Anthony Albanese meets Japanese PM ahead of Shinzo Abe funeral
Anthony Albanese has held a bilateral meeting with Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida while he is in Tokyo for Shinzo Abe’s funeral.
His office has released the public opening remarks:
Well, thank you very much for the welcome on my second visit to Japan as prime minister. It is important that Australia show our condolence to yourself as prime minister, but also to the people of Japan on the tragic loss of former prime minister Shinzo Abe.
He was very well respected. And as an international statesperson, it is clear that the Quad leaders’ dialogue would not have occurred without his leadership.
The relationship between Australia and Japan is so important and that importance is underlined by the fact that I am here as the sitting prime minister, even though our parliament is sitting.
I have brought with me as well the former prime ministers Turnbull, Abbott and Howard. So you have a very high-level attendance to pay our respects and show our respects to not just Mr Abe’s family but to the people of Japan.
We share such common interests, in particular for a free and open Indo-Pacific, which is so important that we continue to work together and to work with our partners as well to advance that common interest.
Key events
Dr Sophie Scamps has one of the crossbench questions today and its on the national integrity commission:
Is the Attorney General able to give confidence to the Australian people that the national anticorruption commission will be set up to succeed by including a strong statutory oversight mechanism, that is not government dominated [ensuring] its independence?
(A reminder that I am going off the Tveeder transcription while watching QT and not all questions and answers will be word perfect)
Mark Dreyfus thanks Scamps for the question and repeats that the legislation will be introduced tomorrow and says:
It is the major piece of reform to the Australian integrity framework, and as I hope everyone is aware I consulted across the parliament including with the Opposition and the crossbench in both houses on the formation of this legislation.
The Australian people believe integrity and voted on a government that will deliver a powerful, transparent and independent anti- corruption committee.
On the question of oversight of the commission, and the bill is introduced tomorrow, members will see that it will have a joint statutory committee with senators and member for this house who will act as an oversight committee for the activities of the national anticorruption commission, members will also see when the bill is introduced tomorrow that there will be an inspector of the commission who will perform a similar role to the role that is performed by inspectors in the states and territories which have included that aspect in their anticorruption arrangements.
Sussan Ley again tries to table Labor’s election policy on Powering Australia, which is available on the internet, so it is denied.
For the record, the election promise was a $275 saving by 2025.
Oh goodie. Looks like the ‘bread and butter is all Australians will be able to afford’ line is contagious.
Whichever Coalition staffer came up with it should get employee of the week. The prize is a loaf of Tip Top, obviously.
Sussan Ley:
My question is to the acting prime minister. Since the government was elected Australians are paying an extra $700 a month on a average mortgage, record inflation is forcing them to pay more for less at the supermarket and desperate families awaiting to 70 $5 cut to their power bill is a promise they repeated 97 times before the election but not once since. Acting prime minister, when Labor talks about bread-and-butter budgets is that because all Australians are going to be able to this Christmas?
Richard Marles:
I thank the Member for her question. We do understand that rising interest rates are putting real pressure on the budgets of Australian households. This government sees as its first priority and we doing everything we can to ease that pressure.
It is why we sought an increase in the minimum wage that is why during this week we are introducing legislation which will reduce the cost of medicines, make childcare more affordable, it is why last week, we saw the biggest increase in the pension for more than 10 years.
So on this side of the House we are completely focused on the effort to improve the household budgets of everyday Australians. But, the issues we face today, are fundamentally a function of a lost decade of government offered by those opposite.
I mean, we had insipid productivity growth which defined the last 10 years, we had the greatest period of wage stagnation, and the history of our country and that is a direct result of fact what we had opposite is a bunch of economic bystanders.
It was a lost decade of economic activity came from those opposite. We are different, we are the ones who are economic managers and government under Labor will see economic management be a part of what we are about and we will do that in a way which will prove the budgets of households as a result.
Question time begins
It is straight into it today!
Zoe McKenzie, the member for Flinders, asks:
Yesterday he refused to rule out changes to franking credits and negative gearing. Will the treasurer rule out changes to taxes on superannuation?
Jim Chalmers seems to be feeling a bit spicy today:
I’m pleased to inform the house that on the question they asked me today and yesterday our position hasn’t changed. On the matter of taxes, our priority is to do something meaningful about multinational taxes. We have said that for some time now, and that’s our agenda when it comes to tax. But it’s a good opportunity, I’m asked about tax policy, to inform the house, that today, today the member for Hume gave a speech about tax at the Centre for Independent Studies and I’m asked about tax. What I notice or what I’m told, [is it was] straight from the yellowing pages of the young Liberal newspaper of the 1980s …
Paul Fletcher gets his university debater hat on to complain about relevance.
Milton Dick seems bored as he draws the treasurer to the last part of the question.
Chalmers goes on as he wishes:
We got a lecture on taxes from the mob who were the second-highest taxing government in the last 30 years – the last highest taxing government since the John Howard government.
We got a lecture on the cost of living as well from the mob that kept wages deliberately low for a decade and from [the] shadow treasurer who tried to keep secret 20% increase in electricity prices.
A lecture on debt from the mob that doubled the debt even before the pandemic and left us with rising interest rates on the trillion dollars in debt they left behind.
We got a lecture on productivity from the same people that gave us the worst decade of productivity in the last 50 years, Mr Speaker.
I don’t know what’s more concerning, that the shadow treasurer might not be the sharpest tool in the Liberal party shed, or that he might be the sharpest tool in the Liberal party shed.
Only in the Liberal party, so bereft of ideas and talent, could the member for Hume even get a look in and in a serious economic portfolio. So we won’t be copping lectures from the leftovers of the last government, not on tax, not on spending, not on borrowing, the cost of living, not from the dregs of a government which [presided over] a decade of missed opportunities and priorities which left us a mess which will take more than one budget to clean up.
David Littleproud dishes up bread and butter line again
David Littleproud has never been one to shy away from naff lines.
The Nationals leader loves to trot out the same quip (once called zingers) over and over again like he pays it rent.
His predecessor Michael McCormack was a fan of the practice too.
But hey – when you are struggling to work out your public personality, why not just repeat lines until brains start melting out of heads?
In this case, as one of my learned colleagues pointed out to me, it’s this one:
There are cost of living pressures and, I mean, what I’m concerned about is I don’t think Jim Chalmers quite understood that he’s saying this can be a bread and butter budget. Well, sadly, I think it will be because that’s all Australian families will be able to afford if he continues to take the actions and not look at where the real pressures are around childcare, around food.
He has now said it at least three times.
There is a long time between now and the end of the year. Plenty of time for us all to become gluten-intolerant.
Question time is just about to begin, but here is everything Natasha May and Josh Taylor know about today’s movement with the Optus data breach:
Coalition reassured on ‘exceptional circumstances’ for integrity commission public hearings
The Coalition’s Perin Davey has been put up as the opposition’s panellist on the ABC’s Capital Hill and she has the talking points on how the Coalition is approaching the integrity commission:
The Coalition has always supported an integrity commission obviously*, we have seen the detail here but on what some of the minister has just announced, things like public hearings will only be in exceptional circumstances, that is reassuring because what we have seen in other jurisdictions is some dreadful outcomes, where innocent people, their reputations (have been dragged across the mud) in public and then later found there was nothing to see here.
We wanted to avoid that, we are walking into this open to negotiating because we want to see an integrity commission but we want to see an integrity commission that isn’t lamentable and is practical, and I am reassured by the announcement that the minister has made and I hope and I really look forward to seeing the outcomes of those further talks and negotiations.
Because it makes sense for the two parties of government to come together to support something that will impact every government going forward.
*not actually obvious. Scott Morrison once dismissed it as a ‘fringe issue’
Anthony Albanese asked question about children kidnapped in Japan
Anthony Albanese’s office has released the transcript of his press conference in Japan.
It was a quick one, so here’s what was covered:
Q: More than 60 Australian parents say children have been kidnapped in Japan. Did you raise this issue with Prime Minister Kishida?
Albanese:
No, but I am very conscious of this issue. And the Australian embassy here continues to provide consular assistance. This is an issue that relates, of course, to Japanese law. But we will continue to provide support and assistance when requested.
Q: Do you still have confidence in the Optus CEO given how they have handled this hacking scandal?
Albanese:
I have a policy of not making comments on domestic issues.* Clare O’Neil, our home affairs minister, is handling this issue. This is obviously a very serious issue which Clare O’Neil has made clear and unequivocal statements of the government and will continue to act as necessary.
*I assume he means while overseas
Q: Did you have any discussions with the US vice-president of possible acceleration of the US submarine program? And have you seen reports that suggest this could happen?
Albanese:
The US vice-president and I discussed our relations, including the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States, our joint cooperation through the Quad leaders’ meeting, through our alliance, through Aukus, and, of course, next year I will be hosting in Australia the Quad leaders’ meeting. We will continue to engage. Aukus is important. And the relationship between Australia and the United States and the United Kingdom is, of course, a long one and a deep one. And we will continue to engage on those issues.
Sexual harassment bill introduced in parliament
The sexual harassment bill has also been introduced to the parliament.
Tony Burke and Mark Dreyfus have described the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022 as “delivering on an important election commitment to end sexual harassment at work”.
It includes some of what the sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, wanted in terms of legislative changes, which the last government didn’t get to:
The bill will:
Place a positive duty on employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation, as far as possible.
Strengthen the Australian Human Rights Commission with new functions to assess and enforce compliance with this new requirement, including the capacity to give compliance notices to employers who are not meeting their obligations.
Expressly prohibit conduct that results in a hostile workplace environment on the basis of sex.
Ensure commonwealth public sector organisations are also required to report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency on its gender equality indicators.
Anne Aly explains why government won’t bring forward early childhood education care subsidy
The minister for early childhood education, Anne Aly, has had a chat to the ABC about why the government won’t be bringing forward the early childhood education care subsidy – it needs time to prepare the sector, which is already going through a staff shortage (as the advocacy group the ParentHood pointed out a little earlier – as well as anyone who has ever had anything to do with any early childhood educators already can tell you).
There is a big job to get more people into this sector, given the level of burnout:
Aly:
The estimation of how many additional staff varies. Right now we know that there are around 7,000 extra staff needed in early childhood education and care sector. This is not an issue that is new, the sector has been bleeding staff for a number of years now primarily because it is an undervalued sector, so we are very cognisant of the fact that this is not about looking after children, it is not about babysitting children.
They are the people who care for our most precious asset are early childhood educators, so that is one thing. But we have got a national plan that we are implementing, we are working with states and territories on retaining, attracting and training more people in the sector.