Government response to domestic violence ‘tokenistic’, teal MPs say
Josh Butler
Zali Steggall has described the government’s response to the domestic violence crisis as “good but tokenistic”, calling for more real support in tonight’s budget.
The “community independents” in the lower house (who many refer to by the shorthand “the teals”) held a press conference with women’s safety advocates in Parliament House today, urging more action on violence against women. Steggall, Zoe Daniel, Monique Ryan, Kylea Tink, Sophie Scamps and Kate Chaney were among the speakers calling for more.
Steggall said:
We saw in response to the Bondi attacks and the tragic deaths that we’ve had recently, in relation to domestic violence, the prime minister called a national cabinet. That national cabinet lasted 90 minutes and came out with the extension of a program that was already in existence, that offers essentially $1500 in cash for women looking to set up an entirely new life, with $3500 [in support] … it’s good, but it’s tokenistic. We have to get going.
She called the weekend announcement about more money for housing “great” but said more was needed.
On budget night we get a lot of announcements. The question is, what kind of delivery are we going to get? Is delivery going to happen with urgency? Or is it going to take 12 to 18 months before a dollar goes out the door?
Scamps said the community independent movement had grown on the back of Coalition government inaction on issues like a national integrity commission and climate change, and warned the movement could pose a threat to the Labor government if it didn’t move more strongly on violence against women.
Scamps said:
They became huge political issues at the last election. I have no doubt it will be a huge issue at the next election and we will continue to drive it.
Key events
OK.
NOW the budget lock up has begun (I was 30 minutes early in calling it before – but in my defence, time has no real meaning)
You’ll see most of Australian media back on twitter at 7.30pm
The coalition and senate crossbench have come together to force the Labor government to table what Simon Birmingham calls “a secret manual distributed by the Prime Minister’s Office to departments instructing them how to avoid answering questions from the Senate”.
Anthony Chisholm tabled it – you can find it here – moments before the senate was about to vote on a motion to force the government to table it. Which, the coalition and crossbench would have won.
The document lays out ‘general principles’ for departmental staff on how to answer senate estimates questions, when it is the job of the department to answer, when it is the minister’s and reads a little like what my police detective father used to teach me about answering questions – including refer to what is already public, and only answer the question you have been asked.
The document seems to be less orders and more a cheat sheet – it is full of caveats of ‘where applicable’ and ‘where appropriate’ (almost as though someone had an eye on the whole thing becoming public!)
Birmingham says the whole thing is “very disturbing”.
The revelation of this secret manual brings into question Labor’s ability and willingness to perform the minimum requirements of government.
What Labor had promised was greater transparency, however what it has delivered is secrecy of the highest order.”
He wants the guiding principles pulled from every department and will now spend his (post budget, one would assume) time reviewing it (thoughts and prayers to the senator’s staff)
Over in the House of Representatives, the house is considering this bill which gives Asio and other security agency workers more protections around protecting the identities of current and former staff.
It also streamlines security clearances and leaves that in the hands of the security agency itself, to further help protect people’s identities and data.
What is a budget lock-up anyway?
Oops – I got a bit ahead of myself. The lock-up is starting in about 30 minutes. Not 1pm, as I originally thought.
But the rest works
Once the lock-up begins, most of the press gallery (and a bunch of journalists and editors in newsrooms in Sydney) are now under the watchful eyes of a Treasury official, with no input from the outside world.
No phones, no internet, no contact.
Why? Well, once it was because there was sensitive information which could impact markets. But those days are long gone (markets are 24 hours and most can guess at the numbers in the documents). Now it is mostly for the drama – it is the one time of the year the government can control the message by controlling how the information comes out – and no political party is giving that power up.
Ahhh, have to love the pre-lock-up vibes –Labor senator Anthony Chisholm has just tabled the answers to a bunch of questions on notice from Senate estimates – 15 minutes before most of the press gallery goes into the budget lockup.
Jordyn Beazley
Welfare Rights Centre loses 40% of funding
A NSW community legal centre that helps people adversely impacted by Centrelink decisions will have its funding drop by 40% after the state and federal government did not commit to maintaining its current funding beyond July.
The centre receives 11,000 calls from 3,000 people annually from people facing issues with Centrelink, yet with current funding can only support half those inquiries. Chief executive of Welfare Rights Centre, Katherine Boyle, said the drop in funding will see more left without support.
Boyle said the service was a lifeline for victim-survivors of domestic violence. In the past year, the centre has seen a 20% increase in women and children at risk or experiencing domestic and family violence seeking its help. She added:
Every day, we witness the struggles of women who have had their claims rejected or payments cancelled due to their association with perpetrators of domestic violence. These women turn to us because there is no other service in NSW equipped to navigate the complexities of social security law.
As the federal government prepares its budget following the robodebt royal commission’s findings, it has a prime opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to adequately funding and supporting organisations like the Welfare Rights Centre.
Sarah Basford Canales
McBride sentence a ‘bitter pill’, ex-wife Sarah says
As we reported earlier, the former army lawyer, David McBride, was sentenced to five years and eight months in jail shortly before lunch for taking classified defence documents on the Afghanistan war and passing them on to journalists.
As ACT supreme court justice David Mossop read out his ruling, the courtroom erupted. A number of McBride’s supporters began shouting “shame on you” and “shame on the court”.
Mossop said “if you don’t be quiet, I’ll clear the court” before finishing his remarks. The court rose and the shouting continued as Mossop left the court room.
ACT corrections officers went to McBride to begin taking him into custody. He was allowed to hug some of his family members and friends, including his ex-wife, Sarah, who was visibly upset.
Outside the court, Sarah said it was a “bitter pill to swallow” and was devastated to now have to share the news with their two daughters. Sarah added one was at school today while the other was overseas on a trip.
For more on this story:
Speaking on behalf of the Labor government, Anthony Chisholm says:
The Australian government has a zero tolerance approach towards violence and expects all students to act respectfully towards each other antisemitism, Islamophobia and any other form of racism, harassment, discrimination or intimidation must not be allowed to threaten the safety of students and staff in Australian university campuses.
Chisholm said universities are taking action where they have identified a need to. He accuses the Greens of political grandstanding and then asks the motion to be put (voted on).
The government and Coalition will easily defeat the motion to suspend standing orders (meaning the Greens will lose the vote).
Liberal senator Sarah Henderson has risen to speak against the motion and condemned Mehreen Faruqi “who failed to condemn Hamas”.
Henderson “salutes” Deakin university for asking for the encampment to be dismantled.
Senator accuses Labor of ‘moral bankruptcy’ over Gaza
Back in the Senate, Mehreen Faruqi is moving to suspend standing orders to move the motion that Paul Karp reported on a little earlier (it calls on the government to protect the students participating in university encampments)
Faruqi addresses the Senate and says:
You should be haunted by the slaughter of newborns, toddlers and children in Gaza. You should be haunted by the attacks on hospitals, schools, refugee camps and mass graves. But you are cold, callous and calculating politicians who are instead full of contempt for those protesting this genocide.
You are full of contempt for students who are camping out for Gaza.
The moral bankruptcy of Labor and other so-called leaders in the face of this massacre. Is a stain on our collective conscience.
The Gaza encampment at unis across the continent are a reminder though that all is not lost.
Faruqi asks why politicians are more concerned with the protests than what they are protesting.
Power to the students who have the integrity, the bravery, the humanity that is completely lacking in this government.
Adeshola Ore
Dan Andrews urges states to adopt recommendations of Victorian royal commission into domestic violence
Former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says recommendations from the state’s 2016 family violence royal commission report should be adopted across other jurisdictions.
Amid a recent spate of Australian women allegedly killed by men in violent attacks, the federal government has ruled out a royal commission. Last month, the federal attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said the government should instead focus on implementing policies it has already identified.
Speaking at a event in Melbourne, alongside domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty, Andrews says Victoria’s inquiry can serve as a national blueprint:
Each of us can share and demand of other governments, the national government and other state and territory governments, that they quite simply adopt each of the 227 recommendations.
It is frustrating to follow the debate in recent weeks and months … it’s all just sitting there. Grab that.
Andrews says there is “no need to be starting from scratch if you don’t need to”.
Last week, the NSW premier Chris Minns ruled out a royal commission into family violence, saying the government did not have the time and needed to inject funding immediately into the sector.
Don Farrell claims immunity on documents
Over in the Senate, Don Farrell has said the government will not be supplying information and documents ordered by the Senate over the NDIS legislation negotiations.
Farrell is using a public immunity claim, saying it would impact the discussions with the states and territories.
The Coalition and Greens are on a unity ticket on being scathing about this.
Elias Visontay
Qantas cuts Sydney-Shanghai service
Qantas has announced it will cut its Sydney-Shanghai service due to low demand, as it redirects aircraft to more profitable routes.
The airline announced it would suspend the Sydney-Shanghai route from 28 July, less than a year after its post-Covid resumption in October, because “demand has not recovered as anticipated”.
In a statement, the airline said:
Qantas will continue to monitor the Australia-China market closely and will look to return to Shanghai when demand has recovered.
Customers booked to travel on Shanghai flights from 28 July will be contacted and offered a full refund,
Qantas will launch a new route from Brisbane to Manila, beginning from 28 October this year. It will also increase flights to other Asian destinations, with Sydney to Singapore services increasing from 14 to 17 return flights per week from December.
Brisbane to Singapore services will also increase, from seven to nine weekly return flights, from October, while Sydney-Bengaluru flights will increase from five weekly to daily over peak holiday seasons.
New Greens senator sworn in
The new Greens senator for Victoria, Steph Hodgins-May, has been officially sworn into the Senate.
Hodgins-May replaces Janet Rice (continues the tradition of newly elected Greens MPs (mostly) having double barrel surnames).
Rice is cycling from Melbourne to Canberra to raise awareness of the role people can play in their democracy and I believe she starts that massive ride today.
Deadlock over deportation bill
Paul Karp
Guardian Australia understands there is still no resolution between Labor and the Coalition on the deportation bill, which is listed for Wednesday in the Senate.
In fact, the opposition hasn’t heard back what the government makes of its amendments, which include specifying that people who have legal cases afoot can’t be given a direction to cooperate with deportation and that, before giving a direction in relation to any child, the minister must conduct an assessment of whether the direction is in their best interests.
The Coalition will seek the senate’s support for its amendments.
David McBride sentenced to five years’ jail
Sarah Basford Canales
David McBride has been sentenced to five years and eight months in jail for his role in stealing classified documents about the Afghanistan war and leaking them to the media.
ACT supreme court justice David Mossop delivered his judgement on Tuesday morning sentencing the former army lawyer to 68 months of imprisonment with a non-parole period of 27 months.
Full story here:
