Australia politics live: Burke hints government will back minimum wage increase in line with inflation; attorney general pushes family law changes | Australian politics

Back to the PM for a moment and Anthony Albanese is asked about the stalled housing fund bill negotiations.

He blames politics. In other incredible revelations, the days of the week end in y and I eat too much refined sugar.

Albanese:

All those, all those who say they support increased investment in social and affordable housing should vote for the bill. It’s as simple as that.

I find it rather bizarre. Their argument that says what we want is more money and therefore will vote for no money. It’s up to the Greens political party to explain their position on that.

‘Jobs, jobs, jobs’: Swan MP talks up national reconstruction fund

Zaneta Mascarenhas, the Labor MP for Swan, has done a doorstop on the national reconstruction fund – Mascarenhas might be a first term MP but she learned the art of the rah-rah well.

What does the national reconstruction fund mean? It means jobs, jobs and jobs. And not just any job. Secure jobs, well paid jobs, Australian jobs, jobs that people can be proud of. The national reconstruction fund is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in diversifying Australia’s economy.

During the pandemic, we saw how much we were reliant on things overseas. We saw how fragile our supply chains are. We saw that there was skills shortages across the world, we also saw that our routes were quite fragile.

… I started my career in steel-cap boots on a mine site. I’m proud of what the mining industry has contributed to innovation across Australia. However, we need to do more. We need to diversify our economy, we need to become more sophisticated. I’m looking forward to the investment the reconstruction fund will make into Australia.

When I knocked on doors in Swan, I saw that people wanted to make their things here.

Let’s see this great legislation implemented.

Albanese and Husic celebrate passing national reconstruction fund

Anthony Albanese opens his press conference with a dig at the opposition for not engaging with its legislation – saying if they want to be observers of the political process, rather than participants, voters will “mark them down for it”.

He congratulates Ed Husic on getting the national reconstruction fund across the line and Husic manages “this is a big day” before the Sky News feed (the ABC is not showing it as yet) cuts out with a “sorry Ed”.

So I’ll bring you some of that presser very soon.

Press conference incoming

After his negotiation win getting the national reconstruction fund across the line, Ed Husic and Anthony Albanese will hold a press conference this morning.

You should be hearing from the industry minister and PM very shortly.

It is absolutely bucketing down in Canberra, so no PM’s courtyard for Husic – he’ll have to settle for the blue room.

Rex Patrick challenges FoI ruling

Rex Patrick may not be a senator any longer, but that doesn’t mean he has given up his mission of trying to increase transparency in government.

Patrick has filed a case in the Adelaide registry of the federal court challenging why documents become ineligible under freedom of information laws when a minister leaves their role. For Patrick, it’s based on his attempts to get letters sent by former attorney-general Christian Porter to the then prime minister Scott Morrison about “sports rorts”. Once Porter left the attorney-general portfolio, those documents immediately became ineligible.

Patrick, and advocacy partner Grata Fund, want to know why.

The Information Commissioner’s decision means that when a Minister resigns or leaves office, documents that they take with them are no longer official documents that must be disclosed under FOI law. This approach has led to a significant gap in accountability for acts of any sitting government. It is especially problematic given ministerial reshuffles are increasingly common in contemporary Australian politics, particularly after corruption scandals. It leads to the absurd consequence that a Minister can escape scrutiny and shield information from being released under FOI laws simply by resigning or being shuffled around to a new position.

This case has the potential to ensure that there is continuity in critical government documents and that they remain accessible with any change of Minister or government. If this case is successful, it will enable journalists and ordinary Australians to better hold the government to account and to strengthen the right to information under FOI laws. And ensure Ministers and scandals cannot hide behind a change of job.

Australia raises Israel concerns directly

Daniel Hurst has just published this story:

The Australian government has raised concerns with the Israeli government over a minister’s “inflammatory” remarks about the Palestinian people, Guardian Australia can reveal.

Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has provoked outrage by saying there was “no such thing as a Palestinian people”, just weeks after he said the Palestinian town of Huwara in the West Bank should be “erased”.

A source who did not wish to be named said Australia had conveyed concerns about Smotrich’s “inflammatory and irresponsible” comments in discussions with senior Israeli counterparts.

Housing fund negotiations continue, says Burke

Tony Burke was also asked about the future of Labor’s housing fund proposal – it has stalled in the Senate with the Greens, Lidia Thorpe and David Pocock all refusing to budge.

We continue to talk and continue to talk in good faith with the crossbench, and we’d be very happy to talk to the opposition, if they wanted to join conversations in good faith.

I would say, though, I remember last year, a whole lot of people when I was pushing and you’re interviewing me about it on the secure jobs better pay bill, different people and some print journalists had predicted I had no chance of getting that through by the end of the year. And we ended up finding our way there.

Sorry – I am told by a couple of senators that it was “technically” 4.13am.

So expect to see a few bleary-eyed senators in the coffee lines this morning.

Coalition drags out hard day’s night for Senate

We are hearing that there might be some very, very tired senators today – it seems the Senate didn’t adjourn until 4.15am.

The hours motion (which changes when the chamber adjourns, based on the business the Senate has to get through) was so the Senate could get through the second reading speeches of the safeguard mechanism legislation and it appears the Coalition fillibustered (kept speaking) meaning the chamber didn’t get through it’s business until the very early hours of this morning.

Labor will stay true to its ‘values’ on wages, says Burke

Tony Burke was pretty explicit in his advance announcement on the Fair Work Commission – he spoke about “values” and Labor’s value when it came to wages was not moving backwards.

Burke told RN Breakfast:

Our submission goes in on Friday. And I’ll be making more public comments once the submission is in on Friday. But if I put it in these terms, when our submissions in on Friday, people will see that our values haven’t changed. I think that’s probably the best way I can put it in, in advance of announcements that we’ll make on Friday.

… The thing that we have to work our way through is there are some members of the workforce who have the least room to move with what’s been happening with inflation.

And certainly the full award system goes all the way up to some people who are on significantly higher wages, the principles that we dealt with last year were to say no government ever wants anyone to go backwards that last year, we put forward the principle that the focus needed to be on the people on the lowest incomes because they had the least savings they had the least room to move.

Minimum wage rise submission to reflect cost of living, Burke says

Teals campaign for parenting payment extension

Zoe Daniel and Kylea Tink, two of the independents on the crossbench, are pushing for single parents to have restored access to the parenting payment until their child turns 16.

The teals are campaigning for a return to the pre-Gillard era, when single parents, overwhelmingly women, could stay on the payment until their child was almost finished school. Under the changes introduced by the Gillard government, parents are moved to Jobseeker when their child turns eight, which cuts their payment and enforces mutual obligations.

Daniel and Tink say the change is a small step towards alleviating poverty.

They’ll be holding a press conference on the campaign later today, along with experts, advocates and single parents.

Other proposed Family Law Act changes

The Family Law Act amendments also aim to give:

• Clearer definitions of “family” and “relative” as it relates to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander concepts of family;

• Removing the restriction of independent children’s lawyers in 1980 Hague convention on civil aspects of international child abduction, ensuring children’s views are heard;

• Protecting victims of family violence from systems abuse by restraining a party’s ability to file repeated and unmeritorious applications without first obtaining court approval;

• Clarifying the law which prohibits the public communication of family law information so critical information can be shared and privacy protected; and

• Regulating family report writers.

Attorney general pushes family law changes

Mark Dreyfus is introducing his changes to the Family Law Act a little later this morning.

What will it do? Well, it’s going to address some of the changes from the Howard era and aims to make things a little less complicated and a bit fairer:

Specifically, the bill introduces a safer and simpler framework for making parenting orders by:

• Repealing the commonly misunderstood presumption of equal shared parental responsibility, making it clear the best interest of the child is paramount;

• Simplifying the list of factors that are considered in determining the best interests of children in parenting arrangements;

• Introducing a requirement for independent children’s lawyers (ICLs), when they are appointed, to meet directly with children;

• Ensuring the court considers the right of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children to maintain their connection to their family, community, culture, country and language; and

• Simplifying the enforcement of parenting orders to make the consequences of non-compliance clear.

Good morning

Industry welcomes $15bn manufacturing fund

Australian industry leaders are heralding the passing of a $15bn manufacturing fund as an economy booster, reports Australian Associated Press.

The government managed to pass its signature investment vehicle in the Senate after securing the support of key crossbenchers.

The chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Andrew McKellar, said the fund’s investment would help businesses diversify and boost the domestic economy.

“With Australia now having the lowest manufacturing self-sufficiency in the OECD, it’s critical we redouble our efforts to encourage and stimulate new manufacturing and industrial investment in this country,” he said.

The industry minister, Ed Husic, said the fund would shore up Australian businesses by ensuring more of the manufacturing process happened domestically.

“We want Australia to be a country that makes things, a nation that has faith in its knowhow and ability to get the job done,” Husic said.

The fund aims to drive investment in seven priority areas: resources, agriculture, transport, medical sciences, renewables and low-emissions technology and defence.

The Coalition opposed the fund, saying it would have an inflationary effect and that it was poorly designed.

But the Greens backed the legislation after securing amendments to ensure the money wouldn’t be invested in coal and gas projects.

Crossbench senators secured changes to how the fund’s board would operate and commitments to boost the ability for start-ups to access investment.

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