The Liberal member for Bass, Bridget Archer, has Archer has committed to campaigning strongly for the Indigenous voice to parliament. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
The Liberal member for Bass, Bridget Archer, has Archer has committed to campaigning strongly for the Indigenous voice to parliament. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Liberal MP Bridget Archer rebukes Dutton's claims on Indigenous voice
Josh Butler
Liberal MP Bridget Archer has delivered a barely veiled rebuke of her own party’s opposition to the Indigenous voice, directly rubbishing claims that the consultation body would divide the country by race – an argument made by her party leader, Peter Dutton, just hours before.
Archer, speaking on the constitutional alteration bill, read out contributions from Indigenous members of her community in Tasmania. She told the chamber “we need the national voice to help the state transition to a treaty and truth telling process as quickly as possible”, that “the voice will be needed at a state and national level”, and that “something needs to change”.
Archer said:
We cannot continue to do the things we have always done. The communities want more than constitutional recognition. They call for positive solutions that will improve the lives of our people.
The Liberal MP, who has said on several occasions that she has weighed up her continuing association with the conservative party, then took time to address criticisms of the voice. Archer has committed to campaigning strongly for the voice, and has so far been the most publicly vocal supporter of the change in the Liberal party.
She said:
No, the voice won’t have veto power or act as a third chamber ... To claim otherwise is a deliberate and harmful misrepresentation of the facts, and I’m disappointed to have seen this wilfully perpetuated by some.
Nor does the argument that this referendum is dividing the country by race make sense.
Hours earlier, Dutton had claimed the voice would leave the country “divided in spirit, and in law” and “permanently divide us by race”.
Dutton claimed:
The voice will re-racialise our nation.
Archer also made a point of noting her opposition to reintroducing the cashless debit card. Dutton’s speech said “a government I lead will reinstate the cashless debit card in communities who seek to have it”.
That’s where we’ll leave the blog for today – thanks so much for joining us. Here is a wrap of the day’s biggest stories:
ABC journalists across the country have stood in solidarity with Stan Grant after he announced he would be standing down from Q+A due to receiving racist abuse.
Stella Assangetold the National Press Club the life of her husband, Julian Assange, is “in the hands of the Australian government”.
When asked about the matter, Anthony Albanese said, “this issue does need to be resolved and I will continue to advocate as I continue to advocate for Australians around the world”.
The minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, has blasted opposition leader Peter Dutton for spreading “misinformation and scare campaigns” about the Indigenous voice during debate in parliament today.
Clare Nowland, the aged care resident who was Tasered by a police officer in Cooma last week, remains in a “heavy sleep” and is comfortable, continuing to receive end-of-life care.
Communications minister Michelle Rowland has warned the “status quo isn’t good enough” on gambling advertising as the independent MP Zoe Daniel and some Labor MPs push for a ban on the ads.
In Senate Estimates, the Greens’ Barbara Pocock has been asking Labor’s Penny Wong about the government’s decision to appoint former chief of the foreign affairs department Kathryn Campbell to a special role overseeing Aukus, despite her previous role in the robodebt program.
Pocock noted that when Campbell was shuffled into her new role in June 2022 the government already had findings of the federal court that the program was unlawful.
Wong replied:
You’re saying ... there was a federal court decision that it was unlawful ... I don’t think it would be fair to say there had been an interrogation of how that illegality came about. The royal commission was intended to elicit that information. Some of the evidence has been beyond what we might have envisaged. It’s been quite substantial. I don’t want to, obviously, speculate on potential findings of the commission.
Pocock then pressed, by asking why didn’t the Albanese government simply end her employment.
Wong said the question which “used the phrase captain of the ship ...assumes the knowledge of what has subsequently been discovered in the commission”. She added that the evidence “has been – certainly beyond what I would’ve anticipated”.
As the former head of the Department of Social Services and, before that, the Department of Human Services, told the commission she accepted the scheme had been a “significant” failure of public administration.
She said she had assumed the scheme was lawful despite earlier advice raising serious questions and conceded external legal advice should have been sought: “In hindsight it was a big assumption to make.”
Campbell told the royal commission on 7 December: “I wish I had [checked the legality of the scheme] but at that stage [in 2015 when it was developed] I relied on DSS.” She said this had been “unwise”.
ABC news chief Justin Stevens says he regrets not defending Stan Grant earlier as the Q+A host faced racist attacks on social media fuelled by what he described as a “relentless campaign” against the ABC’s coronation broadcast from News Corp.
Call to recognise Indigenous skills of early educators
Better recognition of a person’s Aboriginal culture is important to encouraging and developing greater Indigenous representation in the early childhood workforce, a royal commission has been told.
South Australia’s Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People April Lawrie said it was one thing for people to gain the necessary qualifications to work effectively in the sector.
But she said it was another matter to have the unique skills that come with a person’s cultural background.
She told SA’s Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and care on Monday:
It’s open to anyone to get a qualification at university in early childhood education and expect that person to be equipped to work with Aboriginal children and their families.
That is a lot different to an Aboriginal person who has got those qualifications in early childhood education but also has knowledge and skills about how you work with the child and with their family.
[It’s] about how you build their confidence and their learning about who they are as an Aboriginal child in the 21st century with 60,000 years of culture and history behind you.
More than 800 Australian secrecy laws have a ‘chilling effect’, campaigners argue
More than 800 Australian secrecy laws have “no place in a healthy democracy” and are undermining the important work of whistleblowers, journalists and human rights groups, a review has been warned.
The Attorney General’s Department is reviewing the vast number of secrecy laws restricting the disclosure of government information.
A discussion paper informing the review identified 849 secrecy provisions in existence across Australian federal law, and found that about 15% of them were designed to protect law enforcement information. About 10% protected national security matters and 40% governed the disclosure of personal details held by the government.
In a joint call for reform, the Human Rights Law Centre, Transparency International and Griffith University’s centre for governance and public policy said the “breadth and depth of these provisions create a significant chilling effect”:
Presently, in Australia, the balance between secrecy and transparency is unjustifiably and undemocratically tilted in favour of secrecy.
The degradation of the freedom of information regime, insufficient protections for press freedom, inadequate whistleblower protections, laws that undermine open justice and onerous secrecy provisions have, individually and collectively, heightened secrecy in the Australian government and undermined transparency.
The groups praised Mark Dreyfus, the attorney general, for initiating reform and recommended, among other things, that penalties for breaching secrecy provisions be reduced to ensure they were proportionate.
The groups also recommended a “robust exemption for whistleblowers, human rights defenders and journalists communicating information in the public interest”:
Adoption of these recommendations would be a significant step forward for democratic accountability, whistleblower protection and press freedom in Australia.
Kieran Pender, a senior lawyer at the HRLC, said the web of secrecy laws had “no place in a healthy democracy”:
They pose a daily risk to whistleblowers, human rights defenders and journalists – and are having a chilling effect on accountability. There is a need for urgent reform.
Prof AJ Brown of Griffith University said the review of secrecy offences should only be one part of broader reforms to improve transparency.
Reforms of whistleblowing laws – already mooted by the federal government – were also critical, he said, as were improvements to the freedom of information system and robust open justice protections.
Transparency International Australia’s chief executive, Clancy Moore, urged the government to embrace the opportunity to narrow secrecy laws and “ensure they only apply where there is a genuine public interest in confidentiality”:
Right now, secrecy laws are allowing government wrongdoing to go hidden, while brave whistleblowers are punished for doing the right thing.
More than 50 people are currently serving sentences for terrorism-related charges, the Department of Home Affairs has told Senate estimates.
Department secretary Mike Pezzullo said there was a “master list” of the 56 prisoners, with some coming towards the end of their terms. Once their sentence is up, they will either be subjected to a continuing detention order or the department would work with other authorities to reintegrate them once they are released.
Obviously, there are a number of convictions some years ago, those terms are coming to the ... end of their term… the attorney general’s department and others are given full visibility of the likely release or parole periods.
The estimates committee also heard there are about 60 Australians still in Syria – 17 family members were returned last year.
About 40 of those family members are believed to be in the Roj detention camp, in brutal conditions. Department officials did not reveal where in Syria other Australians might be.
Senator Lidia Thorpe speaks out in support of Stan Grant
Racism is alive and well in this country. When you call it out, you become the target. I know too well what hate speech and Racism looks like, you are then branded the problem and the aggressor and labeled with being divisive.
— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) May 22, 2023
I Stand with Stan in the fight against Racism in this county. It’s a violent illness that this nation must and can overcome.
— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) May 22, 2023
Racism is in most of our workplaces including the so called highest level of governance in this country, where racism is an everyday occurrence and according to government procedure there is no rule against Racism in the chamber. It’s not ok to be Racist. Or is it?
— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) May 22, 2023
The Bureau of Meteorology has published its weather outlook for the week ahead, with temperatures fairly seasonal across the country – within a degree or two of the average May maximum temperatures.
The cold temperatures are mostly being felt through the overnight and early morning weather, however a cold weather system may be on its way on Thursday:
Weather Update: Weekly weather update. Find out what to expect across the country over the coming days.
Liberal MP Bridget Archer rebukes Dutton's claims on Indigenous voice
Josh Butler
Liberal MP Bridget Archer has delivered a barely veiled rebuke of her own party’s opposition to the Indigenous voice, directly rubbishing claims that the consultation body would divide the country by race – an argument made by her party leader, Peter Dutton, just hours before.
Archer, speaking on the constitutional alteration bill, read out contributions from Indigenous members of her community in Tasmania. She told the chamber “we need the national voice to help the state transition to a treaty and truth telling process as quickly as possible”, that “the voice will be needed at a state and national level”, and that “something needs to change”.
Archer said:
We cannot continue to do the things we have always done. The communities want more than constitutional recognition. They call for positive solutions that will improve the lives of our people.
The Liberal MP, who has said on several occasions that she has weighed up her continuing association with the conservative party, then took time to address criticisms of the voice. Archer has committed to campaigning strongly for the voice, and has so far been the most publicly vocal supporter of the change in the Liberal party.
She said:
No, the voice won’t have veto power or act as a third chamber ... To claim otherwise is a deliberate and harmful misrepresentation of the facts, and I’m disappointed to have seen this wilfully perpetuated by some.
Nor does the argument that this referendum is dividing the country by race make sense.
Hours earlier, Dutton had claimed the voice would leave the country “divided in spirit, and in law” and “permanently divide us by race”.
Dutton claimed:
The voice will re-racialise our nation.
Archer also made a point of noting her opposition to reintroducing the cashless debit card. Dutton’s speech said “a government I lead will reinstate the cashless debit card in communities who seek to have it”.
On the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Labor MP Kate Thwaites is asked for her thoughts on consultancy firm PwC and whether they should “have the book thrown at them”. She says:
There are a number of inquiries and committee processes going through that … and it is clear that something has gone very wrong. My main take-out is we need to invest in the public service …
Liberal MP Russell Broadbent also weighs in:
Governments contract in good faith to organisations like PwC. They have let down [their] side completely in this case. They are doing the very best to put the best spin on what is a disgraceful exposure of what has happened here.
Coleman is asked about Stan Grant’s departure from Q&A and whether he believes ABC management has responded appropriately:
The first point is racism is abhorrent, evil and disgusting and no Australian should ever be expected to tolerate racism.
In relation to the issues of Stan Grant … that’s something for the ABC management to address.
… it’s something [where] they need to step up and say how they’ve treated Stan, he’s obviously not happy with the treatment … If Stan has been subject to racism – as he said he has been – that is appalling.
Coleman ended his answer with:
… that doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t be allowed to have frank and open debate about issues about ABC coverage, including the coverage of the coronation, where there were many people who had very strong concerns about the way that coverage was presented and that’s entirely appropriate for people to raise those concerns. That’s a very different matter though if people are being racist to Stan Grant.
Leader of the opposition Peter Dutton and shadow minister for communications David Coleman. Photograph: Nikki Short/AAP
Coleman asked about push for age verification for adult websites
As the shadow communications minister, David Coleman was also asked about the push for age verification for adult websites. He acknowledged the issue is “very complicated” when it comes to privacy and would like to see the eSafety commissioner’s report on the matter made public.
He said:
There’s something important the government can do here though, and that’s adopt a principle that social media companies should act in the best interests of children.
We had that in legislation in late 2021 and draft changes to the online privacy act. What that would mean is, if a social media company facilitated the provision of content to a child which is not in their best interest - and some of the content is in that category - they’ve been in breach. So we would very much encourage the government to take up that legislation.
My colleague Josh Taylor reported on this last week, in case you missed it:
Liberal frontbencher David Coleman asked if he will campaign for no vote on voice
Coleman has told the ABC his position on the voice is the same as the Coalition’s stance and that he doesn’t support the proposal put forward by the government.
When asked if he will be voting for the actual bill, he said he would “leave those more detailed questions to others as we go through the process”.
He was also asked if he would be actively campaigning for a no vote:
I’ll be putting that position in line with the Coalition’s position, and this is an issue on which we want to have a sensible and calm and measured debate …
My colleague Emily Wind is going to take you through the evening, but I will be back with Politics Live bright and early tomorrow morning for the second day of estimates hearings (the first day is always a little departmental and dry) and the ongoing debate over the referendum legislation.
A very big thank you to those who joined us today and I hope to see you tomorrow. Hope you are warm and get a moment to think about nothing – until then though, take care of you. Ax
Greens’ Barbara Pocock on consultants and conflict of interest
Pocock wants the use of all consultants looked at, telling the ABC:
If you look at the history of these consultants, they are multinational consultants, the biggest entities in the world.
There is clear evidence of a similar practice in the UK in 2013, where four of the big consultants were reviewed for exactly the same kind of insider trading.
It is a concern that there is a public national example that occurred a few years before exactly the same practice, in principle, here in our own country.
I think we need an international review analysis of the practice, but it is not just that kind of conflict of interest that we need to be confident that we are pursuing. We have large consultants who are setting parameters for a government program while at the same time advising private clients on how to make that program work to their advantage. Perception and actual conflict of interest … is what we want to track down.
It doesn’t look like Senate estimates has changed her mind. Pocock told the ABC:
I think it is a systemic problem we need to pursue and really chase down the kinds of conflicts that are very evidently acted on and it’s appropriate, squarely in the remit of the Nacc.
It should be top of their work agenda. We’ve got recent, very reliable reports of $21 billion of public funds going to consultants and contractors, so we need to be confident the corruption is not endemic in this industry. We need to go hard after this particular example in PwC.
Another defence project added to troubled program list
The minister for defence industry, Pat Conroy, announced today that the “Satellite Ground Station – East and Wideband SATCOM Network Management System” had been designated as a project of concern. The statement says:
While infrastructure for the project has been delivered, including three large ground antennae, it is facing ongoing schedule delays due to other technical challenges.
The project is designed to transform and improve new and existing Defence wideband ground stations and deployed systems across Australia to meet the increasing need for greater satellite communications capacity.
Conroy said the listing “demonstrates the Albanese government’s commitment to remediating underperforming projects, in order to deliver the capabilities urgently needed by the Australian Defence Force”. He said the government would work closely with Northrop Grumman Australia “to get this project back on track”.
