Labor’s industrial relations bill passes House of Representatives
Paul Karp
Labor’s industrial relations legislation has passed the House of Representatives, after further government concessions paring back the expansion of multi-employer bargaining.
The secure jobs, better pay bill – the most extensive changes to workplace laws in two decades – will now pass to the Senate, where ACT independent David Pocock is the swing vote who has driven a suite of changes to accommodate business concerns.
The bill passed 80 votes to 56 shortly after 1pm, with independent MPs Zoe Daniel, Monique Ryan, Bob Katter and Andrew Wilkie joining Labor and the Greens in favour.
The Coalition, along with MPs Kate Chaney, Allegra Spender, Sophie Scamps, Helen Haines, Rebekha Sharkie and Dai Le voted against at both the second and third reading stage.
Key events
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Omnibus IR bill created ‘Sophie’s choice when it comes to voting’: Scamps
We brought you the news of the government’s IR bills passing the lower house but here are some of the concerns which the crossbench who voted with the coalition raised.
Sophie Scamps, the independent member for Mackellar, said:
The problem I have with the omnibus nature of the fair work legislation Amendment is that many of these excellent policies are bundled up with the more controversial ones, and this has created a Sophie’s choice when it comes to voting. As with many of my crossbench colleagues, I too have serious concerns for the consequences of this legislation will have on small business.
HECS debt wiped for rural health workers
The government is offering to wipe the study debt of doctors and nurses who choose to live in rural and remote areas, in an attempt to address the shortage of medical staff in the bush.
Under new legislation to be introduced by the government today, eligibility will depend on the remoteness of the placement and the length of time worked.
A doctor or nurse practitioner who works in a remote or very remote town for a time period of half the length of their course would have their entire HELP debt wiped.
Those who live in a large, medium or small rural town for a time period equal to the whole length of their course would have their entire HELP debt wiped.
The government also said that those living in “an eligible place for a period of time equivalent to half the time required is eligible to half the applicable debt reduction.”
Approximately 850 doctors and nurse practitioners are expected to be attracted to rural and remote areas every year, the government predicts.
The measures would be effective from the first day of the new year.
The minister for education, Jason Clare, said:
Zero HECS debt is a great incentive for young graduates to live and work and build their careers in rural and remote communities.
The health minister, Mark Butler, indicated he thought the measure would also help make working outside the cities a more likely long term option too.
We recognise the challenge of recruiting and retaining primary health care workers in rural and remote communities. These measures will make country practice a more attractive long-term career option for doctors and nurse practitioners.
Guardian Australia’s rural network recently highlighted that long term solutions for the healthcare crisis in the bush could also be found in local populations, particularly by tapping into demographics like men that haven’t been part of nursing recruitment drives:
Peter Hannam
RBA ‘not bankrupt’, Bullock reassures senators
The Reserve Bank’s deputy governor Michele Bullock has been asked about the huge losses and negative equity of $12.4bn as of the end of June, by Queensland LNP Senator Matt Canavan.
We covered the big losses reported by the RBA and negative equity issue here:
Anyway, Canavan asks: “Is the RBA bankrupt?”
“No, the RBA is not bankrupt,” Bullock replies.
As the central bank, it can print money, and so is not like a commercial bank. (Cue, phews.)
The reason why the RBA has such large unrealised losses – about $37bn last financial year – is that the central bank snapped up many billions of dollars of Australian government debt during the Covid pandemic to force interest rates down.
As interest rates have risen, the value of the holdings has dived if “marked to market”. Anyway, the bank plans to let most if not all the debt mature, hence the “unrealised” bit about those losses.
Canavan’s fellow Queensland LNP colleague Gerard Rennick, meanwhile, was eager earlier to press the RBA to reveal its exchanges with the Bank of International Settlement (the “central bank of central banks”).
That information, not surprisingly, is confidential, and the RBA is not about to cough it up. Rennick says the BIS had a “notorious history”. “They melted down the gold, Nazi gold,” Rennick said, tugging on a rather long bow when it comes to current discussions.
Early childcare worker speaks on IR bill and better wages: ‘It gives us all genuine hope’
Burke finishes by inviting an early childcare worker in Canberra to speak after him:
I think this story is best told by one of the workers themselves, so before we go to questions I would like to invite Laura to say a few words.
She says:
Hi, my name is Laura, in Canberra, I am a mum of three, and I have been an early educator for 18 years. What this Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill will mean for us is hope and I really want to thank the minister and the Albanese government for giving us this hope.
It is going to give us the opportunity to see wages moving, wages that have remained on hold for the better part of a decade under the previous government. So we now have that hope that we can no longer have to work two jobs to keep our lives running.
I talk with educators every day that are really struggling with the cost of living, with our wages, and what this does is it gives all of us that real genuine hope that we can keep the passion for what we do, the passion for early childhood education and care and that we can start to see a real difference in our lives and in the lives of the children we look after. So I really want to thank you again for the hope you has given us today.
Peter Dutton’s IR bill amendment about ‘pay cuts’, Tony Burke says
Tony Burke goes on to speak about the opposition leader Peter Dutton’s amendment:
There is amendment that was moved this morning that a lot of people won’t know about. It was moved by Peter Dutton. And he called on the parliament to go back to the changes to industrial relations that were brought into this place in 2020, when Christian Porter was the minister.
They were changes that allowed the full suspension of the better off overall test for two years through agreements that would remain intact for a further four years. They were about pay cuts that could last six years and more.
So we had two votes, effectively, in terms of the major parties. We had a vote brought on by Peter Dutton and the Liberal party that called for sustained wage cut and we had a vote, supported in the House by the government and a number of crossbench members of parliament, that said let’s get wages moving. And in doing that, let’s prioritise those areas that have been left behind in bargaining.
Tony Bourke says too many workplaces ‘left behind’ on bargaining and wages
The minister for employment and workplace relations, Tony Burke, just spoke in Canberra after the workplace relations bill passed the lower house:
Too many workplaces that have been left behind in bargaining. In particular, feminised industries. And I’m really proud that at the exact moment that the House of Representatives makes this decision, I’m standing here with these workers.
Early childhood educators, workers who provided the example of how a sector where the enterprise by enterprise bargaining had been really hard and they hadn’t benefited from that system, but were able to work together across a number of workplaces and provide that great Victorian example of wage rates that are now well above the award.
When wages aren’t moving, people are feeling that in every household at the moment. And we hear lots of people in this building talk about cost of living. The cost of living has two sides. It has prices and it has wages and you can’t seriously care about cost of living unless you are doing something about wages.
Labor’s industrial relations bill passes House of Representatives
Paul Karp
Labor’s industrial relations legislation has passed the House of Representatives, after further government concessions paring back the expansion of multi-employer bargaining.
The secure jobs, better pay bill – the most extensive changes to workplace laws in two decades – will now pass to the Senate, where ACT independent David Pocock is the swing vote who has driven a suite of changes to accommodate business concerns.
The bill passed 80 votes to 56 shortly after 1pm, with independent MPs Zoe Daniel, Monique Ryan, Bob Katter and Andrew Wilkie joining Labor and the Greens in favour.
The Coalition, along with MPs Kate Chaney, Allegra Spender, Sophie Scamps, Helen Haines, Rebekha Sharkie and Dai Le voted against at both the second and third reading stage.
Luke Henriques-Gomes
Robodebt royal commission hears about Morrison’s desire for ‘welfare cop’
The robodebt inquiry also heard more details of a key meeting in 22 January 2015 when Pratt and Wilson met with the then new social services minister, Scott Morrison.
Pratt did not recall Wilson being there but said it was possible she was. He also did not recall any mention of discussion about the welfare compliance measure that became robodebt, and there was no reference to it in his notes.
His handwritten notes, shown to the commission, did mention the phrase “welfare cop”.
Morrison had flagged in media at the time his desire for a “strong welfare cop on the beat”.
Pratt said he had no knowledge of the use of income averaging – the unlawful debt raising method used in the scheme. Asked if Wilson had raised the issue of the legality of the scheme with him, Pratt said he no recollection of that, though he did not rule it out.
Luke Henriques-Gomes
Robodebt royal commission probes which department was ultimately responsible for scheme
The former social services minister, Christian Porter, called the head of his department at the initial height of the robodebt scheme and asked words to the effect of “what the hell is this all about?”, a royal commission has been told.
Finn Pratt, then the secretary of the Department of Social Services in late 2016, told the inquiry:
Mr Porter might have said something in the order of, ‘What the hell is all this about?’ I think my response was ‘You are reading the same media I am. This is clearly something which DHS is doing.’
Guardian Australia reported on the controversy in a series of stories in December 2016.
Pratt said he had connected Porter with the acting secretary of the Department of Human Services, because that department was running the debt recovery scheme. Kathryn Campbell, who is being called to the inquiry, was on leave at the time.
The question of which department was ultimately responsible for the program is one of the key questions being asked by the royal commission.
At the time, the Department of Social Services held internal advice saying the scheme was likely unlawful. However, Serena Wilson, a deputy secretary and one of a handful people who was second in charge to Pratt, said she did not share the advice with Porter, and likely didn’t share it with Pratt either.
Thunderstorm asthma warning in Victoria
Victorians are being warned of risk of thunderstorm asthma today, with a “high risk” warning issued for the Mallee and the Wimmera.
The bureau of meteorology said there was also a moderate risk in the western and central districts, including Melbourne.
A combination of high levels of grass pollen in the air and thunderstorm conditions can trigger thunderstorm asthma.
The advice warning on VicEmergency says:
Be aware of an increased chance of experiencing breathing difficulties or an asthma attack. Prepare now – carry your asthma reliever puffer with you at all times today.
Peter Hannam
RBA’s Michele Bullock defends RBA over interest rate comments
The Greens senator Nick McKim has been using Senate estimates to ask about the RBA’s accountability over statements last year that interest rates wouldn’t rise until 2024.
(Let the record note that the comments were always qualified, “based on conditions and so forth”, but the message many people would have taken was the bank’s cash rate wasn’t about to budge soon.)
The issue, deputy governor Michele Bullock says, was that economic conditions during Covid were “dire” and that the settings reflected that. As economies roared out of the lockdowns, supply shortages contributed to the emerging inflation. (Add Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the global energy and food price spikes, and inflation suddenly loomed large.)
Bullock said:
We were caught by surprise as was everyone.
Nobody at the bank, though, lost their jobs over the miscalculations, she conceded.
Gender and sexuality questions could be included in the next census
Sarah Martin
Gender and sexuality questions could be included in the next census, with the Australian Bureau of Statistics telling the Senate economics committee it is on a “journey” and the census adapts in line with changes in society.
The inclusion of the question became embroiled in controversy ahead of the 2021 census after it emerged that the then assistant treasurer, Michael Sukkar, had expressed “a preference” for the questions not to be included.
The Liberal senator Andrew Bragg asked the head of the ABS, David Gruen, about its advice to the previous Coalition government.
Gruen said the advice had included both “pros and cons” for asking questions about gender and sexual orientation, but had not expressed a preference, with the decision left up to the government.
When pressed on what the pros and cons were for inclusion of the questions on sexuality and gender, Gruen said that the advantages were access to information of “considerable interest” for groups in the community, while the disadvantage was the inclusion of a “sensitive” question that went to a household, rather than an individual.
The aspect of it that makes this more complicated than many things is that you send the census to a household and you ask someone to fill the census in, and these are highly sensitive personal pieces of information that perhaps some members of the household have not shared with other members of the household.
He said that the ABS collected similar information in individual surveys, but the census was a “different kettle of fish”.
The general manager of the census for the ABS, Duncan Young, said that when they had done some testing ahead of the 2021 census there had been “some confusion” with people not understanding the difference between questions about sex and gender.
They thought they were being asked the same question twice; there is not a universal understanding across the community.
However we are on a bit of journey here, and these things do change from census to census, and the censuses continue to adapt to the society that it is run in and we will start our public consultation process early in 2023 … and we expect this will be an area of interest in that process.
Gruen said new advice would be provided to the government “well in advance” of the 2026 census after consultation with the community.
First Nations ambassador plans spark heated exchange at estimates
Daniel Hurst
The Northern Territory Country Liberal party senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has criticised the government’s plans to appoint an ambassador for First Nations people, sparking some heated exchanges at Senate estimates.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said the position would enable connections to be made that contributed to Australia’s international influence:
This is about telling the full breadth of the story about who we are.
Price contended that the role was about the “continuing theme of segregation of First Nations people”.
Wong replied:
I reject that. It’s not about segregation. It’s about inclusion.
Wong said it was elevating First Nations voices to “a place in our international story that we have not told” to date.
Price suggested that it would be better to recognise everyone as Australians, saying the move was “ideologically driven”:
As someone who has Indigenous heritage, I do find it divisive.
Price, a long-standing critic of the plans for an Indigenous Voice to parliament and who doesn’t believe the Uluru Statement from the Heart represents the view of all Indigenous Australians, told Wong:
Well, I doubt that you would accept 0.03% of the Asian community on anything with regard to any decisions made with regard to the Asian community of Australia, which is on the same sort of principle.
Wong replied:
Well I’ll answer that. You want to talk about my ethnicity and my heritage. I am deeply proud and deeply grateful that the Australian people have chosen to put more people from diverse backgrounds into our parliament.
Price:
I’m glad you’re proud.
Wong:
I am. I think it is a good thing for our country. You asked me a question about being Chinese so I’m responding.
Price:
I didn’t ask you a question on that. I put it to you that that’s what the premise is … You would probably feel insulted if that was the case for Asian Australians and that’s the point I wanted to make.
Price went on to suggest the ambassador for First Nations people was a “another international PR role for the Voice referendum internationally”.
Wong said the government would continue “articulating and projecting the reality of modern Australia”, including multicultural and First Nations heritage.
Peter Hannam
Reserve Bank deputy governor Michele Bullock and assistant governor Christopher Kent are appearing at Senate estimates this afternoon, with inflation and interest rates high on senators’ agendas.
Interestingly, to underscore the central bank’s independence, related ministers are absent from today’s hearing. (Not sure if that applies to any other agency.) NSW Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has opened the session, with a query about whether the RBA’s leadership team has met with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, a question taken on notice.
Getting into the questions about what’s causing inflation, we learn the RBA takes the projections about energy prices next year from the federal budget (rather than doing their own number crunching).
The budget predicted electricity prices would rise 20% this fiscal year, most of it already turning up on bills, and another 30% next year. Gas would go up 20% in both. (Those numbers are a bit rubbery, since it’s a national number and states vary a lot, especially Western Australia with its gas reservation keeping a lid on power prices that the east can only look on with envy.)
Anyway, we’ll have about two hours of hearings to cover. Not quite “strap in” but more “stay tuned”.
Virgin Australia’s Velocity frequent flyer customers caught up in Medibank breach
Josh Taylor
A small number of Virgin Australia’s Velocity frequent flyer customers have been caught up in the Medibank data breach, the airline has announced.
It is understood about 2,800 Velocity membership numbers have been included in the initial drop of the hacked data from Medibank being posted on the dark web.
A Virgin Australia Group spokesperson said:
After being notified late yesterday, Virgin Australia is acting to protect a small number of Velocity frequent flyer membership numbers [that] may have been compromised as part of the Medibank cybercrime event.
As a precautionary measure, we have locked the accounts of impacted members. We are notifying impacted members this morning and are in the process of creating new membership numbers for those members.
Keeping the accounts of our members safe from unauthorised activity is our priority and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Those affected will still be able to fly, access lounges and earn points while new numbers are being issued, but will not be able to redeem points or log in online until those numbers have been replaced.
Lisa Cox
Government kicks off $15m plan to increase energy efficiency of homes and businesses
The federal government has begun consultation for a national energy performance strategy to improve the energy efficiency of homes and businesses.
The government has set aside $15.2m over four years for development of a framework for demand-side improvements.
The review will examine ways to both lower energy demand and improve energy performance and will consider whether energy efficiency targets should be set across the economy. Such targets already exist in countries including Japan and the European Union.
The assistant minister for climate change and energy, Jenny McAllister, said more energy efficient homes and businesses would take pressure off energy bills, the energy system and the climate.
She said Australia was lagging behind other countries in making these kinds of improvements.
We want to support affordable energy for Australians, ensuring no one gets left behind, while taking strong action on climate change. Action on the demand-side of the market will mean Australians can take control of their energy use.
This is an issue directly affecting the health and welfare of our nation, including low-income and disadvantaged households, and regional communities.
The government has released a discussion paper which says energy efficiency improvements – such as more efficient buildings and appliances – could significantly reduce Australia’s emissions, with residential buildings and the commercial and services sectors responsible for about 11% of Australia’s emissions.
The consultation paper is seeking submissions on issues including energy efficiency targets, governance and the residential, commercial and industrial sectors until 3 February.
Iranian diplomat called in three times amid protester crackdown
Daniel Hurst
Iran’s senior diplomat in Canberra has been “called in” by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade three times over human rights abuses in Iran.
Australian officials have also told a Senate estimates hearing that they have raised “very concerning reports about intimidation of people here in the community”.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said the government had condemned the crackdown on protesters and the repression of women and called for a prompt and impartial investigation into death of Mahsa Amini.
Marc Innes-Brown, a first assistant secretary for the Middle East Africa and Afghanistan Division, told the Senate committee:
I have called in the Iranian chargé d’affaires on three occasions during this period to convey in the strongest possible terms our concerns about what has happened.
I’ve also spoken to him on another occasion about very concerning reports about intimidation of people here in the community.
Wong did not speculate on potential further sanctions ahead of such decisions being made, but said she understood the call for further steps.
The Dfat secretary, Jan Adams, said the issue of whether Magnitsky-style sanctions could be applied was “under active consideration”.
The Liberal senator Claire Chandler said the Iranian community in Australia was looking for tangible action.
