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Dutton blocks medevac transfer after claiming it couldn't be done – politics live PM defends Coalition after IMF slashes economic growth forecast – question time live
(about 4 hours later)
The treasurer is correct to say that the IMF projects Australia’s GDP growth this year will be faster than any G7 nation except the USA. But we of course are not part of the G7; we are part of the OECD, and of the 34 member nations, our growth is projected to be the 19th best. The entire chamber is treating this answer like the teacher has just left the room unsupervised for a moment.
Not quite so impressive. I swear to Riri, everytime I look down in that chamber some face I have never seen before pops up.
Meanwhile, a report from Anglicare has their multiple applications for each entry-level job. From Luke Henriques-Gomes One of those faces sends Michael McCormack to the despatch box.
At least five people are applying for every entry-level position advertised as Australia’s most disadvantaged jobseekers are forced to compete against growing numbers of underemployed people for a dwindling number of suitable jobs, a report has found. Enough said.
Anglicare’s annual Jobs Availability Snapshot, released on Wednesday, found there were 5.49 people competing for each entry-level job, while one in seven jobseekers faced difficulties getting into work such as a disability or minimal education. Adam Bandt to Scott Morrison:
Josh Frydenberg also backed Malcolm Turnbull’s defence of the Snowy 2.0 project: The Bureau of Meteorology has said the Murray-Darling basin is on record drought, the climate crisis is a significant factor. Your government is lifting pollution which is making global warming were sent threatening farmers and communities on the land further. Prime Minister, if we have always been a land of droughts and flooding rain, why are you doing everything in your power to make these extreme events worse? Doesn’t every piece of thermal coal you explored and burn send another farmer to the wall? What is more important, crops or coal?
I think it’s very clear that it will have significant benefits to the Australian energy market, providing power for more than 500,000 homes. Helping to stablise the growing intermittent energy that is coming into the system - particularly wind and solar. And Malcolm Turnbull’s absolutely right - that there are vested interests that want to poo-poo this project, because it may affect their own particular plans. Morrison:
But the reality is, Australia, over the years has not provided enough storage in our energy market. And Snowy 2.0 is a nation-building project that will be really important on the eastern sea board in stabilising the housing market.” I would refer him to the speech I gave to the UN, recently, in the national statement for Australia, which set out clearly the actions Australia was taken, and our record, in particular in relation to renewable energy investments, which per capita is the highest of any country in the world today.
Question: Why is there so much on the balanced budget? If the economic conditions in Australia turn down further, presumably the government will stimulate the economy. And aren’t you exposing yourself to the Wayne Swann problem? He promised us an iron-clad surplus, which Labor couldn’t deliver for a variety of reasons. Aren’t you exposing yourself and the government to the same risk? I note the Member for Melbourne shaking his head. I simply said, that Australian per capita investment in renewable energy is the highest in the world today! He shook his head. If he is in denial of those facts I will leave that to him! What I know is what I set out in that national statement at the United Nations which showed we will meet our Kyoto 2020 targets, we will beat them by 367 million tons.
We will meet our 2030 commitments, through the combination of measures we have announced, and other factors will contribute to that, out to 2030. We agree there is a need to take action on climate change. That was not an issue of debate or division. Between the major parties at the last election.
The issue that was at debate being contested was the scale and the level of targets that could be responsibly set Australia into the future, and the impact that would have on the Australian economy. At the election we were able to explain clearly what the costs of those were, our targets and how we would meet them. The Labor Party at the last election were unable to do that, unable to spell out what the cost would be two jobs, this was a key issue.
He continues talking about what the party who is not in government is doing. Because, that is what we do now.
Jim Chalmers to Josh Frydenberg:
My question is to the Treasurer, why does the Treasurer pretend the global factors are the primary reason for our floundering economy, when the Reserve Bank and others say Australia’s weak economic growth is homegrown?
Frydenberg:
YOU TAKE EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO TALK DOWN THE AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY.
We are back to yelling. And also, describing the economy as a snowflake.
Scott Morrison is now reading from a handwritten answer for this lickspittle, which is an achievement, given it covers the entire government manifesto.
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
My question is again addressed to the prime minister. Will the prime minister admit that since May the Reserve Bank has downgraded its growth forecast for Australia. The OECD has downgraded its growth forecast for Australia by twice as much as the G20, and the IMF has downgraded its growth forecast for Australia by four times more than other advanced economies. Why doesn’t the government have a plan to turn the economy around?
(Spoiler: No, he won’t admit that.)
Morrison:
Our plan is very clear and we took it to the last election, it was endorsed by the Australian people, and that plan is anchored first and foremost not in the panicked and crisis policies of the Labor party, which if they had had the opportunity in the last election they would be now taking a wrecking ball to the Australian economy with their higher taxes and their reckless spending. No, the Australian people chose stability and certainty of keeping more of what they earn, of ensuring that those tax cuts would be delivered and that is exactly what we delivered as soon as we got back into this place. And Labor resisted it and resisted it and resisted it, and they folded as usual. They can’t even keep the consistency and the opposition to good economic policy.
I mean, at least Morrison has admitted that Labor voted for the tax cuts.
Scott Morrison is now explaining why “now is not the time for Labor’s policies”.
Has someone told him that we are at the very beginning of the election cycle and the only way Labor’s policies would be enacted is if the government adopted them?
There has been a bit of commentary around that the government still hasn’t switched out of election mode – I think that is just going to get louder.
Looks like someone missed the jump – Jim Chalmers gets the next question:
The prime minister just stated the downgrades of the IMF apply to everyone. Why is the downgrade for Australia’s growth four times worse than for other advanced economies?
Josh Frydenberg:Josh Frydenberg:
Surpluses are not ends in themselves. They’re not trophies on a cabinet table. They’re actually an indication of strong budget management and helping to build the resilience in the Australian economy so you can weather those economic shocks. The IMF today in its global economic outlook had Australia’s economic growth in 2019 at 1.7%, and in 2020 at 2.3% and, as the House knows, Australia’s in its 29th consecutive year of economic growth. Mr Speaker, employment growth in Australia is at 2.5%. Do you know what it was when we came to government? 0.7%, Mr Speaker. Less than one-third of what we have inherited today. Economic participation, the number of people who are in work, is at a record high. Over 66%, Mr Speaker. The welfare dependency today is now at a 30-year low, Mr Speaker.
I mean, if Peter Costello and John Howard hadn’t paid back Labor’s debt, could you imagine the trouble* that Labor would have had, more so than they even did, through that GFC? Frydenberg did not raise his voice once in that one. *snaps*
The fact that the Coalition left government under Howard and Costello with zero government debt, money in the bank and budget surpluses, gave Labor that fiscal flexibility to spend through that cycle when the shock hit. Anthony Albanese:
So really, a strong budget position is not mutually exclusive from having a strong economy. They come together. And the fact that we’ve seen record job creation and the lowest welfare dependency in Australia in 30 years is actually an indication of good decision-making, good economic management, which is going to help to protect us into the future. Why has the IMF slashed Australia’s economic growth forecast this calendar year?
*the ‘trouble’ would have been slightly higher interest payments on government debt Scott Morrison:
Question: You’re saying “stay the course” not “change the course” in light of growth rates below 2%. Does that mean that you’re prepared to accept growth rates below 2%? The revision by the IMF overnight reflects the uncertainty of the times in which we live, Mr Speaker, and that uncertainty extends to the global environment, which I would hope the opposition would be familiar with. We have been fashioning budgets for years to deal with the increasing uncertainty in the global economic climate.
Josh Frydenberg: He will also be familiar with the real impact on the economy of the terrible drought that is now impacting on the Australian economy. And this is why, Mr Speaker, over successive budgets now we have been putting in place the types of resilience measures that support our economy in times like these.
Let’s wait until we see the September national account numbers. But we do know that the Australian economy is facing some significant headwinds. The global headwinds are real, and you’ve seen that in the IMF report today, and their description of a synchronised slowdown. And the uncertainty of the times reflected in the IMF forecast revisions overnight, which obviously applies to a whole host of economies all around the world, that is just a fact, that is just a fact, the truth remains that while things are tough Australia’s economy is growing only second to the United States of all G7 nations. (Once again, we are not part of the G7.)
The impact of the drought, which has taken 0.25% straight off GDP, but has seen significant funding being required by the federal government. There is a lot of work to do, but in uncertain times, I’d tell you what it calls for.
So we do face these challenges. But we have lower taxes, putting more money into people’s pockets. It calls for lower taxes, which is what we are doing, Mr Speaker. It calls us for reducing the cost of doing business in this country, and amplifying procedures in the industrial areas, to engage in reforms and our skill sector, to ensure that we are expanding our trade borders all around the world as we have been doing now over the last six years. It calls us to invest $100bn in infrastructure as we are doing, and that is just for infrastructure, with some almost $10bn invested just this year alone, Mr Speaker.
We have record spending on infrastructure. We have the plan to create 80,000 new apprenticeships, and we’re entering into the free-trade agreements which are also ensuring greater opportunities for Australian businesses. So that is our economic plan, and that is a plan that has also seen the budget come into balance for the first time in 11 years. And it calls on us to invest $200bn in the future to recapitalise in our defence industries, as we heard yesterday in south-western Sydney, $250,000 worth of value added is provided by Quickstep, an Australian company, into every joint strike fighter that will be flown by every country that purchased them around the world.
Josh Frydenberg is speaking on the IMF report, downgrading Australia’s growth rate from 2.1% to 1.4% These are our investment decisions to address these uncertain times. Those opposite think the answer is higher taxes, and they think higher taxes will have no impact on the economy, and the leader of the opposition was asked today whether he thought Labor’s high taxes would have had an impact on the economy, and he said no!
It is now more important than ever that we stay the course with considered, disciplined and responsible economic management. Economic management that sees Australia in its 29th consecutive year of economic growth. He said I don’t think they would. He said the answer was no, in response to the tax increases they have proposed when it comes to the housing tax. So, Mr Speaker, we are for lower taxes, a stronger economy and a strong budget.
With a triple A credit rating that only 10 developed nations have. With a strong labour market which has seen more than 1.4 million new jobs being created. And with the first balanced budget in 11 years. Today, the IMF has confirmed that the Australian economy will grow faster than any G7 nation, except the United States. That exchange there is how question time is going to play out.
Now, our economic plan will see the Australian economy continue to grow with lower taxes, record spending on infrastructure, providing the workforce with the skills that they need, cutting red tape and entering into new free-trade agreements, which has already seen businesses have greater access to some two billion new customers. But let’s see.
And we will ensure a strong economy and a strong budget position, because it is critical to the resilience of the Australian economy, as we fails the global headwinds. Tim Wilson was just building up to his big ‘climate protesters are terrible’ speech conclusion when Anthony Albanese interjected to say it was 2pm and therefore question time.
Peter Dutton has tabled a statement on his decision to exercise his medevac discretion to refuse a transfer (as is required by the legislation): Saved by the bell.
REFUSAL STATEMENT UNDER SECTION 198J OF THE MIGRATION ACT 1958 Here is Katie Allen on the IMF report on the ABC:
On 11 October 2019,1, PETER DUTTON, Minister for Home Affairs made a decision under section 198G(2) of the Migration Act 1958 to refuse to approve the transfer of an accompanying family member from Nauru to Australia. To be fair, we are in a new economic environment. Economists are telling us we should do this and that but it is difficult to know what is going to be the best thing going forward when you think about the global situation. We know that at the Australian level, we have the right plan going forward and that has actually been voted for by the Australian people and that is what they want to see, a budget that is in balance ... and delivering jobs and we’re doing that.
I made this decision because I reasonably believe the accompanying family member would expose the Australian community to a serious risk of criminal conduct and should not be transferred to Australia. We need to be very, very careful about trade and implications there, to make sure we are building a trade portfolio and our relationships with other countries is diversified. So that when the headwinds turn and take us in the right direction, we are ready to take those opportunities and move forward.
The Department of Home Affairs (Department) has advised me that the accompanying family member has a history of violent and manipulative behaviour, including allegations of physical assault against his children, been investigated by Nauruan Police Force for criminal activity, engaged in military service in Iran and that the Department has been unable to verify his identity. And Pat Conroy’s response:
Pursuant to section 198G(5), in deciding to refuse to approve the accompanying family member’s transfer, I have had regard to the best interests of the adult transferee who it was recommended he should accompany. I have approved the transfer of a separate family member to accompany the adult transferee from Nauru to Australia. In addition, the adult transferee has other family members in Australia. This is a government intent on media releases rather than conducting real action.
Katharine Murphy has written up the latest Essential poll (yes, I know, all caveats about polls) and it has some interesting takeouts: We have the slowest economic growth in Australia since 2001. 1.8 million Australians out of work or wanting more hours. We have productivity going backwards and for the first time in a long time, net disposable income, real disposable income fell by 1% so we have households getting poorer as we speak.
While national politics frets about its trust crisis, the bulk of Australian voters appear reasonably sanguine with both of the major parties five months on from the federal election, with more than 60% of the Guardian Essential sample rating the performance of the Coalition and Labor as excellent, good or fair. What we need is urgent action by the Government to bring forward stage two of the tax cuts which we say we would support. They have announced infrastructure spending but it is often on the never-never and not now. What the bank and independent commentators say is that we need a government to play its part and stimulate the economy now.
The latest survey of 1,088 respondents shows 63% are positive about the Coalition’s performance post-election and 62% say the same about Labor, although Coalition voters are more positive about the government than Labor voters are about Labor, with 93% of Coalition voters affirming the government and 83% of Labor voters affirming the opposition. When I walk down my high street and shopping centres, there are a lot of people looking for work is not finding it and a lot of empty shops.
Scott Morrison remains comfortably ahead of Anthony Albanese as preferred prime minister, although the Labor leader has made up ground over the past month. Morrison is preferred as prime minister by 43% of the sample to Albanese’s 28%, which is a three-point improvement for the Labor leader. This from Jim Chalmers this morning is probably a good indication of where we will see Labor head this question time, methinks:
Josh Frydenberg is holding a press conference at 10.15am in the Senate courtyard. Last night the IMF substantially slashed their expectations for growth in the Australian economy. These new numbers absolutely torpedo what was left of the Morrison Government’s economic credibility. The Australian economy is floundering and the IMF is slashing its forecasts for Australia because Morrison and Frydenberg don’t have a plan to turn things around. For months now Josh Frydenberg has been pretending that the economy here is strong and that the policy settings are right, but what the IMF proves is that neither of those things are true.
You can expect the official government response to the IMF report, there. The IMF is ringing the alarm bells on the Australian economy but Morrison and Frydenberg are too out of touch to hear them. What we need to see from the Government is a plan to turn around an economy which is floundering on their watch. The Australian economy is floundering and people are struggling, and the Morrison Government is just sitting on its hands doing nothing. They don’t have a clue what to do here and so they’re doing nothing. They can’t continue to leave all of the heavy lifting to the Reserve Bank. The IMF makes the point in their report that there’s been too much emphasis on interest rate cuts and not enough fiscal policy or budget changes from governments, including our own. Morrison and Frydenberg need to listen to the alarm bells which are being rung by the IMF.
Meanwhile, a report looking at federal MPs’ attitudes to democractic reform is being released today. The IMF has slashed their expectations for growth in this economy under this Liberal Government. What we need to see is a plan to turn things around. The absence of a plan so far is costing Australia in terms of economic growth and jobs. We have the slowest economic growth in this country that we’ve had in 10 years since the Global Financial Crisis; household debt is at record highs; almost two million Australians are looking for work or for more work; productivity and living standards are in decline; business investment is the lowest it’s been since the early 1990s recession. Wherever you look in this economy there is weakness which is being left unattended by a Morrison Government without a plan.
Paul Karp has had a look at the report, here: We are getting close to question time ... I don’t even need predictions today. It will all be economy, economy, economy. There is no way it can be anything else.
And from the statement: The trade minister, Simon Birmingham, has held a press conference and indicated the government may negotiate with the Labor party to win over their support for three new trade agreements.
The report is the fifth in a series of reports developed by Democracy 2025 that examine how to strengthen democratic practice and bridge the trust divide in Australia. Enabling legislation for the deals was introduced to the House of Representatives today.
The director of Democracy 2025, Professor Mark Evans, will present the report at a special event at Parliament House. Labor is likely to support the enabling legislation, but the unions are pushing back hard and have been lobbying MPs and the crossbench not to vote in support of the agreements because of concerns over the deals allowing more temporary workers into the country.
... Democracy 2025 is an initiative of MoAD—in partnership with the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis at the University of Canberra—that is strengthening democratic practice through research, dialogue and innovation. For more information visit www.democracy2025.gov.au. When asked if the government was prepared to negotiate with the opposition to win over support, as has occurred with previous trade deals, Birmingham said the government would take a “practical” approach.
The timing of the Courier Mail article comes as the government works to woo Jacqui Lambie, the swing vote, to repeal the medevac legislation, which was passed against its will in the last minority parliament. “We are practical and of course I will always speak with my Labor counterparts, I am genuine when I say that I hope that bipartisanship can be maintained in relation to trade access and opportunities,” he said.
A Senate inquiry into the laws will be handed down on Friday. But the Senate won’t vote on the repeal legislation until it sits in again in November. As part of this, Birmingham said the government was considering the recommendations made by the joint standing committee on treaties which reported on the agreements last week.
Kristina Keneally says Peter Dutton’s enacting of the security safeguard shows the legislation is working: “We will engage in discussions with the opposition where necessary, and we will work through issues if need be in a sensible way, but the agreements as they stand are good agreements that are demonstrably in Australia’s national interest.”
Why did Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton claim people of bad character could be transferred to Australia under medevac when it’s clear they have the powers to deny such transfers? In response to union warnings that the agreements would undermine Australian jobs and allow an influx of temporary workers, Birmingham said the movement needed to “stop misleading, stop lying”.
Under medevac, the minister can refuse a transfer on security or serious character grounds and this decision does not get reviewed and cannot be overturned. In fact, before medevac, the courts were deciding medical transfers on health grounds only, not even taking into consideration security concerns. “I say to the union movement very clearly there are no new labour market testing waivers created as a result of the Indonesian free trade agreement, point blank,” he said.
Peter Dutton is so desperate to distract from the 95,000 airplane people who have arrived on his watch, he’s boasting about using a power Labor ensured was in place to keep security threats out of the country. “So stop the scare campaign and recognise that this agreement has been negotiated to create more Australian jobs by giving us a better chance to sell more goods and services into Indonesia.”
Labor strongly supports medevac. Medevac is working. These laws should not be repealed by the government.” Birmingham said he hoped the enabling legislation for the agreements could pass the Senate by the end of the year, allowing the deals to come into force early in 2020.
Why is all of that interesting? Question: You spent $2.5m on the election campaign this year. GetUp targeted six Coalition Liberal MPs. Peter Dutton, Greg Hunt, Tony Abbott, Kevin Andrews and Christian Porter. Tony Abbott lost his seat, and many people say that GetUp had little influence on that because he was responsible for his own unpopularity. Do you bear responsibility, then, for the fact that your millions didn’t unseat any of the other MPs and, in fact, there’s an argument that people have put that GetUp’s presence, for example, in Dixon, had the opposite effect. It boosted Peter Dutton’s popularity?
Well, because the government, including Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison, have said they don’t have the power to stop people under medevac. Paul Oosting:
In June, in an interview with David Speers on Sky News, Dutton said: Firstly, that’s not right. Peter Dutton faced a much smaller swing than other parts of Queensland.
DS: You did warn, of course, at the time rapists, paedophiles, murders might come in. You know, I know you were asked about this on Sunday – have you yet established whether any have? And whilst it’s true to say, it’s undoubtedly a fact, that we’re sitting here today having not achieved our objectives in the election campaign, and we’ve been reflecting on that and how we can work differently going forward, I’m proud of the campaign that we ran together.
PD: I think there are some people that have come of bad character, David. I don’t think there’s any question about that, and under Labor’s law ... We all fed in what our priorities should be, what the issues we should work on, where the energies go on, and we chose the hard right faction of the Coalition. Many of those are in what are traditionally deemed to be safe seats. With where things were going or where we thought they would go.
DS: Amongst this 30 – are there any rapists, murders, paedophiles? How we do things differently if we had the opportunity again. But we have come out of it with real strengths as we outlined in the speech.
PD: Well, we’ll have a look at the details in due course, and I’d make this point though. The point made by the Labor party – and you heard a bit of the rhetoric in the previous interview – people of bad character can come, are able to come and, in fact, are required to come under Labor’s laws that they passed. That’s the reality. So, if you’ve got a national security check ... We have a lot to be proud of in the 10,000 people, almost half of whom have stepped up into politics for the very first time, who have really broadened and deepened this movement, and they’re more passionate than ever to keep getting involved and not waiting for that.
DS: And you’re saying there are people of bad character who have come amongst that 30? Getting involved right now, we have to find a solution to the major crises that are facing our country – unemployment and the climate crisis. The IPCC says that we have 12 years left to address climate change.
PD: I’m saying there are some – there are some people of bad character who have come to our country. Three of the years will occur under this government, so we have to move on from the election that occurred five months ago and continue to try to find ways to look at the issues our members care about.
DS: What sort of bad character? I guess this is never getting old:
PD: Well, I’ll go into those details at the appropriate time, David, but what I’m worried about now – particularly out of this court decision, and particularly out of Labor saying that they won’t support us in the parliament to repeal this bad law – I am worried about many more cases coming through, and I think many of those people were believing, as the refugee advocates told them, that Labor would win the election, and that they would be here in significant numbers in big uplifts overnight, and that they’d be living in Australia. Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus! Great beef barbecue at parliament today, supporting Australian primary producers and the tasty Angus beef we get to enjoy! https://t.co/A03G1mirve pic.twitter.com/f3RE6HM7kJ
The Courier Mail had this story this morning: Paul Oosting:
Peter Dutton will use his ­powers for the first time under the medevac legislation to keep out a violent Iranian asylum seeker – accused of running a prostitution ring – after doctors ordered three family members be sent to Australia. It’s fair to say that Australians have a healthy scepticism about politicians, but something else is afoot today. Not the normal, healthy suspicion that’s always been part of our political culture. A much deeper anger across the whole system.
In shock revelations, doctors approved an adult Iranian woman on Nauru to be sent to Australia for treatment and be accompanied by her brother and father, who do not need medical attention. A University of Canberra study showed that it crashed from 86% in 2007 to just 41% last year.
The article mentions “interventionist” doctors and Dutton having to step in on security grounds. And that was before the change of prime minister. We saw that first hand, actually, almost 10,000 GetUp volunteers with 37,404 hours simply talking to people, on their phones and in their doorsteps, in nearly every state, in nearly every demographic about the issues that matter, the policy options and why they should vote for change.
Which actually just proves that the medevac legislation the government is attempting to repeal has the safeguards in it to allow ministers to step in and stop transfers on national security grounds. What we found, though, was alarming. It’s as if something had snapped. We were shaken by the depth of hopelessness and cynicism across the community, like politics which is something that’s been tried, failed and they’ve given up.
Which is outlined in this explainer from Murph: People were only half joking when they asked what the prime minister’s name was. They talked about their frustrations that nobody listens to them because they don’t have bags of money to throw around.
Ministerial discretion applies in three areas. They despaired about the lack of any vision to tackle the big complex problems like unemployment, climate change or the drought. Politics seems now, singularly, incapable of addressing these things, and many Australians feel powerless to do anything about it. Many no longer believe politics can make anything in their lives better.
First, the minister can refuse the transfer if he or she disagrees with the clinical assessment.
The second grounds for refusal is if the minister reasonably suspects that the transfer of the person to Australia would be prejudicial to security “within the meaning of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979, including because an adverse security assessment in respect of the person is in force under that Act”.
Sticking with security, the transfer can also be knocked back if Asio advises the minister that transfer of the person to Australia may be prejudicial to security “and that threat cannot be mitigated”.
The third grounds for refusal is if the minister knows that the transferee has a substantial criminal record and the minister reasonably believes the person would expose the Australian community to a serious risk of criminal conduct.
Nine facts about the medical evacuation bill
The bells are sounding off.
Parliament is about to begin.
Jim Chalmers was out at doors this morning to talk about the IMF downgrade.
Our economic problems in Australia are still primarily home-grown. That’s a point that Deloitte Access Economics has made.
It’s a point that the Reserve Bank has made. We’ve had issues in the Australian economy for some time now which preceded the trade tensions between the Americans and the Chinese, for example. When Josh Frydenberg tries to blame international conditions for this downgrade today, remember that the Australian downgrade in these new numbers is four times bigger than the downgrade for the other advanced economies as a whole.
Speaking of the drought, Sarah Martin has looked at what some of the money for drought-stricken councils is being spent on:
Music festivals, cemetery upgrades, public toilets and a virtual gym are among the hundreds of projects to ­receive federal grants under the government’s signature Drought Communities Program.
As the government fends off criticism of its national drought response, a Guardian Australia analysis of $100m in grants awarded under the program in 2019 shows that while many shires have used the grant program for water infrastructure projects, much of the funding has been spent on events, the purchase of equipment and maintenance work.
My colleague Josh Taylor has been reading some of the federation chamber speeches from last night, and found this one from Ed Husic criticising the government for not doing enough to combat rightwing extremism:
The point is this: I don’t care if it’s Islamist-inspired or supremacist-inspired, if it represents a threat to the Australian people it should be taken seriously. And I’m telling you now, based on the briefings I’ve received, we are not taking this seriously. We reckon that we’re only following a few people on this issue here in this country. I have the greatest respect for what our security agencies and intelligence agencies are doing. But we also know in this day and age, with the rise of the lone wolf, we can’t track these people easily. We need to take this seriously. We need to deal with it now.
You’ll find the rest of that on page 104 on that link