PM pulls out of Khawaja meeting on gambling ads
The prime minister has pulled out of a meeting with Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja at parliament today.
The two were supposed to meet to discuss gambling ads, and the war in Gaza, before a roundtable discussion on gambling with public health experts and doctors.
Khawaja tells journalists in Parliament House that he’s disappointed and hopes the cancellation is just a “scheduling conflict”.
I texted the Prime Minister a couple of days ago. I said, look, if you give me a 15 minute phone call… I don’t have an agenda. I just want to talk to you, mano e mano, because my heart’s in the right place. So hopefully he’ll accept that invitation, at some point, I will talk to him.
Khawaja says he respects the prime minister, that Anthony Albanese has shown courage by recognising Palestinian statehood, and says that this is the start of the prime minister’s legacy.
I actually wanted to go up and shake his hand and say, I want to congratulate you. For the first time in my life someone is recognising Palestine.
You look at the great presidents of us in the past. They fought for the people. Will they fight for civil rights, or they fight for slavery, whatever it might be their road, the great ones, the road was never easy. They had to do something. They had to make some hard choices. So for the prime minister, he has an opportunity right now to cement his legacy.
Key events
Government to ditch 500 more nuisance tariffs
The government will abolish 500 more nuisance tariffs, following last week’s economic roundtable discussion.
What is a nuisance tariff, you ask?
Great question, the Productivity Commission defines them as tariffs that “raise little revenue for the government, have negligible benefits for Australian producers, but impose compliance costs on businesses”.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers has announced he’s got a list of 500 nuisance tariffs to ditch, including levies on TVs, tyres and wine glasses, and will consult on the proposed list.
Chalmers says the full list of tariffs to be removed will be in next years’ budget.
With this reform, we’ll have removed around 1,000 tariffs over two years and streamlined approximately $23bn worth of trade, saving Australian businesses $157m in compliance costs annually.
The idea was canvassed at last week’s roundtable, so no surprises that it has been announced today.
Coalition pushes to remove PM’s power to determine parliamentarian staffing numbers
The Coalition is trying to push forward legislation that would remove power from the prime minister to determine staffing numbers for parliamentarians.
The prime minister cut staffing numbers from the independents in their previous term of government, and then cut the opposition’s staffing numbers this term, a move which was labelled “vindictive” by the Coalition.
In the Senate a little earlier, Cash accused the prime minister of “undermining democracy”.
Parliament isn’t the prime minister’s private office, and it is the people’s house. And those who are not on the govt benches have an obligation to the Australian people to ensure that the actions of the government are properly scrutinised … Mr Albanese has treated parliamentary staffing like a political weapon.
The Coalition’s bill, which will receive support from some independents on the crossbench (but is unlikely to get over the line), would legislate a minimum number of staff for the opposition, minor parties and independents.
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters says that the government has given the Greens just 3% of the government’s staffing levels, despite receiving a national vote of 12% and 35% of the government’s vote at the last election.
But while not supporting the prime minister’s power to pick staffing levels, she accuses the Coalition of trying to “entrench” the power of the major parties. Under the Coalition’s bill, a minor party with more than eight members would still only get 5% of the government’s staffing levels.
It’s completely inappropriate that minor party and independent parliament staffing is at the discretion of the prime minister. Under the current arrangements the government of the day can disempower minor parties and independents and use staffing allocations punitively … the model proposed by the Coalition however, is more of the same.
Plibersek says sovereign citizen movement a ‘growing risk’
Tanya Plibersek says the sovereign citizens movement is a “growing risk in Australia”.
Speaking to Sky News, Plibersek says the belief by the movement, that the laws don’t apply to them, is a “very dangerous slippery slope”.
In Germany, we saw an attempted coup, in fact, by a similar sort of ideologically motivated group.
Our law enforcement and intelligence personnel take this risk very seriously. The government takes the risk very seriously. [The] Asio director has reminded us, numerous times, that the growing threat of rightwing extremism is something that cannot be ignored in Australia.
The alleged shooter, who allegedly killed two police officers in Porepunkah, has been described as a sovereign citizen.
Qantas’ net profit rises by a third to $1.6bn
Luca Ittimani
Qantas’ net profit rose by a third to $1.6bn in the year to June as customer numbers surged and Jetstar revenue surged while fuel costs fell.
The airline’s profit boost will see shareholders paid 26c per share, on top of the 26c they have already been paid for the financial year 2024-25.
Underlying earnings rose more than $200m to $2.6bn, with Qantas domestic flights contributing $1bn of that. Jetstar saw its contribution to underlying earnings rise for third year in a row, to $769m, as the cheaper alternative brought on new plane fleet.
Qantas’ loyalty program also delivered underlying earnings of over $550m, after an increased number of customers earned 222bn frequent flyer points but redemeed only 185bn of them.
Higher earnings meant Qantas saw cash inflows rise to $4.2bn in 2024-25 despite its many legal difficulties, a point its annual report made sure to note:
These were higher than the prior corresponding period primarily due to an increase in earnings and working capital, despite the impact of ACCC penalties, compensation to date and legal fees as well as ground handling compensation in financial year 2024/25.
PM pulls out of Khawaja meeting on gambling ads
The prime minister has pulled out of a meeting with Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja at parliament today.
The two were supposed to meet to discuss gambling ads, and the war in Gaza, before a roundtable discussion on gambling with public health experts and doctors.
Khawaja tells journalists in Parliament House that he’s disappointed and hopes the cancellation is just a “scheduling conflict”.
I texted the Prime Minister a couple of days ago. I said, look, if you give me a 15 minute phone call… I don’t have an agenda. I just want to talk to you, mano e mano, because my heart’s in the right place. So hopefully he’ll accept that invitation, at some point, I will talk to him.
Khawaja says he respects the prime minister, that Anthony Albanese has shown courage by recognising Palestinian statehood, and says that this is the start of the prime minister’s legacy.
I actually wanted to go up and shake his hand and say, I want to congratulate you. For the first time in my life someone is recognising Palestine.
You look at the great presidents of us in the past. They fought for the people. Will they fight for civil rights, or they fight for slavery, whatever it might be their road, the great ones, the road was never easy. They had to do something. They had to make some hard choices. So for the prime minister, he has an opportunity right now to cement his legacy.
Tory Shepherd
Scientists to meet with PM over South Australian algal bloom
A group of scientists, mayors and industry representatives will meet with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, and others today to brief them on the South Australian algal bloom, and to call for a $6m investment to develop a “health record” for the Great Southern Reef.
SA’s deadly algal bloom looks set to continue and potentially worsen into summer.
On top of existing state and federal funding, the group wants extra investment for underwater monitoring of the health of the reef. In the longer term, the group wants a $40m, 10-year national reef health program. Stefan Andrews, from the Great Southern Reef Foundation, said:
This bloom has been devastating for communities and coastal industries across SA. $6m is the bare minimum to finally give the Great Southern Reef a national framework and baseline biodiversity data it needs.
Without that coherent picture, recovery efforts stall, species assessments lack context and future crises will hit us just as hard.
Labor’s Dan Repacholi and Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie call for faster implementation of national firearm registry
There are growing calls from within parliament for the government to accelerate the implementation of a national firearm registry, after the deadly shooting of two police officers in Victoria this week. Two officers were killed and another is in hospital, while the alleged shooter is still at large.
Earlier on the Today show, Labor MP – and former Olympic shooter – Dan Repacholi and Nationals senator – and shooting enthusiast – Bridget McKenzie were on a joint ticket on accelerating a national register.
State, territory and federal governments agreed to establish a national firearms registry after a national cabinet meeting in December 2023 but it’s only due to take effect in 2028.
Repacholi said he knows the issue “intimately” and that the work is happening to get the registry established.
We need to make sure that we know where our firearms are in this country … We’ve got to get the states and territories to all work together because they’re the ones that ultimately look after firearms registrations for their states.
McKenzie said a registry is needed but it must be secure.
When Dan, as an Olympian and a Commonwealth Games shooting athlete goes to compete in different states, it’s a problem. If we had have had Albury police head down to Porepunkah, being from NSW, they might not have been able to appreciate that this guy had firearms. So we do need a national firearms register.
We don’t need law-abiding firearm owners like Dan and I’s personal details leaked like we’ve seen from some states, because then organised crime can come and get our firearms. So we need it to be secure.
After last week’s top-level discussions about productivity, it might interest the country’s political classes that a trial of a four-day week for two Scottish government agencies resulted in higher productivity and better morale.
The two organisations, which had 259 employees in total throughout the trial, implemented a 32-hour working week for a year without any loss in pay or benefits for staff, while committing to maintaining standards of service.
Staff at the two organisations reported less work-related stress and greater satisfaction with their jobs and work-life balance.
Almost all (98%) workers at one of the agencies believed the four-day week trial improved motivation and morale, while there was a decrease in workers taking time off sick and a 25% fall in those taking sick days for psychological reasons.
Read our full story here:
Questions over whether Marles and Hesgeth had formal meeting
Did Richard Marles and his US defence counterpart, Pete Hegseth, actually have a formal meeting?
There are reports from Nine News that the meeting wasn’t a meeting but more of a “happenstance encounter”.
Marles flew over to Washington DC and was expected to do a media press conference after meeting with Hegseth – but so far that hasn’t happened. In fact, Marles arrived in the US without having formally confirmed a meeting with his counterpart.
James Paterson isn’t fazed and tells Sky News it’s a “good thing” that Marles went over and has had extensive dealings with Hegseth since the Trump administration was elected. He’s less enthusiastic about the fact that Anthony Albanese still hasn’t met with his counterpart.
What we need is for them to go the next step and ensure the prime minister meets with President Trump. We’re now 290 odd days on since he was elected and that meeting hasn’t happened, and it’s getting embarrassing and awkward for everybody.
Coalition offered support to list IRGC as terrorist group in last parliament, James Paterson says
James Paterson says the opposition offered bipartisan support to change the criminal code to allow the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be listed as a terrorist organisation in the last parliament.
As shadow home affairs spokesperson at the time, Paterson tells Sky News he wrote to then home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, in February 2023, but that the government didn’t take up his offer.
We knew they were intervening in our domestic politics. We knew that they were surveilling Iranian dissident communities and diaspora communities. That was reason enough to list them, and we shouldn’t have required any further evidence to do so.
More on those warnings in this report from Ben Doherty and Tom McIlroy:
There are reports today in the Australian newspaper that Asio is investigating whether an attack on the former Sydney home of Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin was ordered by Iran.
Paterson says that if Iran is found to be involved, it would make “what is already a very serious domestic security crisis, with a shocking international dimension, an even more serious one.”
It would have to demand even further action from the Albanese government than what they have done already.
Australia-Israel relationship will not be repaired without ‘changes of government’, former ambassador says
Sofer says politicians should avoid “megaphone diplomacy”, in response to Benjamin Netanyahu’s labelling of Anthony Albanese as “weak”.
But he says the government should not have cancelled the visa of Simcha Rotman, which escalated tensions between the Israel and Australia.
I think that megaphone diplomacy under any shape, form or circumstances is not the right way to go about relations between two countries, especially two countries which have had such a close history with its ups and downs, yes, as Israel and Australia.
Asked whether the bilateral relationship is at its lowest point, Sofer says it’s “not at its highest point” and that the relationship must be repaired.
We’ve had relationships which have far exceeded this in their quality. But I think that we are where we are and it has to be dealt with … I think that what’s important is that the Australian-Israel relationship finds its way to claw its way back into a bipartisan relationship of good feeling. And I’m not sure how possible it is given the current leadership. And I won’t go into which country the current leadership is, but I think that we will need to have changes of government before we can see a return to the status quo ante.
Former Israeli ambassador rejects Israel’s claim of credit for Iranian ambassador expulsion
Israel’s former ambassador to Australia says he has no doubt the government’s decision to expel the Iranian ambassador and list the IRGC as a terror organisation was independent, contrary to claims from Israel that its pressure on Anthony Albanese led to the move.
Speaking to RN Breakfast, Mark Sofer, who was ambassador to Australia between 2017 and 2020, says he wasn’t surprised at the allegations Iran was behind two antisemitic attacks. He also says attacks could have been carried out by Iran in other nations, not just Australia.
I think: well done, Australia, for the intelligence information in finding it. But to be honest with you, I’m not surprised because wherever the Iranian regime is, you will find these sort of nefarious dealings.
I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that they [Labor] took the decision independently. And so, anyone who claims to the contrary basically is probably doing so just to score points internally with their own electorate or externally, I don’t know. But I personally have no doubt whatsoever that the decision was made based on information. Yes, information which could have been gleaned from a number of different sources around the world, perhaps including Israel, perhaps not.
Sofer also says it’s important, first and foremost, to separate the Iranian regime from the Iranian people.
Wilson says he fears ‘unintended consequences’ of penalty rates legislation
Jumping back to Tim Wilson’s interview on RN, the opposition small business spokesperson says he’s concerned about unintended consequences from the government’s penalty rates legislation.
The legislation is being debated in the Senate, and Wilson says there’s some confusion of whether there will be changes made retrospectively to existing award arrangements.
He says the workplace minister, Amanda Rishworth, said that it wouldn’t apply retrospectively, but Wilson says when asked in the Senate yesterday, cabinet minister Murray Watt had a different message.
They’ve said there’s not going to be any unintended consequences. In the House of Representatives, the minister said that there would be no retrospective changes to existing award arrangements to the awards from the legislation. In the Senate, the minister acting for Minister Rishworth is saying something different. So we have one minister saying one thing in the House, another minister saying something different in the Senate.
Watt told the Senate on Wednesday:
Just as today there will be unions and employer groups seeking to vary terms and conditions in an award – either to raise pay rates, reduce pay rates, add conditions or take away conditions – then I’m sure some people will make use of this provision once it’s passed.
Sally Sara says that other workplace laws, like the right to disconnect, haven’t led the “sky to fall in”, according to Rishworth. Wilson accuses Rishworth of “hyperventilation”, and says no one had argued the sky was going to fall in.
Caitlin Cassidy
International reputation of Australian universities declining, new report finds
Australia’s international education market is stagnating, a new report suggests, amid warnings a “stringent policy environment” is deterring prospective students from enrolling.
The global student flows research, released by higher education analyst QS Quacquarelli Symonds on Thursday, found Australia risked losing its leading study destination position if visa settings and graduate outcomes didn’t meet the expectations of international students.
It forecasted Australia’s international education sector would stagnate under current settings compared with global competitors, with an annual rise of 2% compared with around 10% prior to the pandemic.
Jessica Turner, chief executive of QS Quacquarelli Symonds, said the reputation of Australian institutions among academics and employers had been in long-term decline.
Education exports contributed around $50bn in 2023/24.
However, a more stringent policy environment – where the country’s student visa fee has become the most expensive in the world and visa allocations are set at individual institutions – could depress the 2% growth forecast in coming years.
The report projected total international enrolments would stand at about 770,000 by the end of the decade across higher education, English language and non-award courses.
The figure is well below the federal government’s revised target of 295,000 annual places from next year, equating to more than 1.1 million students by 2030.
The new National Planning Level granted an additional 25,000 places compared with 2025 after Labor’s international student cap failed to receive Coalition backing last year.
Tim Wilson suggests evidence of IRGC actions in Australia ‘was clear earlier’
The Coalition has been critical of the government for not listing the IRGC as a terrorist organisation sooner, but is facing its own questions as to why the previous Coalition government didn’t do so.
Liberal MP Tim Wilson, was on ABC RN Breakfast earlier and said the evidence for the government to list the IRGC has prevalent over the last two and a half years.
When asked whether the previous Coalition government should have done more, Wilson says they listed Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organisations.
Obviously, these things come down to the advice at different times to make sure that we accumulate the evidence to do so … we always welcome the decision of the government to have taken this step at this time. And the most important thing is that the actions have been taken now, even if we wish that had have been done earlier because we believe the evidence was clear earlier.
Host Sally Sara pushes Wilson, saying that Asio’s evidence of Iran’s involvement in two antisemitic attacks in Australia has only come out now. Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that he was briefed by Asio on Monday, and then promptly pulled diplomats out of Australia’s embassy in Tehran on Monday night. Wilson says:
It’s been pretty clear they’ve [Iran] been involved in trying to inflame tensions in Israel and around the world. That is what has now come to light explicitly since in the past couple of days, but it’s been pretty clear since [7 October 2023].
Good morning
Krishani Dhanji with you for the final sitting day of the week, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
Following last night’s midwinter ball, there might be a few dusty faces around parliament’s corridors today, but there will still be plenty of action.
There’ll likely be more reaction today to the listing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror group, and to the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador.
Stay with us, it’s going to be a busy one!
Politicians dress up for Midwinter Ball
In case you missed it, Canberra’s Midwinter Ball was held last night giving the pollies (and press gallery) the chance to dress up.
Attenders included, of course, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, seen here arriving for the festivities at Parliament House.
And the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, and her fellow female Liberal MPs.
And you can see many more pictures from the night at our gallery here:
Usman Khawaja to meet prime minister to discuss gambling ads
Henry Belot
Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja will today meet the prime minister to discuss gambling ads, before a roundtable discussion with public health experts and doctors.
Khawaja, who will also speak to Anthony Albanese about the war in Gaza, has been critical of the close association between sport and the wagering industry, given the potential for social harm.
Khawaja will also attend the roundtable discussion with crossbenchers David Pocock and Kate Chaney, the Australian Medical Association, the Australia Institute, public health expert Samantha Thomas and people with lived experience of gambling harm.
The group is calling on the federal government to adopt the recommendations of a parliamentary inquiry led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, which called for a ban on gambling ads and inducements, among many other changes.
Earlier this week, when asked why it had taken more than two years to respond to the inquiry, Albanese told parliament the government was mindful “of whether people just go offshore” to continue gambling. Offshore gambling service are banned in Australia and not subject to consumer protections.
Thomas, who will deliver a short speech at the event, said that argument should not delay reforms.
Despite industry rhetoric, there is limited independent evidence to suggest that ad bans would lead to a mass exodus to illegal markets. Independent analysis also shows that we don’t need gambling ads to protect free-to-air television and big media brands. If we are to move forward in Australia, we must also disrupt industry influence over policy.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Krishani Dhanji will be along to take you through the day.
Australia’s international education market is stagnating, according to a new report, with the blame being directed at a “stringent policy environment” and higher visa fees that are deterring students from enrolling. More coming up.
The cricketer Usman Khawaja meets the prime minister today to discuss gambling ads before a roundtable discussion with crossbenchers David Pocock and Kate Chaney, doctors and public health experts. Khawaja will also raise the situation in Gaza with Anthony Albanese. More coming up.
