Australia politics live: Zoe Daniel introduces bill to ban gambling ads; Stella Assange to address National Press Club | Australian politics
‘It’s time to ban gambling ads’: independent MP Zoe Daniel
Independent Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel is serious about wanting to ban gambling ads during broadcasts (streaming included) and says the government needs to get on board with what the community wants:
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has itself concluded that an effect of restricting gambling ads during live sport after rule changes came into effect in 2018-19 was simply an increase in gambling ads during non-sport programs – especially between 6pm and 10.30pm when children and teenagers are watching.
Not only that, the total volume of gambling spots increased by no less than 50% in 2018-19 after the new regulations came into effect, compared with 2016-17 under the old rules.
This is why I am introducing this bill, the Broadcasting Services Act amendment (prohibition of gambling advertisements) bill 2023.
It is a direct reflection of community sentiment and I thank all of those from within my community of Goldstein and from around the country who have contacted me in support of this Bill.
I acknowledge the groundbreaking work done by Andrew Wilkie and Nick Xenophon as well as the continuing efforts by my fellow crossbenchers, especially Rebekha Sharkie and Kate Chaney.
If not us who, if not now, when? It’s time to ban gambling ads.
Key events
Lawyer and human rights advocate Stella Assange and human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson are addressing the national press club today.
Assange is on her first trip to Australia – she and Julian Assange married in March 2022 in the Belmarsh high-security prison in south-east London and have two children. They first met in 2011 over the work of Wikileaks.
Assange has been campaigning for the Australian journalist’s release and is calling on the Albanese government to act.
Assange:
My visit here was originally prompted by the official visit of President Biden and the Quad summit. After it was cancelled, I decide to come anyway. I did not want to lose the opportunity to speak to you because we are now in the endgame. Julian needs his freedom urgently and Australia plays a crucial role in securing his release.
I recognise many faces in the room today you have played a crucial role in the fight for the freedom of my husband.
I like to take this opportunity to thank the Australian parliamentary friends of Julian Assange who have created a political environment of which support for him has gone beyond party political affiliation. –
The show of unity has made it possible for leadership to take a position
Daniel Hurst
(continued from previous post)
Wallace said the opposition believed that the only members that should sit on the committee “should be parties of government” (that means the Coalition and Labor). He said that had been the convention since the committee was established, with only one exception (when independent Andrew Wilkie was on the committee during the Gillard minority government; there is speculation he could be in line to come back).
Before Wallace’s speech, the Labor chair of the committee, Peter Khalil, told parliament the planned changes would increase the committee’s overall membership by two as part of a push for “increased flexibility”.
Khalil said the fact the Coalition wrote a dissenting report was “disappointing” but added:
The changes that are proposed … do not change the appointment process or the key requirement that the government of the day have a majority on the committee.
For more on this issue, see our story from last week:
Daniel Hurst
Coalition voices concerns about possible crossbench intelligence committee appointment
The Coalition is reprising its concerns that the federal government could be planning to appoint at least one crossbench member to the parliament’s powerful intelligence committee.
Andrew Wallace, the former speaker who is now deputy chair of the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, has told the House of Representatives:
Politics goes in cycles and those opposite should always remember that.
Wallace said the opposition was “greatly concerned” that proposed changes to the law to add another two members to the committee was “as a result of some deal done between the government and the crossbench” and that the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, intends to appoint at least one member of the crossbench.
(continued in next post)
Tory Shepherd
(Continued from previous post)
Shoebridge said the commonwealth was refusing to tender the affidavits to court.
“So we’re left with this situation,” he said:
You’re not telling the court and you’re not telling parliament – who are you going to tell about why you didn’t give a single defendant a copy of the Corner report despite having it in the department’s hands for two years?
Shoebridge peppered Pezzullo with questions about these comments from supreme court justice Elizabeth Hollingworth, who told a directions hearing she still had not seen a “satisfactory explanation for the non-disclosure of the Corner report”:
There is still quite a deafening silence from people high up in home affairs about what happened.
The government does not want this explored in court. That’s pretty clearly the position … [what] happened in relation to the Corner report is a disgrace. The government solicitor quite properly concedes it should always have been disclosed. Blind Freddy, looking at the legislation, would have said it should have been disclosed.
A previous judge of this court, three court of appeal judges, who all heard arguments about the validity of this, did so without this disclosure being made. Why is the commonwealth playing ducks and drakes as a model litigant? It’s put these affidavits in, presumably to try to placate the court, but not wanting to tender them, because heaven help us that we actually have a court hearing about why we didn’t disclose this clearly disclosable document.
Tory Shepherd
Corner report questions home affairs terror attack modelling tool’s ‘validity and reliability’
Lawyers and defendants were never told about the serious doubts cast on a tool used to predict the chances of an individual committing a terror attack, senate estimates has heard.
Dr Emily Corner assessed the VERA-2R modelling tool, and found the “lack of evidence” underpinning it had “serious implications for [its] validity and reliability”.
Greens senator David Shoebridge accused the department of home affairs of keeping the Corner report secret for two years.
Department head, Mike Pezzullo, said different academics would come to different conclusions and that the department had gone on to commission a new report from the Australian Institute of Criminology.
“It’s clear to me that all psychological or psycho-analytical models are going to have limitations in terms of the predictive quality but decision makers [in the context of deciding whether to issue continuing detention orders where there is a risk of future offending] have to be able to rely upon something,” he said.
He refused to answer further questions on the basis that two relevant cases are still before the courts, while a department official said the attorney general’s department was now responsible for the matter.
(continued in next post)
Josh Butler
Peter Dutton, Linda Burney and Bridget McKenzie first speakers in House debate on Indigenous voice referendum bill
The debate on the constitutional amendment for the Indigenous voice referendum is about to begin in the House of Representatives. We’re expecting this debate to consume a lot of this week, with something like 70 speakers already listed (of the 151 members) to make a contribution.
Leader of the house and arts minister, Tony Burke, took some time this morning to point out some special conventions of this debate, saying all members who want to speak on it will be given the opportunity (this doesn’t always happen due to time constraints in the parliamentary program or sometimes the government just wanting to zoom a bill through the parliament). He also said that on the third reading, a division will be automatically called, even if no MP actually asks for a vote or if there is a clear majority in favour.
Burke said this was due to a constitutional alteration requiring an absolute majority in the parliament to proceed, unlike other bills. He said MPs will be given as much notice as possible of this division, where people’s names are formally recorded as having voted a certain way – not like some divisions that are called at short notice where MPs have to sprint from all corners of the building to get inside the chamber before the bells stop ringing.
Burke said the third reading division will be held next week, with this week likely to be all about the speeches only.
Peter Dutton, Linda Burney and Bridget McKenzie will be the first speakers on the bill, according to a speakers’ list we’ve seen.
Some further interesting contributions will come later from Julian Leeser, the former shadow Indigenous Australians minister who quit the opposition front bench to advocate for the voice; Bridget Archer, the lone Liberal MP so far promising to campaign strongly for the voice; and ministers including Bill Shorten, Ed Husic and Anne Aly.
Labor MP Matt Burnell may need to re-watch the 90s classic Speed.
Jack Traven did not lose his best friend for Annie Porter’s driving to be disrespected like that. She was catching the bus because she lost her licence for speeding, Matt. The movie is called Speed for a reason. It couldn’t drop below 50mph, but that bus absolutely motored to the airport. It jumped an incomplete bridge, Matt.
Honestly, kids today.
Over in the house, where it is currently debating a motion put forward by LNP MP Bert van Manen (who we are told has his eye on the shadow assistant treasurer gig recently vacated by LNP colleague Stuart Robert) about the budget.
He wants no more broken promises.
Which is just meaningless political speak that locks all parties into repeating the mistakes of the past.
Fadden byelection set for 15 July
The second byelection of the year will be held … on 15 July.
That might be a bit over six weeks away, but all parties contesting the Fadden byelection will need to get a wriggle on.
The LNP is already planning that.
Labor has not yet announced who will represent it.
Winning the Gold Coast seat from the opposition would be a HUGE ask, though – bigger even than Aston. The margin is over 10% and that area of the Gold Coast tends to skew conservative in all things – there are quite a few mega churches in the election boundary and the Gold Coast is hard as a general rule, plus there are lots of small businesses who aren’t big fans of Labor at any level.
Elias Visontay
Scathing review of Sydney train network finds recent delays and outages likely to worsen
Dipping out of federal politics for a moment for this story:
The number of active defects across Sydney’s train network has soared to almost 40,000, as a scathing review finds the performance of the transport system plagued by recent outages and delays is “likely to worsen”.
Defects related to infrastructure such as tracks and electrical circuiting – but not the train fleet itself – have increased from about 23,000 in December 2018 to about 37,000 in April this year, and the surge has coincided with plunging on-time performance and spiralling service cancellations.
The fragility of Sydney’s train network is largely the result of a network timetable introduced in November 2017 that attempted to maximise utilisation of the system but which was “far too tight to effectively maintain service” and give “adequate access for maintenance of rail infrastructure”, an interim review of Sydney Trains has found.
The findings are scathing of the handling of the city’s train system under the previous Coalition government, which found that while black swan events such as Covid, bushfires and floods – as well as protected industrial action and union strikes that peaked last year – affected performance, these factors could not totally explain the overall deterioration of the network since the timetable was introduced in 2017.
We will have more on that very soon.
3AW’s Neil Mitchell lays out complaints against ABC to Zoe Daniel
Zoe Daniel was a foreign correspondent with the ABC before she was the independent MP for Goldstein, so Melbourne radio 3AW host Neil Mitchell uses more than 8 minutes of an interview with her laying out his complaints with the ABC, including that they don’t use the name of his program if they quote from it.
It starts off about issues Stan Grant raised about racial abuse he said he had experienced and the lack of support from the ABC at large in the face of that abuse.
Daniel, when she is allowed to get a word in, says:
I think on this particular issue in regard to the treatment of Stan and how this played out, there does need to be a really deep look at what happened and what went wrong and what that says about a broader culture in the organisation.
I understand that the managing director has already indicated that that that will happen.
Barry Humphries to receive state memorial in Sydney in December
There will be a state memorial for Barry Humphries at the Sydney Opera House on Friday 15 December 2023 after his family accepted the offer for the honour.
Anthony Albanese said it was the right thing to do:
Barry Humphries was a much-loved Australian and a huge loss to the arts community.
The federal government is working with the NSW Labor government for the event.
Humphries died in April aged 89.
The memorial will feature dignitaries, family, friends and fans of the late Humphries from across the country and around the world and more details can be found here nsw.gov.au/stateservices (later in the year, given it is still seven or so months away; bookmark it if you’re interested).
‘It’s time to ban gambling ads’: independent MP Zoe Daniel
Independent Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel is serious about wanting to ban gambling ads during broadcasts (streaming included) and says the government needs to get on board with what the community wants:
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has itself concluded that an effect of restricting gambling ads during live sport after rule changes came into effect in 2018-19 was simply an increase in gambling ads during non-sport programs – especially between 6pm and 10.30pm when children and teenagers are watching.
Not only that, the total volume of gambling spots increased by no less than 50% in 2018-19 after the new regulations came into effect, compared with 2016-17 under the old rules.
This is why I am introducing this bill, the Broadcasting Services Act amendment (prohibition of gambling advertisements) bill 2023.
It is a direct reflection of community sentiment and I thank all of those from within my community of Goldstein and from around the country who have contacted me in support of this Bill.
I acknowledge the groundbreaking work done by Andrew Wilkie and Nick Xenophon as well as the continuing efforts by my fellow crossbenchers, especially Rebekha Sharkie and Kate Chaney.
If not us who, if not now, when? It’s time to ban gambling ads.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2023/may/22/australia-politics-live-anthony-albanese-png-pat-conroy-narendra-modi-g7-quad-senate-estimates-bnpl-voice-referendum Australia politics live: Zoe Daniel introduces bill to ban gambling ads; Stella Assange to address National Press Club | Australian politics