Key events
Anthony Albanese said yesterday that WA senator Fatima Payman would not be attending caucus for the rest of the parliament session (which ends next Thursday) but that doesn’t mean Payman does not sit with her caucus colleagues in the senate.
Payman remains a member of the caucus and the Labor party. Not sitting with the caucus means she will not attend the caucus meetings. The next one is scheduled for Tuesday morning (when all parties hold their regular parliament session meetings) so Payman will miss that. But you’ll see her in her regular spot in the senate chamber.
Simon Birmingham finessed the lines by the time he got to a doorstop interview a little earlier this morning:
Yesterday, Julian Assange pleaded guilty in a United States court to charges under the US Espionage Act, and by nightfall he was welcomed home by the Australian prime minister.
That just sends all of the wrong signals and is irresponsible and inappropriate of Anthony Albanese to welcome home Julian Assange on the same day he’s pleaded guilty to US charges related to espionage.
Now, of course, the Australian-American alliance is an enormously strong one and it can withstand many, many things. And it will certainly not be affected in terms of the big strategic goals we have, such as Aukus, by this type of incident. But there will be many Americans who think that it’s inappropriate for the Australian prime minister to provide that type of homecoming welcome to Julian Assange. Having just pleaded guilty to US charges.
(A doorstop is a very quick press conference)
Birmingham on Assange: ‘What he did all those years ago was not careful journalism’
The Liberal senator Simon Birmingham was also asked about what work the previous Coalition governments had done to bring about an end to Julian Assange’s case, given there is a consensus it had “gone on for too long”.
There was criticism that the former prime minister Scott Morrison “didn’t lift a finger” when it came to Assange.
Birmingham says:
Well, the question of extradition was always a matter for the UK courts to determine.
And Julian Assange was always within his rights to both resist that through the legal processes and to appeal it at the many different junctures when the court found he could or should be extradited. You know, ultimately, although in very peculiar circumstances, he did face a US court, did plead guilty to a charge under the United States Espionage Act.
And that stands as a fact and, of course, is reflective of the fact that what he did all those years ago was not careful journalism like you or other people in the ABC, or indeed any other responsible media outlet would do.
Instead, he simply published around half a million documents and without having read them, curated them, checked to see if there was anything that could be damaging or risking the lives of others in there. He simply dumped them on the internet. That is not journalism and shouldn’t be feted as such.
Assange does not deserve ‘warm embrace’ from Albanese ‘like some type of hero’, Birmingham says
Simon Birmingham was doing the media rounds this morning, doubling down on his statement that it was not “appropriate” for the prime minister to have called Julian Assange as soon as his plane touched down in Canberra.
He told the ABC’s Tom Oriti:
The fact that it’s at an end is welcome. What he does not deserve, though, is the warm embrace or homecoming welcome of prime minister Albanese like some type of hero. When in fact what he did yesterday, shortly before being welcomed back to Australia by the prime minister, was finally plead guilty to charges under the Espionage Act in a United States court.
And it shows little regard for our closest ally to be welcoming home somebody who has just pleaded guilty to such charges.
Would it not have been strange for the prime minister not to have spoken to Assange, given what was involved in reaching the deal with the US?
Birmingham:
I think it would have been perfectly normal. People come home to Australia every day, including those who may have encountered criminal proceedings or otherwise overseas, and they don’t get a welcome home call from the prime minister of the country.
Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel enters new testing phase
Benita Kolovos
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, is holding a press conference to announce the Metro Tunnel is entering a new testing phase, which she says involves repeatedly running systems and technologies that have never been used on the existing Melbourne train network.
Speaking at the completed Parkville station, Allan says:
Just as thousands and thousands of Victorians every single day will be using the Metro Tunnel, we will be undertaking thousands and thousands of opening and closing of the platform screen doors and the running of the test trains. They’ll be something like 30,000 times the platform screen doors will be opened and closed. There’s another 150,000km of test trains to run to make sure that all the systems are integrated and operational and ready to go.
She says from later in the year, they will also begin running practice services with drivers and station staff to ensure everything is ready for passengers when the tunnel opens.
Consisting of two 9km train tunnels under the CBD, the Metro Tunnel will connect the Sunbury line, which runs through Melbourne’s western suburbs, with the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines, in the city’s south-east, taking the pressure off the City Loop.
Five new underground stations have also been created, including Anzac, near the Shrine of Remembrance, Parkville, near the University of Melbourne and several major hospitals, and Arden, a developing area in Melbourne’s north.
Last year, the developer of the project let slip at a business event that he expects it to be completed by September. Allan on Thursday maintained it will open in 2025, which itself was a year ahead of the initial schedule.
In case you missed it last night, this was the moment Julian Assange reunited with his wife Stella and father John Shipton.
Save the Children ‘deeply disappointed’ with Senate committee decision on Pocock’s young people bill
The crossbench have the support of the aid and advocacy organisation Save the Children who have announced they are “deeply disappointed” with a Labor-led Senate committee’s decision not to recommend the passing of David Pocock’s duty of care bill for young people.
Sophia Pauchet, a Save the Children Australia youth advisor who co-wrote a submission to the committee in support of the bill, said the recommendation against the legislation was another “example of governments and politicians restricting their view of what is possible to the boundaries of their elected term”.
All we ask is for the government to look past a three-year scope, to consider the future of this nation, the wellbeing of your children and the planet that is required to help us grow, and to legislate a duty of care.
A little later this morning, the co-convenors of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Group will meet with Julian Assange’s wife, Stella Assange, and his lawyers, Jennifer Robinson and Barry Pollack, “to discuss the finalisation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s plea deal with the United States Department of Justice that has allowed him to return home to Australia”.
That will be happening at 10.30am in the parliament.
Albanese warns of danger of ‘another decade of denial’ on climate
Anthony Albanese has delivered his Ceda state of the nation address, where he, as reported earlier, spoke of the “risk” of the Coalition’s nuclear foray.
In the past two years, you know how far we have come, the progress we have made. And you know the grave risk and great cost of falling back.
That’s the true cost of nuclear power in Australia.
Not just the hundreds of billions of dollars in the cost of constructing the reactors more than a decade away.
Not just the price households and businesses would pay for energy that is eight times more expensive than renewables.
But the danger that another decade of denial prevents the action on climate and investment in energy we need now.
We cannot go back to the politics of conflict undermining business certainty and driving up power bills.
We cannot afford nuclear power to be deployed as just another weapon in the culture wars.
Australia has every resource imaginable to succeed in this decisive decade. Critical minerals, rare earths, skills and space and sunlight, the trade ties to our region.
The only thing our nation does not have is time to waste.
Senate committee says Pocock’s ‘duty of care’ bill should not be passed
David Pocock’s “duty of care” to young people bill has been through a Labor-led Senate committee, which recommended it not be passed.
After the federal court ruled the government did not have to consider its duty of care to young people when making environmental decisions, Pocock responded with a bill that would have legislated it.
The aim was for governments to be forced to consider the impact of climate harm on young people’s wellbeing as part of its decision making process.
Instead, the committee recommended “the Australian Government consider the utilisation of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Child Rights Impact Assessment Tool to assist in policy development and decision making”.
The crossbench have come together to say that isn’t good enough and are pushing the government to “legislate what people already assume is happening when governments are making decisions that impact on the ability to create a liveable future for young people”.
The independent MP Kylea Tink said it was beyond time for government’s to think beyond their own political term.
Australian politics is blighted by self-interest and short-termism. This government is failing young Australians through the decisions they are making.
That’s why a legislated Duty of Care is so sorely needed. In almost every aspect of life we recognise we have a duty of care to others. A duty to ensure our decisions and actions do not negatively impact someone else.
Why is it acceptable for our Government not to be held to that same standard? Legislating a Duty of Care is not radical, it is nothing more than what every day Australians expect from our government. The government should show they take generational inequity seriously by legislating a Duty of Care immediately.
Kate Chaney, Monique Ryan, Zali Steggall, Allegra Spender, Sophie Scamps, Zoe Daniel and Helen Haines will all be pushing for the government to adopt a legislated duty of care, along with Pocock and Tink. But without government support, the bill will go nowhere.
Barnaby Joyce takes aim at supermarkets: ‘A loss of dignity for the lady pushing the trolley’
Barnaby Joyce speaks to that:
A true market is a multiplicity of buyers, a multiplicity of sellers and transparency and transactions. And you don’t get that when you’ve got two people buying a product and having 80% of the market. It’s just that’s ridiculous.
A good step is a code of conduct, and I’m glad we’ve got it.
And to enforce it … and to really give the supermarkets a warning, you know.
We are watching this space incredibly closely because we cannot have the loss of dignity of someone who goes to pay for their product and their piece of plastic says decline.
That is happening as well. That is a loss of dignity for the lady pushing the trolley. And that is a disgrace. And that’s disgusting. We’re moving them to vegetarian diets. Not because they don’t like meat – because they can’t afford it.
‘When the Greens and the Nationals get together, I just say, watch this space’ – McKim on supermarkets
Nick McKim and Barnaby Joyce might have found themselves on a unity ticket when it comes to Julian Assange, but it quickly falls apart when it comes to energy.
Joyce obviously backs in nuclear. McKim doesn’t agree.
McKim then brings up the two Nationals senators, Ross Cadell and Matt Canavan, who crossed the floor yesterday to support his legislation calling for the ACCC to have divestiture powers over the major supermarkets.
Speaking of agreeing with you, Barnaby, yesterday the Greens moved our laws to break up the supermarket duopoly and not a single National party senator voted against those laws, I might add.
And the Greens and the Nationals getting together. Well, folks, last time that happened, we ended up with a royal commission into the banks that exposed some terrible, shonky behaviour from our big banking corporation. So when the Greens and the Nationals get together, I just say, watch this space on on divesting and breaking up the supermarket duopoly that are price gouging ordinary Australians.
Assange ‘paid a heavy price’ for revealing ‘important truths’, Nick McKim says
On the same program, the Greens senator Nick McKim is asked about whether Julian Assange should receive a pardon:
I don’t know what his chances are of a pardon. He should get one. I mean, he’s been treated appallingly for a long time.
And Barnaby’s right to acknowledge that there weren’t many people on Mr Assange’s side in the early days, and I acknowledge Barnaby was. And also point out for the Australian Greens, we were there for Mr Assange in the very early days.
But look, he was persecuted terribly for revealing really important truths that made really, really powerful people around the world very uncomfortable. And he paid a heavy price for that.
And ultimately, the amazing scenes that we saw last night were thanks to a whole range of people. Barnaby’s mentioned some, but there were millions of people around the world that just campaigned and never gave up.
And last night, it’s not only a triumph for Julian Assange, for his family, for those close to him. It’s a triumph for millions of a of people around the world who never, ever gave up on this cause.
Barnaby Joyce ‘really happy’ about Julian Assange’s release
The Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce spoke to the Nine network about Julian Assange’s release:
The job’s done. It was a long journey.
It was at the end a big, big crowd, but at the start [it was a] very small group.
Joyce said his support came from a matter of principle.
Take out Julian’s name and put in your son or daughter’s name and say, would you support this person? And it’s on the premise of extraterritoriality. We can’t just have Australian citizens whipped off to third countries.
He didn’t didn’t commit a crime in Australia. He wasn’t part of a crime in Australia. We wasn’t a citizen of the United States. He wasn’t in the United States, where the offence is occurred to them, and we’re about to send him to the United States for 175 years in jail?
If you said that was happening to your son or daughter, would you expect Australian legislators to go into bat for them? Of course you would. And this is this is something where I’m really happy that it’s come to a conclusion.
