Plibersek says government will listen to expert advice on TikTok
Tanya Plibersek was also asked to weigh in on the push to ban TikTok in Australia, if the platform’s Chinese owner ByteDance doesn’t sell to another owner. That follows the latest American push to ban the app in the US (it is not the first time that has happened – Donald Trump also tried and the Chinese government went “bet” and slapped tech sanctions on US imports).
Plibersek says:
Well, first of all, of course it’s not on government devices in Australia either. We’ve got a ban here in Australia on government devices. But there are 8.5 million Australians who are using it.
We’ll take the advice of our security and intelligence agencies on anything we need to do around TikTok. I think people should be careful of the data that they put online in general. Like I say, if the security and intelligence agencies give us advice on TikTok, we’ll take it.
Key events
Medical, trade union, business and aid sector leaders have come together to urge the government to “invest more in overseas development to prevent the world slipping towards crisis points that threaten our stability and prosperity”.
Zoe Daniel launched the ‘Safer world for all Commonwealth’ investment case with Caritas chief executive Kirsty Robertson, ETU National Secretary, Michael Wright and Burnet Institute Director and CEO Professor Brendan Crabb AC.
The paper notes that “on present trends, by 2030, about seven per cent of the world’s population (575 million people) will live in extreme poverty with 600 million people chronically undernourished. Approximately 84 million children will be out of school, 660 million people will not have access to electricity and the cost of supporting nations to deal with the impact of climate change will balloon to USD $671 billion”.
Uber to pay out taxi and hire car drivers almost $272m
For those who have been paying attention to market disruption through new tech, there has been a result in the Uber class action, as AAP reports:
Uber will cough up almost $272m to compensate taxi and hire car drivers who lost out when the rideshare company “aggressively” moved into the Australian market.
A class action against Uber was expected to go to trial at the supreme court of Victoria on Monday but Maurice Blackburn Lawyers said it would be abandoned after the rideshare giant agreed to the mammoth settlement.
It was the fifth-largest class action settlement in Australia’s history and holds Uber to account, five “gruelling” years after lawyers launched the action on behalf of more than 8000 taxi and hire car owners and drivers, the law firm said.
Majority of Australians in favour of scaling back investor tax breaks, polling shows
Housing is, of course, still on the agenda. Labor in Queensland received a shock when its vote bled to the Greens at the byelection and there is evidence that will continue in the federal sphere, as renters turn their anger towards the major parties.
That means that negative gearing and capital gains tax are once again in the spotlight. AAP reports on new polling showing voter attitudes on the tax breaks:
Three in five Australian voters favour scaling back negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount, new polling suggests.
One in five want investment property tax breaks to stay the same, according to the polling by independent consultancy RedBridge Group on behalf of national housing affordability campaigners Everybody’s Home.
A further one-fifth of those surveyed were unsure.
Negative gearing allows investors to claim deductions on losses, while the capital gains tax discount halves the amount of excise paid by people who sell assets they have owned for 12 months or more.
Investor tax breaks are back in the headlines since the Greens promised to vote against Labor’s shared home equity scheme without substantive changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.
The federal government has ruled out such changes, leaving the future of its help-to-buy scheme in doubt.
Natasha May
Medical staff shortages top of agenda as health bodies meet in Canberra
The peak medical body along with more than 50 specialist medical colleges, associations and societies are meeting in Canberra today to set their agenda for system-wide health sector reform.
Prof Steve Robson, president of the Australian Medical Association, says workforce issues will be top of the agenda:
Everyone, including Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler, who will speak at the meeting, acknowledges the health workforce shortages facing the country, with access and lack of planning continuing to be a problem.
Robson said while the federal government’s significant investments in health over the last year were very welcome, there was more to be done.
The AMA’s budget submission calls for a national health workforce planning agency to be established to provide evidence-based solutions to address workforce maldistribution and shortages.
Reform of the private health system will also be on the agenda, with the AMA’s pre-budget submission calling for an independent Private Health System Authority to oversee the sector and create a platform for reform.
Labor pushes for NSW high speed rail business case
We are still apparently doing high speed rail in NSW
Infrastructure minister Catherine King wants to find some experts (I suppose all the experts relied on previously for this project will have retired, given this is something Australia has been looking at for decades):
The High Speed Rail Authority (HSRA) is seeking world-leading experts to help develop and plan Stage 1 of an east coast high-speed rail network between Sydney, the Central Coast and Newcastle.
The Government is seeking tenders for eight work packages that will support the HSRA deliver a business case for the Sydney to Newcastle section of the high-speed rail network by the end of 2024.
The eight packages include Project controls (costs, schedule and risk), Rail Operations Planning, First Nations Participation and Engagement, and Commercial, Delivery Strategy and Industry Engagement.
This critical work will help inform important elements of the business case including proposed alignment, station locations, fleet, cost estimate and future construction timeframes.
The parliament sitting doesn’t officially begin until 10am this morning, so don’t expect to hear too much from the MPs until mid-morning.
‘There’ll be a lot of people grieving today’
Both Barnaby Joyce and Tanya Plibersek were asked about soldier Jack Fitzgibbon, the son of former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon.
Joyce:
The Fitzgibbon family are a family of honour. Jack died in service to our nation. Joel has served our nation. The family will be absolutely grieving. We hope and pray Jack is with our maker, give comfort to them. You’ve seen the Fitzgibbons, you’ve watched them on television. They’re a great family. He is also my mate. We’ll turn up and give what support we can to Jack’s family.
Plibersek:
It’s just the worst thing that any parent can imagine and so our hearts go out to Joel and Diane and their family and the friends and comrades that Jack had in the service as well. We know there’ll be a lot of people grieving today.
Today is going to be a somewhat quieter day in the parliament. Many parliamentarians are travelling for Jack’s funeral and things like QT will be delayed to accommodate the event.
Plibersek says government will listen to expert advice on TikTok
Tanya Plibersek was also asked to weigh in on the push to ban TikTok in Australia, if the platform’s Chinese owner ByteDance doesn’t sell to another owner. That follows the latest American push to ban the app in the US (it is not the first time that has happened – Donald Trump also tried and the Chinese government went “bet” and slapped tech sanctions on US imports).
Plibersek says:
Well, first of all, of course it’s not on government devices in Australia either. We’ve got a ban here in Australia on government devices. But there are 8.5 million Australians who are using it.
We’ll take the advice of our security and intelligence agencies on anything we need to do around TikTok. I think people should be careful of the data that they put online in general. Like I say, if the security and intelligence agencies give us advice on TikTok, we’ll take it.
‘Don’t think you have it in the bag’: Joyce on Labor after Queensland byelection
Barnaby Joyce had thoughts about the Queensland byelection results.
He told the Seven Network:
There are two things that lose you an election. Incompetence and arrogance. I was about to say they would have had the arrogance knocked out of them after that but listening to Tanya [Plibersek] then and trotting out the lines, seems like arrogance and incompetence is still there.
Law and order is a big issue up there. Massive issue. If you can’t feel safe on the streets, you will change the government.
The cost of living, of course, is a massive issue but that goes over to the federal sphere. While you’re concentrating on wind farms, solar factories and transmission lines, people are getting poorer to pay for fuel or power.
It doesn’t matter what the rhetoric is, what matters is what’s in my wallet and it is getting less and less because I can’t afford to get through my life.
That’s an issue. That issue will go over to the federal election but a lot of work for the state guys to do between now and the election. Don’t think you have it in a the bag.
Federal attention is also turning to Tropical Cyclone Megan, which has the potential to devastate Indigenous communities in the Top End.
There is a little bit of federal attention on Queensland after the worst byelection results for state Labor in decades.
There is a general election in Queensland in October, where the polls are pointing to a whitewash for Labor, with the LNP in the box seat for it’s third Queensland government since 1989.
David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie will be holding an early morning press conference to speak on the PPL agreement they have made with the government (Sarah reported on it just a few posts down).
Josh Taylor
AI and internet search to come under microscope of ACCC inquiry
The impact of generative AI on the search industry will be put under the microscope in the competition regulator’s next digital platforms inquiry.
The next instalment, announced on Monday, will look at how internet search is changing, and the state of competition between internet search services in Australia.
The review will consider whether choice screens – which allow users to choose which search site to use in their browser – have had an impact overseas, and whether generative AI is changing the way people search online.
ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said:
Significant changes have occurred since the ACCC last examined search services in 2021. We’ve seen new laws introduced overseas that place obligations on so-called gatekeeper search engines and the emergence of new technologies, like generative AI, that have changed the way consumers search for information online and may be impacting the quality of the service they are receiving.
The ACCC wants to understand the impact of these developments on general search
services and ultimately, how they affect competition and consumers.
The regulator had previously reviewed general search and browser competition in 2021. The government in-principle supported recommendations for a mandatory code for consumer choice in these products but the issue has not advanced further.
People can make submissions to the inquiry by 17 April 2024.
Small businesses get extra help in rolling out expanded paid parental leave
Sarah Basford Canales
Small business owners will get extra help with handing out Labor’s new paid parental leave arrangements after a deal was struck with independent senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie.
The new paid parental leave scheme will add two extra weeks per year from this year until it reaches a total of six months by 2026. The leave can be accessed by either of the newborn’s parents.
But a parliamentary inquiry heard many small business owners weren’t equipped to handle the extra costs associated with handing out paid parental leave.
In response, the government agreed to pour in $10m over the coming four years to help small businesses with the new arrangements.
Pocock said:
We need to be making it easier, not harder, to run a small business in Australia. I can’t see any downside for small businesses being free to choose whether or not to administer a scheme the government can administer itself, and already does in over a third of cases currently.
The two senators will work on additional arrangements with other crossbenchers, including making the administration of payments opt-in or opt-out.
Sarah Basford Canales
Greens push to ditch Harmony Week and have ‘honest reckoning’ with racism
The Greens are urging the Albanese government to dump references to “Harmony Week” once and for all, saying the name whitewashes the international day set aside to get rid of racism.
The NSW Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi wrote to immigration minister Andrew Giles last Thursday calling for the week to be renamed “anti-racism week”.
Harmony Day was first established in 1999 under the Howard government to replace the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The international day was first observed in 1966 in remembrance for the 69 killed in the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa six years earlier. The mostly black protesters had been shot at by police as they attempted a peaceful protest against apartheid.
Last year, the government dropped references to Harmony Day in favour of its original name. However, it continues to use the full week’s title, Harmony Week.
Faruqi said:
Last year the government ditched Harmony Day after our campaign. The next step is to get rid of Harmony Week and Australia’s racism blindspot with it. It’s time for an honest reckoning with white privilege and systemic racism, rather than tokenistic celebrations of skin deep multiculturalism.
Asked whether the government was considering dropping all references to the day, Giles said:
This week provides all of us with an occasion to celebrate our vibrant multiculturalism and reflect on how each of us, and more of us, can do more to help stamp out racism in our communities … With the release of the Multicultural Framework Review in the near future, the Albanese Labor government is working to ensure that no matter where you’re born or the language you speak, everyone in Australia feels as though they belong.
Good morning
Hello and welcome to the final sitting fortnight before the autumn break – once this sitting adjourns, parliament won’t sit again until the budget is handed down in May.
There is a small amount of legislation the government wants to tidy up before it moves into budget mode – and narrows its focus to the cost of living – before May, and this fortnight will see most of that happen.
You can also expect religious discrimination to once again rear its head.
But it is a sombre start to the week. Many parliamentarians, including the prime minister, will be attending the funeral of ADF soldier Jack Fitzgibbon – the son of former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon – who died after a parachute incident during training last month.
Question time will be delayed until 3.30pm to accommodate those attending. It’s hard to see how MPs will go from something like a young man’s funeral to arguing over fuel efficiency standards in question time, so I would expect a more muted affair today.
Labor’s newest MP, Jodie Belyea, will be sworn in and will take her seat as the MP for Dunkley.
The Liberals are still grappling with their men problem, with conservative warrior Alex Antic winning the top SA Senate spot from one of the Liberal’s most senior women, Anne Ruston.
All this is to say it’s going to be a strange fortnight. And that is before you get to the visit from China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, which is scheduled for later this week.
We’ll be covering it all – you have Karen Middleton joining you this week, as well as Paul Karp, Sarah Basford Canales, Josh Butler and Daniel Hurst.
Mike Bowers will be there to take you to all the action and you have Amy Remeikis on the blog.
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
