Australia news live update: Morrison unveils details of 2050 net zero plan; SA to reopen border to vaccinated visitors

LIVE – Updated at 08:45

Follow all the day’s news.

What happened on Tuesday, 26 October

With that, we will wrap up the blog for the evening. I’ll no doubt lie awake tonight with the word “plan” on endless repeat in my head.

Here were today’s major developments:

  • Australia is “meeting and beating” emissions targets in the “Australian way,” according to the prime minister Scott Morrison, who today committed to a net zero by 2050 target with a plan that makes no mention of harder 2030 cuts, relying instead on “existing” and “emerging” technologies.
  • Opposition leader Anthony Albanese asked why no modelling had been released to inform the above plan, while Chris Bowen said he’d “seen more detail on fortune cookies”.
  • South Australia will relax its border restrictions from 23 November under a Covid plan that will allow fully vaccinated travellers from hotspots back into the state.
  • Victoria reported 1,510 new Covid cases and four deaths as new pandemic laws were introduced to parliament. The laws will replace the state of emergency powers in place, and will allow the premier to announce a pandemic and introduce new public health orders for three months.
  • NSW reported 282 new local Covid cases and one death, while Queensland reported two cases of “low risk” community transmission.
  • New Zealand reported 79 new cases. Some 71% of the eligible population is now fully vaccinated, but restrictions will remain in place until that number reaches 90%.
  • And Crown Resorts will be allowed to keep its lucrative Melbourne casino licence despite a royal commission finding that it has engaged in “illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative” conduct. Stephen O’Bryan QC, a former anti-corruption commissioner, will be installed as special monitor to oversee the casino operator for two years while it attempts to reform itself.

 

08:34 Paul Karp

Scott Morrison has been speaking with Perth’s 6PR radio about the net zero policy, and the commonwealth efforts to help find missing WA girl Cleo Smith.

Asked if the federal government is helping, Morrison said:

Well of course, this is heartbreaking. I want to assure everyone over there in WA, particularly the family and friends of poor Cleo, this is really capturing the minds of the country … Our hearts go out to them.

In terms of technology and tradecraft, the AFP have some very advanced capabilities, it’s leading edge … The AFP are there, they’ve joined that process, they’re helping in every way they possibly can.

I just hope we can find Chloe, mate, I just really do. The whole nation is waiting, and hoping and praying.

It’s a mistake that the print media has made at times as well, but rounding out the interview by getting her name wrong is a bit of a clanger from the prime minister.

 

08:23 Amanda Meade

The ABC’s managing director David Anderson has told the Senate environment and communications legislation committee it was his decision to pay journalist Louise Milligan’s defamation costs based on legal advice.

Anderson said the legal advice was that the ABC could be “vicariously liable” for the reporter’s personal tweets and the risk of being joined to proceedings.

In August, Milligan agreed to pay Andrew Laming $79,000 plus costs for a series of tweets that he alleged were defamatory.

Anderson told the committee he decided to meet the costs and didn’t consult the board.

In May, Laming sent a concerns notice to Milligan for tweets in which she suggested he had taken a photo of a woman “under her skirt”, which Milligan deleted and clarified was “incorrect because the woman was wearing shorts”.

 

About one in 10 health workers in Tasmania have yet to provide proof they’ve had a coronavirus vaccination ahead of a looming deadline, AAP reports.

The state government requires staff in the health system to have had at least one dose, have made a vaccination booking, or have evidence of an exemption, by Sunday. Workers who don’t comply will be sacked.

Health minister Jeremy Rockliff told state parliament approximately 90% of the health workforce had submitted proof of vaccination.

In recent days there has been a significant jump in the public health sector providing evidence of vaccinations. To those not yet vaccinated, please don’t leave it to the eleventh hour. It is absolutely critical that our health staff vaccinate to protect our patients and each other.

The mandate, which was announced in early September, applies to some 16,000 healthcare workers.

The island state will open its borders to fully vaccinated travellers from anywhere in the country on 15 December.

Premier Peter Gutwein wants 90% of the state’s over 16 population to be fully vaccinated by December 1.

As of Tuesday, more than 72% of Tasmanians in that demographic had received both doses and more than 87% had received one.

 

Helen Haines has responded to the government’s ‘plan’:

Regional Australians have every right to feel completely let down by the Coalition government today.

The economic opportunities for regional Australia from the growth of zero carbon industries are simply enormous.

The government promised a detailed plan to capture that opportunity.

But today the prime minister gave us no such plan.

The prime minister seemingly announced nothing at all for the regions – zero new policies, zero new investments and zero new opportunities for regional Australia.

They have had eight years in power to figure this out.

Australia is lagging at the back of the pack when it comes to climate action, and now we are not even at the starting line when it comes to investing in the renewable economy of the future.

 

Thanks as ever to Amy Remeikis, Australian democracy will miss her when she departs for the Olympics.

Meanwhile, the Clean Energy Council has released a statement on the climate plan:

The last month has been another disappointing chapter in the politics of climate change in Australia.

While the federal government has recognised the importance of a commitment to net-zero by 2050 emissions target, a refusal to take on greater ambition over the next decade will likely leave Australia isolated and unable to make the most of the economic benefits that come with rapid decarbonisation.

Without a stronger 2030 target, there remains a lack of clarity and positive investment signals to accelerate the decarbonisation of Australia and take advantage of the enormous economic opportunity in play.

Today’s announcement does little more than echo the commitments and action already underway by state governments, businesses and households.

 

The lovely Caitlin Cassidy will take you through what is left of the day. We are still watching estimates, and the whole team is trying to find answers on what the actual climate plan is for you, so make sure you pop back to the site to see what they have ferreted out (they have had to go deep. A plan, for a plan, when it comes to trying to do something tangible on climate action is not a great starting point. But as a plan to try and win the election, by annoying no one because nothing actually changes and no one actually has to do anything – well, the Coalition nailed that brief. It’s almost like that was it’s actual plan all along)

If you are still struggling with the current deputy prime minister complaining about “laws and penalties” join the club. It has been a day in a very, very long decade of them.

I’ll be back tomorrow morning to take you through more of the fall out – Scott Morrison doesn’t leave for Glasgow until Thursday, so we have some time.

In the mean time, take care of you.

 

And for those who haven’t seen it as yet, here’s the news take from today’s ‘plan announcement from Sarah Martin:

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has released the government’s plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and updated Australia’s 2030 projection to between 30% and 35% as he prepares to fly to Glasgow for a United Nations climate summit.

Morrison on Tuesday hailed the plan as a “practical way” to neutralise Australia’s emissions by 2050 but the plan showed almost a third of the abatement task is comprised of cuts via unspecified “technology breakthroughs” and “global trends” while a further 20% will be achieved through unexplained offsets.

Australia’s emissions are among the highest in the world on a per capita basis and the country has long trailed behind similar developed countries in pledging to reduce emissions.

The government has refused to release modelling underpinning the plan and is keeping details of the package – promised to secure Nationals support for the mid-century target – secret.

Related: Australia commits to 2050 net zero emissions plan but with no detail and no modelling

 

The prime minister’s transcript for today’s press conference has just lobbed – the word plan came up 101 times when I searched through it, for those wondering.

(About five of those times, it was by a journalist in a question)

Load Error

 

07:38 Christopher Knaus

The prime minister’s office has met lawful timeframes in freedom of information cases in just 38.9% of cases, Senate estimates has just heard. The Office of the Australian Information Commission (OAIC) is giving evidence about the performance of the FOI system, which, as we reported last week, has continued to deteriorate considerably.

Among other things, we are seeing longer and longer delays in processing FOI requests, a trend that often renders information useless if it’s ever released. The prime minister’s office has been an FOI laggard for a while now.

In 2019-20, it met statutory timeframes for processing FOIs in just 7% of cases.

In 2020-21, it met the timeframe in 38.9% of cases, according to information commissioner Angelene Falk.

Another contributor to the system’s delays is the length it takes for the OAIC to review decisions made by government agencies. Senate estimates has just heard the longest case it has before it currently is four-years-old. There are 677 cases it has been considering for more than 12 months.

 

The sell is going really well.

 

07:01 Paul Karp

In September news.com.au revealed a proposal by Quarantine Services Australia for a new network of privately operated Covid-19 quarantine facilities to offer “user pays” care for up to 5,000 overseas students, workers and skilled migrants a month.

QSA’s director is Scott Briggs, the former NSW Liberal deputy director and close friend of prime minister Scott Morrison.

On Wednesday, Labor quizzed the department of the prime minister and cabinet about QSA, but got nowhere, as officials said it was not something they deal with.

Then, later in the evening, Kristina Keneally asked home affairs about the proposal, after hearing from a source the plan could be announced this week.

Asked if international students will go through QSA facilities, the home affairs secretary, Michael Pezzullo, said:

Possibly, as I’ve been advised the umbrella not-for-profit mutual known as QSA would have a number of limbs, one of which would deal with companies needing to bring skilled labour here, another might well involve engagement with tertiary institutions to arrange a different standard bulk if you will student accommodation. I think at one point I was briefed on QSA, leaving aside company arrangements … It had a third limb, or area of interest, it might have been related to agricultural workers on farms.”

 

Hursty continues with that thread:

 

And for those needing some context to today’s climate ‘plan’:

 

The parliament is starting to wind down.

 

06:22 Josh Taylor

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has written to Facebook and YouTube over whether advertisements from Clive Palmer’s United Australia party about the vaccination program undermine the program and are in the public interest.

Labor’s shadow minister for health, Mark Butler, wrote to the head of the TGA, John Skerritt, last week regarding the more than $1.2m the UAP has spent promoting videos on YouTube in the past two months. Butler highlighted one video presenting an incomplete extract of the TGA adverse event report the agency produces about adverse events people experience after being vaccinated – regardless of whether it is connected to being vaccinated at all.

The TGA has previously written to the United Australia party parliamentary leader, Craig Kelly, about how the UAP has presented this report in mass distributed text messages.

In a letter responding to Butler on Tuesday, Skerritt said the TGA has “a good working relationship” with the Australian arms of Facebook and YouTube, and has worked with them to remove ads in the past for products claiming to treat Covid-19:

While for the reasons described above the communications from the UAP do not fit into the category of advertising, I have written to both companies asking them to consider whether such communications undermine Australia’s vaccination campaign and whether it is in the public interest for their social media platforms to continue hosting such communications.

Facebook has previously rejected a call from Labor to prevent the UAP advertising Kelly on the platform, given his own page was banned over promoting Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as treatments for Covid-19.

Google stopped one UAP video being advertised for allegedly violating YouTube policies but only after the UAP had spent over $100,000 to get the video to reach between 1 million and 10 million users in Australia.

Crown Resorts responds

06:07 Ben Butler

Crown Resorts has responded to the damning findings of the Victorian royal commission into it, released this morning.

In a statement to the stock exchange, the company said it “accepts that serious shortcomings have been identified across operations, culture, governance and compliance” and it was “committed to a whole-of-business transformation to ensure it meets the justifiably high standards set by government, regulators, shareholders and the community”.

In English, that means it has promised to clean up its act, which according to the royal commissioner, Ray Finkelstein, included “illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative” conduct.

Finkelstein made 33 recommendations, including the appointment of a special manager to oversee the Melbourne casino for two years.

The Crown chief executive, Steve McCann, said:

Today’s announcement by the Victorian government provides a way forward for the business, our people, customers, partners and shareholders.

We are working cooperatively and constructively with the regulatory processes that are under way in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia, and firmly believe these processes are accelerating our reform program and helping Crown emerge as a stronger and more transparent company.

We are committed to working with the Special Manager, Stephen O’Bryan QC, in a constructive and transparent manner, just as we have been doing with the independent monitor appointed by the New South Wales regulator.

 

Here is what Mike Bowers was talking about earlier – Michael McCormack confronting Barnaby Joyce (I assume it was over the leaking of Nationals MPs’ WhatsApp messages as reported by Samantha Maiden):



Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce is pulled up by former leader Michael McCormack on his way into question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian


© Provided by The Guardian
Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce is pulled up by former leader Michael McCormack on his way into question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

And then again:



Joyce goes back to have a further discussion with McCormack. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian


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Joyce goes back to have a further discussion with McCormack. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

And then for a third time:



Joyce has a third discussion with McCormack during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian


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Joyce has a third discussion with McCormack during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

 

Over in regional and rural affairs estimates, Bridget McKenzie has admitted she hasn’t read the plan released by the prime minister today.

“You’re waving a blue bit of paper around,” she says to Kristina Keneally, apparently unaware that is exactly what Scott Morrison did today, but she has read the NFF’s press release.



Bridget McKenzie speaks during Senate estimates. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP


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Bridget McKenzie speaks during Senate estimates. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

 

Paul Fletcher is next on the dixer attempt to be relevant seesaw.

So far, no Alan Tudge. Sad. Not even relevant enough to be given an attempt to be relevant.

Can’t be easy being the ministerial version of a cover band that’s only booked when everyone else is unavailable.

 

Stuart Robert makes an attempt to be relevant.

There’s a theme here today.

 

The minister for the environment, who seems to mostly approve coalmines, takes a dixer on how great the Great Barrier Reef is and mentions that it is the ‘best managed reef in the world’, leaving out that it took political lobbying to get the reef off a Unesco ‘in danger’ draft listing.

Because that is how things actually work – scientists write reports based on facts and evidence, and then governments use their political power to lobby for bits in those reports to get left out, or changed, or altered, so they don’t actually have to take any action.

Simples!

 

Josh Burns to Scott Morrison:

Given the prime minister now supports Labor’s policy on net zero, will he also support Labor’s policy for an electric car discount which will make electric cars cheaper for Australian families?

Morrison:

I don’t support Labor’s policy, they don’t have one, there is nothing to support. They have got a target but they have no plan, Mr Speaker. The only things we can discern from their policies, Mr Speaker, is what they did last time they were in government, which was a tax on people (it was not).

They sought to tax people (again – no tax), to mandate things, force them to do things. And so no, I won’t be supporting the Labor party’s policy because not only do I know what it is, the Australian people don’t know what it is, they don’t know what the target is.

There is some argy-bargy between the Speaker and Anthony Albanese over relevance, but Tony Smith points out that with the ‘support Labor’s policy’ line in the question, then Morrison is free to go where he wants.



Scott Morrison speaks during question time. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP


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Scott Morrison speaks during question time. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Morrison:

Our policies are very clear about what we are seeking to do. I was happy to table that earlier during question time. But I am not surprised that the Labor party does not support our policy, because you won’t find any taxes in it, you won’t find anything in there telling people what they have to do and what they mandated, you won’t find anyone banning anything, anyone trying to shut down any mines or tell farmers what to do on their land, you won’t find any additional regulation in our policy, that’s why Labor does not like it, you won’t find any more red tape, you won’t find anyone in there trying to get into people’s lives and intervene in how they run their businesses, you won’t find anything in this document which is seeking to punish rural and regional Australia, which is what would happen under the Labor party, and you won’t find in our policies contracting out the decisions that should be made about Australia by Australians, the way that we’ll achieve these targets, to those overseas, because that’s what the Labor party does.

Under our policy, we have an Australian way to get to net zero emissions by 2050 based on technology, not taxes. It is based on choices, not mandates on the Australian people, binding on legislation …

And the reliability of energy so we keep the lights on and we get the prices down, and Mr Speaker, is based on the transparency and accountability, not just on emissions, and the transparency of getting emissions done but ensuring that our policies demonstrate the economic gains and the socio-economic gains for all Australians, but particularly in rural and regional areas.

I’m not surprised the Labor party does not support our plan. They don’t have a plan. They don’t have a target 2030. They don’t like it because we don’t have taxes on it the way Labor does things. (Again, not a tax.)

 

Question time ends, but Anthony Albanese decides to keep everyone in the chamber for longer by moving a motion to suspend standing orders.

It is denied.

 

Madeleine King to Keith Pitt:

Yesterday, the member for Mallee said about solar panels, ‘they don’t work in the dark, and neither do our wind farms’. Does the minister agree?

Pitt:

I thank the member for the question and the member for Mallee is right, there are wind turbines [that don’t run] when there are no wind of a night-time, just as they don’t work during the day when there is no wind, that’s the nature of intermittent generation. That is the reality of life.

 

Stephen Jones to Barnaby Joyce:

I refer to his previous statement that ‘these people actually did read the Productivity Commission reports. I use them when I run out of toilet paper.’ Given this statement, why is the deputy prime minister delivering the regions another Productivity Commission report?

The current deputy prime minister:

I tell you what, I admire the history lesson, that was more than 10 years ago*.

Obviously they have a lot of spare time on the other side. They are going through people’s tweets, reading back, maybe spending time on [inaudible], reading the [Hansard] of the Senate. But it is remarkable you have reached back that far in time.

And I must say I am kind of flattered. A little bit flattered that they are so interested. I came here feeling a bit down in the dumps. It perked me up. It is a good fellow. I can send him some of my photo albums. You can start having a look through those. I think what is really important that there is consistency between what happened back then and what happened now, and that is this, that right back then, I believe, a little bit individual, I believe the state [sits below] that of the individual.

But then I believe you in the position, you believe the state was your master, and that is what the Labor party believes … Why are you so upset about me telling about the policy?

Tony Smith tells him to get back to the question.



Scott Morrison listens to Barnaby Joyce during question time. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP


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Scott Morrison listens to Barnaby Joyce during question time. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The current deputy prime minister:

I am happy to do that because we are making absolutely certain in the reports that come back that we are looking after regional people, we are making absolutely certain that we have got the checks and balances that oversee this in such a way that we can maintain the coal jobs, if they are affected by international circumstances, so be it.

But we will not affect them with mystic regulations, which the Labor party are proposing regulations, and every worker wants to know where … (Tony Smith tells him to get back to the point again)

… The reason we are reporting back is we want the proper checks and balances because we respect our people.

*This is a bit rich, given the government are still going on about the last time Labor was in government, which was exactly the same time.

 

Catherine King to Barnaby Joyce:

Net zero is a commitment that is meant to last for 30 years. Yesterday, senator Canavan said the government would scrap its net zero policy after the election because we cannot future party rooms or parliaments. Why should anyone believe this slideshow would last beyond the next election if the Coalition is re-elected?

The current deputy prime minister:

I thank the honorable member for her question. And for at times I have interacted with senator Canavan, but he did not actually write the plan.

The views of any individual, I’m glad the honorable member is fascinated, and I must say, she seems to be following senator Canavan a lot closer than I am, but it’s good, she has a lot of spare time, they have a lot of spare time on the other side, and Mr Speaker, I think the really important thing is that she obviously has a strong belief that for the next 30 years we will be in government, and I appreciate that, and on the recent track record, it wouldn’t be surprising, and I will tell you why that she thinks we will be looking after this nation for the next 30 years, it’s because we believe in the inspiration of the individual, and how government believes in legislation.

They are going to legislate, they are going to legislate, and by so doing … the member for Sydney, she doesn’t care about central Queensland, she thinks that central Queensland is a big joke, and maybe if they had half a billion for an art gallery in central Queensland life would be a lot better, but the member for Sydney thinks that central Queensland is a joke.

Tony Smith tells him to get to the point:

Sorry Mr Speaker, I was distracted by the frivolity from the member of Sydney who are busily thought that people’s lives …

Smith: You are now repeating it.

The current deputy prime minister:

We will make sure that in response of the question for the next 30 years we are blessed with the opportunity of running the place, and I hope we are, for the sake of Australians, that we will utilise the mechanism of believing in the intelligence of people and the inspirational people to achieve the outcomes that we have set out in the plan because it is only the other side that believes in legislating them out of a job.

 

Justine Elliot to Barnaby Joyce:

How does he reconcile his earlier statement that the likelihood of the government adopting net zero was zero to his change in public answers this week supporting net zero for the regions, and does he agree with the member for Gippsland, who said, ‘I think Michael’s [McCormack] removal from office was the greatest act of political treachery in our party in 100 years. I said it at the time and I believe it today. It was all personal ambition, it wasn’t politics.’

Tony Smith rules the second part of the question out of order.

The current deputy prime minister:

Mr Speaker, I am only too happy to answer the question, because in the Coalition and Nationals we diligently went through the process, as we always said, to make sure it was something that looked after people in regional areas, the regional areas where you would clearly understand them. And one of the big things we were looking for when we did that, because it was incredibly important, we checked for it and went through it, we wanted to make absolutely certain there was no legislation in there that enforced things, because we don’t believe in penalties, they believe in penalties, they believe the state reigns supreme over the individual, and we believe the individual rises above the state.

We believe in penalties and enforcement legislation brings, and laws, laws are enforced by penalties, and those laws and penalties put coal workers at threat, meat workers at threat, put the people in the Hunter Valley at threat, people in central Queensland at threat, it is legislation they are looking out for and we were making sure that the people of central Queensland are safe, the people of the Hunter Valley are safe, and we diligently went through that process Mr Speaker, we went through the process so that we could go forward with a plan that stands for the people. We believe in the inspiration of the individual and that the smarts of the individual to rise above the enforcement of the Labor party, the red tape of the Labor party, or the instructions of the Labor party, and finally, the unemployment of the Labor party.



Barnaby Joyce speaks during question time. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP


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Barnaby Joyce speaks during question time. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Where do you even start with that? The conservatives in both the UK and Germany legislated net zero and the world didn’t implode. It is the job of the executive government to create laws, so raging against legislation is a very strange take for the DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF THE COUNTRY to take (he’ll be acting PM from Thursday night) and how will the Labor party become unemployed? Will they be sacked as opposition? Wouldn’t that mean they were promoted to government? None of it makes sense.

 

Angus Taylor makes an attempt at being relevant.

Still moving on.

 

Greg Hunt makes an attempt at relevance.

Moving on.

 

The member for the soon-to-be-abolished electorate of Stirling gets ANOTHER chance to practice speaking like an actual socialised human who has totally spent time speaking with other humans in his life, being gifted another dixer.

This time Vince Connelly gets his arms involved in a way which makes me think the hydraulics might need some lubrication.

 

Andrew Wilkie to Scott Morrison:

My question is to the prime minister. Prime minister, the community has had a gutful of the lack of integrity in politics. Your government in particular has been beset by scandals, and trust in politicians is at an all-time low. Of course the crossbench has been leading the charge to fix this, for example with members yesterday moving bills to establish an effective anti-corruption commission, bringing honesty and transparency to political donations, and including political advertisements. Why are you not responding to these concerns? Will you do something tangible to restore public faith in the political process?

Paul Fletcher takes this one:

I know he has a longstanding interest in these issues, in the question of integrity and politics, and of course it’s an interest of the Coalition government, the Morrison government very strongly shows this, which is why we are proceeding with our commitments to establish a commonwealth integrity commission designed to be the lead body in Australia’s accessible multiagency corruption framework designed to enhance accountability across the public sector. We have been going through a national consultation process – some 330 written submissions received, 46 consultations – we are now heavily considering that feedback as a necessary step to finalising and introducing legislation.

We are doing more than preparing the legislation, we are providing very significant funding – indeed almost $150m to the commonwealth integrity commission – and we will have around 172 staff.

Mr Speaker, I want to be clear that the commonwealth integrity commission will have significant powers to investigate past conduct in matters prior to its commencement, and be able to look into past conduct falling into this jurisdiction, including some 145 permit health offences, for example offences in the criminal code act, and we have indicated that we intend to create more offences relating to criminal corrupt conduct, including public corruption.

I say to the member for Clark, I say to the House, our government is working through in a methodical and thorough fashion a very comprehensive model here, and I say to the member and indeed I say to the opposition, if you are ready to back us, then say so. Join us on this journey to get this legislation passed to further introduce powerful measures to be able to uphold integrity and to deal with the threat of criminally corrupt conduct at the commonwealth level.

 

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

My question is to the prime minister. Isn’t it the case that instead of delivering a climate change policy after almost one decade in government, today the prime minister presented a 15-page slideshow, no new policy?

Morrison:

No.

 

The current deputy prime minister takes a dixer from the member for Flynn and launches into a “why would you want laws” monologue, forgetting that it is literally his job to create laws, because he is the deputy prime minister of this country, and a member of the executive government.

This is the same person who spent Christmas eve yelling at clouds and emotionally calling for the government to just get out of his life just two years ago, so it’s not unusual for the current deputy prime minister to forget the key components of his job.

Here is the latest nonsensical rant:

…the member for Flynn will want to know what our plan is. It is inspiration, making sure we deliver freedoms. Other is an ultimate plan. It is one of legislation.

The only thing we know about their plan, legislation. Mr Speaker, legislation brings in-laws, and laws outlaw things, and laws enforce penalties, so we do have a clear differentiation, we have a chasm between the two different policies because we believe in inspiration and technology and they believe in laws and penalties. We believe in inspiration.

They believe in punishment. We believe in freedom, they believe in [legislation] We believe people can rise up to a higher level to deal with problems, they believe they will force them down with further laws.

They will further legislate their lives and that is a vast difference between the processes. I stand with this side, 100% with this side, believing in the freedom of the individual and I will make sure that the laws that were put for your workers I never brought into place.

 

Scott Morrison just yelled the word plan a few more times, when asked what the actual plan was, so we’re all really enjoying this journey.

You know that feeling when you say a word so much it begins to lose all meaning and you don’t even know if it’s sounding weird, or if it’s always just been a weird word and you have just noticed? Yeah. Today that is ‘plan’.

 

Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack are having a series of “animated” conversations in the chamber, says Mike Bowers, who sees all.

McCormack is quite agitated it seems, showing Joyce something on his phone.

I have a feeling it is about this:

 

Breaking into QT for a moment with some good news – the South Australian border is opening to double vaccinated visitors from 23 November

Question time begins

Anthony Albanese wants to know what the cost is for the government’s climate plan:

Scott Morrison:

$20bn is what we are investing to produce those low emissions technologies with is the central component of our plan to hit net zero emissions by 2050.

It is technology, not taxes. Mr Speaker, it is about choices and mandates, not mandates, we are not seeking to force people to do things, not seeking to close anything down. They are policies the Labor Party [may] pursue. That is their agenda, not ours.

He continues with the same guff we heard during the press conference and finishes with:

When the Labor party was last in power they only had one plan to reduce emissions. It was called a tax.

It was called a tax – by the Coalition. And one of the main architects of calling it a tax – Peta Credlin – later happily admitted that it was never a tax, but that’s what they managed to convince people it was, and six months later, they won the election.

 

For what it is worth here is the full “plan”.

Follow this link.

If anyone can tell me how we are getting these offsets, who is buying them, what mechanism they relate to, or even just a whiff of an answer, I will buy you a coffee.



Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP


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Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

 

Ed Husic is having a good day at least. Here he was on Sky a little earlier, trolling the Libral party:

The only way, if you’re a Liberal voter and you want to see climate change taken seriously, the only way you’re going to see that change is to vote out Katie Allen, vote out Dave Sharma, vote out Tim Wilson … maybe give Trent Zimmerman a shake, because I like him. But you got to strike them, you got to give them a dose of the eternal heebie jeebies for them to take this seriously, and you got to do it in the heartland and have independents maybe sit on the crossbench and hold either side to account.

 

Anthony Albanese:

The prime minister announced a vibe today rather than a target. It’s all in the vibe of what’s happening and we will wait and see in terms of the details of course, you won’t given any detail.

And of course, we haven’t been either.

What we have said very clearly, is that we would await Glasgow and what comes out of Glasgow before we finalise all of our policies before – but when it comes but we won’t wait to announce any of our policies has rewiring the nation. I asked in parliament yesterday, will the prime minister adopt that?

Fixing electricity, transmission and making it fit for purpose for the 21st century is low hanging fruit. Is something that the government could doing now, they are doing Snowy 2.0 and it’s not even going to be plugged in to the grid. It says it all about the laziness when it comes to this government.

We will announce our policies after Glasgow, I’ve been consistent about that, the whole way through and in the meantime, we’ve announced rewiring the nation, we’ve announced new partnerships, community batteries, we’ve announced are cheaper electric vehicle policy comprehensive policies that will make a difference, we will continue to announce a series of policies that are signed off by us as a Labor opposition but we will finalise a number of matters after Glasgow and it will be well known before the election. Glasgow is pretty important.

That has been the whole focus … With due respect, this government has been there for almost nine years. And literally, two days before the prime minister jets off to Glasgow for the most important international conference on climate change this century, he has come up with this non-policy which has no new initiatives.

Seriously, this government, this government today, again, have not released any modelling, they have not released any new initiatives, and in their own words, this plan is based on our existing policies, so they themselves have stood up today, and said nothing to see here.

 

Chris Bowen:

I’ve seen more detail on fortune cookies than on the documents released by the government. This is the biggest challenge facing the planet and the biggest opportunity facing Australia. It requires leadership and detail plans but all we have today was the slides, slogans and no solutions.

As Anthony said, the only new thing is a pay rise for Keith Pitt. They’ve introduced an emissions trading promotions policy. That’s all we’ve got.

This is a government who, after eight years of climate wrecking, today they are simply delaying again. All we’ve seen after six years is still the same target, Tony Abbott’s target and our projection that we might do 2% better.

At least, Tony Abbott had the courage to make a target and he was a climate change denier. At least he had a medium target, at least he said he would have a target over the medium term to the world’s climate change conferences.

While we got from this government is just more of the same.

What we have done is engage in policy development and announcement, already announced, electric vehicles tax, community batteries, already announced new energy, rewiring the nation policy, we will continue with the process.

But we get this scare from the government that somehow legislation is bad, as Anthony said, they are worried about the embarrassment and somehow legislation is bad.

Well [are] Boris Johnson’s government that legislated net zero, Angela Merkel’s government that legislated net zero, that the French government that legislated net zero are engaging in the destruction of their industries? And how would he explain that in Glasgow?

What was all today, wasn’t a plan, it was a scam. It’s not a plan for the future of the country, it’s a political copout.



Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen at a press conference this afternoon. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian


© Provided by The Guardian
Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen at a press conference this afternoon. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Anthony Albanese press conference

Chris Bowen is at this one.

It’s a two-flag press conference for Labor as well (that’s how you can tell we are now getting serious).

Anthony Albanese:

We haven’t seen the modelling, and we haven’t had the detail. Because there is net zero modelling, net zero legislation and net zero unity.

Scott Morrison left to the last possible minute to outline a scam that leaves everything to the last possible minute.

But in their own words, there is nothing new in this plan.

The word plan doesn’t constitute a plan, no matter how often he said and what form it’s printed.

As always with this prime minister, it is all about marketing. All about the spend, never about the substance.

If this plan was really supported by the whole of the Coalition, then Barnaby Joyce would have launched it with the prime minister.

But we know that is not supported by the deputy prime minister, is not supported by the Nationals leader in the Senate, is not supported by Keith Pitt, the resources minister, and it was not supported by minister Gillespie either.

The fact is that the only reason why there is no going to be legislation about net zero by 2050, it isn’t because there is a risk that it won’t be carried because Labor would vote for net zero by 2050, it is because the Coalition would be embarrassed by the number of their own members who would cross the floor …

Now, we know that the only policy detail we have seen up to this point is that Keith Pitt has been promoted to the cabinet. That is it. The only new policy detail. There is no new funding announced today, just Keith Pitt promotion and an idea that somehow the Productivity Commission will have a look at documentation every five years about how it’s going. It was really about nothing today and that says it all about this government.

 

03:42 Christopher Knaus

Well, the lower house has just started with a bang. We’ve been reporting in recent months on the case against Troy Stolz, a former ClubsNSW employee turned whistleblower, who lifted the lid on the money laundering through the state’s pokies.

ClubsNSW is now suing Stolz for breach of confidence and, as part of that federal court case, it had sought his communications with independent MP Andrew Wilkie. That raised a potential breach of parliamentary privilege, because MPs’ communications with their constituents are often protected.

The powerful privileges committee has just recommended that parliament intervene in the federal court case to protect parliamentary privilege. It has found that some of the documents ClubsNSW is seeking to obtain are protected by parliamentary privilege. The committee recommended that the speaker, Tony Smith, take steps to protect the house’s interests and intervene in the case.

We’ll bring you more on this shortly.

 

03:42 Lisa Cox

NSW environment minister Matt Kean has told a state estimates hearing there needs to be major reform of environmental offsetting schemes after a Guardian Australia investigation.

Kean told the hearing that a series of stories exposing failures in environmental offsetting had revealed “appalling practices” and confirmed some matters uncovered by the reporting are now the subject of investigations by integrity bodies.

“I think it’s clear that there needs to be root-and-branch reform of the scheme both from a policy level and an integrity level and, yes, we will be doing both,” the minister said on Tuesday.

Related: How the environmental offsets scheme is failing the Australian wildlife it is meant to protect

Kean said he had also launched “a full and thorough” internal review that was being undertaken by Paul Grimes, the state’s coordinator general for environment, energy and science.

In response to questions from Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann, Grimes said:

We take these matters extremely seriously in the department and I can confirm we have initiated investigations and reviews and they’ve been progressing.

As the minister’s indicated, some of those matters relate to matters that have been referred to Icac so, for obvious reasons because the work is still ongoing, I’m probably not in a place to share too much information about the work.

But I would like to emphasise how seriously the department takes these matters and our commitment to making sure that the matters are properly reviewed and properly acted on if there’s any findings that require actions.

 

03:40 Daniel Hurst

In the Coalition party room, a member mentioned the importance of the Toowomba rail line to Gladstone, suggesting it was important for councils in that area. We’re told the prime minister said he was very pleased to support the business case.

Sarah Martin wrote about this issue last week, with environment groups saying the push would unlock a “carbon bomb”. Shortly after retaking the Nationals’ leadership, Barnaby Joyce announced the government would spend $10m on a business case for the Gladstone rail link.

 

03:39 Daniel Hurst

In a speech to the Coalition joint party room, the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, pointed to the 2004 election in which John Howard won after being behind on polling, based on messages about who do you trust on economic and security issues.

Later, he referred to the 2004 election victory:

Let’s make sure that happens again.

Frydenberg said Australia had experienced a “once-in-a-century pandemic”. He said the Coalition was “not playing to the extremes” on climate policy but rather “to the quiet Australians”.

 

It’s now the downhill slide to question time.

Brace yourself.

 

I’m still processing quite a bit of rage at the “plan” which seems to be a list of things the government doesn’t quite know how to achieve but which will apparently lead to outcomes.

We don’t know who is purchasing our “offsets”, how they’ll be offset, or whether it will actually work, but hey – things are cheaper at JB HiFi now than they were five years ago, and it will probably be the same for climate policy.

I wish I could say I was making that up. I am not. Here is an actual Scott Morrison quote:

Probably one of the safest assumptions that you can make that the rapid introduction of technology will continue to drive these costs down. Anyone who walked into a JB Hi-Fi store today compared to five years ago will know the change in price to what they were paying five years ago and the increase in capacity and capabilities.

That is the world we know, this is a plan for the world we know and where it is heading.

Australia’s carbon offsets – now just $19.99 at JB HiFi. Buy now and get a bonus Pop! bobble head.

 

So the Coalition election campaign at this stage is the same one John Howard used against Mark Latham – who do you trust.

This time being deployed by the prime minister who went to Hawaii as the nation burned.

 

03:22 Daniel Hurst

Scott Morrison said the question at the next election for people around Australia – including in rural and regional Australia – is: “Who do you trust – who do you trust to look after your job and your income, who do you trust to look after your way of life?”

Morrison said the government had set out the path that would take it to the next election.

Barnaby Joyce told the meeting the Coalition was successful “because we understand the messages here ain’t the messages out there”.

Joyce compared the land area represented by the Coalition with the land area represented by Labor. Joyce suggested the Coalition was a “business partnership”, with a need for both sides to have a sense of agency:

We’ve gotten on with business. We’ve got a good business.

Joyce claimed the Labor party “have a huge hole”. He asked:

What’s next on the agenda they’re going to take from our lives?

Cue scary music.

 

Scott Morrison:

We have set out clear principles which we will honour. You will have noticed this about how our government operates. When we set out our economic response to Covid I first set out the principles by which we would do that and we are doing the same thing here.

Those principles will guide all of our decisions – technology, not taxes, choices not mandates, ensuring we have a portfolio of technologies that get us there at the end of the day, to ensure that we keep the costs down and have the balance between reliability and affordability with emissions reduction and most importantly to go back – the question was asked about our Pacific partners – a credibility on transparency and the authenticity of the credits and of the emissions reduction reporting that exists.

Australia, as Angus said, has set clear marks on this.

One of the things we raised at the Quad recently when I was in the United States and I discuss regularly with the Asean partners and well as those in the Pacific, is there will be an appetite around the world for high-integrity credits, high-integrity credits.

Australia will be an obvious place for that. In is no country that you can rely more on the integrity of any credits coming from any country than Australia.

We are premium quality, top of the line, best in class when it comes to these high-integrity credits.

Now we want to work with our Pacific island nation partners, with our Asean friends and those working without the Indo-Pacific, working with the United States and Japan and India making sure we can lift the [legitimacy] of these credits because I think that has been a real problem with the whole credits scheme.

I think it has really undermined confidence. It is not about the if or when, it is about the how. And the world has to start focusing on the how and our Australian way focuses on the how. I think that’s the leadership that the world debate on this actually needs. The world has to focus on the how.

Which is great. But this plan isn’t clear on the how. For a large part of it, the “how” remains unknown. Because the technologies the roadmap is relying on are not entirely developed yet. The “how” in this plan is a hope it all works out.

 

I’ll bring you key parts of the speech in a moment but the main takeaway is that we are not really doing anything to change.

It’s all about meeting and beating targets which we already know aren’t good enough and are based on misleading figures of how we have previously “met and beaten” targets.



Australian energy minister Angus Taylor. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP


© Provided by The Guardian
Australian energy minister Angus Taylor. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

 

So essentially, everything the Coalition has said about climate policy over the last decade, and particularly in the 2019 election, no longer matters because things have changed.

Nothing has actually changed – the government has just been dragged to this point (which is not a landmark one, it is still the bare minimum) but now the government, and Scott Morrison, want to pretend that everything they have ever said about climate policy, targets, emissions reduction was right at the time, and what they are saying is still right.



Smoke and flames from a back burn, conducted to secure residential areas from encroaching bushfires, in the Central Coast. Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images


© Provided by The Guardian
Smoke and flames from a back burn, conducted to secure residential areas from encroaching bushfires, in the Central Coast. Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images

 

03:10 Daniel Hurst

The Coalition joint party room was held in the Great Hall. Senators were mostly absent because of estimates hearings.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, spoke to the gathering about how the Coalition formed 75 years ago. The Coalition is the most successful political partnership in Australia’s history, he said, adding it had “weathered” all manners of storms. Morrison also apparently reflected on the difference between birthdays and anniversaries:

Anniversaries are different because they require the commitment of both parties.

Morrison said the last few weeks had been difficult. He thanked Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals for how the party had considered these issues.

Coalitions just like marriages .. have got to be strong through the difficult times.

Like in every marriage, Morrison said, there was “give and take”.

 

And after just under an hour, Scott Morrison calls time on the press conference:

There will be other opportunities down the track but I appreciate your attention today.

 

Australia has gone from having a “unique way of life” in this press conference, to not being dissimilar to some of our neighbours (that took 40 minutes):

You know the challenges that we face here in Australia, particularly with the nature of our economy are not that dissimilar to those being faced in Indonesia or in Vietnam or in India or places like that, or indeed China.

You know, if you really want to deal with this problem, it is not good enough to just tax people in developed countries and think that fixes the problem. Because I can tell you, China’s emissions will keep going up. John Kerry said this himself in one of his first press conferences, America could reduce their emissions to zero and if China’s emissions keep going up we don’t solve the problem.

We want to solve the problem. If you want to solve the problem then you need scaled, affordable, low-emissions technologies running industries, creating jobs, not just here in Australia but in Indonesia, Vietnam, China, India and other countries and, if you don’t do that, that won’t change.

 

And here is where Scott Morrison claims the government will hand down another budget (which is usually the second Tuesday in May) which would mean that a) the budget is handed down early, b) there will only be a half Senate election on 21 May to meet the deadline and a House election before September, c) this is just empty rhetoric and means nothing:

All of our policies will come out before the next election. In particular there will be a budget next year is our intention but either way all of our policies we will make decisions about that closer to that time.

 

Here is Scott Morrison’s election pitch:

All of our policies will come out before the next election.

In particular there will be a budget next year is our intention but either way all of our policies we will make decisions about that closer to that time. All of our policy investments in the regions and additional investments in a whole range of areas will be outlined as they have been outlined in these many years since the last election.

It will all be out there for everyone to proceed about what we are investing in and how we are investing in it because at the end of the day now that we are passed of the day now that we are passed the by, when and the if, and now that we are into the how, what – this is a real choice of now is the economic plan of the government – the Liberals and the Nationals – to steer Australia through what with will be a challenging time with the global response the climate change and how we intend to realise those opportunities.

The economic plan to secure Australia’s future through this time or the economic plan, if they come up with one, of the Labor party.

So at the election there will be a clear choice on who do people trust with the right economic plan to see us through this.

That’s what it’s all about, at the end of the day. Do you want to protect lives and livelihoods as we have through Covid, do you want to protect livelihoods and lives of Australians, particularly in regional area, then do you want a plan developed by people in the Liberals and National who haven’t willy-nilly signed up to this on a whim and haven’t just committed to a target without a plan and have chased the cheers of those for whatever purpose, you want a party and parties that have actually considered this deeply and have wrestled with it and you’ve seen it wrestle with it.

I think that’s a – that is a budget of authenticity on this plan that demonstrates just how hard we have worked and wrestled with the difficult issues that Australians wrestle with too.

Cutting emissions, protecting jobs and livelihoods. You have got to balance that and that’s what we’ve done.

 

Q: Just on 2030, our Pacific neighbours have said there will be catastrophe if Australia doesn’t set an example and commit to harder 2030 cuts, what do you say to those neighbouring countries now that you have appeased the National party and left their futures effectively under threat in low-lying areas?

Scott Morrison:

I don’t accept the premise of your question at all. I think on this you’re wrong.

I am not sure how you can reject the premise of a question based in fact. It’s not an opinion – it was actually said. It’s not a premise, it is a fact. And yet, Morrison tries to skirt by by saying he “doesn’t accept the premise of your question”. Which is easy to do when you are living in a reality you can shape to your own liking, purely by creating your own narrative, but even the barest amount of scrutiny reveals how flimsy it actually is.

Related: Australia must increase 2030 emissions target to help avoid ‘catastrophic’ heating, Samoan PM says

Morrison continues:

What we have done is produce the right plan for Australia. I think it is the right plan for our region. I know our regional partners. I was talking to the prime minister of Papua New Guinea on the weekend. I know they will strongly welcome the fact that Australia has now committed to net zero emissions by 2050.

That was one of the key items of discussion we had at the last time we were able to gather together at a Pacific island forum leaders retreat. I gave an undertaking at that meeting that we would consider that issue carefully and we have and we have confirmed that that is now our position.

They will welcome strongly the fact that we believe we will be able to achieve a 35% reduction in emissions by 2030. That is something we actually think we are going to achieve.

As I said, the actions of Australia speak louder than the words of others. There will be lots of words in Glasgow but I will be able to point to the actions of Australia and the achievements of Australia and I think that’s very important.

The credibility of Australia’s position is confirmed by our record. We’ve cut it already by 20% and grown our economy by 45%. New Zealand, Canada, the United States, other country, they can’t speak to that.

There will be other countries that turn up in Glasgow and say they have targets and say they have ambitions but you won’t find the same plan, you won’t find the same detailed plan that we are releasing here today. What you need – I always said that we would not commit to this unless I said we could have a plan to achieve it and that’s what we’re delivering today.

 

Oh, and you’ll see the government’s modelling, but not now. At an undisclosed time in the future, it will be released.

 

Looks as though Clive Palmer has his latest advertising campaign worked out:

 

Scott Morrison is bragging about Australia having achieved its targets.

Please, if you haven’t already, read Adam Morton on this point. In particular:

In reality, as analyses by government officials and others have shown, fossil fuel use in Australia has barely moved. The government has been able to claim it is taking action purely because the historically rapid rate of forest clearing for farming, logging and development slowed – but not stopped – earlier this decade.

This land-based fall in emissions mostly happened under Labor, not the Coalition, and mostly had nothing to do with federal policy. It was possible only because Australia has not yet finished cutting down its native forests. Most other wealthy nations were cleared centuries ago.

Here is the key point, as spelled out this week in a study by energy analyst Hugh Saddler: if changes in farming and land-clearing are excluded, fossil fuel emissions in Australia increased by more than 6% between 2005 and when Covid-19 struck. Try selling that number as evidence of an inevitable economic transformation under way.

It makes the government’s target of cutting emissions by at least 26% by 2030 compared with 2005 appear particularly hollow. The goal, unchanged in six years, looks worse again when held up against recent commitments by G7 countries to make minimum cuts of between 40% and 63% over the same period, and entirely without basis when measured against the rapidly advancing science of the IPCC.

 

This is a question which was actually just asked in a press conference:

Q: Boris Johnson has described Australia committing to net zero emissions by 2050 as heroic isn’t heroic or is it just the right thing to do?

Morrison is just THRILLED to welcome Johnson’s comments:

One of the things that I think goes to the strength of relationship between Australia and the UK between Boris and I, is Boris understands Australia, he understands that this is, this is a different challenge for Australia, then, to other countries.

And so he understands the significance of this, and he and I have discussed it on many occasions, and at length, and so he understands that this is an important decision for Australia, in making our contribution and doing the right thing for our country first. And he understands we’re making this decision in our national interest, and, and he welcomes it so I appreciate what what Boris has said.

Yup.

 

Labor haven’t actually released its plan yet, but Chris Bowen has some thoughts on the government’s offering:

 

“This plan is 100% supported by our government,” says Scott Morrison when asked about Barnaby Joyce telling his party room (which he leads) that he doesn’t believe the plan.

Morrison:

What we’ve gone through as a coalition, over, over many weeks, but indeed over a longer period of time then that, is to bring us to this point where we recognise that what is happening around the world. We can’t just let it happen to us.

You know in this debate, there are those who will say, will be ruined if we don’t, and we we ruined if we do.

And what’s important for Australia is we sit that middle course. And that’s what my government’s doing.

 

Scott Morrison:

We’ve come to this very conscious of the impacts of what is happening around the world on Australians and to ensure that we can address that.

And we can put them in a stronger position. You know only the Liberal and National parties working together, I think, can get the balance right here, and only the Liberal and National parties I think can be trusted with an economic plan that can achieve this, and deliver this because we get it.

We get both the risks and the opportunities.

And that’s what our plan is designed to address.



Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP


© Provided by The Guardian
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

 

Angus Taylor:

This is the right plan for Australia – to summarise the outcome from it, which we’ll see in the plan, Australians $2,000 better off on average in 2050 compared with no Australian action.

 

A wag has just pointed out to me that the Qantas inflight magazine was called The Australian Way, so I guess all that time ministers spent in the Chairman’s Lounge has been useful.

 

Scott Morrison:

You will be supported by our data projection that will see us exceed our 2030 target with emissions reduction of up to 35% by 2030.

We will keep our commitment, though, when it comes to our pledge that we made, and took to the last election of 26 to 28%, but we will meet it, and we will beat it.

And we’ll beat it with emissions reductions we believe about the 35%.

And we may even [surpass] it, but this is the approach that we put to the Australian people.

We said there’s the mark, but we can meet it, and we can beat it. And we will, and the world will be able to see us achieving that. And they’ll be able to take record of that.

Because what Australians are doing now is getting results, and they’re going to keep getting results, and they’re going to keep getting better results.

So we will honour our commitment to the Australian people. That’s what I took to them. That’s what they approved. And that’s what we’re doing. And we will continue to work to do even better. As part of our plan.

 

Scott Morrison:

I can say to rural and regional Australians this is a good plan for you, it’s a good plan for all Australians.

And we’re confident that is going to secure your future, that you can plan for your future with confidence.

And we’re backing that up by ensuring that that we won’t just be measuring the fact that we’ll be reducing emissions, we’ll be measuring the fact that we’re creating jobs, we’ll be measuring the fact that we’re boosting incomes, we’ll be measuring the fact that we are preserving Australians livelihoods, right across the country, because that is also one of the key measures of performance and success with this plan.

So, I’ll be taking this plan to Cop26 for our target to achieve net zero by 2050.

 

“We can’t let the changes which are happening around the world just happen to Australia,” says Scott Morrison, who has been present for most of the decade of climate wars and has actively participated in speaking down any actual meaningful action.

 

“The Australian way of life is unique,” says the leader of a colonised nation, led mostly by anglos, where power is shared among the few.

Scott Morrison press conference

Angus Taylor is there as well.

Scott Morrison launches straight into the lines: Australia understands there is need for climate action, Australia is already “meeting and beating” emissions reductions.

And we are doing it the “Australian way” (which appears to be trumpeting misleading figures, and doing the bare minimum and expecting a brass band for it).

 

02:09 Daniel Hurst

The Morrison government has so far budgeted only three months of funding to a “jobs guarantee” for workers who lost their jobs with the scrapping of the previous submarine project, a Senate estimates committee has heard.

But the finance minister, Simon Birmingham, sought to allay any concerns among affected workers, insisting that further funding allocations would be made to ensure the support is “ongoing”.

Last month, after announcing the scrapping of the French submarine contract, the government vowed to create a new “sovereign shipbuilding talent pool” to redeploy workers from the Attack class submarine program into other submarine and shipbuilding programs. Employees of Naval Group Australia (the French-linked submarine company) and Lockheed Martin (which was going to provide the combat system) have been asked to register their interest.

Representatives of the government-backed shipbuilding business ASC confirmed this morning that this program had been funded for 300 workers for three months. They said this was a “planning assumption”.

Birmingham, who was also at the table, said that was just an initial agreement that Defence has struck with ASC at this point of uncertainty in terms of how many workers will transition. He did not want workers to worry that there was only three months of employment on offer. He said there would be a subsequent agreement “that is ongoing to provide the guarantee to those individuals”. He cautioned Labor against running a “scare campaign”.

Labor’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, was incredulous: “Despite the spin, that’s all you funded – three months … When you dropped it to the media you didn’t mention that the only thing you’ve actually funded is three months for 300 people, did you?

Birmingham: “Senator Wong, that is not true.”

Wong: “Well, you have a go, saying people are running campaigns against you, but when you drop it to the media to get a ‘jobs guarantee’ story up, you don’t mention the detail – ‘actually we’re only funding three months’.”

Birmingham: “Senator Wong, I did mention the detail before, which was to be very clear: there’s an initial arrangement in place that provides ASC with an envelope while it is unknown how many individuals will choose to take the offer and transition across. Then there will be an ongoing funding stream provided that gives that guarantee.”

Wong: “Funny that that wasn’t part of the spin.”

Birmingham: “Well, Senator Wong, you can call it what you will, but the jobs guarantee is real, the jobs will be real, and you are once again simply trying to run a scare campaign.”

Wong: “It’s because we all know what this government is like – you are all spin, all spin.”

Victorian Covid update

02:08 Mostafa Rachwani

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has told reporters that the new pandemic laws, that will be introduced to parliament later today, are based on the laws in New Zealand.

The laws will replace the state of emergency powers in place, and will allow the premier to announce a pandemic and be able to introduce new public health orders for three months.

Andrews said the new measures would look to underpin life in a vaccinated community, as well as to “prepare” for any future pandemic:

We made a commitment some time ago that we will introduce pandemic-specific laws that we will have a set of measures that were not written with a hypothetical in mind.

That is exactly the framework that we have introduced into parliament. This is modelled on the New Zealand law, there are elements of what happens in New South Wales and other states also.

Health minister Martin Foley said the laws would replace the current public health directions, becoming “pandemic directions”, and would focus on how quarantine works, and how booster programs would look:

We have learned over the course of the past 21 months that these powers impact on all sorts of aspects of our community and our wellbeing and our economy and our mental health and business and community.

A statement of reasons for these decisions to make pandemic orders, together with the chief health officer’s advice, and how each order affects human rights under the charter of human rights and responsibilities, must be published within 14 days of making of those orders.

 

02:07 Daniel Hurst

Andrew Seaton, of Australian Naval Infrastructure Pty Ltd, said he was first briefed on the Aukus submarines plan on 3 September (just under two weeks before the decision was announced).

He said his entity remained the government partner for construction and management of infrastructure for future nuclear submarines at the Osborne shipyard in South Australia.

Seaton said he would work with the newly formed nuclear submarine taskforce “to understand the suite of requirements that underpin nuclear stewardship, including the infrastructure”.

“This will include an assessment of what parts of the already completed works at Osborne can be repurposed for a nuclear-powered submarine build and what additional facilities are required.”

Asked if he provided advice on the Aukus negotiations, he said:

Not on the negotiations. We provided some advice to the government on the implications for the construction of the shipyard that we were undertaking … The advice was that we would continue to build the combat systems facility because that facility is within months of being completed and will likely have a reuse in any future submarine program, but that we would suspend works on all other aspects of the shipyard construction.

The finance minister, Simon Birmingham, said the government wanted to understand the implications.

 

02:06 Paul Karp

In estimates, the administrative appeals tribunal has been grilled about two instances of part-time members maintaining outside employment, including John Griffin, the former chief of staff to Jeff Kennett, remaining a paid lobbyist more than two years after he was appointed.

Attorney General’s Department officials have confirmed Guardian Australia’s reporting that Griffin did declare he was a lobbyist to the department, and the former attorney general, Christian Porter, was told of the role before he was appointed.

But the department did not routinely send conflict of interest declarations to the AAT, meaning that it was left to members to declare conflicts or potential conflicts after they were appointed.

The AAT president wrote to Griffin about the external employment on 21 October, after discovering of his lobbying role from Guardian Australia’s inquiries.

Attorney general Michaelia Cash said the department was now asking all potential appointees to agree to let them send their conflict of interest statements to the AAT.

Sian Leathem, the registrar of the AAT, agreed there was a “pressing need” for a change of process, so the AAT is now asking all members to complete annual declarations of potential conflicts.

Although Labor senator Kim Carr had been leading the charge in questioning, Liberal senator Sarah Henderson then criticised the AAT, observing that the “buck stops” with it in determining conflicts, and the “ad hoc” declaration process was “a bit of a mess”.

Leathem said there had only been “a couple of instances” where there was a problem, in reference to Griffin and an earlier instance also revealed by the Guardian. Henderson said the AAT had “inadequate processes” and was unable to identify all conflicts. Leathem said “we accept that” and that is why it had updated its processes.

 

Given that this is becoming more of an issue in more states as conservatives begin to push back against state laws, this is an important step for the territory.

 

01:49 Sarah Martin

The Labor caucus has debated its position in regards to the ensuring NT rights bill, resolving to support a conscience vote when the legislation comes to parliament despite opposition from within the caucus.

The purpose of the ensuring Northern Territory rights bill 2021 is to “reduce the level of Commonwealth interference with laws of the Northern Territory related to acquisition of property on just terms, voluntary assisted dying and powers in relation to the hearing and determining of employment disputes”.

Four MPs from the NT and the ACT spoke advocating Labor’s support for the legislation, with one saying: “We do not need assisted thinking.”

The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, spoke to MPs about the government’s climate policy, calling the process a “shambles”.

They are committing the fatal mistake of wanting to provide two contradictory messages to different parts of the country. Matt Canavan has already flagged that they can have a different view on net zero after the election.

He thanked MPs for their discipline in understanding the need to wait for the party to announce its policy position on climate, pointing to the US election result and the Glasgow summit as key events that necessitated the delay.

The government’s only plan ever is jobs for themselves. It’s extraordinary they landed a deal that is not supported by the deputy prime minister.

The NT Rights legislation is a private senator’s bill that was introduced by the Country Liberal senator Sam McMahon.

 

The Coalition senators appearing in estimates have about 15 more minutes to use “the prime minister will hold a press conference” as an excuse to avoid answering questions on the net zero emissions commitment. Both Bridget McKenzie and Simon Birmingham have trotted that out today, so start the clock.

 

The joint party room briefing will be held after the prime minister’s press conference. That’s coming up in the next 10 minutes or so.

 

Everything is opening up … except FoI, apparently.

New Zealand reports 79 new Covid cases

01:30 Tess McClure

New Zealand has announced 79 new cases of Covid-19 today, bringing the total outbreak to 2,759.

All of the cases are in the North Island, with 75 in Auckland and four in Waikato.

Today marks a dip in daily cases for the country but Monday’s numbers are often lower, due to lower test numbers coming through on weekends.

According to the Ministry of Health, 87% of the eligible (aged 12 and over) population have now had at least one dose, and 71% are fully vaccinated. Auckland, the centre of the outbreak, is still sitting at 90% first doses and 77% second.

Vaccination rates for Māori and Pacific New Zealanders are still behind the rest of the country: 69% of eligible Māori have had at least one dose, 49% are fully vaccinated; 83% of Pacific people have had one dose, 65% both.

NSW update

01:28 Mostafa Rachwani

NSW premier Dominic Perrottet has reiterated that the government is watching and waiting on an inquiry into regional health before taking any actions, after reports emerged of long wait times in hospitals:

Rural healthcare is not a new challenge, it has been an ongoing challenge since the beginning of time, and we’ve continued to invest as much as we can.

The premier said his government intended to continue investing in regional health infrastructure, saying it was building 80 health facilities – two-thirds of those in rural and regional NSW.

Perrottet said he was confident that vaccination rates in regional NSW would be high enough that there shouldn’t be a danger to reopening the regions to metropolitan Sydnesiders in November.

He also said that, as hotel quarantine wraps up, that the system would begin accepting about 210 unvaccinated Australians a week in its reduced capacity.

We need hotels to be hotels, not quarantine facilities.

The premier was all smiles earlier, along with police minister David Elliott and NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller, as they unveiled three new police helicopters.

Perrottet said he was “proud” NSW was investing $50m in the aircraft to boost NSW police’s aviation capacity.

 

The prime minister will hold his press conference in the Blue Room at 11.45am.

(That’s the second most fancy press conference location. And easier for PowerPoint presentations.)

Queensland reports two new local Covid cases

Queensland has recorded two new cases of community transmitted Covid; both are considered low risk.

Get vaccinated if you haven’t already, Queensland. The border opening is coming.

 

The Labor party caucus meeting has ended so we’ll bring you an update on what was discussed very soon.

 

Bridget McKenzie has been announced as the guest speaker at the Regional Australia Institute event on 12 November, where she will apparently outline the government’s latest plan for regional communities. She’s the minister for regionalisation, in case you missed that memo.

 

Enjoy Michaelia Cash having to defend another minister’s faux pas for a change. From her Nine network appearance this morning:



Attorney general Michaelia Cash. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian


© Provided by The Guardian
Attorney general Michaelia Cash. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Host: Well, I just wondered if you have any concerns over the federal resources minister, Keith Pitt, not seeming to quite grasp how renewables work.

Cash: I have a lot of time for Keith Pitt. He is an outstanding minister. In particular when it comes to standing up for the mining and resources industry in Australia.

Host: What do you think about his abilities to understand solar panels not working at night, Michaelia? Come on.

Cash: Oh, look, come on. Keith Pitt is an outstanding minister. He gets what’s in the best interest of Australians but, in particular, ensuring that we utilise technology not taxes to reach net zero by 2050.

Host: I don’t think he quite understands the tech.

 

We’re waiting for details on when the prime minister will be holding his press conference to outline the technology roadmap that underpins the climate policy.

The party room meetings will be wrapping up so we should get some info on that soon.

 

01:03 Josh Taylor

The federal government is talking “reasonably regularly” with Facebook about its compliance with the news media bargaining code but won’t say whether the company will be forced to negotiate to pay SBS for content.

Under the news media bargaining code, Facebook can be “designated” under the code, which would then force Facebook to negotiate with media outlets for payment for content.

The government so far has been reluctant to use this power, with Facebook having signed over a dozen of agreements with media outlets, including Guardian Australia.

Two notable exceptions, however, have been SBS and the Conversation.

Communications department deputy secretary Richard Windeyer was asked in Senate estimates on Tuesday about Facebook’s refusal to come to the table with SBS in particular.

Windeyer said the government hasn’t got to the step of designating Facebook under the code but has been in talks with the company:

We’ve certainly talked to Facebook, reasonably regularly. We certainly briefed the minister on where the situation is.

Windeyer could not say whether communications minister Paul Fletcher had contacted Facebook about its refusal to do a deal with SBS, but said the department had briefed him, and the government was aware of its powers in this area.

On the proposed crackdown on misinformation online, Windeyer said the government was still considering an Acma report on the effectiveness of the industry code, noting the complaints mechanism built into the code to allow people to complain about misinformation seen on social media only came online in the past month.

 

Ahhh political friendships. So fickle.

Here was Anthony Albanese speaking to Adelaide radio 5AA this morning about Christopher Pyne:

Host: Climate is very much the topic of conversation in Australia and right around the world at the moment, something we want to pursue with the leader of the Labor party, federally too, Anthony Albanese, who joins us on FiveAA Breakfast now. What was the regular time for Albo and Pyne? It was a Wednesday at 8.30, wasn’t it? So, slightly out of the comfort spot of usual, but good to have you on, Albo.

Albanese: Because we’re even more advanced now we’ve got rid of Pyne. He clearly was a 24-hour drag on us.

Host: Got to be careful. He might ring in, Albo, and steal your thunder.

Albanese: Don’t you love politicians who leave politics and then just miss the limelight? He is back on Sky, for goodness’ sake.

Host: He has got his own show.

Albanese: Well, more people are listening to your show, I am sure.

Host: Hope the big boss doesn’t hear that.

Albanese: Do you know what time it is on?

Host: Errrr … no.

Albanese: I bet you don’t. No one does. No one cares.

 

Labor’s Catherine King and Andrew Giles have responded to the audit office’s latest estimate hearing testimony on the car park fund – Paul Karp reported on what was said earlier this morning.

From their press statement:

Appearing before Senate Estimates late last night, the ANAO gave evidence that the Top 20 Marginals list began with Minister Tudge telling his staff which marginal seat holders he wanted ‘to speak to about what are their infrastructure priorities’.

After this instruction, the Minister’s staff ‘then developed what was essentially a key tasks lists, of things that are going to do’.

This became the notorious list of Top-20 Marginals that was shared with the Prime Minister’s Office.

Despite having asked his staff to create them, Minister Tudge continues to claim he has no knowledge about this document.

And despite clear evidence of their existence, the Morrison-Joyce Government refused a Senate Order to reveal them on the grounds they could not be found.

It’s time to come clean about who knew what and the role the Prime Minister played in this scandal.

 

Simon Birmingham, who will most likely be the Liberal’s campaign spokesman for the coming election, has been tasked with selling the plan to release a climate plan this morning.

Here are the basics of his prepared lines before Scott Morrison’s coming press conference:

The big policy decisions are always most complex, the most challenging, and, if you do them properly, they require intensive effort in terms of bringing people together, in terms of undertaking the analysis and the policy planning for the future.

Today, I look forward to the fact that the prime minister will release Australia’s commitments to achieve net zero by 2050 and, in doing so, he will demonstrate the type of plan and effort and policy work that our government has put in to be able to achieve net zero by 2050, whilst ensuring that the jobs, livelihoods and communities of regional Australia are also protected.

It’s crucial that we take all Australians on this journey towards net zero and that we give them the confidence and they should have the confidence and trust that only the Coalition will really be able to back them in terms of achieving net-zero in a way and a manner that protects their jobs, their livelihoods, their communities.

That invests in ways that achieve growth in new energy sectors, in new resources sectors, in new parts of the economy that can support them into the future.

It’s crucial that we do this in a way that gives Australia the maximum opportunity to be able to achieve net-zero, but also to keep the prosperity of our nation by opening up new export markets and new opportunities as we see the export, the investment environment around the world change.

It will be crucial as well that we make it clear the success Australia has had to date in emissions reductions.

 

26 Oct 2021 00:59 Daniel Hurst

The shipbuilder ASC says it hasn’t been asked to provide any advice to the Australian government on the idea of extending the life of the Collins-class submarines a second time.

Penny Wong is asking about the suggestion by the chief of the navy, who did not rule out the idea. You can see our story about that here.

Stuart Whiley, the chief executive, says ASC hasn’t been asked about a second life-of-type extension at this point in time.

Asked to explain what the chief of navy might be referencing another full-cycle docking, Whiley says:

When I heard that I wasn’t clear what he was saying, to be honest.

Asked whether he has sought any advice from Defence as to what that meant, he says:

No I haven’t.

The finance minister, Simon Birmingham, says the government has made a decision to carry out a life-of-type extension of the Collins-class submarines (which gives them an extra 10 years of life):

ASC has been doing a lot of preparatory work … we’ll get this project under way.

Birmingham proceeds to make the suggestion (paraphrased) that if there are other decisions that need to be made in the future (like a further extension of the Collins-class submarines), they’ll be made in the future.

 

26 Oct 2021 00:56

Bridget McKenzie appears to be doing a bang-up job of pretending she supports the net zero emissions by 2050 commitment in regional and rural affairs estimates at the moment.

She seems most perplexed that her colleagues didn’t respect party room conventions and leaked that she, Barnaby Joyce and Keith Pitt didn’t support the commitment in the party room vote.

You know, all the ones who are in cabinet and will literally be signing off on the plan.

Crown can keep Melbourne casino licence

26 Oct 2021 00:56 Ben Butler

Crown Resorts will be allowed to keep its lucrative Melbourne casino licence despite a royal commission finding that it has engaged in “illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative” conduct.

The Victorian government will appoint Stephen O’Bryan QC, a former anti-corruption commissioner, as special monitor to oversee the casino operator for two years while it attempts to reform itself.

Under legislation proposed by the government, O’Bryan will have “unprecedented powers to oversee Crown, veto decisions of the Board, and have unfettered access to all areas of the casino and its books and records”, the government said in its response to the royal commission’s report, which was tabled in state parliament this morning:

Crown’s licence will be automatically cancelled at the end of the period of special manager oversight unless the regulator is clearly satisfied that Crown is suitable to continue operating the Melbourne casino.

The company has been allowed to keep its licence due to the risk to the Victorian economy if it was cancelled and royal commissioner Ray Finkelstein’s belief it has the capacity to reform itself to become suitable to run the casino.

 

26 Oct 2021 00:55 Ben Doherty

Australia spends 13 times more on border security than it does on climate finance, a new report from the Transnational Institute says, arguing that high-polluting countries are prioritising arming their borders against climate-displaced people rather than tackling climate impacts.

Climate change, extreme weather and natural disasters are already some of the largest drivers of displacement in the world. The UNHCR estimates that more than 20 million people are displaced by sudden onset weather-related hazards every year, and thousands more from slow-onset hazards linked to climate change impacts.

While most of that movement remains within national borders, a White House report last week forecast “tens of millions” would be displaced “within and across international borders” in coming decades.

TNI’s report, The Global Climate Wall, found the world’s largest seven emitters of greenhouse gases are spending on average 2.3 times as much on strengthening their borders than they are on climate finance.

Canada spends 15 times as much on border security than on climate finance: Australia 13.5 times. Australia spent $2.7bn in the years 2013 to 2018 on border enforcement, compared with $200m on climate finance.

The seven countries analysed – the US, the UK, Germany, Japan, Canada, France and Australia – have emitted 48% of the world’s greenhouse gases since 1850. Collectively, they spent $33.1bn between 2013 and 2018 on border enforcement, dwarfing their climate finance commitments of $14.4bn. The report said:

The world’s wealthiest countries have chosen how they approach global climate action – by militarising their borders. These countries have built a ‘climate wall’ to keep out the consequences of climate change.

This ‘global climate wall’ aims to seal off powerful countries from migrants, rather than addressing the causes of displacement.

The report argues that the number of people displaced by climate-related disasters was rising, and would rise dramatically, and most acutely in countries already vulnerable to displacement:

The ‘global climate wall’ will accelerate deaths and injuries at borders while failing to address climate change. Arming borders is an unworkable solution to climate-linked migration, and draws investment away from climate action whilst increasing human suffering.

Kumi Naidoo, global ambassador for Africans Rising for Justice, Peace & Dignity, said:

Tackling climate change means fostering global cooperation across borders, not building walls. The push for more, bigger, and more expensive border infrastructure consumes both policy bandwidth and money that could be going toward real climate action – including addressing the causes of displacement.

A White House report released last week argued that “tens of millions of people … are likely to be displaced over the next two to three decades due in large measure to climate change impacts”:

Although most people displaced or migrating as a result of climate impacts are staying within their countries of origin, the accelerating trend of global displacement related to climate impacts is increasing cross-border movements, too, particularly where climate change interacts with conflict and violence.

NSW reports 282 new Covid cases and one death

26 Oct 2021 00:51

NSW has also provided its daily figures:

 

26 Oct 2021 00:50

In the Victorian parliament (where controversial pandemic powers are being discussed) this is also happening:

 

26 Oct 2021 00:49 Daniel Hurst

In finance estimates, senators are about to question ASC – the government-owned shipbuilder formerly known as Australian Submarine Corporation and based in Osborne, South Australia. The impact of the Aukus deal, which led to the cancellation of the French submarine plans, is obviously top of the agenda.

The finance minister, Simon Birmingham, is at the table and is offered the chance to make an opening statement. He replies:

Thank you for the opportunity but no opening statement from me. No winks, no nods – let’s get into it.

(That’s a reference to winkgate from one of the estimates sessions yesterday.)

 

26 Oct 2021 00:47

This is related to something Barnaby Joyce said in 2010, while he was still a senator.

It was only yesterday that he criticised Labor for wanting to make laws. He’s a member of the executive government, so he actually does help write laws (that’s what governments do) but apparently that’s not a good thing. It was only a couple of months ago that he was (repeatedly) telling people that governments didn’t come up with the plans for things like climate policy – that was the job of bodies like the CSIRO (he was deputy prime minister when he was saying those things).

This is the same MP who as a “drought envoy” filed his report in “lots of text messages” to the prime minister and who spent Christmas Eve in 2019 bemoaning how he was “sick of the government being in my life” (while he was still a member of the governing Coalition).

This is also the leader who will be selling the net zero emissions plan to regional electorates.

 

26 Oct 2021 00:45

The main focus will be the finance committee, where non-government senators try to find a dollar figure, or at least some detail, on what exactly is the “significant” regional investment the Nats secured in exchange for not having a party-wide tantrum on net zero emissions.

 

26 Oct 2021 00:45

The estimates hearings today cover off the same committees as yesterday:

  • finance and public administration
  • legal and constitutional affairs
  • environment and communication
  • rural and regional affairs

 

26 Oct 2021 00:45

Colin Boyce, the LNP candidate for the central Queensland electorate of Flynn (now held by retiring MP Ken O’Dowd), has told the Australian he will campaign against the Morrison government’s net zero target. Which is the policy of the federal Coalition he hopes to join.

As an LNP state MP, Boyce crossed the floor against his party’s wishes (on a mine rehabilitation bill) and loves to talk up his history as a boilermaker and farmer.

And he has never liked being told what to do.

So that should make for a fun campaign.

 

26 Oct 2021 00:44

Scott Morrison has started his rebranding as someone who cares about the climate with an op ed in the Daily Telegraph.

Don’t worry, there isn’t too much of a change. If it had been written in 2010, it probably would have seen him booted out of the Liberal party for being too green. In 2021 though it’s the equivalent of that guy your aunt married begrudgingly admitting he ate a plant-based burger and it “wasn’t too bad” before telling you about all the steak he plans on eating to make up for it.

 

26 Oct 2021 00:43

Meanwhile, the government is trying to push the line that the Labor party is going to try to “outlaw coal”.

That was something that Barnaby Joyce was really trying out yesterday during question time. At the moment though, both the major parties have the same goal, and Labor hasn’t set a 2030 target, or released its climate policy, which is something the government is also attacking it over.

So what does it mean? How do both attacks make sense?

Simon Birmingham:

It’s about how you get there. We’ve been clear that our approach is through investment in the technologies that can ensure Australian industries right now can manage to reduce their emissions footprint wherever possible, that new industries can kind of move through the investments and that’s why the technology roadmap that we released quite some time ago sets out the different stretch goals for the future in terms of the type of price you need to be able to achieve clean hydrogen or energy storage or low-emission steel or low-emissions aluminium or soil carbon measurement or carbon capture and storage all important important ways to actually try to drive efficiencies in terms of cleaner, low emissions, zero emissions ways of going about achieving things and now.

Labor have simply announced a target, but haven’t detailed how they expected to get there. And they certainly haven’t, as the prime minister has ruled out the potential of closing down certain parts of Australia’s industries to meet that target.

So not ruling things out now is apparently enough.

 

26 Oct 2021 00:42

Simon Birmingham wouldn’t go into how much the Nationals’ support for net zero (which is essentially just a promise not to blow up the Coalition on this issue before the next election) would cost. Given “technology not taxes” is the current favourite catch cry of this government, you can understand why – you’ll be paying for the National party support in one way or another, you just won’t learn how much.

Birmingham on RN:

All of this is about ensuring that we achieve net zero by 2050 in ways that maximise the job opportunities for Australians that deliver the type of support for regional communities to be able to adjust that if countries like Japan and Korea, some of our major export markets, change their consumption patterns in terms of the resources and energy that they buy from Australia, we want to make sure that we’ve replaced that where possible, so we have new export industries into those markets, new resources, new energy sources and also that, where possible, they are supporting and underpinning jobs in communities that may have been impacted by that transition into an entirely sensible way to go about things.

In contrast, I guess, in the sense that the debate we’ve been having and we’ve been working through these plans, not just over days or weeks but many of them in terms of how the plans are developed and particularly stretch goals to achieve lower emissions, we’ve been having the right debates as a Coalition about how you achieve net zero whilst protecting regional communities and jobs, not just the Labor party approach of signing up to a target without those sorts of protections or plans.

 

26 Oct 2021 00:40

Simon Birmingham is on ABC radio RN this morning doing his best to explain why the Nationals’ demands in exchange for net zero emissions support are a good thing – while not explaining what the demands are.

We’ll bring you some of that but Birmingham is talking a lot about funds that can be used to plan for the future and how that can help “focus” governments on projects that need to happen.

Overnight Labor’s Murray Watt asked about one of the existing funds, the emergency response fund set up after the bushfires. He claims that estimates has revealed it hasn’t really met its brief:

 

26 Oct 2021 00:39 Paul Karp

Last night the Australian National Audit Office gave evidence at Senate estimates. Labor and Greens senators focused on car park rorts and Liberal senators asked about the ANAO’s call not to investigate the ABC for paying Louise Milligan’s legal costs in the Andrew Laming defamation matter.

The auditor general, Grant Hehir, said there were no documents setting out the ABC’s rationale for the decision, so the ANAO could only judge off testimony about a number of meetings held between in-house counsel and the managing director.

The ABC had explained it paid Milligan’s costs because of fears of vicarious liability for Milligan and the relationship between the Laming matter and another defamation case.

Hehir criticised the lack of documentation:

Normally you’d have an expectation that they would document those decisions. Meeting the costs of an employee, that’s something you’d expect to see … It’s hard for us to say that [whether it was appropriate] without evidence one way or the other. Not being able to form an opinion is a reasonably strong statement from that perspective.

On car park rorts, the ANAO’s Brian Boyd set out that in mid-September 2018 the minister for urban infrastructure, Alan Tudge, asked his staff to meet with with MPs from six named marginals, and that this canvassing process was expanded to a list first of 20 marginals, and then eventually 29 by April 2019, shortly before the election.

Boyd said that, unlike sports grants, there was no master spreadsheet of projects, the document was a tracking document or to-do list to check that Liberal MPs, candidates or duty senators were consulted about each electorate.

Greens senator Janet Rice asked for more detail about the documents, noting that the current minister, Paul Fletcher, has knocked back a Senate order for production of documents, claiming he doesn’t have them or they don’t exist.

Hehir said he was “uncomfortable” giving more detail than was in the ANAO report without the minister present to claim public interest immunity over it, and took the questions on notice.

Good morning

26 Oct 2021 00:37

Happy Tuesday, the third last parliamentary Tuesday of the year.

I know. It feels like a decade to me too.

Today we’ll get to see some of the government’s climate plan. We won’t get all of the details on the deal struck with the Nationals though – that’s considered cabinet in confidence. Basically, taxpayer money will be spent to ensure the junior Coalition partner doesn’t blow up the show on the barest of minimum commitments, which it is supporting as long as there are no major changes. In the meantime we hear things from its MPs about how solar panels don’t work in the dark (no, but batteries do) and even (from Anne Webster yesterday) that windfarms don’t work in the dark either.

(It must have been the mythical magic wind that brought down a gumtree branch in front of my house overnight. Obviously there is no other explanation.)

And of course, LNP senator Matt Canavan is having the time of his life trotting out why he thinks the net zero emissions target in 30 years’ time is a green fantasy and potentially the end of civilisation. Are those Nats who are onboard with net zero worried about his views and how often he is spouting them? No. Of course not. Deputy leader David Littleproud thinks Canavan has a “big” future in the National party.

So today, we’ll see Scott Morrison’s latest victory lap, as he explains Australia is now joining where most of rest of the world was headed in 2015. As for a more ambitious target for 2030? Lols. That’s not happening under this government.

Meanwhile estimates continue, where the $10,000 spent on training the trainers on how to handle the hearings appears to have resulted in every second question being taken on notice, which means we find out nothing. While the questions are eventually answered through a written statement submitted weeks later, there’s no opportunity for follow up. It’s resulted in less scrutiny and chance of discovery. It’s a problem that has been creeping into the hearings for a number of years but it’s beginning to become a joke.

We’ll still bring you everything that happens as it does though, along with the major Covid announcements and of course you will have immediate context around all the climate announcements. Who’s excited? (Obviously that’s rhetorical.)

Mike Bowers is with you, as are Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp, Daniel Hurst and Sarah Martin.

It being parliament, you have me, Amy Remeikis, with you for most of the day. I’m about to make coffee No 3. Join me?

 

26 Oct 2021 00:19

This is the second time this has happened – David Littleproud did it yesterday on the ABC.

(The side eye from the woman behind her is *chef’s kiss*.)

 

25 Oct 2021 23:53

They may have to take it on notice:

 

25 Oct 2021 23:20

AAP has an update on those changes the Victorian government wants:

The state government is set to introduce new laws to parliament that would allow the health minister to make public health orders for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the changes, Victoria’s premier will have the power to “declare” a pandemic and extend it in three-month blocks for as long as considered necessary.

The Public Health and Wellbeing (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021 will be introduced to the lower house as parliament resumes on Tuesday, several MPs have confirmed to AAP.

Under the laws, the health minister will be provided “broad powers to make pandemic orders” on the chief health officer’s advice, bringing Victoria in line with NSW and New Zealand where the health minister is directly accountable to parliament.

An independent oversight committee will review public orders and their impact on human rights, while public health advice will need to be made public.

The laws also introduce safeguards around protecting contact tracing and QR code information, while an aggravated offence will be created to “deter … the most egregious pandemic-related behaviours”.

Court-imposed penalties will be introduced to stop businesses receiving commercial benefit after breaching a pandemic order.

The bill aims to improve transparency in pandemic decision-making, with decision-makers to be accountable to parliament and the community, its summary said.

It will replace the current state of emergency, which expires on December 15.

The government has consulted with community groups, health and human rights experts and legal stakeholders on the proposed laws, and the bill is expected to pass the lower house but in the upper house it will require the backing of three of the 11 crossbenchers.

Victoria’s opposition said the new powers would give the premier “more power with less accountability”, as it proposed the constitution be amended to require parliamentary approval for emergency or pandemic declarations.

Source: Thanks msn.com