Coalition to support Labor’s plans to strip legal rights from NZYQ cohort
The House is debating the government’s legislation to strip natural justice of non-citizens after the Albanese government signed a deal last week to send hundreds of former immigration detainees in the NZYQ cohort to Nauru.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, visited Nauru last week before quietly announcing a $400m deal late on Friday to send up to 280 former detainees to the Pacific nation.
Burke has said the bill would mean that actions taken by government in order to resettle someone in a third country “are not conditioned on an obligation to afford procedural fairness”. The shadow home affairs minister, Andrew Hastie, is up first:
The minister needs to pull his act together and use the power the parliament gave the government to get those high-risk offenders off the streets.
The opposition announced during the party room briefing that it will support the passage of the bill, subject to a short Senate inquiry that will scrutinise the legislation.
Key events
Penry Buckley
Gun laws will not be watered down by hunting bill, says NSW premier
NSW premier Chris Minns has given a “categorial assurance” gun laws will not be watered down in the state, after gun control advocates have warned a hunting bill will weaken the national firearms agreement enacted following the Port Arthur massacre.
The Minns government has agreed to support a “conservation hunting” bill – albeit with amendments – introduced by the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party, which will expand access for the hunting of feral animals in state forests and crown land.
Family members of victims of the 1996 tragedy say they have been “blindsided” by the legislation, while gun control advocates say the bill’s recognition of “the right of citizens to hunt for cultural and recreational reasons” could signal an intent by the NSW government to depart from the national firearms safety framework.
Minns has told reporters he supports the existing national firearms agreements.
I can’t be clearer, we’re not going to water down gun laws in NSW. We’re not going to support any provision that makes it easier to buy guns in the state, or have access to heavier weapons. We’ve been down that road, I can give a categorical assurance in relation to that.
Both the Shooters party and Minns have denied the government’s support is an attempt to gain votes on an unrelated workers compensation reform bill in the upper house, in which the government does not have a majority.
Labor resists releasing climate national risk assessment plan despite Greens pressure
Over in the Senate, the Greens are trying to order the government to make public the national climate risk assessment and national adaptation plan.
The minister representing the energy minister, Tim Ayres, calls the order a “political stunt” and says the minister is claiming public interest immunity to avoid making that report public – including that the report would reveal cabinet deliberations.
He says it will be made public when the government has deliberated on it. It is expected to be released by the end of this month.
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, says the government has avoided making this report public for nine months, and it would not reveal any cabinet deliberations.
There is no legitimate reason to keep hiding this climate risk report. It’s a cover-up , it’s a cover-up from a government that keeps revealing itself as anti-transparent. Labor must announce Australia’s 2035 climate target this month, but they are hiding the true impacts of climate change from the public.
People need to know the true impacts of what awaits them before the government announces the new climate targets.
David Pocock also chimes in to say that the government is making “secrecy its default setting”.
Coalition to support Labor’s plans to strip legal rights from NZYQ cohort
The House is debating the government’s legislation to strip natural justice of non-citizens after the Albanese government signed a deal last week to send hundreds of former immigration detainees in the NZYQ cohort to Nauru.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, visited Nauru last week before quietly announcing a $400m deal late on Friday to send up to 280 former detainees to the Pacific nation.
Burke has said the bill would mean that actions taken by government in order to resettle someone in a third country “are not conditioned on an obligation to afford procedural fairness”. The shadow home affairs minister, Andrew Hastie, is up first:
The minister needs to pull his act together and use the power the parliament gave the government to get those high-risk offenders off the streets.
The opposition announced during the party room briefing that it will support the passage of the bill, subject to a short Senate inquiry that will scrutinise the legislation.
Sarah Basford Canales
Opposition leader raises concerns on FoI fees at party room meeting
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has raised concerns with her party room this morning about the Albanese government’s bill to dramatically curb access to government documents under freedom of information rules.
The Coalition met on Tuesday morning to discuss the proposed changes, which would introduce new charges for FoI requests to government departments and ministers, as well as tougher rules related to cabinet confidentiality.
The shadow cabinet has indicated it will oppose the proposal subject to further debate and information, with Ley telling party room members the Albanese government’s record had been worse than the former Coalition Morrison government.
Ley also raised other changes regarding changes to how matters of public importance are organised within parliament to offer the governing party “self-congratulatory” motions.
The opposition party room also dealt with other matters including cost of living and the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, spoke about the bush summit.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan told his colleagues he would be introducing a private senator’s bill to repeal net zero to the upper house – an identical bill to Barnaby Joyce’s in the House of Representatives.
Australia’s permanent migration intake to stay at 185,000
Australia’s migration intake won’t change for the financial year 2025-26, with the permanent migration program to be set at 185,000 people, the same as last year.
Migration has been under the spotlight after anti-immigration rallies over the weekend. There have been some claims being bandied about around how many migrants have come to Australia over the last year – but you can read the facts from my colleague Josh Butler here:
In a statement the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, says the number was set following consultation with the states and territories:
[The consultation] recommended maintaining the size and composition of the program, with a focus on skilled migration.
The Department of Home Affairs has been processing visas based on last year’s level, so there has been no disruption to the delivery of the program.
‘I am not afraid’ says ‘undeterred’ Allan after neo-Nazi interrupts presser
Benita Kolovos
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has issued a statement after self-proclaimed neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell approached her mid-press conference, saying she is “unharmed and undeterred”.
The statement went on:
It comes as no surprise that Nazis oppose me and my government. I wear that with a badge of honour. But this isn’t about me. It’s about all the other people in the community who Nazis target – like multicultural people, LGBTIQA+ people, First Peoples, and Jews. They’re the Victorians who are on my mind right now, and they’re the Victorians who our anti-hate laws will protect when they come into force later this month.
Allan says there is “no place for hate in our state”:
Whoever you are, whoever you love, whoever you pray to – I’ll always fight for your right to belong. As premier, I’ll always be out and about in public fighting for you, like I am all day today. I am not afraid.
We know how these goons operate. They whip up fear to divide our society. They will fail. Because Victorians are fair, and our values are strong.
Albanese calls neo-Nazi gatecrashing of Allan press conference ‘horrific’
Josh Butler
Anthony Albanese has branded the neo-Nazi gatecrashing of Jacinta Allan’s press conference as ‘horrific’.
In a party room meeting with Labor MPs this morning – around the time news broke of the Victorian premier’s press conference being interrupted – Albanese was asked about the incident by a colleague. He was unaware of it at the time, having been chairing the meeting, but it’s understood the PM called it “horrific”.
Albanese went on to say he was shocked to see people at the weekend’s anti-immigration rallies “openly in uniform” and said it needed to be called out.
Another MP asked Albanese about the apparent recruiting that neo-Nazi groups are undertaking. Albanese said it was important to give potential targets “space” to not go down “rabbit holes” and also raised concerns about polarisation online.
Ben Doherty
Almost all Bangladeshi garment workers paid below living wage, Oxfam finds
A report from Oxfam Australia this week found widespread evidence of child labour and abusive conditions across Bangladesh’s garment industry.
Based on surveys with more than 400 workers, the Unravelling Exploitation report found widespread evidence of children being employed in subcontracted settings outside of factories, while forced labour was reported by 28% of workers.
Almost all – 95% of workers – were paid below a living wage (rising to 100% among women), while other workers reported consistent job insecurity, coercive financial control, physical violence and verbal abuse.
“Our research serves as a stark reminder that the clothes Australians buy may come at the cost of someone else’s safety and dignity,” Oxfam Australia’s campaign and advocacy lead Nina Crawley said.
For too long, Australian fashion brands have relied on opaque and exploitative supply chains to maximise profit. Workers must be placed at the centre of reforms to build a fashion industry where exploitation has no place. We urgently need strong, enforceable laws to hold them accountable and protect workers from harm.
The Guardian reported yesterday that Australia risks becoming a dumping ground for goods made with forced labour, because of weak laws and poor enforcement.
Read more here:
Ex-defence chief urges ‘courageous and bold’ 2035 emissions reduction target
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Former defence force chief Chris Barrie wants the Albanese government to be “courageous and bold” as it prepares for an imminent decision on its 2035 emissions reduction target.
Barrie was in Parliament House on Tuesday morning to launch the Australia Security Leaders Climate Group’s latest report, which called for climate action to be positioned at the centre of Australia’s foreign policy strategy.
The report argues that as Australia doubles down on the alliance with the United States, principally through the Aukus submarines deal, it has failed to invest in the “diplomatic, economic and humanitarian” policies needed to respond to its greatest security threat – climate change. Barrie said:
It [focus on climate policy] will not only be good for us here in Australia, it will be good for our region too, where a lot of people expect countries like ours to step up when there’s a need. And looking at the tea leaves right now, that need is very apparent to me. We’re entering a very dangerous period where the United States simply does not care about all of us.
The report proposes a raft of measures to reorientate Australia’s approach around foreign policy, including leading a global push to phase out fossil-fuel subsidies.
Speaking alongside several crossbench MPs, Barrie said the Albanese government’s forthcoming decision on a 2035 emissions reduction target – expected later this month – presented an opportunity to “make an example for the rest of the world”.
The Climate Change Authority, whose advice will inform cabinet’s decision, has suggested a target of between 65% and 75% below 2005 levels could be ambitious but achievable. Barrie said:
I think the government, which has got a huge mandate now, ought to be courageous and bold and take these steps. By 2028, that is the [scheduled date of] the next federal election, it’ll be too late to make the difference that we need to make.
It’s a party room meeting morning …
Those FoI changes are no doubt being discussed in the various party room meetings taking place around parliament this morning.
We’ll get a briefing on what goes down in the Labor and Greens party rooms, and we’ll wait to see if we get a briefing or a press conference from the opposition.
It all means we won’t hear those bells ringing for a little bit longer – the houses will begin sitting from midday.
Josh Butler
Transparency advocates raise alarm over plans to charge for FoI requests
Transparency advocates are alarmed at the government’s plans to impose application fees on freedom of information requests. Kieran Pender, associate legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the current FoI system is “not working”.
“Any steps to limit access to the FoI regime must be carefully scrutinised,” he said.
The Albanese government should prioritise fixing whistleblowing laws and winding back draconian secrecy offences, rather than making government information less accessible and more expensive.
Allan convenes anti-hate taskforce over attack on Camp Sovereignty
Benita Kolovos
Before Sewell crashed the premier’s press conference, Jacinta Allan was asked what she made of the scenes at Sunday’s rally and the attack at Camp Sovereignty. She told reporters:
I … absolutely condemn those people who engaged in those despicable acts of violence and racism. There is absolutely no place for that, and that is why, over the course of this week, alongside Victoria police, I will be convening the anti-hate taskforce to both look at the incidents over the weekend, but also understand too, that this goes beyond just being a law and order issue.
Allan told reporters there was “something deeper going on” with the rally. She went on:
People’s sense of economic security is being exploited by a small number of people, who are wanting to use cracks in our society and exploit them to drive division in our society. There is no doubt that over the past few years, Australians have endured a lot. It’s been a tough time.
But the solution to those tough times is not in a quest to divide us… That is not the solution … it makes us weaker, it makes us poorer, it makes us less resilient.
She said she saw the pathway to social cohesion through “building a stronger society”:
A place where people have jobs, people have rights and are respected. And that’s certainly the pathway my government is building here in Victoria, building literally for the future, making sure there is that sense of economic certainty and security, but also seeing Victoria as a place where everyone has the right to be who they are and do so safely, protected by the law.
Josh Taylor
Age assurance report a ‘sales pitch’ for biometrics industry, digital rights group says
The chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia, John Pane, has said the release of the age assurance technology trial report on tech to keep under 16s from social media vindicated his concerns raised last month about the project.
Pane, who was on the stakeholder advisory board overseeing the trial prior to quitting last month, said the social media ban is “bad policy, bad law, and a gap-ridden technological solution that is easily circumvented by technical means or third-party collusion”.
It does not solve the problem of algorithmic manipulation that steals users’ attention and engagement, nor does it fix the inherent shortcomings in our privacy and online safety laws through a mandated digital duty of care.
He said the report reads “like a sales pitch or marketing material for the age authentication, identity verification and biometrics industry”. The “inevitable” errors in tech such as facial age estimation would bolster the case for the government to deploy ID verification technologies, Pane said.
Shadow attorney general says Labor talked ‘big game’ on transparency but has not lived up to promises
Labor talked a “big game” on transparency but has delivered anything but, says the shadow attorney general, Julian Leeser, attacking the government’s move to charge for freedom of information requests.
Speaking to reporters in Canberra, Leeser says that under Labor’s watch, transparency has decreased, the number of FoI refusals has increased and the government has deliberately avoided Senate orders to release documents:
We’ve seen increases in refusals of FoI [requests] since they came to office. We’ve seen stakeholders being forced to sign agreements in relation to non-disclosure agreements in relation to legislation as diverse as workplace relations and religious discrimination, we’ve seen the government deliberately flouting Senate orders for production of documents.
We’re now seeing changes to the standing orders to make the government less accountable, and we’ve seen the staff of members of parliament, whose job it is to hold the government to account, slashed.
Leeser says he’ll get a briefing from the government on the changes later today, and is open to reforms for the FoI system, to tackle issues identified by the government around bots and ‘nefarious actors’. But he says he’s “very concerned about a transparency tax”.
