Australia politics live: Albanese spruiks housing policy; Moira Deeming to take stand in defamation case | Australian politics

Independent ACT senator David Pocock will hold a press conference later this morning with financial scam victims, as he continues his push to have the government force banks to take more responsibility for not identifying scams, or transferring money in suspect cases.

Chandler-Mather says Greens have a ‘rare opportunity’ to negotiate with government on housing bills

On whether he has any hope the government would negotiate with the Greens over their demands when it comes to the housing bills, Max Chandler-Mather says:

You have to have hope, right? This is a rare opportunity where we have leverage to push the government to realise the scale of the housing crisis. It could be because 75% of Labor MPs are property investors themselves –maybe they don’t get how much pain people are in right now.

Maybe they’ve forgotten they’re in government and have the power to take substantial action.

My appeal to Labor backbenchers is remember back to governments like Gough Whitlam when you took real, substantial action on issues phasing people’s lives. You could announce mass-scale public housing investment and the Greens will support you.

You could announce coordinated rent caps and the Greens will back you in and support you. You could announce an end to tax handouts for property investors and the Greens will back you in.

Max Chandler-Mather says property prices would be pushed up by Labor’s housing scheme

Asked his thoughts on the other housing bill – the shared equity help to buy scheme – Max Chandler-Mather said:

It’s deeply cruel for the government to hold this out as some sort of solution to the housing crisis. Roughly 5 million people would be eligible for this scheme meaning 99.2% of people would be denied access.

For those people, close to 5 million renters, house prices would be pushed up by the scheme because it puts more cash in people’s pockets to bid up the price of housing.

What we need to do – you’re right, we can’t fix this crisis overnight but a substantial action the government could take is stop giving billions of dollars in tax handouts to property owners. How is it fair that in a crisis, when banks are making billions of profits and renters are sometimes close to eviction that the government is going to give property investors $176bn in tax handouts through negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.

That, frankly means, you know, when you go to an auction and you’re trying to buy your first home and a property investor bids $200,000 above you, they do that because they have access to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.

Chandler-Mather says Greens ‘willing to negotiate’ on Labor’s housing bills

Max Chandler-Mather says the government has offered “literally nothing” in negotiations:

It is genuinely shocking, right? Because this is the worst housing crisis we’ve faced in generations and it’s clear that the prime minister and Labor have decided they’d prefer to let their own bill fail and have a political fight with the Greens. But let me tell you the only losers out of that fight will be the single mums choosing between feeding kids or paying the rent because Labor won’t move on capping rent increases or building public housing or phasing out the tax handouts for property investors.

He said last year the Greens and government were able to negotiate on the housing Australia future fund (also known as the Haff) which led to more social housing being secured.

We’re willing to negotiate but we won’t just rubber-stamp two bills that will drive up house prices and rents.

Look, back when Gough Whitlam was around, you had governments willing to make university education free, build hundreds of thousands of good-quality public homes, introduce the precursor to Medicare. Why should we accept now in the middle of the worst housing crisis in generations, a government that will do worse than tinkering around the edges rather than taking the action that people desperately need to make their lives liveable?

‘Want to help renters? Cap rent increases’: Greens

A little earlier this morning, the Greens housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, spoke to ABC TV about why the Greens were not in favour of the government’s build to rent legislation:

What this scheme will do is deny 99.8% of renters access to it every year and drive up house prices for them by flooding the private housing market with more cash. Look, we’ve seen Labor and Liberals peddle schemes like this again and again, whether it’s the first home-buyers’ grant. They clearly don’t work.

We’re in a massive housing crisis. It failed in New South Wales and we want to negotiate a plan that actually helps the millions of people getting smashed by this housing crisis. If you want to help people buy a home, phase out negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.

That’s the $176 billion of tax handouts that go to property investors that deny millions of renters the chance to buy a home.

Want to help renters? Cap rent increases. It’s not fair that a landlord can put up the rent by as much as he or she wants at the end of every lease. Those are the things that are screwing over the millions of people in Australia right now, being smashed by this housing crisis.

We’ve said to Labor as well if you want to help people on the lower-income spectrum, start building public housing again the way governments used to and get people into genuinely affordable homes. It’s possible for the government to do all of these things we recognise we won’t get everything in our negotiation but right now they’ve offered nothing, literally no counter-offer and this is frustrating in a serious housing crisis.

Pocock continues to push for total ban on gambling ads

Independent ACT senator David Pocock is still pushing the government to go further on its gambling ad proposal:

The key surprises in the NSW local election results

How did the NSW local government elections play out?

You can have a look at the fallout from the results – and what lessons the major parties are looking at, here:

Advocates hopeful menopause report sparks change

Advocates hope a landmark report into the impacts of menopause will spark much needed conversations around the condition and lead to meaningful change, AAP reports:

The Senate is handing down its inquiry report into the economic, physical, mental and financial impacts of menopause and perimenopause on Tuesday.

Menopause occurs between the ages of 45 to 60, and perimenopause – which precedes it – can last for up to 10 years and begin in women aged in their 30s.

Those with the condition can face mild to severe symptoms such as tiredness, aches and pains, menstrual changes, a racing heart, difficulty sleeping, increased irritability and depression.

Advocates hope the inquiry can kickstart crucial conversations and quell the stigma associated with the condition to help women suffering in silence.

Three in four women will experience a mild to moderate menopause, but one-in-four will experience a severe menopause, Menopause Friendly Australia chief executive, Grace Molloy, said.

“Most people don’t understand what menopause is until it hits them in the face, and many struggle to get support if they are experiencing and wanting that support.”

Anthony Albanese, Tanya Plibersek and Clare O’Neil will “meet a new homeowner” in Sydney this morning, as part of the “pass the housing bills” tour.

A press conference will follow.

White House marks three years since signing of Aukus agreement

Happy three-year anniversary of the signing of Aukus, to those who observe.

The White House’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, apparently does:

Three years ago, President Biden and our Australian and United Kingdom partners committed to Aukus, an enhanced security partnership that promotes a free and open Indo-Pacific that is secure and stable.

As this partnership has grown, it has strengthened the security of our allies in the region as well as our own security here at home. Over the past three years, our countries have made significant strides in supporting Australia’s acquisition of a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability.

Australian sailors are now enrolled in US and UK nuclear power training schools, Australian personnel are embedded in US shipyards, and each of our countries have made significant investments to strengthen our respective defense industrial bases creating thousands of highly-skilled jobs.

Aukus partners recently implemented sweeping changes in each of our export control regimes opening up defense trade between our three countries.

Through deep integration of our innovation communities, Aukus partners are steadily developing and deploying advanced capabilities for our warfighters. These efforts will continue in the years to come as we collaborate and invest in this historic partnership.

‘Millions of household solar systems will be the first casualty’ of Coalition’s nuclear plan, says Smart Energy Council CEO

While we are on the subject of nuclear, the Smart Energy Council have released analysis showing that introducing seven nuclear reactors to Australia will lead to the shutdown of solar panels “in millions of households”.

The Smart Energy Council, chief executive, John Grimes, said because nuclear power cannot be switched off it keeps pushing power on to the grid, whether it is needed or not and regardless of how expensive it is in that moment.

That is bad news for Australian solar homes.

The Smart Energy Council says the Coalition’s nuclear plan could generate around 11 gigawatts of new nuclear power, and that even at 60% capacity, the nuclear proposal “could force 6.6 gigawatts of eye-wateringly expensive energy into the grid and power bills of 7 million Australians and displace the equivalent solar power generation from between 1.8 – 2.9 million homes.

Grimes:

To create space for inflexible nuclear power plants ramming energy into the grid, millions of household solar systems will be the first casualty.

Solar power is already being switched off in South Australia when it makes so much free power available that it exceeds electricity demand.

Solar is by far the cheapest form of energy, yet Peter Dutton is telling Australian families to tear out the solar systems they paid for and spend billions of dollars on the most expensive form of power, which is nuclear.

The federal opposition is deceiving Australians about the horror price tag of their nuclear nightmare.

Barnaby Joyce defends Coalition’s proposed Muswellbrook nuclear power station despite recent earthquakes

Q&A was broadcast from Newcastle overnight and Barnaby Joyce was one of the guests (there is a reason it is also known as the Bad Show) so of course nuclear power played a pretty big role in the “debate”.

Asked if the four earthquakes over the last month near the site of the Coalition’s proposed Muswellbrook nuclear power station gave him any pause for thought, Joyce said:

I had lunch in the RSL club. The damage from that was a chimney fell over and maybe a couple of windows broke out. If you go through the design process of that, baseload power plants a day, they take this into account and this is why the engineering and the peer structure of engineering to compensate and deal with issues such as earthquakes. Thirty countries in the world are using nuclear power. Serious economies. They all deal with issues like this. They do engineer for that circumstance.

Labor political strategist Dee Madigan jumped in there:

There’s been 36 accidents I think worldwide and even the slightest the, slightest raise in radiation means increases in miscarriages, in still birth, in childhood cancers. I certainly wouldn’t want my kids living near one.”

Joyce demanded citations:

Can you put substance to that? ….What are you quoting there?

Madigan:

“Literally science, literally science.”

The pair then got into a back and forth about why Joyce, who once promoted the
Sapphire windfarm in New England changed his mind about wind turbines.

Joyce: “They’re not farms.”

Madigan: “How can you change your mind so quickly?”

Joyce: “Unlike you, when the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?”

Madigan: “When the polls change, you change your mind.”

Julian Hill to call for Australians to ‘push back against those who seek to divide us’

As Martin mentioned a little earlier, Julian Hill will attend a citizenship ceremony today, on what is Citizenship Day – 75 years since the Citizenship Act was put in place.

He’ll also give a speech. From extracts, Hill will focus on what has been – as well as why it matters now.

Australians are free to live their life as they choose within the bounds of the law, while respecting the right of others to live how they wish with dignity and freedom.

… This is especially important at a time when, let’s be frank, our social cohesion is strained.

Whether due to global tensions, malign actors, social media, loud voices or so-called leaders who seek to divide rather than bring people together.

We all share a responsibility to look out for each other, to stand up for Australia and be proud, and to push back against those who seek to divide us.

Good morning

Citizenship in spotlight

Today is Australian Citizenship Day and to mark the occasion assistant minister for citizenship and multicultural affairs, Julian Hill, will be speaking at and presiding over a citizenship ceremony at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne.

There will be 45 conferees from 22 countries – the eldest is 65 and the youngest is two.

It is also 75 years since the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 came into effect.

Goldmine stoush

Conservatives have been keen to criticise renewable energy schemes which they say will remove farmland from food production.

But the same logic never seems to apply to decisions about preserving the land from mining developments, as the stoush over a goldmine in central NSW has shown.

Calla Wahlquist speaks to David and Rebecca Price, fifth-generation cattle farmers, about how the project could impact their land.

Read her full story here:

PM lays out personal pitch to solve housing impasse

The prime minister will be looking to put pressure on the Coalition and Greens to pass two signature housing reforms during a visit to Sydney today, Australian Associated Press reports.

Anthony Albanese is due to meet a homeowner who used a government program to enter the market.

Labor’s schemes before the Senate – help to buy and build to rent – have faced criticism that they would not make housing affordable.

The help to buy scheme would reduce the requirements for deposits for first home buyers through a government loan guarantee.

It’s estimated 40,000 Australians would be able to buy their first property using the government program.

A similar program, the home guarantee scheme, had already been used by 120,000 people, among them the homeowner being visited on Tuesday by the prime minister.

Albanese said parliament had an opportunity to expand housing access:

Australians want to own their own home. Parents want their kids to be able to enter the housing market.

Australians want solutions. It’s time for the Coalition and the Greens to stop blocking so we can get on with building more homes.

SA’s renewable energy record

Reged Ahmad speaks to environment reporter Petra Stock about how South Australia created a renewable energy world record – and how it plans to power the entire state with weather-dependent electricity in just a few years.

Listen to the pod here:

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