The Point Live: Aukus in trouble with Sth Korea deal, environmental laws bring less transparency. As it happened.

Yesterday in the parliament, the house of representatives were discussing amendments to the government bill to compensate people for the unlawful Centrelink debt repayments, which is a bit of a bandaid solution to some of the issues surrounding a different type of unlawful debt to Robodebt.

Yes I know it is confusing, but stay with me here.

Among the amendments, the government slipped in one which is, totally unrelated to this bill, which would give police the power to recommend the suspension or cancellation of a person’s Centrelink benefits, before they are convicted.

The chatter around the parliament is that this is the government’s attempts to address criticises Desi Freeman received benefits, but it will apply to anyone the police decide should have benefits cancelled. Before a conviction from the courts. This amendment and the ‘reasoning’ pretty much guarantees that the Coalition will vote for the bill, blocking the Greens from negotiating in the senate.

This didn’t get a lot of attention yesterday, but it is a pretty major step and also conflates powers between the police and the public service without any input from the courts.

There was an inquiry into this bill a few weeks ago, which didn’t raise this issue- there was nothing in the bill or the department’s evidence that this was coming – the government has surprised everyone with this amendment and from the quick conversations I have had with advocates, there doesn’t seem to have been much consultation about it, even about unintended consequences.

Today has been deliberately chosen for the introduction of Labor’s environmental protection ‘reforms’ into the parliament – it is five years today that Graeme Samuel handed his review into then-environment minister Sussan Ley.

Watt is using the anniversary to start his merry-go-round of media talking about the need for the laws. At a doorstop today he was asked how negotiations to pass the legislation was going and said:

What I’ve heard since Sussan Ley sent that silly letter to the Prime Minister saying that we should split the bill, is that even business groups don’t support doing so.

She put forward this idea that we should only proceed at this point in time with the matters that business groups want to see delivered, such as streamlining our approvals.

But even business groups have been out there saying it was a silly idea, and they recognise that we’ve got to pass a balanced package that delivers for both the environment and for business because that’s the way that we will have enduring, lasting reform that delivers for the environment and for business.
Since that time, I have met again with Angie Bell, the Shadow Minister for Environment, I think that’s the fifth or sixth time that I’ve met her and I’ve met a similar number of times with the Greens Spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young.

So, we’re at a stage where both the Coalition and the Greens are flagging issues that they would want to see dealt with in order to pass the legislation. We haven’t seen any draft amendments yet, that’s understandable, people will be still working on that at the moment.

But we’ll work our way through this and I’ve always said that we’re open to passing this bill with the support of either the Coalition or the Greens.

If either side sets ridiculous demands for us, then we’ve got another option to pass these laws. My purpose in this is to pass these laws as quickly as we can and deliver a balanced package that delivers for both the environment and for business.

I would bet my two cats that this didn’t come up at the dinner Anthony Albanese attended with Donald Trump last night. Save the Children reports at least 52 children were killed in Israel’s latest breach of the ceasefire in the last 24 hours:

At least fifty-two children were reported to be among those killed yesterday by renewed airstrikes from Israeli forces in Gaza.

Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, said:

These reports are excruciating. After some weeks of cautious optimism and hopes of rebuilding Gaza, children and families are once again reliving scenes of fear and loss.

This cannot become the new normal under a ceasefire. A lasting ceasefire must mean safety, relief, and recovery for children not continued suffering. It must be fully respected and upheld.

We are pleading: stop this now. Protect the ceasefire, protect children, and give Gaza’s families a step towards the genuine peace they have been waiting for.”

I have seen some of the images – no doubt you have too – and I couldn’t sleep last night as their faces lived just behind my eyelids. I couldn’t stop thinking that these children would have been excited for when the ceasefire was announced, and maybe even had hope. There was a newborn I saw, perfect in form (the shockblast from the weapons Israel uses can literally crush your insides, without leaving a mark on the outside) and I couldn’t help but think that maybe their parents saw them as the dawn of a new future. They were only a week old, born a week or so after the ‘ceasefire’ was put in place – and was still killed by a bomb.

We reported a little earlier that Angus Taylor has decided the best way forward, is to step outside of all the Coalition mess and just focus on things he is doing. He is the shadow minister for defence, but is using his member for Hume hat to make the issue of the Tahmoor coal mine go national.

The decision to stand down hundreds of workers at the Tahmoor coal mine is deeply disappointing and will have serious consequences for the workers, families and small businesses who depend on the mine.

My first concern is for the employees and their families who are affected by this decision. Operations at the mine have been scaled back for several months, leaving workers without answers, suppliers out of pocket, and the local community in a prolonged state of uncertainty.

For months, the community has been patient and hopeful that GFG Alliance would deliver on its promises, but that patience has now worn thin.

 GFG needs to be honest about the future of Tahmoor.

Earlier this week, I wrote to Mr Sanjeev Gupta to make clear that GFG’s management of Tahmoor has failed to provide the stability, financial integrity, and long-term certainty required for sustainable operations.

I put two choices before Mr Gupta. Either restart the mine, or, if that is not possible, pursue an orderly exit to allow new ownership to restore the colliery’s viability.

The Tahmoor Colliery is a critical asset for the region and for Australia’s steel and resources industries. With the right leadership and investment, I am confident Tahmoor can once again prosper, securing jobs, supporting local businesses, and delivering long-term economic benefits for the community.

Here is what the chamber looked like as Tanya Plibersek delivered this statement on domestic and family violence. By the time the Liberal party’s Melissa McIntosh delivered her statement in support of the report, the Coalition had made it into the chamber. But they had missed most of the opening statement.

Tanya Plibersek also addresses the work which is being done in First Nations communities:

The devastating reality is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are 33 times more likely than other Australian women to be hospitalized due to family violence, and up to seven times more likely to be homicide victims.

Right now, we’re finalising ‘Strong ways, Our voices’, the first standalone Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander plan to end family, domestic and sexual violence, which has been developed in close partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

We continue to work closely with Aboriginal and Torres, Strait Islander peoples across the country, so that government policies and investment will have the greatest impact.

Tanya Plibersek talks about a new inquiry the government is establishing:

We are under no illusion that there is always more to learn. There is always more to do.

That’s why today I’m announcing the launch of an inquiry into domestic, family and sexual violence related suicide.

The inquiry will be undertaken by the house standing committee on social policy and legal affairs, chaired by the member for Boothby, because experts have told us that suicide risk for victims can be amplified through feelings of entrapment, fear of the perpetrator, and the cumulative effects of violence, both during and after a relationship.

It’s vital we continue to understand the pervasive and far reaching impacts of gender based violence if we are to effectively prevent it, it is an unimaginable tragedy for some women that life with the fear of abuse becomes intolerable.

The last parliament session of the week is underway and it opened with Tanya Plibersek delivering the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission’s Yearly Report to Parliament.

Last year, the Prime Minister convened an urgent national Cabinet meeting on gender based violence.

National cabinet agreed to strengthen our collective efforts under the national plan, through the rapid review of prevention approaches.

Since that report was delivered in August last year, we have accelerated our efforts, and today, Minister Gallagher and I have released a public update on progress towards recommendations made by that rapid review.

We’re supporting essential front line services with $700 million in new matched funding with the states and territories to support women and children at risk to reach safety.

We’re focusing on sexual violence and being informed by the Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry into justice responses to sexual violence, investing over $21 million to expand trauma informed legal services and pilot new roles to help victims of sexual violence navigate the justice system, we’ve invested $3.9 billion in the new access to justice partnership, including $800 million for Family Violence legal services, the largest amount invested in Australia’s history. This follows our changes to family law to make sure the system considers family violence risk and places the best interests of children at the center of all parenting decisions, we’re taking action to deal with high risk perpetrators, investing over $82 million to detect, monitor and intervene earlier with serial domestic violence offenders.

We are supporting the recovery of children who’ve experienced violence, investing over $81 million to expand services like child specific counseling, because children deserve to grow up safe, happy and healthy.

We will never break the cycle of violence, until they can.

Lidia Thorpe also addressed the lack of action around the attack on people in Camp Sovereignty during the first ‘March for Australia’ rallies, which were supported by neo-Nazis. Thorpe says that despite the attack meeting he hate crimes threshold in her opinion, there has been no action at a federal level:

There’s a petition with over 400,000 signatures to call on this government to make it a hate crime & we’ve heard nothing from the Prime Minister. So when a synagogue or a Mosque is attacked in this country, the prime minister is all over it. But when it’s Aboriginal sacred site, he must be hiding under the desk somewhere, because he is not calling it out. And it’s an absolute disgrace for the prime minister to be ducking and weaving on calling this a hate crime and standing up for First Peoples in this country.

Independent senator Lidia Thorpe held a quick doorstop interview this morning where she spoke about the racial discrimination act and while the 50th anniversary isn’t all sunshine and rainbows:

We know that in the 50 years that the Racial Discrimination Act has been around, that the government of the day decided they would suspend it so they could be racist and put in the Northern Territory intervention.

Thorpe said that both the Coalition and Labor had abused the spirit of the Act when it suited them and despite the Racial Discrimination Commissioner commissioning a report asking politicians to undergo anti-racism training, it is still unclear how many have actually done it “given its still a racist place and the racism in this building continues every day”.

So there’s nothing to celebrate there.