Australia Institute Live: Parliament wraps. Record Robodebt settlement, Aged Care deal, the real cost of the Nauru plan revealed and Daniel Andrews' trip to Beijing. As it happened.

ABC Canberra has conducted an unscientific poll into whether former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews should have gone to China and met Xi Jinping at yesterday’s big military parade in Beijing.

53% said he shouldn’t have gone. 47% didn’t seem to mind.

My guess is he just did it to wind up the Murdoch media in Melbourne.

If he did, my God, it worked!

Mind you, readers of the Herald Sun had to wade through a couple of hundred pages of Collingwood propaganda before they got to the bedwetting over Dan’s travels.

It’s prompted plenty of commentary on social media.

With large language models threatening to swamp Australia’s traditional media, a little bit of government funding could go a long way to protect public interest journalism.

On this episode of Follow the Money, Clive Marshall, former CEO of the Press Association (UK), and Emma Cowdroy, Acting CEO of Australian Associated Press, join Australia Institute Executive Director Richard Denniss to discuss artificial intelligence and the news.

David Pocock has delivered a couple of tough home truths for the government in a morning radio interview.

Despite a commanding majority in the lower house, we saw yesterday that the Senate can still make or break Labor’s legislative agenda.

It was an interesting example of how the new Parliament can work.

After playing a major part in changing the timeline for releasing more home care packages for elderly Australians, the Independent ACT Senator had this message for both major parties:

I think we see the power of actually having people in here who are there to represent people, not vested interests or just toe the party line. And then on the flip side, the last 24 hours has been such a fascinating insight into the Labor Party, where they’re at in terms of their strategy over the next few years. You know, they have a whopping majority in the lower house, but the second lowest primary vote on record, a lower primary vote than (former PM’s) Rudd, Keating, Hawke. And I think they clearly see independents as a bigger threat than the coalition, and that’s why they’ve tied themselves in knots to try and say, well actually, through the crossbench, this was about a deal with the opposition, because I don’t think they see the opposition as a big threat in the next election.

Whack!

Sussan Ley continues to have a bet each way on the nation’s migration levels and policies.

While claiming the current policies are failing – without offering much in the way of context or detail – she says the government needs to offer more context and detail in relation to its migration policy.

Speaking on ABC TV this morning, the opposition leader said:

I do value the contribution that skilled workers make to Australia, and that is part of our overall migration discussion, which the government has got badly wrong. They released the permanent migration numbers just this week. It should have been months ago, and they’re not explaining how we can balance those numbers with the pressures that ordinary Australians are facing with respect to infrastructure, services, jobs, housing.

Aged Care Minister Sam Rae claims yesterday’s sudden change to the government’s timeline for rolling out more home care packages to keep elderly Australians in their homes was not the result of this week’s political pressure.

After the crossbench, Greens and coalition teamed up in the Senate yesterday, the government announced it would immediately fund 20,000 more home care packages – rather than wait until broader reforms were introduced in November.

The minister’s been grilled on RN this morning, but insists yesterday’s deal is the result of weeks of negotiation in a long-running aim to make reforms to the sector bipartisan – rather than a cave-in.

These decisions are decisions of government, and so the Senate certainly had a position which they could and, as I said, over the last weeks, we’ve been engaging in ongoing discussions, because bipartisanship is the most important way that we can ensure that these reforms are enduring and meaningful.

So why did it take so long?

We needed to reach a bipartisan agreement about how this was going to be done. That was a key principle that we have pursued all the way through. As of yesterday, we have reached a bipartisan agreement about how that that roll-out occurs.

Independent ACT Senator David Pocock has welcomed a proposal to appoint a national Whistleblower Ombudsman.

AAP

People looking to blow the whistle on wrongdoing but who fear repercussions could get more protection under a watchdog.

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland has proposed a whistleblower ombudsman that has oversight of the Public Interest Disclosure Act, under which whistleblowers are supposed to be protected.

However, human rights groups have been critical of its operation in practice due to a lack of success in courts using the protections afforded by the laws.

Groups like the Human Rights Law Centre, alongside independent parliamentarians, have championed a whistleblower protection authority as a standalone, independent body that could assist people who come forward.

Ms Rowland said the ombudsman would have oversight of the disclosure laws to ensure cases are correctly responded to, and would employ dispute resolution functions and investigate reprisals.

AAP

Australia’s stronger-than-expected economic growth could dash hopes for further interest rate cuts.

Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock insisted she does not know “at this stage” what the uplift in economic growth revealed on Wednesday could mean for interest rates.

“But it does mean that it’s possible that if it keeps going, then there may not be many interest rate declines left to come,” she said.

Ms Bullock delivered the 60th Shann Memorial Lecture at the University of Western Australia on Wednesday, when she was asked about lowering interest rates.

“There’s always one,” she said, as the room full of seasoned and aspiring economists laughed heartily.

Her speech focused on technological change, including the bank’s increasing use of text analytics models providing a “third lens” to monitoring shifting business conditions.

“But we also overlay our own judgement on top of those things.

“I personally don’t see a world where we place all our faith in a model,” she said.

Traders pared back their rate cut expectations after the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday revealed the surprise jump in the nation’s economic growth rate.

Gross domestic product surged from 1.4 to 1.8 per cent on an annual basis in June, above the Reserve Bank’s forecast of 1.6 per cent.

CommSec chief economist Ryan Felsman does not expect the hotter-than-expected figures to turn the RBA away from its gradual easing cycle.

Markets were still pricing in another 25-basis point reduction to the cash rate in November, but the total amount of easing priced in dropped from 50 to 44 basis points, signalling investors think there is now a risk of less than two more cuts.

In welcome news, productivity as measured by GDP per hour worked climbed 0.3 per cent over the quarter to be 0.2 per cent higher over the year.

But that is still well below Australia’s historical average, limiting the nation’s maximum growth potential.

“The key to that question is really, how do we lift the speed limit on our economy,” Dr Chalmers said.

“We only do that by making it more productive, by making sure that we can get faster growth with low inflation, and that’s really one of the motivating forces behind all of the work that we’ve been doing this term.”

The RBA in August downgraded its assumption for medium-term productivity growth to 0.7 per cent, which caused it to mechanically lower its assumption for Australia’s GDP growth potential to two per cent per year.

Without an increase in productivity growth to about 1.5 per cent, inflation will struggle to stay in the RBA’s two to three per cent target band over time, Mr Felsman said.

“In our view, more business investment and slower unit labour cost growth is required to drive a sustainable improvement in productivity metrics,” he said.

Business investment fell 0.4 per cent over the quarter, although that was partly explained by the completion of some large mining and renewable energy construction projects, said Treasurer Jim Chalmers. 

Investment in intellectual property surged 1.9 per cent.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles are flying to Japan tomorrow to attend the annual Australia-Japan 2×2 talks.

They’ll meet the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, H.E Iwaya Takeshi and Minister of Defense, H.E. Nakatani Gen.

Minister Marles says the talks will focus on shared geostrategic priorities like economic ties, cyber security, regional security, and multilateral affairs. 

Penny Wong said:

Australia and Japan are strategic partners and close friends, with a relationship built on trust, aligned values, and mutual interests. Together, we support a free and open Indo-Pacific that is inclusive and resilient. Our relationship with Japan is going from strength to strength, underpinned by increasing alignment and a shared commitment to upholding a peaceful, stable and prosperous region.

Richard Marles said:

Japan is an indispensable partner for Australia. Our defence and security ties are underpinned by a growing strategic alignment and deep trust. This year has been a milestone year of defence cooperation, which included the largest ever Japanese participation in Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, and I look to furthering our discussions while in Tokyo.

Howard era Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock has been speaking on RN about the latest iteration of the so-called “Pacific Solution” for former immigration detainees.

He has delivered a detailed apology for the “children overboard” scandal, in which several ministers – including the former PM – repeatedly claimed asylum seekers threw their children into the sea.

I do not excuse what happened. You need to recall that children were being held by a person as if they were to be thrown overboard. There were people overboard, and this report was made by Navy, respected Naval Staff, to the officials in Canberra who were monitoring what was happening, and that advice was given to me. I’m sorry that it was incorrect, but it was an error, an error made because children were being held above the deck, and the people assumed that they had been thrown into the sea.

AAP

Netanyahu calls Belgium PM ‘weak’ after recognition vow

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised his Belgium counterpart, calling him “a weak leader who seeks to appease Islamic terrorism by sacrificing Israel” a day after officials in Brussels announced they would recognise a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu’s government has been angered by pledges from the governments of France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and now Belgium, to formally recognise a Palestinian state when world leaders gather this month at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Belgium Prime Minister Bart De Wever “wants to feed the terrorist crocodile before it devours Belgium,” the office of the Israeli prime minister wrote on its official X account.

Israel would continue to defend itself, it said.

Netanyahu similarly hit out at Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last month, also labelling him as “weak” after Australia announced it would recognise a Palestinian state and then barred an ultranationalist Israeli MP from the country.

Netanyahu has said recognising a Palestinian state would serve as a reward for Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the Gaza Strip war. 

Israel has faced mounting international pressure over the toll its military offensive has taken on the civilian population in the shattered Palestinian enclave.

The militant Hamas group reiterated on Wednesday that it was ready for a comprehensive Gaza Strip deal through which all Israeli hostages are released in exchange for the release of an agreed upon number of Palestinian prisoners.

with DPA