Lambie says public won’t worry too much if Labor cans stage-three tax cuts
Jacqui Lambie says she thinks the government could deal with a “broken promise” on the stage-three tax cuts by playing the public straight.
I think when people know that there’s people out there on enough money like me, and we’re getting a tax cut and don’t get one I don’t think the public’s really going to worry about it too much.
That’s what I think. And I think they’ll be saying ‘good on you.’ It’s about time we started paying out and helping others less fortunate.
Key events
Greens introduce ‘right to disconnect’ bill to amend Fair Work Act
When was the last time you were able to disconnect completely from work? As in, no emails, no phone calls, no last minute “can you check this” or calls to jump in an online meeting after hours?
The Greens have introduced the “right to disconnect” bill which would amend the Fair Work Act to legislate the right for workers to not answer emails, calls or other messages after contracted hours unless they are paid to do so (availability allowance etc) or its an emergency.
That’s after the senate work and care inquiry chaired by Greens senator Barbara Pocock recommended ways to modernise Australia’s working conditions.
Adam Bandt, who introduced the private member’s bill, said workers had the right to switch off:
Technology has seen work creep into personal time. If you’re not getting paid for it, you should be able to ignore the work texts and emails that arrive after hours. Switching off and disconnecting from work is vital for your health and work-life balance.
Pocock, the Greens employment spokesperson, said Australian work conditions had not kept pace with the changing environment.
Most of our working arrangements were put in place when households typically consisted of a male breadwinner with a female working to maintain a home and provide care for the family.
Those arrangements are clearly out of date and we need to recognise that households are now run with at least two working adults who are increasingly sharing household and caring duties in addition to their working lives.
… Availability creep, where workers feel they have to be available to answer emails all the time is harming their physical and mental health.
Poor sleep, stress, burnout, degraded relationships and distracted carers are some of the consequences of workers feeling they should be available at all hours.
Peter Dutton should ‘condemn’ Nazi protests – Peter Khalil
Peter Khalil continued:
We’ve also had a lot of commentary and different accounts of the event, I reckon with any political demonstration or protests, it’s important to go back to the first principles, why are you there?
And if you’re there for a vision for a fairer and more just society, if you’re you’re an activist in that respect, great.
But if you’re there for the opposite, there’s a big question mark, and if your attempt at civil dialogue is attracting neo-Nazis, to your protest, there certainly needs to be a reassessment of the approach.
Now I know John Pesutto, the Victorian Liberal leader is taking a leadership position here and seeking to ban the MP that was involved in that rally. And that’s something that he’s doing. I would hope that the federal Liberal leader, Peter Dutton, also shows the same level of leadership and condemns that type of behaviour condemns the Nazis.
Remember, you know, he’s a former defence minister, there were 40,000 Australians who died in world war two fighting fascism and fighting the Nazis. People died to actually give us the country that we’re living in today effectively, that generation which not many of them left, so I would hope that he comes down and condemns this unequivocally and supports his colleague in the Victorian Liberal party.
Addressing far-right extremism starts with education, Labor MP Peter Khalil says
The chair of parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, Labor MP Peter Khalil, also had a chat to Patricia Karvelas about the far right after what happened in Melbourne over the weekend:
Often, the rise of the far right occurs when there … might be issues around inequality or socioeconomic issues. People are manipulated in the community. Let’s not forget what they are trying to do here. They are picking in this case, that was targeting the trans community.
They pick out minorities to attack, they try and sow division and hatred and fear of the other. That is their ideological playbook.
We should be aware of that and the way that they try and manipulate and get oxygen in their actions and trying to manipulate the community. We need to address that now.
The security intelligence agencies play a role in that but more broadly, as a society, we have to address some of those underlying issues and it starts with education. Of course, it starts with people at a younger age, not being captured by or radicalised by these types of groups.
There’s a lot of work being done by the federal government across not just a security intelligence agency, but I know across the entire government, because this is actually fundamental to our social cohesion. As a nation.
We talk a lot Patricia about, you know, multiculturalism and the diversity of our nation as a strength and that’s all very, very true. But there are those who would seek to divide us based on our ethnicity, based on our identity, based on our sexual orientation. And that is the contest that is going on now and unfortunately, there has been a rise of these groups, particularly over the last 5 to 10 years.
Lambie wants more action now to improve lives of First Nations people
On the referendum machinery act, Jacqui Lambie says she hopes the bill can pass without too much more argument because she thinks there is already too much division out there.
But she also thinks that there are things which can be done now to improve the lives of Indigenous people now.
My point is right now you could be putting in things now that could be making a difference. That’s what you’ll hear in my speech. And there is no reason for you to wait and not to do what we’ve seen to be very successful in the past in these Indigenous communities that’s worked.
And there was some really good opportunities that have been working over the years in those communities that could have been put back into place today. And that would show me that you’re actually serious about not just listening to the voice, of making the voice work, but you could show start showing that today.
So that is what you’re going to hear in my speech today.
… Just because we’ve had one government to another and said this is not working or whatever. The other my other problem is simply this – there is a lot of money there are billions and billions of dollars going out there to these Indigenous communities, there is too many shopfronts out there.
I’ve seen this the whole time I’ve been running around over the last six or seven years of seeing the shopfronts, seriously, it’s not money that they need, you need to get this sorted out, because what you’re doing is you’re putting out money and it’s not presenting positive results.
‘It will be the Greens’ fault’ if safeguard mechanism falls over – Lambie
The Tasmanian senator is also very sick of the fight over the safeguard mechanism. She thinks it is a start and it is a “perfect opportunity” for a start and if it falls over “it will be the Greens fault”.
When it comes to the safeguards, I simply think there’s we need to starting point and the Greens I’m sick and tired of them getting your starting point – you have that big balance of power for the next two years.
This is your starting point and you keep working on it, on decreasing those emissions, keep putting up bills, keep doing deals with the Labor government and keep reducing it that way.
But if you don’t have a starting point here, we haven’t got the magic starter. We’re not going anywhere.
We don’t even have a starting point and I think that’s really, really disappointing.
My other issue obviously, is that we have manufacturing out there that just at this point in time cannot reduce its emissions by 4.9%.
They cannot do that because the technology has not been invented. So we really need to make sure that if we want manufacturing to continue in this country we want to grow on that we have to accommodate for that.
There’s no doubt about that. Look, they can continue their fight over coal and gas, but can the Greens please for goodness sakes, if you know if that’s what you’re standing on and you don’t get anything through it all then we’re back to where we started. We’ve got nothing, not even a starter point. We’ve got to have a starting point, we’ve got to look serious.
I am worried that it’s gonna fall over it’ll be the Greens fault. You need to starting point this is your opportunity to get a starting point so we can keep working on reducing those emissions as we’re going along. That’s how it works up here.
We just keep chipping away at them. But we need to start a point and I think this is a good start point.
Lambie says public won’t worry too much if Labor cans stage-three tax cuts
Jacqui Lambie says she thinks the government could deal with a “broken promise” on the stage-three tax cuts by playing the public straight.
I think when people know that there’s people out there on enough money like me, and we’re getting a tax cut and don’t get one I don’t think the public’s really going to worry about it too much.
That’s what I think. And I think they’ll be saying ‘good on you.’ It’s about time we started paying out and helping others less fortunate.
Lambie on stage-three tax cuts: high income earners ‘shouldn’t be so greedy’
Also Jacqui Lambie doesn’t want the stage-three tax cuts – as a senator, her six figure wage would be one of those that benefits and she is saying “no thank you”.
And she thinks most other people should say no thank you too, for the betterment of the country.
People like me, people like me, do not need a tax cut, I can assure you, so please don’t give me one because I don’t want one and anybody else that’s in the situation that I am shouldn’t be so greedy. And now we’ve got to pass it on to those blokes [earning under $120,000] We’ve got to pay it forward. That’s what we need to be doing. And that’s that’s where Australia should be.
And if it means that some of that money is redirected into those submarines or into anything else that we need for the future. I just think we need to cut those tax cuts right back.
Jacqui Lambie expresses concerns over housing fund costing
Over on ABC RN Breakfast, Jacqui Lambie is speaking about what it would take for her and Tammy Tyrrell to vote for the housing fund.
Lambie says she supports the bill, but thinks it can be better – because she has concerns over whether houses would actually be built in how it stands now.
We are worried about the $500m annual cap on disbursements to the fund because the way that we’re working out if you look at the next five years is that that that is only going to build it the amount of houses that you need to and I’m sorry, the house that you need to build is only is gonna end up about $80,000 per house. That’s the first problem that they have right now.
We are worried also with the inflation on what that $500m looks like in the next nine or 10 years. That’s your other issue. So we are concerned about that.
We’ve also asked for upgrades, upgrades and repairs in remote Indigenous communities …
So we actually haven’t asked for a lot but we do want them to explain to us out of the money. How come we’re working it out that something’s going to end up about $80,000 a house and where’s the rest of money coming from, so that is a real worry for us.
Nationals should follow security advice on social media – Littleproud
And following Daniel Hurst’s update on Clare O’Neil accepting a report from security agencies on TikTok on government phones, David Littleproud has found a unity ticket.
Yeah, I think obviously we’ve got to take the advice of our intelligence agencies. And that advice is becoming stronger and stronger. I think it’s unwise to have a TikTok account on your government held phone. We’ve got to understand the world we live in and the risk of having these phones as members of parliament, the privileged position we have, does pose to our national security. So I think it is important that the government takes that advice and if that’s the advice we should act swiftly on it. I would be very disappointed if any members of my National party didn’t adhere to any advice given by a security agency on social media, particularly TikTok.
Littleproud says safeguard mechanism will force companies to buy offsets
And here is David Littleproud on why they are voting no on the safeguard legislation:
We need to find a pathway. There’s no linear pathway to net zero by 2050. The safeguards mechanism, this is about companies adopting technology to reduce their emissions. And so, the technology at the moment hasn’t been created. So what they’re saying, forcing companies to do, to go and buy offsets they’re going to pass on to you, the Australian consumer. Technology will solve this. We’re confident in that. The Nationals have been at the forefront of this, whether it be their biodiversity stewardship program, to … have sensible solutions that don’t mean we have to build 28,000km of new transmission lines. I think people on the land will participate. That’s what the National party want them to do, because they’re the stewards of the land.
(The business community is actually in favour of the safeguards legislation, which was originally Coalition policy. Make of that what you will.)
Littleproud says Labor’s housing fund ‘is costly and doesn’t go to heart of issue’
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, was on ABC TV Breakfast explaining why the Coalition was voting no on so much legislation.
On the housing fund:
Well, just so Australians appreciate, this isn’t $10bn going to housing. This is the Australian taxpayer borrowing $10bn, paying an interest rate on that and hoping … they’ll reinvest back into social housing. I commend the government for trying to tackle this. Let’s look at this. This is a failure of state governments in particular. This is their bailiwick. The fact we tried to put in 3,000 homes when we’re in government, not commenting the government for trying, it’s just the mechanism they’re putting in place is costly and doesn’t go to the heart of the issue.
And what it is also go is incentivise the states the walk away from their responsibilities they failed to undertake. And also with respect to planning. So also about supply. The state and local governments have the planning pen. Let’s have some commonsense solutions about lifting supply. In some cities it’s about going up, not necessarily out, if you want to live in the city that comes at the cost of density but you’re more than welcome to join us in the regions.
Tory Shepherd
Indigenous space academy, space salads and lunar rovers on show for Nasa
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) administrator, Bill Nelson, and the deputy administrator, Pamela Melroy, are in Adelaide today and Canberra later this week.
The Australian Space Agency head, Enrico Palermo, said it was a “jam packed agenda … an important moment to show the nation the strength of the partnership between our two agencies”.
He said the new academy will see five undergraduate or postgraduate students travel to Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
“We’re proud to have a brand and DNA that is built on the tens of thousands of years of First Nations astronomy and science,” Palermo said.
The Nasa visit, the first from an administrator since 2014, included a visit to the international team creating space food and medicine at the University of Adelaide. The team has picked plants that can be grown on Mars to provide a complete, nutritional plant-based diet for astronauts.
They have created a “space salad” of soya beans, poppy seeds, barley, ale, peanuts, sunflower seeds and sweet potatoes.
The industry and science minister, Ed Husic, announced grants for two programs to design semi-autonomous rovers, using knowledge drawn from remote mining. The rovers will be part of Nasa’s Moon to Mars mission, and will be designed by two separate consortiums.
“The rover will collect lunar soil known as regolith from the moon and deliver it o a Nasa payload, which will attempt to extract oxygen from the sample,” Husic said.
Nelson said he was excited to work with Australia on the mission.
“It’s cooperation like this that will enable Nasa and our international partners to uncover more discoveries. In this new era of space exploration, every advancement is not an achievement for one country – but for all of humanity,” he said.
Good morning
A very big thank you to Martin for starting us off this morning.
We’ll switch to politics now with the safeguards mechanism, referendum machinery and housing future fund all taking centre stage from a legislation point of view, while Aukus continues to bubble away – and all of it under the shadow of the “final warning” from the IPCC report.
Good times.
You’ve got Amy Remeikis and the Canberra team with you.
Ready?
Government receives review of social media apps such as TikTok – Clare O’Neil
Daniel Hurst
The federal government has confirmed it has received a review into the use of social media apps – including TikTok – on government devices.
Last year the home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, asked her department to review the cybersecurity implications of all forms of social media on government devices. This includes but is not limited to TikTok, whose parent company is the Chinese firm ByteDance.
To date, some government departments or agencies have banned their employees from using TikTok on their work devices, but there is not a uniform policy – and the Coalition has recently stepped up its calls for clarity.
Last night a spokesperson for O’Neil said in a brief statement:
The government has received the review and is considering its recommendations. We are working to undo the years of inaction under the previous government, who failed to act or even provide advice about these issues as they developed.
Daniel Hurst
Labor MP ‘not convinced we can adequately deal with the non-proliferation risks’ of Aukus
Daniel continues:
Let’s bring you some more details about the Labor MP Josh Wilson’s concerns about Aukus. He also used his speech to parliament last night to raise fears about the precedent set by Australia relying on the US and the UK to acquire nuclear-powered submarines:
I’m not yet convinced that we can adequately deal with the non-proliferation risks involved in what is a novel arrangement by which a non nuclear weapons state under the [non-proliferation treaty] comes to acquire weapons-grade material … There is no particular reason to expect the Aukus arrangement will be the only one of its kind.
Wilson – while expressing his concerns about in the present tense – also took aim at the former defence minister Peter Dutton. Wilson had previously asked questions about some of these issues in a treaties committee hearing in 2021. Wilson said:
For having the temerity to ask legitimate questions about those non-proliferation issues the now opposition leader referred to me in this place as ‘Comrade Wilson’. It’s an irony that the opposition leader, for all his self-styled tough guy patriotism, appears to not understand the fundamental difference between a liberal democracy and other systems in which asking perfectly reasonable questions is not only forbidden but has dire consequences.
Wilson said the quality assurance mechanism in Australia’s system of government was contestability. He said it was important to always have a “rigorous and challenging conversation” about defence and security matters:
The Aukus agreement, arrived at with some characteristically questionable secrecy by the former government and some strange ministerial arrangements, is not a sports team of which we have all suddenly become life members. It is a significant partnership with two of our most important and closest allies – but it will only be effective if we do our job as parliamentarians which is to look closely and to ask questions in order to guard against risk.
I could be proved wrong about some of my concerns – perhaps they’re ill-founded in a way that I don’t perceive – and I can live with that. But I would be wrong already if I wasn’t prepared to identify and voice those concerns, which are based on work I’ve done consistently on some of these issues in this place since I was first elected.
Federal Labor MP breaks ranks on Aukus
Daniel Hurst
As promised, here’s our defence correspondent Daniel Hurst on those comments by Labor MP Josh Wilson.
A federal Labor MP has broken ranks over Aukus, saying he is not convinced Australia should pursue nuclear-powered submarines.
Wilson, the member for Fremantle, also said the cost and timeframes were likely to blow out. Wilson said he was “concerned about the question of nuclear waste” given that “we haven’t yet managed a storage solution for low-level waste after 40 years and more than $50m”.
Wilson is the first member of the federal Labor caucus to go public with concerns since the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, announced the more detailed plans in San Diego last week.
To date, the Labor caucus has been pretty disciplined, leaving it to some union leaders and former ministers – along with the former PM Paul Keating – to raise concerns. The Greens have strongly opposed Aukus.
Wilson, while careful to avoid direct attacks on the government, told parliament last night it was “the plain hard reality” that “with an undertaking of this scale, complexity, cost and duration, there remain considerable risks and uncertainty”.
He said Australia would be buying Virginia class submarines from the US in the 2030s “at a time when their own production schedule has been under pressure” before the Australian-built “SSN Aukus” submarines would be ready:
But we know from both Collins and the French project, building submarines inevitably takes longer and costs more than anticipated. While I support the work of the government, I’m not completely convinced that nuclear-propelled submarines are the only or best answer to our strategic needs.
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to the politics live blog. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be bringing you the main overnight breaking stories before Amy gets fired up shortly.
Climate is one of the topics dominating the news this morning after scientists have delivered a “final warning” on the climate crisis, as rising greenhouse gas emissions push the world to the brink of irrevocable damage that only swift action can avert. At home, a poll conducted in four inner-city seats shows a majority of voters support a ban on new fossil fuel projects and don’t think big polluters should be able to use offsets for greenhouse emissions.
Defence is another big focus with public support for the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine deal declining, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll. Only a quarter think the subs are good value, while 40% of respondents said the submarine partnership would make Australia more secure, down four points since November. Only one in five voters said China was a “threat to be confronted”, which is interesting in light of Xi Jinping’s arrival in Moscow overnight where he pledged that Russia and China would “stand guard” to protect the world order.
Speaking of submarines, federal Labor MP Josh Wilson has become the first to break ranks with the leadership by expressing doubts about the $368bn project. The member for Fremantle said he was not convinced Australia should pursue nuclear-powered submarines and also warned that the cost and timeframes were likely to blow out. We’ve got full details about what he said coming up.
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