‘Unfortunate’ Nationals have injected misinformation and vitriol into debate so early on: Langton
Langton is asked about how concerned she is about the prospect of a No campaign with Aboriginal woman Jacinta Price already quite active in opposing it.
I have mixed feelings about that. It’s unfortunate that the Nationals have injected misinformation and vitriol into the debates so early on.
We’ve been through this many times over these kinds of campaigns. I mean, I am saying this now is a bit like you know, the Adam Goodes saga which is terribly unfortunate.
The tragedy is of course – well take for instance, Jacinta [Price] says that she’s Celtic Warlpiri. The Warlpiri people see themselves as a people because they speak the Warlpiri language, and they have Warlpiri traditions. They don’t see themselves as a race. And the Warlpiri people that I’ve spoken to – many of the leaders – believe that the voice is a very necessary part of the Australian political system, and they would welcome it very much because they want their people to be represented.
We are one species; there are no races. It would be terribly unfortunate for all Australians if the debate sinks into a nasty, eugenicist, 19th-century style of debate about the superior race versus the inferior race, and I have to say I’m terribly disappointed that a Warlpiri person – or a Celtic Warlpiri person – has kicked this off.
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Adelaide is expected to build at least eight submarines under the Aukus arrangement, which Malinauskas said would show safety concerns around nuclear energy were misplaced.
Malinauskas told News Corp:
In respect of my position on nuclear power for civil consumption, or use, I’ve always thought the ideological opposition that exists in some quarters to nuclear power is ill-founded.
Nuclear power is a source of baseload energy with zero carbon emissions. For someone like myself, who is dedicated to a decarbonisation effort, we should be open-minded to those technologies and it would be foolhardy to have a different approach.
The PM will meet with state premiers at national cabinet on Wednesday, with a cap on coal and gas prices expected to be a priority agenda item in an attempt to get power bills down.
Albanese said:
It is important that the price of gas is reasonable and can make a profit, but the idea that you have super profits being made at the same time as businesses going out of business … is not on.
We will act before Christmas and I don’t think there is a premier or chief minister who will sit back and say ‘yep this is all ok’ as prices continue to rise.
– from AAP
Nuclear off table as states seek power fix
SA premier Peter Malinauskas left the door open to nuclear on Monday, stating submarines his state would build via the Aukus deal would bust myths about how safe the energy alternative is.
However, the prime minister Anthony Albanese and environment minister Tanya Plibersek were quick to shoot their Labor colleague down, each pointing out nuclear energy wouldn’t work out financially.
The discussion comes as Australia desperately seeks a fix for soaring power bills, the PM labelling talk around nuclear energy as a distraction.
Albanese told FiveAA radio:
I have a great deal of respect for ‘Mali’, but everyone’s entitled to get things wrong.
Every five years or so we have economic analysis of whether nuclear power stacks up and every time it’s rejected.
Plibersek was similarly strong, saying nuclear power was “slow to build and really expensive”.
She told Seven:
All this nonsense about small-scale nuclear reactors in every suburb, I don’t know if there’s people up your street who want a nuclear reactor in the local park … I really don’t think that’s the case.
– from AAP
‘Wherever you stand on Violet Coco, her jailing raises the stakes for climate protest’
My colleague Adam Morton’s column out today is on Violet Coco, who was Friday sentenced to 15 months in jail for her role in a climate protest blocking traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Wherever you stand on this, the penalty and bail refusal significantly elevates the bar for what protesters – and particularly climate protesters – can expect to face in NSW. Coco is the first person to be sentenced under laws introduced by the Perrottet government in April that carry fines of up to $22,000 and jail terms of up to two years for protests on roads, rail lines, tunnels, bridges and industrial estates. They were passed with the support of the Labor opposition.
The incident continues to draw criticism from groups including the UN and Bob Brown Foundation:
Read Morton’s full column here:
Newspoll shows lift for Labor and Albanese
The latest Newspoll has delivered good news for federal Labor and the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
Labor’s primary vote has lifted a point to 39% while the Coalition remains unchanged on 35%, according to the final Newspoll survey for the year.
Albanese also enjoyed a surge in support as preferred prime minister, the poll conducted for The Australian newspaper shows.
The result for Labor is more than six points stronger than its election result of 32.6%, while the Coalition’s result is almost a point down on its election tally of 35.7%.
The Greens were unchanged with a primary vote of 11%, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation was on 6% while Clive Palmer’s deregistered United Australia party attracted just 1%.
Other minor parties, including the teal independents, dropped one point to 8%, the Newspoll showed.
Satisfaction with Albanese’s performance rose to a record high with a three-point gain to 62%, while those saying they were dissatisfied fell four points to 29%.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, suffered a three-point decline in his satisfaction ratings to 36% but those dissatisfied with his performance dropped from 46% to 45%.
The December Newspoll was conducted between Wednesday and Saturday and interviewed 1,508 voters throughout Australia.
– from AAP
Chemical spill at industrial premises in South Australia
South Australia’s metropolitan fire service is on the scene and advising people to take an alternative route to George St where the incident has occurred.
Amy Remeikis
National service brought to end 50 years ago today
It is the 50th anniversary of the end of national service today and while some, like Tony Abbott, would like to see it brought back, today recognises the sacrifices “Nashos” made for their country.
The minister for veterans’ affairs, Matt Keogh, said today marked the end of the national service schemes which ran from 1951 before the Whitlam government ended them in 1972.
Keogh said:
The Nashos were an integral part of Australia’s defence forces in the 1950s, 60s and 70s serving in Australia, Borneo, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam.
The first national service scheme, from 1951-59 saw men from across the country called up for training in the royal Australian navy, the Australian army and the royal Australian air force. More than 220,000 served during this period, putting their careers and lives on hold to serve their country.
The second national service scheme took place from 1965-1972 and for some, included service in the Vietnam war. During this period, 63,000 20-year-olds were selected for service in the Army through a birthday ballot.
More than 15,300 national servicemen served in the Vietnam war, with 200 losing their lives.
Keogh said:
No matter the nature of their service, today we honour all national servicemen and thank them for what they have done for our nation.
We thank all Nashos and their families for putting their lives on hold during their years of compulsory service. We know this service was difficult, as was your return to civilian life. The Australian government thanks you.
If you were called up for national service and injured, even if never deployed, you are entitled to claim through the DVA, including for mental health support, as well as hold a White card.
$1m reward for 1982 Sydney terror bombings
A $1m reward has been announced to help solve a 40-year mystery – the bombing of Sydney’s Israeli consulate and Hakoah Club which shook the Jewish community.
The increased reward was announced today – the first day of a coronial inquiry into Australia’s first terrorism cold case.
A bomb exploded in front of the Israeli consulate in Sydney about 2pm on 23 December 1982, injuring a number of people.
Later that day a car parked in the basement of the Hakoah Club at Bondi exploded, and although no one was injured, it’s believed the blast was intended to collapse the building.
Investigations deemed the bombings to be acts of international terrorism motivated by Palestinian nationalism.
A man was charged in 1983, however the matter was no-billed before the trial began.
In 2011, investigators from the NSW joint counter-terrorism team established Strike Force Forbearance to reinvestigate the bombings and a $100,000 reward was announced the next year.
Investigators want to track down three people who they believe were involved and detectives have prepared a coronial brief of evidence, which is being heard as an inquiry before the NSW State Coroner on Monday.
The NSW police minister, Paul Toole, said it was hoped the $1m reward would “be the final push members of the public need to offer up information – no matter how big or small it may seem – to help police in their unwavering quest for answers and provide closure for all those involved”.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO, Darren Bark, said the Jewish community remained hopeful that someone with information will come forward. Bark said:
For four long decades, our community has searched for answers about this heinous terrorist attack targeting innocent Australians on our own soil.
– from AAP
No tsunami threat to Australia from Samoan earthquake
Amy Remeikis
Climate policy buoying investor confidence
Good morning from Canberra where the end of the parliament sitting doesn’t mean we’re done for the year – just done with seeing most of the MPs!
But the week starts with some good news, at least in terms of investment in emissions reduction technology, with the Investment Group on Climate Change finding actually having a climate policy means people are no longer afraid to invest.
Who. Would. Have. Thought.
The group reports a 14% drop in uncertainty from investors who view climate policy as a barrier to investment in Australia in the year since the survey was last taken, moving from 70% to 56%.
While uncertainty is still high, the group report it is the largest year-on-year change they’ve seen in the survey.
Investors also see sector-by-sector emissions targets (such as emission reduction pathways for coal, industrials, transport etc) as a priority, along with carbon pricing through mechanisms like the safeguards mechanism, while also waiting to see what decisions are made to meet the Labor government’s 2030 target.
Director of policy, Erwin Jackson, said change was slowly emerging in the Australian investor market.
Stronger 2030 emissions targets and bipartisan support for net zero emissions by 2050 are welcome. But they’re not enough on their own. Investors are seeking sector-by-sector emissions targets and detailed plans as a crucial next step.
The government and parliament must strengthen the safeguard mechanism to ensure Australian industries remain competitive in a net zero world.
Australia is in a global race to attract capital to ensure our continued economic prosperity as we steer towards a net zero world. Implementing stable long-term policy and forging political consensus on climate policy reforms will ensure Australia is an attractive destination for capital investment.
‘Unfortunate’ Nationals have injected misinformation and vitriol into debate so early on: Langton
Langton is asked about how concerned she is about the prospect of a No campaign with Aboriginal woman Jacinta Price already quite active in opposing it.
I have mixed feelings about that. It’s unfortunate that the Nationals have injected misinformation and vitriol into the debates so early on.
We’ve been through this many times over these kinds of campaigns. I mean, I am saying this now is a bit like you know, the Adam Goodes saga which is terribly unfortunate.
The tragedy is of course – well take for instance, Jacinta [Price] says that she’s Celtic Warlpiri. The Warlpiri people see themselves as a people because they speak the Warlpiri language, and they have Warlpiri traditions. They don’t see themselves as a race. And the Warlpiri people that I’ve spoken to – many of the leaders – believe that the voice is a very necessary part of the Australian political system, and they would welcome it very much because they want their people to be represented.
We are one species; there are no races. It would be terribly unfortunate for all Australians if the debate sinks into a nasty, eugenicist, 19th-century style of debate about the superior race versus the inferior race, and I have to say I’m terribly disappointed that a Warlpiri person – or a Celtic Warlpiri person – has kicked this off.
Karvelas:
Will there be a draft of legislation that that will be considered?
Calma:
I suspect not … what we’re working on is looking at what the question will be that goes into the referendum, and we’ve been guided by what the prime minister said at Garma.
In that 51 people membership that we had in the co-design process, that comprised the majority of key Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander players around the nation who are working on local voices at the moment, they’re working on other processes at a state level, so it’s very well informed.
And that information at a state and local government level has been shared a lot with those communities, so this is bewildering, really, that people say that they don’t have information when it’s been available.
We’re already seeing fairly significant buy-in by all states and territories already, so it seems at the federal level they seem to be standing alone in now … the National’s position and some of the other minor party members.
Langton: we ‘tried to speak to as many people as possible’ including Coalition and Pauline Hanson
The former minister for Indigenous affairs under the Coalition Ken Wyatt said that he took the proposal to cabinet twice and implored his former colleagues to consider it and said it was laziness that was behind claims that there was no detail available.
Patricia Karvelas:
Are you speaking to the Liberals about whether they did read the report and whether they think this is the model that should go forward?
Langton:
We cruised the corridors of Parliament House over and over again and tried to speak to as many people as possible and we did speak to Nationals and to Liberal party members.
We spoke to the members of the Greens party, and at that time, there were no Teals. But I have written to teal members of parliament and asked for an appointment to discuss it with them because if they were not present in the last parliament. I spoke to Pauline Hanson and members of her party and took the report to them personally. So we will speak to members in this parliament.
And I am disappointed that people don’t believe we haven’t spoken to them when we in fact did. And that they believe that there’s no detail when we’ve personally handed the report to them and discussed it with them.
Calma:
The final report also went to cabinet and had been discussed for almost six months amongst the Coalition members before it was released again, unchanged, and released to the public in December last year, so the public have had it for over 12 months, including the government of the day.
Voice model gets First Nations representation right, co-chair says
The co-chairs of the Indigenous voice co-design groups, Marcia Langton and Tom Calma, are speaking on ABC Radio. They have some strong words following the Nationals coming out last week saying they would not be supporting the campaign.
David Littleproud and his Nationals colleagues raised concerns that the voice would represent inner-city Aboriginal people rather than those from more remote communities.
The report, of course, did make specific structural recommendations around the number of members, regional representation, gender split, and term limits.
Langton said:
I can’t imagine that there is a better model out there.
I can foresee some tweaks. I’m very confident the voice will look much like our detailed proposal in our final report.
Government ‘aware’ of urgent problems facing Medicare, assistant treasurer says
Jones is also asked about the report on Medicare out from the Grattan Institute, which calls for an overhaul of the way that doctors’ visits are funded.
Look, every MP in the country, in fact every household in the country – if I can put it that way more appropriately – has seen it harder and harder to get access to bulk billing. Difficulty in getting access to GPs in particular, and the big gap between what they’re being charged and what they’re getting back from Medicare. So yeah, there is an issue and there’s no doubt about it.
And as health minister, Mark Butler … is reviewing the operation of Medicare. In the meantime, some initiatives already being rolled out as a part of the election commitments, including our urgent care clinics around the country. So yes, we are aware that there’s an issue. Of course, when the Grattan Institute publishes a report, we always take it seriously and look at what they’re recommending.
Assistant treasurer warns scams ‘likely to ramp up’ this holiday season
The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, has been speaking to ABC News this morning; he’s warning the spate of scams Australians have seen could get even worse this Christmas.
The ACCC has told us that last year, there was about $2bn worth of scams. They expect that to double this year, and there’s always a spike over Christmas time.
So you know, some things to look out for, fake websites selling or allegedly selling toys that don’t exist, delivery scams which we saw during the pandemic. You click a link on the SMS to get information on where your parcel is going to be delivered to and you never ordered the parcel and, of course, you click the link and they get access to information on your phone.
We’re seeing regifting scams. We all heard about regifting but this is where allegedly, the scammers are pretending to sell unwanted gifts at cut-prices at ridiculously low prices. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
And puppy scams and the i-mum scams are also out there in the field as well. The government wants [people to] be aware that these things are likely to ramp up over the Christmas period and to take extra care.
Greens to introduce bill to lower voting age to 16
Amy Remeikis
The Greens will make lowering the voting age to 16 a top legislative priority next year, with a private member’s bill to be introduced in the first week parliament resumes.
Both the Greens and independent Kooyong MP, Dr Monique Ryan, had previously expressed their interest in lowering the voting age, with Ryan to consult with her community before moving ahead with either her own bill, or supporting the Greens push.
But the Greens are powering forward, with the party’s youth spokesperson, Stephen Bates, saying young people deserved a seat at the table given the decisions being made in areas such as climate heavily affected their futures. He plans on introducing a private member’s bill to the house in the week of 6 February.
16 and 17-year-olds can drive cars, work, enlist in the Australian Defence Force, and serve their communities, yet they have no say in the composition of their own government, in the economy they will enter for the rest of their working lives, or the dying planet they’re about to inherit.’
The re-emergence of the voting age debate in Australia came after the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, greenlit a parliamentary debate in Aotearoa after a supreme court ruling that the existing age of 18 was discriminatory and breached the human rights of young people.
A bill is being drafted by Ardern’s government to change the voting age to 16.
Courts in Australia have not dealt with a voting age question, but last year, the federal court ruled the government had a duty to protect young people from the climate crisis, a ruling which was overturned on appeal.
Lowering the voting age in Australia has not been dismissed out of hand by the Albanese government, with the special minister of state, Don Farrell, saying late last month Labor had “never ruled out” the move.
The Greens senator Jordon Steele-John led a push in 2018 to lower the voting age to 16 on a voluntary basis. That bill was restored to the senate notice paper in July this year.
While the committee which originally examined the Steele-John bill, led by a then-government senator, recommended the legislation not be passed, Labor MPs included additional comments that said the party supported 16 and 17 year voting “in principle”.
Labor’s issue then was the non-compulsory voting aspect proposed for younger voters arguing “this would privilege the views of those young people who are most engaged, and generally most equipped with economic and social capital and so increase inequality in political participation”.
Good morning!
The push for younger Australians to get a greater say in the country’s future is being renewed by the Greens who will make lowering the voting age to 16 a top legislative priority next year.
The party is set to introduce a private member’s bill in the first week parliament resumes next year. The party’s youth spokesperson, Stephen Bates, says young people deserve a seat at the table given the decisions being made in areas such as climate heavily affected their futures.
This Monday morning is also a big morning for reports being released. A new one from the Grattan Institute finds Australia’s universal healthcare system is in need of urgent overhaul, while the Australian National University’s 2022 Australian Election Study is also out.
The ANU study revealed that most voters for teal independent candidates were not disaffected Liberals but identified with the political left. It also showed Scott Morrison was the most unpopular party leader since the study began in 1987, while the prime minister Anthony Albanese was the most popular since Kevin Rudd.
There is a new fortnight of hearings beginning today in the robodebt royal commission into the botched welfare scheme. If you want to know about the previous two weeks of hearings, my colleague Luke Henriques-Gomes has this report.
Let’s get into it!