Sophie Scamps, Kate Chaney, Monique Ryan and Allegra Spender at Parliament House on Wednesday. The independents have many amendments for the gambling bill but it’s unlikely most – if any – will be supported by the government. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Sophie Scamps, Kate Chaney, Monique Ryan and Allegra Spender at Parliament House on Wednesday. The independents have many amendments for the gambling bill but it’s unlikely most – if any – will be supported by the government. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
‘Sportsdebt’: independents' creative push to crack down on gambling ads
The teals have brought some of the best merch I’ve seen in parliament, as they try to pressure the government and opposition to go harder on gambling advertising.
Sporting T-shirts with “debt365”, “sportsdebt” and “ladsbroke”, they have held a doorstop at Parliament House. It’s not the first time we’ve seen the tees – but there’s more of them today with some of their staffers and volunteers also roaming around the building wearing the merch.
The independents have many amendments for the gambling bill but it’s unlikely most – if any – will be supported by the government.
Kate Chaney, centre, Sophie Scamps, left, and Monique Ryan, right. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images
The teals get creative with their push to crack down on gambling advertising. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images
Prosecution’s case against the alleged Bondi terror attacker expands
The prosecution’s case against Naveed Akram for his alleged role as a gunman in the Bondi terror attack now includes 12 additional electronic devices and a report on an explosive device.
Commonwealth prosecutor Danielle New outlined what is included in the case to the Downing Centre local court on Wednesday before seeking a two months extension to serve the brief of evidence.
New said the case now included statements from protected witnesses, and:
An additional 12 electronic devices [and] an improvised explosive device testing report are due and need to be reviewed.
New told the court this would be included in the brief alongside “significant data” extracted from seven other electronic devices, extensive medical records, and 800 witness statements.
Judge Hugh Donnelly approved the extension for the brief of evidence, noting it was a “significant matter” and was moving “steadily”. It’s now expected to be served on 28 October.
Akram, 24, and his father, 50-year-old Sajid Akram, allegedly killed 15 people after opening fire at a Hanukah festival at Bondi beach on 14 December.
Akram, who survived a shootout with police, was charged in December with 78 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act that investigators allege may have been “inspired by Isis”. Sajid Akram was shot and killed by police at the scene.
‘It could say he bought a flamingo off me’: Icac witness says ‘no issue’ with invoices from ‘best mate’
Returning to the NSW Icac’s Operation Rosny, questioning of witness Jeremy Greenwood has focused on Catholic Schools NSW, alleged to have made illegal donations to conservative factional group the Reformers.
In 2021, the schools governing body moved from making payments to Beckington, a lobbying company controlled by Greenwood and Reformer Christian Ellis to JPG Advisory, a registered lobbying firm controlled by Greenwood.
The inquiry has heard that Greenwood agreed to pay Reformer Jean-Claude Perrottet, who he described as his “best mate”, half of a monthly retainer from Catholic Schools NSW if he was able to secure the contract with chief executive, Dallas McInerney.
Greenwood admitted that after the contract was secured, Jean-Claudedid no consulting work for Catholic Schools NSW. Asked if Jean-Claude had sent “fake invoices” to suggest he’d done work, including under the guise of consultancy, Greenwood says he would have “no issue” with this.
It could say he bought a flamingo off me. It was just an internal document only for me. It’s how I process it out that matters.
Counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer SC, asked if he would “claim tax on an invoice that said he bought a flamingo?”
Greenwood apologised for using the phrase. He said he did not know if he claimed the invoices as a business expense, but defended any invoices as reflecting a “commission arrangement”.
Stripping out energy efficiency standards will ‘deepen inequality’ says Acoss
The Australian council of social services is “deeply concerned” with the Coalition’s proposal to make energy efficiency optional in building.
The shadow housing minister, Andrew Bragg, announced the opposition would cut the 2000 page national construction code down to just 80 pages, making essential structural, fire safety and health requirements compulsory but make all other features optional.
The Acoss chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, says cutting energy efficiency in homes would straddle renters with high power bills.
She adds that energy performance and accessibility are, “fundamental to health, safety and wellbeing”.
Homes that are freezing in winter, dangerously hot in summer, or inaccessible to older people and people with disability are simply not safe. Making energy performance optional would lock people into higher power bills for decades. Strong building standards reduce energy costs and protect people on low incomes from energy hardship.
Stripping out energy efficiency and accessibility standards would shift costs onto households, deepen inequality and leave future generations with homes that are expensive to run and difficult to live in.
‘You need to be respectful’: Icac witness reprimanded
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption has continued its investigation into allegations of corruption in the state’s Liberal party today.
Questioning of witness Jeremy Greenwood, who is named in two of Icac’s allegations, has focused on payments made to his company JPG Advisory, including by schools governing body Catholic Schools NSW. As with previous hearings, the commission has heard evidence from emails and text messages exchanged between those named in allegations.
At one point this morning, Greenwood, who is giving his third day of evidence, said to someone in the hearing room: “You’ve been through my emails. Don’t give me that look”.
It is not clear if the comments were directed at counsel assisting, Peggy DwyerSC, who has had several tense exchanges with Greenwood, or someone else. Presiding commissioner, Fabian Gleeson SC, intervened:
Gleeson: Sorry, Mr Greenwood. Sorry, just everyone pause. Mr Greenwood, you need to be respectful in the way in which you behave, you need to listen to counsel’s questions. You do not direct comments to other people sitting in this room. Do you understand what is expected of you as a witness?
Greenwood: Apologies, commissioner, but I also don’t like having faces pulled at me.
Gleeson: Mr Greenwood, can you answer the question? Listen to the question and answer it. Do you understand what is expected of you in terms of respectful conduct and decorum in this room?
Greenwood: Yes, commissioner.
Gleeson: Because I don’t want to have to explain it to you again. You understand?
Union echos calls for pay increase for Commonwealth Bank empoyees after CEO’s pay packet increases to more than $9m
The Finance Sector Union (FSU) has reiterated calls for a 5% pay increase for Commonwealth Bank employees after the bank’s full-year financial results revealed that chief executive Matt Comyn’s salary had increased by $2m from the previous year.
The FSU has been negotiating pay deals since early this year, asking for a 5% pay increase for most of the bank’s 37,000 employees, along with better job security and working conditions.
The union says the $9m pay packet, now 150 times that of the average CBA employee, “bolsters the union’s case” for a “new and overdue Enterprise Agreement”.
The FSU national secretary, Julia Angrisano, said “the only decent thing left for CBA to do is accept the FSU’s request”. She said:
The CBA’s remaining Australian workforce is demoralised, struggling to make ends meet and anxious about the future.
CBA ought to be ashamed that some of its full-time employees have to take second jobs. I think most Australians will be appalled to know that finance professionals tasked with looking after their money barely earn more than someone on the minimum wage.
The Commonwealth Bank chief executive, Matt Comyn. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
‘Sportsdebt’: independents' creative push to crack down on gambling ads
The teals have brought some of the best merch I’ve seen in parliament, as they try to pressure the government and opposition to go harder on gambling advertising.
Sporting T-shirts with “debt365”, “sportsdebt” and “ladsbroke”, they have held a doorstop at Parliament House. It’s not the first time we’ve seen the tees – but there’s more of them today with some of their staffers and volunteers also roaming around the building wearing the merch.
The independents have many amendments for the gambling bill but it’s unlikely most – if any – will be supported by the government.
Kate Chaney, centre, Sophie Scamps, left, and Monique Ryan, right. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images
The teals get creative with their push to crack down on gambling advertising. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images
Wilkie contacts Nacc over gambling bill, claiming government ‘improperly influenced’ by wagering lobby
Josh Butler
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has alleged that “individuals in the Federal Government” had been “improperly influenced by individuals in the private sector” in formulating the gambling legislation, writing to the National Anti-Corruption Commission with his claims.
We’ve contacted the office of the communications minister, Anika Wells, for response.
Wilkie, the Tasmanian crossbencher, claimed he had “referred” the issue to the Nacc. The anti-corruption body is, of course, independent and chooses which issues it will investigate and, while any person can write to the body, there is no obligation to investigate.
In his letter, shared with media today, Wilkie said he was not making “any allegation against any specific individual”. But he claimed he was writing to “express my concern that individuals in the Federal Government, when formulating gambling reform policy, have been improperly influenced by individuals in the private sector, most obviously but not exclusively through donations, gifts, hospitality and personal relationships.”
This has resulted in policy so clearly at odds with research, public opinion and the public interest, that the implementation of such policy could be characterised, in my opinion, as serious corruption in the Commonwealth public sector.
Wilkie attached a newspaper article noting large sums of donations which Labor had received from betting agencies.
Wilkie wrote that while governments “have the right to accept donations, be lobbied and make their own policy decisions”, he claimed “individuals in the Government are acting so egregiously in response to individuals in the private sector that all reasonable limits on government behaviour have been exceeded.”
“If this doesn’t ‘cross the line’, then I dread to think what would,” he said.
‘It is unconscionable’: Haines savages Labor’s gambling bill
Jumping back to the House of Representatives, independent MP Helen Haines is having a huge crack at the government’s gambling legislation and says partial bans don’t work and in some cases can even increase the number of gambling ads broadcast.
She tells the House the evidence “couldn’t be clearer” for far stronger action on gambling advertising and that the current legislation “falls so far short of what we know is needed”.
She says she will put several amendments forward including one that bans gambling ads during all G-rated programs. She also wants gambling companies to be forced to collect and publicly report on harm indicators, including aggregate customer losses, self-exclusion requests and complaints.
It is unconscionable the bill also does not establish a gambling regulator despite the Murphy report identifying a glaring need for a national regulatory framework, overseen by a dedicated body with the sole objective of reducing harm.
So often in this place, we’re dealing with problems that don’t have an obvious solution. This is not one of those times. The evidence couldn’t be clearer. Everyone in Australia, except the gambling companies, and apparently this government knows what needs to be done.
She says since the bill was introduced she has received hundreds of emails from her constituents disappointed and outraged that the government won’t commit to a full ban.
Victoria to vaccinate thousands of little penguins against H5 bird flu
Petra Stock
Victoria will begin vaccinating about 5,000 little penguins at Phillip Island and St Kilda from next week to protect them against the deadly H5 bird flu, in what is believed to be the world’s largest vaccination program involving wild birds.
While vaccinating wild birds against the disease was challenging, the fact that the penguins returned home every night to Phillip Island and St Kilda made it possible to deliver the two doses necessary over a two-week period.
We can’t stop H5 bird flu circulating in wild birds, but we can take practical steps to protect vulnerable species like our little penguins from its impacts.
We know how people love little penguins, we know how iconic they are to Victoria.
Catherine Basterfield, the chief executive of Phillip Island Nature Parks, said trials had already been undertaken, which showed no adverse effect in the birds. “It is a world first, to propose to vaccinate wildlife in this scale,” she said.
The vaccines were being supplied by the federal agriculture department, and would cover only a proportion of the penguin population of about 40,000 birds. Doses have arrived at Phillip Island and are ready to be administered from early next week, pending final regulatory approvals. The birds would be microchipped at the same time.
James Todd, the state’s chief biodiversity officer, said vaccines weren’t a “silver bullet”, and wouldn’t be suitable for many of the hundreds of species at risk from the virus.
The announcement followed the detection of a positive H5 bird flu case on a rocky part of Phillip Island. However there have not been any cases found in little penguins.
A little penguin at St Kilda pier. Photograph: Flossy Sperring
We’re in for a long(ish) night as the house debates the gambling bill
The government has brought on debate on its gambling bill, allowing the House to sit late until around 10pm tonight to allow everyone to have their say.
While Anthony Albanese and Angus Taylor hash out a deal on the bill, we’re in a bit of a holding pattern so debate will essentially go on as long members have something to say and that deal is done.
Labor MP Shayne Neumann who was a member of the committee led by the late Peta Murphy who handed down the landmark “You win some, you lose more” report, says he still supports the all of the inquiry’s recommendations.
This committee has made 31 recommendations that apply a public health lens to online gambling to reduce harm across the whole of the Australian population. I was a member of that committee. I support the 31 recommendations, and don’t resile for one minute from those recommendations.
While Labor’s legislation doesn’t touch a lot of the recommendations made in the report – including banning inducements and creating a national regulator, Neumann still supports it, saying the reforms are about “reducing gambling harm and making sure our children grow to love sport for the game, not seeing gambling as an essential part of it”.
Labor MP Shayne Neumann. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
‘I’ve set the agenda’: Pauline Hanson claims credit for migration policy
Pauline Hanson says the two major parties are following her footsteps on migration policy because “they realise that I’m right in what I’m saying”.
She tells News24 she’s set the agenda on the issue – ahead of shadow housing minister, Andrew Bragg, today announcing that the Coalition will set the net overseas migration number to 180,000 a year over the forward estimates.
At the moment, the permanent migration level is set to 185,000 while the net overseas migration in the last financial year was estimated to be 295,000. Net overseas migration is the total number of people coming into the country minus those going out – which can make it harder to predict and control than the permanent migration level.
Hanson says:
They [Labor] brought in 1.5 million people in their term of being in government, and they intend to bring in another 1 million people over the next four years. We can’t cope with this. The people are saying it, and that’s why now I’ve set the agenda.
Both the political parties, Labor and Liberal, are pulling back their numbers because they realise that I’m right in what I’m saying.
I’m bringing in 130,000 a year, net migration in the country.
While she says her policy is 130,000 NOM, her website states that One Nation “cap visas at 130,000 per year to ease pressure on housing, wages, and infrastructure” which sounds little different.
Ted O’Brien apologises to Japan over melon-gate, despite Japan calling issue “sensationalised”
Josh Butler
Going back to Ted O’Brien and James Paterson demanding an AFP investigation into melon-gate, it’s interesting to note that the Coalition has taken it upon itself to express “deep regret” to Japan over Anthony Albanese’s comments – despite the very diplomatic cable at the centre of their calls for a police investigation, showing Japan’s government did not want to make a major issue out of the podcast comments.
O’Brien and Paterson, no less than the shadow ministers for foreign affairs and defence, today have demanded the AFP investigate the apparent leaking of a diplomatic cable to The Australian newspaper, suggesting police check whether the prime minister’s office was involved.
O’Brien said he met the Japanese ambassador last night, and “expressed my deep regret of the prime minister’s actions”. He said he had “no authority to speak on behalf of the government or prime minister, but if I did have such authority, I would have apologised … but I did make that expression to the ambassador”.
Ted O’Brien and James Paterson. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Of course, the diplomatic cable at the centre of the Coalition’s concerns today indicates Japan wasn’t that offended in the first place. As reported by The Australian, the cable claimed there had been “sensationalised reporting in the Australian media”, that Tokyo believed there was no “ill intention” in Albanese’s actions, and they would take “no action” in hopes that it would “allow the Australian media to move on”.
We asked O’Brien about this, but he rejected there was any discrepancy in those two issues.
“I won’t be commenting on how Tokyo interprets this entire saga,” O’Brien said at a press conference.
He then stared down the barrel of the camera to speak directly to “anyone who is watching, whether it be the Japanese Australian community here locally, or whether it be anybody visiting from Japan”, saying “Australia takes our relationship with your country very seriously.”
Taylor tries to suspend standing orders over melon-gate
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has turned up the heat in the lower house this morning, immediately moving to suspend standing orders to get the prime minister to apologise over melon-gate.
Because the government has the numbers, it won’t go anywhere, but it’s a move to keep the whole debacle ticking along.
Taylor says an apology would show Albanese, “who is known for his hubris, can be capable of humility”.
This prime minister has stuffed up. He has made an egregious error. He had earlier posted on social media and I quote, No matter who you support in politics, it is completely unacceptable to demean, objectify, belittle, or offend women. Oh, really? Nice words.
If this is the standard, the prime minister sets for others, it’s the standard he should also hold himself to. I call on the prime minister to pick up the phone and apologise to the Japanese prime minister.
Angus Taylor in parliament on Tuesday. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Australia signs statement with US, UK and others on ballistic missile testing
Australia has joined the US and dozens of other nations including the UK, France, Germany and the Philippines, in calling on all relevant countries to provide advanced notice of ballistic missile launches.
Why does this matter? The joint statement of 40 nations follows a series of launches in the Pacific, including a ballistic missile test by North Korea, and a nuclear-capable missile test by China last month.
Only a few Pacific nations were signatory to the statement, including Palau and the Marshall Islands.
The statement says countries should provide 24 hours notice before the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and space launch vehicles.
Conducting nuclear-capable ballistic missile tests without sufficient advance notice and detail is dangerous and disrupts the peace and security of relevant nations in proximity to these tests.
It increases the risk of miscalculation, undermines global stability and security, and is incompatible with the responsibilities that come with possessing long-range missile capabilities.
Victorian parliament has voted to abolish group voting tickets (GVTs) to elect its upper house.
The state was the only remaining jurisdiction with the system, in which voters can only choose one party above the line on the ballot paper, with their preferences then allocated by the party if it’s knocked out during counting.
GVTs have been criticised by experts including Antony Green because they allowed backroom deals between parties to flourish, enabling some candidates to get elected with only a minuscule number of primary votes.
The electoral amendment (miscellaneous matters) bill 2026, which passed the upper house 33 votes to 4, will replace GVTs with a new above-the-line voting system that requires voters to number at least five groups in order of preference. Those preferences will then flow to candidates in the order they appear below the line for each party or group.
The MPs who did not support the bill were: Shooters Fishers and Farmers MP Jeff Bourman, Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell, Legalise Cannabis MP Rachel Payne and Libertarian David Limbrick. These minor-party MPs will be most affected by the change and face the prospect of losing their seats at the November election as a result.
Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell was one of four upper house MPs to vote against the bill. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Opposition defends decision to refer melon-gate leak to AFP
The opposition has batted off questions that its request for the Australian federal police to investigate the leak of a diplomatic message from the Japanese government after melon-gate is political.
The shadow defence minister, James Paterson, tells a press conference at parliament that if the prime minister had just quickly apologised, “everyone would have quickly moved on from this story”.
We’re still talking about this a month later because the prime minister has stubbornly refused to admit that he got it wrong, and now he’s trying to cover his tracks.
It was bad enough to make disrespectful comments about the Japanese prime minister. It is worse, that now the government appears to be leaking confidential correspondence from the government of Japan to the media to try and exonerate the prime minister and downplay the seriousness of what he has done.
Paterson says there are plenty of examples of Labor referring leaks to the AFP – including the text messages sent between French president Emmanuel Macron and former prime minister Scott Morrison.
In Senate estimates, senator Katy Gallagher pursued the government about whether or not there had been an AFP referral into that apparent leaking of those messages. So Labor can’t have it both ways. It’s either always wrong for confidential communications from our allies to find their way into the media, or it’s wrong only when their political opponents do it, not they do it.
The bank said that home loan applications had fallen 15% since May, when the government announced changes to negative gearing and the treatment of capital gains.
The bulk of that decrease has come from investors, with applications down 28%, compared to a 9% fall from owner occupiers.
Labor’s tax changes were largely designed to make property less attractive to investors to the benefit of owner occupiers.
Home prices and lending activity was already slowing at the time of the May budget, given mortgage rates were rising in response to a series of interest rate hikes.
CBA said application volumes had “stabilised in recent weeks”.
Most economists believe the chronic undersupply of homes will eventually push prices higher once interest rates ease and the tax changes are priced in.