‘If you show contempt for the Senate, contempt is returned’: Paterson
The Coalition says the government’s “cruel” cuts to private health insurance rebates for over-65s will fail again unless “the Greens buckle”.
Frontbencher James Paterson tells News24 “good luck” to Mark Butler if he wants to try introducing that legislation again with no changes.
The Greens want pensioners carved out of the changes – which would significantly diminish the budget savings from the policy.
Well good luck with that, Mark Butler. In my experience, if you show contempt for the Senate, that contempt is returned, and so it should be in this case, because this is a particularly cruel cut, a cut of $3bn to older Australians who are taking out private health insurance, and in doing so, taking pressure off the public system.
We are not for moving.
The extra rebate for over-65s is a Howard-era policy, which the government says was implemented when the budget was in a cushier position and had plenty of extra cash.
Key events
Wells introduces digital duty of care bill to House
Anika Wells has introduced her bill to force tech companies to prevent harmful and illegal content from appearing on their platforms in Australia.
She’ll continue trying to sell the legislation to the public when she appears at the National Press Club later today.
The Coalition are dead against the bill, while the Greens want bigger fines and the ability for Australians to sue the platforms directly.
It means the legislation can go through the House as soon as the government wants, but it needs the Greens on side to get it through the Senate.
Wells tells the House:
The core of the digital duty of care bill is to provide a safe online environment where all Australians are protected from seriously harmful and illegal conduct. It moves the safety net upstream to the people who design the product to stop the harm before it ever reaches an Australian.
She also pushes back on claims from the Coalition that the government is using the bill to censor individuals.
It is not about controlling adults online; it is about getting illegal and seriously harmful material offline, and giving adults choice.
One Nation a ‘risk’ to abortion access, says Plibersek
The social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, has backed in the Victorian health minister’s claims that One Nation pose a risk to abortion access, as the state party promises free abortion care if re-elected.
Plibersek tells News24 there are still significant cost barriers nationally to accessing care around the country – particularly in regional areas.
Asked about criticisms that the Victorian policy will make abortion access easier, and claims more women will access abortion unnecessarily, Plibersek hits back:
One Nation’s made it clear that they support winding back access to safe and medically available abortion … When I was the health minister, we managed to make medical termination more easily available, that dealt with part of the problem for women in regional communities, but certainly, there’s still real restrictions on the cost of getting a surgical termination in many parts of Australia.
Abortion is not easy, and I don’t think that anyone who has had an abortion would say that it was easy. I think the only people who think it’s easy are people who’ve never had to make that difficult decision, and guess what, a lot of them are blokes who never will have to.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian Labor promises free abortion care if re-elected
Victorian Labor has today announced it will make Victoria the first state to offer free abortion care if re-elected in November.
Currently, women in Victoria can obtain a termination during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, and later if they obtain the agreement of two doctors. But more than two-thirds of Victorian women pay out-of-pocket costs in the private system to access an abortion.
One provider, MSI Australia, says cost is a big barrier to abortion access in Victoria and falls hardest on the women least able to carry it. Its chief executive, Adurty Rao, called on every party to match the commitment:
Every week, women ring us and ask if they can book in after their next pay. While they wait, the weeks go by, and care that could have been simple gets harder. This commitment means no woman in Victoria should have to wait to get the urgent care she needs.
Danielle Mazza, a GP and the head of Monash University’s Department of General Practice and the Sphere Centre for Research Excellence in women’s sexual and reproductive health, said only the ACT had a similar policy:
I applaud this policy announcement, and if it’s implemented, it will make Victoria the leading state in abortion access and reproductive rights.
Victorian health minister, Ingrid Stitt, is speaking to the media now:
These are really important changes. They mean that women will no longer have to worry about the cost of accessing abortion in Victoria. And we’re very serious about women having the right to choose, and this takes away a major barrier.
Greens not supporting unchanged private health insurance bill
The Greens leader, David Shoebridge, says his party has made its position known from the get go, that they support changes to reduce private health insurance rebates for some over-65s, but not pensioners.
Yesterday the Greens, Coalition and crossbench threw out the government’s legislation in the Senate, but the health minister, Mark Butler, promised to bring it back – unchanged.
There’s about $3bn in budget savings on the line, which it has promised to spend on aged care beds.
Shoebridge tells News24 no one’s budging for the government without some pretty big carve-outs for pensioners.
We’ve been saying to the government very clearly, there is a pathway through on this legislation, but we insist on not taking about $1bn from 1.2 million pensioners in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. You carve them out, protect the pensioners, and we will pass this legislation in a heartbeat. It particularly frustrates us when the government refuses to do things like tax, export, gas, and instead is looking for its budget savings from pensioners.
I don’t know what Senate he’s looking at. It’s the same Senate as there was yesterday.
‘If you show contempt for the Senate, contempt is returned’: Paterson
The Coalition says the government’s “cruel” cuts to private health insurance rebates for over-65s will fail again unless “the Greens buckle”.
Frontbencher James Paterson tells News24 “good luck” to Mark Butler if he wants to try introducing that legislation again with no changes.
The Greens want pensioners carved out of the changes – which would significantly diminish the budget savings from the policy.
Well good luck with that, Mark Butler. In my experience, if you show contempt for the Senate, that contempt is returned, and so it should be in this case, because this is a particularly cruel cut, a cut of $3bn to older Australians who are taking out private health insurance, and in doing so, taking pressure off the public system.
We are not for moving.
The extra rebate for over-65s is a Howard-era policy, which the government says was implemented when the budget was in a cushier position and had plenty of extra cash.
Lambie ‘not surprised’ by video recording device found on naval vessel, and calls for independent investigation body
Independent senator and veteran Jacqui Lambie says Defence has not been able to clean up the culture inside its forces, after she yesterday alleged in parliament that a camera had been found concealed in a women’s shower on a naval vessel.
The defence department then confirmed a “video recording device” was found in the cabin of a Royal Australian Navy ship in Cairns.
Lambie is speaking to ABC News Breakfast this morning, and says there should be an independent body investigating all allegations in the defence force.
I should tell you that I’m surprised, but I’m not which is really unfortunate. It does bother me a lot, though, with what’s going on … since that occurred yesterday we have also had more people come forward, which we are obviously having dialogue with this morning, with other incidents that have occurred over the last six to eight months over very similar situations. So it’s extremely very worrying out there.
This is a culture that defence force hasn’t been able to clean up and it hasn’t come close … The only other way to fix this problem is to take the legal system outside of Defence’s hands … so people – especially those who have been abused – feel confident that their matter is not going to be thrown under the carpet and the perpetrator is going to be held to account.
‘Don’t carry on like a two-year-old’: Lambie blasts Butler over private health insurance rebate bill
Don’t cross Jacqui Lambie when she’s not happy.
The independent senator, who with the Coalition and other members of the crossbench voted down the government’s bill to reduce rebates for over-65s with private health insurance, has lambasted the health minister for vowing to bring it back without any changes.
She says half of the revenue raised will come from pensioners which makes her “sick to the gut”.
Enough is enough, she tells ABC News Breakfast: go find the money elsewhere:
First of all, don’t carry on like a two-year-old. If you think that you’re going to bring the same bill up here and you haven’t changed it, mate, then probably you’re going to get another slap around the face today. How about you be smart, be a smart government. Go away. We have another two weeks of sittings and come up with another plan of attack.
We’ve known for years how much aged care is going to cost every year and this is the best way you can find savings? By taking it off those aged pensioners who have paid tax all their lives? … I think it’s really, really unfair. You can go after the multinationals, go and do something about your gas tax. Do something!
‘It’s got hairs on it’: Coalition interested but wants changes to gas reservation scheme
Nationals senator and shadow resources minister, Susan McDonald, is now in the RN Breakfast hot seat and says the Coalition wants more investment in gas, not less, among other changes to support the reservation scheme.
She says the opposition supports legislation in the national interest, but this bill still has “hairs on it”.
McDonald also says she wants to see some modelling from the government to answer exactly how much they reckon prices will go down and when.
If we start seeing prices reduced to a point that it is no longer economic to explore and to develop new projects, then we could have this sugar hit of cheaper gas prices for a year or two, but then the worst consequence, which is that we then become solely reliant on big LNG exporters and we stop developing our own resources, particularly in the places that are domestic-only supply.
Still no confirmation of when and how much gas prices will drop
We still don’t have any clarity on when gas prices will begin to drop and by how much – only that there will be “downward pressure” on prices.
Yesterday, Madeleine King told the press club there would be a transitional year for the policy – ie don’t expect immediate price drops.
She’s asked again today to guarantee that prices will drop and provide a timeline, and we get another broad answer:
What I will guarantee is this will be an enduring regulatory framework, and we expect fully that it will put down the pressure on prices. And that’s what happens when you get more gas into the market. And that’s what we expect will happen.
‘This is a lot for early in the morning’: King explains gas reservation scheme
I feel ya Madeleine King, it’s 7:50am on a sitting week Thursday and my brain is FRIED.
Anyway, back to the interview, King is asked what the gas reservation scheme is and what over supply means.
She says that there will be “demand-calibrated” oversupply to help push down prices and make sure there’s enough gas for us in Australia.
But the complicating factor is some producers like Santos have to buy gas from other domestic gas producers to meet their exporting demands. So how are they supposed to reserve extra domestic gas and add to the total pool of domestic gas if they’re already buying other domestic gas to fulfil their existing export contracts? We don’t get a super-clear answer.
King tells RN Breakfast:
This oversupply will be demand-calibrated. So, this is a lot for early in the morning … The Australian energy market, AEMO, will do their normal studies through the gas statement of opportunities, which do very well thought out, well-researched forecasts that industry participates in. And that will then inform the demand calibration that the Australian Energy Regulator will set about in adjusting domestic supply obligations to each of the exporters.
We will be respecting existing export contracts because that’s a really important principle. So the ministerial discretion, and I know there’s a lot of discussion about that discretion, we will be able to moderate how those exporters are able to account for domestic gas. But everyone, every exporter will have to contribute to domestic supply in some fashion.
‘They want to blow the place up’: King accuses Coalition of hypocrisy over private health insurance rebates
The resources minister, Madeleine King, has defended the government’s proposed changes to reduce the private health insurance rebate for over-65s, saying it’s fair for the rebates to be tied to income, not age.
She tells RN Breakfast pensioners will still get a higher rebate than other over-65s with a higher income.
King accuses the Coalition of being hypocritical for calling on the government to reduce its spending and then block this cost-saving measure.
It’s a tricky time for the government – this is a key revenue-saving measure that’s come out of the budget. The other revenue-raising measure – a minimum 30% tax on trusts – is also facing an icy reception in the parliament, although it looks like the Greens are willing to sit at the negotiation table.
What we have seen last night is the Coalition and the Greens teaming up again to really be quite destructive of budget and budget savings, important principles that they, well, certainly the Coalition say they want to follow around responsible fiscal management, yet they want to blow the place up. In one moment, they want to save money, and the next moment they just want to keep spending money. So, we will be reintroducing this bill. It’s an important part of our budgetary process.
Josh Taylor
More powers required but AEC reluctant to take on truth in political advertising
The AEC chief also said the the organisation needs more powers to deal with the “contemporary information environment” around elections to be able to speed up takedowns of misinformation about the voting process.
Jeff Pope told the joint standing committee on AI on Wednesday night that one option for dealing with misinformation could be to label deepfakes online but a challenge will become the ubiquity of AI videos online. He said it was not far away:
I think if you’re labelling everything with AI, then I think probably the next election or not too long thereafter, every bit of [election content] could have an AI label on it, and you’ve got to wonder about the effectiveness of that.
Pope expressed reluctance that the AEC become the arbiter of truth over political advertising more broadly in the AI age.
We feel that that would put our impartiality at significant risk. Our impartiality is incredibly important. But in my opening comments about trust and confidence in the intellectual process and the elected process, and that flows through to the trust confidence in you in parliament and institution.
And I think there is a risk that the more we asked to regulate and to make judgment, then there is a risk that around that impartiality being challenged. And that is something that I would ask parliament to consider very deeply when it’s considering giving us further responsibilities or whether it sits with other agencies that don’t need to grapple with that very fine tuned impartiality.
It’s a similar stance to Pope’s predecessor, Tom Rogers, who also warned putting the AEC in charge of truth in political advertising laws could ruin the “neutrality” of the agency.
