Australia politics live: telcos face steeper outage fines; Hastie warns Liberals can’t keep living in the Howard era | Australia news
$30m fines for telcos that fail to connect customers to triple zero
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The fines for telcos that fail to connect customers to the triple zero connect will triple to $30m after Labor agreed to calls from the Greens and Coalition for higher penalties.
The larger fines were agreed on Monday during debate on the government’s legislation to establish a “custodian” to oversee the emergency network.
The Labor senator, Nita Green, who was steering the laws through the upper house on behalf of communications minister, Anika Wells, said:
We are not on the side of corporate criminals on this side of the chamber and we will certainly make sure that these penalties signify what the community standard and expectation is, but also from the government.
The Greens communications spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, who pushed to raise the penalty to $30m, said:
This should send a message to all the telcos that they are on notice. Failure to ensure that this most basic emergency service is available will result in bigger penalties.
Key events
Greens say the cost of not acting on climate change will be “far, far greater” than any cost associated with acting on it.
On the Today show this morning, senator Nick McKim says the government needs to stop approving new coal and gas mines (something his party has been saying for years).
Labor will introduce its Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) later this week, but it still needs to win over the support of the Greens or the Coalition.
But McKim does acknowledge that you can’t do things “at any cost”.
The costs of not acting on climate change are astronomical and they’re already being felt in our communities through things like floods and bushfires and they’re also being felt in household budgets through things like a massive spike in insurance premiums …
If they [Labor] don’t do things like protect forests and if they don’t do things like protect our climate, [the laws are] not going to be worth the paper they’re printed on.
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
There’s plenty going on this morning, and lots of pollies out in the corridors getting ready for their media interviews – so let’s get straight into it!
Hastie warns Liberals they are no longer living in the Howard era
More Coalition machinations now as Andrew Hastie has reportedly warned Liberals that “we are no longer living in the Howard era”, rejecting criticism of people speaking out against immigration and net zero policies.
As Coalition MPs prepare for a crucial meeting about climate policy in Canberra on Friday, the Nine newspapers reported that Hastie made the comments at a recent Liberal party meeting in Western Australia.
The Liberal MP reportedly said in a speech in Perth last week that most “so-called populist” voters just wanted government to protect their living standards but “their concerns around net zero are dismissed as climate denial, and their concerns around mass migration are dismissed as racist”.
He went on to argue that the Coalition needed to reposition itself because the “world has changed” from the days of centre-right governments and that the era of post-Cold War liberalism was dead.
Hastie reportedly said:
I want to make clear that we are no longer living in the same world of the Howard, Abbott, Turnbull or Morrison years. The world has changed.
The world is vastly different to 2005, but our party has unthinkingly hung on to most of the same beliefs and policies.
Yes, we can talk about tax and economic reform. They are good areas to focus on. But many people are crying out for a new political vision that places the Australian people at the centre of its orbit.
Private health insurance product ‘phoenixing’ must end, AMA says
Natasha May
The peak medical body says regulatory loopholes must be closed to put an end to private health insurance product ‘phoenixing’.
The government is currently considering outlawing the deceptive practice where insurers close an existing product offering before opening an almost identical one at a higher price outside the regulated premium round process.
In a submission on the proposed amendments to legislation to do so, the Australia Medical Association has supported changes that would force insurers to use only the annual premium round to seek approval for the pricing of new products, unless in exceptional circumstances.
AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen said private health insurers have enjoyed extraordinary profits for many years with few consequences for poor behaviour:
Private health insurance premiums have outpaced wages and inflation in recent years, all while insurers’ management expenses and profits continue to soar.
The widespread practice of phoenixing is a major factor in consumers struggling to access the level of cover that meets their needs, and it is eroding public confidence in the private health system.
Private hospitals play a vital role, especially as more Australians seek care outside the overwhelmed public sector. But unacceptable conduct from insurers threatens the integrity of our entire healthcare landscape.
Tens of thousands of students to sit VCE English exam
Caitlin Cassidy
More than 50,000 students will sit a VCE examination today as the English and English as an Additional Language papers are held across Victorian testing centres.
In total, around 92,000 students will complete at least one VCE exam this year, and around 67,000 are expected to graduate with a VCE certificate. English has the most enrolments of any subject, with around 47,000 students sitting the written exam, while just over 3,000 are sitting English as an Additional Language.
Students as far flung as Latvia, Qatar, South Korea and Spain will also be getting involved, as around 700 international students sit written exams overseas.
The final exam in Victoria takes place on 19 November, with students receiving results on 11 December.
The state’s deputy premier and minister for education, Ben Carroll, congratulated students on reaching their “important milestone”.
I wish you all the best for your VCE exams, and would like to acknowledge and thank the teachers, school staff and families who have supported you through to your very own Grand Final.
The state government will be hoping for calm this year after a rocky examination period in 2024 over a cheat sheet bungle, which led to the sacking of the entire board of Victoria’s curriculum authority. In 2022 and 2023, errors were also found in mathematics examinations.
Real-time outage register for mobile outages
Josh Taylor
The communications minister, Anika Wells, has told the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) she will formally direct the regulator to require telcos maintain a public register of network outages that is updated in real time, following the Optus triple zero outage in September.
The companies are already required to notify affected customers in real time about outage, but Wells said the public register, updated in real time, will provide greater transparency.
In an excerpt of the letter to Acma, provided to media, Wells said the direction was a response to the September outage, given triple zero is a critical public safety system that Australians need confidence in.
She said:
I will be issuing a direction to the Acma to amend the Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard 2024 (CCO Standard) to mandate that telecommunications providers maintain a public register of their network outages.
A public register of network outages will increase transparency and accountability around outages and related impacts on access to triple zero.
$30m fines for telcos that fail to connect customers to triple zero
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The fines for telcos that fail to connect customers to the triple zero connect will triple to $30m after Labor agreed to calls from the Greens and Coalition for higher penalties.
The larger fines were agreed on Monday during debate on the government’s legislation to establish a “custodian” to oversee the emergency network.
The Labor senator, Nita Green, who was steering the laws through the upper house on behalf of communications minister, Anika Wells, said:
We are not on the side of corporate criminals on this side of the chamber and we will certainly make sure that these penalties signify what the community standard and expectation is, but also from the government.
The Greens communications spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, who pushed to raise the penalty to $30m, said:
This should send a message to all the telcos that they are on notice. Failure to ensure that this most basic emergency service is available will result in bigger penalties.
McKenzie says Joyce situation ‘not unusual’ for Nationals amid net zero wrangling
The Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has said Barnaby Joyce’s walkout was “not an unusual situation” for the Nationals, as she has sought to downplay the influence of the Queensland MP on her party’s position on net zero.
Asked on the ABC’s 7.30 on Monday night if Joyce’s walkout risked destabilising the Nationals, McKenzie said he had not resigned from the party.
He is taking a break from the party room, like our current deputy leader Kevin Hogan did, like Darren Chester did … this is not unusual for this to be the case. And the facts remain that Barnaby, as deputy prime minister, minister and Senate leader, has made a significant contribution … I’m absolutely confident he’ll be considering all of that over coming months.
McKenzie rejected the suggestion that a potential decision by the Nationals to oppose net zero emissions would be “bowing to” Joyce’s demands on the issue.
Asked if net zero threatened to rupture the Coalition, McKenzie said it was “not our job to ensure that the Liberal party can win seats in capital cities”, but she hoped it would not.
Well, obviously I hope not … But at the end of the day, we’ve got a job to do here in Canberra, we’re going to continue to do that. People expect us to do that. And we haven’t made a decision yet. But we’re not going to take a backwards step in standing up for our people and our community.
Joyce says he will make a decision on his future in the new year
Barnaby Joyce has told the Nine newspapers that he will consider his political future over the summer before making a decision next year about whether or not to throw in his lot with One Nation.
Joyce had admitted that he has talked to Pauline Hanson about joining One Nation but that nothing was “locked in”, sparking frenzied speculation about his intentions.
But in comments reported last night, he said if he had “wanted to be completely disruptive, of course, I suppose I would have resigned and wandered off”.
“I have said my piece, and now I want to take time, as hard as it is for me to turn down the volume, between now and the end of the year,” he said.
“I’ll consider my options and I haven’t made up mind.”
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best overnight stories before Krishani Dhanji takes you through the day’s events in Canberra and beyond.
It’s going to be a busy week for Coalition watchers as MPs prepare for their crunch meeting about net zero on Friday. One casualty of the issue is Barnaby Joyce, who is reported today to have said he will decide his future over the summer, while another climate naysayer, Andrew Hastie, has warned Liberals they can “no longer live” in the Howard era. More coming up.
Meanwhile telcos that fail to connect customers to triple zero face bigger fines after Labor accepted a push by the Greens and Coalition for higher penalties. Telcos will also be required to maintain a public register of network outages that is updated in real time, after the Optus triple-zero outage in September. More shortly.
