Labor MP ejected as Sussan Ley asks about the CFMEU
Sussan Ley starts and asks the government about the CFMEU administration.
The Coalition is calling for an inquiry into the CFMEU administration after the Nine newspapers reported its efforts have been hampered by a lack of investigative capability.
Before she can even finish her question, the Speaker boots out Labor MP Rob Mitchell (fastest booting I’ve ever seen in QT!)
Employment minister Amanda Rishworth says the government has “no tolerance” for criminal conduct, and backs the work the administrator has done so far.
I have spoken with the administrator on numerous occasions about just how difficult this work is, and for him, he is absolutely committed to clean out this union and I just want to go through some of the work that he has already been doing. He has taken significant steps to either remove or accept the resignation of over 60 staff. Over two-thirds who were in leadership positions or organisers.
Key events
Nationals MP Colin Boyce gets the next question, and takes a turn from prosecuting on action against the CFMEU.
He asks the minister for industry how many jobs will be lost with the possible closure of the Gladstone power station.
Pat Conroy (the minister representing the industry minister who sits in the Senate), hesitates for a minute before answering. He starts off saying a question on energy should be directed to the minister for energy.
We’ve been pretty clear that the energy sector is going through a transition as ageing coal-fired power stations close down. Unlike those opposite, we have plans in place to drive investment into the sector.
Deputy Nationals leader Kevin Hogan gets up to make a point of order on relevance, arguing his question was “tight” (and there’s been no potential job loss numbers disclosed so far). After a bit of back and forth, Conroy finishes his question and hands the baton to energy minister Chris Bowen.
There are about 200 direct employees at the Gladstone power station, and others have worked on a contract basis indirectly, and obviously that’s a significant number for the people of Gladstone.
Bowen then goes to the unreliability of coal-fired power.
Today, we had two units of the Callide Power Station which the honorable member would know well out, out and non-operating. And we have a total unplanned outage across the national energy system of 3.4 gigawatts of coal-fired power. Not planned, not maintenance, coal-fired power stations that were working and all of a sudden break down. It’s the biggest threat to the reliability of our energy system and that in turn is a threat to energy prices.
Tim Wilson asks about journalists exposing CFMEU ‘corruption’
Tim Wilson is back and asks what the government is doing to protect journalists who are threatened while exposing “CFMEU corruption”.
Nine Newspapers reported over the weekend that police are investigating the targeting of the home of journalist Nick McKenzie, who has been investigating the CFMEU.
Amanda Rishworth says there’s “absolutely no tolerance for intimidation of journalists or indeed anyone in this country.”
She then talks about protections for whistleblowers more generally.
Not only are there protections in the registered organisations act but our government specifically built in whistle-blower protections in the administration …
In my conversations with the administrator, the action that he has taken ensures first and foremost the safety of his staff. That’s the seriousness that he is undertaking with his work, that the safety of his staff and in the course extends to all Australians.
Tim Wilson accuses Labor of not doing enough to tackle CFMEU
Shadow employment minister Tim Wilson heads to the dispatch box next (no prizes for guessing what issue he’ll press the government on).
He accuses the government of not doing enough to tackle the CFMEU, and asks if it’s “because the prime minister’s Labor leadership, under his leadership, those opposite have received almost $7m in CFMEU donations?”
Leader of the House Tony Burke tries to get Wilson to withdraw the accusation (he does).
Employment minister Amanda Rishworth says she “outset reject[s] the assertions that were in that question.”
She lists the work the administrator has undertaken – including the Fair Work Ombudsman, Fair Work Commission, state and territory police forces, and regulators.
I can reassure this House that we have done more in our term in government than those on the other side. We are taking this seriously. The shadow minister might want to pretend he’s in university politics, throwing around accusations, while we’re the adults in the room – and we’ll continue to be so.
Housing minister rejects claim 5% deposit scheme pushing up prices
Over to the crossbench, Elizabeth Watson-Brown says the median house price in capital cities has increased by $35,000 over the last three months “as a result of the government’s 5% house deposit scheme”.
She asks the government whether it will admit that it’s driving unsustainable house price growth.
Housing minister Clare O’Neil defends Labor’s 5% deposit scheme (and won’t agree with the Greens MP that Labor is driving up house prices).
O’Neil says the scheme has significantly dropped the number of years that young couples have to save for a housing deposit, from 11 to just two or three.
We now have 190,000 Australians who have been supported into their first home because of our government’s program, 190,000 Australians that the Greens political party are saying should never have got government support to buy their first home.
Josh Butler
Barnaby Joyce still sitting with Coalition
Barnaby Joyce isn’t sitting in the Nationals party room at the moment, but he’s still sitting with the Coalition in the parliament.
The maverick Nationals backbencher has taken his normal seat in question time, perched alongside fellow Nat MP Colin Boyce right up the back. He and Boyce have been chatting quietly, with Liberal MP Aaron Violi – the only Coalition MP further away from the action – right behind them.
Joyce and Violi exchanged a few quick words, and passed a paper back and forth.
The back rows of the Coalition benches are a bit of a rogue’s gallery at the moment. There’s Joyce alongside Boyce (who Pauline Hanson has said would be a good fit for One Nation) next to another Nat, Llew O’Brien, who told The Australian today that the Coalition could split if they didn’t dump net zero.
A row back and behind is Andrew Hastie, who recently quit the frontbench, next to Tony Pasin, who this morning spoke in favour of Joyce’s anti-net zero bill, and next to him is Garth Hamilton, who is also pushing against net zero.
Action taken against CFMEU ‘strongest’ a government can make, minister says
I’m sensing an early theme – opposition leader Sussan Ley is back at the dispatch box and asks if the government will deregister the CFMEU, as the Coalition has been calling for.
Amanda Rishworth argues the action Labor has taken has been the “strongest” a government can make, as opposed to the former (and now abolished) Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).
If she [Ley] had been following the debate while we were putting the CFMEU into administration, she would know the strongest possible action you can take, in terms of transparency and in terms of ensuring that there is accountability, is to put the CFMEU into administration … And if we look at some of the incidents and allegations that are being exposed at the moment, they happened under the ABCC and indeed the Coalition’s watch.
Rishworth then accuses the shadow employment minister, Tim Wilson, of making “baseless claims” against the administrator, Mark Irving.
Labor MP ejected as Sussan Ley asks about the CFMEU
Sussan Ley starts and asks the government about the CFMEU administration.
The Coalition is calling for an inquiry into the CFMEU administration after the Nine newspapers reported its efforts have been hampered by a lack of investigative capability.
Before she can even finish her question, the Speaker boots out Labor MP Rob Mitchell (fastest booting I’ve ever seen in QT!)
Employment minister Amanda Rishworth says the government has “no tolerance” for criminal conduct, and backs the work the administrator has done so far.
I have spoken with the administrator on numerous occasions about just how difficult this work is, and for him, he is absolutely committed to clean out this union and I just want to go through some of the work that he has already been doing. He has taken significant steps to either remove or accept the resignation of over 60 staff. Over two-thirds who were in leadership positions or organisers.
It’s question time!
Richard Marles is in the hot seat today, while Anthony Albanese is overseas. (He gets a few jeers from the opposition benches as he stands up to say he’ll be representing the PM).
US-Australia relationship discussed with China premier, Albanese says
The meeting with China comes off the back of the meeting between Albanese and Donald Trump, where the two signed a big critical minerals agreement.
The PM is asked if premier Li brought up the agreement. Albanese says that, more broadly, the relationship between the US and Australia was discussed.
I clearly have indicated the success of my visit to the US and we talked in a common way about that it was a good thing that President Trump and President Xi have a meeting over the next little period.
RAAF flare incident was directly raised with Chinese premier, Albanese says
Albanese says the seventh meeting between the PM and Chinese premier Li was “positive”.
When asked whether he brought up the flare incident between the Chinese military and an RAAF plane, Albanese confirms he did. But he doesn’t give us details on what was said.
We have disagreements and friends are able to discuss issues. That’s what we’re able to do. It’s important that we engage and that we engage diplomatically and we make clear our position, which I did directly, which we did when the incident occurred. He heard the message very directly. I’m not here to report in on what meetings that, on what people say when I have meetings. I’m accountable for what I say. I made the position directly clear, that this was an incident of concern for Australia.
Asked a follow-up on whether the incident makes it harder to trust China (after, a reporter points out, Albanese has said President Xi has given him no reason not to trust him), Albanese says this was a “nation to nation issue” that was raised directly.
I engage directly, I’m a straight guy. I talk to leaders the way that I talk to the Australians. Straight, clear, unambiguous but in a positive [way] so that where there are differences, I talk about that.
Anthony Albanese speaks from Asean summit
Having finished a bilateral sit-down with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Albanese is speaking to press from Kuala Lumpur.
He starts, talking about the importance of the summit.
We speak about the proximity of opportunity and that’s what south-east Asia represents for us. That’s what living right near the fastest growing region in the world in human history represents for us. An opportunity to grow jobs, to grow our economy, to diversify our markets and our trade, to succeed in Australia, which is the basis of why I am here. Asean alone represents nearly 700 million people.
Albanese has announced funding, including $175m going to a pool of funding for investment in south-east Asia, and a quarter of a billion dollars to “kickstart Australian investments in the region”.
Sarah Henderson on AI copyright exemption being ruled out
Liberal senator Sarah Henderson, who’s had a bone to pick with tech companies pushing for free use of creative material to train generative AI, is very happy with the government’s commitment not to create a text and data mining exemption.
The Victorian senator, who prosecuted tech firms and the Productivity Commission (who had discussed an exemption in its interim report) at a Senate hearing, tells Sky News an exemption would have “effectively legalised the theft of the work of creators”.
The big tech companies were very happy to basically steal the work of Australian creatives and not pay them for it. There is a very sophisticated licensing scheme under our laws in this country. If any big tech company wants to use the work of any artist or writer or musician, they can pay for it. That’s the bottom line. And they were effectively trying to see a change in the law, which would mean that they could basically steal it. So we really raised a very big red flag.
Creatives have said there needs to be better protections in place to stop their work being taken for free.
Earlier today, Michelle Rowland was asked on ABC radio whether works created by AI should be clearly labelled so under Australian copyright laws, but she wouldn’t say.
A number of people whom we have consulted with over the past few months have had a variety of views on that. And these are very valid. They’re obviously groups that have been intimately involved with licensing and with ensuring their own copyright protection. So we will let that run … We’ll ensure that there is proper consultation on that.
Monique Ryan calls for three-year ban on MPs working for lobbyists after quitting
Independent MP Monique Ryan has introduced a private member’s bill aimed at enforcing a code of conduct around lobbying. The bill includes a crackdown on ministers and public servants going to work for lobbyists in their portfolio areas.
Watch here:
Albanese meets Chinese premier Li Qiang at Asean
While all the drama takes place around Parliament House, the prime minister is in Kuala Lumpur and has just held a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, on the sidelines of the Asean summit.
It follows a recent incident in the South China Sea last week, where the government said a Chinese fighter jet released flares “very close” to an RAAF surveillance aircraft.
Anthony Albanese made some remarks before the meeting got under way, emphasising the “shared interests” between the two nations.
We have much shared interests – trade, climate change, people to people links, tourism – and I welcome the continued tempo which continues to rise of our high level engagements.
Whenever there are differences we navigate those wisely, including on regional strategic issues, in forums such as Asean and of course Apec.
The meeting today also follows a critical minerals deal signed between the US and Australia last week.
Yesterday the PM met with his new Japanese counterpart, Sanae Takaichi.
Caitlin Cassidy
ACCC to seek compensation for around 2.7m Australian Microsoft subscribers
Gottlieb said the investigation had been “very quick” and the ACCC had moved quickly after being notified of the alleged breaches.
She said the ACCC would seek a range of court orders, penalties and redress for consumers for any loss they had suffered due to being unable to make an informed choice on their subscription options.
What I can say is we see this as very serious conduct, in terms of key elements that determine the level of penalty, we see this as affecting a very significant number of Australian consumers, as being the action by a very major corporation … in respect of services that are vital for the operation of families in Australian homes.
We will be looking for a penalty that identifies non-compliance with the Australian consumer law … we will seek a penalty that achieves both specific deterrence of such conduct happening again by Microsoft, and also general deterrence for all companies, whether companies operating in the tech sector or more broadly.
Microsoft ‘deprived’ Australian consumers of informed choice, ACCC alleges
Caitlin Cassidy
Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Gina Cass-Gottlieb, has addressed the media in Sydney after the body declared it would take federal action against Microsoft over allegedly misleading around 2.7m Australians with Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
Gottlieb alleged that since 31 October last year, Microsoft told auto-renewing subscribers to the Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans that they had only two options.
The first: in order to maintain their existing services, they must accept the Copilot integration and pay higher prices. The second: can cancel their subscription. We allege that this was misleading because, in fact, there was a third, hidden option, which allowed subscribers to continue their existing plan without Copilot and without any price increase.
Following a detailed investigation, the ACCC allege that Microsoft deliberately hid this third option to retain the old plan at the old price in order to increase the uptake of Copilot and the increased revenue from that Copilot-integrated plans.
She said the price increase for a Personal plan was an annual increase from $109 to $159 annually, or 45%, and $139 to $179 for a Family plan, or 29%.
We have taken these proceedings today because we allege millions of Australian consumers were deprived of the opportunity to make an informed choice about the subscription options available to them.
More than 100 Australian consumers made complaints to the ACCC in late 2024 and early 2025, Gottlieb said, contributing to the investigation.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland public school teachers to vote on pay offer
Queensland public school teachers will vote this week on whether to end a long-running industrial dispute with the state government.
Thousands of members of the Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) struck in August, disrupting class for tens of thousands of students. It was the first strike in 16 years.
After months of bargaining, the union has agreed to put a state government pay offer to members. It will represent an 8% pay rise, the same as offered to all public servants.
The union has not endorsed the offer but says it agreed to do so “to determine whether the union can reach in-principle agreement with the government”. A spokesperson said:
The government has advised that if the offer is rejected, it will seek the QTU’s consent to refer the matter to arbitration.
Queensland education minister John-Paul Langbroek said it was a “historic offer that backs our teachers with higher wages, better conditions, and a reduced workload”.
The Crisafulli government has delivered an offer with the highest teacher salaries in Queensland’s history.
Israeli government names Iranian commander allegedly behind antisemitic attacks in Australia
The Israeli government has named a senior Iranian commander it alleges was responsible for at least two attacks on Jewish Australians, which led to the Iranian ambassador being expelled from the country and a move to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.
In a Sunday statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office, Mossad claimed that a senior commander of the IRGC, Sardar Ammar, was behind attacks in Australia, Greece and Germany.
Mossad said Ammar commands 11,000 operatives in carrying out covert operations.
The statement alleged:
Under Amar’s command, a significant mechanism was established to promote attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets both in Israel and abroad. This mechanism is directly responsible for the attempted attacks exposed in Greece, Australia, and Germany in the past year alone, and its numerous failures led to the wave of arrests and its exposure.
Australia’s spy agency, Asio, has alleged the IRGC was behind at least two attacks, on the Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney on 20 October 2024, and Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue on 6 December 2024.
The department of foreign affairs and trade has been contacted.
