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Angus Taylor calls Clover Moore doctored documents story 'conspiracy theory' – politics live Angus Taylor calls Clover Moore doctored documents story 'conspiracy theory' – politics live
(32 minutes later)
In September Guardian Australia reported on Labor and union outrage about the social media posts of a Coalition-appointed deputy president of the Fair Work Commission, Gerard Boyce.In a series of social media posts Boyce:
Said it was “definitely time” for Labor to conduct a review, after losing the 2019 election
Described the unions’ election campaign as a “big waste of money”; and
Days after the 18 May election loss, posted an article from the West Australian arguing that Labor had botched the “unloseable” election with the observation “oooooooops!!”
AAP has this update from Senate Estimates on Wednesday night:
Fair Work general manager Bernadette O’Neill said all commission members had a code of conduct which included not engaging in political matters.
She said the issue had been dealt with internally after Fair Work president Ian Ross spoke to Mr Boyce.
“The member gave an undertaking not to engage in social media,” Ms O’Neill told a Senate hearing on Wednesday night.
While the security committee boilover was proceeding in the House, DFAT estimates was focussed on the Uighurs. DFAT officials have told senators China has noted international concerns about human rights abuses in Xinjiang in the north west of the country, and feels it is “under the scrutiny of the international community”.
There is growing agitation about this issue among Australian MPs. Andrew Hastie (who played a starring role a minute ago in the House on the identity sharing bill) used an adjournment speech last night to declare he was troubled by the way that Uighurs culture and identity “is being systematically assaulted, deconstructed and scrubbed out by authorities”.
Officials say the foreign minister Marise Payne has raised this issue with her Chinese counterpart directly on several occasions.
Liberals are also expressing concerns in this hearing about Chinese students in Australia.
Instances have been raised about people reporting on their remarks in educational and social settings which are then relayed back to their families in China.
Labor’s Penny Wong also asked for an update on Dr Yang, a writer and democratic activist detained in China.
Officials say Australia has made it clear that Dr Yang should be treated fairly and transparently, and if he is being detained for his political reviews, he should be released.
You can find the committee’s report here
Andrew Hastie, the chair of the joint intelligence and security parliamentary committee makes the first statement. He essentially says that while the committee supports the spirit of the bill, it gives home affairs too much surveillance power, with a lack of oversight into how they could use it.
... Many participants to this review express broad support for the underlying objectives and rationale the bill. For example, measures that aim to address identity related crime and enable law enforcement bodies to cooperate to achieve this objective.
Statement such as this, were echoed throughout the evidence that the committee received.
However, some participants rise with the committee and they to ensure appropriate governance and accountability and protection of the individual’s right to privacy.
The committee acknowledges these concerns and believes that while the bills explanatory memorandum sets out governance arrangements, such as existing and contemplated agreements and access policies that are not adequately set out in the current bill.
In the committee’s view, robust safeguards and appropriate oversight mechanisms should be explained clearly in the legislation.
The committee expresses broad support for the objectives of the bill but agrees that the bill as it stands does not adequately incorporate enough detail.
It is for this reason that the committee recommends that the identity matching services Bill 2019 be redrafted according to the following principles:
One, the regime should be built around privacy, transparency and subject to safe to rather robust safeguards to the regime,
two: the regime should be subject to parliamentary oversight, and reasonable proportionate and transparent functionality.
Three, the regime should be one that requires annual reporting on the use of the identity matching services and four the primary legislation should specifically require that there is a participation agreement that sets out the obligations of all parties participating in the identity, identity matching services in detail.
Additionally, the Committee recommends that the redrafted bill will be referred to the committee for further review.
Both government and Labor MPs on the intelligence committee are united in recommending the identity sharing bill NOT be passed, because it appears to give home affairs too much power, without any oversight.
Like I said, this is a BIG deal.
Usually it’s ‘we think it can be fixed and here are our recommendations on how to do it’ not ‘DO NOT PASS THIS BILL’.
Andrew Hastie is speaking on that identity bill – he says the committee is recommending it be re-drafted.
That’s a big deal. A government led committee is saying a government bill does not have enough oversight.
More to come.
Over in Social Services estimates, Labor’s Murray Watt has been grilling the department and the NDIA about the agency’s chair, Helen Nugent, using a Macquarie Group email to conduct NDIS work. That was revealed in this story by Rick Morton here. Watt is concerned about potential conflicts of interest and privacy concerns. Macquarie is the only bank listed on a NDIA housing reference group. It is also reportedly eyeing investments in the specialist disability accommodation sector. The external email is outside the scope of FOI.
It should be noted Nugent no longer has a formal role at Macquarie.
Watt points to a story, in the AFR, that says Nugent received emails to her Macquarie account that contained “highly sensitive case information on Tim Rubenach, a 32-year-old man with severe epilepsy who died in northeast Tasmania awaiting NDIS care”.
He asks if NDIA’s acting CEO, Vicki Rundle, and the department are guilty of “wilful blindness”. They reject this. The DSS secretary, Kathryn Campbell, says Nugent had actively discouraged NDIA staff from contacting her using the external email.
Rundle tells the hearing Nugent is “cognisant” of using her official NDIA email. But of any conflict of interests, she adds: “I’m trying to work out what the actual issue might be.”
Nugent has not been reprimanded or officially advised to refrain from using her Macquarie email for NDIS/NDIA work.
They have taken on notice questions about how many NDIA-related emails she has sent and received using her Macquarie email.
The head of the department of foreign affairs and trade, Frances Adamson, was asked about Australia’s relationship with China, by Penny Wong, in estimates this morning.
Here is the chief diplomat’s view:
Well, Australia’s relationship with China in fact, I think across the world ... every country’s relationship with China is a subject of keen interest and conversation across a wide range of stakeholders.
And in that respect, Australia is no different particularly given the nature of our relationship with China.
Of course, in formal terms, we have a comprehensive strategic partnership, but we very quickly then, within that, look at the various pillars of activity that we have, including obviously trading investment, people to people links, prominently captured by numbers of tourism and students, and all of those things.
In broad diplomatic terms, though, Australia continues to engage with China, the prime minister had a good meeting at which I was present in Jakarta on the weekend with Vice President Wang Qishan. The foreign minister also had a very good meeting at which I was present in New York with her counterpart.
Those meetings, it’s important that they occur as regularly as they can, because they enable us to talk to each other about the nature of the relationship in all of its dimensions, including areas where we have differences. Those differences have been well publicised, not always accurately, but they exist and I think there’s no point in us at all, pretending that they’re not there.
In fact, I think if we were to characterise our current relationship with China and the relationship going forward, it will be a relationship where we will need on both sides to work quite hard to manage what I really think will be enduring differences.
Some points of difference may come and go and be able to be resolved. But other points of difference, which go more deeply to the differences between our systems and our values are likely to endure.
It should therefore not be surprising in my view that a relationship where there are points of difference, some of them which are actively canvassed in the public domain, that is – I don’t particularly like the term “new normal”, but I think it does apply in this situation.
That bill Andrew Hastie is about to report on has been quite controversial. Mostly because it creates a national ID register:That bill Andrew Hastie is about to report on has been quite controversial. Mostly because it creates a national ID register:
1. This Bill amends the Australian Passports Act 2005 (Passports Act) to provide a legal basis for ensuring that the minister is able to make Australian travel document data available for all the purposes of, and by the automated means intrinsic to, the identity-matching services to which the Commonwealth and the States and Territories agreed in the Intergovernmental Agreement on Identity Matching Services (IGA), signed at a meeting of the Council of Australian Governments on 5 October 2017.1. This Bill amends the Australian Passports Act 2005 (Passports Act) to provide a legal basis for ensuring that the minister is able to make Australian travel document data available for all the purposes of, and by the automated means intrinsic to, the identity-matching services to which the Commonwealth and the States and Territories agreed in the Intergovernmental Agreement on Identity Matching Services (IGA), signed at a meeting of the Council of Australian Governments on 5 October 2017.
2. The services will enable identity matching based on personal information held in government systems nationally. They include a number of biometric services in which the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade intends to participate. One, the Face Verification Service (FVS), will allow Commonwealth, state and territory agencies, and potentially in future the private sector, to verify the known or claimed identities of individuals by reference to facial images in government identity records. Another, the Face Identification Service (FIS), will allow authorised facial recognition specialists in law enforcement, national security and anti-corruption agencies to identify unknown persons. Beyond the FVS and the FIS, an Identity Data Sharing Service will allow for the secure sharing of biometric identity information in other circumstances.2. The services will enable identity matching based on personal information held in government systems nationally. They include a number of biometric services in which the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade intends to participate. One, the Face Verification Service (FVS), will allow Commonwealth, state and territory agencies, and potentially in future the private sector, to verify the known or claimed identities of individuals by reference to facial images in government identity records. Another, the Face Identification Service (FIS), will allow authorised facial recognition specialists in law enforcement, national security and anti-corruption agencies to identify unknown persons. Beyond the FVS and the FIS, an Identity Data Sharing Service will allow for the secure sharing of biometric identity information in other circumstances.
3. Subsidiary to the IGA, a Participation Agreement (PA) will regulate access to the services by individual Commonwealth, state and territory agencies. Among other things, the IGA provides that strict privacy, transparency and accountability controls must apply to all the services. The Department of Home Affairs will administer the services and oversee compliance with these controls.3. Subsidiary to the IGA, a Participation Agreement (PA) will regulate access to the services by individual Commonwealth, state and territory agencies. Among other things, the IGA provides that strict privacy, transparency and accountability controls must apply to all the services. The Department of Home Affairs will administer the services and oversee compliance with these controls.
This has been put on the notice paper for this morning:This has been put on the notice paper for this morning:
Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security — Mr Hastie (Chair — Canning) to present the following report and seek leave to make a statement:Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security — Mr Hastie (Chair — Canning) to present the following report and seek leave to make a statement:
Advisory report on the Identity-matching Services Bill 2019 and the Australian Passports Amendment (Identity-matching Services) Bill 2019 .Advisory report on the Identity-matching Services Bill 2019 and the Australian Passports Amendment (Identity-matching Services) Bill 2019 .
The bells are ringing – the house is about to get under way.
Matt Canavan will be fronting estimates this morning, where the northern Australia infrastructure fund will be under the microscope.
It’s unkindly called the “no actual infrastructure fund” by its critics in the hallways, because there hasn’t been a lot of things actually built by the $5bn concessional loan fund, which was Tony Abbott’s idea to turn the north into an “economic powerhouse”.
Scott Morrison made a speech at the awards, where he heavily focused on the economic contribution of migrants. Peter Scanlon, a former Migration Council of Australia chair, spoke immediately afterwards. SBS was there and kindly let me let listen to the speech (and, if you aren’t watching SBS news, you should be, because they are doing great work in this space):
For at least 50 years after world war two, political leaders from both major parties spoke directly to the Australian people about the economic, social and cultural benefits of the nation’s immigration program.
To me however, I sense in the last 20 years, our leaders have become more reluctant to discuss the program’s full impact on Australian life, dwelling mainly on its economic benefits and less on its nation building.
There was spontaneous applause. Scanlon continued.
This approach, I feel, has shrunk the Australian story.
There was more applause and cheers.
While I believe the economic benefits of migration are considerable, Australia has a much bigger story to tell, about how migration has built this nation. A story that most Australians accept and endorse. To Scott [Morrison], to Anthony [Albanese], to David [Coleman], please tell our story. Make us proud of what we have achieved. Just like my dad did for me.
Last night, the Migration and Settlement awards were held in Parliament House, where attendees were served a goat cheese circle (no one tell Paul Fletcher).
Peter Scanlon won the lifetime achievement award.
As luck would have it they’re dining on GOAT CHEESE tonight at the Migration Council Dinner in the Great Hall at Parliament House pic.twitter.com/bVxQH2QpKs
Angus Taylor’s office has sent through a statement in regards to this story from Anne Davies and Christopher Knaus:
The conspiracy theory being perpetrated by the Lord Mayor is rejected.
I make no apology for suggesting that the Lord Mayor should take real and meaningful action to reduce the City of Sydney’s carbon emissions instead of hollow virtue-signalling through letters.
One way to reduce emissions is through limiting unnecessary air travel and I suggest that the Lord Mayor’s flights to Paris for the Women for Climate conference was an unnecessary indulgence.
Anthony Albanese is happy to talk about the tensions within the coalition partners over the drought strategy. Here he is talking to the Nine network this morning:
This is a national emergency. Quite clearly, the National Party backbench are very unhappy with their own leadership and the leadership of the coalition.
We need a comprehensive plan. It’s one that deals with the crisis which is there right now in terms of not just farmers, but people who rely upon farming and agriculture for their work, the workers in those areas.
And, of course, the towns that are running out of water. We need to cooperate across federal, state and local government.
We need to listen to farming organisations. At the moment, what you’ve got is the national farmers federation that have a plan, the National Party have a plan, Scott Morrison had a leak last night to one of the TV networks about a plan coming out next week. For goodness sake.
Why can’t we all sit down and put the national interest first and come up with a coordinated, comprehensive, bipartisan national drought strategy.
It’s community affairs, economics, education and employment and foreign affairs, defence and trade in estimates land today.
Andrew Hastie continued:
These individual and personal stories helped us to understand and humanise the greater tragedy that is unfolding in Xinjiang province, China. I, along with many other Australians, am very troubled by the repressive surveillance state and how the Uighur people are being banned from practising their religious faith and how they are being oppressively monitored in their homes, in their communities 24/7. I am very troubled by the way that Uighurs’ culture and identity is being systematically assaulted, deconstructed and scrubbed out by the authorities. I am very troubled about the clear evidence of re-education camps, where 1 million Uighurs have been forcibly detained and indoctrinated into communists’ thinking. The ABC, along with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, have managed to identify 28 detention camps using satellite imagery. Most of these detained have never committed a crime. I could go on. It was a heartbreaking episode that we all needed to watch and absorb. I congratulate the ABC for running it and for the work that went into it.
Last month I met with members of the Australian Uighur community in my parliamentary office. That delegation was led by Nurmuhammad Majid. It was my great honour to host them and to hear their personal stories. Every single one of them sitting in my office had family and friends interned or trapped in Xinjiang province. They have shown great courage and perseverance despite the tears, heartache and pain. I made a commitment to them that I would raise their plight in this House, tonight I fulfil that commitment. I say to them that we might not see resolution soon, but we will continue to work with you and make sure your loved ones are not forgotten.
Finally, the Four Corners program identified a range of Australian businesses that were sourcing cotton from Xinjiang province, potentially using Uighur forced labour. Cotton On and Target Australia were two of them. Subsequent to the program, both businesses conducted internal reviews of their supply chains and have ceased sourcing cotton from Xinjiang province. I want to note the actions of Cotton On and Target Australia in this House and applaud them for taking the action that they have taken. Australia is a country that lives by the values of freedom and fairness, and so it is right that we acknowledge when our businesses do the right thing. I thank the House.
Looks like Andrew Hastie made an interesting speech in the House late last night:
Tonight I rise to speak on behalf of those who are vulnerable, persecuted and separated from their loved ones. Tonight I speak for Uighur Australians, who have family and friends facing systematic persecution and internment in Xinjiang province, in the People’s Republic of China. But first I want to say a few words about the role of Australian investigative journalism and its importance for a free, democratic society.
As this House is aware, the parliamentary joint committee for intelligence and security is conducting an inquiry into the freedom of the press. As the chair, it would be improper for me to make remarks about committee deliberations or what conclusions we might reach in our report, but I do want to say that we all agree that public interest and investigative journalism is vital to a thriving, liberal democracy – particularly when it comes to national security or human rights issues.
A superb example of good investigative journalism is the July Four Corners program of Tell the World by ABC reporter Sophie McNeil. The program detailed the plight and suffering of more than 1 million Muslim minorities who have been rounded up, detained and and forcibly indoctrinated by the Chinese communist regime. Australian citizens or permanent residents have been targeted and jailed. Others are trapped under state surveillance, their passports seized. I was deeply moved by those who courageously showed the story on the program. I was moved by those who have been separated from their loved ones. I think of Sadam Abudusalamu, who is separated from his wife and child – a child he has never met in person.
Welcome to the final sitting day for October – and the last day we’ll see the House MPs here for a month.
Which will hopefully give the Nationals some more time to get themselves together, as they gear up to take back the issue of drought from both the Liberals, and minor parties like One Nation – with Barnaby Joyce leading the charge.
The Nationals backbench have put together its own drought plan, which Sarah Martin has laid out here:
Under the plan being spearheaded by Joyce, drought-affected councils would receive $10m each, co-funded with state governments.
There are 123 councils that have been deemed eligible for funding under the Coalition’s existing drought communities program, suggesting the total cost for the proposal would be at least $1.2bn.
The Nationals policy document says that the drought is a “seminal issue” for the economies of the regions and for “the politics in our representation to these regions”.
Joyce has been on the ABC this morning backing that in – he says it is time for the Nationals to push back.
“The cabinet will come out with a drought policy, I presume next week, and if we drive our agenda which influences their outcome, that is a good outcome,” Joyce told Sabra Lane.
“Obviously, if the cabinet outcome is completely lacking, we’ll continue to drive our agenda harder … We get this, and we have been playing a proper game, and we’ve been playing as the dutiful Coalition partner, we’ve been making sure we’ve been part of the team, but there is a sense out there that we are not doing enough and that is not correct, we are driving these agendas as hard as we can.”
It is no coincidence that Joyce is driving this fightback. As we’ve reported, there have been tensions with the Nationals leadership for sometime, since even before the election. That’s dialling up again, with One Nation starting to make inroads, at least publicly, by taking ownership of traditional National party domains.
We’ll have that ongoing tussle, as well as this story from Anne Davies and Christopher Knaus:
Angus Taylor baselessly accused Sydney’s lord mayor of driving up carbon emissions by spending $15m on travel, a claim that was later backed up with a doctored council document provided to the Daily Telegraph, which reported the figure.
It is unclear who altered the document. There is no suggestion that Taylor himself was responsible. If you have missed the story, you’ll find it here.
I am going to hunt down my third coffee (it’s a fiver day, peeps, I can feel it) but I hope you’re ready.
Let’s get into it