Australia news live updates: former Liberal Julia Banks calls Michelle Landry’s bullying allegations a ‘stunt’ | Australian politics

Amy Remeikis

Government working to resolve legal issue of ‘third category’ between citizens and aliens

The Labor government is considering how to solve the legal issue of people who fall into a “third category” from the landmark Love and Thoms decision – which left people unable to apply for citizenship, but also not considered “aliens” (in the legal sense).

In February 2020, the high court ruled that Aboriginal people cannot be aliens, putting them beyond the reach of the immigration minister’s powers to detain and deport non-citizens.

The Morrison government had been appealing the decision, a move which Mark Dreyfus dropped upon taking up the attorney general’s mantle.

But to date, there has been no solution for the 18 or so people caught up in the decision. They cannot be deported, but they are also without visa rights, meaning they don’t have work rights, leaving them in limbo.

The Greens senator Nick McKim questioned home affairs officials over the status of the people caught up in the decision and whether or not the government was considering a fix, including changing legislation.

Murray Watt, the minister representing Clare O’Neil in estimates (house ministers are always represented by Senate ministers in Senate estimates) said he didn’t have the detail, but work was underway.

Obviously, as the representing minister, I’m not fully across the details of this, but I can only agree with what the [home affairs] secretary has said, which is that this is something that is under consideration by the government. I don’t have a timeframe for that, but it’s under consideration.

Lisa Cox

National responses have not kept pace with listing of threatened species, biodiversity conservation head says

Cassandra Kennedy, the department’s division head of biodiversity conservation, said the new environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, “has a much more ambitious agenda in terms of reform of the EPBC Act”.

Rather than continuing on with the public consultation and reconsideration around those recovery plans for those tranches, that is now part of a broader process looking at how we can do that conservation planning better.

Peter Whish-Wilson asked whether this signalled an end to the general trend of moving away from recovery plans seen under the previous government.

Kennedy responded that more species were being listed for protection every year and that conservation responses under national laws had not kept pace with this.

This sounds like a signal that we will see some further changes in this area but the government is considering its direction through the law reform process.

Something to watch for when Plibersek delivers her response to the Samuel review before the end of the year.

Lisa Cox

Federal government halts process that could have scrapped recovery plans for hundreds of threatened species

The Albanese government has hit pause on a process commenced by the previous government that was reconsidering recovery plan requirements for more than 600 threatened species.

You might remember Guardian Australia revealed in June that one of the last acts of the former environment minister, Sussan Ley, was to scrap recovery plan requirements for 176 listed plants, animals and ecological communities.

That decision followed a public consultation process, with the scrapped plans for the 176 just the first of three proposed tranches. A total of 676 plants, animals and communities were to have their legislated requirement for a recovery plan reconsidered.

The Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson asked about this today.

Earlier this morning the Tasmanian senator wanted to know whether the new government would reconsider Ley’s decision to scrap the recovery plan requirement for the endangered Tasmanian Devil.

We didn’t quite get an answer to that but later in the session Whish-Wilson asked for an update on the process as a whole and whether the Albanese government planned to conduct public consultation for the remainder of the 676 plans that had been under review.

Officials told the hearing the government was taking a different course, with recovery planning now being considered as part of its response to Graeme Samuel’s review of The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

MP urges Chinese ambassador to help detained Australian Cheng Lei

Daniel Hurst

The independent MP Zoe Daniel says she raised concerns directly with the Chinese ambassador about the detained Australian journalist Cheng Lei, particularly the blocking of phone calls to her two young children.

The member for the Victorian seat of Goldstein sent a statement to Guardian Australia today in response to questions about her meeting with China’s ambassador, Xiao Qian. (Daniel posted an image of the meeting to her Facebook page this week, as did the Chinese embassy.)

Daniel said:

I met the Chinese Ambassador this week at his invitation.

Our discussions encompassed the various differences between our two countries as well as areas where we might be able to find common ground.

I reiterated concerns already expressed to the Embassy about the plight of the Australian citizen Cheng Lei, particularly about her inability to communicate with her two young children in Melbourne.

I thanked the Ambassador for the invitation to meet and passed on greetings from the Goldstein Chinese community.

The former and current Australian governments have accused China of a lack of transparency regarding the national security-related accusations against Cheng, who was detained in China more than two years ago.

In September, Xiao told the ABC he was “trying to see” if he could help facilitate access between Cheng and her family “based on humanitarian considerations”.

Xiao has been active in meeting politicians, political figures, business figures and academics since arriving in Australia at the beginning of the year.

A search of the Chinese embassy websites shows that he has also met with the Coalition’s spokesperson on foreign affairs, Simon Birmingham, the Labor party’s national secretary, Paul Erickson, and the former prime ministers John Howard, Malcolm Turnbull and Paul Keating since June.

Keating has been outspoken in criticising the Australian government’s China policies – but Turnbull was the prime minister who brought in tough new laws against foreign interference and espionage that he publicly linked to concerns about China’s activities in Australia.

The NSW Independent Planning Commission has today refused Glencore’s proposed extension to its Hunter Valley Glendell coal mine.

The commission found that the project “is not in the public interest, despite its likely benefits” as the mine would have “significant, irreversible and unjustified impacts on the historic heritage values of the Ravensworth Homestead complex”.

The complex, including the main house built in 1832, would have needed to be relocated for the project to proceed.

The project would also harm Aboriginal cultural heritage values, the commission said. The Plains Clan of the Wonnarua People describe the Ravensworth Homestead and surrounding land as “hallowed ground” of the Wonnarua people as it was the site of a series of massacres from the 1820s onwards.

Maria Foot, a member of the local Wonnarua clan, told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2021 that the relocation would have been tantamount to “moving a graveyard”.

However, the mining company had previously contested the location and date of the massacres.

The commission heard evidence from a wide range of stakeholders, including Glencore, the Department of Planning and Environment, Heritage NSW, the NSW Heritage Council, Singleton council and representatives from local Aboriginal groups, as well as conducting a site inspection and holding a public hearing in March this year.

In its Statement of Reasons for Decision, the commission found that the Ravensworth Homestead complex, comprised of colonial buildings and gardens and located approximately in the centre of the proposed mine site, has “high to exceptional heritage value” in its existing historic location and setting.

The commission said:

The removal of the Ravensworth Homestead complex and associated heritage from the Site would constitute a significant loss to future generations.

It acknowledged the positive employment, economic and social benefits the project would bring but said that the heritage impacts meant the project “is not in the public interest.”

The commission found that greenhouse gas emissions, as well as water and biodiversity impacts, could have been appropriately managed in the event that the significant and irreversible impacts to historic heritage could have been avoided.

A highly pathogenic and aggressive worm that targets fruit and vegetable crops has been detected in the Northern Territory, AAP reports.

Biosecurity officers found the invasive microscopic roundworm – known as guava root-knot nematode – in four Top End areas, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade said today.

Test results from horticulture properties in Middle Point, Jingili, Palmerston and Malak suggest the parasite could have arrived in the Darwin area about a year ago.

Biosecurity staff have started working with infected properties and the agriculture sector to stop its spread, but it will be tough to eradicate.

The pest was found on sweet potato, cucumber, capsicum, butternut pumpkin, snake bean, zucchini and chilli plants.

Investigators have not found a link between the infected properties and testing continues to find out if the worm, which has a scientific name of Meloidogyne enterolobii, has contaminated other areas in the NT.

It spreads in soil attached to machinery, tools, footwear and plant products, and affects crop yield of several vegetables, fruit and agricultural fibres.

Infected plants can be identified by several symptoms including stunted growth, wilting, yellow leaves and deformation.

There were 4,447 new cases in the weekly reporting period, and two people are in intensive care.

Former Liberal calls Landry’s bullying allegations a ‘stunt’

Josh Butler

Julia Banks, the former Liberal MP, has savaged as a “stunt” the criticisms from her former party about Anthony Albanese’s conduct in question time yesterday, accusing former colleagues of “hypocrisy”.

Coalition MPs have continued their attacks on the prime minister today, after the member for Capricornia, Michelle Landry, was said to have left the parliament “in tears” following Albanese’s response to her question yesterday afternoon. Landry claimed it was “bullying”; Albanese repeatedly denied the allegation this morning, saying he was yelling in the direction of opposition leader Peter Dutton, who was interjecting.

The speaker of the house, Labor MP Milton Dick, said he did not believe the PM had been disrespectful.

Banks, the former Liberal member for Chisholm, left the party after Scott Morrison’s unseating of former PM Malcolm Turnbull in 2018. She moved to the crossbench and made public claims about bullying and intimidation inside the Coalition.

On Friday, Banks tweeted a photo of Landry with a number of Coalition women who attended a press conference to criticise Albanese. Banks tweeted:

A political performance stunt of faux outrage, reeking of hypocrisy.

More a reminder of their usual group behaviour of being complicit to the patriarchy.

At his Sydney press conference earlier, Albanese told journalists to “look at the footage” of the question time exchange with Landry, pointing out that she was laughing during an earlier part of his answer.

Eden Gillespie

Greens MP ejected from Queensland parliament for koala interjection

The Greens MP for South Brisbane, Amy MacMahon, has been ejected from the chamber of Queensland parliament for the entire day following a fiery interjection during the premier’s speech.

Annastacia Palaszczuk was about to announce that Queensland’s new fossil emblem would be the Muttaburrasaurus langdoni, which was discovered by Doug Langdon in Muttaburra in central Queensland.

Palaszczuk then mentioned one of the state’s emblems, the koala, when MacMahon screamed out angrily from the back of the chamber that “koala habitat is being cleared right now in Deebing Creek”.

Palaszczuk retorted that the Greens were “all talk and no action” before the speaker, Curtis Pitt, warned MacMahon about the interruption and said she should direct comments through the chair.

MacMahon rose again to explain the interjections, prompting the speaker to order her to leave the chamber for an hour, later advising MacMahon would not be permitted from returning for the entire day.

The speaker explained MPs could not use “personal explanations” to talk about issues on their agendas.

First Nations people consider the Deebing Creek Mission site, west of Ipswich, to be culturally significant and have fought to protect the land from development, as they believe it harbours the unmarked remains of ancestors.