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Turnbull says inquiry must go beyond Morrison
Scott Morrison’s predecessor Malcolm Turnbull was speaking to ABC Radio after making statements on social media that the inquiry announced by Anthony Albanese yesterday must go beyond Morrison.
Turnbull told the ABC “something has gone seriously wrong” at government house.
The inquiry into the #SecretMinistries scandal must go beyond Morrison. Understanding, as I do, how PMO, PMC and the GG office are meant to work I remain astonished that there was apparently no pushback to Morrison when he embarked on his bizarre secret accumulation of power.
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) August 23, 2022
How did all these experienced people allow Morrison to do this. If any of them had dug their heels in, pushed back, and done so in writing it is hard to believe even the self described bulldozer would have persisted. If they did not push back then they, and the system, failed.
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) August 23, 2022
Key events
Government should be “bursting” with economic solutions rather than probing Morrison, deputy Liberal leader says
The deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley spoke with ABC earlier this morning about the Albanese governments actions calling for a further inquiry into the former prime minister Scott Morrison’s secret ministerial appointments.
Ley is arguing the government is spending too much time examining Morrison and not enough time focusing on the challenges facing the Australian economy.
Cabinet spent yet more time considering issues from 2020 and 2021 really give me cause for concern.
Why isn’t the Albanese cabinet bursting out of that room full of ideas for struggling Australians who right now do not have an answer to increasing power prices, two mortgages going up next month add to electricity bills and the cost of groceries that really worry them?
The ABC highlighted it’s a criticism the government would disagree with as jobs and skills have been a big focus ahead of the summit next week.
Prime minister calls visa backlog a ‘hopeless situation’ but says there is movement
Circling back to the prime minister Anthony Albanese’s interview with 2GB radio this morning:
2GB host Ben Fordham asked Albanese about the problems of staff shortages. There are currently 500,000 job vacancies; the the food industry is one of the worst affected, with 170,000 unfilled positions “from paddock to plate.”
Fordham asks Albanese when the backlog of 140,000 skilled migrants waiting on visas will be fixed.
Albanese:
It’s a hopeless situation … that we inherited. We have put considerable resources into additional staff to get these visas processed.
Albanese said it was extremely frustrating “that there are people who want to come here who’ve been waiting in the queue, as you say some for more than a year, but their visas can’t be processed.”
However, he says “there is movement” as the government have reallocated staff from other areas into visa processing.
Albanese says part of the problem is previous “gut[ting]” of the public service.
We’re working as fast as we can to deal with this. Of course, with visas you do have to have checks. You can’t just have open borders. So they do need to be processed, but we’re working as quickly as we possibly can.
Mike Hytner
Essendon turmoil continues with departure of CEO Xavier Campbell
Essendon CEO Xavier Campbell has resigned after nearly nine years in the position as a tumultuous period continues at the AFL club.
The latest change in the Bombers’ senior management structure comes just days after coach Ben Rutten was sacked, with club president Paul Brasher also having exited the club this month.
Campbell announced his resignation at a meeting with the staff and players on Wednesday morning, ending a 13-year association with the Bombers, having arrived in 2009 before being appointed to the role of CEO in 2014.
More than 60 firearms seized in Victoria
More than 60 firearms have been seized in police raids across regional Victoria and Melbourne’s western suburbs, AAP reports.
Police on Tuesday searched three properties in Lal Lal, Werribee and Altona North, seizing a number of weapons including an air rifle, shotguns and hand grenades.
A 62-year-old Werribee man is expected to be charged with offences including possessing a trafficable quantity of firearms.
Another 59 firearms were seized from an address in Clarkefield, north of Melbourne, on July 2.
A 29-year-old Clarkefield man was subsequently charged with possessing a trafficable quantity of firearms, possessing a controlled weapon without excuse, and possessing cartridge ammunition.
The man was remanded in custody ahead of his appearance at the Melbourne magistrates court on October 3.
Black ice closes roads in the Blue Mountains
Drivers in the Blue Mountains are being warned to avoid the Great Western Highway due to black ice.
Icy conditions have also closed the Bells Line of Road in both directions at Scenic Hill.
Brrrrrr! What’s it like at your place this morning?
Many areas are waking up to a winter wonderland thanks to snow overnight, as these pics from NSW RFS – Katoomba/Leura Brigade show.
Many roads are affected by snow and ice so take it easy. #nswrfs pic.twitter.com/3x5bzp5Q8a
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) August 23, 2022
Hazardous surf warning for NSW
The cold front that brought widespread light rain, snow and frost has now moved over the Tasman Sea and formed a low pressure system off the NSW coast. Warnings are current for Coastal Waters and Hazardous Surf. Details https://t.co/Ss766eTahj pic.twitter.com/hEhrd8Zda1
— Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales (@BOM_NSW) August 23, 2022
Tamsin Rose
NSW MP Tania Mihailuk rejects allegations of bullying
The New South Wales Labor MP Tania Mihailuk has rejected allegations of bullying levelled through the media this week.
Speaking on 2GB this morning, the member for Bankstown said she was “strong-willed” but “not a bully”. She said:
Everybody in the party and in my community knows I’m pretty strong willed. I’m loud. I call a spade a spade. But I’m not a bully. I completely reject that.
She said she had grown up in a “tough community” and “taken up a few fights in my time”.
Mihailuk claimed it was an “orchestrated attack” against her ahead of preselection and in the wake of the Broderick review into NSW parliament culture. She said:
I think this is definitely an internal stitch up. There’s no question that there are people inside the party who want to drive me out.
I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to take up the fight in the preselection. I care about my community and I want to be part of a Chris Minns Labor government next year.
Minns this week said any allegations needed to be dealt with through the party’s or parliament’s complaints process. He also backed his MP and said she was tough.
I would say about Ms Mihailuk that she’s very tough … She often takes contrary views to many of her colleagues, she’s the kind of person who will come up and tell you when you’re wrong.
‘If it’s a political circus this does nobody any good’: Hume on further Morrison inquiry
Hume is now being asked about the Morrison secret ministries saga, continuing a line of argument we heard from Stuart Robert earlier this morning of criticising the Labor government using the further inquiry for political gain.
Hume said:
We don’t want to turn this into a political opportunity … if it’s a political circus this does nobody any good.
‘Enormous pent-up demand’ for pensioners to be able to fill worker shortage, Hume says
Jane Hume, the shadow finance minister, is speaking to Sky News about the workers shortage ahead of the government’s jobs summit next week.
Hume is calling for the government to introduce the oppositions’ proposal to allow pensioners to work an additional day without affecting their income. She says there is:
Enormous pent-up demand from pensioners and employers.
Unvaccinated Queensland teachers to have pay reduced
Queensland teachers reportedly set to have their pay cut for refusing to get vaccinated against Covid-19 are “facing the consequences of that choice”, the federal aged care minister, Anika Wells, said, according to AAP.
Education Queensland has sent letters to about 900 of 54,000 public schoolteachers, aides, administration staff and cleaners to inform them their pay will be reduced for “serious misconduct” for failing to get the jab, the Courier-Mail reports.
The department is taking the retroactive disciplinary action against those workers for not complying with the chief health officer’s directive, which was repealed on 30 June.
Wells says everyone has the right to choose whether to get vaccinated, but the staff involved knew the consequences of their decision and teachers deserve a safe workplace. She told Nine’s Today program:
Everyone has the right to make a choice about whether or not to get vaxxed, but no one has the right to be free from the consequences of that choice, and these have been set out a long time coming and they’ve had their pay docked for the six months running up to this.
So this isn’t a surprise and something that the Queensland government is going to have to work through with the very small pocket of teachers given 99% are actually vaccinated.
Victoria records 10 Covid deaths and 402 people in hospita.
There were 3,359 new cases in the last reporting period, and 24 people are in intensive care.
NSW records 14 Covid deaths and 1,867 people in hospital
There were 6,690 new cases in the last reporting period, and 38 people are in intensive care.
COVID-19 update – Wednesday 24 August 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 4pm yesterday:
– 96.9% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine*
– 95.4% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine* pic.twitter.com/G7jtvEJxIX— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) August 23, 2022
Birmingham says ‘some of the language from the government has been a little over the top’
Birmingham is asked if he agrees with his colleague Stuart Robert that Labor is engaging in what Robert called a ‘witch hunt’ against Scott Morrison:
Let’s see how far this goes, in terms of the inquiry and the other pursuit by the government. Some of the language from the government has been a little over the top, in terms of the way in which they’ve sought to personalise or attack this. At times Anthony Albanese sounded like he has enjoyed being the opposition leader again and that is not to underplay the important principles at stake here.
There are important principles at stake and I have been clear in my language this morning, that mistakes were made, it was wrong and changes should be made to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
The government should be getting on with focusing on helping Australians with the cost of living … they certainly shouldn’t be distracted by continuing to try to drag over the former prime minister’s actions when there are many pressing issues that Australians face day-to-day at present.
Asked if Morrison should apologise to the Australian public, Birmingham said it “is a matter for him as to how he wants to conduct himself”.
Opposition would support legal change following Morrison advice, leader in the senate says
Simon Birmingham, the opposition leader in the Senate – speaking to ABC News Breakfast – says he doesn’t dispute the findings of the solicitor general and would support the government introducing legal change following the secret ministries saga.
I think his ultimate recommendations, that there should be some provisions put in place in a legal way to ensure that such administrative arrangements in the future are always transparent and in the public, it is something the government should act on and we should support them acting on it.
Birmingham said he does believe the former prime minister Scott Morrison should step up and take part in that inquiry:
As long as it is a fair inquiry, yes, he should, of course. What really matters here is that the issues raised are responded to in a way that prevents them from happening in a way in the future that could cause harm.
Let’s remember that Scott Morrison, aside from one instance in relation to a [gas field] approval, didn’t exercise any of the powers.
What would be a threat in the future [would be] if somebody were to both take on these sorts of extended responsibilities and exercise them in ways that lacked transparency, so that’s why the government should, first and foremost, act on the advice it has now received from the solicitor general and I would be calling on them to do so.
Morrison’s ‘legacy deserves to be remembered for the things they got right,’ Birmingham says
Simon Birmingham, the former finance minister in the Morrison government and now the opposition leader in the Senate, is speaking with ABC News Breakfast about the inquiry announced into Scott Morrison’s multiple ministries.
Asked if he agrees that the former prime minister undermined the principles of responsible government, Birmingham responds:
I think Scott Morrison, like all of us, did some things right and some things wrong. Clearly here, he made some mistakes in relation, particularly to the secrecy around these administrative arrangements.
Elsewhere, when it came to saving jobs, securing businesses, saving lives, making our country more secure, he got many things right. On the whole, his legacy deserves to be remembered for the things they got right.
On these arrangements, yes, he made mistakes, he got them wrong and clearly changes should be made in accordance with the advice from the solicitor general to prevent that from happening again.
Paul Karp
Anthony Albanese on cost of living
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has addressed the cost of living crisis on 2GB Radio.
He said:
Some things are beyond our control, for example the Russian invasion of Ukraine had an enormous impact on energy prices and supply chains around the world. Inflation rose to double digits in the UK and in northern America it is much higher than it is here.
There are things we can do: the budget in October will reduce the cost of medicine; we have a plan to reduce the cost of childcare for just about every family who has their kids in care … We want to put downward pressure on inflation by dealing with supply side issues. There are things we can do.
Albanese played down the prospect of extending the six-month halving of petrol excise tax. He noted the $1tn of debt and that the cost of petrol has come down, in the range of $1.50 a litre to $1.90.
He said:
We’re having a look at the circumstances that are there. But with regard to petrol, [the] cost is so enormous, [we] can’t see a way through [to extending it].
Asked about the 170,000 extra workers needed in the food supply chain, Albanese said Labor had inherited a “hopeless” situation from the Morrison government and had responded by putting extra resources into visa processing.
He also spoke about the “absurdity” of bringing in temporary migrants, getting rid of them and then bringing in more temporary migrants – foreshadowing a possible increase to permanent migration at the jobs and skills summit and October budget.
Authenticity makes for better public policy, aged care minister says
The minister for aged care and minister for sport, Anika Wells, was talking to Chanel 9 this morning about childcare reform and her own experiences balancing work with children. But she believes being honest about caring responsibilities can inform policy for the better:
What everybody wants is authenticity in people in public life.
If that means being honest about your caring responsibilities that ultimately makes for better public policy.
The juggle is real. I don’t apologise for trying to balance my work with being a mum (‘trying’ is the key word here friends). I hope more mum and carers are supported to do the same in their workplace. It can be tough to navigate but luckily the kids are so cute it’s worth it. pic.twitter.com/o1dDcvSs5w
— Anika Wells MP (@AnikaWells) August 23, 2022
Polar blast sweeping across Australia’s east forecast to bring rain, hail and snow
If you’re shivering through that polar blast and want to know more about what’s going on with the weather, my colleague Mostafa Rachwani has answers:
A polar blast is making its way across Australia’s east coast, bringing with it rain, snow and a drop in temperatures.
A cold front that moved through Victoria and Tasmania earlier in the week is now moving across New South Wales, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting rain and potentially severe thunderstorms, including hail, for areas in the north-east of the state.
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