Australia news live: Victoria’s assistant treasurer denies conflict of interest over bank shares; UN torture prevention body cancels visit | Australia news

Benita Kolovos

Victorian Liberals to handpick candidate for Aston byelection

The Victorian Liberals administrative committee will handpick the party’s candidate for the Aston byelection.

The committee met on Monday night after it was announced the byelection will be held on 1 April – the earliest date that complied with the required 33-day notice period that follows the NSW election on 25 March.

Victorian Liberal sources conceded the byelection date rendered it “impossible” to go ahead with plans for a ballot of local members on 4 March to select a candidate, as it would have given Labor a “headstart”.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, on Friday announced the former union official and breast cancer survivor Mary Doyle will contest the seat after she slashed outgoing Liberal MP Alan Tudge’s margin from 10.1% to 2.8% in the May 2022 election.

The decision makes it likely a woman will be pre-selected as the Liberal candidate. The barrister and Melbourne City councillor Roshena Campbell has emerged as the frontrunner, ahead of the oncologist and Guardian columnist Ranjana Srivastava, the former Victorian upper house MP Cathrine Burnett-Wake and Emanuele Cicchiello.

Benita Kolovos

Victoria’s assistant treasurer denies conflict of interest over shares

Victoria’s assistant treasurer, Danny Pearson, has conceded it was an “error of judgment” to hold shares in Commonwealth Bank while carrying out his ministerial duties.

The Australian today reported Danny Pearson held shares in the bank when he announced a new three-bank panel to deliver Victoria’s banking and financial services in August 2021.

The new arrangement, including the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and NAB, replaced a contract with Westpac that had been worth an estimated $120m a year.

According to the parliament’s register of interests, Pearson has held the shares since 2014.

In a statement this morning, he said he was “not a decision maker in the awarding of the banking and financial services contract in 2021”:

The process was run by senior independent public servants and there was a probity auditor engaged throughout who signed off on the process. I noted the outcome of the tender once it had been determined by the Department of Treasury and Finance.

Despite this, I accept that it was an error of judgment to not recognise and manage the potential for a perception of conflict of interest and I unreservedly apologise for this oversight.

For avoidance of doubt, I have spoken to the premier and advised him that I will place all of my shareholdings in a blind trust.

Speaking to reporters this morning, Pearson said when he announced the outcome of the tender he did not recall that he held shares in Commonwealth Bank:

I’ve held these shares for over a decade so they predate my arrival as a member of parliament.

I recognise that this may have given rise to a potential of a perception of a conflict of interest and for that I unreservedly apologise.

Amy Remeikis

Michelle Rowland says she will no longer accept donations from Sportsbet

The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, has faced calls to resign in the last couple of weeks, after she accepted donations from a gaming company before the election.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, a staunch anti-gambling campaigner, led the charge for her resignation, saying Rowland, who carries the policy responsibility for interactive gaming, was “completely and utterly conflicted” as a consequence of accepting the donations and hospitality and had made a “grievous error of judgment”.

That followed a report in Nine newspapers that Sportsbet paid for a campaign dinner and made a second donation to Rowland’s campaign in the lead-up to the federal election. Labor did not disclose the donations because they were below the reporting threshold.

Rowland had declared the donations as required under the law and Anthony Albanese and Tony Burke launched passionate defences of the minister, saying she had met every obligation in front of her and was leading the government’s harm minimisation policy for online gambling.

But Rowland had stayed rather quiet on the whole affair – until appearing on the ABC’s Q+A program overnight, where she said that while she had met her disclosure obligations, she understands the community wants better – and she will no longer accept donations from Sportsbet.

Rowland said:

I will not take money from Sportsbet.

Pressed on whether that included other gambling companies, Rowland said, “As I said, I am now the minister, I will not be taking money from Sportsbet.” Rowland looked like she was going to say more, but was cut off.

Rowland also pointed to what else she had learned from the outcry:

I think this highlights one very important aspect and that’s about disclosure of political donations.

I think this is an area of long overdue reform and the Albanese government has had a long held position for example of decreasing the disclosure threshold, so it’s a lower amount that needs to be disclosed, but also having real time reporting. And if this conversation encourages that to be sped up and we get results in that, I think that’s a good thing and I’ll be participating in that discussion.

Amy Remeikis

Leaders in WA for federal cabinet meeting

If it seems like most of the government is in Western Australia, that is because it is.

Anthony Albanese is making good on his promise to keep wooing the west – WA helped deliver Labor government and Albanese is working to ensure it stays on side.

As reported a little earlier in the blog, that means holding a federal cabinet meeting in Port Hedland. The WA premier, Mark McGowan, will address the meeting before it gets down to business. While in Port Hedland, the prime minister will also meet community group representatives, Indigenous elders and community members at a special reception.

The message from Albanese?

We’ve always said WA is more than Perth, and Port Hedland is one of the engine rooms of the WA economy.

Albanese has made a point of holding cabinet meetings across Australia, with a particular focus on the regions. It’s all about soft diplomacy – and sending the message it is not all about Canberra.

Amy Remeikis

Talk of changing super tax concessions a ‘mature conversation’ to have, Bowen says

Just before he was freed from Patricia Karvelas’ questions, Chris Bowen was asked about the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, opening the door to changing Australia’s superannuation tax concessions.

We reported about Chalmers on that yesterday – he sneaked it into his speech on defining superannuation, and then doubled down during the question and answer session. It is not going to be something that happens in the short term – the main focus is defining superannuation and making it more equitable, but Chalmers doesn’t say anything without thought. So, it’s on his mind (given it costs almost as much as the aged pension, you can see why).

Bowen though, knows how to avoid something he doesn’t want to answer. And he turns the question around.

Well, I think Jim Chalmers made a very thoughtful contribution yesterday about this and you know, having a sensible mature conversation with Australian people.

I was bit gobsmacked to hear the shadow minister on your program, just a little while ago say, you know, it doesn’t matter that women don’t get a fair share of superannuation concessions and just laughed that off that that really surprised me and I’m pretty hard to surprise these days in politics, that sort of glib dismissal of real issues that the treasurer is putting on the table – superannuation is magnificent national achievement which my side of politics is very proud of, and it means that Australians who have been on low and moderate income during their working life have a chance to have a dignified retirement. I think the treasurer pointing out that we need to ensure it’s equitable and sustainable, should be relatively uncontroversial.

The UN torture prevention body has decided to cancel its suspended visit to Australia.

The UN subcommittee on prevention of torture (SPT) ended its visit to Australia’s detention facilities in October last year after New South Wales and Queensland blocked access to some facilities.

The subcommittee requested a number of assurances in order to resume its visit but says “some of the requested guarantees were not provided, and the subcommittee could not ascertain that it would be able to resume its visit in a reasonable timeframe.”

The chair of the SPT, Suzanne Jabbour, said:

Despite the good cooperation the subcommittee has with the Australian federal authorities following our initial mission, there is no alternative but to terminate the visit as the issue of unrestricted access to all places of deprivation of liberty in two states has not yet been resolved.

Nevertheless, a report based on what the SPT observed during its October visit before the suspension will be shared with the state party as soon as possible. It will enable ongoing communication with the Australian government.

Amy Remeikis

Greens still pushing for tougher climate policy

So what about Chris Bowen’s negotiations with the Greens, who are trying to pull the government in the opposition direction to businesses like Bluescope and want the government to go further on the safeguard mechanism.

Will Bowen agree to a climate trigger (when projects would have to be assessed on the impact they would have on climate change).

He’s not going to negotiate with the Greens on live radio.

So consider that, ongoing.

Amy Remeikis

BlueScope Steel could go offshore if safeguard mechanism too tough, Bowen says

Chris Bowen is asked about steel maker BlueScope, saying that if the safeguard mechanism is too onerous, they will have to go offshore.

(If you need a refresher on the safeguard mechanism, this from Adam Morton is very, very good.)

Bowen says he has been talking to BlueScope and the discussions have been positive.

Of course I’ve been talking to BlueScope I’ve been talking to people across the board.

Welcome to policy [negotiations] Patricia [Karvelas] there’s people on your show saying the safeguards’ policy goes nowhere near far enough, there’s other people saying it goes too far. I believe we’ve got the balance right.

Bowen says it is all part of the consultation he promised, which finishes at the end of the month.

I’ll then read through every submission and update our policy in responses to submissions where I think a valid case for reconsideration has been made. But of course what we want to be is a country that makes things, of course steel is absolutely essential to our transition. So when we’re going to be a lot more steel, we’re going to need a lot more steel, in the transition.

Bowen won’t say what he would need to change to ensure BlueScope stays, but that the discussions have been “good”.

But of course when you know if you’re doing a big and difficult reform people will have views about it.