Australia politics live: Angus Campbell says Afghanistan review looked at his performance as commander | Australian politics
ADF chief pressed by Jacqui Lambie during Senate estimates
Daniel Hurst
The chief of the Australian Defence Force, Gen Angus Campbell, has told a Senate committee hearing that his own performance as a commander during the time the ADF was deployed in Afghanistan was considered as part of a recent review.
Campbell, facing continued questioning from the Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie, declined to tell the committee precisely how many commanders faced the potential removal of honours or awards as a result of a recent review of command accountability stemming from the Brereton inquiry.
During the committee hearing, Campbell told Lambie it was “a small number of persons who held command appointments during particular periods of operational service in Afghanistan”.
I know that not only yourself but a range of other interested parties and the media are circling around this issue like great whites in a feeding frenzy and I would wish to decline to tell you the number so as to mitigate the enthusiasm with which these people are, quite frankly, hunted down by particularly the media looking for spectacle.
Campbell made clear that the current process related to the accountability of a leader for the performance of those under their command – and was an administrative issue that should not be “conflated” with criminal allegations.
Lambie asked him “where is your command accountability” for the time he was commander of Joint Task Force 633 (January 2011 to January 2012).
Campbell said the approach was to review all rank levels and all time periods of service and then offer recommendations to the defence minister, Richard Marles. Campbell told the committee he was not afforded any “special circumstances” in that process:
As a member of all of the commanders who were in Afghanistan at different times and in different circumstances, I was included in that review.
Guardian Australia has sought further details and comment from Marles and Defence.
Key events
Further to Greens senator Dorinda Cox’s earlier comments on her experience with racism, she said she’s toyed with the idea of lodging formal complains on numerous occasions in the past.
Speaking to the ABC, she said the toll that speaking about these experiences takes is “exhausting” but important to have:
The toll and the emotional burden that it takes to have these conversations is absolutely exhausting for us as First Nations people and people of colour in this country.
The toll that it takes on you has immense amounts of physiological but also psychological impact and I do not want to downplay that all.
This is an avenue that is open, and should be open, to every person in the country as a matter of recourse to talk about institutionalised racism and what their experience have been.
She stressed the importance of creating safe spaces for First Nation’s people to be able to speak about their experiences and tell their stories.
I think that is the whole drive behind me entering into politics, it was the reason that I put my hand up to be a Greens senator in the first place… We are an anti-racist party…
Emily Wind
Many thanks to Amy for taking us through the day. I’ll be with you for the remainder of the evening, let’s get into it.
Emily Wind is going to take you through the rest of the evening. I will be back early tomorrow morning ahead of the next house sitting, where estimates continues.
Thank you so much to everyone who has sent in Reader’s QT questions – we will start chasing those answers for you.
Until then, please –take care of you.
Greens senator Dorinda Cox is speaking to the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing and is asked about her experience with racism;.
Cox says:
I have experienced racism on a daily basis and you only have to look at my social media pages and the height of what we now know to be the national conversation happening around The Voice to Parliament and the heightened rate in which I have experienced some of those racist remarks that have been targeted directly towards me.
As a Greens senator but also as a First Nations woman and being a first Nations senator particularly, here from WA, as the first Aboriginal woman from WA to federal senate, that obviously, comes with lots of challenges around representation and identity and making workplaces in particular, safe across the country.
And I think this is the job not just of political parties but also the responsibility of all of us as Australians to ensure that we are making it safe for everybody and not to experience institutionalised racism. And when I think about my career and the examples that I have particularly, in advocating this for families and communities who have had a lack of response, these goes to the heart of getting responses that are entangled within institutionalised racism and we have to look at those and we have to look at understanding the core or the root cause of those problems to dismantle the structures and the systems that exist.
And it goes right down to legislation and policy in order to make sure that we understand the impact and if we are to achieve outcomes such as Closing The Gap or the work that I am currently doing within the missing and murdered First Nations and women and children’s inquiry that is really important issue that we know it stemmed from institutionalised racism is I think it is an important conversation that we can have and it is one that I am particularly, passionate about.
The more things change…
Australia will keep playing our part? Talk about all care and no responsibility! The Minister can wax lyrical about international agreements but has failed to act with the same urgency at home. I hope the Minister returns with fire in her belly to regulate Australia’s industry. https://t.co/eE3CPU984V
— Peter Whish-Wilson (@SenatorSurfer) May 30, 2023
Greens urge government to build housing
On housing, Max Chandler-Mather says the data showing new dwelling approvals falling 8.1% in April and 24.1% from the previous year show why the government needs to get a wriggle on with clearing the way to build more public and affordable housing:
With private housing construction plummeting, now is the perfect time for the government to take up the slack in the construction industry by investing billions of extra dollars each year in building public and affordable housing.
Rather than gambling $10bn on the stock and only spending some of the returns in a few years time, Labor should do what governments used to and invest billions of dollars now directly building public and affordable housing.
Australia has the construction capacity to build 110,000 public and affordable homes over the next five years, it can afford the $5bn a year it would cost, all we need is the political will from the federal Labor government.
With people sleeping in cars and tents because they can’t find an affordable home, and construction industry jobs at risk as private approvals collapse, it’s a no-brainer for the government to step in and invest billions of dollars now and build the public and affordable housing Australia so desperately needs.
Paul Karp
Poll respondents agree on need for sweeping changes in housing
Minor parties on the left and right are taking heart from Guardian’s Essential Poll which found majority support for a range of drastic policies to tackle the housing crisis.
The Greens housing spokesperson, Max Chandler Mather, noted at a press conference earlier today there is 60% support for a rental freeze.
In a statement One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, boasted about 59% support for capping migration to reduce demand for housing. Like the Coalition, One Nation also wants to allow use of super for housing.
Hanson said:
The housing and rental crisis is simple economics: too little supply and too high demand. Our policy increases supply and reduces demand. It makes sense, and it’s apparent the voters agree.”
I’m sure that more housing can be built without bringing migration into it, but that is not where Peter Dutton and Hanson want the debate going.
I think about historians and what they will be asked to save about this period in politics to ensure future generations get a rounded view of the nation and then I think that media alerts like this will probably be among what is saved;
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will be interviewed by Ricki-Lee, Tim and Joel on Nova 96.9FM.
PNG delays security treaty with Australia
Reuters reports that Papua New Guinea is delaying its proposed security treaty with Australia as it consults “domestic processes”, a week after signing a defence agreement with the US that sparked student protests:
Papua New Guinea is being courted by China and the US amid rising tensions between the two major powers.
Washington and its allies are concerned at Beijing’s security ambitions in the strategically located Pacific Islands region, after Beijing struck a security pact with Solomon Islands.
PNG prime minister, James Marape, met with Australia’s defence minister, Richard Marles, on Monday on the sidelines of the Korea-Pacific Islands Summit in Seoul and discussed the “proposed bilateral security treaty”, Marape’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.
It is a work in progress and requires the PNG side to consult our domestic processes and sovereign laws in relation to certain wordings and provisions,” the statement said.
Marape had “conveyed his apologies to prime minister Anthony Albanese for the delay in formalising this proposed Treaty with Australia”, it added.
Rafqa Touma
Qantas app to include baggage tracking
The airline is overhauling its smartphone app to give passengers the ability to track their baggage at the end of this year.
The app will also better integrate the Qantas loyalty points program, communicate during disruptions and offer enhancements like fast check-in and more control over bookings, the company says.
The airline announced the plan at its first investor strategy day since the pandemic, which focused on customer experience. After mishandled baggage rates soared last year as airlines returned to pre-Covid levels of operation, it believes the new feature will be welcome.
Qantas Group chief executive Alan Joyce said:
This is a structurally different business than it was before Covid, operating in markets that have also changed.
New technology is central to our plan … We’ll be able to serve our customers better, reduce our cost base through lower running costs and carve out some new competitive advantages.
The Qantas announcement comes after Virgin became the first Australian airline to offer baggage tracking earlier this month. Passengers track their luggage through a smartphone app, which sends a push notification when their luggage has been received post check-in, as well as when it arrives at their destination.
Virgin will expand the service to all flights between Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and the Gold Coast by the middle of the year.
ADF chief pressed by Jacqui Lambie during Senate estimates
Daniel Hurst
The chief of the Australian Defence Force, Gen Angus Campbell, has told a Senate committee hearing that his own performance as a commander during the time the ADF was deployed in Afghanistan was considered as part of a recent review.
Campbell, facing continued questioning from the Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie, declined to tell the committee precisely how many commanders faced the potential removal of honours or awards as a result of a recent review of command accountability stemming from the Brereton inquiry.
During the committee hearing, Campbell told Lambie it was “a small number of persons who held command appointments during particular periods of operational service in Afghanistan”.
I know that not only yourself but a range of other interested parties and the media are circling around this issue like great whites in a feeding frenzy and I would wish to decline to tell you the number so as to mitigate the enthusiasm with which these people are, quite frankly, hunted down by particularly the media looking for spectacle.
Campbell made clear that the current process related to the accountability of a leader for the performance of those under their command – and was an administrative issue that should not be “conflated” with criminal allegations.
Lambie asked him “where is your command accountability” for the time he was commander of Joint Task Force 633 (January 2011 to January 2012).
Campbell said the approach was to review all rank levels and all time periods of service and then offer recommendations to the defence minister, Richard Marles. Campbell told the committee he was not afforded any “special circumstances” in that process:
As a member of all of the commanders who were in Afghanistan at different times and in different circumstances, I was included in that review.
Guardian Australia has sought further details and comment from Marles and Defence.
Paul Karp
Labor MP Daniel Mulino is raising an issue of privilege in relation to Australian Financial Review stories about a briefing the RBA governor Philip Lowe gave to the house standing committee on economics about interest rate movements.
Mulino said the apparent unauthorised disclosure was of “grave concern” to him, and this may be a breach of privileges. He said the economics committee would investigate then report back to the house.
So there’s no push to the privileges committee yet, but that’s a warning shot that Mulino and Labor think someone has leaked from the economics committee.
Question time ends
But it lives on in our existential crises.
Milton Dick says he will be lighting the parliament facade for Reconciliation Week and then Paul Fletcher asks for direction on how questions could be tighter because “we’ve been asking very tight questions and the prime minister is giving all kinds of discursive responses but not being brought back to the question”.
Tony Burke gives the parliamentary version of “cry about it”, pointing out that the end of question time isn’t the time to raise it.
Dick says he’ll look at it and get back to Fletcher.
And we are finally freed.
Darren Chester is still on the “Anthony Albanese misled parliament” train and it seems like everyone is fed up at this point.
Chester:
Will the hardwood timber [industry] receive direct support from your government?
Albanese:
This is a dry gully they are stuck in. Having come here and asked a question suggesting there is a misleading of parliament last Thursday, they are now asking us will intervene over decisions that as we said early on, were decisions of the Victorian government. Not a decision by us.
Peter Dutton (Albanese has been on his feet for 30 seconds)
Thank you very much. This was a very tight question. Given your recent and previous rulings. There is no wiggle room or the ability for the Prime Minister to have this outrage, he needs to answer the questions because it goes to his conduct in the chamber.
Tony Burke:
To the point of order, I am not sure how it goes to what the leader of the opposition just said because that was not in the question. What was in the question was a question about how money will be expanded on how the National be construction fund will be used. That is where it went.
Milton Dick gets Albanese to continue:
I refer the member to my answer of last Thursday that was accurate in every aspect. Included in that, I quote from last Thursday’s answer. The Victorian government has a $200m structural adjustment package in its budget. That is what I said last Thursday, that is the case today. What I have spoken about as well is our policy to provide support for the forestry sector through the National Reconstruction fund. Something those opposite seem completely oblivious to. They come in here and voted against it. They voted against it and then they say it is not broad enough.
Dutton tries again with another point of order, but Dick says no.
Albanese:
Thanks Mr Speaker. He is very angry, Mr Speaker. Cannot help himself.
Julie Collins takes a dixer on the housing fund which shows that the negotiations on the housing fund have not found common ground as yet.
Anthony Albanese accused by Nationals of ‘misleading’ timber workers
Darren Chester is back and crankier than ever!
My question is to the prime minister. I refer to the prime minister’s previous answer when he continues to mislead hardwood timber workers and their families. And suggests they will share in the national reconstruction fund. Prime minister, that is not true, is it?
Anthony Albanese
You don’t get to verbal someone – this is the hansard for the House of Representatives Hansard from last Thursday.
This is what I said. ‘That is why we become what government are investing $300m to grow plantations, modernise our timber manufacturing infrastructure and build the skills of our forestry workforce.” Tick.
‘I note through the national reconstruction fund we specifically set aside funding to support the forestry industry. Tick.
‘But the Member for Gippsland voted against it and everybody had voted against it as well’.
That is what I said. Last Thursday. And the member came to this dispatch box and pretended I said something else. Pretended I said something else. That is the Hansard from last Thursday. I stand by those comments. I stand by the national reconstruction fund. I stand by the $15bn for manufacturing. I stand by the $3bn for renewables and low emissions technology. I stand by the $1.5bn for medical manufacturing. I stand by the billion dollars evaluating resources…
Chester tries to raise a point of order on relevance but Milton Dick has HAD ENOUGH and there is no point of order.
Albanese says more words but they are just a jumble of the words he said before.
Christopher Knaus
Greens senator David Shoebridge has written to state and federal attorneys general urging them to act on legal tactics being used to deny child abuse survivors the opportunity for justice.
Guardian Australia has revealed, through 12 months of reporting and a major investigation published two months ago, that the Catholic church and other institutions are now routinely using the deaths of perpetrators to argue that survivors’ civil claims should be permanently stayed. Where granted, a permanent stay shuts down a case and shields the institution before it reaches trial.
Shoebridge said he had written to the state and federal attorneys general urging them to reform the law that allows the tactic to be used, following an episode on the same subject by Four Corners on Monday night.
The high court is set to decide upon the Catholic church’s use of a stay in one abuse case, that involving a woman known only as GLJ, in coming months.
But many lawyers say reform will be needed regardless of what the high court decides.
Shoebridge said:
I’ve worked with survivors of child sexual abuse for more than 10 years and I’m still shocked by the brutal tactics of the institutions that failed to protect them then, and will do anything to avoid paying them compensation now.
Institutions destroyed their own records, or deliberately refused to keep them, and this fact should never deny the children abused their right to go to court.
The work of implementing the findings of the royal commission will never be done if organisations are allowed to use permanent stays to dent survivors fair compensation.
The child abuse royal commission recommended institutions retain the ability to use stay applications in abuse cases, though critics say it could not have contemplated that they would be used in this fashion. Plaintiff lawyers also argue the way stays are being used conflicts with the intent of separate reforms designed to remove delay as a barrier to justice.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2023/may/30/australia-politics-live-anthony-albanese-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-housing-economy Australia politics live: Angus Campbell says Afghanistan review looked at his performance as commander | Australian politics
