Australia politics live: Coalition says it has no intention of ‘changing ownership’ of NBN; Labor to introduce school funding reforms
Coalition says it has no intention of ‘changing the ownership structure of the NBN’
The opposition communications spokesperson, David Coleman, is speaking to ABC radio RN, criticising the government’s legislation designed to keep the NBN in public hands.
He is having trouble saying whether the opposition will support the bill, or whether a future Coalition government would want to sell the NBN.
Coleman:
We’re not going to just sort of immediately jump at some silly theatrical statement from the government. The adults in the room will review this in a normal way.
Pressed on whether the Coalition wants to sell the NBN, Coleman says:
We’ve got no intention of changing the ownership structure of the NBN. Nobody does. And frankly, because the NBN is going so badly, there’s not exactly a lineup of people [wanting to buy it].
Key events
Amy Remeikis
James Paterson continues attack lines over Palestinian visa holder
Liberal senator James Paterson has held another doorstop on the back of a Sky News interview (is it even a sitting week if James Paterson isn’t on Sky News at least three times) where he tried to relitigate his issues from yesterday.
The hook for today was Tony Burke did not answer questions yesterday. Unfortunately, we sat through question time and Burke answered five versions of the same question Paterson is raising today.
There were no questions for Paterson at the end of the spiel. Almost like … people already knew the answers?
Greens commit to independent commission on poverty
Cait Kelly
The Greens have announced an election commitment to establish an independent commission that would define and eliminate poverty in Australia.
Australia currently has no set definition for poverty, but the 2023 report from the Australia Council for Social Services shows it is increasing, with one in eight adults and one in six children living below the breadline.
The Greens’ spokesperson on social services, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:
Under Labor, there are more than three million Australians living in poverty, including one in six children. Many of those people are either unable to access income support, or are relying on payments that are among the lowest in the OECD.
Despite being one of the wealthiest countries on earth, successive Labor and Coalition governments have made policy choices that deliberately keep people in poverty, including refusing to raise jobseeker and youth allowance above the poverty line.
The Poverty and Inequality Commission (PIC) would replace the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee (EIAC). The government has ignored calls from the EIAC to increase support payments.
The commission would have the power to examine the level of poverty in Australia; review the adequacy of social security payments; and develop a national definition of poverty.
The government would be required to publicly respond to the commission’s reports and recommendations, and parliament would be able to scrutinise appointments to the commission via a joint parliamentary committee.
The PIC would have up to 12 paid commissioners and a paid president, including members with direct contemporary lived experience of poverty, with a structure comparable to the productivity commission.
The PIC would begin operating on July 1, 2026, and has been costed by the PBO at $99.5m in its first two years.
Butler says subsidised mental health sessions designed primarily for mild-to-moderate needs
One of the criticisms of how mental health is treated in Australia is that for many people, adequate care is too expensive.
Mark Butler is asked about the mental health plan, which gives people access to 10 subsidised sessions of psychological care – but for a lot of people, it’s not enough. There have been numerous calls from experts to have the cap lifted. Butler says:
That number of 10 sessions has been in place for most of the last 20 years, except for a short period during Covid, where it was increased to deal with the impact of Covid.
The reason for that really is that that particular scheme your guest was talking about was focused and designed for people with more mild-to-moderate needs that usually would be able to be resolved or assisted with four to six sessions of psychological therapy, by and large.
What we’ve seen that the sort of client that your guest talks about, maybe with more complex and severe issues like bipolar disorder, [they] were never really intended to be the client group of that scheme. [Those issues are] supposed to be dealt with [with] … more focused support.
We’re rolling out new Medicare mental health centres for people with those more moderate-to-severe needs and also recognising that there really isn’t the stepped model of care that we need in mental health.
Because, frankly, people have a very broad range of mental health needs, from relatively short-term, mild-to-moderate needs because of the impact of a life crisis like a divorce or a bereavement to quite complex and severe needs if they’ve got lifelong disorders like psychosis or bipolar disorder.
At the moment, we don’t really have those different steps to ensure that people are getting the right care for their particular needs, and that’s something we’ve been working with the mental health sector on for the last 12 months.
Butler: mental health is not merely a ‘temporary’ or ‘short-term’ crisis
Does the health minister, Mark Butler, believe there is a mental health “crisis” in Australia? It’s world mental health day, hence the renewed focus.
He tells ABC radio Sydney:
Yes, the challenge with the word crisis is it makes it seem like it’s a relatively short-term thing – it’s only recently arrived, and hopefully, if we respond, it will be over quickly. But we’ve seen a steady and pretty substantial rise in mental distress now for 20 years, particularly among young people, but among adults as well.
Yes, we have a huge burden on our community from mental health but it’s not a temporary thing, it’s not short-term. It’s been a feature of our society, societies across the world for many, many years, and frankly, we haven’t done well enough to respond to it.
Chalmers speaks on potential commodities price spike from Middle East tensions
Asked whether the “tensions in the Middle East” are good for the budget – “as we saw in the commodity price spike in the early days of the Ukraine-Russia war” – Jim Chalmers says:
I don’t see it that way. And I think don’t think about it in those terms. You know, I think what is happening in the Middle East is a disaster, and that’s because we are humans first, and too many innocent lives have been lost and are being lost in a dangerous part of the world.
So that’s our primary focus. We’re focused on getting Australians out.
But there are economic consequences as well. … The last 15 years has been marked by periods of really substantial global economic uncertainty, and right now weakness in the Chinese economy, combined with the economic consequences of an escalation in the Middle East, this is creating some substantial concern and volatility in the global economy, and that’s why we don’t see it in the terms that you’ve put to us.
The iron ore price, some of our bulk commodity prices have come up a bit. That has largely been a reaction to the statements made by the Chinese authorities when I was in Beijing.
And so we’ve seen the iron ore price come up considerably. But it’s very volatile. Those of you who watched the iron ore price even just this week … when there was an expectation [that] more Chinese support for growth wasn’t forthcoming. In one press conference, [we saw] a $5 fluctuation in a couple of days in the iron ore price.
And so I think that just all gives us a sense whether it’s global oil, iron ore, coal, other important exports. [It] gives you a sense of how jumpy people are in the global economy. And I think in lots of ways, that’s not unwarranted.
Chalmers on oil prices
In his press conference explaining the merger law reforms he is about to introduce, Jim Chalmers also asked about the spike in oil prices and what that will mean for consumers.
Our Paul Karp asked whether consumers would be gouged and Chalmers said:
Obviously, we are concerned in at a time when the global oil price is increasing.
We don’t want to see the service stations take Australian motorists for mugs, and we want to make sure that the global price is appropriately reflected in the price that people pay at the bowser.
People are under enough pressure already. We don’t want to see the service stations do the wrong thing by people.
The petrol price has been much lower in the last little while than at most times of the last couple of years … We have seen the global oil price come down considerably over the course of the last year, but spike in the last week and a half for obvious reasons, and we want to make sure that people are treated in the right way when they fill up their car.
Minns: NSW is looking for ‘extra help’ on public education funding and ‘we can’t settle for anything less’
The Senate will be looking at Jason Clare’s education funding bill but it is not guaranteed to pass, with key crossbenchers unhappy with the government’s offer. As are the states, as Caitlin Cassidy outlined here:
Chris Minns is one of the premiers holding out. He told the ABC a little earlier:
It’s a standoff. Ultimately, the federal government has deeper pockets. We’ve got real needs when it comes to public education in the state.
We currently fund most of public education in New South Wales. We need a bit of extra help from the commonwealth government and when you consider most kids in the state are educated in the public system, we can’t settle for anything less.
So I’m sorry, I know they’re the same political persuasion as us, the same political party, but my obligation is to New South Wales and that’s particularly so for the next generation going through our public education system.
Buckle in for parliament’s last session this month
The last parliament session for this month will start in about 30 minutes.
The lovely people at About the House have you covered for what is going on in the house:
Albanese speaks on sideline meeting with Chinese premier at Asean
Anthony Albanese arrived in Laos late last night for the Asean summit and, as is tradition with these sorts of trips, held a mock doorstop interview where he spoke about how happy he was to be in (insert international summit host city here).
He was also asked what his message would be to China, given he will hold a sideline’s meeting with the Chinese premier, Li Qiang. There are official meetings at these summits – but then there are the unofficial-but-still-official sideline chats, which are set up in advance but are shorter and less structured than the official-official meetings.
Albanese:
My message will be a consistent one, which is that we’ll cooperate where we can, we’ll disagree where we must, and we’ll have some direct discussions about some of the disagreements that are there, but also that it is in our interest to communicate with China, which is our largest trading partner.
The (draft) parliamentary schedule for 2025
Amy Remeikis
The draft sitting calendar for 2025 has kindly been passed on by a blog watcher. It’s subject to change because of the little thing known as a federal election, of course, but at this point the parliament is due to sit from 4 February for two weeks.
The budget sittings are set down for 25 March to 27 March.
Then there is the break, with parliament resuming from 6 May and continuing until 26 June.
The next grouping of sittings are set down between 5 August and 27 November.
But all of this is moot – because the election is to be held before May. At this stage, that looks like happening in April/early May, but don’t rule out March either.
Paul Karp
Dreyfus details bill implementing two robodebt royal commission recommendations
The Albanese government is introducing a bill to implement two recommendations of the robodebt royal commission:
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Imposing a statutory duty on agency heads and the public service to assist the ombudsman; and
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Establishing a new offence for withholding reasonable assistance from the ombudsman so they can get records
The bill also enhances the ombudsman’s ability to undertake full, independent and transparent investigations, including modernising information-gathering powers to enable remote access to agency records. The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said:
Legislation introduced today will help protect Australia against any repeat of the former Liberal government’s illegal and immoral robodebt scheme by ensuring commonwealth agencies are subject to stronger and more rigorous scrutiny …
The royal commission found that some officials and agencies engaged in behaviour designed to mislead the ombudsman and impede their investigation into the robodebt scheme.
The bill will ensure this can never happen again.
Payman: no concerns over anti-Islam group also known as Australia’s Voice
The former Labor senator Fatima Payman announced her own political party, Australia’s Voice, yesterday.
She spoke to ABC News Breakfast this morning about the announcement and was asked whether she had concerns about her new party name being similar to an anti-Islam group known as Australian’s Voice, Payman said:
That doesn’t concern me. We have nothing do with that party. We don’t even know if it’s still active. So when I heard about these rumours yesterday, it was no concern for me because Australia’s Voice is a voice for every Australian out there who is disenfranchised, who is sick and tired of the duopoly that the major parties -–like Coles and Woolies – have had over our political system and our democracy for way too long and we need minor parties and independents to keep them honest and accountable.
