regularly seeing ads, Aly says Labor is undertaking “the biggest sweep of gambling reforms that any government has ever taken”.
There is always more that we can do. We are not a government that sits still. We are a government that undertakes action and that keeps on moving, whether it’s in terms of raising wages for minimum wage workers that we [have] done ever since we’ve come into office in 2022, whether it’s tax cuts for Australians that we’ve consecutively delivered in 2022, whether it’s gambling reform, but there is always more to do.
Following on from last post …
RN Breakfast host, Mel Clarke, asks Rae why the government is always being dragged by its feet on aged care reforms.
You might remember in the Senate last year the government was about to lose a vote between David Pocock, the Greens and Coalition which would have forced 20,000 extra home care packages to come online as the waiting list for the support blew out. The government then cut a deal with the Coalition to try and claim it as a win.
This time Clarke points out there’s another private member’s bill which does something similar to what the government is now doing – by putting human override back into the system.
Rae won’t comment on the politics, and again tries to defend the system.
I’m not going to weigh in on the politics of the Senate. It’s not my natural habitat, I’m afraid. What I can tell you is we’ve been listening to older people. We always said we would do that all the way through this process. I make regular changes to the way this system operates to get better outcomes. This is a point that we’ve been discussing publicly and I’ve been engaged with across the entire community for a period of time and made clear that I was giving this consideration.
Minister defends aged care automated tool after key concession
Sam Rae, the aged care minister, claims he’s been clear “all the way through” that the controversial integrated assessment tool would require ongoing refinement.
Rae tells ABC RN Breakfast there’s been misunderstanding and confusion over the system in trying to justify the tool, and says there is still some human engagement in the process.
But he’s announced this morning that the government will allow human override of the tool in some complex cases, after receiving hundreds of complaints from older people in the system.
But he’s not actually clear on what defines a “complex” case and says the trigger for the additional clinical assessment (the human override of the tool) will be “subject to some of the conversations we want to have over this winter break”.
Older people and their family members already have this option to seek a review … within the initial assessment process, there’s a review component. So they can already seek a review. The older person or as I said a supporter can seek a review through that review process. This is another option where clinical judgment is applied. We think this will apply to a very small number of assessments but where the needs of that person aren’t captured. And so there needs to be an escalation for that.
‘We want sport to be about families, not addicting children,’ says Leeser
Julian Leeser won’t reveal exactly where the Coalition’s red line is on the government’s gambling legislation, but does say it’s being looked at closely, and the guiding principle is that kids shouldn’t be infiltrated with gambling ads while they’re watching sport with the family.
The government’s gambling bill restricts ads to three per hour between 6:30am and 8:30pm on TV, but we know a lot – if not most – sporting matches are still going well after 8:30pm or are even starting after 8:30pm.
That’s in contrast to the former Liberal leader Peter Dutton’s proposal for all online gambling ads to be banned during, one hour before and one hour after games.
Whenever my colleagues and I talk about gambling restrictions, it’s always on the basis that we want to protect children and families that are enjoying sport. Sport is family time, and it’s time that across the generations people enjoy games … that shouldn’t be interrupted by gambling. And sometimes gambling, particularly online gambling, can destroy lives. So it’s important that we do restrict some of this behaviour and I know we’ll be looking at those laws closely.
Asked if he agrees with Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young that more should be done to ensure parents are protected from gambling, Leeser says he’s “sympathetic” to the position.
Children are much better off when parents spend their money on essential services, getting them to school, making sure they’re properly fed and the like rather than on gambling … So in principle, I have some sympathy for that view.
‘It’s got worse since Bondi’: Julian Leeser details experience of antisemitism
Julian Leeser, a Liberal frontbencher and Jewish MP, says he has been called a “traitor and a Mossad agent” on social media, detailing the antisemitism he’s experiencing.
He tells RN Breakfast he believes antisemitism on social media has gotten much worse, and “much worse” since the Bondi terror attack in December.
He says the saturation of antisemitism on social media is being examined by the royal commission on social cohesion, and will await their recommendations on how to hold the tech giants more responsible for the content spreading.
It’s got actually worse since Bondi. I’m called a traitor and a Mossad agent. And graphic and sexual imagery is used about me because I’m a Jew of the sort that I will not repeat on your program. I love this country. I want my children to enjoy this sort of Australia I enjoyed growing up … I think the social media companies are more than on notice about this now. And I think this is one of the issues that the royal commission is looking at. And I think we need to look at the recommendations that come out of the royal commission.
It’s got actually worse since Bondi. I’m called a traitor and a Mossad agent. And graphic and sexual imagery is used about me because I’m a Jew of the sort that I will not repeat on your program. I love this country. I want my children to enjoy this sort of Australia I enjoyed growing up …
I think the social media companies are more than on notice about this now. And I think this is one of the issues that the royal commission is looking at. And I think we need to look at the recommendations that come out of the royal commission.
Australian politics live with Krishani Dhanji
