The Point Live: Coalition net zero saga drags on. As it happened.

The race discrimination commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman is carrying out an inquiry on racism in Australian workplaces.

He tells ABC News Breakfast that it is “very widespread and systemic” and includes migrants being made to sit an English test (no matter their proficiency) change their names to something more ‘English sounding’, not being safe in the workplace and not seeing advancement in their careers.

I think we need to create a culture where people are safe to raise issues. For example, generally the highest area of complaints under the race discrimination act is in employment, yet that would be a fraction of what actually occurs at in the world. That is because most people don’t speak up. The other thing is, if you don’t change the system, the institution, what you just described, whether covert or overt, it continues to happen. If everyone in leadership looks like you, you might feel that the environment enables you to use racial size or covert racism. You need to change the system and institution to stop giving license racism.

Q: We are nearing the end of the parliamentary year. For many years, that final week has been dubbed The Killing Season. How confident are you that you will be the leader when Parliament rises?

Ley:

I’m completely confident, and I have a smile on my face as I answer this, because I know that the media and commentary does get a little bit excited from time to time. But Sabra I said, when I became leader, that I would work incredibly hard for the things that matter, the national interest, the Australian people, the people who take risks, who believe in the future of this country, who work hard every day, and who deserve a better government in Canberra than what we’re seeing right here, right now and yesterday, with no rate cut before Christmas and with just the prospect of expenses rising and rising over time, we can do so much better, and we will fight this fight every day

Q: Backbencher and leadership aspirant Andrew Hastie, last week intervened in a debate about extending parental leave to those who had had stillborn babies, and he questioned whether it would apply to late term abortions. This was interpreted as sort of positing that women would deliberately terminate a baby to collect government money. How surprised were you by that intervention?

Ley:

We supported Baby Priya’s bill. It’s a really important bill. We should be supporting women through tragic events where a baby is lost. Losing a baby is one of the most difficult things that can ever happen to a mother and to a family and as a mother and a grandmother, this is very personal. So any commentary about this bill applying in other contexts is insensitive.

Q: He is leadership material. Does he deserve to be a leader when he says these sorts of things publicly?

Ley:

I’m once more, not talking about individuals in my party room or individual comments. I’m making a point about the importance of this bill and the real struggle that mothers face in the circumstances where they do lose a baby, and it’s a very difficult thing for a lot of women to talk about. And the last thing I’m going to do is issue judgments on mothers and certainly I am very supportive of the bill, as is my team.

Sussan Ley spent the interview trying to turn it to her talking points. But she wouldn’t address how her party has ended up here, how it is going to win with a policy that doesn’t have a net zero goal, or whether she personally believes net zero is possible.

We did have a very poor result at the last election, and I’ve been very upfront about acknowledging that, and shortly, we’ll have the review that I asked Pru Goward and Nick Minchin to complete, and I also said I’d make that public, and that will talk about the detailed reasons for the result. And it’s important that we do that, and it’s important that we consider that carefully, and it’s also important that we listen to Australians, and I’ve been listening to them on energy policy. I’ve been listening to them on their struggles to meet the cost of living crisis…

The killing season in politics, is the end of year break after some bad polls where a leader’s position becomes untenable.

Ley has spoken to Sabra Lane on ABC radio AM and said that she will make it through the season. But she also wouldn’t address whether she has been treated fairly or treated with respect.

It’s an enormous privilege to lead the Liberal Party, and I’m very proud of my team. And I said as leader, when I became leader, there wouldn’t be any captain’s calls. We’d take the time to work through policy. We would also articulate clear differences between ourselves and labor, and I’ve done that with two important economic speeches, we’ll have a plan for personal income taxes, tax cuts at the next election, and also talking about how we would manage the economy responsibly.”

Ley would not address Barnaby Joyce’s bragging that he has dragged the Liberals and the Nats to his position on something, something he was doing a victory lap on Sky on yesterday.

You’re asking me to comment on commentary and with respect, as leader I said, there wouldn’t be any captain’s calls and I’d listen to my team and that’s exactly what I’m doing

New data shows that only one-in-nine jobseekers (11.7%) found long term employment via a job agency in the financial year ending in June 2025. This is despite an increase in public funding through Workforce Australia, a Commonwealth Government service which pays private job agencies to help people who are unemployed find jobs.

The involvement of private agencies in the unemployment benefit system began in 1998, when the Howard Government replaced the government-run Commonwealth Employment Service. It instead contracted private or community-run job agencies to help people find jobs.

This was combined with the “mutual obligation” requirement for those receiving the benefit. This became known as the “Work for the Dole” program. Those receiving payments are required to do “work like” activities for a certain number of hours and/or to demonstrate an effort to find employment. Jobseekers sign up with private job agencies as a way of showing they are looking for a job. An agency claims “outcome payments” from the government when a client has completed 4, 12, or 26 weeks of work (the latter being considered long-term).

In short, instead of helping some of its most vulnerable citizens directly, the Commonwealth Government makes them jump through hoops to receive Jobseeker payments, and private companies who capture handsome profits in the process.

Over one-in-four of Jobseeker payment recipients have disability or health conditions which affect their capacity for work, as recognised by the Albanese Government’s employment whitepaper from September 2023.

The system is doing little to meet the  whitepaper’s objective of “delivering sustained and inclusive full employment.”

The abysmal employment outcome for jobseekers is well below the government’s target of 15% of the jobseekers finding long-term employment; it is also a deterioration from the 13.2% from FY2023-24. The figures are published in the annual report of the Commonwealth’s Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.

At a time when unemployment has been trending up, the system is not doing enough to alleviate the growing economic pain many are feeling.

The Australia Institute has pointed out that Australia could substantially lift its unemployment payments without any meaningful disincentives for working. In fact, among all 33 OECD countries, Australia has the lowest unemployment payment relative to average wages. Other OECD countries take much better care of their citizens who are unemployed. As one of the richest nations in the world, why shouldn’t Australia do the same?

Reddit, along with live streaming platform Kick have been added to the government’s social media ban for under-16s after the eSafety Commission said they met the criteria for the age verification scheme.

It’s coming into law on December 10 and will mean that under-16s will not be able to access the messaging board Reddit, Kick or YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Snapchat, TikTok or X

Also late yesterday, Labor and the Coalition voted down a Greens attempt to have an inquiry into Aukus. Australia is the only partner now which has not reviewed the agreement, despite paying $375bn, with no guarantee of submarines at the end.

The UK has reviewed it and so has the US. Australia’s government refuses to allow a review.

Greens senator David Shoebridge said the Greens wanted to allow a Senate committee to take for public submissions on all aspects of the AUKUS deal, including environmental impacts, defence impacts, costs, and independence:

The fact that the Albanese Government have voted for secrecy in this multi-decade, multi-hundred-billion-dollar gamble shows contempt for transparency and the very real concerns of the Australian public.

The Albanese Government has already begun handing over the first $10 billion to the US and UK as part of AUKUS, without any binding agreement to either get submarines or a refund when it all unravels. 

The US is producing barely half the number of submarines needed to make AUKUS viable, and the UK’s nuclear program is in meltdown. 

Ignoring these critical supply failures in our AUKUS partners is not a credible defence strategy. But instead of a hard-headed review the Albanese Government’s response is to close its eyes and wait for the next photo op.

Polling from the Australia Institute shows that Australians want a more independent foreign policy, not to align ourselves closely with US President Trump. 

Only 8% of people strongly agree with Defence Minister Richard Marles when he talks of our “shared values” with the United States.

AUKUS is a limitless drain on our public funds that makes Australia less safe and even more dependent on Washington.

Today’s vote shows how out of touch the Canberra national security bubble is from ordinary Australians who don’t like Donald Trump, don’t want war with China and want their Parliament to fund Medicare and public schools before nuclear submarines.”

Read the full inquiry terms of reference here.

After dragging it out for years, there is finally a bill with local content quotas being for streaming services in front of the parliament. A group of actors and creatives came to parliament last week for a final push, warning that the Australian industry wouldn’t survive without intervention. Anika Wells announced there would be a bill coming which will mandate that services with one than one million Australian subscribers will need to invest at least 10 per cent of their total expenditure for Australia – or 7.5% of their revenue on new local drama, children’s, documentary, arts and educational programs.

Sarah Hanson-Young said the Greens will look at the bill before making a decision on whether to pass it or not:

The Greens have long campaigned for local content quotas on streaming platforms to support Australian stories on our screen. Big tech companies like Netflix and Amazon who make massive profits from Australians should be required to have Australian content and give something back to the Australian economy.

A country that invests in its community and democracy, invests in its own cultural assets and story tellers.

We will look carefully at the detail of the bill and reserve our position until we know it is strong enough to ensure a strong future for our screen industry, including children’s content.

Australians deserve to see themselves and their communities reflected on their screens. Telling our own stories helps us makes sense of who we are here at home and around the world.  

Generations of Australians grew up on a diet of Australian shows like Playschool, Round the Twist, and Bluey. The next generation of Aussie kids deserve better than American junk.”

While some Australians go hungry, enough food to fill the MCG nine times over is thrown away by farmers and growers each year. 

A bold idea proposed by Australia’s top hunger relief charity could solve this, with tax relief touted as a potential solution to get food earmarked for the tip into people’s pantries.

Foodbank Australia is recommending a national food donation tax incentive in its annual hunger report, release on Wednesday, with the issue proving stubborn despite cost-of-living measures being put in place. 

“We do know that the tax incentive works, it works in the USA, it works in Germany,” chief executive and former independent MP Kylea Tink told AAP.

“We want this government to seriously consider it in this term. We don’t understand why they’re not moving on it.”

Foodbank concedes the incentive will not completely cover the increased cost for growers to transport excess produce but argues a tax break to reduce the burden will give more kind-hearted businesses a reason to help tackle food insecurity.

Hunger issues are particularly acute among renters and households containing someone with a disability, indicating the government’s cost-of-living relief measures are not doing enough to ease food security pressures.

Even households earning more than $91,000 are feeling the pinch of food prices, with one-in-five reporting they have worries about putting food on the table.

“We grow and produce enough food in Australia to feed our entire population three times over,” Ms Tink said.

“We just need to fix the system of getting it into people’s hands.”

The proposal to give farmers financial incentives for donations is nothing new, with Liberal senator Dean Smith introducing a private member’s bill with crossbench support to create the scheme in 2024.

Reducing the food in landfill by getting it into hungry mouths is not just a social good, it also has environmental upside.

“Food waste is a significant contributor to carbon emissions in this country,” Ms Tink said.

“We should be incentivising growers and manufacturers to take advantage of this opportunity to reduce our carbon emissions.”