Senate committee investigating Coalition’s nuclear plan passes House of Representatives
Josh Butler
Back to the nuclear committee proposed by the government: it has passed the House, as expected. The government proposal called for seven members, including four from the government, two from the opposition and one crossbench member.
The shadow energy spokesperson and chief nuclear booster Ted O’Brien sought to amend that to allow three Labor and three Coalition – but was unsuccessful, the government ensuring it kept a solid majority on the committee it set up to further probe Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan.
It is asked to report back with its findings by the end of April 2025. Very conveniently, the election must be held by May 2025.
We’ll look forward to seeing how the government uses this committee process to investigate the Coalition’s nuclear plan.
Key events
‘The world needs to see the race to cut climate pollution as an all-out sprint,’ says Climate Council
While the parliament has been fighting over how many MPs from each party can be on a house committee looking at nuclear energy, the Climate Council is trying to direct attention to new science which has found we need to act on cutting green house gases, seriously fast.
In a new study published in the journal Nature, scientists warn that overshooting 1.5C of warming will lead to changes that cannot be reversed for decades or longer, and that the world needs to see the race to cut climate pollution as an all-out sprint.
This research follows yesterday’s release of the grim report, 2024 State of the Climate Report: Perilous Times on Planet Earth, which warned current policies are leading to “perilous times” in a hothouse Earth, and that we are already experiencing record land and ocean temperatures, coral bleaching, reduced sea ice extent, and forest loss.
Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie:
Yet again, scientists are warning of the catastrophic consequences of the climate crisis. We’ve seen those consequences hit Australia with massive fires and floods of a scale never seen before.
Yes, progress is being made, with 40% of Australia now powered by renewables. But cuts to climate pollution must be accelerated right now.
Senate committee investigating Coalition’s nuclear plan passes House of Representatives
Josh Butler
Back to the nuclear committee proposed by the government: it has passed the House, as expected. The government proposal called for seven members, including four from the government, two from the opposition and one crossbench member.
The shadow energy spokesperson and chief nuclear booster Ted O’Brien sought to amend that to allow three Labor and three Coalition – but was unsuccessful, the government ensuring it kept a solid majority on the committee it set up to further probe Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan.
It is asked to report back with its findings by the end of April 2025. Very conveniently, the election must be held by May 2025.
We’ll look forward to seeing how the government uses this committee process to investigate the Coalition’s nuclear plan.
Labor ‘open to ways’ to improve international student cap bill
Caitlin Cassidy
The education minister, Jason Clare, says the federal government will “consider” recommendations made in a committee report into the proposed international student caps and is “open to looking at ways that improve the legislation”.
The report, tabled yesterday evening, recommended the bill be passed with significant amendments, including removing the ability to set course-level enrolment limits.
Clare said the government would continue to welcome international students in a way that was “sustainable and reinforces quality”:
The government is implementing a managed system for the international education sector, which strengthens integrity and makes it more sustainable. Setting limits is also a fairer way to manage this important sector. It shouldn’t just be the big metro unis that benefit from international students, but our regional universities too.
The government will consider the committee’s recommendations and is open to looking at ways that improve the legislation.
Jordyn Beazley
Student arrested at pro-Palestine protest charged with assaulting police
A student who was arrested at Western Sydney University during a pro-Palestine protest on campus on Wednesday has been charged with assaulting police.
The 20-year-old was also charged with resisting police arrest. He was one of two Western Sydney University (WSU) students arrested at the protest, with another 23-year-old also charged with resisting police arrest and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Legal Observers NSW said the protest, which was attended by 50 people, marched around campus and then entered the Chancellors building and declared they would occupy the space. Two to three police officers usually attend the campus protests, Legal Observers said, but after the students entered the building more police arrived.
In footage of the protest distributed by the social media page WSU 4 Palestine Collective, police are seen attempting to remove a banner from protesters while they resist, amid cries of “it’s a banner, it’s not a weapon”. In another video, five police are seen arresting one of the students.
Police said that the protesters allegedly assaulted two security guards and two officers alleged they were injured but did not require treatment.
A number of students, according to student statements collected by Legal Observers NSW, said they saw one of the students who was arrested pushed against a wall by multiple police. The other was carried out by police by his legs and arms.
Both students were granted bail, with the student who was charged with assaulting police required to report to a police station daily, according to Legal Observers NSW. Under the bail conditions, both students are only allowed to attend WSU for the purpose of going to class or studying.
Both students will appear before Burwood local court on 4 November.
Greens say merger laws ‘missed the chance’ for forced divesture powers
The Greens’ Nick McKim says his party is yet to come to a position on Jim Chalmers’ new merger laws, but he is disappointed the legislation is missing the chance to include divesture powers:
Labor has missed the chance to take the bold action needed: create the power to break up duopolies and oligopolies through forced divestiture.
Big corporations already hold too much power, and simply trying to prevent them from getting bigger won’t fix the problem. What we need is to create competition by breaking up corporations when they misuse their market power.
McKim says regulators and the courts need the power to be able to “force the divestiture of corporations that have monopolised industries, including supermarkets, airlines and energy companies”.
Without these powers, we’ll continue to see price gouging, rising costs of living, and Australians paying the price for unchecked corporate greed.
Rafqa Touma
One expert says social media age regulation would be ‘amazing’ for changing norms
Dr Jean Twenge says delaying when a young person has access to social media is needed, and government regulation would be “amazing”. She is speaking at the NSW and SA social media summit:
We also just have to work on changing the norm. This has to be group solutions. This is why regulation at the governmental level is would be so amazing.
If it were suddenly, ‘hey nobody 15 or under can have social media,’ it would be a complete gamechanger, because if it was really well regulated, then that argument goes away.
Josh Butler
Labor’s wishlist for the House committee on nuclear energy
The government is seeking to establish a relatively rare House select committee into nuclear energy to investigate details around “deployment of small modular reactors in Australia” – the type of power the Coalition wants to build around the nation with its relatively detail-sparse plan.
Labor wants to set up the committee, which they want to “specifically inquire into and report on the consideration of nuclear power generation, including deployment of small modular reactors, in Australia” – including issues around timeframes, waste management and storage, water use, state and local government policy frameworks, risk management for natural disasters and the impact on energy prices.
We expect the government will use the committee to try and interrogate the issues around the Coalition’s plan (ie poke holes in it), as well as speak to local communities that have been earmarked for a plant about whether they actually want it or not.
The government has been regularly pointing out that we still don’t know many major details about Peter Dutton’s alternative energy plan, including how much it would cost to build seven nuclear facilities and how much it would affect energy generation or costs.
The House is currently voting on the exact details and terms of reference of the committee, but considering the government has a majority there, we expect it’ll go exactly as they want it. We’ll bring you more when the final result comes in.
Rafqa Touma
More from the social media summit
Dr Jean Twenge, a professor of Psychology at San Diego state university, is addressing the social media summit.
She links data showing increasing levels of loneliness, depression and self harm in young people to the introduction and increased presence of social media in young people’s lives:
You know what happened at the end of 2012 [when] this happened? That was the first time that most people in Western democracies owned a smartphone.
We see social media and smartphones increasing at the same time as these serious mental health issues around the world.
Twenge points to less sleep, less in-person interaction, cyberbullying, social comparisons, sexual exploitation, fear of missing out and body image issues as negative consequences of young people’s use of social media.
Voluntary agreement entered into after United Airlines breaches biosecurity measures
The Department of Agriculture has had to enact the Pistol and Boo protocol. From its statement:
An international airline has entered an enforceable undertaking with the Australian government after it failed to declare two dogs’ arrival to the country, breaching Australian biosecurity measures.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, which has regulatory powers for Australia’s biosecurity as part of the Biosecurity Act 2015, found United Airlines had breached its reporting requirements twice, once in Brisbane in March 2024 and in Sydney December 2022, for failing to report a dog’s arrival by plane to Australia.
The dogs were assessed and managed by the department’s veterinary officers to ensure they met biosecurity requirements, including quarantine.
The US-based airline also failed to meet prescribed disinsection measures, which include procedures to control or kill the insect vectors of human diseases and agricultural pests or other insects and did not provide biosecurity officers with information when requested, both in August 2023.
The airline has “voluntarily agreed to meet a number of requirements over the next 15 months and will be monitored by the department. These include revising their internal processes, systems, and training”.
Rafqa Touma
SA premier compares social media regulation to drugs and smoking
SA’s premier, Peter Malinauskas, is now addressing the opening ceremony of the NSW and SA government’s social media summit. He likens regulation of social media for young people to regulation of alcohol and drugs:
Governments, particularly in liberal democracies, have always sought to act and lead to try and protect young people from outside forces that otherwise would deny them that optimism and that infectious youthfulness.
We’ve regulated access to a whole range of products and services, alcohol, drugs, cigarettes.
We do so in the knowledge that legislation is a blunt tool. It can arm not just young people, but also parents, society writ large, with the tools that can allow us to implement a clearer path, a more positive definition of what healthy relationships can look like.
Parliamentary bullrush over nuclear committee
The shadow energy minister, Ted O’Brien, is trying to set up a select parliamentary committee to look into nuclear energy based on the Coalition’s proposal – not the government’s proposal – with a fight going on in the House of Representatives over how many members from each chamber and what party should be on it.
This is because a government/independent-heavy committee would probably come to very different conclusions than an opposition-heavy committee. So it’s a game of parliamentary committee bullrush.
But in making his very impassioned speech to the parliament (nothing gets O’Brien worked up like nuclear) he has also revealed that he’d survive undercover in the movie Inglourious Basterds – O’Brien is a fan of the “German three”. IYKYK
NSW and SA premiers open social media summit
Rafqa Touma
Hello! It’s Rafqa Touma here — I’ll be bringing the blog updates from the two-day NSW and SA social media summit at Sydney’s International Convention Centre today.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, is joined by the SA premier, Peter Malinauskas, in opening the event. Minns tells the room – which is filled with community members, experts and high school student-age delegates – evidence shows changes to ban phones in schools had been a huge success.
A healthy skepticism doesn’t make you backward … if you’re concerned about your kids and the impact these sites are having on their mental health or their body image or their sense of personal confidence in the world.
We think that you’re right to be concerned, and we want to get the information on the table to make the best decisions, not just from governments, but for communities and families.
In September, Anthony Albanese announced a national ban would be in place before the next election, after a push by Malinauskas gained support among other states and territories.
Minns has come out in favour of a social media ban for under-16s. On the weekend he said he wanted to implement it “as soon as possible” to combat the platforms that he said were conducting a “global, unregulated experiment on young people”.
Patrick Gorman:
There’s something very curious in the paper today. Incredibly curious. Which was a suggestion from the front bench of the Liberal National Party that we should move the date of Parliament because of the Melbourne Cup.
Now, I’m pretty happy to do my job. The people of Perth elected me to do my job. And what we’ve got now, some of Peter Dutton’s most senior shadow ministers are saying we should move Parliament so they can go to the Melbourne Cup.
That’s ridiculous. The people of Australia didn’t elect us to go down and sip champagne in some fancy marquee in Melbourne. They elected us to do our job in Canberra.
And if Mr Dutton and his frontbenchers think that we should change the dates of Parliament so they can go to the Melbourne Cup, well, they should come into Parliament today and move that motion.
I dare them; if they really think that the Australian people with all of the things they expect of the Parliament right now, if they really think the Australian people would have any patience at all for the idea that you would change the dates of Parliament just so a bunch of senior politicians in the Liberal Party and the National Party can go down and put the fascinator on and polish up their shoes in a fancy suit, they’ve got something else coming.
It just shows how seriously out of touch the Liberal Party and the National Party are – that they want to cancel Parliament so they can go to the Melbourne Cup.
I challenge Peter Dutton, I challenge Dan Tehan to walk into Parliament this morning and move a motion to change the date of Parliament so that they can go to the Melbourne Cup. I think they’ll get a rude shock from the Australian people to see them trying to get out of their job. People in my electorate, people all over Australia, do their job on Melbourne Cup Day. Nurses, police, bus drivers, all have to rock up during the Melbourne Cup. I don’t know why the Liberal Party and the National Party think that they should be able to go, put the fascinator on, polish up their shoes, wear the top hat, and go to the Melbourne Cup.
There were no questions.
Amy Remeikis
Subject line sniping
When an MP’s staff send out transcripts of their boss’s media appearances, they always include a subject line.
Once upon a time, this was literally just a subject line. Then Sussan Ley’s team began sending out subject lines with the “tone” they wanted the transcript read through, so it was a lot of “this weak government’s horrible approach to XX”-style lines.
Ley’s team held the mantle of most imaginative subject lines, but the assistant minister to the prime minister’s team (Patrick Gorman) have really come into their own in recent months. Today’s may be some of their greatest work. Quote:
Subjects: Parliament; Hurricane Milton; The Coalition’s ridiculous plan to cancel Parliament for the Melbourne Cup, so that they can go and sip champagne in some fancy marquee in Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup, with their fascinators and top hats on.
Survey finds cost of living is major barrier to accessing mental health treatment
Wayahead, the mental health association of NSW, conducted a survey on mental health perceptions and experiences across Australia and found that nearly half of the 2,000 respondents identified cost of living as the biggest barrier to receiving treatment. Wayahead’s CEO, Sharon Grocott, said “no one should have to compromise their mental wellbeing due to financial difficulties” and said it was time to make it more accessible.
She said the survey also found people still felt there was a stigma around discussing their mental health:
The survey further revealed that 86% of 25 to 34-year-olds and 60% of 65 to 74-year-olds conceal their mental health challenges due to fears of stigma and judgment from friends and people in the workplace.
This stigma is a particular concern for men, with 40% of male respondents identifying their friends as the primary source of judgment when discussing mental health issues.
Amy Remeikis
James Paterson continues attack lines over Palestinian visa holder
Liberal senator James Paterson has held another doorstop on the back of a Sky News interview (is it even a sitting week if James Paterson isn’t on Sky News at least three times) where he tried to relitigate his issues from yesterday.
The hook for today was Tony Burke did not answer questions yesterday. Unfortunately, we sat through question time and Burke answered five versions of the same question Paterson is raising today.
There were no questions for Paterson at the end of the spiel. Almost like … people already knew the answers?
Greens commit to independent commission on poverty
Cait Kelly
The Greens have announced an election commitment to establish an independent commission that would define and eliminate poverty in Australia.
Australia currently has no set definition for poverty, but the 2023 report from the Australia Council for Social Services shows it is increasing, with one in eight adults and one in six children living below the breadline.
The Greens’ spokesperson on social services, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:
Under Labor, there are more than three million Australians living in poverty, including one in six children. Many of those people are either unable to access income support, or are relying on payments that are among the lowest in the OECD.
Despite being one of the wealthiest countries on earth, successive Labor and Coalition governments have made policy choices that deliberately keep people in poverty, including refusing to raise jobseeker and youth allowance above the poverty line.
The Poverty and Inequality Commission (PIC) would replace the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee (EIAC). The government has ignored calls from the EIAC to increase support payments.
The commission would have the power to examine the level of poverty in Australia; review the adequacy of social security payments; and develop a national definition of poverty.
The government would be required to publicly respond to the commission’s reports and recommendations, and parliament would be able to scrutinise appointments to the commission via a joint parliamentary committee.
The PIC would have up to 12 paid commissioners and a paid president, including members with direct contemporary lived experience of poverty, with a structure comparable to the productivity commission.
The PIC would begin operating on July 1, 2026, and has been costed by the PBO at $99.5m in its first two years.