Greens MP to introduce bill to lower voting age to 16
The Greens member for Brisbane (and chief agitator of the MPs for Ties coalition) Stephen Bates will introduce a bill into parliament today to lower Australia’s voting age to 16.
It is one of the issues Bates has really seized upon since his election, and an issue the Greens have been pushing for at large for some time.
The rationale is that young people are going to be affected the most by everything that is going on, so they should have a say on who represents them in the parliament.
Bates says:
16 and 17-year-olds are facing a lifetime without affordable or accessible housing, healthcare and education, and they will experience the worst consequences of government inaction on the climate crisis.
Young people have proven that they are engaged by taking to the streets in protest in unprecedented numbers. Right now, they have no other option to make their voices heard.
… Studies and examples from around the world show that lowering the voting age to 16 has improved civic engagement, providing young people with a lifelong drive to participate in democracy.
It’s their future at stake, and they deserve the right to hold their government accountable.
Tabitha Stephenson-Jones, a co-founder of the Make It 16 Australia campaign, was part of Bates’ statement and said:
Young people already know what we want from our leaders, and we know that we can’t help make decisions for our future without being in the room, let alone at the table.
Young people are engaged, enthusiastic and ready to make a difference, the only issue is – politicians are afraid. They’re afraid that once young people get the opportunity to vote, they will actually have to consider us in the choices they make for our communities.
Young people can be the voice for the future, but only if we are invited to the table, and given the opportunity to do so.
When this was an issue of conversation last year, Labor did not rule it out immediately, so you never know.
Key events
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EU, Australia set mid-year deadline for trade deal
Daniel Hurst
The trade minister, Don Farrell, has spoken with his European Union counterpart on the eve of the next round of negotiations for a free trade agreement between Australia and the EU.
It comes as the European Commission sets a deadline of the middle of this year to reach a deal with Australia. The European Commission’s Green Deal Industrial Plan for the Net-Zero Age – released last week, said:
The Commission will also continue to advance the EU’s network of Free Trade Agreements, while making the most of those already in place through effective implementation and enforcement. In particular, the Commission will work to conclude negotiations with Australia by summer 2023.
(Northern summer is the southern winter, so that means the middle of this year.)
The 14th round of negotiations for the free trade agreement between Australian and EU officials begin in Canberra today.
Farrell had a phone call with the European trade commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, last night. Farrell told Guardian Australia:
We had a good discussion, and we are both keen to see real progress during the week.
We both want to see our negotiators roll up their sleeves and do as much as possible to ensure we can finalise a comprehensive and ambitious FTA by mid-year.
It’s not the only trade-related talks happening this week. As previously reported, Farrell is due to meet virtually with China’s commerce ministers this week to try to make progress on resolving trade tensions between the two countries. All eyes will be on this meeting to see whether there is any movement, although it is far from clear that any major breakthrough is in the works at this stage.
Mike Bowers was at the Ecumenical service ahead of the first parliament sitting this morning.
Every year, politicians and their families of all faiths are invited to a church in Canberra (it alternates) where the ‘tone’ for the parliamentary year is supposed to be set.
It has also been the place of awkward handshakes between opposing leaders of political parties, strained smiles between members of the same party (depending on whatever power struggle is going on) and sometimes outright hostility.
It is still relatively early in the new parliament, so there wasn’t a lot of that this morning. Give it another year.
(There is a whole other argument about the separation of church and state and how much religion is already a part of our politics, but that is for another day)
Plibersek and Joyce debate … beach cabanas
Barnaby Joyce and Tanya Plibersek, who drew the government short straw in having to ‘debate’ Joyce each week on national television, were then asked about the issue on everyone’s lips:
Beach cabanas.
Host: “There have been calls to impose a cabana ban on beaches, after a recent surge in the popularity of the structures. Tanya, would you care to throw some light or shade on this? Would you ban them?”
Plibersek:
Yeah, look, no, I wouldn’t. I think it’s fantastic that people are being sun sensible. We know that Australia’s still got some of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world. You have to be considerate; obviously you have to leave enough room for the people around you also to use the beach, you have to make sure that the life savers can see the water to keep us safe, but as long as you’re sensible about it, I say bring it on. We really need to make sure we’re protecting our own skin, and particularly the skin of our kids.
Host: Are you a cabana man, Barnaby?
Joyce:
Not many of them at Danglemah, I have to say, but anyhow, look, I’ve had melanoma twice, so I’m very, very aware of how important it is that you cover up. That’s why I wear that hat. Might look like a bit of a goose at times, but the point … is to remind people that we’re perfectly designed for the west coast of Ireland, very badly designed for the western plains of Queensland. And cabanas, to be honest, I just think, wear a shirt, wear a hat, and once you’ve had enough sun, get off the beach.
I am probably different to Tanya on this. I just think too, they just become too tight, it’s all over the beach, and it spoils it for other people. I think once you’ve had enough, get out of the sun completely, leave.
Host: OK, you’re anti‑cabanas?
Joyce:
Yeah. That will really affect my vote in New England, won’t it.
Joyce unleashes on Chinese balloon: ‘We have to become strong’
Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce had very strong feelings about the Chinese spy/weather balloon and made sure to unleash them for the Seven network this morning:
Weather balloon – give me a break. Look, I’ve been saying for so long in politics, right back to 2009 when I came back as deputy prime minister, Australia has to become as strong as possible as quickly as possible, right? We worry about peripheral issues – climate change, constitutional change – but the biggest change our nation will have is if you’re dominated, not so much invaded, but dominated by the Communist party in China. That will be the biggest change in your life.
Now, the purpose of this balloon … it had two purposes. One, to see how it was detected, and the other one is to see how the American people in politics reacted. And for that, it determined the weather of that circumstance very, very well.
Now I don’t know whether Truman or Reagan or Kennedy would have waited till it got off the South Carolina coast after trouncing its way all around the United States before they decided to shoot it down, but we now live in a world where fighter planes go over Taiwan and this – note, it’s a military balloon, let’s just cut through the rhetoric – is making its way across the United States. Australia has to read the tea leaves, we have to read the tea leaves, we have to focus on the main game, we have to become strong, and if we don’t, well, we’re fools.
For the record, American security agencies reported actions had been taken to limit any spy capability of the balloon before it was shot down, and had waited for it to travel over the ocean before carrying out the mission to destroy it, to limit damage to people on the ground. It was later released that these balloons had entered the US airspace under the Trump administration and nothing was done.
National Farmers’ Federation against cuts to fuel subsidies
We are at the “lobby groups call for government to rule out suggestions from thinktanks” stage of the political cycle.
In this case, the National Farmers’ Federation wants the treasurer to rule out making any changes to the fuel tax credits scheme, after a proposal by the Grattan Institute.
NFF president Fiona Simson said that any cuts to the scheme would be “economically disastrous” and risks “lighting the fuse on a multi-billion dollar tax bomb that would send a cost of living shockwave down the supply chain”.
Simson said:
Farmers are already battling a cost of farming crisis, with fuel, fertiliser and other inputs at historically high levels. We’re seeing this reflected in the food price inflation causing pain for families at the supermarket checkout.
Levelling billions in new taxes on the supply chain is a recipe for further inflation.
Tamsin will have all the detail for you, so check back here and watch out for her coming story.
Dominic Perrottet will unveil his long-awaited gambling reform plan later this morning. Clubs and pubs will have five years to transition to cashless gaming. #nswpol
— Tamsin Rose (@tamsinroses) February 5, 2023
Greens MP to introduce bill to lower voting age to 16
The Greens member for Brisbane (and chief agitator of the MPs for Ties coalition) Stephen Bates will introduce a bill into parliament today to lower Australia’s voting age to 16.
It is one of the issues Bates has really seized upon since his election, and an issue the Greens have been pushing for at large for some time.
The rationale is that young people are going to be affected the most by everything that is going on, so they should have a say on who represents them in the parliament.
Bates says:
16 and 17-year-olds are facing a lifetime without affordable or accessible housing, healthcare and education, and they will experience the worst consequences of government inaction on the climate crisis.
Young people have proven that they are engaged by taking to the streets in protest in unprecedented numbers. Right now, they have no other option to make their voices heard.
… Studies and examples from around the world show that lowering the voting age to 16 has improved civic engagement, providing young people with a lifelong drive to participate in democracy.
It’s their future at stake, and they deserve the right to hold their government accountable.
Tabitha Stephenson-Jones, a co-founder of the Make It 16 Australia campaign, was part of Bates’ statement and said:
Young people already know what we want from our leaders, and we know that we can’t help make decisions for our future without being in the room, let alone at the table.
Young people are engaged, enthusiastic and ready to make a difference, the only issue is – politicians are afraid. They’re afraid that once young people get the opportunity to vote, they will actually have to consider us in the choices they make for our communities.
Young people can be the voice for the future, but only if we are invited to the table, and given the opportunity to do so.
When this was an issue of conversation last year, Labor did not rule it out immediately, so you never know.
And on closing the gap, Anthony Albanese says:
This is a task which we need to, of course, get the detail right and … I’d want to get as much agreement as possible because I want this to be a long-term reform to benefit Indigenous Australians to help closing the gap.
We’ll be talking about closing the gap and the targets and the fact that so many of them have not been met when that is debated in parliament over this sitting. That is why this is a change that’s necessary.
Albanese says voice to parliament should be ‘above politics’
The traditional first day of parliament secular service has concluded and the doorstops just outside the church have begun.
Anthony Albanese has come out wanting to talk about the voice to parliament:
As premier Perrottet said last Friday, this should be above politics. This is something that is not for any political party, not for government, it’s something that – has arisen from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves.
And we should answer this gracious call and all of the – the polling, of course, polls come and go, what matters is when people cast their vote. But I ask people to think about the generosity of spirit and in the spirit of the service that we have just been to, the call for a Indigenous recognition in our constitution and consultation on matters that affect them will not have an impact on most people’s lives, but it might just make some people’s lives, some of the most disadvantaged people on – in our country, [make] their lives better.
Frontier wars should be recognised ‘in every museum’, Kim Beazley says
Over on RN Breakfast, Kim Beazley, the chair of the Australian War Memorial council, has reiterated his call (he has been vocal on this for some years) to recognise the frontier wars not just at war memorials but also “in every museum”.
NSW to make all pokies cashless within five years
Tamsin Rose
New South Wales pubs and clubs will be given five years to introduce cashless gaming systems across all pokies machines, under a plan developed by the state government.
The premier, Dominic Perrottet, secured support for his reform package at a Sunday cabinet meeting after months of public debate and major pushback from some of his coalition colleagues.
An independent taskforce would oversee the transition to universal cashless gaming between 2024 and 2028 and regional pubs and clubs will be provided with assistance to make up for the losses in revenue.
Perrottet will announce the plan late on Monday morning in response to a damning NSW Crime Commission report that found billions of dollars of dirty money was cycling through poker machines across the state. The commission recommended a cashless system.
Sydney MP Alex Greenwich said Labor should support the plan.
He said:
Now is the moment. NSW is going towards cashless gaming to stamp out money laundering and cashless gaming harm. I am looking forward to the full release from the government, and hope the opposition will join this multi-partisan push for reform.
The state opposition has agreed to a trial of cashless systems across a number of venues if re-elected but stopped short of supporting a universal rollout. Five hundred of the state’s 90,000 machines would be included.
Tony Burke also said he will begin tackling the next part of his IR reforms this week:
So on Wednesday, we’ll go through the most of these are election commitments. And the reason I described them as controversial is that last year with what was happening, a lot of it was new. Some of the loopholes that we’re dealing with some businesses are very interested in using those loopholes. And so they’ll have a strong view about it that we’ve been we’ve been quite transparent things like the gig economy.
Things like same job, same pay pay and abuse of labour hire that we are going to act on it.
Paul Karp will be all over that for you when it happens
Labor senator Pat Dodson said the voice should also be able to talk to the executive (like national cabinet) as well as offer input on legislation.
Tony Burke told RN he would think it would be “extraordinary” if the voice didn’t talk to the executive.
And if we think about it logically, of course, the voice should be allowed to speak. And that means to both the parliament and the executive.
Parliament should be in charge of the details of the voice, Burke says
Tony Burke described the referendum as:
The constitution is where you set down the principles, and then the parliament is where you debate back and forth the detail.
The prime minister on the weekend gave the example of defence.
When we were deciding that we wanted defence as part of the constitution, we didn’t provide the detail of how many ships we would have.
… This is the thing that the parliament should be in charge of.
What we’re asking Australian people is whether or not there should be a voice.
Here is what Anthony Albanese said during the weekend:
The voice won’t administer funding. It will not deliver programs.
It will not have any kind of veto power over decision-making.
And in the course of the year, there will be more information for people to examine.
But the mechanics of the voice won’t be written into the constitution.
That’s not how it works.
For example, the constitution says the commonwealth parliament will have power to make laws for the ‘naval and military defence of the Commonwealth’.
It doesn’t spell-out the size of the ADF, or where it should be based or what sort of defence hardware we should have.
And just as well – that section of the constitution doesn’t even mention the air force, for the very good reason that it became law before the first powered flight.
The authors of Federation understood – as servants of democracy – that it was for government, parliament and the people to deal with the detail and the implementation, through legislation.
The constitution contains the power and then parliament uses its democratic authority to build the institution and renovate it as needed.
At this year’s referendum – Australians will be voting on the principle.
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