Australia news live: Bragg agrees Coalition ‘running out of people to offend’; 7 October anniversary ‘not a day for demonstrations’, Marles says | Australian politics
Andrew Bragg agrees Coalition ‘running out of people to offend’ amid Hastie immigration comments The Coalition can be united, says shadow minister Andrew Bragg, following the resignation of Andrew Hastie from the frontbench last week. Hastie has been making public claims about the impact of migration levels driving up housing prices, and calls for Australia…
Andrew Bragg agrees Coalition ‘running out of people to offend’ amid Hastie immigration comments
The Coalition can be united, says shadow minister Andrew Bragg, following the resignation of Andrew Hastie from the frontbench last week.
Hastie has been making public claims about the impact of migration levels driving up housing prices, and calls for Australia to reinvest in manufacturing.
On ABC RN Breakfast a little earlier, Bragg, the shadow housing minister, said while Hastie’s arguments about migration levels are a factor in house prices, it’s a “much more complex dynamic” than just that.
He says just blaming migration can be a “very blunt way to speak, which can be offensive and it can be damaging.”
But asked whether Hastie is being directly blunt and offensive, Bragg says:
I think it’s one-dimensional. I wouldn’t say it’s offensive. I think Andrew is right to identify that it is one of the inputs.
On the issue of whether the Coalition is appealing to a broader demographic of Australians, Bragg himself is pretty blunt.
I think clearly you would know the demographics in which we have really struggled at the last few elections: women, multicultural communities. I think George Brandis at one point said in one of the election wash-ups that we were sort of running out of people to offend. I think that has been true through to a point. And so we’re going through this first year in this new parliament of opposition with a view to reflecting on all of that.
Key events
Adding a bit of context to the last post, Anthony Albanese had said before that 8 October 2023 protest that it should not go ahead.
Both he and foreign minister Penny Wong condemned attendees at the rally who were filmed chanting anti-Jewish sentiments.
At the time, Albanese said images from the rally were “horrific”, and there were, “slogans which are antisemitic and just appalling, with no place”.
Tim Wilson claims Albanese lost ‘moral authority’ by not ‘standing up’ against pro-Palestine protests
Liberal MP Tim Wilson claims Hamas has “won a propaganda war every step of the way” in response to graffiti found this morning in Melbourne which states “glory to Hamas”.
Wilson told Sky News there are some who still are trying to “sow division”.
There [are] some sections, sadly, of the Australian community who want to sow division, to turn hatred towards, particularly the Jewish community, but to use as a basis to drive broader division within society and to inflame extremism.
Wilson also said he hopes planned protests at the Sydney Opera House over the weekend will not go ahead, and accused the prime minister of having lost “moral authority” for not “standing up” to previous protests.
[Albanese] lost his moral authority when he didn’t stand up against the protests on 8 October 2023 on the steps of the Sydney Opera House …
I hope it doesn’t go ahead, because think about the number of lives that have been lost. Think about the families have been separated. Think about the people who have had their children burned alive by Hamas.
It’s coming up to 9am which means Senate estimates is about to begin.
We have eyes on all the committees, so we’ll bring you the drama as it happens.
Australia will have ‘backside out of its pants’ if productivity growth remains low, Bragg says
The budget will face a $58bn black hole to the year 2028-29 if productivity growth remains low at just 0.5%, says Andrew Bragg, who commissioned the work by the parliamentary budget office.
He says the “productivity failure now means Australia has its backside out of its pants.”
The 2025-26 budget has a longer-term forecast that underlying productivity is assumed to grow at 1.2% per year. While the Reserve Bank has a medium term assumption that productivity growth will return to 0.7% by the end of the forecast period.
Bragg says:
Chalmers is padding his budget with fantasy forecasts. A more realistic 0.5% productivity rate – halfway between the historic average and Labor’s guesswork – shows the budget is in far worse shape.
On Sky News the assistant treasurer, Dan Mulino, was asked about the figures this morning and says Australia has “come off the worst decade in 60 years” when it comes to productivity growth, and backed the 1.2% Treasury forecast.
That’s a Treasury assumption which is based upon long-term productivity averages across the economy and it’s pretty standard practice for Treasury to use assumptions like that in budget papers …
The key thing for me is that the government is now prioritising lifting productivity rates from where we inherited them through a range of policies right across the economy. And that’s what we need to be doing and that’s the focus of our economic policy at the moment.
Andrew Bragg agrees Coalition ‘running out of people to offend’ amid Hastie immigration comments
The Coalition can be united, says shadow minister Andrew Bragg, following the resignation of Andrew Hastie from the frontbench last week.
Hastie has been making public claims about the impact of migration levels driving up housing prices, and calls for Australia to reinvest in manufacturing.
On ABC RN Breakfast a little earlier, Bragg, the shadow housing minister, said while Hastie’s arguments about migration levels are a factor in house prices, it’s a “much more complex dynamic” than just that.
He says just blaming migration can be a “very blunt way to speak, which can be offensive and it can be damaging.”
But asked whether Hastie is being directly blunt and offensive, Bragg says:
I think it’s one-dimensional. I wouldn’t say it’s offensive. I think Andrew is right to identify that it is one of the inputs.
On the issue of whether the Coalition is appealing to a broader demographic of Australians, Bragg himself is pretty blunt.
I think clearly you would know the demographics in which we have really struggled at the last few elections: women, multicultural communities. I think George Brandis at one point said in one of the election wash-ups that we were sort of running out of people to offend. I think that has been true through to a point. And so we’re going through this first year in this new parliament of opposition with a view to reflecting on all of that.
PNG alliance a ‘very big deal’, Albanese says
Anthony Albanese has made a quick TV appearance to spruik the PNG alliance signed yesterday, calling it a “very big deal”.
What are some of the elements of the agreement?
Albanese tells the Today show it means Australian soldiers will be “increasingly participating in PNG and vice versa”, along with the training of PNG personnel by the Australian defence force.
He’s asked whether the government has “lost” Vanuatu and Solomon Islands (as there was supposed to be a separate agreement signed with Vanuatu last month), but Albanese says “not at all”.
We’re working closely with both of those countries. Vanuatu, we have an agreement that we’re working through, hoping to finalise that. But the PNG deal of course is by far our largest neighbour. It’s by far the largest neighbour in the Pacific. PNG has a population equivalent of every other one of the Pacific island nations. So it is a very significant deal.
Watt says he has made three trips to WA as part of environment law consultation
Western Australia is one of the key players the federal government needs to win over to get the EPBC reforms across the line.
Why? They’ve got a strong mining industry and the premier, Roger Cook, made it clear that he wasn’t a fan of the legislation the commonwealth had put forward during the last term of parliament.
Murray Watt says he’s made three trips to WA since becoming the environment minister, and met with the premier, the mining industry and conservation groups across the state.
I’ve made very clear that dealing with the Western Australian government, along with every other state government, is a priority here, even when we pass these laws. I’m confident that we will.
Of course, these laws had a lot of interest in WA, but I’ve similarly met with people and pretty much every state and territory environment minister around the country.
Environment law reform negotiations ‘down to detail’, Watt says
The government still “aims” to get its environment laws passed this year, says environment minister Murray Watt, who has publicly said reforms to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act will be introduced “this side of Christmas”.
Watt is on ABC RN Breakfast this morning and says he’s been consulting around the clock since he became minister in mid-May.
Time is ticking though, there are only three more weeks left in the year where both houses are sitting.
Everyone can agree that we need laws that deliver stronger environmental protections, quicker approval processes, and more transparency. And I guess what we’re down to now is detail, making sure that we can deliver a bill to the parliament that has very widespread support.
I’ve now met a couple of times with both the shadow environment minister, Angie Bell, and with the Greens environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young. All of those meetings have been, I think, quite positive and constructive. You know, I wouldn’t want to say that we’re about to do a deal with anyone. There’s obviously more work to be done.
If you feel like we’ve been talking about this issue forever, well … Graeme Samuel first wrote his report that the EPBC Act needed serious amending almost five years ago, and the government almost passed legislation in its last term of government, before spiking it at the 11th hour.
Marles says government engaging with Israel over detained flotilla activists
Richard Marles says the government is engaging with Israeli authorities and providing consular assistance to the Australians on the Gaza flotilla who have been detained.
The activists have told Australian officials they have faced “degrading and humiliating” treatment.
Marles says Australian officials are providing the “full suite of consular assistance”.
We’re obviously providing consular assistance to those who have been involved in this and we will continue to do that. I’m not about to go into it in more detail than that.
Marles says 7 October a ‘day of remembrance and commemoration’
The deputy PM, Richard Marles, says 7 October is not a day for demonstration, but a solemn day for the Jewish community.
On whether the government views a planned demonstration at the Sydney Opera House this weekend as “appropriate”, Marles tells ABC News Breakfast it’s a matter for the courts.
Today is not a day for demonstrations. Today is a day for remembrance and commemoration. I mean, obviously, this is a very difficult day for the Jewish community in Australia and it is a very solemn day.
Greens call for a full refund from Deloitte report that used AI
Greens senator Barbara Pocock, who helped lead the charge in a Senate inquiry looking at the integrity of consultancy firms, is pretty livid this morning over Deloitte’s offer of a partial refund for its report written for the department of employment and workplace relations.
You can read the backstory here:
On ABC RN Breakfast a little earlier, Pocock said Australians will be “choking on their breakfast” hearing about a big -our consultancy firm using AI in a report that had several errors.
Our parliament has given an enormous amount of resources to tracking down poor value for money, and the government committed itself to making sure that it didn’t contract out core work of this type.
Here it has, it’s contracted out core work, and once again, we see proof in the pudding of poor quality work, poor value for money, and the kinds of things that Australians should not be putting up with, and our government should have much higher standards around.
She also takes a stab at Deloitte for quietly re-releasing the work on a Friday, with no apology and “no public accountability”.
Average GP consultation nears 20 mins as peak body says more subsidies needed for longer consultations
Natasha May
GP appointments are getting longer, with the average consultation now nearly 20 minutes, the annual report from the peak body shows.
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) has today released its annual Health of the Nation report, a month ahead of the government’s expansion of bulk-billing incentives to all Medicare cardholders coming into effect in November.
The president of the college, Dr Michael Wright, acknowledged the commonwealth’s record investment in general practice but said the report highlights the need for further investment increasing patient rebates for longer consultations.
Since the government announced the reforms, GPs have raised concerns the increases in the bulk billing incentives are largest for shorter consultations, and then become lower for longer appointments – which is where they say they need more support to help manage increasing levels of chronic disease and complex presentations.
‘There is nothing worse than politicians focusing on themselves’: Cash
The opposition is trying to stop talking about itself following the dramatic resignation of Andrew Hastie from the frontbench on Friday.
Over on the Today show, senior shadow minister Michaelia Cash said she has “one job”, which is to hold the government to account (and not talk about the internal politics of the Liberal party).
There is nothing worse than politicians focusing on themselves. The Australian people, they actually hate that … the Australian people, they don’t like it when we focus on ourselves.
Cash is on a panel with Labor minister Amanda Rishworth, who describes the turmoil as “a bit Days of our Lives”. But she does agree that “people don’t like parties that are focused on themselves”.