Anthony Albanese, Sussan Ley to come face to face
IT’S (FINALLY) TIME FOR ALBANESE VS LEY
And so, two and a half months after the federal election, we’re finally getting the politicians back at work in Parliament House and all the fun that brings. Thank you to my colleague Anton for taking the Worm over the past two days; I’ve got my (third) coffee to hand and am ready to dive back in.
As the AAP (and everyone else) highlights this morning, today we get the first sight in parliament of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley squaring off as rival party leaders.
With the 48th parliament officially opened yesterday, the Albanese government is starting things off with Education Minister Jason Clare introducing legislation to the House of Representatives to cut university debt for three million Australians by 20%.
The newswire reports the Coalition is expected to support the government’s plans, which it’s claimed will wipe $16 billion off student debt, “but is waiting to see the fine print”.
As previously highlighted, the government has said childcare reform aimed at improving safety measures will be introduced during the first sitting week, and the ABC this morning reports the legislation will also be put forward today.
The national broadcaster says that under the government’s proposal funding delivered via the Childcare Subsidy (CCS) could be cut off if centres repeatedly fall short on safety. The report goes on to say though that the government will not say what the benchmark for failure is and how it will be defined.
In terms of parliamentary support, the ABC flags the Coalition has suggested it wants the laws passed “but wants to ensure whatever is legislated will actually improve child safety”. Meanwhile, the Greens want the Albanese government to go further and have called for a national watchdog.
With Albanese and Ley preparing their attack lines and initial niceties for question time, The Australian Financial Review reports government leader in the House Tony Burke has been working on new standing orders.
The paper cites “sources close to the process” who say proposed changes include an MP expelled under Section 94a for disorderly behaviour being sin-binned for three hours instead of one, “in an attempt to lift standards”.
The AFR also reports Coalition members are worried the government will cut the number of questions it’s allowed to ask during proceedings as Labor’s dominance in the lower house (94 members compared to 43 for the Coalition) plays out. A government source is quoted as saying the “rules of mathematics” would be respected when it came to allocation of questions.
The Conversation has a handy reminder this week on the make-up of the 48th parliament and how different it will look to the last one.
NATIONALS’ SOAP OPERA CONTINUES
With all eyes on the main party leaders, The Australian leads this morning on the Liberals’ coalition partner, the Nationals, and their endless soap opera.
To quote the opening line in full, the broadsheet declares: “Michael McCormack will vote for Barnaby Joyce’s private member’s bill to repeal net zero and is refusing to rule out a future tilt at the Nationals leadership, as the two former deputy prime ministers deliver a scathing assessment of David Littleproud’s handling of the aftermath of the May election defeat.”
Another calm day on the opposition side of the chamber then. The report goes on to say Joyce admitted he had canvassed support for McCormack to contest the party leadership after the election and that he would vote for his former rival if he ran in the future.
“Was I making calls on Michael’s behalf? Yes, I was. If someone said ‘would you back Michael for leader? Yeah, I would. But am I going to move to create a change? No, I’m not,” Joyce said.
McCormack, when asked what he thought of Littleproud’s leadership of the Nationals, wheeled out Scott Morrison’s infamous line the day before he replaced Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister, declaring: “He’s the leader and I’m ambitious for him”.
Meanwhile, Guardian Australia highlights Greens leader Larissa Waters has told the ABC’s 7.30 program she has not read documentation outlining why the party’s co-founder Drew Hutton was expelled as she has been busy preparing for the return of parliament.
The Nine papers this morning also reference Joyce’s planned private member’s bill calling for net zero to be scrapped in a piece which flags “a new coalition of mostly left-leaning companies” have called for a 75% cut to Australia’s emissions, as the government’s climate adviser prepares to say what they think the 2035 target should be.
The papers had earlier led on the speeches given in parliament last night by new Labor MPs Ali France and Sarah Witty, who beat former Coalition leader Peter Dutton and former Greens leader Adam Bandt respectively.
France spoke emotionally about her journey to parliament and the death of her 19-year-old son Henry last year after an 18-month battle with leukemia.
“It took seven years to climb, as a single mum, with one leg, battling one of the most prolific politicians of our time. [Henry’s] words, his courage, were with me every day of the campaign. Henry was instrumental in getting me to this place,” she said. “He was convinced I would win and said a number of times, ‘don’t make me the excuse for you not doing important things’.”
France also spoke of losing her leg in a car accident in 2011 and the surgeries and severe post-traumatic stress disorder she suffered.
“My journey to this place is not a sad story, nor is it a happy one, it is a human story. Most of the people I represent in the electorate of Dickson share a life of ups, downs, success, hardship, loss and happiness,” she said.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Nick Cave fans have rushed to a bookshop in Hove, England, after the musician donated 2,000 of his own books to the charity shop.
Maggie Rea, Oxfam bookshop’s deputy manager, told the BBC the reaction to the donation had been “absolutely mad”.
“We’ve been rushed off our feet, the actual Nick Cave phenomenon has landed in Hove. There have been slight annotations to books — we’ve found plane tickets, post cards and all sorts — I think being able to have something like that that Nick owned is also very special to people.”
The Times reports the donation from Cave, who lived in Brighton for more than a decade, includes books “by Salman Rushdie to Ian McEwan, from a first edition of Johnny Cash’s novel Man In White to a recipe book about aphrodisiacs”.
The Guardian quotes a spokesperson for the musician as saying he would not comment on the donation but “he thinks the discoveries will remain intriguing mysteries for those who find them”.
Say What?
They believed that lowering the cash rate a third time within the space of four meetings would be unlikely to be consistent with the strategy of easing monetary policy in a cautious and gradual manner to achieve the board’s inflation and full-employment objectives.
Reserve Bank of Australia
The minutes from the last monetary policy board meeting revealed the reasons given by those who voted for interest rates to stay the same at the start of this month.
CRIKEY RECAP
Netanyahu knows the West has nothing but words. Without sanctions, his genocide will continue
It is exactly this insistence that Israel is on its last chance before Western countries really decide to take “further action” that empowers and enables Netanyahu and his government to continue to pursue genocide in Gaza and back ethnic cleansing by settlers in the West Bank. Indeed, Western countries like Australia still refuse to use accurate terms like genocide and ethnic cleansing in their language towards Israel: in today’s statement, we get slightly tougher euphemisms of “the inhumane killing of civilians” and “steps towards territorial or demographic change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories” which would be a “flagrant breach of international law”.
Not all Western leaders are so reluctant to call Netanyahu’s actions what they are. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described Israel’s actions as “genocide” on June 26. The refusal of Anthony Albanese and Wong to do the same — with or without the protective shield of a joint statement with other countries — reflects not just a double standard toward Palestinians and moral emptiness, but an oddly un-Australian, and embarrassing, reluctance to state the obvious. So much for Australians being the ones who’ll bluntly call a spade a shovel.
For parents, the teen social media ban doesn’t have to be perfect to be worthwhile
While the policy has faced fierce opposition over concerns about its effectiveness and implementation, the teen social media ban has overwhelming public support. Some parents have begun preparing themselves for a world where teens are supposed to have restricted use of apps and platforms that many of them spend hours on each week.
Crikey has spoken to several people across the government who are concerned about the limited public understanding of the policy, including fears that parents might be disappointed by any circumvention of the ban. (A survey found that almost every adult who supported the ban also had no idea how it would be enforced).
Crikey asked a handful of parents, some involved in advocating for the ban and some completely unaffiliated, what they think will happen after the ban kicks in, and how they think it will change the lives of young Australians.
Rewriting civil rights, entertainment journos at war, and the Daily Mail’s wishful thinking
A decision handed down by the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) last Friday is interesting on a few levels. It concerned a series of applications brought by historian Dr Jozef Straczek, who was attempting to access Commonwealth files held by the National Archives of Australia. The government argued, successfully, that certain portions of the documents — which concerned Australia’s intelligence agencies — be withheld, owing in part to “national security” concerns.
This is despite the fact that, as high-ranking Australian Signals Directorate official Mark Brown conceded, “most of ASD’s files contain information from approximately 70-80 years ago”.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Global outcry grows over Israel’s killing of starving civilians in Gaza (The Guardian)
Ozzy Osbourne dies just weeks after farewell show (Sky News)
NSW Liberals will continue to work with MP Mark Latham on sexual harassment amendments (ABC)
Mike Johnson shuts US House early to avoid Epstein vote (The Financial Times)
‘Go f**k yourself’: Colbert responds to Trump post (AXIOS)
‘Noticeably fickle’: Trump’s new submarine chief a critic of Australia (The Sydney Morning Herald)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Australia condemns Israel’s ‘indefensible’ actions in Gaza as calls for sanctions grow louder — Laura Tingle (ABC): But humanitarian groups, including those representing Palestinians, want Australia to do more. They say that, beyond calling on Israel to adhere to international human law, Australia should end all military cooperation and assistance, demand immediate and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and impose a comprehensive ban on all trade and economic activity in illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
They say Australia should call on the UN Security Council to impose multilateral targeted sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
There may be deep scepticism about whether the Netanyahu government, which has escalated its attacks on Gaza in the past 24 hours, pays any attention to these demands.
Government all at sea on toxic algal bloom — The Herald’s View (The Sydney Morning Herald): The Albanese government’s refusal to declare South Australia’s algal bloom a natural disaster is a curious echo of Scott Morrison’s feeble excuse that he did not hold the hose during the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20, a comment that both captured federal inaction in the face of catastrophe and helped torch his career.
Four months ago, an algal bloom primarily caused by the microalgae Karenia mikimotoi was spotted in the waters off the Fleurieu Peninsula south of Adelaide, and has spread west to the Yorke Peninsula and east into the environmentally sensitive Coorong and across the mouth of the Murray River. Thousands of kilometres of South Australian beaches have been littered with dead sharks, rays, fish, dolphins and seals. Tourism has been devastated and the fishing industry is reeling. There are concerns, too, that prevailing currents could carry the bloom into Victorian or West Australian waters.
