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| Australia politics live update: new Covid variant Omicron detected in Sydney and NT; parliament to sit for just 10 days in first half of 2022 | Australia politics live update: new Covid variant Omicron detected in Sydney and NT; parliament to sit for just 10 days in first half of 2022 |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Follow all the news live | Follow all the news live |
| Labor frontbencher Ed Husic is also asked about the debate over freedoms vs lockdowns and how it is being presented as a binary choice when it comes to public health responses: | |
| Ed Husic is on Afternoon Briefing where he is asked about the proposed sitting calendar (which Labor is not opposing, FYI): | |
| In Victoria, locally transmitted cases (not omicron) are being linked to the recent protests: | |
| For those keeping an eye on borders as we head into the holiday season (where expectations for reunions are sky high), Michael McGowan has you covered on what international travel changes have been made. | |
| Again – the omicron variant is not one anyone knows a lot about as yet, so it is watch and wait, but there is no need to panic. Health experts are still gathering data, but the early indications is that this is a more mild variant. We will bring you the updates as they come (and we’ll know more tomorrow afternoon following the national cabinet meeting) | |
| Moving away from politics for a moment, AAP has an update on Jarryd Hayne’s appeal: | |
| Jailed former NRL star Jarryd Hayne should be acquitted or at least retried due to a number of issues in convicting him of sexual assault, his appeal hearing has been told. | |
| Hayne’s barrister Tim Game SC told the NSW court of criminal appeal on Monday that his trial judge’s directions to the jury were “flawed in almost every possible way”. | |
| The former representative player faced a re-trial after his first ended with a hung jury, and was found guilty of assaulting a woman in her Hunter NSW bedroom on the night of the 2018 NRL grand final. | |
| Hayne, 33, only stopped the assault when the 28-year-old victim started to bleed, not when she told him to stop, the sentencing judge said. | |
| He was jailed in May for five years and nine months with a non-parole period of three years and eight months. | |
| Game outlined four main grounds of appeal including “the jury verdict in respect of both counts was unreasonable”. | |
| He also said trial judge Helen Syme was in error to give certain directions to the jury he described as “highly problematic”. | |
| Words such as “may” and “might” confuse the legal issues, and a jury could not be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt in convicting him, Game said. | |
| Prosecutor Brett Hatfield did not say the judge’s directions were in error, but rather the language could have been tighter, and that “perfection is not required”. | |
| Game says there was ample evidence that showed the victim had an “abiding interest in having sex with Jarryd Hayne”, and the Crown ran the gauntlet with its case. | |
| Hayne’s appeal hearing against his conviction continues while he watches on via video link. | |
| And the big issues | And the big issues |
| Over in the Senate, a condolence motion is being held for Alex Gallacher. | |
| Here is how Mike Bowers saw QT: | Here is how Mike Bowers saw QT: |
| Just for those playing guess-the-election-date game (which is fruitless, you have be warned) there can still be an election before May, despite what the sitting calendar proposes. | Just for those playing guess-the-election-date game (which is fruitless, you have be warned) there can still be an election before May, despite what the sitting calendar proposes. |
| There can be an election any time Scott Morrison wants one (before 22 May). | There can be an election any time Scott Morrison wants one (before 22 May). |
| Sittings just get cancelled. | Sittings just get cancelled. |
| Labor is assuming that the election, based on those sittings, would be held in May, which would delay parliament’s return until August (because of the break between elections and new sittings). | Labor is assuming that the election, based on those sittings, would be held in May, which would delay parliament’s return until August (because of the break between elections and new sittings). |
| Just so you can see what that looks like – here is the sitting calendar the government has proposed. | Just so you can see what that looks like – here is the sitting calendar the government has proposed. |
| The sitting calendar has been released. | The sitting calendar has been released. |
| Tony Burke says he can’t remember a sitting calendar where there were less sitting days in the first half of the year. | Tony Burke says he can’t remember a sitting calendar where there were less sitting days in the first half of the year. |
| None in January – that is normal. | None in January – that is normal. |
| Seven in February – that is not normal. | Seven in February – that is not normal. |
| THREE in March – that is definitely not normal. The three days in March are set for the budget. | THREE in March – that is definitely not normal. The three days in March are set for the budget. |
| The parliament then doesn’t sit again until August. | The parliament then doesn’t sit again until August. |
| So that makes 10 sittings days from Friday until 9 August. | So that makes 10 sittings days from Friday until 9 August. |
| Kristy McBain to Scott Morrison: | Kristy McBain to Scott Morrison: |
| The prime minister proclaimed his emergency response fund would fund immediately response activities [to the tune of] $200 million every year. Why then did the prime minister spend nothing for two years and has only recently spent the first $17 million. With people in my electorate still living in caravans and parts of NSW now flooded, why didn’t the prime minister use the money for immediate response activities like he said he would? | The prime minister proclaimed his emergency response fund would fund immediately response activities [to the tune of] $200 million every year. Why then did the prime minister spend nothing for two years and has only recently spent the first $17 million. With people in my electorate still living in caravans and parts of NSW now flooded, why didn’t the prime minister use the money for immediate response activities like he said he would? |
| Morrison: | Morrison: |
| *That is a shout out to Andrew Constance, who Morrison wants to run in the Labor seat of Gilmore. Constance and Morrison were on the outs during the bushfires, but have since made amends. The branch has not agreed to preselect Constance, so there is a bit of a fight brewing – Morrison is reportedly looking at using special powers to install who he wants, which risks a war with the branches more widely. | *That is a shout out to Andrew Constance, who Morrison wants to run in the Labor seat of Gilmore. Constance and Morrison were on the outs during the bushfires, but have since made amends. The branch has not agreed to preselect Constance, so there is a bit of a fight brewing – Morrison is reportedly looking at using special powers to install who he wants, which risks a war with the branches more widely. |
| Scott Morrison is going on about “technology not taxes” again, as well as non-existent mandates in regards to Labor’s (still-to-be-announced) climate policy (there was never an electric vehicle mandate). | Scott Morrison is going on about “technology not taxes” again, as well as non-existent mandates in regards to Labor’s (still-to-be-announced) climate policy (there was never an electric vehicle mandate). |
| Putting aside that the government’s ‘plan’ relies on yet to be developed technologies, there are those who have looked at the modelling released by the government on its net zero by 2050 plan and found the government has embedded ... a carbon price. | Putting aside that the government’s ‘plan’ relies on yet to be developed technologies, there are those who have looked at the modelling released by the government on its net zero by 2050 plan and found the government has embedded ... a carbon price. |
| Don’t believe me? Here is the AFR on that exact point earlier this month: | Don’t believe me? Here is the AFR on that exact point earlier this month: |
| Anthony Albanese will be the interview guest on ABC 7.30 tonight. | Anthony Albanese will be the interview guest on ABC 7.30 tonight. |
| Tanya Plibersek to Scott Morrison: | Tanya Plibersek to Scott Morrison: |
| What impact will the government’s proposed controls on social media have on the reported activities of the Member for Bowman? | What impact will the government’s proposed controls on social media have on the reported activities of the Member for Bowman? |
| Morrison: | Morrison: |
| There is now an argument about whether or not the prime minister’s answer is relevant or whether the question is asking for a legal opinion. | There is now an argument about whether or not the prime minister’s answer is relevant or whether the question is asking for a legal opinion. |
| We don’t really resolve that, but Morrison is brought back to the question. | We don’t really resolve that, but Morrison is brought back to the question. |
| Morrison: | Morrison: |
| Just wondering how many young people and women have the resources to begin defamation actions? | Just wondering how many young people and women have the resources to begin defamation actions? |
| There is no bill – it is meant to be coming very soon, but right now, no one knows what is in it, beyond what the government says is in it. Social media platforms are already counted as publishers. State laws cover a lot of what the government says this bill will be able to do. It does not ban ‘anonymous’ accounts, and it does not make it any easier to unmask an anonymous account. We don’t know what will happen if the account in question has an international IP address. Plus, the laws will give you, best case scenario, an email address. That’s about it. | There is no bill – it is meant to be coming very soon, but right now, no one knows what is in it, beyond what the government says is in it. Social media platforms are already counted as publishers. State laws cover a lot of what the government says this bill will be able to do. It does not ban ‘anonymous’ accounts, and it does not make it any easier to unmask an anonymous account. We don’t know what will happen if the account in question has an international IP address. Plus, the laws will give you, best case scenario, an email address. That’s about it. |
| Catherine King to Scott Morrison: | Catherine King to Scott Morrison: |
| Does the prime minister’s model of a national anti-corruption commission have the power to investigate the purchase of land in the Leppington Triangle for 10 times its actual value? | Does the prime minister’s model of a national anti-corruption commission have the power to investigate the purchase of land in the Leppington Triangle for 10 times its actual value? |
| Morrison sends this one to Paul Fletcher: | Morrison sends this one to Paul Fletcher: |
| So apparently, the government can’t bring on its bill, in the chamber where it has a majority, because the opposition won’t support it. | So apparently, the government can’t bring on its bill, in the chamber where it has a majority, because the opposition won’t support it. |
| The opposition does not support the voter ID legislation (among countless others) and that has been introduced, so it doesn’t really seem to make sense. | The opposition does not support the voter ID legislation (among countless others) and that has been introduced, so it doesn’t really seem to make sense. |