ABC refutes Liberal senator’s claim story on children dressing up was ‘grooming’
South Australian Liberal senator Alex Antic has accused the ABC of “grooming” children, over a children’s story about dress-ups. Antic had issues with girls wearing pants, it appears, which Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called out, particularly over the language he was using.
This is a rough transcript of what just happened in senate estimates, with ABC head David Anderson answering Antic’s “questions”.
Antic: Mr Anderson, I have got a couple of questions about some programming matters and at the moment the ABC is airing a program called Courtney Act: The Spectacular Suit, in which a male drag actor, Shane Jenek, reads a children’s book called The Spectacular Suit, about a female child wanting to wear male clothing. The program was rated G and has been heavily promoted on TV and on the app. Why is the ABC grooming children with this sort of adult content?
Anderson: Senator, I don’t see that as grooming children with our content. That particular program is reading from a book that is about dressing up so I think …
Antic: Female children in male children’s clothing, you think that’s not …
Sarah Hanson-Young: You mean young girls wearing pants? Seriously.
Antic: I have the call, thank you.
Hanson-Young: Well it’s offensive. It is deeply, deeply offensive.
Antic: If it’s offensive, you don’t have to hang around Sarah. You don’t have to hang around, Sarah, if you don’t want to.
Hanson-Young: Heavens above – girls wearing pants. That is the level of rubbish you are putting forward.
Antic: Okay. It is amazing what triggers a response. The truth. The truth that the ABC is grooming our children.
Hanson-Young: It is offensive and it needs to be called out.
Antic: You are welcome to leave.
Hanson-Young: Grooming is a really serious matter! It is not for being played with by conservative senators to make headlines.
Antic: That is what grooming looks like.
Anderson: My answer is we are not grooming Australian children.
Hanson-Young: Sexual assault survivors right around this country will be deeply offended, deeply offended by you playing politics.
Anderson is asked to answer the question again:
Anderson:
I was simply refuting the fact that we were grooming Australian children. Because we are not grooming Australian children … What we are doing, that is about dressing up.
Antic: Cross dressing. Let me ask you this, does ABC agree that transgender or cross dressing are adult concepts?
Anderson:
When it comes to transgender, yes, you can see there are people that wish to identify as a sex other than what they were born as, and I don’t accept what you are saying about somebody who is trans grooming Australian children. That’s not – that whole story time was not about that, it was about dressing up.
Key events
Filters BETA
Eric Abetz may be gone from the senate, but his spirit in ABC estimates lives on
Liberal Senator Alex Antic at ABC Estimates actually asked “Why does having a diverse workforce improve the output of the ABC?”
— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) November 8, 2022
Attorney general ‘committed’ to reforming AAT
Paul Karp
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, told the Labor caucus that he is “committed” to reforming the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, “an institution that has suffered serious harm over recent years”.
The comment followed evidence in Senate estimates on Monday that there are 19 members who have had more than one bullying or harassment complaint made against them since 2016, including 17 who are still serving members.
Dreyfus is meeting the AAT president this afternoon to discuss what measures have been put in place to deal with the complaints.
At the National Press Club in October, Dreyfus used comments from Liberals complaining that the AAT could grant warrants to the National Anti-Corruption Commission to bolster the case to reform or replace the body.
Dreyfus said:
If ever you wanted a demonstration or a confirmation that something needs to be done about the AAT, there it was with these current members of the opposition attacking, in effect, the partisan appointments that they made with almost 90 failed Liberal candidates, former Liberal staffers, former Liberal members of parliament that have been appointed.
In June a Senate committee called for the AAT to be abolished and reconstituted as a new merits appeal body – something Dreyfus has never ruled out.
His recent comments sound like he is contemplating something more extensive than just improving the appointment process.
NSW parliament says companies should be able to claim back costs of transporting donated surplus food through tax system
The NSW parliament has completed an inquiry into food production and supply and made a recommendation:
That the NSW Government advocates for reform at the federal level to enable farmer and logistics companies to claim the cost of transporting donated surplus food as tax credits
Now the food relief sector wants not just the NSW government to take up that recommendation, but all states and territories, to help make it easier for producers to donate excess stock:
Foodbank, OzHarvest and SecondBite have joined forces to lobby governments to make the tax changes:
The Foodbank Hunger Report 2022 highlighted that over 2 million Australian households were severely food insecure in the last 12 months, yet the country currently wastes more than 7.6 million tonnes of food each year, costing the economy over $36.6 billion. Of this food, 70% is perfectly edible and redirecting it to food relief would potentially deliver $2 billion in social return.
Despite this, Australia’s current tax framework does not motivate food producers to donate excess stock. In fact, in tax terms, donating is no different to recycling or sending to landfill even though it may cost the company more.
The tax incentive proposal, developed by KPMG with the support of the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre, recommends a two-tiered tax incentive based on the ability to offset a percentage of costs related to food donations from taxable income. Its aim is to encourage food producers to donate surplus product to food relief rather than sending it to landfill.
Threats to politicians on the rise
Daniel Hurst
The Australian federal police commissioner, Reece Kershaw, says his agency will have to step up its protection of high office holders because threats to politicians are increasing.
At Senate estimates, Kershaw was asked about the prevalence of threats to MPs and their staff. He said:
We are concerned. We’re seeing that around the globe, the threat to high office holders. Unfortunately it seems to be on the increase. Often it is through the online environment that threats are made.
Kershaw said the AFP was working with Asio to review how assessments of threats are conducted.
They’re a point in time – what can happen in a week can change quickly.
He said the AFP was looking at restructuring the protective security command so that it would “coalesce” with its counter-terrorism command and sensitive investigations, “which will bring a whole new doctrine to that command”.
Kerhsaw said there was a need to focus on the needs of individual MPs:
Some MPs are more comfortable than others. Not that that changes our decision but I think, for us, we’re more and more going to be required to protect our high office holders.
Kershaw said that there were “a record number of incidents” during the recent election period, but he did not go into details. He said data would be provided to the Senate committee notice.
Paul Karp
In Labor caucus, Anthony Albanese spoke about how the budget is being received, criticised Angus Taylor for not asking any questions to the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and spoke about the need to get wages moving.
He referred to the recent 15% rise in aged care pay and the national minimum wage decision, but didn’t mention the game of Senate chicken the government is engaged in with Senator David Pocock over the secure jobs, better pay bill.
Albanese referred to evidence in the robodebt royal commission that the illegality of the scheme was known early on at least by officials.
Albanese referred to Australia’s participation in the Cop27 climate summit, and how important it is for international relations, including the fact it was the first topic he and new UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, discussed.
Asked what impact the US midterms would have on climate action, Albanese said Australia will respect the outcome of democratic elections, but also noted that Biden’s climate agenda has already passed congress and is being implemented.
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said he would be meeting the Administrative Appeals Tribunal president this afternoon to discuss evidence of repeat bullying complaints by unnamed members. He reminded caucus he is committed to reforming the body, which he has criticised the Coalition for making partisan appointments to.
The caucus agreed to a range of legislation:
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Allowing law enforcement and emergency agencies access to telco data for missing persons and natural disasters, not just cases involving imminent danger.
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Forgiving Help debts for doctors and nurses in regional areas, and other technical amendments to the jobs ready graduate scheme.
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Increasing penalty units from $222 to $275
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Approving amendments to the secure jobs, better pay bill
Labor will oppose Jacqui Lambie’s private senators bill implementing the veterans suicide royal commission recommendation to allow royal commissions to disregard parliamentary privilege.
Being a Tuesday, the party room meetings were held.
They have wrapped up – the house will sit from midday – so we will bring you some of what was said.
For those who are new here, each of the parties meet on a Tuesday when parliament sits. The meetings are private, but in a very Canberra tradition, a briefing is held afterwards, where one of the MPs reads out the minutes from the meeting. Journalists can ask questions about what was spoken about, but no names are given – it is up to journalists to chase down who might have said what, if needed.
The whole briefing is on “background” which means it is not attributed to anyone. It is another of the federal parliamentary reporting quirks which are tradition, but you don’t really find out about until you get here.
Peter Hannam
Business confidence dropping sharply according to NAB survey
As we noted in an earlier post, one target of the RBA’s higher interest rates is consumers, but the other is business.
NAB’s monthly survey of conditions and confidence in October, also out this morning, revealed the former are holding up but the latter is ebbing. For those hoping for higher wages, there’s not much sign of that happening, with increases lower than in September.
Business conditions were down only one point to 22, while profitability edged up by the same amount to 22 too.
Workers, though, might have to wait for a bit more to come their way.
NAB’s labour cost measure eased to a 3.1% increase in October, slowing from 3.8% during the September quarter. Note that July had a bit of a blip, with the minimum wage increase and superannuation changes. That means subsequent months, including October, will only have had moderate increases.
Business confidence, meanwhile, sagged four points to be zero, meaning as many firms are pessimistic as optimistic about the future. NAB said:
Confidence fell sharply in transport & utilities, as well as in mining, manufacturing, finance, business & property, recreation & personal services, and wholesale.
Victoria, which goes to the polls later this month, saw sentiment sag the most.
Alan Oster, NAB’s top economist, said:
Despite the strength in conditions, confidence has been falling for several months as headwinds have weighed on the outlook for the global economy and Australia.
Could it be that workers will be asked to “tighten their belts” when things start to turn south, before they’ve had much loosening of said clothing accessory?
Amanda Meade
Liberal senators demand to know salaries of high-paid and senior ABC staff
A senate estimates committee descended into a shouting match today after Liberal senators demanded ABC managing director David Anderson provide the salaries of presenters and senior staff earning more than $230,000.
Anderson refused on privacy grounds, but Liberal senator Sarah Henderson was not satisfied and insisted he had to answer every question asked of him by the senate.
The MD was also asked about a speech Four Corners reporter Louise Milligan gave to a women’s legal event, which has been subject to criticism by the Australian newspaper.
What Senator Henderson said just now in parliament is completely fictitious. And the opposite of what I said in my speech.
— Louise Milligan (@Milliganreports) November 7, 2022
Henderson claimed some of the women who attended the event were upset by Milligan’s speech.
Anderson said the speech was given by Milligan in a private capacity.
After Milligan responded to Henderson’s claims on Twitter, the senators began talking about the reporter’s comments about the hearing.
Daniel Hurst
Federal police sought help from FBI for Medibank and Optus data breaches, AFP head says
Over in the legal and constitutional affairs committee, the commissioner of the Australian federal police, Reece Kershaw, continues to face questions about recent high-profile data breaches.
It has previously been confirmed that the AFP has sought help from the FBI in the Optus investigation. The Liberal senator James Paterson asked whether the AFP had also sought help from the FBI in the Medibank case – or just Optus. Kershaw confirmed the assistance of the US agency was sought in “both instances”:
I can’t go into the specifics of the investigation but obviously having the strong linkage that we have with the bureau … is a positive in a sense of tracking down those people responsible.
Paterson asks if the FBI is involved because of its capability or because of its jurisdiction and laws. Kershaw says:
It’s both capability and also the intelligence space. These individuals and/or syndicates operate globally and we’re not just talking to the bureau – there are other police forces in the Five Eyes group. In particular as chair of the Five Eyes law enforcement group, we’ve sent that out to to partners, which is New Zealand, UK authorities, and the Canadians – so we’re going to unite the fight on this in particular on ransomware.
Hackers’ threats to release data ‘a distressing development’, Medibank says
Medibank has released a new statement:
Medibank is today aware of media reports of a purported threat from a criminal to begin publishing stolen Medibank customer data online in 24 hours. The criminal could also attempt to contact customers directly.
Medibank is working with the Australian Government, including the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Australian Federal Police. The Australian Federal Police is investigating this cybercrime and trying to prevent the sharing and sale of our customers’ data.
Medibank CEO, David Koczkar, said: “Customers should remain vigilant. We knew the publication of data online by the criminal could be a possibility, but the criminal’s threat is still a distressing development for our customers.”
We unreservedly apologise to our customers. We take seriously our responsibility to safeguard our customers and support them. The weaponisation of their private information is malicious, and it is an attack on the most vulnerable members of our community,” he said.
Overnight we again wrote to all customers to update them about this cybercrime. We continue to inform customers of what data we believe has been accessed or stolen and provide advice on what they should do. This is being done via email or letter and in some cases via phone.
If you are contacted by someone who claims to have your data, or you are a victim of cybercrime, you can report it at ReportCyber on the Australian Cyber Security Centre website. To report a scam, go to ScamWatch. If you believe you are at physical risk, please call emergency services (000) immediately.
Customers can also contact us via our contact centre team (12 23 31 for Medibank and international customers, 13 42 46 for ahm customers and 1800 081 245 for My Home Hospital patients).
Customers should be vigilant with all online communications and transactions including:
– Being alert for any phishing scams via phone, post or email
– Verifying any communications received to ensure they are legitimate
– Not opening texts from unknown or suspicious numbers
– Changing passwords regularly with ‘strong’ passwords, not re-using passwords and activating multi-factor authentications on any online accounts where available
– Medibank will never contact customers asking for password or sensitive information
The Australian Government has activated the National Coordination Mechanism to bring together agencies across the Australian Government, states and territories.
‘A story about dressing up is acceptable’, says ABC head after Liberal senator makes ‘grooming’ claims
The Spectacular Suit, by Kat Patrick, with illustrations by Hayley Wells, is about a young girl called Frankie who is preparing for her birthday party, but all her party dresses feel wrong. She ends up feeling comfortable wearing pants.
It’s about individuality and expressing yourself. And given some children feel most comfortable wearing a bike helmet, swim cap, superhero costume or holding a spatula at times, is designed to let them know that expressing themselves is OK and normal.
David Anderson continues in that hearing:
I think children do dress up senator, and a story about dressing up is acceptable.
Alex Antic kept pushing:
Do you think this sort of content is contributing to the gender dysphoria problem in this country?
Anderson:
One, I [think] that complex issues that exist within Australian society … I don’t think we’re generating anything. If anything, the ABC reflects what is happening the Australian community.
Antic:
What percentage of Australian children are getting read to by people dressed like this, men dressed like this?
Anderson:
I don’t have the audience data with regard to that but what we have is a story about dressing up.
ABC refutes Liberal senator’s claim story on children dressing up was ‘grooming’
South Australian Liberal senator Alex Antic has accused the ABC of “grooming” children, over a children’s story about dress-ups. Antic had issues with girls wearing pants, it appears, which Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called out, particularly over the language he was using.
This is a rough transcript of what just happened in senate estimates, with ABC head David Anderson answering Antic’s “questions”.
Antic: Mr Anderson, I have got a couple of questions about some programming matters and at the moment the ABC is airing a program called Courtney Act: The Spectacular Suit, in which a male drag actor, Shane Jenek, reads a children’s book called The Spectacular Suit, about a female child wanting to wear male clothing. The program was rated G and has been heavily promoted on TV and on the app. Why is the ABC grooming children with this sort of adult content?
Anderson: Senator, I don’t see that as grooming children with our content. That particular program is reading from a book that is about dressing up so I think …
Antic: Female children in male children’s clothing, you think that’s not …
Sarah Hanson-Young: You mean young girls wearing pants? Seriously.
Antic: I have the call, thank you.
Hanson-Young: Well it’s offensive. It is deeply, deeply offensive.
Antic: If it’s offensive, you don’t have to hang around Sarah. You don’t have to hang around, Sarah, if you don’t want to.
Hanson-Young: Heavens above – girls wearing pants. That is the level of rubbish you are putting forward.
Antic: Okay. It is amazing what triggers a response. The truth. The truth that the ABC is grooming our children.
Hanson-Young: It is offensive and it needs to be called out.
Antic: You are welcome to leave.
Hanson-Young: Grooming is a really serious matter! It is not for being played with by conservative senators to make headlines.
Antic: That is what grooming looks like.
Anderson: My answer is we are not grooming Australian children.
Hanson-Young: Sexual assault survivors right around this country will be deeply offended, deeply offended by you playing politics.
Anderson is asked to answer the question again:
Anderson:
I was simply refuting the fact that we were grooming Australian children. Because we are not grooming Australian children … What we are doing, that is about dressing up.
Antic: Cross dressing. Let me ask you this, does ABC agree that transgender or cross dressing are adult concepts?
Anderson:
When it comes to transgender, yes, you can see there are people that wish to identify as a sex other than what they were born as, and I don’t accept what you are saying about somebody who is trans grooming Australian children. That’s not – that whole story time was not about that, it was about dressing up.
Daniel Hurst
Parliamentary expenses reporting delayed amid IT issues
Expenses reporting for federal parliamentarians will be postponed as the Albanese government cites “severe” delays and major problems with the existing IT system.
Senator Tim Ayres revealed the decision made by the special minister of state, Don Farrell, at a Senate estimates hearing this morning, and said the government would ask the auditor general to look into it.
The “significant” problems affect the Parliamentary Expenses Management System, or Pems, which is billed as “a secure online portal” for parliamentarians and their staff to manage their office expenses.
Ayres told the Finance and Public Administration Committee there had been issues in the development and implementation of the system since 2018. He said public expenditure reporting by parliamentarians was a “vital” transparency measure:
It’s become apparent that the system is not progressing as intended and announced by the former government …
Delays in the system are now so severe that although the system is functional and claims can continue to be made, they prevent these reports being created and populated. As a result, the government has been advised that significant time and additional work is required to rectify the system and to allow the established system of public reporting to continue.
On the advice of the relevant agencies, the special minister of state [Farrell] has authorised a postponement of parliamentarian quarterly reports until the second half of 2023. This is not a decision that the minister has taken lightly.
The requirement for public reporting is a key pillar of faith in our parliamentary system and the government has required relevant agencies to put every effort into rectification of this issue. In the government’s view, a fix is not enough. Maintaining transparency and integrity must be the highest priority.
As such the special minister of state will write today to the Australian National Audit Office and suggest that this project be the subject of an audit or review should the auditor general deem it necessary.
Ayres said Farrell would also write to every parliamentarian with information abut the system. He said briefings would be offered to all MPs and staff, starting with the shadow special minister of state, Jane Hume.
Adeshola Ore
Andrews government pledges free vehicle registration for Victorian apprentices
The Andrews government has pledged to make vehicle registration free for Victorian apprentices, as part of a $9.7m cost-of-living election commitment.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, made the announcement at a vocational campus in Geelong on Tuesday morning. The government has also committed to establishing a parliamentary inquiry to crack down on bosses and contractors who refuse to pay sub-contractors if re-elected this month.
Andrews said the vehicle registration scheme would save apprentices $865 a year and help incentivise people to take up vocational training:
We think it’s a really practical, sensible thing to do.
From that press conference:
Q: Fortem said that got its contract by competitive tender, but the prime minister’s office said that’s not true. You were in government at the time. Can you clarify how that works?
Karen Andrews:
Yes, I can. So Fortem were engaged in a competitive tender process for the Black Summer fires. And as you heard John Bale say they were one of the final successful tenders. When we needed to look at an opportunity to build capability, we looked at how we could build scale here.
Now, it’s the same thing that’s done with manufacturing. You start off with a level of funding and support and you build the scale. We need to build scale and support for our first responders. And that’s exactly what we did. So when we knew that we needed to build more capability, that we needed to make sure that our first responders were being appropriately looked after and cared for after the trauma that they themselves had experienced, we then looked at what we could do to scale it up. And Fortem already had the runs on the board. So this should not be a case of just dealing out small amounts of money to organisations.
In Australia, we know that we have to build scale – or the Coalition understands the need to build scale – so there has been a process that has been successful in the past. So this is additional funding that builds on that process.
Just to clarify there, it was by competitive tender at the time. My understanding of what happened with the Black Summer fires is that there was a process that was undertaken. It was managed, I believe, through a different department to Home Affairs or PMC but there was a competitive process. John Bale mentioned that when he spoke earlier this morning but I’m more than I’m sure that he is able to provide additional detail exactly of the process that he undertook. But he mentioned four organisations of which two of those were successful as a result of that process that was undertaken.
Q: Why would the prime minister’s office then say there wasn’t?
Andrews:
I have no idea. That is a question for the prime minister (the answer does go on but that’s the relevant bit to the question that was asked)
Coalition MPs have held a press conference about the decision to take funding away from Fortem, which provides mental health help to first responders.
Karen Andrews:
Prime minister Albanese and the Labor government have made a deliberate decision to rip funding away and support away from our first responders. This money was budgeted by the Coalition government and the reason that we provided that funding was to make sure that our first responders are supported. Now, our first responders are the people that are pulling people out of flooded waterways, that are pulling people out of fires, that are rescuing people from car crashes.
These people are on the front line making sure that Australians are well looked after, and yet the Albanese Labor government has turned their backs on them by ripping away this funding. Now, this has enormous implications for the health and wellbeing of our first responders. This is a disgraceful decision by the prime minister. He needs to reverse it immediately.
Just in case you missed it yesterday, one of the issues the attorney general is chasing up is the revelation of complaints within the Administrative Appeals Tribunal which came out of estimates on Monday.
Senator Nita Green:
Thank you. How many members of the tribunal have had one or more bullying, harassment or discrimination complaint made about them since the first of July 2016?
AAT chief operating officer, Jamie Crew:
Nineteen members including senior members and deputy presidents have had more than one bullying, harassment or discrimination complaint made about them since 1 July 2016.
Crew then gives more detail:
So I think, Senator, we’ve provided some clarification about how we’ve interpreted that phrase. So we’ve interpreted the phrase more than to mean one or more, two or more, three or more, four or more ,five or more complaints received during that period. So more than one bullying complaint was 19 [people]. More than two was six [people]. More than three was three [people]; more than four was two [people]; and then more than five was one [person].
Daniel Hurst
Extension of Collins class submarine lifespans to begin in 2026
The Royal Australian Navy’s director general of submarines, Commodore Tom Phillips, has spoken about the technically challenging plans to extend the life of the existing Collins class diesel-electric submarines.
The life-of-type extension program begins in 2026 starting with HMAS Farncomb. Each upgrade will require extensive work and is expected to extend the life of each submarine by 10 years. This is intended to bridge any gap before the new nuclear-powered submarines under Aukus are ready.
Phillips told the Submarine Institute of Australian conference in Canberra today that the purchase of items with long lead times for the extension of HMAS Farncomb had begun. He said he did not underestimate the technical challenges of the work:
We’re full aware of the risk and technical challenge and we are bringing all forces to bear in the design effort to [reduce] that risk before 2026.
Phillips also mentioned that the new east coast submarine base (the location has not yet been decided out of Newcastle, Port Kembla and Brisbane). He said the base would not only be a submarine base but would also support a range of other undersea capabilities.
He said HMAS Stirling – the existing naval base in Western Australia – would remain a premier submarine base “for quite some time to go” and into the future (ie it will not be closed when the new base on the east coast opens).
Peter Hannam
Consumer sentiment dims to first Covid wave levels
If the theoretical framework underpinning the RBA’s rate rise binge is to cruel demand, last week’s seventh rise in borrowing costs in as many months seems to be having some of the desired effect.
The latest weekly survey of consumer sentiment by the ANZ and Roy Morgan shows the sixth decline in a row, bringing the gauge to levels not seen since April 2020 when the first Covid wave was cresting.
David Plank, ANZ’s head of Australian economics, says most measures were lower, including the economic conditions next year subindex, which has sagged 17% over the past nine weeks.
What the RBA wants to see, though, is falling expectations about how high inflation will go. Alas, that arrow is still pointed in the wrong direction. Those concerns are now at their highest level since the data series began in April 2010.
One slightly contrary mood, though, is a rise in consumer confidence among those paying off their mortgage, with the gauge up 2.6%.
That sentiment may not keep rising if the markets are any guide, though. Investors are predicting the RBA will hike again next month (with a two-thirds chance of another 25 basis-point rise to 3.1%.)
And just a reminder, there’s still a 2/3 chance that the RBA will lift its cash rate again in December, or so say investors. They are still tipping a peak rate in about a year’s time of ~4%. pic.twitter.com/ZkVyheAVXH
— @phannam (@p_hannam) November 7, 2022
If the market’s right, the cash rate will top 4% in about a year’s time (though most economists predict the RBA will stop well shy of that).
