Vanuatu PM in Canberra for talks with Albanese as hopes rise over treaty
Vanuatu’s prime minister, Jotham Napat, will meet with Anthony Albanese today in Canberra for talks, after months of negotiations on the Nakamal agreement.
The two countries have gone back and forth on the treaty, which is yet to be inked, but today’s visit could be a good sign of progress.
Late last year, the government failed to get Vanuatu over the line on the $500m agreement, amid concerns from Vanuatu that it would block other countries providing infrastructure funding.
The leaders will sit down for a meeting before addressing the media later today – so we’ll bring all that as it comes.
Key events
‘Halt it and deal with it’: Jane Hume calls for pause on Victoria’s big build sites
The deputy Liberal leader, Jane Hume, says Victoria’s big build projects should stop to weed out all corruption.
Nine Newspapers have reported an attempted clean up of Victoria’s Big Build has failed to stop large sums of money flowing from state and federally funded projects to the underworld.
Hume, sitting in the hot seat on RN Breakfast after Anika Wells, says there should be a Victorian royal commission into the issue.
“I do believe that you need to remove the corrupt elements before you can continue to give taxpayer money to these projects.
Asked whether its feasible to leave strategic infrastructure projects with no timeline, Hume says:
I personally think halting it and dealing with it is the only way to do it. And the best way to deal with that would be through a Royal Commission in Victoria. But at a federal level, we’ve given the Albanese government an option to have an inquiry about corruption in the construction industry and they have voted against it over and over again.
Tory Shepherd
Royal commission hearings resume today
The next round of hearings for the antisemitism royal commission begins today.
Over the next two weeks, commissioner Virginia Bell will hear evidence about “the dissemination of antisemitic content and other forms of hateful speech in the online environment, as well as antisemitism in traditional media and broadcasting”.
Today’s witness list includes Arsen Ostrovsky, who was the victim of conspiracy theories spread online after the Bondi terror attack, and businessman and philanthropist Steven Lowy.
We don’t know yet who else will appear – Meta reportedly will, while the ABC and SBS have made submissions. An ABC spokesperson said they will “continue to engage constructively” with the royal commission, while an SBS spokesperson said it was engaging with the royal commission and would meet its legal and regulatory obligations.
Wells won’t be seeing the Socceroos in Dallas on Saturday
Anika Wells landed herself in a lot of hot water last year for taking her family to sports games (and other events) on the taxpayer dime.
Perhaps that might be why she says she won’t be going to see the Socceroos in Dallas, Texas on Saturday as they begin their knockout campaign.
She tells RN Breakfast that sometimes she wears her sports minister hat to go see games live, and sometimes she has to wear her communications minister cap and watch the games on free to air tv.
Regretfully, we’re here until Thursday night with Parliament and the game is at 4am Saturday morning. So I’ll be watching on the TV. And like I’ve said before, sometimes I’m the minister for sport and it’s important I’m at major events because there’s all kinds of elements and stakeholders that are there for me to be there in person. Sometimes I’m the minister for communications and I need to see what that experience is like for Australians watching that on free to wear with regard to any siphoning legislation and reforms, etc. So this one I’ll be watching on TV.
Gambling legislation to be introduced this week with ‘minor’ revisions
Anika Wells says the government’s legislation to tackle online gambling advertising will be introduced this week, but despite widespread calls to make them tougher, the bill will only include “minor revisions”.
The prime minister announced the legislation at the national press club earlier this year, after sitting on a report led by the late Labor MP, Peta Murphy for three years.
Advocates have said a partial ban on online gambling advertising won’t be effective.
Wells tells RN Breakfast that she’s been consulting, but there won’t be an “substantive” changes to the bill.
The differences between the exposure draft and the legislation will be evident. But Mel [Clarke], they’re minor. There’s nothing that is particularly substantive that will alter people’s views of the legislation, given that these are very deeply entrenched views from all sides on this particular issue.
These are minor revisions.
Social media ban ‘flexible and adaptable’, Anika Wells
Anika Wells denies the announcement the government would toughen penalties for breaches of the social media ban, and give the eSafety commissioner more powers, is an admission the ban is failing.
The government says it will introduce legislation to double the fines to $99m – in line with other corporate penalties – and give the eSafety commissioner stronger information-gathering powers.
Research released this month has found more than 80% of children with social media accounts said they were still on the platforms, more than three months after the ban came into force.
Speaking to ABC RN Breakfast, Wells says it’ll take time for the numbers to go down and the culture to change. The communications minister says:
We’ve consistently said that our social media minimum age law is a world first. It’s going to need to be flexible and adaptable.
I think we can all agree we would like the scheme to work better than it is currently, but that is on big tech taking the mickey.
There are two pieces to this. There are the actual enforcement mechanisms that we need to do now … But then there’s also the broader cultural change piece. And much like when seatbelts became mandatory in cars, it took a while for people to observe that law. And this is about the five-year-olds, the nine-year-olds who will never have a social media account until 16. That change will take a while to seep through.
Vanuatu PM in Canberra for talks with Albanese as hopes rise over treaty
Vanuatu’s prime minister, Jotham Napat, will meet with Anthony Albanese today in Canberra for talks, after months of negotiations on the Nakamal agreement.
The two countries have gone back and forth on the treaty, which is yet to be inked, but today’s visit could be a good sign of progress.
Late last year, the government failed to get Vanuatu over the line on the $500m agreement, amid concerns from Vanuatu that it would block other countries providing infrastructure funding.
The leaders will sit down for a meeting before addressing the media later today – so we’ll bring all that as it comes.
No evidence yet of transmission of bird flu to Australian wildlife, says environment minister
Murray Watt is asked about the big story in his portfolio – bird flu, of which cases have now been detected in Western Australia and South Australia.
The environment minister says that there are so far four confirmed cases, and all have involved a migratory bird.
He repeats all state, territory and federal governments have undertaken preparedness plans over the last couple of years to deal with any outbreak.
There’s no evidence at this point in time there’s been any transmission from those migratory birds to the broader Australian wildlife population. That’s obviously a good thing. That’s something we won’t want to see happen.
I wouldn’t want to predict exactly what will happen from here. It is possible that we’ll see more cases over the next few days or weeks. But what I can say to people is that we’re prepared and … we want people to avoid contact with sick or dead birds. We want them to record and report any sightings they come across, so we can ensure that testing is done.
Hanson’s press club speech a ‘reality check’ for Australians, Watt says
Environment minister Murray Watt says One Nation’s popularity dipping from 31% to 29% in the latest Newspoll is due to Pauline Hanson’s controversial press club address, but concedes the “polls will bounce around a bit”.
Most politicians will always say, “the only poll that matters is the one on election day”, but best believe many of us are watching the polls with eagle eyes right now as One Nation surges in popularity.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Watt says that address was a “reality check” for Australians, because Hanson revealed One Nation could make things worse.
We have seen a bit of a change in the public mood towards One Nation since Pauline Hanson’s press club speech.
I think that speech was a bit of a reality check for a lot of Australians who were thinking about voting for One Nation, because they got to see that as much as people are under pressure at the moment, things could get worse under One Nation with all the cuts they were talking about imposing.
Labor back in top spot ahead of One Nation in latest Newspoll
After a very tumultuous six weeks following Labor’s budget, things might be looking a little better for the government now that the contentious capital gains tax and negative gearing bill has been passed (even if there will be further amendments coming after the winter break).
At least the polls today might be providing a little reprieve, with the latest Newspoll showing Labor inching back into top spot with the highest primary support (33%) followed by One Nation (29%) with the Coalition trailing (17%).
Speaking to Sunrise this morning, social services minister Tanya Plibersek says it’s a “modest improvement” but welcome.
Yes, of course, any improvement is welcome. But we know that we to provide real answers and real change to the pressure that people are feeling.
Plibersek is on a panel with the Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, who says the electorate is currently “very volatile”.
I’m a half glass full sort of guy Nat [Barr] and the the electorate’s very restless. People are understandably restless because they’ve seen their incomes decline back to 2011 levels under government … So it’s very volatile.
The first thing you’ve got to do is get the herd moving and the herd is moving. It’s just not going through the the right gate for us at the moment.
Fossil fuel companies are marketing to children, a report says. How?
Adam Morton
We’re expecting some focus in Canberra today on a report that looks at how fossil fuel companies market to Australian children, including in communications programs at schools, museums, science centres and other trusted institutions.
The report has been released by the climate-focused organisation Comms Declare. It suggests the fossil fuel industry is potentially reaching millions of children through more than 260 programs aimed at kids of all ages.
Comms Declare is calling for a Senate inquiry into the issue. It points out the Australian Capital Territory has banned fossil fuel sponsorships in schools, following similar restrictions in some jurisdictions overseas.
The independent senator David Pocock and the Greens senator Steph Hodgins-May are expected to join the report’s authors at a press conference this morning.
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning. Krishani Dhanji here with you for what’s likely to be another very busy sitting week – the last before the winter break.
Parliament will be joined by Vanuatu’s prime minister, Jotham Napat, who will be meeting with Anthony Albanese today. The visit comes as two nations have been going back and forth for nearly 10 months negotiating a treaty. Could today be the day the ink is set and dried?
A new report has been released showing how fossil fuel companies market to Australian children, and spoiler alert, the Greens and David Pocock aren’t happy about it. We’ll have more on that very shortly.
And the polls have shown a shift back to Labor, once again claiming the highest primary vote above One Nation – expect plenty of reaction to that this morning.
Let’s get straight into it!