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Andrew Bragg agrees Coalition ‘running out of people to offend’ amid Hastie immigration commentsThe Coalition can be united, says shadow minister Andrew Bragg, following the resignation of Andrew Hastie from the frontbench last week.Hastie has been making public claims about the impact of migration levels driving up housing prices, and calls for Australia to reinvest in manufacturing.On ABC RN Breakfast a little earlier, Bragg, the shadow housing minister, said while Hastie’s arguments about migration levels are a factor in house prices, it’s a “much more complex dynamic” than just that.He says just blaming migration can be a “very blunt way to speak, which can be offensive and it can be damaging.”But asked whether Hastie is being directly blunt and offensive, Bragg says:
I think it’s one-dimensional. I wouldn’t say it’s offensive. I think Andrew is right to identify that it is one of the inputs.
On the issue of whether the Coalition is appealing to a broader demographic of Australians, Bragg himself is pretty blunt.
I think clearly you would know the demographics in which we have really struggled at the last few elections: women, multicultural communities. I think George Brandis at one point said in one of the election wash-ups that we were sort of running out of people to offend. I think that has been true through to a point. And so we’re going through this first year in this new parliament of opposition with a view to reflecting on all of that.
ShareUpdated at 22.57 BSTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureBenita KolovosMetro Tunnel soft launch in December, opens fully from 1 FebruaryThe Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, is about to hold a briefing for her MPs and journalists to announce the launch of the Metro Tunnel.According to her media release, it will have a “summer launch” in early December with services every 20 minutes from 10am to 3pm between Westall, on the Cranbourne Pakenham line, and West Footscray, on the Sunbury line.On weekends, services will run every 20 minutes from 10am to 7pm between Westall and West Footscray, every 40 minutes from East Pakenham and every 60 minutes from Sunbury.The Metro Tunnel will have a ‘summer launch’ in early December. Photograph: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/The GuardianThese services are an addition to existing services that will continue as normal through the City Loop.It will then be fully integrated into the transport network on 1 February. On this date, the entire transport timetable will change and the Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham lines will travel exclusively through the Metro Tunnel. During peak, the government says trains will run three to four minutes apartment.Frankston services will also return to the City Loop at that time.The media release says this two-step launch follows “international best practice”:
The best way to make sure everything runs well is to open the tunnel and run services first, then make the big timetable switch afterwards – not attempt them simultaneously.
It also says it will allow tests of the new infrastructure and technology in real world conditions “so bugs can be ironed out without disrupting the rest of the train network”.ShareUpdated at 00.26 BSTMarles says ‘no doubt’ Melbourne pro-Hamas graffiti will be looked into as possible terror offenceRichard Marles has labelled graffiti praising Hamas seen in Melbourne this morning “disgraceful”, in an interview on ABC radio Melbourne this morning. The graffiti, seen in Fitzroy, states “glory to Hamas”.Marles has said across multiple interviews that today is a “day of commemoration and remembrance” and not a day of protest.
To have that message scrawled in that way, is obviously disgraceful and we need to be a society which is cohesive, which looks out for each other and that is obviously a message of division.
Asked whether the graffiti is a terrorism offence, Marles says he’s not sure but has “no doubt” this will be looked into.Marles says there are people in the community today who do feel threatened, and that is “of enormous concern”.
I really think we have seen social cohesion put under as much pressure as I’ve seen in my lifetime over the course of the last couple of years. And it’s really therefore important that we are thinking about that in the context of our own nation and making sure that we are looking after each other as Australians.
On the actions of the Israeli government, Marles says international law will apply and the conduct of any military action will “ultimately be judged”.ShareUpdated at 00.19 BSTJosh TaylorGovernment secretly assesses which platforms could be covered by under 16s social media banThe federal communications department has conducted its own assessment of 30 different platforms, gaming apps, dating apps and messaging apps as to whether they might need to block under 16s from their services from 10 December, documents have revealed.Guardian Australia reported last month the eSafety commissioner had written to several of these platforms including Facebook, Snap, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and Twitch asking them to conduct self-assessments on if the ban should apply to them.However, documents published on the communications department’s disclosure log last week reveal public servants have already assessed 30 different platforms including BlueSky, LegoPlay, Mastodon, WeChat, and Discord on whether they are likely to meet the definition of social media under the ban and therefore would have to prevent access for under 16s from December.The documents, however, are redacted, and the department’s verdict on each platform has been deemed “deliberative” content that was not released under freedom of information laws.The eSafety commissioner will respond to the self-assessments on whether it agrees or disagrees with the platform’s views on whether they will be included in the ban. The platforms covered will need to then work to remove existing accounts of under 16s by 10 December, and put in place age checks to prevent those users registering new accounts.Australia’s social media ban for under-16s is now law. There’s plenty we still don’t know – videoShareUpdated at 00.10 BSTLey and Spender condemn Melbourne graffiti praising HamasThe opposition leader, Sussan Ley, says graffiti in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy is “deeply disturbing” and has called for those responsible to face the full force of the law.The graffiti, painted on a billboard facing a busy road, reads “glory to Hamas”.In a statement, Ley says:
Hamas is a listed terrorist organisation in Australia. Supporting them is not free speech, it is a crime. Those responsible must face the full force of the law.
Victorians deserve to feel safe in their own community. The AFP and ASIO should support Victorian police to track down those behind this disgraceful act and bring them to justice.
Pro-Hamas graffiti seen on a billboard above a shop in Melbourne. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAPIndependent MP Allegra Spender called the graffiti “foul” in an interview with Sky News.
It just has no place in this country. Hamas is a terrorist organisation … We are at the moment where peace is possible, and you know, what I believe people want to see out of this process is actually long-term peace for Israeli people and for Palestinian people.
ShareUpdated at 00.18 BSTJordyn BeazleyPalestine Action Group to call for NSW supreme court to make finding of genocide in GazaThe Palestine Action Group will this morning face court in their fight against the New South Wales police over a proposed plan to march on the Sydney Opera House this Sunday.During the hearing the group also plans to call on the NSW supreme court “to make a formal finding that Israel’s onslaught in Gaza amounts to genocide”.It comes after Justice Desmond Fagan, when hearing the matter for directions on Friday, said he thought the crowd could exceed 100,000 because of “what appears to be the sentiment in the community, and that has developed over two years of sort of real time broadcasting of genocide of too many people”. PAG spokesperson Amal Naser said:
We welcome Justice Fagan’s willingness to call out genocide, reflecting the undeniable reality on the ground.
We refuse to allow police, politicians, or state institutions to erase this truth. Our movement stands on the side of justice and international law. Our lawyers will argue for the supreme court to recognise both: Our right to protest under domestic and international law. That Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.
Last Wednesday, the group announced its plan to diverge from the normal route of its near weekly rallies over the past two years, and march from Hyde Park to the Sydney Opera House on 12 October to mark two years since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.But on Friday the NSW police announced it would knock back the group’s application to march to the Opera House, citing safety concerns such as crowd crush over limited exit points from the forecourt.Two Jewish groups are also attempting to challenge in court the protest and its location. It’s the first time the Executive Council of Jewry and the Jewish Board of Deputies have sought to challenge a pro-Palestine protest.The court is expected to decide this morning if their challenge will be allowed to be heard or not.ShareUpdated at 23.58 BSTAdding a bit of context to the last post, Anthony Albanese had said before that 8 October 2023 protest that it should not go ahead.Both he and foreign minister Penny Wong condemned footage appearing to show attenders at the rally chanting anti-Jewish sentiments (a claim police later walked back after independent analysis).At the time, Albanese said images from the rally were “horrific”, and there were, “slogans which are antisemitic and just appalling, with no place”.ShareUpdated at 23.52 BSTTim Wilson claims Albanese lost ‘moral authority’ by not ‘standing up’ against pro-Palestine protestsLiberal MP Tim Wilson claims Hamas has “won a propaganda war every step of the way” in response to graffiti found this morning in Melbourne which states “glory to Hamas”.Wilson told Sky News there are some who still are trying to “sow division”.
There [are] some sections, sadly, of the Australian community who want to sow division, to turn hatred towards, particularly the Jewish community, but to use as a basis to drive broader division within society and to inflame extremism.
Wilson also said he hopes planned protests at the Sydney Opera House over the weekend will not go ahead, and accused the prime minister of having lost “moral authority” for not “standing up” to previous protests.
[Albanese] lost his moral authority when he didn’t stand up against the protests on 8 October 2023 on the steps of the Sydney Opera House …
I hope it doesn’t go ahead, because think about the number of lives that have been lost. Think about the families have been separated. Think about the people who have had their children burned alive by Hamas.
ShareUpdated at 23.22 BSTIt’s coming up to 9am which means Senate estimates is about to begin.We have eyes on all the committees, so we’ll bring you the drama as it happens.ShareUpdated at 23.01 BSTAustralia will have ‘backside out of its pants’ if productivity growth remains low, Bragg saysThe budget will face a $58bn black hole to the year 2028-29 if productivity growth remains low at just 0.5%, says Andrew Bragg, who commissioned the work by the parliamentary budget office.He says the “productivity failure now means Australia has its backside out of its pants.”The 2025-26 budget has a longer-term forecast that underlying productivity is assumed to grow at 1.2% per year. While the Reserve Bank has a medium term assumption that productivity growth will return to 0.7% by the end of the forecast period.Bragg says:
Chalmers is padding his budget with fantasy forecasts. A more realistic 0.5% productivity rate – halfway between the historic average and Labor’s guesswork – shows the budget is in far worse shape.
On Sky News the assistant treasurer, Dan Mulino, was asked about the figures this morning and says Australia has “come off the worst decade in 60 years” when it comes to productivity growth, and backed the 1.2% Treasury forecast.
That’s a Treasury assumption which is based upon long-term productivity averages across the economy and it’s pretty standard practice for Treasury to use assumptions like that in budget papers …
The key thing for me is that the government is now prioritising lifting productivity rates from where we inherited them through a range of policies right across the economy. And that’s what we need to be doing and that’s the focus of our economic policy at the moment.
ShareUpdated at 23.14 BSTAndrew Bragg agrees Coalition ‘running out of people to offend’ amid Hastie immigration commentsThe Coalition can be united, says shadow minister Andrew Bragg, following the resignation of Andrew Hastie from the frontbench last week.Hastie has been making public claims about the impact of migration levels driving up housing prices, and calls for Australia to reinvest in manufacturing.On ABC RN Breakfast a little earlier, Bragg, the shadow housing minister, said while Hastie’s arguments about migration levels are a factor in house prices, it’s a “much more complex dynamic” than just that.He says just blaming migration can be a “very blunt way to speak, which can be offensive and it can be damaging.”But asked whether Hastie is being directly blunt and offensive, Bragg says:
I think it’s one-dimensional. I wouldn’t say it’s offensive. I think Andrew is right to identify that it is one of the inputs.
On the issue of whether the Coalition is appealing to a broader demographic of Australians, Bragg himself is pretty blunt.
I think clearly you would know the demographics in which we have really struggled at the last few elections: women, multicultural communities. I think George Brandis at one point said in one of the election wash-ups that we were sort of running out of people to offend. I think that has been true through to a point. And so we’re going through this first year in this new parliament of opposition with a view to reflecting on all of that.
ShareUpdated at 22.57 BSTPNG alliance a ‘very big deal’, Albanese saysAnthony Albanese has made a quick TV appearance to spruik the PNG alliance signed yesterday, calling it a “very big deal”.What are some of the elements of the agreement?Albanese tells the Today show it means Australian soldiers will be “increasingly participating in PNG and vice versa”, along with the training of PNG personnel by the Australian defence force.He’s asked whether the government has “lost” Vanuatu and Solomon Islands (as there was supposed to be a separate agreement signed with Vanuatu last month), but Albanese says “not at all”.
We’re working closely with both of those countries. Vanuatu, we have an agreement that we’re working through, hoping to finalise that. But the PNG deal of course is by far our largest neighbour. It’s by far the largest neighbour in the Pacific. PNG has a population equivalent of every other one of the Pacific island nations. So it is a very significant deal.
Anthony Albanese greets the Papua New Guinea prime minister, James Marape, before signing the mutual defence treaty. Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty ImagesShareUpdated at 22.12 BSTWatt says he has made three trips to WA as part of environment law consultationWestern Australia is one of the key players the federal government needs to win over to get the EPBC reforms across the line.Why? They’ve got a strong mining industry and the premier, Roger Cook, made it clear that he wasn’t a fan of the legislation the commonwealth had put forward during the last term of parliament.Murray Watt says he’s made three trips to WA since becoming the environment minister, and met with the premier, the mining industry and conservation groups across the state.
I’ve made very clear that dealing with the Western Australian government, along with every other state government, is a priority here, even when we pass these laws. I’m confident that we will.
Of course, these laws had a lot of interest in WA, but I’ve similarly met with people and pretty much every state and territory environment minister around the country.
ShareUpdated at 22.03 BSTEnvironment law reform negotiations ‘down to detail’, Watt saysThe government still “aims” to get its environment laws passed this year, says environment minister Murray Watt, who has publicly said reforms to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act will be introduced “this side of Christmas”.Watt is on ABC RN Breakfast this morning and says he’s been consulting around the clock since he became minister in mid-May.Time is ticking though, there are only three more weeks left in the year where both houses are sitting.
Everyone can agree that we need laws that deliver stronger environmental protections, quicker approval processes, and more transparency. And I guess what we’re down to now is detail, making sure that we can deliver a bill to the parliament that has very widespread support.
I’ve now met a couple of times with both the shadow environment minister, Angie Bell, and with the Greens environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young. All of those meetings have been, I think, quite positive and constructive. You know, I wouldn’t want to say that we’re about to do a deal with anyone. There’s obviously more work to be done.
If you feel like we’ve been talking about this issue forever, well … Graeme Samuel first wrote his report that the EPBC Act needed serious amending almost five years ago, and the government almost passed legislation in its last term of government, before spiking it at the 11th hour.The environment minister, Murray Watt. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShareUpdated at 21.55 BSTMarles says government engaging with Israel over detained flotilla activistsRichard Marles says the government is engaging with Israeli authorities and providing consular assistance to the Australians on the Gaza flotilla who have been detained.The activists have told Australian officials they have faced “degrading and humiliating” treatment.Marles says Australian officials are providing the “full suite of consular assistance”.
We’re obviously providing consular assistance to those who have been involved in this and we will continue to do that. I’m not about to go into it in more detail than that.
ShareUpdated at 21.45 BSTMarles says 7 October a ‘day of remembrance and commemoration’The deputy PM, Richard Marles, says 7 October is not a day for demonstration, but a solemn day for the Jewish community.On whether the government views a planned demonstration at the Sydney Opera House this weekend as “appropriate”, Marles tells ABC News Breakfast it’s a matter for the courts.
Today is not a day for demonstrations. Today is a day for remembrance and commemoration. I mean, obviously, this is a very difficult day for the Jewish community in Australia and it is a very solemn day.
Richard Marles. Photograph: Hollie Adams/ReutersShareUpdated at 21.48 BSTGreens call for a full refund from Deloitte report that used AIGreens senator Barbara Pocock, who helped lead the charge in a Senate inquiry looking at the integrity of consultancy firms, is pretty livid this morning over Deloitte’s offer of a partial refund for its report written for the department of employment and workplace relations.You can read the backstory here:On ABC RN Breakfast a little earlier, Pocock said Australians will be “choking on their breakfast” hearing about a big -our consultancy firm using AI in a report that had several errors.
Our parliament has given an enormous amount of resources to tracking down poor value for money, and the government committed itself to making sure that it didn’t contract out core work of this type.
Here it has, it’s contracted out core work, and once again, we see proof in the pudding of poor quality work, poor value for money, and the kinds of things that Australians should not be putting up with, and our government should have much higher standards around.
She also takes a stab at Deloitte for quietly re-releasing the work on a Friday, with no apology and “no public accountability”.ShareUpdated at 21.43 BSTAverage GP consultation nears 20 mins as peak body says more subsidies needed for longer consultationsNatasha MayGP appointments are getting longer, with the average consultation now nearly 20 minutes, the annual report from the peak body shows.The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) has today released its annual Health of the Nation report, a month ahead of the government’s expansion of bulk-billing incentives to all Medicare cardholders coming into effect in November.The president of the college, Dr Michael Wright, acknowledged the commonwealth’s record investment in general practice but said the report highlights the need for further investment increasing patient rebates for longer consultations.Since the government announced the reforms, GPs have raised concerns the increases in the bulk billing incentives are largest for shorter consultations, and then become lower for longer appointments – which is where they say they need more support to help manage increasing levels of chronic disease and complex presentations.ShareUpdated at 21.52 BST‘There is nothing worse than politicians focusing on themselves’: CashThe opposition is trying to stop talking about itself following the dramatic resignation of Andrew Hastie from the frontbench on Friday.Over on the Today show, senior shadow minister Michaelia Cash said she has “one job”, which is to hold the government to account (and not talk about the internal politics of the Liberal party).
There is nothing worse than politicians focusing on themselves. The Australian people, they actually hate that … the Australian people, they don’t like it when we focus on ourselves.
Cash is on a panel with Labor minister Amanda Rishworth, who describes the turmoil as “a bit Days of our Lives”. But she does agree that “people don’t like parties that are focused on themselves”.ShareUpdated at 21.42 BST
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