Australia Institute Live: Senate estimates continues, Opposition still struggling for relevancy. As it happened.

Two weeks after putting in a joint offer to save the Mt Isa smelter, it looks like the Queensland and federal governments have agreed on terms for a taxpayer funded bail out of the Glencore copper smelter.

AAP reports:

Swiss mining giant Glencore looks set to get a taxpayer funded bailout to save an ailing smelter, potentially saving hundreds of jobs.

Federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres will be in Mount Isa in north Queensland on Wednesday for an event at 1130am AEDT before heading to Townsville for another event at 3.30pm AEDT.

He is likely to be joined by Queensland Resources Minister Dale Last.

In July, Glencore closed its underground copper mine at Mt Isa, with a loss of almost 500 direct jobs.

It also warned it was preparing to put the nearby copper smelter and its Townsville copper refinery into care and maintenance until market conditions improved.

Glencore had said the assets were losing money and forecast a $2.2 billion loss over the next seven years.

Property analysts Cotality (formally CoreLogic) have released their quarterly report – and if you are living in a capital city, you are not imagining it – the rental market is even more cooked. But it’s not much better in the regions, where wages also tend to be lower.

From the report:

The median weekly rental value across Australia’s combined capital cities surpassed the $700 mark for the first time in August, before landing at $702 per week in September.

By comparison, regional rents remain somewhat more affordable, holding below the $600 mark, with the typical regional dwelling renting for $591 per week.

[Economist Kaytlin] Ezzy noted this gap has narrowed in recent years.

“With the regions outperforming the capitals through the second half of 2024 and into 2025 the affordability advantage offered by regional rental markets has reduced from $123 in May 2024, to $111 in September.”

Across the capitals, Sydney remains by far the most expensive rental capital, with the typical dwelling renting for $807 per week, while Hobart maintained its title as the country’s most affordable city to rent in, with a median weekly rental value of $584 per week.

Senate estimates is about to get underway for the second day of hearings. Among the political point scoring, it seems like the Coalition is also planning to ask why there has been no movement on banning gambling advertising, 2.2 years after the Murphy review was handed down.

Crossbench MPs, including David Pocock, Kate Chaney, Monique Ryan and Andrew Wilkie raised that issue yesterday in a press conference following the Four Corners report into gambling harm.

When the Coalition works with the crossbench and Greens on areas of public policy, there actually is room for change.

Last night, the National Anti-Corruption Commission CEO Phillip Reed faced a senate estimates hearing, where he, according to those in the room, didn’t look like he was having the greatest of times.

The NACC has been a bit of a fizzer so far, with questions over what it is actually investigating, and how those investigations are being managed. We don’t have a lot of insight into that, because Labor gave the Coalition it’s demand for secret hearings, in order to get bipartisan support (which it didn’t need, because the Greens and crossbench would have supported public hearings) for the establishment of the NACC. Jason Koutsoukis with The Saturday Paper reported over the weekend that was Albanese’s decision and he over ruled the push to have public hearings.

Before he was named NACC commissioner, Brereton worked at the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force and was head of the inquiry into Australian forces’ alleged war crimes in Afghanistan (the case is still ongoing). The ABC reported last month that Brereton was still giving advice to the IGADF, which makes sense because he was the commissioner of the review. But it’s a potential conflict of interest, which has already been an issue given Brereton had been found to have not fully recused himself from the decision to not investigate Robodebt, given his ‘close association’ with one of the people put forward for investigation.

There is no suggestion of wrong doing by Brereton in either case. But it did make for some uncomfortable questioning for Reed overnight (Reed defended the commissioner)

Mike Bowers has heard it, and so have I – there are rumours floating around that the government plans on extending parliament at the end of the year, by one week.

That would make sense – there were not that many sittings planned for after the election, and the senate is getting a bit clogged (there were only a couple of sittings after this one week).

So prepare yourself – the end of the year is always the busiest time, and it looks like it is about to get a lot more hectic.

Labor MP Jerome Laxale gave a short speech yesterday which was a lovely reminder of the power, and absolute crucial nature, of local journalism.

I rise today to congratulate Lane Cove journalist Jack Kelly on his nomination for a Walkley Foundation Mid-Year Media Prize in public service journalism. Jack reports for In the Cove, a local news outlet that so many in our community turn to for trusted grassroots reporting.

In the Cove also run the local chat group, the source of brilliant posts about all sorts of things, including ‘breadgate’, the mysterious bread saga of River Road. I digress though; back to Jack and his nominated story, ‘Cabling Cowboys’.

This uncovered serious risks posed by cabling operators in the Lane Cove community. It was thorough, fearless reporting that shone a light on a problem few knew about but many were affected by.
Jack’s work didn’t just inform the public; it actually helped deliver change. After personally reading his coverage, I was able to raise it directly with the then Minister for Communications.

That led to direct engagement with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, who opened an investigation into provider delays and poor customer service. Importantly, because of that extra attention, many of the issues uncovered by Jack and In the Cove’s journalism was fixed.

The Walkleys are a gold standard of Australian journalism. For a young reporter like Jack to be recognised at this level is an extraordinary achievement, and it just shows how important local media like In the Cove is to our democracy. On behalf of Bennelong, thanks to Jack and thanks to In the Cove.

Canberra Labor MP Alicia Payne has welcomed her third child, which was announced in a statement this morning. Payne is practiced at balancing parliament and a newborn – her second child was born shortly after Labor’s election during a time known as ‘Labor’s baby boom’ given the number of children welcomed by government bench dwellers.

Alicia Payne and husband Ben Phillips are excited to announce that their son Joseph Douglas Phillips was born on Saturday 4 October at 4:50am at the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children at the Canberra Hospital, weighing 3.7kg.

Both mother and baby are doing well and older siblings Paul (7) and Elena (5) adore their new brother.

Ms Payne said “We’re delighted and feel very blessed to welcome little Joseph into our family. A huge thank you to all the team at Canberra Hospital for taking such wonderful care of us and the amazing job they do to support mothers and babies each day. I also want to thank Dr Ken Tan and his team for the excellent care and support we received throughout my pregnancy.”

The Prime Minister announced Joseph’s arrival in Parliament saying:

“I can inform the House that Joseph Douglas Phillips arrived over the weekend—the newest ACT constituent. Young Joseph weighed 3.7 kilograms and was 49.5 centimetres long. Mum and young Joseph are going very, very well and are delightful. I have seen some fantastic photos of the very, very happy family. So to Alicia and her partner, Ben—I’m sure on behalf of everyone in this House—congratulations. We look forward to meeting young Joseph.”

Hello and welcome to day two of the house sitting, with senate estimates.

You can always tell just who won the previous day by how hyperbolic the Sky News politics now newsletter is. Today’s is full with claims the Coalition smashed it yesterday. Which is how you know that didn’t happen. You don’t need to pump up the tyres of winners, you know? Federal politics is largely missing from the other major websites homepages, which is another indication that the Hill isn’t exactly providing the goods. This isn’t a bad thing – events should be covered according to their impact, and not blown up into something just to squeeze out some content. But given the break, Anthony Albanese’s international tour, and the ongoing issues regarding mutual obligations, house prices, a whishy washy climate target, ongoing approval of fossil fuel projects etc, it is telling just how much control the government has over the agenda at present. Because none of them have become major headaches.

That tends to be what happens when one side of politics is a rabble.

Labor went through it in 2014 – it was just that Tony Abbott’s leadership was SO batshit, that he managed to take himself down.

Albanese is sticking pretty close to that middle road, which works if your goal is political steadiness, but doesn’t if you want to address the major issues facing the nation in a way that brings about the necessary changes that are needed.

But while the crossbench continues to highlight many of those issues, and changes, we still have a government committed to the very least it can do, on almost any issue. Ultimately, it will be voters which shake it out of that, not the Coalition. But we have some road to go before the main political parties work that out.

So join us today as we wait to find out what a fresh new day brings us. You have Amy Remeikis with you, along with the brains trust of the Australia Institute and others, and the New Daily’s Mike Bowers, who is already up and about in the hallways, given the messages he is sending my way.

It’s a four coffee morning (and yes, we had a little sleep in today. Daylight saving always leaves me feeling a bit jetlagged in the first week)

Ready? Let’s get into it.