Australia should pay whistleblowers, says Allan Fels
Asked about anti-competition practicers, the former competition tsar said Australia should adopt the US policy of paying whistleblowers.
One way of making it more effective would be to strengthen whistleblower protection. Cartels nearly always are only detected, it is almost always secret agreements if there is a whistleblower.
The rewards for being a whistleblower are very, very slight. And the harms are pretty miserable as a rule.
The United States these days, the bastion of Conservative governments, even of the Democrats, it pays whistleblowers rewards. I think we should bring that here.
Key events
What we learned today, Wednesday 7 February
And with that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Before we go, let’s recap the big headlines:
-
Labor’s closing loopholes bill is a step closer to passing parliament after a deal was struck with the Greens that includes a right to disconnect from work for employees.
-
Australia should adopt the US policy of paying whistleblowers, former competition tsar, Allan Fels, told the National Press Club today.
-
Australians are continuously overcharged and subjected to “profit push” pricing by major corporations enjoying scant competition, resulting in higher inflation and intensifying cost-of-living pressures.
-
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, sought but failed to suspend standing orders in the House of Representatives to move that Australia “end its support for Israel’s invasion of Gaza”. In response, the assistant foreign minister, Tim Watts, defended the government’s approach to the war in Gaza.
-
Four Victorian Greens MPs were kicked out of parliament after they held signs up during question time that accused the government of “arming Israel”.
-
Labor backbenchers have privately played down the impact of Australia’s pause in funding to a key UN agency delivering aid to Gaza, with one MP denouncing “misinformation underpinning some online media and email campaigns”.
-
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations have called for urgent action in the wake of the Closing The Gap report, which gave a scathing assessment of the potential failure of the whole agreement due to governments simply not doing enough.
-
The Queensland government has approved Whitehaven’s Winchester South coalmine to extract up to 17m tonnes of thermal and metallurgical coal each year for 28 years.
-
The Queensland government will set “yearly targets” for reducing youth crime.
-
About 100 pro-Palestine protesters gathered at the front of Parliament House in Canberra today to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the blockade.
-
More asbestos has been found in new locations in Sydney and regional NSW after the discovery of contamination at several other Transport for New South Wales sites including the Rozelle parklands.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian Greens MPs asked to apologise for signs in parliament
The speaker in Victoria’s lower house, Maree Edwards, has requested the four Greens MPs who broke parliament’s rules and displayed signs during question time formally apologise.
Edwards met with MPs Gabrielle de Vietri, Sam Hibbins, Tim Read and Ellen Sandell this afternoon after she suspended them from the chamber for 90 minutes for holding up signs which read “Vic Labor Stop Arming Israel”.
This apology is expected to occur in the lower house on Thursday morning.
Coles blames farmers and suppliers for higher prices
Coles has blamed high supermarket prices on requests for hikes from farmers and suppliers in a parliamentary inquiry into supermarket prices, AAP reports.
In a submission to the committee, Coles says it has received on average more than 70 requests a week from suppliers and farmers, which is almost double the level a few years ago.
The supermarket giant adds it has been affected by increased energy, labour, logistics and packaging costs.
Coles has told the committee, led by the Greens senator Nick McKim, that for every $100 of operating revenue earned, $73.09 is spent on buying and getting products to stores, with the vast majority going to suppliers.
Wages and benefits are the next highest expenditures, accounting for $11.87 out of every $100.
Coles says in its submission:
We highly value these long-term partnerships and it is our ambition to continue to build on these successes and contribute to the long-term sustainability of our valued suppliers.
The supermarket chain says its suppliers are subject to the same cost pressures that households are grappling with.
Berejiklian Icac probe drives integrity changes for MPs
An investigation that sensationally revealed the ex-premier Gladys Berejiklian’s secret relationship with a colleague has sparked a slew of integrity changes for NSW politicians, AAP reports.
Parliamentary representatives will have to provide expanded and more up-to-date information about potential conflicts of interest under the proposed changes.
Disclosures will be published on the NSW parliament’s website on an ongoing basis – instead of periodically – under the proposed reform, announced by the state government on Wednesday.
It will also be a legal requirement to respond to any Independent Commission Against Corruption recommendations directed at the government.
The premier, Chris Minns, says the changes will restore trust in government and make clear what is expected of ministers and members following two separate investigations into Liberal representatives:
The people of NSW need to have faith that politicians and elected officials are acting in the public interest.
Andrew Messenger
Parents charged with two-year-old’s murder over alleged failure to seek medical care
Queensland police have charged the parents of a two-year-old girl with murder for allegedly failing to seek medical treatment for her.
The toddler was declared dead by medical staff after presenting at Mackay Base hospital on 29 December 2022.
Police will allege the child had been sick for some time, and her parents negligently caused her death by not seeking medical treatment.
They have also been charged with failure to have a birth registered.
Read more here:
If you’re just catching up on today’s news, my colleague Antoun Issa has the top news stories here for you in our afternoon update:
Jordyn Beazley
Thank you Amy Remeikis, and hello blog readers! I’ll now be with you until this evening.
Jordyn Beazley will take you through what is left of the day. We’ll be back tomorrow with the last sitting day of the week (but not the fortnight, with the House of Reps next week) and the PNG prime minister, James Marape, making his historic address to a joint sitting of the parliament.
Thank you so much to everyone who sat through that with us. It is a lot, all of the time, and rarely a place for grownups. You help us through. I’ll be back early tomorrow morning – but in the meantime, take care of you.
Here is how Mike Bowers saw QT:
TFW you just want your couch and a hot chocolate:
The current leader of the Nationals:
The former leader of the Nationals consults one of the three quadrants of his brain.
Fight over who said ‘you can’t handle the truth’ joke first
Because this is the Australian parliament, and also the Liberal party, there is now conjecture over whether or not Dan Tehan stole the ‘you can’t handle the truth’ joke from one of his colleagues.
Various versions have the LNP MP Keith Pitt yelling it first, others have Sussan Ley having said it.
But Tehan got the glory.
Question time is about as boring as the Oscars, so they do have that in common.
“this is question time, not the Academy Awards”
if you can believe it, federal parliament stalled for a minute as Anthony Albanese and Dan Tehan quoted Jack Nicholson movies back at each other pic.twitter.com/sjH9Ld0alK
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) February 7, 2024
Eden Gillespie
Queensland government approves coalmine despite concern over ‘climate change consequences’
The Queensland government has approved Whitehaven’s Winchester South coalmine to extract up to 17m tonnes of thermal and metallurgical coal each year for 28 years.
Queensland’s coordinator-general recommended the approval of the mine last year despite conceding it “has the capacity to limit human rights” due to “climate change consequences that may arise from the project.”
The project is estimated to produce 583m tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution – more than Australia’s national annual greenhouse gas emissions – including 14.2m tonnes of on site emissions, and 567m tonnes of scope three emissions when it is burned overseas.
Approximately 58% of the mine’s coal is slated for steel production, while the other 42% would be exported to Asian countries for use producing electricity.
The decision comes after Queensland premier, Steven Miles, doubled the state’s emissions reduction target to 75% by 2035 – making it one of the most ambitious in the country.
Dr Coral Rowston, the director of Environmental Advocacy in Central Queensland, said it was “contradictory” for the Queensland government to approve the mine so soon after bolstering its emissions reduction target.
The Queensland Miles Government can reduce the state’s emissions, or it can have new coalmines. It can’t have both.”
The mine still requires federal approval before going ahead.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian premier and opposition leader blast Greens Gaza protest
Back to the Victorian parliament and both Jacinta Allan and opposition leader, John Pesutto, slammed the protest by the Greens and questioned whether the 90-minute suspension was appropriate.
Allan says de Vietri has pulled other stunts in the parliament, including when she posed for a selfie with climate protesters from the floor of the Legislative Assembly last year. (When de Vietri refused to apologise she was suspended from parliament for the remainder of the sitting week).
Opposition manager of business in the lower house, James Newbury, said:
Kicking a member out for 90 minutes for this ongoing behaviour, for shutting down our parliament … is not just causing division but it is hurting people.
Allan said it was an “unprecedented moment” as she agreed with Newbury:
I condemn that behaviour today. It is unparliamentary but worse than that it is disrespectful to the Victorian community.
Speaker Maree Edwards said she would request an apology from the Greens MPs on Wednesday afternoon:
If I do not receive that apology, there will be further matters to proceed with.
Because it has been one of the biggest subjects of the week, here is Anthony Albanese’s latest ad for Nemesis:
Which is all fun and games, but one day it’s going to be his documentary they are talking about in the chamber.
Question time ends.
Dear Dolly that was an ordeal.
