Key events
Greens leader Adam Bandt has blamed Labor for his party’s poor showing in the Queensland election.
Bandt was on RN Breakfast earlier, and said Labor had adopted Green’s policies like cheap public transport and free school lunches, to undermine them:
We may end up with the two seats that we went in with. The postal votes are still being counted, but look, those are seats that, yes, we were hoping to win.
And I guess those are the seats that I’m talking about where Labor gave up on the suburbs, gave up on the regions, and instead focused their attentions in those seats.
This is, this is part of the reason that we that we’re pushing these policies, is that people need help, right? There’s a there’s a massive cost of living crisis. People are in dire straits,” Bandt said.
It was the adoption of policies and people seeing them in practice that is largely responsible for labor, I guess, sandbagging and holding on to some of those seats.
Josh Butler
The government will soon open applications for a new grants program to help women into “traditionally male dominated” industries like construction and manufacturing, as part of a $60 million training and workplace initiative.
The ‘Building Women’s Careers Program’ partnership is aimed at projects like changing workplace cultures and behaviours, more flexible rostering approaches to support men and women with caring responsibilities, and boosting existing projects which have already increased recruitment rates.
“Projects will address the barriers for women entering, remaining and advancing in the traditionally male-dominated industries of construction, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and digital and technology,” minister for women Katy Gallagher and skills minister Andrew Giles said in a statement.
The grants will be available for industry and community projects, with applications open from 14 November.
Josh Butler
Anthony Albanese has backed in his government’s Same Job Same Pay laws for labour hire loopholes, saying they are securing big pay rises for blue-collar workers nationwide.
The prime minister’s latest full-throated defence of the Labor government’s industrial relations changes comes ahead of what is expected to be a heated debate on workplace laws at the coming election, with criticism from the Coalition and big business groups wanting to roll back the reforms.
In a speech to the Mining and Energy Union’s national convention in Brisbane on Monday, Albanese will also accuse opposition leader Peter Dutton of seeking to “wreck every bit of progress” Labor had made in government.
In the speech, Albanese will say critics of the laws had made “bizarre comparisons and baseless claims”.
“We were not deterred – and Australians weren’t fooled,” he will say, in advance speech notes shared by his office.
The PM claims one worker will get a $33,000 pay rise under the changes, and that “thousands of mining workers” are in line for big pay bumps too.
“I’m proud we’ve worked together to deliver this change – now we have to stand together and defend it,” he will say.
Albanese will tell the convention that “there is a lot that Peter Dutton is not telling the Australian people about his agenda”, citing the Coalition’s nuclear power plan, and raising doubt over potential cuts to Medicare, pensions, rent assistance and energy bill relief.
“But he is crystal clear about one thing. He wants to rip up every new right workers have negotiated. He wants to wreck every bit of progress we have made. And wants to cut every pay rise your members have earned,” Albanese will say.
Plibersek takes aim at the Greens after Queensland election result
Reactions to the Queensland election result are continuing this morning, with environment minister Tanya Plibersek focusing on the Greens’ disappointing one-seat haul.
Speaking on Channel 7’s Sunrise, she said the Greens’ blocking of legislation in the Senate and MP Max Chandler-Mather’s support for the CFMEU were to blame:
People were saying they were shocked [by] Max Chandler-Mather standing up and defending the… criminal elements of the CFMEU on the back of a truck with a megaphone, instead of voting for housing, cheaper housing and more of it to be built.
They’re holding up housing reform. In my area, holding up environmental law reform, the establishment of an environment protection agency is something environmentalists have been calling on for decades and it’s the Greens that are blocking it.
People look at that and go ‘these people aren’t serious about making progress. They are only about opposition. They’re only about making a point’.
‘Stronger laws do act as a deterrent’
Finally, the incoming Queensland premier is asked about his “adult time for adult crimes” policy, and specifically if it might lead to an unsustainable boom in jail population.
But Crisafulli dismissed concerns:
At the moment, you’ve got kids in watch houses because the government hasn’t planned and delivered those things. We will. I do believe we do need corrective facilities. But we also need other alternates. I’ve spoken about circuit-breaker sentencing where we can send kids to remote areas that aren’t a jail but give the education, structure and discipline to turn their life around. I’ve spoken about early intervention skills.
We’ll deliver those early in Queensland. The question is a very relevant one, but the answer has to be in two parts. Stronger laws do act as a deterrent. Stronger laws do make sure there are consequences for bad behaviour. If you aren’t doing early intervention and rehabilitation, it means nothing. At the moment, what’s happening in Queensland is there’s a 72-hour plan when a child leaves youth detention, and half the kids aren’t even getting that … 72 hours isn’t enough. We need a 12-month plan, six months intensive, to give every person the ability to turn their life around. The 91% reoffending rate is broken. You’ve got to try and do better than that.
Crisafuli on nuclear: ‘It was no before the election, and it’s no after’
Crisafulli is next asked about nuclear power, and if he would implement a potential Dutton government’s plan after the next federal election.
And his answer was clear:
It was no before the election, and it’s no after. I think that’s what people want to see from me.
I want to reset the relationship with Canberra to one of respect but also being forceful and putting forward our point of view. I will do that whether or not Mr Albanese or Mr Dutton is there. I’ve got a good relationship with Peter. We’ve been friends for a long time. I also have a good relationship with the prime minister. I spoke with him yesterday.
I don’t support the reduction in 80/20 for funding for the Bruce Highway. I was up-front about that. That will be done respectfully. So too, if Peter was to become prime minister. I’ve seen in recent times the public lose faith particularly with what I saw in Queensland when government changed in Canberra. It was a completely different approach. I’ve got to be on the Maroon team and I’ve got to put forward our case to get our fair share of funding – and in return, I say to Canberra, we’ll do things on time and on budget, which hasn’t happened.
Crisafuli says his government’s Olympics plan coming within 100 days
The incoming Queensland premier David Crisafulli has said that his government will be pulling together a plan for the Olympics within its first 100 days.
Asked on ABC News if he was personally leaning towards a refurbishment of the Gabba, Crisafulli said people see these Olympics as “an opportunity for generational infrastructure.”:
What I’m talking about is exactly the model that’s been used successfully before. The problem is when you have things as knee-jerk reactions where politicians say this has to happen and you get the mess that we’ve seen. I don’t want that to happen. I want the best and brightest to be around the room. Within 100 days, you’ll get a plan that Queenslanders can buy into. I think, overwhelmingly, that’s what the state wants to see.
… Within days, we can fix what we haven’t seen in 1,200 days.
I think, overwhelmingly, people will see an opportunity for generational infrastructure. That’s what hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games has always been about.
Good morning
Good morning. Mostafa Rachwani with you today to take you through the day’s news.
We start with 3G as Telstra and Optus begin the process of switching off the network today. The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, has urged all Australians to check if they will be affected and to upgrade their tech if needed.
Over to Queensland, where incoming premier David Crisafulli is due to be sworn in as the Liberal National party is on track to form a majority government. Crisafulli and his deputy Jarrod Bleijie will be sworn into interim leadership roles when they meet with governor Jeannette Young later today, and they will remain interim until counting is finalised.
We’re bring you the latest developments there and across the country as they come.