The Point Live: Labor continues making the Coalition relevant, Australia considers 'next steps' after Israel clears IOF for killing aid workers. As it happens.

Zali Steggall has just released this statement:

More than two years after Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom was killed alongside six World Central Kitchen colleagues, Israel has cleared the personnel involved of criminal wrongdoing.

This is a serious failure of accountability and an insult to Zomi’s family, Australian humanitarian workers and international humanitarian law.

Israel’s own investigation found the strike resulted from misidentification and serious failures in IDF procedures. Yet no one faces criminal responsibility.

It is also extraordinary that Australia reportedly learned of the decision only moments before Israel announced it publicly, on World Humanitarian Day.

The Australian Government’s Binskin review identified serious shortcomings in Israel’s response. In March, I raised the case in Question Time and, with Zomi’s brother Mal, met the Prime Minister. I also wrote to Israeli Ambassador Hillel Newman seeking answers. Those questions remain. 

It is unacceptable that Israel has not released the full UAV footage and audio of the attack. I call on the Albanese government to support an independent International Criminal Court investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Zomi and the other World Central Kitchen workers, including whether any conduct constituted a war crime.

Zomi’s family has waited more than two years for answers. This matter is not closed.

As communications minister, Anika Wells has been given the job of selling the gambling advertising reforms, which are the ‘least possible’ the government could do. It passed it with the Coalition who are also fine with doing the least possible – a reminder that the government chooses not to take the more progressive pathway through the senate, because it doesn’t want to. This is what it wants to do.

Wells:

After extensive consultation and negotiation, the Albanese government has delivered historic reforms to tackle gambling harm. Some people wanted more, others wanted less, but mostly Australians wanted action. And with its passage through the Parliament last night, that is what we have delivered: an extensive package of measures that will stop the saturation of gambling ads on TV, on radio, and online.

It will put real distance between the sports that Australians love and the gambling products that are promoted alongside them. It will crack down on illegal operators and harmful online products. Take action on predatory inducements, and it will strengthen protections for those most at risk of gambling harm.

As sports minister, I want kids to fall in love with the game, not with the odds. And children should be able to know the players and follow their team and celebrate a goal without gambling being an inextricable part of that.

Angus Blackman

Australians have been dudded by the gas industry. It’s past time governments admitted it.

Dr Richard Denniss, Australia Institute co-CEO and author of More Fool Me: How the gas industry tricked Australia, joins Ebony Bennett to discuss why Australia gives away gas to multinational corporations and why similarly dud deals could happen with Big Tech and other industries if we don’t learn lessons from the past.

Listen now on our website or wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

Morgan Harrington

Over half a million batteries have now been installed as part of the Albanese Government’s Cheaper Home Batteries scheme. 

Media reports and Opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan are casting a shadow over the scheme, drawing attention to the shoddy work of some dodgy battery installation companies.

There are certainly reasons to want to tighten up quality and safety in the system, for instance inspections from the Clean Energy Regulator found that while less than 1% of batteries installed under the program were deemed unsafe, just over 60% were “substandard”.

However, this should not be used as an excuse to cut-back on the roll-out of batteries themselves, which have already pushed down electricity bills.

Perhaps the longer term risk of the current scheme is that people could be left behind by a transition which, in just a year, has reshaped the way Australia’s energy grid works.

Schemes like this one help homeowners buy batteries through subsidies, but some people can’t afford one even with a subsidy (not to mention renters). 

Research shows that more batteries have been installed in postcodes with high socio-economic status. The authors argue that, “rather than entrench energy inequity, household programs could be designed differently with the aim of more equitable support.”

Similar schemes in other parts of the world are designed to avoid this kind of problem. For example the state of California has a policy enabling low income earners to get solar panels installed at no cost.

Yesterday in the senate, a new inquiry was established, looking at the gaps in women’s health. Labor senators Emma McBride, Marielle Smith and Rebecca White were behind the push and announced the inquiry this morning.

Labor senator Marielle Smith moved the motion to establish the committee, which will have “a strong focus on women’s health issues including fertility, postpartum healthcare and women’s pain.”

It was established on the same day independent senator Jacqui Lambie shared her vaginal prolapse story, which she says is a result of an injury she received while in the Army. Lambie was highlighting not only the long waits for women who suffer what can be a life altering and limiting issue – and often leads to bladder issues as well – but the fight women veterans have to get it addressed by the DVA.

This committee will hold public hearings across the nation, and will ask women to share their experiences.

Josh Bornstein

In the midst of a crisis, KPMG is looking at significant staff cuts. KPMG should instead commence restructuring the firm so as to split its audit and consulting businesses from one another. Such a restructuring would be a much smarter move because it would give its clients and the community at large greater confidence that the conflicts of interest baked into its business were now being addressed.

Berries and Cream is out and about (for those new to the blog, this is a reference to the Starburst commercial with the Berries and Cream lad – watch it and tell me you don’t see Tim Wilson) and it’s an exciting day for the shadow treasurer because he has a PAMPHLET.

We all know he loves a shiny pamphlet and he gets to wave this one around while talking about debt (for which his party is mostly responsible for, having been in government for a majority of time, and also, it doesn’t matter because this is a rich country and no one is foreclosing on Australia).

Wilson:

We have had our national debt pass the $1 trillion mark, and what we know is that more debt is being used to stoke inflation, increase interest rates, and increase the price at the supermarket. That’s why when Australians go to the supermarket, they’re paying more and they’re getting less, and it’s directly connected to Commonwealth debt, how much the government is borrowing, and directly then translates to government spending. The government wants to absolve themselves of responsibility of the national debt.

They want to absolve themselves of their responsibility. They’ve received a $400 billion windfall. which, if they had have paid down debt, been prudent and responsible, that Australia’s position would be substantially better off. Simple reality is this government is addicted to spending, it’s addicted to inflation, and it’s constantly focused on how it spends that spending, and goes on, stokes the economy, stokes the inflation.

Then they go and tax the inflation, and they spend the inflation in a vicious cycle, which is why Australians are falling further and further behind

Look how proud he is today! So much sparkle and glee in those eyes!

Alice Grundy

A few weeks ago Tony Abbott told the Sydney Morning Herald:

“I’m surprised that ICAC has allowed itself to be caught up in an internal party squabble that involves no conceivable ‘corruption’ in the sense of people gaining an unfair advantage for themselves, especially this close to a state election.”

Time will tell whether his assessment was fair or not. 

There were some interesting moments yesterday. Dallas McInerney, who has stood aside as CEO of NSW Catholic Schools during ICAC’s Operation Rosny, was asked about his decision to do a factory reset on his phone and why it was “safer” to do briefings with consulting firm JPG Advisory verbally. 

Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asked McInerney about a text message from one Reformer figure to another which read: “you know how I’m good to you and help you, and give you your filthy schools money”.

Penny Wong has called a press conference for 1.40pm, which means that it will be right before QT and gives her an opportunity to limit questions and the timing of the press conference, with the excuse she has to get to the chamber.

This is a ploy a lot of politicians use when they need to talk about something but don’t want to talk about it for long.

Announcing it this early in the day is unusual though – that means her office has been inundated with requests and questions about her meeting with the Israeli ambassador and is trying to answer everyone at once.

The e-Safety Regulator has accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from Roblox, the popular block building game universe, that it will put “robust measures designed to protect children from grooming, sexual exploitation and abuse” in place.

From the statement:

eSafety accepted the undertaking following concerns that Roblox was not meeting its obligations under the Online Safety ActExternal link’s codes and standardsExternal link, including allegedly failing to have sufficient measures in place to prevent contact between adults and children under 16.

The Relevant Electronic Services (RES) StandardExternal link which covers online gaming platforms like Roblox, also requires children’s accounts to be set to private by default and to provide accessible reporting mechanisms that notify users of complaint outcomes.

eSafety has engaged extensively with Roblox over the past two years over compliance with these obligations, prompting the company last year to announce a range of measures aimed at improving safety for children on its service.

However, testing by eSafetyExternal link earlier this year identified gaps in Roblox’s safety systems which eSafety considered continued to put children at risk, including allowing contact between children and adult strangers. The testing found:

• adults could send connection requests to young Australian children without parental or carer consent; 
• children and adults could view and respond to one another’s posts on forums outside game environments without parental or carer consent; 
• children’s connections were visible to anyone on the Roblox platform;
• children’s profiles and biographies, including account names, number and names of connections, avatar images, and non-sensitive biographical information such as their interests were visible to anyone on the Roblox platform, with no option to restrict the visibility of this information.

Although Roblox believes it is meeting its obligations under the Online Safety Act, the platform has committed to implementing a range of additional measures, including:

• preventing adults from contacting unknown children without parental consent
• strengthening the account settings of children’s accounts so they are private by default
• accessible reporting mechanisms that notify users of complaint outcomes 
• engaging an independent third-party auditor to assess the effectiveness of its safety measures, including the deployment of its age-estimation measures.

Roblox will have three months to implement the changes. If they breach the undertaking, eSafety may apply to the Federal Court for an order directing Roblox to comply and any other order the Court considers appropriate. 

Asked if the Greens should have compromised more on the gambling and NDIS legislation, (and let’s be clear, there was no compromise that would have made the government happy unless it was a full capitulation) Larissa Waters says:

Well, look-it’s a great week to be a gambling corporation, Sally, or a gas corporation because they’ve been let completely off the hook here.

The Labor government chose to work with the Liberals to cut the biggest cut to a support package this century, cutting 241,000 people off the NDIS instead of raising revenue from taxing the gas corporations, and chose to do the weakest possible reform on gambling advertising when they could have chosen to work with the Greens and implement the Murphy gambling ad recommendation reforms, and had a total ban on gambling ads, like 77% of Australians actually want.

They could have chosen to tax the gas corporations with the support of the Greens to raise revenue, so that they didn’t have to cut so many billions out of the backs of disabled people who deserve support.

They’re making choices to prioritise big corporations every time, and this week they’ve done it in spades.

And it’s pretty-it’s absolutely disgusting that these big corporations make donations to the Labor and Liberal parties, and then it seems they get their policy agenda legislated.

Parliament should work for people, not vested interests, and certainly not political donors.

…The government chose to cut the NDIS. The Greens have resisted those cuts, and we have worked alongside the disability community, and we secured an inquiry to expose what this will mean for people. This will mean that kids won’t get the support they need.

They might have to come out of mainstream schools, like a mum that I was talking to on the weekend said. It might mean that parents now need to stop full-time or part-time work so that they can provide that care to their kids themselves. This will have serious human impacts, and this government chose to do that.

It chose that rather than raising revenue from cutting Orca submarines that Donald Trump may or may not give to us, rather than taxing gas corporations who are fleecing Australians, they made this active choice, and they could have chosen otherwise.

So we take no responsibility for their choices. They absolutely own this, and I think Australians are sick of being forgotten by this government. They’re sick of being put last behind sports bet, behind gambling corporations, behind whatever big corporation has donated to the Labor Party, and often also to the Liberal and National parties. They’re sick of corporations running Parliament.

Larissa Waters is asked by the ABC about her opinions on the Israeli decision and says:

Well, it is absolutely outrageous that after two years of investigating, the Israeli authorities have cleared themselves of the doing, despite the deliberate targeting and murder of Australian

Cleared themselves of the undoing, despite the deliberate targeting and murder of Australian aid workers, Amy Frankum and her aid colleagues, and I might add, 500 other aid and humanitarian workers since this genocide began. And I think it’s just very clear that strong words are not enough to deter this sort of conduct, and this means precisely that the Australian government needs to do more than just issue some strongly worded statements. They need to sanction the state of Israel, and they need to make sure that we are not involved in a two-way arms trade, which we are at the moment

Q: Should the Israeli ambassador to Australia be sent home?

Waters:

Look, I think that should be on the table. He’s been saying there’s nothing to see here for ever since this conflict began, but it’s clear that Australian Australians feel like there is a genocide here, and they want more done. And I think the strong words from the minister are. I appreciate that she’s saying them, but I’d like to see some action and some justice for Zomi Frankcom and her family. They’ve been waiting for so long; they’ve had no apology. And our government needs to do more than just be disappointed and say this is an insult. They need to demand that we sanction Israel and that we stop giving them arms and being involved in that two-way arms trade.

A warning was released yesterday about the coming Spring and what that could mean for Australians in bushfire zones (which, lets face it, is all of us these days). Warmer than usual conditions, a dry environment and fuel build up from previous rainfalls could see more risk than usual.

Kristy McBain was warning about that on ABC News Breakfast:

Look, the Australasian fire and emergency services council, AFAC, they released their spring outlook, the data we have shows a heightened risk of bushfire activity across most of the Northern Territory, south-eastern Queensland, north and south-eastern New South Wales, across a huge swathe of north-eastern Tassie and various parts of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

We know in parts of the country it’s been particularly dry. We know there has been a fuel build-up in parts of the country that have experienced rain in particular in the Northern Territory.

So, I think it’s really important that people start to take the actions they may need around their own properties and to that end, we recently funded over $8 million for a national get ready campaign so the states and territories are in the process of rolling out that national get ready campaign, all about providing practical tips about how to make your property safer as we lead into this high risk weather season.

Q: We’ve seen seeing some devastating fires overseas, a devastating fire season. We know we’ve Australian firefighters and equipment over there. Can you give us the latest on that? And when they’ll be due back? I assume they’re back in time for those warmer months now.

McBain:

Australian personnel in France, Canada and the US. We’ve had deployments of over 200 personnel in those areas now. We’ve also got a Black Hawk helicopter and a Bell 340 aircraft in France. We’ll obviously continue to work with our international partners as we always do. And make sure that those personnel come back rested before our own season. And make sure those aircraft will be back as well. But I think it goes to show the importance of having good relationships with international neighbours. When Prime Minister Mark Carney was here earlier in the year, we signed an updated emergency services declaration with Canada. With we’ll continue to share not only intelligence and innovation, but also training of personnel with each other. As we face more increasingly difficult bushfire seasons.

Q: Is this something of a low point in the relationship between Australia and Israel, this incident and and this response from Israel?

Julian Hill:

Well, first point I just want to make, and it’s it’s a linguistic point, but it might be of interest to your listeners. I try very hard to talk when we have a difference about the Israeli government at times, and it does I think at times feed into anti-Semitism.

I try not to conflate the state of Israel, as the world’s only Jewish state, with profound at times disagreements with the actions of the current Israeli government.

So I just want to make that point. Not having a go at you, but it’s something that I’ve reflected on and and try hard on. None of us always get it right, but our difference on this matter is with the Israeli government, and I think we’ll just go around in circles. I’m not going to get ahead of the minister, but I appreciate the genuine public interest, and I think very strong emotions which I share on this right now.

That wasn’t the question though – no one was blaming Jewish people for the outcome of this government decision. It was Julian Hill that brought that up, not the interviewer.

Q: Last time we had the Israeli ambassador Hillel Newman in the studio here talking about this particular issue.One of the points of pushback that he had, he was saying regarding the conduct of Australian troops in Afghanistan, we haven’t had a clear resolution around some of those issues. Is that a fair comparison or complaint when civilians have been involved?

Hill:

Well, I’ll choose my words carefully. As I said, I think democracies are held to a higher standard, and as a former chair of the Defense Committee, for I was appointed to the Ministry a couple of years ago, I think it’s entirely appropriate that allegations of war crimes that affected allegedly a very small minority of those who served with distinction in Afghanistan.

We can’t smear the memories of those who died or those who served, who are back with us with the alleged actions of a few.

But Australia is continuing to pursue those allegations in a proper way. We haven’t just dropped it because it’s all too hard. These are fiendishly difficult things to establish evidence on, particularly in a country with which we have no diplomatic relations right now, but I’m not going to succumb to the the bait to conflate the two.

Labor assistant minister Julian Hill is up next and he is asked about the Zomi Frankcom investigation and says:

It beggars belief, and I’m pleased to see, rightly, that the minister will be calling in the Israeli ambassador. That Australia’s ambassador in Israel will be conveying these views directly to the Israeli government. And as I heard your previous conversation observed, Special Advisor Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, former head of the Australian Defense Force, his report concluded that there were serious failures in following the procedures of the IDF. Democracies are held to a higher standard, and as a fellow democracy, we expect a higher standard of accountability.

So we will not give up pursuing justice. And my thoughts are with Zombie Franken’s family, her loved ones, but all humanitarian workers, marking World Humanitarian Day for the work that they do. That kind of service represents the very best of Australia and should be honored.

Q: Separate to this internal investigation by the Israeli military, there was an Australian review conducted by Air Chief Marshal retired Mark Binskin that recommended that Israel apologise and pay reparations to Zomi Frankcom’s family.

The IDF’s internal investigation, this latest investigation, has not recommended that. What do you think of that?

Chris Sidoti:

Well, the review conducted by the Australian appointee was itself a very soft touch. I have to say, the recommendations that were made, apology, reparations, were the very least they could have been expected, and yet the Israeli authorities are not even responding to those. It’s a ridiculous situation. That’s why we need the International Criminal Court conducting the investigations that it’s conducting, and we have to look to the International Criminal Court for justice in these cases.

Q: The Foreign Affairs Minister, Senator Penny Wong, says she’s outraged by the decision of this internal Israeli military investigation, and that the Israeli ambassador to Australia, Hillel Newman, will be called in. What options are now left for Zomi Frankcoms family and the Australian government?

Sidoti:

Well, so far as the Australian government is concerned, the minister, when she sees the ambassador, should tell him that he’s going home.

I don’t support breaking diplomatic relations with Israel. I don’t support the closing of embassies. But this bloke is clearly an unacceptable representative so far as Australia is concerned, and he should be sent home. He has interfered in Australia’s internal politics.

He has been offensive in dealing with Australian members of the the flotilla that tried to reach Gaza with humanitarian aid, and again, his government now has failed Australian citizens.

So he should be told that he’s going home. The family must continue to advocate on behalf of those that were killed, including their daughter, they’ve been fabulous in how they have taken up this case and refused to allow it to drop.

But I think that they need to act with the support of the Australian government to insist that the recommendations from the Australian Review, apology and reparations, are the very least, that should be done by the Israeli authorities.

But again, it’s through the International Criminal Court that we’re likely to see justice, not through the Israeli courts.

Q: This was not the only IDF finding overnight. It says it’s completed reviews of 150 incidents of troop conduct, troop conduct in Gaza, and made decisions on five prominent cases. The Israeli military has confirmed for the first time that it did open fire on a car carrying five-year-old Palestinian girl Hindra Jab, who was killed along with six relatives in Gaza in 2024. How significant is this development?

Sidoti:

Look, I hesitate in knowing how to answer, it is significant. But Hindra was killed two and a half years ago. There has been no incident in the war in Gaza since October 2023 that has been more widely investigated externally, including by our commission of inquiry, where we found very clearly that the Israeli forces were responsible for the killing of this little girl and members of her family, and who tried to reach her, provide assistance to her and the family.

The organisation Forensic Architecture established by a Jewish Israeli person uses digital evidence extremely well. They counted 335 bullet holes in that family’s vehicle.

Why is it that only now this matter is being referred for criminal investigation, when we have known more about that incident than any other incident in Gaza in the last three years?

Why are they taking so long? The length of time taken, the nature of the internal investigation, the fact that only two of these five very serious, well-documented cases are being referred for criminal investigation, leaves me entirely cynical about any prospect of justice coming out of the internal processes of the Israeli system,

Chris Sidoti, a member of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry, is speaking with ABC radio RN Breakfast, about the Israeli decisions on whether or not to progress criminal investigations into killings by its military of some Palestinian civilians and aid workers, including six year old Hind Rajab and her family. The little girl was on the phone to rescue workers pleading for help as the sole survivor, after the IOF fired at least 300 shots into the family car, as they were attempting to reach safety under Israeli orders. As ambulances were dispatched to try and rescue her, having received permission from Israeli authorities, they were fired upon again. Two weeks later, the bodies of Hind and her family were found, along with the ambulance crews. Israel admitted its military fired upon the car for the first time, but Israeli investigations into its military very rarely lead to criminal convictions.

Sidoti is asked about Israel’s release of cases overnight and says:

Well, first, it’s actually good to get some findings. The Israeli military constantly announces internal investigations, and then we hear nothing more. At least here, in five cases, they have announced the results of the investigations. But I’ve got to ask, what the hell have they been doing? These cases are years old. The Hind Rajab case, another one of the five occurred two and a half years ago. The world central kitchen killings occurred over two years ago, and only now are we being told that these matters, some of these matters, are going to be referred to criminal investigation. Well, what the hell have they been doing for the last two two and a half years?

There’s there’s no confidence, either in the appropriateness, the thoroughness of the internal investigations, or of any criminal prosecutions that may flow. We don’t know whether it’ll get to the point of criminal prosecution. There’ll be further delay as the criminal investigators do their work, and so justice, if it’s ever going to come, is a long time off.

Everyone knew this was coming, but it doesn’t make it any easier; Israel has declared “no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct” in its investigation over the IOF strike on World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers in April 2024 as they delivered humanitarian aid to a warehouse in Gaza. The group were in clearly marked vehicles and had followed the procedures put in place by Israel.

Australia has released this statement in response:

Australia is outraged the Israeli Government has decided not to pursue criminal proceedings against those responsible for killing Zomi Frankcom and her World Central Kitchen colleagues.

The Australian Government learned of Israel’s decision late last night, moments before it was announced, on World Humanitarian Day – which is especially insulting to Zomi’s loved ones, humanitarians and all Australians.

Zomi represented the best of Australia. Her courage deserves to be celebrated. Her family deserves justice.

This decision falls far short of the accountability we expect.

This is despite Israel Defense Forces admissions that the IDF strikes on Zomi and her colleagues’ vehicles were the result of serious failures to follow IDF procedures, mistaken identification and errors in decision-making.

This was confirmed by Special Adviser Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin’s report.

Democracies seek and accept higher standards. The Australian Government will not stop pressing Israel for justice for Zomi and her colleagues.

I will call in Israel’s Ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman and have directed Australia’s Ambassador to Israel to convey our views directly to Israel as the Australian Government considers next steps.

Hello and good morning and welcome to the final day of the sitting fortnight.

We did it, Joe.

We have made it to the end of this sitting, and despite there having been a five week break between sittings, it feels like we never left.

Penny Wong has called in Isreal’s ambassador to Australia after Israel announced it had cleared its military of wrong doing over the death of Zomi Frankcom and her World Central Kitchen aid workers, who were killed by the IOF in April 2024. The IOF launched a strike on the clearly marked aid vehicles, claiming a Hamas identity was among the group. After being pressed into an investigation, it delayed any updates until last night, when it claimed there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

The only person who seems shocked by this decision is Penny Wong;

Australia is outraged the Israeli Government has decided not to pursue criminal proceedings against those responsible for killing Zomi Frankcom and her World Central Kitchen colleagues.

The Australian Government learned of Israel’s decision late last night, moments before it was announced, on World Humanitarian Day – which is especially insulting to Zomi’s loved ones, humanitarians and all Australians.

Zomi represented the best of Australia. Her courage deserves to be celebrated. Her family deserves justice.

This decision falls far short of the accountability we expect.

This is despite Israel Defense Forces admissions that the IDF strikes on Zomi and her colleagues’ vehicles were the result of serious failures to follow IDF procedures, mistaken identification and errors in decision-making.

The NDIS bill passed yesterday evening, so that is done and dusted. Today, the media bargaining code will most likely be finalised and then that is done too. Gambling, again with the Coalition, is also through, with more dissent coming from the Coalition benches then the Labor ones (where publicly there has been none) over the support and the bill itself.

Is any of this a win for the government? Politically, the pundits will say yes, but as we said at the beginning of this parliamentary term, the Coalition would only be as relevant as Labor wanted them to be – because Labor has another pathway in the senate and its actively choosing not to use it. Because that would mean going further than Labor wants to (and in many cases actively following its own platform) and it doesn’t want to do that – it would much rather stick to the Coalition side of things. And so, we get this sort of legislation. Even though voters for the last two elections have said they don’t want the Coalition.

Good times.

We’ll cover off this final day and then we are all free until September.

Ready?

Let me grab coffee number three and we’ll get into it.