Andrew Wilkie calls on PM to respond to Murphy gambling review
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie is moving a motion in the House on gambling advertising, calling on the prime minister to respond to the Murphy gambling review and bring on a free vote on the issue. It’s been two and a half years since that landmark, Labor-chaired report was handed down.
Wilkie, who has been a long-time advocate of gambling reform, says the parliament has been “paralysed” despite a “strong majority” of members in the House being in favour of a phased ban on gambling advertising.
There is an urgent need for this parliament to decide on whether or not to allow individual members to exercise their personal judgment informed by their communities on the matter of whether or not there be a free vote … on a phase-out of gambling advertising.
Not only is the community sick to death of the endless gambling advertising, the community is sick to death of the way that advertising is normalising gambling, the community is sick to death at the way advertising is effectively grooming children to start gambling as soon as they can, that’s not an exaggeration.
Wilkie and independent Kate Chaney, who has also been pushing hard for the government to take more action, both asked the PM to put forward a free vote on the issue in question time yesterday. The PM refused.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 20.31 EST
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Caitlin Cassidy
Australian Tertiary Education Commission a ‘starting point’ for future funding certainty, Universities Australia says
The peak body for universities says the formal introduction of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (Atec) should will a “starting point” for future funding certainty in higher education.
The education minister, Jason Clare, has today introduced a bill to formally establish the which is the body that has been charged with looking at the job-ready graduates program – among other university reforms.
The legislation won’t pass this week (with only one more sitting day to go after today), despite the government initially planning for it to be established by 1 January.
Universities Australia’s Ceo, Luke Sheehy, said if legislated, Atec would represent a “major change in Australia’s higher education landscape”.
In our view, the Atec needs to be a genuinely independent body to the existing Department of Education with a clear, evidence-based remit and stable and predictable funding settings.
The bill introduced today by minister Clare is a starting point. We will now work constructively across the parliament to ensure the legislation is robust, fit for purpose and ensures long-term policy stability, planning and funding certainty of the sector.
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An act of vandalism has caused the latest significant Optus outage, affecting emergency service calls for more than 14,000 people, AAP reports.
The issue was triggered by vandals who damaged an aerial fibre line, affecting users in the Frankston and Mornington Peninsula areas, southeast of Melbourne.
Optus spokesperson Jane McNamara said crews were working to restore coverage, with five of the six impacted sites back online.
She hoped the remaining customers would be reconnected in the coming hours.
McNamara told ABC Radio Melbourne the incident was frustrating, adding that criminals had cut the fibre that provides vital connectivity to customers.
Our technicians have been on site since early this morning. We do have that photo evidence and it’s clear that there had been a cut made.
We know copper has been removed from the pit and we have contacted police.
The embattled telco’s website still lists 14,322 services that have been impacted.
ShareLisa Cox
Academic experts criticise Go8 support for Business Council position on nature laws
Ninety leading academics have written a complaint to Australia’s group of eight universities for backing the business and mining lobby’s position on negotiations over reforms to nature laws.
The Business Council of Australia went public last week with an alliance of industry groups urging the Coalition to work with the government to pass business-friendly environment reforms.
The Go8 – representing the nation’s elite universities – was one of the groups that backed the BCA campaign.
More than 90 researchers from those institutions have criticised that position and warned it would result in a weakening of Australia’s nature protection laws.
The letter says the BCA statement “does not reflect the world leading conservation research being carried out at our institutions”.
It also does not reflect the extensive evidence-based advice provided by experts based at Go8 institutions during the review and consultation processes over the past five years.
Justine Bell, a professor of environmental law from the University of Queensland, said:
Our institutions are global leaders in conservation research … It is disheartening that the peak body for our institutions has taken a stance on this issue, particularly one that is counter to the work so many of us do.
Prof Brendan Wintle from the University of Melbourne and the Biodiversity Council said it was “disappointing and bewildering” that the Go8 would sign on to the letter “without talking to their own experts who have worked for six years on nature law reform”.
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Updated at 20.31 EST
Andrew Wilkie calls on PM to respond to Murphy gambling review
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie is moving a motion in the House on gambling advertising, calling on the prime minister to respond to the Murphy gambling review and bring on a free vote on the issue. It’s been two and a half years since that landmark, Labor-chaired report was handed down.
Wilkie, who has been a long-time advocate of gambling reform, says the parliament has been “paralysed” despite a “strong majority” of members in the House being in favour of a phased ban on gambling advertising.
There is an urgent need for this parliament to decide on whether or not to allow individual members to exercise their personal judgment informed by their communities on the matter of whether or not there be a free vote … on a phase-out of gambling advertising.
Not only is the community sick to death of the endless gambling advertising, the community is sick to death of the way that advertising is normalising gambling, the community is sick to death at the way advertising is effectively grooming children to start gambling as soon as they can, that’s not an exaggeration.
Wilkie and independent Kate Chaney, who has also been pushing hard for the government to take more action, both asked the PM to put forward a free vote on the issue in question time yesterday. The PM refused.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 20.31 EST
Lisa Cox
Following on from our last post …
The potential legal action would be the latest in a series of obstacles for the Narrabri gas project, which received its state and federal environmental approvals several years ago.
A legal appeal by Gomeroi traditional owners is before the full federal court after the native title tribunal twice overruled their opposition to the project going ahead. That case was delayed this week after one of the judges, Justice Natalie Charlesworth, recused herself from the case due to a potential perception of bias.
Proposed pipelines in the Narrabri and Hunter regions are also facing significant community opposition. Mike Guerin said:
It’s a sad reality that governments, politicians and mining giants seem to be deaf to these genuine and real concerns about protecting this critical water source.
They don’t appear to care about the environment or the communities that will be impacted or the billions of dollars’ worth of food that won’t be grown because of contamination.
Guardian Australia has sought comment from Santos.
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Updated at 19.59 EST
Lisa Cox
Farmers ponder legal challenge to Narrabri gas project
The peak body for farmers in New South Wales is exploring avenues for a legal challenge to Santos’s Narrabri gas project in the state’s west.
The NSW Farmers’ Federation said it had engaged legal counsel “because the risks with the Narrabri Gas Project are simply far too great to let it proceed”.
Acting chief executive Mike Guerin said the federation had engaged the same legal firm – Holmann Webb – that Queensland farm organisation AgForce used to successfully oppose mining company Glencore’s proposal to inject CO2 from a coal-fired power station into the Great Artesian Basin.
That case settled and the Queensland government legislated a ban on the Great Artesian Basin being used for carbon capture and storage.
Guerin said the federation was concerned about the potential impacts of the Narrabri project on the basin:
NSW Farmers has engaged the same senior legal counsel we used to defeat the federal government and Glencore a couple of years ago, and we are actively exploring the best way to defend Australia’s precious groundwater from mining giants.
The people who depend on the Great Artesian Basin for their water are living in fear that this project will go ahead and go wrong, like many of them do, creating tens of thousands of water refugees and forcing farmers to abandon half the continent because it’s been contaminated forever.
I’m happy to be getting the band back together on this one, because the risks with the Narrabri Gas Project are simply far too great to let it proceed.
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Updated at 19.58 EST
Jacinta Allan defends police plan to expand Melbourne CBD search powers
Benita Kolovos
Victoria’s premier, Jacinta Allan, has defended police plans to expand search powers in Melbourne’s CBD for six months.
Victoria police on Tuesday declared the CBD and its surrounds a “designated area” from Sunday, until 29 May 2026, meaning police and protective service officers (PSOs) will be able to randomly stop and search anyone without a warrant or reasonable grounds.
The decision has been criticised by human rights and legal groups who have described it as a “vast overreach”, while independent Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe said it would lead to racial profiling.
However, speaking at a press conference on Wednesday morning, Allan said Victoria police were simply “doing its job and keeping the community safe”. She went on:
Whether you’re coming into the CBD to work, to shop, to enjoy our major events or go out for a meal, you deserve to do so safely, and this is Victoria police doing everything it can to keep you safe.
She said the declaration was consistent with the new chief commissioner Mike Bush’s plan to reduce crime and “see more police out on the streets”.
Victoria police chief commissioner Mike Bush. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAPShare
Updated at 20.18 EST
Inflation rises, hitting hopes for interest rate cuts
Patrick Commins
Inflation has climbed to 3.8% in the year to October, from 3.6% the month before, as Jim Chalmers flagged he could announce further energy bill subsidies for households in the upcoming mid-year budget.
Electricity prices were 37% higher in the year to October, which the Australian Bureau of Statistics said mostly reflected the end of state government power bill rebates.
The ABS released its first “complete” monthly consumer price index, a milestone moment that will eventually lead to the more frequent inflation number superseding the quarterly figure.
It confirmed an unwelcome upswing in price pressures that has crimped hopes for more Reserve Bank interest rate cuts, and even raised the potential that the next move could be up.
Underlying inflation, which removes the impact of large, temporary price swings like in electricity prices, lifted from 3.2% in September to 3.3% in the year to October.
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Updated at 19.46 EST
Sarah Hanson-Young urges inquiry into Optus’ licence
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says there should be an urgent inquiry into Optus’ licence.
Australia’s second-largest telco has faced significant scrutiny over mobile outages since September, when several people died during an outage that prevented them from dialling triple zero.
Hanson-Young says “Optus has failed the Australian people again”:
There must be an urgent review of Optus’ licence. They are clearly not capable of providing this essential service and keeping Australians safe.
Big telcos continue to put profit over their obligation to safely deliver the Triple 0 service and Australians are sick of it.
The minister needs to take control of this. The regulator is failing to uphold the interests of the community. ACMA can not be trusted to carry out investigations on this on their own.
Optus has been contacted for comment.
ShareJosh Taylor
Acma asked to potentially build database of devices that can’t call triple zero
The triple-zero custodian, a newly established government role that oversees Australia’s emergency call system, has told a Senate inquiry into the September Optus triple-zero failure that it has asked the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) to look at device compatibility issues and a potential database of all affected devices.
A Lebara customer died earlier this month after their Samsung device was one of dozens that were unable to call triple zero on the TPG mobile network due to compatibility issues.
The telcos will be disconnecting an estimated 50,000 devices that have the compatibility issue in the coming weeks, but the government has faced calls from the federal opposition to be doing more to ensure those affected are aware and have access to devices that will work.
In its submission to the inquiry, the communications department said the custodian wrote to Acma earlier this month on its focus for the end of this year and early next, including “working with the Acma surrounding device compliance and possible databases”.
The custodian also held a large-scale simulation exercise with 130 participants in late October testing the emergency call system.
Optus has also been asked by Acma, on behalf of the custodian, to hand over information on outage policies and procedures, and outage testing prior to system changes.
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Updated at 19.24 EST
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says there should be an urgent inquiry into Optus’ license.
As Josh Taylor told you a few moments ago, Optus mobile services are out in areas of Frankston and Mornington Peninsula in Victoria following an aerial fibre break.
Optus advised on its website that it affects approximately 14,096 services, and is currently under investigation.
Australia’s second-largest telco has faced significant scrutiny over mobile outages since September, when several people died during an outage that prevented them from dialling triple zero.
Hanson-Young says “Optus has failed the Australian people again”:
There must be an urgent review of Optus’ licence. They are clearly not capable of providing this essential service and keeping Australians safe.
Big telcos continue to put profit over their obligation to safely deliver the Triple 0 service and Australians are sick of it.
The minister needs to take control of this. The regulator is failing to uphold the interests of the community. ACMA can not be trusted to carry out investigations on this on their own.
Optus has been contacted for comment.
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Pocock questions logic of stripping fugitives of welfare payments before proven guilty
ACT independent senator David Pocock is on his feet in the Senate questioning the logic of the government’s plan to strip fugitives of welfare payments, before they have been proved guilty by a court:
We can’t even understand what sort of problem you’re trying to solve here.
I’m no expert in this space, but you’d think if someone is on the run, you probably want them to be withdrawing money so you can see where they are if you’re looking for them? But you’re going to cut off their money like this. It makes no sense. You surely want them to be going to an ATM?
I just do not understand what the Labor party is trying to do here.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, says the federal government has taken advice from the federal police and several other agencies:
It has been a gap identified in the social security legislation that needed to be addressed. It is an extremely rare set of circumstances that would see this power being used.
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Updated at 19.15 EST
Ley questioned about Andrew Hastie amid leadership speculation
Despite raging speculation, Sussan Ley has survived the final sitting week (so far) from a leadership spill, and says her team is “united”.
During an earlier interview on Sky News, Ley sidestepped questions on whether Andrew Hastie – one of the main leadership challengers – should be returned to the frontbench.
While not inviting him back with the offer of a shadow portfolio, Ley says she has promised as leader to “enfranchise” all her backbenchers.
My frontbench is my frontbench, but every single member of my team, every single member of my team has value to add …
And I said when I became leader that I would enfranchise every single member in policy development, I did that with energy. It took time. We got it right.
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Updated at 19.09 EST
Patrick Commins
More power bill rebates could be announced soon
Jim Chalmers says the government will decide in “the next few weeks” whether to extend household energy bill rebates beyond the end of this year.
The treasurer has said there will be no major policy announcements in the mid-year budget in three weeks’ time, but in a Sky television interview this morning opened the door to further relief.
With the Coalition hammering the government on energy prices in question time this week, Chalmers said: “We’ve been very clear and very upfront for some time now, this electricity bill relief is really important.”
It is taking some of the edge off power prices for families and pensioners and people in our communities right around Australia.
He repeated his mantra that energy rebates “won’t be a permanent feature of the budget”, but left the door open to extending the measures beyond December.
We’ll take a decision about that in the next few weeks.
The March budget extended the commonwealth’s energy bill relief fund for six months, which gave another $150 to all households and about one million small businesses, split into two quarterly instalments.
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, in an interview this morning repeatedly dodged questions of whether the Coalition supported extending the power bill subsidies.
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Updated at 18.37 EST
PM grilled by school students on social media ban
The PM is facing the heat from Australia’s teenagers today, with a group of school students pressing Anthony Albanese and the communications minister, Anika Wells, on the upcoming social media ban for under-16s. It’s for an episode of the ABC’s Behind the News youth program.
The social media ban is due to take effect from 10 December – just a fortnight from today.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese and Australian communications minister Anika Wells take questions from school students. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPAnthony Albanese and Anika Wells take questions from school students for the ABC’s Behind the News program. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare
Updated at 18.30 EST
Senate debates Hanson’s bill for plebiscite on immigration
The Senate are currently debating Pauline Hanson’s bill for a national plebiscite that would ask Australians if the rate of immigration is “too high”.
Due to her suspension yesterday – where senators across the political divide heavily condemned her actions – she’s not in the Senate to debate on her own bill.
Parliament ‘drips now in racism’: Faruqi slams Pauline Hanson’s ‘pathetic’ burqa stunt – video
It’s not the first time this has been introduced – it was first brought into parliament back in 2018, and has been reintroduced over several parliamentary terms. All legislation that isn’t passed during a term is automatically lapsed.
Once again it won’t get through – there’s no support from Labor, the Coalition or the Greens, and there’s plenty of criticism of it, including from independent Fatima Payman:
Days after reheating a stunt from 2017, the spirit of senator Hanson now reheats a bill from 2018 … nothing says serious policymaking like asking Australian to vote on a question that won’t actually change a single law.
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Updated at 18.23 EST
Optus outage hits Frankston, affecting 14,000 users
Josh Taylor
Optus mobile services are out in areas of Frankston and Mornington Peninsula in Victoria following an aerial fibre break, the telco reported on Wednesday.
Optus advised on its website that it affects approximately 14,096 services, and is currently under investigation.
Customers who need to call triple zero will need to be within coverage of another mobile network, or able to call via wifi, the telco said.
Optus has been approached for comment.
Australia’s second-largest telco has faced significant scrutiny over mobile outages since September, when several people died during an outage that prevented them from dialling triple zero.
A Senate inquiry has been examining the cause of the outage, with the next hearing to be held early next month.
In its submission to the inquiry, Optus noted there was a network uptime of 99.45% for the past quarter. Local outages are not uncommon, however. There were 332 significant local outages between the end of June and 11 October this year, the company said.
The Optus logo on one of its shops in Sydney. Photograph: ReutersShare
Updated at 18.17 EST
Ley says Liberal focus remains on reducing personal income tax
Sussan Ley has promised a “compelling” economic agenda, as the latest ANU Australian electoral survey reveals Labor are now seen as the better economic managers, a mantle the Coalition has held for years.
Appearing on Sky News this morning, the opposition leader says she’s focused on reducing personal income taxes.
I said we would develop a serious, compelling policy agenda around the economy that includes … living within our means, and the next thing I said was we would deliver personal income tax cuts to low and middle-income earners, we would have a substantial package in the lead-up to the next election.
You might remember the Coalition said it would reverse Labor’s personal tax cut promised at the last election. On whether Ley would admit that was a mistake, she says, “We pretty much acknowledged that.”
She doesn’t directly address that finding by the ANU that the Coalition is no longer trusted as the better economic manager.
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Updated at 18.02 EST
Department budget reprioritisation ‘moving deckchairs on the Titanic’, says Hume
The Coalition has accused the government of “lying” by telling the public service to find savings, but it has been skirting questions over whether there should be cuts to department budgets.
On Sky News this morning, Jane Hume, who was shadow public service minister at the last election when the Coalition promised to cut 41,000 public service jobs, won’t say whether the opposition supports the move, just that she’ll be asking questions of the finance minister at estimates next week.
Where are these cuts going to take place? Because when we know, when this government talks about efficiency and reprioritisations, what all that simply means is that they’re moving they’re moving the chess pieces around, moving the deck chairs on the Titanic, but they’re not actually making the savings that they need.
These are the questions that we’re going to be asking the finance minister next week at Senate estimates. Because, quite frankly, this is the first that we’ve heard of this in February this year, finance minister Katy Gallagher came out and said, the public service is the right size.
Hume says the public service has grown “unsustainably” and wants to know where any jobs will be cut – whether in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Social Services or other frontline services.
They’re the exact same questions the government was asking of the opposition during the election campaign.
Liberal senator Jane Hume. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare
Updated at 17.51 EST
