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Erin Molan and Daily Mail to enter mediation after appeal

Sky News broadcaster Erin Molan and the Daily Mail will enter mediation and potentially go to a new trial.

Last year, Erin Molan was awarded $150,000 in damages after suing the Daily Mail for defamation. She said an article had accused her of appearing to mock Polynesian names after she used the phrase “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka” in a discussion about the pronunciation of rugby league players’ names on radio station 2GB in 2020.

Justice Robert Bromwich found rather than mocking those names, she was imitating a colleague, Ray Warren, who had himself struggled to properly say the names.

The Daily Mail appealed the finding, and on Thursday played a series of clips of Molan and her colleagues putting on a range of accents to give context to the “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka” statement.

Federal appeals court judges said today there had been an “error” in the initial judgement and that Bromwich may not have paid attention to the evidence in the broadcasts. They decided the matter would go back to a new trial, but the court also referred Molan and the Daily Mail to mediation before that trial.

Luke Henriques-Gomes

Malcolm Turnbull to appear before robodebt inquiry next week

The former prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, will front a royal commission into the robodebt scheme next week.

Turnbull, who was prime minister when the scheme exploded in controversy in early 2017, is scheduled to appear on Monday, according to a schedule released by the inquiry this morning.

The inquiry has heard Turnbull had raised concerns about the program with the then minister, Alan Tudge, following an article by the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Martin that suggested the program could be illegal.

Turnbull is also said to have proposed that the CSIRO’s data specialty team, Data61, look into the program in early 2017.

He was still prime minister when the scheme was switched back on in August 2017.

The secretary of the department of human services at the time, Kathryn Campbell, will also front the commission for a third time.

The former Commonwealth ombudsman, Michael Manthorpe, whose office has faced scrutiny during the inquiry, will also appear, as will a key former official from his office, Louise Macleod.

The ombudsman’s appearance is significant because it cannot be compelled to appear.

Paul Karp

Sally Rugg’s counsel says there is evidence that Monique Ryan has a new acting chief of staff ‘from Climate 200’

Sally Rugg’s counsel, Angel Aleksov, has revealed that there is evidence from a work Slack channel that Monique Ryan has a new acting chief of staff.

He said:

There is evidence a new chief of staff is seconded from a private organisation and paid on a private basis … someone from Climate 200 … paid for, it seems, outside the [Member of Parliamentary Staff] Act.

Aleksov is arguing that because the alleged replacement is privately funded, there is still a MOPs Act-funded position for Rugg to go back to.

Aleksov said the alleged new chief of staff also rebutts evidence from Ryan that if she reinstates Rugg to a different role she will be without a chief of staff.

Simon Holmes à Court told Guardian Australia that Climate 200 had not provided a chief of staff to Ryan. Rather, “a staff member of Climate 200 approached their manager asking for leave without pay in order to fill the gap in Ryan’s office”.

There was no communication between Climate 200 and Ryan on this staffing issue. [This was done] completely at arm’s length, with no initiation from Climate 200.

Peter Hannam

Interest rate hikes flowing through to depress housing loan demand, ABS says

Higher interest rates are continuing to pound demand for loans in the property sector, with new commitments falling 5.3% in value in January, seasonally adjusted, the ABS says.

That’s a tad faster than the 4.3% pace of decline in December alone, and more than 3% clip CBA (the biggest issuer of mortgages) had predicted.

The value of new loan commitments for housing was $22.1bn in January 2023, with new owner-occupiers borrowing $14.7bn of that (down 4.9%). New investor loan commitments fell 6% to $7.4bn.

From a year earlier, the overall drop was 35%, hinting at the drop of turnover in the market (rather than prices, which are about 9% off their highs of about a year ago, ANZ estimates).

First-home buyers get a bit of attention and the outlook was not promising here either, with the number of loans for such borrowers sinking 8.1% in January.

“Owner-occupier first-home buyer lending continued to decline from the high reached in January 2021,” said Mish Tan, ABS’s head of finance and wealth statistics. “The decline coincided with the winding down of Covid-19 pandemic stimulus measures.”

(Good use of correlation rather than causation, it should be noted.)

First-home buyers’ loans are now 57.5% lower than that peak just over two years ago, and are 27.5% less than the pre-pandemic level seen in February 2020, the ABS said.

By some quirk, the ACT and the NT saw a bounce in January of about a fifth for first-home buyer loans. All the rest of the country went backwards, led by 12.7% in NSW and 11.5% for Victoria.

“Anecdotal feedback from lenders suggested that reduced borrowing capacity due to rising interest rates further dampened overall demand for new housing loans in recent months,” Tan said.

That point about reduced borrowing capacity because of those rising rates was cited as a reason rents are going up so much in this well-commented on article from the start of this week:

Of course, the RBA is set to add to reduce that capacity to borrow even more. As of yesterday, investors were betting the central bank would lift its key interest rate another 25 basis points next Tuesday to 3.6% as a three-in-four chance. Something not really to look forward to.

Daniel Hurst

Deputy PM gives update on internal Tiktok review

The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, gave an update on the ongoing government review into whether platforms like TikTok should be allowed on government phones (some departments, like Defence, have already said no to TikTok).

There has been a clampdown in the United States and Canada. Marles told reporters today:

Home affairs is going through a process right now of reviewing social media platforms and their place on government phones and government equipment, and we will take advice from the relevant intelligence agencies about that in terms of the appropriateness of any given social media platform in respect of any device that is used throughout the Australian government.

But obviously, there are differing levels of security which apply to different devices in different places. A Defence phone needs to be more secure than a phone for the parliament. But we’ll take the advice from our relevant security agencies and intelligence agencies about how best to deal with.

Michael McGowan

Minns calls for suspension of Hill Shire council

New South Wales opposition leader Chris Minns has called for the suspension of a Sydney council at the centre of a parliamentary inquiry examining allegations of “impropriety” by property developers and councillors.

On Friday, Minns told radio station 2GB the allegations surrounding the Hill Shire council in north-west Sydney – which have been referred to the state’s independent commission against corruption – warranted its suspension.

My view is clearly the council has to be suspended pending a full investigation. I mean, the government is proposing an additional 100,000 people move into the Hills Shire over the next 15 to 20 years. We have to have confidence in the public administration of this council.

That’s a matter for the minister for local government if we’re elected. But my view is very clear, there’s got to be some integrity here. There needs to be measures in place so that everybody in that community – the council officers, the voters, the community, even the members of the Liberal party who were expelled – have got confidence that this thing is on the level.

The parliamentary report handed down on Thursday followed weeks of attempts to call a series of witnesses to give evidence over allegations senior members of the Liberal party received payments from property developers in order to install councillors favourable to their development applications.

Daniel Hurst

Government response to strategic review to be released in April, Marles says

Richard Marles’ press conference was called to announce “that Nine Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force is being re-formed after a break of 34 years”.

But it quickly turned to other matters. The defence minister cited Australia’s supply of rapidly assembled cardboard drones to Ukraine as “an example of Australian ingenuity”. He added:

In respect of the cardboard drones, that is a very cool technology, which is seeing service in Ukraine right now, it has been developed with the assistance of the government, and we’ll continue to work with the government of Ukraine to see about its ongoing usefulness – and they certainly are very excited about it.

Marles reiterated that an unclassified version of the defence strategic review – and the government’s response to it – would be released in April (as he announced earlier this week). This is separate from the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine announcement, which is expected in coming weeks. On the submarines, he said:

And it does involve a really significant hardening of security in a physical sense with buildings and fences and the like, but also in an IT-sense around the information which goes with that. And we’re very cognisant of the challenge that’s involved in that. The announcement that we will make will talk about the way in which we intend to meet that challenge. And I think there is a high degree of confidence within both United States and United Kingdom about Australia’s ability to do that.

Guardian Australia revealed last week that the Australian government had imposed strict new security rules at the Adelaide site where nuclear-powered submarines will be built, as part of the latest moves to reassure allies that sensitive military secrets will be protected.

At today’s press conference, Marles also said decisions on the infantry fighting vehicle project – known as Land 400 Phase Three – were being handled by the defence ministry minister, Pat Conroy. Marles said he did not have any personal conflict of interest, but because one of the tenderers is based in his electorate it was “it is the right thing to do to have minister Conroy bring that program forward – and it’s very much in his hands”.

Paul Karp

Sally Rugg’s counsel, Angel Aleksov, has revealed that one of the reasons that Monique Ryan lost confidence in her chief of staff was because Rugg travelled on an aeroplane with Covid.

Aleksov said that Rugg received a “formal warning about travel with Covid” and Rugg’s affidavit explained that the reason was that it was “on doctor’s advice”.

Justice Debra Mortimer said this is “going into submissions about why Ms Rugg, when she had Covid, travelled on an aeroplane”.

Aleksov said he is trying to show why travelling with Covid was not a “major factor” in loss of trust between the pair. Justice Mortimer said that Ryan’s position was “not irrational”.

This back and forth is Aleksov trying to show that Rugg and Ryan could still work together, which is airing fresh details about the breakdown in their working relationship.

Daniel Hurst

Marles ‘not comfortable’ with new office

The defence minister, Richard Marles, says he is “not comfortable” with his department’s decision to spend $800,000 on an upgrade to build a new office for him at Defence headquarters in Canberra – and he won’t occupy it.

Today is not the first time we’ve heard about this issue – or the fact that Marles did not plan to occupy it – but Marles was questioned about it at a press conference in Avalon, Victoria, after the release of new documents under freedom of information laws.

It surrounds the creation of an executive suite on level 5 of Defence headquarters in the Canberra suburb of Russell – to replace his existing office on level two.

News Corp reported that the work had been done, complete with Marles’ embossed name on the door. It also reported that FOI documents showed Marles’ chief of staff wanted to know how the expensive work could have happened without “any knowledge or consultation with our office” and wrote:

The deputy prime minister does not need nor did he request an office be purpose built for him or any other minister.

Marles told reporters today he “wasn’t told that this was happening before it happened”. Marles said he did believe it was important for him to have an office to use when at the Department of Defence, but he was happy with the existing one rather than the new ministerial suite:

The office that I occupied had a couple of thousand dollars spent on it to refurbish it to allow me to occupy it and I’m really comfortable with that. I’m definitely not comfortable with what was being proposed, and so that’s not an office that I intend to or have occupied …

I didn’t ask for that [expensive] office. I wasn’t advised that that was what was going to happen. I’m not going to occupy it. I’m really happy to occupy the office that I do, which was refurbished at the expense of a couple of thousand dollars on one of the lower floors of Russell.

Paul Karp

Justice Debra Mortimer has cast doubt on whether it would be convenient to order that Sally Rugg keep her job pending the final trial.

Mortimer said Rugg is “inviting the court to supervise” her working relationship with Monique Ryan or else letting her keep her job is “simply unworkable”.

Mortimer questioned how “two people who have different views” about what reasonable hours are can be “ordered to continue to work together”.

Rugg’s counsel, Angel Aleksov, said that Rugg was not “work-shy” and had offered to do community engagement work requested by Ryan, provided that tasks are reprioritised and some of her other duties are given to other staff.

Paul Karp

Rugg’s wage didn’t justify 70-hour weeks, counsel argues

In the federal court, Sally Rugg’s counsel, Angel Aleksov, is going through her terms and conditions of employment.

Aleksov said that despite the “day-to-day” description of Rugg’s role as Monique Ryan’s chief of staff, she was paid in the mid $130,000-$140,000 range, which the enterprise agreement “treats as a non-senior role”, less than half what some staffers earn ($270,000).

Aleksov notes there was also a payment for additional hours, but argues these still had to be reasonable. As an example, he said five additional hours a week might be reasonable for a staffer who didn’t take the payment, while 15 may be reasonable for someone who did.

That payment could be worth $32,000, which Aleksov says is in the range worth eight to 10 hours extra work a week, as a proportion of staffer salaries.

Rugg’s case is essentially that, even if staff take the payment, there is not an unlimited number of additional hours they can be asked or required to work.

Aleksov said that Rugg worked 70-hour weeks, exercised a right to refuse unreasonable additional hours, and was the subject of “retaliation”.

He said:

“Ordinary human experience tells us that payment of $130,000-ish with a $30,000-ish top up doesn’t justify working 70 hours a week, week-in week-out.”

Benita Kolovos

Derryn Hinch winds up Justice party, urges supporters to ‘maintain the rage’

Former senator Derryn Hinch has announced the end of his political party after it was wiped out of the Victorian parliament at the November state election.

Hinch first entered federal parliament under the banner of Derryn Hinch’s Justice party in 2016, with three MPs following him in the Victorian parliament at the 2018 election, though Catherine Cumming quickly defected to sit in the upper house as an independent.

Hinch lost his Senate seat in 2019. At the 2022 state election, he made a failed attempt to enter Victorian parliament, while MPs Stuart Grimley and Tania Maxwell were not re-elected.

In a Facebook post earlier this week, he announced he would be formally deregistering the party:

This is one of the saddest moments of my life. I am announcing the end of the Derryn Hinch’s Justice party. We aspired to much and achieved a lot. One seat in the federal Senate and then three seats in the Victorian upper house. All have now gone. To be blunt, there is no point in the party continuing to exist. Our (and your) commitment has cost a lot in time and money since I launched the DHJP in September, 2015.

Hinch thanked Grimley and Maxwell, as well as their staff, saying they should be proud of what they achieved.

Personally, even though the Justice party will no longer exist, I shall publicly (and privately) keep fighting over perceived wrongs and real injustices. You never give up. Thanks to all our supporters over more than seven years. Maintain the rage.

Caitlin Cassidy

Data reveals discrepancy in student-teacher ratios

Public schools teachers are under pressure, with higher student-teacher ratios than private schools across Australia, new data shows.

The data, released by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (Acara) found the full-time equivalent student-teacher ratio is 12.8 for private schools – including Catholic and independent – and 13.6 for government schools nationally.

The split is most striking in secondary schools, where the student-teacher ratio is 12.4 at public schools compared with 10.5 at independent providers.

The Greens said the results were due to decades of underfunding of public schools that has led to a widening gap between private and public schools.

Greens spokesperson for schools, senator Penny Allman-Payne:

To attract more teachers to public schools and provide a world-class education for our kids, governments must properly fund all public schools and pay all public school teachers more.

Right now, nearly every public school in the country is receiving less than 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS), which is the minimum funding level required for students to achieve the minimum standard.

“The government wants to roll out a PR campaign to raise the status of teaching, and that’s great. But if there’s anybody that can see through being given a gold star, it’s teachers – we invented it.

Education minister Jason Clare has committed to ensuring every school reaches 100% of its funding under the SRS.

Allman-Payne said funding to private schools had increased at five times the rate of funding to public schools.

Australia has one of the greatest education funding inequality gaps in the OECD. This needs to be reversed.

There’s no point in trying to cajole more teachers into the profession when public schools are underfunded, pay and conditions are going backwards and morale is low.

Rugg case against Ryan returns to federal court

Paul Karp

Sally Rugg’s case against MP Monique Ryan and the commonwealth has returned to the federal court. Rugg is seeking an injunction to keep her job, pending a final hearing.

Rugg’s counsel, Angel Aleksov, told the court on Friday that Rugg was “pushed or jostled” into resigning on 23 December.

Aleksov said that Rugg’s letter of resignation “did not” terminate her employment, because Ryan “did not accept its immediate effect”, but purported to give it effect on 31 January.

He said:

We say that combination of those circumstances is that termination of employment didn’t occur on 23 December when the letter was furnished. It only occurred when given effect to, which we say was a constructive dismissal, on 31 January. That date was extended by undertakings to 5pm today.

So, Rugg’s counsel is arguing that she is still employed, in order to support getting an injunction to keep her in the job.