Australia politics live: David Van ‘shattered’ by Lidia Thorpe allegations, says untrue claims an abuse of parliamentary privilege | Australian politics

Just to give you the time line on that home affairs bill stopping the Russian Federation embassy move;

It was introduced at 9:01:21am

It passed the house at 9:05:35am

It hit the senate at 10:13am.

It passed the senate at 10:14:05am

Bill introduced. Bill passed.

And that home affairs bill Clare O’Neil and Anthony Albanese flagged this morning – the one which will stop the Russian Federation from being able to build their new embassy on land they held a lease for, which was judged to be too close to parliament house – has just passed the senate.

So it was introduced this morning after 9am and has just passed the senate.

That took just over an hour.

It is off to the governor-general where it will get royal assent and then it is L A W law.

Again – that was about an hour from go to woah.

Just proves how quickly the parliament can pass bills when it wants to.

Crackdown on unfair trading practices coming, says Stephen Jones

And there is also work on unfair trading practices coming – which will also look at practices where people are tricked into allowing more data collection than they wanted.

Stephen Jones:

We are also looking at unfair trading practices, another problem that’s been left to fester for too long.

In the digital economy, unfair trading practices can include things like tricking consumers into consenting to data collection; omitting vital information to stop consumers making informed decisions; or preying on vulnerable consumers using excessive tracking of data.

These practices harm consumers and distort competition, but more and more of them are avoiding the reaches of law, particularly in the digital economy.

Two of the ACCC’s recent inquiries have recommended a prohibition on unfair trading practices, and jurisdictions such as the EU, UK, the US and Singapore already have regulations in place.

In considering the right course of action in Australia, we need to know the full extent of consumer and small business harm.

To do that we’re in the final stages of developing a consultation paper on unfair trading practices, which will seek feedback from all of you present at the congress, as well as the wider business and legal community.

The consultation paper will be released next month.

Government says it’s taking on scammers

Assistant treasurer Stephen Jones has given a speech to an ACCC conference, where he spoke about industry codes to try and combat scammers:

Australians are losing $3 billion a year to scams, and that’s just the reported figure. It’s likely to be much higher. And losses to scams have been increasing exponentially – up fivefold in 2022 from 2020.

Coming into government, we promised a comprehensive anti-scam platform, including establishing a National Anti-Scams Centre, tough new industry codes, and supporting crucial functions like ID recovery services.

In the May budget we delivered.

We brought forward an $86.5 million package to combat scams and protect Australians, headlined by the establishment of the National Anti-Scam Centre within the ACCC.

We’ll be consulting on industry codes soon, and I look forward to engaging with you all on that important next step.

For the first time, the government is going to stand shoulder to shoulder with Australians and take the fight up to the scammers.

It will likely take some time for scam losses to stop rising and start falling, but we have taken the critical first step and started the fightback.

Over in the house and the Australian security intelligence organisation amendment bill 2023 is up for debate – that will pass with bipartisan support after the joint security and intelligence committee gave the legislation the tick.

It will leave Asio as the agency that does top security checks.

‘An important moment’

Pat Gorman, the assistant minister to the prime minister held a quick doorstop, where he acknowledged this has been “a difficult week”.

That is putting it mildly.

But he said there were moments of unity:

We’ve got an example of that today where the letters of Walter Mikac, whose children were tragically killed in the Port Arthur Massacre, those letters will be handed to the National Museum of Australia and we’ll see Prime Minister Albanese and former Prime Minister John Howard, there for that handover.

That was a moment where we saw this parliament – and I note under a conservative Government – rise to the occasion, and deliver something that the Australian people expected of us, despite the political difficulties within it. And I think that’s just a really important moment to remind everyone in this building, and everyone who looks to this building, that Parliament House and the people who work here can achieve great things and that is what we are here to do. And if I think about what we do in this place, it is about bringing together the ideas, talents and enthusiasm of the Australian people to make sure that we are listening and acting.

PM to speak on guns

Anthony Albanese is giving a speech at the National Museum of Australia for the Alannah and Madeleine Foundation.

Alannah and Madeline Mikac, were killed, alongside their mother, victims of the Port Arthur shooting. They were just six and three.

Albanese will talk about the need for a gun register, as Paul Karp reports:

The way the senate business is planned out for today, there is not time for general business and the like until 11.15am.

For those waiting for Lidia Thorpe’s statement, it won’t happen until closer to noon.

And that was it. That was the first press conference the prime minister has held this sitting week (and for some time with the press gallery) and it wasn’t exactly a long one.

Russia’s lease to be extinguished

He then bats away a question on the voice and the polling showing a downturn in support but does answer a question on the proximity of China’s embassy to Parliament House:

Look, we – we’re dealing with this very specifically and it’s based upon very specific advice as well about the nature of the construction that’s proposed for – for this site, about the location of this site, and about the capability that would present in terms of potential interference with activity that occurs in this Parliament House. That is why we are taking this action.

We’re doing it very quickly, once the decision was made on 31 May, I convened a national security committee meeting. We took advice as to the best way in which we could extinguish this lease. This legislation, this morning, is based upon the very clear advice that we received. We’re introducing it as soon as we can and we’re also passing it as soon as we can as well.

Our advice is that this will basically extinguish, when you see the legislation that Clare will introduce in a matter of minutes now, you’ll see it extinguishes various Australian law so that it won’t apply, but it also, of course, is up to the Russian government. We will await what response occurs, but we have anticipated that as well. We don’t expect that Russia’s in a position to talk about international law given their rejection of it so consistently and so brazenly with their invasion of Ukraine and the atrocities that have occurred that are occurring on an ongoing basis.

Russia’s embassy in Griffith to remain, PM says

On why Russia is still allowed a diplomatic presence in Canberra (there is an existing embassy in Griffith, about 10 minutes away from Parliament House), Anthony Albanese says:

Well, Russia does have a diplomatic presence here and that will continue at its existing premises in Griffith. Just as Australia has a diplomatic presence in Moscow. This is not about changing that, this is about the specific risk presented by this site and that is why we are taking this action.

Government ‘unwavering’ on Aukus, PM says

Anthony Albanese refused to answer a question on the reported compensation payment to Brittany Higgins, saying:

We’re dealing with this issue today. It’s actually a serious issue.

He then took a question on Labor branches fighting over motions to support Aukus:

The Labor party is a democratic party and one in which people engage in debate. What we do we’ll broadcast them live. We’ll continue to do that. There are people who have different views in the Labor party. They’re entitled to put them forward. But the view of my government is very, very clear and is unwavering in its support for Aukus, in its support for issues about our national security, and about our interests in the defence of this nation. Aukus is an important part of that and our government is unwavering in that.

‘We stand very strongly with the people of Ukraine’

There were a couple of questions there. The first was on the Australian contribution to Ukraine’s effort in pushing back invading Russian forces. There has been criticism (including a social media video from Ukraine) that Australia is not sending as much as it could.

Anthony Albanese:

It’s not right that there hasn’t been increased Australian contribution. When you make an announcement of Bushmasters, it doesn’t mean that the 90 Bushmasters arrived the next day. They’re being built and transported to Ukraine. Australian soldiers are training Ukrainian soldiers in the United Kingdom and there are a range of ways in which we are providing support.

We are working consistently along with the Department of Defence to see what we can do to add further support to Ukraine. We understand that – that the struggle of the people of Ukraine is not just about Ukrainian national sovereignty – as important as that is. This is a struggle about the sovereignty of international law, about whether national borders are sovereign, about whether the rule of law will apply.

So we stand very strongly with the people of Ukraine but we are continuing to make contributions and continuing to provide support which is occurring everyday, every week and every month.

Embassy site threatens national security, O’Neil says

This has been an ongoing issue in Canberra. Clare O’Neil said it was important the government acted quickly – so that legislation will be introduced post haste this morning:

As the prime minister has explained today we will introduce a very simple law into the parliament that we are asking is addressed urgently.

The bill is straightforward – it identifies a specific piece of land in Canberra which currently has a lease agreement between the National Capital Authority and the Russian federation and the bill terminates that lease agreement.

The principal problem with the proposed second Russian embassy in Canberra is its location.

This location sits directly adjacent to Parliament House. The government has received clear national security advice that this would be a threat to our national security and that is why the government the acting decisively today to bring this longstanding matter to a close.

I’ll address briefly the land itself. We will work through the options for this very important specific piece of land that, as I say is literally directly next to the parliament.

We have made a decision that this land will not be used for a future diplomatic presence and we’ll come back to you when we have further information on the use of the land.

Russian embassy lease to be cancelled, Albanese says