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Lambie unsuccessful in suspending standing orders to put forward protest motion
The Senate has just voted on Jacqui Lambie’s motion to suspend standing orders.
She was seeking permission to put forward what was basically a protest motion against the government’s decision to “guillotine” bills. But the vote was 33 to 33, and a dead heat equals a fail – meaning she could not put forward her motion.
Lambie’s motion reads that the Senate note:
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The Albanese government has guillotined more than 160 bills in the 47th parliament and continues to undermine democratic principles by proposing to rush through about 40 pieces of legislation today without adequate debate.
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By fast-tracking legislation, the Albanese government is circumventing proper scrutiny and accountability.
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This reckless approach places excessive and unreasonable pressure on parliamentary staff and risks compromising the quality and integrity of legislative outcomes.
Key events
Mostafa Rachwani
Thorpe says she wears suspension and censure as ‘badge of honour’
In that same speech, Lidia Thorpe addressed her suspension from the Senate, saying she wears “those disciplinary colonial actions like a badge of honour.”
She addressed protestors, who had arrived in support of her private members’ bill against genocide, before dismissing Parliament as being led by “white men.”
That’s why they’re scared, because we are rising.
I’ve got the day off today. I’ve been suspended, I’ve been censured and I wear those disciplinary colonial actions like a badge of honour.
I am the mechanism, I am the body. Forget about Lidia Thorpe. I am guided by my ancestors, I am guided by my people. My Senate spot belongs to my people.
It’s horrible to work in that place every day and be surrounded by mainly white men in suits, who look down on people like me.
Mostafa Rachwani
Lidia Thorpe speaks outside parliament
Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe has been giving a speech outside Parliament House in Canberra, and she has decried the fact that the recommendations of Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
This is a very racist, divided country. But thats not what we want, we want peace, we want liberation, we want self determination. We want to decide our own destinies, not this place with the native police.
Native police are the ones that lead us to our slaughter. And thye still haven’t implemented the recommendations of deaths in custody. It’s 33 years old, same age as my oldest boy.
The bringing them home report that my mother was involved in no implementation of bringing our kids home.
I’ve seen my people, my family, my elders, fight every day for justice all my life, and I want our children to see justice. There is no no peace without justice.
She went on to address climate protesters, saying they needed to remain connected to Indigenous causes, before finishing off with one final message for the King:
We want our land back. We want our babies back, and we want the king to just fuck off.
Karen Middleton
Albanese urges parliament to pass critical mineral tax credits bill
Anthony Albanese has just spoken in the House of Representatives, urging the parliament to back legislation on tax incentives for hydrogen and critical-minerals production.
Albanese has pitched the legislation as being central to the energy transition and to the future economy.
Our plan is about building an economy that is more resilient and more diversified, more productive and more prosperous, more self reliant and more secure, because being more secure depends on becoming more self reliant.
It is unclear whether the bill has enough support in the Senate to become law.
Albanese is using the legislation to make a political point, emphasising it will create jobs in Western Australia and Queensland where he is very focused on holding and recovering seats respectively.
While urging the Parliament to support the production tax credits bill, he pointedly did not say it would pass.
He did claim that about his Future Made in Australia legislation, also on the list to be voted on in the Senate today and expected to pass with the support of the Greens and some crossbenchers.
The prime minister noted that the Coalition opposed it.
If you’re not for a future made in Australia, I just wonder where they think the future should be made for Australians.
Josh Butler
Chris Bowen defends government’s approach to pushing nearly 40 bills through Senate
We asked energy and climate minister Chris Bowen whether it was democratic or fair for the government to try to ram nearly 40 bills through the Senate in one day. As we brought you before, Jacqui Lambie and the Coalition are livid at the government’s tactics.
Bowen defended the government’s approach:
You’re going to see a lot of bills dealt with today, a lot of bills that have been talked about for a long time. You know, these are not bills that the Parliament should be surprised about. These are bills the government’s been progressing for a long time with a very heavy legislative agenda, because we do it. We’re an activist government doing a lot of things.
We must point out that not all the bills have been hanging around for a long time. The under-16s social media ban was only unveiled last week; the electoral reforms not long before that. Bowen continued:
Now, I’ve been here for 20 years. If we didn’t try and get legislation through on the last sitting day, it would be the first time in 20 years that that would happen. Governments try and get legislation through, that’s what governments are for. And whether we get all our legislation through or not is a matter for the Senate.
Governments of course try up until the last minute to get bills through, and often it’s a flurry of last-minute negotiation and late nights – but it is very unusual to try and ram through 40 bills in a day.
The minister said the government had “a bit of work to do in the Senate, but I know that that is well in hand with our discussions with prospects”.
Government launches HIV strategy aiming to eliminate transmission by end of decade
Natasha May
The government has officially launched its National HIV Strategy, which aims to make Australia the first country in the world to eliminate HIV transmission by the end of the decade.
The strategy also endorses the Undetectable=Untransmittable (U=U) campaign, a global effort to highlight that HIV cannot be sexually transmitted when a person with HIV has an undetectable viral load thanks to antiretroviral therapy. Australia became the fourth country in the world to sign on to the principles of U=U in May.
The health minister, Mark Butler, said he wanted to assure people living with HIV that as Australia stems the rate of transmission, “we are not leaving any Australians behind and will continue offering high quality care to people living with HIV in Australia.”
A parliamentary breakfast was also held this morning for the occasion of World Aids Day, Butler said of the goal of eliminating transmission by 2030, “if we can’t do it, if you look around the world, I’m not sure which country can.” However, he warned:
While the trajectory is positive, we are not on track to reach the virtual end of transmission by the end of this decade. New infection rates are down by about a third in the past 10 years. We need to accelerate that trajectory considerably.
While he hailed the virtual elimination of transmission in the inner west of Sydney, which was one of the early epicenters of the epidemic, he said there are still “hard-to-reach populations in our community that require a different response.”
The government is looking at how to provide PrEP for people who are not eligible for Medicare, communicate better with CALD communities, and target health professionals in those communities who might not have been reached yet, and explore more opportunities for self-testing, Butler said.
Greens push for electoral transparency measures
Paul Karp
The Greens have seized on the apparent impasse between the Coalition and Labor on the electoral bill (see earlier post) to call to break out the transparency measures (real-time donation disclosure and a $1,000 donation disclosure threshold) and pass those today.
I think the government would be very unlikely to agree to that: if you take the more popular bits out of the bill, it might make it more difficult in future to legislate spending and donations caps and increased public funding for elections.
The Greens’ Senate leader and democracy spokesperson Larissa Waters said:
The Greens are ready to pass transparency measures but we want an inquiry to ensure that the proposed funding reforms don’t entrench the two party system, making this bill a rort not a reform.
Thorpe and supporters gathering outside parliament
As we mentioned earlier, the independent senator Lidia Thorpe is planning to speak outside parliament about her private member’s bill.
The bill would strip the attorney general of his power to block the prosecution of genocide in Australian courts.
It was due to be introduced to the Senate this morning, but has been adjourned until next year. Thorpe is suspended from the Senate today, but as we flagged earlier, made an unexpected appearance in the press gallery area.
Mike Bowers is outside parliament capturing the action, and has snapped these photos:
Motion for government to unveil plan on gambling ad restrictions defeated in lower house
Josh Butler
All the action is in the Senate today, but it’s tense in the lower house too. The crossbench and Coalition teamed up to support a motion condemning the government for not bringing forward its long-awaited gambling advertising restrictions, calling on the government to finally unveil its plan – nearly 18 months on from the Labor MP Peta Murphy recommending a full ad ban.
Independent Rebekha Sharkie proposed a motion, noting the government had “failed to take any action to reduce gambling advertising, 17 months after receiving unanimous recommendations from a Labor chaired committee”. She asked the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, to explain to the House why they had not taken any action, and for the government to either introduce its own legislation or to allow other proposed legislation from crossbenchers to debate their own bills on gambling advertising.
The government did not grant leave for Sharkie’s motion. One of the crossbenchers – it sounded like Andrew Wilkie – yelled out “shame”.
Sharkie said gambling was “a national emergency”, urging the government to finally move. Next to speak was Jenny Ware, the Liberal MP who was on the Murphy inquiry committee.
Ware claimed the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, had missed the opportunity to show moral courage and leadership on “a national social and health epidemic”. The Liberal MP said people who had participated in the Murphy inquiry were “bewildered” at the delay, and was critical that Albanese had “disregarded questions” on the issue.
Sharkie’s motion was narrowly defeated, 71-63.
Wilkie put up a motion of his own, calling for the House to condemn the government’s delay. That motion is likely to be defeated too, and the vote is happening now.
Ryan criticises government’s attempts to push through legislation
The independent MP for Kooyong, Monique Ryan, has weighed in on the government’s attempts to push more than three dozen bills through the Senate today.
In a post to X, Ryan said:
We need a government that will consider legislation appropriately, with consideration of due process, in a way which is evidence-based and reasonable. What we are seeing right now is not that.
Mike Bowers says that Lidia Thorpe stood for a long while with her fist in the air, before turning to go and shouting: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Josh Butler
Here is the full quote of what Lidia Thorpe, suspended from the Senate today, could be heard saying above the Senate chamber, with her fist raised:
Free free Palestine. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
Our photographer Mike Bowers was on the scene for her unexpected interjection. He says she entered the gallery area, where journalists and photographers watch the Senate. Her voice would be heard over the Senate’s recording system.
Lidia Thorpe heard yelling from Senate press gallery seats
Lidia Thorpe has entered the Senate press gallery area, behind the President’s chair, and shouted: “Free, free Palestine”.
There is a door on the first floor that allows entry to the press gallery, and she used that to go into the chamber. Thorpe made the comments with her first in the air as senators were discussing her private members bill.
Guardian Australia’s photographer Mike Bowers witnessed the event.
Thorpe was suspended from the Senate yesterday, after she appeared to throw paper at Pauline Hanson during a tense parliamentary debate.
Benita Kolovos
Demolition of vacant Victorian public housing towers to start next year
The state’s housing minister, Harriet Shing, said the demolition of the two vacant towers will start early next year, with construction expected to be completed by 2028.
This isn’t a demolition as far as a wrecking ball situation. The configuration of the buildings themselves means we’ll actually dismantle them, and we’ve got works happening to actually remove many of the fixtures and the internal materials from the site.
And you’ll see from the new designs that sustainability has been a really important part of the way in which the architects have come up with these new designs … that reflect the community, the colours and the materials used in the surrounding area.
Shing confirmed the “entire development” of 248 homes will be public housing.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian premier holds press conference on public housing towers in Carlton
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has held a press conference this morning after she released renders of the apartments set to replace public housing towers in Carlton (see earlier post).
She said the site will have a 26% increase in homes, which have been especially designed for public housing tenants:
We’re listening to tenants, which is why there’s going to be a mix of homes … For example, on this site, there’ll be homes that will be four and five bedrooms, not just the standard three-bedroom homes, because we know families come in all shapes and sizes, and we want to make sure we’re building the homes for them, for their kids and for their future. That’s why we’re really excited today to be releasing these concept designs, and I want to thank everyone who’s been part of this process.
Here are some more renders of the housing towers: