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Greens MP says Labor’s housing plan a ‘con job’ that will make crisis worse
Max Chandler-Mather has responded to Anthony Albanese’s comment that the “Greens are always negative”.
The Greens MP for Griffith says:
Of course we’re negative about a plan that will see the housing crisis get worse. We’re willing and ready to offer Labor our plans to build 1m public and affordable homes, freeze rents and scrap negative gearing.
Over the last five years the private sector built just under 1m homes, so Labor announcing that under their plans the private sector will build 1m homes over five years from 2024 is a complete joke. These homes would have been built anyway.
The ‘housing accord’ looks like a complete con job. Planning deregulation and handouts to the private sector to build housing won’t fix the housing crisis, any more than any housing tax breaks or planning deregulation has in the past.
In reality, the only extra thing Labor has announced is $350m for 10,000 so-called affordable homes over five years, all the rest is smoke and mirrors.
Meanwhile Labor’s already announced the Housing Australia Future Fund will only fund the construction of 20,000 public and community homes over five years, which will literally see the shortage of public housing grow to 590,000 homes as the build won’t even keep up with increasing demand.
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All Medibank, ahm and international student data accessed in Medibank breach
Medibank has released a new statement to the ASX and it says the breach was even broader than thought:
Yesterday, Medibank provided a further update regarding the cybercrime event and announced a comprehensive customer support package for Medibank, ahm and international student customers affected by this cybercrime.
The investigation into the cybercrime event is continuing, with particular focus on identifying which systems and networks were accessed and what data was removed by the criminal.
Since yesterday’s announcement, our investigation has now established that the criminal had access to:
All ahm customers’ personal data and significant amounts of health claims data All international student customers’ personal data and significant amounts of health claims data
All Medibank customers’ personal data and significant amounts of health claims data As previously advised, we have evidence that the criminal has removed some of our customers’ personal and health claims data and it is now likely that the criminal has stolen further personal and health claims data.
As a result, we expect that the number of affected customers could grow substantially. Our priority is to continue working to understand the specific data that has been taken for each of our customers so that we can contact them directly to let them know.
Medibank has announced a support package for affected customers which includes:
A hardship package to provide financial support for customers who are in a uniquely vulnerable position as a result of this crime, who will be supported on an individual basis
Access to Medibank’s mental health and wellbeing support line for all customers, including ahm customers
Access to specialist identity protection advice and resources from IDCARE Free identity monitoring services for customers who have had their primary ID compromised
Reimbursement of fees for re-issue of identity documents that have been fully compromised in this crime
Also happening today:
1st hearing for inquiry into the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People: core principle is that First Nations rights must be the foundation of all First Nations policy. And yet Labor are here talking about themselves. No party has ownership over our rights.
— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) October 25, 2022
Here is where Peter Dutton will be going with his budget reply
I don’t think there was any election promise about a 56% increase in electricity prices and, tellingly, the 5reasurer never mentioned it in his speech last night.
There was no mention about a 40% increase in gas prices in the treasurer’s speech last night. I think a lot of Australians thought they heard the prime minister say before the election that he had a plan to deal with the cost of living pressures.
Everybody knew about the Ukraine war. The $275 promise was made knowing all of the settings – the Ukraine war had already started.
… So I think there is a lot of doubt and a rising level of anger within the Australian public because they know that Labor just doesn’t have the ability to manage the budget and they’ve demonstrated that in their document last night.
That was from his interview with the ABC this morning.
What he neglects to mention, though, is that his shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, the former energy minister, delayed a key electricity pricing update until after the election, leaving voters in the dark over changes to their bills.
Ben Smee
‘Deserved the chop’: environmentalists welcome defunding of Queensland dams
Environmental groups have welcomed the defunding of Queensland dam projects that were branded as probably “the biggest pork barrel in history”.
The former deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, had championed the proposals to build a series of speculative dams, particularly the Urannah and Hells Gates dams in north Queensland.
More than $6bn in funding was awarded to Queensland water projects that had not completed detailed business cases. The former government also sought no input from the panel it established to scrutinise such projects, the National Water Grid Advisory Body.
The new Labor government’s decision to remove funding from the federal budget does not necessarily kill the projects, but they now seem increasingly unlikely to be built.
The Queensland Conservation Council director Dave Copeman welcomed the decision to reverse the former government’s funding commitments.
“These dams threaten the health of the Great Barrier Reef, as they would result in more sediment and nutrients flowing into reef catchments,” he said.
“They threaten more than 30 endangered species, and are dependent on business cases that don’t stack up economically or environmentally.
“Billions for reef killing dams whose business case was washing coal is a dead end investment that deserved the chop.”
Greens attempt to amend a supply bill, sparking a stoush
Over in the lower house, Labor and the Greens got into a small political stoush yesterday over Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather trying to amend a supply bill.
Supply bills are all about the money for the business of government. It’s the nuts and bolts to keep money flowing (this time including for public servants) and it’s the reason why minority governments make deals with the crossbench to guarantee supply. If a government doesn’t get supply, it pretty much has to go to an election, simple as that –because the money has to keep flowing.
For that reason, supply bills are usually left alone.
Last night, after Stephen Jones introduced a supply bill, Chandler-Mather moved this motion:
I move:
That all words after “that” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: “whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:
(1) notes the government’s first budget gives a $9,000 per year tax cut to billionaires and locks in the $254 billion stage three tax cuts for the wealthy;
and (2) calls on the government to repeal the stage three tax cuts and provide cost of living relief that will make people’s lives better, including by putting dental and mental healthcare into Medicare, building more affordable housing, and making childcare free”.
You’ll note he made it clear that he was not declining to give the bill a second reading. That’s important because it shows he wasn’t aiming to block supply.
Tony Burke, though, was not having any of it:
In terms of stunts there are plenty of bills where you can move a second reading amendment, but to pick supply? To actually pick people’s wages, people who work for the commonwealth, is something that—I thought the sorts of arguments as to whether supply would be jeopardised in Australia were dispensed quite some decades ago. If it were to come back, it had not occurred to me that it might be members of the Greens political party who would raise it.
Be in no doubt, it’s not like I am providing something that isn’t readily available. It’s there in practice. On the one occasion a second reading amendment had been agreed to it was because the people on this side of the table— neither of whom are in the parliament anymore—weren’t paying attention. And for the bill it was on there was no consequence in the timing. There was no urgency.
The Speaker ruled that the amendment had been validly passed and proceedings on the bill should have ceased at that point. But you really want to put that forward? Really? Of all the different things that we can put in jeopardy and be willing to play some game of chicken with each other don’t choose the wages of the people who run the public service, don’t choose the wages of the people who deliver the payment system, don’t choose the wages of the people who run this building and who we all ask to help us every single day we’re here.
The opposition stood with the government in voting down the motion.
Stuart Robert:
The issue the party of the Greens has raised—and we’ll take it, I think, as read that it’s a rookie error and move on—is one of enormous consequence. I’d seek the maturity of the House, probably on behalf of the Leader of the House and myself, for us just to move on and get this important part of the bills done with tonight.
And on that rare note of agreement between the opposition and the government, the House moved on.
One Nation senator retracts ‘the brown stuff’ in Senate
And One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts was made to retract unparliamentary language:
Roberts: “The harm from our Covid response was foreseeable and preventable. If only the Senate, the ultimate house of review, had had the courage to stand up and call bullshit. The Senate did not.”
Acting deputy president: “Order! Senator Roberts, that language isn’t parliamentary. I ask that you withdraw or find another word.”
Roberts: “I retract that—the brown stuff.”
Liberal senator says Australia must take a stance on Iran’s treatment of women
Tasmanian Liberal senator Claire Chandler meanwhile focussed on what is happening in Iran:
The government of Iran — the dictatorship of Iran — is killing Iranian women and girls. Day after day, week after week, women and girls in Iran are being shot, beaten to death or kidnapped and never seen again.
They are being attacked by the regime’s forces in their schools, their homes and in the streets for doing nothing more than refusing to cover their hair as the dictatorship demands or for protesting against the killing of women and girls the day before or the day before that. If ever there were a case for democratic nations to stand up for the human rights of women and girls, this is it. Australia could start by leading the way on having the Iranian regime removed from the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
It has now been six weeks since I first suggested that Australia must take a stance on this. By leading the charge on correcting this absurd and disgusting validation of the Iranian regime, we could have sent a message that, as far away from Iran as we are, we will not stand by and do nothing as women and girls are killed.
But six weeks later, there’s been not a single word from the prime minister or the foreign minister on Iran’s position as an UN-endorsed expert on women’s rights. Many of our closest allies have already used sanctions against the Iranian regime to send a message.
The US, the UK and Canada have all applied various forms of sanctions against Iranian leadership and the leaders of the so-called morality police responsible for much of the violence. But what actions has Australia taken and what sanctions has Australia applied in response to the murder of women and girls? None. Our government has not just done less than our allies and partners; it has done nothing.
Gerard Rennick criticises US approach to Ukraine: ‘Time to use diplomacy, not weapons’
I’ve just had a read of the Hansard overnight and it seems that some senators took the opportunity of the budget focus to throw up some curve ball issues.
Queensland LNP senator Gerard Rennick had some things to say about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which did not seem to follow the line Australia has taken – he’s using Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson as his guides, it seems:
America’s greatest strengths are its people and its political process. Two of its biggest political commentators, Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson, are both anti war in Ukraine. What does that tell you about the will of the American people? They do not want to get entrapped in a war that has nothing to do with them.
The American system of government was formed by patriots, people who opposed foreign oppression and the unelected ruling class and instead sought to protect the liberties of the individual. There is no greater manifestation of the enlightenment period than the American revolution. Unfortunately, despite the warnings of Eisenhower and the efforts of Kennedy, the elites have infiltrated the centre of power in the US, Washington, DC, and turned it into a swamp that desperately needs to be drained.
The founding fathers must be turning in their graves.
The only way out of this bloodshed is for the eastern provinces of Ukraine to be given the choice of self determination.
In 2010, the International Court of Justice concluded that the declaration of independence of Kosovo, adopted on 17 February 2008, did not violate international law. This decision was backed by western countries. The provinces in eastern Ukraine should be given the same rights, subject to a vote. Australia backed East Timor’s right to self-determination in 1999. We should not forget Northern Ireland’s wish to remain part of the United Kingdom.
Provided that voting is conducted fairly, then surely a democratic outcome in Ukraine is better than continuing the bloodshed, is it not? The only people who are suffering here are the Ukrainians. The escalation needs to end. It is time to use diplomacy, not weapons.
In the words of Ronald Reagan when he started a detente with the Soviet Union in 1984: ‘We seek genuine cooperation. We seek progress for peace. Cooperation begins with communication.’
‘We can’t turn it around in one month’: Albanese under fire over power prices
We posted a little earlier about what Anthony Albanese said about energy bills in response to questioning from ABC radio RN host Patricia Karvelas.
Here is more of that exchange:
Karvelas: Prime minister, the budget paints a grim picture of electricity prices. Bills will go up by 20% this year and then 30% next year, it’s staggering. For someone with a $500 energy bill, they’ll be paying around $780. This is a huge increase that’s going to hit people, families, pensioners. Is your election promise of cheaper energy bills dead?
Albanese:
Our election promise was consistent with the modelling that we took to the election, which was about the fact that the cheapest form of new energy is clean energy. What we’ve seen from the former government and what we have inherited was four gigawatts out of the system and only one gigawatt into the system. That’s the practical example of why there simply wasn’t enough investment.
Now, you’ve already seen, as a result of our policy, which is essentially implementing the integrated systems plan of rewiring the nation, you’ve already seen agreements reached last week with Victoria and Tasmania, including the Marinus Link, which is a major proposal that could never get done by the former government. That will make a difference. That will make an enormous difference.
Karvelas: There’s no doubt that those investments are really key in transforming the market. But they don’t help families in the short-term, do they? And you did promise to cut power bills, that promise is dead now, isn’t it?
Albanese:
Cheaper power bills will come as a result of investment in cheaper energy. That’s just a fact.
Karvelas: But not next year.
Albanese:
That will take time, of course. We can’t turn it around in one month. And remember that the former government actually changed the rules. They introduced a new system to avoid telling the Australian people that the power price increases that were baked in, that were due to occur, to keep from the Australian people that significant increase that occurred in the middle of this year.
Lenore Taylor and Katharine Murphy spent part of last night discussing the budget with Laura Murphy-Oates – you can hear that conversation here
Greens MP says Labor’s housing plan a ‘con job’ that will make crisis worse
Max Chandler-Mather has responded to Anthony Albanese’s comment that the “Greens are always negative”.
The Greens MP for Griffith says:
Of course we’re negative about a plan that will see the housing crisis get worse. We’re willing and ready to offer Labor our plans to build 1m public and affordable homes, freeze rents and scrap negative gearing.
Over the last five years the private sector built just under 1m homes, so Labor announcing that under their plans the private sector will build 1m homes over five years from 2024 is a complete joke. These homes would have been built anyway.
The ‘housing accord’ looks like a complete con job. Planning deregulation and handouts to the private sector to build housing won’t fix the housing crisis, any more than any housing tax breaks or planning deregulation has in the past.
In reality, the only extra thing Labor has announced is $350m for 10,000 so-called affordable homes over five years, all the rest is smoke and mirrors.
Meanwhile Labor’s already announced the Housing Australia Future Fund will only fund the construction of 20,000 public and community homes over five years, which will literally see the shortage of public housing grow to 590,000 homes as the build won’t even keep up with increasing demand.
Also worth remembering – there is another budget coming in May
Treasury estimates that inflation will begin coming back down from mid next year. But treasury is not a fortune teller – it is making educated predictions based on information as it knows it now and can’t predict exactly what else might happen (intensifying war, supply chain shocks, etc).
It’s going to be a rough year.
Albanese ‘determined to govern in the national interest’ amid power price concerns
Why is there no help for power bills in the budget?
Anthony Albanese told Network 10:
It would have been counterproductive. It would have given a sweetener there. But we’re determined to govern in the national interest. That’s why we targeted our cost of living relief in areas that wouldn’t feed into inflation. Cheaper childcare, cheaper medicine, more paid parental leave, more affordable housing, our plan to get wages moving, as well as structural investments in the National Broadband Network, in infrastructure investment in rail and road projects – so that we’re boosting the economy in a way that builds that capacity as well as building capacity in our people through $1bn additional into fee-free Tafe.
That is an example of how we are creating opportunity, making sure our economic settings are right whilst making sure we are keeping an eye on inflation. Because that’s what really hurts people. You can’t have increases in real wages if inflation is continuing to increase.
It’s budget-palooza!
Jim Chalmers will also give an address at the National Press Club today.
From past years, the success or failure of a budget tends to rest on how long people talk about it. People spoke about the 2014 budget for weeks. But the more boring the budget, the less its discourse shelf life.
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