Crossbenchers side with Coalition to keep anti-abortion bill alive
Karen Middleton
An anti-abortion bill sponsored by two Coalition senators will stay on the Senate notice paper after seven crossbenchers sided with the Coalition and voted down a Greens motion to dump it.
The Greens indicated earlier on Tuesday that the motion would be deferred until February but the party’s Senate leader, Larissa Waters, suddenly brought on the vote on Tuesday afternoon.
Waters was asking the Senate to discharge the human rights (children born alive protection) bill, which has been on the notice paper for two years and is co-sponsored by Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan and South Australian Liberal senator Alex Antic. If passed, the bill would force medical practitioners to provide medical care to a baby born alive after a termination procedure.
The Greens decided to ask the Senate to discharge the bill after the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, urged federal Coalition members recently not to raise the sensitive issue of abortion or encourage public debate ahead of the next federal election.
The Greens had hoped to secure the numbers to remove the bill and put pressure on the Coalition on a sensitive issue which the major parties usually consider a matter of conscience.
But the opposition leadership pushed back, arguing it would set a bad precedent to use a majority vote to discharge a private senators’ bill – and implying it could happen to others.
The opposition Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, said he “would not and will not ever vote for this bill or any measures that restrict women’s reproductive rights”. But he said removing it would impede private senators’ rights and was a precedent that could be used against other bills.
“Senators in particular should reflect on the precedent this motion sets that could see other bills discharged just because a majority opposed them,” Birmingham said. “Given this bill has been on the notice paper for almost two years, the decision of the Greens to pursue this at this time is clearly about politics, not the substantive issue.”
The motion was lost, 30 votes to 28, with 18 senators not present.
ACT independent senator David Pocock, two One Nation senators, former Liberal turned independent Gerard Rennick, United Australia party senator Ralph Babet and Tasmanian independents Jacqui Lambie and Tammy Tyrrell joined the Coalition in opposing the motion. Pocock and Tyrrell both spoke in the chamber, saying they opposed the bill itself but supported the principle of allowing a private senators’ bill to remain and be debated.
Larissa Waters suggested the Coalition’s move in defeating the motion contradicted Dutton’s edict to his partyroom.
“By threatening crossbenchers with retaliation if they supported a Greens move to protect women’s rights, the Liberals … kept an anti-abortion bill on the Senate notice paper,” Waters told Guardian Australia. “The Liberal game-playing has confirmed that Mr Dutton does not want to talk about abortion because it would reveal that his party wants to restrict women’s rights to make decisions about their own bodies.”
Key events
NSW to refund $5.5m in Covid fines
Jordyn Beazley
The NSW government will refund $5.5m worth of fines that were issued under Covid-19 health measures and which disproportionately penalised people living in western and south-western Sydney.
More than 23,000 penalty notices will be withdrawn and the refunds will include any total or partial payments on the fines.
The government committed to withdraw and refund the fines after a legal campaign by the Redfern Legal Centre (RLC) and Maurice Blackburn who asserted that the fines were improperly issued and invalid. Maurice Blackburn valued the more than 23,000 fines, some of which had not been repaid, at approximately $15m.
In a statement, from RLC and Maurice Blackburn, they said the announcement came after Maurice Blakcburn notified the government it would file a class action if Revenue NSW did not withdraw and refund the fines.
The RLC said the fines, which were typically worth $1,000 to $5,000, were disproportionately issued to socioeconomically disadvantaged people living in western and south-western Sydney. RLC found that among those fined were Indigenous children, children with cognitive impairments, and children experiencing homelessness.
In 2022, the NSW government withdrew 33,000 fines related to Covid-19 health measures after it lost a legal challenge by RLC. The court found the fines were invalid because they did not include sufficient information about the offence.
On Tuesday, the department of customer service said the remaining 23,000 fines also lacked details “which may render them technically deficient and place their validity in doubt”.
Samantha Lee, supervising solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre, said:
This outcome is the result of a significant and lengthy effort by Redfern Legal Centre, a team of dedicated counsel and Maurice Blackburn.
The impact of Covid fines on marginalised communities and on children – was disproportionate, unreasonable, and unjust.
Natasha May
‘Nitazenes are extremely potent’: two opioid overdoses in NSW
Two people in NSW have been hospitalised with severe opioid overdoses, prompting health authorities to warn about the dangers of synthetic opioids in fake oxycodone.
The two people suffered overdoses after taking what they believed to be oxycodone tablets described as yellow unmarked round tablets, sold as OxyContin 40 mg.
However, NSW health says they contained nitazenes – extremely potent synthetic opioids which are more likely to stop breathing than other opioids.
NSW Poisons Information Centre medical director, Dr Darren Roberts, said these drugs can be hundreds of times more potent than oxycodone and can cause severe overdose or death. He said:
“Nitazenes are extremely potent and can vary widely in their strength.”
“As they are illicit and unregulated, there is no way of knowing what type of nitazene is present or what dosage is being taken. The strength and contents can vary widely, even within the same batch.”
NSW Health said nitazenes have been detected in vapes and in fake tablets, such as benzodiazepines, and in drugs thought to be heroin or MDMA.
Roberts said it was strongly recommended that anyone who uses illicit drugs carry naloxone. Nitazenes can last longer in the body than oxycodone, heroin and naloxone, meaning higher and repeated doses of naloxone may be required as well as hospital treatment.
Teens need better protection from sex offenders: report
Teenagers working alongside adults in Australia need to be better protected from sex offenders, a report says.
The report into retailers has outlined a plan it hopes will ensure teens are not exposed to workplace predators across the country, AAP reports.
The ‘‘Safety Not Guaranteed’ report by the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association and non-for-profit McKell Institute has recommended law changes to better protect children.
The report found more than 500,000 children aged 17 and under were working across Australia mostly in retail but the majority were not adequately protected by law.
It said only South Australia provided proper safeguards, after the state government passed laws in March banning child sex offenders from working with kids.
The report has recommended other states and territories follow suit.
It has called for legislation to be amended to ban accused and convicted sex offenders from working alongside children.
The report also called for bail conditions to be tightened for convicted or accused sex offenders and reforms made to offender registries.
The report said requirements for adults working alongside children were not strict in Australia.
“Most Australians would be surprised to learn that there are few requirements for adults working alongside children to get ‘working with children’ checks,” it said.
“This has led to incidences where adults charged, or even convicted, with child sex offences are working alongside children in retail, fast food and hospitality settings.”
The report recommended that adults across the nation working alongside children be required to access the checks, in which they are screened for suitability.
All states and territories should also ensure eligibility for “working with children” checks be expanded so that businesses voluntarily seeking them do so without a cost increase to workers.
Good afternoon, Mostafa Rachwani with you for the rest of the day’s news.
Emily Wind
Many thanks for joining me on today’s blog – we’re nearly at the halfway point of this final sitting week, with two more jam-packed days ahead.
But there’s still more to come this evening, so I’ll handover to Mostafa Rachwani to continue bringing you the latest. Take care.
Explainer on Victorian government’s overhauled anti-vilification laws
Earlier today, Benita Kolovos brought us news the Victorian government had unveiled long-awaited legislation to overhaul the state’s anti-vilification laws.
How will they change, and who will they protect? You can read her full explainer below:
Gormon says Deloitte outlook ‘not government’s numbers’
Patrick Gorman was also asked to weigh in on the latest economic outlook from Deloitte – predicting a $33.5bn budget deficit for this financial year (see our earlier post).
He answered that it’s “not the government’s numbers”:
We understand that people will try and get the jump or guess what the numbers might be or in Deloitte’s case, modelling, but they are not our numbers.
Gorman was asked whether the government has given up on increasing the tax rate on higher balanced superannuation accounts – as was promised a couple of budgets ago?
Gorman said he couldn’t “tell you what decision the Senate will make over the next couple of days”.
I wish I could. I wish we did not have a system where the opposition parties try to run things down until the last minute or the last hours of the Senate, but that is the system we have and we will see that play out on Wednesday and Thursday.
But would you make it a number one item of debate on Wednesday morning? Gorman said “it remains part of our budget plan” but “we recognise the Australian people have given us a Senate that sometimes uses to prioritise things in different ways, and we have to work within that democratic system”.
Labor MP welcomes passage of Help to Buy bill through senate
The assistant minister to the PM, Patrick Gorman, is speaking with the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing about the Greens’ concession to help Labor pass its housing bill.
Asked if there were more deals to be cut, with a raft of legislation yet to make it through the Senate, he argued that these bills “stand on their own merits”.
Of course people are frustrated that it took the Greens in particular so long, so much political gameplay, so many interviews with yourself and others about how they were here and in there and all over the place, finally it is done.
As Paul Karp reports, the Help to Buy scheme – which passed the senate this afternoon – allows the government to contribute 30% of the purchase price of a home or 40% for a new build for those who earn under the income thresholds of $90,000 for a single applicant, or $120,000 for a couple. The government share reduces the cost for the homebuyer, although it must be paid back upon sale.
Peter Hannam
Temperatures climb towards 40C in parts of Sydney as power supplies remain tight
Parts of Sydney have touched the 39C level forecast by the Bureau of Meteorology while sea breezes are so far keeping the CBD and other parts of the city’s east about 10C cooler.
Daniel Westerman, head of the Australian Energy Market Operator, chose to give a media conference at Canberra airport just before 2pm (AEST), to reassure the public that electricity suppliers were sufficient.
Aemo had acted early to bring on generation capacity that was “potentially available” and to restore transmission lines, he said. (The latter was mostly to ensure NSW can import a lot of electricity.)
Authorities were working to ensure generation remained adequate over the coming days, he said.
As it happened, Aemo had issued another lack of reserve level 3 forecast at about noon (AEDT), implying that there was the possibility of “interruptible loads” now for Thursday at about 3.30pm (AEDT).
As with previous LOR3 alerts, the market answered Aemo’s call, and the alert was cancelled at 1.54pm (AEDT) just as Westerman was wrapping up his slightly chaotic media conference (as some questioners phoned in questions he struggled to hear).
Still, expect conditions to remain “tight” and hopefully no more of those ageing power units will conk out over the next couple of days.
Nationals MP continues to voice concern over social media age ban
Nationals MP Keith Pitt has been speaking to Sky News about his concerns regarding Labor’s under-16 social media ban bill.
Yesterday, he became the latest to voice hesitation about the bill, joining his colleague Matt Canavan, the Greens and other Senate crossbenchers in alarm at the speed by which the bill is likely to be passed this week.
Speaking just now, Pitt told the program:
If you can’t actually fine anyone for not taking action [until 2026], then what difference will it make to take a few weeks to look at this in detail – this is one of the rare occasions I agree with my colleagues in the Senate where this is something that should be looked at more …
My job as a backbencher is to make sure that people are doing this right. It’s not simply to trundle along and agree with everything that’s put before me.
His main argument was that teenagers will be able to work around the ban – along with wanting more time to scrutinise the legislation.
Analysis on government’s under-16s social media ban bill
In case you missed it amid question time this afternoon, Josh Taylor has written a fantastic piece of analysis on the under-16s social media ban bill – asking why Labor is so intent on rushing it through?
You can have a read of that below:
Watch: China’s ambassador to Australia urges closer military ties
Earlier today, China’s ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian spoke to reporters in Canberra and suggested Australia should do more to improve military ties with the People’s Liberation Army.
We covered his remarks earlier in the blog, and you can now watch some of his remarks below, thanks to our video team:
Government agreed to ‘several amendments’ on social media bill: Coleman
Josh Butler
Going back to the under-16s social media ban, opposition communications spokesperson, David Coleman, says the government has agreed to several amendments which will be seen in the Senate.
We’ve asked Michelle Rowland’s office for comment but haven’t heard back yet.
Coleman told the House of Representatives that the changes would be “significant improvements” to the bill.
Firstly, the legislation will include a specific provision that nothing allows a social media to compel the provision of digital ID or government issued identity documents, such as passports, or drivers licenses. This is an important addition and further strengthens the privacy provisions in the legislation.
Coleman said the second amendment was a clear power for the minister to specify steps which are not needed to be taken by social media companies to comply with the legislation – that is, the minister would be able to tell big tech what not to do in enforcing the age limit.
With the use of identification documents now ruled out, supporters of the bill say platforms may look to biometric forms of age assurance, such as facial scanning, to fulfil the requirements of the legislation. Coleman said:
While the eSafety Commissioner will be responsible for formulating guidelines on what constitutes reasonable steps under the bill, the minister may direct that specific actions are not required in order for the platform to satisfy that reasonable steps test.
This is also an important addition, as it allows the Minister to ensure that enforcement of the legislation is always appropriate and proportionate.
With that, question time has wrapped up in the House of Representatives.
