Australia politics live: no public integrity commission hearings unless ‘exceptional’ circumstances; Queensland’s new renewables target | Australian politics

Talking points are something all political parties do. They are part of a pack which is sent out to staffers and MPs, usually from the leaders office or tactics team, outlining what the party response is on particular issues.

Sometimes those packs are left out in the open and leaked by political opponents. Often when they are leaked though, the call is coming from inside the house.

But you can usually work out the talking points from listening to the interviews – it is not a coincidence they all say the same thing.

Someone has leaked The Greens talking points if they are asked about an Aboriginal elder’s allegations she was verbally abused by Greens First Nations senator, Lidia Thorpe.

No public hearings unless “exceptional circumstances”

And on the public hearings?

Well that one is a little more complicated. The default is for hearings to be held in private.

Mark Dreyfus:

The commission will be able to hold public hearings in exceptional circumstances and if satisfied it is in the public interest to do so. The default position is that hearings will be held in private.

The legislation provides guidance to the commission on factors that may be relevant to determining the public interest in holding a public hearing.

These factors include any unfair prejudice to a person’s reputation, privacy, safety or well being if the hearing were to be held in public, and this includes the benefit of making the public aware of corruption.

Attorney-general gives detail on anti-corruption powers

Mark Dreyfus has given some more detail on the legislation as he introduces it into the parliament – it will have the power to refer matters to the states, for instance.

And on powers?

Dreyfus:

The commission will have a full suite of powers similar to those of a royal commission. It will be able to use its powers to undertake an investigation into a corruption issue if it involves systemic or corrupt conduct. Importantly the commissioner will be able to undertake preliminary inquiries using powers to compel [information].

National Anti-Corruption Commission legislation introduced

Tributes to Uncle Jack Charles

The house is sitting and it has opened with statements on the passing of Uncle Jack Charles.

Linda Burney is giving a speech.

He was just the most warm, wonderful man,” she said.

When he told the story of his life, he opened the window for many Australians to see the enduring pain of the stolen generations.

Burney spoke of the pain Uncle Jack Charles felt at being “whitewashed by the system”, and having to learn of his Indigenous culture himself.

Burney:

He laid out there his personal battles, and used his life as an example to others of what is possible. He was an inspiration not just for First Nations people, but for all people. He was able to harness his own experiences, to be a powerful mentor to others.

Questions about Optus leadership are for ‘another day’, says Karen Andrews

Does Karen Andrews think the Optus CEO, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, should resign?

Andrews:

Look, I think that there needs to be a lot of soul-searching, to put it that way, within Optus. And that is a problem for, to be honest, another day. Because I think that the priority has to be sorting out what they’re going to do with the data that has been compromised, the data that has been stolen, how they going to support their customers. That’s got to be the number one priority of Optus. And I make no excuses for them. There’s conflicting views that are coming out from the government and from Optus. I’m less concerned about that than I am about the people who for years will have to deal with issues of identity theft.

Shadow home affairs minister caught up in Optus hack

The shadow home affairs minister Karen Andrews is an Optus customer – and she says she has only just been alerted by Optus she was part of the data breach yesterday morning.

And she wasn’t overly impressed by what was in the email:

Oh, look, there was nothing specific to me, and quite frankly, my response to it was to eye-roll, it had very little information in it that was of value. Now, I am in a position where I understand that IDCare is in place. I understand what I need to do, but many people don’t. And so my disappointment is for them, because I’ve already taken the steps that I need, and I’m trying as best to communicate what people need to do. Contact, IDCare, contact various providers, including your financial institutes if you are concerned – that information should have been forthcoming from the federal government on day one, “this is what you need to do”. You know, we heard throughout the election campaign and before that by who is now the prime minister, Mr Albanese, standing up and saying, “we are on your side”. Well, what we know very clearly is that the Labor government is only on your side if they’re heading into an election and they want your vote because they should have been on the side of all Australians now, they should have been providing advice on what people need to do to protect their data. And they’ve failed. Dismally.

Still no answer on new Medicare and passport documents

There is no straight answer on whether or not you will be able to get a new Medicare number if your data was part of the Optus data breach, but the federal health minister, Mark Butler, has said the government is working on it.

One of the issues is they only just found out that Medicare numbers were part of the breach.

Butler:

We’re particularly concerned that we weren’t notified of the breach of Medicare data until the last 24 hours. Obviously, the breach of Optus data more broadly was known to us or notified to us last week. And we’re particularly concerned that only in the last 24 hours that we learned about the breach of Medicare data.

So, we’re working hard to develop strategies for a response to that, as government has been, for example, for some time in relation to passport numbers, as state governments have been in relation to driver’s licence numbers. This is obviously a deeply concerning breach of the data of almost 10 million Australians, and across the resources of government and the federal police, a range of other agencies, we’ve been working nonstop since the original notification of this breach to develop the best possible response for consumers.

There is also no answer on passports as yet either, but that is also something the government is working on, Butler said:

As Minister Wong said in the parliament yesterday, I think we’re developing the best possible responses as quickly as we can to the breach of all of this data, including the possible need for renewed identification data, identification material like passports and state-level driver’s licences and the like.

Queensland lifts renewables target to 70% by 2032

Conal Hanna

Anti-corruption presser

The Centre for Public Integrity is holding a press conference today responding to the national anti-corruption commission legislation – former judges the Hon Stephen Charles AO KC, the Hon Michael Barker KC and Geoffrey Watson SC will be in attendance.

We know that so far, there is an issue with the “exceptional circumstances” threshold for public hearings. Once the bill is introduced, we’ll hear if there are any other issues. That’s happening at 1.30pm AEST today.