Australia politics live: Greens ‘proud’ of Gaza stance as Labor remains in the spotlight over Payman suspension | Australian politics
McKim: Greens are ‘proud of the position we’ve taken’ on Gaza
Nick McKim is asked about some of the criticism from Labor MPs, including Queensland’s Graham Perrett who described Adam Bandt to the Saturday Paper as “an opportunistic, vote-harvesting stunt master who can go eff himself.”
McKim says:
He [Perrett] is under pressure from people in his electorate who don’t support what the Labor party is doing and who want Labor to sanction the Israeli government, who want Labor to stop being complicit in a genocide. And of course, he is under pressure and of course, he’s going to lash out at us.
Now, ultimately, everything that we do is political. We are not doing anything other than our job here. And our job is to come into this place, to speak for the millions of Australians who don’t support the genocide that’s under way in Gaza, to speak for the millions of Australians who want the Labor government here in Australia to stop being complicit in this genocide, to put in place sanctions against the Israeli government.
Those are the things that we’re going to focus on. And Labor can, Labor will do whatever they do. We have a job to do here. And we’re proud to speak for the millions of Australians who want Labor to take a different position, who want to see an end to weapons exports, and military hardware exports to Israel.
Those are our jobs. Mr Perrett is entitled to run off and lash out at whomever he wants. We are proud of the position we have taken and we’ll continue to advocate for peace in Gaza.
Key events
Back on today’s motion to suspend standing orders for a motion condemning the vandalism of the war memorials and Jason Clare has moved it be adjourned – for much the same reasons Matt Keogh outlined yesterday (see below)
Minister for veterans affairs supports motion to condemn war memorial ‘defacement’
In moving that the motion be adjourned yesterday, the minister for veteran affairs, Matt Keogh, said:
What I seek to do is to condemn what they have done, because it cuts against the exact freedom that they are espousing and it cuts against the exact freedom they are afforded in being able to exercise those free democratic rights in every other way that they or anyone else may seek to raise their cause in this country.
That is what makes what has happened here not just truly abhorrent but problematic.
In saying all of that, it confirms exactly what the member for Canning has sought to do by bringing forward this motion today and it confirms why Senator Lambie brought forward her motion at the beginning of the week.
That motion was supported by the government, and the sentiments were supported by the prime minister in his answer in question time yesterday, in the speech made by the member for Spence, in the public comments made by the minister for defence on Sunday and in the comments that I have made previously in relation to these things occurring at other memorials.
I think both sides of this House and many on the crossbench join together in those sentiments. It is deeply concerning to me that there was a political party in the Senate that voted against that motion on Monday. I think we all agree with that.
LNP attempt to condemn pro-Palestine graffiti on war memorials
Over in the House and LNP MP Phil Thompson is trying to suspend standing orders to move another motion to have the house condemn the recent anti-genocide vandalisation on Australian war monuments in Canberra.
That the House condemns the act of defacing war memorials by pro-Palestinian protestors which is deeply insulting for current and former members of the Australian Defence Force and undermines the significance of these memorials as symbols of national pride and remembrance.
Keith Wolahan is the seconder.
A similar motion moved by Andrew Hastie yesterday was adjourned.
Chalmers repeats party line on Payman
On Fatima Payman’s suspected exit from the Labor party, Jim Chalmers said he wasn’t sure if she was leaving but:
I mean she’s certainly chosen to sit herself outside the obligations that all of the rest of us sign up to. We’re a party of progress, not protest, we believe that we get more done collectively than individually. That’s been one of the reasons for our success over a really long period of time.
The path that Fatima has chosen has been chosen by her, not for her, and my hope is that we can welcome Fatima back into the fold at some point when she’s prepared to be subjected to those obligations that all the rest of us have signed up to when we become Labor members and senators.
Chalmers says Labor policies helping on inflation
On the speculation that the Reserve Bank may be considering another interest rate rise, Jim Chalmers said:
I think people have got different interpretations about those Reserve Bank minutes that came out yesterday, and again I don’t make predictions about decisions they take independently.
My job is to focus on this fight against inflation. You and I have spoken about it a heap of times on your show. Getting the budget into surplus is part of that effort. Rolling out this cost‑of‑living relief in a substantial and meaningful but also a responsible way, that’s part of us doing our bit to get on top of this inflation challenge.
Inflation’s higher than any of us want to see it but it’s much lower than it was when we came to office and our policies are helping.
Amy Remeikis
Schrodinger’s election
I regret to inform you we are deep in the “when will the election be called” speculation zone, which happens every time we get to when the prime minister could legally call it (from August) and things are unsettled (timeless statement).
The truth is the government and the opposition have been in election mode for some time – pretty much the beginning of the year. And that is usual for the last year of the electoral cycle. And it is even more usual when the economy isn’t doing too well and people are feeling under pressure.
But because we don’t have fixed terms, you are all going to be subjected to endless speculation that we “could” go to an election. Which of course we could – it is just that none of us know, until we know.
Jim Chalmers was asked about it on the Nine network this morning when he was asked to repeat after the host ‘there will be no early election’.
Chalmers did not, probably because breakfast TV hosts shouldn’t be running the country (or at least not so overtly), leading to a back and forth which included Chalmers saying:
I tell you what, I’m working towards an election next year. … My understanding, my intention is that we go on the usual time frame. That’s certainly how I’m operating.
Benita Kolovos
Victoria’s housing minister, Harriet Shing, is holding a press conference in Melbourne to announce a pilot program aimed at tackling homelessness among First Nations people.
She says the program will see Ngwala Willumbong Aboriginal Corporation take over a City of Melbourne building on Bourke Street to deliver the program.
It will provide wraparound support, including arranging housing and allied health services, from Tuesdays to Saturdays. The corporation already runs outreach vans, which provide rough sleeper kits, meals and hot drinks to about 500 homeless people each night in the CBD and its surrounds.
Shing says up to 15% of people experiencing homelessness identify as Aboriginal despite only making up 0.5% of the CBD’s population.
We also know that homelessness is something which is increasingly being experienced by people in private rentals, and around 80% of the people accessing homelessness services for the first time are coming from the private rental market.
This is where it’s so important, not only to bring additional housing online and to ease the challenges of availability and affordability, but also to make sure that when and as people need that extra support, they are able to access it in a way that is culturally safe.
Karen Middleton
Chalmers explains ‘three pillars’ of Future Made in Australia law
Jim Chalmers has explained the details of his Future Made in Australia legislation and why he says it’s essential for Australia’s future in economic and environmental terms.
We can grasp the jobs and opportunities of the energy transition. The world is moving on and Australia needs to move with it. Because if we get stuck in the past, this country will be poorer. It will be more vulnerable and we won’t make the most of the golden opportunity in front of us.
He says the new law will be built on three pillars:
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The first is a national assessment framework to identify the sectors in which Australia has a comparative advantage in the new clean-energy economy, or in which it needs to invest for future economic or national security reasons.
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The second is what he calls a “robust sector assessment process” aimed at working out what is holding back private investment in Australia.
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And the third is a set of “community benefit principles” to ensure that the public money that’s invested – and the extra private investment it encourages – will have benefits both to the economy and to the community.
The time to act is now. The world is changing with or without Australia. The golden opportunity in front of us will start shrinking if we take any longer.
Bondi Junction stabbing victim’s family says no material action has been taken on mental health
Elizabeth Young said Australia’s governments had promised to address mental health in the wake of the attack which killed her daughter, but she says there has been no material action.
After the horror of the Bondi Junction stabbings, the federal and state and territory governments committed to a national mental health ministers’ meeting, who discussed joint action on mental health reform.
Currently, three months on, no date and no agenda has been set for this meeting.
Please, in the long shadow of the horror of Jade’s death, I beg you, as the voice of three shattered households, please actually do something about the discrepancies, the disparities, the inconsistencies in current mental health funding and management between the federal government and states and between states.
Think as ordinary humans. Think as a mother, a father, a husband, a sister, a brother. Find the courage to work together to coordinate action on mental health reform and funding.
We need a coordinated national approach to mental healthcare so that, no matter where you live, you should be able to receive the care that you’ll need. Australia’s mental health system is in crisis, and now is the time to act.
Mother of Jade Young, Bondi Junction stabbing victim, calls for further mental health support
The mother of one of the victims of the Bondi Junction stabbing attack has spoken at a press conference at Parliament House.
Elizabeth Young said her daughter Jade was described in the media as “47-year-old architect Jade Young” but says she was so much more than that.
She was a loved wife, a most-loved mother of two young girls. She was our treasured daughter, and PJ’s beloved jiějie – Chinese for “big sister”.
Elizabeth has travelled to Parliament House on behalf of Jade’s family to urge the government to do more to address gaps in mental health funding.
Jade was a primary victim of that devastating attack, but three households – two in New South Wales, one in Tasmania – are the collateral damage.
Within hours of her death in the hideous aftermath, our New South Wales families were given unconditional support. We were introduced to our police liaison person. We were guided through the first steps of recovery. In the nearly three months since, with the aid of specialist mental health practitioners, we are beginning to emerge from the suffering that has enveloped us as a result of Jade’s death and are trying to give the girls – aged 9 and 14 – a life as close to normal as possible.
But not all of us have been so fortunate. Our son PJ, who lives in Tasmania with his family, received no such treatment. Being nowcomers to Hobart, they firstly had to find a GP, then negotiate their own specialist support, paying out of their own pockets.
Chalmers introduces Future Made in Australia bill
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is on his feet in the house introducing the Future Made in Australia legislation. (This part of the legislation is on Treasury’s role, which is why Chalmers has carriage over it.)
Chalmers seems to be speaking to the bill as though it is going to become a part of the nation’s history books and thus needs some good lines:
Our goal here is to power the future, not manufacture the past. Our strategy is to engage and invest not retreat and protect.
Our emphasis is on attracting private investment, not replacing it.
To prosper from change, not just protect ourselves from it.
And the Bill I’m introducing today is putting this plan into practice – to help make Australia a renewable energy superpower, and an indispensable part of the global net zero economy.
To more closely align our national security and economic security interests. To modernise and strengthen our economy, in a world built on cheaper and cleaner energy.
To grab the vast industrial and economic opportunities from the world’s shift to net zero. And share the benefits of those opportunities with every Australian.
New Greens Senator says Labor’s Future Made in Australia is ‘greenwashing’
The new Greens senator for Victoria, Steph Hodgins-May, stopped by doors this morning (the main entry ways where journalists are waiting, and where MPs who have something to say drop by – there are plenty of other entrances to the parliament where we are not allowed to stop and ask MPs questions)
Hodgins-May says she is not a huge fan of the Future Made in Australia legislation:
Labor’s Future Made in Australia is really a future for coal and gas past 2050 when you look at the fine print.
Enough of this greenwashing from Labor. They can talk a big game on batteries and renewables, but if they’re also keeping coal and gas in the system for longer, we won’t make the transition.
Labor can’t keep putting its foot on the accelerator and the brake at the same time. Real climate action means no new coal and gas.
Outgoing Australian Human Rights Commission president to address National Press Club
Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher is coming to the end of her seven-year term as the Australian Human Rights Commission President and will be delivering an address to the National Press Club on creating a national human rights act.
Her speech, “Free + Equal: Safeguarding the rights of all Australians’”will be delivered from 12.30. We’ll carry the highlights, as well as some of the Q&A.
McKim: Greens are ‘proud of the position we’ve taken’ on Gaza
Nick McKim is asked about some of the criticism from Labor MPs, including Queensland’s Graham Perrett who described Adam Bandt to the Saturday Paper as “an opportunistic, vote-harvesting stunt master who can go eff himself.”
McKim says:
He [Perrett] is under pressure from people in his electorate who don’t support what the Labor party is doing and who want Labor to sanction the Israeli government, who want Labor to stop being complicit in a genocide. And of course, he is under pressure and of course, he’s going to lash out at us.
Now, ultimately, everything that we do is political. We are not doing anything other than our job here. And our job is to come into this place, to speak for the millions of Australians who don’t support the genocide that’s under way in Gaza, to speak for the millions of Australians who want the Labor government here in Australia to stop being complicit in this genocide, to put in place sanctions against the Israeli government.
Those are the things that we’re going to focus on. And Labor can, Labor will do whatever they do. We have a job to do here. And we’re proud to speak for the millions of Australians who want Labor to take a different position, who want to see an end to weapons exports, and military hardware exports to Israel.
Those are our jobs. Mr Perrett is entitled to run off and lash out at whomever he wants. We are proud of the position we have taken and we’ll continue to advocate for peace in Gaza.
Greens say Palestine bill isn’t about internal Labor politics
The Greens have reserved their right to bring another motion before the senate on Palestinian statehood. The last time the party brought forward a motion on Palestinian statehood is when Labor senator Fatima Payman crossed the floor. Nick McKim is asked if a motion would be put to the senate today and says:
What the Greens will do is what we have always done, for us this is never about internal Labor party politics, this is about trying to put pressure on a Labor government in Australia to sanction the Israeli government, to stop being complicit in a genocide and it’s always for us been about representing the tens of thousands of people in Gaza who have been slaughtered by a genocidal Israeli government. And we will keep doing those things.
… All of these things are under consideration for us. But our thoughts are about those issues that I have just mentioned, not about internal Labor party politics.
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