Australia politics live: new head of public sector union announced; Labor too slow on DV action, poll says | Australia news
New head announced for the main public-sector union
Sarah Basford Canales
The main public-sector union has appointed a new national secretary after its former head Melissa Donnelly was named the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ secretary last month.
This morning, the Community and Public Sector Union’s deputy secretary, Rebecca Fawcett, was promoted to national secretary. Fawcett worked as the CPSU’s lead in the first round of APS-wide bargaining and played a role in the Your Rights at Work campaign against the Howard government’s WorkChoices laws in the mid-2000s.
Fawcett said:
CPSU members do essential work for the Australian community every single day. They deserve secure jobs, fair pay, safe workplaces, and public services that are properly staffed, properly funded and properly valued.
Together, we have won important improvements, but there is more to do. We will keep fighting to bring public sector work back in-house, strengthen protections around AI and automated decision-making, and make sure workers have the pay and conditions they need during a cost-of-living crisis.
Key events
In pictures: pub choir comes to parliament
Politicians across the divide put down the political playbook and picked up a music score instead, this morning singing from the same song sheet for the parliamentary pub choir.
I’m told they sang Weather with You by Crowded House – a pub classic!
One Nation video ‘contemptible’ and ‘lowest of low’: Canavan
Jumping back to the earlier Coalition press conference, the Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, was also asked about the One Nation cartoon video and said it was “contemptible” to call anyone who has served the nation a traitor.
Canavan said the it was difficult for Pauline Hanson to distance herself from labelling Andrew Hastie a traitor because the video was branded and authorised by her party.
He also called for the video to be taken down.
It’s, I think, contemptible to call anybody that’s served our nation those words … It was the lowest of low political acts, particularly from people who haven’t served themselves.
Now they’re distancing themselves from it, it’s like ‘oh it’s not us, we didn’t say it’. Well it’s got their branding all over it, it’s authorised by them, give me a break.
New head announced for the main public-sector union
Sarah Basford Canales
The main public-sector union has appointed a new national secretary after its former head Melissa Donnelly was named the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ secretary last month.
This morning, the Community and Public Sector Union’s deputy secretary, Rebecca Fawcett, was promoted to national secretary. Fawcett worked as the CPSU’s lead in the first round of APS-wide bargaining and played a role in the Your Rights at Work campaign against the Howard government’s WorkChoices laws in the mid-2000s.
Fawcett said:
CPSU members do essential work for the Australian community every single day. They deserve secure jobs, fair pay, safe workplaces, and public services that are properly staffed, properly funded and properly valued.
Together, we have won important improvements, but there is more to do. We will keep fighting to bring public sector work back in-house, strengthen protections around AI and automated decision-making, and make sure workers have the pay and conditions they need during a cost-of-living crisis.
Adam Morton
Carbon credits for native forests bill expected to pass, despite Greens split
The plan to allow states to earn carbon credits for protecting native forests that had been earmarked for logging is expected to pass the Senate despite three Greens crossing the floor.
It will be backed by Labor, seven Greens and other crossbenchers, including independents David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe. The vote has been brought forward to this afternoon.
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, said in a statement that the party would support the disputed carbon credit method after improving it, but would oppose other upcoming carbon credit legislation that would produce a larger number of credits.
The fight against Labor’s carbon credit greenwashing starts with the Greens opposing 40% of the offsets used by these big polluters to hide their emissions.
For years, Labor has created a system that allows big polluters to buy get-out-of-jail-free cards instead of cutting their emissions, and the consequences of this broken system are being felt around the country by communities living with the floods, fires and heatwaves. That ends now.
Waters did not directly address in the statement that three senators would cross the floor. The Greens said the deal with Labor would ensure credits from a native forest project could not be sold to coal and gas companies if the state government promised that would be the case.
The NSW premier Chris Minns said this for the koala park, but his commitment was not legally enforceable.
Other changes include an increase in how much logging has to be reduced in an area for a project to qualify for any carbon credits – rising from 20% to 30% from 2030 – and closing a loophole that could have been used to classify regrowing native forests as a loggable plantation.
Three Greens senators to cross the floor on koala park bill
Adam Morton
Back on the fight inside the Greens over the use of carbon credits to create a koala park that we mentioned earlier – three Greens senators have declared they will cross the floor and vote with the Coalition against the deal the minor party reached with Labor.
Tasmanians Nick McKim and Vanessa Bleyer and Western Australian Jordon Steele-John said they did not support the carbon credit method that lets states earn carbon credits for protecting native forests that had been earmarked for logging and would vote “according to our consciences”.
As we have reported, the issue has sharply divided the party and the broader environment.
In a statement, the trio said “people of good heart and clear mind can, and have come to a different position on this issue””
We understand the position that others have taken, and we hope they can understand ours.
We want Greens members and supporters to know that we do not support the relentless commodification of nature, and will not be part of making it easier and cheaper for big carbon polluters to keep emitting as [this method] does.
Majority believe government moving too slowly on domestic violence, polling shows
Nearly three quarters of Australians believe the federal government has been moving too slowly on domestic violence, while just over a quarter (27%) of Australians believe the federal government’s response to recent high-profile gender-based violence instances has been adequate, according to new polls.
Polling for the Women and Girls’ emergency centre, conducted in July and September, of more than 1,000 Australians shows the majority believe the government isn’t doing enough to curb domestic violence and would support an increase in funding for services.
The July poll found 71% Australians believe Labor has responded either “much too slowly” or “somewhat too slowly” to domestic and family violence.
Nicole Yade, the chief executive of WAGEC, said two years after the government declared domestic and family violence as a national crisis, “Australians are clear that the pace of change does not match the scale of the crisis”:
The message from the community is simple – Australians are saying enough is enough. Action simply cannot wait until after yet another woman or child is harmed.
These results that show that the response to the devastating headlines that have dominated the news over recent weeks simply does not meet the moment.
Tanya Plibersek delivered this speech yesterday responding to the sobering results of Australia’s latest domestic, family and sexual violence report, released yesterday.
Greens call on Labor to abandon gas reservation plan and legislate gas export tax
The Greens say Labor should ditch the gas reservation plan – which will require producers to hold up to 20% of their production for domestic use – and slap on a 25% gas export tax instead.
The government this morning released draft legislation for the scheme, with a slight watering down of the requirement from producers to hold a firm one-fifth of produce to “up to 20%”.
The Greens have been on this train for an export tax for a while – and just a few months ago so was seemingly every second person on social media (recall David Pocock’s viral video asking department officials why Australia makes more revenue from the beer tax than the petroleum resource rent tax).
The government says the reservation scheme will lower power bills, but Greens senator Steph Hodgins-May says it “won’t raise a cent for Australian households”:
When gas corporations say jump, Labor asks how high. Now the 20% reservation requirement is being watered down to appease the gas industry.
A gas export tax does what Labor claims its reservation scheme will do, but it also raises revenue to compensate Australians who have seen gas prices triple since exports started a decade ago … A gas export tax would raise at least $17bn a year. That’s our gas and our money.
NSW government’s Great Koala national park carbon credit plan to go ahead
Adam Morton
A controversial plan for the Minns government to allow big industry to use a new Great Koala national park to offset its climate pollution will go ahead after the Greens reached a deal with Labor, and decided not to vote with the Coalition to block it.
The minor party and environment advocates have been divided over a regulation introduced by the Albanese government that lets state governments earn carbon credits for protecting native forests that had been earmarked for logging.
The Nationals want to kill the regulation, known as a carbon credit method, on the grounds it would hurt the forestry industry. They have introduced a disallowance motion scheduled in the Senate next Tuesday.
The Greens have the casting votes. They want the park – a promised 476,000 hectare reserve, including 176,000 ha of newly protected areas – but have been divided over whether it should be allowed to happen this way.
They reached a decision this morning to allow the carbon credit to stand. The details of the deal with Labor are expected shortly. More to come then.
You can read more about the issue here:
Jordyn Beazley
NSW police rule out connections between fatal Punchbowl shooting and recent two shootings
NSW police have said a fatal shooting in Sydney on Wednesday night does not appear connected to recent fatalities allegedly related to an “ongoing feud” between “two organised crime networks”, but the victim was known to police.
A man was fatally shot in the car park of a Punchbowl community centre in the city’s southwest on Wednesday evening. Police have said that a car was spotted driving away from the scene.
In a press conference about the incident on Thursday, acting assistant commissioner Grant Taylor, told reporters the “shooting does not have the same hallmarks as the other shootings that have occurred over the last several months.”
He said:
This shooting appears to be an individual person acting alone at this stage. We don’t believe in the infancy of its investigation that it does relate to the ongoing feud between the two organised crime networks you are aware of.
The person who was killed last night is known to us. He is known to the Queensland police service. There are links to outlaw motorcycle gangs, and it’s not impossible that that’s why he was killed.
The fatal shooting comes two days after the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, announced measures to curb gangland violence in Sydney.
New laws being introduced in the state include new aggravated offences for conspiracy to commit gang-related murder. The maximum penalty will be increased to life imprisonment.
Last week, police confirmed that shootings in Glen Alpine on Tuesday and in Merrylands on Wednesday were both being investigated as mistaken identity killings by organised crime groups.
Ben Carroll backs South Australian premier on value of migration
Benita Kolovos
The Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, says he backs his South Australian counterpart Peter Malinauskas’ impassioned defence of migration.
Malinauskas said in a speech in Sydney last night that populism has well and truly arrived in Australia and the government should push back against it – and said this morning that Labor should be speaking more positively about migration.
Carroll told reporters at parliament this morning that he had recently discussed the issue with Malinauskas and they were on the same page:
If you look at the Victorian economy, if you look at the entrepreneurs, look at the small business leaders – overwhelmingly, they have been migrants that have come here. We know a strong, diverse economy is essential for Victoria’s prosperity and its future.
Whether it’s our healthcare professionals, whether it’s our labourers, whether it’s the people that are working on our farms … strong diverse growth is so critically important, and we do need to make sure that we have an economist view when discussing immigration, because we want to grow our economy and we want to make sure that we have the workforce that will sustain our economy and our population.
Asked whether he agreed with Malinauskas that the debate around cutting immigration was a race to the bottom with One Nation, Carroll said people needed to be “more sensitive” that they were sending the wrong signals to the rest of the world.
In Victoria, our biggest export is international education. We send the wrong signals to China, to India, that international students don’t matter. It doesn’t matter what you change at the commonwealth level; the signal itself can have a real chilling effect on our economic growth. So we’re proud that we treat our international students as if they’re members of our own family.
Luca Ittimani
Bowen says no backdown gas reservation – but it’s starting late
Circling back to the revised plan to reserve up to 20% of locally produced gas for Australian use, Chris Bowen says it’s not a backdown but a few key elements have changed.
The reservation will now kick in from July 2028 instead of July 2027, which the government said would align with companies’ cargo planning.
The resources minister will have discretion to cut companies’ supply obligations all the way to zero if they wish. Bowen said:
Some people said to us in feedback ‘make sure you don’t oversupply the market so much that it’s counterproductive’.
The government says the reserve should push prices down but Bowen said it was not setting any target or ceiling on prices.
They have also split out the west coast market from the east coast market. The resources minister, Madeleine King, said the government was not looking to mess up Western Australia’s reservation and would release the state from federal obligations if it was already well supplied. King said:
If they are working through that well, then they should be able to continue to do that.
Taylor says Albanese should have registered honorary golf club membership
Angus Taylor says the prime minister should have publicly disclosed his honorary membership of the Marrickville golf club which received $6m in funding as part of an invite-only grants program.
Anthony Albanese says he only recently became aware of the honorary membership and someone had “apparently” given it to him back in 2012.
Upon my last check a couple of minutes ago, the PM hasn’t updated his register to include the membership. Full yearly membership is $1,100 a year while a two-year social membership is $5 according to the ABC.
Taylor said:
I think that’s clear, they’re the rules. He should register his interests. He should have registered his interests.
The Coalition opposes Labor’s plan to give extra powers to the eSafety commissioner
As we mentioned earlier, the Coalition is voting against the government’s separate bill that increases powers for the eSafety commissioner, including to request documents from tech platforms to ensure they’re complying with the under-16s social media ban.
So there are two bills being discussed here – the digital duty of care bill and the increased powers for the eSafety commissioner for the social media ban.
The Coalition says both give the commissioner and the government too much power:
What we don’t support is giving strong, unfettered powers, frankly, to either the minister or the government or the eSafety commissioner. We don’t support that … Freedom of speech matters.
Yes, absolutely, we must protect our children, we must protect Australians against undue harm. But it cannot be at the expense of – or allow political censorship, and that is exactly what is being allowed in this bill. I draw your attention to section 25(c). It’s extraordinary how much discretion the minister has in this explanatory draft and that’s unacceptable.
On the duty of care bill, Liberal senator Sarah Henderson is asked if there are any changes that could be negotiated to make those ministerial powers more palatable. Short answer: not really.
She says:
I have no confidence in this prime minister to remove the really offensive parts of this bill. This is open-ended. There are no safeguards.
Taylor says Hanson taking down ‘traitor’ cartoon is not censorship
The Coalition says the government’s digital duty of care bill should not infringe on free speech, so Angus Taylor is asked how he can then justify ordering Pauline Hanson to take down a cartoon labelling Andrew Hastie a traitor.
Taylor says he’s not suggesting that it should be illegal for the cartoon video to be put up in the first place, but doubles down that the post in question should be deleted.
Andrew Hastie served this country with distinction as a member of the Special Forces, the SAS. He served this country with distinction. I think it’s wrong, and I have every right to say that I think it’s wrong for that video to be up. Now, in the end, this is not a question of legality, this is a question of morality.
‘She should take it down’: Taylor joins criticism of Hanson and One Nation’s cartoon
Angus Taylor says Pauline Hanson should immediately take down a cartoon that labelled Andrew Hastie a traitor for giving evidence against Ben Roberts-Smith in his failed defamation trial.
Hanson has claimed she didn’t call Hastie a “traitor”, but has left the One Nation cartoon video on her social media account for more than a month.
Taylor defended his frontbencher, telling journalists:
She should take it down. Andrew Hastie has served this country with distinction as an officer in the SAS. She should take it down.
Digital duty of care draft bill ‘unacceptable’ to the Coalition
Angus Taylor has confirmed the Coalition won’t support the government’s digital duty of care bill in its current form, because it would enforce political censorship.
Speaking alongside the Nationals leader, Matt Canavan (who has gone out particularly hard against this legislation), and the shadow communications minister, Sarah Henderson, Taylor says the government’s can’t be trusted with these rules.
The opposition has said the government has too many powers to broaden the definitions of harm that tech platforms will have to protect adults and children against. The government has said any changes will be able to be rejected by the Senate.
Taylor says:
This exposure draft, this bill, is unacceptable in its current form because the reality is it’s providing a blank cheque for political censorship to the minister, to the government.
Canavan adds:
I don’t want to see a government be given a virtual iron dome to protect themselves and insulate themselves from people’s feedback.
The Labor party, in recent weeks, has blamed an election loss in Western Australia on social media and so the people, the same people that are complaining they’re losing elections, losing political debates based on what is said on social media, can’t be given the power then to regulate what you can say and read online.
