The Point Live: Coalition continues to tank as parliament enters its final week. As it happened.

Late last week ABC Brisbane’s Ellen Fanning interviewed Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh about his talk to a mining industry conference. The transcript has just gone up on Andrew Leigh’s site.

Andrew Leigh’s answers were both shocking and  unsurprising, and give a good insight into why the government is failing on mining, green minerals, etc.

Fanning had already quizzed the Assistant Minister on why Australia was getting so little money for gas exports and then pushed him on whether “we will get what we’re owed for our critical minerals?”

To respond that “it’s just a great opportunity to be part of these supply chains” shows that Leigh and the Government don’t get it. Being “a part of the supply chain” is enough for them. Just having the big countries buy stuff from us “makes us a power player” apparently.

Nonsense. The great opportunity is to make a lot of money and to develop new, clean industries in Australia. This will require a match-fit tax and royalty system, big public investments and a government that will stand up to the companies and governments that want Australian resources on the cheap, at any environmental cost.

Being a “power player” in resource markets requires using the power you have. Giving gas away, giving coal away and weakening environment laws to suit mining companies are not the actions of a power player.

Look at Saudi Arabia and Colombia. They do not just sit back and “be a part” of supply chains. They throw their weight around. Saudi Arabia just about derailed climate talks to keep their oil money coming in. Colombia used its position in coal markets to pressure Israel on genocide, which Australia then undermined.

That is how power players act. And if Australia is to get what it is owed for “critical” minerals, Australian governments will need to take note.

You can read more on the legal and advocacy experts warning against giving police welfare powers here

There are a lot of concerns, but among the most pressing:

Violation of the presumption of innocence and due process
The proposed amendments would allow the Minister for Home Affairs to cancel social security
payments for individuals who are merely subject to an outstanding arrest warrant—that is, individuals
who have not been arrested, charged, tried, or convicted, and who may be entirely unaware that a
warrant exists. This punishes people who are legally innocent, directly contradicting the presumption
of innocence, a fundamental principle of Australian common law3
that is expressly protected under Article 14(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Australia is a State Party. Article 14(2) provides that “everyone charged with a criminal offence shall have the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.”

Ministerial power without procedural safeguards or independent review
The amendment would grant the Minister for Home Affairs personal decision-making power over
individual welfare cases based on police requests, with no access to merits review—only the limited avenue of judicial review. This contrasts sharply with the normal social security framework where, with very narrow exceptions, decisions are made by delegates applying legislated criteria and are
subject to independent appeal and review through the Administrative Review Tribunal.
Under the proposed Schedule 5, a person could have their payment cancelled without being aware a
warrant exists, with no requirement to revoke the cancellation once they have been arrested, no
provision for back-payment if found innocent, and no meaningful way to challenge the decision before
losing their income.

This concentration of power removes the checks and balances that protect against arbitrary decision-making, political interference, and errors, creating a parallel system where social security recipients are denied the procedural protections fundamental to the rule of law.
From a constitutional perspective, Schedule 5 risks blurring the separation of powers that underpins
Australia’s system of government. It enables an executive officer, the Minister, to impose what is
effectively a punitive sanction on the basis of mere allegation, without judicial determination or due
process. In substance, this power authorises the executive to impose a measure that is punitive in
nature and traditionally reserved to the judiciary, blurring the distinction between administrative and
judicial functions

Hello and welcome back to The Point Live, where we have made it to the final week of parliament! Huzzah! We did it, Joe.

Almost.

Labor looks like extending the final week so that the parliament sits on Friday as well so it can pass its mining friendly environment laws, now that the mining industry seems to have pushed the Liberals into agreeing to negotiate on the bill (it had been pushed into March next year by way of an inquiry, but as we said at the time, these things can always be changed if a deal is made).

This all comes as the Coalition falls to 42% in the latest Newspoll and Sussan Ley is beaten by ‘don’t know’ as preferred leader of the Liberal party. (We predicted this too – turns out not standing for anything DOES end up being an electoral liability).

While the decline of the Coalition continues to suck up all the oxygen, Labor is continuing to get its own way and doing a bunch of things no one asked it to, including upending the presumption of innocence and pushing legislation that will give police powers over welfare payments. Labor wants to pass a law that allows police to recommend cancelling the welfare payments of someone suspected of a crime – not convicted, just suspected. Right now, they say it will only be in the worst case scenarios, but the thing with these laws is that they end up being applied to everyone. Especially protesters.

More than a hundred experts and advocacy workers have co-signed a statement on why it’s a very bad idea, but the government is trying to push the legislation through the senate, with it re-appearing on the list for this morning.

We will keep you updated on that, and everything else that is going on. Mike Bowers, on loan from The New Daily, is roaming the halls for us, and you have a whole team of experts ready to let you know all the missing information and context surrounding what the media is talking about.

It is going to be a three coffee morning. This week is going to be tough, so I am trying to ease into it. I also have one last chocolate frog, which a lovely friend of the blog gifted me last week following an event and which I have been saving for this very day. Treat yourself.

Ready? Let’s get into it.