‘Paid parental leave is not safe’ with Hanson, Plibersek says
Tanya Plibersek has refuted Pauline Hanson’s claims that her comments on paid parental leave were taken out of context.
Plibersek says Hanson claimed in 2017 that women “just get pregnant to get the money” and that she’s been completely unsympathetic to the financial stress of having a baby.
The social services minister is today spruiking the extension of government paid parental leave that will give parents 26 weeks – at the minimum wage rate. Four of those weeks will have to be taken by the second partner.
(This announcement isn’t a new one but the government always likes promoting its announcements a bunch of times for maximum political attention).
Plibersek says:
A few weeks ago, [Hanson] said, you know, ‘Love, if you’ve got the equipment, have the baby, take the time off work’. She’s been completely unsympathetic to the financial stress on Australian families that having a new baby brings with it. She says that at the Press Club – and obviously she’s had a negative reaction and now she’s back-pedalling. But paid parental leave is not safe with Pauline Hanson and just, by the way, it’s also not safe with the Liberals. Scott Morrison and Joe Hockey called mothers on paid parental leave rorters and double dippers.
Key events
Cait Kelly
Children and Young People with Disability Australia calls on government to scrutinise NDIS bill
Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) welcomed yesterday’s extension to the NDIS Bill Inquiry while calling on the government to genuinely scrutinise its impacts on disabled children and young people.
CYDA CEO Skye Kakoschke-Moore said the delay was a testament to the power of disabled people, families, and advocates who refused to let unprecedented changes be rushed through parliament:
Above all else, what this development shows is that our collective advocacy cannot be ignored.
The government must now take the time to properly scrutinise how this law will impact the nearly half a million people with disability under 25 who rely on the NDIS every day.
CYDA’s submission highlighted four key areas of concern in the Bill, including:
The requirement for a person to undertake “all appropriate treatment” without consideration of their location or financial means
The reliance on parental responsibility and already stretched informal supports as alternatives to properly funded supports
The reduction in funding for social and community participation
The centralisation of power with the Disability Minister of the day
Ruston pushes for overhaul to controversial aged care tool
Over to her portfolio, the shadow health and aged care minister, Anne Ruston, will introduce a private member’s bill to change the government’s controversial integrated assessment tool.
Why is it controversial? The tool uses an algorithm to determine how much funding an older person should receive under the aged care system, based on an assessor asking them questions about their physical, social and personal circumstances. But that algorithm can’t be overridden by a human, which has led to complaints against the system.
The commonwealth ombudsman is now reviewing the tool.
Ruston says her bill (which won’t pass because the government is highly unlikely to support it) will bring back human oversight to the process:
The three things it seeks to do is to restore the discretion of a human assessor to make sure that the algorithm in their professional judgment doesn’t make an error. It also requires greater transparency so that every decision that’s made, the person can know how the algorithm was used, how professional judgment was applied, so they know why they received the level of care that they got.
And we also want to make sure that anybody who has received an assessment since this algorithm computer-only decision-making mechanism has been in place, that they can have a reassessment because we believe that so many of the results have clearly been incorrect.
‘I do support multiculturalism’: Liberal frontbencher
The Liberal shadow health minister, Anne Ruston, has done what her leader Angus Taylor could not yesterday, saying she does support multiculturalism.
Ruston is in the RN Breakfast hot seat following Clare O’Neil and says unequivocally Australia was “built on multiculturalism”.
Perhaps Ruston should have been the one answering the questions yesterday, because despite saying she and Taylor and the Coalition are “absolutely as one” in supporting multiculturalism, she’s a bit clearer than her colleagues.
She says:
Absolutely Sally, I do support multiculturalism. This country was built on multiculturalism …
I think Angus and I and the rest of the team in the Coalition are absolutely as one when we say that we want a future for Australia that is built on respecting our values and our way of life. And I think we are absolutely all on a unity ticket when it comes to what we see the future of Australia is, and the future of Australia is one that’s based on multiculturalism.
Liberals and Nationals getting ‘eaten alive’ by One Nation, O’Neil says
Clare O’Neil has lambasted the Coalition and leader Angus Taylor for not standing up for multiculturalism yesterday.
The Labor frontbencher, speaking to ABC RN Breakfast, does not hold back in her criticism, saying the opposition are “inert, they are cowardly, they are frozen”.
She says if Taylor can’t defend multiculturalism, he should not be the leader of a mainstream political party.
I am so sick of watching the Liberals and the Nationals get eaten alive by One Nation and they are inert, they are cowardly, they are frozen. When are they going to stand up and fight against the absolutely outrageous nonsense that One Nation are spreading right around this country? You know, Pauline Hanson says there are no good Muslims in Australia. Why can’t Angus Taylor stand up and call that racism? Because that is what it is.
Asked about a recent Lowy Institute poll that found support for multiculturalism is dropping, O’Neil says that the country should be able to have a policy conversation about migration “without resorting to the kind of racism and division that we’re seeing from One Nation”.
Migration is a very important policy topic for the country. Migration has been too high, and that is why our government is bringing migration down. But let’s not say that that’s an excuse for the kind of division and racism that we are starting to see emerge as what is deemed to be a normal part of the public debate.
‘Paid parental leave is not safe’ with Hanson, Plibersek says
Tanya Plibersek has refuted Pauline Hanson’s claims that her comments on paid parental leave were taken out of context.
Plibersek says Hanson claimed in 2017 that women “just get pregnant to get the money” and that she’s been completely unsympathetic to the financial stress of having a baby.
The social services minister is today spruiking the extension of government paid parental leave that will give parents 26 weeks – at the minimum wage rate. Four of those weeks will have to be taken by the second partner.
(This announcement isn’t a new one but the government always likes promoting its announcements a bunch of times for maximum political attention).
Plibersek says:
A few weeks ago, [Hanson] said, you know, ‘Love, if you’ve got the equipment, have the baby, take the time off work’. She’s been completely unsympathetic to the financial stress on Australian families that having a new baby brings with it. She says that at the Press Club – and obviously she’s had a negative reaction and now she’s back-pedalling. But paid parental leave is not safe with Pauline Hanson and just, by the way, it’s also not safe with the Liberals. Scott Morrison and Joe Hockey called mothers on paid parental leave rorters and double dippers.
‘Take a deep breath’ on house prices, Plibersek says
There are always a few major themes to a sitting week, and one of the biggest threads this week has been concern over falling house prices and a cooling market.
Frontbencher Tanya Plibersek says everyone needs to take a deep breath over these reports, and reiterates figures from the Treasury department that in the longer term, house prices will grow 2% slower.
On ABC’s News Breakfast, host James Glenday says people probably don’t have a lot of faith in that modelling.
But Plibersek says that most people aren’t buying today and selling tomorrow and a slow down of prices will help young people catch up.
I think people need to take a deep breath on all of this. Our Treasury estimates are that house prices will continue to grow. They’ll grow more slowly. And that gives people the chance of home ownership. If you go to auctions at the moment, there’s still a lot of buying going on, but it’s first home buyers who are actually having a shot at the market …
Most people don’t buy a house and sell it tomorrow either. That’s the thing that we need to keep in mind. People buy a house and stay there.
Stefanovic’s podcast with far-right activist removed from YouTube
Karl Stefanovic appears to have taken his controversial interview with British far-right activist Tommy Robinson mostly offline overnight.
The video went up on the broadcaster’s personal YouTube channel yesterday, after an earlier teaser promo on Stefanovic’s social media. It included a line in which he praised Robinson’s “tenacity and courage”
However it was not present this morning on the YouTube channel or podcast RSS feed – nor was the promo on his Instagram.
At the time of writing, Stefanovic’s feed on Elon Musk’s X platform still featured both the promo and a clip from the interview.
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
After landing a deal with the Greens yesterday to pass its bill to change negative gearing and capital gains tax, Labor is still trying to sell the whole thing to the public. Expect plenty more argy bargy on the changes in Parliament today, as the Coalition tries to brand the taxes as “toxic” (among other slogans).
Speaking of the Coalition, the opposition leader landed himself in a bit of trouble yesterday over his inability to back multiculturalism in Australia (after Pauline Hanson said the policy had “failed”) so we’ll be seeing more reaction to that too.
There’s plenty going on, let’s get cracking!
Ben Doherty
Labor’s NDIS reforms ‘punching down’ on people scheme designed to protect, McKim says
The Greens have argued Labor’s proposed reforms to the national disability insurance scheme are “punching down” on the very people the scheme is designed to protect.
Greens senator Nick McKim told the ABC’s 7:30 program on Tuesday night, “we are absolutely committed to fighting this bill with every tool in our toolkit”.
The Greens secured an eight-week delay in the passage of the NDIS reforms, in exchange for their support in passing the Labor government’s key budget tax reforms to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.
McKim said his party would continue to oppose the NDIS reforms: “we want to see this bill killed.”
“We’ve delayed it for eight weeks and achieved some amendments that will take some of the worst elements out of this bill.
“When this eight-week period is done, if we need another inquiry or more delay, that’s what we will be moving for.”
McKim said Labor’s changes would cause harm to people currently supported by the NDIS: “the withdrawal of desperately needed supports that allow disabled Australians to live a more dignified life and respite and relief for families who put so much into supporting disabled family members”.
New war memorial gallery will ‘keep the flame of memory burning’, PM says
A major new gallery at the Australian War Memorial will keep the “flame of memory” burning for future generations, the prime minister told the opening ceremony in Canberra last night, Australian Associated Press reports.
Anthony Albanese was among those on hand last night for the opening of the memorial’s atrium and Anzac Hall, a gallery that focuses mainly on Australia’s commitments to the Middle East, Afghanistan and peacekeeping operations.
Retiring chief of the defence force, David Johnston, and the next leader of the Australian military, current chief of navy, Mark Hammond, were among other dignitaries.
Albanese told those gathered they were bonded by the power of “lest we forget.”
That most unadorned of sentences that dwells within us like a heartbeat – we vow to keep the flame of memory burning so brightly that its glow reaches future generations.
Today we adjourned the parliament so that everyone who wished to could come mark the opening of this atrium and Anzac Hall, an addition to the Australian War Memorial that makes that flame burn so much brighter.
What a sublime and powerful addition it is. A bold vision turned into a reality that enhances the institution of which it is now part.
The prime minister implored attenders to “read all the words” about those who have gone before them.
Look at the faces and get lost amid the smiles, the hope and camaraderie – the counterpoint to war’s relentless, inhuman arithmetic. They are its true cost.
Yet, amid this loss and sacrifice, what pulses so powerfully is life, and an abiding sense of what is worth fighting for.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.
A major new gallery at the Australian War Memorial will keep the “flame of memory” burning for future generations, the prime minister told the opening ceremony in Canberra last night. More coming up.
And with the nation on red alert for bird flu, new reports of dead birds are coming into a hotline – but so far, none have been confirmed as caused by the virus.
