Australia news live: Labor and Coalition condemn One Nation plan to divert super to boost pay; Butler not thinking about party leadership | Australian politics
Butler says One Nation’s super plan is ‘terrible’
Butler says One Nation’s superannuation plan – for a portion of employer’s mandatory super contribution to be redirected to pay packets – is “absolutely terrible”:
Occupational superannuation is one of the great reforms of our country over the last few decades.
It will provide security in retirement to millions and millions of Australians who otherwise would not have it.
Key events
One Nation super plan ‘no more than a headline’
Deputy opposition leader Jane Hume has some questions about One Nation’s proposal to divert superannuation contributions into people’s pockets. On ABC News Breakfast, she said:
Well, this so far is nothing more than a headline. It hasn’t really been explained.
Does the tax status of your superannuation, your discounted tax status, does that remain? Do you get a tax discount for paying your rent? How does it affect your concessional caps? How does it affect your bring–forward provisions, carry–back provisions?
How does it affect your superannuation balance at the end of the day? Are we turning our superannuation funds into banks? None of these questions have been answered.
Social media plans to give Australians ‘more choice’: Wells
Labor will reveal draft rules that will give Australians “more choice over what they see on their social media feeds, Anika Wells says.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, the communications minister said the government’s draft digital duty of care bill will propose significant penalties for social media giants:
We want them to observe the same basic safety standards, particularly for our children. If you walk down the toy aisle in Big W and you see plastic toys and electronic toys and iPads – you want all of those manufacturers to have abided by basic safety standards when selling something to our kids.
And that’s what big tech should have to do.
Read more:
Butler brushes off abortion moves
And finally, Butler declines to go into detail on Labor’s yet-to-be-released migration policy, and is then asked whether he’s concerned about various pushes to reduce abortion access.
He wants to “improve choice and control and access and affordability” for women’s health needs, he says:
These are debates largely happening at state level.
They’ve crept into the federal parliament once or twice over the last few years, not with any particularly good effect.
We’ve provided more support for women in their reproductive health, and we’ve got more to do in women’s health. I’m very proud of what we’ve done over the last few years.
Butler says he’s not thinking about party leadership
The health minister, Mark Butler, is canvassing a wide range of topics this morning on RN.
Asked about speculation that he is “Labor’s leader in waiting”, he says the media always runs these sorts of stories and that he doesn’t think anyone in Labor is entertaining the notion:
The only thing I think about in the morning when I’m getting ready for work … is what I can do to better support Australians in their health needs, or with disability, and with ageing. And that’s a big job. It’s a job I love.
Butler says One Nation’s super plan is ‘terrible’
Butler says One Nation’s superannuation plan – for a portion of employer’s mandatory super contribution to be redirected to pay packets – is “absolutely terrible”:
Occupational superannuation is one of the great reforms of our country over the last few decades.
It will provide security in retirement to millions and millions of Australians who otherwise would not have it.
Veterans’ anxiety understandable, Butler says
Veterans are protesting at Parliament House today, angry about a proposed cap on allied health treatments. Butler says he knows how important the services are, and understands their concern and anxiety but that there is a consultation process over that change and other proposed reforms:
These changes aren’t scheduled to take place until mid next year, and we want to make sure that the changes operate in the best interests of veterans.
Scale of illegal cigarette market changes dynamics of pricing, Butler says
Butler is asked about the ongoing barney over tobacco – the opposition and One Nation are proposing big drops in excise rates to make legal cigarettes more affordable. He says the price of cigarettes is a proven disincentive to smoking but that the scale of the illegal market has “changed the dynamics of that”:
There’s there’s no question we have a very serious challenge on our hands as a country with the scale of the illegal market.
Every country has illegal cigarettes. The scale of the illegal market here has exploded over the last three or four years, and that’s a huge law enforcement challenge for us.
‘Unremarkable’ to make big tech responsible: Butler
The health minister, Mark Butler, is up on ABC Radio National (RN). He dismisses the opposition’s claims that the government’s digital duty of care legislation amounts to censorship:
It’s pretty unremarkable, really, to expect that big companies have a duty of care not to harm Australian citizens, particularly, frankly, young Australians.
He likens it to the introduction of seatbelts in the 1970s, which people at the time saw as an infringement on civil liberties.
Further details on what constitutes harmful content will be announced this week, he says. Asked whether there’s a threat social media companies could withdraw their platforms, he says:
Well, they always make that threat, don’t they.
One Nation propose divert super payments to pay packet
One Nation has come up with a plan to give people their superannuation earlier, reducing the amount they’ll have at retirement in exchange for a current cash boost.
Pauline Hanson says under their plan anyone paying rent or a mortgage can take up to a quarter of their super as a “pay boost” for up to three years.
It would keep the same tax rate as it would have in super, she says, saying someone on $90,500 would get $44 a week.
Hanson has been targeting super for a while. The government points out that people can access their money for financial hardship or compassionate reasons, while experts say that super forces people to save and gives us a sustainable retirement system:
Anniversary of death of last known Tasmanian tiger
It’s National Threatened Species Day today. Many papers have run full-page ads from a range of conservation organisations noting that it is the anniversary of the death of the last Tasmanian tiger – the last known one, that is.
The environment minister, Murray Watt, says the government has protected 274 species and 16 ecological communities threatened with extinction and is dealing with multiple threats, including climate change, invasive species and diseases including bird flu. He said:
We remain committed to long-term environmental recovery, in partnership with state and local governments, conservation groups, wildlife experts and local communities.
We are making good progress towards our target of protecting 30% of Australia’s land, to preserve vital habitat for our precious species.
Independent to launch bill to regulate automated decision-making algorithms and tools
The independent member for Curtin, Kate Chaney, will put forward a bill to establish Australia’s first legislated mandatory framework for the use of automated decision-making in government this week.
The use of the controversial tool within the aged care sector has affected hundreds of applications for out-of-home care.
Almost a fifth of older Australians who contested their algorithm-determined Support at Home funding allocation had a higher level of support or higher priority allocated once a human reviewed the decision.
Chaney said there was no transparency in government about how widely used automated decision-making tools are. She told ABC Radio National:
It’s not clear if there’s a human who can actually apply a common-sense overlay to these decisions. And it’s not clear how you can review these if they’re made by a computer.
So the bill that I’m introducing today would actually create a mandatory framework that applies whenever government is using an automated system to make a decision that affects people’s significant rights and would require those three things to be addressed: transparency, human oversight, and review.
Good morning from Tory
Tory Shepherd
Good morning, all – Tory Shepherd here for today’s blog.
Parliament is, of course, sitting. Much of the focus will be on the government’s crackdown on social media.
They’re planning to beef up the eSafety commissioner’s powers and to release draft legislation for a digital duty of care, which will force big tech to stop harmful content and to allow users to opt out of algorithms.
There’ll be more to come, but you can read Tom McIlroy’s piece here.
In an opinion piece, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, argues the existing ban on social media for under-16s is working (not everyone is convinced of that), and says they will strengthen it.
He says the digital duty of care legislation will “put the onus on services providers to take reasonable steps to create a safe online environment for all Australians” and give people control over algorithms:
They are driving users – often young people – down rabbit holes of harmful content.
We also know harmful algorithms can be devastating for young people and body-image issues.
For young men, those paths far too often lead to misogynistic voices detached from the values and expectations of our societies.
Labor calls on Coalition and the Greens to support social media fines
Tom McIlroy
The communications minister, Anika Wells, has challenged the Coalition and the Greens to pass legislation strengthening powers for the eSafety Commissioner related to the social media ban for under 16s.
Labor will try to secure passage of the legislation in parliament this week. It would toughen information-gathering powers to investigate non-compliance by social media platforms related to the ban, and double the maximum penalty for breaches to nearly $110m.
A Senate committee recommended the bill be passed in August. Wells said:
It’s been more than two months since the Albanese government introduced an urgent law to strengthen eSafety’s powers to enforce the social media minimum age law.
Australian kids and parents needed these laws eight weeks ago, but the Coalition and Greens teamed up to send our four-page bill to an eight-week inquiry.
This is the kind of dawdling and delay that has enabled social media companies to get away with harming our kids for so long.
More Australians head to Nepal to help
Two more Australians will join humanitarian and rescue efforts in the devastating Nepal-Tibet floods.
Two social workers have joined a total of 49 Australian personnel assisting in the disaster.
Monday has been declared a National Day of Mourning in Nepal, with the death toll reaching nearly 1,400.
Some 36 Australians are among the nearly 5,000 people who remain unaccounted for.
Bipartisan ‘Dads Caucus’ to launch in Canberra
Tom McIlroy
A cross-party group of dad MPs in federal parliament will champion new data showing the importance of fathers spending quality time with their kids, as they push for new progress on parental leave.
A new “Dads Caucus” will launch on Monday in Canberra, including Labor’s special envoy for men’s health, Dan Repacholi, the assistant minister for immigration, Matt Thistlethwaite, and MPs including Josh Burns, Jerome Laxale, Peter Khalil and the Liberal shadow minister Aaron Violi.
Supported by Movember, the launch event will include appearances by Wiggle Lachlan Gillespie, Jebediah frontman Kevin Mitchell, Joel Phillips (the film-maker father of the Eastern Rosellas song’s young composer) and author and Movember ambassador Zach Perez.
Movember’s More Time With Dad Report shows 70% of fathers who take parental leave said it was good for their mental health, 83% said it helped them bond with their child, and 78% said it was beneficial for their relationship with their partner.
But currently almost a third of fathers take no parental leave at all, and of those who did take leave, a majority (56%) said it wasn’t enough.
Movember wants to work with the Albanese government to establish a cross-departmental working group and to lead a review of the next phase of paid parental leave rules in Australia.
Labor under pressure to toughen lobbying rules
Tom McIlroy
A coalition of 75 charities, social service organisations and transparency campaigners have called on the federal government to introduce a national lobbying act, to better control efforts to influence decision-makers in Canberra.
Representing millions of members, the groups span advocates for the environment, human rights, regional communities, faith organisations and online campaigners. Together, they argue the federal lobbying register and controls from the attorney-general’s department and Parliament House are badly insufficient for the public interest.
Australian Democracy Network’s chief executive, Saffron Zomer, said the breadth of support showed that lobbying reform was no longer a specialist integrity issue.
“Organisations working on very different issues share the same experience: well-resourced interests have greater access to government, while much of that influence remains hidden from public view,” she said.
“If the same professional lobbying activity is taking place, the same rules should apply. We have a crisis of public trust in government, and we can’t rebuild this trust without transparency.”
Parents of Australian surfers killed in Mexico fly in for trial
The parents of Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson, who were killed in Mexico in 2024, will fly to Ensenada to attend the aggravated homicide trial of their accused killers.
The two surfers, aged 33 and 30, and their friend, Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, a US citizen, had been camping in a remote beachside area when they were killed in what investigators believe was an attempt to steal their vehicle.
Writing on Facebook, Debra and Martin Robinson said attending the trial felt “overwhelmingly difficult” but that “being in that courtroom is one of the last things we can do for Callum and Jake”.
We are going because we need to be there, not only for ourselves, but to represent the immense love, heartbreak and unimaginable loss felt by their families, friends and everyone who loved these three extraordinary young men.
We want to hear the truth. We want to understand what happened. And most importantly, we want to be their voices, because they can no longer speak for themselves.
In 2025, a Mexican court sentenced a woman to 20 years in prison for her involvement in the incident.
Good morning
Welcome to Monday’s live coverage. Tory Shepherd will be with you shortly for the day’s news.
Let’s begin.
