Thu 27 Nov
This blog, and the parliamentary year, are now closed.
Well, Anthony Albanese is still talking on this dixer about how the environmental law reforms have been received. But it can’t be any worse than the dixer that Sussan Ley gifted him, so we are calling time.
Give yourself a special carb for getting through all of this.
It paints a growing horror story of systemic racism in our judicial and policing systems.
In the September quarter 403.7 men were imprisoned per 100,000 men in Australia, that was down on 405.9 in the June quarter but well above the 384 average across 2023.
But the real story is when we break down imprison rates by Indigenous and non-Indigenous persons. Since 2023 the rates of non-indigenous men imprisoned has remained steady while the rates for Indigenous men have risen substantially
The story for women is much the same. While women are much less likely than men to be in prison, the rate for Indigenous women compared to non-Indigenous is just as bad and again has seen more Indigenous women imprisoned over the past 3 years compared to non-Indigenous
Indigenous men are 17 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous men, while Indigenous women are a shocking 27 times more likely than their non-Indigenous counterparts.
Such a growing disparity is a true disgrace of Australian society. Indigenous people are much more likely to be given a custodial sentence than non-Indigenous.
But of course the problem does not only being with people’s interactions with the law – Indigenous people are much more likely to be unemployed, to live in poverty and to live further away from vital services and support.
These figures are just the end result of a society that remains riven with racism.
Tony Burke takes a dixer to say:
We have in this 48th Parliament, since the election, because we have an Albanese Labor government, cut 20 per cent of student debt.
Because we have an Albanese Labor government having cheaper medicines.
Because we have an Albanese Labor government protecting penalty rates for Australian workers. Because we have an Albanese Labor government 5 per cent deposits for first home buyers.
And add to that today because we have an Albanese Labor government, long awaited environmental reforms… Hear, hear!
And I might say Australian content obligations for streamers. Hear, hear!
But that approach to delivery, which we see in the work of the Parliament, for other members of Parliament, the approach to delivery would be better represented at Christmas time by the movies that people watch at the end of the year.
Because the great Christmas story, the Christmas Carol, I suggest they all watch a version of it, probably the muppet version of the Christmas Carol, and in doing so don’t focus on the tragedy of tiny Tim.
…They should watch out for the ghosts of Christmas past because we had two of them today. The ghosts of Christmas past where their former Prime Minister referring to Liberals today as ‘Insane conversations about energy’, where he said, ‘Energy policy should be determined by engineering and economics not ideology and idiocy.”
The other ghost of Christmas past, the member for New England.
Who was the deputy to Malcolm Turnbull, has decided to declare today that he will refuse to join any political party that will have him as a leader.
Because it won’t be long before they do move on from that movie and with Love Actually we’ll have the member for New England turning up at a Queensland doorstep for a different party holding a sign saying ‘To me you are perfect’.
But the Leader of the Opposition, while those opposite are watching… The Leader of the Opposition can spend that time watching Home Alone.
The member for Hinkler who is not Keith Pitt asks a very stupid question. One – do you think most Australians know or care what COP is? Two – do you think most Australians know or care what the National Security Committee is? Three – do you think most Australians knows or cares what Chris Bowen actually does?
Stupid.
My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. How many meetings of the National Security Committee of cabinet which deals with important energy security issues, does the minister, who works part-time, expect to miss while he’s overseas at his full-time job as president of COP negotiations?
Albanese takes this, as he says he is the head of the NSC:
It’s actually a breach of the law to talk about what happens at the National Security Committee.
In September, the Senate revealed that the Albanese Government had secretly agreed to pay Nauru up to $2.5 billion to resettle the NZYQ cohort (of about 350 people). This would involve about $400 million up front and up to $70 million annually, depending on how many people resettle there. Media coverage on this deal has highlighted concerns about its secrecy and high cost. These are exacerbated because the government refuses to release any details.
As a refresher, the NZYQ cohort is a group of over 300 people who have had their visa cancelled or been refused a visa but for whom there is “no real prospect of removal from Australia becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future”. This could be because they are stateless, they are refugees or otherwise entitled to protection or there is a practical barrier (such as being physically or mentally unfit). Previously, this cohort was being kept in detention until they could be deported (effectively indefinite detention). In 2023, the High Court ruled that the government simply deciding to hold these people in effectively indefinite detention was unconstitutional, meaning these people would have to be released. As some of these people have committed serious crimes (though have served their sentence and would likely be released if they were citizens), there has been considerable media attention on the group.
This week, there is more concerning news about the Nauru deal. Most of it brought to you by Greens Senator David Shoebridge, who has used the powers and privileges of the Senate to bring some new information to light.
Firstly, there are allegations of Nauruan corruption, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald:
Nauruan President David Adeang was suspected of money laundering and corruption by Australian authorities three years before he signed a fresh $2.5 billion deal with the Albanese government in exchange for taking in non-citizens Australia cannot detain.
Adeang and Nauru’s former president, Lionel Aingimea, were implicated in more than $3 million worth of suspicious transactions in nine months, according to warnings from financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC. Many were linked to a company traced to Aingimea’s wife that was subcontracted by an Australian firm running the offshore detention regime.
Secondly, there are concerns that Nauru may attempt to return this cohort (which includes refugees) to their home countries. As reported in the ABC:
Nauruan President David Adeang says members of the NZYQ cohort, many of whom are refugees, could be returned to their home countries before the 30-year-long agreement with Australia lapses, according to a translation of his comments.
I thought this was a dixer, but nope it is just the worst tactics team in opposition history phoning it in.
Sussan Ley:
In his self-described year of delivery, and after 3.5 years of Labor, the Prime Minister has delivered the largest decline in living standards in the developed world, lower productivity, more debt, higher inflation and now, as many economists warn, the real prospect of higher interest rates. Prime Minister, on this final sitting day of 2025, will the Prime Minister finally take responsibility for all these failures?
Albanese takes this as a dixer, because of course you would:
We have, of course, reduced debt, reduced the interest that would have been paid on debt, because we turned their budget deficits into a budget surplus in our first year, we turned their budget deficit into a surplus in our second year, and produced a reduced deficit in our third year.
Our economy is growing. Very unusually, across the developed world, we have had zero quarters of negative growth. Inflation is down to half of what it was under those opposite. Interest rates have come down three times this year.
Wages have increased eight quarters in a row. They’re growing at the fastest face and pace since 2012.
Since 2012, last time Labor what is in government. We had the lowest average unemployment rate of any government in 50 years, 1.2 million additional jobs, three out of five full-time and four out of five in the private sector.
We have the small gender pay gap on record. We have fewer days lost to industrial disputes compared to those opposite. We have a record number of small businesses, we have solid business investment and we have delivered a tax cut for every taxpayer which combined with the wages growth means that people are earning more and keeping more of what they earn.
Those opposite want people to Order. work longer for less. If they had their way a wages would be going down, people would not be able to work from home.
Tax cuts would not have been delivered.
That was their platform that they went to the election on, and they managed to combine all of that with higher deficits. It’s what they proposed. We have rolled out cost of living relief for every single household in energy bill relief, cheaper childcare for 1.1 million families, cheaper medicines that have saved Australians more than $1.5 billion. Free TAFE for 725,000 enrolments, student debt relief for more than 3 million Australians, all of it opposed by those opposite.
All of it opposed by a Coalition that’s just too busy fighting each other fight for Australians.
Ted O’Brien who honestly – just why? – just got booted from the chamber by Milton Dick for offering to punch on with Jim Chalmers.
We assume he was joking when he threw up his fists in response to Dick telling Chalmers and him to take their debate outside, because O’Brien is from the Sunshine Coast and Chalmers is from Logan. And as a Gold Coast girl, who grew up in the era of earrings off, rings up (IYKYK) Logan trumps Sunshine Coast in a brawl. Any day of the week. I mean I went to Nerang High and even I would have hesitated from wading into a Logan brawl.
Also O’Brien looks like someone molded Scott Morrison out of bread, so that man shouldn’t be trying to fight anyone.
I can not be bothered going through the absolute bullshit that is the Coalition asking about a promise from two elections ago, on a day where it is revealed Australia experienced its hottest year to date – which is another way of saying that this summer will be the coolest you experience from now on – and that we are so far from meeting our energy targets we might as well be sticking our head in the sand.
So here is how Mike Bowers has seen the day:
Barnaby’s new bench mates welcome him
Malcolm Turnbull enjoys a captive audience
This is so dumb. My favourite part is Melissa McIntosh having to read it to make sure she has the right one.
Jason Wood – who we forgot existed – then gets a question.
It’s a dumb question.
Under Labor the number of Australian families on financial hardship claims has surged by nearly 50 per cent. Australians including families in my electorate of La Trobe are hurting. What is the message from this minister who works part-time to more than 200,000 Australian families struggling to pay their power bills and cutting back this Christmas because of Labor’s broken promise to bring down power prices.
Gee, if only Wood had been part of a government that didn’t screw us all over for more than a decade with stupid climate wars that derailed any attempt at an energy transition. Imagine if he had that power!
Bowen:
My message to his constituents and to the people of Victoria is that we will continue to work without reservation to put downward pressure on energy prices by introducing more of the cheapest and most reliable and lowest forms of energy. (INTERJECTIONS)
The fact is that in Victoria the wholesale price of electricity in May 2022 was $233 a megawatt hour. today $77 a megawatt hour over the last quarter.
The retail increase in Victoria that wasn’t known before the 2022 election which should have been known was $61 for households and $270 for small businesses.
Six coal-fired power stations in Victoria totalling 6.8 gigawatts announced their closure under the former government… the previous government’s big scheme the underwriting new energy generation investment program delivered exactly zero gigawatts for Victoria under (INTERJECTIONS) them.
By contrast, four gigawatts of renewables and 1.2 Meg watts have been in Victoria since May 2022. A further 2.8 gigawatts of renewables and 1.8 gigawatts of storage capacity in Victoria have been selected government’s capacity investment scheme.
Under that scheme 2.8 gigawatts of renewables and 1.8 gigawatts of storage for Victoria under their scheme zero for Victoria, to be fair zero for everyone but given the question was about Victoria zero. I’m pleased to report that as of today 139,629 Australians have installed a cheaper home battery. And 23,845 of those have been in Victoria.
With that state now having 500 Meg watt hours… since 1 July. What our government is doing is delivering for the people of Victoria and repairing the damage of 10 years of denial and delay the previous government inflicted on the people of Victoria.