Burke targets opposition over ‘fact-free’ immigration arguments
Sarah Basford Canales
Tony Burke has moved on to the topic of immigration, and in particular, how to talk about Australia’s immigration policy sensibly – an issue that has divided the opposition in recent months.
Burke told the National Press Club he is very conscious about having a debate in a civil way. However, he noted it is “impossible to have a … civil and decent argument about immigration in a fact-free way”.
The home affairs minister said he thinks “the days of dog-whistle politics are well and truly over”.
Everybody hears them. It’s no longer a dog whistle. It’s now a set of bagpipes that you can hear from the other side of the hill.
… To have the argument about total [immigration] numbers without saying where you want to cut is spin without any substance at all – the simple question of where is something that my political opponents haven’t wanted to deal with – but there is no pathway of being an alternative party of government, unless you have that conversation.
Key events
NSW man dies after becoming impaled on steel bar in construction site fall
Luca Ittimani
A man has died after being impaled on a steel bar at a construction site on the New South Wales Central Coast.
The building site worker, 23, fell on to the reinforcing bar this morning at work on a suburban street in East Gosford.
Emergency services were called at 10.40am and the man was treated by paramedics before being taken to Gosford hospital, where he died.
Police established a crime scene to collect evidence but said they were not treating the event as suspicious.
SafeWork NSW was notified and a report for the coroner was being prepared, police said.
Luca Ittimani
Rising chances of November interest rate cut
Financial markets are cautiously raising their bets on an interest rate cut in November after new data showed a jump in unemployment.
Markets and major banks have lost confidence in more interest rate cuts this year since the Reserve Bank left rates on hold in late September. The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, then suggested a slower job market despite persistent inflation “could mean a couple more reductions, it might not, I don’t know”.
Predictions of a full 25 basis point rate cut slipped, with markets pricing in just 10 basis points of a cut for November ever since. Today’s jobs data saw that jump up to about 18 points – much closer to the full 25.
The chance of a cut jumped from about 40% to about 75% according to swaps market pricing, Westpac reported. The ASX200 jumped about $9bn (0.34%) and the Australian dollar slipped form 65.2 to 64.8 US cents in the wake of the release, both also indicating regained faith in a rate cut.
Westpac is the only big four bank expecting a November cut. Belinda Allen, a Commonwealth Bank economist, said it wasn’t clear whether the jump in joblessness would outlast price rises:
There is debate whether stickier inflation or slower employment is temporary. Until this is resolved we expect the cautious nature of the RBA cutting cycle to date to remain in place.
Tom McIlroy
Government names new ambassador to Japan
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has announced plans to name Andrew Shearer as Australia’s new ambassador to Japan next year.
Shearer – a known China hawk – will take up the role after finishing his term as the director-general of the Office of National Intelligence.
Before the ONI, Shearer served as cabinet secretary and national security adviser to Liberal prime ministers including Scott Morrison. He has also held senior roles at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Lowy Institute.
Shearer is expected to be succeeded at the ONI by Kathy Klugman, Anthony Albanese’s international adviser.
Klugman will be the first woman appointed to the role.
She has worked for Albanese since Labor’s 2022 election victory and was with him at the UN general assembly in New York earlier this month.
Parliamentary committee into Queensland container recycling scheme makes corruption referrals
Andrew Messenger
A report by a government-dominated parliamentary inquiry into Queensland’s container recycling scheme has made 10 referrals to the state’s corruption watchdog, alleging it was dominated by two large beverages companies.
It was tabled in parliament on Thursday.
The Labor leader, Steven Miles, then the state’s environment minister, established the scheme in 2018. It pays a rebate to people recycling cans, and has successfully increased the state’s beverage container recovery rate from 18% prior to introduction of the scheme to 67.1% this year.
But the parliamentary committee claimed that the structure he adopted for the scheme gave Coca-Cola and Lion, two of the biggest companies in the industry, too much control. Government members of the committee wrote:
Of particular concern was COEX’s [the not-for-profit organisation appointed to manage and grow the container refund scheme] commercial relationship with Circular Economy Systems, a joint venture between its two founding members, Coca-Cola and Lion. CES has received significant – and increasing – payments over the life of the scheme.
The arrangement “effectively handed monopoly control of the scheme to two of Australia’s largest beverage corporations. Those corporations dominated the board, and awarded a key contract to their own joint venture.”
LNP members of the committee said they had made 10 referrals to the Crime and Corruption Commission as a result of the inquiry.
Daisy Dumas
Search for Gus Lamont to resume tomorrow
The search for Gus Lamont has been called off for the day after extreme heat and windy conditions hampered efforts.
South Australia police said the third day of the renewed and expanded hunt for the missing four-year-old ended “with no evidence being found”. Police said on Thursday afternoon:
The search resumed in zones outside of the original search area at sunrise, but was concluded at midday because of extreme heat and windy conditions.
Search efforts will resume on Friday, with police anticipating the search will be completed in all remaining “identified zones” that day.
On Wednesday, police said more than 100 search team members, including SA Police, ADF members and SES volunteers, had been walking up to 25 kilometres a day in hot, harsh conditions.
Gus was last seen at about 5pm on Saturday 27 September, when his grandmother saw him playing on a mound of dirt at his homestead near Yunta, about 300km from Adelaide.
Gus was wearing a blue T-shirt with a yellow Minion on the front, a grey sun hat, light-grey long pants and boots.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland energy minister tables bill aimed at repealing ‘unachievable’ energy targets
Queensland’s energy minister has introduced a long-awaited bill repealing the state’s renewables targets into state parliament.
Aside from eliminating a legislated 80% by 2035 green energy target passed under the previous, Labor, government, it would also remove a ban on private ownership on new generation, which unions have said would be akin to privatisation by stealth.
The bill also eliminates a requirement for the government to report progress towards the targets and allows the state to close three bodies, Energy Industry Council, the Queensland Energy System Advisory Board and the Queensland Renewable Energy Jobs Advocate, which provide advice about renewable energy.
The bill also renames renewables energy zones established in the prior act to “regional energy hubs”.
Queensland’s treasurer and energy minister, David Janetzki, flagged the move at a media club event last week. He said the government doesn’t plan to amend a separate law mandating a 75% by 2035 emissions reduction target. He told parliament on Thursday:
Labor’s renewable energy targets were always unachievable. Repealing the targets means Queensland’s energy system will reflect a more pragmatic approach to our changing energy mix.
By properly embedding this model into the regional energy hub legislative framework, this bill will provide greater industry certainty and facilitate private sector investment into new energy infrastructure.
The bill will go to a parliamentary committee inquiry before returning to parliament for a final vote.
Melbourne’s Montague Street Bridge strikes again
In a story regular blog readers will be familiar with, another truck has found itself stuck underneath Melbourne’s notorious Montague Street Bridge.
The incident involving a taxi-box truck occurred yesterday. 7News reported the driver was uninjured and was able to quickly move their vehicle to restore traffic flow, but it nevertheless ended a 60-day streak without incidents.
You can read more about the perennial problem here:
Coalition extends condolences to AFD officer who died after training incident
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has sent her condolences to the family of the solider who died after an incident occurred during a training exercise. In a statement released just now she said:
The Coalition extends its deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the Australian Army soldier who tragically passed away following a training incident near the Townsville field training area.
Our thoughts are also with the two other ADF personnel who were seriously injured, their families, and their fellow service members during this difficult time.
Incidents like this are a stark reminder of the risks our Defence personnel face, even in training, in their commitment to serve and protect our nation with pride.
…The 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), is a tight-knit infantry unit. In times of tragedy, their strength as a community is clear.
We extend our condolences to them as they rally around one another in the face of this heartbreaking loss.
Sarah Basford Canales
Burke says about 700 Palestinians with Australian visas are still in Gaza
Tony Burke says there are around 700 Palestinians in Gaza with Australian visas who have yet to arrive in Australia.
At the National Press Club on Thursday, the home affairs minister shared a story about a video call he had with a woman hiding in a church in Gaza. She ended up staying in the church for 18 months before she arrived with her daughter in Sydney recently.
Burke was asked about Pauline Hanson’s suggestion that anyone who arrived in Australia from Gaza after 7 October 2023 should be sent back now that there’s a temporary ceasefire and a peace proposal in the works.
Burke said:
Sometimes we have people on our caseload, where we don’t know if they’re still alive, but we’ve got roughly six-to-seven hundred on our caseload. And for those individuals – and they’ve had all the [security] checks I just described effectively – they would have been here some time ago, but they haven’t been able to get out. Some of them may well start coming.
It’s also true, if the peace is successful, as happens with any conflict, some people might decide they don’t want to leave [Gaza] …
Some people, the moment they know it’s safe and the place that all their memories and parents and grandparents live, they want to go back, and they do. And that has been the story of Australia. You know, there’s no longer a potato famine [in Ireland], but I got to stay.
Sarah Basford Canales
Burke predicts Aukus will drive net overseas migration figures up
Circling back to the National Press Club: Tony Burke says Aukus will be an upwards driver of net overseas migration (Nom) but he won’t offer a “magic number” on what future Nom levels will be.
Asked what he thinks the appropriate Nom level should be going forward for Australia, Burke said it could only be partially predicted because some levers were outside of government control.
Burke said as the Aukus deal ramps up in the coming years, it will be a significant driver of Nom:
There are going to be really significant high paying jobs that a lot of Australians will move to, and we will need to make sure that the jobs they are going [from] are still backfilled.
Some of that might be done by Australians moving up a little bit, but I have no doubt there’s going to be some situation, particularly in South Australia and Western Australia, where Aukus as a driver of employment is going to create new situations. So I won’t give you a magic number. I don’t think there is a magic number.
