The Point Live: Barnaby keeps the Nats guessing on his future. As it happened.

It’s going to be a long, loooong sitting, so we are going to call it a day now, and get ready for some of what is coming up tomorrow.

Tuesday is party room meeting day, which means there will be a dew pointed questions regarding Matt Canavan’s net zero report in the Coalition joint party room meeting. And more of Barnaby Joyce enjoying being Barnaby Joyce.

We will bring you all of that, and more, so we hope you’ll join us?

Thank you to the thousands of you who turned out today – it meant the world to see so many people here for our first blog on the new site, The Point – we hope to continue to grow in ways that serve all of your needs, and help you understand the world a little more.

We’ll be back very early tomorrow morning. Until then, as always – take care of you. Ax

Anthony Albanese addressed this in his press conference a little earlier today, but here is the official statement welcoming Timor-Leste to ASEAN:

Australia warmly congratulates Timor-Leste on its accession as the 11th member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese marked the occasion with Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão and ASEAN leaders at the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur. 
 
This is an important milestone for ASEAN and a significant step for Timor-Leste’s regional integration and economic development. It is a credit to both ASEAN’s and Timor Leste’s sustained efforts over many years.
 
We acknowledge the leadership of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão in achieving what he has described as a ‘historic goal’ for the nation and people of Timor-Leste.

Australia is proud to have supported Timor-Leste’s ASEAN journey from the beginning, including through our $11.8 million technical assistance and capacity building package.

Australia is ASEAN’s first Dialogue Partner, and we strongly support ASEAN’s role in shaping a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific. 

ASEAN is central to regional stability; it guards against conflict, drives regional economic growth, and reinforces the rules and norms that protect us all.
  
As a close friend, partner and neighbour, we look forward to continuing to work closely with Timor-Leste and ASEAN to ensure membership delivers real benefits for the Timorese people and our shared region.

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson has announced she will be moving to establish a senate inquiry into the triple 0 failure tomorrow:

This inquiry is vital to uncovering the truth about went wrong with this critical service.

After misleading Australians about when her office first knew about the outage, Labor’s hapless Minister for Communications, Anika Wells, must also appear before the inquiry. It is incumbent on the minister to do the right thing in the national interest and give evidence. 

The role of the minister in safeguarding the integrity, resilience and public confidence in the triple-0 system is central to our inquiry.

The government’s inquiry by its own regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, is woefully inadequate and riddled with conflicts of interest. At the behest of the minister, ACMA delayed tougher emergency call service rules on carriers by six months and this has had serious consequences.

The Australian people deserve much better than this.

The CDC bill has been read for a third time and will be on its way to the senate.

There have also been a buttload (the technical term) of reports tabled.

You can find those, here.

Ahhh, thanks Mike Bowers: he has confirmed Chris Bowen’s sartorial choice.

I am reliably informed by spies in the house of representatives, that Chris Bowen made a choice to wear ABC socks today.

We are sure the ABC is very happy with non-advertising advertising.

Hundreds of thousands of Australian women will have access to another affordable contraception option as a vaginal ring is added to the government’s medication subsidy scheme for the first time.

The NuvaRing is a prescription contraceptive method which is inserted into the vagina by the user and distributes hormones to stop ovulation. 

It can be used for three weeks in a row before being removed for a week, and a new one is then inserted.

Used correctly, the ring is is 99.5 per cent effective, which is similar to other hormonal contraceptive options.

The NuvaRing is available in a three-pack as a private script for $130.

From November 1, when it will be added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), it will cost general patients $31.60 and concessional patients $7.70. 

From January 1, the maximum women will pay per script will be $25.

Within the contraceptive landscape, the ring falls in between a daily pill and a long-acting reversible such as an IUD, Sexual Health Victoria medical director Sara Whitburn told AAP. 

“Contraception is about choice and what works for people and their lifestyle, but one of the biggest barriers to people choosing the NuvaRing has been cost,” she said.

“When people make a decision around contraception, cost is one of the things that influence their choice the most.” 

Side effects of the ring are similar to the contraceptive pill, including acne, bloating, weight gain and reduced libido. 

But Dr Whitburn said it could be a good option for people who had stomach upsets from taking the pill. 

“For someone who wants to have something they are in control of inserting and removing, or they have had side effects from taking a tablet, the ring could be something to consider,” she said.

In February, the federal government announced a $573 million women’s health package to increase bulk billing for IUDs and birth control implants as well as add new oral contraceptive pills to the PBS.

The PBS listing of the NuvaRing is part of this package.

The changes linked to long-acting reversible contraceptives are expected to benefit about 300,000 women each year and save them up to $400 in out-of-pocket costs.

Here is how Mike Bowers (courtesy of The New Daily) saw question time in the House:

Andrew Hastie and all his friends

Barnaby Joyce and all his friends

So what did we learn in that first QT back?

The Coalition are still a question looking for an answer.

It serves ideological purposes to zero in on CFMEU corruption allegations, but does nothing to actually win over any voters, or inject themselves into relevant conversations. It is a very safe area for the Coalition to dance around, because it keeps the base happy, but doesn’t delve into any of the areas which are currently tearing it apart.

Does it do anything to further it’s cause? No.

As has become habit, it was the crossbench who asked the questions that matter to Australian voters – health, housing and what on earth is in the critical minerals deal we have just signed with the US.

It is also interesting that the Coalition, which has made a bit of a meal of this in the past, did not go for the low hanging fruit that is Albanese’s travel.

Have they learned their lessons? Unlikely -there is a lot of sitting left, so let’s wait and see before answering that one.

The independent MP for Bradfield, Nicollette Boele asks:

Last week Australia and the United States signed a critical minerals framework agreement, responsibly exploiting our national resources and securing offtake and diversifying trade partnerships were the aims but the owners of these resources, the Australian people, are left in the dark about how they will benefit. If the PRT for other resources is anything to go by, this deal will not be making much from royalties we collect. What we do know so far is the two companies will receive significant Australian government investment. When cannot the taxpayers expect more detail about how the deal works for them?

Richard Marles takes this one:

I thank the Member for her question. She is right in articulating that the landmark critical minerals framework agreement signed by the Prime Minister and the president last week is genuinely in Australia’s national interest, is worthy in the terms of the Member and will absolutely have a huge impact on the Australian industry and through that the Australian people. Critical minerals is one of the great opportunities that our nation has.

We are one of the five largest – we have one of the five largest resources of critical minerals and rare earths in the world. And the opportunity not only to mine those critical minerals but to process them represents one of the great opportunities for our manufacturing and our country this century. It’s because of the particular items which are used by critical minerals and rare earths which are simply fundamental to the modern economy. What we have faced globally is that while we have been engaging in the mining and extraction of critical minerals and rare earths, the processing of them – a sector that would involve significant employment and significant industrial development in this country – has proven much more difficult, given the structure of the global market.

And that’s why we have put in place a number of measures, such as the Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive, and the Critical Minerals Facility, to demonstrate that the Australian government is there, supporting the critical minerals sector to engage in that kind of work. And that represents a $28 billion investment in this sector by our government since 2022. In saying that, I would add that when it comes to the Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive, we did that in the face of the opposition of the Coalition, who talked about that is billions for billionaires.

Completely failing to understand what this represented for Australian Order.

But it is difficult industry. to do this on our own, and that is why the agreement that we signed with the United States last week between the Prime Minister and the President was so important because what this does is bring together the might of the US government, along with our own, in terms of being able to genuinely support these industries going forward. And the benefit for the Australian people is manifest because what this will see is significant numbers of downstream processing jobs in this sector which currently are not being met in the Australian economy and that will be an enormous advantage.