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Australia news live updates: Morrison book referred for investigation over possible cabinet material | Australian politics

Book may reveal cabinet secrets, says PM’s department

Paul Karp

In Senate estimates Labor is investigating the alleged leak of cabinet material to the authors of Plagued, the book by Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers.

The book reveals details from the National Security Committee of the Morrison government’s cabinet, including its approach to dealing with China, the decision-making process behind closing Australia’s borders in early 2020, and discussions around Australia’s defence posture.

The first assistant secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC), John Reid, said:

We’ve reviewed the book and what information is in it, to determine its accuracy or otherwise. We’ve referred that information to the attorney general’s department … Our conclusions were it certainly appears to reveal information that was, until it was revealed, cabinet material, and would ordinarily have been protected under the principle of cabinet confidentiality.

Reid said he was “not aware” if other agencies are investigating the matter, but explained it had been referred to the attorney general’s department because it administers the “relevant criminal provisions” relating to disclosure of protected information.

Reid said:

Any action taken in relation to this would be within their purview.

Asked if PMC would cooperate with any criminal investigation, he said “absolutely”.

We’ll see, when AGD [attorney general’s department] and Australian federal police officials are up at estimates, whether a referral has been made.

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Queensland records 18 Covid deaths and 105 people in hospital

There were 4,447 new cases in the weekly reporting period, and two people are in intensive care.

Former Liberal calls Landry’s bullying allegations a ‘stunt’

Josh Butler

Josh Butler

Julia Banks, the former Liberal MP, has savaged as a “stunt” the criticisms from her former party about Anthony Albanese’s conduct in question time yesterday, accusing former colleagues of “hypocrisy”.

Coalition MPs have continued their attacks on the prime minister today, after the member for Capricornia, Michelle Landry, was said to have left the parliament “in tears” following Albanese’s response to her question yesterday afternoon. Landry claimed it was “bullying”; Albanese repeatedly denied the allegation this morning, saying he was yelling in the direction of opposition leader Peter Dutton, who was interjecting.

The speaker of the house, Labor MP Milton Dick, said he did not believe the PM had been disrespectful.

Banks, the former Liberal member for Chisholm, left the party after Scott Morrison’s unseating of former PM Malcolm Turnbull in 2018. She moved to the crossbench and made public claims about bullying and intimidation inside the Coalition.

On Friday, Banks tweeted a photo of Landry with a number of Coalition women who attended a press conference to criticise Albanese. Banks tweeted:

A political performance stunt of faux outrage, reeking of hypocrisy.

More a reminder of their usual group behaviour of being complicit to the patriarchy.

A political performance stunt of faux outrage,reeking of hypocrisy

A failed attempt to discredit the @AlboMP Govt’s progress re respect at work

And a group media opp which won’t fool anyone

More a reminder of their usual group behaviour of being complicit to the patriarchy pic.twitter.com/iagA751S3j

— Julia Banks (@juliahbanks) October 27, 2022

At his Sydney press conference earlier, Albanese told journalists to “look at the footage” of the question time exchange with Landry, pointing out that she was laughing during an earlier part of his answer.

‘Too late to leave’ flood warning for Barmah and Lower Moira

Victorian emergency services have delivered a flood warning at midday for residents of Barmah and Lower Moira that it is too late to leave the area.

Eden Gillespie

Eden Gillespie

Greens MP ejected from Queensland parliament for koala interjection

The Greens MP for South Brisbane, Amy MacMahon, has been ejected from the chamber of Queensland parliament for the entire day following a fiery interjection during the premier’s speech.

Annastacia Palaszczuk was about to announce that Queensland’s new fossil emblem would be the Muttaburrasaurus langdoni, which was discovered by Doug Langdon in Muttaburra in central Queensland.

Palaszczuk then mentioned one of the state’s emblems, the koala, when MacMahon screamed out angrily from the back of the chamber that “koala habitat is being cleared right now in Deebing Creek”.

Palaszczuk retorted that the Greens were “all talk and no action” before the speaker, Curtis Pitt, warned MacMahon about the interruption and said she should direct comments through the chair.

MacMahon rose again to explain the interjections, prompting the speaker to order her to leave the chamber for an hour, later advising MacMahon would not be permitted from returning for the entire day.

The speaker explained MPs could not use “personal explanations” to talk about issues on their agendas.

First Nations people consider the Deebing Creek Mission site, west of Ipswich, to be culturally significant and have fought to protect the land from development, as they believe it harbours the unmarked remains of ancestors.

Book may reveal cabinet secrets, says PM’s department

Paul Karp

Paul Karp

In Senate estimates Labor is investigating the alleged leak of cabinet material to the authors of Plagued, the book by Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers.

The book reveals details from the National Security Committee of the Morrison government’s cabinet, including its approach to dealing with China, the decision-making process behind closing Australia’s borders in early 2020, and discussions around Australia’s defence posture.

The first assistant secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC), John Reid, said:

We’ve reviewed the book and what information is in it, to determine its accuracy or otherwise. We’ve referred that information to the attorney general’s department … Our conclusions were it certainly appears to reveal information that was, until it was revealed, cabinet material, and would ordinarily have been protected under the principle of cabinet confidentiality.

Reid said he was “not aware” if other agencies are investigating the matter, but explained it had been referred to the attorney general’s department because it administers the “relevant criminal provisions” relating to disclosure of protected information.

Reid said:

Any action taken in relation to this would be within their purview.

Asked if PMC would cooperate with any criminal investigation, he said “absolutely”.

We’ll see, when AGD [attorney general’s department] and Australian federal police officials are up at estimates, whether a referral has been made.

Lisa Cox

Lisa Cox

Funding for saving native species program ‘not enough’: Hanson-Young

A little more from environment estimates where senators have been asking about the level of funding for conservation work.

The assistant minister for climate change and energy, Jenny McAllister, has said the government is taking the decline of the country’s wildlife seriously but the challenge is unlikely to be addressed through public funding alone.

She said this was why creating a new biodiversity market had been such a focus for the new government.

You might recall the environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, announced the scheme in August, describing its potential as a “green Wall Street”.

The government seems to have moved on from that framing, with McAllister now referring to the proposed scheme as “the nature repair market”.

The scheme remains under development, with the minister working through key issues identified through recent public consultation.

McAllister said the government “will use every tool in our kit to get to our objective” of no new extinctions.

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the point being raised by senators was that $224.5m in funding for a saving native species program (about $56m per year), “is not enough”.

McAllister responded:

There are a range of tools available to government and we’re determined to use all of them.

She said there were “resource constraints on the budget” but the government was working on “rebuilding capability in a part of government that was not (made) a priority by the previous Liberal National party government”.

Caitlin Cassidy

Caitlin Cassidy

‘We will have to do more’ on energy prices, treasurer says

Finally, Jim Chalmers is asked about energy prices, due to rise in the coming two years as forecast in the budget.

He says what we are seeing is “absolutely caused by the war in Ukraine” and the government has been frank with the public about what’s to come.

Right around the world, countries are dealing with some skyrocketing power prices and unfortunately, we are no exception to that …

[The energy] minister Chris Bowen has done a lot of work already with the state and territory counterparts in the budget. I funded and empowered the regulators to do more in this area but we’ve levelled with people and said that our expectation is that we will have to do more here.

Caitlin Cassidy

Caitlin Cassidy

PM says he was responding to Peter Dutton in question time, not Michelle Landry

Albanese is asked about accusations of bullying during question time from Coalition MP Michelle Landry.

Landry fronted the media with a group of women who, incidentally, didn’t attend the national march for justice.

He asks the reporter to take a look at the footage themselves.

Peter Dutton was interjecting, I had the exchange with Peter Dutton

He was interjecting and yelling across the chamber as he does … every time I get asked a question by those opposite. I responded because he didn’t seem to know the difference of where Rockhampton roads were given the question was about Rockhampton roads.

Caitlin Cassidy

Caitlin Cassidy

Albanese on repatriations from Syria: ‘We will always act in a way that keeps Australians safe’

Albanese is asked about the women and children, including sick and vulnerable individuals, to be repatriated from Syrian detention camps.

The opposition leader called this a “national security risk”.

Albanese says the party will continue to act on the advice of national security “which is what we have done up to this point and what the former government did as well”.

We will always act in a way that keeps Australians safe …

The former government did bring back some children from that area … and I’d say to my parliamentary colleagues who are aware of the national security implications here, of information being in the public arena, that the national security agencies would prefer to remain out of the public domain at this point in time. I don’t intend to add to it.

PM condemns fatal attack on 15-year-old Cassius Turvey

Caitlin Cassidy

Caitlin Cassidy

Now to questions.

Albanese is asked about Cassius Turvey, the fifteen-year-old Indigenous boy killed in an alleged violent attack in Perth.

He says it is a “terrible tragedy”.

This attack that was clearly racially motivated just breaks your heart, we are a better country than that and my heart goes out to the family and the friends.

Caitlin Cassidy

Caitlin Cassidy

Albanese turns to the new initiatives in the budget, primarily on housing and the housing Australia Future Fund to build 30,000 social and affordable housing units, as well as $100m for emergency housing and women escaping domestic violence.

We had the increased funding for remote housing for Indigenous Australians and we had the development of a national homelessness strategy and a housing supply and affordability council being created. But one of the things that I said during the election campaign and I’ve said since, it’s important not just what you do but how you do it.

He says Labor is prepared to work with state and local governments as well as local industry and investment funds.

Caitlin Cassidy

Caitlin Cassidy

Anthony Albanese says budget ‘was right for the times’

The prime minister is up and he sure brought the weather with him! What a sunny day we’re having in Sydney.

He thanks Chalmers for handing down his first budget and says it’s “great to be here” in Parramatta with “our friend Andrew Charlton”, the local member. This is Albanese’s first time back in Parramatta since the election.

Tuesday’s budget was about implementing our future. We went through the commitments that we gave to the people of Australia in May and have ensured that we delivered on them.

From the youngest Australians receiving support through childcare, from families getting support with increase paid parental leave to businesses and new industries getting support through our national reconstruction fund, to people being able to connect with each other in the world through the upgraded national broadband network, through to our investment in productivity boosting infrastructure right through to looking after Australians who are on aged care plans. And our plans, of course, to get wages moving again.

This was a budget that was right for the times, it was responsible … 99% in the first two years, of the revenue gains that have been received by the increased prices that are out there, we returned to the budget’s bottom line. Because we understand that responsible economic management means fighting inflation.

Caitlin Cassidy

Caitlin Cassidy

Housing package aimed at communities like western Sydney, Chalmers says

Chalmers says global pressures are felt “most acutely around the kitchen table”.

That is why the budget that we handed down this week was all about responsible cost of living relief, all about investing in the drivers of growth and investing in our people and it was all also about repairing the economy so that we can spend less money on waste and rorts and more money on priorities.

Turning to housing, Chalmers says gaps in supply and rising rental prices will be a government focus, and western Sydney is “in so many ways” the epicentre of Australia’s housing challenge.

Here in western Sydney, we’ve got very low vacancy rates, fast rising rents and a large proportion of communities like this are renters and … every 10th worker in western Sydney works in construction.

He says western Sydney was the “sort of community that we had in mind” when putting together the government’s housing package.

Rates are low and rents are higher, it’s harder and harder for people to live near where job opportunities are. So what we have done is we’ve brought together superannuation and and other investors, state and local government and the building industry to do something meaningful about affordable housing. The lack of affordable rental properties is one of the big challenges that we have in our economy …

The budget was the beginning of laying the foundations for a better future, the budget was all about making our economy more resilient and our budget more responsible. It was an important start … The hard work has begun.

Caitlin Cassidy

Caitlin Cassidy

Treasurer to meet local employers in western Sydney amid economic challenges

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is appearing in front of the media now in Parramatta, in western Sydney.

He says he will be spending time in the area today talking with local employers about the challenges western Sydney’s economy is facing.

We recognise that if we want the Australian economy to be stronger and more modern and resilient, we need local economies to be stronger, more modern and more resilient as well.

Turning to the budget, he says it was “responsible, right for the times and … readies us for a better future”.

In uncertain global conditions it recognises that the best defence we have is a responsible budget here at home.



https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2022/oct/28/australia-news-live-noel-pearson-racism-energy-cost-of-living-chris-bowen-peter-dutton-anthony-albanese-policy-politics-indigenous-recognition Australia news live updates: Morrison book referred for investigation over possible cabinet material | Australian politics

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