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Shadow home affairs minister calls government rescue mission ‘very concerning’
Karen Andrews, the shadow home affairs minister, is speaking to ABC radio about the decision that has been taken by government to launch a rescue mission for Australian women and children trapped in Syrian detention camps.
It’s a move she decided against when she was the minister responsible in government.
She tells ABC Radio she believes the decision is “very concerning” and that she wasn’t prepare to bring them home for three reasons.
She wasn’t prepared to risk Australian officials going into Syria to extract these people from the camps. She was also concerned about the radicalisation of the women and children, and the risk of them back to Australia. She said it posed an unnecessary risk and an enormous cost to be supervised in the community.
Does she accept it’s accept it’s Australia’s responsibility to bring its citizens back home?
Andrews emphasises the “women went there by choice and made their own decisions to be in Syria”.
They were complicit in the role they were expected to play … to support Isis and the foreign fighters there. That was the view at the time and I’ve seen nothing to alter my view.
Andrews believes they “absolutely should be” subject to significant surveillance and control upon their return to Australia.
Key events
Nationals embark on “Listening Tour”
Nationals leader David Littleproud has spoken to Sky News this morning about this “Listening Tour” the Nationals tour are embarking on, starting in Mildura tomorrow before moving to the NSW North Coast and getting to Queensland by the end of the year.
Women and youth are set to be the focus of this tour, because Littleproud says despite investing money there has been a lack of connection between the party and these stakeholders.
He says the coalition lost the trust of women not just in metropolitan areas, but also rural areas. Littleproud admits:
We didn’t’ handle the Brittany Higgins all that well. In fact we handed it poorly.
While the Nationals didn’t quite loose the heartland seats the Liberals did at the last election, their safe margins in the regional seats they claim to represent came under major threat.
Guardian Australia’s rural editor Gabrielle Chan wrote this very insightful piece after the May election, about how community-based independents and regional migration saw huge margins slim down in many electorates like Nicholls and Cowper.
‘If Labor doesn’t perform … there will be community efforts against them’: Simon Holmes à Court
Simon Holmes à Court’s Climate 200 organisation backed nine independent candidates at the last federal election who all won their seats, in one of the most notable features of the May election.
Holmes à Court has published a book about his experience, The Big Teal, and was interviewed about it on ABC Radio this morning. Why did he decide to write the book?
There was a lot of misinformation during the campaign about the movement, so I wanted to correct some of that, but I also wanted to situate Climate 200 and myself as part of the much greater movement … which started over a decade ago when Cathy McGowan took on Sophie Mirabella in the seat of Indi.
Asked about the impact Climate 200 might have at the upcoming Victorian state election, he said the state’s donation laws make it harder for independent candidates.
The Victorian laws have done a great job in removing the nexus between big business and politics, and removing the opportunity for quid pro quo. While that’s good, they’ve made it much harder for new entrants to come in. In a way we’ve entrenched a two party system. It is more difficult, but there are four very good candidates Climate 200 is supporting.
Will Climate 200 be targeting Labor safe seats at the next federal election?
We don’t target seats. The question is: will the community stand up and which seats will they stand up in?
If Labor doesn’t perform on these issues, if they frustrate the electorate on these issues, then they can be assured there will be community efforts against them.
We’ll see this movement grow.
Joe Hinchliffe
Fracking in Lake Eyre the ‘height of folly’, report suggests
The expansion of fracking in the Lake Eyre basin would be the “absolute height of folly” and its high-cost, high-emissions unconventional gas could rapidly create stranded assets, a report has found.
The basin – home to one of the world’s last major free-flowing desert river systems – sprawls over nearly one-sixth of the Australian continent, covering parts of the Northern Territory, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.
Peter Hannam
Further RBA rate rises likely to accelerate property price declines
Real estate prices are falling in most of Australia (Darwin is a holdout!), according to CoreLogic. We have this version of its monthly report here:
The rate of declines eased slightly in September from August but CoreLogic reckons that downward tilt will steepen again if the RBA keeps raising rates.
There’s always a lot of focus on home values rather than rents because about a third of the population has paid off their mortgages and another third are paying them off.
But for renters – who make up an increasing share of the population – the arrow is still pointed upwards.
Compared with a year ago, rents are about 10%. Interestingly, for units average rents are up 11.8% and for houses 9.4%, according to Tim Lawless, research director for CoreLogic.
For September alone, the rise was 1.1% for units and 0.5% for houses, indicating there’s a switch towards higher-density residences.
Lawless says average rents are about $50 a week higher than a year ago, which suggests a “ceiling” might be reached in terms of what many people can afford.
Tracking Australia’s progress on the climate crisis and the consequences of global heating
Guardian Australia’s data magicians, Nick Evershed and Josh Nicholas, together with climate and environment editor Adam Morton, have put together this fantastic interactive which tracks Australia’s progress on the climate crisis.
While terms like carbon budget and emissions targets tend to evaporate in the ether of political discussion, this data blog visualises Australia’s contribution to the climate emergency, and tracks our country’s efforts to address it in a really concrete way.
Have a look and play around with the settings to understand things like how excluding emissions from land use and forestry can change the picture of Australia’s emissions.
Victorian schools get $7.8m for disability needs
More than 40 Victorian schools will be upgraded and made more inclusive for students with disabilities as part of a $7.89m funding boost by the state government, AAP reports.
Indoor and outdoor learning spaces will be improved to enable better teaching practices and provide opportunities for sensory experiences and peer socialisation.
Play areas will also be transformed with new facilities and stimulating and accessible equipment.
Education minister Natalie Hutchins said:
We’re ensuring every child and young person in Victoria can meet their potential and access great education – regardless of their background, abilities or differences.
Among the schools to receive funding are Briagolong primary school, which has been allocated $200,000 for a new inclusive playground.
Ripponlea primary school will also receive $177,834 for a dedicated outdoor inclusive learning space and Stawell West primary school will use $67,519 in funding to upgrade a new indoor area.
The Victorian government launched the inclusive schools fund in 2015 and, since then, more than 340 creative projects to build inclusive learning spaces and inclusive playgrounds have been announced.
The government has invested $12.8bn to building new schools and more than 1,850 school upgrades over the past eight years.
Optus not forthcoming on breach, Tanya Plibersek says
A federal minister has slammed Optus for not being forthcoming with either customers or the government more than a week on from the cyber attack, AAP reports.
Tanya Plibersek said while people had been receiving their bills on time, the telco had not told customers whether their personal details had been stolen.
She told the Seven Network:
One of the real problems is the lack of communication by Optus, both with its customers and the government.
I don’t think the company is doing a particularly good job with its customers or providing the government with the information we need to keep people safe.
It’s extraordinary we don’t have any Medicare numbers or Centrelink numbers that may have been compromised.
Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce said Optus had “compromised their capacity to do their job”.
Joyce told Seven Network:
Those in the know say it wasn’t a very sophisticated way to get into the Optus information.
He questioned why the telco had “been so lax” about the data breach.
Why can’t they protect your privacy and get back to people and say we have a real problem here and be careful?
Optus was also slammed by Albanese government ministers for not responding to its requests for information to help protect almost 10 million Australians from fraud at a press conference yesterday.
Services Australia wrote to Optus on Tuesday asking for the full details of all customers who had their Medicare cards or Centrelink Concession Cards compromised to boost security measures. The government said Optus was yet to respond to the request.
‘I’m not going to be happy about any seat we lose’
Karen Andrews was also asked about comments that came out of the Conservative Political Action Conference Australia yesterday, where federal vice-president Teena McQueen welcomed the defeat of “lefties” within the party.
If you want to read more on that, my colleague Josh Butler was in attendance:
Andrews said in response to McQueen’s comments:
I’m not going to be happy about any seat we lose. We need to look at the principles of the Liberal party … we need to regroup, which we are doing under Peter Dutton and revisit the policies we took to the last election.
We need to be much better at selling to Australians why we are the best party.
‘Biggest wake-up call’ from the Optus breach is to government, shadow home affairs minister says
Karen Andrews continues her criticism of the government in its response to the massive Optus data breach. She says Optus has serious questions it needs to answer but that the government’s response has also been lacking.
She said they were late in their responses and didn’t set out what customers could be doing to protect themselves.
I’m not going to absolve Optus of its corporate responsibility but there is a role for government.
She said there was “no evidence to support Australia being five years behind” in cybersecurity protections, as home affairs minister Clare O’Neil has claimed, criticising the former government.
Does Andrews support immediate move to stop companies retaining data for long periods of time?
She says she would be “happy to look at legislation” and that there are “a range of issues what data is kept and how it’s kept” but largely doesn’t answer the question of whether she will support the government’s plans for immediate action on data retention.
She says the “biggest wake-up call” from the Optus breach is to the Labor government.
Shadow home affairs minister calls government rescue mission ‘very concerning’
Karen Andrews, the shadow home affairs minister, is speaking to ABC radio about the decision that has been taken by government to launch a rescue mission for Australian women and children trapped in Syrian detention camps.
It’s a move she decided against when she was the minister responsible in government.
She tells ABC Radio she believes the decision is “very concerning” and that she wasn’t prepare to bring them home for three reasons.
She wasn’t prepared to risk Australian officials going into Syria to extract these people from the camps. She was also concerned about the radicalisation of the women and children, and the risk of them back to Australia. She said it posed an unnecessary risk and an enormous cost to be supervised in the community.
Does she accept it’s accept it’s Australia’s responsibility to bring its citizens back home?
Andrews emphasises the “women went there by choice and made their own decisions to be in Syria”.
They were complicit in the role they were expected to play … to support Isis and the foreign fighters there. That was the view at the time and I’ve seen nothing to alter my view.
Andrews believes they “absolutely should be” subject to significant surveillance and control upon their return to Australia.
Home values fall for fifth straight month
Australian home values have fallen for a fifth consecutive month, with prices dropping in all capitals except Darwin, AAP reports.
Home values across the country dropped 1.4% in September after a 1.6% fall in August, according to CoreLogic’s national Home Value Index.
In the capital cities, Sydney values were down 1.8% in the month, while Melbourne values fell 1.1% and in Brisbane they dropped 1.7%.
Adelaide and Perth saw small monthly reductions of 0.2% and 0.4% respectively, while in Darwin values remained flat.
The September decline marks the fifth fall in a row in the national index as the impact of consecutive interest rate hikes plays out in the property market.
Anti-corruption commission hearings should be held in public, Lambie says
Jacqui Lambie was also asked about the details of the government’s national anti-corruption commission, revealed in parliament last week. One of the major points of contention is the fact that most hearings will be held in private.
Lambie is asked why it would be important for the commission to hold hearings in public, given that it will report the outcome of its work?
If people are doing the wrong things … anybody else in a normal court system has to go through that system and if that means being out in the public arena, that’s what happens.
Lambie criticises government going public with revelation of Syrian rescue mission
But Jacqui Lambie has questioned the fact the government is revealing details of this mission so early:
Nobody seems to be talking about these interpreters and their families that helped our men and women in Afghanistan who are stuck there … and this seems to have gone wayside.
Lambie says she would like the Labor party to be honest about the safety of the interpreters:
It’s absurd they’re prepared to put this detail out … when they’re saying it’s going to be dangerous. I’m surprised they’re letting that out there and they’re not just doing it at the cover of darkness.
From the briefing I’ve had over the last three years, it is a great risk to try and bring these people home, not just getting them out of there … but whether or not they’ve been radicalised.
They’ve obviously done there homework, they believe it’s the right time, so we just have to trust the decisions of Asio.
Lambie supports mission to bring home Australian women and children from Syria
Senator Jacqui Lambie is speaking to ABC Radio about this news that the government is planning a mission to rescue Australian women and children trapped in Syrian detention camps.
She supports the government bringing them home but says there is a great risk in terms of the possibility of radicalisation and emphasises there is the need for great support for those Australians upon their repatriation:
With their children, they’re going to need a lot of help when they return home, a lot of that will be psychological … this will be an ongoing saga for the rest of their lives, no doubt.
Lambie has visited the detention camps where the women and children have been living.
They are god damn bloody awful … they are crowded in those tents there. There is rape and an awful lot of abuse. You want to do the right humanitarian thing and bring them home.
Is Lambie’s support conditional upon ensuring the repatriation is safe?
I think they’re Australia’s responsibility – we don’t have any choice.
After revealing this story exclusively yesterday, Guardian Australia’s immigration correspondent Ben Doherty has more on the support these women and children will need today:
Tory Shepherd
Gas industry expect to receive bigger tax bill
Australia’s gas exporters predict they will pay billions of dollars more next year – mostly through income tax.
This year the Australia Institute reported that five of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association’s top members had paid no income tax for at least seven years. Others had paid minimal amounts, despite billions of dollars in revenue.
The institute’s analysis of tax data found most of those were foreign-owned, “resulting in all profits heading straight offshore”.
Appea now says its forecasts show liquefied natural gas exporters will pay almost about $14bn next financial year, more than twice as much as the $4.8bn forecast for last financial year. Of the extra $9bn, corporate income tax makes up almost $7bn. The rest comes from the petroleum resource rent tax, state royalties and excises.
There have been calls for a windfall, or super profits tax for fossil fuel exporters as their revenues soar in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has repeatedly ruled that out as an option.
Appea chief executive Samantha McCulloch said the forecasts demonstrated the value of the industry for the Australian economy, and that tax payments were being brought forward as the industry made up for losses in previous years:
These forecasts demonstrate some of the direct financial value to the economy and the Australian public of long-term taxation settings that underpin these large, capital-intensive and complex projects.
But focussing solely on revenue for determining the industry’s economic contribution ignores our far wider role – employing 165,000 people along the supply chain, building infrastructure, powering homes and businesses and facilitating growth – which has been estimated at enabling almost $500bn of economic activity annually.
Good morning!
Jim Chalmers fears a global recession is probable, telling the Financial Review this morning that the recession risk in many major economies had tipped from “possible to probable”.
The treasurer’s grim global outlook comes as rapidly rising interest rates at home make a downturn more likely, with markets tipping the central bank to raise interests rates for a sixth time in as many months at its meeting tomorrow.
Experts are leaning towards another 50 basis point hike, which would lift the cash rate from the target of 2.35% to 2.85%.
In more economic news, house prices have fallen for a fifth consecutive month, with values across the country dropping by 1.4% in September after a 1.6% fall in August. The new data out from CoreLogic’s national Home Value Index showed prices dropped in all capitals except Darwin.
Meanwhile, shadow home affairs minister Karen Andrews has raised concerns about the government’s mission to rescue dozens of Australian women and children trapped in Syrian detention camps, which Guardian Australia exclusively revealed yesterday.
Andrews told the ABC:
Labor needs to assure Australians that individuals who may have been radicalised pose no threat upon their return to Australia — and explain the efforts they’re going to undertake to monitor and rehabilitate these individuals.
Save the Children Australia chief executive Matt Tinkler, who has been campaigning for the women and children to be repatriated, told the ABC it would be “welcome news” if the repatriation was successful.
Let’s kick off!
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