Australia politics live: Greens put pressure on Labor with bill targeting supermarket price gouging; X loses eSafety court case | Australia news

There is some drama going down in the house at the moment!

Labor is moving to maximise pressure on the opposition on net zero by scheduling debate on Barnaby Joyce’s private member’s bill, for when parliament returns next month.

It’s a tactical play, and has split Joyce and his colleague Michael McCormack, who is voting with the rest of the Coalition, against allowing debate on it.

Joyce voted with the government to debate his own bill.

Boarding call for furry friends

In news outside politics, Virgin Airlines says it should be ready to allow our furry friends on domestic flights by the end of 2025.

Last week, the food ministers’ meeting (today I also learned there’s a dedicated meeting for federal, state and territory food ministers) allowed small cats and dogs to be permitted on flights in controlled conditions.

Virgin’s CEO, David Emerson, reportedly a summit in Cairns today that it’s been a “longer process than we thought” to get pets on board, but it will soon finally happen:

We’re looking forward to launching before the end of the year.

The opposition tried to move amendments noting that the government “failed to consult meaningfully with Australian small businesses” on the impact of the bill, and that the government should provide a regulatory impact statement immediately.

The crossbench was split on the Coalition’s amendments – Allegra Spender, Monique Ryan and Kate Chaney voted with the Coalition, while Nicolette Boele, Sophie Scamps, Rebekah Sharkie, Helen Haines, Dai Le and Zali Steggall voted with the government to reject the amendment.

The government put forward an amendments to its own bill – that has now passed, and will be sent over to the Senate.

In another episode of politicians doing politics, during the debate, employment minister, Amanda Rishworth, tried testing her shadow counterpart Tim Wilson to say that the opposition doesn’t support penalty rates.

Wilson countered saying the Coalition does support penalty rates, and was trying to get the government to say how many small businesses will be impacted by this legislation.

Coalition’s efforts to investigate decision to allow US beef imports shot down

Labor and the Greens have shot down the Coalition’s attempt to investigate the decision to allow more beef imports from the US.

The Coalition has been calling for an independent review into the decision, and senator Matt Canavan put forward the motion to have the processes and advice provided by the department looked at by a committee.

The decision to lift restrictions came after the Trump administration had publicly criticised the import blocks, but the government said Australia’s biosecurity won’t be weakened, and the decision was separate from discussions on trade tariffs.

ABC ‘deeply concerned’ about health and safety of freelance journalists in Gaza

The ABC is calling on Israel to allow international journalists to report independently from Gaza and is “deeply concerned” about the health and safety of freelance journalists it works with on the ground.

ABC news director, Justin Stevens, wrote in a statement that the ABC is the “only Australian media organisation with a permanent presence in the region and we have repeatedly tried to get reporters back into Gaza”.

The ABC relies on a “network of freelanced journalists and individuals on the ground”, and Stevens said the organisation is “seeing the effects of food shortages on journalists we work with”.

We rely on a network of freelance journalists and individuals on the ground to tell the story of what they are witnessing. We are deeply concerned about their health and safety.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 186 journalists and media workers, mostly Palestinian, have been killed while gathering evidence of the war inside Gaza since 7 October. That number includes journalists who have done work for the ABC.

We’re now seeing the effects of food shortages on journalists we work with.

ABC Middle East correspondent, Matthew Doran, wrote about the deteriorating situation for journalists last week, describing one colleague he has worked with in Gaza who has lost 34kg and said he “does not have the strength to hold a camera any more”.

Greens bill would give ACCC power to investigate and prosecute price-gouging

Tom McIlroy

As cost-of-living pressures continue to hit households around the country, the Greens say they will push a bill to make price-gouging illegal in the new parliament.

The Greens treasury spokesperson, Nick McKim, reintroduced legislation on the plan on Thursday. It is aimed at increasing pressure on Labor and follows a similar promise from the Albanese government during the election campaign. McKim said:

Coles and Woolworths are using their enormous market power to squeeze every last dollar they can from people just trying to feed their families.

The Greens’ bill would give the competition watchdog the power to investigate and prosecute corporations that exploit their market power to hike prices unfairly.

We welcomed Labor’s election promise to ban supermarket price gouging, but since the election we’ve seen no action.

Labor needs to honour their promise and take action against the profiteering supermarket corporations.”

Josh Butler

Education department ‘ready to act swiftly’ against childcare centres not meeting standards

Going back briefly to Jason Clare’s press conference earlier, the education minister said his department will “act swiftly” against underperforming childcare centres when the new legislation passes parliament.

The bill to crackdown on childcare providers with poor safety standards could pass the parliament today. Clare told us earlier this week that, once the bill passes, the department will start looking at taking action against those not meeting standards. He wouldn’t say which centres were on his priority list for taking action, but flagged he’d soon have more to say. He said today:

The intention here is not for centres to close but for centres to raise their standards to meet the quality and safety standards that we expect them to have. But it’s not an idle threat …

I think parents will want to know if their centres are not up to scratch. And that’s why, as part of this legislation, we’re saying that, if my department imposes a condition on a centre and says, “You’ve got this time to get up to scratch,” they have to tell the parents at that centre what’s happening as well so they’ve got the information they need to make the decisions they need to make, to make sure their children are getting the best-quality care and education they can.

Clare said he wouldn’t go into the priority list today, but that he’d told the department “to be ready to act swiftly.”

“I’ll have more to say next week,” the minister said.

Andrew Messenger

Ninety six homeless Queenslanders banned from emergency accommodation under crackdown

Ninety six homeless Queenslanders have been banned from emergency accommodation for six months within the first two months of a new crackdown.

Mark Cridland, director general for Queensland’s Department of Housing and Public, revealed just under 4,000 people were currently living in a hotel or motel paid for by the department under its ‘immediate housing response’ scheme.

Of the 96 people evicted under a new policy implemented in May, 59% had been evicted as a result of bad behaviour or a breach of hotel rules, he said.

He added no people had yet been banned from both social housing and emergency accommodation, under the government’s new three-strike policy.

Four “first and final notices were issued for dangerous and severe behaviors” have been issued since the policy came into effect in July, according to housing and public works minister, Sam O’Connor.

How office buildings, factories and shopping centres can cause legionnaires’ outbreaks

Following from the news of a legionnaires’ disease outbreak that has seen one man die and six others hospitalised, Guardian Australia’s Matilda Boseley is here to explain what the infection is and how legionella bacteria spreads:

X loses eSafety court case where it claimed Twitter ‘ceased to exist’

Josh Taylor

Elon Musk’s X has lost a full federal court appeal where the company tried to claim that a notice issued to Twitter over its tackling of child sexual abuse material did not account for the company “ceasing to exist” when X Corp merged with Twitter in March 2023.

While the merits of the $610,500 fine issued are waiting on the outcome of a ruling in the administrative review tribunal, X had challenged whether the notice could have been issued in the first place because it was first brought against Twitter prior to the company becoming X.

The full federal court dismissed the appeal, with costs, with the judgment noting that between the notice being issued to Twitter and X being fined, eSafety continued to engage with representatives of the company, and it wasn’t clear what issuing a fresh notice to X would have changed. The judgment stated the challenge “has no substantive merit”

X and eSafety were approached for comment.

One death and six more diagnosed with legionnaires’ disease after Sydney outbreak

Luca Ittimani

A man in his 80s has died as health authorities investigate an outbreak of legionnaires’ disease in a harbourside Sydney suburb.

Another six Potts Point residents have been hospitalised with the infection since late May, one of whom is yet to return home.

None of the patients are known to each other, though they may have become infected after exposure to a common source, according to South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD).

Water sources in the areas visited by the seven locals are being tested for potential contamination as health authorities and the City of Sydney seek to determine the source of the outbreak.

Investigation are yet to find legionella bacteria but authorities have asked building owners to disinfect their cooling towers on two occasions since the investigation began in June, SESHLD’s public health unit director, Dr Vicky Sheppeard, said. She added:

People who have recently been in Potts Point and develop these symptoms should see their GP or go to a hospital emergency department.

Outbreaks can occur after contamination of bacteria from cooling towers on large buildings or other environmental sources, Sheppeard said. Legionnaires’ disease is not normally spread from person to person.

The disease is a form of pneumonia, or lung infection, caused by legionella bacteria. The bacteria can be found in damp environments and, in Australia, the two most common types are found in water and soil. You can read more about the disease here:

Education ministers to meet in August to discuss ‘key questions’ relating to childcare centre CCTV

The issue of CCTV will be discussed at the next meeting of state, territory and federal education ministers.

Clare says there are key questions on how that data will be used or stored, which will be addressed at that meeting in August.

The last thing you want to do here is create a honey pot for bad people. So where does the [CCTV] data get stored? How does it get used? I’m on the record saying that I think it has real value in potentially deterring bad people from doing bad things. I think it also has real value for police in being able to use that in their investigations. That’s after – after the fact, though. If it can deter, that’s good.

Asked about the Hecs legislation, and the push from the Greens to go further to wipe Hecs debt completely, Clare says it’s not just a one-off cut, and the reforms change the structure of how the debt is paid back for all students.

The legislation increases the salary threshold for those paying student debts back, meaning graduates on lower salaries won’t have to begin paying their debt back until later, or will pay back less until they earn more.

Instead of paying back around about $1,900 once they hit $70,000, it’s about $450 … When you’re on $70,000 and might be renting, that money matters, that money counts. That helps you to pay for rent, pay for food, pay for public transport.

This was a recommendation of the Accord. It was a recommendation of a bloke named Bruce Chapman who for those who don’t know was the architect of Hecs back in the ‘80s. And he says that this is perhaps the most important change to the Hecs system in 35 years.