Joyce says no one should watch US firing squad execution: ‘Roman amphitheatre stuff’
It seems like Barnaby Joyce and the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young have found themselves on a unity ticket over the live stream of a firing squad execution in the US.
Joyce told News24 a little earlier today that no one, particularly children, should watch that stream.
He says the death penalty in the US is “a discussion for the American people to have”.
This is Roman amphitheatre stuff. No, I don’t I don’t agree with that … we don’t have the death penalty in Australia, and I certainly don’t want any children, or anybody to be honest, to witness another human being, being shot by a firing squad.
Hanson-Young said earlier today that the stream should be banned in Australia and tech platforms punished if they show it.
Key events
Coalition pushes for who knew what and when on ATO credit card ban
Angie Bell is back, ditches the preamble and tries the more direct approach, asking the small business minister, Anne Aly: “When was the minister first informed of the credit–card ban, and by whom?”
Aly seems to avoid the question at first, saying that Labor understands what small businesses are going through with rising pries, but then gets to the point.
On the matter of the credit card surcharge or the ban to the credit card surcharge, it was a decision that was made by the RBA. I became aware of it – as did everyone else – when the RBA made that decision and made it public.
Coalition gets personal against small business minister
Liberal frontbencher Angie Bell asks the small business minister when and how she was first informed of the credit card ban for small businesses by the Australian Tax Office. She quotes a Labor MP from a story in Nine newspapers last week that the minister “knows nothing about small business”.
Small business minister, Anne Aly, spends the first half of her answer talking about her travels around Australia to talk to small businesses.
The Coalition isn’t happy with the answer – she’s not saying when she found out about the ban and who told her. Leader of the House, Tony Burke, says the quote from an unnamed MP is a “political sledge – effectively allows a much broader answer”. Milton Dick tells the opposition that they asked a political question so they’ll get a political answer but directs Aly to be relevant.
There’s some more back and forth, with some sledging across the despatch box, and Dick warns the House to show some respect and decorum.
Aly continues:
Anyone with even a cursory understanding of numbers will understand that the number of businesses opening, compared to the number of businesses that are closing, demonstrates …
She’s trying to say that the total number of small businesses has gone up but she runs out of time on the answer.
Coalition getting lessons from Liz Truss ‘of all people’, Albanese says
Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson is up next and puts forward a quote from an unnamed “aspiring backbencher” that no one in cabinet has any small business experience, asking the prime minister when he will scrap Labor’s credit card surcharge ban.
(The government was keen on the change, but it’s worth noting the decision itself came from the Reserve Bank).
Anthony Albanese says he gives Wilson some “points for courage” given Josh Frydenberg is out there openly campaigning for an increase to the GST.
[Frydenberg] most remarkably, actually saying that they spent too much and wasted money during the Covid crisis. If only Mr Frydenberg was in a position to have some influence during that time …! But perhaps the spending was the result of the other bloke who was also the treasurer, Scott Morrison.
The opposition tries to raise a point of order on relevance, but Milton Dick says the question was pretty “political”, ie you ask a broad question you get a broad answer.
Albanese then takes a dig at the Coalition and the members who attended the CPAC conference over the weekend:
At CPAC, they weren’t talking there about policies of small business, Mr Speaker … They weren’t talking about policies of big business. They were getting lessons, of all people, from the only person in the western world who makes Tony Abbott’s period as PM look long, which is Liz Truss, who lasted 45 days.
Question time starts on small business
The opposition has small business in its sights today, with Angus Taylor accusing Labor of “waging war” against the sector. He says they’ve been slugged with rising power bills, increased tax and the ban on credit card surcharging.
Anthony Albanese takes the question and runs through a list of pro-small business measures the government has taken.
He says there are 265,000 more small businesses than there were in 2022 when Labor came to office.
People talk about insolvencies – according to Asic data, insolvencies under this government, as a proportion of all companies, has averaged 0.32%. The rate under the Howard government was 0.5%. Average monthly new company registrations are higher under this government than any government on record.
Taylor shakes his head as Albanese says that.
Albanese and Taylor mark anniversary of 7 October attack
Before questions begin, Albanese and Taylor also mark the third anniversary of the 7 October attack in Israel.
Albanese says:
For so many, no day since has been easy. But anniversaries fall with their own terrible weight. And for many others, what compounds the pain is the approach of the first anniversary of the antisemitic terrorist attack at Bondi beach. These few years have been hard beyond measure, but Australia stands with the Jewish community here and across the world. We stand against antisemitism and racism in all its forms because it goes against who we are.
Taylor says:
The fight against antisemitism is a fight for the truth – a fight that continues on our soil too. And the fight for the truth is about acknowledging and combating all forms of antisemitism – especially Islamist extremism.
Albanese marks 25 years since start of Australia’s mission in Afghanistan
Anthony Albanese and Angus Taylor have marked the 25th anniversary of the beginning of Operation Slipper, when Australia joined the US’s war in Afghanistan.
There were more than 35,000 Australian men and women who served in Afghanistan.
Albanese and Taylor attended a commemoration of the anniversary at the Australian War Memorial on Sunday.
He tells the House:
We honour the families – those who have felt both the pride and weight that comes when a loved one puts on the uniform, and those who have lived with the grief that is the pain of love wrapped around an absence that can never be filled. As we look to Afghanistan, we are reminded again of what Australians in war have faced, and the difference they have made in humanity’s truest spirit. What Australians in Afghanistan embodied is something we must never lose.
Taylor pays tribute to the men and women who served and the families of the 47 Australians who died.
Many still bear the wounds of their service, seen and unseen. We owe them a debt that can never be repaid. That our nation will never forget, and we will always honour what they achieved.
Digital duty of care bill ‘a dog’s breakfast’, Liberal Sarah Henderson says
The Coalition is still calling for Labor’s digital duty of care bill to be scrapped completely, despite a concession from the government to remove ministerial discretionary powers.
The shadow communications minister is emphatic that the bill is still “a blank check for political censorship”. Labor says the legislation won’t have any impact on political discussion or criticism of the government.
Speaking to News24, Sarah Henderson says:
This is two years in the making, and the digital duty of care is a dog’s breakfast. It’s not just the ministerial powers, which, of course, the minister gave herself, in the exposure draft, unfettered powers to prohibit any category of online harm, but there’s dangerously vague definitions of online harm …
This is an attack on free speech … This doesn’t improve the bill whatsoever. The bill is fatally flawed and it must be scrapped.
The Greens are playing ball and are sitting at the negotiation table with the government but they want stronger powers to hold tech platforms to account, including the ability for an individual to sue a platform if they are harmed online. They also want fines to calculated as a share of global revenue.
Australian Robert Pether released from Iraq after five years in detention
Australian citizen Robert Pether has been released from Iraq after five years in detention.
The 51-year-old engineer travelled to Baghdad in April 2021 to assist in resolving a contractual dispute between his employer, CME Consulting, and the Central Bank of Iraq.
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, released a statement welcoming the release, and said she spoke with him shortly before his departure from Baghdad.
She said:
Mr Pether had been imprisoned in Iraq for more than four years and was later subject to travel restrictions that prevented him from leaving the country.
Today’s outcome follows many years of persistent advocacy by the Australian Government, including at the highest levels of government, and sustained consular assistance to Mr Pether and his family.
I thank the Australian officials whose tireless work helped achieve this outcome, as well as the Irish authorities for their close cooperation throughout this process. I wish Mr Pether and his family all the very best as they reunite.
Swifties take on Parliament House – in pics
OK, it’s not who you think, there are no fans of the global superstar flocking to parliament today, but rather the lesser known swifties (who I have dubbed so today) fighting for the government to decrease logging in Tasmania to protect the endangered swift parrot.
Conservationists and crossbenchers are trying to stop national environmental approval powers being handed to Tasmania.
They also want breeding and foraging habitat to be protected, and for the government to expand and formally recognise Swift Parrot Important Breeding Areas (SPIBAs) as “irreplaceable” critical habitat.
Greens want Australians to be able to sue tech platforms over online harm
The Greens have welcomed Labor’s announcement that it will take out ministerial discretion from the digital duty of care bill, but they want more powers to hold tech platforms to account.
Greens leader, David Shoebridge, who took the mantle at the end of last month, said he wants Australians to be able to sue tech platforms if they’re subject to serious harm.
He told ABC TV a little earlier:
One of the key things is making sure Australians, if they are subject to serious harm as a result of one of these platforms, that they actually have a remedy, they can sue them.
Having rights without remedies doesn’t really answer the call that we are hearing from across the country. You know, we can’t just rely upon inevitably not sufficiently funded bureaucracy to come and protect Australians. If we are going to have a national digital duty of care, it should come with rights and remedies for Australians across the country.
Joyce says no one should watch US firing squad execution: ‘Roman amphitheatre stuff’
It seems like Barnaby Joyce and the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young have found themselves on a unity ticket over the live stream of a firing squad execution in the US.
Joyce told News24 a little earlier today that no one, particularly children, should watch that stream.
He says the death penalty in the US is “a discussion for the American people to have”.
This is Roman amphitheatre stuff. No, I don’t I don’t agree with that … we don’t have the death penalty in Australia, and I certainly don’t want any children, or anybody to be honest, to witness another human being, being shot by a firing squad.
Hanson-Young said earlier today that the stream should be banned in Australia and tech platforms punished if they show it.
Equality Australia backs Spender’s sex discrimination bill
Allegra Spender has introduced a bill to protect students and teachers in religious schools, stopping lawful discrimination based on sexuality or marital status.
Under the Sex Discrimination Act, a religious school can expel or fire a student or teacher on the ground of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationship status or pregnancy based on their religious believes and where the institution acts in good faith.
The government had committed to legislating a religious discrimination act to protect people of faith, and concurrently amend the Sex Discrimination Act to protect those vulnerable groups in religious schools.
Equality Australia has backed Spender’s bill, urging the government to work with the crossbench and Greens to pass it. The group’s chief executive, Anna Brown, said:
A gay student should not have to hide who they are to have a shot at leadership or live in fear of being expelled, and no woman should ever risk losing her job because she falls pregnant outside marriage.
These are basic questions of fairness, and it is unacceptable that in Australia today people are still left without protections against this kind of discrimination.
Behind these legal carveouts are real people facing real consequences. We’re talking about people’s education, their livelihoods and their futures.
The government is unlikely to support it, even though it has considered other powers to protect people of faith from discrimination, because it’s politically tricky ground.
Jordan’s King Abdullah to meet Albanese in Canberra
Jordan’s King Abdullah will be visiting Australia for two days from tomorrow, meeting with Anthony Albanese to discuss defence, security and trade cooperation.
The two nations celebrated 50 years of diplomatic relations last year. The king’s last visit was in 2016.
So what do Australia and Jordan cooperate on, you might ask.
The prime minister says the countries work together on regional security, humanitarian efforts, countering terrorism and violent extremism, growing trade and strengthening cooperation on resources, energy, and the environment.
In a statement, Albanese said:
I’m looking forward to continuing the warm and productive relationship between our countries, particularly at a time where there are so many global challenges.
In a time of increasing uncertainty around the world, ongoing defence and security cooperation between Australia and Jordan is essential, as regional security partners.
Ima Caldwell
Doctors back push for independent watchdog for private health system
Federal crossbenchers and peak medical bodies are calling for an independent authority to oversee the private healthcare sector, warning that declining policy value is driving patients away and straining public hospitals.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie will introduce a motion in federal parliament today, seconded by Dr Monique Ryan MP, calling for a new “Private Health System Authority”.
The proposed regulator would sit in the health portfolio to oversee contracts between insurers, hospitals and doctors, monitor sector finances and ensure insurer practices protect patient choice.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) and the Australian Society of Ophthalmologists (ASO) backed the proposal.
The AMA president, Dr Michael Bonning, said an independent umpire is needed to fix outdated policy settings and remove government from its “conflicted role of regulator and policymaker”.
The ASO president, Dr Peter Sumich, said the sector currently follows “the law of the jungle”, accusing insurer lobbies of opposing oversight to push toward American-style models.
The only group voicing opposition is the private health insurer lobby, because they have plans for vertical integration and US-style managed care.
Australians who pay for private health insurance deserve confidence that the system is fair, transparent and working in their interests.
Stephanie Convery
David Chau replaces retiring Alan Kohler as ABC 7pm news finance presenter
David Chau will replace the retiring Alan Kohler as the ABC’s finance presenter on its 7pm news bulletins, the national broadcaster has announced.
Kohler, a veteran finance journalist, announced his retirement last month after 31 years at the ABC. He will present his final finance segment on Wednesday night’s 7pm bulletins, the ABC said in a statement on Monday.
Chau, who joined the ABC as a digital producer in 2017, will replace him. Chau began presenting finance reports on the ABC’s News Channel in 2019, and on Monday said he was “honoured for this opportunity to continue Alan Kohler’s legacy – the man is indisputably a national treasure”.
Read the full story here:
Taylor defends his CV after Hanson calls him ‘smarmy management consultant’
My colleague Josh Butler asks Taylor about Pauline Hanson’s comments to CPAC disparaging the Liberal leader’s pre-political life as a management consultant. A “smarmy” one she called him.
Taylor says he makes “no bones” of his CV prior to joining the federal parliament in 2013.
I am proud that I am not a career politician. I make no bones about the fact that before politics, I turned around industries, I turned around businesses. I worked on our family farming business, that’s what I did before politics, and I’m a relatively relative latecomer to politics. But that gives me the experience to turn around our country.
