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From 2h ago King says gas reservation plan will 'push down' prices at some stage Madeleine King is asked how long it will take for the gas reservation scheme (that requires gas producers to reserve 20% of their gas for local use) to reduce energy prices. She confirms that the reservation scheme will “push down” prices, but won’t specify when. King does say there will be an implementation year for the changes to take effect, i.e. don’t expect cheaper gas immediately. double quotation mark We are very focused in the design of this reservation scheme in making sure Australians, Australian consumers and Australian businesses, do get access to affordable gas.
We expect the oversupply part of the reservation to put that modest oversupply into the system which will push down those prices. So we do expect to see that downward pressure on prices. Key events 1h ago High court decision will have no impact on federal fossil fuel project approvals, King says 2h ago King says gas reservation plan will 'push down' prices at some stage 2h ago Bell confirms she reached out to Aly over ‘poor choice of words’ 3h ago Hume says Bell ‘reached out’ to Aly after ‘shamed and stoned’ comments 3h ago Nationals bring pineapples to parliament to warn against ‘risky’ imports 4h ago Australia and Jordan sign joint statement on defence and security 4h ago Coalition bid to send trust tax bill to inquiry fails ... for now 5h ago Chalmers introduces trusts tax legislation to the House 5h ago Albanese says ‘thoughts and prayers’ with Pope Leo XIV following cancer diagnosis 5h ago Bell’s comments said ‘in the heat of the moment’ says Hanson 7h ago Nationals MP defends Bell’s ‘shamed and stoned’ comments 7h ago PM says he intervened on ATO credit card ban 8h ago Labor to introduce gas reservation scheme bill with a fifth to stay onshore 8h ago Chalmers warns against scolding One Nation voters: 'Feelings are as real as facts' ‘Something you could look up on Wikipedia’ Bowen and Tehan fight over pre-COP event Shadow energy minister, Dan Tehan , changes tack and asks the energy minister, Chris Bowen , if the pre-COP meeting in Tuvalu was powered by diesel generators and whether Australian taxpayer dollars funded the event.
Bowen starts talking about the Fijian energy system which he says does primarily run on fossil fuels. He quickly gets pulled up by the opposition, and initially denies that they asked about Tuvalu – not Fiji. Bowen then rephrases: double quotation mark Whether it is Fiji or Tuvalu or Palau, they are all powered by diesel and a they’re all trying to change that.
That’s a great revelation, something you could look up on Wikipedia. Yes, Pacific Islands are powered by diesel primarily. Something they are trying to change.
Bowen accuses Tehan and Angus Taylor of “utter contempt” having “criticised the Prime Minister and I for going to Fiji and wearing what we were asked to wear by the Fijian government and called them Hawaiian shirts. Fiji is not Hawaii.” Taylor shouts “utter contempt for you”, from across the despatch box. Bowen says: double quotation mark We don’t joke about climate change in the Pacific, we work with our Pacific family and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Taylor claims Albanese repeatedly ‘humiliated’ Chalmers How much more humiliation will Jim Chalmers endure before the PM puts him out of his misery and sacks him, asks Angus Taylor . The leader of the opposition is trying to stoke the fire, and says the PM was forced to step in to clean up the treasurer’s mess on the ATO credit card ban and before that stepped in to stop the taxing of unrealised capital gains on small businesses. Anthony Albanese tries to pour cold water over the commentary that he went over Chalmers’ head to delay the credit card ban.
Everything is, like, totally fine he says. double quotation mark The whole premise of it is completely wrong. The treasurer and I had a discussion last week. We convened the expenditure review committee, and we unanimously, right across the leadership of the government, agreed that the decision by the ATO, to have a limited period of pause on the ban.
Taylor tries to make a point of order, but you regular readers of the blog will know that if the opposition leader – as he has here – has asked a broad political question, he’ll get a broad political answer. Albanese then pulls out the Josh Frydenberg card: double quotation mark Our version of aspiration is health, housing, jobs and opportunity. The Liberal party version of aspiration is Josh Frydenberg.
There he is, a failed treasurer who couldn’t even hold his seat ... And overcoming his innate shyness to be out there. You can’t turn on a TV without seeing Josh Frydenberg.
He’s out there every single day. Aly under the spotlight as Coalition continues crusade over small businesses Nationals MP Alison Penfold is up next and asks Anne Aly a similar question – quoting an unnamed Labor source “not happy about these compounding attacks on small business” and asks when the government will “stop waging war” on small business. Aly also gives a similar answer.
She says (again) that the country has seen “record numbers of small businesses opening”, and then reads out a few pro-small biz policies. double quotation mark I meet with small businesses regularly and regularly they tell me that the two measures that government has introduced, the $20,000 instant asset write-off being made permanent. The two–year loss carry back being made permanent have made a huge difference to them. Aly, for anyone interested at home, is wearing a large-ish pink brooch in the shape of a balloon dog.
It’s question time! There is no respite for Anne Aly , who is under the spotlight again today. The Liberal MP Mary Aldred says “Labor MPs are sounding the alarm about the minister’s war on small business” and asks when Labor will “stop waging war” on small business.
Aly defends herself and says a record 385,000 businesses were added to the economy last year and that 1.4m businesses have been registered since Labor came to office. double quotation mark That’s 35% higher than under the previous government, and 2.5 times higher than under the Howard government. Insolvencies as a proportion is around half of what it averaged under the Howard government. Anne Aly during question time.
Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP King says Beetaloo Basin emissions are ‘accounted for and offset’ My colleague Sarah Basford Canales asks Madeleine King if she’s personally comfortable with the decades’ worth of emissions that will be released from the Beetaloo Basin every year. King was celebrating the project in the Northern Territory at its first gas tap last month . She suggests that the emissions shouldn’t be a problem and that they’re all “accounted for”. double quotation mark My understanding, from those recommendations, is that the emissions are accounted for and offset but I would have to check that.
Having said that, we have a federal mechanism checking that. If there are emissions over a certain volume, those facilities connected to that come under the safeguard mechanism and that is how we manage dealing with emissions in this country. What’s the safeguard mechanism, you ask?
My colleague Adam Morton has you (and me) covered: High court decision will have no impact on federal fossil fuel project approvals, King says Following a high court decision that will force the New South Wales government to consider climate change impact on future fossil fuel project approvals, Madeleine King is asked if this will have any impact on federal decisions. No, is the short answer. King says the NSW government had conditions aimed at minimising scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions in place which a planning commission had to consider.
The majority of the court found the NSW Independent Planning Commission failed to consider those conditions. She tells the press club: double quotation mark What this decision has said, ‘Well, this part of what you had in your conditions were not looked at so you’re going to have to look at them again’, it really is a technical but important argument about planning commissions following the rules that state governments have put in place. Now, the federal government doesn’t have the same legislative set up around scope 3 emissions, so it won’t apply to federal government approvals.
It’s not in our legislation so no it won’t. Resources minister Madeleine King at the National Press Club. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP King says gas reservation plan will 'push down' prices at some stage Madeleine King is asked how long it will take for the gas reservation scheme (that requires gas producers to reserve 20% of their gas for local use) to reduce energy prices.
She confirms that the reservation scheme will “push down” prices, but won’t specify when. King does say there will be an implementation year for the changes to take effect, i.e. don’t expect cheaper gas immediately. double quotation mark We are very focused in the design of this reservation scheme in making sure Australians, Australian consumers and Australian businesses, do get access to affordable gas. We expect the oversupply part of the reservation to put that modest oversupply into the system which will push down those prices.
So we do expect to see that downward pressure on prices. Australia needs to counter Chinese dominance in critical minerals: King The resources minister, Madeleine King , says China has had a several decades head start on Australia in building a critical minerals processing industry, so we need to move faster. She says China’s dominance across the sector wouldn’t be a problem, except that they’ve in the last few years taken to imposing export controls and bans on other countries including Australia.
Speaking to the National Press Club, King says China has for decades “recognised minerals processing as a strategically important industry and built it up to such an extraordinary scale that midstream and downstream global supply chains are now wholly concentrated in that one country.” double quotation mark This would be less of an issue but for the rapid increase in recent years in export controls, restrictions and bans right across the whole supply chain. Let me set out the scale of the challenge. Australia has had to start, almost from scratch, to build an industry that our largest trading partner, and the second biggest economy in the world, has invested in massively and consistently for three decades.
Pioneers of this industry have been highlighting this problem for years ... And the truth is, together, we’re making genuine progress in meeting this challenge. Australia is stepping up to take on its responsibility to lead on critical minerals and rare earths globally.
Resources minister Madeleine King at the National Press Club. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Josh Butler Labor’s digital duty of care legislation likely to face scrutiny in Senate Anika Wells is expected to introduce the government’s digital duty of care legislation tomorrow, but it’s thought likely the contentious legislation will face the rigour of a Senate inquiry. Labor sources are still confident the bill could pass by the end of the year, and say they’re not worried or surprised that it will be referred to a committee.
But it is expected the Greens and Coalition , for different reasons, will look to have the bill probed before the Senate votes on it. The Coalition is, at this stage, not prepared to even negotiate on the bill, with communications shadow minister Sarah Henderson saying this week that the government should scrap it entirely and that the opposition believed it was beyond amending. The Greens, however, are broadly on board with the proposed changes but want them to go further in taking action on big tech.
New Greens leader David Shoebridge said he was happy for the bill to pass by year’s end, but wanted an inquiry to look at it first. It’s looking likely that, later this afternoon, the Senate will seek to push DDOC to an inquiry. Wells is at the National Press Club tomorrow, where she will give a speech on the legislation and take questions.
Anika Wells. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Bell confirms she reached out to Aly over ‘poor choice of words’ Liberal MP Angie Bell says she used a poor choice of words when she called for the prime minister and small business minister, Anne Aly , to be “shamed and stoned” over the ATO’s credit card ban. Bell has released a statement confirming she reached out to Aly, but also says the small business minister is trying to “deflect” from the issue.
Guardian Australia understands Bell tried to call Aly once yesterday evening, but the pair have not yet spoken. Bell said: double quotation mark I immediately withdrew the comment. It was a poor choice of words in the heat of the moment, when I was trying to reflect the dire situation that small businesses face under the Albanese Labor government.
The small business minister is deflecting from what’s most important and that is the plight of small businesses across our nation who are being forced to manage higher taxes, growing costs and declining revenues. Josh Butler Traffic jam building for Liberal press conferences today There is only ever limited space for press conferences in Parliament House, but later this hour is looking a bit silly. In the last 40 minutes, we’ve received media alerts for three separate Liberal frontbencher press conferences, all scheduled for the exact same time.
Andrew Bragg , the shadow housing minister, got in first in calling a 1pm press conference in the Senate courtyard. Then we got shadow treasurer Tim Wilson calling a 1pm press conference in the Mural Hall. And finally, we got deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume and Nationals leader Matt Canavan calling a 1pm press conference, also in the Mural Hall.
That’s teamwork if ever we’ve seen it, calling three separate press conferences for the same exact window. Nothing like a full court press. But soon after commenting on the impending traffic jam in front of the media cameras, Bragg sent out an amended advisory – he would push his presser back to 1.10pm, but had moved it to the Mural Hall.
There’s sometimes what the press gallery calls a “conga line” of pollies lining up to give media grabs for the cameras, but this is a high-water mark. Shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Hume says Bell ‘reached out’ to Aly after ‘shamed and stoned’ comments The Liberal deputy leader, Jane Hume , says Angie Bell reached out to Anne Aly after saying she should be “shamed and stoned” over the ATO credit card ban.
Hume says the comments were perhaps a bit “clumsy”, and tries to blow the whole thing over. She claims the response to Bell’s comments are “a storm in a teacup” and like Angus Taylor this morning, that it’s a “distraction” from the underlying issue. She tells News24: double quotation mark I know Angie Bell very well, she’s possibly the least racist, least misogynistic person I have ever come across.
She used a common phrase, perhaps it was clumsy. I do think, and I know that she has reached out to Anne Aly personally, I don’t know whether Anne has responded ... To be honest, this is a distraction.
Anne Aly is a terrible small business minister. Angie Bell. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP Chalmers denies being rolled by Albanese over credit card payments to ATO Treasurer Jim Chalmers has denied being rolled by Anthony Albanese after the prime minister personally intervened to stop a tax office ban on credit card payments a day before stopgap funding was announced.
After sustained criticism of the government’s handling of the ban on tax bills being paid by credit card, Chalmers last week announced new funding for the ATO to ensure card payments could continue until the end of the financial year. Read the full story from Tom McIlroy here: Nationals bring pineapples to parliament to warn against ‘risky’ imports Caitlin Cassidy The Nationals are sending pineapple juice to Labor members of parliament this week in a gimmick to warn against the possible allowance of new pineapple imports from India and Indonesia. The party has launched a petition urging against “risky pineapple imports” which it says comes with “serious concerns about exotic pests, unfair competition and the lack of chemicals that growers would need to fight a biosecurity outbreak”.
Its leader, Matt Canavan , said “the Nationals support fair trade but fair trade must be safe trade”. double quotation mark We have the best pineapples in the world – which Labor members of parliament can taste for themselves this week. That’s why we must protect our pineapple industry. Canavan held a joint press conference at parliament house this morning, where he concerningly held onto a pineapple.
Nationals Leader Matt Canavan with Nationals MPs and pineapple stakeholders this morning. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP Australia and Jordan sign joint statement on defence and security Anthony Albanese and Jordan’s King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein have met at Parliament House this morning, and committed to strengthening bilateral ties in defence and security. In a lengthy joint statement, the two countries have agreed to more defence cooperation, stronger trade and investment, and condemned terrorism and violent extremism.
They also signed a memorandum of understanding on mental health cooperation. Australia condemned the Iranian attacks targeting Jordan, and the two nations called for peace and security in the Middle East, also condemning the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Australian Prime Minister Albanese greets King Abdullah II of Jordan in Canberra.
Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA King Abdullah II and a Jordanian delegation meeting with Anthony Albanese. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images Benita Kolovos Victoria’s firefighting fleet needs funding, auditor general report finds Victoria’s auditor general has found the state’s fire authorities need $1.5bn over the next decade to replace and upgrade their firefighting fleets, but have received only a quarter of the funding required. The report, tabled in parliament this morning, found that the Country Fire Authority , Fire Rescue Victoria and the department’s firefighting fleet - which operates through Forest Fire Management Victoria - collectively need $1.5bn to “make sure their fire trucks are fit for purpose, reliable and safe,” but have only received $390.4m in current funding and future grants.
It said the CFA needed the majority of the funds - $962.5m – to replace 1,657 fire trucks that are “beyond their estimated useful life”, while FRV needed $297.3m to replace 153 fire trucks that are more than 15 years old. But the auditor general said neither the CFA or FRV requested the full amount of funding they needed ahead of the most recent budget. The report said this was “due to instruction from the treasurer to all ministers that agencies should limit funding requests for new initiatives in line with the government’s fiscal strategy”.
It said the FRV in particular only submitted a budget bid of $20.7m – just 7.5% of what it needs over the decade. The report also found none of the agencies were completing all its scheduled maintenance, which may lead to more breakdowns: double quotation mark Together, these issues increase the risk that fire authorities will not have enough fit-for-purpose fire trucks to respond to fires and other emergencies. Victorian fire crews prepare to battle the Ravenswood Harcourt bushfire in January.
Photograph: Redesdale CFA Coalition bid to send trust tax bill to inquiry fails ... for now Labor has voted against the Coalition’s attempt to send the bill imposing a minimum 30% tax on discretionary trusts to a committee. But while it has the numbers in the house, it’s a very different story in the Senate. The Greens have said they want to punt this bill to an inquiry too – and between the minor party and the Coalition, they have the numbers to force the government’s hand.
Yesterday the Greens said the government was watering down what appeared to be a “mildly positive” bill: double quotation mark We want to know exactly what the impacts are of Labor once again collapsing under pressure from vested interests. This morning, Angus Taylor was asked if the Coalition would support the Green’s push for an inquiry. He said yes, but couched it saying the two parties were coming at the legislation from two very different positions: double quotation mark We will go to the election with a policy of axing the tax.
But I’ll tell you, it would be even better to not let it get into place in the first place. Now, I fear the Greens will just want more tax. They generally do.
But if they are prepared to be reasonable in an inquiry to look at how the hell we got to this place, how is it that Labor could have made this decision – of course, we’ll support that. Chalmers denies being rolled by PM on ATO card ban Jim Chalmers has denied the prime minister went over his head to intervene on the ATO’s decision to ban credit card payments. Anthony Albanese said yesterday that Andrew McKellar , chief executive of the Australian chamber of commerce and industry (ACCI) texted him on Thursday morning, and 24 hours later the ban was delayed.
The treasurer says the PM didn’t cut his grass and that he was definitely involved in the discussions too. double quotation mark Journalist : Were you rolled by the PM? Chalmers : No, not at all. It is true that there were discussions with ACCI on Thursday, we were involved in some of those discussions at office level.
They were engaging with my team on... Journalist : Were you overlooked? Chalmers : If you just let me set it out for you,the prime minister and I were in discussions on Wednesday of last week.
He had a view and I agree with it, that we needed to step in to provide this longer transition period to allow the ATO the time to get it right. We had the same view. Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese in March.
Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Liberal and shadow treasurer Tim Wilson wants to punt Labor’s trust tax bill to inquiry The Coalition – who are very much not supportive of the legislation to impose a minimum 30% tax on discretionary trusts – are pushing for it to be punted to a parliamentary inquiry. The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson , claims in the House that Labor MPs don’t even get how their own legislation works. double quotation mark I do understand that members of the Labor party do not understand the consequences of the legislation that the treasurer has just introduced. For your benefit, I am saying to you very clearly it is in the Labor member’s interest that this go to an inquiry.
Source: The Guardian
