The Point Live: 'Reform' now at the centre of budget discussions, as government braces for worsening global financial crisis. As it happened.

Given my computer has decided to end it all early, I am going to follow suit. (But to be clear – just with the blog)

We will be back for the final sitting day this week tomorrow – there are three more days until the easter break, with the parliament sitting Monday to Wednesday then too – but first we have to get through parliament Friday (Thursday) the worst of all days.

So thank you to everyone who came along – we are very humbled by all of your support. It shocks me every day to see how many of you are here for this descent into madness, but I truly appreciate your support of independent media. Let’s keep building it, huh?

Take care of you, and those around you. Ax

Here is how Bowers saw QT:

He made it to the chamber. Everyone rejoyced.

Byyyyyyyeeeeeeeeee

I mean, he’s making the choice to be here

TFW you are asked the same question for the 35th time

So my computer just decided it wasn’t going to go on and yeeted itself into the great Tron beyond.

RIP to a real one.

We have fired up the very old one to get through the rest of the day.

Clare O’Neil takes a dixer on the housing figures and then uses it to include a valid point in the conclusion:

So let’s be clear about what the approach of the right wing parties would do for housing in this country. Speaker, build fewer homes, make housing more expensive and make home ownership further away for the people of our great country now.

Speaker, they love to give us all a bit of lip in the chamber, but I want to remind them that politics is not about all the politicking that you come in here to do. It’s not about all the leadership eruptions that you get up to. It’s not about one nation weighing landmines. It’s about doing the gritty, hard work of making a difference.

Matt Grudnoff

Back in the Senate…

New leader of the Nationals Senator Canavan is asking about the new free trade deal with the EU. He thinks it’s a bad deal for farmers.

Senator Farrell just talks about how the Nationals are worried about One Nation and about the election results last weekend in South Australia.

This free trade agreement, like most of the other free trade agreements we have signed over the last 20 years, will be talked about as if it is important, when in reality it is not. These deals barely shift the needle, and this EU agreement is unlikely to be any different.

Rather than being economically important, these deals seem to be about one party or another signaling that they think trade is good.

The Australia/US free trade agreement signed about 20 years ago by the Howard Government is a good example. Research after 10 years showed that it had not benefited either Australia or the US. And this was long before President Trump effectively ripped up the agreement when he recently slapped tariffs on Australian exports to the US.

The political class is going to huff and puff about this deal, but it is unlikely to mean much in the long run.

Jack Thrower

The ABC are on strike for the first time in 20 years. While striking workers have a range of concerns about pay, conditions and management styles, it’s important to keep in mind the broader context: Australia is a rich country that severely underfunds its public broadcasters.

Australia is one of the highest-income countries in the world, with the 9^th highest average income out of 38 developed countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), alongside countries like Germany and Sweden.

Despite being a rich country, Australia acts poor when it comes to funding important public institutions.

Australia’s public broadcasters are among the least well-resourced in the OECD, ranking 27 out of 30 nations, spending less than 0.1% of GDP on public broadcasting and publishing.

Australia is so underfunded that just to fund at the OECD average, it would need to increase funding by $2.2 billion per year. This is the equivalent to more than tripling the ABC budget.

Public broadcasters are vital

Public broadcasters can play a vital role in supporting a country’s democracy and ensuring its cultural vibrancy. The ABC is Australia’s most trusted news source and an important cultural institution; its cultural programming and role in Australian life are constantly discussed by politicians, journalists and everyday Australians. Other public broadcasters such as SBS, NITV and community stations play similarly important roles in parts of the Australian community.

Australia can afford well-resourced public broadcasters that pay their staff well. $2.2 billion is a negligible figure in terms of the Commonwealth Government’s overall budget, overall spending is close to $800 billion per year. Meanwhile Australia is a low-tax country, there are a range of simple ways Australia could raise new taxes while reducing social ills like inequality and pollution, including a gas export tax, which could generate up to $17 billion per year.

Australia chooses to underfund things like the ABC, and under tax things like gas. Other choices are possible and easily available.

Independent MP Monique Ryan continues the trend of crossbenchers holding the government to account in absence of a serious opposition, asking:

My question is for the minister representing the Minister for Industry and innovation, minister the strategic examination of research and development report released last week was called ambitious Australia. Much of that report, including its key recommendation to establish a National Innovation Council, is spookily similar to the Rudd government’s venturous Australia report from 2008. Given that this recommendation for our National Innovation Council is almost two decade two decades old. Will the government commit to actually acting on it?

Jim Chalmers takes the question as Pat Conroy is away:

I think, as I indicated the other day, the government takes the recommendations of the strategic review very seriously. In fact, I met with Robin Denham and other members of the panel, Ian Chubb and others this morning, as it turns out, to talk about the recommendations and the PM did similarly, and that’s because we do understand the central role of research and development and innovation in the productivity challenge that we have.

Productivity came up last year, grew a bit faster than the 20 year average, but isn’t growing fast enough to lift living standards into the future.

And so we’re working through the 20 recommendations now, when it comes to the council that the Honorable Member refers to, obviously, Minister Ayres and the other place, working with a number of colleagues, is working out the best way forward.

There, we know that the Honorable Member has a particular interest in medical research, as does the member for Melbourne, who has been engaging with us in her characteristically diligent and dedicated way, representing the wonderful researchers in the community of Melbourne.

And so we’ll continue to work with the member for Melbourne, with any members in this place, with an interest in making sure we make the most out of research and development and innovation because we understand the fundamental and central role it will continue to play in our economy as we try and meet these economic objectives of a much more productive economy with higher living standards into the future.

Bill Browne
Director, Democracy & Accountability Program

After 492 years, the Church of England has its first female leader. Mullally, a former nurse and the outgoing Bishop of London, has been installed as Archbishop of Canterbury – at a ceremony boycotted by conservatives who refuse to be led by a woman.

Archbishop Mullally was the fourth woman in church history to be consecrated as a bishop and the first female Bishop of London.

She replaces an Archbishop who resigned over his handling of sexual abuse allegations, and she “vowed that under her leadership, the church would listen to survivors, care for the vulnerable and foster a culture of safety and wellbeing.”

Angus Taylor asks a question (he is taking to asking towards the end and sharing the others around)

He is using his big boy pants voice, which is how you know Half-Price Howard is being SERIOUS.

When will the Prime Minister take action to ensure that fuel gets to the almost 500 service stations that have run dry.

Hmmmm, much gravitas.

Albanese:

I thank the member for his question, and we have established the fuel supply Task Force. We’ve convened the national cabinet. We’re engaging with state and territory governments who are responsible distribution issues, but we’re making sure that it’s coordinated in a way. And I know the media release from, for example, the New South Wales premier today and the actions that the New South Wales Government are taking as well. Right across the country, we’re engaging. I’ve been having constructive discussions with [Queensland] Premier Crisafulli as well….

There is almost a point of order, but Albanese just says ‘you have got to be kidding’ and sits down, deciding he has concluded his answer. The Coalition complains but maybe be less lame. Albanese is not an unassailable parliamentary performer. Losing to him shouldn’t be as easy as they make it.

Bob Katter wants to know why the government just does’t reopen the fuel refineries and start processing fuel domestically again.
Jim Chalmers says it is not that easy:

The government is working very hard to make sure that there is enough fuel reaching regional and other communities in our country, and a big part of that is making sure that we have the refining capacity that we need.

I pay tribute to the work of the energy minister who just on Friday in my neck of the woods was making it easier for our local refineries to access the support that they need. The two remaining refineries after the Leader of the Opposition waved another four of them goodbye when he was the energy minister, Mr. Speaker and so locally produced fuel is a big part of the government’s efforts to deal with the consequences of what we’re seeing out of the Middle East, Mr. Speaker.

Now, Mr. Speaker, we also recognise how important ethanol is to our domestic fuel supply, and more than recognising that we’re investing in it, once again, at the Lytton refinery, the energy minister and I announced $1.1 billion for our cleaner fuels program, which is to invest in low carbon liquid fuel production in Australia, consistent with the kinds of goals that the member for Kennedy has, and that’s on top of the two $50 million in innovation funding under the future made in Australia Innovation Fund.

He’s right that we don’t have a mandate, but the relevant departments and authorities have been working to see whether we could implement one in the future, making sure that we factor in things like safety and quality, and again, that’s all about supporting our local fuels industry.

We know at times like this, when there’s an extraordinary amount of global economic uncertainty, the main driver of that is this oil shock coming out of the war in the Middle East. We’re working on a whole range of fronts to address those challenges, and a big part of that the efforts that we’re all putting into our domestic industry

Anara Watson

Over in South Australia, Peter Malinauskas has just shared this photo of the state’s “new-look” Cabinet at Government House:

Source: Malinauskas LinkedIn

There are some new faces here, and there’s also been a bit of a re-shuffle.

Notably, MPs Alice Rolls, Nadia Clancy and Michael Brown have joined the Cabinet, while Nat Cook and Zoe Bettison have been moved to the backbench.

Chris Picton’s new “super portfolio” will apparently help coordinate South Australia’s AUKUS projects. Premier Malinauskas said:

“South Australia stands on the cusp of significant economic opportunity, and we are determined to ensure that opportunity translates into secure, well-paid jobs and more housing for South Australians.

“That is why I have established a new economic super-portfolio of State Development, uniting Industry, Trade and Investment, Innovation and Science, Workforce Planning, Defence and Space Industries, and Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Economy, sharpening our focus to attract investment, create jobs and drive economic growth.

“As AUKUS gathers pace, a coordinated and strategic approach to these industries will be critical to maximising opportunities for local workers and businesses, and Minister Picton will be working closely with me as we drive this effort.

Milton Dick is trying very, very hard to set some sort of better standard in QT.

He boots out Melissa McIntosh for a ‘frivilous point of order’ and warns everyone, again, he’ll just kick them out if they keep trying to abuse standing orders for political points.

McIntosh seems a bit shocked. Not sure why – he’s been on this for months now.

Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese takes a dixer and talks about how spooked the Coalition is by Barnaby Joyce, but he is not in the room – so he just says ‘wherever he is’.

Two seconds later, Joyce walks into the chamber and everyone cheers.

“He doesn’t even have to be in the room for the tail to wag the dog,” Albanese says (although, as is standard, he mangles its first)

Meanwhile over in the Senate…

Senator McKim of the Greens has asked about the government’s new legislation on price gouging. He asks why the government has not given the ACCC powers to stop price gouging and why the new legislation does give them those powers.

Senator Wong claims that the ACCC already has the powers to prevent excessive price rises including powers around price fixing and false and misleading advertising.

These powers didn’t stop the price gouging in 2022 and 2023, and they are not going to stop it in the future.

Senator McKim points out that the government is going to make price gouging illegal for supermarkets by expanding competition laws. Why can’t they do that for fuel retailers?

Good poiny.

Independent MP Nicolette Boele asks about gambling ad reform. She gets a better answer than we have heard on this in the last few months or so, but the government won’t budge on this:

Albanese says BetStop – where people self report to stop gambling – is helping and the government will look to do more, like regulate online gambling that people can access through their phones. He also says that pokies are a bigger problem in gambling (if only governments could regulate on that!)

In terms of the Murphy review recommendations though? You can take those as not happening. It’s been 1000 days. They’re not doing it.

We are back to the Coalition blaming the government for not doing enough on fuel without actually offering up any solutions of what it thinks should be done (although the Coalition is also in support of the US/Israel war, so you know – that kind of denudes the attacks)

So we haven’t moved on from where we were on Monday. Chris Bowen is really hammering the ‘partisan politics over patriotism’ line though, which means it is doing OK in the community.

OK! That took a little longer than I anticipated (another media commitment) but we are back!

And we have missed nothing.

First up – how many petrol stations are out of fuel (a daily question these days)

New South Wales, there are 187 diesel and 32 without any stock all, that’s down 19 on yesterday. That’s out of a total of 2,417 service stations 

Queensland, figures remain 55 with no diesel unleaded.

In Victoria, 134 with a lack of one or more fuels Australia,

South Australia remains 49 out of 700.

Western Australia, remains six with a stock out and four out of 771 service stations. 

Tasmania, it remains my advice one with no diesel and six with no advice remains the same, there are no shortages as a result of fuel shortage in the NT

No fuel outages in the ACT

Go get yourself a little treaty treat. Like meth (just kidding!)

Grab what you need for the next 90 minutes or so. You know it will be eye twitching

They brought in some sleepy guide dog puppies into the parliament today which is always a uniting moment for the parliamentarians.

At the same time the government is getting very friendly with guide dogs, which provide blind and visually impaired people with independence to live their lives as they wish, it is also looking at cutting NDIS growth funding to 5-6%. Seems like it should be note worthy.

Australian businesses are failing at record rates and soaring energy prices are set to make matters worse, putting the national economy at risk of recession.

Business insolvencies and payment defaults were already at or near their highest-ever levels from mid-2025, before the Persian Gulf conflict lit a match under oil prices and hammered global growth expectations.

Smaller businesses in some of Australia’s most essential, fuel-heavy industries such as agriculture, mining, manufacturing, construction and road transport, were most exposed to the shock, CreditorWatch chief economist Patrick Coghlan said.

“Australia’s small- and medium-sized businesses are facing one of the most challenging operating environments we’ve seen in years, with cost pressures, interest rates and global volatility all converging at once,” he said.

Without a timely easing in oil prices or government support, insolvencies were likely to grow as higher costs weighed on economic growth.

Businesses would have to pass on the higher costs of diesel, petrol, gas and electricity to trading partners and consumers, fanning inflation, tightening cost-of-living pressures and reducing demand in the economy, Mr Coghlan said.

“A sustained oil price of over US$125-150 per barrel … will seriously pressure consumers’ budgets and business’ costs, and substantially increase the probability of recession,” he said.

Sticky inflation, already beyond the Reserve Bank’s target range ahead of the conflict, prompted the central bank to raise the cash interest rate to 4.1 per cent in February.

“The implications for businesses are quite clear,” Mr Coghlan said.

“As long as oil prices remain very elevated, there will be increased pressures on many businesses and unfortunately the likelihood of an increase in insolvencies.”

Aussie farmers had also been under significant cost pressure before the conflict began, according to rural and agribusiness bank Rabobank. 

“Disruptions in global fertiliser markets … and higher shipping costs for imported inputs, combined with domestic fuel price volatility, are tightening margins at a time when many producers are already managing significant and sustained cost inflation,” group executive Marcel van Doremaele said.

Rabobank’s first quarter survey found while one in two farmers had expected conditions to remain stable over the next 12 months, an increasing number number tipped things would get worse.

The proportion of producers with an optimistic outlook fell to less than one in five, down from 27 per cent the previous quarter.

Elevated and unpredictable fertiliser and diesel costs were likely to change farmers’ cropping practices, Mr van Doremaele said.

“As we have seen before over the years, farmers have navigated geopolitical shocks and challenges such as droughts and floods, followed by adjustment periods,” he said.

“And these current challenges present themselves as a new test of the resiliency and adaptability of the country’s farmers and graziers.”

By now, we all know that big gas is taking the piss.

In the face of strong public support for the government to reign in the industry, lobbyists have ramped up their fight.

So, let’s address some of their desperate claims.

Taxes, baby!

The Australian Tax Office describes the gas industry as “systemic non-payers” of tax.

More than half of Australia’s gas is given away for free. No royalties, no petroleum tax.

Many gas companies pay no company tax whatsoever.

Economic contributions

Gas companies also like to claim that gas is a big part of the economy, and significant in terms of GDP or another vaguely described metric.

But this counts both profits to foreign shareholders and money that the gas industry invests in itself, for things like export terminals, gas fields and pipelines to make massive profits for the gas industry, not Australians. These things wreck the climate, wreck our farmland and wreck our oceans.

Fewer jobs in entire gas industry than in Bunnings

For an industry that claims big job creation, it’s pretty shocking that it’s actually one of the smallest employing industries in Australia.

Across Australia, just 0.11% of 14.4 million jobs are attributable to gas extraction. That’s a meagre 16,200 jobs compared to the 902,900 people working in manufacturing and 2.2 million in the health sector.

Even in WA, the biggest gas state, just 10,600 people – or 0.7%  of the state’s workforce – work in oil and gas extraction in WA. In other words, over 99% of West Australians do not work in oil and gas extraction. In WA alone, 20 times more people work in health and social services as the oil and gas industry; 12 times more work in education; 16 times more in the public service.

Don’t let Big Gas keep taking the piss.

Australia’s red-meat sector has been urged to get behind a trade pact with the European Union, despite the industry slamming it as a dud deal.

The parties struck an agreement on Tuesday after years of negotiations to expand trade across a range of areas.

Australia will remove a five per cent tariff on imports of European products, which hits car makers such as BMW and Mercedes along with producers of goods such as fashion products, food and drinks.

EU tariffs will be removed on imports of a wide range of Australian goods, including critical minerals, manufactured items and many dairy products.

But farmers are among those left furious by the agreement, with some saying it delivers no commercially meaningful market access despite an increase in quotas.

After years of pushing for expanded exports, the nation’s red meat industry denounced the deal, labelling it the worst free-trade agreement the nation had signed.

Trade Minister Don Farrell said the agreement would still mean expanded access to Europe for Australian red meat.

“We’ve got an 800 per cent increase in our access to the European market as a result of this agreement,” he told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

“I’m asking the cattle industry to come on board. This is a vital moment for them.

“If we can’t demonstrate to the rest of the world that Australia is capable of negotiating free and fair trade agreements, then we’ve got a big problem in this country.”

Under the agreement, 35,000 tonnes of red meat per year will be sent to the EU, a quantity Senator Farrell said was worth billions of dollars.

National Farmers Federation president Hamish McIntyre said the deal fell well short of the amounts producers wanted.

“This is a long-term, generational agreement … it’s for 10, 20, 30, 40 years,” he said.

“We have locked ourselves into very low volumes for a long period of time. That’s where the great frustration is coming from.

Sheep Producers Australia chief executive Bonnie Skinner said the deal, for sheep meat, was largely unchanged from the one Australia rejected in 2023.

“The increase in access is small and, critically, it does not unlock real commercial opportunities,” she said.

“For a premium market like the EU, this falls short of what was needed.”

It was a different story for Australia’s prosecco producers, who have been popping corks in celebration of the deal.

Despite pressure from European winemakers, Australian producers will be allowed to keep using the term “prosecco” for domestic sales, but will have to phase out the name over the next decade for exports.

Katherine Brown, a fourth-generation winemaker with Brown Brothers, toasted the deal after years of anxiously waiting for negotiations to finalise.

“It’s fantastic that we’ve been told the prosecco name for that grape variety will retain domestically in Australia,” she told AAP.

“The name will phase out for export markets, but 95 per cent of Australian prosecco is drunk in Australia anyway, so we have to look at this as a major win.”

The deal gave Australian prosecco a future as growers were hesitant to plant the grape during prolonged negotiations which left the industry in limbo, Ms Brown said.

“It now gives us a really strong stance to put further investment into it, put in more prosecco vineyards and keep enjoying this amazing drop,” she said.

“The fact we got to retain the name in Australia is the main part of the fight we’ve been fighting.”

We know that the RBA has been blaming workers for rates rises (hope you’re all enjoying your big pay rises!), but it is also pretty clear now they misread even what is happening with inflation.

One of the tough things about the CPI numbers is the impact of the electricity rebate coming on and off has made the number a bit weird. Just because last year there was a rebate and now there is now, it makes it look like inflation is higher.

Fortunately, the ABS provide the electricity price numbers for what things would look like without those rebates. We can then use those to work out what inflation would be like if we didn’t have those rebates affecting things.

And guess what – inflation would be coming down:

So, we have inflation without the impact of the electricity rebates falling from 3.3% to 3.1%, underlying inflation is steady at 3.3%, and yet this was the reality of the situation before which the RBA decided we needed 2 rates rises as well as the impact of petrol prices rises.

Just a complete misreading of what is going on in the economy.

And sure inflation will rise now, but THAT IS BECAUSE THE USA AND ISRAEL ARE BOMBING IRAN!!!

The RBA wanted us to think that inflation was a problem before the bombing. These figures today show it clearly was not.

Independent MP Allegra Spender has given a speech to the ANU National Security College, where she concluded with something the government has been talking a bit about lately as well.

 I want to talk about patriotism and responsibility.

A book that has really influenced me on this topic is Yascha Mounk’s The Great Experiment: How to Make Diverse Democracies Work. It observes that no time in human history have we had such diverse democracies. Mounk identifies the various ways diverse societies tend to come apart – but one antidote is what he calls inclusive patriotism.

Patriotism, Mounk writes, is a half-wild beast. Left to its worst instincts, it becomes a weapon – used to exclude, to demean, to define the nation against someone. But cultivated well, it is a powerful force. It is what allows an Anglo-Celtic Australian in regional Queensland to feel genuine concern for a Lebanese-Australian family in Western Sydney. It is what I saw the week after Bondi, when Australians of all faiths and backgrounds travelled hours to lay flowers and stones, and say to Jewish Australians: that is not our country, we stand with you. It is what makes “us” larger than our own tribe.

We have Australian values – democracy, the rule of law, equality of the sexes, blindness towards religion and ethnicity. We shouldn’t be afraid to say them aloud. Dehumanising others, inciting hatred, wishing or justifying violence against fellow Australians – those are not Australian values, and we need social and legal sanctions against them.

When Pauline Hanson effectively said there aren’t good Muslims, she dehumanised around 800 thousand Australians. She sought to divide. It was not just immoral – by her division she made us less safe, rather than more so. We cannot build a safe society by pitting parts of it against each other.

But building that patriotism is a shared project, not just of government. 71% of those surveyed after Bondi agreed that all Australians can do more to make our communities peaceful and safe. It is up to all of us – to build connections and awareness of commonality across difference. The young people in my schools show us the way: there is a palpable desire to step outside religious or other groupings and build real connection.

It looks like the government is considering changes to the capital gains tax (CGT) discount. This is one of the best ways to make housing more affordable.

Reducing, or even better scrapping the CGT discount will take the extra heat out of the market driven by investors. Encouraged by the CGT discount investors have rushed into the market, bid up house prices, and put home ownership out of reach for so many Australians.

But how do we know that investors are pushing up house prices?

Because we have two great examples over the past 10 years when we have seen just investor demand for housing fall. In both those cases housing became more affordable.

The first example happened about 10 years ago when the financial regulator, APRA, was worried that there was too much risking lending, particularly to property investors. They were worried that lots of people might start to default on their loans, and this would lead to a financial crisis and spill over into the rest of the economy.

The regulator used its powers to force the banks to reduce the growth of lending to investors. It worked and lending to investors slowed dramatically. The result was that house prices saw a modest fall of 8% from 2017 to 2019. It was the biggest improvement in housing affordability in the last 25 years.

The other example is from Victoria. In May 2023 the Victorian State Government announced substantial increases in land tax on investment properties. Those that owned investment properties in Victoria began selling up. We know this because the number of people registering rental bonds went down.

Who were these investors selling their properties too? First home buyers and other owner-occupiers. First home buyers were able to get into the market because housing was becoming more affordable. Since 2023, house prices have risen only 2% in Victoria, compared with 17% for the average across Australia.

But won’t fewer rental properties in Victoria mean higher rents?

No. Most first home buyers rent before they buy. When an investor sells up to a first home buyer there is one less rental property but there is now one less family that needs to rent. That family have gone from being a renter to a homeowner.

The numbers show this. Since 2023 rents have increased 15% in Victoria, which is almost identical to the Australian average of 16%. Investors selling up has not impacted rents, it has only made housing more affordable.

These powerful examples show that discouraging investors slows house price growth and helps first home buyers get into the market. Scrapping the CGT discount is one of the easiest ways the government can improve housing affordability.

David Shoebridge has spoken on his war powers private members bill in the senate. He says there is huge support in the community for Australians to have a say over whether or not their country goes to war:

A 2023 poll found that 90 per cent of Australians support war powers reform, let me repeat that, 90 per cent of Australians want this legislation to pass. And they want a binding parliamentary vote before the deployment of Australian troops, military personnel into overseas conflicts. The announcement from Albanese Labor government that it is sending more than 80 military personnel at IAAF E-7A Wedgetail aircraft, medium range at and missiles directly into another US forever war in the Middle East shows how easy it is for a handful of empowered individuals in the executive. The Prime Minister, the defence minister, maybe with a nod to the Foreign Minister is not required, literally two people can make the decision to send Australia to war.

And that is what is happening in this latest announcement. The decision made in a closed room by a handful of cabinet members, not even the full cabinet, with zero parliamentary oversight, zero public engagement and not even the pretend to ask the opinion of the Australian people. Labor’s defence minister is actually now finally admitted that this most recent deployment – the deployment of Australian troops, came after multiple reply requests to the United States. And once again we find the war parties in this place, they do not listen to the Australian public, they do not ask the Australian public, do not listen to the Australian parliament and they do not ask the Australian parliament. Who do they ask? They ask whoever is in charge in Washington.

The bill won’t have government support, so it won’t pass – but it is a conversation we should be having more frequently, because too many people don’t know how this all works.

Here is the official response from Jim Chalmers to the inflation figures:

New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that headline inflation moderated in February. 

While we’ve seen inflation tick down today, it was too high before the war and the conflict in the Middle East will make it worse.

Headline inflation was flat in the month to be 3.7 per cent through the year, down from 0.4 per cent in the month and 3.8 per cent through the year in January.

Underlying inflation was 0.2 per cent in the month to be 3.3 per cent through the year. Compared to January, the monthly number moderated from 0.3 per cent while the annual number was unchanged.

Our inflation challenge reflects a mix of both temporary and persistent factors, including the end of energy rebates.

Treasury estimates that around three quarters of the increase in inflation since the middle of last year to the beginning of this year reflects temporary factors. 

While inflation has been higher than we’d like for longer than we’d like, it’s much lower than what we inherited. 

When we came to office, inflation was north of six per cent and absolutely galloping, it’s now a lot lower than that.

Underlying inflation was around five per cent, now it has a three in front of it. 

We recognise people are still under pressure, which is why we’re rolling out responsible cost of living relief and taking action to shore up fuel supply and ensure Australians are getting a fair go at the bowser.

This includes new legislation introduced today that will double penalties for petrol price misconduct.

We’re rolling out tax cuts for every taxpayer, slashing student debt, cheaper medicines and more bulk billing.

At the same time, we’re getting the budget in better shape. The budget is more than $233 billion better than we inherited and we’ve found more than $114 billion in savings and reprioritisations since coming to office.

The Australian economy is not immune from global uncertainty and volatility, but we’re well placed and well prepared with faster growth than any major advanced economy, low unemployment and solid wages growth.

The Albanese Government’s three main economic priorities are addressing inflation, productivity and resilience, and global uncertainty and today’s figures show why that’s the right approach.

Luke Slawomirski

Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Epworth HealthCare has revealed details of an external review into clinical governance of its gynaecological services.

The review follows a Four Corners investigation revealing allegations that a top gynaecologist performed unnecessary, harmful operations on dozens of women at Epworth Private Hospital.

This case highlights the importance of investigative journalism by Australia’s public broadcaster. The practices of the gynaecologist against whom the allegations have been made were an open secret, with multiple complaints from clinicians and patients over the past five years. It took the ABC’s reporting for the authorities and Epworth hospital to act.

While commercial channels have done some nationally significant investigative journalism over the years, the ABC has had the most impact by far – with Four Corners playing a major role.

In fact, journalist Josh Taylor calls it the “Four Corners effect” – when politicians and institutions scramble to hold an inquiry only after ABC reporting.

The Australia Institute has previously catalogued numerous examples major inquiries that resulted directly from ABC investigations. These include the:

• Fitzgerald Inquiry into Police Misconduct
• Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse
• Financial Services Royal Commission
• Murray–Darling Basin Royal Commission
• Royal Commission into Aged Care
• Inquiry into the Orroral Valley bushfire.

The list goes on.

Our national broadcaster may be maligned in some circles, but it consistently proves its value when it comes to exposing issues that governments, regulators and private operators prefer to ignore.

Bill Browne
Director, Democracy & Accountability Program

There’s a reason that consulting firms call the federal government “the Dairy”: because they milk it for all it’s worth.

The latest milch cow is the Bureau of Meteorology, which has commissioned tech consultants Accenture to build a new climate data website for a cool $16 million.

That’s the starting price. If history is anything to go by, the final bill will be many times that amount.

How do we know? Because last year, BOM launched a website that it originally said would cost $4 million, that actually cost $97 million. $78 million of that went straight to Accenture, after the original $31 million contract was “extended” nine times.  

It would be one thing if the new BOM website was any good, but in words of Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson:

“[The BOM] have hired this company before. It was a shitshow, and I wouldn’t want to see that happen again.”

Consulting firms are very good at putting in a competitive tender. Then, when the client is hooked and can’t say no without losing the whole project, coming back for more and more money.

The Albanese Government has made some positive steps “in-sourcing” work that used to go to expensive for-profit consulting firms, but it is still spending hundreds of millions of dollars on consulting firms.

Not only that, the Government keeps going back to the same dodgy or wasteful suppliers.

Labor has quickly forgiven PwC for misusing government information to help multinationals avoid paying tax and shows no interest in changing the rules so unethical suppliers are banned – as they are in Western Australia and in other democracies around the world. 

The Government won’t stop touching the hot plate however many times it gets burned.

Independent media Lamestream have announced Triple J will be playing a pre-prepared playlist over the next 24 hours, which started with N.W.A’s Express Yourself.

As Lamestream explains:

ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks, a relative newcomer to the public broadcaster, might not be aware of the significance. In 1990, The song was played on a loop for 24 hours, after ABC management told the station to stop playing N.W.A’s Fuk Tha Police. The choice was a reminder of a time when staff took management on and won.

In further news that will shock the Reserve Bank who were sure that inflation was taking off in February, the latest inflation figures out just now showed annual inflation in February fall from 3.8% in January to 3.7%

The monthly figures get pretty wild so it’s best to focus on the trimmed mean (underlying inflation). ON this score, in February prices rose just 0.2% – which would lead to an annual rater of just 2.4% – hardly a sign of inflation going mad.

The important thing though, as I noted earlier is to remember that these figures all cover the time before Iran began getting bombed by the USA and Israel.

So they are nice and show the RBA was wrong to be so worried (gee, who’d a thunk it), but alas they are a bit irrelevant now, as we all know the March figures will show things taking off.

Anyways, as Sarah Henderson rants about ABC employees striking for the first time in two decades, here is her Liberal party and senate colleague gloating on social media about not doing his job and attending the joint sitting of parliament yesterday for the EU president’s address.

We are sure the senator will be condemning this at any moment.

Bill Browne
Director, Democracy & Accountability Program

For nine months, a Senate committee has been looking into “information integrity on climate change and energy”, in other words how commonly “misinformation” (errors) and “disinformation” (lies) are used to undermine climate action, renewable energy and pollution reduction.

Greens chair Senator Peter Whish-Wilson got Labor and Liberal parliamentarians on board for the majority report, which finds that modern technology has made climate misinformation easier to propagate, that there is a “playbook” of climate obstruction funded by fossil fuel interests and that the 2025 election saw “astroturfing” campaigns (industry campaigns masquerading as grassroots community groups.)

The majority recommends that Australia:

• join global efforts to strengthen climate change information integrity,
• resource regulators like ASIC and ACCC to expose corporate greenwashing,
• explore how to make third parties more transparent ahead of election campaigns,
• continue to provide funding to regional and independent media outlets,
• establish better oversight of corporate engagement within the school system,
• require the digital platforms to report more to ACMA,
• funders ARENA and CEFC to consider the “social licence” of renewables projects.

The Greens went further than the majority, including recommending that the Albanese Government progress the truth in political advertising laws that it has been sitting on for two years and creating a public archive of political advertising, limit fossil fuel advertising just as tobacco advertising is banned, and better regulation of social media.

Remarkably, Liberal Senator Andrew McLachlan broke from his National Party colleagues (represented by Matt Canavan) and co-wrote additional comments with independent ACT Senator David Pocock.

Senators McLachlan and Pocock called for truth in political advertising laws before the next election, obligations on social media companies to detect and remove bots and reveal their algorithms, and overhaul lobbying rules.

That leaves Labor as the hold out on truth in political advertising laws, very strange since in its first term the Albanese Government proposed these laws. At the time they blamed the Liberals for stopping truth in political advertising laws – which never made sense, but now leaves them without any excuse since Liberal Senator McLachlan is backing in the laws.

Senator Matt Canavan’s dissenting report says the inquiry was “politicians criticising the people” and showed “little interest in understanding what science is”. He compares climate change to the COVID pandemic, saying “We are still dealing with the rampant inflation that was unleashed because governments panicked and kept the country locked down for too long.”

One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts dedicated his dissenting report “to the people of Australia and our free speech”. He is critical of how little time he and Senator Canavan were allocated to ask questions, and is extremely critical of the United Nations, John Howard, Anthony Albanese, the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology, among others.

New legislation on price gouging has just been introduced to parliament. That sounds good… right?

Price gouging is a real problem. The big spike in inflation set off in 2022 was initially caused by supply issues and Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, but it was made worse by the fact that many of Australia’s big businesses increased prices by more than their cost increased in order to increase their profits.

In the second half of last year this profit push inflation has ramped up again and the war on Iran is likely to make this even worse.

The government has already warned fuel retailers that it has asked the ACCC to keep an eye on their pricing behaviours. Governments love to do this when the public is worried by sudden price increases. A tough cop on the beat.

But here is what they don’t tell you. It’s not illegal to price gouge. If petrol stations want to put up their prices before their costs go up they legally can. If they want to put up their prices by more than their costs to earn a bigger profit, they legally can.

What they can’t do is get together with their competitors and make an agreement to fix the price. They also can’t mislead consumers. So, they can’t for example, say that prices are only going up because their costs have gone up, if that is not true.

But the law doesn’t stop them watching the news and thinking, people are expecting prices to go up, so I’m going to put up my prices. It doesn’t stop them putting up their prices because they see their competitors put up their prices.

In short, the ACCC doesn’t have the power to do much about price gouging. This is why we always hear the government saying “we have the ACCC watching the situation”, followed by crickets.

So, maybe these new laws, just introduced to parliament, will deal with this. Maybe they create new offenses that make price gouging illegal. Maybe they give the ACCC new powers.

Unfortunately, they don’t.

In fact, these new laws don’t give any new powers to the ACCC. All they do is double the penalties for breaking the existing laws, price fixing and misleading consumers.

Is doubling the penalties good? Sure. But it’s not going to stop the price gouging that is already happening. And it is not going to stop the price gouging that is likely just around the corner.

There are still ABC staff covering all the issues Sarah Henderson is having a tantrum about – local radio programs are continuing and staff have not left newsrooms or emergency broadcast positions unattended. Because they know how important their role is, despite how much mud ideologues like Sarah Henderson love to throw at them for doing their jobs.

Only about 60% of the ABC is unionised, which means 40% of the workforce is not protected in this strike action. Managers are usually not covered by protections either, as part of their agreements and there are also casual and short term contract staff who do not have the protections under the fair work act.

So the ABC isn’t grinding to a halt, and the essentials will be covered, but it won’t be the full service it usually is. And it is the first time in two decades they have done this, so it hasn’t been done without thought.

Conservative extremist Liberal senator and all round buzzkill Sarah Henderson, who after losing the lower house seat of Corangamite switched to the senate so she didn’t have to leave parliament, is, as expected having a go at ABC journalists who are on strike for the first time in 20 years today.

Henderson treats criticising the ABC like I do chocolate – loves to overindulge. There is no criticism of the ABC too small for Henderson to stoop to, and today has been like all her special days come at once.

She says the decision by “the ABC to go on strike today is an absolute disgrace”. But it wasn’t the ABC, it was staff. Henderson also has an issue with ABC staff talking about the strike. (Also she didn’t seem to have any problems with her SA Liberal colleague Alex Antic not being present in the joint sitting yesterday, so you know, consistent as always)

I am also incredibly concerned that ABC presenters are hijacking news programs to convey false information about this dispute. This is completely unacceptable. ABC presenters are talking about the fact that this is not a fair deal, and that they’re prosecuting their own case hijacking news programs, which is a breach of their impartiality conditions*.

So I say to the ABC staff, a 10% increase in salary over three years, plus a $1,000 up front by upfront bonus, from my perspective**, is a pretty good deal, at a time when so many Australians are even wondering whether they will be able to keep their job***. So I say, shame on ABC staff who’ve made this decision, Australians deserve much better than this****.

*Impartiality doesn’t apply to their own EBA

**Henderson has a base salary of $226,000 plus more for travel and electorate expenses – and her pay just goes up without her having to think about it, so not sure she is the best arbiter of what makes a ‘pretty good deal’ for workers

***Part of the strike is over the insecure work components in the ABC – which includes staff worried about keeping their jobs

****People keep saying this about the Liberal party too, but that doesn’t seem to change anything.

Another example of just how screwed our view of the economy is and why it elevates how we treat the gas industry.

The private adult education industry is by no means huge. But its wages bill is not that different from the amount of wages paid by the oil and gas industry

The profits are rather different.

And sure, the taxes on profit does go towards the provision of many government services. We have no problems with companies making profits.

But if you’re doing so because you get the gas for free, and then even in the middle of a gigantic boom in prices due to a war you still are not paying any real amount of PRRT then clearly things need to change.

If you want to boast about the size of your industry and how great it is for the economy and when we look at it we see it’s all profits, then sorry, but a 25% tax of your exports is only fair.

Today the Inquiry into arts and cultural philanthropy is holding a hearing in the House of Reps: only they’re asking the wrong questions. 

Australia-wide employment has more than doubled in the last 40 years, whereas employment in arts and entertainment has increased by just less than half that. Arts and entertainment employment has been either stagnant or in decline since 2008-09, while other sectors of the Australian economy have expanded.  

The federal government is flagging philanthropy as a solution. Labor’s special envoy for the arts, Susan Templeman, has called philanthropy “critical” for the arts in Australia and is chairing a new inquiry into arts and cultural philanthropy, which is having its second hearing today. 

But how important is philanthropy to the arts? While there’s no comprehensive figure, a total of $204 million ($238 when adjusted for inflation) was donated to organisations “advancing culture” in 2021, the latest year with data reported by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.  

While $238 million in private philanthropy may sound like a lot of money, it pales in comparison to other funding sources for the arts – “critical” is an adjective much better applied to the role Australian Governments can play in keeping the arts sector afloat. 

 For the full submission from the Australia Institute to the inquiry, click here. 

David Shoebridge has spoken more on his war powers legislation, which would require both chambers of parliament to agree to Australia entering a war before any troops or assistance was sent:

The Albanese Labor Government has dragged Australia into another US forever war, and the public never got a say. 

Having Parliament vote before sending a country to war is common in democracies. That is the case in Germany, France, Finland, Denmark and Spain, to name a few. But the war parties here want to keep making that decision in a dark room that only they can enter.

The majority of Australians do not support Trump and Netanyahu’s war on Iran or the Albanese Labor Government backing it in. This is why the war parties are so resistant to giving Australians a say on this latest disastrous war.

We are living through the chaos of a war that was supported by a handful of powerful people without public consent. If we had this law in place, then the Government would have had to justify their position before committing troops and the public would have had a chance of stopping it. 

Right now we are seeing death and violence spreading across the Middle East, and Australians are feeling the economic impacts with cost-of-living increases and chaos. 

Australians should decide if we go to war, not Washington, not a handful of people in the war parties and not Donald Trump. 

We needed this law before Vietnam, before Afghanistan, before Iraq and we certainly need it now.”

And interesting story out of American’s entertainment news today that Disney and Open AI have ended the investment in the “Sora” AI video platform just 3 months after it began.

Back in December the big news was the $1bn deal with Disney meant you would be able to create AI videos of yourself with Disney characters. It was one of those “wow AI is so huge and unstoppable” moments.

Three months later it is dead.

And here’s the thing about the deal, forget all the talk about goodwill and blah blah, if Disney thought there was a profit to be made it would be all over it and Sora would not be dead.

And if Disney can’t find a profit in AI, then maybe all the talk of big profits and great booms for the economy are just… talk.

This is one of the many problems with AI. Aside from it being a huge energy suck, noisy, ripping off authors and artists, water hungry and produces absolute slop, there really is not a profit to be found.

Much like the DotCom bubble where just annoying you were creating a website would generate massive investment before collapse, AI is an idea in search of someone who actually wants to pay for it.

It’s important because this is not something just happening elsewhere. Investment in datacentres went mad at the end of last year:

That investment was part of what got the RBA so worried about “excess demand” that is raise interest rates twice this year.

And because investment goes towards GDP, it all looks like it is great for the economy… but that assumes the demand for AI will match its boosters claims.

AI likes to boast it can do things quicker. Disney and OpenAI three months are go were talking big; now it is dead. Yep, that really was quick.

The gas industry is getting very worried today – it’s putting out full page adverts claiming that it is trooly rooly important to the economy.

Here’s the thing though about importance to the economy.

When we calculate the size of the economy to work out GDP, industry size is made up essentially of two things – the amount of wages they pay and the profits they make.

This allows mining companies, and especially gas ones to make pretty outrageous claims about how much they contribute to the economy.  

One of the problems with how the economy is treated is that the media, and unfortunately political parties as well, put a much bigger import on profits than wages.

This of course is pretty weird given wages are what helps us survive and also generates all our spending – which actually makes up just over 50% of the entire economy.

A classic example is comparing gas with the administration and support services industry.

The work done by receptionists, payroll staff, travel bookers etc might seem a pretty meagre part of Australia’s economy. Certainly not something that is “vital” .

But when you look at the amount of wages paid and the profit generated by companies in the industry, it actually comes out roughly the same size as the oil and gas sector.

There is however a very big difference in the split of wages and profits:

The gas industry is essentially all profits; bugger all wages.

And great, good for them. But when their profits are coming off of getting more than half of the gas royalty free, and they are paying barely any PRRT despite record export dollars, it is fair to ask, if all you are is profits, surely if you want to say you contribute to the economy you need to have a lot more of them taxed than is currently .

The first flight from the western Sydney airport is going on sale – it will be a flight to Singapore leaving in November. The airport though, opens in October.

Catherine King was asked about it on ABC Sydney radio this morning:

There are other airlines who will announce their tickets going on sale shortly, and so the October date is the opening date for passengers. It’ll open to freight in July, but today Singapore is announcing its tickets are going on sale. First flight, November the 23rd. They’ll go on sale around 1 o’clock today. I expect there’ll be quite a bit of demand for these. It’s a daily flight leaving midnight from Western Sydney International Airport arriving in Singapore at 5am the next morning and obviously while Singapore’s a great destination in and of itself, it’s a terrific hub to be able to get to the rest of the world. Then there’ll be a return flight leaving about 11 o’clock in the morning and hitting Western Sydney around 10:30. So good opportunities for people to pop online.

Another struggling metals smelter will receive a $2 billion bailout from federal and state governments in a bid to shore up manufacturing jobs.

Australia’s second-largest aluminium smelter – Rio Tinto’s Boyne aluminium smelter in the central Queensland town of Gladstone – will be the beneficiary of the cash splash.

The investment will support 1000 jobs at the site and another two thousand other roles around Gladstone, federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres said.

In return, Rio Tinto will pour $7.5 billion into new renewable energy generation and storage projects around Queensland.

The bill for the $2 billion funding boost will be split equally between the Queensland and Federal governments, Senator Ayres said.

“With a considerable public investment, we are catalysing a fourfold private investment that will build out the renewable energy grid and keep thousands of good regional jobs in central Queensland,” he said in a statement on Wednesday morning.

The partnership between the smelter and the two governments would allow the smelter to continue operating until at least 2040 while building out Queensland’s renewable energy grid, Rio Tinto aluminium and lithium chief executive Jérôme Pécresse said.

“As fossil fuels become increasingly expensive, this investment, combined with the power purchase agreements we have already signed, positions Boyne to be among the world’s first aluminium smelters underpinned by solar and wind power,” he said.

The Boyne smelter has been operating in Gladstone since 1982.

It refines raw alumina – produced from bauxite ore – into aluminium and then casts the molten metal into products, ready to ship.

Last year, the federal government also helped bail out Glencore’s copper smelter in Queensland, the Whyalla steelworks in South Australia and Nyrstar smelters in Hobart and Port Pirie.

Here is the official statement on that legislation Jim Chalmers is putting through:

The conflict overseas shouldn’t be an excuse to profit off Australians.

We’re putting petrol companies on notice. We won’t cop big corporates treating Australian consumers like mugs.

We’re calling on the Liberals and Nationals to vote for this Bill that will legislate higher penalties for petrol companies that do the wrong thing by Australians.

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Doubling Penalties for ACCC Enforcement) Bill 2026 introduced today doubles penalties for false or misleading conduct and cartel behaviour (to a maximum of $100 million per offence), across the economy.

We had already increased penalties to up to $50 million – five times higher than what they were – and we’ve given the ACCC more tools, like extending petrol price monitoring powers and the ability to issue on the spot fines.

This legislation will mean even bigger penalties for servos and suppliers that rip off Australian motorists.

This is on top of all the other action we’re taking to address fuel affordability and security:

• Boosting fuel supply by releasing 20 per cent of the baseline Minimum Stockholding Obligation for petrol and diesel.
• Getting more fuels into the market by temporarily amending fuel standards.
• Our work with the ACCC to authorise major suppliers to get fuel where it’s needed in the regions and ramp up fuel price monitoring.
• Engaging with international partners to strengthen supply chains and fuel security.

The recent conflict in the Middle East has compounded uncertainty in the global economy and led to significant volatility in oil and petrol prices.

We’re not immune from uncertainty and volatility in the global economy, but this action is all about protecting consumers and holding petrol suppliers and retailers to account.

Ahhh, remember when everyone in power was pretending that price gouging wasn’t a thing and wasn’t actually driving inflation? Good times.

Anyways, turns out price gouging is a thing and it not only screws over people, it also screws over the economy (which is what has driven this response) so the government is now introducing legislation to give the ACCC more powers to go after price gougers and double the penalties for those companies found to be gouging.

You can find the legislation here

Amnesty International now has to release statements reminding people of what a war crime is, because we have normalised so many crimes people forget that there are actual international laws around this stuff:

USA/Iran: Trump’s warning that USA will attack Iran’s power plants is a threat to commit war crimes

Responding to statements by United States President Donald Trump that the USA would postpone strikes on Iran’s power plants and energy infrastructure by five days pending the outcome of discussions on the “resolution of hostilities”, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director of Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, said:

“President Donald Trump’s must retract deeply irresponsible threats of acts that would unleash catastrophic harm on millions of civilians.  The decision to not proceed with such attacks must be based on the USA’s obligations under international humanitarian law to avoid civilian harm – not the outcome of political negotiations.  Going through with such attacks would cause devastating long-term consequences and severely undermine the international legal framework designed to protect civilians in wartime.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s authorities must also retract their threats to retaliate by striking power plants used by the USA and Israel as well as economic, industrial, and other energy infrastructure in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. They must end all unlawful attacks against energy infrastructure and desalination facilities in the GCC states. Desalination plants are critical for ensuring drinking water supply to millions of civilians in an arid region. They must further end unlawful attacks on commercial vessels in Strait of Hormuz. Iranian authorities must also immediately restore full internet access.” 

“Intentionally attacking civilian infrastructure such as power plants is generally prohibited. Even in the limited cases that they qualify as military targets, a party still cannot attack power plants if this may cause disproportionate harm to civilians. Given that such power plants are essential for meeting the basic needs and livelihoods of tens of millions of civilians, attacking them would be disproportionate and thus unlawful under international humanitarian law, and could amount to a war crime.

“By threatening such strikes, the USA is effectively indicating its willingness to plunge an entire country into darkness, and to potentially deprive its people of their human rights to life, water, food, healthcare and adequate standard of living, and to subject them to severe pain and suffering. 

“When power plants collapse, horrific consequences cascade instantly. Water pumping stations would stop functioning, clean water would become scarce, and preventable diseases would spread. Hospitals would lose electricity and fuel, forcing surgeries to be cancelled and life-support machines to shut down. Food production and distribution networks would collapse, deepening hunger and causing widespread food scarcity. Many businesses would also shut down with devastating economic consequences including mass unemployment. 

“Causing catastrophic harm to the civilian electrical capacity – at a time when the Iranian authorities’ deliberate prolonged internet shutdown has already left Iran’s population isolated – would sever people’s last remaining connection to the outside world, including access to satellite television, at a time of extreme danger.

“President Trump must immediately retract these dangerous threats and commit the US to upholding international humanitarian law.”

It’s like Christmas for Liberal senator Sarah Henderson this morning, with the notorious ABC hater getting to speak about the ABC strike. We imagine it was very difficult for the senator to sleep last night, given how excited she must be to unleash her latest anti-ABC tirade.

For those who don’t know/remember, Henderson was an ABC employee in the 1990s, and hosted the Victorian 7.30 report (back when there was state specific programs).

Since coming to parliament, and particularly the senate, criticising the ABC has been her favourite past time. Everyone needs a hobby, I guess.

Trade minister Don Farrell has been allowed out in front of cameras this morning, so he can defend the EU trade deal, which has upset The Farmers’ Federation.

To be fair, free trade deals do usually screw over local industry as well as workers. Sure, Australian producers get access to EU markets, but they also get access to ours. And many domestic producers only supply the local market, so it makes it harder for them to compete (especially in Australia where we are a sucker for a French/Italian/Greek/Spanish label on produce and products we produce better and at a higher quality here (like tinned tomatoes for example). So it is understandable that they are upset, and to the NFF’s credit, they have been consistent on this (although the criticism tends to be a bit more denuded when its a Coalition government)

But free trade agreements aren’t about trade – they are about diplomacy and defence. And that is why this one, after not being able to come to an agreement for years, was suddenly able to be agreed upon – the EU is gathering allies and we are looking for allies, so the time now suits it.

Also yesterday, Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne wrote to Amanda Rishworth as the workplace relations minister, and Jim Chalmers, calling for mutual obligations to be entirely paused during the energy shock. The Antipoverty Centre made this call earlier this week, given the soaring cost of fuel most heavily impacts the financially vulnerable.

We will soon be looking at supply rationing, but we always do rationing of things like fuel – we just do it through price. Need to cut back on demand of something? Increase the price, so it becomes something that consumers have to think about purchasing (or not). This of course, most heavily impacts the poor, who are always more vulnerable to price spikes in every day necessities (like fuel) because they can’t afford to ever get more than what they immediately need. It’s very rare that someone on unemployment benefits would ever be able to fill their car entirely with fuel, for example, which makes them more vulnerable to daily price fluxuations.

So when you have to use that fuel, or catch a taxi or ride share (which have also increased in price in line with the fuel increases) to go to a five minute tick and flick (if you’re lucky enough that your agency remembers to do this, and doesn’t get your benefits cancelled) interview with a private job provider, or perform unpaid work for the dole, then you are losing even more money and agency.

Allman-Payne says the government needs to take the calls to raise unemployment payments above the poverty line seriously, and treat the current economic conditions like what happened during covid and respond accordingly (welfare was immediately doubled).

Penny Allman-Payne:

Albanese and Labor have thrown their full support behind Trump and Netanyahu’s war of aggression on Iran, which has plunged West Asia into turmoil and upended the global economy.

While all of us are now having to live with the predictable consequences of that, it’s people on low incomes and income support payments who will suffer the most from surging oil prices and the downstream impacts on groceries and other prices.

With fuel going through the roof, many people trapped in the Targeted Compliance Framework will simply be unable to afford to drive to appointments or travel to Work for the Dole sites. Under Labor’s harmful regime, failure to complete these activities places their payments at risk.

Labor can’t endorse and provide material support for an unjust and illegal war, and then simply wash their hands of its inevitable consequences. This is an emergency, and it deserves an emergency response. 

Labor must immediately pause mutual obligation requirements for people on income support, and they must raise the rate of all Centrelink payments above the poverty line in the May budget.”

Yesterday in the senate, the Nationals Bridget McKenzie joined with the Greens and David Pocock in calling for a national approach to making public transport free during the fuel affordability crisis.

It’s actually been very interesting watching conservatives embrace what Queensland Labor’s Steven Miles put in place with 50cent fares, which they originally rubbished but proved so popular have had to keep. Now, they are calling for it in the federal senate.

The ACT government (which is a Labor/Greens led government) has become the first jurisdiction to support the call. The push is for the federal government to coordinate a federal approach to free public transport across the country while fuel prices continue to sky rocket.

The senate will debate David Shoebridge’s war powers bill today, which, if adopted, would mean that both chambers of parliament would have to approve sending troops to overseas conflicts.

It won’t pass, because it won’t get government support and while the Coalition do like annoying the government in the senate by passing Greens motions from time to time, it won’t want to signal that it is looking at actual accountability when it comes to sending Australia to war.

Right now, the government decides. It’s technically supposed to be the governor-general who signs off on sending ground troops in, but as Howard worked out with Iraq, there are ways around that too, if you’re motivated enough to join an illegal war and want to get around pesky issues like a GG wanting to see legal advice before signing their name to it.

Governments don’t like to give up power and this one is no exception. We have sent 85 military personnel to the UAE and also sent the Wedgetail aircraft (which gathers intelligence) and medium-range air missiles. So as much as Anthony Albanese likes to say we are not a participant in this latest illegal war the US and Israel have started, we are.

Housing minister Clare O’Neil has released the Housing Australia update – “the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council’s first Quarterly Outlook shows building approvals and commencements have both increased by 17 per cent since the Accord began, while more than 219,000 homes have been completed over the past five quarters”.

The government has a target of 1.2 million new homes over the next five years. It is not going to achieve that, but having the target means that more homes have been built than otherwise would have. (Although that is going to get even harder given the fuel crisis the US and Israel have created, given that PVC pipes, which is kinda important to the new build process, are made from fuel products, and we don’t make them here – we import them. And they are already getting harder to access, which means that builds are going to start slowing down again because of supply chain issues).

O’Neil wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that new homes were being built ’10 per cent faster’ and “real construction costs” were stabilising – for the last five quarters they have been 0.9 per cent lower. That is not going to be the case moving forward, but I guess you take the wins when you can as a minister.

A reminder though – supply isn’t the problem in our housing market. As Everyone’s Home Maiy Azize says, it is a distribution problem. And the way you fix that is through tax reform, particularly through the CGT discount.

Which, for the first time in a long time, is actually on the table. Let’s see shall we?

The Peter Whish-Wilson led inquiry into climate integrity information (also known as the mis/disinformation inquiry) tabled its report late last night.

You can find that here.

Whish-Wilson:

This inquiry was primarily intended to raise education and awareness on this critical matter, and start a national conversation on what needs to be done to improve transparency and accountability around false, misleading, and deceptive information that has for years challenged science and undermined climate action in Australia.

Evidence was provided that a ‘denial machine’ has deliberately obstructed climate and energy policy for decades in Australia. This ‘denial machine’ has included conservative think tanks, law firms, PR firms, consultancies, third-party campaign groups and some conservative media outlets. 

For those who care about a safe climate future, this is deeply concerning.

This is a complex issue and requires a comprehensive set of solutions to address it, and the Greens are pleased with a number of recommendations made by the Committee to improve climate information integrity.   

There was a majority report that the Greens, Liberal and Labor MPs on the committee managed to come to, including 21 recommendations, including exploring “funding models for independent monitoring support (for example, via an Australian Internet Observatory) to track hidden digital influence ecosystems and provide independent transparency and accountability of platforms”.

Glenn Connley

A hearing will be held at Parliament House today, looking at ways to attract more donations to the struggling arts sector, as part of a Parliamentary Inquiry into Arts and Cultural Philanthropy.

An Australia Institute submission to the inquiry has found that asking artists to beg for more money from donors ignores the much bigger issue of chronic underfunding of the arts.

The arts sector was devastated by the COVID pandemic and has never truly recovered. Once-iconic music festivals have been cancelled. Venues have closed. Artists are living in poverty.

The long-running cost-of-living crisis has left Australian consumers with very little money to spend on artistic pleasures like a trip to a gallery, buying a book, watching a movie or seeing a band.

The submission states that “this is a critical time for supporting Australian arts and culture”.

Key points:

• In real terms, arts funding is at its lowest point since 2017/18
• Australia has the 7th-lowest arts spending in the OECD
• Despite the cost of living crisis, arts spending has been cut by more than half a billion dollars a year
• While Australia-wide employment has grown by 13% since the end of the COVID pandemic, the arts sector has only just returned to pre-pandemic levels

“Artists, authors, musicians and other creatives have a huge impact on Australian culture, how Australians see themselves, and how the world sees Australians,” said Skye Predavec, Researcher at The Australia Institute.

“Australia’s arts and culture cannot be produced overseas, and cannot be moved offshore. It must be made here.

“The arts sector is in crisis, still recovering from COVID and the cost-of-living crisis. It needs support to survive.

“Australian governments have a duty to invest in the arts, but in real terms, their arts funding is at its lowest point since 2017. Philanthropy is too small to fill the gap left behind by hundreds of millions of dollars in underinvestment.”

ABC journalists are striking today from 11am, for the first time in 20 years. It’s a 24-hour strike and will mean that the flagship evening programs will be replaced be replaced by BBC content (for the most part).

Not the entire workforce is unionised – I think it is at around 60% these days, and a lot of the non-unionised workforce (who aren’t protected in strike action) will be working, along with casuals and short term contract staff who don’t feel they have the option of joining the strike, given the insecure nature of their position.

So you’ll still be seeing some familiar ABC names and faces for the next 24 hours, but for the most part, it is tools down.

At 11:30am the February inflation figures will come out.

My suspicion is they will show the inflation has increased a touch from 3.8% in January.

My suspicion as well is that within 5 minutes we will have all begun to ignore them as out of date. Because remember these figures will be based on an average of prices across all of February, and alas for the ABS, (and those civilians in Iran) on 28 February, the USA and Israel began attacking Iran.

Take petrol prices. In Sydney the average across February was already out of date by the end of the month, and even the most recent average for what we have seen in March seems woefully old news:

So whatever the figures come in at, the very sad thing is we know that the March figures will be worse. And even sadder is that the RBA will try to fix this by raising interest rates because it believes the reason inflation is rising is that too few people are unemployed, and not that Donald Trump and Netanyahu are deranged war criminals.

Hello and welcome back to parliament and the Point Live, where we all get to descend into the abyss together. FUN!

It’s inflation figure day and after the pomp and ceremony of the EU president’s visit yesterday, it’s back to what are we going to do with the worsening global economic shocks fuelled by the US and Israel’s decision to wage war against Iran, an opponent that actually has the capability to fight back and also follow through.

Trump now claims that he has achieved regime change and the US has found someone to talk to. Which – Trump lies. But the US is heavily invested in getting out of Iran as quickly as possible, and that self interest is a driving force for Australia’s number one ‘ally’. Israel has been urging for a ground invasion, and it’s bombing of Gaza and Lebanon have not stopped, so there is obviously no back down there.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed and are still being killed. Fuel price increases cause domestic pain, and the economic pain coming down the pipeline is going to hurt the most economically vulnerable in Australia the most, but let’s not forget who is paying the biggest price here.

The ABS will release the February inflation figures later this morning and that’s expected to show an uptick in inflation. Why? Because the US and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February and petrol prices increased almost overnight. It’s averaged out over the month, but that’s going to cause an issue.

We’ll be covering that, the government response and everything else that comes along today. You have Amy Remeikis with you. I burnt the first coffee, so I am staring at the second on the stove like a very tired hawk. I may burn the second. Come along and find out.